Integrated Display Proximity Sensing via IR Illumination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional touch screen technologies lack the ability to differentiate between the proximity and touch of an object, such as a finger, leading to limitations in user interface functionalities and the need for active styluses.
Innovation Solution
An integrated display and input device with a pixel array and sensors that sense the position of objects using IR illumination, allowing for differentiation between touch and proximity, enabling enhanced user interface functionalities like chording, panning, scrolling, and gaming without the need for active styluses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional touch screen technology is used, then the device structure remains simple, but the ability to differentiate between proximity and touch is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple sensing capabilities (proximity detection and touch detection) into a single integrated display device. The sensor array is integrated directly into the display structure, allowing the display to serve both as visual output and as input sensing surface, thereby differentiating between proximity and touch events without requiring separate devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The display device is designed to perform multiple functions: visual display, proximity sensing, and touch sensing. The same sensor array that detects touch events also detects proximity events, allowing the device to provide differentiated input capabilities based on object distance, eliminating the need for separate proximity sensors or active styluses.
2Ease of operation
If active styluses are required for precise input, then measurement precision improves, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the user's natural finger or object as the input tool, eliminating the need for specialized active styluses. The sensor array detects the presence and position of any object with reflective properties, allowing users to interact with the display using their fingers or any available object, thereby improving ease of operation while maintaining sufficient measurement precision through multi-point detection.
3Adaptability or versatility
If basic touch detection is implemented, then device complexity remains low, but user interface functionality is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a new dimension to touch interaction by detecting not only touch events but also proximity events. By measuring the distance between the object and the display surface, the system enables advanced UI functionalities such as hover effects, contextual menus, and gesture recognition that were previously impossible with basic touch screens, thereby significantly enhancing user interface versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor array is divided into multiple independent sensing elements that can detect positions of multiple objects simultaneously. This segmentation allows the system to track several fingers or objects across the display surface, enabling complex gestures and multi-touch applications, thereby expanding user interface capabilities beyond simple single-point touch detection.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables advanced user interface capabilities by distinguishing between object positions and motions, providing intuitive touch and proximity sensing for improved interaction with devices like computers and mobile devices.
Implementation Method 1
the at least one sensor senses light reflected from the at least one object
Implementation Method 2
the integrated display and input device also includes at least one IR illuminator for illuminating the at least one object
Data Source
AI summary
An integrated display and input device including a pixel array operative to provide a visually sensible output, at least one sensor operative to sense at least a position of at least one object with respect to the pixel array when the at least one object has at least a predetermined degree of propinquity to the pixel array and circuitry receiving an output from the at least one sensor and providing a non-imagewise input representing the position of the at least one object relative to the pixel array to utilization circuitry.