SENSING DEVICE AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS

• US 20120023354A1
• Filed: 05/31/2011
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: CHINO, Taketo
• Granted Patent: US 9,176,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/323
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 13/00 Indicating or recording presence, absence, or direction, of movement electric switches H01H; counting moving objects G06M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device

Abstract

A sensing device includes: a sensor module that includes a group of sensors, at least one of which is set as a motion sensor, and can switch an operation mode to an overall operation mode in which all of the group of sensors operate and a partial operation mode in which a part of the sensors including the at least one sensor set as the motion sensor operate; and a control unit that controls the switching of the operation mode of the sensor module on the basis of an output from the motion sensor.

Claims

1. A sensing device comprising:

a sensor module that includes a group of sensors, at least one of which is set as a motion sensor, and can switch an operation mode to an overall operation mode in which all of the group of sensors operate and a partial operation mode in which a part of the sensors including the at least one sensor set as the motion sensor operate; and

a control unit that controls the switching of the operation mode of the sensor module on the basis of an output from the motion sensor.

2. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs switching control from the overall operation mode to the partial operation mode on the basis of a comparison result of the signal based on the output from the motion sensor and a first threshold in a given time and performs switching control from the partial operation mode to the overall operation mode on the basis of a comparison result of the signal based on the output from the motion sensor and a second threshold.

7. The sensing device according to claim 1, further comprising a data generating unit that generates, at a given rate, output data based on an output from the group of sensors, wherein

the data generating unit switches the given rate on the basis of the mode control signal.

8. The sensing device according to claim 7, wherein the data generating unit sets the given rate to a first rate when the operation mode is the overall operation mode and sets the given rate to a second rate lower than the first rate when the operation mode is other than the overall operation mode.

9. The sensing device according to claim 7, further comprising a register unit including a status register that represents a rate at which the output data is generated, wherein

the data generating unit updates the status register when the rate changes.

10. The sensing device according to claim 9, wherein the data generating unit outputs an interrupt signal when the status register is updated.

11. The sensing device according to claim 7, wherein the data generating unit outputs a signal representing the rate at which the output data is generated.

12. An electronic apparatus comprising the sensing device according to claim 1.

3. A sensing device comprising:

a sensor module that includes a group of sensors and can switch an operation mode to an overall operation mode in which all of the group of sensors operate and a stop operation mode in which at least a part of the sensors stop;

an auxiliary sensor module that includes at least one motion sensor; and

a control unit that controls the switching of the operation mode of the sensor module on the basis of an output from the motion sensor.

4. The sensing device according to claim 3, wherein the control unit performs switching control from the overall operation mode to the stop operation mode on the basis of a comparison result of a signal based on the output from the motion sensor and a first threshold in a given time and performs switching control from the stop operation mode to the overall operation mode on the basis of a comparison result of the signal based on the output from the motion sensor and a second threshold.

5. A sensing device comprising:

a sensor module that includes a group of sensors, at least one of which is set as a motion sensor, and can switch an operation mode to an overall operation mode in which all of the group of sensors operate and a stop operation mode in which at least a part of the sensors stop;

an auxiliary sensor module that includes at least one motion sensor and can switch an operation mode to an operation mode in which the sensors normally operate and a stop mode in which the sensors stop the operation; and

a control unit that controls the switching of the operation mode of the sensor module on the basis of an output from the motion sensor of the sensor module or the auxiliary sensor module and controls to switch the operation mode of the auxiliary sensor module to the stop mode when the operation mode of the sensor module is the overall operation mode and to the operation mode when the operation mode of the sensor module is the stop operation mode.

6. The sensing device according to claim 5, wherein the control unit performs the switching control from the overall operation mode to the stop operation mode on the basis of a comparison result of a signal based on the output from the motion sensor of the sensor module and a first threshold in a given time and performs the switching control from the stop operation mode to the overall operation mode on the basis of a comparison result of a signal based on the output from the motion sensor of the auxiliary sensor module and a second threshold.