TW201642091A - Touch apparatus and touch detecting method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A touch apparatus and a touch detecting method are provided. The touch apparatus comprises a touch pad, a touch scan module, an area/ frequency control module, and a processing module. Touch information of all areas in the touch pad responding to a touch operation is obtained by the processing module through the touch scan module, to determine a least one touching position of the touch operation. The processing module sets at least one scanning area according to the touching position, adjusts a scan frequency of the scanning area through the area/ frequency control module, and performs a touch detection on the touch operation on the scanning area by the scan frequency through the touch scan module.

Description

Touch device and touch detection method thereof

The present invention relates to a touch detection technology, and more particularly to a touch control device for dynamically controlling a scan area and a touch detection method thereof.

With the rapid development of touch technology, touch devices have gradually become the basic equipment for electronic devices such as notebook computers, mobile phones, tablet computers or portable multimedia players, and have replaced traditional keyboards or physical buttons to form a new generation of input. The development trend of the device. Touch devices commonly used in the market generally use capacitive technologies such as capacitive, resistive or optical.

The scanning method of the foregoing touch technology generally scans all channels (for example, the transmitting end (TX) or the receiving end (RX)) in each direction (for example, the XY axis) sequentially. When the user performs a touch operation on the touch device, the touch device repeatedly detects the touch operation through the full scan mode. However, for the continuous operation of the user, the touch response speed may be increased due to the increase of the scanning area. Degree is reduced. Therefore, there is a need to provide a touch detection method for improving the touch response speed.

The invention provides a touch device and a touch detection method thereof, which determine a scan area according to a touch position and adjust a scan speed of the scan area to improve a touch response return speed.

The invention provides a touch detection method suitable for a touch device with a touch panel. This method includes the following steps. The touch operation is performed to react to the touch information of all areas in the touch panel to determine at least one touch position of the touch operation. At least one scanning area is set according to the touch positions. Adjust the scanning frequency of these scanning areas, and use this scanning frequency to perform touch detection on the touch operations on these scanning areas.

The present invention provides a touch device including a touch panel, a touch scan module, a region/frequency control module, and a processing module. The touch panel is used to receive touch operations. The touch scanning module is coupled to the touch panel and is used to scan the touch panel to obtain touch information. The area/frequency control module is coupled to the touch control scanning module and is configured to control the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area and the touch scanning module. The processing module is coupled to the area/frequency control module and the touch scanning module, and the touch scanning module obtains touch information in response to all areas of the touch panel to determine at least the touch operation. A touch location. The processing module sets at least one scanning area through the area/frequency control module according to the touch positions, and adjusts the scanning areas. The scanning frequency of the domain is detected by the touch scanning module at the scanning frequency for the touch operation on the scanning areas.

Based on the above, the touch device and the touch detection method thereof according to the touch control method determine the scan area according to the touch position of the touch operation, and adjust the scan frequency of the scan area to continue the touch detection of the touch operation. Measurement. Thereby, the embodiment of the invention can improve the detection accuracy and improve the touch response speed.

The above described features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.

100‧‧‧ touch device

110, 510‧‧‧ touch panel

130‧‧‧Touch Scan Module

150‧‧‧Regional/Frequency Control Module

170‧‧‧Processing module

S210~S250, S710~S770‧‧‧ steps

501~504‧‧‧Scanning area

D1, D2‧‧‧ direction

P1~P7‧‧‧ position

RX1~RX7‧‧‧ Receiver

TP1~TP24‧‧‧Touch position

TX1~TX5‧‧‧ transmit end

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a touch device according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a touch detection method of a touch device according to an embodiment of the invention.

3A and 3B are examples of determining a touch position.

4A and 4B are scanning information of each of the transmitting end and each receiving end disposed on the X-axis and the Y-axis, respectively.

4C is a schematic diagram of scanning information in which the transmitting end and the receiving end are both axes of FIGS. 4A and 4B.

5A and 5B are schematic diagrams of touch positions for adjusting the scanning frequency.

6A and 6B are schematic diagrams showing another touch position for adjusting the scanning frequency.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an example of touch detection.

