System

Abstract

To provide a system that allows a first integrated circuit and a second integrated circuit to transmit uplink signals at the same time in the case where two screens provided in a dual screen model are each formed of an in-cell touch display.SOLUTION: A system according to the present invention comprises: a first sensor electrode group that includes some of electrodes for driving pixels of a first display; a second sensor electrode group that includes some of electrodes for driving pixels of a second display; a first integrated circuit that transmits a first uplink signal from the first sensor electrode group; and a second integrated circuit that transmits a second uplink signal from the second sensor electrode group. The first and second displays are configured so that signals indicating a rewrite timing of a screen operate in synchronization. The first and second uplink signals are transmitted at the same timing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a sensor system, and more particularly to a sensor system for a dual screen model. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, electronic devices with two screens have been developed. Hereinafter, this type of electronic device will be referred to as a "dual screen model." Along with the development of the dual screen model, technology is also being developed that enables input with a stylus (hereinafter referred to as "pen input") and input with fingers (hereinafter referred to as "touch input") on each of the two screens.

[0003] An example of such a technology is disclosed in Patent Document 1. As shown in Patent Document 1, a sensor system is provided in the dual screen model, including an integrated circuit and a group of sensor electrodes for the first screen, an integrated circuit and a group of sensor electrodes for the second screen, and a host processor connected to each integrated circuit, and this sensor system realizes pen input and touch input. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2019-133487 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] By the way, there is a stylus that is configured to receive an uplink signal transmitted from a screen and operate according to the received uplink signal. In order to make this type of stylus available in a dual-screen model, it is necessary to prevent interference between the uplink signals transmitted from each of the two screens.

[0006] Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide a sensor system capable of preventing interference between uplink signals transmitted from each of the two screens provided in a dual screen model.

[0007] Furthermore, when using pen input with a dual screen model, it is preferable that after starting to use the stylus on one screen, the pen tip can be used continuously even when it is moved to the other screen.

[0008] It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide a sensor system that allows continuous stylus use between the two screens that make up a dual screen model.

[0009] In addition, when using touch input with a dual screen model, if a user touches both screens at the same time, there is a risk that the finger touch detection signal sent from one integrated circuit may be received by the other integrated circuit. Such reception may cause the integrated circuits and host processor to malfunction, and must be avoided.

[0010] Therefore, still another object of the present invention is to provide a sensor system capable of preventing a finger touch detection signal sent from one integrated circuit from being received by another integrated circuit.

[0011] In addition, in the past, the two integrated circuits in a dual-screen model operated asynchronously with each other, which meant that the host processor could incorrectly process the order of the position data supplied from each integrated circuit, which could affect the rendering results.

[0012] Therefore, a further object of the present invention is to provide a sensor system in which the order of position data supplied from each integrated circuit can be correctly processed by a host processor. [Means for solving the problem]

[0013] A sensor system according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a first group of sensor electrodes and a first integrated circuit connected to the first group of sensor electrodes, and a second group of sensor electrodes and a second integrated circuit connected to the second group of sensor electrodes, and controls the first and second integrated circuits so that a first uplink signal transmitted by the first integrated circuit via the first group of sensor electrodes and a second uplink signal transmitted by the second integrated circuit via the second group of sensor electrodes are not transmitted at the same time.

[0014] A sensor system according to a second aspect of the present invention includes a first sensor electrode group and a first integrated circuit connected to the first sensor electrode group, and a second sensor electrode group and a second integrated circuit connected to the second sensor electrode group, and when the first integrated circuit is paired with a stylus, it shares pairing information related to the pairing with the second integrated circuit.

[0015] A sensor system according to a third aspect of the present invention includes a first group of sensor electrodes and a first integrated circuit connected to the first group of sensor electrodes, and a second group of sensor electrodes and a second integrated circuit connected to the second group of sensor electrodes, and when one of the first and second integrated circuits is performing a touch input detection operation, the sensor system restricts the touch input detection operation by the other of the first and second integrated circuits.

[0016] A sensor system according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes a first sensor electrode group and a second sensor electrode group, a first integrated circuit that performs a touch input detection operation by supplying a first finger touch detection signal to the first sensor electrode group, and a second integrated circuit that performs a touch input detection operation by supplying a second finger touch detection signal to the second sensor electrode group, wherein the first and second finger touch detection signals are pulse signals configured such that the temporal positions of edges of pulse sections are different from each other.

