KR20160123702A - Touch sensing method and apparatus for identifying large object - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a technology related to a method for identifying a large object such as a palm and a cheek. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a touch recognition apparatus counts the number of lines having the number of pixels for each patch which is greater than a threshold 1, and identifies the corresponding patch as a large object when the counted number of lines is greater than a threshold 2.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a touch recognition method and apparatus for identifying a large object,

The present invention relates to a technique for recognizing a touch. And more particularly to a touch recognition technique for identifying a large object.

The keyboard or mouse, which has been utilized as a user input device, is a device that is burdened in weight and slimness of the display device in that it includes a separate device. Recently, the touch recognition technology, which is actively being introduced, is becoming a catalyst for promoting the weight and slimness of display devices in this respect.

The touch recognition technology is a technique for recognizing a user's input operation by sensing a signal generated when an object comes in contact with or approaching a touch panel including a sensor, and various methods such as a magnetic method, a resistance method, and an electrostatic method are used The electrostatic discharge method is becoming popular.

From the viewpoint of the behavior of the user input operation, the touch recognition technology has been developed from the button touch recognition or the sliding touch recognition, which has not required a high resolution of the conventional touch recognition, to the pen touch recognition that requires a high touch recognition resolution. However, the pen-touch recognition technology that has been recently introduced has a new type of problem that has not been a problem at the level of the prior art, and a solution for this problem is required.

1 is a view showing a portion that can be recognized by a touch when the user touches the touch panel using a pen.

1, the user 11 touches the touch panel 10 using the pen 12. [ 1, the touch panel 10 recognizes not only the physical contact of the user 11 but also the touch of the pen 12, so that the user 11 can perform the touch operation using the pen 12 Let's do it. Since the body of the user 11 does not have a sophisticated shape - for example, a user's finger, which is mainly used for touching, has a wide surface area and a non-standardized shape, the user 11 can perform a touch operation using the body It is difficult to perform sophisticated control. On the other hand, since the pen 12 can have a sophisticated shape (e.g., a circular shape and a small surface area), the user 11 can use the sophisticated pen 12 to perform finer control . However, the user 11 may cause a problem as shown in the right drawing of Fig. 1 during the touch operation process using the pen 12. Fig.

1 shows a portion where the user 11 body and the pen 12 are in contact with the touch panel 10 in a user operation process as shown in the left drawing of FIG. 1, when the user 11 touches the touch panel 10 with the pen 12, a part of the hand is brought into contact with the touch panel 10 together with the pen 12. As shown in Fig. Accordingly, the touch panel 10 can generate a touch sensing signal in the portion 13 where the hand portion is touched and the portion 14 in which the pen 12 is touched, as shown in the right drawing of Fig. 1 .

When the user 11 operates the pen 12, a part of the hand is usually placed on the object to which the pen 12 is to be contacted. By the action of the user 11, The touch sensing signal is generated not only in the portion 14 to which the pen 12 is touched but also in the portion 13 to which a part of the hand of the user 11 is touched. In this case, it is difficult for the touch recognition device to determine which one of the two touched portions 13, 14 is the intended touch of the user 11. [ Particularly, when the touch recognition device performs control according to the touched portion 13 of the hand rather than the pen touch portion 13, there is a possibility that the user 11 is controlled in an unintended direction to cause a malfunction .

In this context, an object of the present invention is, in one aspect, to provide a technique for identifying an unintended touch.

In another aspect, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for identifying an intended touch.

In another aspect, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for identifying a large object.

In order to accomplish the above object, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method of generating a touch image comprising a plurality of row lines and a plurality of column lines from sensing signals for objects in proximity to or touching a touch panel An image generation unit, an identification unit for identifying at least one patch from the touch image, and a controller for counting the number of lines having the number of pixels of each patch greater than or equal to a first reference value as a first variable while scanning the touch image, And a processing unit for determining a patch having a reference value or more as a large object.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for generating a touch image, the method comprising the steps of: receiving sensed signals of a touch panel for objects in proximity or contact; processing the sensed signals to generate a touch image comprising a plurality of row lines and a plurality of column lines Identifying at least one patch from the touch image, counting the number of lines for which the number of pixels is greater than or equal to a first reference value for a first patch of the at least one patch as a first variable, And determining the first patch to be a large object if the second reference value is equal to or greater than a second reference value.

As described above, according to the present invention, an unintended touch can be identified or an intended touch can be identified. Further, according to the present invention, identification of a large object makes it possible to identify a touch associated with the large object.

