KR20120046683A - Infrared sensor module, touch sensing method using the same and auto calibration method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An infrared ray sensor module, a touch sensing method thereof, and an auto calibration method are provided to improve the touch sensitivity by preventing a malfunction because optical signals are converged in pixels inside a light receiving region without changing a height or volume of an infrared ray sensor module. CONSTITUTION: An infrared ray sensor comprises a sensor unit having a light receiving region(210). The sensor unit is perpendicularly arranged on a surface of an indicating panel and the light receiving region is divided into m x n blocks. A plurality of light receiving pixels arranged in a same row is comprises in each block. The m and m are natural numbers over 2. Optical signals per specific blocks are transmitted to a touch control unit.

Description

Infrared Sensor Module, Touch Sensing Method Using the Same and Auto Calibration Method}

The present invention relates to an optical sensing frame, and more particularly, to cover an optical signal area by changing the light receiving area, to prevent noise through block processing in the extended light receiving area, and to adjust the light receiving area without physical adjustment, and an touch thereof. A sensing method and an auto calibration method used therefor.

In general, a touch screen is one of various methods of configuring an interface between an information communication device and a user using various displays. The touch screen is an input device that allows a user to interface with the device by directly touching the screen with a hand or a pen.

The touch screen is an input device that can be easily used by both men and women by interactively and intuitively by simply touching the buttons on the display with their fingers. It is applied in many fields such as medical equipment, tourism, guidance of major institutions, and traffic guidance.

The touch screen may include a resistive type, a capacitive type, an ultrasonic wave type, an infrared type, or the like, depending on a recognition method.

Advantages of the above-described methods are different, but in recent years, infrared touch screens have been attracting attention due to minimizing pressure applied to the touch surface and ease of arrangement.

Hereinafter, a conventional optical touch screen will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a plan view illustrating a display module and an infrared sensor module disposed outside the conventional optical touch screen.

As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional optical touch screen is formed by disposing infrared sensor modules 2a and 2b on the outside of the display module 1. Although not shown, a retroreflective plate (not shown) is disposed on three sides of the display module 1 except for the horizontal lines connecting the infrared sensor modules 2a and 2b.

In addition, the infrared sensor modules 2a and 2b are coupled to an assembly (not shown) separate from the display module 1, and include tempered glass (not shown) below the display module 1. ) The tempered glass is directly a touch input surface on which a user's touch is made.

In this case, the infrared sensor modules 2a and 2b are positioned at the outer corners of the display module 1 and have a light receiving unit that senses light incident horizontally at each position.

In the touch detection, each of the infrared sensor modules 2a and 2b may receive the light incident from the coordinate input area at the location where it is located, and may know the object coordinates in the coordinate input area through light quantity distribution measurement. It is important to fix the position on the surface of the tempered glass which serves as the touch input surface. When the position of the infrared sensor module is shifted, the optical signal does not enter the light receiver completely, which makes it difficult to recognize the object in the coordinate input area. This is because they are not recognized or misunderstood.

However, the conventional optical touch screen as described above has the following problems.

In general, the light receiving unit in the infrared sensor module is provided in the infrared sensor module in the form of a line sensor having a plurality of pixels in a line. In this case, when the infrared sensor module is assembled, there is a source distortion, or when the position is changed due to the passage of time or the impact of the product, the actual light signal received may deviate from the light receiving unit of the infrared sensor module. In this case, the touch sensitivity may be lowered or the touch position may not be recognized normally.

In order to prevent this, a method of increasing the size of the upper, lower, left, and right light receiving units in consideration of the distortion of the infrared sensor module has been considered, but in this case, the volume occupied by the infrared sensor module increases, and the thickness and outer area of the touch screen increase. There is. In addition, since a light receiving unit that is much wider than the actual space required must be arranged, the amount of data transmission increases, which causes a problem.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems to cover the optical signal area by changing the light receiving area, to prevent noise through the block processing in the increased light receiving area, infrared sensor module which can adjust the light receiving area without physical adjustment The present invention provides a touch sensing method and an auto calibration method used therefor, and an object thereof.

The infrared sensor module of the present invention for achieving the above object is an infrared sensor module having a sensor unit including a light receiving area, wherein the sensor unit is disposed perpendicular to the display panel surface, the light receiving area is mxn (m, n is It is divided into two or more natural numbers) blocks, each block includes a plurality of light-receiving pixels arranged in the same row, and is characterized in that the light signal for each particular block received light is transmitted to the touch controller.

Each block may have 10 to 500 light-receiving pixels.

Each of the light receiving pixels may have a length that is relatively longer than a width.

The specific block is selected from at least one of the m rows for each of the n columns.

The selection of the specific block may be made through the light quantity distribution of the received optical signal.

In addition, the selection of the specific block is made after filtering the received optical signal to remove noise.

