JP7648859B2 - Touch-type operation device - Google Patents

Description

This disclosure relates to a touch-type operation device.

Patent document 1 describes a sensor device that includes a capacitive touch panel, a knob that is rotatable relative to the touch panel around a rotation axis, and a first conductor that is held by the knob and faces the touch panel at a portion of a circumference centered on the rotation axis. With this sensor device, the rotation of the knob can be detected by the touch panel.

JP 2020-64827 A

However, in the sensor device of Patent Document 1, the displacement of the first conductor accompanying the rotation of the knob is detected by a touch panel, so if the knob fails to rotate properly, it becomes difficult to detect the knob operation.

Therefore, the present disclosure aims to provide a touch-type operation device that can detect the turning operation of a knob even if the knob does not rotate.

In one aspect, the following solution is provided:

(1) a display panel that displays an image;
a capacitive touch sensor disposed on a front surface of the display panel, the capacitive touch sensor including a plurality of touch operation detection areas arranged in a matrix and capable of detecting a touch operation;
A touch-type operation device comprising: a protective panel disposed on a front surface of the touch sensor;
A cylindrical or columnar knob that is non-rotatably provided with respect to the protective panel and protrudes from the protective panel;
a plurality of linear conductive members provided on the knob;
the plurality of linear conductive members extend from a front surface of the protective panel or a vicinity thereof in a protruding direction of the knob, and are arranged in parallel in a circumferential direction on a side surface of the knob ;
The end portion of the linear conductive material on the protection panel side is disposed so as not to straddle the plurality of touch operation detection areas in a front view .

(2) In the configuration described in (1) ,
The linear conductive material extends from the side surface of the knob to the tip surface.

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a touch-type operation device that can detect the turning operation of a knob even if the knob does not rotate.

1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a touch-type operation device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1. 2A and 2B are perspective views showing the knob and linear conductive material of the touch-type operating device of FIG. 1, in which (a) is a perspective view showing an example in which the linear conductive material is arranged parallel to the center line of the knob, and (b) is a perspective view showing an example in which the linear conductive material is arranged at an angle to the center line of the knob. 3A is a cross-sectional view taken along the line B-B of FIG. 2, in which (a) is a cross-sectional view showing an example in which a linear conductive material is arranged on the outer peripheral surface of a knob, (b) is a cross-sectional view showing an example in which a linear conductive material is arranged inside a knob, and (c) is a cross-sectional view showing an example in which a linear conductive material is arranged on the inner peripheral surface of a knob. 11 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a knob showing an example in which linear conductive material is disposed up to the tip surface of the knob. FIG. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing the positional relationship between a touch operation detection area of a touch sensor and linear conductive materials, in which (a) is a diagram showing a preferable positional relationship and (b) is a diagram showing an unpreferable positional relationship. 11A and 11B are diagrams showing a modified touch type operation device, in which FIG. 11A is a cross-sectional view of the modified touch type operation device, and FIG. 11B is an exploded perspective view of the modified touch type operation device.

Each embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a touch-type operation device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.
The touch-type operation device 1 of this embodiment shown in Figures 1 and 2 constitutes an operation panel of an in-vehicle air conditioning device, and displays various setting states (such as the set temperature) of the in-vehicle air conditioning device, while accepting user setting change operations via touch operations and swipe operations.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the touch-type operation device 1 includes a case 2, a substrate 3, a display panel 4, a touch sensor 5, an adhesive sheet 6, a protective panel 7, and an operation validity determination unit 8.

The case 2 is a resin molded product made of a resin material such as polypropylene (PP), and covers and holds the substrate 3, display panel 4, etc., while protecting the substrate 3, display panel 4, etc. from external impacts and dust. When the touch-type operation device 1 is operated, heat is generated from the substrate 3, etc., so the case 2 can be provided with a through hole to allow the heat to escape. In addition, if a speaker is mounted on the substrate 3, the case 2 can be provided with a through hole that does not block the sound.

The substrate 3 is, for example, a flat resin plate made of epoxy resin, on which a copper foil pattern is arranged based on a predetermined electric circuit, and on which a microcomputer for operating the touch-type operation device 1 and lighting LEDs are mounted. The substrate 3 may also be interwoven with glass fibers to improve reliability against temperature and vibration, or the copper foil pattern may be double-sided or have a hierarchical structure to reduce the space required for the circuit pattern.

The display panel 4 includes a display element having a substantially rectangular display area, an illumination means consisting of an optical sheet, a light guide, a light source, etc. for guiding illumination light to the display element, a case for holding the display element and the illumination means, a metal bezel fixedly arranged to cover the above from the front, and a flexible printed circuit board 9 (FPC) connected to the display element and the light source.