[0017] A sensor system according to a fifth aspect of the present invention includes a first group of sensor electrodes and a first integrated circuit connected to the first group of sensor electrodes, and a second group of sensor electrodes and a second integrated circuit connected to the second group of sensor electrodes, wherein the first and second integrated circuits perform touch input detection operations in a synchronized state with each other. Effect of the Invention

[0018] According to the first aspect of the present invention, the first and second uplink signals are not transmitted at the same time, making it possible to prevent interference between the uplink signals sent from each of the two screens provided in a dual screen model.

[0019] According to a second aspect of the present invention, pairing information is shared between the first and second integrated circuits, thereby enabling continuous stylus use between the two screens constituting a dual screen model.

[0020] According to the third aspect of the present invention, while one integrated circuit is detecting a touch input, the touch input detection operation by the other integrated circuit is restricted, thereby preventing a finger touch detection signal sent by one integrated circuit from being received by the other integrated circuit.

[0021] According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the time positions of the edges of the pulse sections of the first finger touch detection signal and the second finger touch detection signal are different from each other, it is possible to prevent the finger touch detection signal sent by one integrated circuit from being received by the other integrated circuit.

[0022] According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the first and second integrated circuits perform touch input detection operations in a synchronized manner, allowing the host processor to correctly process the order of position data supplied from each integrated circuit. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0023] [Figure 1]1 is a diagram showing the appearance of an electronic device 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a sensor system 3 provided in an electronic device 1. FIG. [Diagram 3] 2 is a timing diagram showing an overview of the operation of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23. FIG. [Figure 4] 1A and 1B are diagrams illustrating the principle of a touch detection operation TD. [Diagram 5] 13(a) and 13(b) are diagrams showing examples of specific waveforms of signals s1 to sK constituting a finger touch detection signal FDS. [Figure 6] 2 is a timing diagram of signals transmitted and received by the first integrated circuit 13, the second integrated circuit 23, and the stylus P, respectively. [Figure 7] 13 is a diagram showing a state in which a user places a hand H on a second panel surface 21 and slides a finger F on a first panel surface 11. FIG. [Figure 8] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a limit on a touch detection operation TD. [Figure 9] 13(a) and (b) are diagrams showing waveforms of finger touch detection signals FDS according to a second embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0024] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0025] Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the appearance of an electronic device 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The diagram also shows a stylus P and a finger F that are targets of detection by the electronic device 1. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a sensor system 3 provided in the electronic device 1 to detect the stylus P and the finger F.

[0026] 1, electronic device 1 includes a first housing 10 and a second housing 20 connected by a connecting portion 2. Connecting portion 2 includes a hinge and a flexible substrate, and first housing 10 is configured to be rotatable 360° around connecting portion 2 as indicated by dashed arrow A in the figure. The flexible substrate is a substrate configured to deform at an angle according to the relative positions of first housing 10 and second housing 20, and wiring for connecting wiring in first housing 10 and wiring in second housing 20 is arranged therein.

[0027] The first housing 10 is provided with a first panel surface 11, and the second housing 20 is provided with a second panel surface 21. The surfaces of the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 are flat, and the user can slide the pen tip of the stylus P and the finger F on the surfaces of the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21. The first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 are disposed on the surfaces of the respective housings so as to face the same direction when the first housing 10 is set at a 180° position. Furthermore, both the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 are rectangular, and are disposed so that the long side direction of each is perpendicular to the alignment direction of the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 when the first housing 10 is set at a 180° position.

[0028] Here, the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 may or may not serve as display surfaces of the display. Specific methods for using the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 as display surfaces of the display include an in-cell method in which a part of an electrode for driving pixels in the display (for example, a common electrode of a liquid crystal display) is also used as a part of a sensor electrode group (for example, a plurality of sensor electrodes 12x or a plurality of sensor electrodes 22x) described later, an on-cell method in which a sensor electrode group is provided in the display but is provided separately from electrodes for driving pixels in the display, and an out-cell method in which a sensor electrode group is provided on a display panel, described later. When both the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 are used as display surfaces of the display, the electronic device 1 becomes the dual screen model described above.