The conventional touch detection method sequentially scans through the rows/columns of the touch panel to detect electrical changes of the sensing units located in each row/column of the touch panel. However, general touch operations (eg, click, slide, drag, double tap, hold, etc.) usually only touch a part of the touch panel, and the remaining untouched areas often have noise interference and cause misjudgment. It is also necessary to report a large amount of touch information (for example, touch sensing values). Accordingly, in order to improve the accuracy and the speed of the touch response, the touch device and the touch detection method thereof according to the embodiments of the present invention are performed through a partial area (for example, a scan area) touched by the touch operation. Scan and increase the scanning speed of these scanned areas. In addition, in order to achieve power saving purposes, embodiments of the present invention may also reduce the scanning speed of areas outside of these scanning areas (eg, non-scanning areas), even without scanning. A plurality of embodiments in accordance with the spirit of the present invention are set forth below, and those applying the present embodiment can be appropriately adjusted according to their needs, and are not limited to the contents described in the following description.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a touch device according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1 , the touch device 100 of the embodiment may be an electronic device such as a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, or a smart phone with computing functions. The touch device 100 can also be a touch pad or a tablet with only a touch function, and has a transmission interface for transmitting touch operation information to the host computer. The present invention is not limited thereto. The touch device 100 includes a touch panel 110, a touch scan module 130, a region/frequency control module 150, and a processing module 170, the functions of which are described below.

The touch panel 110 can be capacitive or resistive. (Resistive) and optical (optical) and other types of touch technology, the invention is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the touch panel 110 can be combined with, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a Light-Emitting Diode (LED) display, a Field Emission Display (FED), or the like. Kind of display. The touch panel 110 is configured to receive touch operations (eg, click, slide, drag, double tap, hold, etc.) of an operation object such as a stylus or a finger.

The touch scan module 130 is coupled to the touch panel 110 and has a plurality of receiving ends (TX) and a transmitting end (RX). The receiving end and the transmitting end are sequentially disposed on the touch panel 110, for example. On the XY axis (or row/column), the touch panel 110 is scanned to obtain touch information (eg, touch sensing value, signal strength, receiving time, etc.).

The area/frequency control module 150 is coupled to the touch control module 130 for controlling the scanning area and the scanning frequency of the touch scanning module 130. The area/frequency control module 150 can adjust the scan area, the non-scan area, and the scan frequency according to instructions (for example, area control instructions, scan frequency adjustment instructions, etc.) transmitted by the processing module 170.

The processing module 170 can be a central processing unit (CPU), or other programmable general purpose or special purpose microprocessor (Microprocessor), digital signal processor (DSP), programmable controller , Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), system on chip (SoC) or other similar components or a combination of the above components. The processing module 170 is coupled to the touch scanning module 130 and the area/frequency. Rate control module 150.

In this embodiment, the processing module 170 can receive the touch information (for example, raw (RAW) data) obtained by the touch scanning module 130 via the channel for processing, and determine the touch operation according to the touch information. The touch detection method according to the embodiment of the present invention is implemented by the touch position to determine the scan area and the non-scan area, and adjust the scan frequency of the touch scan module 130.

In addition, the touch device 100 can further include a storage device (not shown). The storage device may be any type of fixed or removable random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory (Flash Memory), hard disk. Or other similar devices or a combination of these devices. The storage device can be used to store data (such as the touch sensing value, the signal strength, the position coordinate, and the like detected by the touch panel 110, or the touch position of the processing module 170 to be transmitted (or Return point) and touch operation information, etc., and provide access to the operating system or connected computer host. In order to facilitate the understanding of the operation flow of the embodiment of the present invention, the touch detection method of the present invention will be described in detail below by way of embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a touch detection method of the touch device 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 2 , the touch detection method of the present embodiment is applicable to the touch device 100 of FIG. 1 . Hereinafter, the touch detection method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in conjunction with various components and devices in the touch device 100. The various processes of the method can be adjusted accordingly according to the implementation situation, and are not limited thereto.

In step S210, the processing module 170 is obtained by the touch scanning module 130. The touch operation reacts to the touch information of all areas in the touch panel 100 to determine at least one touch position of the touch operation.

