JP5332519B2 - Touch panel, operation detection method, and electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect a plurality of continued pressing operations carried out without a finger or a touch pen leaving a touch panel. <P>SOLUTION: The touch panel includes a sensor unit 1 for two-dimensionally detecting the touch of a finger or a touch pen to a detection surface according to a change in the amount of sensation, and a recognition unit 2 which, if the amount of sensation detected by the sensor unit 1 or a change in the amount of sensation drops in a direction corresponding to the decrease of pressure produced by the finger or the touch pen and becomes smaller than a predetermined threshold value after rising in a direction corresponding to the increase of the pressure and exceeding the threshold value, recognizes this as a tapping operation. The amount of sensation may be capacitance, pressure, or area of contact. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for detecting an operation on a touch panel, and more particularly, to a touch panel and a touch panel operation detection method that can cope with a plurality of continuous pressing operations performed without removing a finger or a touch pen from the touch panel.

  In recent years, an increasing number of devices are equipped with touch sensor devices such as capacitive touch sensors, touch screens, and resistive touch panels. In devices using these touch sensor devices, there are many complaints about operability compared to hard keys. Under such circumstances, each company has devised a user interface using a multi-touch method, a screen effect, or the like, but the essential problems of the touch sensor device cannot be solved.

  One of the problems with touch sensor devices is that the finger must be lifted once when continuously pressed. For example, in the 5-touch input method in which the character changes from “A → I → U → E → O” each time a key is pressed, if you want to input “O”, the position of the key displayed as “A” Must be pressed 5 times. At this time, when inputting with the touch sensor, it is necessary to release the finger once and the user feels stress on the input. Also, there are many scenes that need to be continuously pressed even when the cursor is moved, and the finger must be released once. When inputting with a hard key, it is only necessary to apply force to the finger or remove the force, and it is not necessary to release the finger from the hard key once.

  Further, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for determining on / off in a touch panel. The touch panel disclosed in Patent Document 1 utilizes the fact that the capacitance of an electrode increases when a human finger approaches the electrode of the touch panel, and the oscillation frequency of the oscillation circuit is increased according to the increase in capacitance. The input signal is determined to be on / off by counting a plurality of periods of the output signal of the oscillation circuit with a clock and comparing the counted number with a threshold value.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-018669

As described above, the touch sensor device has a problem in that the finger must be released once at a time when the touch sensor device is continuously pressed down a plurality of times.
On the other hand, according to the touch panel disclosed in Patent Document 1, when the user continuously presses the input multiple times in order to determine whether the input is on or off by comparing the count number with a threshold value, once each time. Even if the finger is not lifted, there is a possibility that a plurality of continuous presses can be detected.

  However, in the touch panel disclosed in Patent Document 1, the oscillation frequency of the oscillation circuit is changed in accordance with an increase in the capacitance of the electrode, and a plurality of cycles (for example, 10 cycles, 50 cycles, 100 cycles) of the output signal of the oscillation circuit. Etc.), it is necessary to count the output signal with the clock, and there is a problem that the time required to detect on / off becomes long. As described in Patent Document 1, if the clock is speeded up, a minute frequency change of the oscillation circuit can be detected with high accuracy and high speed, but a CPU corresponding to the high clock is required and the cost increases. End up.

  Further, in the touch panel disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is determined that the count number is turned on when the count number is larger than the first threshold value, and the count number is smaller than the second threshold value set smaller than the first threshold value. When it becomes, it is determined to be off. At this time, once it is determined to be on, the determination of being on is maintained unless the count number is smaller than the second threshold value. However, if it is continuously pressed multiple times without releasing the finger from the touch panel, there is a possibility that the count number does not fall below the second threshold by pressing once, and in this case, multiple times of continuous pressing Could not be detected and could be detected as a single press. For the reasons described above, the touch panel disclosed in Patent Document 1 may not be able to cope with a plurality of continuous presses performed without removing a finger from the touch panel.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a touch panel and an operation detection method that can easily detect a plurality of continuous presses performed without removing a finger or a touch pen from the touch panel. Objective.

The touch panel according to the present invention includes a sensor that two-dimensionally detects contact of a finger or a touch pen with a detection surface by a change in the amount of sensitivity, and the amount of sensitivity detected by the sensor or the amount of change in the amount of sensitivity exceeds a predetermined threshold. when it falls below the threshold after the contact and a recognition unit that recognizes a tap operation, said sensitive volume, the contact area der is, the recognition means, the software user interface for receiving a recognition result of the touch panel The recognition algorithm is changed accordingly, and in the case of software that does not support multiple consecutive presses, it is recognized that multiple taps are recognized as independent operations once instead of consecutive operations. It is a feature.

