METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SIGMA DELTA CAPACITANCE MEASURING USING SHARED COMPONENT
Granted: March 13, 2008
Application Number:
20080061800
Methods, systems and devices are described for detecting a measurable capacitance using sigma-delta charge transfer techniques that can be implemented with many standard microcontrollers, and can share components to reduce device complexity and improve performance. In the various implementations of this embodiment, the passive network used to accumulate charge can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. A switch or IO controlling the charge sharing and/or charge changing can…
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DETECTING A CAPACITANCE USING SIGMA-DELTA MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
Granted: February 28, 2008
Application Number:
20080048679
Methods, systems and devices are described for detecting a measurable capacitance using sigma-delta measurement techniques. According to various embodiments, a voltage is applied to the measurable capacitance using a first switch. The measurable capacitance is allowed to share charge with a passive network. If the charge on the passive network is past a threshold value, then the charge on the passive network is changed by a known amount for a sufficient number of repetitions until the…
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DETECTING A CAPACITANCE USING SIGMA-DELTA MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
Granted: February 28, 2008
Application Number:
20080048680
Methods, systems and devices are described for detecting a measurable capacitance using sigma-delta measurement techniques. According to various embodiments, a voltage is applied to the measurable capacitance using a first switch. The measurable capacitance is allowed to share charge with a passive network. If the charge on the passive network is past a threshold value, then the charge on the passive network is changed by a known amount for a sufficient number of repetitions until the…
CLOSED-LOOP SENSOR ON A SOLID-STATE OBJECT POSITION DETECTOR
Granted: February 28, 2008
Application Number:
20080048978
The present disclosure discloses an object position detector. The object position detector comprises a touch sensor formed as a closed loop and having a physical constraint formed on an upper surface of the touch sensor and coextensive with the closed loop. The touch sensor is configured to sense motion of an object proximate to the closed loop. The object position detector also comprises a processor coupled to the touch sensor and is programmed to generate an action in response to the…
OBJECT POSITION DETECTOR WITH EDGE MOTION FEATURE AND GESTURE RECOGNITION
Granted: February 28, 2008
Application Number:
20080048997
A method of generating a signal comprising providing a capacitive touch sensor pad including a matrix of X and Y conductors, developing capacitance profiles in one of an X direction and a Y direction from the matrix of X and Y conductors, determining an occurrence of a single gesture through an examination of the capacitance profiles, the single gesture including an application of at least two objects on the capacitive touch sensor pad, and generating a signal indicating the occurrence…
OBJECT POSITION DETECTOR WITH EDGE MOTION FEATURE AND GESTURE RECOGNITION
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080042994
A method of generating a signal comprising providing a capacitive touch sensor pad including a matrix of X and Y conductors, developing capacitance profiles in one of an X direction and a Y direction from the matrix of X and Y conductors, determining an occurrence of a single gesture through an examination of the capacitance profiles, the single gesture including an application of at least two objects on the capacitive touch sensor pad, and generating a signal indicating the occurrence…
CLOSED-LOOP SENSOR ON A SOLID-STATE OBJECT POSITION DETECTOR
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080042976
The present disclosure discloses an object position detector. The object position detector comprises a touch sensor formed as a closed loop and having a physical constraint formed on an upper surface of the touch sensor and coextensive with the closed loop. The touch sensor is configured to sense motion of an object proximate to the closed loop. The object position detector also comprises a processor coupled to the touch sensor and is programmed to generate an action in response to the…
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR GUARDING A CHARGE TRANSFER CAPACITANCE SENSOR FOR PROXIMITY DETECTION
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080042661
Methods, systems and devices are described for determining a measurable capacitance for proximity detection in a sensor having a plurality of sensing electrodes and at least one guarding electrode. A charge transfer process is executed for at least two executions. The charge transfer process includes applying a pre-determined voltage to at least one of the plurality of sensing electrodes using a first switch, applying a first guard voltage to the at least one guarding electrode using a…
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DETECTING A CAPACITANCE USING SWITCHED CHARGE TRANSFER TECHNIQUES
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080042660
Methods, systems and devices are described for detecting a measurable capacitance using charge transfer techniques. According to various embodiments, a charge transfer process is performed for two or more times. During the charge transfer process, a pre-determined voltage is applied to the measurable capacitance, and the measurable capacitance is then allowed to share charge with a filter capacitance through a passive impedance that remains coupled to both the measurable capacitance and…
CLOSED-LOOP SENSOR ON A SOLID-STATE OBJECT POSITION DETECTOR
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080041642
