KR101213642B1 - Apparatus and Method for Classifying Contact-media on Touchscreen - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen, and more particularly, to touch by a palm (or finger) and a pointed object such as a touch pen in a touch screen system that enables recognition through various media. The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for distinguishing a contact medium by dividing a difference in the area of a region in contact with a touch screen during contact.
According to the present invention, it is possible to easily find the area and the width of the pixel in contact with the touch screen based on the directionality, and to accurately distinguish the touch media such as the palm, the finger, the touch pen, etc. according to the calculation of the area.
In addition, another effect of the present invention is that it can be used in a system that can effectively classify the types of touch media to prevent the recognition and malfunction by palm recognition on the touch screen.

Description

Apparatus and Method for Classifying Contact-media on Touchscreen}

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen, and more particularly, to touch by a palm (or finger) and a pointed object such as a touch pen in a touch screen system that enables recognition through various media. The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for distinguishing a contact medium by dividing a difference in the area of a region in contact with a touch screen during contact.

Touch screen recognition systems are largely divided into capacitive and resistive methods. Capacitive flow is a continuous flow of current through a highly conductive coated glass that senses the change in current through a sensor at four corners.

However, if the static electricity can not be detected, such as when wearing gloves, it is not recognized well, and there is a problem that can not be operated with a normal touch pen, and must be operated with a capacitive touch pen. There is a possibility to be affected.

On the other hand, the pressure-sensitive type is a method of generating a touch effect by recognizing the pressure, but it works properly when the user presses the form instead of touching the screen. Pressure-sensitive type is composed of several transparent layers on the liquid crystal, there is a conductive layer in the middle of this there is an air layer between the touch and each conductive layer is in contact with each other to perform the role of touch.

The pressure-sensitive type has almost no possibility of malfunction and can be touched by any material. In such a touch screen, it is necessary to support different applications depending on the contact area of a medium to be touched, such as a palm or a touch pen. Often, the application to the touch screen performs control by a finger or a palm and a touch pen, but there is a problem in that a control by a finger or a palm and a control by a touch pen are not distinguished.

The present invention is proposed to overcome the problems according to the prior art, in the touch screen system to enable recognition through a variety of media, the contact by the palm (or fingers), the contact medium by a pointed object such as a touch pen An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen that enables control for a specific application by classifying a medium such as a palm, a finger, a touch pen, and the like.

The present invention provides a device for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen, in order to achieve the above object. The touch-sensitive device includes: a touch screen composed of a plurality of pixels; A touch sensing unit configured to sense whether there is a contact by a contact medium with respect to the touch screen; A contact pixel detector configured to separate the plurality of pixels into corresponding contact pixels and non-contact pixels when there is touch sensing; A contact pixel counting unit counting the number of separated contact pixels in each direction; And a contact medium classifying unit for classifying the contact medium according to whether the number of counted contact pixels is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number and the number of respective directions greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number.

On the other hand, another embodiment of the present invention, the touch sensing unit for detecting whether there is a contact by the contact medium with respect to the touch screen composed of a plurality of pixels; A contact pixel separation step of separating the plurality of pixels into corresponding contact pixels and non-contact pixels when the touch pixel detection unit detects touch; A contact pixel counting step of counting the number of contact pixels separated by the contact pixel counting unit in each direction; And a contact medium discrimination step of classifying the contact medium according to whether the number of the contact pixels counted by the contact medium division unit is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number and the number of each direction that is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number. It provides a method for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen comprising.

Here, each direction is four directions of the horizontal direction, vertical direction, upper right-left direction, upper left-right direction, the four directions are characterized in that any one of at least one column, row and diagonal.

Further, the contact medium is a contact medium having a wide end when the number of each direction that is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number, and the number of each direction that is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number. The terminal is characterized in that the terminal is a narrow contact medium.

In addition, the center of gravity coordinates of the center pixel among the contact pixels is

(여기서, (x_i,y_i)는 접촉 화소의 좌표를 나타내며, M는 접촉 화소의 개수를 나타낸다)에 의해 구해지는 것을 특징으로 한다.

Wherein (x _i , y _i ) represents the coordinates of the contact pixels, and M represents the number of the contact pixels.

