Touch Sensor System with Distributed Signal Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional touch sensor systems face challenges with increased response time and processing load as the number of sensors grows, due to centralized management and data processing requirements, leading to inefficiencies in data transmission and power consumption.
Innovation Solution
A touch sensor system with a bus architecture that includes power and signal lines, where each touch sensor device processes analog signals into digital format and transmits data only when exceeding a threshold, using a signal processing unit with digital conversion, threshold evaluation, and bus state management to reduce data transmission and processing load, allowing for faster responses and noise immunity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the control unit centrally manages a large number of touch sensor elements by sequentially sampling each sensor, then comprehensive sensor coverage is achieved, but the sampling interval increases and response speed decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the centralized control function into distributed autonomous units. Each touch sensor element includes its own signal processing unit that independently processes sensor data without requiring sequential access from the host control unit. This segmentation allows parallel processing of multiple sensors, maintaining comprehensive coverage while achieving fast response times.
Solution Approach 2:
Each touch sensor element is equipped with autonomous signal processing capabilities including threshold evaluation and data filtering. The sensor elements self-manage their data processing tasks, determining which data to transmit based on local threshold comparisons. This self-service approach eliminates the need for the host control unit to sequentially sample each sensor, dramatically improving response speed while maintaining comprehensive sensor coverage.
2Loss of information
If the control unit samples all touch sensor elements in order to obtain sensor data, then complete data collection is achieved, but the amount of data to be processed increases enormously and processing load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and removes unnecessary data at the source before transmission. Each signal processing unit compares sensor data against predetermined thresholds locally and only transmits data that exceeds these thresholds. This extraction of relevant information from the complete data set dramatically reduces the amount of data requiring host processing while ensuring no significant touch events are missed.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transmitting all sensor data, the system selectively transmits only the necessary portion - data exceeding predetermined thresholds. This partial action approach ensures complete coverage of significant events while minimizing unnecessary data transmission and processing load on the host control unit.
3Measurement precision
If all sensor data is transmitted to the host control unit for processing, then comprehensive analysis is achieved, but power consumption increases due to the enormous amount of data processing
Solution Approach 1:
Data filtering and threshold evaluation are performed preliminarily at each sensor element before data transmission. The signal processing units pre-process the sensor data by comparing it against thresholds and determining transmission necessity. This preliminary action reduces the volume of data requiring host processing, thereby significantly reducing power consumption while maintaining comprehensive analysis capability for significant events.
4Measurement precision
If a mesh wiring structure with many electrode lines is used to provide sufficient sensitivity, then touch detection capability is improved, but the number of sensors increases and host load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mesh wiring structure is maintained for sensitivity, but the control architecture is segmented into autonomous sensor elements. Each intersection point in the mesh becomes an independent sensor element with its own processing unit, eliminating the need for centralized sequential management. This allows the system to utilize the full sensitivity of the dense mesh structure without proportionally increasing host load.
Solution Approach 2:
Each sensor element in the mesh structure autonomously processes its own data and determines transmission necessity based on local threshold comparisons. This self-service capability allows the system to maintain the high sensitivity provided by the dense mesh wiring while keeping host load manageable, as the host only receives filtered data from sensors that detected significant events.
Data Source
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AI summary
A touch sensor system 100 includes buses 110, a plurality of touch sensor devices 200 disposed on the buses 110, and an information integrating device 140 that is connected to all the buses 110 and integrates information from the touch sensor device 200. The touch sensor device 200 includes a sensor unit and a signal processing unit that transmits a sensor data signal generated by processing an analog sensor signal to the information integrating device through the bus. The signal processing unit includes a digital converting unit, a threshold evaluating unit that gives a start permission of the signal process when a sensor value exceeds a preset threshold, an ID adding unit that adds a transmitter identification number to the sensor signal, and a data transmitting unit that outputs the sensor data signal to a signal line of the bus. Fast responses are made possible without increasing the amount of data and host processing load while including many touch sensor elements.