KR101081754B1 - Apparatus for touch recognition and method for driving touch recognition using optical signal - Google Patents

Abstract

A multi-touch recognition device and a method of driving a multi-touch recognition device for removing noise in a multi-touch recognition device using an optical signal are provided. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of driving a touch recognition device. The method of driving a touch recognition device including a touch panel, an optical transmitter and receiver disposed in pairs at an edge of the touch panel, and a control unit comprising: Sensing a plurality of areas where an external touch has occurred as a plurality of touch points, and another touch point covering all of the first touch points in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction of the first touch point among the detected touch points Determining whether the image exists, if the other touch point exists, determining the first touch point as noise, and removing the first touch point determined as the noise.

Touch recognition, virtual image removal

Description

Apparatus for touch recognition and method for driving touch recognition using optical signal}

 The present invention relates to a method for driving a touch recognition device and a touch recognition device. In particular, the touch recognition device and the touch recognition device are driven to determine whether noise and a real signal are detected in a region detected as an external touch occurring, thereby removing noise. It is about a method.

A touch panel is generally attached to a display device and has one of a user interface that detects the touch position by changing electrical characteristics at a touch position contacting a hand or a pen, and its application range is very wide such as a small portable terminal and an office device. Such a touch panel often generates a detection error when two or more multi-touches occur at the same time.

That is, in a touch recognition device capable of recognizing multi-touch, a case in which a touch is recognized may occur even though an actual touch does not occur. That is, a case may be recognized as a touch area despite the noise rather than the real signal.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a multi-touch recognition device and a driving method of the multi-touch recognition device to remove noise in the multi-touch recognition device using an optical signal. It is done.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of driving a touch recognition device. The touch recognition device includes a touch panel, an optical transmitter and receiver disposed in pairs on an edge of the touch panel, and a controller. The method may include detecting a plurality of areas in which an external touch occurs on a touch panel as a plurality of touch points, wherein the first touch point is disposed in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction of the first touch point among the detected plurality of touch points. Determining whether there are other touch points covering all of the touch points; if the other touch points exist, determining the first touch points as noise and the first touch points determined as noise Removing the step.

On the other hand, the touch recognition device according to another embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object is a touch panel including a plurality of pixels, disposed in at least one pair on the touch panel, the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit Controlling the operation of the optical transmission and reception unit and the plurality of optical transmission and reception module including a plurality of optical transmission and reception module including a, and scans the optical signal reception of the light receiving unit of the optical transmission and reception unit, according to whether or not receiving the optical signal of the light receiving unit Recognizing the position of the touch point on the touch panel, if it is determined that there is another touch point covering all of the first touch point in each of the horizontal direction and the vertical direction of the first touch point, And a controller configured to determine the first touch point as noise and to remove the noise.

The effects of the touch recognition device and the method of driving the touch recognition device using the optical signal according to the present invention described above are as follows.

According to the present invention, it is determined whether a corresponding area is a real signal or a noise with respect to a plurality of areas in which an external touch is detected on the touch panel. When the area corresponds to noise, the area determined to be noise is removed and touched. By not recognizing the point, errors caused by the multi-touch can be reduced.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention that can specifically realize the above object will be described. At this time, the configuration and operation of the present invention shown in the drawings and described by it will be described as at least one embodiment, by which the technical spirit of the present invention and its core configuration and operation is not limited.

1 illustrates a configuration of a touch recognition apparatus using an optical signal according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the touch recognition apparatus includes a touch panel 20, an optical transmitter / receiver 10 including a plurality of optical transmitter / receiver modules 11, and a controller 30.

The light transmitting and receiving units 10 are arranged in pairs in opposite sides, that is, facing directions. It may also be composed of a pair, or may be composed of a plurality of pairs. That is, the rectangular touch panel may be arranged in pairs at two edges or in pairs at four edges. In addition, although FIG. 1 illustrates the rectangular touch panel 20 as an example, the present invention is not limited to the shape of the touch panel, and various shapes of the touch panel are possible. That is, it is possible if the optical transmitter and receiver are arranged on both sides facing each other.

