One variation of a system includes a substrate including: a first layer including a first spiral trace coiled in a first direction; a second layer arranged below the first layer and including a second spiral trace coiled in a second direction and cooperating with the first spiral trace to form a multi-layer inductor; and a sensor layer including an array of drive and sense electrode pairs. The system also includes: a cover layer arranged over the substrate and defining a touch sensor surface; and a first magnetic element arranged below the substrate and defining a first polarity facing the multi-layer inductor. The system further includes a controller configured to drive an oscillating voltage across the multi-layer inductor to oscillate the substrate in response to detecting an input on the touch sensor surface based on electrical values from the set of drive and sense electrode pairs.

A foldable device includes a housing and a foldable display device coupled to the housing. The foldable display device includes a foldable display layer, a foldable glass layer on a first side of the foldable display layer, and a sensing device on a second side of the foldable display layer. The sensing device includes a strain gauge layer. The strain gauge layer includes an array of resistors arranged on a piezoresistive substrate. Changes in resistance levels measured by the array of resistors are used to detect faults such as scratches, punctures, cracks and the like in the foldable glass layer. The foldable device may output an alert in response to detection of a fault in the foldable glass layer.

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.

One variation of a method for detecting an input at a touch sensor—including a force-sensitive layer exhibiting variations in local resistance responsive to local variations in applied force on a touch sensor surface and a set of drive and sense electrodes—includes: driving a drive electrode with a drive signal; reading a sense signal from a sense electrode; detecting a alternating-current component and a direct-current component of the sense signal; in response to a magnitude of the direct-current component of the sense signal falling below a threshold magnitude, detecting an input on the touch sensor surface during the scan cycle based on the alternating-current component of the sense signal; and, in response to the magnitude of the direct-current component of the sense signal exceeding the threshold magnitude, detecting the input on the touch sensor surface during the scan cycle based on the direct-current component of the sense signal.

A pressure sensor includes: a first substrate; a second substrate having an inner surface and a touch surface that is opposite to the inner surface, wherein the inner surface faces the first substrate with a resistance sensing space therebetween; a first electrode and a second electrode, which are arranged spaced apart from each other in the resistance sensing space; and a piezoresistive pattern arranged between the first electrode and the second electrode and disposed in the resistance sensing space, wherein the piezoresistive pattern includes a porous elastic support and a plurality of conductive carbon structures dispersed in the porous elastic support.

A method of processing a number of force values is described. Each force value corresponds to a sensor location. The sensor locations are spaced apart along a direction. The method includes receiving the force values (S11). The method also includes determining whether the force values include one or more candidate peaks (S12). Each candidate peak corresponds to a local maximum of the force values. The method also includes, in response to at least one candidate peak exceeds a minimum force threshold (S13), interpolating the force values and estimating a number of peak coordinates and corresponding peak force values based on the interpolated force values and the candidate peaks (S14) which exceed the minimum force threshold.

A method of maintaining a pressure input path in a sensing array is described. The sensing array comprises a plurality of sensing elements, and the method involves activating a first sensing element to determine a first location data point and activating a second sensing element to determine a second location data point. The state location (x,y) and state velocity (V.sub.x, V.sub.y) are calculated based on the first and second location data points to create a state vector. A predicted path of further location data points is determined from the state vector to avoid drop out problems with pressure inputs.

A phased array ultrasound device includes transducer elements arranged in a two dimensional array; first electrodes, each first electrode extending along a first direction; and second electrodes, each second electrode extending along a second direction, where each transducer element is associated with one first electrode and one second electrode, where each transducer element includes a material located between its associated first electrode and second electrode, and is configured to emit an ultrasonic wave induced by a vibration force or an oscillation force of its material when the transducer element is actuated based on control signals applied to its associated first electrode and second electrode, where each transducer element has a unipolar actuation force direction, and where the phased array ultrasound device is configured to create a pressure focus point by actuating a set of transducer elements to form a combined ultrasonic wave.

A display device that senses externally applied pressure and a change in the resonant frequency of a piezoelectric element. The display device includes a piezoelectric sensor layer including a piezoelectric sensor; and a display panel disposed on the piezoelectric sensor layer. The piezoelectric sensor includes: a piezoelectric element having a first electrode, a second electrode facing the first electrode, and a piezoelectric material disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode; an alternating current (AC) voltage generator connected to the first electrode and applies a voltage having a resonance frequency to the piezoelectric element. A sensing circuit connected to the second electrode is configured to measure a change in impedance of the piezoelectric element.

The invention relates to a system for recording a track comprising: a utensil comprising a tip and equipped with a magnetic object; a device for locating the magnetic object configured to determine an estimated reference position on a writing surface; and a matrix-array touch sensor configured to define a set of M pixels, among N pixels, at least partially encircling the estimated reference position, and to detect the contact of the tip on the writing surface on the basis of the electrical signals generated by said set of M pixels.