1 is a diagram showing a portion that can be recognized by a touch in a situation of a touch using a pen.
2 is a configuration diagram of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is an internal configuration diagram of the touch recognition device of FIG.
4 is an internal configuration diagram of the image processing block of Fig.
5 is a view showing a touch image generated by signal values of the respective sensors.
Fig. 6 is a diagram showing a plurality of patches identified in the touch image of Fig. 5; Fig.
7 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining a large object while scanning the entire area of the touch image in the row direction.
8 is a flowchart of a method of determining a large object according to the example of FIG.
9 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining a large object while scanning the entire area of the touch image in the column direction.
10 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining a large object while scanning a partial area of a touch image.
11 is a diagram for explaining an example of recognizing a pen touch using a large object.

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to exemplary drawings. It should be noted that, in adding reference numerals to the constituent elements of the drawings, the same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference symbols as possible even if they are shown in different drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

In describing the components of the present invention, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), and (b) may be used. These terms are intended to distinguish the constituent elements from other constituent elements, and the terms do not limit the nature, order or order of the constituent elements. When a component is described as being "connected", "coupled", or "connected" to another component, the component may be directly connected to or connected to the other component, It should be understood that an element may be "connected," "coupled," or "connected."

2 is a configuration diagram of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the display device 100 includes a display panel 210 and a touch panel 110, and drives the driver device 220 and the touch panel 110 for driving the display panel 210 And a touch recognition device 120 for sensing the touch. The display device 100 may include a host 230 that can exchange information with the driver device 220 and the touch recognition device 120.

2, the display panel 210 and the touch panel 220 are separated from each other. However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, May have the form of an integral panel sharing some electrodes. For example, the display device 100 may include an in-cell type panel (not shown), which uses a common electrode as a display electrode and a touch It has the form of an integrated panel which is also used as an electrode. In the following embodiments, the display device 100 is described as including the display panel 210 and the touch panel 220 for convenience of explanation, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

2, the driver device 220 and the touch recognition device 120 are separated from each other. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. The driver device 220 and the touch recognition device 120 may be integrated into one integrated circuit device. Particularly, when the display apparatus 100 includes an integrated panel, the driver apparatus 220 and the touch recognition apparatus 120 may be integrated. For example, an inser-type panel (not shown) When the driver device 220 and the touch recognition device 120 are integrated, a common electrode may be displayed using one driving circuit. In this case, the common electrode may be used as a display electrode and a touch electrode. It can be driven for an electrode or for a touch electrode. In the following embodiments, the display device 100 is described as including the driver device 220 and the touch recognition device 120 for convenience of explanation, but the present invention is not limited thereto as described above.

The display panel 210 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD), a field emission display (FED), a plasma display panel (PDP), an organic light emitting display OLED, and electrophoresis (EPD). In an embodiment in which the display panel 210 is a liquid crystal display device, the display panel 210 includes two substrates A liquid crystal layer can be formed. In this embodiment, the lower substrate of the display panel 210 includes a plurality of data lines, a plurality of gate lines crossing the data lines, a plurality of thin film transistors (TFTs) formed at intersections of the data lines and the gate lines, A plurality of display electrodes for charging the data voltage to the liquid crystal cells, and a storage capacitor connected to the display electrodes for maintaining the voltage of the liquid crystal cell. In this embodiment, the upper substrate of the display panel 210 may include a black matrix, a color filter, a polarizing plate, and the like.

The driver device 220 may convert the digital video data RGB input from the host 230 or a timing controller (not shown) into an analog positive / negative gamma compensation voltage to output the data voltage DATA. The data voltage may be supplied to the data lines. The driver device 220 may also supply a gate pulse SCAN to the gate lines sequentially to select a line of the display panel 210 to which the data voltage DATA is written.

The display panel 210 and the driver device 220 are components related to displaying an image on the screen in the display device 100. [ Next, a configuration related to recognizing touches on the display device 100 will be described with reference to Fig.

The display device 100 may include a touch panel 110 and a touch recognition device 120 for recognizing a touch as a user operation.

