CN201293985Y - Multi-point touch induction system - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model provides a multi-touch induction device, which comprises a first conducting layer and a second conducting layer, wherein the first conducting layer is at least provided with a first pair of edges, the first pair of edges comprises a first edge and a second edge, the second edge is arranged approximately parallel to the first edge, the second conducting layer is separated from the first conducting layer through a spacing layer, and the second conducting layer comprises a plurality of conducting areas which are mutually insulated. The multi-touch induction device can identify at least two touch points which are pressed simultaneously.

Description

A multi-touch sensing device

technical field

The utility model relates to the field of touch panels, in particular to a multi-point touch sensing device.

Background technique

Today, almost every electronic application provides a user interface for human-computer interaction, such as buttons, keyboards, and mice. Among the technologies related to various user interfaces, touch-sensitive displays (also known as "touch screens" or "touch panels") are becoming more and more popular because of their intuitiveness and ease of operation, and are widely used in various electronic applications, such as portable devices and public system. As a user interface, a touch-sensitive display detects the user's touch and converts it into an electrical signal. Through signal analysis, the signal processor determines where the user touches, then displays and executes the corresponding action.

Different types of touch panels can be manufactured by various technologies for different industrial applications, such as surface acoustic wave touch panels, infrared touch panels, capacitive touch panels, resistive touch panels, and so on.

The surface acoustic wave touch panel monitors the ultrasonic waves passing through the surface of the touch panel. When the panel is touched by a finger, part of the ultrasonic wave is absorbed, and a touch event is generated on the touch panel. By detecting the change of the ultrasonic wave, it is estimated that the finger contact touch The position of the panel.

Infrared (IR) touch panels use two different methods to capture touch events. One method is to detect changes in the resistance of the touch panel surface caused by heat. Another method is to deploy infrared sensors in the vertical and horizontal directions of the touch panel to judge the touch position by detecting the interruption of the modulated light beam on the screen surface.

A capacitive touch panel is a glass panel coated with a transparent conductive material, such as indium tin oxide, light-emitting polymer, or other materials that can conduct current on the touch panel. Capacitive fields are formed by precisely controlling the overlapping areas in the lateral and vertical directions. The human body is equivalent to a device that stores electrons, and is also equivalent to a capacitor. When the user's finger touches the touch panel, the "normal" capacitive field of the touch panel changes due to the capacitance of the human body superimposed on the touch panel, and the information in it can be used to estimate the position of the touch point.

The resistive touch panel screen is composed of multiple parts, including a lower conductive layer, an isolation layer and an upper conductive layer. The isolation layer is composed of very small and elastic particles. The distance between them is usually only on the order of microns, so the isolation layer is used to isolate the upper conductive layer and the lower conductive layer when the user is not pressing. A voltage drop is applied across the lower conductive layer, and a current flows through the lower conductive layer. When a user uses a resistive touch panel, it touches the upper conductive layer and causes the two conductive layers to connect at certain points. Part of the current from the lower conductive layer flows into the upper conductive layer through the connection point, causing the change. The change in current is a touch event and is used to estimate the position of the connection point on the touch panel.

A resistive touch panel works like a voltage divider with an output. Figure 1 shows the block diagram of this voltage divider. The two resistors Z1 and Z2 connected in series in the figure represent two parts of the lower conducting layer separated by a connection point on the upper conducting layer. If the supply voltage Vin is applied to the opposite ends of the two resistors, the output voltage Vout at the connection point is: $V_{\mathrm{out}}=\frac{Z_2}{Z_1+Z_2}{V}_{\mathrm{in}}$

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a device with a single touch sensitive area being touched by two fingers simultaneously. The illustrated resistive touch panel includes at least two parts, a base layer 100 and a contact layer 200 . In some embodiments, in order to meet the mechanical stability requirements of the device, the base layer 100 is a panel made of a hard material (such as glass); the contact layer is made of a soft material, such as polyethylene terephthalate ( polyethylene terephthalate, PET) to provide an elastic medium that can connect the two parts when it is pressed. In some embodiments, both the upper surface of the base layer 100 and the lower surface of the plastic contact layer are coated with a transparent conductive material such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or light emitting polymer (LEP).

