Touchscreen Gestures LLC v. Research In Motion Limited et al

Filing 1

COMPLAINT For Patent Infringement against All Defendants ( Filing fee $ 350 receipt number 0540-3537242.), filed by Touchscreen Gestures LLC. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet, # 2 Exhibit A, # 3 Exhibit B, # 4 Exhibit C, # 5 Exhibit D)(Navarro, Arthur)

EXHIBIT
 B

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1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
US007180506B2

(54)

United States Patent

(10)

Lin et al.

(12)

(45)

METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING A
MOVEMENT OF SINGLE TAP ON A TOUCH
DEVICE

Patent No.:
US 7,180,506 B2
Date of Patent:
Feb. 20,2007

(56)

References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,854,450
5,943,043
6,037,882
6,337,678
6,504,530
6,995,752
2003/0063073

(75)

Inventors: Jao-Ching Lin, Hsin Chuang (TW);
Shyh-In Huang, Hsin Chuang (TW);
Lin-Abel Chu, Hsin Chuang (TW);
Chung-Yi Shen, Hsin Chuang (TW)

(73)

Assignee:

Sentelic Corporation,

( *)

Notice:

Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
patent is extended or adjusted under 35
U.S.c. 154(b) by 554 days.

Taipei (TW)

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A
A
A
Bl
Bl
B2
Al

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Filed:

178/18.04
345/173
341120
345/156
345/173
345/174
345/173

Primary Examiner-Ricardo

Osorio

ABSTRACT

Appl. No.: 101776,691

(22)

Kent
Furuhata et al.
Levy.
Fish
Wilson et al.
Lu
Geaghan et al.

cited by examiner

(57)
(21)

12/1998
8/1999
3/2000
112002
112003
212006
4/2003

(65)

Feb. 12, 2004
Prior Publication

US 2005/0179645 Al
(51)
(52)
(58)

Data

Aug. 18, 2005

Int. Cl.
G09G 5/00
(2006.01)
U.S. Cl.
345/173; 3451174
Field of Classification Search
3451156,
3451157,173-177;
178118.01-18.09
See application file for complete search history.

A method for identifying a movement of single tap includes
having detected the movement of the object contacting the
touch device initiating to start time counting, having
detected the movement of the object contacting the touch
device terminating and a first time span being obtained and
generating a control signal indicating the movement of
single tap in case of the first time span being less than a
second time span, the first time span being greater than a
preset time span and only one contacting time being greater
than the preset time with the second time span.
4 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets

401
Detect movement of the /
object on the touch device.

I /

~02

I

Start counting time

403
Detect movement of the object
contacting the touch device
being over and obtain a time span TI
404
Accumulate time control having
reached the second time span T2

~.",
No----- T2 > Ti,T1 > Tmin and,
only ynd

time span?

Yes
A/406
No

Contact position coordinates
being disposed in a legal zone?

y
Yes

1

/407

Generate a control signal representing movement of single tap

u.s. Patent

Sheet 1 of 5

Feb. 20,2007

US 7,180,506 B2

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u.s. Patent

Feb. 20,2007

US 7,180,506 B2

Sheet 2 of 5

(

Start

,

')
#'

/J=:

(No movement) ..

c:201

No ~Does
an Objecc:s
contact a touch
input device?

202

203
No

Displacement

S<Smax ?
Yes

( Single tap

FIG 2

)

u.s. Patent

Feb. 20,2007

US 7,180,506 B2

Sheet 3 of 5

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g .... I _____ infr arne
--,- mal
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~/

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Transmission
interface unit

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u.s. Patent

Feb. 20,2007

FIG 4

US 7,180,506 B2

Sheet 4 of 5

401
Detect movement of the /
object on the touch device.

I. /

I

~02

Start counting time

403
Detect movement of the object
contacting the touch device
being over and obtain a time span Tl

404
Accumulate time control having
reached the second time span 1'2

405

408
Non-single tap movement

Y

N0----- T2>Tl,Tl >Tminand ..
only
second time span?

Yes

A/406

NCL.

y

Contact position coordinates
being

zone?

Yes

1

/407

Generate a control signal representing movement of single tap

u.s. Patent

Pressure

Feb. 20,2007

t

Sheet 5 of 5

US 7,180,506 B2

/ \
I.

Tl .1

I.

12

Control signal

FIG 5

.1

II.

