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 espera que las pantallas de iPhone y iPad puedan reconocer mejor los toques y gestos incluso en ambientes mojados o húmedos. Ahora, una patente recién obtenida muestra que Apple está estudiando cómo compensar las yemas de los dedos mojadas para que la pantalla responda de la manera que deseas.
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.
En general, se considera que la fuerza es la cantidad de presión ejercida sobre la pantalla. Cuanta más energía se transfiere desde la pantalla, más contacto, y por lo tanto, mayor la fuerza ejercida. El contacto entre la huella dactilar y la superficie táctil se usa para determinar la magnitud de la fuerza aplicada, es decir, el grado de humectación de la superficie táctil por la huella dactilar se interpreta como la magnitud de la fuerza aplicada.
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.
