Method and apparatus for scanning a textile

• US 20100071482A1
• Filed: 09/22/2008
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Yarvis, Mark, Graumann, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,186,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/862.381
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1038 Measuring plantar pressure during gait
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6892 Mats
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 1/205 using distributed sensing elements

Abstract

Some embodiments disclosed herein provide novel approaches for rapidly sensing sense line cross-point interaction in a textile such as a carpet or rug.

Claims

1. A chip, comprising:

one or more transmit circuits to provide a unique signal to each sense line in a group of transmit sense lines; and

one or more receiver circuits to identify one or more of the unique signals on each sense line in a group of receive sense lines.

2. The chip of claim 1, in which the unique signal comprises a PRN sequence.

3. The chip of claim 1, in which the one or more transmit and receive circuits are clocked via a common crystal.

4. The chip of claim 1, in which the transmit and receive sense lines are disposed relative to each other to form cross-points that conductively couple in accordance with pressure applied to the cross-point.

5. The chip of claim 1, in which the cross-points are activated when their associated transmit and receive sense lines contact each other.

6. The chip of claim 1, in which the transmit and receive sense lines are woven into an electronic textile.

7. A method, comprising:

applying a uniquely identifiable signal to each transmit sense line in a group of transmit sense lines; and

monitoring one or more receive sense lines to determine if one or more of the transmit sense lines is in contact with the one or more receive sense lines, wherein said monitoring includes looking for the uniquely identifiable signals.

8. The method of claim 7, in which the uniquely identifiable signals each comprise a unique PRN sequence.

9. The method of claim 8, in which uniquely identifiable signals are transmitted simultaneously over the group of transmit lines.

10. The method of claim 7, in which all of the uniquely identifiable signals are simultaneously looked for on each of the one or more receive sense lines.

11. The method of claim 7, in which the uniquely identifiable signal'"'"'s has an energy envelope that is compared against a known transmit signal strength for assessing path loss.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

a textile having transmit sense lines to each carry a unique signal, and at least one receive sense line to receive the signals from the transmit lines when they contact the at least one receive line.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, in which the textile comprises a plurality of scan chips to generate the signals for the transmit lines.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, in which the unique signals each have a different PRN encoding.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, in which the at least one receive line is orthogonally disposed relative to the transmit lines.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, in which the at least one receive line comprises a plurality of lines that in combination with the transmit lines make up a sense grid.