KR101427783B1 - Touch detecting apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

A touch detection apparatus and method are provided. An apparatus for detecting a touch on a touch panel including a plurality of sensor nodes in each of the clusters is divided into a plurality of clusters, A touch information detecting unit for detecting a position of a first cluster to which the touch node is connected, a touch information detecting unit for detecting a position of the first cluster, And a touch detection performing unit for attempting touch detection only on a sensor node included in the second cluster among all the sensor nodes included in the touch panel.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a touch sensing apparatus and a touch sensing method.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for detecting a touch, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for attempting selective touch detection for a region where touch is likely to occur.

Since a touch detection method for an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen requires touch information for a whole area of a screen, it generally tries to detect all areas where touch detection is possible.

However, this detection method tends to increase detection time and power consumption accordingly.

In order to overcome this problem, a method has been proposed in which touch detection is attempted for a certain area, and detection is switched to touch detection for the entire area when a touch is detected.

However, such a detection method tries to detect a mechanical and repetitive detection for a specific detection area, so there is a problem in that it is necessary to try to detect a substantial proportion of the touch area in the entire touchable area. There is a limitation in that it is not a great advantage in terms of detection speed and power consumption.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for attempting selective touch detection only on a sensor node having a high possibility of touch.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of detecting a touch on a touch panel, which is divided into a plurality of clusters according to an embodiment of the present invention and includes a plurality of sensor nodes in each cluster The apparatus includes a touch information detector for detecting information about the touch, which will be referred to as 'touch information', when the touch occurs in the sensor node, and a position of a first cluster to which the touch node is connected; And a second cluster that is associated with the first cluster based on the touch information and the position of the first cluster, and a sensor node selection unit that selects one of the sensor nodes included in the second cluster, And a touch detection performing unit for attempting to perform touch detection on only the touch detection unit.

In one aspect of the present invention, the cluster association determining unit sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, where the intensity of the touch is a specific value or higher, All clusters included in the cluster group are selected as the second cluster.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the cluster association determining unit sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, where the intensity of the touch is a specific value or greater. Calculates a positional change of the touch based on the position of the touch included in the touch information, and selects a portion of the candidate cluster group as the second cluster according to the calculated positional change of the touch.

Also, in one aspect of the present invention, the cluster association determination unit selects all the sensor nodes included in the second cluster as a sensor node that is expected to perform touch detection.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the cluster association determination unit may calculate the positional change of the touch based on the previous touch position and the current touch position of the touch, The selected sensor node belongs to the selected second cluster.

In one aspect of the present invention, the touch information detecting unit detects the touch information including at least one of a strength, a position of the touch, and whether or not a touch of each sensor node included in the first cluster is generated, The touch information is stored in the storage area and updated every touch detection. When the second cluster is selected, the cluster association determination unit stores the association of the second cluster with respect to the first cluster in the storage area And updates it every time the touch is detected.

In one aspect of the present invention, the cluster association determination unit applies a bitwise-AND operator to whether or not the touch is generated, and when the result of at least one bit is 1, Select.

In order to achieve the above object, there is provided a method of detecting a touch on a touch panel, which is divided into a plurality of clusters according to an embodiment of the present invention and includes a plurality of sensor nodes in each cluster (A) detecting a location of a first cluster to which the touch node is connected, information about the touch (hereinafter, referred to as 'touch information') when a touch is generated in the sensor node, Selecting a second cluster that is related to the first cluster based on the touch information and the position of the first cluster; and (c) And attempting touch detection only on the sensor node.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step (b) sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, where the intensity of the touch is a specific value or more, And all the clusters included in the candidate cluster group are selected as the second cluster.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step (b) sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, Calculates a positional change of the touch based on the position of the touch included in the touch information, and selects a portion of the candidate cluster group as the second cluster according to the calculated positional change of the touch.

Also, in one aspect of the present invention, in step (b), all the sensor nodes included in the second cluster are selected as sensor nodes expected to be touch-detected.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step (b) may further include calculating a positional change of the touch based on a previous touch position and a current touch position of the touch, The expected sensor node is selected, and the selected sensor node belongs to the selected second cluster.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step (a) may include detecting the touch information including at least one of a strength of the touch, a position of the touch, and whether or not a touch occurs in each sensor node included in the first cluster, And storing the detected touch information in the storage area and updating the touch information every time the touch is detected. In the step (b), if the second cluster is selected, whether or not the second cluster is associated with the first cluster is stored in the storage area And updates it every time it touches.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the step (b), a bitwise-AND operator is applied to whether or not the touch is generated, and when the result of at least one bit is 1, .