M and n are 2 or more and 10 or less, respectively.

In addition, the touch sensing method of the infrared sensor module of the present invention for achieving the same object, has a sensor unit including a light receiving area, is disposed perpendicular to the display panel surface, each of the light receiving area in the row direction Turning on the infrared sensor module divided into mxn (m, n is two or more natural numbers) blocks; and scanning the optical signals of the respective blocks; and, for each of the columns, Selecting a block having an optical signal; And summing the optical signals of the light-receiving pixels of the selected block for each column.

The method may further include activating the selected block to set a region of interest (ROI).

The scanning of the optical signal of each block may be performed every time the display device including the infrared sensor module is driven.

The scanning of the optical signal of each block is selected by a user. In this case, the ROI set until the user's selection may be stored and used for optical signal measurement.

The scanning of the optical signal of each block may be performed every time a specific event occurs.

The region of interest set until the specific event occurs may be stored and used for optical signal measurement.

In addition, the automatic calibration method of the infrared sensor module of the present invention for achieving the same object, has a sensor unit including a light receiving area, is disposed perpendicular to the display panel surface, each of the light receiving area in the row direction Turning on an infrared sensor module divided into mxn (m, n is two or more natural numbers) blocks; and scanning an optical signal for each of the m rows; and comparing the optical signals for each row; and And selecting a block having the highest optical signal for each of the n column blocks, and activating the selected block and deactivating and disabling the unselected blocks.

And setting the activated blocks as a region of interest (ROI).

The step of selecting a block having the highest optical signal for each of the n columns of blocks is performed to select one or more blocks in each column.

The infrared sensor module of the present invention, the touch sensing method thereof, and the automatic calibration method using the same have the following effects.

First, the light receiving area in the sensor unit in the infrared sensor module includes pixels of several rows and hundreds of columns so that the optical signal does not leave the light receiving area of the infrared sensor module. Therefore, the optical signal can be converged to the pixels in the light receiving unit without changing the height or volume of the infrared sensor module as a whole. Therefore, touch malfunction can be prevented and touch sensitivity can be improved.

Second, even though the number of rows in the light receiving area is increased, the increased rows are arranged by using the remaining space of the sensor unit. The total thickness of the infrared sensor module is not increased, so that optical touch detection can be obtained while maintaining the slimness of the display device. have.

Third, each row of the light receiving area in the sensor unit may be divided into blocks including a predetermined number of pixels, and only a specific block in which an optical signal is concentrated may be selected for data processing, thereby eliminating the influence of noise generated in other areas.

Fourth, by selecting only a specific block in which the optical signal is concentrated and processing the data, it is possible to reduce the data throughput and to prevent a decrease in the speed of touch detection.

Fifth, the selection of a specific block in the light-receiving area can be performed automatically at every product start-up, or can be performed at the user's selection or at a specific event. Touch malfunction due to distortion of the infrared sensor module generated by the impact can be prevented.

Sixth, when one or more specific blocks are selected for each block column by applying an automatic calibration method, and the amount of light (light signal) for touch sensing is detected by applying the sum of the amount of pixels per column only for the selected blocks. The amount of calculation can be reduced.

1 is a plan view showing a display module and an infrared sensor module disposed outside the conventional optical touch screen;
Figure 2 is a plan view showing the left and right twist of the infrared sensor module
FIG. 3 is a graph showing an optical signal waveform in the light receiving region versus the light receiving region in FIG.
4 is a plan view showing the vertical distortion of the infrared sensor module
FIG. 5 is a graph showing an optical signal waveform in the light receiving region versus the light receiving region in FIG.
6 is a view illustrating a light receiving area of an infrared sensor module of one type for solving the problem of FIG. 4.
7 is a graph illustrating an optical signal output after sensing the optical signal of FIG.
8 is a perspective view illustrating a corner of a display device in which an infrared sensor module of the present invention is disposed.
9 is a view showing a light receiving area of the infrared sensor module of the present invention.
FIG. 10 illustrates a block selected from column A2 of FIG. 9;
FIG. 11 shows the optical signal output of each pixel and the sum thereof in the active block of column A2; FIG.
12 is a graph illustrating an optical signal output after optical signal sensing of FIG.
13 is a plan view showing a sensor unit provided in the infrared sensor module of the present invention.
FIG. 14 is an enlarged view of a portion of a lower right corner of the light receiving area of FIG. 13; FIG.
15 is a block diagram illustrating a display device of the present invention.
16 is a flow chart showing an automatic calibration method of the infrared sensor module of the present invention.
17 is a flowchart illustrating a touch sensing method to which the automatic calibration method of the present invention is applied.

