US Patent 7492358 Resistive scanning grid touch panel

An improved resistive touch panel is disclosed. The improved resistive touch panel includes a first plurality of stripes of a resistive coating on a front sheet running in a first direction and a second plurality of stripes of a resistive coating on a back sheet running in a second direction. The overlapping regions between the first and second plurality of stripes are scanned by a controller circuit to detect voltage drops at these regions. Because the overlapping regions are independent of each other, the controller circuit is able to detect the individual regions involved in the touch area. In this manner, the controller circuit is able to determine between small and large areas of contact by detecting adjacent contact areas.