The touch panel 110 may be bonded on the upper polarizer of the display panel 210, or may be formed between the upper polarizer and the upper substrate. In addition, when the touch panel 110 is formed as an in-cell type, the touch panel 110 may be formed on the lower substrate together with the pixel array in the display panel 210. The sensor sensor touch panel 110 may include driving electrodes, receiving electrodes, and sensors. The driving electrodes and the receiving electrodes may, for example, be located on different layers and intersect each other. In such a cross structure, the sensors may be capacitors formed at intersections of the driving electrodes and the receiving electrodes. As another example, the driving electrodes and the receiving electrodes may be located in the same layer with each other. In such a one-layer structure, the sensors may be capacitors formed horizontally between the driving electrodes and the receiving electrodes. As another example, the driving electrode can be a receiving electrode - a self-structure. In such a self-structure, the sensors may be capacitors formed between the receiving electrode and the peripheral electrodes. The positional relationship between the driving electrodes and the receiving electrodes in the touch panel 110 is merely an example, and the driving electrodes and the receiving electrodes may form a different type of positional relationship from these examples. Examples of structures in which a capacitor is formed as a sensor between receiving electrodes and peripheral electrodes or receiving electrodes and capacitance of a capacitor is changed by an object approaching or contacting the touch panel 110 are all examples according to the present invention Can be applied to the touch panel 110.

Here, the sensors may be referred to as touch sensors in terms of sensing an object approaching or touching the touch panel 110, but the present invention is not limited thereto. If no other formulas are added below, the sensor can be interpreted in the same sense as the touch sensor.

The touch recognition device 120 supplies a driving signal TX to the driving electrodes, senses the sensing signal RX of the sensor through the reception electrodes, generates touch coordinates, and transmits the touch coordinate data to the host 230 .

3 is an internal configuration diagram of the touch recognition device of FIG.

3, the touch recognition device 120 may include an analog front end 310, a digital signal processing block 320, a memory 330, an image processing block 340, and a signal input 350 .

The analog front end 310 includes a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) generating circuit for generating a driving pulse, a driving circuit capable of supplying a driving signal Tx to the driving electrodes formed on the touch panel 110, And a sensing circuit that can process the sensing signal Rx.

In the PWM generation circuit, a driving pulse for periodic sensing is generated. The driving circuit supplies the driving signal Tx synchronized with the driving pulse to the touch panel 110. [

The sensing circuit senses a change in voltage or voltage formed in each of the sensors by the drive signal Tx. In the capacitance type touch panel 110, a capacitance is formed in the sensor. When a change in capacitance occurs due to a touch, a change in voltage or voltage that reflects such a change in capacitance occurs in the sensor. Sensing the change in voltage or voltage of the sensor.

The sensing circuit can sense the sensing signal Rx corresponding to the driving signal Tx applied periodically in a differential manner. The sensing circuit may further include a differential amplification circuit for sensing the sensing signal Rx in a differential manner. The sensing circuit can differentially amplify sensing signals of two adjacent Rx lines by using the differential amplification circuit. When the sensing circuit senses in a differential manner, common mode noise is reduced.

The digital signal processing block 320 may convert the analog sensing signal processed by the sensing circuit into digital sensing data and store the digital sensing data in the memory 330. At this time, data stored in the memory 330 may be referred to as raw data. Raw data is a term that is mainly used when original data of a non-refined original shape is referred to as a raw data, and the digital sensing data transformed by the digital signal processing block 320 is data of a primitive type it means. Specifically, the sensing data for the unintended touch and the sensing data for the intended touch, described with reference to FIG. 1, are mixed in the raw data.

The image gallery block 340 may refine the raw data to identify unintended taps or perform processing to remove such unintended taps.

The image processing block 340 processes the digital sensing data stored in the memory 330 to generate touch information and transmits the touch information to the host 230 through the signal input terminal 350.

4 is an internal configuration diagram of the image processing block of Fig.

4, the image processing block 340 may include an image generating unit 410, an identifying unit 420, a processing unit 430, a coordinate generating unit 440, and the like.

The image generating unit 410 may generate a touch image composed of a plurality of row lines and a plurality of column lines from sensing signals for objects in proximity to or in contact with the touch panel 110. [

Since the touch panel 110 has a plurality of sensors and the sensing data is stored in the pixels corresponding to the positions of the respective sensors, the image generating unit 410 generates a plurality of row lines and a plurality of rows It is possible to generate a touch image composed of lines.

In this case, when the analog front end 310 processes the sensing signal in a differential manner, the differential sensing data corresponding to the difference value between the two sensors may be stored in the pixels. Alternatively, the image generator 410 may accumulate the differential sensing data to generate a touch image in the form of a signal value of each sensor.

