Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090128374 | DETERMINING ACTUATION OF MULTI-SENSOR-ELECTRODE CAPACITIVE BUTTONS - Methods for determining actuation of a capacitive button are described. In some embodiments, indicia from the at least three distinct sensor electrodes associated with at least three sensor electrode elements comprising the capacitive button are received, the indicia indicative of interaction of an input object with the at least three distinct sensor electrodes. The actuation of the capacitive button is then determined, based at least in part on satisfying a set of criteria comprising: a location condition concerning a location of the input object relative to a center of the capacitive button, and a coupling condition concerning a change in capacitive coupling of the at least three distinct sensor electrodes associated with the at least three sensor electrode elements comprising the capacitive button. | 05-21-2009 |
20100238134 | CAPACITIVE SENSING USING A SEGMENTED COMMON VOLTAGE ELECTRODE OF A DISPLAY - An integrated display and touch sensor device comprises a plurality of display pixels and a processing system communicatively coupled with a plurality of common voltage electrode segments and with a plurality of receiver sensor electrodes. The plurality of display pixels is configured for displaying information on the display. The processing system is configured for driving a voltage transition onto a common voltage electrode segment of the plurality of common voltage electrode segments. The voltage transition provides a common voltage for refreshing at least one display pixel of the plurality of display pixels, and generates a first electrical signal on at least one receiver sensor electrode of the plurality of receiver sensor electrodes. The processing system is also configured for acquiring a first measurement of a capacitive coupling between the driven common voltage electrode segment and the at least one receiver sensor electrode by measuring the first electrical signal. | 09-23-2010 |
20100289503 | EXTENDED PROXIMITY SENSOR DEVICE WITH ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE PROTECTION - An input device is provided with improved electrostatic discharge protection. Specifically, the input device includes a plurality of capacitive sensing electrodes configured for object detection. An electrostatic discharge (ESD) shunt is disposed near the capacitive sensing electrodes and configured to provide ESD protection to the capacitive sensing electrodes. The input device also includes an extended-proximity capacitive sensing electrode configured to for object detection of relatively distant objects. The ESD shunt has an associated first resistance, and the extended-proximity capacitive sensing electrode has an associated second resistance. The second resistance is greater than the first resistance such that an electrostatic discharge at a first exposed location would be attracted to the ESD shunt via a first potential discharge path instead of being attracted to the extended-proximity capacitive sensing electrode via a second potential discharge path, where the first discharge path is longer than the second discharge path. | 11-18-2010 |
20100292945 | CAPACITIVE SENSOR DEVICE - A capacitive sensor device comprises a first sensor electrode, a second sensor electrode, and a processing system coupled to the first sensor electrode and the second sensor electrode. The processing system is configured to acquire a first capacitive measurement by emitting and receiving a first electrical signal with the first sensor electrode. The processing system is configured to acquire a second capacitive measurement by emitting and receiving a second electrical signal, wherein one of the first and second sensor electrodes performs the emitting and the other of the first and second sensor electrodes performs the receiving, and wherein the first and second capacitive measurements are non-degenerate. The processing system is configured to determine positional information using the first and second capacitive measurements. | 11-18-2010 |
20100315384 | UNTETHERED ACTIVE PEN AND A METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING WITH A CAPACITIVE SENSING DEVICE USING THE UNTETHERED ACTIVE PEN - A method for communicating with a capacitive sensing device using an untethered active pen. The method includes capacitively receiving a capacitive sensing signal at a capacitive receiving unit of the untethered active pen. The capacitive sensing signal is output from the capacitive sensing device. In addition, the method includes determining a first frequency and a first phase associated with the capacitive sensing signal. Moreover, the method includes transmitting at a second frequency and a second phase an amplified active pen signal at the capacitive sensing device from the untethered active pen. The amplified active pen signal has a second frequency and a second phase that correspond to the first frequency and the first phase. | 12-16-2010 |
