Control system for a gesture sensing arrangement and method for controlling a gesture sensing arrangement

• US 10,101,819 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2014
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ams AG (Ams-Osram AG)
• Original Assignee: ams AG (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Trattler, Peter, Kriebernegg, Josef, Jacobs, Dan, Mautner, Christian
• Primary Examiner(s): Khoo, Stacy
• Application Number:
  US15/028,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20160239097A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-179, 178 1801- 1809
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3259 Power saving in cursor control device, e.g. mouse, joystick, trackball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A control system for a gesture sensing arrangement with at least one sensor operates the sensor in a proximity mode. The control system receives data sets generated by the sensor and based on these data sets determines whether an object is present in a vicinity of the sensor. When an object is detected in the vicinity the control system operates the sensor in a gesture mode. Based on further data generated by the sensor the control system determines an end of a gesture, and operates the sensor in the proximity mode.

Claims

1. A control system for a gesture sensing arrangement with comprising:

a sensor designed to send and detect light and to generate data sets from the detected light,

wherein the control system is designed to;

operate the sensor in a proximity mode;

determine a presence of an object in a predetermined vicinity of the sensor from a data set generated by the sensor while operating in the proximity mode;

when the presence of the object has been determined, operate the sensor in a gesture mode, wherein the power consumption of the sensor is lower in the proximity mode than in the gesture mode;

determine an end of a gesture, based on one or more data sets received from the sensor while operating in the gesture mode; and

when the end of a gesture is determined operate the sensor in the proximity mode, and

wherein the sensor is implemented as a directional light sensor array comprising;

at least one light-sending element; and

at least two photodetectors, implemented to detect light incident from a predominant direction specified for each photodetector individually, and

wherein the control system and the directional sensor array are implemented as an integrated circuit on a microchip.

2. The control system according to claim 1, further comprising a buffer element, the control system designed to:

write data sets received from the sensor to the buffer element when the sensor is operated in gesture mode; and

send a signal, in particular a wakeup signal, to a processor when one or more predetermined conditions of gesture validity are fulfilled.

3. The control system according to claim 2, wherein the buffer element is implemented as a first-in first-out memory.

4. The control system according to claim 2, further designed to ignore the data sets written to the buffer element, in particular not to send a wakeup signal to the processor, if not all conditions of gesture validity are fulfilled.

5. The control system according to claim 2, wherein one condition of gesture validity represents a minimum length of a gesture.

6. The control system according to claim 2, wherein one condition of gesture validity represents a maximum distance between the object and the sensor.

7. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the directional light sensor array further comprises:

a first photodetector, designed to detect light incident from the left with respect to a specified coordinate system;

a second photodetector, designed to detect light incident from the right with respect to the coordinate system;

a third photodetector, designed to detect light incident from above with respect to the coordinate system; and

a fourth photodetector, designed to detect light incident from below with respect to the coordinate system.

8. The control system according to claim 1, designed to switch off one or more of the photodetectors of the sensor while the sensor is operated in the proximity mode and/or the gesture mode, where the switched off photodetectors need not be the same in the proximity mode and the gesture mode.

9. The control system according to claim 1, designed to:

deactivate a further sensor while the sensor is operated in the gesture mode;

activate the further sensor while the sensor is operated in the proximity mode; and

restrict measurements based on signals generated by the further sensor to time periods, where the sensor is not sending light.

10. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the light sent by the sensor comprises bursts of light pulses, and

wherein operating the sensor in the proximity mode as compared to the gesture mode includes at least one of the following:

a lower number of pulses in a burst, a different pulse width, a longer time delay between consecutive bursts, a higher driving current, a different gain factor, or a different detection threshold.

11. A method for controlling a gesture sensing arrangement with at least one sensor, the sensor designed to send and detect light and to generate data sets from the detected light, wherein the method comprises:

operating the sensor in a proximity mode;

determining a presence of an object in a predetermined vicinity of the sensor based on a data set generated by the sensor while operating in the proximity mode;

operating the sensor in a gesture mode when the presence of the object has been determined, wherein the power consumption of the sensor is lower in the proximity mode than in the gesture mode;

determining an end of a gesture, based on one or more data sets received from the sensor while operating in the gesture mode; and

operating the sensor in the proximity mode when the end of a gesture is determined,

wherein the sensor is implemented as a directional light sensor array comprising;

at least one light-sending element; and

at least two photodetectors, implemented to detect light incident from a predominant direction specified for each photodetector individually, and

wherein the control system and the directional sensor array are implemented as an integrated circuit on a microchip.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

writing data sets generated by the sensor to a buffer element when the sensor is operated in the gesture mode; and

sending a signal, in particular a wakeup signal, to a processor when one or more predetermined conditions of gesture validity are fulfilled.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising ignoring the data sets written to the buffer element, by not sending a wakeup signal to the processor, if not all conditions of gesture validity are fulfilled.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein one condition of gesture validity represents a minimum length of a gesture.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein one condition of gesture validity represents a maximum distance between the object and the sensor.

16. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

deactivating a further sensor while the sensor is operated in the gesture mode;

activating the further sensor while the sensor is operated in the proximity mode; and

restricting measurements based on signals generated by the further sensor to time periods, where the sensor is not sending light.

17. The method according to claim 11, further comprising switching off one or more of the photodetectors of the sensor while the sensor is operated in the proximity mode and/or the gesture mode, where the switched off photodetectors need not be the same in the proximity mode and the gesture mode.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the light sent by the sensor comprises bursts of light pulses, and

wherein operating the sensor in the proximity mode as compared to the gesture mode includes at least one of the following:

a lower number of pulses in a burst, a different pulse width, a longer time delay between consecutive bursts, a higher driving current, a different gain factor, or a different detection threshold.

19. A control system for a gesture sensing arrangement with at least one sensor, the control system designed to:

operate the sensor in a proximity mode;

when the presence of an object has been determined during the proximity mode, operate the sensor in a gesture mode, wherein the power consumption of the sensor is lower in the proximity mode than in the gesture mode; and

when an end of a gesture is determined during the gesture mode, operate the sensor in the proximity mode,

wherein the sensor is implemented as a directional light sensor array comprising;

at least one light-sending element; and

at least two photodetectors, implemented to detect light incident from a predominant direction specified for each photodetector individually, and

wherein the control system and the directional sensor array are implemented as an integrated circuit on a microchip.