CN104777929B

CN104777929B - Control device

Info

Publication number: CN104777929B
Application number: CN201510013902.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 胡师贤; 魏一峰; 庄尧智
Original assignee: Touchplus Information Corp
Current assignee: Touchplus Information Corp
Priority date: 2014-01-10
Filing date: 2015-01-12
Publication date: 2020-06-30
Anticipated expiration: 2035-01-12
Also published as: CN104780406A; CN104777929A

Abstract

The invention discloses a control device, which is applied to the control of a controlled device, and comprises: a housing; the touch control sensing device is arranged in the shell; and the key device is exposed on the surface of the shell and positioned above the touch control sensing device, and generates movement relative to the surface of the shell and sends out a first control instruction related to the controlled device in response to the movement action of the user on the key device, and the touch control sensing device senses the touch control gesture of the user on the surface of the shell and generates a second control instruction related to the controlled device, so that the touch control gesture on the surface of the shell cannot cause the movement of the key device. The invention can meet the requirement of diversified instruction input, has the functions of key pressing and touch sensing, and can be used for flexibly controlling the current user interface taking a window form as a main shaft.

Description

Control device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a control device, and more particularly, to a remote control device for controlling a controlled device.

Background

With the development of digital televisions, user interfaces that can be run on the television have become more and more diversified, so that a control device for controlling the user interface must meet the requirement of diversified instruction input. However, the conventional control device using the key as the main input device cannot flexibly control the user interface using the window form as the main axis. Therefore, how to develop a control device capable of meeting the requirement of diversified instruction input is the main object of the present invention.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention is a control device, which is applied to the control of a controlled device, and comprises: a housing; the touch control panel device is provided with a touch control surface exposed out of the shell surface and used for sensing a first touch control gesture of a user on the touch control surface to generate a first control instruction related to the controlled device; and the key device is integrated with the touch control surface, generates movement relative to the touch control surface and sends out a second control instruction related to the controlled device in response to the movement of the key device by the user, and the touch control panel device induces a second touch control gesture of the user on the surface of the key device to generate a third control instruction related to the controlled device, wherein the second touch control gesture cannot cause the movement of the key device.

Another aspect of the present invention is a control device for controlling a controlled device, the device comprising: a housing; the touch control sensing device is arranged in the shell; and the key device is exposed on the surface of the shell and positioned above the touch control sensing device, and generates movement relative to the surface of the shell and sends out a first control instruction related to the controlled device in response to the movement action of the user on the key device, and the touch control sensing device senses a touch control gesture of the user on the surface of the shell and generates a second control instruction related to the controlled device, and the touch control gesture cannot cause the movement of the key device.

In view of the above, the control device according to the present invention is a wireless remote controller, and is applied to a television, a computer, a compact disc player, a set-top box, or an intelligent display with touch control or floating touch control function running with the controlled device, wherein the first touch gesture is a gesture that is stationary for a certain period of time to wake up the wireless remote controller to enter a normal operation mode and issue the first control command.

Preferably, the touch panel device includes a one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing device disposed in the housing and including a plurality of sensing electrodes that are not connected to each other.

Preferably, the control device according to the present invention further comprises a plurality of sensing electrodes, wherein at least one of the sensing electrodes comprises an outer ring portion, a central portion and a connecting portion, and the outer ring portion and the central portion are connected only by the connecting portion.

Preferably, the key device includes a key housing and a depressible elastic dome structure, the depressible elastic dome structure is disposed between the outer ring portion and the central portion, and when the key housing covering the elastic dome structure is depressed, the elastic dome structure is deformed to change a distance between the elastic dome structure and the central portion.

Preferably, the control device according to the present invention further includes a plurality of sensing electrodes formed on a substrate, wherein at least one of the sensing electrodes includes an outer ring portion and an elastic dome portion, a surface of a first portion of the outer ring portion is covered by an insulating varnish, a second portion of the outer ring portion is exposed without being covered by the insulating varnish, the second portion is electrically contacted with a bottom of the elastic dome portion, a first common electrode portion is disposed in a hollow center of the outer ring portion, the first common electrode portion is not connected with the outer ring portion, and the first common electrode portion is electrically contacted with a second common electrode portion on a back surface of the substrate through a via hole in the substrate.

Preferably, the key device includes a key housing covering the elastic dome, and when the key housing is pressed, the elastic dome deforms to change a distance between the elastic dome and the first common electrode portion.

Preferably, the control device of the present invention further comprises a waterproof insulating material covering the surfaces of the plurality of sensing electrodes.

Preferably, the key device is a set of five-way keys, which includes four direction keys and a confirmation key, so that the user can perform the movement to issue the second control command related to the controlled device for adjusting and confirming various parameters in the controlled device.

