Touchscreen module
View Patent ↗A touchscreen module comprises a display for presenting information to a user of the touchscreen module; a touch panel mounted in overlapping relationship with the display; a touch panel controller coupled to the touch panel for detecting a point on the touch panel touched by the user; and non-volatile memory associated with the display. The non-volatile memory includes a first memory portion for storing information relating to the display, and a second memory portion for storing calibration data relating to the touch panel, thereby enabling calibration data to be retrieved from the touchscreen module when the touchscreen module is installed in a terminal.
1. A touchscreen module comprising:
a display for presenting information to a user of the touchscreen module;
a touch panel mounted in overlapping relationship with the display;
a touch panel controller coupled to the touch panel for detecting a point on the touch panel touched by the user; and
a display controller coupled to the display and comprising a display driver;
wherein the display controller further comprises a 256-byte EEPROM, the EEPROM having a first memory portion in the lower 128 bytes and a second memory portion in the upper 128 bytes,
wherein the EEPROM complies with the Extended Display Identification Data data structure,
wherein the first memory portion is adapted to store display information related to said display, including display resolution information,
wherein the second memory portion is adapted to store calibration information related to said touch panel,
wherein the first memory portion comprises an extension flag set to zero indicating that the second memory portion contains no display information, and
wherein the display driver is adapted to read the extension flag and ignore the information contained in the second memory portion if the extension flag is set to zero.
2. A touchscreen module according to claim 1 , wherein the EEPROM is compatible with an I 2 C bus.
3. A touchscreen module according to claim 1 , wherein the first memory portion stores a manufacturer's name and a product type.
4. A method of storing calibration data for a touch panel in a touchscreen module comprising a display, a touch panel, a touch panel controller, and a display controller having a 256-byte EEPROM, the EEPROM having a first memory portion in the lower 128 bytes and a second memory portion in the upper 128 bytes, the method comprising:
setting an extension flag in the first memory portion of the EEPROM to indicate that the second memory portion of the EEPROM contains no display information;
implementing a calibration process to ascertain calibration parameters;
and
storing the ascertained calibration parameters in the second memory portion of the EEPROM,
wherein the first memory portion of the EEPROM is adapted to store display information capable of being read by a display driver resident in a memory of said display controller, and
wherein said display driver is adapted to read the extension flag and ignore the information contained in the second memory portion if the extension flag is set to zero.
5. A method according to claim 4 , the method further comprising:
reading the ascertained calibration parameters from the second memory portion, and
providing the read calibration parameters to an operating system.
6. A terminal including a touchscreen module comprising:
a display for presenting information to a user of the touchscreen module;
a touch panel mounted in overlapping relationship with the display;
a touch panel controller coupled to the touch panel for detecting a point on the touch panel touched by the user; and
a display controller coupled to the display and comprising a display driver;
wherein the display controller further comprises a 256-byte EEPROM, the EEPROM having a first memory portion in the lower 128 bytes and a second memory portion in the upper 128 bytes,
wherein the EEPROM complies with the Extended Display Identification Data data structure,
wherein the first memory portion is adapted to store display information related to said display, including display resolution information,
wherein the second memory portion is adapted to store calibration information related to said touch panel,
wherein the first memory portion comprises an extension flag set to zero indicating that the second memory portion contains no display information, and
wherein the display driver is adapted to read the extension flag and ignore the information contained in the second memory portion if the extension flag is set to zero.
7. A terminal according to claim 6 , wherein the terminal further comprises a cash dispense module.
8. A terminal according to claim 6 , wherein the terminal includes a software platform having an operating system, and a terminal application for controlling operation of the terminal.
9. A terminal according to claim 8 , wherein the terminal includes an application that communicates with one or more drivers in the software platform to request information from, and write information to, the second memory portion.