[0029] 2, the sensor system 3 includes a first sensor electrode group 12x, 12y, a first integrated circuit 13, a first lead-out wiring 14x, 14y, a second sensor electrode group 22x, 22y, a second integrated circuit 23, a second lead-out wiring 24x, 24y, and a host processor 30. Among these, the first sensor electrode group 12x, 12y, the first integrated circuit 13, and the first lead-out wiring 14x, 14y are disposed in a first housing 10, and the second sensor electrode group 22x, 22y, the second integrated circuit 23, the second lead-out wiring 24x, 24y, and the host processor 30 are disposed in a second housing 20. Note that disposing the host processor 30 in the second housing 20 is merely an example, and it may be disposed in the first housing 10.

[0030] As shown in Fig. 2, the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 are connected to each other by a wiring 31. The first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 are connected to a host processor 30 by wirings 32 and 33, respectively. Of these, a part of the wirings 31 and 32 is extended within the flexible substrate described above. Note that although each of the wirings 31 to 33 is depicted by a single line in Fig. 2, in reality, each is a collection of multiple wirings.

[0031] 1, the first sensor electrode groups 12x, 12y are arranged on the inside of the first panel surface 11. Similarly, the second sensor electrode groups 22x, 22y are arranged on the inside of the second panel surface 21. The first sensor electrode groups 12x, 12y are each configured to include a plurality of sensor electrodes 12x extending along the long side direction of the first panel surface 11 and arranged at equal intervals along the short side direction of the first panel surface 11, and a plurality of sensor electrodes 12y extending along the short side direction of the first panel surface 11 and arranged at equal intervals along the long side direction of the first panel surface 11. In addition, the second sensor electrode group 22x, 22y is composed of a plurality of sensor electrodes 22x each extending along the long side direction of the second panel surface 21 and arranged at equal intervals along the short side direction of the second panel surface 21, and a plurality of sensor electrodes 22y each extending along the short side direction of the second panel surface 21 and arranged at equal intervals along the long side direction of the second panel surface 21.

[0032] The first integrated circuit 13 is connected to each sensor electrode 12x by a first lead-out wiring 14x provided for each sensor electrode 12x, and is connected to each sensor electrode 12y by a first lead-out wiring 14y provided for each sensor electrode 12y. Similarly, the second integrated circuit 23 is connected to each sensor electrode 22x by a second lead-out wiring 24x provided for each sensor electrode 22x, and is connected to each sensor electrode 22y by a second lead-out wiring 24y provided for each sensor electrode 22y.

[0033] The first integrated circuit 13 is configured to have a function of detecting the stylus P and finger F present on the first panel surface 11, a function of deriving the position of the detected stylus P or finger F on the first panel surface 11 and supplying position data indicating the derived position to the host processor 30, and a function of bidirectionally transmitting and receiving signals with the stylus P via the first sensor electrode group 12x, 12y. Similarly, the second integrated circuit 23 is configured to have a function of detecting the stylus P and finger F present on the second panel surface 21, a function of deriving the position of the detected stylus P or finger F on the second panel surface 11 and supplying position data indicating the derived position to the host processor 30, and a function of bidirectionally transmitting and receiving signals with the stylus P via the second sensor electrode group 22x, 22y. The first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 are configured to execute these functions in a synchronized state with each other by the control of the host processor 30 or by communicating with each other via the wiring 31.

[0034] In the following description, the signal transmitted from the first integrated circuit 13 to the stylus P is referred to as a first uplink signal US1, and the signal transmitted from the second integrated circuit 23 to the stylus P is referred to as a second uplink signal US2. When there is no need to distinguish between the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2, they may be collectively referred to as an uplink signal US. Also, the signal transmitted by the stylus P is referred to as a downlink signal DS.

[0035] The area US1a shown in FIG. 1 is the reachable range of the first uplink signal US1. The area US2a shown in FIG. 1 is the reachable range of the second uplink signal US2. As is clear from the description of FIG. 1, the area US1a and the area US2a overlap depending on the angle between the first housing 10 and the second housing 20. The stylus P in this overlapping area can receive both the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2. Therefore, in the electronic device 1, it is necessary to prevent interference between the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2.

[0036] Returning to FIG. 2, the host processor 30 is a central processing unit of the electronic device 1 that executes the operating system and various applications of the electronic device 1 by reading and executing programs stored in a memory (not shown). The host processor 30 also plays a role in accepting pen input using a stylus P or touch input using a finger F via the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23, and supplying the input to the operating system or applications. Applications that operate in response to pen input or touch input include, for example, drawing applications. In this type of application, stroke data is generated and drawing is performed based on the pen input or touch input.