The optical transmitter / receiver 10 disposed at the edge of the touch panel includes a plurality of optical transmitter / receiver modules. Each light transmitting and receiving module 11 includes a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion. This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2. The light output from the light emitting unit of the optical transmission module disposed on the first side is received by the plurality of light receiving units of the light receiving module disposed on the second side facing each other, and the light emitted from the light emitting unit of the optical transmission module arranged on the second side The light is received by the light receiving units of the plurality of light receiving modules arranged on the first side. That is, light signals output from one light emitting unit are received by a plurality of light receiving units on opposite sides, and both light emission and light reception are performed at both sides.

The controller 30 controls the operation of the plurality of light transmitting / receiving modules, scans the light receiving unit on the first side of the touch panel and the opposing second side to receive the light signal, and determines whether the light receiving unit receives the light signal. Recognize the location of the touch point on the touch panel.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, when a multi-touch occurs, the controller 200 determines whether each detected touch point is a real signal or noise and removes the touch point if it corresponds to noise. can do. A detailed noise determination method will be described below.

2 is a perspective view of an integrated optical transmission module according to an embodiment of the present invention. One light transmitting and receiving module 11 includes a light emitting portion 11a and a light receiving portion 11b. The light emitting portion 11a and the light receiving portion 11b overlap vertically and are driven independently. The light emitting part 11a is enabled in response to the light emission enable signal input from the data line "1", and outputs light (light signal, for example infrared rays) to the outside in response to the light emission signal input from the data line "2". can do. The light receiving unit 11b is enabled in response to a light receiving enable signal input from the data line “3”, and when receiving the light signal, may output the light reception signal to the data line “4”. In one embodiment, the light emitting unit 11a and the light receiving unit 11b may share a power line.

The light emitting unit 11a may be implemented by, for example, a light emitting diode (LED), and the light receiving unit 11b may be implemented by, for example, a photo diode (PD). The light emitting part 11a and the light receiving part 11b can transmit / receive light of an infrared wavelength, for example. However, the light emitting unit 11a and the light receiving unit 11b are not limited thereto, and device types and light wavelengths of the light emitting unit 11a and the light receiving unit 11b may be determined according to the application of the touch recognition device.

In the example of FIG. 2, the light emitting part 11a is arranged above and the light receiving part 11b is arranged below, but the light emitting part 11a may be disposed below the light receiving part 11b. The light emitting part 11a and the light receiving part 11b of the light transmitting / receiving module 11 may be overlapped in one housing formed by injection to form an integrated body. In this case, when the light emitting unit 11a and the light receiving unit 11b of the light transmitting / receiving module are vertically superimposed in one housing, individual sheaths may be omitted so that the thickness may be reduced. In addition, the stacking of the touch panel 20 may be reversed in consideration of the height change that occurs when the light emitting part 11a and the light receiving part 11b overlap and align. In this way, by aligning the light receiving unit and the light emitting unit of the light transmitting and receiving module opposite to each other, it is possible to match the height of the light emitting units of the light transmitting and receiving module and the height of the light receiving unit, it is possible to improve the light transmission and reception efficiency.

3 illustrates a configuration in which the optical transmission / reception module 11 is disposed on opposite sides of the touch panel 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention. One embodiment of the touch panel may be implemented as a transparent film or plate covering the display element.

In the following description, the pixels of the touch panel 20 are grids corresponding to (eg, one correspondence to) the pixels of the display element, and mean virtual or physical pixels for determining a user's touch point.

The light emitting units of the light transmitting / receiving module may emit and flash sequentially or according to a predetermined pattern. That is, in the embodiment in which the light emitting unit of the light transmitting module sequentially emits light, the light emitting units of the light transmitting modules of S31 to S60 on the opposite side can receive the optical signal in the order of S1, S2, S3, S4 ... have. In addition, when the light emitting units of S31 to S60 emit light sequentially, the light receiving units of S1 to S30 on the opposite side may receive an optical signal. The opposing XX1 and XX2 of the touch panel each include a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion, and output an optical signal on the opposite side and receive the optical signal from the opposite side.

