News on March 24th, Beijing time, a new patent shows that in the future Apple's touch screen may allow wet fingers to be used normally
Apple håber, at skærmene på iPhone og iPad bedre kan genkende berøringer og bevægelser selv i våde eller fugtige omgivelser. Nu viser et nyligt opnået patent, at Apple er ved at undersøge, hvordan man kompenserer for våde fingerspidser, så skærmen reagerer, som man ønsker.
This Apple patent, called "Fingerprint Assist Force Estimation," focuses on how to use pressure to distinguish accidental touches and deliberate touches on a capacitive screen when wet. Apple said that under normal circumstances, capacitive sensing touch screens do not measure the force exerted on the screen or cover glass, but instead measure the presence or absence of a touch and the size of the touch. The touch force or the change of the touch force may be interpreted as additional input besides simple touch, multi-touch, contact, and/or close-range input.
Generelt anses kraft for at være mængden af tryk, der udøves på skærmen. Jo mere energi, der overføres fra skærmen, jo mere kontakt, og derfor, jo større kraft udøves. Kontakten mellem fingeraftrykket og berøringsfladen bruges til at bestemme størrelsen af den påførte kraft, dvs. graden af befugtning af berøringsfladen ved fingeraftrykket fortolkes som størrelsen af den påførte kraft.
Therefore, if the screen can detect how wet a person's fingers are, it can recalibrate itself to better determine when the touch is deliberate or not. It may work on the principle that a wet finger presses on the screen slightly more than a dry finger spreads out. In wet conditions, the ridges and valleys of fingerprints may be more malleable and may provide better contact, while dry conditions may cause the opposite result.
The patent describes a calibration device designed to determine the current state of the user's fingerprint. The button or input can be configured with a mechanical actuator that is actuated at a known level of applied force, that is, the amount of touch sensed at the moment of actuation can have a known force, which can be used For calibrating fingerprint assist force estimation.
The rest of the patent mostly studies the different types of equipment that may be useful, and the specific details of how the procedures will change by then. But in general, the goal is to figure out how wet the user's fingers are. Then it is based on the humidity readings and the size of the fingerprints on the device to infer when to make a touch or tap response.