In particular, to assist in understanding the technology of the present invention, the following description of the application of the present invention is not intended to limit the application of the present invention. It is assumed that the user performs a touch operation (for example, clicking, sliding, dragging, double-clicking, holding, etc.) on the touch panel 110 through an operation object such as a finger or a stylus pen. The touch panel 110 detects and senses an operation object through a touch technology (for example, capacitive or resistive sensing), and generates touch sensing information (for example, a touch sensing value (for example, a capacitance value, a voltage value, Illuminance, etc.), energy level, etc.). For example, each capacitive sensing unit reacts to a capacitance value generated by an approach or touch of an operating object. The touch scanning module 130 sequentially scans through the configured transmitting end (TX) and receiving end (RX) to obtain touch information of all channels (for example, corresponding to the X axis and the Y axis of each channel). Touch sensing information, wherein the touch information of all channels corresponds to all areas in the touch panel 110. Then, the touch scan module 130 transmits the touch information of all the channels to the processing module 170.

In one embodiment, the processing module 170 compares touch information for all channels to a threshold value. If the touch information is greater than the threshold value, it is determined to be a valid touch, and the interlaced portion of the corresponding channel is set as the touch position. If the touch information is not greater than the threshold value, it is judged as noise, and the interlaced position of the corresponding channel is not set as the touch position.

For example, FIGS. 3A and 3B are examples of determining a touch position. Referring to FIG. 3A, it is assumed that the fingers 301, 302 touch the positions P1, P3, respectively. Please refer to the figure 4A and FIG. 4B are scanning information of each of the transmitting end and each receiving end disposed on the X-axis and the Y-axis, respectively. Next, please refer to FIG. 3A and FIG. 4C at the same time. FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram of scanning information in which the transmitting end and the receiving end are two axes in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. Due to noise interference, the positions P2 and P3 in FIG. 3A may also scan the touch sensing value or the signal strength.

The processing module 170 compares touch information (eg, signal strength, touch sensing value, etc.) of each channel with a threshold value (eg, a capacitance threshold value, a voltage threshold value, etc.). The processing module 170 determines that the interlace is an effective reporting area because the interleaving of the transmitting end TX2 and the receiving end RX2 and the touch information obtained by the interleaving of the transmitting end TX3 and the receiving end RX5 are greater than the threshold value. Since the touch information obtained by the interleaving of the transmitting end TX3 and the receiving end RX2 and the interleaving of the transmitting end TX2 and the receiving end RX5 is less than the threshold value, the processing module 170 determines that the interlaced portion is an invalid reporting area. Referring to FIG. 3B, the processing module 170 sets the effective reporting area as the touch position, wherein the interlaced end of the transmitting end TX3 and the receiving end RX2 is determined as the touch position TP1, and the transmitting end TX2 and the receiving end are The staggered portion of the RX 5 is judged to be the touch position TP2. In addition, the processing module 170 can further return the touch position to the operating system or the host computer.

It should be noted that, in some other embodiments, the processing module 170 may compare the touch information of each channel with a preset touch pattern in the storage device to determine whether it is a touch operation, and further The touch position is confirmed, and the present invention does not limit the method of determining the touch position.

After determining at least one touch position, in step S230, the processing module 170 is set by the area/frequency control module 150 according to the at least one touch position. At least one scan area. In an embodiment, the area/frequency control module 150 sets the area centered on the at least one touch position to be at least one scan area. For example, the area/frequency control module 150 sets the area of the geometry (eg, circle, triangle, ellipse, rectangle, etc.) centered on the touch position (eg, center of gravity, center, center, etc.) as a scan. region. For example, the touch position is the center of the circle and the radius is 1 unit length (for example, the distance of one sensing unit) as the scanning area. It should be noted that the size and shape of the scanning area can be adjusted according to the design requirements of the implementer of the present invention, and the scope of the scanning area is not limited by the present invention.

In step S250, the processing module 170 adjusts the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area through the area/frequency control module 150, and touches the touch on the at least one scanning area through the touch scanning module 130. Operation for touch detection. In one embodiment, the processing module 170 increases the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area through the area/frequency control module 150.

Specifically, the touch scan module 130 sequentially obtains the scan information of each channel at a scan frequency, and in order to speed up the touch detection speed, the embodiment of the present invention increases the scan frequency of the scan area to speed up the scans. The area corresponds to the scanning speed of the channel. Taking FIG. 3B as an example, the area/frequency control module 150 can increase the scanning frequency of the transmitting terminals TX3 and TX5 according to the touch positions TP1 and TP2.

