METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE POSITION OF AN ACTUATION ELEMENT, IN PARTICULAR A FINGER OF A USER IN A MOTOR VEHICLE AND POSITION DETERMINATION DEVICE

• US 20110175843A1
• Filed: 07/10/2008
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Volkswagen AG
• Original Assignee: Volkswagen AG
• Inventors: Bachfischer, Katharina, Vikoler, Peter, Wäller, Christoph, Bendewald, Lennart
• Granted Patent: US 9,001,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/141 Activation of instrument input devices by approaching fingers or pens
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/143 Touch sensitive instrument input devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1438 Touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means

Abstract

A method for determining the position of an actuation element, e.g. a finger of a user, in a motor vehicle when the element approaches a surface and to a position determination device, has the following steps: generating an HF signal; coupling the HF signal into the user; transmitting the HF signal via the body of the user; receiving the HF signal that has been transmitted via the body and the actuation element, using several sensors and determining the position of the actuation element using sensor signals of the sensors, the sensor signals forming a measurement for the received signal intensity of the HF signal and are used to first calculate the position of the centre of gravity of the approaching object, in particular the approaching body part comprising the actuation element, and the position of the actuation element is calculated, taking into consideration the position of the centre of gravity.

Claims

1. A method for determining the position of an actuation element in a motor vehicle during an approach to a surface, the method comprising the following steps:

detecting sensor signals of contactless measuring sensors, wherein the sensor signals are a measure for a distance of an object, to a respective sensor position, and determining the position of the actuation element, by means of the sensor signals of the sensors,

wherein

by means of the sensor signals at first a position of the center of gravity of the object approaching together with the actuation element is determined and in consideration of the position of the center of gravity the position of the actuation element is calculated.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting of the sensor signals comprises the following steps:

generating a HF signal;

coupling the HF signal into a user;

transmitting the HF signal via a body of the user;

receiving the HF signal transmitted via the body and the actuation element of the user by means of several sensors,

wherein in each case the sensor signals are a measure for the received signal strength of the HF signal.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position of the actuation element is determined based on the position of the center of gravity in consideration of an offset dependent on the position of the center of gravity.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the space in front of the surface is subdivided into sub-spaces and to each sub-space an offset is allocated.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the offset is calculated by means of a function of the position of the center of gravity.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein allocations of the received signal strengths to the determined distances of the actuation element to the respective sensors for the calculation of the position of the actuation element in each case are individually adapted depending on the determined position of the center of gravity.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein in addition at least one position of the center of gravity determined beforehand during the approach is included in the determination of the position of the actuation elements.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the surface is a touch-screen and by means of the touch-screen at a contact of the touch-screen by the actuation element a contact position is determined and provided, and the contact position is compared to the determined position of the actuation element and at least one of the offset and the allocation of the signal strengths to the distances are corrected by means of a deviation.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the offset and the allocations are stored in a personalized manner.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein in addition a further HF signal is generated which is coupled into a further user and the sensors or further sensors provide further sensor signals which provide a measure for a received signal strength of a further HF signal transmitted via a further body and a further actuation element and wherein by means of the further sensor signals at first a further position of the center of gravity of the further object approaching together with the further actuation element is determined and the further position of the actuation element is determined in consideration of the further position of the center of gravity.

23. The method according to claim 1, wherein the actuation element is a finger of a user.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein the object is a body part of a user.

11. A position determination device of a motor vehicle for determining the position of an actuation element of a user in three-dimensional space during an approach towards a surface, comprising contactless measuring sensors generating sensor signals which are a measure for a distance of an object of the user to a respective sensor position, and an analyzing and control unit which calculates a position of the actuation element relative to the display surface by means of the sensor signals of the sensors,

wherein

the analyzing and control unit comprises a position of center of gravity determination module by which by means of the sensor signals at first a position of the center of gravity of the object approaching together with the actuation element is detectable, and an actuation element position calculation module by which the position of the actuation element is ascertainable in consideration of the position of the center of gravity.

12. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein the actuation element position calculation module is designed to detect the position of the actuation element based on the position of the center of gravity in consideration of an offset dependent on the position of the center of gravity.

13. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein the space in front of the surface is sub-divided in sub-spaces and an offset is allocated to each sub-space, wherein the offsets are stored in a memory and are readable from the memory depending on in which sub-space the position of the center of gravity is located.

14. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein the actuation element position calculation module comprises an offset calculation module which determines the offset by means of a function of the position of the center of gravity.

15. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein the actuation element position calculation module comprises an allocation module by means of which allocations of the received signal strengths to determined distances of the actuation element to the respective sensor in each case are individually adaptable for the calculation of the position of the actuation element depending on the determined position of the center of gravity.

16. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein in addition at least one position of the center of gravity determined beforehand during the approach is includible in the determination of the position of the actuation elements.

17. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein the surface is a touch-screen and the analyzing and control unit is designed to receive a contact position determined and provided by means of the touchscreen at a contact of the touch-screen by the actuation element and comprises a comparison module for determining a deviation of the contact position of the determined position of the actuation element and a correction module to correct at least one of the offset and the allocation of the signal strengths to the distances.

18. The position determination device according to claim 11, comprising an identification module which can detect identification information of the user and stores in a memory in a personalized manner at least one of the offset and the allocations or reads these therefrom.

19. The position determination device according to claim 11, comprising a signaling device for generating a high frequency sensor signal,

wherein the signaling device is arranged to couple the sensor signal capacitive or conductively into a body of the user;

and the several sensors are designed to receive in a capacitive manner the sensor signal coupled into the body and transmitted via this body and the actuation element wherein the sensor signals of the sensors are a measure for the received signal strength.

20. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein a further signaling device for generating a further HF signal is arranged such that a further HF Signal may be coupled into a further user and the sensors or further sensors are designed to provide further sensor signals which provide a measure for a received signal strength of the further HF signal transmitted via the further body and a further actuation element of the further user, and wherein by means of the further sensor signals at first a further position of the center of gravity of the further object approaching together with the further actuation element is detectable and the further position of the actuation element is detectable in consideration of the further position of the center of gravity.

21. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein the actuation element is a finger of a user.

22. The position determination device according to claim 11, wherein the object is a body part of a user.