Synaptics Patent Applications

BASELINE MANAGEMENT FOR SENSING DEVICE

Granted: September 18, 2014
Application Number: 20140278173
A processing system for baseline management includes a sensor module comprising sensor circuitry coupled to sensor electrodes, where the sensor module is configured to receive resulting signals with at least a portion of the sensor electrodes. The processing system further includes a determination module operatively connected to the sensor electrodes. The determination module is configured to obtain a first profile from the resulting signals, calculate, using the first profile, a first…

BLACK IMAGE INSERTION FOR CAPACITIVE SENSING

Granted: September 18, 2014
Application Number: 20140267349
Embodiments of the invention generally provide, when performing capacitive sensing, driving a modulated signal on transmitter electrodes located only within a black image of the display device. When updating a display screen based on a newly received display frame, an input device may first insert the black image on the display screen. Once the black image is displayed, the input device may use the electrodes within the area of the screen displaying the black image to track the input…

REDUCING DISPLAY ARTIFACTS AFTER NON-DISPLAY UPDATE PERIODS

Granted: September 18, 2014
Application Number: 20140267217
Embodiments of the present invention generally provide a processing system for a display device having an integrated sensing device. The processing system includes a driver module coupled to a plurality of source lines and a plurality of transmitter electrodes. Each transmitter electrode includes one or more common electrodes configured for display updating and input sensing. The driver module is configured for selecting a first display line for display updating and driving the sources…

DEVICE AND METHOD FOR LOCALIZED FORCE SENSING

Granted: August 28, 2014
Application Number: 20140238152
A device and method for operating a capacitive input device configured to sense input objects and their applied force in a sensing region, the device including a pliable component having an input surface and characterized by a bending stiffness, and first and second arrays of sensor electrodes. The input device further includes a third array of sensor electrodes and a spacing layer disposed between the third array. The pliable component is characterized by a compressive stiffness and…

GUARDING AND SHIELDING ROUTING TRACES IN PROXIMITY SENSORS

Granted: August 14, 2014
Application Number: 20140226083
A capacitive input device has a sensor electrode pattern disposed on a first side of a substrate. The sensor electrode pattern comprises a plurality of sensor electrode elements disposed on the first side of a first substrate. A plurality of routing traces is disposed along a first edge of the sensor electrode pattern on the first side of the substrate and configured to communicatively couple at least some of the sensor electrodes with a processing system. A pair of guard traces is…

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SENSING AN INPUT OBJECT RELATIVE TO A SENSING REGION OF AN ULTRASOUND SENSOR DEVICE

Granted: August 14, 2014
Application Number: 20140225873
A subsystem, system and method for sensing an input object relative to a sensing region of an ultrasound sensor device are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a subsystem for sensing an input object relative to a sensing region of an ultrasound sensor device includes a circuit, a switch coupled to an output of the circuit, and an integrating capacitor coupled to the output of the circuit. The circuit has an input for receiving a resulting signal comprising positive and negative…

INTERFERENCE DETECTION

Granted: August 14, 2014
Application Number: 20140225856
A method for detecting interference in an input device, the method involving: driving a transmitter signal onto a transmitter sensor electrode of the input device; receiving a resulting signal from a receiver sensor electrode of the input device; sampling a first value associated with the resulting signal during a first half of a sensing cycle; sampling a second value associated with the resulting signal during a second half of the sensing cycle; generating an interference value based on…

MESH SENSOR DESIGN FOR REDUCED VISIBILITY IN TOUCH SCREEN DEVICES

Granted: August 14, 2014
Application Number: 20140225839
An input device having a plurality of low-visibility sensor electrodes and method for fabricating the same are provided. In one embodiment, an input device includes a plurality of sensor electrodes disposed over a display device. A first sensor electrode of the plurality of sensor electrodes includes a conductive mesh having a first periodicity defined by intersections of conductive traces forming the mesh. A terminal portion of one of the conductive traces terminating at an edge of the…

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FINGERPRINTING SENSING

Granted: August 7, 2014
Application Number: 20140219523
A biometric sensor apparatus and method are disclosed, which may comprise a flexible substrate comprising a first side surface and a second side surface opposing the first side surface; a biometric sensor portion comprising biometric image sensing elements formed on the second side surface forming at least part of a biometric sensor array sensing capacitively induced changes induced by a biometric in the vicinity of the biometric image sensing elements; a biometric sensor controller…

INPUT DEVICE

Granted: July 31, 2014
Application Number: 20140210764
An input device comprises a first and second pluralities of capacitive sensor electrodes. The first plurality of capacitive sensor electrodes is oriented along a first axis, disposed in a first layer, and configured to update a display screen of the input device. The second plurality of capacitive sensor electrodes is oriented along a second axis that differs from the first axis. A display region of the display screen has a first dimension along the first axis and a second dimension the…

