MAGNETIC SENSING USER INTERFACE DEVICE METHODS AND APPARATUS

• US 20120215475A1
• Filed: 08/21/2011
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seescan, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Seektech Inc.
• Inventors: Merewether, Ray, Martin, Michael J., Rutledge, Austin, Olssson, Mark S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,121,617 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/94
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 9/047 the controlling member being movable by hand about orthogonal axes, e.g. joysticks for switches H01H25/04
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2239/024 with inductive switch
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 25/041 having a generally flat operating member depressible at different locations to operate different controls

Abstract

Methods for processing signals from a magnetic user interface device having a manual actuator are disclosed. Movements of the actuator may cause relative movement between one or more magnets and one or more corresponding sensors that may each generate signals representing independent magnetic field components detected within each sensor. A field model may be used in the magnetic user interface device to translate magnetic sensor readings during operation to position information, which may then be converted to output signals for transmission to an electronic computing system representing displacement and/or deformation of the actuator. The output signals may be generated in a predetermined format, such as USB format or other computer-interface formats, that can be interpreted by the electronic computing system.

Claims

1. A method for processing signals in a user interface device, the user interface device including an actuator element having one or more magnets and one or more magnetic sensor elements configured to sense a position or deformation of the actuator element, the method comprising:

receiving, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements in a plurality of axes of measurement;

comparing the sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generating, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing the sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model includes comparing the sensor data to values in one or more lookup tables to determine the estimated position or deformation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising converting x and y dimension sensor measurements to an r-dimension measurement and determining the estimated position by accessing a lookup table including B_r and z-dimension values.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing the sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model includes solving, based on the sensor data, a closed form equation of the predefined magnetic field model to determine the estimated position or deformation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of orthogonal axes of measurement comprise three orthogonal axes of measurement.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more magnets are permanent magnets.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more magnets include an electromagnet.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the actuator element includes one or more movable elements.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the actuator element further includes one or more deformable elements.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the actuator element comprises one or more deformable elements.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the output signal includes data defining the estimated position of the actuator element.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the output signal includes data defining a motion of the actuator element.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the output signal includes data defining the deformation of the actuator element.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined magnetic field model includes a lookup table relating the positional information to the sensor information.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined magnetic field model includes a mathematic model relating the position information to the sensor information.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference position is a released state position.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference position is offset from a released state position, the method further including:

determining the offset from the released position; and

adjusting the estimated position based on the determined offset.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the offset is a function of temperature and the estimated position is adjusted responsive to a temperature measurement.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising compensating for unintended displacement of the manual actuator below a predetermined minimum threshold.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the determining the offset from the released position includes:

generating a center calibration prism including a predetermined set of boundaries of the magnetic field components detected by each sensor; and

repeatedly re-defining the center calibration prism so as to auto-zero the released state position.

21. A user interface device, comprising:

an actuator element including one or more magnets;

one or more magnetic sensor elements associated with the one or more magnets, the one or more magnetic sensor elements configured sense a position or deformation of the actuator element;

a memory configured to store a predefined magnetic field model; and

a processing element coupled to the memory to;

receive, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements in a plurality of axes of measurement;

compare the sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements to the predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generate, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.

22. The user interface device of claim 21, wherein the one or more magnets comprise permanent magnets.

23. The user interface device of claim 21, wherein the one or more magnets comprise cross-shaped electromagnets and the one or more magnetic sensor elements comprise high sensitivity magnetic sensor elements.

24. A user interface device, comprising:

actuator means including one or more magnets;

magnetic sensor means configured sense a position or deformation of the actuator means;

memory means configured to store a predefined magnetic field model; and

processor means coupled to the memory means to;

receive, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements in a plurality of axes of measurement;

compare the sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements to the predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generate, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.

25. A computer-readable medium containing instructions stored on anon-transitory medium for causing a processor in a magnetic user interface device, wherein the magnetic user interface device includes one or more actuator elements and one or more magnetic sensor elements configured to sense motion or deformation of the actuator elements, to perform a signal processing method comprising:

receiving, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements in a plurality of axes of measurement;

comparing the sensor data from the one or more magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generating, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.

26. A method for processing signals in a user interface device, the user interface device including an actuator element having one or more magnets and one or more multi-axis magnetic sensor elements configured to sense a position or deformation of the actuator element, the method comprising:

receiving, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data associated with two or more orthogonal axes of motion sensed by the multi-axis magnetic sensor elements;

comparing the sensor data from the ones of the magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generating, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the multi-axis magnetic sensor elements comprise two axis magnetic sensors.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the multi-axis magnetic sensor elements comprise three axis magnetic sensors.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the one or more magnets comprise permanent magnets.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the one or more magnets comprise a cross-shaped electromagnet and the three-axis magnetic sensor element comprises a high sensitivity magnetic sensor.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the cross shaped electromagnet includes a first dipole element and a second dipole, the method further including selectively switching the first dipole element and the second dipole element go generate a magnetic field in three-dimensions for detection by the high sensitivity magnetic sensor.

32. A computer-readable medium containing instructions stored on a non-transitory medium for causing a processor in a magnetic user interface device, wherein the magnetic user interface device includes one or more actuator elements and one or multi-axis magnetic sensor elements configured to sense motion or deformation of the actuator elements in two or more dimensions, to perform a signal processing method comprising:

receiving, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data associated with two or more orthogonal axes of motion sensed by the multi-axis magnetic sensor elements;

comparing the sensor data from the ones of the magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generating, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.

33. A user interface device, comprising:

an actuator element having one or more magnets and one or more multi-axis magnetic sensor elements configured to sense a position or deformation of the actuator element;

a memory configured to store a predefined magnetic field model; and

a processing element configured to;

receive, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data associated with two or more orthogonal axes of motion sensed by the multi-axis magnetic sensor elements;

compare the sensor data from the ones of the magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generate, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.

34. A user interface device, comprising:

actuator means including one or more magnets;

multi-axis magnetic sensor means configured to sense a position or deformation of the actuator means;

memory means configured to store a predefined magnetic field model; and

processor means configured to;

receive, during a movement or deformation of the actuator element from the released state, sensor data associated with two or more orthogonal axes of motion sensed by the multi-axis magnetic sensor elements;

compare the sensor data from the ones of the magnetic sensor elements to a predefined magnetic field model to determine an estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state; and

generate, based on the estimated position or deformation of the actuator element from the reference state, an output signal usable by an electronic device coupled to the user interface device;

wherein the predefined magnetic field model relates positional information of the one or more magnets with corresponding sensor information associated with the one or more magnetic sensor elements.