Hereinafter, an infrared sensor module, a touch sensing method, and an automatic calibration method thereof according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, if there is a distortion of the infrared sensor module, it looks at the light signal receiving characteristics.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing left and right twisting of the infrared sensor module, and FIG. 3 is a graph showing an optical signal waveform in the light receiving region and the light receiving region at this time.

FIG. 2 illustrates a case in which the infrared sensor module 5 is deviated from the left and right relative to the left and right center lines. In this case, when the infrared sensor module 5 has the light receiving regions 5a arranged in a horizontal direction, FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the left and right portions of the optical signal region where the actual optical signal is received are separated from the light receiving region 5a.

The vertical length a of the light receiving region 5a is equal to the vertical length of one light receiving pixel.

Here, if the light receiving region 5a is a line sensor provided with 500 light receiving pixels on a horizontal line, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the output of the optical signal is remarkably low from the left and right of the light receiving region 5a. Is observed. This is a result of the fact that the optical signal region into which the actual optical signal enters is out of the light receiving region 5a. In this case, the touch coordinates corresponding to the left and right sides of the light-receiving area 5a may not be detected, and it may be understood that touch misdetection may occur due to left and right twists.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the vertical shift of the infrared sensor module, and FIG. 5 is a graph showing an optical signal waveform in the light receiving region and the light receiving region at this time.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the infrared sensor module 5 is twisted up or down with respect to the vertical center line, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the infrared sensor module 5 is arranged in the light receiving area 5a arranged in a horizontal direction in the infrared sensor module 5. On the other hand, a phenomenon may occur in which the optical signal region into which the actual optical signal is input deviates from the light receiving region 5a.

In this case, since no optical signal is incident on the light receiving region, since the waveform output from the infrared sensor module is very small and its value is not a valid value, touch detection is virtually impossible.

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating a light receiving area of an infrared sensor module of one form for solving the problem of FIG. 4, and FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating an optical signal output after sensing an optical signal of FIG. 6.

As a method for solving the problem caused by the distortion of the above-described infrared sensor module, as shown in FIG. 6, a method of implementing a very long vertical length of the light receiving area may be used. In FIG. 4, the length of the infrared sensor module 60 is greater than that of the infrared sensor module 5 of FIG. 4 such that k (k is a natural number of two or more) times. In this case, the longitudinal length of the light receiving region is long, so that the optical signal sufficiently enters the light receiving region even if the infrared sensor module 60 is distorted.

In the light receiving area, pixels are distributed in a plurality of columns, respectively, and the amount of light is sensed at each pixel. In this case, as illustrated in FIG. 7, when the amount of light received at one pixel is examined, noise is sensed and introduced together with an optical signal to be incident.

Accordingly, when the longitudinal direction of the light receiving area is extended, as in the light receiving area of the structure of FIG. 6 described above, distortion in the vertical direction or the left and right directions can be compensated for, but the waveform including the noise component together with the optical signal is detected. There is a problem that the touch detection performance is lowered.

Accordingly, the infrared sensor module of the present invention sets the size of the light receiving area to be larger so that the optical signal areas are all included in the light receiving area in consideration of the up, down, left and right skew, and simultaneously adds the pixel data column direction signals to the pixels in each column. It is designed to reduce the amount of data transmission through the block processing and the method to output a single signal for one.

8 is a perspective view illustrating a corner of a display device in which an infrared sensor module of the present invention is disposed.

As shown in FIG. 8, the infrared sensor module 21A includes a sensor block 2100 that receives infrared light and transmits an optical signal output to a touch controller (not shown). In addition, an infrared light emitting unit (not shown) may be included in the infrared sensor module 21A. In some cases, the infrared light emitting unit may be formed separately from the infrared sensor module 21A.

The infrared sensor module 21A is disposed such that the sensor unit 2100 is vertically positioned with respect to the display panel 10, and an arrangement area thereof corresponds to a corner of the display panel 10.

Meanwhile, a retroreflective plate 25 is further formed on the edge of the display panel 10 except for the infrared sensor module 21A, so that light incident on the retroreflective plate 25 from the light emitting unit is reflected to the infrared sensor. Converge to module 21A. In this case, the retroreflective plate 25 is positioned below the upper surface of the case top 26 so that infrared light between the infrared light emitting unit and the sensor unit 2100 can be horizontally transmitted. In some cases, a plastic frame structure (not shown) may be further disposed between the retroreflective plate 25 and the inner side surface of the case top 26. In this case, the retroreflective plate 25 is attached to the side of the frame structure.

Here, an infrared sensor module 21A formed at a corner of the display panel 10, a retroreflective plate 25 formed at an edge of the display panel 10, a frame structure (not shown) and a case to which the retroreflective plate is attached. The top 26 is referred to as an optical sensing frame.

The light emitting unit and the sensor unit 2100 of the infrared sensor module 21A may further include a lens (not shown) and an infrared filter (not shown) so as to be suitable for emitting and receiving infrared light, respectively.