The controller scans the light receiver to determine whether an optical signal is received. When an optical signal is received, it is determined that there is no obstacle, that is, a touch, between the light emitting unit generating the optical signal and the light receiving unit receiving the optical signal. In this way, all or part of the light receiving units are scanned according to a specific condition or not, and the area which is not determined as the touchless area until the end is determined as the touch area. This method is different from the determination of the touch area when the light receiving unit does not receive the optical signal.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, at least one light emitting unit of an optical transmitting / receiving module disposed to correspond to (eg, one-to-one correspondence) facing both sides of the touch panel is enabled, and overlaps with the light emitting unit, which is also facing the touch panel. Since the presence or absence of a touch point is determined by detecting whether light is received from the light receiving units arranged at both sides, even if a malfunction occurs in any light emitting unit or light receiving unit, the touch point recognition error is not significantly affected. That is, the touch point is not recognized by only one-way optical transmission and reception, but the touch point is recognized by two-way optical transmission and reception, thereby reducing a touch point recognition error.

On the other hand, the control unit of the touch recognition device of the present invention controls the touch recognition device to remove the noise, in order to reduce the touch recognition error.

Figure 4 shows an example of noise generated in the touch recognition device according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, when multi-touches a and d occur, noises such as b and c may be detected in addition to the touched a and d. That is, even though the touch is not actually touched, the touch area may be misidentified due to noise.

In this case, the touch screen may be malfunctioned by being recognized as a touch area up to an area that is not actually touched.

In the present specification, the actual signal refers to an image detected by the fact that an external touch is actually generated on the touch screen, and the noise indicates the presence and position of the external touch despite the fact that the external touch does not actually occur on the touch screen. It means the phase that occurs in the process.

If noise is present on the touch screen, the external touch is recognized as the presence of the external touch even though the external touch does not exist, resulting in an application that is not desired by the user, or a device malfunction.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of driving a touch recognition device according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2 illustrating a method of driving a touch recognition device, detecting a plurality of areas in which an external touch occurs on a touch panel as a plurality of touch points, and a horizontal direction of a first touch point among the detected touch points And determining whether there are other touch points covering all of the first touch points in each of the vertical directions, and if the other touch points exist, determining the first touch points as noise. And removing the first touch point determined as the noise.

An area where an external touch occurs on the touch panel is detected as a plurality of touch points (S10), and the N touch points are arranged in order of small size (S11). In this case, N means one or more natural numbers.

The N touch points are recognized in order of small size, and the first touch point having the smallest size is judged as noise. Thereafter, it is determined whether the noise is sequentially one by one with respect to the area recognized as the touch point. At this time, it is determined whether there is noise up to N-1, and it is not necessary to separately determine whether the Nth, i.e., the area having the largest size is noise.

The method of determining whether the noise is noise is to determine whether there are other touch points covering all of the first touch points in the horizontal and vertical directions of the first touch point (S14).

If there is no other touch point corresponding to the above condition, the first touch point is determined as a real signal and recognized as an actual touch point (S15).

If it is determined that another touch point corresponding to the above condition exists, the first touch point may be determined as noise and removed (S16).

 If it is determined whether the noise is with respect to the first touch point, it is determined whether the noise is with respect to the second touch point. In this manner, it may be determined whether the noise reaches the N-th touch point.

6A and 6B illustrate an embodiment of processing for determining whether noise is present.

Referring to FIG. 6A, when the touch points detected as a, b, c, and d are arranged in size, the order of d, a, c, and b is in order.

First, when it is determined whether the noise is with respect to the d region, there is a c region covering all the d regions in the vertical direction of the d region. In addition, there exists a b area which completely covers the d area in the vertical direction.

Therefore, it is determined that the region d corresponds to noise.

Then, if it is determined whether the noise is with respect to the a region, there is a c region covering all the a regions in the vertical direction of the a region. In addition, there exists a b area which completely covers a area in the horizontal direction.