The touch panel, according to its application on the touch panel, can have different shapes, regular or irregular. For example, the touch panel shown in FIG. 2 is a rectangle with four edges, and four sets of electrodes 110 are arranged along the four edges, and the electrodes are electrically connected to the conductive layer on the upper surface of the base layer 100 . The contact layer 200 has a signal output terminal 210 , and the signal output terminal is electrically connected to the conductive layer on the lower surface of the contact layer 200 .

Further, the conductive layers respectively attached to the base layer 100 and the contact layer 200 are separated by a spacer layer (not shown in the figure). When no pressure is applied to the upper surface of the contact layer 200, the two conductive layers are insulated from each other. When an object such as a fingertip presses the contact layer 200, the contact layer 200 is deformed downward, resulting in the Connection of two conductive layers.

If there is only one contact point between the two conductive layers (for example, "+" is used to indicate the contact point), the position of the contact point on the touch panel can be determined by the following (i) applying voltage to the left and right electrodes of the base layer 100, Then the output signal (ii) of the output terminal 210 applies a voltage to the upper and lower electrodes of the base layer 100 , and another output signal of the output terminal 210 is output. Every two such output signals can determine the position of the contact point in the X-coordinate direction and the Y-coordinate direction on the ITO coating, thereby determining the specific position of the contact point.

However, if two or more fingertips are in contact with the touch panel at the same time, that is, there are at least two contact points, the use of the touch panel shown in FIG. 2 can only generate a corresponding output signal for estimating the contact position. In this case, the estimated position may be the average of the two contact point positions on the touch panel. , in such a case that two fingertips are in contact with the touch panel to generate an average position touch point, the touch screen as the user interface will not be able to correctly recognize the user's indication. In order to avoid such a situation, the user must be careful not to have two fingertips in contact with the touch panel at the same time. This constraint also leads to the unsupported application of complex human-computer interaction operations with multiple touch points.

Utility model content

The purpose of the utility model is to provide a multi-point touch sensing device, which can identify at least two touch points pressed simultaneously.

The technical scheme of the utility model is achieved in that:

A multi-touch sensing device, comprising:

a first conductive layer having at least a first pair of edges comprising, a first edge and a second edge wherein the second edge is disposed substantially parallel to the first edge;

and a second conductive layer separated from the first conductive layer by a spacer layer, the second conductive layer includes a plurality of mutually insulated conductive regions.

It can be seen that in the utility model, the conductive layer of the touch screen body that is only used to output touch point signals is divided into at least two mutually insulated conductive areas. Based on this structure, when the user presses the positions in different areas, different conductive areas A signal corresponding to the position of the touch points will be respectively output for subsequent processing by the touch screen controller, so that at least two touch points pressed simultaneously can be identified.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a voltage divider;

2 is a schematic diagram of a device with a single touch-sensitive area being touched by two fingers simultaneously;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of multiple touch sensitive areas provided by the embodiment of the present invention, being touched by six fingers at the same time;

4A and 4B are schematic diagrams of the multi-touch device shown in FIG. 3 provided by the embodiment of the present invention, connected with the control circuit for controlling its operation;

5A to 5C are structural diagrams of a touch sensing device with multiple conductive regions provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a transverse cross-sectional view of a multi-touch sensing panel with multiple conductive regions provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

7 is a data flow chart of the multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of the first multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of the second multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a working flow chart of the multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the utility model clearer, the utility model will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described here are only used to explain the utility model, and are not intended to limit the utility model.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of multiple touch sensitive areas provided by the embodiment of the present invention, being touched by six fingers at the same time;

Similar to the touch panel shown in FIG. 2 , the touch panel shown in FIG. 3 also includes a base layer 300 and a contact layer 400 , both of which are covered with a conductive layer. Four sets of electrodes are distributed on four sides of the base layer 300 . To support the multi-touch function, the conductive layer on the lower surface of the contact layer 400 is divided into six isolated conductive regions 400-1 to 400-6, each conductive region has its own output terminal 410-1 to 410-6. Since the six conductive regions are electrically insulated from each other, when each of the six regions is in contact with a fingertip at the same time, each region can generate an independent output signal.