In addition, the infrared light receiving amount data received from the sensor unit 2100 of the infrared sensor module 21A is supplied to the control board (see 30 in FIG. 15) and used for the touch detection operation.

The sensor unit 2100 includes a light receiving area therein, and the light receiving area has a two-dimensional array by arranging a plurality of blocks arranged in one dimension in a plurality of columns. Each block includes a plurality of pixels in the column direction. In this case, the pixel is a kind of light receiving element, each of which has a rectangular shape that is different in width and length, and has a function of converting and outputting an optical signal to an electrical signal.

When the pixels described above have a one-dimensional array in which a plurality of rows are arranged in a long shape in a column direction, the pixel outputs an optical signal sensed for each pixel. However, as shown in FIG. 8, when a plurality of pixels are included in each block in a two-dimensional block array, the output of each of the vertically arranged pixels is summed in units of columns to give one output to the corresponding column pixels, or the same. Only outputs of pixels in a particular block (s) among the pixels forming a column may be combined to give one output in a corresponding column, or only one output of the pixels forming a column may be an output corresponding to a column. The sensing method used in the following description determines the optical signal output corresponding to each column by the second and third methods described above.

Hereinafter, the light receiving area of the infrared sensor module and the optical signal detection thereof will be described.

9 is a view showing a light receiving area of the infrared sensor module of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 9, the sensor unit of the infrared sensor module of the present invention will be described. The sensor unit is a kind of image sensor, and includes a light receiving region 210 blocked by the number of mxn (m, n is a natural number of two or more). do.

The light receiving region 210 is divided into an mxn (m, n is a natural number of 2 or more) blocks, and, for example, when the infrared sensor module is twisted in the left and right center lines, the optical signal is inclined to the light receiving region. Light reception is done.

Here, the vertical length A of the light receiving region 210 is smaller than the vertical length of the sensor unit 2100 of FIG. 8.

And m and n are each a natural number of 2 to 10.

That is, the light receiving area in the sensor unit of the infrared sensor module of the present invention has a block arrangement of 2 to 10 rows and columns, and has a plurality of light receiving pixels in each block, so that an optical signal is generated even if the infrared sensor module is distorted. All may enter the light receiving region 210. In this case, the light-receiving area in the sensor unit of the infrared sensor module of the present invention is divided into a plurality of blocks, and activates only a specific block in which the optical signal is concentrated to sum and output the signals in the activated block for each column.

The colored areas in the light receiving area are areas used for actual optical signal sensing, and are defined as a region of interest (ROI).

Here, each block includes a plurality of pixels, which are formed in a row in the horizontal direction. In this case, each block has about 10 to 500 light-receiving pixels in a plurality of columns in the same row. In this case, each of the light-receiving pixels has a rectangular shape that is relatively longer in length than in width. Each block is set to have values of horizontal a and vertical b, and the vertical length of each block is equal to the vertical length of one light receiving pixel. Referring to FIG. 9, five light-receiving pixels are included in one block, and blocks are arranged with five horizontally and vertically arranged blocks.

However, the number of pixels in the block or the number of blocks is not limited to the illustrated example, and the number of light-receiving pixels in one row may be changed as needed, or the number of rows and columns of blocks may be changed.

For example, an optical signal output for each pixel of the light receiving region in which the optical signal of FIG. 9 is sensed is as follows.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a block selected in column A2 of FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an optical signal output of each pixel and a sum thereof in an active block of column A2.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, five blocks B1 to B5 are arranged in the longitudinal direction with respect to the A2 block row, but the blocks activated by concentrating the amount of light are A2-B3 and A2-B4 blocks. Here, the A2-B2 block may primarily sense the amount of light, but it is substantially noise, not a signal that is originally sensed by the infrared sensor module, and such noise may be excluded by activation of the specific block described above. .

As shown in FIG. 11, the amount of light sensed for the A2 block column is summed in the pixels of each column, except for the active blocks A2-B3, A2-B4 blocks, A2-B1, A2-B2, and A2-B5 are inactive blocks. This optical signal is excluded from the summation value. Here, A2-B1 and A-B5 are the light amount sensed as 0, and only the light amount of A2-B2 caused by noise is excluded from the actual sum value.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 12, when the activated blocks are selected in each column and the light signal values of the pixels in the same column are summed for each of the plurality of pixels, it can be seen that the pixels have the same level of light quantity. This light quantity detection can be seen that a certain value or more than a stable value is output for all the provided pixels. This means that the influence of noise is excluded.

