AUXILIARY DEVICE FUNCTIONALITY AUGMENTED WITH FINGERPRINT SENSOR
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- sensing a finger touching a sensor structure, the sensor structure including both a fingerprint sensor and a touch sensor adjacent to the fingerprint sensor and in a same plane as the fingerprint sensor;
determining whether the finger is moving across the sensor structure or is stationary;
enabling an authentication mode to attempt to authenticate a fingerprint of the finger in response to both sensing the finger touching the fingerprint sensor and determining the finger is stationary; and
enabling an auxiliary functionality mode to control auxiliary functionality of a device based on movement of the finger across the sensor structure in response to both sensing the finger touching the fingerprint sensor and determining the finger is moving across the sensor structure.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A sensor structure (110) for a device includes both a fingerprint sensor (112) and one or more touch sensors (114). The fingerprint sensor and the touch sensors can sense a user'"'"'s finger touching the sensor structure, and the fingerprint sensor can also sense fingerprint data identifying a fingerprint pattern on the user'"'"'s finger. The sensor structure serves as an input mechanism to allow a user to input his or her fingerprint for authentication, and also to allow the user to provide inputs to control auxiliary functionality of the device (e.g., volume control, cursor control, phone call control, etc.). A control system automatically determines whether a fingerprint is being input by the user for authentication or whether auxiliary functionality of the device is being controlled by the user, and based on the determination enables an appropriate one of a fingerprint authentication mode and an auxiliary functionality mode.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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sensing a finger touching a sensor structure, the sensor structure including both a fingerprint sensor and a touch sensor adjacent to the fingerprint sensor and in a same plane as the fingerprint sensor; determining whether the finger is moving across the sensor structure or is stationary; enabling an authentication mode to attempt to authenticate a fingerprint of the finger in response to both sensing the finger touching the fingerprint sensor and determining the finger is stationary; and enabling an auxiliary functionality mode to control auxiliary functionality of a device based on movement of the finger across the sensor structure in response to both sensing the finger touching the fingerprint sensor and determining the finger is moving across the sensor structure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system comprising:
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a sensor structure including both a fingerprint sensor and a touch sensor adjacent to the fingerprint sensor and in a same plane as the fingerprint sensor; and a control system configured to activate, based on both whether a finger detected by the sensor structure is moving across the sensor structure and which of the fingerprint sensor and the touch sensor senses the finger touching the sensor structure, a fingerprint identification module to attempt to authenticate a fingerprint of the finger using the fingerprint sensor, or an auxiliary functionality module to control auxiliary functionality of the system based on the movement of the finger across the sensor structure. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system comprising:
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a sensor structure including both a fingerprint sensor and a touch sensor, the touch sensor being adjacent to the fingerprint sensor; and a control system configured to power on a fingerprint identification module to attempt to authenticate a fingerprint of a finger sensed by the sensor structure in response to both the finger being determined to be stationary and the finger being sensed as touching the sensor structure by the fingerprint sensor. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification