Multi-point touch pad

1. A multi-point touch pad, comprising:

a touch layer having a top surface and a bottom surface;

a plurality of pressure sensing devices coupled to the bottom surface of the touch layer such that touch pressure applied to the top surface will impart pressure to the pressure sensing devices near the location of the touch pressure; and

at least one processor coupled to the pressure sensing devices and constructed to calculate locations of at least two points on the top surface being simultaneously touched based on pressure sensing readings from the pressure sensing devices, wherein

each pressure sensing device emits a signal representative of an amount of pressure at that devices; and

the locations of the at least two points are derived simultaneously using geometrically based calculations departing from differences in the amount of pressure detected at distinct ones of the pressure sensors.

2. The touch pad of claim 1 , wherein the processor is also constructed to calculate the pressure applied at each point being touched.

3. The touch pad of claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensing device comprises a sensor selected from the group consisting of force sensing resistors, piezoelectric sensors and capacitive touch sensors.

4. The touch pad of claim 1 , wherein each of the pressure sensing device comprises a strain gauge.

5. The touch pad of claim 4 , wherein the pressure sensing devices are arranged in a matrix.

6. The touch pad of claim 1 , wherein the processor is a digital signal processor (DSP).

7. The touch pad of claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensing devices are arranged in a matrix.

8. The touch pad of claim 1 , wherein the processor is constructed to perform the following algorithm:

a. sampling the pressure sensing reading from the plurality of pressure sensing devices;

b. calculating locations of one or more touches on the touch pad;

c. calculating the amount of pressure exerted on each touch on the touch pad; and

d. outputting calculation data.

9. A device comprising the pad of claim 1 , further comprising a processor for interpreting the simultaneous touches as musical.

10. A multi-point touch pad, comprising:

a touch layer having a top surface and a bottom surface;

a plurality of pressure sensing devices coupled to the bottom surface of the touch layer such that touch pressure applied to the top surface will impart pressure to the pressure sensing devices near the location of the touch pressure; and

at least one processor coupled to the pressure sensing devices and constructed to calculate locations of at least two points on the top surface being simultaneously touched based on pressure sensing readings from the pressure sensing devices,

wherein the processor is constructed to perform the following algorithm:

a. sampling the pressure sensing reading from the plurality of pressure sensing devices;

b. calculating locations of one or more touches on the touch pad;

c. calculating the amount of pressure exerted on each touch on the touch pad; and

d. outputting calculation data; and

wherein:

the algorithm contains known positions of the pressure sensing devices on the multi-point touch pad;

the known positions of the pressure sensing devices are identified with the following formula: (a — i, b — i), i=1, 2, . . . , N, where N is a number of pressure sensing devices, and the measured pressures of the pressure sensing devices are p — i, i=1, 2, . . . , N;

the positions of the touch points on multi-point touch pad are identified with the following formula: (x — j, y — j), j−1, 2, . . . , M, where M is a known number of the touch points that is less than N, but x — j and y — j are unknown and will be determined by the calculations of the formula;

the pressures of the touch points are identified with the formula: z — j, j=1, 2, . . . , M, which are also to be calculated using the algorithm;

the algorithm transfers the sampling data from a DSP sampling module to a processor calculation module where the algorithm calculates the position and pressure of the touch points using the following formula: p — i=w(|(x — 1, y — 1)−(a — i, b — i)|)z — 1+w(|(x — 2, y — 2)−(a — i, b — i)|)z — 2+ . . . +w(|(x — M, y — M)−(a — i, b — i)|)z — M, i=1, . . . , N; where w(|(x — j, y — j)−(a — i, b — i)|) is a weighting factor that reflects the effect of pressure z — j on p — i;

the algorithm calculates that: w(|(x — i, y — j)−(a — i, b — i)|) is a function of the distance between the touch point (x — j, y — j) and the sensor location (a — i, b — i);

the algorithm calculates that |(x — j, y — j)−(a — i, b — i)|=sqrt((x j−a — i)*(x — j−a — i)−(y — j−b — i)*(y — j−b — i)) as being the distance between the touch point of j and the sensor i using the notation “sqrt” as being representative of square root.