[0037] 3 is a timing diagram showing an overview of the operations of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23. As shown in the diagram, the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 are each configured to alternately and repeatedly execute a pen detection operation PD for detecting a stylus P and a touch detection operation TD for detecting a finger F at the same timing.

[0038] The pen detection operation PD and the touch detection operation TD will be described below in brief. Note that although the following description will be given taking the first integrated circuit 13 as an example, the same applies to the second integrated circuit 23.

[0039] First, the pen detection operation PD will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the section in which the pen detection operation PD is performed includes a transmission / reception section P1 of the uplink signal US and a transmission / reception section P2 of the downlink signal DS. Among these, the transmission / reception section P2 of the downlink signal DS is divided into a plurality of time slots TS1 to TSn, and a plurality of styluses P are configured to be able to transmit the downlink signal DS by time division multiplexing. Although not shown, in addition to time division multiplexing or instead of time division multiplexing, other multiplexing methods such as frequency division multiplexing or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing may be used. In the following, the description will be continued by taking the case of using time division multiplexing and frequency division multiplexing as an example.

[0040] The first integrated circuit 13 is configured to periodically transmit a first uplink signal US1 including pairing information that specifies a local pen ID, a time slot, and a frequency to be assigned to a newly detected stylus P, using the transmission / reception section P1 of the uplink signal US. If the stylus P that receives this first uplink signal US1 has not yet paired with any integrated circuit, it transmits a downlink signal DS including a pen ID stored in its own memory, using the time slot and frequency indicated by the first uplink signal US1, and stores the pairing information included in the first uplink signal US1 in its own memory.

[0041] Here, a number is assigned in advance to each time slot in the transmission / reception section P2, and the first integrated circuit 13 is configured to identify the time slot by identifying this number. The stylus P is configured to determine the time position of each time slot based on the reception timing of the first uplink signal US1, and then transmit the downlink signal DS in the time slot assigned by the pairing information. Figure 3 shows an example in which the time slots TS2, TS4, and TSn are assigned by the pairing information.

[0042] The first integrated circuit 13, which has received the downlink signal DS, stores the received pen ID in its own memory in association with the pairing information. Through the processing up to this point, pairing between the first integrated circuit 13 and the stylus P is completed. Thereafter, the first integrated circuit 13 instructs the paired stylus P on the data to be transmitted by transmitting a first uplink signal US1 including a local pen ID and a command as necessary.

[0043] The stylus P is configured to transmit, as the downlink signal DS, a position signal which is a burst signal, and a data signal obtained by modulating a predetermined carrier signal with data instructed by the first uplink signal US1. The first integrated circuit 13 derives the position of the stylus P based on the reception strength of the position signal at each of the sensor electrodes 12x, 12y, and acquires the data transmitted by the stylus P by receiving and demodulating the data signal. Then, the first integrated circuit 13 outputs the position data indicating the derived position and the data acquired from the stylus P to the host processor 30.

[0044] Next, the touch detection operation TD will be described. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the principle of the touch detection operation TD. For simplicity, only four sensor electrodes 12x are shown in the figure, but in reality, more sensor electrodes 12x are arranged. In the following, the description will be continued assuming that the number of sensor electrodes 12x is K.

[0045] When performing the touch detection operation TD, the first integrated circuit 13 supplies a finger touch detection signal FDS to each sensor electrode 12x. As shown in FIG. 4, the finger touch detection signal FDS is, for example, K signals s1 to s2 each composed of K pulses represented by "1" or "-1". K The signals s1 to s K Each nth (n=1~K) pulse is a part of pulse group p n and one pulse group p n The pulses constituting the pulse train are input in parallel to the sensor electrodes 12x.

[0046] In the following description, it is assumed that the number of sensor electrodes 12x is four (i.e., K=4), but the same applies to cases where the number of sensor electrodes 12x is three or less or five or more. When the number of sensor electrodes 12x is four, signals s1 to s KEach of the signals s1, s2, s3, and s4 is composed of four pulses represented by "1" or "-1." Specifically, as shown in Fig. 4, the signal s1 is composed of "1, 1, 1, 1," the signal s2 is composed of "1, 1, -1, -1," the signal s3 is composed of "1, -1, -1, 1," and the signal s4 is composed of "1-1, 1, -1."

