# US 2021/0278917 A1 · Multi-touch detection

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- Number: US 2021/0278917 A1
- Document ID: US20210278917A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/329,084
- Filed: 2021-05-24
- Published: 2021-09-09
- Earliest claimed: 2008-04-30
- Assignees: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
- Applicants: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
- Inventors: Rafi ZACHUT; Haim PERSKI; Jonathan Moore
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210278917A1

## CPC

- G06F 3/047: using sets of wires, e.g. crossed wires
- G06F 3/041661: {using detection at multiple resolutions, e.g. coarse and fine scanning; using detection within a limited area, e.g. object tracking window}
- G06F 3/0446: {using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes}
- G06F 3/04883: for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
- G06F 2203/04104: Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

A method for multi-touch detection in a touch input device comprising a grid based sensor, the method comprises sampling outputs from a grid based sensor over a first stage of detection, selecting sensor lines based on the sampled outputs, scanning the selected sensor lines along one axis of the grid based sensor over a second stage of detection, and determining positions of user interaction based on outputs sampled in response to scanning the selected sensor lines during the second stage of detection.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising:
operating a sensor for capacitive based detection of user interactions, the sensor including sensor lines arranged along a first axis and along a second axis to form a grid;
sampling first outputs of the sensor responsive to simultaneously triggering a first set of the sensor lines with a same signal over a first stage of detection;
selecting a second set of the sensor lines that indicate a presence of the user interactions based on the first outputs sampled;
scanning based on a multi-touch detection method only the second set over a second stage of detection to receive second outputs; and
determining positions of the user interactions from the second outputs.