TIERED WAKEUP STRATEGY

Granted: July 17, 2014
Application Number: 20140198960
A biometric authentication apparatus and method is disclosed which may comprise a biometric authentication unit which may comprise: a biometric object sensor comprising sensor elements and a sensor computing device; a wake-on-event logic controller maintaining the sensor computing device in one of a powered-off or powered down mode, and including a bulk biometric object detector configured to detect a biometric object on or in the vicinity of the sensor elements and to power-on or…

METHOD AND CIRCUIT TO OPTIMIZE N-LINE LCD POWER CONSUMPTION

Granted: July 17, 2014
Application Number: 20140198087
Embodiments of the invention generally provide an input device that includes one or more source drivers that are coupled to a display screen. Specifically, one of the source drivers may be coupled to a plurality of source lines (or column lines) on the display screen which the source driver uses to set voltages associated with one or more sub-pixels that determine the color displayed by the pixel. When driving voltages onto subsequent source lines, the input device may precharge the…

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR FINGERPRINT TEMPLATE ENROLLMENT AND DISTRIBUTION PROCESS

Granted: July 10, 2014
Application Number: 20140195815
A system and method may comprise providing a database comprising a user list and a user device list, the user list comprising a list of user biometric identifiers, each extracted from and unique to a respective template of a user biometric of a verified user, and the user device list comprising a list of user biometric identifiers each extracted from and unique to a respective template of a user biometric of a verified user device associated with the verified user; and determining one of…

NEAR-FIELD AND FAR-FIELD CAPACITIVE SENSING

Granted: July 3, 2014
Application Number: 20140184552
A capacitive input device processing system includes a transmitter module with transmitter circuitry configured to drive a plurality of transmitter electrodes with transmitter signals. A first receiver module is configured to receive near-field resulting signals from a plurality of near-field receiver electrodes. The near-field resulting signals comprise near-field effects corresponding to the transmitter signals and related to a first portion of a sensing region which is at or near a…

SYSTEM, DEVICE AND METHOD FOR SECURING A USER DEVICE COMPONENT BY AUTHENTICATING THE USER OF A BIOMETRIC SENSOR BY PERFORMANCE OF A REPLICATION OF A PORTION OF AN AUTHENTICATION PROCESS PERFORMED AT A REMOTE COMPUTING LOCATION

Granted: June 26, 2014
Application Number: 20140177929
A novel system, device and method of validation is provided for sensing a biometric such as a fingerprint, where biometric data corresponding to the biometric entity such as a fingerprint is then transmitted to a host configured to perform a plurality of authentication processes to authenticate the biometric data. At least one of the plurality of authentication steps is then validated. Alternatively, a portion of the biometric data may be retained, where biometric data corresponding to…

COMPENSATION FOR AIR GAP IN AN INPUT DEVICE

Granted: June 26, 2014
Application Number: 20140176480
Embodiments of the present invention generally provide a processing system for a display device integrated with a capacitive sensing device. The processing system includes a driver module, a receiver module, and a determination module. The driver module is coupled to a plurality of common electrodes configured to be driven for display updating and capacitive sensing. The receiver module is coupled to a plurality of receiver electrodes and configured for receiving resulting signals with…

DETECTING A GESTURE

Granted: June 26, 2014
Application Number: 20140176448
A method for detecting a gesture includes detecting a first input object, a second input object, and a movement of the first input object, a movement of the second input object in a sensing region during a first time period. The method further includes detecting a third input object and movement for the third input object in the sensing region during a second time period, the second time period occurring after the first time period, and the third input object only detected after the…

SENSOR DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING PROXIMITY EVENTS

Granted: June 12, 2014
Application Number: 20140160056
Methods, systems and devices are described for determining positional information for objects using an input device. The various embodiments provide improved user interface functionality by facilitating user input with input objects that are at the surface and objects that are away from the surface. The input device includes a processing system and an array of sensor electrodes adapted to capacitively sense objects in a sensing region. The processing system is configured to determine…

INPUT DEVICE TRANSMITTER PATH ERROR DIAGNOSIS

Granted: June 12, 2014
Application Number: 20140159742
A processing system configured for capacitive sensing comprises transmitter circuitry, a first internal diagnostic mechanism, and a determination module. The transmitter circuitry is coupled with a first transmitter path of a plurality of transmitter paths and configured to transmit a first transmitter signal with the first transmitter path, wherein each transmitter path of the plurality of transmitter paths is configured for capacitive sensing. The first internal diagnostic mechanism is…

TRANSCAPACITIVE SENSOR DEVICES WITH SEAMS

Granted: June 5, 2014
Application Number: 20140152324
A processing system for a transcapacitive sensing device comprises a plurality of sensor electrodes sectioned by a seam, a first sensor electrode integrated circuit, and a second sensor electrode integrated circuit. The plurality of sensor electrodes comprises a plurality of transmitter electrodes intersecting a plurality of receiver electrodes. The first sensor electrode integrated circuit is communicatively coupled to a first subset of the plurality of sensor electrodes. The second…