[0047] The first integrated circuit 13 includes a shift register 13a and a correlator 13b. The shift register 13a is a FIFO type storage unit and is configured to be able to store the same number of data as the number of sensor electrodes 12x (i.e., K pieces of data). When new data is stored in the shift register 13a, data stored K times before is erased. The first integrated circuit 13 selects one sensor electrode 12y and repeats the operation of inputting pulse groups p1 to p4 to each sensor electrode 12x in sequence for each sensor electrode 12y. As a result, four levels L1 to L4 corresponding to the pulse groups p1 to p4 appear in sequence on the selected sensor electrode 12y. The first integrated circuit 13 thus sequentially acquires the levels L1 to L4 appearing on the sensor electrode 12y and stores them in the shift register 13a each time.

[0048] The specific contents of the levels L1 to L4 will be described in detail by taking as an example a case where the sensor electrode 12y1 shown in FIG. 4 is selected. In the following description, the capacitances formed between the sensor electrode 12y1 and each of the four sensor electrodes 12x1 to 12x4 are respectively denoted as C 11 ~C 41 Let us assume that.

[0049] First, the level L1 stored in the shift register 13a corresponding to the pulse group p1 is expressed as a capacitance vector (C 11 ,C 21 ,C 31 ,C 41 ) and the vector (1,1,1,1) representing the pulse group p1. This inner product is, as shown in FIG. 11 +C 21 +C 31 +C 41Similarly, the level L2 stored in the shift register 13a corresponding to the pulse group p2 is calculated as a capacitance vector (C 11 ,C 21 ,C 31 ,C 41 ) and the vector (1,1,-1,-1) representing the pulse group p1, 11 +C 21 -C 31 -C 41 The level L3 stored in the shift register 13a corresponding to the pulse group p3 is calculated as the capacitance vector (C 11 ,C 21 ,C 31 ,C 41 ) and the vector (1,-1,-1,1) representing the pulse group p3, 11 -C 21 -C 31 +C 41 The level L4 stored in the shift register 13a corresponding to the pulse group p4 is calculated as the capacitance vector (C 11 ,C 21 ,C 31 ,C 41 ) and the vector (1,-1,1,-1) representing the pulse group p4, 11 -C 21 +C 31 -C 41 It is calculated as follows.

[0050] The first integrated circuit 13 uses the correlator 13b to sequentially calculate correlation values ​​T1 to T4 between the four pulse groups p1 to p4 and the levels L1 to L4 stored in the shift register 13a. The specific contents of the correlation values ​​T1 to T4 thus calculated are, as shown in FIG. 11 ,4C 21 ,4C 31 ,4C 41That is, the correlation values ​​T1 to T4 reflect the change in capacitance formed at the intersection of the sensor electrodes 12x1 to 12x4 and the sensor electrode 12y1, respectively. Therefore, the first integrated circuit 13 can detect the position of the finger F by referring to the correlation values ​​T1 to T4 calculated for each sensor electrode 12y. Specifically, an area in the first panel surface 11 where the change in capacitance is equal to or greater than a predetermined value is determined, and, for example, the center position of the area is detected as the position of the finger F. The first integrated circuit 13 is configured to also output position data indicating the position thus detected to the host processor 30.

[0051] 5(a) and (b) show signals s1 to s2 constituting the finger touch detection signal FDS, respectively. K 5A is a diagram showing an example of a specific waveform of the signals s1 to s K is composed of signals that represent "1" with a relatively high voltage and "-1" with a relatively low voltage. On the other hand, the signals s1 to s2 in the second example shown in FIG. K are the signals s1 to s K 5(a)(b), the signal is composed of a signal obtained by Manchester encoding the above signal. Specifically, the signal is made up of a first half that expresses "1" or "-1" by high or low voltage, and a second half that has an intermediate voltage, which represents one value. In the following, the section in which the voltage reflects the value of "1" or "-1" may be referred to as a one-pulse section PS, as shown in Fig. 5(a)(b).

[0052] Next, the configuration of the sensor system 3 according to the characteristic portion of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

[0053] 6 is a timing diagram of signals transmitted and received by the first integrated circuit 13, the second integrated circuit 23, and the stylus P. This diagram shows a state in which the first integrated circuit 13 and the stylus P have already been paired.