When processing a sensing signal in a differential manner in the analog front end 310, difference values are generated between adjacent sensors on a line-by-line basis. The differential sensing data thus generated is sequentially integrated on a line-by-line basis, . In this principle, the image generating unit 410 can generate the touch image by integrating row data generated by the difference between two sensors or two sensing signals on a line-by-line basis.

5 is a view showing a touch image generated by signal values of the respective sensors.

Referring to FIG. 5, an example of a touch image in which signal values of respective sensors are stored in a matrix of 12 rows and 16 columns is displayed.

In FIG. 5, the values displayed on the respective pixels may be values representative of a change in capacitance or capacitance in each of the sensors of the touch panel 110. For example, when an object comes close to or comes into contact with the touch panel 110, the proximity position of the object or the capacitance of the contact position sensors may increase - some touch panels have a structure in which the capacitance is reduced. Lt; / RTI > may be a value proportional to the change in capacitance.

According to this embodiment, in the touch image of Fig. 5, the large number portion may be the position in which the object comes close or touches. When the touching portion of each sensor is referred to as a touch node, the identifying unit 420 can recognize a position where the signal value is higher than a specific value as a touch node according to the above-described method. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 5, the identification unit 420 may recognize a position where the signal value is 10 or more as a touch node.

When a pixel corresponding to the touch node is referred to as a touch screen, it can be said that the touch pixels are continuously connected to each other. A plurality of patches may appear in the touch image, and the identification unit 420 may identify each of the plurality of patches.

Fig. 6 is a diagram showing a plurality of patches identified in the touch image of Fig. 5; Fig.

The identifying unit 420 recognizes the touch nodes by comparing the signal values of the respective pixels of the touch image with a specific value (for example, 10), and groups adjacent touch pixels to identify the plurality of patches 610 and 620 have. In this case, like the first patch 610, each of the patches may be composed of a plurality of touch pixels, and the second patch 620 may be composed of a single touch pixel.

When a plurality of patches 610 and 620 are identified, labels may be assigned to each patch of the identification unit 420. [ For example, the identification unit 420 may label the first patch 610 with "L1" and label the second patch 620 with "L2".

The identification unit 420 can tag the label assigned to each patch to the touch pixel belonging to each patch. The touch image may be stored as an array on the memory. At this time, the array elements may have a data structure in which signal values of the sensors and labels can be stored. The identification unit 420 may label the touch pixel with a label in which the label value is stored in the data structure of each pixel.

The processing unit 430 can identify a patch due to an unintended touch among a plurality of patches. Examples of the unintended touch include touch by noise, touch by hand, touch by foreign matter such as water, touch by a large object such as a palm, and the like. The following describes embodiments in which the processing unit 430 identifies a touch by a large one of these unintended touches.

The processing unit 430 may determine patches having a number of pixels whose number of pixels is equal to or greater than the first reference value as a large object. In other words, the processing unit 430 determines the patch as a large object if the number of lines having a predetermined width (first reference value) or more is greater than or equal to a predetermined value (second reference value).

According to this method, the processing unit 430 can easily identify a patch having a predetermined height or more (second reference value) or more. This method, which considers a fixed width and a constant height in terms of having a certain width, is a highly accurate method. In addition, the processing unit 430 may determine whether the object is a large object by simply counting a line having a predetermined width or more. In this respect, this method effectively uses the memory and the processor.

In a specific method, the processing unit 430 may scan an entire touch image to determine a large object or only a part of the touch image.

First, an embodiment in which the processing unit 430 scans the entire area of the touch image and identifies patches corresponding to the large object will be described.

7 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining a large object while scanning the entire area of the touch image in the row direction.

Referring to FIG. 7, the processing unit 430 sequentially scans (H-SCAN) in the row direction from the first row Y1 to the last row Y12 as a raster scan of the entire area of the touch image, The patch corresponding to the large object can be identified.

7, the processing unit 430 scans the Y5, Y6, Y7, Y8, Y9, and Y10 rows having three or more pixels as the first reference value, and determines the number of lines for the first patch 620 .

If the number of lines counted for the first patch 620 (6 in the example in FIG. 7) is greater than the second reference value (for example, 5) after the scan for the entire area of the touch image is completed, 1 patch 620 can be determined as a large object.

On the other hand, the second patch 610 does not determine that the second patch 610 is a large object because there is no line above the first reference value in the scanning process. In terms of not being a large object, the processing unit 430 may determine the second patch 610 as a small object.