Therefore, it is determined that region a corresponds to noise.

Then, if it is determined whether the noise is with respect to the c region, there is no touch point region covering all of the c region in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. Therefore, the region c does not correspond to noise and can be determined as a real signal.

As a result, in FIG. 6A, area a and area d correspond to noise, and area b and area c correspond to real signals.

Referring to FIG. 6B, when the touch points detected as a, b, c, and d are arranged in size, the order of d, a, c, and b is in order.

First, when it is determined whether the noise is with respect to the d region, there is a c region covering all the d regions in the vertical direction of the d region. In addition, there exists a b area which completely covers the d area in the vertical direction.

Therefore, it is determined that the region d corresponds to noise.

Then, if it is determined whether or not noise is with respect to the a region, there is a b region that completely covers the a region in the horizontal direction of the a region. However, there is no area covering the entire area a in the vertical direction. The region c located in the vertical direction of the region a does not entirely cover a in the vertical direction, as can be seen in FIG. 6B.

Therefore, it is determined that the region a corresponds to the real signal.

Then, if it is determined whether the noise is with respect to the c region, there is no touch point region covering all of the c region in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. Therefore, the region c does not correspond to noise and can be determined as a real signal.

As a result, in FIG. 6B, area d corresponds to noise, and area a, area b, and area c correspond to real signals.

7A and 7B show an actual implementation of a touch recognition device employing a processing method according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7A, a touch point is detected in a plurality of areas, but referring to FIG. 7B, after processing according to the present invention, noise is removed and only real signals 1 and 3 remain.

The above description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may make various modifications and changes without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. . Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are not intended to limit the technical idea of the present invention but to describe the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be interpreted by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope equivalent thereto should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

1 illustrates a configuration of a touch recognition apparatus using an optical signal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a perspective view of an integrated optical transmission module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 illustrates a configuration in which a pair of optical transmitters and receivers are disposed on an edge of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 shows an example of noise generated in the touch recognition device according to the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of driving a touch recognition device according to the present invention.

6A and 6B illustrate an embodiment of processing for determining whether noise is present.

7A and 7B show an actual implementation of a touch recognition device employing a processing method according to the present invention.

Claims (6)

In the method of driving a touch recognition device consisting of a touch panel, an optical transmitter and receiver disposed in pairs on the edge of the touch panel, Detecting a plurality of areas where an external touch occurs on the touch panel as a plurality of touch points; Other touches covering all of the first touch points in a horizontal direction parallel to a direction of light transmitted and received by the optical transmitter and receiver at a first touch point among a plurality of detected touch points and in a vertical direction perpendicular to the horizontal direction. Determining whether a point exists; Determining that the first touch point is noise when the other touch point exists; And And removing the first touch point determined as the noise. The method of claim 1, Arranging the plurality of detected touch points in order of size; The method of driving the touch recognition device, characterized in that the noise is sequentially determined in the order of the small size of the plurality of detected touch points. The method of claim 2, When the recognized touch points are N, the touch recognition device driving method, characterized in that to determine whether the noise sequentially for the N-1 touch points in a small order. A touch panel including a plurality of pixels; An optical transmitting and receiving unit disposed on the touch panel in at least one pair and including a plurality of optical transmitting and receiving modules including a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit; And Controls the operation of the plurality of optical transmission and reception modules, scans the light receiving unit for receiving the optical signal, and recognizes the position of the touch point on the touch panel according to whether the light receiving unit receives the optical signal. Among the plurality of touch points, another touch point covering all of the first touch points in the horizontal direction parallel to the direction of the light transmitted and received by the optical transmitting and receiving unit at the first touch point and in the vertical direction perpendicular to the horizontal direction is And determining that the first touch point is noise and removing the noise. 5. The method of claim 4, And the control unit arranges the recognized plurality of touch points in order of size, and sequentially determines whether the touch points are noise in order of small size. The method of claim 5, When the recognized touch points are N, the touch recognition apparatus according to the small size in order to determine whether the noise in the N-1 touch points in sequence.

Images