JP2000112642A - Touch panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect a multipoint indication by detecting lengthwise indication coordinates of a beltlike resistance layer applied with a voltage from the ratio of the applied voltage value and a detected voltage value. SOLUTION: When one point on a sheet is pressed and indicated, a beltlike resistance layer 26 of a 1st electrode part 28a and a beltlike resistance layer 26 of a 2nd electrode part 28b come into contact with each other at the intersection part between the both. In the detection area based upon the beltlike resistance layer 26 as a detection unit, a voltage is applied to the beltlike resistance layer 26 of the electrode part 28a and while the application line of the voltage is changed, the line number to the beltlike resistance layer 26 where the voltage of the electrode part 28b is outputted is detected. Consequently, the coordinate position based upon the detection area as a unit is calculated from the line number of the beltlike resistance layer 26 applied with the voltage and the arrangement position of the line number of the beltlike resistance layer 26 where the voltage is detected. A rough coordinate position is detected by a matrix system based upon the detection area as a unit and the accurate coordinate position is calculated by an analog system which divides a reference voltage.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an improvement in a touch panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Currently, touch panels generally used include an analog type and a digital type. Here, the analog touch panel is provided with an upper sheet and a lower sheet made of two resistive films separated from each other, and by dividing the reference voltage applied to one resistive film at the designated coordinate position by the other resistive film. In general, a configuration is adopted in which the coordinate position in the X-axis and Y-axis directions is detected from the magnitude of the detected voltage value.

[0003] On the other hand, a digital touch panel has upper and lower sheets in the analog touch panel described above.
Along with being composed of a large number of strip-shaped conductors that are parallel to each other in the horizontal direction, the conductors are perpendicular to each other between the upper and lower sheets,
By sequentially detecting the presence or absence of a voltage output to the conductor constituting the other sheet while sequentially applying a voltage to the conductor constituting one sheet, the conductor is detected from the conductor at the detection position. It is performed to determine the designated coordinates as a unit.

[0004]

However, in principle, the analog type touch panel as described above not only recognizes only one point of the coordinate indication, but also intervenes when two or more points are pressed at the same time. There was a problem that a point was erroneously recognized as an input coordinate position.

On the other hand, even when a digital touch panel is used to designate a plurality of points at the same time, the coordinates can be distinguished and discriminated from each other. It is necessary to reduce the width of the conductor provided for detection, which limits the achievable resolution.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention eliminates the disadvantages inherent in the analog and digital touch panels at a glance, and cannot be performed by the analog method while maintaining a high resolution equivalent to that of the analog touch panel. It is an object of the present invention to provide a touch panel capable of detecting a multi-point instruction.

[0007]

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the touch panel 10 according to the present invention is provided with a plurality of strip-shaped resistance layers 26 in parallel in the short side direction. A first electrode portion 28a and a plurality of strip-shaped resistive layers 26 are provided in parallel in the short side direction thereof, and
By providing a minute gap 24 in a direction perpendicular to the band-shaped resistance layer 26 on the first electrode portion 28a side, the band-shaped resistance layers 26 are disposed so as to be able to contact each other when pressed. A second electrode portion b, a power supply portion 32 capable of individually applying a set voltage to both ends in the longitudinal direction with respect to each of the belt-shaped resistive layers constituting the first and second electrode portions a and b, A detection unit 34 that can detect a voltage value extracted through the band-shaped resistance layer 26 belonging to an electrode unit on a side different from the electrode unit to which the band-shaped resistance layer 26 to which a voltage is applied by the power supply unit 32 belongs. I have.

The detecting section 34 detects a designated coordinate in the longitudinal direction of the strip-shaped resistive layer 26 to which a voltage is applied, based on a ratio between the applied voltage value and the detected voltage value.

The operation of applying a voltage by the power supply section 32 can be periodically performed on all the belt-like resistance layers 26. Prior to the application of the voltage in the power supply unit 32, the band-shaped resistance layer 26 belonging to the contact position between the first and second electrode units 28a and 28b is specified, and only the band-shaped resistance layer 26 specified is specified. The power supply unit 32 may be configured to apply a voltage.

