Multi-Touch Display Contact Geometry Interface

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Solution Overview

Problem

Developing application programs compatible with multi-touch screens is challenging due to difficulties in managing and tracking contact shapes and changes, leading to significant processor resource consumption, technical hurdles, and varying quality, which can deter user adoption.

Innovation Solution

An interactive display system with a multi-touch display, a touch detection system, and an application programming interface that generates and processes contact geometry, allowing application programs to receive and process touch input data efficiently, enabling better tracking and adjustment of graphical elements.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If application programs directly process touch input data to track contact shapes and changes, then contact tracking capability is improved, but processor resource consumption increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontact tracking capabilityVSAvoidprocessor resource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary component (touch input manager or operating system layer) that sits between the touch detection system and application programs. This intermediary pre-processes touch input data, extracts contact geometry information, and manages contact tracking, thereby relieving application programs of heavy processing burdens while maintaining accurate contact tracking capability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary processing of touch input data by extracting contact geometry, tracking contact changes, and preparing processed touch data before application programs access it. This preliminary action reduces the computational workload for applications during runtime.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Measurement precision

If application programs process complete touch input images to ascertain contact shape, then measurement precision is improved, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontact shape measurement precisionVSAvoidprocessing time

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the essential contact geometry information (such as contact point coordinates, contact area, and shape parameters) from the complete touch input image data. This extraction approach maintains measurement precision for contact shape while significantly reducing the amount of data that needs to be processed.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The touch input processing is segmented into distinct stages: raw touch data acquisition, contact geometry extraction, contact change detection, and application-level processing. This segmentation allows critical measurements to be performed efficiently at appropriate stages without requiring applications to process all raw data.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Measurement precision

If systems track multiple contacts simultaneously with detailed shape information, then contact identification accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontact identification accuracyVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system creates simplified representations (copies) of contact information in the form of contact geometry data structures that contain essential identification features. These simplified copies enable accurate contact identification without requiring applications to manage complex raw touch input data structures.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS8390600B2Interactive display system with contact geometry interface

Publication Date: 2013.03.05 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

An interactive display system with a contact geometry interface is disclosed. The interactive display system may include a multi-touch display, a touch detection system configured to detect a touch input on the multi-touch display and to generate contact geometry for a contact region of the touch input, and an application programming interface executed on a processor of the interactive display system. The application programming interface may be configured to receive the contact geometry and to send the contact geometry to a requesting application program for application-level processing. Further, the application programming interface may be configured to receive from the application program a display command based on the application level-processing. The application programming interface may be configured to send the display command to the multi-touch display to adjust a display of a graphical element on the multi-touch display.