System and method for detecting and characterizing force inputs on a surface

Abstract

One variation of a method for detecting and characterizing force inputs on a surface includes: during a resistance scan cycle of a sampling period, driving a shield electrode arranged over a resistive touch sensor to a reference potential and reading resistance values across sense electrode and drive electrode pairs in the resistive touch sensor; during a processing cycle of the sampling period, transforming the resistance values into a position and a magnitude of a force applied to a tactile surface over the shield electrode, releasing the shield electrode from the reference potential, reading a capacitance value of the shield electrode, and detecting proximity of an object to the tactile surface based on the capacitance value; and generating a touch image representing the position and the magnitude of the force on the tactile surface based on the proximity of the object to the tactile surface.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A system for detecting and characterizing touch inputs comprising:
 a substrate;   an array of sense electrodes arranged on the substrate;   a touch sensor arranged over the substrate; and   a controller coupled to the array of sense electrodes and the touch sensor and configured to:
 during a first scan period within a first sampling period, read a first set of force values from the array of sense electrode pairs; 
 during a second scan period within the first sampling period, read a first set of touch values from the touch sensor; and 
 transform the first set of force values and the first set of touch values into a touch image, the touch image representing locations and force magnitudes of a set of inputs over the substrate.