20110001494 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SIGMA DELTA CAPACITANCE MEASURING USING SHARED COMPONENTS - Methods, systems and devices are described for detecting a measurable capacitance using sigma-delta charge transfer techniques that can be implemented with many standard microcontrollers, and can share components to reduce device complexity and improve performance. In the various implementations of this embodiment, the passive network used to accumulate charge can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. A switch or IO controlling the charge sharing and/or charge changing can also be shared Likewise, in various implementations a voltage conditioning circuit configured to provide a variable reference voltage can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. Finally, in various implementations a guarding electrode configured to guard the measurable capacitances can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. In each of these cases, sharing components can reduce device complexity and improve performance. | 01-06-2011 |
20110148435 | TRANSCAPACITIVE SENSOR DEVICES WITH OHMIC SEAMS - A transcapacitive sensing device has and ohmic seam which sections a plurality of transmitter electrodes and also sections a plurality of receiver electrodes. A processing system is communicatively coupled with the transmitter electrodes and the receiver electrodes and configured to: transmit a first transmitter signal with a first transmitter electrode disposed on a first side of the ohmic seam; transmit a second transmitter signal with a second transmitter electrode disposed on a second side of the ohmic seam; receive a first response corresponding to said first transmitter signal with a first receiver electrode disposed on the first side of the ohmic seam; and receive a second response corresponding to said second transmitter signal with a second receiver electrode disposed on the second side of the ohmic seam. | 06-23-2011 |
20110175671 | INPUT DEVICE WITH FLOATING ELECTRODES HAVING AT LEAST ONE APERTURE - Devices and methods are provided that facilitate improved input device performance. The devices and methods utilize a transmitter sensor electrode and a receiver sensor electrode that are capacitively coupled to form a transcapacitance for capacitively sensing input objects in a sensing region. A measure of the transcapacitance may be used to determine positional information for the input objects in the sensing region. In accordance with the various embodiments, the devices and methods include a floating electrode that is ohmically insulated from other electrical elements during operation. A first portion of the floating electrode overlaps a portion of the transmitter sensor electrode and a second portion of the floating electrode overlaps a portion of the receiver sensor electrode. The floating electrode additionally includes at least one aperture within the first portion of the floating electrode, where the at least one aperture at least in part overlaps the transmitter sensor electrode. | 07-21-2011 |
20110267305 | INTEGRATED CAPACITIVE SENSING AND DISPLAYING - A display device having an integrated capacitive proximity sensor comprises a plurality of sensor electrodes disposed as part of a display element of the display device. The plurality of sensor electrodes is configured for performing both sensor and display functions of the display device. The display device also comprises a sensor drive mechanism coupled with the plurality of sensor electrodes and configured for driving a first electrical signal on a first at least one sensor electrode of the plurality of sensor electrodes. The sensor drive mechanism comprises at least one memory element that is configured for selecting drive excitation information for the first at least one sensor electrode. The display device also comprises a display drive mechanism coupled with the plurality of sensor electrodes and configured for driving a second electrical signal on a second least one sensor electrode of the plurality of sensor electrodes. | 11-03-2011 |
20120229415 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING USER INPUT AND INTERFERENCE ON AN INPUT DEVICE - The embodiments described herein provide devices and methods that facilitate improved performance. In one embodiment, an input device comprises a processing system, a transmitter sensor electrode, and a receiver sensor electrode, where the transmitter sensor electrode and the receiver sensor electrode are capacitively coupled. The processing system is configured to receive a resulting signal from the receiver sensor electrode, where the resulting signal includes responses that correspond to the transmitter signal. The processing system is further configured to separately accumulate, for each cycle of the transmitter waveform, a first portion and a second portion of the resulting signal to respectively produce a first accumulation and a second accumulation, wherein the first accumulation is used for determining user input to the input device and the second accumulation is used for determining interference, and wherein the first portion and the second portion are non-coterminous. | 09-13-2012 |
20130099805 | DETERMINING ACTUATION OF MULTI-SENSOR-ELECTRODE CAPACITIVE BUTTONS - In a method for determining actuation of a first capacitive button having a first set of at least three sensor electrode elements associated with at least three distinct sensor electrodes, and wherein a sensor electrode element of the first set of sensor electrode elements and a sensor electrode element of a second set of at least three sensor electrode elements of a second capacitive button share at least one sensor electrode in common, indicia is received from the at least three distinct sensor electrodes comprising the first capacitive button. At least three electrode values are generated from the indicia. The at least three electrode values are utilized to determine actuation of the capacitive button. | 04-25-2013 |