CN101515213A - Sensing device, display device, electronic apparatus and sensing method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a sensing device, a display device, an electronic device, and a sensing method. A plurality of sensors are provided on a screen, and the plurality of sensors output detection signals that have an The level corresponding to the contact state of the screen or the distance between the object and the screen. The sensing device makes the cycle of reading detection signals corresponding to one screen different between when the object is in contact with the screen and when the object is not in contact with the screen. Moreover, when the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance and the non-contact between the object and the screen is continuous for more than a predetermined time, the sensing device makes the period and the reading cycle of the detection signal of 1 screen number read out. The number of sensors that output detection signals is different.

Description

Sensing device, display device, electronic device, and sensing method

technical field

The present invention relates to a technique for detecting a contact position of an object such as a finger or a stylus on a screen.

Background technique

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-318819 discloses a liquid crystal display device that detects a coordinate position indicated on a screen by a finger, a stylus, or the like. This liquid crystal display device has an image reading sensor 33 that captures incident light for each pixel, and detects coordinate positions based on changes in imaging data when a finger or stylus approaches or touches the screen. In addition, in this liquid crystal display device, the imaging data is not read from all the image reading sensors 33 arranged in the pixel array section 1, but is read every 4 rows in the row direction and every 3 columns in the column direction. Readout of camera data.

Contents of the invention

The liquid crystal display device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-318819 usually detects a coordinate position pointed by a finger or a stylus at the same cycle. Therefore, for example, when the detection cycle of the coordinate position is 60 Hz, the high-speed movement of the finger or the stylus cannot be tracked, and it is difficult to smoothly input handwritten images or the like by touch input. On the other hand, if the detection cycle of the coordinate position is about 120 Hz, although high-speed movement of a finger or stylus can be sufficiently tracked, in this case, the corresponding shortening of the detection cycle increases power consumption. In view of the above circumstances, an object of the first aspect of the present invention is to smoothly perform touch input while reducing power consumption.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the sensing device of the first aspect of the present invention has: a plurality of sensors, which are arranged on the screen, respectively generate a sensor corresponding to the contact state between the object and the above-mentioned screen or the distance between the above-mentioned object and the above-mentioned screen. A first detection signal of a level; a readout unit, which reads out the first detection signal from the plurality of sensors at a predetermined cycle; a binarization unit, which converts each of the first detection signals read by the readout unit The level of the signal is compared with the threshold value to generate binarized second detection signals respectively; the determination unit judges whether the object is in contact or not with the screen based on the above-mentioned respective second detection signals; Each of the second detection signals detects a position where the object is in contact with the screen; and a control unit that controls the reading unit so that the predetermined period becomes a first period when the determination result of the determination unit is non-contact. When the determination result of the determination unit is contact, the readout unit is controlled so that the predetermined period becomes a second period shorter than the first period.

According to this configuration, when the object is not in contact with the screen, the readout unit reads out the first detection signal for one screen at the first period, and at a time shorter than the first period when the object is in contact with the screen. In the second cycle of , the first detection signal of one screen is read out. Therefore, when the object is not in contact with the screen, the frequency of reading the first detection signal for one screen can be reduced compared to when the object is in contact with the screen. For example, when the first period is set to 60Hz and the second period is set to 120Hz, the case where the object is not in contact with the screen is compared to the case where the object is in contact with the screen. 1 The frequency of detection signals is reduced by 1/2. Therefore, the processing load required for reading the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, and power consumption can be reduced accordingly. On the other hand, when the object is in contact with the screen, the frequency of reading the first detection signal for one screen can be increased compared to the case where the object is not in contact with the screen. Therefore, the temporal resolution of the detection of the contact position can be improved, and it is possible to sufficiently track the object even when the object is moving at high speed.

In this way, according to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to change the cycle of reading out the first detection signal for one screen, and read out the first detection signal for one screen in a short cycle only when the object is in contact with the screen. Therefore, power consumption can be reduced, and even when an object is moving at high speed, it can be tracked and touch input can be performed smoothly.

In addition, "arranged on the screen" includes, for example, not only the case where a touch panel equipped with a plurality of sensors is pasted on the screen, but also the case where a plurality of sensors are built into a display panel as described in the embodiment described later. Case. In addition, the "object" refers to a finger or a stylus. In addition, in the case of a resistive film type or capacitive type touch panel, the level of the first detection signal generated by the sensor becomes a level corresponding to the "contact state of the object with the above-mentioned screen". For a touch panel using an optical sensor as described in the above-mentioned embodiments, the level of the first detection signal generated by the sensor is a level "corresponding to the distance between the object and the screen".

In the sensing device described above, the control unit may be configured such that when the determination result of the determination unit is non-contact and the determination result of the contact does not last for a predetermined time or longer although the determination result of the determination unit is contact. In the case of the above-mentioned predetermined period, the above-mentioned reading unit is controlled in such a manner that the above-mentioned predetermined period becomes the above-mentioned first period. The above-mentioned readout unit is controlled in the above-mentioned second cycle with one short cycle.

According to this configuration, only when the object is continuously in contact with the screen for a predetermined time or longer, the frequency of reading the first detection signal for one screen is increased. Because, as also described in the embodiments described later, if the structure in which the cycle of reading out the first detection signal as many as one screen is immediately shortened according to the contact time between the object and the screen without considering the contact time, frequent occurrence of cycle change, and may increase power consumption. In addition, for the predetermined time, an arbitrary time width can be set.

In addition, the sensor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention has a plurality of sensors arranged on the screen, and each generates a sensor corresponding to the contact state between the object and the screen or the distance between the object and the screen. A first detection signal of a level; a readout unit that reads out the first detection signal from the plurality of sensors at a predetermined cycle; a binarization unit that converts each of the first detection signals read out by the readout unit The level of the above-mentioned object is compared with the threshold value to generate the second detection signal of binarization respectively; the determination unit judges whether the above-mentioned object and the above-mentioned screen are in contact or non-contact according to the above-mentioned each of the second detection signals; the detection unit, according to the above-mentioned each The second detection signal detects the position where the object is in contact with the screen; and the control unit controls the reading unit so that the predetermined period becomes the first period after the acceptance of the contact input is started, and in the determination unit When the determination result is contact, the readout unit is controlled so that the predetermined period becomes a second period shorter than the first period.

According to this structure, when the above-mentioned reading unit starts to accept the touch input, it reads the first detection signal of 1 screen in the first cycle, and only when the object is in contact with the screen, the first cycle is shorter than the first cycle. In the second cycle, the first detection signals for one screen are read out. Therefore, after the acceptance of the touch input is started, the frequency of reading the first detection signal by one screen can be increased only when the object is in contact with the screen, and the frequency of reading the first detection signal can be decreased by one screen in other cases. The readout frequency of the first detection signal. Therefore, power consumption can be reduced, and even when an object moves at a high speed, it can be tracked and smooth touch input can be performed.

In the sensor device described above, the control unit may control the readout unit so that the predetermined period becomes the first period when the control unit starts accepting the touch input, and when the determination result of the determination unit is When the contact is continued for a predetermined time or longer, the readout unit is controlled so that the predetermined period becomes a second period shorter than the first period. According to this configuration, it is possible to increase the frequency of reading out the first detection signal for one screen only when the object is continuously in contact with the screen for a predetermined time or longer.

In addition, the sensor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention has a plurality of sensors arranged on the screen, each of which generates an electric signal corresponding to the contact state of the object with the screen or the distance between the object and the screen. a flat first detection signal; a readout unit that reads out the above-mentioned first detection signal from the above-mentioned plurality of sensors at a predetermined cycle; a binarization unit that converts each of the above-mentioned first detection signals read out by the above-mentioned readout unit The level is compared with the threshold value to generate binarized second detection signals respectively; the determination unit judges whether the object is in contact or not with the screen based on the above-mentioned respective second detection signals; 2. a detection signal for detecting a position where the object is in contact with the screen; and a control unit for controlling the reading unit so that the predetermined period becomes a second period shorter than the first period after the acceptance of the touch input is started. In a case where the determination result of the determination unit is non-contact, the readout unit is controlled so that the predetermined period becomes the first period.

According to this configuration, the reading unit reads out the first detection signal for one screen in the second period shorter than the first period when the acceptance of the touch input is started, and only when the object is not in contact with the screen, the first detection signal is read by In the first cycle, first detection signals for one screen are read. Therefore, after starting to accept the touch input, only when the object is not in contact with the screen, the frequency of reading the first detection signal by one screen can be reduced, and in other cases, the frequency of reading the first detection signal can be increased by one screen. The readout frequency of the first detection signal. Therefore, power consumption can be reduced, and even when an object moves at a high speed, it can be tracked and smooth touch input can be performed.

In the sensor device described above, the control unit may control the reading unit so that the predetermined period becomes the second period shorter than the first period when the control unit starts accepting the touch input, and When the determination result of the determination unit is non-contact continued for a predetermined time or more, the readout unit is controlled so that the predetermined period becomes the first period.

According to this configuration, the frequency of reading out the first detection signal for one screen can be reduced only when the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined time or longer. Because, as described in the embodiment described later, in the case of inputting handwritten characters with a finger or a stylus, for example, when moving to the next calligraphy and painting, the finger or the stylus will be separated from the screen for a short time. In the case of changing the readout cycle accordingly, frequent changes in the cycle will result in an increase in power consumption.

In addition, in the sensor device described above, it may be configured to include changing means for controlling the reading means so that the predetermined cycle becomes the first cycle by the control means, and the control means so that the When the readout unit is controlled so that the predetermined period becomes the second period, the threshold value is changed. Furthermore, the change unit may be configured such that, when the control unit controls the reading unit so that the predetermined period becomes the first period, the first threshold corresponding to the first period may be set as the threshold. In a case where the control unit controls the reading unit so that the predetermined period becomes the second period, a second threshold corresponding to the second period is set as the threshold.

As described in the embodiment described later, the signal level of the first detection signal changes with the change of the readout period of the first detection signal corresponding to one screen in different types of sensors. Therefore, If the threshold is not changed, it cannot be accurately determined whether the object is in contact with the screen or not.

In addition, in the above-mentioned sensing device, the above-mentioned determining unit may also be configured such that the above-mentioned determination unit counts the number of the above-mentioned second detection signals satisfying the condition defined by the above-mentioned threshold value among all the above-mentioned second detection signals, and according to the count As a result, it is determined whether the object is in contact with the screen or not. For example, if the count result is 1 or more, it may be determined that the object is in contact with the screen. Alternatively, it may be determined that the object is in contact with the screen when the count result is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and when the count result is within a predetermined range defined by an upper limit value and a lower limit value. In the latter case, misjudgments can be reduced. In addition, "the above-mentioned second detection signal that satisfies the condition defined by the above-mentioned threshold value" corresponds to, for example, the second detection signal corresponding to the first detection signal whose signal level is lower than the threshold value, or the second detection signal corresponding to the first detection signal whose signal level is not less than the threshold value. The 1st detection signal corresponds to the 2nd detection signal.

In addition, in the sensing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of sensors are used to detect the position where the object touches the screen. A first detection signal of a level corresponding to the contact state or the distance between the object and the screen, wherein the first detection signal is read from the plurality of sensors at a predetermined cycle; Levels are compared with thresholds to generate binarized second detection signals; whether the object is in contact with the screen or not is determined based on the second detection signals; and the object is detected based on the second detection signals The position in contact with the above-mentioned screen; when the result of the above-mentioned determination is non-contact, control the readout of each of the above-mentioned first detection signals so that the above-mentioned predetermined cycle becomes the first cycle; The readout of each of the first detection signals is controlled so that the predetermined period becomes a second period shorter than the first period. By the above sensing method, the same effect as that of the sensing device of the first embodiment can be achieved.

The liquid crystal display device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-318819 always detects coordinate positions at the same cycle. Therefore, even if the touch input is not for a long time, it is necessary to read the imaging data from each image reading sensor 33 at the same cycle as when there is a touch input, resulting in unnecessary power consumption. In view of the above circumstances, an object of the second embodiment of the present invention is to reduce power consumption.

In order to achieve the above object, the sensor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where the object touches the screen, and includes: a plurality of sensors arranged on the screen to generate light with a light intensity corresponding to the incident light intensity. The first detection signal corresponding to the size; the readout unit, which can operate in the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, in the normal mode, read the above-mentioned first detection signal from the above-mentioned plurality of sensors in the first cycle, in the low power consumption mode In the electric mode, the above-mentioned first detection signals are read from the plurality of sensors with a second cycle longer than the above-mentioned first cycle; a binarization unit is used to combine the above-mentioned first detection signals read by the above-mentioned readout unit with Threshold value comparison generates binarized second detection signals respectively; detection means detects that the object is not in contact with the screen based on the respective second detection signals; detection means detects that the object is not in contact with the screen based on the respective second detection signals, Detecting a position where the object is in contact with the screen; and a control unit that manages switching between the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, in which non-contact is detected continuously for a predetermined time by the detection unit control the readout unit to switch to the low power consumption mode, and control the readout unit to switch from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode in a predetermined situation.

According to this configuration, when it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined period of time, the operation mode of the reading unit is changed from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode, and the second cycle is longer than that of the normal mode. The number of 1st detection signals for 1 frame is output. Therefore, when the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined period of time, the frequency of reading out the first detection signal for one screen can be reduced compared to the case where this is not the case. For example, when the first period is set to 60 Hz and the second period is set to 10 Hz, when the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined period of time, the number of 1 screen can be reduced compared to the case where it does not. The readout frequency of the first detection signal is reduced to 1/6. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

In addition, "arranged on the screen" includes, for example, not only the case where a touch panel equipped with a plurality of sensors is pasted on the screen, but also the case where a plurality of sensors are built into a display panel as described in the embodiments described later. in the situation. In addition, the "object" refers to a finger or a stylus. In addition, the so-called "predetermined situation", if it is a structure that can detect that the object is close to the screen, and the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance, it means that the object is detected in the low power consumption mode. If the distance to the screen is less than a certain distance, if the structure can detect that the object is in contact with the screen, it is detected that the object is in contact with the screen in the low power consumption mode.

In addition, the sensor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where an object touches the screen, and includes: a plurality of sensors arranged on the screen to generate a first sensor having a size corresponding to the amount of incident light. 1 detection signal; a readout unit, which can operate in a normal mode and a low power consumption mode. In the normal mode, the above-mentioned first detection signal is read from the plurality of sensors in the first cycle. In the low power consumption mode, Read the above-mentioned first detection signals from the plurality of sensors with a second period longer than the above-mentioned first period; a binarization unit that compares the above-mentioned first detection signals read by the above-mentioned readout unit with a threshold value, respectively A binarized second detection signal is generated; a detection unit detects that the object approaches the screen and the distance between the object and the screen is equal to or less than a certain distance based on the respective second detection signals; a detection unit that detects a position where the object is in contact with the screen; and a control unit that manages switching between the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, and in the low power consumption mode, the detection unit detects When the distance falls below a certain distance, the reading unit is controlled to switch to the normal mode, and when predetermined, the reading unit is controlled to switch from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode.

According to this configuration, when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, the operation mode of the reading unit is changed from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode. Therefore, until the distance between the object and the screen becomes equal to or less than a certain distance, the reading unit operates in the low power consumption mode, and reads out the first detection signal for one screen in a second period longer than that in the normal mode. On the other hand, when the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance, the reading unit operates in the normal mode, and reads out the first detection signals for one screen in a first period shorter than that in the low power consumption mode. Therefore, until the distance between the object and the screen becomes equal to or less than a certain distance, the frequency of reading out the first detection signal for one screen can be reduced. For example, when the first cycle is set to 60 Hz and the second cycle is set to 10 Hz, the readout frequency of the first detection signal for one screen can be adjusted until the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance. The degree is reduced to 1/6. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

Furthermore, when the distance between the object and the screen becomes below a certain distance, the frequency of reading out the first detection signal for one screen can be increased, so the temporal resolution of the contact determination and the detection of the contact position can be improved, Contact determination and detection of a contact position can be performed with high precision. In particular, by setting the timing of switching from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode, not when the contact between the object and the screen is detected, but when the distance between the object and the screen is detected to be constant. When the distance is less than or equal to the distance, the accuracy of contact determination and detection of the contact position can be improved in advance before the object actually touches the screen.

In addition, the so-called "predetermined situation", for example, if it is a structure that can detect the non-contact of the object and the screen, it is detected in the normal mode that the object is not in contact with the screen for a continuous predetermined time, and , if it is a structure that can determine whether the object is close to the screen, and the distance between the object and the screen has become below a certain distance, it means that the distance between the object and the screen has not become below a certain distance in the normal mode for a predetermined time. The situation of the judgment result.

In addition, the sensor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where an object touches the screen, and includes: a plurality of sensors arranged on the above-mentioned screen to generate light beams having a size corresponding to the incident light amount, respectively. The first detection signal; the readout unit, which can operate in the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, in the normal mode, reads the above-mentioned first detection signal from the plurality of sensors in the first cycle, and in the low power consumption mode , read the above-mentioned first detection signal from the above-mentioned plurality of sensors with a second period longer than the above-mentioned first period; a binarization unit, which can be used to determine whether the above-mentioned object is close to the above-mentioned screen, and the above-mentioned object and the above-mentioned The first threshold set when the distance of the screen becomes less than a certain distance, and the second threshold set for judging whether the object is not in contact with the screen, each of the first thresholds read by the readout unit The detection signal is compared with any one of the above-mentioned first threshold value and the above-mentioned second threshold value to generate a binarized second detection signal; In the case of detection signals, based on the second detection signals, it is detected that the object approaches the screen, and when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become a certain distance or less, the binarization unit When each of the second detection signals is generated using the second threshold value, it is detected that the object is in contact with the screen based on the second detection signal; the detection unit uses the second detection signal in the binarization unit 2. When each of the above-mentioned second detection signals is generated by a threshold value, detecting a position where the above-mentioned object touches the above-mentioned screen based on each of the second detection signals; and manage the change between the first threshold and the second threshold. In the low power consumption mode, when the detection unit detects that the distance is below a certain distance, the readout unit is controlled to switch to Go to the above-mentioned normal mode, and control the above-mentioned binarization unit, use the above-mentioned second threshold value to generate each of the above-mentioned second detection signals, and in the above-mentioned normal mode, when the detection unit detects that the non-contact is detected continuously for a predetermined time , control the readout unit to switch to the low power consumption mode, and control the binarization unit to generate the respective second detection signals using the first threshold.

According to this configuration, when it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined period of time, the operation mode of the reading unit is changed from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode, and the second cycle is longer than that of the normal mode. The number of 1st detection signals for 1 frame is output. When it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become below a certain distance, the operation mode of the readout unit is switched from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode, and the first cycle is shorter than that of the low power consumption mode. The number of first detection signals for one screen is read. Therefore, during the period from when it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined continuous time to when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, the operation is performed in the low power consumption mode, which is different from that in the normal mode. Compared with the case, the frequency of reading out the first detection signal for one screen can be reduced. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

Not only that, during the period from when the distance between the object and the screen is detected to be below a certain distance to when the object is not in contact with the screen is detected for a predetermined period of time, the normal mode operates, and the low power consumption mode Compared with the case of this method, the frequency of reading out the first detection signal for one screen can be increased. Therefore, the temporal resolution of contact determination and contact position detection can be improved, and contact determination and contact position detection can be performed with high accuracy. In particular, by setting the timing of switching from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode, not when the object is detected to be in contact with the screen, but when the distance between the object and the screen is detected to be constant When the distance is less than or equal to the distance, before the object actually touches the screen, the accuracy of the contact determination and the detection of the contact position can be improved in advance.

In the above sensor device, it may also be configured that the plurality of sensors are arranged on the screen corresponding to intersections of m (an integer greater than 2) scanning lines and n (an integer greater than 2) readout lines. For the m×n sensors above, the readout unit can operate in the normal mode and the low power consumption mode. In the normal mode, the first detection signal is read out from the m×n sensors in the first cycle. In the low power consumption mode, in the above-mentioned second cycle, from the above-mentioned M (integer of more than 2 and less than the above-mentioned m) consecutively arranged above-mentioned scanning lines and N (integer of above-mentioned 2 and below the above-mentioned n) above-mentioned read The above-mentioned first detection signal is read out of the M×N sensors corresponding to the outgoing lines, which are less than the above-mentioned m×n.

According to this configuration, the reading unit reads out the first detection signal from the M×N sensors which are part of all the sensors (m×n) arranged on the screen in the second cycle in the low power consumption mode. Therefore, in the low power consumption mode, the frequency of reading out the first detection signal can be reduced and the number of sensors that read out the first detection signal can be reduced compared to the case in the normal mode. Therefore, power consumption can be further reduced.

In the above-mentioned sensing device, it may also be configured to include: a backlight provided on the back of the above-mentioned screen, having a plurality of light sources capable of adjusting the light quantity of emitted light; The illuminance of the ambient light is calculated from the above-mentioned first detection signals, and when the calculated illuminance is less than a predetermined value, and in the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, compared with the light quantity of the outgoing light of other above-mentioned light sources, the light quantity is increased and arranged The amount of light emitted by the light source corresponding to the M×N areas of the sensors.

As described in the embodiments described later, when the surroundings of the sensor device are dark, it is detected that the object approaches the vicinity of the screen by using the light of the backlight reflected by the object. Therefore, when the surroundings of the sensor device are dark, it is difficult to detect approaching if the light emission luminance of the backlight is weak. Therefore, according to the above configuration, it is possible to more easily detect that an object approaches the vicinity of the screen even when the surroundings of the sensor device are dark. In addition, since the light from the backlight is enhanced only in the area of the screen where the sensors that read out the first detection signal are arranged in the low power consumption mode, unnecessary power consumption can be suppressed.

In the above-mentioned sensing device, it may also be configured that the above-mentioned multiple sensors are arranged on the above-mentioned screen corresponding to the intersections of the multiple scanning lines and the multiple read-out lines, and the above-mentioned read-out unit has a selection unit, and the selection unit is in the above-mentioned In the case of the normal mode, each of the above-mentioned plurality of scanning lines is sequentially selected, and in the case of the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, the above-mentioned plurality of scanning lines are sequentially selected at a ratio of selecting one for every L (an integer greater than 2), The readout means reads out the first detection signals from the sensors corresponding to the scanning lines selected by the selection means via the plurality of readout lines.