The block selection of FIG. 9 uses a method of selecting a block having an optical signal value of maximum output selectively in the same column and setting only the selected block as a region of interest (ROI) so as to exclude the effect of noise. . This is a kind of filtering. Through this process, data is not transmitted to all of the plurality of blocks, and optical signals transmitted to the touch controller are transmitted from a specific selection block, so that the plurality of light receiving pixels arranged in line with the data transmission amount are obtained. It can be reduced to a level similar to having a line sensor.

As shown, for example, in the light receiving region having 5x5 blocks (A1 to A5 x B1 to B5), the B3 and B4 block rows are selected for the A1 and A2 block columns, and the B2, A4 and A5 block columns are selected. The B3 block row was selected. Although the illustrated example shows that two block rows for each column are selected for each block column, the present invention is not limited thereto, and one or three or more columns may be used for each column. Here, in the optical signal detection, the selected block is made active and the unselected block is made inactive.

Each block includes pixels formed in columns. Although the illustrated example shows an example in which five pixels are included in each block, the present invention is not limited thereto, and a plurality of other pixels may be included in the same block. In this case, the arrangement of pixels is made in the same row.

In addition, with the selection of a specific block, the output of each of the activated pixels belonging to the same column in a specific block is combined together and transmitted to the outside, thereby forming the same light receiving area as that of the data amount in one row. You can do

FIG. 13 is a plan view illustrating a sensor unit included in the infrared sensor module of the present invention, and FIG. 14 is an enlarged view illustrating a part of a lower right corner of the light receiving area of FIG. 13.

As illustrated in FIG. 13, the sensor unit 2100 includes a base plate 205 and a light receiving region 210 including light receiving pixels 215 having 2 to 10 rows and 100 to 9000 columns at a lower end of the base plate 205. And a terminal 220 connected to an FPC (not shown) for transmitting the optical signal sensed in the light receiving area to the touch controller. Here, the base plate 205 between the terminals 220 and the light receiving region 210 has an electrical connection therein.

Here, as an example, as shown in FIG. 14, the size of one light receiving pixel 215 is about 7.8 μm in width and about 62.5 μm in length. As shown in the example of the light receiving pixels 215, five rows are provided. The total height of the light receiving pixel 215 corresponds to about 312.5 μm, so that the total height H of the light receiving pixel 215 may be sufficiently disposed in the overall height H of the base plate 205.

Here, the total height H of the base plate 205 is within about 1 mm. Accordingly, when the base plate 205 is positioned on the display panel surface, the change of the thickness of the infrared sensor module is not large compared to the line sensor having one row of light receiving pixels. This is because the light receiving pixels 215 of the increased row of the light receiving area are disposed in the remaining space in the base plate 205.

Accordingly, the infrared sensor module of the present invention allows the light receiving region in the sensor unit in the infrared sensor module to include light receiving pixels of several hundred columns in several rows so that the optical signal does not leave the light receiving region of the infrared sensor module. Therefore, the optical signal can be converged to the light receiving pixels 215 in the light receiving unit without changing the height or volume of the infrared sensor module as a whole. Therefore, touch malfunction can be prevented and touch sensitivity can be improved.

Meanwhile, although the aspect ratio of the light receiving pixel 215 may be changed, the light receiving pixels 215 may be arranged within 10 light receiving regions 210 and arranged with a large number of columns. It is advantageous when placed in the base plate 205 to increase the longitudinal length rather than the horizontal length.

In particular, even if the number of rows in the light receiving area is increased, the increased rows are arranged using the remaining space of the sensor unit, and the overall thickness of the infrared sensor module is not increased, so that optical touch detection can be obtained while maintaining the slimness of the display device. have.

Meanwhile, the light receiving pixel 215 is effective sensing pixels excluding an initial partial pixel and a final partial pixel when s are arranged in one row in the light receiving area. In this case, the effective sensing pixels are the sensor unit 2100. ) May match an angle between 0 ° and 90 ° with respect to two sides of the adjacent display panel, respectively.

Hereinafter, a display device using the above-described infrared sensor module will be described.

15 is a block diagram illustrating a display device of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 15, the display device of the present invention controls the display module 20 and the display module 20 in which the infrared sensor modules 21A to 21C are disposed at corners of the display panel 10 on which an image is displayed. For supplying digital video data RGB to be displayed on the display panel 10 of the display module 20 together with a timing signal to the control board 30 and the control board 30 that perform an algorithm for recognizing a touch position. System 40 is provided.

The display module 20 includes a display panel 10 for displaying an image, a source driver 11 for supplying a data voltage to the data lines D1 to Dm of the display panel 10, and a display panel 10. A gate driver 12 for supplying scan pulses to the gate lines G1 to Gn of each of the plurality of gate lines, and infrared sensor modules 21A to 21C disposed near corners of the display panel 10.

