Touchscreen Signal Processing With Partial Frame Touch Sampling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Touchscreen panels face challenges in balancing power consumption, detection accuracy, and responsivity due to the number of sensor areas measured, where reducing sensor areas decreases power consumption but can lead to reduced resolution and detection accuracy.
Innovation Solution
A method involving partial frame sampling from a touchscreen panel, where a new frame is generated with estimates of un-sampled parts, and sub-frames are obtained around detected touch events to maintain accuracy while reducing energy consumption and improving responsivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If the number of sensor areas is reduced, then power consumption decreases and responsivity improves, but detection accuracy and resolution are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by generating estimated values for un-sampled sensor areas based on sampled data before final detection. This allows the system to maintain high detection accuracy across the entire touchscreen surface while only physically sampling a subset of sensor areas, thereby reducing power consumption without sacrificing measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies of sampled sensor data by generating estimated values for un-sampled areas. These estimated copies represent the touch signal characteristics that would be measured if all sensor areas were sampled, allowing the system to reconstruct a complete touch image from partial measurements and maintain detection accuracy while reducing the number of physical measurements needed.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the number of sensor areas is reduced, then power consumption decreases, but resolution is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system generates preliminary estimates for un-sampled sensor areas using algorithms that preserve spatial resolution information. By performing this estimation before final touch detection, the system maintains the apparent resolution of the touchscreen display while reducing the actual number of measurements required, thus lowering power consumption without visible loss of resolution.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different processing quality to different regions: sampled areas receive full measurement quality, while un-sampled areas receive estimated values. This local differentiation allows the system to maintain high resolution where measurements are taken while using computationally efficient estimation elsewhere, achieving overall high resolution output with reduced measurement requirements and lower power consumption.
3Measurement precision
If excitation voltages are increased to overcome noise signals, then detection accuracy improves, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates copies of touch signal information through estimation algorithms rather than through increased excitation voltages. By generating estimated values for un-sampled areas based on sampled data, the system maintains detection accuracy without the need for higher power excitation signals, thus avoiding the trade-off between voltage level and power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary processing stage that reconstructs complete touch information from partial measurements. This intermediary estimation process acts as a mediator between the sampled sensor data and the final touch detection output, allowing accurate detection without requiring high excitation voltages across all sensor areas, thereby reducing overall power consumption while maintaining detection precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for processing signals from a touchscreen panel includes obtaining a partial frame by sampling parts of a frame from a touch panel which comprises an array of sensor areas (step S1). The method also includes generating, based on the partial frame, a new frame which comprises estimates of the un-sampled parts (step S2). The method also includes determining whether at least one touch event is present in the new frame (step S3), and upon a positive determination, for each touch event, determining a location of the touch event in the new frame and obtaining a sub-frame by sampling a region of a subsequent frame from the touch panel frame at and around the location (step S4). The method also includes outputting touch information based on one or more sub-frames (step S7).