As shown in Figure 3, at the same time, each of the six conductive areas is touched by a fingertip. At the same time, the supply voltage Vin is applied to the upper and lower electrodes of the base layer 300 and six voltage signals are respectively output at the output terminals 6 and 6 , and each signal originates from a contact point on the conduction area. Next, the supply voltage Vin is removed from the upper and lower electrodes of the base layer 300 and applied to the left and right electrodes of the base layer 300. If the six fingertips in contact with the touch panel are withdrawn, the six output terminals generate another six voltage signals. Therefore, the six conductive areas will respectively send out one-to-two correlated measurement signals, one signal is related to the left and right sides of the base layer 300 , and the other signal is related to the upper and lower sides of the base layer 300 . Each pair of measurement signals can be used to estimate the position of the corresponding contact point on each conductive area, then the event that six conductive areas on the touch panel are simultaneously independently touched can be detected, and corresponding position information can be generated.

4A and 4B are schematic diagrams of the multi-touch device shown in FIG. 3 provided by the embodiment of the present invention, connected with the control circuit for controlling its operation;

The six dashed boxes in the base layer 300 represent the six conductive regions of the contact layer 400 . Note that there is no overlap between any two adjacent conductive regions. The four control circuits 11 to 14 are correspondingly connected to at least one electrode on one side of the base layer 300 . In some examples, a control circuit includes multiple switches, each switch controlling the ON/OFF state of a corresponding electrode. When a switch connected to an electrode is turned on, a circuit is formed between the switch and the electrode. A finger touching any of the six conductive regions generates an output voltage at its corresponding output. In some examples, the touch panel is connected to and controlled by an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), for example, the touch panel is connected to a touch panel microcontroller through four control circuits. In other examples, the touch panel is connected to multiple touch panel microcontrollers, each responsible for controlling one or more orientations of the touch panel.

Referring to FIG. 4A , in order to estimate the Y coordinate position of a finger contact point (such as P1 ) in a certain area, a power supply voltage Vin is applied to the electrodes on the upper and lower sides of the base layer 300 . According to the operation of the control circuits 11 and 12, the output terminal of the conductive area on the touch panel that is touched by a finger generates one or more output signals. In some application examples, the switches of the two control circuits 11 and 12 are set to be on or off according to a predefined circuit structure to minimize the error caused by the pincushion distortion of the conductive layer on the base layer 300 . For example, different switches of the control circuits 11 and 12 may be turned on or off at the same time when the finger contact position is detected. In another example, a pair of switches, one in the control circuit 11 and the other symmetrically in the control circuit 12, are turned on and off at the same time. With this arrangement, multiple measurements are produced on the same output and the average of these measurements can be used to estimate the Y coordinate position of the point of finger contact. In some examples, the measured average is determined from multiple measurements of corresponding switch pairs on the substrate 300 side.

Note that there are many other schemes and different circuit configurations that can achieve good measurement results by running multiple switches in the control circuit. Reference is made here to an application number CN200810096144.6, the application date is May 6, 2008, and the utility model name is a utility model patent for a touch screen body and a resistive touch screen using the screen body), in which the disclosed circuit It can be applied to some touch panel examples of existing utility models.

According to actual application conditions, the insulating conductive area on the contact film layer in the resistive multi-point touch sensing device can be made into different shapes and sizes along with the size of the touch panel. For example, the six conductive regions in Figure 4A are squares of equal size. In order to have the same or similar resolution in estimating the X and Y coordinates of the contact point in the application, the conduction area can adopt such a design. In some examples, each conductive region has a regular shape of the same or different dimensions. In this case, the touch panel can have different resolutions in X and Y coordinates according to requirements. In some examples, the conductive area can be a regular or irregular polygon. In other examples, the conductive area may be circular or oval.