Preferably, the touch pad device senses the second touch gesture caused by the change of the finger of the user at different distances above the touch pad device to generate the third control command, so as to generate the change of the shape of an image in the controlled device until the distance is smaller than a fixed proportion of a threshold value, so that the image in the controlled device generates a broken animation effect and executes the function represented by the image.

The invention can meet the requirement of diversified instruction input, has the functions of key pressing and touch sensing, and can be used for flexibly controlling the current user interface taking a window form as a main shaft.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic external view of a control device developed by the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a preferred structure of a touch sensing device disposed in a housing under a touch surface according to the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are a side view of a vertical cross-sectional configuration and a top view of a cross-sectional configuration along the line A-A' of the first embodiment of the sensing electrode directly below the five-way key according to the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the elastic dome structure of the present invention.

5A, 5B are a side view of a vertical cross-sectional configuration and a top view of a cross-sectional configuration along the line B-B' of a second embodiment of the sensing electrode corresponding to the position of the five-way key directly below in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 6A and 6B are a side view of a vertical cross-sectional structure and a top view of a cross-sectional structure along a C-C' horizontal line of a third embodiment of the sensing electrode corresponding to the position right below the five-way key according to the present invention.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are a side view of a vertical cross-sectional configuration and a top view of a cross-sectional configuration along the D-D' horizontal line of a fourth embodiment of a sensing electrode as developed in the present invention.

Fig. 8A and 8B are schematic diagrams illustrating a layout of sensing units developed when five-way keys are integrated into a one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing device according to the present invention.

Fig. 9A and 9B are schematic views of a fifth embodiment of a sensing electrode according to the present invention.

Fig. 9C is a schematic view of the fifth embodiment after a waterproof material is added to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a sixth embodiment when the substrate material is not favorable for double-sided processing and via hole making.

Fig. 11A and 11B are schematic structural diagrams illustrating a seventh embodiment of a sensing electrode according to a variation of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of an eighth embodiment of a sensing electrode according to the present invention.

Wherein the reference numerals are as follows:

control device 1

Controlled device X

Graphical user interface GUI

Housing 10

Touch surface 100

Key device 11

Five-way key 110

Arrow keys 1101-1104

Confirmation key 1105

Key 111

Substrate 2

Induction electrode 21

Inductive electrode 31

Outer ring part 311

Center portion 312

Connecting part 313

Signal line 310

Resilient dome 314

Crack 3141

Key housing 315

Bottom 316

Substrate 5

Inductive electrode 51

Outer ring part 511

Center part 512

Signal line 510

Bottom 513

Outer ring part 611

Elastic dome portion 612

First portion 6111

Second portion 6112

Induction electrode 61

Signal line 610

The first common electrode section 621

Via hole 620

Substrate 6

Second common electrode portion 622

Insulating material key casing 615

Induction electrode 71

Outer ring 711

Elastic dome portion 712

First section 7111

Second section 7112

A signal line 710.