The embodiment of FIG. 7 will be further described with reference to the flowchart.

8 is a flowchart of a method of determining a large object according to the example of FIG.

The processing unit 430 may count the number of lines whose number of pixels is equal to or greater than the first reference value as the first variable.

At this time, the processing unit 430 may set the first variable by the number of required patches. For example, in the example of FIG. 7, a first variable may be assigned to each of the two patches. Alternatively, the processing unit 430 may assign the first variable only to the first patch 610 in the example of FIG.

In the embodiment described with reference to FIG. 8, a method in which the processing unit 430 allocates the first variable to each of the patches will be described.

The processing unit 430 may assign a second variable to count the number of pixels for each line.

At this time, the processing unit 430 may set a second variable by the number of required patches, or may set only one second variable.

In the embodiment described with reference to FIG. 8, a method in which the processing unit 430 allocates the second variable to each of the patches will be described.

Referring to FIG. 8, the processing unit 430 may initialize (reset) the first variable and set a variable N for determining a row to be scanned to 0 (S802).

The processing unit 430 determines whether the size of the variable N is larger than the total number of lines (12 in the example of FIG. 7), and if it is smaller than or equal to the total number of lines (N in S804), the processing unit 430 counts the number of pixels of each patch .

If the variable N is smaller than or equal to the total number of rows (N in S804), the processing unit 430 increases the size of the variable N, sets the variable M for determining the column to be scanned to 0, and initializes the second variable (S806).

The processing unit 430 determines whether the magnitude of the variable M is larger than the total number of columns (16 in the example of FIG. 7) and increases the size of the variable M (S810).

When a row and a column to be scanned through the variables N and M are determined, the processing unit 430 checks whether the label tagged to the pixel matches the label tagged to the previous pixel (S812). Here, the previous pixel means a pixel adjacent to the same line.

If the label of the pixel matches the label of the previous pixel (Y in S812), the processing unit 430 increments the second variable (S814). If the label does not match (N in S812), the processing unit 430 initializes the second variable (S816).

In step S812, the processing unit 430 may initialize the second variable even if there is no label in the pixel.

When initializing the second variable, the processing unit 430 may separately store the second variable maximum value (S816).

After step S814 or step S816, step S808 is performed again. If the scan is completed for all the columns through the circulation process, the size of M becomes larger than the total number of columns. At this time, the processing unit 430 confirms that the magnitude of M is larger than the total number of columns in step S808 (Y in step S808), and performs step S818.

If the maximum value of the second variable or the second variable is equal to or greater than the first reference value (Y in S818), the processing unit 430 increases the first variable of the patch (S820).

If N in step S818 or step S820 is performed, the processing unit 430 performs step S804 again to scan the entire row.

If the scan is performed for the entire row, the size of N becomes larger than the total number of rows. At this time, the processing unit 430 confirms that the size of N is larger than the total number of lines in step S804 (Y in step S804), and performs step S822.

At this time, if the first variable allocated to each patch is equal to or larger than the second reference value (Y in S822), the processing unit 430 determines the patch as a large object, and if not, ends the process.

8, the processing unit 430 determines whether the label of the pixel being scanned matches the label of the previous pixel, and increases the second variable only if the label matches the label of the previous pixel. In this case, The number of lines whose maximum value of the number of consecutive pixels per patch is equal to or greater than the first reference value is counted as the first variable. For example, if there are a total of four pixels for one line, and only two such pixels are continuous, the first variable is not increased in the scanning process of the corresponding line in the embodiment according to the flowchart of FIG.

In order to compare the total number of pixels of each line of each line with the first reference value, the processing unit 430 in step S812 of FIG. 8 does not determine whether or not the labels are matched, A method of inspecting the label and increasing the second parameter of the patch corresponding to the label may be applied. In this case, step S816 of resetting the second variable may be eliminated.

Meanwhile, the processing unit 430 may scan the touch image in the column direction.

9 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining a large object while scanning the entire area of the touch image in the column direction.

Referring to FIG. 9, the processing unit 430 sequentially scans (V-SCAN) from the first column X1 to the last column X16 in the column direction as if the entire area of the touch image is raster scanned, The patch corresponding to the large object can be identified.

Referring to FIG. 9, the processing unit 430 increases the number of lines for the first patch 620 while scanning X10, X11, X12, and X13 columns having three or more pixels while having a first reference value of 3 .

