Optical proximity sensor
First Claim
1. A proximity sensor for identifying a location of a proximal object, comprising:
- a housing;
a plurality of light emitters, denoted E, mounted in said housing for projecting light out of said housing along a detection plane;
a plurality of light detectors, denoted D, mounted in said housing, operable when activated to detect amounts of light entering the housing along the detection plane, whereby for each emitter-detector pair (E, D), when an object is located at a target position p(E, D) in the detection plane, corresponding to the pair (E, D), then the light emitted by emitter E is scattered by the object and is expected to be maximally detected by detector D, wherein each target position in the detection plane is a target position for both a forward emitter-detector pair (E, D1) and a backward emitter-detector pair (E, D2), that share a common emitter E situated between detectors D1 and D2 in the housing; and
a processor connected to said emitters and to said detectors, operable to synchronously activate emitter-detector pairs, to read the detected amounts of light from the detectors, and to calculate first and second respective locations of the object in the detection plane from the detected amounts of light, in accordance with a detection-location relationship, denoted D+→
L, that relates detections from forward emitter-detector pairs to object locations between neighboring target positions in the detection plane, and a detection-location relationship, denoted D−
→
L, that relates detections from backward emitter-detector pairs to object locations between neighboring target positions in the detection plane.
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Abstract
A proximity sensor including a housing, light emitters mounted in the housing for projecting light out of the housing along a detection plane, light detectors mounted in the housing for detecting amounts of light entering the housing along the detection plane, whereby for each emitter-detector pair (E, D), when an object is located at a target position p(E, D) in the detection plane, corresponding to the pair (E, D), then the light emitted by emitter E is scattered by the object and is expected to be maximally detected by detector D, and a processor to synchronously activate emitter-detector pairs, to read the detected amounts of light from the detectors, and to calculate a location of the object in the detection plane from the detected amounts of light, in accordance with a detection-location relationship that relates detections from emitter-detector pairs to object locations between neighboring target positions in the detection plane.
136 Citations
7 Claims
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1. A proximity sensor for identifying a location of a proximal object, comprising:
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a housing; a plurality of light emitters, denoted E, mounted in said housing for projecting light out of said housing along a detection plane; a plurality of light detectors, denoted D, mounted in said housing, operable when activated to detect amounts of light entering the housing along the detection plane, whereby for each emitter-detector pair (E, D), when an object is located at a target position p(E, D) in the detection plane, corresponding to the pair (E, D), then the light emitted by emitter E is scattered by the object and is expected to be maximally detected by detector D, wherein each target position in the detection plane is a target position for both a forward emitter-detector pair (E, D1) and a backward emitter-detector pair (E, D2), that share a common emitter E situated between detectors D1 and D2 in the housing; and a processor connected to said emitters and to said detectors, operable to synchronously activate emitter-detector pairs, to read the detected amounts of light from the detectors, and to calculate first and second respective locations of the object in the detection plane from the detected amounts of light, in accordance with a detection-location relationship, denoted D+→
L, that relates detections from forward emitter-detector pairs to object locations between neighboring target positions in the detection plane, and a detection-location relationship, denoted D−
→
L, that relates detections from backward emitter-detector pairs to object locations between neighboring target positions in the detection plane. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A proximity sensor for identifying a location of a proximal object, comprising:
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a housing; a plurality of light emitters, denoted E, mounted in said housing for projecting light out of said housing along a detection plane; a plurality of light detectors, denoted D, mounted in said housing, operable when activated to detect amounts of light entering the housing along the detection plane, whereby for each emitter-detector pair (E, D), when an object is located at a target position p(E, D) in the detection plane, corresponding to the pair (E, D), then the light emitted by emitter E is scattered by the object and is expected to be maximally detected by detector D; and a processor connected to said emitters and to said detectors, operable to synchronously activate emitter-detector pairs, to read the detected amounts of light from the detectors, and to calculate first and second respective locations of the object in the detection plane from the detected amounts of light, in accordance with a detection-location relationship, denoted D1→
L, that relates detections from emitter-detector pairs corresponding to neighboring target positions in the detection plane equally distant from the housing to object locations, and a detection-location relationship, denoted D2→
L, that relates detections from emitter-detector pairs corresponding to neighboring target positions in the detection plane at different distances from the housing to object locations. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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Specification