Common electrode portion 72

Opening 719

Lead 729

Insulating material key casing 715

Substrate 8

Induction electrode 81

Hollowed-out area 810

Common electrode 82

Elastic push-button 83

Bottom 830

Waterproof insulating material 90

Copper foil layer 91

Insulating varnish 92

Carbon film 93

Substrate 99

Induction electrode 991

Hollowed-out area 9910

First key electrode 9921

Second key electrode 9922

Opening 9911

Elastic key 993

Bottom 9930

Base plate 88

Touch sensing electrode layer 887

Through hole 880

Solid key cover 888

Bottom 8810

Elastic dome portion 8820

Circuit board 881

Common electrode layer 882

Key induction electrode 883

Conducting wire 889

Detailed Description

Referring to fig. 1, which is an appearance schematic diagram of a control device developed by the present invention, the control device 1 may be mainly applied to control of a controlled device, and the common form of the control device 1 is a wired/wireless remote controller used in an image playing system such as a television, a computer, an optical disc player, an on-board box, an intelligent display with touch control or floating touch control function, and the like, and certainly may be a computer keyboard, a mouse button without printed characters, or an immobile ATM keyboard. It should be noted that the touch or floating touch function means that the function can sense not only a sliding gesture, a touching gesture or even a stationary gesture actually on a specific surface, but also a volley gesture performed above the specific surface. The volley gesture may be a vertical movement and/or a horizontal movement within a specific range, or even a gesture that is stationary for a specific period of time. The controlled device X may be a television, a computer, an optical disc player, an on-board box, or an image playing system such as an intelligent display with touch control or floating touch control function, on which a graphical user interface GUI is operated, and the graphical user interface GUI refers to an image operation interface output by the image playing system and displayed on the display. The control device 1 mainly has a casing 10 for enclosing its main electronic circuit components (not shown in the figure), and the electronic circuit components include a touch sensing device (not shown in the figure) disposed in the casing 10, so that the casing surface above the touch sensing device forms a touch surface 100, and the touch surface 100 and the touch sensing device below the touch surface can form a touch pad device. The casing 10 itself can be the touch surface 100 by proper design, and the touch surface 100 can be independent of the casing 10, for example, as will be described later. In addition, the control device 1 is further provided with a key device 11 exposed on the surface of the housing 10, and the key device 11 is mainly capable of generating a height difference relative to the surface of the housing and sending a control command related to the controlled device according to the pressing action of the user on the key device. For example, the five-way key 110 in the figure has four direction keys 1101-1104 respectively representing "up", "down", "left" and "right" and a confirmation key 1105, which can be pressed by a user to adjust and confirm various parameters in the controlled device, and the control device 1 may further have a plurality of keys 111 to meet other data input requirements. It will be appreciated that the key assembly 11 may be implemented using a keyboard having other movable orientations, instead of the application example where vertical movement of the keys is not possible. Basically, the key device 11 of the present invention can be used to meet the requirement as long as one or more key bodies (for example, a key body or a movable unit that is changed to move horizontally or in other directions) capable of moving effectively are provided, and a change in the detected physical quantity is generated.

In addition, the five-way key 110 of the present invention is disposed above the touch sensing device (not shown in this figure) and integrated with the touch surface 100, that is, the surface of the five-way key 110 that is not pressed and the touch surface 100 are on the same plane or arc, or the surface of the five-way key 110 that is not pressed is slightly higher than the touch surface 100. In this way, the touch sensing device can sense a touch gesture of the user on the surface of the five-way key 110 to generate a control command related to the controlled device. For example, when the user's finger slides and translates on or a short distance above the surface of the five-way key 110, the touch sensing device will sense the touch gesture and issue a corresponding control command, so that the cursor in the controlled device moves correspondingly.

Referring to fig. 2, a preferred structure of the touch sensing device in the casing below the touch surface 100 mainly shows a layout of a sensing unit of a one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing device, wherein the layout is mainly composed of a plurality of non-connected sensing electrodes 21 formed on the surface of the substrate 2, and the sensing electrodes are used for sensing the influence of the fingers of the user on the capacitance of the nearby sensing electrodes and outputting the sensed signals to a sensing circuit (not shown) through independent signal lines, and the sensing circuit can calculate the distributed positions of the fingers of the user and the touch gestures represented by the position changes. Therefore, as long as the sensing electrode 21 is disposed above the casing, the surface of the casing can form a touch surface required by the touch pad device, so that the touch pad device can sense a touch gesture of a user on the touch surface to generate a control command related to the controlled device. For further details, reference may be made to the contents of taiwan and corresponding U.S. patent applications previously filed by the applicant, which are published under the numbers 201415334 and US 2014/0097885 a1, respectively.

In addition, in order to detect the pressing action of the user on the five-way key 110 at the same time, the present invention adjusts the shape of the sensing electrode corresponding to the position right below the five-way key 110, which is mainly to change the shape into the first embodiment shown in fig. 3A and 3B, wherein fig. 3A is a side view of a vertical sectional structure, fig. 3B is a top view of a sectional structure along the horizontal line a-a', and the sensing electrode 31 is mainly divided into two parts: the outer ring portion 311 and the central portion 312, and the outer ring portion 311 and the central portion 312 are connected by a connection portion 313, and the sensing electrode 31 is connected to an external sensing circuit (not shown in the figure) by an independent signal line 310, like the sensing electrodes with unchanged shapes shown in fig. 2, so as to sense the influence of the fingers of the user on the capacitance of the nearby sensing electrode, and further calculate the position of the fingers of the user and the touch gesture represented by the position change to generate the corresponding control command. As for the compressible elastic dome structure 314 disposed between the outer ring 311 and the central portion 312, the bottom portion 316 of the elastic dome structure 314 shown in fig. 3A and 3B is formed on the surface of the substrate 3, but is not connected to the outer ring 311 and the central portion 312, and the cross-sectional view and the three-dimensional view of the elastic dome structure 314 are shown in fig. 3A and 4, respectively. The slit 3141 of the elastic dome structure 314 shown in fig. 4 is disposed corresponding to the connection portion 313, so that the signal line 310, the outer ring portion 311, the central portion 312 and the connection portion 313 of the sensing electrode, the bottom of the elastic dome structure 314, and the ground line 3140 of the sensing electrode of the present invention can be etched by using a single-sided conductive layer on a single-layered board, thereby effectively saving the cost and the working hours. However, after the insulating material key housing 315 covering the elastic dome structure 314 is pressed, the elastic dome structure 314 completed by the conductor is deformed to change the distance between the elastic dome structure 314 and the central portion 312, so that the capacitance between the elastic dome structure 314 and the central portion 314 is increased along with the decrease of the distance, and the change of the capacitance can be detected between the grounding line 3140 extending outward from the elastic dome structure 314 and the signal line 310 of the sensing electrode 31, and thus, an external sensing circuit can determine that the corresponding key is pressed according to the fact that the sensed capacitance is greater than a threshold value.