As described above, according to the touch detection apparatus and method according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to provide a great advantage in terms of the touch detection speed and the power consumption by attempting selective touch detection only on the sensor node, .

It should be understood that the effects of the present invention are not limited to the above effects and include all effects that can be deduced from the detailed description of the present invention or the configuration of the invention described in the claims.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a touch detection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating a touch detection process according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram illustrating a cluster and a sensor node according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a diagram illustrating a cluster and a sensor node according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The terms used in this specification will be briefly described and the present invention will be described in detail.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments.

Also, in certain cases, there may be a term selected arbitrarily by the applicant, in which case the meaning thereof will be described in detail in the description of the corresponding invention.

Therefore, the term used in the present invention should be defined based on the meaning of the term, not on the name of a simple term, but on the entire contents of the present invention.

When an element is referred to as "including" an element throughout the specification, it is to be understood that the element may include other elements, without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.

Also, the terms "part," " module, "and the like described in the specification mean units for processing at least one function or operation, which may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software .

When a part is "connected" to another part, it includes not only a direct connection but also a connection with another system in the middle.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention.

The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.

In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a touch detection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The touch detection apparatus 100 may include a touch information detection unit 110, a cluster association determination unit 120, and a touch detection performance unit 130. The cluster association determination unit 120, The detection candidate sensor node selection unit 122, and the association information updating unit 123. The cluster selection unit 121,

For reference, the touch panel of the present invention can be divided into a plurality of clusters. Each cluster is a virtual area formed by including a plurality of sensor nodes (for example, 2x2), and a unique identifier , Unique number, etc.).

In addition, each of the clusters includes a storage area (e.g., a register, a memory, and a memory) for storing at least one of information about the touch and association information indicating that the sensor node is related to other clusters And the like).

Also, each cluster may be partitioned to be non-overlapped with each other.

Here, 'sensor node' may mean a unit area for sensing whether or not the touch panel is touching the electrostatic touch panel.

For example, the sensor node may include a plurality of sensor pads arranged in an isolated form in a self-capacitance type touch panel that measures the capacitance of one sensor pad, In a mutual capacitance type touch panel using capacitive capacitance, a touch detection unit region formed by a drive line Tx to which a drive signal is applied and a sense line Rx that provides a signal detection point for touch detection .

The touch information detection unit 110 detects information about the touch (hereinafter, referred to as 'touch information') when a touch occurs on the touch panel by a part of the body such as a pen or a finger for touching It is possible to detect the position of a cluster (hereinafter, referred to as 'first cluster') to which the sensor node having the touch is belonged.

Here, the touch information may include at least one of whether or not a touch of each sensor node is generated, and the strength and position of a touch generated at each sensor node when a touch is generated.

For reference, at least one first cluster may exist when a touch occurs. That is, when the touched area covers a plurality of clusters, some of the clusters may be touched, that is, all the sensor nodes included in the cluster are touched, and some of the clusters may be touched, Some of the sensor nodes included in the sensor node may be touched.

Accordingly, although there may be a plurality of first clusters in the occurrence of a touch, a description will be made below with reference to one first cluster as an example for convenience of explanation, and description of the first cluster may also be applied to a plurality of first clusters Of course.

The touch information detector 110 may store the touch information in the storage area and update the touch information stored in the storage area whenever the touch information is detected.

At this time, the update of the touch information with respect to the sensor node in which the touch is not detected can reuse the touch information updated at the previous touch detection.

Also, the touch information of each sensor node stored and updated in the storage area can grasp the current touch position and the previous touch position, and the position change of the touch can be calculated based on the touch position.

Here, the touch information of each sensor node is related to the state information of the cluster to which the corresponding sensor node belongs, that is, information indicating whether a touch occurs to the sensor node belonging to the corresponding cluster (hereinafter referred to as 'cluster state information') .

For example, if there are one or more sensor nodes having a touch among a plurality of sensor nodes included in the first cluster, the state information of the first cluster may have a flag value indicating 'touch generation' May be stored in the storage area.