[0054] 6, the sensor system 3 according to the present embodiment controls the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 so that the first uplink signal US1 transmitted by the first integrated circuit 13 through the first sensor electrode group 12x, 12y and the second uplink signal US2 transmitted by the second integrated circuit 23 through the second sensor electrode group 22x, 22y are not transmitted at the same time. Specifically, the host processor 30 may control the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 so that the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2 are not transmitted at the same time, or the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 may communicate with each other to control the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 so that the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2 are not transmitted at the same time.

[0055] 6, the first uplink signal US1 is transmitted within a period of time T1 from the beginning of the section in which the pen detection operation PD is performed, while the second uplink signal US2 is transmitted after a period of time T2 (>T1) longer than the period T1 has elapsed from the beginning of the pen detection operation PD. In this way, the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2 are not transmitted at the same time, making it possible to prevent interference between the uplink signals US sent from the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21.

[0056] Furthermore, the first integrated circuit 13 further controls the stylus P during pairing so as not to perform a receiving operation (marked as "R" in FIG. 6) except during the period during which the first uplink signal US1 is being transmitted. Specifically, the first integrated circuit 13 notifies the stylus P of the time length INT of the transmission interval of the uplink signal US shown in the figure during pairing, and after receiving the uplink signal US, the stylus P operates to stop the receiving operation for the notified time length INT. This makes it possible to prevent the stylus P during pairing with the first integrated circuit 13 from receiving the uplink signal US transmitted by the second integrated circuit 23.

[0057] The same is true for the second integrated circuit 23, but it is preferable that the second integrated circuit 23 further notifies the stylus P of the illustrated time length T3 (the time length from the end of transmission of the second uplink signal US2 to the start of the touch detection operation TD) and time length T4 (the time length of the section in which the touch detection operation TD is performed) during pairing. This enables the stylus P to determine the time position of each time slot for transmitting the downlink signal DS, excluding the section in which the touch detection operation TD is performed, based on the reception timing of the second uplink signal US2.

[0058] Furthermore, one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 is configured to share pairing information related to the pairing with the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 when paired with the stylus P. This sharing may be performed by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 transmitting pairing information to the host processor 30, and the host processor 30 transmitting the pairing information to the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23, or may be performed by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 directly transmitting pairing information to the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23. In this way, it is not necessary to perform pairing again when the stylus P moves between the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21, so that the stylus P can be used continuously between the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21.

[0059] Moreover, the sensor system 3 according to the present embodiment is configured to restrict, when one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 is performing a touch detection operation TD, the touch detection operation TD by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23. This point will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

[0060] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a user slides a finger F on the first panel surface 11 with a hand H placed on the second panel surface 21. When the user performs such an action, not only electrostatic coupling occurs between the sensor electrodes 12x, 12y and the hand H in the area A1 (contact area of ​​the finger F) in the first panel surface 11 shown in the figure, but also electrostatic coupling occurs between the sensor electrodes 22x, 22y and the hand H in the area A2 (contact area of ​​the palm) in the second panel surface 21 shown in the figure. As a result, the finger touch detection signal FDS sent by the second integrated circuit 23 is received by the first integrated circuit 13 through the illustrated path B. Such reception can cause malfunctions of the first integrated circuit 13 and the host processor 30, and must be avoided.

[0061] Therefore, the sensor system 3 according to the present embodiment is configured to restrict the touch detection operation TD by the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 when one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 is performing the touch detection operation TD by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23. This restriction may be performed by the host processor 30 restricting the touch detection operation TD by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 when the coordinates of the finger F are supplied from one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23, or may be performed by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 that is detecting the finger F notifying the other of that fact. In this way, it is possible to prevent the finger touch detection signal FDS sent by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 from being received by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23.

[0062] It is preferable that the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 or the host processor 30 detect the area of ​​the region where the touch is detected (areas A1 and A2 shown in FIG. 7) and select an integrated circuit to be the target of the limit of the touch detection operation TD based on the detected area. Generally, the area detected by the touch of a fingertip is smaller than the area detected by the touch of a palm, so by selecting an integrated circuit in this manner, it becomes possible to give priority to the touch input by the finger F.

[0063] In addition, a specific limitation of the touch detection operation TD may be performed, for example, by completely stopping the touch detection operation TD by the selected integrated circuit. In another example, when the selected integrated circuit is the second integrated circuit 23, the limitation may be performed by controlling the second integrated circuit 23 to perform the touch detection operation TD without using some of the sensor electrodes 22x (the sensor electrodes 22x in the region C shown in FIG. 7) close to the first sensor electrode groups 12x and 12y.

