PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING A SENSOR ARRANGEMENT FOR GESTURE RECOGNITION

• US 20120154288A1
• Filed: 12/17/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Walker, David Ryan
• Granted Patent: US 9,569,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1628 Carrying enclosures containing additional elements, e.g. case for a laptop and a printer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1677 for detecting open or closed state or particular intermediate positions assumed by movable parts of the enclosure, e.g. detection of display lid position with respect to main body in a laptop, detection of opening of the cover of battery compartment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1681 Details related solely to hinges hinge details related to the transmission of signals or power are classified in G06F1/1683
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• 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 3/0338 with detection of limited linear or angular displacement of an operating part of the device from a neutral position, e.g. isotonic or isometric joysticks

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a portable electronic device having a sensor arrangement for gesture recognition and a method for gesture recognition. In accordance with one example embodiment, the portable electronic device comprises: a processor; a flexible housing including a magnet; a magnetic sensor connected to the processor which monitors a magnetic field generated by the magnet.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a flexible housing including a magnet;

a magnetic sensor connected to the processor which monitors a magnetic field generated by the magnet.

2. The portable electronic device of claim 1 further comprising:

a rigid housing including an upper body and a lower body connected to the upper body by the flexible housing.

3. The portable electronic device of claim 2 wherein the upper body includes a display connected to the processor and the lower body includes a keyboard connected to the processor.

4. The portable electronic device of claim 2 wherein the flexible housing is a flexible hinge connecting the lower body to the upper body.

5. The portable electronic device of claim 2 wherein the flexible housing is a flexible hinge which permits rotational movement of the lower body and the upper body relative to each other about the flexible hinge within a range between fully opened position and a fully closed position.

6. The portable electronic device of claim 2 wherein the flexible housing permits stretching movement of the lower body and the upper body relative to each other between at least a fully opened position and an extended position relative to the fully opened position.

7. The portable electronic device of claim 2 wherein the flexible housing permits bending movement of the lower body and the upper body relative to each other between at least a fully opened position and a rotated position relative to the fully opened position.

8. The portable electronic device of claim 2 wherein a plurality of magnets are located in the flexible housing and a plurality of magnetic sensors are located in the lower body and upper body, each magnet sensor being adapted to sense the magnetic field generated by one or more magnets in the plurality of magnets.

9. The portable electronic device of claim 8 wherein the plurality of magnets and plurality of magnetic sensors are located in a common plane.

10. The portable electronic device of claim 9 wherein each magnetic sensor is adapted to sense the magnetic field generated by a particular magnet or magnets in the plurality of magnets.

11. The portable electronic device of claim 10 wherein each magnetic sensor is adapted to sense the particular magnet or magnets in the plurality of magnets by appropriate selection of the shape, orientation and/or polarity of the particular magnet or magnets.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 10 wherein each magnetic sensor is a Hall Effect sensor.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 1 further comprising:

a rigid housing wherein the flexible housing is a flexible skin surrounding the rigid housing;

wherein the magnetic sensor and processor are carried in the rigid housing.

14. The portable electronic device of claim 13 wherein a plurality of magnets are located in the flexible skin and a plurality of magnetic sensors are located in the rigid body, each magnet sensor being adapted to sense the magnetic field generated by one or more magnets in the plurality of magnets.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 14 wherein the plurality of magnets and plurality of magnetic sensors are located in a common plane.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 13 wherein the flexible skin is resiliently compressible so that it is locally compresses from a reference state to a compressed state in response to a compressive force, and returns from the compressed state to the reference state when the compressive force is removed, the magnet being embedded in the flexible skin so as to move in response to changes between the reference state and the compressed state.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured for identifying a change in the magnetic field which matches a predetermined criterion and registers an input event response to the identifying.

18. A method for gesture recognition on an electronic device, comprising:

monitoring a magnetic field caused by one or more magnets in a flexible housing of the electronic device;

identifying a change in the magnetic field which matches a predetermined gesture recognition criterion; and

causing an action in correspondence with the predetermined gesture recognition criterion in response to the identifying.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the identifying comprises:

determining a directional vector representing the change in the magnetic field;

determining whether the determined directional vector matches a predetermined directional vector representing a gesture;

identifying the gesture when the determined directional vector matches the predetermined directional vector.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the gesture is one of a number of known gestures each having a distinct gesture recognition criterion.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the predetermined criterion is the magnetic field exceeding a threshold value.