According to this configuration, the selection unit sequentially selects a plurality of scanning lines at a rate of selecting one for every L lines in the low power consumption mode. Therefore, in the case of the low power consumption mode, compared with the case of the normal mode, not only can the frequency of reading the first detection signal for one screen be reduced, but also the number of sensors that read the first detection signal can be reduced. number reduced to 1/L. Accordingly, power consumption can be further reduced.

In addition, the sensing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention detects the position where the object touches the above-mentioned screen using a plurality of sensors arranged on the screen to generate light beams each having a size corresponding to the amount of incident light. The first detection signal, wherein the above-mentioned first detection signal can be read in the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, and in the normal mode, the above-mentioned first detection signal is read from the above-mentioned plurality of sensors in the first cycle, and the low In the power consumption mode, the first detection signals are read from the plurality of sensors in a second cycle longer than the first cycle, and the first detection signals are read out in either the normal mode or the low power consumption mode. detection signal; compare the above-mentioned first detection signals read out with a threshold value to generate binarized second detection signals respectively; according to each of the second detection signals, detect that the above-mentioned object is not in contact with the above-mentioned screen; according to Each of the above-mentioned second detection signals detects the contact position of the above-mentioned object with the above-mentioned screen; manages the switching between the above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, and in the above-mentioned normal mode, detects the contact between the above-mentioned object and the above-mentioned screen for a continuous predetermined time. When the screen is non-contact, the readout of the first detection signal is transferred to the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, and in a predetermined case, the readout of the first detection signal is transferred from the above-mentioned low power consumption mode to the above-mentioned normal mode.

In addition, the sensing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention detects the position where the object touches the above-mentioned screen using a plurality of sensors arranged on the screen to generate light beams each having a size corresponding to the amount of incident light. The first detection signal, wherein the above-mentioned first detection signal can be read in the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, and in the normal mode, the above-mentioned first detection signal is read from the above-mentioned plurality of sensors in the first cycle, and the low In the power consumption mode, the first detection signals are read from the plurality of sensors in a second cycle longer than the first cycle, and the first detection signals are read out in either the normal mode or the low power consumption mode. detection signal; compare the above-mentioned respective first detection signals read out with threshold values to generate binarized second detection signals respectively; based on the above-mentioned respective second detection signals, it is detected that the above-mentioned object is close to the above-mentioned screen, and it is detected that the above-mentioned When the distance between the object and the above-mentioned screen becomes less than a certain distance; manage the switching between the above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, and in the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, when the distance between the above-mentioned object and the above-mentioned screen is detected When the distance is less than a certain distance, the reading of the first detection signal is switched to the normal mode, and when predetermined, the reading of the first detection signal is switched from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode.

Also according to the sensing method described above, the same effect as that of the sensing device of the second embodiment can be achieved.

In the liquid crystal display device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-318819, the number of image reading sensors 33 to be read out of image data is fixed, and images are always read from the same plurality of image reading sensors 33. data. Therefore, even if the touch input is not for a long time, it is necessary to read the imaging data from the same number of image reading sensors 33 as in the case of the touch input, resulting in unnecessary power consumption. In view of the above circumstances, an object of the third and fourth embodiments of the present invention is to reduce power consumption.

In order to achieve the above object, the sensor device according to the third embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where the object touches the screen, and it has: m×n sensors, which correspond to m (an integer greater than 2) scanning lines and the intersections of n (more than 2 integers) readout lines are arranged on the above-mentioned screen, respectively generating the first detection signal with a magnitude corresponding to the amount of light incident; In the normal readout mode, the above-mentioned first detection signal is read out from each of the above-mentioned m×n sensors; Integer of) above-mentioned scanning lines and N (above 2 above-mentioned integers below n below-mentioned integer) above-mentioned read-out lines corresponding to each of the above-mentioned M×N above-mentioned sensors that are less than the above-mentioned m×n are read out the above-mentioned first 1 detection signal; a binarization unit that compares the above-mentioned first detection signals read by the above-mentioned readout unit with a threshold value to generate a binarized second detection signal; a detection unit that uses the above-mentioned respective second detection signals a detection signal for detecting that the object is not in contact with the screen; a detection unit for detecting a position where the object is in contact with the screen based on each of the second detection signals; and a control unit for managing the normal reading mode Switching between the above-mentioned partial readout mode, in the above-mentioned normal readout mode, when the above-mentioned detection unit detects that it is non-contact for a predetermined time, control the above-mentioned readout unit to switch to the above-mentioned partial readout mode, and In a predetermined situation, the above-mentioned reading unit is controlled to switch from the above-mentioned partial reading mode to the above-mentioned normal reading mode.

According to this configuration, when it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen continuously for a predetermined time, the operation mode of the reading unit is changed from the normal reading mode to the partial reading mode. In the case of the partial readout mode, the readout means reads out the first detection signal from some M×N sensors among all the sensors (m×n) arranged on the screen. Therefore, when the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined time, the first detection signal is read from only some of the sensors arranged on the screen, so the number of sensors that read the first detection signal can be reduced. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

In addition, "arranged on the screen" includes, for example, not only the case where a touch panel equipped with a plurality of sensors is pasted on the screen, but also the case where a plurality of sensors are built into a display panel as described in the embodiments described later. in the situation. In addition, the "object" refers to a finger or a stylus. In addition, the so-called "predetermined case", if it is a structure that can detect that the object approaches the screen, and the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance, it means that the object is detected in the partial readout mode. The distance from the screen may be less than a certain distance. In addition, if it is configured to be able to detect that the object is in contact with the screen, it is detected that the object is in contact with the screen in the partial readout mode.

In addition, the sensor device according to the third embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where the object touches the screen, and has m×n sensors corresponding to m (an integer greater than 2) scanning lines and n (2 The intersections of the above integer) readout lines are arranged on the above-mentioned screen, respectively generating the first detection signal with a magnitude corresponding to the incident light amount; the readout unit can operate in a normal readout mode and a partial readout mode , in the normal read mode, read the above-mentioned first detection signal from each of the above-mentioned m×n sensors, and in the partial read-out mode, read the above-mentioned Read the above-mentioned first detection signal from each of the M×N above-mentioned sensors that are less than the above-mentioned m×n number corresponding to the scanning line and the N (integer of more than 2 and less than the above-mentioned n) readout lines arranged in a row; 2 A value conversion unit, which compares the above-mentioned first detection signals read by the above-mentioned read-out unit with the above-mentioned threshold values, and generates binarized second detection signals respectively; It is known that the above-mentioned object is close to the above-mentioned screen, and the distance from the above-mentioned screen becomes less than a certain distance; a detection unit detects the position where the above-mentioned object is in contact with the above-mentioned screen; and a control unit manages the above-mentioned normal reading mode and In the switching between the above-mentioned partial readout modes, in the above-mentioned partial readout mode, when the above-mentioned detection unit detects that the distance has become less than a certain distance, the above-mentioned readout unit is controlled to switch to the above-mentioned normal readout mode, and In a predetermined situation, the above-mentioned readout unit is controlled to switch from the above-mentioned normal readout mode to the above-mentioned partial readout mode.

According to this configuration, when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, the operation mode of the reading means is changed from the partial reading mode to the normal reading mode. Thus, until the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance, the readout unit operates in the partial readout mode, and reads from the M×N sensors which are a part of all the sensors (m×n) arranged on the screen. A sensor reads out the first detection signal. On the other hand, when the distance between the object and the screen is equal to or less than a certain distance, the readout unit operates in the normal readout mode to read out the first detection signals from all the sensors arranged on the screen.

Therefore, since the first detection signals are read out only from some of the sensors arranged on the screen until the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance, the number of sensors for reading out the first detection signals can be reduced. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly. Furthermore, since the first detection signals are read from all the sensors arranged on the screen when the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance, contact determination and contact position detection can be performed with the entire screen as an object.

The so-called "predetermined situation", if it is a structure that can detect that the object is not in contact with the screen, in the normal readout mode, it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined time, and if it can be determined that the object is not in contact with the screen. Whether the object is close to the screen and the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance means that the distance between the object and the screen is not less than a certain distance in the normal reading mode for a predetermined period of time.

In addition, the sensor device according to the third embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where the object touches the screen, and has m×n sensors corresponding to m (an integer greater than 2) scanning lines and n (2 The intersections of the above integer) readout lines are arranged on the above-mentioned screen, respectively generating the first detection signal with a magnitude corresponding to the incident light amount; the readout unit can operate in a normal readout mode and a partial readout mode , in the normal read mode, read the above-mentioned first detection signal from each of the above-mentioned m×n sensors, and in the partial read-out mode, read the above-mentioned Read the above-mentioned first detection signal from each of the M×N above-mentioned sensors that are less than the above-mentioned m×n number corresponding to the scanning line and the N (integer of more than 2 and less than the above-mentioned n) readout lines arranged in a row; 2 A value quantization unit that can use a first threshold set for determining whether the object is close to the screen, and a distance between the object and the screen is equal to or less than a certain distance, and a first threshold value for determining whether the object is different from the screen. contact with the second threshold set, and compare each of the first detection signals read by the readout unit with any one of the first threshold and the second threshold, and generate binarized second detection signals respectively; A detecting unit that, when the binarization unit generates the respective second detection signals using the first threshold value, detects that the object approaches the screen based on the respective second detection signals, and that the object When the distance from the screen is less than a certain distance, when the binarization unit generates the respective second detection signals using the second threshold value, the distance between the object and the object is detected based on the respective second detection signals. In the case where the screen is not in contact: a detecting unit configured to detect that the object is in contact with the screen based on the respective second detection signals when the binarization unit generates the respective second detection signals using the second threshold. and a control unit that manages switching between the above-mentioned normal read mode and the above-mentioned partial read-out mode, and manages the change between the above-mentioned first threshold value and the above-mentioned second threshold value, and in the above-mentioned partial read-out mode, in When the detecting unit detects that the distance is less than a certain distance, the reading unit is controlled to switch to the normal reading mode, and the binarization unit is controlled to generate the respective second detection signals using the second threshold value. In the normal readout mode, when the detection unit detects non-contact for a predetermined time continuously, the readout unit is controlled to switch to the partial readout mode, and the binarization unit is controlled to use the first threshold to generate Each of the above-mentioned second detection signals.

According to this structure, when it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined period of time, the operation mode of the readout unit is changed from the normal readout mode to the partial readout mode, and the readout is read from a part of the sensors arranged on the screen. output the first detection signal. When it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become below a certain distance, the operation mode of the readout unit is changed from the partial readout mode to the normal readout mode, and all the sensors arranged on the screen are read out. 1st detection signal.

Therefore, during the period from when the object is not in contact with the screen detected for a predetermined period of time to when the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance is detected thereafter, only a part of the sensors arranged on the screen Since the first detection signal is read, the number of sensors for reading the first detection signal can be reduced. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

Furthermore, since the detection of the non-contact between the object and the screen for a continuous predetermined time after the detection of the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, all the sensors arranged on the screen Since the first detection signal is read out, it is possible to perform touch determination and touch position detection targeting the entire screen.

In the above sensor device, it may also be configured that the readout unit has a selection unit that sequentially selects each of the m scanning lines in the normal readout mode, and selects each of the m scanning lines sequentially in the partial readout mode. , at a ratio of selecting one for every L (an integer greater than 2), sequentially select the above-mentioned M scanning lines, and the above-mentioned readout unit reads out from each of the above-mentioned m×n sensors in the above-mentioned normal readout mode. The first detection signal is read from each of the M×N/L sensors in the partial readout mode.

According to this configuration, the selection unit sequentially selects M scanning lines to be selected at a rate of selecting one for every L in the case of the partial readout mode. Therefore, in the case of the partial readout mode, the number of sensors that read out the first detection signal can be reduced to 1/L, so that power consumption can be further reduced.

In the above-mentioned sensing device, it may also be configured to include: a backlight, which is provided on the back of the above-mentioned screen, and has a plurality of light sources that can adjust the light quantity of emitted light; The illuminance of the ambient light is calculated from a plurality of the above-mentioned first detection signals, and when the calculated illuminance is less than a predetermined value, and in the case of the above-mentioned partial readout mode, compared with the light quantity of the outgoing light of the other above-mentioned light sources, the increase and arrangement are The amount of light emitted by the light source corresponding to the M×N areas of the sensors.

According to this configuration, even when the surroundings of the sensor device are dark, it is possible to more easily detect that an object is approaching the screen. In addition, since the light from the backlight is enhanced only in the area of the screen where the sensors that read out the first detection signal in the partial readout mode are arranged, unnecessary power consumption can be suppressed.

In addition, the sensing method according to the third embodiment of the present invention uses m×n sensors corresponding to m (integer of 2 or more) scanning lines and n (2 The intersections of the above integer) readout lines are arranged on the above-mentioned screen to generate first detection signals having a magnitude corresponding to the incident light amount, wherein the above-mentioned first detection signal can be performed in a normal readout mode and a partial readout mode. For the readout of the detection signal, in the normal readout mode, the above-mentioned first detection signal is read out from each of the above-mentioned m×n sensors; Integer of) above-mentioned scanning lines and N (above 2 above-mentioned integers below n below-mentioned integer) above-mentioned read-out lines corresponding to each of the above-mentioned M×N above-mentioned sensors that are less than the above-mentioned m×n are read out the above-mentioned first 1 detection signal, and read the above-mentioned first detection signal respectively in any one of the above-mentioned normal read mode and the above-mentioned partial read mode; compare each of the read-out first detection signals with threshold values, and generate binarized first detection signals respectively. 2 detection signals: detecting that the object is not in contact with the screen based on the second detection signals; detecting a position where the object is in contact with the screen based on the second detection signals; managing the normal readout mode Switching between the above-mentioned partial readout mode, in the above-mentioned normal readout mode, when it is detected that the above-mentioned object is not in contact with the above-mentioned screen for a predetermined time, the readout of the above-mentioned first detection signal is transferred to the above-mentioned Partial readout mode, and in a predetermined case, the readout of the first detection signal is changed from the partial readout mode to the normal readout mode.

In addition, the sensing method according to the third embodiment of the present invention uses m×n sensors to detect the position where the object touches the screen, and the m×n sensors correspond to m (an integer of 2 or more) scanning lines and n (2 or more) scanning lines. The intersections of the readout lines are arranged on the above-mentioned screen to generate first detection signals having a magnitude corresponding to the incident light amount, wherein the above-mentioned first detection can be performed in the normal readout mode and the partial readout mode For the readout of the signal, in the normal readout mode, the above-mentioned first detection signal is read out from each of the above-mentioned m×n sensors; Integer) of the above-mentioned scanning lines and N (above 2 and below the above-mentioned integer of n) corresponding to the above-mentioned read-out lines arranged continuously, and each of the above-mentioned M×N above-mentioned sensors that are less than the above-mentioned m×n read out the above-mentioned first detect signals, and read out the above-mentioned first detection signals in any one of the above-mentioned normal readout mode and the above-mentioned partial readout mode; compare the read-out first detection signals with threshold values, and generate binarized second detection signal; based on each of the second detection signals, it is detected that the object is close to the screen, and the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance; the normal reading mode and the partial reading mode are managed In the partial readout mode, when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, the readout of the first detection signal is switched to the normal readout mode. , and in a predetermined case, the readout of the first detection signal is switched from the normal readout mode to the partial readout mode.

The same effect as that of the sensor device of the third embodiment can be obtained also by the above sensing method.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, the sensor device according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where an object touches the screen, and includes: a plurality of sensors corresponding to a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of readout lines The intersection points are arranged on the above-mentioned screen to generate the first detection signal with a size corresponding to the incident light amount; the selection unit can operate in the normal mode and the thinning mode, and in the normal mode, sequentially select the above-mentioned multiple Each of the scanning lines, in the thinning mode, selects one for every K (an integer greater than 2), and sequentially selects the above-mentioned multiple scanning lines; the readout unit, which uses the above-mentioned multiple readout lines from the above-mentioned The above-mentioned first detection signals corresponding to the above-mentioned scanning lines selected by the selection unit are respectively read out; A valued second detection signal; a detection unit that detects that the object is not in contact with the screen based on each of the second detection signals; a detection unit that detects the object based on each of the second detection signals a position in contact with the above-mentioned screen; and a control unit that manages switching between the above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned thinning mode. The selection unit switches to the thinning mode, and controls the selection unit to switch from the thinning mode to the normal mode in a predetermined situation.

According to this configuration, when it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen continuously for a predetermined time, the operation mode of the reading unit is changed from the normal mode to the thinning mode. Scanlines are selected sequentially at a ratio of 1 for every K. Thus, when the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined time or more, compared with the non-existing case (the case where there is a touch input, and the case where the non-contact input is continued but the predetermined time has not been reached), the The number of sensors that read out the first detection signal can be reduced to 1/K. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

In addition, "arranged on the screen" includes, for example, not only the case where a touch panel equipped with a plurality of sensors is pasted on the screen, but also the case where a plurality of sensors are built into a display panel as described in the embodiments described later. in the situation. In addition, the "object" refers to a finger or a stylus. In addition, the so-called "predetermined case", if it is a structure that can detect that the object approaches the screen, and the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance, it is detected in the thinning mode that the object and the screen are close together. The screen distance may be less than a certain distance. In addition, if it is configured to be able to detect that the object is in contact with the screen, it is detected that the object is in contact with the screen in the thinning mode.

In addition, the sensor device according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention is used to detect the position where the object touches the screen, and has: a plurality of sensors, the intersections of which correspond to a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of readout lines are arranged at the above-mentioned On the screen, respectively generate the first detection signal with a magnitude corresponding to the amount of light incident; the selection unit can operate in a normal mode and a thinning mode, and in the normal mode, sequentially selects each of the above-mentioned plurality of scanning lines at intervals In the elimination mode, the above-mentioned multiple scanning lines are sequentially selected at a ratio of selecting one for every K (an integer greater than 2); the readout unit, from the above-mentioned sensor corresponding to the above-mentioned scanning line selected by the above-mentioned selection unit, Through the above-mentioned plurality of readout lines, the above-mentioned first detection signals are respectively read out; the binarization unit compares the above-mentioned first detection signals read out by the above-mentioned readout unit with threshold values, and generates binarized second detection signals respectively. A detection signal; a detection unit that detects that the object approaches the screen based on each of the second detection signals, and that the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance; a detection unit that detects the object A position where an object touches the screen; and a control unit that manages switching between the normal mode and the thinning mode, and in the thinning mode, when the detection unit detects that the distance is below a certain distance , controlling the selection unit to switch to the normal mode, and in a predetermined situation, controlling the selection unit to switch from the normal mode to the thinning mode.

According to this configuration, when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, the operation mode of the selection unit is changed from the thinning mode to the normal mode, so that the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance. Previously, the selection unit operates in the thinning mode, and sequentially selects one scan line for every K lines. On the other hand, when the distance between the object and the screen is equal to or less than a certain distance, the selection unit operates in the normal mode to sequentially select all the scanning lines one by one. Accordingly, the number of sensors that read out the first detection signal can be reduced to 1/K until the distance between the object and the screen becomes less than a certain distance. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

Furthermore, when the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance, the first detection signals are read from all the sensors arranged on the screen, so contact determination and contact position detection can be performed with high precision. In particular, by setting the timing of switching from the thinning mode to the normal mode, not when it is detected that the object is in contact with the screen, but when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance In some cases, before the object actually comes into contact with the screen, it is possible to improve the accuracy of contact determination and detection of the contact position.

In addition, the so-called "predetermined situation", if it is a structure that can detect the non-contact of the object and the screen, it is the situation that the non-contact of the object and the screen is detected continuously for a predetermined time in the normal mode, and if it is possible The structure of judging whether the object is close to the screen, and the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance is to obtain the judgment result that the distance between the object and the screen is not less than a certain distance in the normal mode for a predetermined time. Case.

A sensor device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention is used to detect a position where an object touches a screen, wherein a plurality of sensors are arranged on the screen at intersections corresponding to a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of readout lines , respectively generate the first detection signal with a magnitude corresponding to the amount of incident light; the selection unit can operate in a normal mode and a thinning-out mode, and in the normal mode, sequentially select each of the above-mentioned plurality of scanning lines, and in the thinning-out mode Next, sequentially select the above-mentioned multiple scanning lines at a ratio of selecting one for every K (an integer greater than 2); the readout unit passes the above-mentioned multiple scanning lines from the above-mentioned sensors corresponding to the above-mentioned scanning lines selected by the above-mentioned selection unit. A readout line for reading out the above-mentioned first detection signal respectively; a binarization unit, which can be used to determine whether the above-mentioned object is close to the above-mentioned screen, and the distance between the above-mentioned object and the above-mentioned screen is below a certain distance. The first threshold and the second threshold set in order to determine whether the object is not in contact with the screen, the first detection signal read by the readout unit and the first threshold and the second threshold Comparing either one, respectively generating a binarized second detection signal; a detecting unit, when the above-mentioned binarization unit generates the above-mentioned respective second detection signals using the above-mentioned first threshold value, based on the respective second detection signals When it is detected that the object approaches the screen and the distance between the object and the screen is less than a certain distance, when the binarization unit generates the respective second detection signals using the second threshold , based on the respective second detection signals, detect that the object is not in contact with the screen; the detection unit, when the binarization unit generates the respective second detection signals using the second threshold value, according to Each of the second detection signals detects a position where the object touches the screen; and a control unit that manages switching between the normal mode and the thinning mode, and manages between the first threshold and the second threshold. In the thinning-out mode, when the detection unit detects that the distance is below a certain distance, the selection unit is controlled to switch to the normal mode, and the binarization unit is controlled to use the second threshold to generate For each of the above-mentioned second detection signals, in the above-mentioned normal mode, when the above-mentioned detection unit detects non-contact for a predetermined time continuously, the above-mentioned selection unit is controlled to switch to the above-mentioned thinning mode, and the above-mentioned binarization unit is controlled to use the above-mentioned The first threshold generates each of the above-mentioned second detection signals.

