Patent ID: 8410897

Claim:
An electrostatic capacitance sensing system for use in a door handle of a vehicle, the electrostatic capacitance sensing system comprising: a plurality of touch locations that a user touches, the plurality of touch locations being provided on the door handle; a sensor unit that outputs a detection signal in response to a change in electrostatic capacitance caused when the user touches the plurality of touch locations; a reference detection pattern setting unit that sets a predefined reference detection pattern corresponding to a pattern of human-induced touch to the plurality of touch locations, wherein the reference detection pattern setting unit determines that the predefined reference detection pattern corresponds to a pattern of human-induced touch by analyzing: i) a given sequence of user touches to the plurality of touch locations, ii) a length of a time period between a start to an end of the given sequence of the user touches, and iii) a time interval between the user touches, a detection signal identifying unit that compares the detection signal output by the sensor unit and the predefined reference detection pattern to determine whether or not the detection signal and the predefined reference detection pattern match; and a touch recognition signal output unit that outputs a touch recognition signal when it is determined by the detection signal identifying unit that the detection signal output by the sensor unit and the predefined reference detection pattern match.