Hybrid force sensitive touch devices

摘要

A hybrid touch-screen display that integrates force-based touch-screen technology with any one from among a group of projective capacitive, surface capacitive, resistive, digital resistive, SAW, IR, APR, DST, optical and electromagnetic touch-screen technologies to provide an ability to compensate for non-perfect force transfer. An alternate implementation is also disclosed that employs a single force sensor for relative force measurement in a system in which force is traditionally not measured, here a water dispenser unit. This allows compensation for varying static loads, run-time calibration, and filtering of extraneous loads through firmware.

主权项

1. A touch-sensitive display assembly adapted to calculate coordinates of a touch in a coordinate plane as well as a force of the touch along a z-axis, the touch-sensitive display assembly comprising:
a housing; a frame coupled to the housing; a touch display screen in the housing and exposed through the frame, the touch display screen adapted to calculate coordinates of the touch in a coordinate plane using one or more sensors; a support structure underlying the touch display screen; at least one force sensor underlying the support structure, the at least one force sensor adapted to determine a force of the touch perpendicular to the coordinate plane; and a control system comprising a non-transitory computer memory for storing instructions for:
determining the coordinates of the touch in the coordinate plane from the touch display screen;determining a force component of the touch perpendicular to the coordinate plane from the force sensor;subdividing an area of the touch display screen into a plurality of concentric areas; andcomputing an absolute touch pressure at the determined coordinates in the coordinate plane by compensating the force component as a function of the predefined concentric area within which the touch occurred.