T

I
.1

US 7,180,506 B2
1

2

METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING A
MOVEMENT OF SINGLE TAP ON A TOUCH
DEVICE
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention is related to a method for identifying a movement of single tap on a touch device, particularly to an identifying method capable of resisting noise
effectively and enhancing identification rate and a controller
utilizing the method.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
The touch pad is a humanized input device in spite of the
conventional input devices such as keyboard, mouse and
locus ball being unable to satisfy need of the user. Further,
a trend of designing electronic products is to pursue lightness, thinness, shortness and smallness so that it is not
possible to integrate all kinds of input devices in a single
electronic product. Because the touch pad can provide the
user a humanized operation with handwriting input and has
the function of the conventional input devices at the same
time, the touch pad has become the most popular choice.
Referring to FIG. 1, the touch pad 10 can access analogi
digital conversion and figure out coordinates of the touch
point with a controller 20 after producing analog signals of
voltage. Meanwhile, the controller 20 can identify if the user
produce a single tap or click, double taps or clicks, a drag or
a movement and then sends related control signal to a main
unit 30 to control the cursor on a screen 40 of the main unit
30 accessing movements of shifting, selecting an item and
executing a program.
The analogldigital converter (not shown) in the controller
20 can be interfered by foreign noise such as electromagnetic wave easily so that it is necessary to add proper
samples and recognition algorithm in addition to requiring
careful layout of internal circuit and increasing various
filters for solving the problem. Otherwise, the noise is easy
to result in phenomenon of temporary pseudo press or
pseudo exit such that the controller 20 erroneously determines the movement.
u.s. Pat. No. 6,380,931 discloses an identifying method
of single tap with a touch device and a brief summary
thereof is described hereinafter. Referring FIG. 2, firstly, it
is to detect if an object such as touch pen contacts the touch
device as shown in step 201 and then it is to compare time
T of the object with a default value Tmax and check ifT is
smaller than Tmax as shown in step 202. Further, it is to
make sure if displacement S of the object on the touch
device is smaller than a default value Smax as shown in step
203. In case of meeting the preceding two conditions,
determination of single tap movement can be made and a
control signal of representing the single tap and information
regarding coordinates of position at the spot of clicking can
be sent to the main unit. However, the preceding method is
not possible to resist noise, which is apt to produce phenomenon of pseudo press. Especially in order to comply
with calculation of the two restrictions (contact time and
displacement), the set up cost of the logic circuit is expensive too.

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45

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

50

55

60

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to
provide a method, which can filter unnecessary noise effectively for enhancing accuracy of identifying a movement of
single tap, and a controller thereof.

Wherein, the controller, which sends at least a control
signal to a main unit corresponding to a movement of at least
an object contacting the touch device, comprises a coordinate calculating unit, a detecting contact unit, a counting
time unit, an operation unit and an encoding unit.
The coordinate calculating unit detects an electronic signal sent by the touch device to figure out a coordinate
position of the object contacting the touch device.
The detecting contact unit detects the electronic signal
sent by the touch device to determine if the object contacts
the touch device.
The operation unit figures out a first time span of the
object contacting the touch device during the object terminating contacting the touch device according to a result of
the determination done by the detecting contact unit, controls the counting time unit to start time counting in case of
the object contacts the touch device and generates a control
signal indicating the single tap in case of the first time span
being less than a second time span, the first time span being
greater than a preset time span and only one contacting time
being greater than the preset time in the second time span.
The encoding unit encodes the control signal and the
coordinate position and sending the encoded data to the
main unit.
The method for identifying a movement of single tap
according to the present invention is to have detected the
movement of the object contacting the touch device initiating time counting and have detected the movement of the
object contacting the touch device being terminated and a
first time span being obtained.
Finally, a control signal indicating the movement of single
tap can be obtained in case of the first time span being less
than a second time span, the first time span being greater
than a preset time span and only one contacting time being
greater than the preset time with the second time span.
In short, the present invention provides another restriction
regarding if the time span of the object contacting the touch
device is greater than the first time span and smaller than the
second time span in addition to the restriction regarding if
only one contact movement in the second time span. Hence,
it is capable of resisting noise effectively to enhance accuracy of recognizing movements. Moreover, due to being not
necessary to provide a restriction of displacement, it IS
possible to lower down the set up cost for logic circuit.