According to this structure, when the non-contact between the object and the screen is detected continuously for a predetermined time, the operation mode of the selection unit is changed from the normal mode to the thinning mode, and the scanning lines are sequentially selected at a ratio of 1 for every K lines. . On the other hand, when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, the operation mode of the selection unit is changed from the thinning mode to the normal mode, and all the scanning lines are sequentially selected one by one. Therefore, during the period from when it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen for a predetermined period of time to when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance, the sensor that reads the first detection signal can be set to The number is reduced to 1/K. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out the first detection signal and generating the binarized signal can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption accordingly.

Furthermore, during the period from when the distance between the object and the screen is detected to be less than a certain distance to when the non-contact between the object and the screen is detected for a predetermined continuous time thereafter, all the sensors arranged on the screen read Since the first detection signal is output, contact judgment and contact position detection can be performed with high precision. In particular, by setting the timing of switching from the thinning mode to the normal mode, not when it is detected that the object is in contact with the screen, but when it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen has become less than a certain distance In some cases, before the object actually comes into contact with the screen, it is possible to improve the accuracy of contact determination and detection of the contact position.

In addition, in the sensing method according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of sensors are used to detect the contact position of the object on the screen, and the plurality of sensors are arranged on the screen corresponding to intersection points of a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of readout lines. , respectively generate the first detection signal with a magnitude corresponding to the amount of incident light, wherein the selection of the above-mentioned scanning lines can be carried out in the normal mode and the thinning-out mode, and in the normal mode, each of the above-mentioned plurality of scanning lines is sequentially selected, at intervals In the elimination mode, the above-mentioned multiple scanning lines are selected sequentially at a ratio of selecting one for every K (integer above 2); The sensor corresponding to the above-mentioned scanning line reads out the above-mentioned first detection signal respectively through the above-mentioned plurality of readout lines; compares each of the above-mentioned first detection signals read out with a threshold value, and generates a binarized second detection signal respectively ; Detecting that the object is not in contact with the screen based on each of the second detection signals; detecting a position where the object is in contact with the screen based on the second detection signals; managing the normal mode and the thinning mode In the above-mentioned normal mode, when it is detected that the above-mentioned object is not in contact with the above-mentioned screen for a predetermined time, the selection of the above-mentioned scanning lines is transferred to the above-mentioned thinning mode, and in the predetermined case, The selection of the above-mentioned scanning lines is changed from the above-mentioned thinning mode to the above-mentioned normal mode.

In addition, in the sensing method according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of sensors are used to detect the contact position of the object on the screen, and the plurality of sensors are arranged on the screen corresponding to intersection points of a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of readout lines. , respectively generate the first detection signal with a magnitude corresponding to the amount of incident light, wherein the selection of the above-mentioned scanning lines can be carried out in the normal mode and the thinning-out mode, and in the normal mode, each of the above-mentioned plurality of scanning lines is sequentially selected, at intervals In the elimination mode, the above-mentioned multiple scanning lines are selected sequentially at a ratio of selecting one for every K (integer above 2); The sensors corresponding to the above-mentioned scanning lines read out the above-mentioned first detection signals respectively through the above-mentioned plurality of readout lines; signal; based on the respective second detection signals, it is detected that the object approaches the screen, and the distance between the object and the screen is equal to or less than a certain distance; switching between the normal mode and the thinning mode is managed , in the above-mentioned thinning mode, when it is detected that the distance between the above-mentioned object and the above-mentioned screen has become less than a certain distance, the selection of the above-mentioned scanning line is transferred to the above-mentioned normal mode, and in a predetermined case, the above-mentioned The selection of scanning lines is changed from the above-mentioned normal mode to the above-mentioned thinning mode.

Also according to the above sensing method, the same effect as that of the sensing device of the fourth embodiment can be obtained.

In addition, in the sensor devices according to the second to fourth embodiments, the detection means may be configured such that the number of the second detection signals satisfying the condition defined by the threshold value among all the second detection signals Counting is performed, and based on the counting result, it is detected that the object is not in contact with the screen. For example, if the count result is smaller than a predetermined value, it may be detected that the object is not in contact with the screen. In addition, when the count result is not a value within a predetermined range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value, it may be detected that the object is not in contact with the screen. In the latter case, misjudgment can be reduced. In addition, "the above-mentioned second detection signal satisfying the condition defined by the above-mentioned threshold value" corresponds to, for example, the second detection signal corresponding to the first detection signal whose signal level is smaller than the threshold value, or the first detection signal corresponding to the first detection signal whose signal level is greater than or equal to the threshold value. The second detection signal corresponding to the detection signal.

In addition, in the sensor devices according to the second to fourth embodiments, the detection means may be configured such that the number of the second detection signals satisfying the condition defined by the threshold value among all the second detection signals Counting is performed, and based on the counting result, it is detected that the distance between the object and the screen is equal to or less than a certain distance. For example, if the count result is 1 or more, it may be detected that the distance between the object and the screen is equal to or less than a certain distance. Alternatively, it may be detected that the distance between the object and the screen has reached a certain distance when the count result is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, or when the count result is within a predetermined range defined by an upper limit value and a lower limit value. the following. In the latter case, misjudgment can be reduced. In addition, "the above-mentioned second detection signal satisfying the condition defined by the above-mentioned threshold value" corresponds to, for example, the second detection signal corresponding to the first detection signal whose signal level is smaller than the threshold value, or the first detection signal corresponding to the first detection signal whose signal level is greater than or equal to the threshold value. The second detection signal corresponding to the detection signal.

In addition, a display device according to the present invention includes: any of the sensor devices described above; and a display unit that displays an image. The display device includes a display device using, for example, a liquid crystal element or an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode: Organic Light Emitting Diode) element. In addition, the display device may be configured to include a display control unit that generates an image representing the locus of the position detected by the detection unit and displays it on the display unit.

In addition, an electronic device of the present invention includes the above-mentioned display device. The electronic equipment includes, for example, a personal computer, a mobile phone, and a mobile information terminal.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a liquid crystal display device according to Embodiment A1.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining binarized signals corresponding to one screen.

3( a ) and FIG. 3( b ) are flowcharts showing the flow of mode switching processing 1 and 2 in Embodiment A1.

4( a ) and FIG. 4( b ) are flowcharts showing the outline of mode switching processes 1 and 2 in Embodiment A1.

5( a ) and FIG. 5( b ) are diagrams for explaining the thresholds T1 and T2 for contact determination and the thresholds S1 and S2 for approach determination.

6( a ) and FIG. 6( b ) are flowcharts showing the flow of mode switching processes 3 and 4 in Embodiment B1.

7( a ) and FIG. 7( b ) are flowcharts showing the outline of mode switching processes 3 and 4 in Embodiment B1.

8 and 9 are diagrams for explaining the normal mode and the low power consumption mode of Embodiment B2, and the normal read mode and partial read mode of Embodiment C1.

FIG. 10( a ) and FIG. 10( b ) are flowcharts showing the flow of mode switching processes 5 and 6 in Embodiment B2.

11 is a diagram for explaining the normal mode and the low power consumption mode of Embodiment B3, and the normal mode and thinning mode of Embodiment D1.

FIG. 12( a ) and FIG. 12( b ) are flowcharts showing the flow of mode switching processes 7 and 8 in Embodiment B3.

FIG. 13( a ) and FIG. 13( b ) are flowcharts showing the flow of mode switching processes 9 and 10 in Embodiment C1.

Fig. 14(a) and Fig. 14(b) are flowcharts showing the flow of mode switching processing 11, 12 in Embodiment D1.

15 to 17 are perspective views showing specific examples of the electronic device of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Hereinafter, several embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In addition, in each of the following embodiments, a case where the sensor device of the present invention is applied to a transmissive liquid crystal display device will be described.

<Embodiment A1>

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a liquid crystal display device 1 according to Embodiment A1. As shown in the figure, the liquid crystal display device 1 has a liquid crystal panel AA, a control circuit 300 , an image processing circuit 400 , a dimming circuit 700 , and a backlight 800 . The structure of the liquid crystal panel AA is to form the component substrate of the thin film transistor (Thin Film Transistor) as a switching element and the opposite substrate to face each other, and keep a certain gap between them, and hold the liquid crystal in the gap . In addition, the liquid crystal panel AA has an image display area A, a scanning line driving circuit 100 , a data line driving circuit 200 , a sensor scanning circuit 500 , and a light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 on the element substrate. In the image display area A, m (row)×n (column) pixel circuits P1 are formed in an array, and each pixel circuit P1 is electrically connected to the scanning line driving circuit 100 and the data line driving circuit 200 .

The control circuit 300 supplies clock signals and various control signals to the scanning line driving circuit 100 and the data line driving circuit 200 . The image processing circuit 400 performs image processing on the input image data Din, generates output image data Dout, and outputs it to the data line driving circuit 200 . The scanning line driving circuit 100 sequentially selects the pixel circuits P1 arranged in an array in units of rows. In addition, the data line driving circuit 200 supplies a data signal to each of the pixel circuits P1 for one row (n) sequentially selected by the scanning line driving circuit 100 . A backlight 800 is provided on the back of the liquid crystal panel AA, and the dimming circuit 700 under the control of the control circuit 300 makes the backlight 800 emit light at a brightness corresponding to the illuminance of ambient light (luminance around the liquid crystal display device 1 ). Light from the backlight 800 is emitted through the liquid crystal panel AA (image display area A). In the image display area A, since a plurality of pixel circuits P1 are arranged in an array, the transmittance can be controlled for each pixel circuit P1 according to the voltage level of the data signal supplied from the data line driving circuit 200. Modulated gray scale display, so that the image can be displayed in the image display area A.

In addition, the liquid crystal display device 1 has a touch input function, and in the image display area A, a photodetection circuit O1 is provided for each pixel circuit P1. More specifically, in the image display area A, m scanning lines extending in the X direction and n readout lines extending in the Y direction are formed, arranged corresponding to the intersections of the scanning lines and the readout lines There are m (rows)×n (columns) photodetection circuits O1. Each photodetection circuit O1 has a photosensor, and outputs a light reception signal having a signal level corresponding to the light quantity of incident light. The control circuit 300 supplies a clock signal and a scanning control signal to the sensor scanning circuit 500 . In addition, the control circuit 300 supplies a clock signal and a control signal for light-receiving signal processing to the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 . The sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects the photodetection circuits O1 arranged in an array using the scanning signals Y1, Y2, Y3, . . . , Ym. The light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 reads out the light-receiving signals X1, X2, X3, . . . ., Xn, and supply it to the control circuit 300.

Also, for example, when the liquid crystal display device 1 is exposed to natural light in daytime, and the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, in the image display area A (display screen), the portion touched by the finger or the stylus is shaded, and the The amount of light received by some parts is lower than that of other parts. That is, when the finger or the stylus approaches the display screen to some extent, a light shadow is formed on the display screen, and as the finger or the stylus gets closer to the display screen, the shadow gradually becomes thicker. At this time, the amount of light received by the photodetection circuit O1 (light sensor) in the shadowed portion of the display screen gradually decreases as the shadow becomes darker. Conversely, when the liquid crystal display device 1 is in a dark environment at night, etc., when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, since the light from the backlight 800 is reflected by the finger or the stylus, the finger or the stylus will be displayed on the display screen. Or, the amount of light received by the portion touched by the stylus is greater than that of other portions. That is, when a finger or a stylus comes close to the display screen to some extent, the light from the backlight 800 is reflected by the finger or the stylus to form an illuminated portion of the reflected light on the display screen. The intensity of the reflected light in this part gradually increases as the finger or the stylus gets closer to the display screen. At this time, the amount of light received by the photodetection circuit O1 at the portion irradiated with reflected light on the display screen increases because the reflected light becomes stronger as the finger or stylus approaches.

Therefore, the control circuit 300 can determine whether a finger or a stylus touches the display screen, that is, whether there is a touch or not, based on the light reception signals of one screen read out from the m×n photodetection circuits O1 included in the image display area A. .

Specifically, the control circuit 300 first compares the signal level of the light-receiving signal with a threshold value for each light-receiving signal read out for one screen (m×n), and converts it into a binary signal (binary processing ). In addition, the threshold value used in this binarization process is used to determine whether the signal level of the light-receiving signal has reached the level of the light-receiving amount when a finger or a stylus touches the display screen. For example, on the display screen, by acquiring a plurality of sampling data on the amount of light received by the photodetection circuit O1 (signal level of the light receiving signal) at the portion actually touched by a finger or a stylus, the threshold can be set based on the acquired sampling data. That is, in the above-mentioned binarization process, the control circuit 300 judges whether the signal level of each received light signal has reached the level of the received light amount when the finger or the stylus touches the display screen, and the output has a difference between when it reaches and when it does not. A valued signal with a signal value of .

In addition, since there are m×n light-receiving signals corresponding to one screen, m×n binarized signals are also generated correspondingly. In addition, actually, it is necessary to use different thresholds when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright and when it is dark. That is, it is necessary to have a threshold T1 used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, and a threshold T2 used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark.

Assume, for example, that the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright and shadows are formed on the display screen at the portion touched by a finger or a stylus. The signal level of each received light signal takes a value in the range of "0" (dark) to "100" (bright), and the threshold T1 is set to "10". In this case, the control circuit 300 converts the received light signal whose signal level is lower than "10" into a binarized signal "1", and converts the received light signal whose signal level is "10" or more into a binarized signal "0". ". Next, suppose, for example, that the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, and the part touched by a finger or a stylus on the display screen becomes bright due to reflected light. The signal level of each received light signal takes a value in the range of "0" (dark) to "100" (bright) similarly to the case where the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold T1 is set to "65". In this case, the control circuit 300 converts the received light signal whose signal level is "65" or higher into a binarized signal "1", and converts the received light signal whose signal level is lower than "65" into a binarized signal "0". ".

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing binarized signals corresponding to one screen obtained by binarization processing. In the example shown in the figure, in the image display area A, for the array positions (X, Y) of (2, 2), (2, 3), (3, 2), (3, 3) 4 In the photodetection circuit O1, the value of the binarized signal becomes "1". As described above, the portion where the value of the binarized signal becomes "1" is the shaded portion where the signal level of the received light signal is lower than the threshold value T1 "10" if the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright. When the surroundings of the device 1 are dark, the signal level of the received light signal is a part of the reflected light intensity equal to or higher than the threshold T2 "65". That is, the portion where the value of the binarized signal becomes “1” is the portion on the display screen that is touched by the finger or the stylus. Therefore, the control circuit 300 determines that there is contact when the binarized signals (m×n) of the number of binarized signals (m×n) for one screen include a signal value of "1", and determines that there is a contact if the binarized signal value of "1" is not included. In the case of a binary signal of 1", it can be determined that there is no contact. In addition, when the control circuit 300 determines that there is a touch, the array position (X, Y) of the photodetection circuit O1 whose value of the binarized signal becomes "1" is detected as a touch position of a finger or a stylus. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 2 , arrangement positions (2, 2), (2, 3), (3, 2), and (3, 3) are detected as contact positions.

In addition, for example, small shadows may be formed on the display screen due to adhesion of dust or the like. In addition, the entire display screen may be touched with the palm of the hand without realizing the touch input. In order to prevent these situations from being misjudged as being touched by a finger or a stylus, the control circuit 300 can count the number of binarized signals whose signal value becomes "1" among the binarized signals of one screen, and according to the count value The presence or absence of contact is judged. For example, the control circuit 300 may determine that there is contact when the count value is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, and may determine that there is no contact when the count value is smaller than the predetermined value. In addition, for example, according to the contact area of the finger or the stylus and the arrangement density of the photodetection circuit O1, the upper limit of the number of binarized signals whose signal value becomes "1" when the finger or the stylus touches the display screen may be set. The limit value and the lower limit value are stored in memory in advance. Then, the control circuit 300 determines that there is contact when the above-mentioned count value is within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value stored in the memory, and if the count value is not within the above-mentioned range value, it is judged as non-contact. In addition, it may be considered whether or not the corresponding photodetection circuits O1 are adjacent to a plurality of binarized signals whose signal values are "1". In addition, the values of the binarized signals corresponding to one screen may be arranged in accordance with the arrangement of the corresponding photodetection circuit O1 to generate a binarized image in which "1" represents black and "0" represents white. , considering whether the shape of the black part of the binary image is an ellipse or a circle (the shape of the contact surface when a finger or a stylus touches the display screen).

In addition, when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, the size of the shadow generated on the display screen with the touch of a finger or the stylus pen is different from the size of the shadow produced by the touch of the finger or the stylus pen when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark. The size of the portion irradiated by the reflected light generated on the display screen varies. Therefore, the upper limit value and the lower limit value for count value comparison are different when the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright and when it is dark.

In addition, the liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment performs one-cycle processing on the touch input function from the following [1] to [3] at 60 Hz or 120 Hz. The detection circuit O1 reads out the light-receiving signal; [2] determines the presence or absence of contact based on the read-out light-receiving signal for one screen; and [3] detects the contact position when it is determined that there is contact. The operation mode of the liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment has a normal mode and a high-speed mode for the touch input function. In the normal mode, the above-mentioned 1-cycle processing is performed at 60 Hz and in the high-speed mode at 120 Hz.

Therefore, the control circuit 300 controls the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 to read the light-receiving signal of one screen at a rate of 60 times per second in the normal mode, and read out the light-receiving signal of 1 screen at a rate of 120 times per second in the high-speed mode. The ratio of the received light signal for 1 screen is read out. That is, the control circuit 300 changes the timing of sequentially selecting the m scanning lines in the sensor scanning circuit 500 and changes the timing of reading the light-receiving signal using the n readout lines in the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 according to the operation mode. For example, in the high-speed mode, light-receiving signals for one screen are read in half the time of the normal mode.

In addition, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function includes the processing of determining the presence or absence of a touch and the processing of detecting a touched position as described above. Therefore, the actual time for reading out the light-receiving signals equal to one screen is shorter than the time for one cycle of processing for one cycle. For example, the actual time for reading the light-receiving signals of one screen is a predetermined time width shorter than 16.6 ms in normal mode, and a predetermined time width shorter than 8.3 ms in high-speed mode.

In addition, the control circuit 300 calculates the illuminance of ambient light based on a plurality of received light signals, and when the calculated illuminance is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, it is determined that the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright. If it is less than the predetermined value, it is determined that the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. For example, the illuminance of ambient light is calculated by obtaining an average value of the signal levels of the received light signals for one screen. In addition, instead of using all the light-receiving signals for one screen, for example, using light-receiving signals read from a predetermined number of photodetection circuits O1 located at the four corners of the image display area A, or using light-receiving signals read from a predetermined number of photodetection circuits O1 located at the center of the image display area A The illuminance of ambient light is calculated from the received light signals read out by a predetermined number of light detection circuits O1. In addition, the control circuit 300 outputs data indicating the calculated illuminance of ambient light to the dimming circuit 700 . Accordingly, the dimming circuit 700 causes the backlight 800 to emit light at a brightness corresponding to the illuminance of ambient light.

Also, the control circuit 300 can generate an image showing the trajectory of the detected contact position, and display the image in the image display area A as a handwritten image such as characters and pictures drawn with a finger or a stylus. In this case, the data of the handwritten image generated by the control circuit 300 is supplied to the image processing circuit 400 as input image data Din.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of mode switching processes 1 and 2 in Embodiment A1. When the operation mode is the normal mode, the mode switching process 1 shown in (a) of the figure is executed. In addition, in the liquid crystal display device 1 , for example, when the user instructs to activate the touch input function, the operation mode is switched to the normal mode after the acceptance of the touch input is started. Or, if it is the liquid crystal display device 1 that basically performs all operations by touch input based on a finger or a stylus, after the initial process is completed by pressing the power switch, the acceptance of the touch input is started, and the operation mode is switched to normal. model. As described above, in the normal mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz.

The control circuit 300 first determines whether there is contact, that is, whether the finger or the stylus is in contact with the display screen or not (step S101 ) based on the newly read light receiving signals (m×n) for one screen.

Specifically, as described above, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each light-receiving signal corresponding to one screen with a threshold value (specifically, a threshold value T1 ₆₀ or T2 ₆₀ described later), and converts them into binary values. Signal. In addition, although the threshold used here is basically set in step S203 of the mode switching process 2 described later, it changes from a bright state to a dark state around the liquid crystal display device 1 according to the measurement result of ambient light. In the case of changing from a dark state to a bright state, the threshold T1 ₆₀ and the threshold T2 ₆₀ are appropriately changed. That is, the threshold T1 ₆₀ is used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, and the threshold T2 ₆₀ is used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" for the generated binarized signals (m×n) per screen, and the counted value is stored in the memory. When the stored upper limit value and lower limit value are within the range defined by the value, it is determined that there is contact (step S101: Yes), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined that there is no contact (Step S101: No). In addition, as described above, the upper limit value and the lower limit value for comparison with the count value are different when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright and when it is dark.

In step S101, when it is determined that there is no contact, the mode switching process 1 ends. At this time, the operation mode remains the normal mode. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S101 that there is contact, the control circuit 300 determines whether the state in which the contact determination result has been continuously obtained has continued for a predetermined time (for example, 0.2 seconds) or not (step S102 ). In addition, since one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz in the normal mode, the determination result of step S101 is obtained at 60 Hz. Therefore, the control circuit 300 only needs to count the number of times the contact determination result is continuously obtained, and determine whether or not the count value has reached the number of times corresponding to the aforementioned predetermined time. In addition, the predetermined time is not limited to 0.2 seconds, and can be set to any time width such as 10 seconds, 1 minute, or 5 minutes, for example.

When it is determined in step S102 that it has not continued for a predetermined time or longer, the mode switching process 1 is ended. At this time, the operation mode is also maintained as the normal mode. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S102 that the operation has continued for a predetermined time or longer, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the normal mode to the high-speed mode (step S103 ).

Also, when the operation mode is switched to the high-speed mode, a control signal for instructing a cycle change (→120 Hz) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 . After receiving the control signal, the sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the timing of sequentially selecting the m scanning lines so that light reception signals for one screen can be read out at a rate of 120 times per second. Similarly, in the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600, also in response to the reception of the control signal, the timing of reading the light-receiving signal using n readout lines is changed so that the light-receiving signal of one screen can be read out at a ratio of 120 times per second. . As a result, the cycle for performing one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is changed from 60 Hz to 120 Hz.