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily find the area and the width of the pixel in contact with the touch screen based on the directionality, and to accurately distinguish the touch media such as the palm, the finger, the touch pen, etc. according to the calculation of the area.

In addition, another effect of the present invention is that it can be used in a system that can effectively classify the types of touch media to prevent the recognition and malfunction by palm recognition on the touch screen.

In addition, another effect of the present invention is that it can be utilized in a system using a recognition by the palm and a system using a different recognition by the touch pen, and can be extended to various touch screen environments.

1 is a block diagram of a device for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a general circuit diagram of the touch screen 120 shown in FIG. 1.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of classifying a contact medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is an exemplary diagram for detection of a contact pixel according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a horizontal direction according to the example of FIG. 4.
6 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a vertical direction according to the example of FIG. 4.
FIG. 7 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a top-left-down (slash) direction according to the example of FIG. 4.
8 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a left-right-lower (backslash) direction according to the example of FIG. 4.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

Terms such as first and second may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as the second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as the first component. And / or < / RTI > includes any combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, . On the other hand, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that there are no other elements in between.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this application, the terms "comprise" or "have" are intended to indicate that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, and one or more other features. It is to be understood that the present invention does not exclude the possibility of the presence or the addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, components, or a combination thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the contextual meaning of the related art and are to be interpreted as either ideal or overly formal in the sense of the present application Do not.

Hereinafter, a method and apparatus for distinguishing contact media in a touch screen recognition system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a device for distinguishing a contact medium on a touch screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus for distinguishing a contact medium includes a touch screen 120, a touch sensing unit 130 sensing whether there is a touch (that is, a touch) from the touch screen 120, and contacting the plurality of pixels with the touch sensing. A contact pixel detection unit 110 which separates the pixels into non-contact pixels; A contact pixel counting unit 140 that counts the number of detected contact pixels in each direction; And a contact medium classifying unit 150 for classifying the contact medium using the number of counted touch pixels.

The touch screen 120 is composed of a plurality of pixels and may be, for example, a stripline type. A diagram showing the structure of the touch screen 120 is shown in FIG. 2. 2 will be described later.

The touch detector 130 detects whether there is a contact (that is, a touch) from the touch screen 120. Of course, the touch sensing unit 130 is implemented on the touch screen 120, in the present invention is shown separately for convenience of understanding.

The touch pixel detection unit 110 functions to separate a plurality of pixels into corresponding contact pixels and non-contact pixels when the touch detection unit 130 detects contact, and generates coordinates of the contact pixels.

The contact pixel counting unit 140 functions to count the number of separated contact pixels in each direction.

The contact medium separating unit 150 divides the number of counted touch pixels into predetermined groups and distinguishes types of contact media depending on whether the separated groups are more than a predetermined number.

The controller 100 is composed of a microprocessor, and functions to control the above-described components. Of course, for this purpose, a memory (not shown) for storing a program, data, software, and the like is configured. This memory may be a memory provided in the controller 100 or may be a separate memory. Therefore, nonvolatile devices such as hard disk drives, flash memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), static RAM (SRAM), ferro-electric RAM (FRAM), phase-change RAM (PRAM), magnetic RAM (MRAM), and so on. Memory and / or volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or the like may be used.

In addition, the contact pixel detection unit 110, the contact pixel counting unit 140, and the contact medium separating unit 150 may be implemented by the control unit 100, and as shown in FIG. It is also possible.

FIG. 2 is a general circuit diagram of the touch screen 120 shown in FIG. 1. 2 is a diagram for explaining the principle of a general touch screen. Referring to FIG. 2, the touch screen 120 includes a lower substrate 220 formed below and an upper substrate 230 formed above the insulating film 200.

In addition, the lower substrate 220 and the upper substrate 230 include a first resistive sensing pattern 250 and a second resistive sensing pattern 260 each divided into a plurality of strip lines, and the lower substrate 220. The second resistive sensing pattern 260 and the first resistive sensing pattern 250 of the upper substrate 230 are arranged to be orthogonal to each other. The number of sensing patterns 250 and 260 may be variously changed in consideration of the resolution or size of the screen.

In addition, the overlapping region of the lower substrate 220 and the upper substrate 230 forms an effective touch region. In addition, individual overlapping regions of the sensing patterns 250 and 260 forming the lower substrate 220 and the upper substrate 230 form independent grid cells, and each grid cell functions as one digital switch. .