11. A method of controlling an application with a touch pad, comprising the steps of:

providing a touch pad having a touch surface with a bottom and a top and a plurality of pressure sensors arranged under the touch surface and coupled to the bottom of the touch surface;

sending a signal to a processor corresponding to a pressure at each sensor when the top of the touch surface is simultaneously touched at two or more points; and

performing an algorithm to determine the location of the two or more touch points based on comparing the pressure at each of the sensors.

wherein

each pressure sensing device emits a signal representative of an amount of pressure at that devices; and

the locations of the at least two points are derived simultaneously using geometrically based calculations departing from differences in the amount of pressure detected at distinct ones of the pressure sensors.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the step of:

calculating the pressure applied at each point being touched.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pressure sensors are selected from the group consisting of force sensing resistors, piezoelectric sensors and capacitive touch sensors.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pressure sensors comprise strain gauges.

15. A method of claim 14 , wherein the sensors are arranged in a matrix.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the processor is a digital signal processor (DSP).

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pressure sensors are arranged in a matrix configuration.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the algorithm comprises the steps of:

a. sampling the signals from the plurality of pressure sensors;

b. calculating locations of one or more touches on the touch pad;

c. calculating the amount of pressure exerted on each touch on the touch pad; and

d. outputting calculation data from the algorithm to control the application.

19. A method of controlling an application with a touch pad, comprising the steps of:

providing a touch pad having a touch surface with a bottom and a top and a plurality of pressure sensors arranged under the touch surface and coupled to the bottom of the touch surface;

sending a signal to a processor corresponding to a pressure at each sensor when the top of the touch surface is simultaneously touched at two or more touch points; and

performing an algorithm to determine locations of the two or more touch points based on comparing the pressure at each of the sensors

comprising the steps of:

identifying positions of pressure sensors with the formula: (a — i, b — i), i=1, 2, . . . , N, where N is the number of pressure sensors, and the measured pressures of pressure sensors are p — i, i=1, 2, . . . , N;

programming the positions of the touch points on the multi-point touch pad as (x — j, y — j), j=1, 2, . . . , M, where M is a known number of the touch points that is less than N, and x — j and y — j are unknown and will be determined by the calculations of the algorithm;

quantifying the pressures of the touch points with the formula z — j, j−1, 2, . . . , M, using the algorithm;

transferring sampling data from a sampling module to a calculation module;

calculating the positions and pressures of the touch points using the following formula: p — i=w(|(x — 1, y — 1)−(a — i, b — i)|)z — 1+w(|(x — 2, y — 2)−(a — i, b — i)|)z — 2+ . . . |w(|(x — M, y — M)−(a — i, b — i)|)z — M, i=1, . . . , N; where w(|(x — j, y — j)−(a — i, b — i)|) is a weighting factor that reflects the effect of pressure z — j on p — j using the algorithm;

calculating that: w(|(x — j, y — j)−(a — i, b — i)|) is a function of the distance between the touch point (x — j, y — j) and the sensor location (a — i, b — i) using the algorithm;

calculating that |(x — j, y — j)−(a — i, b — i)| sqrt((x — j−a — i)*(x — j−a — i)−(y — j−b — i)*(y — j−b — i)) as being the distance between the touch point of j and the sensor i using the notation “sqrt” as representing square root using the algorithm.

20. A method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of signals from a plurality of pressure sensors in a touch pad, the signals representing a plurality of pressures detected by the pressure sensors when the touch pad is simultaneously touched at two or more touch points;

identifying locations of the two or more touch points using the plurality of signals; and

identifying pressures applied to the two or more touch points using the plurality of signals,

wherein

each pressure sensor emits a signal representative of an amount of pressure at that sensors; and

the locations of the at least two points are derived simultaneously using geometrically based calculations departing from differences in the amount of pressure detected at distinct ones of the pressure sensors.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein:

the plurality of pressure sensors comprise a plurality of strain gauges;

each of the strain gauges comprises a pair or sensor wires; and

the pressure associated with at least one of the touch points causes a change in a resistance of at least one of the strain gauges, the change in resistance being transmitted through the pair of sensor wires of the at least one strain gauge.