FIG. 4B depicts the upper surface structure of a touch panel with multiple conductive regions. The touch panel has upper and lower conductive layers. The upper conductive layer is divided into six rectangular conductive regions 430-1 to 430-6. The lower conductive layer 420 has four electrodes 1 to 4 at 4 corners. To measure the position of the contact point "P7" in the Y-axis direction, electrodes 1 and 2 are connected to the positive pole of the power supply, and electrodes 3 and 4 are connected to the negative pole of the power supply. Because the upper conductive layer is in contact with the lower conductive layer 420 at the contact point P7, the output terminal 430-4 of the conductive region generates a voltage signal corresponding to the position of the contact point in the Y-axis direction (eg proportional relationship). After measuring the Y-axis position, electrodes 1 and 3 are connected to the positive terminal of the power supply and electrodes 2 and 4 are connected to the negative terminal of the power supply. In this case, the output terminal 430-4 of the conductive region generates another voltage signal corresponding to the position of the contact point in the X-axis direction (for example, a proportional relationship). Please note that the voltage measurement process in the X-axis direction and Y-axis direction is completed within a very short period when the upper and lower conductive layers are in contact with point P7 before the finger leaves the upper surface of the touch panel.

5A to 5C are structural diagrams of a touch sensing device with multiple conductive regions provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

As shown in FIG. 5A , the touch panel 505 is rectangular, and its contact film layer is divided into 20 triangles with the same size. Each triangle represents a conductive region 510 with an output terminal. When the power is applied to the opposite sides of the touch panel 505, use the same circuit connection in Figure 3 and Figure 4 to measure the voltage output signal, and can detect the X-axis and Y-axis directions of multiple fingertip contact points on different conductive areas of the touch panel 505 at the same time s position. In conclusion, dividing the contact layer into multiple smaller conductive regions can help improve the resolution of the multi-touch panel.

FIG. 5B depicts a touch panel 515 with contact layers of multiple conductive regions of different shapes and sizes. Part of the conductive area 520 is "M" shaped and other areas 530, 540 are triangular in shape, each with its own output. When the power is applied to the opposite sides of the touch panel 515, use the same circuit connection in Figure 3 and Figure 4 to measure the voltage output signal, and can detect the X-axis and Y-axis directions of multiple simultaneous finger contact points on the different conductive areas of the touch panel 515 s position. The touch panel shown in FIG. 5B is only used when different areas and/or different orientations of the touch panel require different applications and different resolutions. For example, the touch panel 515 in FIG. 5B may have a higher resolution in the edge portion and in the lateral direction than in the central portion and in the longitudinal direction.

FIG. 5C depicts a hexagonal touch panel 525 with multiple conductive regions. The contact film layer on the touch panel 525 is divided into six conductive regions 550, each region is an equilateral triangle and has its own output terminal. In this example, it is assumed that there is a finger contact point "P" in a certain conductive area. In order to determine the position of the finger contact point, the power supply voltage is applied to the touch panel 525 in three different directions, such as X-X' direction, Y-Y' direction and Z-Z' direction. There is a separate output signal on output 560 for each direction. This output signal can determine a certain position of the contact point. Repeating the same steps in 3 directions produces 3 estimates of the position of the contact point. Since the correlation of the 3 directions is known, any 2 of the 3 estimation results can be used to determine the unique position of the contact point on the touch panel and the third estimation result can improve the accuracy of the contact point position on the touch panel 525 . Obviously, those skilled in the art need to make more measurements in other directions when the resolution of the touch panel needs to be further improved.

Fig. 6 is a transverse cross-sectional view of a multi-touch sensing panel with multiple conductive regions provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

Conductive layer 670 represents a layer of transparent conductive material such as ITO or LEP attached to the upper surface of the base layer of the touch panel. The isolation layer 660 is on the conductive layer 670 . In some examples, isolation layer 660 is composed of a two-dimensional array of particles. An array of microparticles separates the upper and lower conductive layers to avoid accidental contact. In some examples, a spatial array of microdots is applied to conductive layer 670 through a process that precisely controls dot size, height, and density. In some instances, a predefined dot density determines the relative method of operation of the touch panel. For example, a low lattice density is effective for finger touches. In contrast, stylus-type input devices require a higher dot matrix density. In some instances, a slight positive air pressure exists between layers to prevent accidental or unintentional contact such as dust and stains from causing damage to the touch panel.

