Light-based touch screen
Touch screen apparatus, including a display unit including a touch surface, a number of light pulse emitting units for emitting light pulses over and across the touch surface, a number of light pulse receiving units for measuring amounts of light received from the light pulse emitting units, circuitry for selectively activating the light pulse emitting units and the light pulse receiving units, and a calculating unit to control the circuitry to provide a low-frequency idle mode and a high-frequency active mode, wherein only one of the light pulse emitting units and one of the light pulse receiving units are activated in the idle mode, and to determine that a light pulse in the idle mode is broken, based on the measured amounts of light received at the one receiving unit.
1. A touch screen, comprising:
an activatable display unit comprising a touch surface;
a number of light pulse emitting units, connected to said display unit, emitting light pulses over and across said touch surface;
a number of light pulse receiving units, connected to said display unit, measuring amounts of light received from said light pulse emitting units;
circuitry, connected to said light pulse emitting units and to said light pulse receiving units, selectively activating said light pulse emitting units and said light pulse receiving units; and
a calculating unit controlling said display, and controlling said circuitry to operate in an active mode and in an idle mode, wherein (i) in the active mode said display is activated, and said circuitry activates all of said light pulse emitting and receiving units, at a high frequency, and a touch is detected when two or more light pulses emitted by the emitting units are blocked, as determined based on measured amounts of light received at the light pulse receiving units, (ii) in the idle mode said display is not activated, and the calculating unit monitors only a proper sub-area of said display by controlling said circuitry to activate only some of said light pulse emitting units and only some of said light pulse receiving units, at a low frequency, and (iii) the calculating unit switches the circuitry from the idle mode to the active mode in response to determining the presence of an object within the monitored sub-area, based on measured amounts of light received at an activated light pulse receiving unit in the idle mode.
2. The touch screen of claim 1 wherein said calculating unit controls said circuitry to switch from the active mode to the idle mode, when a designated waiting time expires without detecting a touch.
3. The touch screen of claim 2 wherein the designated waiting time is between 2 seconds and 5 seconds.
4. The touch screen of claim 1 wherein the high frequency is between 50 KHz and 200 KHz, and the low frequency is approximately 10 Hz.
5. The touch screen of claim 1 , for a mobile telephone, wherein, in the active mode, said calculating unit detects linear movement of an object along and parallel to the touch surface, based on the measured amounts of light received at said light pulse receiving units, and activates a function to terminate a telephone call in response thereto.