Touchscreen Pitch and Yaw Detection via Image Transformation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contemporary touchscreens primarily report X/Y coordinates, lacking the ability to accurately determine and utilize pitch and yaw data from elongated objects, such as fingers or styluses, which limits interactive capabilities in applications like gaming and map navigation.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that processes touch images to compute aggressive and relaxed transformations, calculate moments of intensity, derive pitch and yaw estimates, and disambiguate yaw using centroid vectors, enabling the reporting of pitch and yaw data to operating systems and applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If contemporary touchscreens only report X/Y coordinates, then the system is simple and easy to implement, but the interactive capabilities are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the traditional 2D touchscreen coordinate system by adding pitch and yaw dimensions. Instead of only reporting X/Y coordinates, the system now provides 4D touch data including two angular dimensions (pitch and yaw) that describe the orientation of elongated objects like fingers or styluses on the touchscreen surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the touch analysis process into distinct computational steps: generating aggressive and relaxed transformations of the touch image, computing moments of intensity for each transformation, calculating centroids, determining theta and eigenvalues, and finally deriving pitch and yaw estimates. This segmentation allows the complex analysis to be performed in manageable stages.
2Adaptability or versatility
If pitch and yaw data are added to touchscreen reporting, then application functionality is enhanced, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-generating aggressive and relaxed transformations of the touch image before computing the final pitch and yaw values. These transformations are prepared in advance to facilitate subsequent moment calculations and centroid determinations, making the overall process more efficient.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary computational elements including aggressive and relaxed image transformations, moments of intensity, centroids, theta angles, and eigenvalues. These intermediaries serve as stepping stones that bridge the raw touch image data and the final pitch/yaw estimates, making the complex derivation process more manageable and systematic.
3Measurement precision
If image transformations and moment calculations are performed, then pitch and yaw accuracy is improved, but computational load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by generating two specific transformations (aggressive and relaxed) rather than exhaustively analyzing all possible image transformations. This selective approach provides sufficient accuracy for pitch and yaw determination while avoiding the excessive computational burden of more comprehensive transformation sets.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method and apparatus for determining pitch and yaw of an elongated interface object as it interacts with a touchscreen surface. A touch image is received, and this touch image has at least a first area that corresponds to an area of the touchscreen that has an elongated interface object positioned at least proximate to it. The elongated interface object has a pitch and a yaw with respect to the touchscreen surface. A first transformation is performed to obtain a first transformation image of the touch image, and a second transformation is performed to obtain a second transformation image of the touch image. The first transformation differs from the second transformation. The yaw is determined for the elongated interface object based on both the first and second transformation images. The pitch is determined based on at least one of the first and second transformation images.