If the number of lines counted for the first patch 620 (4 in the example in FIG. 9) is greater than the second reference value (for example, 5) after the scan for the entire area of the touch image is completed, 1 patch 620 may be determined as a large object, and if it is small, it may not be determined as a large object.

7 and FIG. 9, the number of lines of the first patch 610 in the embodiment of FIG. 7 is greater than the first reference value of the first patch 610, In the embodiment of FIG. 9, the number of lines that is equal to or larger than the first reference value of the second patch 610 is four. Accordingly, when the second reference value is 5, the first patch 610 may be determined as a large object in the embodiment of FIG. 7, and in the embodiment of FIG. 9, the first patch 610 may not be determined as a large object .

The processing unit 430 may determine whether each patch is a large object for each of the row direction and the column direction in order to increase the accuracy of the large object determination. In this case, a patch determined as a large object in any one direction can finally be determined as a large object.

On the other hand, the processing unit 430 may count the number of lines that are equal to or greater than the first reference value of each patch in the row direction and the column direction, and determine whether each result is a large object with the averaged value. For example, in the embodiments of FIGS. 7 and 9, the average value of the number of lines that is equal to or larger than the first reference value of the first patch 610 is 5. The average value may be compared with the second reference value to determine whether or not it is a large object.

7 to 9, the description has been given of the embodiment in which the processing unit 430 scans the entire area of the touch image and determines whether or not it is a large object for each of the patches. It is possible to determine whether a specific patch is a large object. An embodiment in which the processing unit 430 scans only a part of the touch image to determine whether a specific patch is a large object will be described with reference to FIG.

10 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining a large object while scanning a partial area of a touch image.

Referring to FIG. 10, the outermost lines of the first patch 610 are X7, X13, Y4, and Y11. The outermost lines of the second patch 620 are X3 and Y3.

When the touch recognition device 120 recognizes the outermost lines of each patch, the touch recognition device 120 can determine whether the patch is a large object by scanning only the inner area of the outermost lines of the patch.

For example, the touch recognition apparatus 120 recognizes the outermost lines as X7, X13, Y4, and Y11 with respect to the first patch 610, and only the first inner area 1010 composed of these outermost lines is scanned It is possible to determine whether or not the first patch 610 is a large object. In this example, only one of the first variable and the second variable may be used for determining whether the object is a large object only for one patch. According to this embodiment, there is an advantage that the memory can be efficiently used by using only the first variable and the second variable.

On the other hand, the touch recognition apparatus 120 can identify the outline lines of each patch and check the inner area size of the outermost lines of the patch. For example, in the example of FIG. 10, the size of the inner area of the outermost lines with respect to the first patch 610 is 56 on the basis of the width, and the size of the inner area of the outermost lines with respect to the second patch 620 is the width . For example, in the example of FIG. 10, the horizontal width from X7 to X13 is 7 in the first patch 610 in the row direction reference, 2 patch 620 has a horizontal width of 1 because there is only one X3.

The touch recognition apparatus 120 can determine the size of the inner area of the outermost lines for each patch and determine whether the patch is a large object only for patches having an inner area size of each of the patches equal to or greater than a predetermined value. For example, if only patches having an inner area size of 10 or more are scanned based on the area, the touch recognition device 120 can scan only the first patch 610 in the example of FIG. As another example, if only the patches having the inner area size of 3 or more are scanned based on the horizontal width, the touch recognition device 120 can scan only the first patch 610 in the example of FIG. When the touch recognition device 120 counts only the lines whose number of pixels is substantially equal to or greater than the first reference value in the row direction, the patches whose horizontal width of the inner area is smaller than the first reference value, I can not.

Patches determined as large objects can be used for various purposes.

When a pen is used to input a user operation, a large object is likely to be an unintended touch. Accordingly, the coordinate generator 440 removes the large object, generates coordinates only for the remaining touches, and transmits the coordinate to the host 230. FIG.

On the other hand, in the case of recognizing the hovering touch using the palm, it is highly likely that the large object is the intended touch. Accordingly, the coordinate generator 440 can generate coordinates for the large object and transmit it to the host 230.

On the other hand, the large object can be utilized for determining the position of the pen touch.

11 is a diagram for explaining an example of recognizing a pen touch using a large object.