The display element is, for example, a dot-matrix type TFT LCD display panel (liquid crystal panel) having a plurality of pixels. The display element is electrically connected to the substrate 3 via the flexible wiring board 9, and displays predetermined information as an image in the display area based on various information acquired from the vehicle's ECU, etc. The display element may also be an OLED display panel (organic EL panel, etc.).

The touch sensor 5 is constructed by patterning transparent electrodes on inorganic glass or a plastic sheet such as PET. As shown in FIG. 6, the touch sensor 5 has a number of touch operation detection areas 51 arranged in a metric shape. When a user touches or swipes the protective panel 7, these touch operation detection areas 51 detect a change in capacitance corresponding to the operation, making it possible to identify the user's operation position.

The adhesive sheet 6 is, for example, an OCA, which is a colorless and transparent sheet-like adhesive, and bonds the touch sensor 5 and the protective panel 7 without any gaps. The adhesive sheet 6 preferably has a thickness of about 20 μm to 200 μm.

The protective panel 7 is a flat or curved plate-like member made of a transparent base material (e.g., PC or PMMA), and covers the front opening 21 of the case 2 to protect the members provided inside the touch-type operation device 1 from impacts, dust, and the like. A touch sensor 5 is integrally fixed to the back surface of the protective panel 7 via an adhesive sheet 6, and the touch sensor 5 detects surface operations (touch operations and swipe operations) of the protective panel 7 by the user. Note that a printed portion may be provided on the back surface of the protective panel 7 so as to frame the display panel 4, and the display content of the display panel 4 may be displayed inside the printed portion.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 3, the protective panel 7 includes a cylindrical or columnar knob 71 that protrudes from the front surface of the protective panel 7, and a number of linear conductive members 72 that are provided on the knob 71. The knob 71 in this embodiment is formed from the same part as the protective panel 7, and is not rotatable relative to the protective panel 7. The knob 71 is assumed to be operated by a user pinching the outer periphery with multiple fingers and sliding the fingers in the circumferential direction (rotational direction) (hereinafter, this may be referred to as a pseudo-rotational operation, as appropriate). It is also possible to provide a ring that can rotate in the circumferential direction on the outer periphery of the knob 71, and to rotate this ring.

The multiple linear conductive materials 72 are formed using a high-conductivity material (e.g., metal, rubber containing metal powder, resin, ink paint, etc.) that has a higher conductivity than the knob 71, and extend from the front surface of the protective panel 7 or its vicinity in the protruding direction of the knob 71 and are arranged in parallel in the circumferential direction on the side surface of the knob 71 as shown in Figs. 2 to 4. The orientation of the multiple linear conductive materials 72 may be vertical as shown in Fig. 3(a) or oblique as shown in Fig. 3(b). The multiple linear conductive materials 72 may be provided on the outer peripheral surface of the knob 71 as shown in Fig. 4(a), may be provided inside the knob 71 as shown in Fig. 4(b), or may be provided on the inner peripheral surface of the knob 71 having a cylindrical shape as shown in Fig. 4(c).

Such a knob 71 has a plurality of linear conductive materials 72 arranged in stripes on the side surface, so that when a user pinches the outer periphery of the knob 71 with their fingers, the touch sensor 5 detects a change in capacitance via the linear conductive materials 72 that correspond to the position touched by the user's finger, making it possible to identify the position on the touch sensor 5 that corresponds to the position touched by the user's finger. Also, when the user performs a pseudo-rotation operation of the knob 71, the detection position on the touch sensor 5 moves along the outer periphery of the knob 71, making it possible to detect the pseudo-rotation operation of the knob 71 by the user and the direction of the pseudo-rotation operation.

The parallel pitch of the linear conductive materials 72 is set so that the linear conductive materials 72 come into contact with or are close to each other when the user pinches the outer periphery of the knob 71 with his or her fingers. This makes it possible to obtain capacitance changes with little variation in the touch sensor 5, and reduces erroneous determinations in the operation validity determination unit 8.

As shown in FIG. 5, the multiple linear conductive materials 72 may be arranged to extend from the side portion to the tip surface of the knob 71. In this way, touch operations and swipe operations on the tip surface of the knob 71 can also be detected by the touch sensor 5. For example, by touching the tip surface of the knob 71 with one finger and sliding the finger along the peripheral portion of the tip surface, it is possible to perform a pseudo-rotation operation without having to pinch the outer periphery of the knob 71 with multiple fingers.

As shown in FIG. 6(a), it is preferable that the end of the linear conductive material 72 that is closest to the front surface of the protective panel 7 is positioned so as not to straddle the multiple touch operation detection areas 51 of the touch sensor 5 in a front view. The reason for this is that, as shown in FIG. 6(b), if it is positioned so as to straddle the multiple touch operation detection areas 51 of the touch sensor 5, a touch operation on one linear conductive material 72 is detected in the multiple touch operation detection areas 51 on the touch sensor 5, resulting in a decrease in resolution.