The touch panel operation detection method of the present invention includes a detection procedure for two-dimensionally detecting contact of a finger or a touch pen with respect to a detection surface by a change in the sensitivity amount, and the sensitivity amount detected by the detection procedure or the sensitivity amount. when the amount of change is below the threshold after exceeding a predetermined threshold value, said contact and a recognizing procedure tap operation and the sensitive volume is Ri contact area der, the recognition procedure, a touch panel In the case of software that does not support multiple consecutive presses, including a procedure that changes the recognition algorithm according to the software user interface that accepts the recognition result of the operation detection method of It is characterized by being recognized as an independent operation once .

  In the present invention, the tap operation is recognized based on the strength of the pressing force by the finger or the touch pen on the detection surface of the sensor. More specifically, after the sensitivity amount detected by the sensor or the change amount of the sensitivity amount increases in a direction corresponding to an increase in pressing force by the finger or the touch pen and exceeds a predetermined threshold, the sensitivity amount or sensitivity When the amount of change decreases in the direction corresponding to the decrease in the pressing force and falls below the threshold, it is recognized as a tap operation. Accordingly, in the present invention, it is possible to easily detect a plurality of continuous presses performed without removing the finger or the touch pen from the sensor. Moreover, in this invention, since it can input continuously, without removing a finger | toe or a touch pen from a sensor, it is easy for a user to perform a continuous striking operation, and input speed improves. Further, in the present invention, a device equipped with a touch panel can be stably held even in one-handed operation. Furthermore, in the present invention, when the same place is continuously pressed down a plurality of times, the position is not easily displaced, and erroneous operations can be reduced. As described above, in the present invention, the usability of the user interface using the touch panel can be remarkably improved.

[First Embodiment]
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the touch panel according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The touch panel includes a sensor unit 1 and a recognition unit 2. Such a touch panel is mounted on a device such as a mobile terminal.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the sensor unit 1. The sensor unit 1 is a capacitive sensor, and includes an electrode 11 formed under the insulator 10 and a detection circuit 12 that detects the capacitance of the electrode 11. When a human finger or a conductive touch pen approaches the electrode 11, electrostatic induction occurs between the finger or the touch pen and the electrode 11, and the capacitance changes. The detection circuit 12 converts the capacitance of the electrode 11 (capacitance between the finger or touch pen and the electrode 11) into an electrical signal (voltage) and outputs the electrical signal (voltage). In this way, it is possible to detect a change in capacitance due to a finger or a touch pen coming into contact with the sensor unit 1. If the electrode 11 is two-dimensionally arranged along the lower surface of the insulator 10, it is also possible to detect the position where the finger or the touch pen comes into contact.

  The recognition unit 2 is configured by a computer. As shown in FIG. 1, the recognition unit 2 includes a CPU 20, a ROM 21 that stores a program for the CPU 20, and a RAM 22 for temporary storage. The CPU 20 executes processing according to the program stored in the ROM 21 and passes the recognition result to the software user interface of a device such as a portable terminal.

  Next, the operation of the touch panel of the present embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, a single pressing operation in which a person removes the force after applying a force to the finger or the touch pen while bringing the finger or the conductive touch pen into contact with the detection surface (insulator surface) of the sensor unit 1, that is, An operation that is continuously detected as OFF → ON → OFF is called a tap.

  FIGS. 3A to 3G are plan views schematically showing contact images according to time when a finger or a conductive touch pen is brought into contact with the detection surface of the sensor unit 1. t = 1 to 7 is a time, and 30 is a region where a finger or a touch pen touches. The larger the region 30, the larger the contact area and the stronger the force. Here, the center of the contact surface is not moved.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a change in capacitance of the sensor unit 1 at time t = 1 to 7 in FIGS. 3 (A) to 3 (G). α and β (α> β) are capacitance threshold values for the recognition unit 2 to detect taps. Note that the value actually handled by the CPU 20 of the recognition unit 2 is a digital value corresponding to the capacitance, but in the following description, it is simply referred to as capacitance in order to simplify the description.

3A, when the time t = 1, the finger or the touch pen is not touching the sensor unit 1, and the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 is a capacitance threshold value as shown in FIG. It is smaller than α and β. For this reason, CPU20 of the recognition part 2 recognizes as non-contact.
When t = 2, the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 once exceeds the capacitance threshold β and then falls below the capacitance threshold β as shown in FIG. At this time, the CPU 20 recognizes it as a tap.

When t = 3, the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 once exceeds the capacitance threshold α and then falls below the capacitance threshold α, so the CPU 20 recognizes it as a tap.
When t = 4, the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 exceeds the capacitance threshold β, but does not fall below the capacitance threshold β, so the CPU 20 recognizes that there is no contact.