Of course, if the connection portion 313 and the ground line 3140 are modified to go to the other side through the through hole of the substrate 3, the effect of the present invention can be achieved, which only needs more man-hours and increases the cost. Referring to fig. 5A and 5B, a structural schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the sensing electrode is shown, in which fig. 5A is a side view of a vertical cross-section structure, and fig. 5B is a top view of a cross-section structure along a horizontal line B-B'. The sensing electrode 51 is similar to the sensing electrode 31 shown in fig. 3A and 3B, and can be mainly divided into two parts: the outer ring portion 511 and the central portion 512 are formed on the surface of the substrate 5, the outer ring portion 511 and the central portion 512 extend to the other surface of the substrate 5 through the through hole and are electrically connected through the connecting portion 517, and the sensing electrodes 51 are connected to an external sensing circuit (not shown in the figure) through independent signal lines 510 to sense the influence of the fingers of the user on the capacitance of the sensing electrodes nearby, so as to calculate the positions of the fingers of the user and the touch gestures represented by the position changes to generate corresponding control commands.

As for the compressible elastic dome structure 514 disposed between the outer ring portion 511 and the central portion 512, the bottom portion 513 of the elastic dome structure 514 shown in fig. 5A and 5B is formed on the surface of the substrate 5, but is not connected to the outer ring portion 511 and the central portion 512. However, after the insulating material key case 515 covering the elastic dome structure 514 is pressed, the elastic dome structure 514 completed by the conductor is deformed to change the distance between the elastic dome structure 514 and the central portion 512, so that the capacitance between the elastic dome structure 514 and the central portion 512 is increased along with the decrease of the distance, and the change of the capacitance can be detected between a ground line (not numbered) extending from the elastic dome structure 514 to the other surface through the through hole and the signal line 510 of the sensing electrode 51, and thus, an external sensing circuit can determine that the corresponding key is pressed according to the sensed capacitance being greater than a threshold value.

Referring to fig. 6A and 6B, a third embodiment of the present invention is shown, in which fig. 6A is a side view of a vertical cross-section structure, and fig. 6B is a top view of a cross-section structure along the C-C' horizontal line. It is also adjusted corresponding to the shape of the sensing electrode directly below the five-way key 110, wherein the sensing electrode 61 is mainly divided into two parts: the outer ring portion 611 and the elastic dome portion 612, the surface of the first portion 6111 of the outer ring portion 611 is coated and covered by an insulating varnish (not shown), the second portion 6112 is exposed without being covered by the insulating varnish, and then the second portion 6112 is electrically contacted with the bottom of the elastic dome portion 612. Therefore, the sensing electrode 61, like the sensing electrodes with unchanged shapes shown in fig. 2, can be connected to an external sensing circuit (not shown) through an independent signal line 610 to sense the influence of the user's finger on the capacitance of the sensing electrode nearby, and further calculate the position of the user's finger and the touch gesture represented by the position change and generate a corresponding control command.

The first common electrode 621 is disposed at the hollow portion of the outer ring portion 611, the first common electrode 621 is not connected to the outer ring portion 611, but the first common electrode 621 is electrically connected to the second common electrode 622 on the back surface of the substrate 6 through the via hole 620. In this way, after the insulating material key shell 615 covering the elastic dome portion 612 is pressed, the elastic dome portion 612 completed by the conductor is deformed to change the distance between the elastic dome portion 612 and the first common electrode portion 621 and even make contact with each other, so that the capacitance between the elastic dome portion 612 and the first common electrode portion 621 increases with the decrease of the distance and even reaches saturation, and the change of the capacitance between the common electrode 62 formed by the first common electrode portion 621 and the second common electrode portion 622 and the signal line 610 extending from the sensing electrode 61 can be detected, and thus, the external sensing circuit can determine that the corresponding key is pressed according to whether the sensed capacitance is greater than a threshold or reaches a saturation state. In addition, a driving voltage can be applied to the common electrode 62, so that the sensitivity of the sensing device of the present invention can be increased, and further, a touch object with a longer distance can be detected.