In addition, FIGS. 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams of touch positions for adjusting the scanning frequency. Referring to FIG. 5A, assume that a situation is that the user touches the touch panel 510 with a finger and performs a touch operation of dragging from the position P4 to the position P5. If the scanning area 501, 502 detects the touch operation by using the scanning frequency F1, the processing module 170 can The touch information of the touch positions TP3 and TP4 is obtained in sequence.

Referring to FIG. 5B, it is assumed that the user also performs the touch operation of dragging from the position P6 to the position P7. If the area/frequency control module 150 adjusts the scanning frequency of the scanning areas 503, 504 to twice the scanning frequency F1, Then, the processing module 170 can sequentially obtain the touch information of the touch positions TP5 TP TP7.

For another example, FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B are schematic diagrams of another touch position for adjusting the scanning frequency. Referring to FIG. 6A, it is assumed that a situation is that the user performs a touch operation of drawing a circular outer frame along the direction D1 with a finger. If the scanning operation is detected by the scanning frequency F2, the processing module 170 can sequentially obtain the touch information of the touch positions TP8~TP13.

Referring to FIG. 6B, it is assumed that the user also performs a touch operation for drawing a circular frame in the direction D2. If the area/frequency control module 150 adjusts the scanning frequency to twice the scanning frequency F2, the processing module 170 will The touch information of the touch position TP14~TP24 can be obtained in sequence. In this way, the touch device 100 can obtain more detailed touch information during the drawing operation, and can also reduce the occurrence of the touch information loss, and enable the user to experience a smoother operation effect when operating the drawing program. In the present invention, the stylus is often used to operate the touch device 100. The embodiment of the present invention can also improve the scanning speed of the scanning area to improve the touch device 100 to report the touch position related information to the operating system or the computer. The reaction speed of the host, which makes the handwriting or drawing more smooth.

In addition, in another embodiment, the area/frequency control module 150 sets an area other than the at least one scan area as a non-scan area, and reduces the non-scan area. Scan frequency or no touch detection on non-scan areas. For example, taking FIG. 3B as an example, the area/frequency control module 150 can reduce the scanning frequency of the transmitting ends (for example, TX1, TX2, etc.) other than the transmitting ends TX3 and TX5, and can also stop the scanning behavior of the transmitting ends other than the transmitting ends TX3 and TX5. . Thereby, the implementation of the present invention can achieve the purpose of power saving.

In another embodiment, when the processing module 170 detects at least one touch position change of the touch operation through the touch scan module 130, the area/frequency control module is transmitted according to the changed at least one touch position. 150 dynamically adjusts at least one scan area. Specifically, if the processing module 170 determines that the touch operation performed in step S210 has not ended (for example, the finger, the conductive material or the operation object has not left the touch panel 110), and the processing module 170 determines the touch of the touch operation. Touch position changes (for example, left shift, right shift, etc.). The processing module 170 dynamically adjusts the scanning area through the area/frequency control module 150 and according to the currently detected touch position. In addition, the area/frequency control module 150 can also adjust the non-scanning area as the scanning area changes.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the touch scan module 130 initially performs touch detection on the scan area 501. It is assumed that the touch object touches the position P4 and moves to the position P5, and the processing module 170 can determine the adjacent channel. The obtained scan information is changed, and the scan area 501 is adjusted through the area/frequency control module 150 according to the judgment result to be adjusted into the scan area 502. That is, the embodiment of the present invention can dynamically adjust the scan area and the non-scan area according to the current touch position of the touch operation.

In another embodiment, after the processing module 170 determines that the touch operation is completed, the touch detection module 130 performs touch detection on the comprehensive area. Specifically, when an operation object (for example, a finger, a stylus, or the like) leaves the touch panel 110, the processing mode is processed. The group 170 cannot determine the touch position according to the touch information (for example, the touch information corresponding to all channels is smaller than the threshold value), and it can be determined that the touch operation has ended. Then, the processing module 170 re-executes step S210 to obtain touch information of all channels. In some embodiments, the processing module 170 can also perform touch detection on the full area through the touch scanning module 130 when the number of touch positions is changed (for example, increased or decreased).