That is, since one cluster includes a plurality of sensor nodes, the touch information for each sensor node can be understood as state information of the cluster including the corresponding sensor node.

As a result, a plurality of sensor nodes included in the touch panel may change the range of the sensor node to which the touch detection is attempted in real time as the position touched by the object moves. In this process, Lt; / RTI >

As described later, whether to update the touch information for each sensor node can be used to improve the prediction accuracy in predicting the movement path of the touch.

On the other hand, based on the touch information detected by the touch information detecting unit 110 and the position of the first cluster, the cluster association determining unit 120 determines a cluster (hereinafter referred to as a second cluster) Can be selected.

Here, the second cluster is a cluster adjacent to the first cluster, and may mean a cluster including a sensor node in which touch detection is expected at the next touch detection.

The cluster association determining unit 120 may include a cluster selecting unit 121, a detected expected sensor node selecting unit 122, and a relevance information updating unit 123.

For reference, as in the case of the first cluster group, there may be a second cluster and a plurality of second clusters as described above. Hereinafter, one second cluster will be described as an example for convenience of explanation, It goes without saying that the description of the clusters can also be applied to a plurality of second clusters.

First, the cluster selection unit 121 may set a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the position of the first cluster and the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, when the intensity of the touch is a specific value or more.

At this time, the cluster selection unit 121 can set the candidate cluster group step by step according to the intensity of the touch.

Then, the cluster selection unit 121 may select the entirety of the candidate cluster group as the second cluster, or may select some of the candidate cluster groups as the second cluster in consideration of the direction of the touch.

Here, the 'direction of the touch' can be obtained by calculating the positional change of the touch based on the position of the touch included in the touch information, that is, the previous touch position and the current touch position.

For reference, the cluster selection unit 121 may reflect whether the touch information is updated when selecting the second cluster.

For example, the cluster selection unit 121 confirms whether or not the touch information of the sensor node belonging to each cluster of the candidate cluster group is updated, and the cluster to which the touch information of all the sensor nodes are not updated is the second cluster The range of selecting the second cluster in the candidate cluster group can be narrowed.

On the other hand, the detection expected sensor node selection unit 122 selects all the sensor nodes belonging to the second cluster selected by the cluster selection unit 121 as the detection expected sensor node, or detects some sensor nodes belonging to the second cluster as the detection prediction sensor Node.

At this time, the expected sensor node selection unit 122 calculates the position change of the touch based on the position of the touch included in the touch information, i.e., the current touch position and the previous touch position, It is possible to predict the next movement path of the touch (to select a detection expected sensor node).

Meanwhile, the association information update unit 123 may store (update) association information in a storage area mapped to a unique identifier (e.g., unique number, etc.) of each cluster.

Here, the association information may be displayed in the form of a flag such as '0' or '1', which may indicate the association between the corresponding cluster and other clusters.

For reference, the cluster selecting unit 121 can select the second cluster based on the touch information updated by the touch information detecting unit 110 and the association information updated by the association information updating unit 123. [

At this time, the cluster selector 121 can apply the bitwise-AND operator to the cluster status information and association information of each cluster. If the result of at least one bit is 1, the corresponding cluster can be selected as the second cluster have.

On the other hand, the touch detection performing unit 130 performs the touch detection only on the detection expected sensor node selected by the detection expected sensor node selection unit 122 among the entire area of the touch panel, thereby shortening the time for the touch detection And the power consumption can be reduced accordingly.

As described above, the present invention does not attempt to perform touch detection on all sensor nodes when a touch occurs on the touch panel.

That is, in order to narrow the selection range of the sensor node, which is expected to be detected among all the sensor nodes included in the touch panel, considering the change of the position of the touch (the direction of the touch) Select 'Cluster (group)'.

Then, by selecting a sensor node that is expected to be detected among the sensor nodes belonging to the selected cluster (group) and performing (detecting) touch detection only on the corresponding sensor node, the time for the touch detection can be shortened. Power consumption can be reduced.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a touch detection process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The process of FIG. 2 may be performed by the touch detection apparatus 100 of FIG. 1, and the following description of the touch detection apparatus 100 will be given to the subject performing each step of FIG.

First, when a touch is generated on a touch panel divided into a plurality of clusters, the touch detection apparatus 100 detects touch information on the touch and the position of the first cluster (S201).