Referring to fig. 7A and 7B, a fourth embodiment of the present invention is illustrated, in which fig. 7A is a side view of a vertical cross-section structure, and fig. 7B is a top view of a cross-section structure along the D-D' horizontal line. It is also adjusted to correspond to the shape of the sensing electrode directly below the five-way key 110, wherein the sensing electrode 71 is mainly divided into two parts: the outer ring 711 and the elastic dome 712, the surface of the first portion 7111 of the outer ring 711 is covered by the insulating varnish, the second portion 7112 is exposed without being covered by the insulating varnish, and then the second portion 7112 is electrically contacted with the bottom of the elastic dome 712. Therefore, the sensing electrode 71, like the sensing electrodes without changing the shape shown in fig. 2, can be connected to an external sensing circuit (not shown) through an independent signal line 710 to sense the influence of the finger of the user on the capacitance of the sensing electrode nearby, and further calculate the position of the finger of the user and the touch gesture represented by the position change and generate the corresponding control command.

The common electrode portion 72 is disposed at the hollow portion of the outer ring portion 711, the common electrode portion 72 is not connected to the outer ring portion 711, but the common electrode portion 72 extends out of the conductive wire 729 through the opening 719 of the outer ring portion 711 to be electrically connected to the common electrode portions of other areas, and the elastic dome portion 712 has an appearance similar to that shown in fig. 5A and 5B, and the notch is disposed in alignment with the opening 719. In this way, after the insulating material key housing 715 covering the elastic dome portion 712 is pressed, the elastic dome portion 712 formed by the conductor is deformed to change the distance between the elastic dome portion 712 and the common electrode portion 72, and even to contact the same, so that the capacitance between the two portions is increased along with the decrease of the distance, and even to saturation, and the change of the capacitance can be detected between the signal lines 710 extending from the common electrode 72 and the sensing electrode 71, and thus, the external sensing circuit can determine that the corresponding key is pressed according to whether the sensed capacitance is greater than a threshold value or reaches a saturation state. The opening 719 may be covered with an insulating layer for protection, and the electrode layer 722 disposed on the back side of the substrate 7 may be used to simply shield unnecessary interference.

Referring to fig. 8A and 8B, when the five-way key is integrated into the one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing device, the layout of the sensing unit developed by the present invention can be completed on a single-layer double-sided conductive circuit board, and it should be noted that this example is a hybrid application of the second and third embodiments, fig. 8A shows a conductive line layout pattern diagram on the first surface of the circuit board, in which, as shown in fig. 6A and 6B, the third embodiment uses the sensing electrode 61 (shown as the outer ring portion 611) and the first common electrode portion 621 to respectively complete the electrodes at the two ends of the key, and the first common electrode portion 621 uses the via hole 620 to complete the electrical contact with the second common electrode portion 622 (shown in fig. 8B) on the back surface. Fig. 8A also shows a second embodiment as shown in fig. 5A and 5B, in which the outer ring portion 511 and the central portion 512 of the sensing electrode 51 are connected to each other through via

holes

5202 and 5201 and the connecting portion 517 on the back surface. As for the elastic dome 514 shown in fig. 5A, the bottom 513 is not connected to the outer ring portion 511 and the central portion 512, but the bottom 513 is electrically connected to the second common electrode portion 622 on the back side through the via hole 5203. In this example, the key position can be set in the center of the sensing electrode or across two sensing electrodes as required without limitation.

In a fifth embodiment of the invention, as shown in fig. 9A and 9B, a hollow area 810 is formed in the sensing electrode 81 on the substrate 8, and the common electrode 82 is completed in the hollow area 810 (not shown, but the common electrode 82 can be routed by using the through hole or the opening on the sensing electrode to complete the electrical connection therebetween). The sensing electrode 81 and the common electrode 82 generate a coupling capacitance value, and the bottom 830 of the elastic key 83 can be made of conductive rubber electrically connected to the common electrode 82, so that when the elastic key 83 is pressed, the distance between the bottom of the elastic key 83 and the sensing electrode 81 and the common electrode 82 can be changed or even contacted, and thus the size of the coupling capacitance value between the sensing electrode 81 and the common electrode 82 can be changed or even short-circuited, and the capacitance value between the sensing electrode 81 and the common electrode 82 can be increased or even saturated along with the reduction of the distance, so that the change of the capacitance value can be detected between the sensing electrode 81 and the common electrode 82, and thus, an external sensing circuit can judge that the corresponding key is pressed according to whether the sensed capacitance value is greater than a threshold value or reaches a saturated state. The sensing electrodes 81 arranged substantially in a honeycomb manner can also sense the influence of the fingers of the user on the capacitance of the sensing electrodes nearby, so as to calculate the positions of the fingers of the user and the touch gestures represented by the position changes. Furthermore, similar to the concepts of fig. 8A and 8B, the fifth embodiment shown in fig. 9A and 9B can also support the design of crossing different sensing electrodes, and the hollow area 810 is disposed in the center of the sensing electrode or between two sensing electrodes.