In addition, the control circuit 300 changes the value of the threshold value used in the binarization process after switching the operation mode to the high-speed mode (step S104 ). When the operation mode is switched from the normal mode (60 Hz) to the high-speed mode (120 Hz), the readout cycle of each received light signal becomes shorter. The photodetection circuit O1 outputs a light-receiving signal having a signal level corresponding to the amount of light received. However, when the readout period of the light-receiving signal becomes half, for example, the amount of charge accumulated in the capacitor in the photodetection circuit O1 is halved. The signal level of the output light-receiving signal is also reduced correspondingly. Therefore, the control circuit 300 needs to lower the value of the threshold value used in the binarization process in the case of the high-speed mode than in the case of the normal mode.

For example, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, the threshold used in the normal mode (60 Hz) is set to T1 ₆₀ , and when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, the threshold value used in the high-speed mode (120 Hz) is set to T1 60 . The threshold used is set to T1 ₁₂₀ , when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, and the threshold used in the normal mode (60 Hz) is set to T2 ₆₀ , and the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, and When the threshold value used in the normal mode (120Hz) is set as T2 ₁₂₀ , these threshold values T1 ₆₀ , T1 ₁₂₀ , T2 ₆₀ , T2 ₁₂₀ are stored in the liquid crystal display corresponding to the information about the operation mode (or cycle) and the surrounding brightness. In the memory (not shown) in the device 1. The control circuit 300 judges the brightness around the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light, and reads the threshold value T1 ₁₂₀ from the memory when the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, and sets the threshold value T1 ₁₂₀ to a binary value. Threshold to use when processing. Also, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, the threshold T2 ₁₂₀ is read from the memory, and this threshold T2 ₁₂₀ is set as a threshold used in the binarization process. That is, by the process shown in step S104, the threshold value used in the binarization process is changed from the threshold value T1 ₆₀ to the threshold value T1 ₁₂₀ when the periphery of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright. Furthermore, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, the threshold value T2 ₆₀ is changed to the threshold value T2 ₁₂₀ .

Also, depending on the method of measuring the amount of light received by the light detection circuit O1 and the type of sensor that detects contact of a finger or stylus with the display screen, there may be cases where it is not necessary to change the threshold in step S104. In this case, after the processing shown in step S103 is performed, the processing shown in step S104 is not performed, and the mode switching processing ends.

In addition, in the mode switching process 1 shown in FIG. 3 (a), the time for which the finger or the stylus is continuously in contact with the display screen is counted, and when the counted time reaches a predetermined time or more (step S102: Yes), the action is performed. The mode is switched from the normal mode to the high-speed mode, but when it is determined that a finger or a stylus touches the display screen (step S101: Yes), the operation mode is directly switched to the high-speed mode regardless of the contact time.

However, for example, in the case where the touch input is completed in a short time as in the case of using a finger or a stylus to touch a key displayed on the screen, regardless of the contact time, when the touch of the finger or the stylus is performed, After switching to the high-speed mode (120Hz) in the display screen, it returns to the normal mode (60Hz) immediately. Therefore, switching of the operation mode is not only frequent, but also increases power consumption. In addition, by switching to the high-speed mode, although it is possible to improve the time resolution of the detection of the contact position and achieve high tracking performance, it is only necessary to keep touching the display screen with a finger or a stylus for a certain period of time when inputting handwritten characters or pictures. Such high traceability is required only when the time exceeds the limit. Therefore, if it is a structure in which the operation mode is switched to the high-speed mode in consideration of the contact time, compared with the case where the operation mode is directly switched to the high-speed mode in response to the contact of the finger or the stylus with the display screen regardless of the contact time, it can be further reduced. power consumption.

On the other hand, when the operation mode is the high-speed mode, the mode switching process 2 shown in FIG. 3( b ) is executed. As described above, in the high-speed mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input is performed at 120 Hz. The control circuit 300 first determines the presence or absence of contact based on newly read light-receiving signals (m×n) for one screen (step S201 ). In addition, in step S201, the presence or absence of contact is basically determined in the same way as in step S101 of the above-mentioned mode switching process 1, but the difference is that the threshold value used in the binarization process is not T1 ₆₀ or T2 ₆₀ , but T1 ₁₂₀ , or T2 ₁₂₀ .

That is, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of the light-receiving signals corresponding to one screen with the threshold value T1 ₁₂₀ or T2 ₁₂₀ and converts them into binary signals. The threshold value used here is basically set in step S104 of the above-mentioned mode switching process 1, but when the ambient light measurement results change from a bright state to a dark state around the liquid crystal display device 1 , or when changing from a dark state to a bright state, the threshold T1 ₁₂₀ and the threshold T2 ₁₂₀ are appropriately changed. That is, the threshold T1 ₁₂₀ is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold T2 ₁₂₀ is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" for the generated binarized signals (m×n) per screen, and the counted value is stored by In the case of a value within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value in the memory, it is determined that there is contact (step S201: No), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined that there is no contact. Contact (step S201: Yes). In addition, as described above, the upper limit value and the lower limit value for comparison with the count value are different when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright and when it is dark.

When it is determined in step S201 that there is contact, the mode switching process 2 ends. At this time, the operation mode remains the high-speed mode. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S201 that there is no contact, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the high-speed mode to the normal mode (step S202).

Also, when the operation mode is switched to the normal mode, a control signal for instructing a cycle change (→60 Hz) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 . After receiving the control signal, the sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the timing of sequentially selecting the m scanning lines so that light reception signals for one screen can be read 60 times per second. Similarly, in the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600, also in response to the reception of the control signal, the timing of reading the light-receiving signal using n readout lines is changed so that the light-receiving signal of one screen can be read out at a rate of 60 times per second. . As a result, the cycle for performing one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is changed from 120 Hz to 60 Hz.

In addition, the control circuit 300 changes the value of the threshold value used in the binarization process after switching the operation mode to the normal mode (step S203 ). Since the threshold values T1 ₆₀ , T1 ₁₂₀ , T2 ₆₀ , and T2 ₁₂₀ are stored in the memory in the liquid crystal display device 1 as described above, the control circuit 300 judges the brightness around the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light, and When the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, the threshold T1 ₆₀ is read from the memory, and this threshold T1 ₆₀ is set as the threshold used in the binarization process. In addition, the control circuit 300 reads the threshold T2 ₆₀ from the memory when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, and sets the threshold T2 ₆₀ as a threshold used in the binarization process. That is, by the process shown in step S203, the threshold value used in the binarization process is changed from the threshold value T1 ₁₂₀ to the threshold value T1 ₆₀ when the periphery of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright. Furthermore, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, the threshold value T2 ₁₂₀ is changed to the threshold value T2 ₆₀ .

Also, depending on the method of measuring the amount of light received by the photodetection circuit O1 and the type of sensor that detects contact of a finger or stylus with the display screen, there may be cases where it is not necessary to change the threshold in step S203. In this case, after the processing shown in step S202 is performed, the processing shown in step S203 is not performed, and the mode switching processing 2 is ended.

In addition, in the mode switching process 2 shown in FIG. 3( b), when it is determined that it is non-contact (step S201: Yes), the operation mode is directly switched from the high-speed mode to the normal mode regardless of its duration, but it may also be It is configured that after the presence or absence of contact is determined in step S201, it is determined whether the state in which the non-contact determination result has been continuously obtained has continued for a predetermined time (for example, 0.2 seconds), and if the non-contact state has continued for a predetermined time or more , to switch the operation mode to normal mode. Since the determination result in step S201 is obtained at 120 Hz, the control circuit 300 only needs to count the number of consecutive non-contact determination results and determine whether the count value has reached the number of times corresponding to the aforementioned predetermined time.

For example, when inputting handwritten characters with a finger or a stylus, the finger or the stylus is temporarily separated from the display screen when moving to the next stroke. Although it takes very little time, switching the operation modes one by one in this case will make the switching of the operation modes complicated and increase the power consumption on the contrary. Therefore, if the operation mode is switched to the normal mode in consideration of the duration of the non-contact state, the operation mode is switched to the normal mode immediately in response to the separation of the finger or the stylus from the display screen regardless of the duration. Compared with that, the power consumption can be further reduced. In addition, the predetermined time is not limited to 0.2 seconds, and may be set to any time width such as 10 seconds, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes.

In addition, the control circuit 300 updates the display of the handwritten image based on the detected touch position, when the touch position is detected by one-cycle processing related to the touch input function.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the outline of mode switching processes 1 and 2 .

As shown in Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b), below the image display area A (display screen), a "write" key and a "cancel" key are displayed, and when a finger or stylus 50 is used to touch the "write" key, " key, handwriting images such as characters and pictures can be handwritten in the handwriting input area B located above it. As shown on the left side of FIG. 4( a ), when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the handwriting input area B, the operation mode is the normal mode. In this case, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz. Also, as shown on the right side of FIG. 4( a ), when the finger or the stylus 50 is in contact with the handwriting input area B for a predetermined time or longer, the operation mode is switched to the high-speed mode. In this case, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 120 Hz. Also, as shown in FIG. 4( b ), after switching to the high-speed mode, when the finger or the stylus 50 is separated from the display screen, the operation mode is switched to the normal mode.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the liquid crystal display device 1 detects whether the finger or the stylus 50 is in contact with the display screen or not. Operates in the normal mode, and reads the received light signal of 1 screen at 60 Hz. On the other hand, when the finger or the stylus 50 is in contact with the screen continuously for a predetermined time or longer, the liquid crystal display device 1 operates in the normal mode, and reads light reception signals corresponding to one screen at 120 Hz.

Therefore, when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the screen, and when it is in contact but the contact time is shorter than a predetermined time, compared with the case where the finger or the stylus 50 is continuously in contact with the screen for a predetermined time or more, the reading of 1 The frequency of the received light signal of the number of frames is reduced to 1/2. Therefore, the processing load required for reading and binarizing the light-receiving signal can be reduced by half, thereby reducing the power consumption of the liquid crystal display device 1 . On the other hand, when the finger or stylus 50 is continuously in contact with the screen for a predetermined time or more, compared with the case of non-contact and the case of contact but the contact time is shorter than the predetermined time, it is possible to read 1 screen. The frequency of the received light signal is doubled. Therefore, the temporal resolution regarding contact position detection can be improved, enabling sufficient tracking even when the finger or stylus 50 moves at high speed.

In this way, according to the present embodiment, since the cycle of reading out the light-receiving signal equivalent to one screen can be changed, only when the finger or the stylus 50 is continuously in contact with the screen for a predetermined time or longer, one screen is read out in a short cycle. Therefore, not only the power consumption can be reduced, but also the finger or the stylus 50 can be sufficiently tracked even when the finger or the stylus 50 moves at a high speed, and touch input can be performed smoothly.

In addition, according to this embodiment, since one cycle of processing can be performed at 120 Hz only during the period when the touch input is actually performed, it goes without saying that it is different from the case where one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is always performed at the same cycle. Compared with, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the above-mentioned one-cycle processing is performed at 120 Hz only during the display period of the handwriting input screen, and the above-mentioned one-cycle processing is performed at 60 Hz during other periods. Further reduce power consumption.

Also, the cycle for performing one cycle of processing related to the touch input function may be set to 30 Hz in the normal mode and 100 Hz in the high-speed mode. In short, it is only necessary to set the cycle in the high-speed mode to be shorter than that in the normal mode.

<Embodiment B1>

Next, Embodiment B1 will be described.

In addition, since the hardware configuration of the liquid crystal display device of this embodiment is substantially the same as that of the liquid crystal display device 1 of Embodiment A1 described above, the same symbols as those of Embodiment A1 are used. Also, descriptions of the same parts as those in Embodiment A1 are omitted.

The liquid crystal display device 1 of this embodiment can judge not only the presence or absence of contact but also whether or not the finger or stylus 50 has approached the display screen (approach presence or absence) based on the received light signals for one screen. In addition, the distance at which the presence or absence of approach can be determined is the distance at which the shadow or reflected light of the finger or the stylus 50 can be detected based on the amount of light received by each photodetection circuit O1.

A detailed description will be given below. The control circuit 300 first compares the signal level of the read light reception signals for one screen with a threshold value for each light reception signal, and converts them into binary signals (binary processing). There are roughly two thresholds used in this binarization process. One is the threshold T for contact determination. The threshold T is used to determine whether or not the signal level of the received light signal has reached the level of the received light amount when the finger or the stylus 50 touches the display screen. The other one is the threshold S for approach determination. The threshold S is used to determine whether the signal level of the received light signal has reached the level of the received light amount when the finger or the stylus 50 is brought close to the front of the screen. For example, it is possible to obtain a plurality of sampled data for the amount of light received by the photodetection circuit O1 (signal level of the light received signal) on the display screen where the finger or the stylus 50 is actually in contact, and set the contact position based on the obtained sampled data. The value of the threshold T for judgment. Similarly, it is possible to obtain a plurality of sampling data for the amount of light received by the photodetection circuit O1 (signal level of the light receiving signal) on the display screen where the finger or the stylus 50 actually approaches, and set the approach value based on the obtained sampling data. The value of the threshold S for judgment.

That is, when the threshold T for touch determination is used in the above-mentioned binarization processing, the control circuit 300 determines whether the signal level of each light reception signal reaches the level of the light reception amount when the finger or the stylus 50 touches the display screen. level, and output a binarized signal having different signal values when reached and not reached. On the other hand, when the proximity judgment threshold S is used in the binarization process, the control circuit 300 judges whether the signal level of each light reception signal has reached the level of the light reception amount when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the display screen. , and output a binarized signal having different signal values when reached and not reached. In addition, since there are m×n light-receiving signals corresponding to one screen, m×n binarized signals are also generated correspondingly.

In addition, actually, it is necessary to use different thresholds when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright and when it is dark. That is, as the threshold T for contact determination, threshold T1 used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, and threshold T2 used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark is necessary. The same applies to the threshold S for approach determination. The threshold S1 used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright and the threshold S2 used when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark are required. These contact determination thresholds T1 , T2 and proximity determination thresholds S1 , S2 are stored in a memory (not shown) in the liquid crystal display device 1 .

For example, when the periphery of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, the portion touched by the finger or the stylus 50 is shaded on the display screen. As shown in Figure 5(a), the signal level of each light receiving signal takes a value in the range of "0" (dark) to "100" (bright), and the threshold T1 for contact judgment is set to "10", and the threshold for proximity judgment is set to "10". The threshold S1 is set to "20". In this case, the control circuit 300 converts the received light signal whose signal level is lower than "10" into a binary signal "1" and converts the signal level to The received light signal of "10" or more is converted into "0" of the binarized signal. In addition, if the control circuit 300 uses the proximity judgment threshold S1 in the binarization process, it converts the received light signal whose signal level is lower than "20" into a binarized signal "1", and converts the signal level to "20" or more. The received light signal is converted into "0" of the binary signal.

Next, assume that the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, and the portion of the display screen touched by the finger or the stylus 50 is illuminated by reflected light. As shown in FIG. 5(b), the signal level of each light receiving signal takes a value in the range of "0" (dark) to "100" (bright) as in the case where the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, and is used for contact determination. The threshold T2 is set to "65", and the threshold S2 for approach determination is set to "50". In this case, if the control circuit 300 uses the contact determination threshold T2 in the binarization process, it converts the received light signal whose signal level is "65" or higher into "1" of the binarized signal, and converts the signal level to "1" of the binarized signal. The received light signal whose level is less than "65" is converted into "0" of the binarized signal. In addition, if the control circuit 300 uses the proximity judgment threshold S2 during the binarization process, it converts the light-receiving signal with a signal level above "50" into a binarized signal "1", and converts the signal level lower than "50" into a binarized signal "1". The received light signal is converted into "0" of the binary signal.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, for the four light beams whose arrangement positions (X, Y) are (2, 2), (2, 3), (3, 2), (3, 3) in the image display area A In the detection circuit O1, when the value of the binarized signal is "1", the part where the value of the binarized signal is "1" is when the threshold value T1 for contact determination is used in the binarization process, The touched portion where the signal level of the received light signal is less than 10 is the shaded portion where the signal level of the received light signal is less than 20 when the threshold S1 for proximity determination is used in the binarization process. In addition, if the threshold value T2 for contact judgment is used in the binarization process, the touched part whose signal level of the received light signal is "65" or higher, if the threshold value for proximity judgment is used in the binarization process In the case of S2, it is a part where the signal level of the received light signal becomes "50" or more of the reflected light intensity.

Therefore, when the control circuit 300 uses the contact determination threshold T (T1 or T2) in the binarization process, the binarized signals whose signal value becomes "1" are included in the binarized signals corresponding to one screen. In the case of a signal, it can be determined that there is contact, and in the case of not including a binarized signal whose signal value becomes "1", it can be determined that there is no contact. In addition, as long as the control circuit 300 uses the proximity determination threshold S (S1 or S2) in the binarization process, the binarized signals whose signal value becomes "1" are included in the binarized signals corresponding to one screen. In the case of a signal, it can be determined as close, and in the case of not including a binarized signal whose signal value is "1", it can be determined not to be close. In this way, the control circuit 300 can perform two kinds of judgments, namely, the contact judgment and the proximity judgment, by changing the threshold value used in the binarization process.

In addition, when the control circuit 300 determines that there is a contact, the array position (X, Y) of the photodetection circuit O1 whose value of the binarized signal becomes "1" is detected as the contact position of the finger or the stylus 50. .

In addition, similarly to the case of contact determination described in Embodiment A1, for approach determination, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" may be counted, and the presence or absence of approach may be determined based on the count value. For example, the control circuit 300 may determine that it is approaching when the count value is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, and may determine that it is not approaching when the count value is less than a predetermined value. In addition, for example, according to the shadow formed when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the display screen or the area of the portion irradiated with emitted light and the arrangement density of the light detection circuit O1, the signal value when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the display screen is set to be " The upper limit value and the lower limit value of the number of binarized signals of 1" are stored in the memory in advance. Furthermore, the control circuit 300 may determine that it is close when the above-mentioned count value is a value within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value stored in the memory, and may determine that the count value is not within the above-mentioned range. value, it is judged as not approaching. In addition, it may be considered whether or not the corresponding photodetection circuits O1 are adjacent to a plurality of binarized signals whose signal values are "1". In addition, it is also possible to arrange the values of the binarized signals corresponding to one screen in accordance with the arrangement of the corresponding photodetection circuit O1, and generate a 2 value image, consider whether the shape of the black portion of the binary image is similar to the shadow formed when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the display screen or the shape of the portion irradiated by reflected light.

In addition, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" differs between contact determination and proximity determination (for example, the shadow formed during proximity is larger than the shadow (contact area) formed during contact). Therefore, the values of the upper limit value and the lower limit value to be compared with the count value are different between the case of the contact determination and the case of the proximity determination. In addition, when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, the size of the shadow formed on the display screen with the approach and contact of the finger or the stylus 50 is different from that of the shadow formed with the finger or the stylus 50 when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark. The size of the portion irradiated with reflected light formed on the display screen by approaching and contacting 50 is different. Therefore, the upper limit value and the lower limit value for count value comparison are different when the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright and when it is dark.

In addition, the liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment performs one-cycle processing of the following [1] to [3] related to the touch input function at 60 Hz or 10 Hz, and [1] from all the processes provided in the image display area A The light detection circuit O1 reads the light reception signal; [2] judges the presence or absence of contact and proximity based on the read light reception signal for one screen; and [3] detects the contact position when it is determined that there is contact. The operation mode of the liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment has a normal mode and a low power consumption mode with respect to the operation mode of the touch input function. 1 cycle of processing.

Therefore, the control circuit 300 controls the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 to read the light-receiving signal of 1 screen at a rate of 60 times per second in the normal mode, and read out the light-receiving signal of 1 screen at a rate of 1 second in the low power consumption mode. The ratio of 10 times reads the received light signal of 1 screen. That is, the control circuit 300 changes the timing at which m scanning lines are sequentially selected in the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the timing at which light-receiving signals are read out using the n readout lines in the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 according to the operation mode. For example, in the normal mode, light-receiving signals for one screen are read in 1/6 of the time in the low power consumption mode.

In addition, the processing of one cycle related to the touch input function includes not only the processing of determining the presence or absence of contact and the presence or absence of approach but also the processing of detecting the contact position as described above. Therefore, the actual time for reading out the light-receiving signals equal to one screen is shorter than the time for one cycle of processing for one cycle. For example, the actual time to read the light-receiving signals of one screen is a predetermined time width shorter than 16.6 m in normal mode, and a predetermined time width shorter than 100 ms in low power consumption mode.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of mode switching processes 3 and 4 in Embodiment B1. When the operation mode is the normal mode, the mode switching process 3 shown in (a) of the figure is executed. In addition, in the liquid crystal display device 1 , for example, when the user instructs to activate the touch input function, the operation mode is switched to the normal mode after the acceptance of the touch input is started. Or, if it is the liquid crystal display device 1 that basically performs all operations by the touch input of the finger or the stylus 50, after the power switch is pressed and the initial processing is completed, the acceptance of the touch input is started, and the operation mode is switched to normal. model. As described above, in the normal mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz.

The control circuit 300 first determines whether there is contact, that is, whether the finger or the stylus 50 is in contact with the display screen or not (step S301 ) based on the newly read light receiving signals (m×n) for one screen.

Specifically, as described above, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each light-receiving signal corresponding to one screen with the threshold T for contact determination (specifically, the threshold T1 or T2 described later), and converts the signal level into 2-valued signal. In addition, the threshold T used here is basically set in step S403 of the mode switching process 4 described later, but changes from a bright state to a dark state around the liquid crystal display device 1 according to the measurement result of ambient light. state, and when changing from a dark state to a bright state, the threshold value T1 and the threshold value T2 are appropriately changed. That is, the threshold T1 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold T2 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" for the generated binarized signals (m×n) per screen, and the counted value is stored by In the case of a value within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value in the memory, it is determined that there is contact (step S301: No), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined that there is no contact. Contact (step S301: Yes). In addition, as described above, the upper limit value and the lower limit value used for comparison with the count value are different when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright and dark, or in the case of contact determination and proximity determination. .

