Patent ID: 11904665
Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Field: Surface technology, coating (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 14:
15. A method, comprising:
providing at least one vehicle glass panel that comprises a PDLC that includes at least one ITO layer;
selectively applying power to the at least one vehicle glass panel to change the vehicle glass panel from opaque to clear;
forming markings within the at least one ITO layer to identify user input areas;
controlling a circuit to allow the at least one vehicle glass panel to act as a capacitive sensor such that user input to the user input areas is able to change the vehicle glass panel between opaque and clear modes; and
generating a signal to control the at least one vehicle glass panel in response to user input to the user input areas, and taking a capacitive measurement when the signal goes to zero to determine if a user is interacting with the user input areas.