In addition, in order to achieve the waterproof purpose, a waterproof insulating material (as shown in fig. 9C) may be added to the structure surface of the above embodiment, but the touch gesture detection and the key detection may still be integrated. Taking fig. 9B as an example, after the structure of fig. 9C is changed by adding the waterproof insulating material 90, the normal function is not affected, and the touch gesture and the key sensing can be correctly performed.

In addition, when the substrate material is not suitable for double-sided processing and via hole fabrication (such as a ceramic substrate or a curved substrate), the present invention can also be implemented with the structure of the sixth embodiment shown in fig. 10. The surface of the substrate 9 is finished with a copper foil layer 91, an insulating varnish 92 and a carbon film 93 printed on the insulating varnish 92, wherein the copper foil layer 91 can be defined as the electrode layout shape of the back surface of the substrate in the above embodiments, the insulating varnish 92 plays the role of the substrate in the above embodiments to isolate the copper foil layer 91 from the carbon film 93, the insulating varnish 92 can be perforated to provide the requirement of the via hole in the above embodiments, and finally the carbon film 93 defined as the electrode layout shape of the front surface of the substrate in the above embodiments is covered on the surface of the insulating varnish 92 by using a printing method, and can be electrically connected with the copper foil layer 91 by using the perforated hole in the insulating varnish 92.

The sensing electrodes of the invention can achieve the effect of space sensing, so that the invention can sense the touch gesture of the user finger moving horizontally above the key and generate corresponding control instructions, and can also be used for sensing the change of the user finger at different distances above the key (namely the position change on the Z axis). The effective distance of the spaced sensing can be changed by combining different numbers of electrode plates, for example, when the capacitance changes due to the sensing by summing up seven sensing electrodes, the sensing distance can be larger than the combination of three sensing electrodes. There are other details of Grouping applications, which the applicant has described in detail in a previous application (U.S. patent application No. 13/895,333). The sensing distance of the spaced sensing can be changed by changing the grouping number of the sensing electrodes, in other words, different finger heights can cause projection areas with different sizes, and the sensing electrodes covered in the larger projection area can generate the larger sensing distance. In addition, the sensing distance of the space sensing is set in different time intervals, so that the scanning action of the Z-axis range can be generated, and the scanning action of the X-axis/Y-axis plane on the original touch sensing device is matched. When the cursor controlled by the user stays on one of the images to move the finger or palm close to the panel to perform a similar pressing action, the distance between the finger or palm and the touch sensing device is gradually reduced, so that the image in the user interface generates shape change, such as bending deformation of the image, along with the pressing action until the distance is smaller than a fixed proportion of the Z-axis threshold, such as 50%, and the Image (ICON) generates a broken animation effect and executes the function represented by the image. Certainly, a gesture that the finger or the palm is still above the key for a certain period of time may also be defined, which is a gesture for activating the remote control device to enter a normal operation mode from a power saving mode, because the remote control device may enter the power saving mode after being idle for a certain period of time, and the power saving mode may reduce the frequency of the scanning sensing electrode to achieve the purpose of saving power for the remote control device, and a gesture that the user places the finger or the palm above the key or the touch surface still for a certain period of time long enough may be detected in the power saving mode, so that the remote control device may be awakened to enter the normal operation mode to perform faster touch gesture detection.

Referring to fig. 11A and 11B, a concept of a seventh embodiment of the present invention, which is obtained by further changing the fifth embodiment of the present invention, is to embed a resistive keyboard into a touch sensing unit. A hollow area 9910 is formed in the sensing electrode 991 on the substrate 99, and a first key electrode 9921 and a second key electrode 9922 are formed in the hollow area 9910, and the first key electrode 9921 and the second key electrode 9922 can be routed by using a via hole (not shown) or an opening 9911 on the sensing electrode 991. The bottom 9930 of the elastic key 993 may be made of conductive rubber, so that when the elastic key 993 is pressed, the bottom 9930 of the elastic key 993 allows the first key electrode 9921 and the second key electrode 9922 to contact each other, and therefore the resistance change caused by the conduction between the two electrodes allows an external sensing circuit to determine that the corresponding key is pressed. The sensing electrodes 991 arranged substantially in a honeycomb manner can also sense the influence of the fingers of the user on the capacitance of the sensing electrodes nearby, so as to calculate the positions of the fingers of the user and the touch gestures represented by the position changes.