The belt-shaped resistance layer 26 belonging to the above-mentioned contact position
As shown in FIG. 6, the scanning operation of sequentially applying a unit voltage to all the band-shaped resistance layers 26 belonging to one electrode unit is performed, while the band-shaped resistance layer 2 belonging to the other electrode unit is specified.
6 can be detected by detecting the presence or absence of the voltage output from.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, the approximate coordinate position is determined in a matrix manner using the detection area 30 as a unit in the same manner as the digital touch panel, while the accurate coordinate position is determined by the divided voltage of the reference voltage. By calculating by an analog method, it is possible to simultaneously detect a multi-point instruction that cannot be performed by the analog method, while maintaining high resolution equivalent to that of an analog touch panel.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention will be described based on an example in which a touch panel according to the present invention is applied to a personal computer having data input means. However, the present invention is not limited to this. As a matter of course, the present invention can be carried out in substantially the same manner for various data processing apparatuses having a touch panel.

The touch panel 10 according to the present invention is disposed in close contact with a display screen 14 of a display 12 such as a liquid crystal display panel. When an arbitrary coordinate position is pressed, XY coordinates corresponding to the pressed point are analyzed by a coordinate detection circuit 16 described later in detail, and a data processing operation based on the analysis result is performed by a data processing circuit 18.

The touch panel 10 has a display screen 14
Upper sheet 20 made of two transparent thin plates having substantially the same shape as
And a lower sheet 22 are provided so as to be able to approach and separate from each other with a small gap 24, and a band-shaped resistance layer 26 as shown in FIG.

The electrode section 28 includes a first electrode section 28a formed on the upper sheet 20 and a second electrode section 28b formed on the lower sheet 22.
For the belt-shaped resistive layer 26 constituting b, a material that is used as an electrode in the conventional analog touch panel 10 and has a predetermined resistance value such as ITO, for example, is selected and used.

The strip-shaped resistive layer 26 is formed by arranging narrow-width resistive layers set in accordance with the resolution required for the touch panel 10 with a small interval in the short side direction thereof. It covers the entire surface on the facing surface. Further, the first and second electrode portions 28a and 28
By arranging the strip-shaped resistive layers 26 constituting b at right angles to each other, by pressing an arbitrary point on the upper sheet 20 and bringing the upper sheet 20 and the lower sheet 22 into contact, the space between the two sheets 20 It is configured to be electrically connected via the belt-shaped resistance layer 26 at the contact position.

In this embodiment, FIGS. 2 and 3
As shown in (a), the first electrode portion 28a is composed of m resistance layers 26 extending in the horizontal direction, while the second electrode portion 28b is composed of n resistance layers 26 extending in the vertical direction.
M × n sensing areas 30 are formed in a matrix between the first and second electrode portions 28a and 28b.

Here, when one point on the upper sheet 20 is instructed to be pressed, the belt-shaped resistance layer 26 constituting the first electrode portion 28a is pressed.
And the strip-shaped resistance layer 26 forming the second electrode portion 28b are in contact at the intersection thereof. The detection area 30 in which the vertical and horizontal n-band resistive layers 26 are used as a detection unit applies a voltage to the belt-shaped resistive layer 26 in one electrode portion 28a and changes the voltage application line while changing the voltage application line. By detecting the line number of the strip-shaped resistance layer 26 to which the voltage is output in the electrode portion 28b, the line number of the strip-shaped resistance layer 26 to which the voltage is applied and the line number of the strip-shaped resistance layer 26 to which the voltage is detected are arranged. From the installation position, a coordinate position in units of the detection area 30 is calculated.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4A, in a state where the reference voltage Vo is applied to the strip-shaped resistance layer 26a on the first electrode portion 28a side at the contact position, the contact position on the second electrode portion 28b side is changed. When a voltage is extracted from the belt-shaped resistance layer 26b, the voltage value Vx matches the value obtained by dividing the reference voltage Vo applied in the lateral direction of the first electrode portion 28a at the contact position of the second electrode portion 28b. Therefore, the reference voltage Vo and the detection voltage Vx
And the band-shaped resistance layer 26 constituting the first electrode portion 28a
From the length of “a”, for example, accurate coordinates in the X-axis direction with the upper left corners of the upper and lower sheets 20 and 22 as the coordinate origin can be obtained by calculation with the accuracy specified by the voltage detection accuracy.

