Detecting touch input force
Detecting a touch input force is disclosed. A signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal through a propagating medium with a surface is sent. The propagating signal that has been disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface is received. The received signal is processed to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force.
1. A system for detecting a touch input force, comprising:
a signal generator configured to send a signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal from a fixed location through a propagating medium with a surface, wherein system is configured to receive a disturbed version of the propagating signal, and the disturbed version of the propagating signal includes the propagating signal that propagated from the fixed location to a touch input location on the surface where the propagating signal was disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface; and
a processor configured to process the received disturbed version of the propagating signal to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force, wherein processing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes normalizing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal originating on the propagating medium from the fixed location different from the touch input location, normalizing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes adjusting at least a portion of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal in determining an adjusted amplitude, and adjusting at least the portion of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes scaling an initial amplitude of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal using a value determined using a distance value associated with the touch input location of the disturbance on the surface that is different from the originating fixed location of the propagating signal and that has been determined using the received disturbed version of the propagating signal prior to scaling the initial amplitude of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal in determining a magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input, and wherein determining the identifier associated with the amount of force includes comparing a reference amplitude with an averaging value computed using the adjusted amplitude and one or more other amplitude related values of one or more other received signals that have been disturbed by the touch input while ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium to determine a force value indicating the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the propagating signal utilized in determining the amount of force is at or below 100 kHz.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the propagating signal is utilized in determining a location of the disturbance on the surface.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processed received signal is one of a plurality of versions of the disturbed propagating signal received by the system.
5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the processed received signal was selected among the plurality of versions due to a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the processed received signal.
6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the processed received signal was selected among the plurality of versions due to a location associated with a detector that received the processed received signal.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the propagating signal utilized in determining the amount of force of the touch input includes an ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence propagated via the propagating medium with the surface.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the adjusted amplitude that is compared with the reference amplitude corresponds to a portion of the ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence of the propagating signal that has been disturbed.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein processing the received signal includes determining the adjusted amplitude associated with a portion of the received signal disturbed by the touch input.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein determining the adjusted amplitude associated with the portion of the received signal disturbed by the touch input includes determining the adjusted amplitude of a normalized version of the received signal.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein a value of the adjusted amplitude is a function of the amount of the force.
12. The system of claim 9 , wherein determining the identifier includes using the adjusted amplitude to locate a data structure entry, wherein the data structure entry includes the identifier associated with the amount of force.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the data structure entry was located in a data structure identified to match a detector that received the processed received signal.
14. The system of claim 1 , wherein computing the averaging value includes determining a weighted average of the adjusted amplitude and the one or more other amplitude related values of the one or more other received signals.
15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to combine the identifier associated with the amount of force with one or more other identifiers associated with an amount of force of one or more other touch input location points to determine a combined force identifier.
16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identifier is used at least in part to provide a user interface interaction.
17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identifier indicates an amount of pressure.
18. A method for detecting a touch input force, comprising:
sending a signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal from a fixed location through a propagating medium with a surface;
receiving a disturbed version of the propagating signal, wherein the disturbed version of the propagating signal includes the propagating signal that propagated from the fixed location to a touch input location on the surface where the propagating signal was disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface; and
using a processor to process the received disturbed version of the propagating signal to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force, wherein processing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes normalizing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal originating on the propagating medium from the fixed location different from the touch input location, normalizing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes adjusting at least a portion of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal in determining an adjusted amplitude, and adjusting at least the portion of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes scaling an initial amplitude of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal using a value determined using a distance value associated with the touch input location of the disturbance on the surface that is different from the originating fixed location of the propagating signal and that has been determined using the received disturbed version of the propagating signal prior to scaling the initial amplitude of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal in determining a magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input, and wherein determining the identifier associated with the amount of force includes comparing a reference amplitude with an averaging value computed using the adjusted amplitude and one or more other amplitude related values of one or more other received signals that have been disturbed by the touch input while ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium to determine a force value indicating the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein computing the averaging value includes determining a weighted average of the adjusted amplitude and the one or more other amplitude related values of the one or more other received signals.
20. A computer program product for detecting a touch input force, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
sending a signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal from a fixed location through a propagating medium with a surface;
receiving a disturbed version of the propagating signal, wherein the disturbed version of the propagating signal includes the propagating signal that propagated from the fixed location to a touch input location on the surface where the propagating signal was disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface; and
processing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force, wherein processing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes normalizing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal originating on the propagating medium from the fixed location different from the touch input location, normalizing the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes adjusting at least a portion of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal in determining an adjusted amplitude, and adjusting at least the portion of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal includes scaling an initial amplitude of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal using a value determined using a distance value associated with the touch input location of the disturbance on the surface that is different from the originating fixed location of the propagating signal and that has been determined using the received disturbed version of the propagating signal prior to scaling the initial amplitude of the received disturbed version of the propagating signal in determining a magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input, and wherein determining the identifier associated with the amount of force includes comparing a reference amplitude with an averaging value computed using the adjusted amplitude and one or more other amplitude related values of one or more other received signals that have been disturbed by the touch input while ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium to determine a force value indicating the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface.