Systems and methods for determining the location and pressure of a touchload applied to a touchpad

A multi-touch sensor mechanism comprising:

• a two-dimensional array of contact points, wherein the contact points are substantially uniformly distributed within the array such that each contact point is substantially equidistant from neighboring contact points located in vertical and horizontal directions;
• at least one conductive electrode pad corresponding to each contact point in the array;
• a reference connection for providing connection to a reference signal;
• and
• at least one circuit configured to provide an electrical measurement between each conductive electrode pad and the at least one reference connection when a touch event occurs;
• wherein a first subset of contact points are electrically connected to form at least one first type of sensor, each first type of sensor comprising contact points electrically connected in a first direction;
• wherein a second subset of contact points are electrically connected to form at least one second type of sensor, each second type of sensor comprising contact points electrically connected in a second direction, wherein the second subset of contact points comprise contact points other than the first subset of contact points, and wherein the second direction is orthogonal to the first direction;
• and
• wherein a third subset of contact points is divided into clusters of substantially locally distributed contact points, each of the clusters comprising contact points electrically connected to form a third type of sensor;
• wherein the third subset of contact points comprises contact points other than the first and second subset of contact points;
• and
• wherein each of the clusters is formed to provide an absolute location of one or more touch loads applied to the multi-touch interface.

A method of constructing a layout of contact points for a multi-touch interface, the method comprising:

• providing a two-dimensional array of plurality of rows of contact points, wherein the contact points are substantially uniformly distributed within the array such that each contact point is substantially equidistant from neighboring contact points in vertical and horizontal directions;
• electrically connecting a first subset of contact points to form at least one first type of sensor, each first type of sensor comprising contact points electrically connected in a first direction;
• electrically connecting a second subset of contact points to form at least one second type of sensor, each second type of sensor comprising contact points electrically connected in a second direction;
• wherein the second subset of contact points comprise contact points other than the first subset of contact points;
• and
• wherein the second direction is orthogonal to the first direction;
• dividing a third subset of contact points, the third subset comprising contact points other than the first and second subset of contact points, into clusters of substantially locally distributed contact points;
• and
• electrically connecting contact points within each of the clusters to form a third type of sensor, wherein each cluster is formed to provide an absolute location of one or more touch loads applied to the multi-touch interface.