In addition, although not shown, the display module 20 may include a case top formed in a frame shape so as to surround the infrared sensor modules 21A to 21C positioned at edges and sides of the display panel 10 and upper corners of the display panel. 26 and a casing structure of a bottom cover (not shown) formed in engagement with the case top to receive the display panel 10 from the bottom.

Meanwhile, the infrared sensor modules are illustrated as being disposed at three corners, but are not limited thereto and may correspond to two or four corners.

In addition, the display panel 10 may be a flat panel display, and its shape is generally rectangular. In addition, the display panel 10 includes both substrates and an intermediate layer formed therebetween, and varies in kind depending on the components and functions of the intermediate layer. An example may include a liquid crystal display panel, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be any one of an electrophoretic display panel, an organic light emitting display panel, a field emission display panel, a quantum dot display panel, and a plasma display panel.

For example, when the display panel 10 is a liquid crystal panel, the display panel 10 includes a thin film transistor (“TFT”) substrate and a color filter substrate. A liquid crystal layer is formed between the TFT substrate and the color filter substrate. On the TFT substrate, the data lines D1 to Dm and the gate lines G1 to Gn are formed orthogonal to each other on the lower glass substrate. Liquid crystal cells Clc are arranged in a matrix form in the cell regions defined by the data lines D1 to Dm and the gate lines G1 to Gn. TFTs formed at the intersections of the data lines D1 to Dm and the gate lines G1 to Gn are supplied via the data lines D1 to Dm in response to scan pulses from the gate lines G1 to Gn. The data voltage is transferred to the pixel electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc. For this purpose, the gate electrodes of the TFTs are connected to the gate lines G1 to Gn, and the source electrodes are connected to the data lines D1 to Dm. The drain electrode of the TFT is connected to the pixel electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc. The common voltage Vcom is supplied to the common electrode facing the pixel electrode. The color filter substrate includes a black matrix and a color filter formed on the upper glass substrate.

The common electrode is formed on the upper glass substrate in a vertical electric field driving method such as twisted nematic (TN) mode and vertical alignment (VA) mode, and a horizontal electric field such as IPS (In Plane Switching) mode and FFS (Fringe Field Switching) mode. The driving method is formed on the lower glass substrate together with the pixel electrode.

The source driver 11 includes a plurality of data integrated circuits to convert digital video data RGB input from the control board 30 into a positive or negative analog gamma compensation voltage under the control of the control board 30, The analog gamma compensation voltage is supplied to the data lines D1 to Dm as analog data voltages.

The gate driver 12 includes a plurality of gate integrated circuits, and sequentially supplies scan pulses to the gate lines G1 to Gn under the control of the control board 30.

The data integrated circuits of the source driver 11 and the gate integrated circuits of the gate driver 12 may be tape automated bonding (TAB) or chip on glass using a tape carrier package (TCP). on glass, COG) can be formed on the lower glass substrate. The gate integrated circuits of the gate drive 12 may be formed directly on the lower glass substrate simultaneously with the TFTs of the display panel 10 and in the same process as the TFT process.

The control board 30 is connected to the source driver 11 and the gate driver 12 through a flexible printed circuit (FPC) and a connector. The control board 30 includes a timing controller 31 and a touch controller 32.

The timing controller 31 controls the operation timing of the gate driver 12 and the operation timing of the source driver 11 using the vertical / horizontal synchronization signals V and H and the clock CLK. Generates a data control signal for control. The timing controller 31 also supplies digital video data RGB input from the system 40 to the source driver 11.

The touch control circuit of the touch controller 32 stores a reference value compared with each pixel of the sensor unit provided in the infrared sensor modules 21A to 21C, and compares the reference value with the infrared light signal received by the infrared sensor module to touch the touch. Perform position detection.

The touch controller 32 supplies the touch position coordinate information Txy to the system 32. Since the touch controller 32 shares timing signals such as the vertical / horizontal synchronization signals V and H and the clock CLK with the timing controller 31, the touch controller 32 operates in synchronization with the timing controller 31.

In addition, the touch control unit 32 automatically sets the effective angles of view of the infrared sensor modules 21A to 21C as well as the automatic calibration of the vertical direction according to the above-described block selection before performing the above-described touch position detection. Apply auto horizontal calibration. To this end, an automatic angle setting unit (not shown) is further provided in addition to the touch position calculating unit.

Here, the system 40 synthesizes a memory in which an application program is embedded, a central processing unit for executing the application program, and an image and a touch image to be displayed on the display panel 10, and synthesizes the synthesized data. And graphics processing circuitry for processing signal interpolation and resolution conversion. The system 40 receives the touch location information Txy from the touch controller 32 and executes an application program associated with the touch location information Txy. For example, if there is an icon of a specific program in the coordinates of the touch position, the system 40 loads the program from the memory and executes the program. In addition, the system 40 generates digital video data RGB by synthesizing an image and a touch image to be displayed on the display panel 10. The system 40 may be implemented as a personal computer (PC), and may exchange data with the touch controller 32 through a serial or universal serial bus (USB) interface.