The present disclosure discloses an object position detector. The object position detector comprises a touch sensor formed as a closed loop and having a physical constraint formed on an upper surface of the touch sensor and coextensive with the closed loop. The touch sensor is configured to sense motion of an object proximate to the closed loop. The object position detector also comprises a processor coupled to the touch sensor and is programmed to generate an action in response to the…
OBJECT POSITION DETECTOR WITH EDGE MOTION FEATURE AND GESTURE RECOGNITION
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080041640
A method of generating a signal comprising providing a capacitive touch sensor pad including a matrix of X and Y conductors, developing capacitance profiles in one of an X direction and a Y direction from the matrix of X and Y conductors, determining an occurrence of a single gesture through an examination of the capacitance profiles, the single gesture including an application of at least two objects on the capacitive touch sensor pad, and generating a signal indicating the occurrence…
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR GUARDING A CHARGE TRANSFER CAPACITANCE SENSOR FOR PROXIMITY DETECTION
Granted: November 22, 2007
Application Number:
20070268026
Methods, systems and devices are described for determining a measurable capacitance for proximity detection in a sensor having a plurality of sensing electrodes and at least one guarding electrode. A charge transfer process is executed for at least two executions. The charge transfer process includes applying a pre-determined voltage to at least one of the plurality of sensing electrodes using a first switch, applying a first guard voltage to the at least one guarding electrode using a…
GRAPHICAL SCROLL WHEEL
Granted: October 11, 2007
Application Number:
20070236475
A touch screen interface including a display screen, a touch sensor device, and a processor coupled to the display screen and the touch sensor is described. The touch sensor device is adapted to sense object motion in a sensing region that overlaps at least part of the display screen. The processor is adapted to cause a scroll wheel that indicates a scrolling path to appear on the display screen selectively, such as in response to the touch sensor sensing object motion that corresponds…
PROXIMITY SENSOR AND METHOD FOR INDICATING EXTENDED INTERFACE RESULTS
Granted: August 2, 2007
Application Number:
20070176906
A proximity sensor device and method is provided that facilitates improved system usability. Specifically, the proximity sensor device and method provide a user with the ability to easily cause different results in an electronic system using a proximity sensor device as a user interface. For example, it can be used to facilitate user interface navigation, such as dragging and scrolling. As another example, it can be used to facilitate value adjustments, such as changing a device…
HALF-BRIDGE FOR CAPACITIVE SENSING
Granted: July 12, 2007
Application Number:
20070159184
Methods and apparatus are provided for measuring a ratio of capacitances. The apparatus include a comparator including a comparator input, a comparator output, and a reference voltage; a first capacitive element including a first capacitance, a first electrode coupled to the comparator input, and a second electrode; a first biasing element coupled to the first electrode; a digitally-controlled voltage waveform generator for generating a varying waveform, the voltage waveform generator…
Position sensor
Granted: August 4, 2005
Application Number:
20050171714
A low cost x-y digitising system is described for use in consumer electronic devices, such as portable digital assistants, mobile telephones, web browsers and the like. The digitiser includes a resonant stylus, an excitation winding for energising the resonant stylus and a set of sensor windings for sensing the signal generated by the stylus, from which the x-y position of the stylus is determined. A novel stylus design is described together with novel digitiser windings and novel…
Magnetic calibration array
Granted: January 27, 2005
Application Number:
20050021269
A calibration system is provided for use in generating calibration data for calibrating an X-Y digitiser. The calibration system uses an alignment head having an array of magnetic field generators which are for alignment with the X-Y digitiser. Each of the magnetic field generators is individually drivable so that calibration data can be obtained for different positions on the X-Y digitiser corresponding to the positions of the magnetic field generators in the array. The resulting…
Closed-loop sensor on a solid-state object position detector
Granted: December 16, 2004
Application Number:
20040252109
The present disclosure discloses an object position detector. The object position detector comprises a touch sensor formed as a closed loop and having a physical constraint formed on an upper surface of the touch sensor and coextensive with the closed loop. The touch sensor is configured to sense motion of an object proximate to the closed loop. The object position detector also comprises a processor coupled to the touch sensor and is programmed to generate an action in response to the…
Object position detector with edge motion feature and gesture recognition
Granted: September 16, 2004
Application Number:
20040178997
A method of generating a signal comprising providing a capacitive touch sensor pad including a matrix of X and Y conductors, developing capacitance profiles in one of an X direction and a Y direction from the matrix of X and Y conductors, determining an occurrence of a single gesture through an examination of the capacitance profiles, the single gesture including an application of at least two objects on the capacitive touch sensor pad, and generating a signal indicating the occurrence…
Position detector
Granted: September 2, 2004
Application Number:
20040169594
A position detector is provided for detecting the relative movement of first and second members which are mounted for relative movement along a measuring path. One of the members comprises a magnetic field generator for generating a magnetic field and the other member comprises first and second conductors which are inductively coupled to said magnetic field generator. The arrangement of the first and second conductors and the magnetic field generator is such that output signals are…
