IMAGE SENSING METHOD AND IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS

• US 20140300582A1
• Filed: 01/22/2014
• Published: 10/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PixArt Imaging Incorporated
• Original Assignee: PixArt Imaging Incorporated
• Inventors: Cheng, Hsin-Chi, Lin, Yu-Chia, Fu, Yu-Chieh
• Granted Patent: US 9,395,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041661 using detection at multiple resolutions, e.g. coarse and fine scanning; using detection within a limited area, e.g. object tracking window
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421

Abstract

Disclosed is an image sensor comprising: an image sensing unit array, for sensing an object and comprising a plurality of image sensing units arranged in a sensing matrix with M rows and N columns; an image data reading circuit, for reading and outputting image data caught by at least part of the image sensing units; and a control unit, for controlling numbers and locations of the image sensing units for each row or each column, from which the image data reading circuit reads the image data; for computing a read region that is in the image sensing unit array and corresponds to the object; and for controlling the image data reading circuit to read at least part of the image data of the column or the row. The part of the column or the row, which is read, comprises the read region.

Claims

1. An image sensor, comprising:

an image sensing unit array, for sensing an object and comprising a plurality of image sensing units arranged in a sensing matrix with M rows and N columns;

an image data reading circuit, for reading and outputting image data caught by at least part of the image sensing units; and

a control unit,

for controlling numbers and locations of the image sensing units for each row or each column, from which the image data reading circuit reads the image data;

for computing a read region that is in the image sensing unit array and corresponds to the object; and

for controlling the image data reading circuit to read at least part of the image data of the column or the row;

wherein the part of the column or the row, which is read, comprises the read region.

2. The image sensor of claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the image data reading circuit to read the image data in the read region by row-wise if the M is smaller than N;

where the control unit controls the image data reading circuit to read the image data in the read region by column-wise if the M is larger than N.

3. The image sensor of claim 1,

wherein the control unit controls the image data reading circuit to read the image data of the read region in a first level region of a read clock signal;

where the read region comprises a first read region and a second read region, and the control unit separates the first level region to a first read region time interval and a second read region time interval;

wherein the image data reading circuit reads the image data for the image sensing units of the first read region in the first read region time interval, and the image data reading circuit reads the image data for the image sensing units of the second read region in the second read region time interval.

4. The image sensor of claim 3, if the M is larger than the N, the image sensing units from which the image data reading circuit read the image data in a single period of the first read region time interval, and the image sensing units from which the image data reading circuit read the image data in a single period of the second read region time interval, are the image sensing units in the same row.

5. The image sensor of claim 3, if the M is smaller than the N, the image sensing units from which the image data reading circuit read the image data in a single period of the first read region time interval, and the image sensing units from which the image data reading circuit read the image data in a single period of the second read region time interval, are the image sensing units in the same column.

6. The image sensor of claim 1, wherein the control units computes at least one read slope according to an image of the object, and computes the read region according to the read slope.

7. The image sensor of claim 1, wherein the read region comprises a first read region and a second read region, wherein the control units computes a first read slope and a second read slope according to the image of the object, computes the first read region according to the first read slope, and computes the second read region according to the second read slope.

8. The image sensor of claim 1, wherein the read region is one of the following shapes:

a parallelogram, a V shape, an inverted V shape, a polygon with K sides, wherein the K is a positive integer larger than 3.

9. An image sensing method, comprising:

computing a read region, which is for sensing an object and is in the image sensing unit array comprising a plurality of image sensing units arranged in a sensing matrix with M rows and N columns; and

reading at least one part of the column or the row, wherein the part of the column or the row, which is read, comprises the read region.

10. The image sensing method of claim 9, further comprising:

reading the image data in the read region by row-wise if the M is smaller than N; and

reading the image data in the read region by column-wise if the M is larger than N.

11. The image sensing method of claim 9, further comprising:

reading the image data of the read region in a first level region of a read clock signal, wherein the read region comprises a first read region and a second read region;

separating the first level region to a first read region time interval and a second read region time interval;

reading the image data for the image sensing units of the first read region in the first read region time interval; and

reading the image data for the image sensing units of the second read region in the second read region time interval.

12. The image sensing method of claim 11, if the M is larger than the N, the image sensing units from which the image data is read in a single period of the first read region time interval, and the image sensing units from which the image data is read in a single period of the second read region time interval, are the image sensing units in the same row.

13. The image sensing method of claim 11, if the M is smaller than the N, the image sensing units from which the image data in a single period of the first read region time interval is read, and the image sensing units from which the image data is read in a single period of the second read region time interval, are the image sensing units in the same column.

14. The image sensing method of claim 9, further comprising computing at least one read slope according to an image of the object, and computing the read region according to the read slope.

15. The image sensing method of claim 9, wherein the read region comprises a first read region and a second read region, wherein the image sensing method comprises computing a first read slope and a second read slope according to the image of the object, computing the first read region according to the first read slope, and computing the second read region according to the second read slope.

16. The image sensing method of claim 9, wherein the read region is one of the following shapes:

a parallelogram, a V shape, an inverted V shape, a polygon with K sides, wherein the K is a positive integer larger than 3.