{
  "patent_number": "US 10031618",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Touchscreens Ignore Accidental Hovering or Palm Touches",
  "original_title": "Identifying hover and/or palm input and rejecting spurious input for a touch panel",
  "summary": "This Qualcomm patent describes how a touchscreen controller can tell the difference between an intentional finger touch and accidental input from a hovering finger or a palm, then ignore the unwanted input.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent describes a touch panel controller that receives \"pixel values,\" which are measurements of electrical capacitance at each point on the screen (Claim 1). It identifies the strongest touch point (\"peak pixel value\") and then cleans up the data by discarding very weak signals (below a \"first threshold\") and isolated weak signals (not \"adjacent to at least one other pixel value above the first threshold\") (Claim 1). It then calculates the \"aspect ratio\" of the detected input, which is like its shape, using a \"1/e thresholding operation\" (Claim 1). Based on this shape, the controller decides if the input is a real \"touch input\" or an unwanted \"hover input\" and either accepts or rejects it (Claim 1). For example, if you are writing on a tablet and your palm rests on the screen, the system can detect the large, irregular shape of your palm and ignore it. The abstract also mentions rejecting \"palm input\" based on pixel values.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover touch panels that do not rely on capacitance to detect input.",
    "Does not cover input rejection methods that do not use an \"aspect ratio\" to distinguish between touch and hover inputs.",
    "Does not cover systems that accept isolated, non-adjacent pixel values as valid input.",
    "Does not cover rejecting inputs based solely on pressure, without considering capacitance or aspect ratio."
  ],
  "filed": "2015-07-10",
  "granted": "2018-07-24",
  "expires": "2035-07-10",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Qualcomm",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/qualcomm",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Rishi Mohindra",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/rishi-mohindra"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 1,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software",
    "telecommunications",
    "semiconductors"
  ],
  "abstract": "A touch panel controller may include a communications module configured to receive pixel values, where each pixel value represents a capacitance associated with a pixel formed at a drive electrode and a sensor electrode of a touch panel. The touch panel controller may also include a processing module configured to discard pixel values below a noise threshold, discard pixel values for non-zero pixels that are not adjacent to non-zero pixels, reject detected input for pixel values associated with a palm input, compute an initial centroid associated with the pixel values, reject detected input for pixel values associated with a hover input, and provide detected input that is not associated with palm input or hover input.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10031618/identifying-hover-andor-palm-input-and-rejecting-spurious-input-for-a-touch-pane",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10031618/identifying-hover-andor-palm-input-and-rejecting-spurious-input-for-a-touch-pane/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US10031618",
  "relatedPatents": [
    {
      "patentNumber": "6323846",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How a Multi-Touch Screen Detects Multiple Fingers and Palms",
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    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "8619056",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Touchscreens Tell Real Touches From False Ghost Touches",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8619056/ghost-resolution-for-a-capacitive-touch-panel"
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    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "10564770",
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      "title": "How Touchscreens Predict Where Your Finger Will Land Before You Touch",
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    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "7812828",
      "countryCode": "US",
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  ]
}