Referring to fig. 12, it is a schematic structural diagram of an eighth embodiment of the present invention, in which a touch sensing electrode layer 887 is formed on the lower surface or inside of the substrate 88 but electrode pins (not shown in the figure) are exposed, the touch sensing electrode layer 887 may be a one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing electrode layer, and the one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing electrode layer senses the influence of a user's finger on the capacitance of a nearby sensing electrode, so as to calculate the position of the user's finger and a touch gesture represented by the change of the position, and generate a corresponding control command. The substrate 88 may be a flat plate or a semi-spherical shape as shown in the figure, and at least one through hole 880 is formed in the substrate 88 for passing the physical button cover 888 therethrough, a bottom portion 8810 of the physical button cover 888 abuts against the elastic dome portion 8820, the elastic dome portion 8820 is formed on the circuit board 881, a common electrode layer 882 and a button sensing electrode 883 are formed on the circuit board 881, and the common electrode layer 882 is electrically connected to the elastic dome portion 8820. The common electrode layer 882 and the elastic dome portion 8820 can shield the interference from the lower side to the touch sensing electrode layer 887, and can apply a driving voltage, so as to increase the sensitivity of the sensing device of the present invention, thereby detecting a touch object with a longer distance. The key sensing electrodes 883 are electrically connected to an external sensing circuit (not shown) through the conductive wires 889, and when the elastic dome portion 8820 is pressed to contact the key sensing electrodes 883, the external sensing circuit can determine that the corresponding key is pressed. In addition, a driving voltage can be applied to the common electrode layer 882, which can increase the sensitivity of the sensing device of the present invention, thereby detecting a touch object further away. The one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing electrode layer 887 can be connected to other signal wires (not shown) on the circuit board 881 through electrode pins exposed from the edge of the substrate, but avoid contact with the common electrode layer 882 and the key sensing electrodes 883, and the connection can be made by conductive rubber or pins (not shown). The touch pad device completed by the substrate 88 and the touch sensing electrode layer 887 can control the movement of the cursor in the user interface, and the key device completed by the physical key cover 888, the elastic dome portion 8820 and the key sensing electrode 883 can be used as a determination key, thus also completing the functions of the five-way key.

The control device provided in the above embodiment mainly completes the key function and the touch sensing function on the same surface for operation, however, the touch sensing area can be changed to the lower surface of the control device housing for operation, as long as the position of the sensing electrode is changed to be close to the lower surface, the elastic dome part with the key function is still kept on the upper surface, even the grounded metal layer or other conductor layer is used for shielding the finger touch behavior of the user on the upper surface, and the finger touch behavior of the lower surface of the shell of the induction control device can be enhanced, so that the technical means of the scheme can be utilized to press the keys on the upper surface of the shell of the control device by using the thumb, the function of finger touch behavior is performed on the lower surface of the control device shell by using the index finger, so that the application elasticity of the technical means can be increased.

In summary, the present invention provides a control device to meet the requirement of diversified instruction input, which has the functions of both pressing keys and touch sensing, and can be used to flexibly control the current user interface with the form of window as the main axis. The electrodes can be made of transparent conductive material or non-transparent conductive material, the definition of the electrode pattern can be made by photolithography, printing, laser etching or electroplating, and the substrate can be hard substrate or soft substrate. The function of key and touch sensing can be applied to wire or wireless remote controllers or keyboards, and can also be applied to keys of other articles. Thus, the main object of the present invention can be effectively achieved.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it should be understood that various changes and modifications can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A control device for controlling a controlled device, the control device comprising:

a housing;

a touch pad device having a touch surface exposed on the surface of the housing, the touch pad device comprising a one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing device disposed in the housing and including a plurality of sensing electrodes that are not connected to each other, at least one of the sensing electrodes including an outer ring portion completed by a conductor and a central portion surrounded by the outer ring portion, the touch pad device sensing a first touch gesture of a user over a first portion of the touch surface to generate a first control command related to the controlled device; and

a key device integrated with a second portion of the touch surface, the key device including a key housing and a depressible elastic dome structure, the depressible elastic dome structure being electrically connected to the outer ring portion, the outer ring portion being configured to deform the elastic dome structure when the key housing covering the elastic dome structure is depressed to change a distance between the elastic dome structure and the central portion, thereby generating a movement relative to the touch surface and issuing a second control command associated with the controlled device, and the touch pad device being configured to generate a third control command associated with the controlled device by sensing a second touch gesture of the user over the surface of the key device, the second touch gesture not causing the movement of the key device.

2. The control device as claimed in claim 1, which is a wireless remote controller, wherein the controlled device is a television, a computer, a compact disc player or a set-top box, and the first touch gesture is a stationary gesture for a period of time to wake up the wireless remote controller to enter a normal operation mode and issue the first control command.

