Touch Pad Filter Area for Inadvertent Contact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inadvertent contact with touch pad devices, particularly when the origination point of contact falls within a defined filter area, causes frustrating cursor movement and typing errors due to flush mounting in confined spaces like laptop palm rests, increasing the likelihood of accidental input.
Innovation Solution
A filter area is defined within the touch pad surface, where input streams are filtered out if the origination point is within this area, preventing unintended cursor movement and typing errors by only processing inputs from outside the filter area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the touch pad surface is made flush with the surrounding surface to save space and improve aesthetics, then the device compactness and appearance are improved, but the likelihood of inadvertent contact increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a non-flush raised border around the touch pad surface. This raised border is located at the periphery while the center remains flush, providing tactile feedback to distinguish intentional from inadvertent contact while maintaining overall device compactness.
Solution Approach 2:
The touch pad surface is segmented into a central active area and a peripheral raised border area. This segmentation allows the system to differentiate between intentional contacts (typically in the center) and inadvertent contacts (typically on the border), enabling selective filtering of input signals.
2Ease of manufacture
If the touch pad surface is made flush with the surrounding surface, then the ease of cleaning and maintenance is improved, but the reliability of input accuracy deteriorates due to increased inadvertent contact
Solution Approach 1:
The raised border acts as an intermediary structure that provides tactile feedback to users. This physical mediator helps users distinguish between intentional and inadvertent contact through touch, thereby improving input accuracy without compromising the flush-mounted design's ease of cleaning.
3Measurement precision
If a filter area is defined to block inadvertent contact, then the accuracy of input processing is improved, but the complexity of the input processing system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The filter area is pre-defined and configured before the system operates. This preliminary configuration establishes the filtering criteria in advance, allowing the system to automatically distinguish and filter inadvertent contacts without requiring complex real-time analysis during operation.
Data Source
AI summary
An approach is provided that filters out inadvertent contact with a touch pad input device. A filter area is defined within a surface of a touch pad input device that is accessible from an information handling system, such as a computer system. When a user of the information handling system contacts the surface of the touch pad, an input stream is received. The input stream includes an origination point where contact was initially made by the user. If the origination point is within the defined filter area, then the input stream is filtered out (not processed). On the other hand, if the origination point is outside of the defined filter area, then the input stream is processed by the information handling system.