Patent ID: 8294691
Filing Date: 2012-10-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of detecting activation of a touch panel comprising: providing an N by M touch panel including a matrix of N rows of touch elements along a first axis and M columns of touch elements along a second axis; providing N optical beams where a respective characteristic of each beam of the N beams is formed by a cross-sectional area of a waveguide of the beam and where the respective characteristic and waveguide of the beam is different than the corresponding characteristic and waveguide of any other of the N optical beams, where the summation of a characteristic of any first group of the N optical beams is different than the summation of the corresponding characteristic of any other N beams and where each respective beam of the N optical beams corresponds to an input of each of the N rows; summing the characteristic from an output of each of the N rows; providing M optical beams where a respective characteristic of each beam of the M beams is formed by a cross-sectional area of a waveguide of the beam and where the respective characteristic and waveguide of the beam is different than the corresponding characteristic and waveguide of any other of the M optical beams, where the summation of a characteristic of any first group of the M optical beams is different than the summation of the corresponding characteristic of any other M beams and where each respective beam of the M optical beams corresponds to an input of each of the M columns; summing the characteristic from an output of each of the M columns; and unambiguously identifying a touch element of the N rows and M columns of touch elements based upon the summation of the outputs.