[0064] 8 is a diagram showing yet another example of the restriction of the touch detection operation TD. In this example, when the first integrated circuit 13 is performing the touch detection operation TD, the second integrated circuit 23 does not perform the touch detection operation TD, and when the second integrated circuit 23 is performing the touch detection operation TD, the first integrated circuit 13 does not perform the touch detection operation TD. To realize this operation, it is preferable that one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 notifies the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 of the start timing and end timing of the touch detection operation TD directly or via the host processor 30.

[0065] As described above, according to the sensor system 3 of this embodiment, the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2 are not transmitted at the same time, making it possible to prevent interference between the uplink signals US sent from the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21, respectively.

[0066] In addition, according to the sensor system 3 of this embodiment, pairing information is shared between the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23, making it possible to use the stylus P continuously between the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21.

[0067] Furthermore, according to the sensor system 3 of this embodiment, while one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 is performing a touch detection operation TD, the touch detection operation TD by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 is restricted, so that the finger touch detection signal FDS sent by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 can be prevented from being received by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23.

[0068] Furthermore, according to the sensor system 3 of this embodiment, the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 perform the touch detection operation TD in a synchronized state with each other, so that the host processor 30 can correctly process the order of the position data of the finger F supplied from each of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23.

[0069] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in the method of solving the problem described with reference to Fig. 7, but is otherwise similar to the first embodiment. Therefore, the following description will focus on the differences from the first embodiment.

[0070] 9(a) and (b) are diagrams showing waveforms of the finger touch detection signal FDS according to the present embodiment. Fig. 9(a) shows a case where the finger touch detection signal FDS is formed by a signal having the waveform shown in Fig. 5(a), and Fig. 9(b) shows a case where the finger touch detection signal FDS is formed by a signal having the waveform shown in Fig. 5(b).

[0071] The first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 are each configured to receive a finger touch detection signal FDS by detecting a change in the signal at the edge (start) of each pulse section PS. In this embodiment, the first finger touch detection signal FDS (hereinafter referred to as the first finger touch detection signal FDS) supplied by the first integrated circuit 13 to each sensor electrode 12x and the second finger touch detection signal FDS (hereinafter referred to as the second finger touch detection signal FDS) supplied by the second integrated circuit 23 to each sensor electrode 22x are configured such that the time positions of the edges of the pulse section PS are different from each other.

[0072] In a typical example, the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS may be configured with pulse signals having different phases. For example, as shown in Fig. 9(a)(b), the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS may be configured so that they differ in phase by half the time PS / 2 of one pulse section PS described above. In this way, the time positions of the edges of the pulse section PS (the timings indicated by black triangles in Fig. 9(a)(b)) can be made different between the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS.

[0073] In this way, by configuring the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS so that the time positions of the edges of the pulse section PS are different between the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS, at the timing when one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 performs an operation to detect a change in a signal, the signal corresponding to the other is always in an unchanged state. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the finger touch detection signal FDS sent by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 from being received by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23.

[0074] Instead of the phases of the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS, their frequencies (i.e., the time length of the pulse section PS) may be made different from each other. Even in this way, although not completely, the time positions of the edges of the pulse section PS of the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS can be made different from each other substantially (i.e., at most timings).

[0075] Also, the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS may be configured so that the rising and falling time lengths of the first finger touch detection signal FDS and the second finger touch detection signal FDS are different from each other, and each of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 may be configured to receive only the finger touch detection signal FDS of a specific frequency, for example, by using a bandpass filter that passes only signals of a specific frequency. In this manner, it is possible to prevent the finger touch detection signal FDS sent by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 from being received by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23.

[0076] In addition, the above-mentioned signals s1 to s K In the case where it is acceptable for the bit length of the signals s1 to s2 transmitted by the first integrated circuit 13 to be longer, K and the signals s1 to s transmitted by the second integrated circuit 23. K All of the signals FDS, FDS, and FDS may be configured with mutually orthogonal code sequences. In this way, the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 can receive each signal by calculating the correlation with the orthogonal code sequence stored in advance, so that, as in the above, it is possible to prevent the finger touch detection signal FDS sent by one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 from being received by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23.