In step S301, when it is determined that there is contact, the mode switching process 3 ends. At this time, the operation mode remains the normal mode. In addition, when it is determined that there is contact in this way, the control circuit 300 detects the contact position after completing the mode switching process 3 . In this contact position detection, the binarized signals for one screen generated when determining the presence or absence of contact in step S301 are used. In addition, when the contact position is detected, the control circuit 300 updates the display of the handwritten image as necessary based on the detected contact position.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S301 that there is no contact, the control circuit 300 determines whether the state in which the non-contact determination result has been continuously obtained has continued for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) (step S302 ). In addition, since one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz in the normal mode, the determination result of step S301 is obtained at a frequency of 60 Hz. Therefore, the control circuit 300 only needs to count the number of times that non-contact determination results are continuously obtained, and determine whether or not the count value has reached the number of times corresponding to the aforementioned predetermined time. In addition, the predetermined time may be set to an arbitrary time width such as 60 seconds or 30 minutes.

When it is determined in step S302 that the predetermined time has not continued, the mode switching process 3 ends. At this time, the operation mode is also maintained as the normal mode. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S302 that the predetermined time has elapsed, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode (step S303 ).

Also, when switching the operation mode to the low power consumption mode, a control signal instructing switching of the operation mode (→ low power consumption mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 . After receiving the control signal, the sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the timing of sequentially selecting the m scanning lines so that light reception signals for one screen can be read out at a ratio of 10 times per second. Similarly, in the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600, also in response to the reception of the control signal, the timing of reading the light-receiving signal using n readout lines is changed so that the light-receiving signal of one screen can be read out at a ratio of 10 times per second. . As a result, the cycle for performing one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is changed from 60 Hz to 10 Hz.

In addition, it is detected that the finger or stylus 50 has not been in contact with the display screen for a predetermined time, that is, no contact input has been made for a predetermined time, which basically means that the finger or stylus 50 is far away from the display screen. Therefore, when the finger or the stylus 50 is relatively far from the display screen, it is only necessary to switch the operation mode from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen. Therefore, after the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode to the low power consumption mode, the threshold used in the binarization process is changed from the contact determination threshold T to the proximity determination threshold S (step S304 ).

As mentioned above, since the memory in the liquid crystal display device 1 stores the contact determination thresholds T1, T2 and the proximity determination thresholds S1, S2, the control circuit 300 determines whether the liquid crystal display device As for the brightness around 1, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, the proximity determination threshold S1 is read from the memory, and this threshold S1 is set as the threshold used in the binarization process. Also, when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, the control circuit 300 reads the approach determination threshold S2 from the memory, and sets the threshold S2 as a threshold used in the binarization process. That is, by the process of step S304, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, the threshold used in the binarization process is changed from the contact determination threshold T1 "10" to the approach determination threshold S1 "20". In addition, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, the threshold used in the binarization process is changed from the contact determination threshold T2 "65" to the proximity determination threshold S2 "50".

In addition, when the operation mode is the low power consumption mode, the mode switching process 4 shown in FIG. 6( b ) is performed. As described above, in the low power consumption mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 10 Hz. The control circuit 300 first judges whether there is approach, that is, whether the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the display screen based on the newly read light receiving signals (m×n) for one screen (step S401 ).

Specifically, as described above, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each received light signal of one screen with the proximity determination threshold S2 (specifically, the threshold S1 or S2), and converts it into a binary signal. The threshold S used here is basically set in step S304 of the above-mentioned mode switching process 3, but in the case of changing from a bright state to a dark state around the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light Down, and when changing from a dark state to a bright state, it is appropriately changed between the threshold S1 and the threshold S2. That is, the threshold S1 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold S2 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" for the generated binarized signals (m×n) per screen, and the counted value is stored by In the case of a value within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value in the memory, it is determined to be close (step S401: Yes), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined to be non-close (Step S401: No). In addition, as described above, the upper limit value and the lower limit value for comparison with the count value are different between bright and dark surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 , or between contact determination and proximity determination.

When it is determined in step S401 that there is no proximity, the mode switching process 4 ends. At this time, the operation mode remains the low power consumption mode. On the other hand, when it is judged to be close in step S401, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode (step S402).

Also, when switching the operation mode to the normal mode, a control signal for instructing to switch the operation mode (→normal mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 . After receiving the control signal, the sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the timing of sequentially selecting the m scanning lines so that light reception signals for one screen can be read 60 times per second. Similarly, in the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600, also in response to the reception of the control signal, the timing of reading the light-receiving signal using n readout lines is changed so that the light-receiving signal of one screen can be read out at a rate of 60 times per second. . As a result, the cycle for performing one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is changed from 10 Hz to 60 Hz.

In addition, it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the vicinity of the display screen in this way, which means that the user is about to perform a touch input from there. Therefore, since there is a high possibility that the finger or the stylus 50 touches the display screen, it is necessary to perform touch determination and detection of the touch position. Therefore, after switching the operation mode to the normal mode, the control circuit 300 changes the threshold value used in the binarization process from the proximity determination threshold S to the contact determination threshold T (step S403 ).

Since the thresholds T1 and T2 for contact determination and the thresholds S1 and S2 for approach determination are stored in the memory in the liquid crystal display device 1 as described above, the control circuit 300 judges the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light. When the brightness around the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, the threshold value T1 for contact determination is read from the memory, and this threshold value T1 is set as the threshold value used in the binarization process. Also, when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, the control circuit 300 reads the threshold T2 from the memory, and sets the threshold T2 as a threshold used in the binarization process. That is, by the processing shown in step S403, the threshold value used in the binarization process is changed from "20" of the proximity determination threshold S1 to the contact determination threshold T1 "10" when the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright. ". In addition, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, the approach determination threshold S2 "50" is changed to the contact determination threshold T2 "65".

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the outline of mode switching processes 3 and 4 .

As shown in FIG. 7( a ) and FIG. 7( b ), in the image display area A (display screen), a "picture" key and a "photograph" key are displayed. For example, after touching a portion of the “Drawing” key with a finger or the stylus 50 , it is possible to input a handwritten drawing by touch input. In addition, when the portion of the "Photo" key is touched with a finger or the stylus 50, a slideshow of a plurality of photo images stored in the memory can be displayed on the display screen. As shown on the left side of FIG. 7( a ), when the finger or the stylus 50 is in contact with the display screen, the operation mode becomes the normal mode. In this case, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz. In addition, as shown on the right side of FIG. 7( a ), when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined time, the operation mode is switched to the low power consumption mode. In this case, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 10 Hz. In addition, as shown in FIG. 7( b ), after switching to the low power consumption mode, when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen, the operation mode is switched to the normal mode.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when the liquid crystal display device 1 detects that the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined time, the operation mode is switched from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode, and the operation mode is switched at 10 Hz. Read out the received light signal for 1 screen. Then, when the liquid crystal display device 1 detects that a finger or the stylus 50 has approached the vicinity of the display screen, the operation mode is switched from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode, and light reception signals corresponding to one screen are read out at 60 Hz. Therefore, during the period from when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined period of time is detected until the next time when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the display screen is detected, the low power consumption mode operates, which is different from the normal Compared with the case of the mode, the readout frequency of the received light signal for 1 screen can be reduced to 1/6. This can reduce the processing load required for the extraction of the light-receiving signal and the binarization process, thereby reducing the power consumption of the liquid crystal display device 1 .

In addition, during the period from when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen is detected to when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined time after detection, the normal mode operates, and the low Compared with the case of the power consumption mode, the readout frequency of the received light signal can be increased by 1 screen. Therefore, the temporal resolution regarding contact determination and contact position detection can be improved, so that contact determination and contact position detection can be performed with high accuracy. In particular, by setting the time for switching from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode not when a contact is detected, but when an approach is detected, it is possible to advance the contact information before the finger or stylus 50 actually touches the screen. Accuracy of judgment and detection of contact position.

In addition, the cycle for executing one-cycle processing of the touch input function may be set to 120 Hz in the normal mode and 60 Hz in the low power consumption mode. In short, it is sufficient to set the period in the normal mode to be shorter than that in the low power consumption mode.

<Embodiment B2>

In the above-mentioned Embodiment B1, a case was described in which light-receiving signals corresponding to one screen are read out at 60 Hz in the normal mode and at 10 Hz in the low power consumption mode. In this embodiment, the case where the light reception signal is read out only from a part of the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A in the low power consumption mode will be further described.

The liquid crystal display device 1 of this embodiment has a normal mode and a low power consumption mode as in the case of Embodiment B1. In the normal mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 read out light-receiving signals from all the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A at 60 Hz. On the other hand, in the low power consumption mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 read out the light-receiving signal from only a part of the photodetection circuit O1 in the image display area A at 10 Hz.

Therefore, the number of light-receiving signals read at 60 Hz in the normal mode is m×n, while the number of light-receiving signals read at 10 Hz in the low power consumption mode is less than m×n. For example, when the region for reading out light-receiving signals in the low power consumption mode is set to the lower half of the image display region A, m×n/2 light-receiving signals are read out at 10 Hz in the low power consumption mode. As described above, since m×n light-receiving signals are read at 60 Hz in the normal mode, m×n binary signals are also generated at 60 Hz corresponding to this. On the contrary, in the low power consumption mode, for example, when the region for reading out the light-receiving signal is set in the lower half of the image display region A, m×n/2 light-receiving signals are read out at 10 Hz, so Corresponding to this, m×n/2 binarized signals are also generated at 10 Hz.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a normal mode and a low power consumption mode in Embodiment B2. In addition, the screen display example shown in the figure is an editing screen of an image editing software for creating a handwritten picture by contact input with, for example, a finger or the stylus 50 . A handwriting input area B is provided on the upper side of the display screen. In this handwriting input area B, a handwritten picture can be input using a finger or a stylus 50 . In addition, below the handwriting input area B, an operation key display area C indicated by a dotted line in the figure is provided. In this operation key display area C, three operation keys of "black and white", "color", and "open" as shown in the figure are displayed immediately after the image editing software is started. After starting the image editing software, the user first touches the part of the operation key displayed in the operation key display area C, and selects to start inputting a picture in black and white mode, start inputting a picture in color mode, or start reading a saved handwritten image. edit etc. After such a selection operation is performed in the operation key display area C, drawing can be performed in the handwriting area B. FIG.

Also, if there is no touch input for, for example, 5 minutes during the execution of the image editing software, the liquid crystal display device 1 stops the display of the handwriting area B in order to reduce power consumption. As a result, the entire part of the handwriting area B becomes black (or white). At this time, in the operation key display area C, instead of the above-mentioned three operation keys, three operation keys such as "reedit", "save", and "end" are displayed. When the user performs input of the handwritten image again, the user touches the "re-edit" key. In addition, to save the input handwritten image, touch the "Save" key. In addition, the "END" key is touched to end the image editing software without saving the input handwritten image. In this way, once the display of the part of the handwriting area B is stopped, the user must touch the part of the operation key display area C when performing any operation in the future. Therefore, while the display of the portion of the handwriting input area B is stopped, only the contact determination and proximity determination of the portion of the operation key display area C may be performed. Therefore, in the liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment, when the display of the part of the handwriting input area B is not stopped, the operation mode is switched to the normal mode, and when the display of the part of the handwriting input area B is stopped , to switch the action mode to low power consumption mode.

In addition, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , 240 scanning lines and 180 readout lines are provided in the image display area A (display screen). The sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects 240 scanning lines one by one in the normal mode. That is, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor sequentially selects all scanning lines one by one in the order of scanning line 1 , scanning line 2 , scanning line 3 , . . . , scanning line 238 , scanning line 239 , and scanning line 240 . In contrast, in the low power consumption mode, sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects only 40 scanning lines from scanning line 210 to scanning line 240 corresponding to the portion of operation key display area C one by one. That is, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects the scanning line 201, the scanning line 202, the scanning line 203, ..., the scanning line 238, the scanning line 239, and the scanning line 240, and does not select the other 200 lines from the scanning line 1 to the scanning line 200. scan lines. In addition, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 reads out the light-receiving signal using all 180 readout lines regardless of whether it is in the normal mode or the low power consumption mode.

As a result, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , in the normal mode, at 60 Hz, a total of 43200 photodetection circuits O1 (installed in the image display area A) corresponding to 240 scanning lines and 180 readout lines All the photodetection circuits O1) read out the received light signal. On the other hand, in the low power consumption mode, at 10 Hz, only from a total of 7200 photodetection circuits O1 corresponding to 40 scanning lines from scanning line 201 to scanning line 240 and 180 reading lines (arranged on the operation key display The photodetection circuit (O1) in the region C reads out the received light signal. Therefore, in the low power consumption mode, the number of photodetection circuits O1 that read out the received light signal is 1/6 of that in the normal mode.

In addition, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing that the arrangement of the handwriting input area B and the operation key display area C shown in FIG. 8 is replaced from top to bottom to left to right. In the case of the example shown in FIG. 9 , also in the normal mode, light reception signals are read out from all the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A at 60 Hz. On the other hand, in the low power consumption mode, the light reception signal is read out only from the light detection circuit O1 arranged in the operation key display area C at 10 Hz. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 9 , in the low power consumption mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all 240 scanning lines in the same manner as in the normal mode, but the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 uses only 180 readout lines. A total of 50 readout lines from the readout line 1 to the readout line 50 corresponding to the portion of the operation key display area C in the display read out the light-receiving signal. As a result, in the example shown in FIG. 9 , in the low power consumption mode, light reception signals are read out only from a total of 12000 photodetection circuits O1 corresponding to 240 scanning lines and 50 readout lines at 10 Hz. Therefore, the number of photodetection circuits O1 that read out the light-receiving signal becomes 1/3.6 of that in the normal mode.

In addition to the examples shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 , for example, in the low power consumption mode, at 10 Hz, only 60 scan lines from scan line 1 to scan line 60 and the readout line A total of 5400 photodetection circuits O1 corresponding to 90 readout lines from 1 to readout line 90 read out received light signals. In this case, in the low power consumption mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 only sequentially selects the 60 scanning lines from scanning line 1 to scanning line 60 one by one, and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 uses only the scanning lines from the reading line 1 to the reading line 60. A total of 90 readout lines out of the line 90 are used to read out the received light signal.

In this way, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all the scanning lines one by one in the normal mode, but in the case of the low power consumption mode, only sequentially selects a plurality of scanning lines corresponding to the part of the operation key display area C (for example, , in the example shown in FIG. 8 are the scanning line 201 to the scanning line 240). Moreover, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 uses all the readout lines to read out the light-receiving signal in the normal mode, but in the low power consumption mode, only a plurality of readout lines corresponding to the part of the operation key display area C (such as In the example shown in FIG. 9, the readout line 1 to the readout line 50) read out the received light signal.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of mode switching processes 5 and 6 in Embodiment B2. When the operation mode is the normal mode, the mode switching process 5 shown in (a) of the figure is executed. In addition, in the liquid crystal display device 1 , for example, when the user starts the above-mentioned image editing software, the operation mode is switched to the normal mode after the acceptance of the touch input is started. Also, as described above, in the normal mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz, and light reception signals are read out from all photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A.

In addition, steps S501, S502, and S504 in the flow of the mode switching process 5 shown in FIG. , S302, and S304 are basically the same processing, so the description will be simplified here.

The control circuit 300 first determines the presence or absence of contact based on newly read light-receiving signals (m×n) for one screen (step S501 ). In addition, when it is determined in step S501 that there is no contact, the control circuit 300 determines whether the state in which the non-contact determination result has been continuously obtained has continued for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) (step S502 ). In addition, when it is determined in step S502 that the predetermined time has continued, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode (step S503 ).

Also, when switching the operation mode to the low power consumption mode, a control signal for instructing switching of the operation mode (→ low power consumption mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 . The sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 change the operation mode to the low power consumption mode after receiving the control signal. For example, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , only 40 scan lines from scan line 201 to scan line 240 are selected in the low power consumption mode. Therefore, the sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the timing of selecting each scanning line so that the cycle of selecting 40 scanning lines is 10 Hz, and sequentially selects the 40 scanning lines from scanning line 201 to scanning line 240 at the changed timing. In addition, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 changes the timing at which the light-receiving signal is read out using the 180 readout lines in accordance with the timing at which the sensor scanning circuit 500 selects a scanning line, and reads out the light-receiving signal at the changed timing.

In addition, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 9 , the selected scanning lines in the low power consumption mode are all 240 scanning lines. Therefore, the sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the timing of selecting each scanning line so that the cycle of selecting 240 scanning lines can be 10 Hz, and sequentially selects the 240 scanning lines one by one at the changed timing. In addition, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 changes and reads the light-receiving signal using only the 50 readout lines from the readout line 1 to the readout line 50 among the total 180 readout lines according to the timing at which the scanning line is selected by the sensor scanning circuit 500 . According to the changed timing, only 50 scanning lines are used to read out the received light signal.

After switching the operation mode from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode in this way, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 read the light-receiving signal at 10 Hz only from the photodetection circuit O1 arranged in the operation key display area C. . In addition, after switching the operation mode from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode, the control circuit 300 changes the threshold used in the binarization process from the contact determination threshold T to the proximity determination threshold S (step S504 ).

On the other hand, when the operation mode is the low power consumption mode, the mode switching process 6 shown in FIG. 10( b ) is executed. As described above, in the low power consumption mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 10 Hz, and light reception signals are read only from the photodetection circuit O1 arranged in the operation key display area C. In addition, steps S601 and S603 in the flow of the mode switching process 6 shown in FIG. The processing in S403 is basically the same, so the description will be simplified here.

The control circuit 300 first judges whether the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the vicinity of the operation key display area C (step S601) based on the light receiving signals read out from the light detection circuits O1 in the operation key display area C. To describe it specifically, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each read-out received light signal with the approach judgment threshold S (specifically, the threshold S1 or S2 ), and converts it into a binary signal. Then, the control circuit 300 counts the generated binarized signal, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1". When the value is within the limited range, it is determined to be close (step S601: Yes), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined to be non-close (step S601: No).

When it is determined in step S601 that there is no proximity, the mode switching process 6 ends. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S601 that it is approaching, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode (step S602 ). Also, when switching the operation mode to the normal mode, a control signal instructing to switch the operation mode (→normal mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 .

The sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 change the operation mode to the normal mode after receiving the control signal. For example, in any of the examples shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 , all 240 scanning lines and all 180 readout lines are used in the normal mode. Therefore, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor changes the timing of selecting each scanning line so that the cycle of selecting 240 scanning lines becomes 60 Hz, and sequentially selects the 240 scanning lines one by one at the changed timing. In addition, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 changes the timing at which the light-receiving signal is read out using the 180 readout lines in accordance with the timing at which the sensor scanning circuit 500 selects a scanning line, and reads out the light-receiving signal at the changed timing.

After switching the operation mode from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode in this way, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 read out light-receiving signals from all photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A at 60 Hz. In addition, after the operation mode is switched from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode, the control circuit 300 changes the threshold used in the binarization process from the proximity determination threshold S to the contact determination threshold T (step S603).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the liquid crystal display device 1 reads the light reception signal only from the light detection circuit O1 arranged in the operation key display area C in the low power consumption mode. Therefore, in the case of the low power consumption mode, compared with the case of the normal mode, the frequency of reading out the light-receiving signal of 1 screen can be reduced to 1/6 (60Hz→10Hz), and the readout frequency can be reduced to 1/6. The number of photodetection circuits O1 for receiving light signals is reduced to 1/6 in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 and to 1/3.6 in the case of the example shown in FIG. 9 . Accordingly, power consumption can be further reduced.

In addition, the number M of scanning lines to be selected in the low power consumption mode may be an integer of 2 or more and m or less. Likewise, the number N of readout lines used in the low power consumption mode may be an integer of 2 or more and n or less.

<Embodiment B3>

In the above-mentioned embodiment B1, the case where the received light signals for one screen are read at 60 Hz in the normal mode, and the received light signals for one screen are read at 10 Hz in the low power consumption mode. In this embodiment, a case where one scanning line is selected for every ten scanning lines in the low power consumption mode will be further described.

The liquid crystal display device 1 of this embodiment has a normal mode and a low power consumption mode as in the case of Embodiment B1. The sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all the scanning lines (m lines) provided in the image display area A one by one in the normal mode, and sequentially selects m lines at a rate of 1 for every 10 lines in the low power consumption mode. scan line. Thus, in the normal mode, light reception signals are read out at 60 Hz from all the photodetection circuits O1 (m×n) provided in the image display area A. FIG. On the other hand, in the case of the low power consumption mode, light reception signals are read out only from m×n/10 photodetection circuits O1 at 10 Hz.

In this way, in the normal mode, since there are m×n light-receiving signals for one screen, the number of binarized signals for one screen generated during the binarization process is also m×n. On the other hand, in the low power consumption mode, since the number of received light signals for one screen is m×n/10, the number of binarized signals for one screen generated during the binarization process is also It is m×n/10 pieces. In addition, in the low power consumption mode, the number of binarized signals corresponding to one screen is reduced to 1/10 of that in the normal mode by thinning out the scanning lines. Therefore, the values of the upper limit value and the lower limit value used for comparison with the count value when determining the presence or absence of contact and the presence or absence of approach are different when the operation mode is the normal mode and when the low power consumption mode is used.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a normal mode and a low power consumption mode in Embodiment B3. In addition, in this figure, on the display screen (image display area A), a total of 12 display keys "1", "2", "3", . . . "*", "0", "#". In addition, in the image display area A, a total of 240 scanning lines from scanning line 1 to scanning line 240 are provided. The sensor scanning circuit 500 selects the scanning line 1, the scanning line 2, the scanning line 3, . In addition, in the normal mode, the period for selecting 240 scanning lines is set to 60 Hz.

On the other hand, in the low power consumption mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects 240 scanning lines at a ratio of 1 out of 10 scanning lines. That is, in the low power consumption mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects, for example, the scanning line 10 , the scanning line 20 , the scanning line 30 , . . . , the scanning line 220 , the scanning line 230 , and the scanning line 240 . Therefore, only 24 of the 240 scan lines are selected, and the remaining 216 scan lines are thinned out without selection. In addition, in the case of the low power consumption mode, the cycle for selecting the above-mentioned 24 scanning lines is set to 10 Hz.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of mode switching processes 7 and 8 in Embodiment B3. When the operation mode is the normal mode, the mode switching process 7 shown in (a) of the figure is executed. Also, as described above, in the normal mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz, and light reception signals are read out from all photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A. In addition, steps S701, S702, and S704 in the flow of the mode switching process 7 shown in FIG. , S302, and S304 are basically the same processing, so the description will be simplified here.