Regarding the coordinates in the Y-axis direction, the reference voltage Vo is applied to the belt-shaped resistance layer 26b on the side of the second electrode portion 28b as shown in FIG.
By taking out the detection voltage Vy from the electrode section 28a side, for example, the coordinates in the Y-axis direction with the origin at the upper left corner of the upper and lower sheets 20 and 22 can be obtained by calculation.

Therefore, the coordinate detecting circuit 16 according to the present invention includes a power supply section 32 as shown in FIG.
6, the reference voltage Vo can be applied in the above-described procedure, and the detection unit 34 can extract the voltage from the belt-shaped resistance layer 26 at the contact position.

The power supply section 32 and the detection section 34 are composed of a normally open switch group 36 provided at both ends of a strip-shaped resistance layer 26 forming one electrode section, and a strip-shaped resistance layer 26 formed at the other electrode section. A / D for digitally converting the voltage value output from
One set of converters 38 is provided, one set each for X-coordinate detection and one set for Y-coordinate detection, and both can be switched by a signal output from the control unit 40.

That is, when the coordinate detection operation of the touch panel 10 is started in step ST1 of FIG.
After a predetermined initial setting operation is performed in step 2, step ST
If it is determined in step 3 that the set time has elapsed, the process further proceeds to an X coordinate detection step of step ST4.

Here, when the coordinates in the X-axis direction are to be detected, the power supply unit 32 for detecting the X coordinates and the detection unit 34 are enabled, and the switch 42 is switched to change the reference voltage Vo to the power supply unit 32. Is applied.

Further, the strip-shaped resistance layer 2 arranged on the first row
When the two switches connected to both ends of the switch 6 are simultaneously turned on, the reference voltage output via the changeover switch 42 becomes
The voltage is applied to both ends of the strip-shaped resistance layer 26 in the first row.

At this time, as shown in FIG.
Assuming that one point A in the detection area 30 composed of the strip-shaped resistance layers 26 in the row is instructed to be pressed, FIG.
As shown in (a), the reference voltage Vo applied to both ends of the strip-shaped resistance layer 26a in the first row is different from the reference voltage Vo in the first column.
The voltage is divided at the contact position with the A / D converter 38 and input to the A / D converter 38.

Then, in the control unit 40, the strip-shaped resistance layer 26a to which the voltage is applied and the strip-shaped resistance layer 2 to which the voltage is detected are set.
6b, (1, 1) which is the coordinates of the detection area 30 is determined. Further, from the ratio between the detected voltage value Vx and the reference voltage value Vo and the length of the belt-shaped resistance layer 26a, the exact X at the point A is determined. The coordinates are calculated.

Further, the switches to be turned on in the switch group 36 are switched, and the band-shaped resistance layer 26 to which the reference voltage Vo is applied is changed to the m-th row while changing the second and third rows one by one. After repeating the detection process in the X-axis direction, the process proceeds to the coordinate detection process in the Y-axis direction shown in step ST5.

In this step, the control section 40 switches the power supply section 32 and the detection section 34 used for detection to the Y-coordinate detection section, and as shown in FIG. First, a reference voltage Vo is applied to both ends of the strip-shaped resistive layer 26b of the first column constituting the layer 28b.

At this time, since the point A, which is the designated position, is located in the detection area 30 at the intersection of the first row and the first column, it is taken out through the strip-shaped resistance layer 26a in the first row. The obtained voltage becomes a value Vy obtained by dividing the reference voltage Vo applied to both ends of the strip-shaped resistance layer 26b in the first column at the designated position. Then, the coordinates of the designated position in the Y-axis direction are calculated from the ratio between the reference voltage value Vo and the detected voltage value Vy and the length of the column-shaped resistance layer 26b in the column direction, and then the process of processing the detected coordinates starting from step ST6. Move on to

In step ST6, it is first determined whether or not the coordinates have been detected. If no detected coordinates are found, the process returns to step ST3 to wait for the next coordinate detection time. However, when the coordinate input is confirmed in step ST6, the process proceeds to step ST7 to determine whether or not a plurality of coordinates are detected at the same time.

If it is confirmed in step ST7 that only a single coordinate has been detected, the process proceeds to step ST8 where a single coordinate process is performed on the detected coordinates.
It returns to step ST3.

By the way, as a pattern in which a plurality of coordinates are detected at the same time, a case where a plurality of points A and B separated from each other are intentionally pushed at the same time as shown in FIG. In some cases, coordinate detection for a plurality of detection areas 30 is performed because a boundary position is pressed.