When t = 5, the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 once exceeds the capacitance threshold α and then falls below the capacitance threshold α, so the CPU 20 recognizes it as a tap.
When t = 6, the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 does not exceed the capacitance thresholds α and β, and therefore the CPU 20 recognizes that there is no contact.
As can be seen from FIG. 3G, since the finger or the touch pen moves away from the sensor unit 1 at t = 7, the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 is smaller than the capacitance thresholds α and β. For this reason, CPU20 of the recognition part 2 recognizes as non-contact.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, after the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 increases in the direction corresponding to the increase of the pressing force by the finger or the touch pen and exceeds the capacitance threshold, the capacitance When the pressure decreases in the direction corresponding to the decrease in the pressing force and falls below the capacitance threshold, it is recognized as a tap. Therefore, it is easy to perform a plurality of continuous pressings performed without removing the finger or the touch pen from the sensor unit 1. Can be detected.

In this Embodiment, since it can input continuously, without removing a finger | toe or a touch pen from the sensor part 1, the following effects can be expected.
(1) The continuous hitting operation is easy and the input speed is improved.
(2) A device equipped with a touch panel can be stably held even in one-handed operation.
(3) When the same location is continuously pressed a plurality of times, the position is not easily displaced, and erroneous operations can be reduced.

  Note that the CPU 20 of the recognizing unit 2 increases the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 in the direction corresponding to the increase in the pressing force and exceeds the capacitance threshold, and then the capacitance decreases in the pressing force. The amount of movement of the contact surface between the sensor unit 1 and the finger or the touch pen when the capacitance decreases in a corresponding direction and falls below the capacitance threshold value and the capacitance rises or falls with respect to the capacitance threshold value is less than a certain value. At some point, it may be recognized as a tap. The sensor unit 1 outputs position information indicating the position pressed by the finger or the touch pen together with the capacitance information. The CPU 20 can easily obtain the amount of movement of the contact surface between the sensor unit 1 and the finger or the touch pen based on the position information.

Further, the CPU 20 determines that the elapsed time from when the capacitance detected by the sensor unit 1 exceeds the capacitance threshold to when it falls below the capacitance threshold is equal to or less than a predetermined time. You may add to the conditions to recognize. Further, the CPU 20 may add to the condition for recognizing that the elapsed time between taps is equal to or less than a predetermined time as a plurality of continuous taps.
Further, a plurality of threshold values may be provided, such as α and β shown in FIG.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the first embodiment, a change in capacitance is detected by the sensor unit 1, but a change in pressure may be detected. In this case, a piezoresistive type or a capacitance type pressure sensor may be used as the sensor unit 1. The piezoresistive pressure sensor forms a piezoresistor in a semiconductor diaphragm, detects a change in strain resistance of the piezoresistor that changes depending on the magnitude of pressure applied to the diaphragm, and outputs a signal indicating the pressure. The capacitance type pressure sensor is provided with a semiconductor diaphragm and a fixed electrode opposite to the semiconductor diaphragm, and detects a change in capacitance between the diaphragm and the fixed electrode that varies depending on the magnitude of the pressure received by the diaphragm, and indicates the pressure. A signal is output. Since these sensors can be formed with a size of, for example, 1 mm square or less, if a plurality of pressure sensors are arranged two-dimensionally, it is also possible to detect the position where the finger or the touch pen has come into contact.

Also in the present embodiment, the configuration and operation of the recognition unit 2 are the same as those in the first embodiment. That is, if the change in the capacitance of the sensor unit 1 described with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3G and FIG. 4 is replaced with a change in pressure received by the sensor unit 1, and the capacitance threshold is replaced with a pressure threshold. The tap recognition algorithm described in the first embodiment can be applied to this embodiment.
Thus, even when a change in pressure by a finger or a touch pen with respect to the sensor unit 1 is detected, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.

[Third Embodiment]
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the present embodiment, a change in the contact area of the sensor unit 1 with a finger or a touch pen is detected. In this case, the sensor described in the first and second embodiments may be used as the sensor unit 1, or a resistance film type sensor may be used. The resistance film type sensor is provided with transparent electrodes called ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) on the opposing surfaces of the opposing PET film and glass, and when a finger or a touch pen comes into contact with the PET film, the PET film and glass each other. A position where a finger or a touch pen is in contact is detected by contact of the electrode.

  Also in the present embodiment, the configuration and operation of the recognition unit 2 are the same as those in the first embodiment. That is, the change in the capacitance of the sensor unit 1 described in FIGS. 3A to 3G and 4 is replaced with the change in the contact area between the finger or the touch pen and the sensor unit 1, and the capacitance threshold value is changed. If replaced with the contact area threshold, the tap recognition algorithm described in the first embodiment can be applied to the present embodiment.

