Touchless user interface for handheld and wearable computers

• US 10,261,584 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2016
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rambus Inc.
• Original Assignee: Rambus Inc.
• Inventors: Gill, Patrick R., Stork, David G., Vogelsang, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Khan, Ibrahim A
• Application Number:
  US15/234,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20170060242A1
• Time in Patent Office: 978 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/1842 Gratings for image generation G02B5/1847 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/1871 Transmissive phase gratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• 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 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/90 Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums

Abstract

A user interface includes both a touchscreen for tactile input and one or more lensless optical sensors for sensing additional, remote gestures. Users can interact with the user interface in a volume of space near the display, and are thus not constrained to the relatively small area of the touchscreen. Remote hand or face gestures can be used to turn on or otherwise alter the tactile user interface. Shared user interfaces can operate without touch, and thus avoid cross-contamination of e.g. viruses and bacteria.

Claims

1. A wearable computer comprising:

a display to present an image;

a touchscreen to sense tactile input from a human finger;

an optical grating having adjacent features that diffract incident light reflected off the human finger into curtains of minimum intensity separated by foci;

an image sensor in a path of the curtains and the foci, the curtains and foci extending to the image sensor, the image sensor to capture patterns of the curtains and the foci; and

at least one processor to detect a remote gesture from the patterns of the curtains and the foci captured by the image sensor, to alter the image responsive to the detected remote gesture, to detect a tactile gesture from the sensed tactile input, and to alter the image responsive to the detected tactile gesture.

2. The computer of claim 1, each of the patterns of the foci responsive to a point source having a maximum dimension M, the image sensor having pixels spaced by a pitch P less than the maximum dimension M.

3. The computer of claim 1, further comprising a light source to emit the light to be reflected off the human finger.

4. The computer of claim 3, wherein the emitted light is infrared light.

5. The computer of claim 1, further comprising a second optical grating to split and diffract the incident light into second foci, and a second image sensor in a path of the second foci, the second image sensor to capture second patterns of the second foci.

6. The computer of claim 1, wherein the image sensor comprises a one-dimensional array of photosensitive elements.

7. A method comprising:

diffracting incident light from a human finger using an optical phase grating that diffracts the incident light into curtains of minimum intensity separated by foci to produce an interference pattern;

capturing the interference pattern with a photodetector array, the curtains of minimum intensity and the foci extending to the photodetector array;

detecting a remote gesture from the captured interference pattern;

displaying an image responsive to the detected remote gesture;

detecting a tactile gesture on the image; and

altering the image responsive to the tactile gesture.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein detecting the tactile gesture comprises sensing the tactile gesture on a tactile interface.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein detecting the remote gesture comprises splitting incident light and capturing a pattern of the split light.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein detecting the tactile gesture comprises sensing the tactile gesture on a tactile interface, and wherein detecting the remote gesture comprises calculating, from the pattern, a distance between the tactile interface and an imaged object.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein detecting the remote gesture comprises comparing the pattern with a gallery of reference patterns.