After S201, the touch sensing apparatus 100 stores the touch information detected in S201, and updates the corresponding touch information if the previously stored touch information exists (S202).

For reference, the touch sensing apparatus 100 may store 'cluster state information' indicating that a touch has occurred in the first cluster in a register or memory in association with whether or not each sensor node included in the first cluster generates a touch, The cluster status information may be updated each time a touch generated on the touch panel is detected.

After S202, when the intensity of the touch among detected touch information is equal to or greater than a specific value, the touch detection apparatus 100 sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster based on the intensity of the touch and the position of the first cluster (S203 ).

After S203, the touch detection apparatus 100 selects all the clusters of the candidate cluster group set in S203 as the second cluster (S204).

For reference, the touch sensing apparatus 100 may store (update) flag-type association information in a storage area mapped to a unique identifier (e.g., unique number, etc.) of each cluster, The second cluster may be selected based on the state information and the association information.

At this time, the touch detection apparatus 100 can apply the bitwise-AND operator to the touch state information and association information of each cluster. If the result of at least one bit is 1, the corresponding cluster can be selected as the second cluster have.

After S204, the touch detection apparatus 100 attempts to perform touch detection only on the sensor nodes included in the second cluster selected in S204 of the entire touch panel area (S205).

Therefore, the touch detection apparatus 100 can provide a great advantage in terms of the touch detection speed and the power consumption by attempting selective touch detection only on the sensor node, which is likely to be touched among all the sensor nodes belonging to the touch panel have.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a touch detection process according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The process of FIG. 3 may be performed by the touch detection apparatus 100 of FIG. 1. In the following, the subject performing each step of FIG. 3 will be described as the touch detection apparatus 100.

First, when a touch occurs on a touch panel divided into a plurality of clusters, the touch detection apparatus 100 detects touch information on the touch and the position of the first cluster (S301).

After step S301, the touch sensing apparatus 100 stores the touch information detected at step S301, and updates the corresponding touch information if previously stored touch information exists (step S302).

For reference, the storage and update of the cluster status information described with reference to FIG. 2 can be similarly applied to FIG.

After the step S302, if the detected touch information has a strength of a predetermined value or more, the touch detection apparatus 100 sets a candidate cluster group for the first cluster based on the intensity of the touch and the position of the first cluster (S303 ).

After S303, the touch sensing apparatus 100 selects a part of the candidate cluster group set in S303 as the second cluster based on the direction of the touch (S304).

At this time, the touch detection apparatus 100 may reflect the update of the touch information among the plurality of clusters adjacent to the first cluster, and may exclude the cluster in which the touch information is not updated from the second cluster, which is the object of touch detection.

3 may be applied to the relationship information described with reference to FIG. 2. After step S304, the touch sensing apparatus 100 calculates the positional change of the touch based on the current touch position and the previous touch position And selects a sensor node that is expected to be detected at the next touch in the second cluster based on the calculated positional change of the touch (S305).

Since the touch sensing apparatus 100 stores touch information of each sensor node in the storage area, it can grasp the current touch position and the previous touch position, and can calculate the position change of the touch based on the current touch position and the previous touch position.

After step S305, the touch sensing apparatus 100 attempts to perform touch detection only on the sensor node selected in step S305 among all the sensor nodes of the touch panel (S306).

After step S306, the touch detection apparatus 100 repeatedly performs the above-described steps, and tries to perform selective touch detection only on sensor nodes that are likely to be touched among all the sensor nodes included in the touch panel, It can provide a great advantage in power consumption.

4 is a diagram illustrating a cluster and a sensor node according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In Fig. 4, the touch panel includes a total of 12 clusters, and each cluster includes a sensor node composed of 2x2.

In addition, the circular shape means an area in which an object is touched (hereinafter referred to as a 'touch area'), and the touch area can be continuously moved in the touch detection in real time.

In addition, the green region means a sensor node in which a touch is made, and the yellow region means a sensor node included in a first cluster including a sensor node that is not touched but is touched.

In addition, the area indicated by the dotted line indicates the cluster including the sensor node in which the touch is not currently generated and is not included in the first cluster in which the touch is generated but the touch is expected to be detected at the next touch, it means.