In any of the sensors described in the first and second embodiments or the resistance film type sensor, the position information indicating the position pressed by the finger or the touch pen is output from the sensor unit 1. The contact area can be easily obtained based on the position information.
Thus, even when a change in the contact area of the sensor unit 1 with a finger or a touch pen is detected, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

[Fourth Embodiment]
In the first to third embodiments, the capacitance, pressure, or contact area detected by the sensor unit 1 is compared with a threshold value. However, the change amount of the capacitance per certain time and the certain pressure time You may make it compare the variation | change_quantity per area | region or the variation | change_quantity per fixed time of a contact area with a threshold value.
When a person taps with a finger or a touch pen, the amount of change in capacitance, change in pressure, or change in contact area decreases after increasing once in the direction corresponding to the increase in pressing force by the finger or touch pen. Then, it becomes 0 at the timing when the pressing force becomes maximum.

Therefore, the CPU 20 of the recognition unit 2 increases the amount of change in capacitance, the amount of change in pressure, or the amount of change in contact area detected by the sensor unit 1 in a direction corresponding to an increase in pressing force by a finger or a touch pen. Tap when the amount of change in capacitance, change in pressure, or change in contact area decreases in a direction corresponding to a decrease in pressing force and falls below the change amount threshold after exceeding a predetermined change amount threshold. May be recognized.
Thus, also in this embodiment, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.

[Fifth Embodiment]
In the first to fourth embodiments, a case has been described in which a plurality of continuous presses performed without removing a finger or a touch pen from the sensor unit 1 are described, but by a software user interface that receives a recognition result of the touch panel Some software does not support multiple consecutive presses. Therefore, the CPU 20 of the recognition unit 2 may change the recognition algorithm according to the software user interface. That is, in the case of software that does not support a plurality of times of continuous pressing, a plurality of taps may be recognized as an independent operation once, not a continuous operation.

  The present invention can be applied to devices equipped with a touch panel as an input interface.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the touchscreen which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the sensor part of the touchscreen which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a top view which shows the contact image according to time when a finger or a touch pen is made to touch the detection surface of a sensor part in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the change of the electrostatic capacitance according to time of the sensor part 1 in the 1st Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sensor part, 2 ... Recognition part, 10 ... Insulator, 11 ... Electrode, 12 ... Detection circuit, 20 ... CPU, 21 ... ROM, 22 ... RAM.

Claims (7)

A sensor that two-dimensionally detects the contact of a finger or a touch pen on the detection surface with a change in the amount of sensitivity;
Recognizing means for recognizing the contact as a tap operation when the amount of sensitivity detected by the sensor or the amount of change in the amount of sensitivity exceeds a predetermined threshold and then falls below the threshold;
The sensitive volume is Ri contact area der,
The recognition means changes a recognition algorithm in accordance with a software user interface that accepts a recognition result of the touch panel, and in the case of software that does not support a plurality of continuous pressing operations, a plurality of taps are continuously operated. Instead, the touch panel is recognized as an independent operation once . The touch panel according to claim 1.
The recognizing unit is configured to perform a tap operation when a movement amount of a contact surface between the sensor and a finger or a touch pen is equal to or less than a predetermined value when the sensitivity amount or a change amount of the sensitivity amount is higher or lower than the threshold value. A touch panel characterized by recognition. The touch panel according to claim 1.
A touch panel comprising a plurality of the threshold values. A detection procedure for two-dimensionally detecting a touch of a finger or a touch pen on the detection surface with a change in the amount of sensitivity;
A recognition procedure for recognizing the contact as a tap operation when the sensitivity amount detected by the detection procedure or the amount of change in the sensitivity amount exceeds a predetermined threshold value and then falls below the threshold value.
The sensitive volume is Ri contact area der,
The recognition procedure includes a procedure for changing a recognition algorithm in accordance with a software user interface that accepts a recognition result of a touch panel operation detection method, and in the case of software that does not support multiple continuous pressings, multiple taps. A touch panel operation detection method characterized by recognizing as an independent operation once, not as a continuous operation. In the touch panel operation detection method according to claim 4 ,
When the amount of movement of the contact surface between the sensor and the finger or the touch pen is less than or equal to a predetermined value when the amount of sensitivity or the amount of change in the amount of sensitivity rises or falls with respect to the threshold value, the recognition procedure includes: A touch panel operation detection method characterized by recognizing. In the touch panel operation detection method according to claim 4 ,
A touch panel operation detection method, wherein a plurality of the threshold values are provided. An electronic device using the touch panel according to any one of claims 1 to 3 .

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