The lower electrode layer 650 is distributed on the edge of the lower conductive layer 670 . The electrode layer 650 and the lower conductive layer 670 are electrically connected together. In some examples, the lower electrode layer 650 comprises 2 or more isolated sections and each section is connected to an electrode extending on the same side as the base layer 300 as shown in FIG. 3 . When the positive and negative poles of the power supply voltage are connected to two opposite electrodes on the conductive layer 670, there will be a voltage drop across the lower conductive layer 670 and a current will flow.

The upper conductive layer 610 represents another layer with a transparent conductive material such as ITO or LEP attached to the lower surface of the touch panel contact layer. The dotted lines in the upper conductive layer 610 indicate that the layer is divided into a plurality of mutually isolated regions 610-1, 610-2, to 610-N. An upper electrode layer 620 is distributed on the edge of the upper conductive layer 610 . In some examples, the upper electrode layer 620 is divided into a plurality of mutually isolated segments and each segment is connected to a conductive region 610 - 1 , 610 - 2 , to 610 -N in the upper conductive layer 610 . When a conductive region of the upper conductive layer 610 contacts with the lower conductive layer 670 at a certain point, a voltage signal is transmitted through a segment of the upper electrode layer 620 to the corresponding output terminal and transmitted to the microcontroller connected to the touch panel superior.

Two insulators 630 are respectively attached to corresponding ends of the upper electrode layer 620 and the lower electrode layer 650, so that the two electrode layers 620 and 650 will not be connected to each other and avoid potential failures during the application of the multi-point touch panel. In some examples, the two insulators 630 are bonded together by a double-sided adhesive layer 640 . In other examples, the double-sided adhesive layer 640 itself is an insulator. In this case, the upper and lower electrode layers 620 and 650 are directly pasted together with the double-sided adhesive layer 640 , and the two insulating layers 630 are omitted.

7 is a data flow chart of the multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention;

The multi-touch sensing system includes a display screen 710, an application microprocessor 720, a touch panel microcontroller 730, and a multi-touch panel 740 as described above. In some examples, the multi-touch sensing system is a portable device such as a cell phone, game pad, global positioning system (GPS), personal digital assistant (PDA), or a portion thereof. In some other examples, the multi-touch sensing system is a public system, such as a bank ATM machine, a station automatic ticket machine, a library's book retrieval system or a part thereof. In other examples, the multi-touch sensing system is or is a part of an automotive electronic control system or a product manufacturing system.

When working, the touch panel micro-controller 730 sends instructions to the touch panel 740, and simultaneously detects the command input by the user or the request sent by using multi-finger contact or the multi-point contact request using a pen tool through the control signal 19. According to the received user request, the touch panel 740 generates a plurality of output signals 20 and transmits 20 the signals to the touch panel microcontroller 730 through the aforementioned multi-conductive regions. Touch panel microcontroller 730 processes output signal 20 to determine multi-touch position related information 17 and sends this information 17 to application microprocessor 720 (eg CPU processor).

The application microprocessor 720 executes a predefined operation according to the relevant location information 17 and displays the operation result 16 on the display screen 710 . For example, a user rotates a picture on the display using a multi-touch gesture. According to the multi-touch finger movement on the screen, the application microprocessor 720 rotates the original picture by 90 degrees, for example, and displays it on the screen. In some application examples, the application microprocessor 720 will send a response signal 18 to the microcontroller 730 at the same time. According to the response signal 18 , the touch panel microcontroller 730 will send a new command to the touch panel 740 . In some instances, the application microprocessor 720 and the touch panel microcontroller 730 are integrated in different parts of a single chip such as an ASIC.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of the first multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention;

There are multiple communication channels between the touch panel 810 and the touch panel driver 820 . For illustration, it is assumed that the structure of the touch panel 810 is the same as that shown in FIG. 3 . The output terminals Vin1 to Vin6 are respectively connected to the six conductive regions of the upper conductive layer and generate and output voltage signals when multiple fingers touch the surface of the touch panel 810 at the same time.

