Flexible touchpad sensor grid for conforming to arcuate surfaces
AssigneeCirque Corporation
InventorsGeorge Gerpheide, Brian Taylor, Richard Woolley, Daniel Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A touchpad formed from the combination of a flexible and non-conductive material used for a touch-sensitive surface, and a PC board on which is mounted the touchpad circuitry, wherein touchpad sensing electrodes are disposed on the touch-sensitive surface by creating electrical traces formed from conductive ink, the touch-sensitive surface being capable of conforming to various arcuate surfaces, and being capable of sensing through a protective housing such that the touch-sensitive surface is protected, and does not come in direct contact with the pointing object.
Claims17
A touchpad for providing data input to a computer system by tracking movement of an object in contact with the touchpad, and which includes a flexible touch-sensitive surface that conforms to arcuate surfaces such that the flexible touch-sensitive surface is non-planar, said touchpad comprising:
- at least two flexible and non-conductive sheets having at least three touchpad sensing electrodes disposed thereon, wherein the at least two flexible and non-conductive sheets overlap such that the at least three touchpad sensing electrodes form a grid which defines a touch-sensitive area of the touchpad, and wherein the at least two flexible and non-conductive sheets can bend to thereby conform to an arcuate surface such that the flexible touch-sensitive surface is not in a single plane, wherein movement of an object is detected and followed across the arcuate surface;
- a printed circuit board;
- and
- touchpad control circuitry which is mounted on the printed circuit board, wherein the touchpad control circuitry is electrically coupled to the touchpad sensing electrodes so as to receive sensing information therefrom in order to detect contact of the object with the touchpad, track movement of the object across the touchpad, and removal of the object from the touchpad to thereby perform such a function as cursor control for the computer system, and wherein the touchpad control circuitry generates a plurality of signals that correspond to data input from the touchpad.
A method for providing a touchpad having a flexible touch-sensitive surface that is coupled to arcuate surfaces, said method comprising the steps of:
- (1) providing a flexible touch-sensitive surface that is non-planar and that conforms to arcuate surfaces formed from at least two flexible and non-conductive sheets coupled together and having touchpad sensing electrodes disposed thereon, a printed circuit board, and touchpad control circuitry which is mounted on the printed circuit board, wherein the touchpad control circuitry is electrically coupled to the touchpad sensing electrodes so as to receive sensing information therefrom, and wherein the touchpad control circuitry generates a plurality of signals that correspond to data input from the touchpad;
- (2) disposing the flexible touch-sensitive surface against a mounting surface, wherein the mounting surface is sufficiently thin to thereby enable the flexible touch-sensitive surface to detect a pointing object on an opposite side thereof;
- and
- (3) detecting and tracking the pointing object that touches and moves along the opposite side of the mounting surface by using the touchpad control circuitry to detect contact of the pointing object with the opposite side of the mounting surface, track movement of the pointing object, and removal of the pointing object to thereby perform such a function as cursor control for a computer system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.