Therefore, the touch detection method of the embodiment of the present invention can greatly increase the touch response speed and achieve the purpose of power saving, compared to the conventional method of performing full scan. In order to help understand the steps of the foregoing embodiments, an operational flow of an embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an example of touch detection. In step S710, the touch scan module 130 performs touch detection on the comprehensive area of the touch panel 110. Then, the processing module 170 determines whether a touch point is detected according to the touch information obtained by the touch scan module 130 (step S730). If the processing module 170 does not detect the touch point (for example, the touch information is less than the threshold value), then the process returns to step S710. If the processing module 170 detects the touch point, it is determined that the touch information reflected by the touch point is the touch position or noise of the touch operation (step S750). Thereafter, the processing module 170 sets the scan area centered on the touch position and the non-scan area outside the scan area through the area/frequency control module 150 according to the touch position (step S770). Moreover, the processing module 170 increases the scanning frequency of the scanning area and does not scan the non-scanning area. Then, if the processing module 170 does not determine the touch position of the touch operation, the process returns to step S710.

In summary, the touch device and the touch detection method thereof are provided in the embodiment of the invention The scanning area is dynamically adjusted according to the current touch position of the touch operation, and the scanning frequency of the scanning area is further increased, thereby reducing false alarm points caused by noise interference to improve accuracy, and the touch detection efficiency can be effectively improved. In addition, for the non-scanning area outside the scanning area, the embodiment of the present invention can reduce the scanning frequency of the non-scanning area even without scanning, thereby achieving the purpose of power saving.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention, and any one of ordinary skill in the art can make some changes and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

S210~S250‧‧‧Steps

Claims (10)

A touch detection method is applicable to a touch device having a touch panel, the method comprising: obtaining a touch operation response to touch information in all areas of the touch panel to determine the touch operation At least one touch position; setting at least one scan area according to the at least one touch position; and adjusting a scan frequency of the at least one scan area, and performing the touch operation on the at least one scan area at the scan frequency Touch detection. The touch detection method of claim 1, wherein the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area is adjusted, and the touch operation is performed on the touch operation on the at least one scanning area. The measuring step includes: increasing the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area; setting an area outside the at least one scanning area as a non-scanning area; and reducing a scanning frequency of the non-scanning area or not performing the touch on the non-scanning area Detection. The touch detection method of claim 1, wherein the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area is adjusted, and the touch operation is performed on the touch operation on the at least one scanning area. After the step of detecting, the method further includes: dynamically adjusting the at least one scanning area according to the changed at least one touch position when detecting that the at least one touch position of the touch operation changes. The touch detection method of claim 1, wherein the step of setting the at least one scan area according to the at least one touch position comprises: The area centered on the at least one touch position is the at least one scan area. The touch detection method of claim 1, wherein the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area is adjusted, and the touch operation is performed on the touch operation on the at least one scanning area. After the step of measuring, the method further includes: performing the touch detection on the comprehensive area after determining that the touch operation ends. A touch device includes: a touch panel for receiving a touch operation; and a touch scan module coupled to the touch panel for scanning the touch panel to obtain touch information; An area/frequency control module coupled to the touch scan module for controlling at least one scan area and a scan frequency of the touch scan module; and a processing module coupled to the area/frequency control module And the touch scanning module obtains the touch information in response to the touch information in all areas of the touch panel to determine at least one touch position of the touch operation, according to the Setting the at least one scanning area through the area/frequency control module at least one touch position, adjusting a scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area, and transmitting the at least one scanning area by the touch scanning module at the scanning frequency The touch operation on the touch performs a touch detection. The touch device of claim 6, wherein the processing module increases the scanning frequency of the at least one scanning area through the area/frequency control module, and sets an area outside the at least one scanning area to be one. The non-scanning area is reduced, and the scanning frequency of the non-scanning area is reduced or the touch detection is not performed on the non-scanning area. The touch device of claim 6, wherein the processing module detects the at least one touch position change of the touch operation through the touch scan module, according to the changed at least The at least one scan area is dynamically adjusted through the area/frequency control module at a touch position. The touch device of claim 6, wherein the area/frequency control module sets the area centered on the at least one touch position as the at least one scan area. The touch device of claim 6 , wherein after the processing module determines that the touch operation is completed, the touch detection module performs the touch detection on the comprehensive area.