Method of and apparatus for the elimination of the effects of internal interference in force measurement systems, including touch - input computer and related displays employing touch force location measurement techniques

In a touch-input computer and related supported display employing touch force location measurements, a method of eliminating errors introduced into force and/or torque measurements by undesired inertial interference motions of one or more of the support, mechanical systems of the display and/or force measuring apparatus itself, that comprises, sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the display by touch forces to provide a plurality of channels of force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference effects that arise;

• deriving time derivatives including at least a set of the second order derivatives of the uncorrected force measurements and subtracting the same in different linear combinations of each order in turn from each channel of uncorrected force measurement, with coefficients of combination chosen such that the resulting sums reflect the desired force measurements substantially free of inertial motion interference errors.

In a touch-input computer and related supported display employing touch force location measurements, a method of eliminating errors introduced into force and/or torque measurements by undesired inertial interference motions of one or more of the support, mechanical systems of the display and/or force measuring apparatus itself, that comprises, sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the display by touch forces to provide a plurality of channels of force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference effects that arise;

• intentionally moving and disturbing the supported display in various ways while the touch force ultimately to be measured is not applied and is allowed to remain at zero, in order to generate measurements that enable calibration of the supported display system that renders the same less prone to force measurement errors due to motions of the type created by said moving and disturbing.

A method of measuring force and/or torque to be applied to a touch panel display system, including, where desired, objects associated therewith and portions of force measuring apparatus itself, that comprises, sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the system by forces acting thereupon to provide force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference motion effects that arise;

• sensing lineal and/or rotational acceleration of the system in response to such inertial interference motions;
• and correcting the uncorrected force and/or torque measurements in response to the acceleration sensing to achieve elimination from the measurements of the effects of such inertial interference.

A method of measuring force and/or torque to be applied to a touch panel display system, including, where desired, objects associated therewith and portions of forces measuring apparatus itself, that comprises, sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the system by deliberate forces acting thereupon to provide force and/or torque measurements uncorrected by inertial interference motion effects that arise:

• deriving time derivatives including a least a set of the second order derivatives of the uncorrected force measurements and subtracting the same in different combinations of each order in turn from each channel of uncorrected force measurement, with coefficients of combination chosen such that the resulting sums reflect the desired force measurements substantially free of inertial motion interference errors.

A method of measuring force and/or torque to be applied to a touch panel display system, including, where desired, objects associated therewith and portions of force measuring apparatus itself, that comprises, sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the system by deliberate forces acting thereupon to provide force and/or torque measurements uncorrected by inertial interference motion effects that may arise;

• deriving time effects that arise;
• intentionally moving and disturbing the system in various ways while said deliberate forces ultimately to be measured are not applied and are allowed to remain at zero, in order to generate measurements that enable calibration of the system that renders the same less prone to force measurement errors due to motions of the type created by said moving and disturbing.

In a touch-input computer and related supported display employing touch force location measurements, apparatus for eliminating errors introduced into force and/or to the measurements by undesired inertial interference motions of one or more of the support, mechanical system of the display and/or force measuring apparatus itself having, in combination, means for sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the display by touch forces to provide force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference motion effects that arise;

• means for sensing lineal and/or rotational acceleration of the display in response to such inertial interference motions;
• and means for correcting the uncorrected force and/or torque measurements in response to the acceleration sensing to achieve substantial elimination from the measurements of the effects of such inertial interference.

In a touch-input computer and related supported display employing touch force location measurements, apparatus for eliminating errors introduced into force and/or torque measurements by undesired inertial interference motions of one or more of the support, mechanical systems of the display and/or force measuring apparatus itself, having, in combination, means for sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the display by touch forces to provide a plurality of channels of force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference effects that arise;

• means for deriving time derivatives including at least a set of the second order derivatives of the uncorrected force measurements and subtracting the same in different linear combinations of each order in turn from each channel of uncorrected force measurement, with coefficients of combination chosen such that the resulting sums reflect the desired force measurements substantially free of inertial motion interference errors.

In a touch-input computer and related supported display employing touch force location measurements, apparatus for eliminating errors introduced into force and/or torque measurements by undesired inertial interference motions of one or more of the support, mechanical systems of the display and/or force measuring apparatus itself, having, in combination, means for sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the display by touch forces to provide a plurality of channels of force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference effects that may arise;

• means for intentionally moving and disturbing the supported display in various ways while the touch force ultimately to be measured is not applied and is allowed to remain at zero, in order to generate measurements that enable calibration of the supported display system that renders the same less prone to force measurement errors due to motions of the type created by said moving and disturbing.

Apparatus for measuring force and/or torque to be applied to a touch panel display system, including, where desired, objects associated therewith and portions of force measuring apparatus itself, having, in combination, means for sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the system by forces acting thereupon to provide force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference motion effects that arise;

• means for sensing lineal and/or rotational acceleration of the system in response to such inertial interference motions;
• and means for correcting the uncorrected force and/or torque measurements in response to the acceleration sensing to achieve elimination from the measurements of the effects of such inertial interference.

In a computer input system providing measurements of the location at which a force is applied to a panel surface, a method of eliminating errors introduced into force and/or torque measurements by the desired inertial interference motions of one or more of the surface and/or force measuring apparatus itself, that comprises, sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the surface by contact forces to provide force and/or torque measurements uncorrected for inertial interference motion effects that arise;

• sensing lineal and/or rotational acceleration of the surface in response to such inertial interference motions;
• and correcting the uncorrected force and/or torque measurements in response to the acceleration sensing to achieve substantial elimination from the measurements of the effects of such inertial interference.

A method of measuring force and/or torque to be applied to a supported touch-input system, including, where desired, objects associated therewith and portions of the force measuring apparatus itself that comprises, sensing one or more components of force and/or torque applied to the system by forces acting thereupon to provide force and/or torque measurements uncorrected by inertial interference motion effects that arise;

• deriving time derivatives including at least in one instance, the second time derivative of some or all of the uncorrected force measurements or linear combinations thereof by subtracting such linear combinations of some or all from an uncorrected force measurement, to yield the desired force measurement substantially free of inertial motion interference errors.