65

The detail structure, the applied principle, the function
and the effectiveness of the present invention can be more
fully understood with reference to the following description
and accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1is a block diagram illustrating relationship between
a touch device, a controller and a main unit;
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating steps in a method for
identifying the movement of single tap disclosed in U.S. Pat.
No. 6,380,931;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a controller in the touch device of the present
invention;
FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating steps in a method for
identifying the movement of single tap according to the
present invention; and
FIG. 5 a graph of time sequence illustrating control
signals being produced corresponding to the movement of
correct single tap according to the present invention.

US 7,180,506 B2
3

4

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

encoding unit 5 can encode different signals as hand-write
input protocol or standard mouse protocol such as mouse
standard protocol of Microsoft company or PS/2 mouse
standard protocol of IBM company available for operation
system of the main unit 400.
The transmission interface unit 6 provides a function of
sending the encoded signal done by the encoding unit 5 to
the main unit 400 in series. Taking a desktop computer as an
example, the encoded signal is sent to a keyboard controller
(not shown) or South Bridge chip (not shown) so that it is
possible to send an interruption request (IRQ) to the processor of the main unit 400. As a result, the main unit 400
can further obtain required parameters such as coordinate
location and execution movement and movements such as
displacement of the cursor, program selection or program
execution can be performed further.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the identifying method of
single tap movement according to the present invention at
the very first as steps 401, 402 illustrated is utilizing the
detecting contact unit 3 to detect the movement of the object
200 on the touch device 300. A positive edge ofTl time span
wave (temporary state while lower level position changes to
high level position) indicates a movement of contact occurring and the operation unit 4 controls the timer unit 7 to
begin counting the time.
Next, as indicated in step 403, once the object 200
detaches from the touch device 300 after contacting the
touch device 300 a time duration T1 (first time span), the
detecting contact unit 3 will detect the movement of contacting the touch device 300 being over. It is a negative edge
of the wave shape shown in FIG. 5.
Then, step 404 shows that the timer unit 7 terminates
counting the time after the time lapsing a second time span
T2 from starting counting the time.
Step 405 shows that the operation unit 4 determines if the
condition of only one contact time duration being greater
than a preset time span T min of the tap movement except T1
being smaller than the second time span T2 and greater than
a preset time span T min is fulfilled. If the condition is not
fulfilled, the process is moved to step 408 and the operation
unit 4 can have judgment of other movements in case of the
original judgment being not the movement of single tap. If
the condition is fulfilled, step 406 is processed.
In order to determine the movement of single tap more
accurately, a legal zone (not shown) for the movement of
single tap is defined and judgment for position coordinates
(X,Y) of the object 200 contacting the touch device 300
being within the legal zone (XI-X2,YI-Y2; X. <X2, YI<Y2).
If the determination in step 406 is 'YES' (X. ~X~X2'
YI ~Y~Y2)' it means the movement is single tap definitely
and step 407 is executed to produce a control signal representing the movement of single tap as shown in lower part
of FIG. 5 being sent to the main unit 400 via the encoding
unit 5 and the transmission interface unit 6. If the determination in step 406 is 'NO', it means the movement is not
single tap and the process is moved to step 408.
In short, in order to obtain the movement of single tap,
following conditions have to be met:
(1) T2>T1

