Touch panel display system

A touch panel display system comprising:

• a display screen for displaying information;
• a plurality of emitters positioned in proximity to the display screen, each of the emitters adapted for emitting energy beams that are diverged across a surface of the display screen;
• a plurality of detectors position in proximity to the display screen, each of the detectors adapted to receive the energy beams over a range of angles and to generate detection signals upon detecting any one of the energy beams;
• a computer-readable medium for storing detection maps indicating which of the detectors should be receiving one of the energy beams from at least one of the emitters at any point in time;
• and
• a processor for executing computer-executable instructions for:
• generating a plurality of detection maps based on the detection signals generated by the detectors over time and storing the plurality of detection maps on the computer-readable medium,
• accessing the computer-readable medium to compare a current detection map to a reference detection map in order to determine the absence of at least one expected detection signal from at least one of the detectors,
• based on the absence of the at least one expected detection signal, determining that at least one of the energy beams has been interrupted by a touch of the display screen, and
• based on the at least one interrupted energy beam, determining the location of the touch on the display screen.

A method for implementing a touch panel display screen comprising:

• providing a display screen for displaying information;
• providing a plurality of emitters positioned in proximity to the display screen, each of the emitters adapted for emitting energy beams that are diverged across a surface of the display screen according to a cycle;
• and
• providing a plurality of detectors positioned in proximity to the display screen and adapted to receive the energy beams over a range of angles and to generate detection signals upon detecting any one of the energy beams, wherein the number of detectors is less than the number of emitters, such that not every emitter is aligned on-axis with a corresponding detector.

A method for implementing a touch panel display screen comprising:

• providing a display screen for displaying information;
• providing a plurality of emitters positioned in proximity to the display screen in such manner that ht energy beams cover substantially the entire area of a surface of the display screen, each of the emitters adapted for emitting energy beams that are diverged across the surface of the display screen, the emitters being further adapted to be activated and deactivated according to a sequence that is rapid enough to substantially ensure that a plurality of the energy beams will be interrupted by a touch of the display screen, each of the interrupted energy beams being emitted by different ones of the emitters at different times;
• providing a plurality of detectors positioned in proximity to the display screen and adapted to receive the energy beams over a range of angles and to generate detection signals upon detecting any one of the energy beams;
• generating a plurality of detection maps based on the detection signals generated by the detectors over time, the detection maps indicating from which of the emitters each of the detectors should receive one of the energy beam at any point in time;
• comparing a current detection map to a previously stored detection map in order to determine that the plurality of energy beams has been interrupted by touch of the display screen;
• and
• determining a location of the touch on the display screen based on the interrupted energy beams.

A touch panel display screen comprising:

• a display screen for displaying information;
• a plurality of emitters positioned in proximity to a top edge, a right edge, a left edge and a bottom edge of the display screen, each of the emitters adapted for emitting energy beams that are diverged across a surface of the display screen according to a cycle;
• and
• a plurality of detectors interspersed among the emitters along each of the top edge, the right edge, the left edge and the bottom edge of the display screen, each of the detectors adapted to receive the energy beams over a range of angles and to generate detection signals upon detecting any one of the energy beams, wherein the number of detectors is less than the number of emitters, such that not every emitter is aligned on-axis with a corresponding detector.