As shown in FIG. 4, it can be seen that the range of the second cluster including the sensor node to which the touch detection is attempted is continuously changed according to the movement of the touch region.

Therefore, the present invention can provide a great effect in terms of touch detection speed and power consumption by attempting to perform selective touch detection on a sensor node having a high possibility of touch.

It is to be understood that the foregoing description of the disclosure is for the purpose of illustration and that those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that other embodiments may be readily devised without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the disclosure will be. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. For example, each component described as a single entity may be distributed and implemented, and components described as being distributed may also be implemented in a combined form.

It is to be understood that the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description and that all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and equivalents thereof are included in the scope of the present invention .

100: Touch detection device
110: Touch information detection unit
120: Cluster association judging unit
121: Cluster selection unit
122: detection expected sensor node selection unit
123: Association information update unit
130: touch detection performing unit

Claims (14)

When a touch occurs in the sensor node, information about the touch (hereinafter, referred to as 'touch information') and a touch information detector for detecting the position of the first cluster to which the sensed sensor node belongs are detected.
A cluster association determiner for selecting a second cluster associated with the first cluster based on the touch information and the position of the first cluster; And
A touch detection performing unit for attempting touch detection only on sensor nodes included in the second cluster among all the sensor nodes included in the touch panel,
And the touch detection device.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the cluster association determining unit sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, where the intensity of the touch is a specific value or greater, Is selected as the second cluster.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the cluster association determining unit sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, where the intensity of the touch is a specific value or greater, And selects a portion of the candidate cluster group as the second cluster according to the calculated positional change of the touch.
The method according to claim 2 or 3,
Wherein the cluster association determining unit selects all the sensor nodes included in the second cluster as a sensor node expected to be touch-detected.
The method of claim 3,
Wherein the cluster association determining unit calculates the positional change of the touch based on the previous touch position and the current touch position of the touch and selects a sensor node whose touch detection is expected based on the calculated position change of the touch, And the sensor node belongs to the selected second cluster.
The method according to claim 1,
The touch information detecting unit detects the touch information including at least one of the strength and the position of the touch and whether or not the sensor node included in the first cluster generates a touch and stores the detected touch information in the storage area Update every time the touch is detected,
Wherein the cluster association determining unit stores the association of the second cluster with respect to the first cluster in the storage area when the second cluster is selected, and updates the stored information when the second cluster is selected.
The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the cluster association determination unit applies a bitwise-AND operator to whether or not the touch is generated, and selects a case where the result of at least one bit is 1 as the second cluster.
A method of detecting a touch by a touch detection device on a touch panel, which is divided into a plurality of clusters and includes a plurality of sensor nodes in each cluster,
(a) detecting information about the touch (hereinafter, referred to as 'touch information') when the touch occurs in the sensor node and detecting the position of the first cluster to which the sensed sensor node belongs;
(b) selecting a second cluster that is associated with the first cluster based on the touch information and the position of the first cluster; And
(c) attempting touch detection only on sensor nodes included in the second cluster among all the sensor nodes included in the touch panel;
The touch detection method comprising the steps of:
9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the step (b) sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, wherein the intensity of the touch is equal to or greater than a specific value, And selects the cluster as the second cluster.
9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the step (b) sets a candidate cluster group for the second cluster according to the intensity of the touch included in the touch information, wherein the intensity of the touch is a specific value or more, And selects a portion of the candidate cluster group as the second cluster according to the calculated positional change of the touch.
11. The method according to claim 9 or 10,
Wherein, in step (b), all sensor nodes included in the second cluster are selected as sensor nodes expected to be subjected to touch detection.
11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the step (b) comprises: calculating a positional change of the touch based on a previous touch position and a current touch position of the touch; selecting a sensor node whose touch detection is expected based on the calculated positional change; And the selected sensor node belongs to the selected second cluster.
9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the step (a) comprises: detecting the touch information including at least one of a strength and a position of the touch and whether or not the sensor node included in the first cluster generates a touch; and storing the detected touch information in a storage area And is updated every time it touches,
Wherein, if the second cluster is selected, the step (b) stores the association of the second cluster with respect to the first cluster in the storage area, and updates each time of the touch.
14. The method of claim 13,
Wherein the step (b) comprises applying a bitwise-AND operator to whether or not the touch is generated, and when the result of at least one bit is 1, selects the second cluster.

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