The number of grid cells is determined according to the number of the second resistive sensing patterns 260 constituting the lower substrate 220 and the number of the first resistive sensing patterns 250 constituting the upper substrate 230. In the case of the lower substrate 220 including the pattern and the upper substrate 230 including the m sensing patterns, n * m grid cells, that is, n * m digital switches may be configured.

Meanwhile, conductive electrodes are provided at both ends of the lower substrate 220 and the upper substrate 230, and may be divided into a left end electrode 270a, a right end electrode 270b, a bottom electrode 240a, and an upper electrode 240b, respectively. have. The conductive electrodes 240a, 240b, 270a, and 270b may apply electrical signals or measure electrical signals.

Of course, the present invention is not limited to this strip line type, and various line types are possible.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of classifying a contact medium according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, the touch sensing unit 130 of FIG. 1 detects whether a touch medium (120 of FIG. 1) is in contact with a touch screen composed of a plurality of pixels.

Therefore, when the touch pixel detection unit 110 detects contact, the plurality of pixels are separated into the corresponding contact pixel and the non-contact pixel, and the coordinates of the corresponding contact pixel are obtained (step S300). A diagram showing such separation of contact and non-contact pixels is shown in FIG. 4. That is, FIG. 4 simply detects the contact pixel and the non-contact pixel mechanically. In this description, the contacted pixel is represented by 1 and the non-contacted pixel is represented by 0. In FIG. Also, the area indicated by 1 is the contact pixel detection area 400.

The contact pixel counting unit 140 counts the number of separated contact pixels in each direction (step S310). In other words, the number of contact pixels in the contact pixel detection region 400 of FIG. 4 is counted in the horizontal direction, the vertical direction, the upper right-left direction (slash), and the upper left-right direction (backslash). The counting method in each of these directions is as follows.

FIG. 5 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a horizontal direction according to the example of FIG. 4. In the present invention, if more than four 3x3 pixel blocks or more are detected, the block is assumed to be recognized as a medium such as a palm, and the center pixel 500 is represented by "X". Therefore, counting the number of contact pixels in the horizontal direction is made up of three rows, as follows.

H1 = A11 + A12 + A13 + A14 + A15

H2 = B11 + B12 + X + B14 + B15

H3 = C11 + C12 + C13 + C14 + C15

Of course, A11 to A15, B11 to B15, C11 to C15, and C11 to C15 represent the scanned coordinates, respectively, and the value becomes "0" or "1". Thus, for example, in H1, if A11 is the digital value "0", A12 is "1", A13 is "1", A14 is "1", and A15 is "1", the counting in H1 is as follows. .

H1 = 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4

Similarly, the number of contact pixels is counted in H2 and H3, and the number of contact pixels is counted in FIGS. 6 to 8. Of course, X is "1" by default.

6 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a vertical direction according to the example of FIG. 4. Accordingly, the number counting of the contact pixels in contact in the three vertical directions is as follows.

V1 = Z12 + A12 + B12 + C12 + D12

V2 = Z13 + A13 + X + C13 + D13

V3 = Z14 + A14 + B14 + C14 + D14

FIG. 7 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a top-left-down (slash) direction according to the example of FIG. 4. Therefore, the counting of the number of contact pixel detections in the three upper right-left (slash) directions is as follows.

S1 = Y15 + Z14 + A13 + B12 + C11

S2 = Z15 + A14 + X + C12 + D11

S3 = A15 + B14 + C13 + D12 + E11

8 is an example diagram of sample pixels for detecting contact pixels in a left-right-lower (backslash) direction according to the example of FIG. 4. Thus, the counting of the number of contact pixel detections in the three upper left-right (backslash) directions is as follows.

W1 = Y11 + Z12 + A13 + B14 + C15

W2 = Z11 + A12 + X + C14 + D15

W3 = A11 + B12 + C13 + D14 + E15

Referring to FIG. 3, after counting in each direction with respect to the contact pixel is performed by FIGS. 5 to 8, the contact medium separator 150 separates the number of counted contact pixels into a predetermined group and separates them. The contact medium is classified according to whether there are more than a predetermined number of groups (step S320).

