{
  "patent_number": "US 8493330",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Touchscreens Precisely Align Signals to Detect Your Touch",
  "original_title": "Individual channel phase delay scheme",
  "summary": "Apple's patent describes a way for touchscreens to adjust the timing of internal electrical signals so they perfectly match the signals coming from your finger, making touch detection more accurate.",
  "what_it_does": "When you touch a screen, the electrical signal traveling through the sensor panel gets slightly delayed or shifted in phase. This patent describes a system that uses a 'demodulation signal' to track and cancel out that delay. By storing a specific 'phase delay value' in memory, the device can adjust its internal clock to match the incoming signal from the touch panel. This allows the device to cleanly mix, rectify, and filter the signal, effectively removing noise and ensuring the system knows exactly where and when you touched the screen.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover general touch sensing methods that do not involve phase-matching demodulation.",
    "Does not cover software-based touch processing that occurs entirely after the analog-to-digital conversion stage.",
    "Does not cover non-capacitive touch technologies that do not rely on signal stimulation and traversal circuits."
  ],
  "filed": "2007-01-03",
  "granted": "2013-07-23",
  "expires": "2027-01-03",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Apple Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/apple-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Christoph Horst Krah",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/christoph-horst-krah"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 13,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "semiconductors"
  ],
  "abstract": "Embodiments of the present invention are directed to processing an incoming signal by using a demodulation signal, while controlling the phase of the demodulation signal in relation to the incoming signal. The incoming signal can be processed by being mixed with the modulation signal at a mixer. The mixing may thus cause various beneficial modifications of the incoming signal, such as noise suppression of the incoming signal, rectification of the incoming signal, demodulation of the incoming signal, etc.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8493330/individual-channel-phase-delay-scheme",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8493330/individual-channel-phase-delay-scheme/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US8493330",
  "relatedPatents": [
    {
      "patentNumber": "8125456",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Touchscreens Save Battery by Sleeping Between Touches",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8125456/multi-touch-capacitive-scanning"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "10564770",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Touchscreens Predict Where Your Finger Will Land Before You Touch",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10564770/airpods-wireless-earbuds"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "7663607",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Multi-Touch Screens Track Multiple Fingers at Once",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7663607/multipoint-touchscreen"
    },
    {
      "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"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "7812826",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Multi-Touch Gestures Like Pinch-to-Zoom Work on Smartphones",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7812826/iphone-software-keyboard"
    }
  ]
}