[0077] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be embodied in various forms without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0078] For example, the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 may transmit the same uplink signal US at the same timing. In other words, the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 may be operated as an integrated unit. This also makes it possible to prevent interference between the uplink signals US transmitted from the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21. Even in this case, it is preferable that the finger touch detection signal FDS transmitted from one of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 is not received by the other of the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 as described above for the touch detection operation TD.

[0079] In addition, when both the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21 are configured by the in-cell touch display described above, if the first integrated circuit 13 and the second integrated circuit 23 are to transmit the same uplink signal US at the same timing, it is preferable to synchronize the vertical synchronization signal VSync indicating the timing of rewriting the screen. That is, in the in-cell touch display, the sensor system 3 can perform the pen detection operation PD and the touch detection operation TD only during the blank period in which the pixel driving operation is not performed. Therefore, in order to transmit the uplink signal US at the same timing from each of the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21, the time positions of the blank periods must be the same between the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21. By synchronizing the vertical synchronization signal VSync as described above, it is possible to match the time positions of the blank periods.

[0080] The first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2 may be configured by signals modulated using code sequences orthogonal to each other. In this way, the stylus P can distinguish and receive the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2 by calculating the correlation with the orthogonal code sequence stored in advance, so that it is possible to prevent interference between the uplink signals US sent from the first panel surface 11 and the second panel surface 21, respectively, as described above. In this case, when both the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2 are received, it is preferable that the stylus P selects one of them and performs pairing with the integrated circuit corresponding to the selected one. For example, it is sufficient to select one of the first uplink signal US1 and the second uplink signal US2, which has a stronger reception strength. [Explanation of symbols]

[0081] 1 Electronic equipment 2 Connecting part 3 Sensor System 10 First Case 11 First panel surface 12x, 12y First sensor electrode group 13 First Integrated Circuit 13a Shift Register 13b Correlator 14x, 14y First lead-out wiring 20 Second Case 21 Second Panel Side 22x, 22y Second sensor electrode group 23 Second Integrated Circuit 24x, 24y Second lead-out wiring 30 Host Processor 31~33 Wiring A1 Contact area of ​​finger F A2 Palm Contact Area DS Downlink Signal F finger FDS Finger touch detection signal H hand INT Time interval between transmissions of uplink signal US P Stylus P1 Uplink signal US transmission and reception section P2 Downlink signal DS transmission and reception section p1~p4 pulse group PD pen detection operation PS Pulse Section s1~s K signal T1 Time length of the transmission period of the first uplink signal US1 T1~T4 correlation value T2 Time length from the beginning of the pen detection operation PD to the start of transmission of the second uplink signal US2 T3: The time length from the end of transmission of the second uplink signal US2 to the start of the touch detection operation TD T4 Time length of the section where touch detection operation TD is performed TD Touch detection operation TS1~TSn time slots US uplink signal US1 First uplink signal US1a Coverage range of the first uplink signal US1 US2 Second uplink signal US2a Coverage range of the second uplink signal US2

Claims

1. a first sensor electrode group including a part of electrodes for driving pixels of a first display; a second sensor electrode group including a part of electrodes for driving pixels of a second display; a first integrated circuit for transmitting a first uplink signal from the first group of sensor electrodes; a second integrated circuit configured to transmit a second uplink signal from the second group of sensor electrodes; the first display and the second display are configured to operate in a state where a signal indicating a timing for rewriting a screen is synchronized; The first uplink signal and the second uplink signal are transmitted at the same timing. system.

2. a first housing having a first panel surface which is a display surface of the first display and a second housing having a second panel surface which is a display surface of the second display are connected by a connecting portion; The system of claim 1 .

3. the first integrated circuit transmits the first uplink signal from the first sensor electrode group during a blank period in which no pixel drive operation is performed in the first display; the second integrated circuit transmits the second uplink signal from the second sensor electrode group during a blank period in which no driving operation of a pixel is performed in the second display; The system of claim 1 .

4. The first uplink signal and the second uplink signal are constituted by signals modulated using code sequences orthogonal to each other. The system of claim 3.

5. Includes a stylus When the stylus receives both the first uplink signal and the second uplink signal, the stylus selects one of the signals and performs pairing with an integrated circuit corresponding to the selected one of the first integrated circuit and the second integrated circuit. The system of claim 4.

6. When the stylus receives both the first uplink signal and the second uplink signal, the stylus selects the signal having the stronger reception strength. The system of claim 5.

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