16 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic calibration method of the infrared sensor module of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 16, the automatic calibration method of the infrared sensor module of the present invention is as follows.

As shown in FIG. 16, the auto calibration method of the infrared sensor module according to the present invention is useful when the optical signal deviates from a predetermined light receiving area as the infrared sensor module is distorted. It may be performed at the same time (for example, every time the device is recognized by a PC, etc.), may be performed every time a specific event occurs, or may be performed every time the user intentionally performs it.

The automatic calibration method finds a light receiving area where a real optical signal in the sensor unit is input without performing physical correction. If the automatic calibration is performed at the time of a specific event or by the user's intentional performance, the previous light receiving area is selected before the selection. An area set as a region of interest (ROI) in the memory is stored, and when the driving power of the next display device is reset, the automatic calibration is skipped and the stored area is used.

In addition, when automatic correction is performed at every driving of the display device, the selection of a specific block in the light receiving area can be automatically performed at every driving of the product. It is possible to prevent the touch malfunction due to the distortion of the infrared sensor module generated according to the shock generated in the.

As shown in FIG. 16, the sensor unit including the light receiving area is disposed perpendicularly to the display panel surface, and the light receiving area is turned on after the infrared sensor module divided into mxn (m, n is two or more natural numbers) blocks. Start the automatic calibration (S10).

Subsequently, an optical signal is scanned every m rows (S20).

Next, the optical signals for each row are compared (S30).

Next, a block having the highest optical signal among the n column blocks is selected (S40).

Subsequently, the selected block is activated and the non-selected block is deactivated to be distinguished (S50).

In addition, the activated blocks may be set as a region of interest (ROI) to terminate the above-described automatic calibration (S60).

In this case, due to the setting of the regions of interest, even if the infrared sensor module is twisted up, down, left, or right with respect to the center line, the light receiving region corresponds to the degree of distortion. Accordingly, a pixel corresponding to an angle of 0 ° to 90 ° sensed by the infrared sensor module can be set in the ROI, thereby enabling accurate touch sensing.

17 is a flowchart illustrating a touch sensing method to which the automatic calibration method of the present invention is applied.

The configuration using the touch sensing method of the infrared sensor module of the present invention has the sensor unit configuration of FIGS. 8 to 10 and the control board 30 of FIG. 15.

First, the light receiving region 210 in the sensor unit 2100 turns on an infrared sensor module divided into m x n (m, n is two or more natural numbers) blocks, and then starts touch sensing (S110). Here, a plurality of pixels are arranged in a plurality of columns in each block, and each pixel includes a light receiving element capable of sensing light amount.

Subsequently, the optical signals of the respective blocks are scanned (S120). The scanning of the optical signal of each block may be performed according to the automatic calibration method described with reference to FIG. 16 whenever the display device including the infrared sensor module is driven, or selected by a user. In this case, in the latter case, the ROI set before the user selection may be stored and used for optical signal measurement.

Alternatively, the scanning of the optical signal of each block may be performed every time a specific event occurs. In this case, the region of interest set until the specific event occurs is stored and used for the optical signal measurement.

Also, for each of the columns, selecting the block having the highest optical signal may select one or more blocks in each column. In this case, the selected block of each column may be set in one unit.

In operation S130, the active block and the inactive block are distinguished by selecting a specific block in which the heavy optical signal is concentrated by comparing the optical signals of the scanned blocks. At this time, at least one block of each block column is selected. When a plurality of blocks are selected in each column, adjacent blocks are selected to be activated. Thus, noise can be eliminated. These active blocks and inactive blocks may be made according to the automatic calibration method described with reference to FIG. 16 or may be preset to the selected ROI.

In this case, the selection of blocks among the respective block columns may be made in the same row or in another row. In the former case, it is assumed that the infrared sensor module is arranged almost horizontally so that the light amount is concentrated in a horizontal state.

Subsequently, for the activated blocks, the light amount of the pixels is added in units of columns, and the output is transmitted to the touch controller 32 outside the sensor unit (S140). This sum of the amounts of light proceeds for the pixels arranged every column.

In this case, the value of the light amount added in the active block and the column unit may be stored with a specific memory in the touch controller (S150). In this case, the automatic calibration may be skipped at the next power reset and the existing stored results may be used.

Subsequently, the above-described touch sensing may be terminated by setting the activated blocks as a region of interest (ROI) (S160).

Here, the sum of the light amount (optical signal) of the pixels on a column basis with respect to the activated blocks may be received by the touch controller to detect whether the touch is performed according to the amount of light amount. That is, if the amount of light of pixels in a particular column is smaller than a predetermined value compared to the initial value (when the light emitter is on), it may be detected by a touch.