The control circuit 300 first determines the presence or absence of contact based on newly read light-receiving signals (m×n) for one screen (step S701 ). Also, when it is determined in step S701 that there is no contact, the control circuit 300 determines whether the state in which the non-contact determination result has been continuously obtained has continued for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) (step S702 ). In addition, when it is determined in step S702 that the predetermined time has continued, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode (step S703 ).

Also, when switching the operation mode to the low power consumption mode, a control signal instructing switching of the operation mode (→ low power consumption mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 . The sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 change the operation mode to the low power consumption mode after receiving the control signal. For example, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 11 , the number of scanning lines selected in the low power consumption mode is 1/10 of that in the normal mode, that is, 24 lines. Therefore, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor changes the timing of selecting each scanning line so that the cycle of selecting 24 scanning lines becomes 10 Hz, and sequentially selects the scanning lines at a ratio of 1 every 10 scanning lines at the changed timing. In addition, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 changes the timing at which the light-receiving signal is read using all the readout lines (n lines) according to the timing at which the sensor scanning circuit 500 selects the scanning line, and reads the light-receiving signal at the changed timing.

In this way, after switching the operation mode from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 use 10 Hz as the light-receiving signal of 1 screen from the m×n/10 photodetection circuits O1 Read out the light signal. In addition, after switching the operation mode from the normal mode to the low power consumption mode, the control circuit 300 changes the threshold used in the binarization process from the contact determination threshold T to the proximity determination threshold S (step S704 ).

On the other hand, when the operation mode is the low power consumption mode, the mode switching process 8 shown in FIG. 12( b ) is executed. As described above, in the low power consumption mode, one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 10 Hz, and the received light signal is read out from the m×n/10 photodetection circuits O1 as light received signals for one screen. Signal. In addition, steps S801 and S803 in the flow of the mode switching process 8 shown in FIG. Basically the same processing, so the explanation is simplified here.

The control circuit 300 first determines the presence or absence of approach, that is, whether the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the display screen based on newly read light-receiving signals for one screen (m×n/10) (step S801). Specifically, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each received light signal of one screen with the threshold S for approach determination (specifically, the threshold S1 or S2), and converts it into a binary signal. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" with respect to the generated binarized signals for one screen. In the case of a value within the range defined by the count value and the lower limit value, it is determined to be close (step S801: Yes), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined to be non-close (step S801: No). . In addition, the values of the upper limit value and the lower limit value compared with the count value are not only different in the case of contact determination and approach determination, and in the case of bright and dark around the liquid crystal display device 1, but also when the operation mode is the normal mode. The case of and the case of low power mode are also different.

When it is determined in step S801 that it is not approaching, the mode switching process 8 is ended. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S801 that it is approaching, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode (step S802 ). Also, when switching the operation mode to the normal mode, a control signal instructing to switch the operation mode (→normal mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 .

The sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 change the operation mode to the normal mode after receiving the control signal. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 11 , all 240 scanning lines are used in the normal mode. Therefore, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor changes the timing of selecting each scanning line so that the cycle of selecting 240 scanning lines becomes 60 Hz, and sequentially selects the 240 scanning lines one by one at the changed timing. In addition, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 changes the timing at which the light-receiving signal is read using all the readout lines (n lines) according to the timing at which the sensor scanning circuit 500 selects the scanning line, and reads the light-receiving signal at the changed timing.

In this way, after switching the operation mode from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 read out light-receiving signals from all photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A at 60 Hz. In addition, after the operation mode is switched from the low power consumption mode to the normal mode, the control circuit 300 changes the threshold used in the binarization process from the proximity determination threshold S to the contact determination threshold T (step S803 ).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, in the low power consumption mode, the liquid crystal display device 1 sequentially selects one scanning line every ten scanning lines. Therefore, in the low power consumption mode, compared with the case of the normal mode, the frequency of reading out the received light signal for one screen can be reduced to 1/6 (60Hz→10Hz), and the readout of the received light signal can be The number of light detection circuits O1 is reduced to 1/10. Accordingly, power consumption can be further reduced.

In addition, the sensor scanning circuit 500 may be configured to sequentially select scanning lines at a rate of selecting one line out of every two lines or one line out of fifteen lines in the low power consumption mode. Similarly, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor only needs to sequentially select one scanning line at a ratio of one line per L (integer of 2 to m) in the low power consumption mode.

<Embodiment C1>

Next, Embodiment C1 will be described.

In addition, since the hardware configuration of the liquid crystal display device of the present embodiment is substantially the same as that of the liquid crystal display device 1 of the above-mentioned embodiment B1, the same symbols as in the embodiment B1 are used. In addition, the description of the same part as Embodiment B1 is abbreviate|omitted.

In the above-mentioned Embodiment B1, a case was described in which there is a normal mode (60 Hz) and a low power consumption mode (10 Hz), and the cycle for reading out light-receiving signals equal to one screen is changed. In this embodiment, instead of the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, a normal read mode and a partial read mode are provided, and a case where the number of photodetection circuits O1 for reading out received light signals is changed will be described.

The liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment has a normal read mode and a partial read mode as a read mode of a light-receiving signal. In the normal readout mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 read out the received light from all the photodetection circuits O1 (m×n) provided in the image display area A at a predetermined cycle (for example, 60 Hz). Signal. On the other hand, in the partial readout mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 read out light-receiving signals from only a part of the photodetection circuits O1 in the image display area A at a predetermined cycle (for example, 60 Hz).

Therefore, the number of light-receiving signals read at 60 Hz in the normal read mode is m×n, while the number of light-receiving signals read at 60 Hz in the partial read mode is less than m×n. For example, in the case where the region from which light-receiving signals are read in the partial readout mode is set to the lower half of the image display region A, m×n/2 light-reception signals are read out at 60 Hz in the partial readout mode. In this way, in the normal read mode, m×n light-receiving signals are read out at 60 Hz, and accordingly, m×n binarized signals are also generated at 60 Hz. On the other hand, in the partial readout mode, for example, if the area for reading out the light-receiving signal is set in the lower half of the image display area A, since m×n/2 light-receiving signals are read out at 60 Hz, it corresponds to this , also generates m×n/2 binary signals at 60 Hz.

Next, the normal read mode and the partial read mode of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9 . As also described in the above-mentioned embodiment B2, in the screen display example shown in FIG. 8 , in the operation key display area C, if the image editing software is started immediately after the image editing software is started, it will be displayed as shown in the figure. , displaying 3 operation keys of "black and white", "color" and "open". After starting the image editing software, the user first touches the part of the operation key displayed in the operation key display area C, and selects to start picture input in black and white mode, picture input in color mode, or read out the saved handwritten image. Start editing etc. After such a selection operation is performed in the operation key display area C, drawing can be performed in the handwriting area B. FIG.

Also, if there is no touch input for, for example, 5 minutes during the execution of the image editing software, the liquid crystal display device 1 stops the display of the handwriting area B in order to reduce power consumption. As a result, the entire part of the handwriting area B becomes black (or white). At this time, in the operation key display area C, instead of the above three operation keys, for example, three operation keys "reedit", "save", and "end" are displayed. When the user performs input of the handwritten image again, the user touches the "re-edit" key. In addition, to save the input handwritten image, touch the "Save" key. In addition, the "END" key is touched to end the image editing software without saving the input handwritten image. In this way, once the display of the part of the handwriting area B is stopped, the user must touch the part of the operation key display area C when performing any operation in the future. Therefore, while the display of the portion of the handwriting input area B is stopped, only the contact determination and proximity determination of the portion of the operation key display area C may be performed. Therefore, in the liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment, when the display of the part of the handwriting input area B is not stopped, the operation mode of the light receiving signal is switched to the normal mode, and the display of the part of the handwriting input area B is stopped. In this case, switch the operation mode of the light-receiving signal to the partial readout mode.

In addition, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , 240 scanning lines and 180 readout lines are provided in the image display area A (display screen). The sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects 240 scanning lines one by one in the normal read mode. That is, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor sequentially selects all scanning lines one by one in the order of scanning line 1 , scanning line 2 , scanning line 3 , . . . , scanning line 238 , scanning line 239 , and scanning line 240 . On the other hand, in the partial readout mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects only a total of 40 scanning lines from the scanning line 201 to the scanning line 240 corresponding to the part of the operation key display area C. That is, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor sequentially selects the scanning line 201, the scanning line 202, the scanning line 203, ..., the scanning line 238, the scanning line 239, and the scanning line 240, and does not select the remaining lines from the scanning line 1 to the scanning line 200. 200 scan lines. In addition, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 reads out the light-receiving signal using all 180 readout lines regardless of whether it is in the normal readout mode or the partial readout mode.

As a result, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , in the normal readout mode, a total of 43200 photodetection circuits O1 corresponding to 240 scanning lines and 180 readout lines (provided in the image display area A All the photodetection circuits O1) read out the received light signal. On the other hand, in the partial readout mode, only 7200 photodetection circuits O1 (arranged in the operation key display area C) corresponding to 40 scan lines from scan line 201 to scan line 240 and 180 readout lines in total The light detection circuit O1) reads out the light signal. Therefore, in the partial read mode, the number of photodetection circuits O1 that read out the received light signal is 1/6 of that in the normal read mode.

Also in the case of the example shown in FIG. 9 , light reception signals are read from all the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A in the normal readout mode. On the other hand, in the partial readout mode, only light-receiving signals are read out from the photodetection circuits O1 arranged in the operation key display area C. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 9 , in the partial readout mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all 240 scanning lines as in the normal readout mode, but the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 uses only 180 readout lines. A total of 50 readout lines from the readout line 1 to the readout line 50 corresponding to the portion of the operation key display area C among the lines read out the received light signal. As a result, in the example shown in FIG. 9 , in the partial readout mode, only light reception signals are read out from a total of 12000 photodetection circuits O1 corresponding to 240 scanning lines and 50 readout lines. Therefore, the number of photodetection circuits O1 that read out the light-receiving signal is 1/3.6 of that in the normal readout mode.

In addition, in addition to the examples shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 , in the partial readout mode, only 60 scan lines from scan line 1 to scan line 60 and readout lines 1 to 60 can be configured. A total of 5400 photodetection circuits O1 corresponding to the 90 readout lines of the line 90 read out the received light signals. In this case, in the partial read mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects only the 60 scanning lines from scanning line 1 to scanning line 60 one by one, and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 uses only the reading lines 1 to 60. A total of 90 readout lines of 90 read out received light signals.

Thus, the operation of the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 differs between the normal read mode and the partial read mode. The sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all the scanning lines one by one in the normal read mode, but in the case of the partial read mode, only a plurality of scanning lines corresponding to the part of the operation key display area C (for example, In the example shown in FIG. 8 , the scan lines 201 to 240). In addition, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 reads out the light-receiving signal using all the readout lines in the normal readout mode, but only uses the line corresponding to the part of the operation key display area C in the partial readout mode. A plurality of readout lines (eg, readout line 1 to readout line 50 in the example shown in FIG. 9 ) read out received light signals. Therefore, the control circuit 300 outputs a control signal instructing switching of the reading mode to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 to control the operations of the two circuits 500 , 600 .

In addition, the liquid crystal display device 1 of the present embodiment performs one cycle of processing related to the touch input function at a predetermined cycle (for example, 120 Hz or 60 Hz), that is, from all the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A or arranged in the The light detection circuit O1 in the operation key display area C reads out the light receiving signal, judges the presence or absence of contact and the presence or absence of approach based on the read out light receiving signal, and detects the contact position if it is judged to be in contact. In addition, in this embodiment, the above-mentioned one-cycle processing is performed at 60 Hz.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of mode switching processes 9 and 10 in Embodiment C1. When the readout mode of the light-receiving signal is the normal readout mode, the mode switching process 9 shown in (a) of the figure is executed. In addition, in the liquid crystal display device 1 , for example, when the user starts the above-mentioned image editing software and starts accepting the touch input, the readout mode of the received light signal is switched to the normal readout mode. In addition, as described above, in the normal readout mode, light reception signals are read out from all the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A. FIG.

The control circuit 300 first judges the presence or absence of contact, that is, whether the finger or the stylus is in contact with the display screen or not (step S901 ) based on the newly read light receiving signals for one screen (m×n).

Specifically, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each received light signal corresponding to one screen with the threshold T (specifically, T1 or T2 ) for contact determination, and converts them into binarized signals. In addition, the threshold value T used here is basically set in step S1003 in the mode switching process 10 described later, but changes from a bright state to a dark state around the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light. In the case of , and in the case of changing from a dark state to a bright state, the threshold T1 and the threshold T2 are appropriately changed. That is, the threshold T1 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold T2 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" for the generated binarized signals (m×n) per screen, and the counted value is stored by In the case of a value within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value in the memory, it is determined that there is contact (step S901: No), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined that there is no contact. Contact (step S901: Yes). In addition, as described above, the upper limit value and the lower limit value used for comparison with the count value are different when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright and dark, or in the case of contact determination and proximity determination. .

In step S901, when it is determined that there is contact, the mode switching process 9 ends. At this time, the readout mode of the light-receiving signal remains the normal readout mode. In addition, when it is determined that there is contact in this way, the control circuit 300 detects the contact position after completing the mode switching process 9 . When detecting the contact position, binarized signals for one screen generated when determining the presence or absence of contact in step S901 are used. In addition, when the contact position is detected, if the detected contact position is within the handwriting input area B, the control circuit 300 updates the display of the handwriting image according to the detected contact position.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S901 that there is no contact, the control circuit 300 determines whether the state in which the non-contact determination result has been continuously obtained has continued for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) (step S902 ). In addition, since one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz, the determination result of step S901 is obtained at 60 Hz. Therefore, the control circuit 300 only needs to count the number of times that non-contact determination results are continuously obtained, and determine whether or not the count value has reached the number of times corresponding to the aforementioned predetermined time. In addition, the predetermined time may be set to an arbitrary time width such as 60 seconds or 30 minutes.

When it is determined in step S902 that the predetermined time has not continued, the mode switching process 9 ends. At this time, the readout mode of the received light signal is also maintained as the normal readout mode. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S902 that the predetermined time has elapsed, the control circuit 300 switches the readout mode of the light-receiving signal from the normal readout mode to the partial readout mode (step S903 ). Also, when switching the readout mode to the partial readout mode, a control signal instructing the switchover of the readout mode (→partial readout mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 .

The sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 change the readout mode to the partial readout mode after receiving the control signal. For example, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8 , the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects only 40 scanning lines from scanning line 201 to scanning line 240 one by one after switching to the partial readout mode. In addition, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 9, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600, after switching to the partial readout mode, uses only 50 readout lines from the readout line 1 to the readout line 50 to receive light. signal readout. In this way, after switching the readout mode of the light-receiving signal from the normal readout mode to the partial readout mode, the photodetection circuit O1 for reading the light-reception signal is changed from all the photodetection circuits O1 arranged in the image display area A to only The light detection circuit O1 is arranged in the operation key display area C.

In addition, if the finger or the stylus 50 is detected continuously for a predetermined time without contact with the display screen, it means that the display of the handwriting input area B will be stopped during the execution of the above-mentioned image editing software. Therefore, after the control circuit 300 switches the readout mode of the light-receiving signal to the partial readout mode, the threshold used in the binarization process is changed from the contact determination threshold T to the approach determination threshold S (step S904 ). Since the contact determination thresholds T1 and T2 and the proximity determination thresholds S1 and S2 are stored in the memory in the liquid crystal display device 1 as described above, the control circuit 300 judges the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light. When the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, the proximity determination threshold S1 is read from the memory, and this threshold S1 is set as the threshold used in the binarization process. Also, when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, the control circuit 300 reads the approach determination threshold S2 from the memory, and sets the threshold S2 as a threshold used in the binarization process.

On the other hand, when the readout mode of the light-receiving signal is the partial readout mode, the mode switching process 10 shown in FIG. 13( b ) is executed. As described above, in the partial readout mode, only light-receiving signals are read out from the photodetection circuits O1 arranged in the operation key display region C. FIG. The control circuit 300 firstly judges the presence or absence of proximity, that is, whether the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the operation key display area C according to the light-receiving signal read from each light detection circuit O1 in the operation key display area C (step S1001).

Specifically, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each read-out received light signal with the approach judgment threshold S (specifically, the threshold S1 or S2 ), and converts it into a binary signal. In addition, although the threshold S used here is basically set in step S904 of the above-mentioned mode switching process 9, it changes from a bright state to a dark state around the liquid crystal display device 1 according to the measurement result of ambient light. In the case of changing from a dark state to a bright state, the threshold S1 and the threshold S2 are appropriately changed. That is, the threshold S1 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold S2 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts the generated binarized signal, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1". When the value is within the limited range, it is determined that there is proximity (step S1001: Yes), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined that there is no proximity (step S1001: No). Also, as described above, the upper limit value and the lower limit value for comparison with the count value differ between bright and dark surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 , or between contact determination and proximity determination.

In step S1001, when it is determined that it is not approaching, the mode switching process 10 is ended. At this time, the readout mode of the light-receiving signal still maintains the partial readout mode. On the other hand, when it is judged to be close in step S1001, the control circuit 300 switches the readout mode of the light-receiving signal from the partial readout mode to the normal readout mode (step S1002). Also, when switching the readout mode to the normal readout mode, a control signal instructing to switch the readout mode (→normal readout mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 .

The sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 change the readout mode to the normal readout mode after receiving the control signal. As a result, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all the scanning lines one by one, and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 reads out the light-receiving signal using all the readout lines. Therefore, when the readout mode of the light-receiving signal is switched from the partial readout mode to the normal readout mode, the light-receiving signal is read from all the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A.

In addition, in this way, when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the vicinity of the display screen (operation key display area C), after the display of the part of the handwriting input area B is stopped during the execution of the above-mentioned image editing software, the user When the part of the operation key display area C is about to be touched in order to perform an arbitrary operation. Therefore, the control circuit 300 changes the threshold value used in the binarization process from the proximity determination threshold S to the contact determination threshold T after switching the light-receiving signal readout mode to the normal readout mode (step S1003).

As described above, since the contact determination thresholds T1 and T2 and the proximity determination thresholds S1 and S2 are stored in the memory in the liquid crystal display device 1, the control circuit 300 judges the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light. When the brightness around the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, the threshold value T1 for contact determination is read from the memory, and this threshold value T1 is set as the threshold value used in the binarization process. Also, when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, the control circuit 300 reads the threshold T2 from the memory, and sets the threshold T2 as a threshold used in the binarization process.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the liquid crystal display device 1 detects that the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined period of time, the readout mode of the light-receiving signal is switched from the normal readout mode to the partial readout mode. In the read mode, a light reception signal is read from the light detection circuit O1 arranged in the operation key display area C. In addition, when the liquid crystal display device 1 detects that the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the vicinity of the display screen (operation key display area C), the readout mode of the light-receiving signal is switched from the partial readout mode to the normal readout mode, Light-receiving signals are read out from all the photodetection circuits O1 included in the display screen. Therefore, during the period from when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined period of time is detected to when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen (operation key display area C) is detected, only from The photodetection circuits O1 arranged in the operation key display area C read out the received light signals, so that the number of photodetector circuits O1 for reading out the received light signals can be reduced. Therefore, the processing load required for reading out and binarizing the received light signal can be reduced, and the power consumption of the liquid crystal display device 1 can be reduced.

Furthermore, during the period from when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen (the operation key display area C) is detected to when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined period of time is detected thereafter, from the display All the photodetection circuits O1 included in the screen read out received light signals. Therefore, it is possible to perform touch determination and touch position detection targeting the entire display screen.

In addition, the number M of scanning lines to be selected in the case of the partial read mode may be any integer not less than 2 and not more than m. Likewise, the number N of readout lines used in the partial readout mode may be any integer not less than 2 and not more than n.

<Embodiment C2>

In the above-mentioned Embodiment C1, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor may be configured so that, when the readout mode of the light-receiving signal is the partial readout mode, one is selected for every L (2≤L≤M) lines. M (2≤M≤m) scanning lines to be selected are sequentially selected.

For example, in the example shown in FIG. 8 , the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects 40 scanning lines from scanning line 201 to scanning line 240 at a ratio of one for every two in the partial readout mode. In this case, the sensor scanning circuit 500 selects scanning lines one by one, for example, in the order of scanning line 201 , scanning line 203 , scanning line 205 , . . . , scanning line 235 , scanning line 237 , and scanning line 239 . Therefore, only 20 of the 40 scanning lines to be selected are selected, and the remaining 20 scanning lines are thinned out and not selected. In addition, in the example shown in FIG. 9 , the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects 240 scanning lines from scanning line 1 to scanning line 240 at a rate of selecting one for every 10 in the partial readout mode. In this case, the sensor scanning circuit 500 selects, for example, the scanning line 10 , the scanning line 20 , the scanning line 30 , . . . , the scanning line 220 , the scanning line 230 , and the scanning line 240 . Therefore, only 24 of the 240 scanning lines to be selected are selected, and the remaining 216 scanning lines are thinned out and not selected.

The above-mentioned configuration can further reduce the number of photodetection circuits O1 for reading out light-receiving signals to 1/L in the case of the partial readout mode, so that power consumption can be further reduced.

<Embodiment D1>

Embodiment D1 will be described below. In addition, since the hardware configuration of the liquid crystal display device of the present embodiment is substantially the same as that of the liquid crystal display device 1 of the above-mentioned embodiment B1, the same symbols as those of the embodiment B1 are used. In addition, the description of the same part as Embodiment B1 is abbreviate|omitted.

In the above-mentioned embodiment B1, a case was described in which there is a normal mode (60 Hz) and a low power consumption mode (10 Hz), and the cycle for reading out light-receiving signals equal to one screen is changed. In this embodiment, instead of the normal mode and the low power consumption mode, there will be described a case where a normal mode and a thinning mode are provided, and the number of photodetection circuits O1 that read out received light signals is changed.

In the present embodiment, the sensor scanning circuit 500 has a normal mode for sequentially selecting m scanning lines one by one, and a thinning mode for sequentially selecting m scanning lines at a rate of one out of ten. Instruct and operate in either operation mode. In addition, the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600, when a scanning line is selected by the sensor scanning circuit 500, reads out the light-receiving signals X1 and X2 from the n photodetection circuits O1 connected to the selected scanning line through n readout lines. , X3, X4, . . . , Xn, and provide them to the control circuit 300.

