Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090073128 | CLEANABLE TOUCH AND TAP-SENSITIVE KEYBOARD - A touch sensitive surface having touch-capacitive and vibration sensors. This surface allows the user to rest their fingers on the keys and type as they would on a regular keyboard. As the user places their fingers on the keys, the touch capacitive sensors (one per key) report the signal strength level of each key touched to a processor, but no keystroke is issued by the processor until a corresponding “tap” (ie. vibration) is detected. When a tap is detected, the processor references the status of the touch capacitance sensors before, during, and/or immediately after the moment in time the tap occurred. | 03-19-2009 |
20120075192 | DYNAMICALLY LOCATED ONSCREEN KEYBOARD - A touch-sensitive display surface having touch-capacitive and vibration sensors. This surface allows the user to rest their fingers on the keys of an onscreen keyboard and type as they would on a regular keyboard. As the user places their fingers on the touch screen, the system relocates the onscreen keyboard to the location where the fingers are resting. The touch sensors report the signal strength level of each key touched to a processor, but no keystroke is issued by the processor until a corresponding “tap” (i.e., vibration) is detected. When a tap is detected, the processor references the status of the touch capacitance sensors before, during, and/or immediately after the moment in time the tap occurred. The size, position, and orientation of the onscreen keyboard keys are dynamically set as determined by the user initiating a home-row definition event by resting their fingers momentarily on a virtual home-row. | 03-29-2012 |
20120075193 | MULTIPLEXED NUMERIC KEYPAD AND TOUCHPAD - A method and system that integrates a numeric keypad with a touchpad in the same physical location on a touch-sensitive display device. Operational mode of the same location is automatically determined based on user actions with the display or based on a manual entry by the user. The system operates in at least one mode of operation selected from: numpad mode, touchpad mode, keyboard mode and auto-detect mode. A visual indicator communicates with the user which mode is the current mode. | 03-29-2012 |
20120113028 | METHOD FOR DETECTING AND LOCATING KEYPRESS-EVENTS ON TOUCH- AND VIBRATION-SENSITIVE FLAT SURFACES - Systems and methods for enabling use of vibration sensors attached to the touch-sensitive surface to both detect and locate finger contact events on the surface. The invention specifically discriminates between intentional typing events and casual or unwanted contacts resulting from normal typing actions, thus allowing the user to rest their fingers on the keys and allowing them to type as they would on a regular keyboard. Signals from both touch and vibration sensors are translated into a series of input events. Input events are then temporally correlated to determine the location of the finger contact and activation of the corresponding key. Correlated events are then filtered to remove unwanted events and resolve ambiguous or contradictory results. | 05-10-2012 |
20120133589 | DYNAMICALLY LOCATED ONSCREEN KEYBOARD - A touch-sensitive display surface having touch-capacitive and vibration sensors. This surface allows the user to rest their fingers on the keys of an onscreen keyboard and type as they would on a regular keyboard. As the user places their fingers on the touch screen, the system relocates the onscreen keyboard to the location where the fingers are resting. The touch sensors report the signal strength level of each key touched to a processor, but no keystroke is issued by the processor until a corresponding “tap” (i.e., vibration) is detected. When a tap is detected, the processor references the status of the touch capacitance sensors before, during, and/or immediately after the moment in time the tap occurred. The size, position, and orientation of the onscreen keyboard keys are dynamically set as determined by the user initiating a home-row definition event by resting their fingers momentarily on a virtual home-row. | 05-31-2012 |
20120206384 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING SURFACE SANITATION - An intelligent touch-sensitive surface that is easy to clean, that self-monitors when it has become contaminated, and can discern when it has been cleaned. The surface incorporates a plurality of sensors that detect events that contribute to contamination and/or cleaning, including, but not limited to, detecting users' touches, movement of the surface, when liquid is present on the surface, when there has been a change of users, time passage since the last cleaning, and how well the surface was wiped. The surface then reports its cleaning status to software residing on a host computer, which in turn can transfer the information to a host server. In this way, the cleaning status of each surface can be monitored remotely and/or logged. | 08-16-2012 |
20120306758 | SYSTEM FOR DETECTING A USER ON A SENSOR-BASED SURFACE - Systems and methods uniquely identify the user of the keyboard. An example of the present invention includes sensors capable of detecting the interaction of a user caused by their touch, vibration, proximity, and actuation of key switches. Unique characteristics such as typing style, touch signature, tap strength, and others can be determined using the multi-sensor keyboard in ways not possible on a conventional mechanical keyboard. Further, it is also useful to know when a change of keyboard users has occurred for the purpose of infection prevention in healthcare settings where cross-contamination via computer keyboards is prevalent. | 12-06-2012 |
20130093715 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING A PRESS ON A TOUCH-SENSITIVE SURFACE - Systems and methods that allow the user to rest their fingers on a touch-sensitive surface and make selections on that surface with a pressing action. Touch capacitance sensors that typically provide X and Y location data associated with a user's touch are also used to discern finger pressure in the Z direction. This allows the user to make an actuation on the touch screen by simply pressing harder at a location where they may already be resting their finger(s). | 04-18-2013 |
20130187775 | SYSTEM FOR MONITORING INFECTION CONTROL AND PREVENTION PROCESSES - The present invention is a centralized system for the automated monitoring and reporting of compliance to infection prevention policies. It is focused on the proactive reduction (elimination) of pathogenic organisms causing infection within the facility by enforcing best practices for infection prevention. | 07-25-2013 |
20130265273 | Systems and methods for detecting a press on a touch-sensitive surface - Systems and methods that allow the user to rest their fingers on a touch-sensitive surface and make selections on that surface with a pressing action. Touch capacitance sensors that typically provide X and Y location data associated with a user's touch are also used to discern finger pressure in the Z direction. This allows the user to make an actuation on the touch screen by simply pressing harder at a location where they may already be resting their finger(s). | 10-10-2013 |
20140028624 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING A PRESS ON A TOUCH-SENSITIVE SURFACE - Systems and methods that allow the user to rest their fingers on a touch-sensitive surface and make selections on that surface with a pressing action. Touch capacitance sensors that typically provide X and Y location data associated with a user's touch are also used to discern finger pressure in the Z direction. This allows the user to make an actuation on the touch screen by simply pressing harder at a location where they may already be resting their finger(s). | 01-30-2014 |
20150067571 | WORD PREDICTION ON AN ONSCREEN KEYBOARD - The present invention enables typing on a touchscreen without the need for the user to accurately hit each key on an onscreen keyboard. The relative distance and direction between each letter of a word on a virtual keyboard (visible or invisible) is used to uniquely identify the desired word by comparing parameters with those pre-stored in a word database. This means the user may begin typing at any location on the screen, without being constrained to a pre-determined location of an onscreen keyboard. It also means the size of the virtual onscreen keyboard may be determined by the user's typing pattern. Various disambiguation strategies can be applied to this typing approach to allow the user to be imprecise. | 03-05-2015 |