Referring to FIG. 3, the controller 100 of a touch device
300 is used for identifying a movement of an object 200 on
the touch device 300 and sending a control signal corresponding the movement to a main unit 400. It is noted that
the touch device 300 can be a capacitance type, inductance
type and the like. The capacitance type of touch device 300
is specifically used for the embodiment.
The object 200 is utilized to contact with the touch device
300, that is, the movement of the object 200 on the touch
device 300 results in the controller 100 sending a control
signal, which corresponds to the movement, to the main unit
400. Generally, the control signal can be coordinates change,
a tap, double taps, a drag, a movement, scrolling, a left key,
a right key, a middle key and etc. to simulate behaviors of
a mouse and a keyboard further.
The main unit 400 can be various electronic devices such
as a desktop computer, a note book computer, a personal
digital assistant (PDA), a cellular phone, a remote controller
for different electric appliances or any other input device for
the electronic devices.
A preferred embodiment of the controller 100 includes a
analog/digital switching unit 1, a coordinate calculating unit
2, a detecting contact unit 3, an operation unit 4, an encoding
unit 5, a transmission interface unit 6 and a timer unit 7.
Because the touch device 300 distributes multiple lead
wires in X and Y directions respectively, the touch device
300 will occur a change of capacitance value as soon as the
object 200 contacts the touch device 300. Thus, values such
as coordinates can be figured out by way of measuring
variations of voltages.
The analog/digital switching unit 1 is connected to the
touch device 300 to convert different voltages into corresponding digital signals for subsequent process. The coordinate calculation unit 2 decodes the digital signal sent from
the analog/digital switching unit 1 as corresponding absolute
coordinate values (X, Y).
The detecting contact unit 3 is capable of detecting if the
touch device 300 is pressed with an object and figuring out
time duration of the object 200 contacting the touch device
300. The time duration is a parameter for judging which one
of the movements, a tap, double tap or drag.
The operation unit 4 is connected to the coordinate
calculation unit 2 and the detecting contact unit 3. The
operation unit 4 is built in a logic calculation method, which
can determine if a movement operated by the user meets a
condition of a tap, double taps or drag. The present invention
emphasizes determination of single tap and a detail explanation about the determination of single tap will be description hereinafter.
The operation unit 4 is capable of offering relative displacement except determination of movement, that is, after
multiple pairs of absolute coordinate values being transmitted to the operation unit 4 sequentially, the operation unit 4
can figure out a relative displacement of the object 200 on
the touch device 300 and even parameters such as velocity,
direction and distance of the object 200 according to the
difference between two neighboring coordinates. As for
whether sending the absolute coordinates or the relative
displacement to the main unit 400, it depends on application
requirement of the main unit 400.
The encoding unit 5 connects with the operation unit 4 so
that it is possible for the encoding unit 5 to receive absolute
coordinate signal, relative displacement signal or touch
signals, which include single tap, double tap and drag. The

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(2) Tmin<T1

(3) Only one contact time duration is greater than the
preset time span T min for the movement of tap.
(4) XI~X~X2; YI~Y~Y2
It is appreciated that the method and device according to
the present invention can resist noise effectively and
enhance accuracy of identifying the movement in case of
time being counted from the object 200 being started to

US 7,180,506 B2
5

6

contact with the touch device 300, a determination of single
tap movement being performed within the second time span
T2, the first time span T1 being greater than the preset time
span Tmin and smaller than the second time span T2 and the
contact position coordinates (X,Y) of the object 200 on the
touch device 300 being in the legal zone of single tap.
Further, intemal logic circuit of the controller 300 can be
simplified to lower the installation cost and reduce power
consumption.
While the invention has been described with referencing
to a preferred embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that
modifications or variations may be easily made without
departing from the spirit of this invention, which is defined
by the appended claims.
What is claimed is:
1. A method for identifying a movement of single tap,
which is a movement done with at least an object contacting
a touch device, comprising following steps:
(A) having detected the movement of the object contacting the touch device initiating with starting time counting;
(B) having detected the movement of the object contacting the touch device terminating and a first time span
being obtained; and
(C) generating a control signal indicating the movement
of single tap in case of the first time span being less than
a second time span, the first time span being greater
than a preset time span and only one contacting time
being greater than the preset time with the second time
span.
2. The method for identifying a movement of single tap as
defined in claim 1, wherein the step C further determines
contact position coordinates of the object contacting with the
touch device are in a legal zone for single tap before the
control signal of single tap movement.

3. A controller of a touch device, which sends at least a
control signal to a main unit corresponding to a movement
of at least an object contacting the touch device, comprising:
a coordinate calculating unit, detecting an electronic signal sent by the touch device to figure out a coordinate
position of the object contacting the touch device;

10

a detecting contact unit, detecting the electronic signal
sent by the touch device to determine if the object
contacts the touch device;
a counting time unit, counting time during the object
contacting the touch device;

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an operation unit, figuring out a first time span of the
object contacting the touch device during the object
terminating contacting the touch device according to a
result of the determination done by the detecting contact unit, controlling the counting time unit to start time
counting in case of the object contacts the touch device
and generating a control signal indicating the single tap
in case of the first time span being less than a second
time span, the first time span being greater than a preset
time span and only one contacting time being greater
than the preset time in the second time span; and
an encoding unit, encoding the control signal and the
coordinate position and sending the encoded data to the
main unit.
4. The controller as defined in claim 3, wherein the
operation unit generates the control signal after the operation
unit having determined the coordinate position of the object
contacting the touch device being within a legal position of
single movement.

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