On the other hand, the above-described automatic calibration method is not a physical correction of the false degree of the infrared sensor module, but by selecting a block having the largest optical signal output at the corresponding position and sensing the optical signal in the light-receiving pixels of the corresponding blocks. Therefore, it does not increase the data transmission amount and obtains a valid optical sensing output. Therefore, the touch sensitivity can be improved. In particular, when the vertical direction is distorted through the above-described automatic calibration method, it is possible to solve the problem that the optical signal completely escapes to the light receiving area.

In addition, the above-described automatic calibration method can set the optical signal generation region by selecting a specific block within a simple light receiving region even before the product is released, thereby simplifying the manufacturing process without requiring physical correction or elaborate work of the operator. .

After applying one or more specific blocks of interest to each block column by applying an automatic calibration method, and applying the sum of the amount of pixels per pixel only for the selected blocks to detect the amount of light (light signal) for touch sensing. The amount of calculation can be reduced.

On the other hand, the present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiment and the accompanying drawings, it is possible that various substitutions, modifications and changes within the scope without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in Esau.

10: display panel 21A, 21B, 21C: infrared sensor module
11: source driver 12: gate driver
20: display module 25: retroreflective plate
26: case top 30: control board
31: timing controller 32: touch control unit
40: system 2100: sensor
210: light receiving area 215: light receiving pixel
220: terminal

Claims (22)

In the infrared sensor module having a sensor unit including a light receiving area,
The sensor unit is disposed perpendicular to the display panel surface.
The light receiving area is divided into mxn (m, n is two or more natural numbers) blocks, and each block includes a plurality of light receiving pixels arranged in the same row.
Infrared sensor module for transmitting the light signal for each specific block received the light to the touch controller. The method of claim 1,
Infrared sensor module, characterized in that each block has 10 to 500 light-receiving pixels. The method of claim 1,
Infrared sensor module, characterized in that each of the light-receiving pixels are relatively longer than the horizontal length. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the specific block is selected from at least one of the m rows for each of the n columns. The method of claim 1,
Infrared sensor module, characterized in that the selection of the specific block is made through the light quantity distribution of the received optical signal. 6. The method of claim 5,
The selection of the specific block is an infrared sensor module, characterized in that after filtering the received optical signal to remove the noise. The method of claim 1,
M and n are each 2 or more and 10 or less. A sensor unit including a light receiving area and disposed perpendicularly to a display panel surface, the light receiving area turning on an infrared sensor module divided into mxn (m, n is two or more natural numbers) blocks each having a plurality of light receiving pixels in a row direction; Making a step;
Scanning the optical signals of the respective blocks;
Selecting a block having the highest optical signal for each column block; And
And summing the optical signals of the light-receiving pixels of the selected blocks for each column. The method of claim 8,
And activating the selected blocks to set a region of interest (ROI) for sensing an optical signal when a touch is detected. The method of claim 8,
The scanning of the optical signal of each block is performed every time the display device including the infrared sensor module is driven. The method of claim 9,
Scanning the optical signal of each block, the touch sensing method of the infrared sensor module, characterized in that made by the user selected. 12. The method of claim 11,
Touch sensing method of the infrared sensor module, characterized in that for storing the region of interest set until the user selection, to use for measuring the optical signal. The method of claim 9,
The scanning of the optical signal of each block is performed every time a specific event occurs. The method of claim 13,
The touch sensing method of the infrared sensor module, characterized in that to store the region of interest set until the specific event occurs, to measure the optical signal. A sensor unit including a light receiving area and disposed perpendicularly to a display panel surface, wherein the light receiving area turns on an infrared sensor module divided into mxn (m, n is two or more natural numbers) blocks each having a plurality of light receiving pixels in a row direction; Making a step;
Scanning an optical signal every m rows;
Comparing the optical signals for each row;
Selecting a block having the highest optical signal for each of the n column blocks;
And activating the selected block and deactivating the non-selected block. 16. The method of claim 15,
And automatically setting the activated blocks to a region of interest (ROI). 16. The method of claim 15,
The scanning of the optical signal every m rows is performed every time the display device including the infrared sensor module is driven. 16. The method of claim 15,
The scanning of the optical signal every m rows is performed by the user. 19. The method of claim 18,
Automatic calibration method of the infrared sensor module, characterized in that to save the region of interest set until the user selection, to use for measuring the optical signal. 16. The method of claim 15,
The scanning of the optical signal every m rows is performed every time a specific event occurs. 16. The method of claim 15,
Automatic calibration method of the infrared sensor module, characterized in that to store the region of interest set until the specific event occurs, to measure the optical signal. 16. The method of claim 15,
Selecting a block having the highest optical signal for each of the n column blocks, wherein at least one block is selected in each column.

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