IP Library Granted Patent US 9,035,918
Granted Patent B2
US 9,035,918 · App. 13/503,589 · Granted May 19, 2015

Touch sensitive device employing bending wave vibration sensors that detect touch location and provide haptic feedback

Inventors: Neil John Harris (Cambourne, GB); Martin Colloms (Cambourne, GB)
Assignee: New Transducers Limited
G06F3/0433G06F3/016
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,035,918
App. No.
13/503,589
Granted
May 19, 2015
Kind
B2
Abstract

A touch sensitive device comprising a touch sensitive display member capable of supporting bending wave vibration and having a user accessible display surface, an array of transducers coupled to the display member with the array of transducers comprising at least some transducers which are configured to both detect physical touching of the input surface by the user and to input impulses into the display member to produce a haptics sensation to the user in response to said detected touching of the display surface, and a signal processor to receive signals from at least some of transducers in the array of transducers and adapted to analyze the signals to determine the location of the physical touch on the display surface.

Claims (10)

1. A method of operating a touch sensitive device comprising a touch sensitive display member capable of supporting bending wave vibration and having a user accessible display surface, an array of transducers coupled to the touch sensitive display member, and a signal processor, the method comprising:

detecting physical touching of the user accessible display surface by a user using at least some of the tranducers in the array of transducers;

inputting impulses into the touch sensitive display member via the at least some of the tranducers in the array of transducers to produce a haptics sensation to the user in response to said detecting physical touching of the user accessible display surface; and

analysing signals received by the signal processor from the array of transducers to determine the location of the physical touch on the user accessible display surface using a combination of dispersion correction and wavelet transform.

2. The method according to claim 1 , comprising processing the detected signals to preserve XYZ information.

3. The method according to claim 2 , comprising extracting data to identify gestures such as sweep and pinch made on the touch plane.

4. The method according to claim 3 , comprising feeding resulting twelve-value signature into a neural network to allow instantaneous positional and force information to be estimated.

5. The method according to claim 4 , comprising feeding historical information into the neural network to permit estimation of the rates of change.

6. The method according to claim 4 , comprising processing resulting signatures together with self-calibration to train the touch sensitive device to recognize higher level constructs such as touch/tap separation and gestures.

7. The method according to claim 2 , comprising processing data to discard higher order terms in the computation of the combination of wavelet and dispersion corrected sensed components.

Assignments (4)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 29, 2019
From: NVF TECH LTD.
To: GOOGLE LLC
Reel/Frame 050233/0949 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Feb 1, 2018
From: NEW TRANSDUCERS LIMITED
To: HIWAVE TECHNOLOGIES (UK) LIMITED
Reel/Frame 044802/0965 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Feb 1, 2018
From: HIWAVE TECHNOLOGIES (UK) LIMITED
To: NVF TECH LTD
Reel/Frame 044803/0079 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 31, 2012
From: HARRIS, NEIL JOHN; COLLOMS, MARTIN
To: NEW TRANSDUCERS LIMITED
Reel/Frame 028307/0146 →
Priority Claims (2)
GB 0918953.1 · Oct 29, 2009 · national
GB 0922542.6 · Dec 24, 2009 · national
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20120229407A1 · Sep 13, 2012