IP Library Granted Patent US 8,138,771
Granted Patent B2
US 8,138,771 · App. 12/315,856 · Granted Mar 20, 2012

Touch controller with read-out line

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,138,771
App. No.
12/315,856
Granted
Mar 20, 2012
Kind
B2
Abstract

It is disclosed to measure the impedance of a read-out line. The read-out line includes at least two cascaded electrical circuit segments, each electrical circuit segment including two longitudinal arms, wherein one of the longitudinal arms includes an electrical component, and a lateral arm including a switch configured to close in the presence of an object in the vicinity of the switch. The measured impedance of the read-out line can be compared to a preset value corresponding to an allowable value of the impedance of the read-out line.

Claims (33)

1. A touch controller, comprising:

a read-out line comprising at least two cascaded electrical circuit segments, each electrical circuit segment comprising two longitudinal arms, wherein one of the longitudinal arms comprises an electrical component, and a lateral arm comprising a switch configured to close in the presence of an object in the vicinity of the switch,

an analyzer configured to measure the impedance of the read-out line,

a comparator configured to compare the measured impedance of the read-out line to a preset value corresponding to an allowable value of the impedance of the read-out line.

2. The touch controller of claim 1 , wherein the electrical component comprises an electrical conductor spanning longitudinal arms of a plurality of electrical circuit segments.

3. The touch controller of claim 1 , wherein measuring the impedance of the read-out line comprises measuring only one of the inductance, the capacitance and the ohmic resistance of the read-out line.

4. The touch controller of claim 1 , wherein it comprises a plurality of read-out lines.

5. The touch controller of claim 4 , wherein the analyzer is one of:

configured to measure the impedances of the plurality of read-out lines sequentially,

configured to measure the impedance of the plurality of read-out lines parallelly.

6. The touch controller of claim 4 , wherein the comparator is one of:

configured to compare the measured impedances of the read-out lines to preset values, each preset value corresponding to an allowable value of the impedance of the respective read-out line, sequentially,

configured to compare the measured impedances of the read-out lines to preset values, each preset value corresponding to an allowable value of the impedance of the respective read-out line, parallelly.

7. The touch controller of claim 4 , wherein the read-out lines of the plurality of read-out lines have a similar configuration.

8. The touch controller of claim 4 , wherein the read-out lines are arranged in parallel.

9. A user interface comprising the touch controller of claim 1 .

10. The touch controller of claim 1 , wherein the object is a user's finger.

11. The touch controller of claim 1 , wherein the touch controller further comprises a processor configured to assign a coordinate pair to at least one closed switch.

12. The touch controller of claim 11 , wherein assigning a coordinate pair to a combination of closed switches involves selecting a read-out line of a plurality of read-out lines.

13. The touch controller of claim 12 , wherein assigning a coordinate pair to a combination of closed switches involves selecting the pair of read-out lines of all read-out lines comprising a closed switch that has a maximum distance to each other.

14. The touch controller of claim 12 , wherein assigning a coordinate pair to a combination of closed switches involves selecting two read-out lines of a plurality of read-out lines, each selected read-out line having a closed switch, wherein for each selected read-out line an adjacent read-out line does not have a closed switch or the distance of the closed switch of the adjacent read-out line along an axis extending in the direction of the read-out lines to the closed switch of the selected read-out line exceeds a preset limit.

15. The touch controller of claim 11 , wherein assigning a coordinate pair to a combination of closed switches involves averaging coordinates of a plurality of switches.

16. The touch controller of claim 1 , wherein the touch controller further comprises a processor configured to assign a plurality of coordinate pairs to a combination of closed switches and in that the analyzer is configured to measure the impedances of a pair of read-out lines from opposed ends of the read-out lines.

17. A touch controller, comprising:

a read-out line comprising at least two cascaded electrical circuit segments, each electrical circuit segment comprising two longitudinal arms, wherein one of the longitudinal arms comprises an electrical component, and a lateral arm comprising means for closing in the presence of means for inputting in their vicinity,

means for measuring the impedance of the read-out line,

means for comparing the measured impedance of the read-out line to a preset value corresponding to an allowable value of the impedance of the read-out line.

18. A method for use by a touch controller, comprising:

measuring the impedance of a read-out line, the read-out line comprising at least two cascaded electrical circuit segments, each electrical circuit segment comprising two longitudinal arms, wherein one of the longitudinal arms comprises an electrical component, and a lateral arm comprising a switch configured to close in the presence of an object in the vicinity of the switch, and

comparing the measured impedance of the read-out line to a preset value corresponding to an allowable value of the impedance of the read-out line.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising instructions operable to cause a processor of a touch controller to:

control an analyzer to measure the impedance of a read-out line, the read-out line comprising at least two cascaded electrical circuit segments each electrical circuit segment comprising two longitudinal arms, wherein one of the longitudinal arms comprises an electrical component, and a lateral arm comprising a switch configured to close in the presence of an object in the vicinity of the switch,

to compare the measured impedance of the read-out line to a preset value corresponding to an allowable value of the impedance of the read-out line.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 31, 2016
From: NOKIA CORPORATION
To: NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY
Reel/Frame 040812/0679 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 24, 2009
From: NURMI, JUHA H-P
To: NOKIA CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 022300/0767 →