As Apple works toward making its iPhones even more water resistant, even waterproof, the company is also working on technology to make it easier to use the touch display when the smartphone is wet. A newly granted patent (number 10,642,418) is for “finger tracking in a wet environment.”
In the patent filing, Apple notes that not all touches detected on a touch sensor panel are intended user input. For example, water on the surface of the touch sensor panel can be detected as a touch. In particular, water on a touch-sensitive surface in contact with a metal housing of the device or a finger can be grounded and appear as a touch by a finger.
As a result, water (or other unintentional touches) can result in unintended behavior by the device. Apple says this can negatively affect user experience, particularly in wet environments, and the tech giant doesn’t want that.
Here’s the summary of the patent: Touch input processing for touch-sensitive devices can be improved by filtering unintended contact detected on a touch-sensitive surface. In wet environments in particular, water on the touch-sensitive surface can be erroneously detected as touch input and degrade touch performance. In some examples, input patches can be classified as touch patches or non-touch patches prior to computationally-intensive touch processing.
“Filtering out unintended touches classified as non-touch patches can reduce processing requirements and save power. Additionally, classifying input patches can improve touch performance in wet environments. In some examples, input patches can be classified as touch patches or non-touch patches based on characteristics of edge touch nodes. In some examples, input patches can be classified as touch patches or non-touch patches based on a state-based signal threshold.”