11, the first patch 610 may be determined as a large object by the processing unit 430 and the second patch 620 and the third patch 1130 may not be determined as a large object or may be determined as a small object . At this time, if the pen touch operation is recognized, it is a problem whether the second patch 620 is the pen touch position or the third patch 1130 is the pen touch position.

The coordinate generating unit 440 can determine the patch having the longest distance from the first patch 610 determined as a large object as a patch by the fan touch. 11, since the distance between the first patch 610 and the second patch 620 is longer than that between the first patch 610 and the third patch 1130, the coordinate generator 440 determines The second patch 620 located at the longest distance from the first patch 610 can be identified as a patch corresponding to the pen touch. Such a method generally reflects a phenomenon in which an unintended finger touch or proximity object appears near a large object and a pen touch appears at a long distance, which can be a reasonable and efficient method of determining the position of the pen touch.

In the foregoing description, the embodiments have been described in which the number of lines having the number of pixels equal to or larger than the first reference value is counted for a plurality of patches, and the patches having the counted value equal to or larger than the second reference value are determined as large objects.

According to these embodiments, a patch having a predetermined height or more (a second reference value) or more can be easily identified. This method, which considers a fixed width and a constant height in terms of having a certain width, is a highly accurate method. According to these embodiments, the touch recognition apparatus 120 can determine whether a large object is a simple object by counting lines over a certain width. In this respect, this method makes efficient use of the memory and the processor.

The large object can be variously utilized in the touch recognition device 120. [ In a situation where a small object such as a pen touch needs to be recognized by a touch, the touch recognition device 120 may generate coordinates for only the remaining patches, excluding the patches determined as large objects, and transmit the coordinates to the host 230 . On the other hand, in a situation where a user operation is performed using a large object such as hovering, the touch recognition device 120 can generate coordinates for patches determined as large objects and transmit the coordinates to the host 230. [ In addition, the touch recognition apparatus 120 can more accurately identify the patch corresponding to the pen touch by using the distance between the large object and the small object, in addition to this use.

It is to be understood that the terms "comprises", "comprising", or "having" as used in the foregoing description mean that the constituent element can be implanted unless specifically stated to the contrary, But should be construed as further including other elements. All terms, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs, unless otherwise defined. Generally used terms such as predefined terms should be interpreted to be consistent with the contextual meanings of the related art and are not to be construed as ideal or overly formal meanings unless explicitly defined in the present invention. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are intended to illustrate rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (11)

An image generating unit for generating a touch image composed of a plurality of row lines and a plurality of column lines from sensing signals for objects in proximity to or touching the touch panel;
An identification unit for identifying at least one patch from the touch image; And
A processing unit for counting the number of lines having a pixel number greater than or equal to a first reference value as a first variable and determining a patch having a first variable equal to or greater than a second reference value as a large object,
And a touch recognition device. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein,
And counts the number of lines whose maximum value of the number of consecutive pixels per each patch is equal to or greater than the first reference value as the first variable. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein,
Wherein labels are assigned to each patch and the labels are tagged to pixels of each patch. The method of claim 3,
Wherein,
Assigning a second variable to a first patch corresponding to a label tagged to the first pixel, and if the label of the second pixel scanned next to the first pixel is the same as the label of the first pixel, And increases the first variable corresponding to the first patch if the second variable is equal to or greater than the first reference value. 5. The method of claim 4,
And resets the second variable if the label of the first pixel is different from the label of the second pixel. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein,
Whether or not each of the patches is a large object for each of the row direction and the column direction. The method according to claim 1,
The image generation unit may include:
And generates the touch image by integrating the row data generated by the difference value of the two sensing signals on a line by line basis. The method according to claim 1,
And a coordinate generator for generating coordinate values for the remaining patches other than the patch determined as the large object and transmitting the coordinate values to the host. Receiving sensing signals of a touch panel for objects in proximity or contact;
Processing the sensing signals to generate a touch image comprising a plurality of row lines and a plurality of column lines;
Identifying at least one patch from the touch image;
Counting the number of lines whose number of pixels is equal to or greater than a first reference value with respect to a first patch of the at least one patch as a first variable; And
Determining the first patch as a large object if the first variable is equal to or greater than a second reference value
And a touch recognition method. 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein when the distance between the first patch determined as a large object and the second patch determined as a large object is a predetermined value or more, the second patch is recognized as a touch by a pen. 10. The method of claim 9,
Further comprising the step of, when the first patch is determined as a large object, determining a patch located at the longest distance from the first patch as a patch by a pen touch.

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