The control circuit 300 controls the sensor scanning circuit 500 and the light-receiving signal processing circuit 600 to read light-receiving signals for one screen at a predetermined cycle (for example, 60 Hz). In addition, since the sensor scanning circuit 500 has m×n light-receiving signals corresponding to one screen in the normal mode, m×n binarized signals are also generated accordingly. On the other hand, in the thinning mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 generates m×n/10 binarized signals correspondingly to m×n/10 received light signals for one screen.

Next, the normal mode and the thinning mode of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 11 . As described in Embodiment B3 above, in FIG. 11 , a total of 12 display keys arranged in an array of 4 rows×3 columns are displayed on the display screen (image display area A). In addition, in the image display area A, a total of 240 scanning lines from scanning line 1 to scanning line 240 are provided. The sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects 240 scanning lines one by one in the normal mode. That is, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all the scanning lines of the scanning line 1 , the scanning line 2 , the scanning line 3 , . . . , the scanning line 238 , the scanning line 239 , and the scanning line 240 . On the other hand, in the thinning mode, the scanning circuit 500 for a sensor sequentially selects 240 scanning lines at a ratio of 1 for every 10 lines. That is, in the thinning mode, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects, for example, the scanning line 10 , the scanning line 20 , the scanning line 30 , . . . , the scanning line 220 , the scanning line 230 , and the scanning line 240 . Therefore, in the thinning mode, only 24 of the 240 scan lines are selected, and the remaining 216 scan lines are eliminated without selection. In this way, the sensor scanning circuit 500 can operate in the normal mode and the thinning mode, and upon receiving a control signal instructing to switch the operation mode from the control circuit 300 , switches to the operation mode indicated by the control signal.

In addition, the liquid crystal display device 1 of this embodiment performs one-cycle processing on the touch input function at a predetermined cycle (for example, 120 Hz or 60 Hz), that is, reads out light-receiving signals for one screen, and reads out one screen based on The presence or absence of contact and the presence or absence of approach are judged by the number of received light signals, and the contact position is detected when it is judged that there is contact. In addition, in the present embodiment, it is set to perform the above-mentioned one-cycle processing at 60 Hz.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the flow of the mode switching processes 11 and 12 in this embodiment. When the sensor scanning circuit 500 is operated in the normal mode, the mode switching process 11 shown in (a) of the figure is executed. In addition, the liquid crystal display device 1 operates the sensor scanning circuit 500 in the normal mode after starting to accept the touch input, for example, when the user instructs to activate the touch input function. Alternatively, in the case of the liquid crystal display device 1 in which all operations are basically performed by touch input with a finger or a stylus 50, after the switch is pressed and the initial processing is completed, the acceptance of the touch input is started, and the sensor scanning circuit 500 starts to accept the touch input. Normal mode operation.

As described above, in the normal mode, scanning lines are sequentially selected one by one, and light reception signals are read out from all the photodetection circuits O1 provided in the image display area A. FIG. The control circuit 300 firstly determines whether there is contact, that is, whether the finger or the stylus 50 is in contact with the display screen or not (step S1101 ) based on the newly read light receiving signals (m×n) for one screen.

Specifically, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each received light signal corresponding to one screen with a touch determination threshold T (specifically, a threshold T1 or T2 described later), and converts them into binary signals. In addition, the threshold T used here is basically set in step S1203 of the mode switching process 12 described later, but changes from a bright state to a dark state around the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light. state, and when changing from a dark state to a bright state, the threshold value T1 and the threshold value T2 are appropriately changed. That is, the threshold T1 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold T2 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" for the generated binarized signals (m×n) per screen, and the counted value is stored by In the case of a value within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value in the memory, it is determined that there is contact (step S1101: No), and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined that there is no contact. Contact (step S1101: Yes).

In addition, as described above, the upper limit value and the lower limit value used for comparison with the count value are different when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright and dark, or in the case of contact determination and proximity determination. . Furthermore, when the sensor scanning circuit 500 is in the thinning mode, the scanning lines are thinned out, and the number of binarized signals for one screen becomes 1/10 of that in the normal mode. Therefore, when the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 is the normal mode and the thinning mode, the upper limit value and the lower limit value for comparison with the count value are different.

In step S1101, when it is determined that there is contact, the mode switching process 11 ends. At this time, the sensor scanning circuit 500 continues to operate in the normal mode. In addition, when it is determined that there is contact in this way, the control circuit 300 detects the contact position after completing the mode switching process 11 . In this contact position detection, the binarized signals for one screen generated when the presence or absence of contact is determined in step S1101 are used.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S1101 that there is no contact, the control circuit 300 determines whether the state in which the determination result of no contact has been continuously obtained has continued for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) (step S1102 ). In addition, in the normal mode, since one cycle of processing related to the touch input function is performed at 60 Hz, the determination result of step S1101 is obtained at a frequency of 60 Hz. Therefore, the control circuit 300 only needs to count the number of times that non-contact determination results are continuously obtained, and determine whether or not the count value has reached the number of times corresponding to the aforementioned predetermined time. In addition, the predetermined time may be set to an arbitrary time width such as 60 seconds or 30 minutes.

When it is determined in step S1102 that the predetermined time has not continued, the mode switching process 11 ends. At this time, the sensor scanning circuit 500 continues to operate in the normal mode. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S1102 that the predetermined time has elapsed, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 from the normal mode to the thinning mode (step S1103 ). Also, when switching the operation mode to the thinning mode, a control signal instructing switching of the operation mode (→ thinning mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 . The sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the operation mode to the thinning mode after receiving the control signal. As a result, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects scanning lines at a rate of selecting one out of ten.

Then, after switching the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 to the thinning mode, the control circuit 300 changes the threshold used in the binarization process from the contact determination threshold T to the proximity determination threshold S (step S1104). As described above, since the memory in the liquid crystal display device 1 stores the thresholds T1, T2 for contact determination and the thresholds S1, S2 for proximity determination, the control circuit 300 determines whether the liquid crystal display device As for the brightness around 1, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, the proximity determination threshold S1 is read from the memory, and this threshold S1 is set as the threshold used in the binarization process. Also, when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, the control circuit 300 reads the approach determination threshold S2 from the memory, and sets the threshold S2 as a threshold used in the binarization process.

In addition, when the scanning circuit 500 for sensors is operated in the thinning mode, the mode switching process 12 shown in FIG.14(b) is performed. As described above, in the thinning mode, scanning lines are sequentially selected at a rate of one out of ten. Therefore, the number of received light signals for one screen becomes 1/10 of that in the normal mode. The control circuit 300 first determines the presence or absence of approach, that is, whether the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the display screen based on the newly read light receiving signals (m×n/10) for one screen (step S1201).

Specifically, first, the control circuit 300 compares the signal level of each received light signal corresponding to one screen with the proximity determination threshold S2 (specifically, the threshold S1 or S2), and converts them into binary signals. The threshold S used here is basically set in step S1104 of the above-mentioned mode switching process 11, but when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 changes from a bright state to a dark state based on the measurement result of ambient light, In this case, and when changing from a dark state to a bright state, the threshold S1 and the threshold S2 are appropriately changed. That is, the threshold S1 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are bright, and the threshold S2 is used when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark. Then, the control circuit 300 counts, for example, the number of binarized signals whose signal value is "1" for the generated binarized signals (m×n) per screen, and the counted value is stored by When the value is within the range defined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value in the memory, it is determined as close, and when the count value is not a value within the above-mentioned range, it is determined as non-close. In addition, as described above, the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 is the normal mode and the thinning mode when the periphery of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright or dark, or when contact determination is performed or when proximity determination is performed. In the case of , the values of the upper limit value and lower limit value used for comparison with the count value are different.

When it is determined in step S1201 that it is not approaching, the mode switching process 12 ends. At this time, the sensor scanning circuit 500 continues to operate in the thinning mode. On the other hand, when it is judged to be close in step S1201, the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 from the thinning mode to the normal mode (step S1202). Also, when switching the operation mode to the normal mode, a control signal instructing to switch the operation mode (→normal mode) is sent from the control circuit 300 to the sensor scanning circuit 500 . The sensor scanning circuit 500 changes the operation mode to the normal mode after receiving the control signal. As a result, the sensor scanning circuit 500 sequentially selects all the scanning lines one by one.

In addition, after the control circuit 300 switches the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 to the normal mode, the threshold used in the binarization process is changed from the proximity determination threshold S to the contact determination threshold T (step S1203). As mentioned above, since the contact determination thresholds T1, T2 and the proximity determination thresholds S1, S2 are stored in the memory in the liquid crystal display device 1, the control circuit 300 determines the surrounding area of the liquid crystal display device 1 based on the measurement result of ambient light. When the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is bright, the threshold value T1 for contact determination is read from the memory, and this threshold value T1 is set as the threshold value used in the binarization process. In addition, the control circuit 300 reads the threshold value T2 for contact determination from the memory when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, and sets the threshold value T2 as a threshold value used in the binarization process.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the liquid crystal display device 1 detects that the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined time, the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 is switched from the normal mode. To Thinning mode, scanlines are selected sequentially in a ratio of 1 in 10. Also, when the liquid crystal display device 1 detects that the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the vicinity of the display screen, the operation mode of the sensor scanning circuit 500 is switched from the thinning mode to the normal mode, and all the scanning lines are sequentially selected. Therefore, the scan circuit 500 for sensors thins out the period from the detection that the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined time period to the subsequent detection that the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen. Mode operation can reduce the number of photodetection circuits O1 to read out the received light signal to 1/10 of that in the normal mode.

Furthermore, during the period from when the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen is detected to when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined period of time is detected thereafter, the sensor scanning circuit 500 normally In the mode operation, light reception signals can be read out from all the photodetection circuits O1 included in the display screen, and contact determination and contact position detection can be performed with high precision. In particular, by setting the timing of switching from the thinning mode to the normal mode not when contact is detected but when approach is detected, it is possible to improve contact determination and contact position detection before the finger or stylus 50 actually touches the display screen. accuracy.

In addition, in the thinning mode, the scanning lines may be sequentially selected at a rate of selecting 1 for every 2 lines or a rate of selecting 1 for every 15 lines. In this way, in the thinning mode, it is only necessary to sequentially select one scan line for every K (integer of 2 to m) lines. In addition, in this embodiment, the case where switching to the normal mode is described when starting to accept a touch input is described, but it may be configured to switch to the thinning mode when starting to accept a touch input.

<electronic device>

Next, an electronic device to which the liquid crystal display device 1 of any of the above-described embodiments is applied will be described. FIG. 15 shows the configuration of a mobile personal computer to which the liquid crystal display device 1 is applied. The personal computer 2000 has a liquid crystal display device 1 as a display unit and a touch input unit, and a main body 2010 . In addition, a power switch 2001 and a keyboard 2002 are provided on the main body 2010 .

FIG. 16 shows the structure of a mobile phone to which the liquid crystal display device 1 is applied. A mobile phone 3000 has a liquid crystal display device 1 as a display unit and a touch input unit, a plurality of operation keys 3001 and a scroll key 3002 . The screen displayed on the liquid crystal display device 1 is scrolled by operating the scroll key 3002 .

FIG. 17 shows the structure of a mobile information terminal (PDA: Personal Digital Assistants) to which the liquid crystal display device 1 is applied. The mobile information terminal 4000 has a liquid crystal display device 1 as a display unit and a touch input unit, a plurality of operation keys 4001 , and a power switch 4002 . By operating the operation keys 4001 , various information such as an address book and a schedule are displayed on the liquid crystal display device 1 .

In addition, as electronic equipment to which the liquid crystal display device 1 can be applied, in addition to the equipment shown in FIGS. , ATM (Automated Teller Machine: automatic cash deposit machine), automatic vending machine, etc. In addition, especially in the case of a mobile device, by applying the present invention, unnecessary power consumption can be suppressed, thereby prolonging the operable time for one charge (one battery replacement).

<Modification>

For example, various modifications as described below are possible. Furthermore, two or more modified examples described below can be appropriately combined.

(1) In Embodiment A1, it is described that there are normal mode (60 Hz) and high-speed mode (120 Hz), and switching to the normal mode when the touch input starts to be accepted, and when the finger or the stylus 50 touches the display screen, and the finger or When the stylus 50 is continuously touching the display screen for a predetermined time or longer, the mode is switched to the high-speed mode. However, in Embodiment A1, it may be configured to switch to the high-speed mode instead of the normal mode when the touch input starts to be accepted. In addition, in Embodiment A1, it may be configured to have a normal mode (120 Hz) and a low-speed mode (60 Hz), and switch to the normal mode (120 Hz) when the touch input is started to be accepted, and when the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen, , and timing the duration of such a non-contact state, and switching to the low-speed mode (60 Hz) when the timing time reaches a predetermined time or more.

(2) In Embodiments B1 to B3, it was described that the low power consumption mode is switched to the normal mode when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen. The low power consumption mode is switched to the normal mode when the finger or the stylus 50 touches the display screen. In addition, in Embodiments B1 to B3, the case where the normal mode is switched to the low power consumption mode when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined period of time is described, but the configuration may be such that , when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 has not approached the display screen for a predetermined time, the normal mode is switched to the low power consumption mode.

(3) In Embodiments C1 and C2, the case where the partial reading mode is switched to the normal reading mode when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 approaches the vicinity of the display screen is described, but the configuration may be such that , when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 touches the display screen, the partial reading mode is switched to the normal reading mode. In addition, in Embodiments C1 and C2, the case where the normal reading mode is switched to the partial reading mode when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 is in a non-contact state with the display screen for a predetermined period of time is described, but it is also possible to configure This is to switch from the normal reading mode to the partial reading mode when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 has not approached the vicinity of the display screen for a predetermined time.

(4) In Embodiment D1, the case where the thinning mode is switched to the normal mode when a finger or the stylus 50 is detected approaching the vicinity of the display screen is described, but it may be configured such that when a finger or handwriting is detected The thinning mode is switched to the normal mode when the pen 50 touches the display screen. Furthermore, in Embodiment D1, a case was described in which the normal mode is switched to the thinning mode when it is detected that the finger or the stylus 50 is not in contact with the display screen for a predetermined period of time. When the finger or the stylus 50 does not come close to the vicinity of the display screen for a predetermined time, the normal mode is switched to the thinning mode.

(5) When the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, the light of the backlight 800 reflected by the finger or the stylus 50 is used to detect that the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the display screen. Therefore, when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, if the light emission luminance of the backlight 800 is weak, it is difficult to detect approaching. Therefore, in the above-mentioned embodiment B2, a so-called scanning backlight is used as the backlight 800, and when the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark and the operation mode is the low power consumption mode, only the operation keys may be illuminated. Part of the light source in the region C increases the amount of emitted light more than other light sources.

Specifically, first, the scanning backlight has a plurality of light sources capable of adjusting the light quantity of emitted light. For example, a scanning backlight has three light sources of a first light source, a second light source, and a third light source. These first to third light sources illuminate different areas on the display screen. If the display screen shown in FIG. 8 is illustrated, for example, the display screen is divided into three strip-shaped regions extending in the X direction (the upper region [scanning line 1 to scanning line 80], the middle region [scanning line 81 ~scanning line 160], and the lower region [scanning line 161 to scanning line 240]), the outgoing light from the first light source illuminates the upper region, the outgoing light from the second light source illuminates the middle region, and the outgoing light from the third light source Irradiate the lower area. The control circuit 300 calculates the illuminance of ambient light based on the plurality of received light signals, and determines that the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark when the calculated illuminance is smaller than a predetermined value. In this way, when it is determined that the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark and it is in the low power consumption mode, the control circuit 300 instructs the dimming circuit 700 to A predetermined amount of outgoing light is added to the third light source. According to the instruction, the dimming circuit 700 adjusts the light quantity of the emitted light corresponding to the illuminance of the ambient light for the first light source and the second light source, and for the third light source, the control circuit 300 is added to the first light source and the second light source. Indicates the light quantity of the predetermined amount of outgoing light.

According to the above configuration, on the display screen shown in FIG. 8 , when the periphery of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark and the power consumption mode is low, only the lower region including the operation key display region C is enhanced from the scanning. Backlight light. Therefore, even when the surroundings of the liquid crystal display device 1 are dark, it is possible to more easily detect that the finger or the stylus 50 has approached the vicinity of the display screen (operation key display area C). Furthermore, since it is only necessary to increase the light intensity of the emitted light from the third light source that illuminates the portion of the operation key display area C, it is not necessary to increase the brightness of the entire display screen. Unnecessary power consumption can thereby be suppressed. In addition, as for the scanning backlight, either an edge-emitting method or a bottom-emitting method may be used.

In addition, the contents of this modified example (5) can also be applied to the above-mentioned embodiments C1 and C2. That is, in the liquid crystal display device 1 of Embodiments C1 and C2, when a scanning backlight is used as the backlight 800, the surrounding of the liquid crystal display device 1 is dark, and the readout mode of the received light signal is the partial readout mode, It is also possible to increase the amount of emitted light for only the light source that illuminates the portion of the operation key display area C, compared to other light sources.

(6) In each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the configuration in which the photodetection circuit O1 is provided for each pixel (pixel circuit P1) may be configured such that, for example, each of four pixels (pixel circuit P1) corresponding to up, down, left, and right P1) has one photodetection circuit O1. In addition, the arrangement pattern of the photodetection circuit O1 is not limited to the array form. For example, in the image display area A, each photodetection circuit O1 may be formed like a black (or white) array pattern in a checkerboard pattern (chess board pattern). In addition, the total number m of scanning lines and the total number n of readout lines in the image display area A need only be an integer of 2 or more.

(7) The display device of the present invention may be a transflective or reflective liquid crystal display device, or a display device using an OLED element. The OLED element is a current-driven light-emitting element that emits light by itself, unlike a liquid crystal element that changes the amount of light transmitted. In addition, the display device of the present invention may be a display device using photoelectric elements other than liquid crystal elements and OLED elements. In addition, the term "photoelectric element" refers to an element whose optical characteristics such as transmittance and luminance are changed by supplying an electric signal (current or voltage). The present invention can be applied to display screens equipped with light-emitting elements such as inorganic EL (ElectroLuminescence) or light-emitting polymers, and electrophoresis using microcapsules containing colored liquid and white particles dispersed in the liquid as photoelectric materials. display screen, a rotating ball display screen using rotating balls coated with different colors in each area of opposite polarity as the photoelectric material, a toner display screen using black toner as the photoelectric material, or a helium Or neon and other high-pressure gases are used as photoelectric materials in display devices such as plasma displays. In addition, the present invention can also be applied to a display device including a resistive touch panel or a capacitive touch panel.

(8) The sensing device of the present invention can also be applied to a so-called gesture function. When a finger or a stylus 50 is used to draw a line or a simple figure on the screen, determine the corresponding operation instruction (for example, scrolling, etc.) , enter the next page, return to the previous page, paste, copy, delete, restore, etc.), in the computer device that performs the processing of the corresponding determined operation instruction. In this case, there is no need to display images representing lines and figures drawn with the finger or the stylus 50 . In this way, in the sensor device of the present invention, it is not necessary to generate and display the images showing the traces of the detected contact positions.

Claims (35)

1. sensing device is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, it is arranged on the picture, generates respectively to have and the contact condition of object and above-mentioned picture or the 1st detection signal apart from corresponding level of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture;

Sensing element, it reads above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with predetermined period from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors;

2 value unit, the level of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Identifying unit, it judges that according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal above-mentioned object contacts or noncontact with above-mentioned picture;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal; And

Control module, its result of determination at above-mentioned identifying unit is under the situation of noncontact, control above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become for the 1st cycle, result of determination at above-mentioned identifying unit is under the situation of contact, controls above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become the 2nd cycle shorter than above-mentioned the 1st cycle.

2. sensing device according to claim 1 is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned control module, though be under the situation of noncontact in the result of determination of above-mentioned identifying unit and the result of determination of above-mentioned identifying unit is contact but under the situation of the result of determination of this contact more than the not lasting schedule time, control above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 1st cycle, result of determination at above-mentioned identifying unit is under the situation of the contact more than the continuous above-mentioned schedule time, controls above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 2nd cycle shorter than above-mentioned the 1st cycle.

3. sensing device is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, it is arranged on the picture, generates respectively to have and the contact condition of object and above-mentioned picture or the 1st detection signal apart from corresponding level of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture;

Sensing element, it reads above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with predetermined period from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors;

2 value unit, the level of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Identifying unit, it judges that according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal above-mentioned object contacts or noncontact with above-mentioned picture;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal; And

Control module, it is after beginning to contact the accepting of input, control above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become for the 1st cycle, result of determination at above-mentioned identifying unit is under the situation of contact, controls above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become the 2nd cycle shorter than above-mentioned the 1st cycle.

4. sensing device according to claim 3 is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned control module, when beginning to contact the accepting of input, control above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 1st cycle, result of determination at above-mentioned identifying unit is under the situation of the contact more than the lasting schedule time, controls above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become the 2nd cycle shorter than above-mentioned the 1st cycle.

5. sensing device is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, it is arranged on the picture, generates respectively to have and the contact condition of object and above-mentioned picture or the 1st detection signal apart from corresponding level of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture;

Sensing element, it reads above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with predetermined period from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors; 2 value unit, the level of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Identifying unit, it judges that according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal above-mentioned object contacts or noncontact with above-mentioned picture;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal; And

Control module, it is after beginning to contact the accepting of input, control above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become the 2nd cycle shorter than the 1st cycle, result of determination at above-mentioned identifying unit is under the situation of noncontact, controls above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 1st cycle.

6. sensing device according to claim 5 is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned control module, when beginning to contact the accepting of input, control above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 2nd cycle shorter than above-mentioned the 1st cycle, under the result of determination of above-mentioned identifying unit is non-contacting situation more than the continuous schedule time, control above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 1st cycle.

7. according to any described sensing device in the claim 1,3,5, it is characterized in that,

Has the change unit, its situation and above-mentioned control module of controlling above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 1st cycle at above-mentioned control module is controlled under the situation of above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 2nd cycle, changes above-mentioned threshold value.