The touch panel driver 820 reports to the microcontroller 830 through an interrupt signal 827 when any one of the six conductive regions is detected to output a signal. In response microcontroller 830 sends operational instructions 825 to touch panel driver 820, the instructions including measuring the output voltages of the six conductive regions and converting the voltage signals. In some examples, touch panel driver 820 includes multiple voltage signal measurement units, each responsible for monitoring one or more conductive regions. These voltage signal measurement units can work in parallel. In some other examples, the touch panel driver 820 has only one measurement unit. In this case, the measurement unit is responsible for continuously monitoring all conductive areas on the touch panel, detecting one area at a time. In some instances, touch panel driver 820 and microcontroller 830 have powerful signal processing capabilities. Thus, a multi-touch sensing system can detect whether there is a touch event in multiple conductive areas, and if a touch event occurs in one area, it can estimate where the touch event occurred. Although the touch events on different conduction areas are determined sequentially, the user experience feels that they are detected simultaneously. The touch panel driver 820 has one or more signal measurement units, depending on the specific application of the multi-touch panel.

After determining the location of multiple points or synchronous or pseudo-simultaneous touch events, the microcontroller 830 performs operations on the objects displayed on the screen 840 . For example, if the user provides a multi-finger gesture to rotate the picture displayed on the display screen 840, the microcontroller 830 displays the rotated picture on the screen, for example, the picture rotated by 90 degrees instead of the original picture is displayed on the screen.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of the second multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention;

The multi-touch input panel 910 is connected with a connection microcontroller 920 . In some examples, microcontroller 920 is an ASIC chip having multiple circuits. In other examples, microcontroller 920 is an electronic system incorporating multiple ICs, each with a specific function. For example, the panel driver 930 is responsible for controlling the operation of a switch, such as an on/off switch. As shown in FIG. 4A , by adjusting the on/off of the switch in different directions, the multi-touch sensing system can measure the X-axis and Y-axis positions of the corresponding touch events on different conductive areas at the same time or at different times.

The multi-touch panel 910 transmits output signals of different conductive regions to the noise filter 940 . Many noise suppression circuits known in the art can be applied to the noise filter 940 to improve the resolution of the output signal and reduce the error in estimating the location of the touch event. After suppressing the noise of the output signal, the noise filter 940 transmits the output signal to the A/D converter 950 in the control part circuit 960 . The A/D converter 950 digitizes the analog output signal generated by the touch panel 910 . The resolution of the A/D converter 950 will affect the resolution of the multi-touch surface 910 to a certain extent. The A/D converter in a conventional multi-touch sensing system has a resolution of at least 8 bits, possibly 12 bits or even higher.

The control section circuit 960 includes or is connected to an erasable memory 970 . In some examples, memory 970 stores one or more signal processing algorithms for estimating information about the location of a touch event from the digital output signal. The capacity of the memory 970 depends on the complexity of the signal processing algorithm. A conventional memory chip has a capacity of at least 4Kb. The control part circuit 960 obtains one or more signal processing algorithms from the memory 970 and applies the algorithms to the digital output signal generated by the A/D converter 950 to determine the position of the corresponding touch event on the multi-touch panel 910 .

In some examples, microcontroller 920 includes one or more interface circuits 980 . Through the interface circuit 980 , the microcontroller 920 is connected to other devices in the same application circuit (for example, the microprocessor 720 in FIG. 7 ) or other application circuits outside the multi-point touch sensing system. The information of the touch event through the interface circuit 980 can be transmitted to other devices or circuits. Other devices or circuits can also send instructions to the multi-touch sensing circuit through the interface circuit 980 . In some examples, interface circuit 980 is a specific device for some specific applications. In some other examples, the interface circuit 980 is an interface circuit compatible with standard I/O protocols, such as USB and RS-232.

FIG. 10 is a working flow chart of the multi-touch sensing system provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the circuit connections in Figures 7 to 9, a multi-touch detection system usually includes a touch sensing device, a microcontroller connected to the sensing device, and an application circuit connected to the microcontroller. The touch sensing device has multiple isolated conductive areas for detecting simultaneous finger contact events.

