Touch Pad Input Adjustment via Dynamic Scale Factor
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Solution Overview
Problem
The variability in touch area size due to finger thickness and pressure affects the operable range of touch pads, leading to inconsistent input operations across users and even within the same user, causing issues in controlling player characters' movement range and speed in game machines.
Innovation Solution
A storage medium with an input adjustment program for touch devices that calculates a correction value based on the touch area, adjusts the operable range to match the entire operating surface, and corrects touch coordinates using a scale factor to ensure stable input operations regardless of user individuality and operating manner.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the touch pad uses the entire operating surface for input, then the operable range is maximized, but the input consistency varies due to differences in finger thickness and touch area
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically adjusts the reference position and effective input area parameters based on the detected touch area size. When a user touches with a larger finger area, the system shifts the reference position inward and reduces the effective input area to compensate, ensuring consistent cursor movement regardless of finger thickness or touch pressure variations
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the touch area size and uses this feedback to adjust the reference position and input area parameters in real-time. This closed-loop control ensures that variations in touch area due to different users or touch forces do not affect input consistency
2Device complexity
If the reference position is fixed at the center of the operating surface, then the coordinate calculation is simplified, but the input accuracy deteriorates for users with different finger sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The reference position is transformed from a static fixed point to a dynamic adjustable point. The system calculates the optimal reference position based on the detected touch area, shifting it from the geometric center when needed to maintain input accuracy across different user characteristics while preserving the simplified coordinate calculation approach
3Reliability
If the effective input area is reduced to accommodate all finger sizes, then input consistency is improved, but the usable operating range is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of uniformly reducing the entire operating area, the system applies local adjustment by dynamically defining the effective input area based on the actual touch location and touch area size. This allows different regions of the touch pad to have different effective boundaries, maximizing the usable range while maintaining input consistency
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
This solution stabilizes input operations by normalizing the touch area size, allowing consistent control and reducing variations in the operable range, thus ensuring uniform performance across different users and operating conditions.
Implementation Method 1
a capacitance-type transparent touch pad is provided on the display of an LCD or CRT screen
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2(A)~2(B)
Figure 3(A)~3(B)
AI summary
A computer 12 as an input adjustment apparatus includes a memory. This memory stores an input adjustment program. The computer 12 is connected with a touch pad 14. When a user touches the touch pad 14 with his/her fmger, the computer 12 is provided with touch coordinate data on a touched portion and a value according to an area of the touched portion. Based on the coordinate data and the value according to the touch area, the computer 12 calculates a scale factor of a range in which the user can actually perform an operation in such a manner as to conform to a whole operating range of the touch pad 14. Then, the computer 12 multiplies by the scale factor a difference of coordinates indicated by the coordinate data (current touch coordinates) from a reference position, and input the resulting value as input data into an electronic device.