3. The control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensing electrode further comprises a connecting portion, and the connection between the outer ring portion and the central portion is completed only by the connecting portion.

4. The control device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensing electrodes are formed on a substrate, wherein a first portion of the outer ring portion has a surface covered with an insulating varnish, and a second portion of the outer ring portion is exposed without being covered with the insulating varnish, the second portion is electrically connected to the bottom of the elastic dome structure, a first common electrode portion is disposed in a hollow center of the outer ring portion, the first common electrode portion is not connected to the outer ring portion, and the first common electrode portion is electrically connected to a second common electrode portion on the back of the substrate through a via hole in the substrate.

5. The control device of claim 1, wherein a plurality of said sensing electrodes are covered with a waterproof insulating material.

6. The control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the key device comprises a confirmation key, the key device comprises a flexible dome portion and a key sensing electrode, the key sensing electrode is electrically connected to an external sensing circuit through a wire, and when the flexible dome portion is pressed to contact the key sensing electrode, the external sensing circuit can determine that the corresponding key is pressed.

7. The control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch pad device senses the second touch gesture of the user's finger at different distances above the touch pad device to generate the third control command, so as to generate the shape change of an image in the controlled device until the distance is smaller than a fixed proportion of a threshold value, thereby generating the animation effect of the break of the image in the controlled device and executing the function represented by the image.

8. The control device of claim 1, which is a wireless remote control, wherein the controlled device is an intelligent display with touch or floating touch function, and the first touch gesture is a stationary gesture for a period of time to wake up the wireless remote control to enter a normal operation mode and issue the first control command.

9. A control device for controlling a controlled device, the control device comprising:

a housing;

a touch sensing device disposed in the housing, the touch sensing device including a one-dimensional capacitive touch sensing device including a plurality of sensing electrodes that are not connected to each other, at least one of the sensing electrodes including an outer ring portion completed by a conductor, a central portion surrounded by the outer ring portion, and a connecting portion, the outer ring portion and the central portion being connected only by the connecting portion; and

the button device is exposed on the surface of the shell and positioned above the touch control sensing device, and generates movement relative to the surface of the shell and sends a first control instruction related to the controlled device in response to the movement action of a user on the button device, and the touch control sensing device senses a touch control gesture of the user on the surface of the button device to generate a second control instruction related to the controlled device, and the touch control gesture cannot cause the movement of the button device.

10. The control device as claimed in claim 9, which is a wireless remote controller, wherein the controlled device is a television, a computer, a compact disc player or a set-top box, and the touch gesture is a stationary gesture for a period of time to wake up the wireless remote controller to enter a normal operation mode.

11. The control device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the key device comprises a key housing and a depressible elastic dome structure, the depressible elastic dome structure is disposed between the outer ring portion and the central portion, and when the key housing covering the elastic dome structure is depressed, the elastic dome structure is deformed to change a distance between the elastic dome structure and the central portion.

12. The control device of claim 9, wherein the plurality of sensing electrodes are formed on a substrate, wherein at least one of the sensing electrodes further comprises an elastic dome portion, a first portion of the outer ring portion has a surface covered with an insulating varnish, a second portion of the outer ring portion is exposed without being covered with the insulating varnish, the second portion is electrically contacted with a bottom of the elastic dome portion, a first common electrode portion is disposed at a central hollow portion of the outer ring portion, the first common electrode portion is not connected with the outer ring portion, and the first common electrode portion is electrically contacted with a second common electrode portion on a back surface of the substrate through a via hole in the substrate.

13. The control device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the key device comprises a key housing covering the elastic dome portion, and when the key housing is pressed, the elastic dome portion is deformed to change a distance between the elastic dome portion and the first common electrode portion.

14. The control device of claim 9, wherein a plurality of said sensing electrodes are covered with a waterproof insulating material.

15. The control device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the key device comprises a confirmation key, the key device comprises a flexible dome portion and a key sensing electrode, the key sensing electrode is electrically connected to an external sensing circuit through a wire, and when the flexible dome portion is pressed to contact the key sensing electrode, the external sensing circuit can determine that the corresponding key is pressed.

16. The control device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the touch sensing device senses the touch gesture of a user's finger at different distances above the touch sensing device to generate the second control command, thereby causing a shape change of an image in the controlled device until the distance is less than a fixed ratio of a threshold, the image generating a broken animation effect and executing the function represented by the image.

17. The control device of claim 9, which is a wireless remote control, wherein the controlled device is an intelligent display with touch or floating touch function, and the touch gesture is a stationary gesture for a period of time to wake up the wireless remote control to enter a normal operation mode and issue the first control command.