The touch sensing device generates a plurality of output signals (1020) when the conductive area (1010) detects multiple simultaneous contact events by the user. In some instances, each contact in multiple simultaneous contact events generates a signal. In some instances, multiple output signals are generated simultaneously. In other examples, multiple output signals are generated sequentially. In other instances, multiple output signals are divided into multiple portions. While the output signals in one section are generated sequentially, the output signals of different sections can be generated simultaneously.

A number of output signals are transmitted to the microcontroller (1030). In some examples, a microcontroller includes multiple signal processing units, each responsible for processing one or more output signals. Multiple signal processing units process output signals in parallel. In some other examples, the microcontroller has only one signal processing unit to process multiple output signals sequentially, one signal at a time. In other instances, the microcontroller prioritizes the output signals according to their corresponding conduction regions. For example, if the output signal of a specific conductive area in the touch panel is given the highest priority (such as the middle area), then the microcontroller will process this output signal first and then process the output signals of other areas (such as the near area around the edge of the touch panel). In some examples, this sorting or prioritizing feature of the conductive regions takes into account the different sizes of the conductive regions. For example, the output signal of a conduction area with a larger size is prioritized for processing than the signal of a conduction area with a smaller size. In some instances, this sorting or prioritization of conductive regions is used in some multi-touch sensing system applications. For example, a computer game control panel or an ATM machine can only respond to the selection of the current target by the current finger when another target is selected simultaneously or preferentially by other fingers. Interactions between different objects on the Internet have an inherent order, so users are required to touch objects in a certain processing order. In some embodiments, multiple conductive areas on the multi-touch screen are divided into different priorities according to different applications in the touch sensing system. In some other embodiments, the change of the priorities is user-selectable. customized.

The microcontroller generates one or more control signals according to the output signal settings and transmits the control signals to the application circuit (1040). The application circuit includes a display that displays multiple human-computer interaction objects. Canonical human-computer interaction targets include text, virtual keys, images, and virtual keyboards. In response to the control signal, the application circuit changes the state of the human-computer interaction object on the display screen (1050). For example, the application circuit may rotate an image on the screen or highlight an area selected by the user.

In summary, the above are only preferred embodiments of the present utility model, and are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present utility model. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present utility model shall be included in the protection scope of the present utility model.

Claims (13)

1. a multipoint touch sensing device is characterized in that, comprising:

One has first conducting stratum at first pair of edge at least, and described first pair of edge comprise, first edge and one second edge wherein second edge and first edge be arranged in parallel substantially;

And second conducting stratum that separates by wall and described first conducting stratum, described second conducting stratum comprises the conductive area of a plurality of mutually insulateds.

2. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1 is characterized in that, launches to be provided with first group of electrode and second group of electrode on described first edge and second edge respectively.

3. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1 is characterized in that, the conductive area of described a plurality of mutually insulateds is with a kind of shape.

4. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1 is characterized in that, the shape of the conductive area of described a plurality of mutually insulateds is at least two kinds.

5. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1 is characterized in that, at least one of the conductive area of described a plurality of mutually insulateds is polygon.

6. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 5 is characterized in that, described polygon is a regular polygon.

7. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 5 is characterized in that, described polygon is an irregular polygon.

8. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 5 is characterized in that, described polygon can be circle, ellipse, triangle, rectangle, square, hexagon.

9. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1 is characterized in that, described wall comprises with predetermined shape, height and density and is arranged at two-dimentional arrays of microparticles on described first conducting stratum.

10. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1 is characterized in that, further comprises a plurality of lead-out terminals, and wherein one of them of the conductive area of each lead-out terminal and described a plurality of mutually insulateds is connected.

11. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, further comprise have a first surface and with the insulation course of first surface opposing second surface, the first surface of wherein said insulation course is attached on described first conducting stratum, and second surface is attached on described second conducting stratum.

12. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, described first conducting stratum also comprises second pair of edge, and described second pair of edge comprises one the 3rd edge and one the 4th edge, and wherein the 3rd edge and the 4th edge be arranged in parallel substantially.

13. multipoint touch sensing device according to claim 12 is characterized in that, described the 3rd edge and the vertical substantially setting in described first edge.

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