8. sensing device according to claim 7 is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned change unit, control under the situation of above-mentioned sensing element according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 1st cycle at above-mentioned control module, is the 1st threshold setting in corresponding above-mentioned the 1st cycle above-mentioned threshold value, controlling according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become above-mentioned the 2nd cycle under the situation of above-mentioned sensing element at above-mentioned control module, is the 2nd threshold setting in corresponding above-mentioned the 2nd cycle above-mentioned threshold value.

9. according to any described sensing device in the claim 1,3,5, it is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned identifying unit is counted satisfying in whole above-mentioned the 2nd detection signals by the number of above-mentioned the 2nd detection signal of the condition that above-mentioned threshold value limited, and judges that according to count results above-mentioned object contacts or noncontact with above-mentioned picture.

10. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, it is arranged on the above-mentioned picture, generates the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively;

Sensing element, it can move with normal mode and low power consumption mode, under normal mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors with the 1st cycle, under low power consumption mode, to read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors than the 2nd cycle of above-mentioned the 1st cycle length;

2 value unit, above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture noncontact according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal; And

Control module, it manages the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, under above-mentioned normal mode, detect under the non-contacting situation in the continuous schedule time of above-mentioned detecting unit, control above-mentioned sensing element and forward above-mentioned low power consumption mode to, and under predetermined situation, control above-mentioned sensing element and forward above-mentioned normal mode to from above-mentioned low power consumption mode.

11. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, it is arranged on the above-mentioned picture, generates the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively;

Sensing element, it can move with normal mode and low power consumption mode, under normal mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors with the 1st cycle, under low power consumption mode, to read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors than the 2nd cycle of above-mentioned the 1st cycle length;

2 value unit, above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it is according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, and the distance that detects the approaching above-mentioned picture of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture is the following situation of certain distance;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting; And

Control module, it manages the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, under above-mentioned low power consumption mode, in the above-mentioned unit that detects when detecting situation about becoming below the certain distance, control above-mentioned sensing element and forward above-mentioned normal mode to, and the above-mentioned sensing element of control forwards above-mentioned low power consumption mode to from above-mentioned normal mode under predetermined situation.

12. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, it is arranged on the above-mentioned picture, generates the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively;

Sensing element, it can move with normal mode and low power consumption mode, under normal mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors with the 1st cycle, under low power consumption mode, to read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors than the 2nd cycle of above-mentioned the 1st cycle length;

2 value unit, it can use in order to judge whether above-mentioned object becomes below the certain distance and the 1st threshold value and the 2nd threshold value in order to judge whether above-mentioned object is set with above-mentioned picture noncontact of setting near the distance of above-mentioned picture and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture, the any one party in above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading by above-mentioned sensing element and above-mentioned the 1st threshold value and above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value relatively, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it uses above-mentioned the 1st threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, detect above-mentioned object according to this each the 2nd detection signal and become situation below the certain distance near the distance of above-mentioned picture and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture, use above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, detect above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture according to this each the 2nd detection signal;

Detecting unit, it uses above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to this each the 2nd detection signal; With

Control module, it manages the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, and manage the change between above-mentioned the 1st threshold value and above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value, under above-mentioned low power consumption mode, in the above-mentioned unit that detects when detecting situation about becoming below the certain distance, control above-mentioned sensing element and forward above-mentioned normal mode to, and control above-mentioned 2 value unit so that it uses above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, under above-mentioned normal mode, continue the schedule time when detecting non-contacting situation in the above-mentioned unit that detects, control above-mentioned sensing element and forward above-mentioned low power consumption mode to, and control above-mentioned 2 value unit so that it uses above-mentioned the 1st threshold value to generate above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal.

13. according to any described sensing device in the claim 10～12, it is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned a plurality of sensor is the point of crossing of corresponding m bar sweep trace and n bar sense wire, is arranged in m * n sensor on the above-mentioned picture, and wherein m, n are respectively the integer more than 2,

Above-mentioned sensing element can move with normal mode and low power consumption mode, under normal mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned m * n sensor with above-mentioned the 1st cycle, under low power consumption mode, with above-mentioned the 2nd cycle, from corresponding with above-mentioned sweep trace of continuously arranged M bar and the above-mentioned sense wire of continuously arranged N bar, less than above-mentioned m * n M * N the sensor, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal, wherein M is the integer more than 2, below the above-mentioned m, and N is the integer more than 2, below the said n.

14. sensing device according to claim 13 is characterized in that, has:

Backlight, the back side that it is arranged on above-mentioned picture has a plurality of light sources of adjusting the light quantity of emergent light; With

Adjustment unit, its a plurality of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal of reading according to above-mentioned sensing element calculates the illumination of surround lighting, in the illumination that calculates less than predetermined value and under above-mentioned low power consumption mode, compare the light quantity of the emergent light of other above-mentioned light sources, increase the light quantity of the emergent light of the regional corresponding above-mentioned light source of arranging with above-mentioned M * N the sensor.

15. according to any described sensing device in the claim 10～12, it is characterized in that,

Arrange on above-mentioned picture the point of crossing of corresponding multi-strip scanning line of above-mentioned a plurality of sensor and many sense wires,

Above-mentioned sensing element has selected cell,

Each bar of this selected cell above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of select progressively under above-mentioned normal mode under above-mentioned low power consumption mode, is selected 1 ratio with every L bar, the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of select progressively, and wherein L is the integer more than 2,

Above-mentioned sensing element by above-mentioned many sense wires, is read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from the sensor corresponding with the selected above-mentioned sweep trace of above-mentioned selected cell respectively.

16. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

M * n sensor, the crossover arrangement of its corresponding m bar sweep trace and n bar sense wire generate the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture, wherein m is the integer more than 2, and n is the integer more than 2;

Sensing element, it can move with common readout mode and part readout mode, under common readout mode, from each of above-mentioned m * n sensor, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal, under the part readout mode, from corresponding with above-mentioned sweep trace of continuously arranged M bar and the above-mentioned sense wire of continuously arranged N bar, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal less than each of above-mentioned m * n M * N the sensor, wherein M is the integer more than 2, below the above-mentioned m, and N is the integer more than 2, below the said n;

2 value unit, above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it detects above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal; With

Control module, it manages the switching between above-mentioned common readout mode and the above-mentioned part readout mode, under above-mentioned common readout mode, detect the continuous schedule time of unit and detect when being the situation of noncontact above-mentioned, control above-mentioned sensing element and forward above-mentioned part readout mode to, and under predetermined case, control above-mentioned sensing element and forward above-mentioned common readout mode to from above-mentioned part readout mode.

17. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

M * n sensor, the crossover arrangement of its corresponding m bar sweep trace and n bar sense wire generate the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture, wherein m is the integer more than 2, and n is the integer more than 2;

Sensing element, it can move with common readout mode and part readout mode, under common readout mode, from each of above-mentioned m * n sensor, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal, under the part readout mode, from corresponding with above-mentioned sweep trace of continuously arranged M bar and the above-mentioned sense wire of continuously arranged N bar, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal less than each of above-mentioned m * n M * N the sensor, M is the integer more than 2, below the above-mentioned m, and N is the integer more than 2, below the said n;

2 value unit, above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it detects above-mentioned object according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal becomes situation below the certain distance near the distance of above-mentioned picture and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting; With

Control module, it manages the switching between above-mentioned common readout mode and the above-mentioned part readout mode, under above-mentioned part readout mode, in the above-mentioned unit that detects when detecting situation about becoming below the certain distance, control above-mentioned sensing element so that it forwards above-mentioned common readout mode to, and under predetermined situation, control above-mentioned sensing element so that it forwards above-mentioned part readout mode to from above-mentioned common readout mode.

18. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

M * n sensor, the crossover arrangement of its corresponding m bar sweep trace and n bar sense wire generate the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture, wherein m is the integer more than 2, and n is the integer more than 2;

Sensing element, it can move with common readout mode and part readout mode, under common readout mode, from each of above-mentioned m * n sensor, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal, under the part readout mode, from corresponding with above-mentioned sweep trace of continuously arranged M bar and the above-mentioned sense wire of continuously arranged N bar, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal less than each of above-mentioned m * n M * N the sensor, wherein M is the integer more than 2, below the above-mentioned m, and N is the integer more than 2, below the said n;

2 value unit, it can use in order to judge whether above-mentioned object becomes below the certain distance and the 1st threshold value and the 2nd threshold value in order to judge whether above-mentioned object is set with above-mentioned picture noncontact of setting near the distance of above-mentioned picture and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture, the any one party of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading by above-mentioned sensing element and above-mentioned the 1st threshold value and above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value relatively, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it uses above-mentioned the 1st threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, detect above-mentioned object according to this each the 2nd detection signal and become situation below the certain distance near the distance of above-mentioned picture and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture, use above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, detect above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture according to this each the 2nd detection signal;

Detecting unit, it uses above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to this each the 2nd detection signal; With

Control module, its manage the switching between above-mentioned common readout mode and the above-mentioned part readout mode and manage above-mentioned the 1st threshold value and above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value between change, under above-mentioned part readout mode, in the above-mentioned unit that detects when detecting situation about becoming below the certain distance, control above-mentioned sensing element so that it forwards above-mentioned common readout mode to, and control above-mentioned 2 value unit so that it uses above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, under above-mentioned common readout mode, detect the continuous schedule time of unit when detecting non-contacting situation above-mentioned, control above-mentioned sensing element so that it forwards above-mentioned part readout mode to, and control above-mentioned 2 value unit so that it uses above-mentioned the 1st threshold value to generate above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal.

19. according to any described sensing device in the claim 16～18, it is characterized in that,

Above-mentioned sensing element has selected cell,

This selected cell is under above-mentioned common readout mode, and each bar of the above-mentioned m bar of select progressively sweep trace under above-mentioned part readout mode, is selected the above-mentioned sweep trace of 1 the above-mentioned M bar of ratio select progressively with every L bar, and wherein L is the integer more than 2,

Above-mentioned sensing element is read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from each of above-mentioned m * n sensor under above-mentioned common readout mode, under above-mentioned part readout mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from each of M * N/L the sensor.

20., it is characterized in that having according to any described sensing device in the claim 16～18:

Backlight, it is located at the back side of above-mentioned picture, and has a plurality of light sources of adjusting the light quantity of emergent light; With

Adjustment unit, a plurality of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal that it is read according to above-mentioned sensing element, calculate the illumination of surround lighting, in the illumination that calculates less than predetermined value and under above-mentioned part readout mode, compare the light quantity of the emergent light of other above-mentioned light sources, increase the light quantity of the emergent light of the regional corresponding above-mentioned light source of arranging with above-mentioned M * N the sensor.

21. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, the crossover arrangement of its corresponding multi-strip scanning line and many sense wires generate the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture;

Selected cell, it can move with normal mode and interval rejecting pattern, each of the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of select progressively under normal mode selected 1 the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of ratio select progressively with every K bar under interval rejecting pattern, wherein K is the integer more than 2;

Sensing element, its from the corresponding the sensor of the selected above-mentioned sweep trace of above-mentioned selected cell, by above-mentioned many sense wires, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively;

2 value unit, above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it detects above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal; With

Control module, it manages the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern, under above-mentioned normal mode, detect the continuous schedule time of unit and detect when being the situation of noncontact above-mentioned, control above-mentioned selected cell and reject pattern so that it forwards above-mentioned interval to, and under predetermined situation, control above-mentioned selected cell so that it forwards above-mentioned normal mode to from above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern.

22. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, the crossover arrangement of its corresponding multi-strip scanning line and many sense wires generate the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture;

Selected cell, it can move with normal mode and interval rejecting pattern, each of the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of select progressively under normal mode selected 1 the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of ratio select progressively with every K bar under interval rejecting pattern, wherein K is the integer more than 2;

Sensing element, its from the corresponding the sensor of the selected above-mentioned sweep trace of above-mentioned selected cell, by above-mentioned many sense wires, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively;

2 value unit, above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal that it is read by above-mentioned sensing element and above-mentioned threshold ratio generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it is according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, and the distance that detects the approaching above-mentioned picture of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes the following situation of certain distance;

Detecting unit, it detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting; With

Control module, it manages the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern, under above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern, in the above-mentioned unit that detects when detecting situation about becoming below the certain distance, control above-mentioned selected cell so that it forwards above-mentioned normal mode to, and under predetermined situation, control above-mentioned selected cell so that it forwards above-mentioned interval to from above-mentioned normal mode and reject pattern.

23. a sensing device is used for detected object thing and picture position contacting, it is characterized in that having:

A plurality of sensors, the crossover arrangement of its corresponding multi-strip scanning line and many sense wires generate the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture;

Selected cell, it can move with normal mode and interval rejecting pattern, each of the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of select progressively under normal mode selected 1 the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of ratio select progressively with every K bar under interval rejecting pattern, wherein K is the integer more than 2;

Sensing element, its from the corresponding the sensor of the selected above-mentioned sweep trace of above-mentioned selected cell, by above-mentioned many sense wires, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively;

2 value unit, it can use in order to judge whether above-mentioned object becomes below the certain distance and the 1st threshold value and the 2nd threshold value in order to judge whether above-mentioned object is set with above-mentioned picture noncontact of setting near the distance of above-mentioned picture and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture, the any one party of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading by above-mentioned sensing element and above-mentioned the 1st threshold value and above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value relatively, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect the unit, it uses above-mentioned the 1st threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, according to this each the 2nd detection signal, the distance that detects the approaching above-mentioned picture of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes the following situation of certain distance, use above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, detect above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture according to this each the 2nd detection signal;

Detecting unit, it uses above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate under the situation of above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal in above-mentioned 2 value unit, according to this each the 2nd detection signal, detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting; With

Control module, its manage the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern and manage above-mentioned the 1st threshold value and above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value between change, under above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern, in the above-mentioned unit that detects when detecting situation about becoming below the certain distance, control above-mentioned selected cell so that it forwards above-mentioned normal mode to, and control above-mentioned 2 value unit so that it uses above-mentioned the 2nd threshold value to generate above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, under above-mentioned normal mode, detect the continuous schedule time of unit when detecting non-contacting situation above-mentioned, control above-mentioned selected cell and reject pattern, and control above-mentioned 2 value unit so that it uses above-mentioned the 1st threshold value to generate above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal so that it forwards above-mentioned interval to.

24. according to any described sensing device in the claim 10,16,21, it is characterized in that,

The above-mentioned unit that detects is counted the number that satisfies above-mentioned the 2nd detection signal of the condition that is limited by above-mentioned threshold value in whole above-mentioned the 2nd detection signals, detects above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture according to count results.

25. according to any described sensing device in the claim 11,17,22, it is characterized in that,

The above-mentioned unit that detects, number to above-mentioned the 2nd detection signal that satisfies the condition that is limited by above-mentioned threshold value in whole above-mentioned the 2nd detection signals is counted, and the distance that detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture according to count results becomes the situation below the certain distance.

26. a display device is characterized in that having:

Any described sensing device in the claim 1,10,16,17,21,22; With

The display part of display image.

27. display device according to claim 26 is characterized in that, has:

Indicative control unit, its generation are represented by the image of the track of the detected position of above-mentioned detecting unit and are presented in the above-mentioned display part.

28. electronic equipment that possesses the described display device of claim 26.

29. method for sensing, it uses a plurality of sensors, detect object and picture position contacting, these a plurality of sensors are arranged on the above-mentioned picture, generate respectively and have and the contact condition of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture or the 1st detection signal apart from corresponding level of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture, it is characterized in that

Read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with predetermined period from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors;

The level of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading and threshold ratio, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, judge that above-mentioned object contacts or noncontact with above-mentioned picture;

Detect above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal;

Result in above-mentioned judgement is under the situation of noncontact, control reading of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become for the 1st cycle, result in above-mentioned judgement is under the situation of contact, controls reading of above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal according to the mode that makes above-mentioned predetermined period become the 2nd cycle shorter than above-mentioned the 1st cycle.

30. a method for sensing, it uses a plurality of sensors, detects object and picture position contacting, and these a plurality of sensors are arranged on the above-mentioned picture, generates the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively, it is characterized in that,

Can carry out reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with normal mode and low power consumption mode, under normal mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors with the 1st cycle, under low power consumption mode, to read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors than the 2nd cycle of above-mentioned the 1st cycle length, and, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively with any one party of above-mentioned normal mode and above-mentioned low power consumption mode;

Above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading and threshold ratio, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, detect above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, detect above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting;

Manage the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, under above-mentioned normal mode, when the schedule time detects above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture continuously, reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned low power consumption mode, and under predetermined situation, reading from above-mentioned low power consumption mode of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned normal mode.

31. a method for sensing, it uses a plurality of sensors, detects object and above-mentioned picture position contacting, and these a plurality of sensors are arranged on the picture, generates the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively, it is characterized in that,

Can carry out reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with normal mode and low power consumption mode, under normal mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors with the 1st cycle, under low power consumption mode, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal from above-mentioned a plurality of sensors with the 2nd cycle longer, and read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively with any one party of above-mentioned normal mode and above-mentioned low power consumption mode than above-mentioned the 1st cycle;

Above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading and threshold ratio, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, the distance that detects the approaching above-mentioned picture of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes the following situation of certain distance;

Manage the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned low power consumption mode, under above-mentioned low power consumption mode, when the distance that detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes situation below the certain distance, reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned normal mode, and under predetermined situation, reading from above-mentioned normal mode of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned low power consumption mode.

32. method for sensing, it uses m * n sensor object and picture position contacting, the point of crossing of corresponding m bar sweep trace of this m * n sensor and n bar sense wire is arranged on the above-mentioned picture, generate the 1st detection signal respectively with corresponding size with quantity of incident light, wherein m is the integer more than 2, n is the integer more than 2, it is characterized in that

Can carry out reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with common readout mode and part readout mode, under common readout mode, from each of above-mentioned m * n sensor, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal, under the part readout mode, from corresponding with above-mentioned sweep trace of continuously arranged M bar and the above-mentioned sense wire of continuously arranged N bar, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal less than in each of M * N the sensor of above-mentioned m * n, and read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively with any one party of above-mentioned common readout mode and above-mentioned part readout mode, wherein M is more than 2, the integer that above-mentioned m is following, N is more than 2, the integer that said n is following;

Above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading and threshold ratio, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

Detect above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal;

Detect above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting according to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal;

Manage the switching between above-mentioned common readout mode and the above-mentioned part readout mode, under above-mentioned common readout mode, detect above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture when being the situation of noncontact in continuous schedule time, reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned part readout mode, and under predetermined situation, reading from above-mentioned part readout mode of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned common readout mode.

33. method for sensing, it uses m * n sensor object and picture position contacting, the point of crossing of corresponding m bar sweep trace of this m * n sensor and n bar sense wire is arranged on the above-mentioned picture, generate the 1st detection signal respectively with corresponding size with quantity of incident light, wherein m is the integer more than 2, n is the integer more than 2, it is characterized in that

Can carry out reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal with common readout mode and part readout mode, under common readout mode, from each of above-mentioned m * n sensor, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal, under the part readout mode, from corresponding with above-mentioned sweep trace of continuously arranged M bar and the above-mentioned sense wire of continuously arranged N bar, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal less than in each of M * N the sensor of above-mentioned m * n, and read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively with any one party of above-mentioned common readout mode and above-mentioned part readout mode, wherein M is more than 2, the integer that above-mentioned m is following, N is more than 2, the integer that said n is following;

Above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading and threshold ratio, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, the distance that detects the approaching above-mentioned picture of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes the following situation of certain distance;

Manage the switching between above-mentioned common readout mode and the above-mentioned part readout mode, under above-mentioned part readout mode, when the distance that detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes situation below the certain distance, reading of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned common readout mode, and under predetermined situation, reading from above-mentioned common readout mode of above-mentioned the 1st detection signal forwarded to above-mentioned part readout mode.

34. method for sensing, it uses a plurality of sensor objects and picture position contacting, and the crossover arrangement of corresponding multi-strip scanning line of these a plurality of sensors and many sense wires generates the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture, it is characterized in that

Can carry out the selection of above-mentioned sweep trace with normal mode and interval rejecting pattern, under normal mode, each of the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of select progressively is under interval rejecting pattern, select 1 the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of ratio select progressively with every K bar, wherein K is the integer more than 2;

From with the corresponding the sensor of selected above-mentioned sweep trace, by above-mentioned many sense wires, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively;

Above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading and threshold ratio, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, detect above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, detect above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture position contacting;

Manage the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern, under above-mentioned normal mode, when the schedule time detects above-mentioned object and the non-contacting situation of above-mentioned picture continuously, the selection of above-mentioned sweep trace is forwarded to above-mentioned interval reject pattern, and under predetermined situation, the selection of above-mentioned sweep trace is forwarded to above-mentioned normal mode from above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern.

35. method for sensing, it uses a plurality of sensor objects and picture position contacting, and the crossover arrangement of corresponding multi-strip scanning line of these a plurality of sensors and many sense wires generates the 1st detection signal with corresponding size with quantity of incident light respectively on above-mentioned picture, it is characterized in that

Can carry out the selection of above-mentioned sweep trace with normal mode and interval rejecting pattern, under normal mode, each of the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of select progressively is under interval rejecting pattern, select 1 the above-mentioned multi-strip scanning line of ratio select progressively with every K bar, wherein K is the integer more than 2;

From with the corresponding the sensor of selected above-mentioned sweep trace, by above-mentioned many sense wires, read above-mentioned the 1st detection signal respectively;

Above-mentioned each the 1st detection signal of reading and threshold ratio, generate the 2nd detection signal of 2 values respectively;

According to above-mentioned each the 2nd detection signal, the distance that detects the approaching above-mentioned picture of above-mentioned object and above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes the following situation of certain distance;

Manage the switching between above-mentioned normal mode and the above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern, under above-mentioned interval rejecting pattern, when the distance that detects above-mentioned object and above-mentioned picture becomes situation below the certain distance, the selection of above-mentioned sweep trace is forwarded to above-mentioned normal mode, and under predetermined situation, the selection of above-mentioned sweep trace is forwarded to above-mentioned interval from above-mentioned normal mode reject pattern.

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