In this embodiment, the knob 71 is formed as the same part as the protective panel 7. However, as shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 7, the knob 71 may be a separate part from the protective panel 7, and the knob 71 may be fixed to the protective panel 7 via a double-sided adhesive tape 73.

The operation validity determination unit 8 is, for example, a driver IC for the touch sensor, and determines the validity of a touch operation or a swipe operation based on a predetermined threshold value for the capacitance change obtained by the touch sensor 5. For operations that are determined to be valid, an operation coordinate signal on the touch sensor 5 is output to the substrate 3.

The board 3 includes an operation type determination means as a functional configuration realized by cooperation between hardware and software. The operation type determination means determines the type of operation on the touch sensor 5 based on the operation coordinate signal on the touch sensor 5 input from the operation validity determination unit 8. For example, if the operation coordinates on the touch sensor 5 are outside the projection range of the knob 71, it is determined that the operation is a touch operation or a swipe operation on an operation area other than the knob 71, and a process according to the operation type is performed. Also, if the operation coordinates on the touch sensor 5 are within the projection range of the outer periphery of the knob 71 and the operation coordinates move in the clockwise direction along the projection range of the outer periphery of the knob 71, it is determined that the operation is a pseudo-rotation operation of the knob 71 in the clockwise direction, and a process according to the operation type (for example, a process of increasing the set temperature of the air conditioning device) is performed. Furthermore, if the operation coordinates on the touch sensor 5 are within the projection range of the outer periphery of the knob 71 and the operation coordinates are moving in the counterclockwise direction along the projection range of the outer periphery of the knob 71, it is determined that the operation is a pseudo-rotation operation of the knob 71 in the counterclockwise direction, and a process according to the type of operation (for example, a process of lowering the temperature setting of the air conditioner) is performed.

According to the present embodiment configured as described above, the touch-type operation device 1 includes a display panel 4 that displays an image, a capacitive touch sensor 5 that is disposed in front of the display panel 4 and detects touch operations, and a protective panel 7 that is disposed in front of the touch sensor 5. The touch-type operation device 1 further includes a cylindrical or columnar knob 71 that protrudes from the protective panel 7, and a plurality of linear conductive members 72 that are provided on the knob 71. The plurality of linear conductive members 72 extend from the front of the protective panel 7 or its vicinity in the protruding direction of the knob 71 and are arranged in parallel in the circumferential direction on the side of the knob 71. Therefore, the touch sensor 5 can detect a pseudo-rotation operation in which the user pinches the outer periphery of the knob 71 with multiple fingers and slides the fingers in the circumferential direction. As a result, it is possible to provide a touch-type operation device 1 that can detect the rotation operation of the knob 71 even if the knob 71 does not rotate.

In addition, the knob 71 is non-rotatable relative to the protective panel 7, which not only simplifies the structure and reduces costs, but also improves durability compared to when the knob 71 is rotatable.

The touch sensor 5 also has a large number of touch operation detection areas 51 arranged in a matrix, and the end of the linear conductive material 72 on the protective panel 7 side is positioned so as not to straddle multiple touch operation detection areas 51 when viewed from the front, so that pseudo-rotation operations of the knob 71 can be detected with high accuracy.

The linear conductive material 72 may also extend from the side portion of the knob 71 to the tip surface portion. In this case, by touching the tip surface of the knob 71 with one finger and sliding the finger along the peripheral portion of the tip surface, it becomes possible to perform a pseudo-rotation operation without having to pinch the outer periphery of the knob 71 with multiple fingers.

Although each embodiment has been described in detail above, it is not limited to a specific embodiment, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the claims. It is also possible to combine all or some of the components of the above-mentioned embodiments.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 touch type operation device 2 case 21 front opening 3 substrate 4 display panel 5 touch sensor 51 touch operation detection area 6 adhesive sheet 7 protection panel 71 knob 72 linear conductive material 73 double-sided adhesive tape 8 operation validity determination unit 9 flexible wiring board

Claims (2)

A display panel for displaying an image;
a capacitive touch sensor disposed on a front surface of the display panel, the capacitive touch sensor including a plurality of touch operation detection areas arranged in a matrix and capable of detecting a touch operation;
A touch-type operation device comprising: a protective panel disposed on a front surface of the touch sensor;
A cylindrical or columnar knob that is non-rotatably provided with respect to the protective panel and protrudes from the protective panel;
a plurality of linear conductive members provided on the knob;
the plurality of linear conductive members extend from a front surface of the protective panel or a vicinity thereof in a protruding direction of the knob, and are arranged in parallel in a circumferential direction on a side surface of the knob ;
A touch-type operation device , wherein an end of the linear conductive material on the protective panel side is positioned so as not to straddle the touch operation detection areas in a front view . The touch-type operation device according to claim 1 , wherein the linear conductive material extends from a side surface portion of the knob to a tip surface portion of the knob.