In step ST9, the coordinate detection area 30 is checked to determine whether or not the detection areas 30 to which the detected coordinates belong are continuous with each other in the X-axis or Y-axis direction. Then, it is determined that a plurality of coordinates are instructed at the same time, and step ST11 is performed.
Is performed for a plurality of coordinates.

However, if it is determined in step ST9 that the detection area 30 is adjacent to the detection area 30, a correction process is performed on the coordinates having the center of the plurality of coordinates detected in step ST10 as the detection coordinates. Then, the processing operation of a single coordinate is performed.

It should be noted that the reference voltage is not periodically applied to all of the belt-shaped resistance layers 26 regardless of the presence of the pressing instruction position as described above. After determining the detection area 30 in which the instruction is performed using the detection unit 34 and the detection unit 34, only when the determined detection area 30 exists, the reference voltage is applied to the band-shaped resistance layer 26 configuring the detection area 30. Accurate coordinates can also be detected by applying the voltage.

Further, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, a detection area detection unit 44 is further provided, and the detection area 30 to which the designated position belongs is first specified by using the detection unit 44, and then the specified detection area is detected. By applying a reference voltage only to the belt-shaped resistance layer 26 constituting the 30 and detecting accurate XY coordinates, it is possible to further shorten the time required for coordinate detection.

Here, the detection area detection section 44 has substantially the same configuration as that used for coordinate detection in a conventional matrix type touch panel, and is provided from the scan data output circuit 46 to the resistance layer 26 in the column direction. On the other hand, while the unit voltage is sequentially applied, the return data input circuit 48 is provided on the resistance layer 26 in the row direction to simultaneously specify the resistance layer 26 to which the voltage is output, so that the pressed detection area 30 Is determined. Subsequent operations for obtaining an accurate coordinate position and data processing after confirmation of coordinate detection are substantially the same as those in the above-described embodiment. Others
The timing or method of specifying the detection area 30 is not limited at all.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example in which a touch panel according to the present invention is implemented in a personal computer device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a touch panel according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a coordinate positional relationship of a detection area configured on a touch panel;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for detecting an accurate coordinate position using a belt-shaped resistance layer.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for detecting coordinates.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Touch panel 12 Display 14 Display screen 16 Coordinate detection circuit 18 Data processing circuit 20 Upper sheet 22 Lower sheet 24 Gap 26 Strip-shaped resistance layer 28 Electrode part 30 Detection area 32 Power supply part 34 Detection part 36 Switch group 38 A / D converter 40 Control part 42 changeover switch 44 detection area detector 46 scan data output circuit 48 return data input circuit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A first electrode portion comprising a plurality of strip-shaped resistance layers arranged in parallel in the short side direction thereof, and a plurality of strip-shaped resistance layers formed in parallel in the short side direction thereof. A second electrode section in which a minute gap is provided in a direction perpendicular to the strip-shaped resistance layer on the first electrode section side, and furthermore, the opposed strip-shaped resistance layers are arranged so as to be able to contact each other when pressed; A power supply unit capable of individually applying a set voltage to both longitudinal ends of each of the belt-shaped resistance layers constituting the unit, and a side different from the electrode unit to which the belt-shaped resistance layer to which the voltage is applied by the power supply unit belongs A touch panel comprising: a detection unit configured to detect a voltage value extracted through a belt-shaped resistance layer belonging to the electrode unit. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting unit is capable of detecting a designated coordinate in the longitudinal direction of the applied belt-shaped resistive layer from a ratio between the applied voltage value and the detected voltage value. The touch panel according to claim 1. 3. The touch panel according to claim 2, wherein the operation of applying a voltage by the power supply section is periodically performed on all the belt-shaped resistance layers. 4. Prior to the application of a voltage in the power supply unit, a band-shaped resistance layer belonging to a contact position between the first and second electrode units is specified, and then the power supply unit applies only to the specified band-shaped resistance layer. 3. The touch panel according to claim 2, wherein a voltage is applied. 5. The method according to claim 5, further comprising: performing a scan operation of sequentially applying a unit voltage to all of the belt-shaped resistance layers belonging to one of the electrode sections; 5. The touch panel according to claim 4, wherein the detection is performed by detecting the presence or absence of a voltage output from the belt-shaped resistance layer to which the touch panel belongs.