In other words, as a result of counting in each direction by FIG. 5 to FIG. 8, the contact medium classification unit (150 in FIG. 1) is H1, H2, H3, V1, V2, V3, S1, S2, S3, W1, W2, If four or more of W3 have a counting number greater than four, it is determined that a touch is made with a medium having a large area such as a palm (or finger). Of course, alternatively, if four or more of the numbers H1, H2, H3, V1, V2, V3, S1, S2, S3, W1, W2, W3 are smaller than 4, a medium having a small area such as a touch pen It is determined that the touch has been performed. This determination is summarized below.

N = {number of elements greater than or equal to 4 | H1, H2, H3, V1, V2, V3, S1, S2, S3, W1, W2, W3}

if (N> = 4)

      Classification of contact media = palm (or finger),

  else

Classification of contact media = touch pen

Further, as another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to obtain the center of gravity coordinates for the center pixel. In general, there is a general case where there is only one contact medium on the touch screen, and various contact mediums come into contact with the touch screen. Therefore, when several objects are touched repeatedly, this center of gravity concept is used to calculate the distance from the center of gravity and to classify the touch medium touching the object in the nearest position as touching.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the contacted pixel and the non-contacted pixel are distinguished, the center of gravity coordinates are obtained by adding the values of the x coordinates to the contacted pixels and adding the values of the y coordinates, respectively, to obtain the center of gravity coordinates as follows. .

Here, (x _i , y _i ) represents the coordinates of the contact pixel, and M represents the number of the contact pixels. In other words, (x _i , y _i ) represents an area indicated by 1 in FIG. 4, that is, a contact pixel detection area (400 in FIG. 4).

100: control unit 110: contact pixel detection unit
120: touch screen 130: touch detection unit
140: contact pixel counting unit 150: contact medium separating unit
200: insulating film 220: lower substrate
230: upper substrate 240a: lower electrode
240b: upper electrode 250: first resistive sensing pattern
260: second resistive sensing pattern
270a: left end electrode 270b: right end electrode
400: contact pixel detection region
500: center pixel

Claims (8)

A touch screen composed of a plurality of pixels;
A touch sensing unit configured to sense whether there is a contact by a contact medium with respect to the touch screen;
A contact pixel detector configured to separate the plurality of pixels into corresponding contact pixels and non-contact pixels when there is touch sensing;
A contact pixel counting unit counting the number of separated contact pixels in each direction; And
And a contact medium classifying unit for classifying the contact medium according to whether the number of counted contact pixels is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number and the number of each direction greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number. Direction is four directions, horizontal direction, vertical direction, upper right-left direction, upper left-right direction, the four directions are at least one of at least one column, row and diagonal
Contact medium classification device on the touch screen comprising a.
delete The method of claim 1,
The contact medium is a contact medium having a wide end when the number in each direction that is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number,
And a contact medium having a narrow terminal when the number of the respective directions greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is less than or equal to the second predetermined number.
The method of claim 1,
The center of gravity coordinates of the center pixel among the contact pixels is

Wherein (x _i , y _i ) represents the coordinates of the contact pixel, and M represents the number of the contact pixel).
A touch sensing step of sensing whether a touch sensing unit is touched by a touch medium with respect to a touch screen composed of a plurality of pixels;
A contact pixel separation step of separating the plurality of pixels into corresponding contact pixels and non-contact pixels when the touch pixel detection unit detects touch;
A contact pixel counting step of counting the number of contact pixels separated by the contact pixel counting unit in each direction; And
And a contact medium discrimination step of classifying the contact medium according to whether the number of the contact pixels counted by the contact medium division unit is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number and the number of each direction that is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number. Wherein each direction is a horizontal direction, vertical direction, right-left-down, left-right-direction four directions, the four directions are at least one of the column, row and diagonal touch How to identify contact media on screen.
delete The method of claim 5, wherein
The contact medium is a contact medium having a wide end when the number in each direction that is greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number,
And a contact medium having a narrow end when the number of the respective directions greater than or equal to the first predetermined number is less than or equal to the second predetermined number.
The method of claim 5, wherein
The center of gravity coordinates of the center pixel among the contact pixels is

Wherein (x _i , y _i ) represents the coordinates of the contact pixels, and M represents the number of the contact pixels.

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