Patent ID: 11968761
Assignee: LUTRON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LLC
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G  Y | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A control device configured for use in a load control system to control one or more lighting loads external to the control device, the control device comprising:
an actuation member having a front surface that defines a touch sensitive surface along at least a portion of the front surface;
a touch sensitive device comprising one or more capacitive touch pads located behind the actuation member and arranged adjacent to the touch sensitive surface, the touch sensitive device configured to detect touch actuations along the touch sensitive surface, and configured to detect non-contact actuations proximate to the front surface of the actuation member; and
a control circuit configured to:
detect a change in a characteristic of one or more of the touch sensitive pads;
start a non-contact actuation blanking period in response to detecting the change in the characteristic that exceeds a touch-in threshold, and ignore inputs received from the touch sensitive device in response to non-contact actuations during the non-contact actuation blanking period; and
start an active touch mode blanking period in response to a tactile actuation of the actuation member to turn on or off the lighting load, and ignore inputs received from the touch sensitive device in response to touch actuations and non-contact actuations during the active touch mode blanking period.