Electronic Device Having Multiple Sides with Gesture Sensors

• US 20150241978A1
• Filed: 03/19/2014
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Lombardi, Michael J, Gorsica, John, Pierce, Amber M
• Application Number:
  US14/219,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20150241978A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 1/1618 the display being foldable up to the back of the other housing with a single degree of freedom, e.g. by 360° rotation over the axis defined by the rear edge of the base enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• 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 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• 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

Abstract

An electronic device has multiple sides and multiple gesture sensors (such as infrared sensors) and can interpret gestures based on the movement detected by the gesture sensors. The device may interpret data from each of the gesture sensors as separate gestures, or may interpret the data from two or more of the sensors as one single gesture. The device may select which interpretation to use based on an angle between two or more sides of the device.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a processor;

a first side comprising a first gesture sensor; and

a second side comprising a second gesture sensor,

wherein the first and second sides are pivotable with respect to one another;

wherein the processor;

monitors data from the first gesture sensor;

monitors data from the second gesture sensor;

if the electronic device is a first position, carries out a single gesture recognition using the monitored data from the first gesture sensor and the monitored data from the second gesture sensor

if the electronic device in a second position;

carries out a first gesture recognition using the monitored data from the first gesture sensor;

carries out a second gesture recognition using the monitored data from the second gesture sensor,

wherein the first gesture recognition is independent of the second gesture recognition.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein

in the first position, the first and second sides are side-by-side and the first and second gesture sensors face in the same direction or are angled towards one another, and

in the second position, the first and second sides are back-to-back, and the first and second gesture sensors face away from one another.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first gesture sensor and the second gesture sensor are electromagnetic radiation (“

EMR”

) sensors.

4. The electronic device of claim 3, further comprising a first EMR source and a second EMR source, wherein

if the electronic device is in the first position, the processor activates the first EMR source and deactivates the second EMR source,

if the electronic device is in the second position, the processor activates the second EMR source and deactivates the first EMR source.

5. An electronic device comprising:

a processor; and

a first side comprising a first gesture sensor; and

a second side comprising a second gesture sensor,

wherein the first and second sides face at least partly away from one another;

wherein the processor;

monitors data from the first gesture sensor;

monitors data from the second gesture sensor;

carries out a first gesture recognition using the monitored data from the first gesture sensor;

carries out a second gesture recognition using the monitored data from the second gesture sensor,

wherein the first gesture recognition is independent of the second gesture recognition.

6. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the first gesture sensor and the second gesture sensor are electromagnetic radiation (“

EMR”

) sensors.

7. An electronic device comprising:

a processor;

a first side comprising a first gesture sensor; and

a second side comprising a second gesture sensor,

wherein the first and second gesture sensors face at least partly away from one another;

wherein the processor;

receives data regarding a gesture from the first gesture sensor at a first time;

receives data regarding a gesture from the second gesture sensor at a second time; and

interprets the data from the first and second gestures as two separate gestures or as a single gesture based on the difference between the first time and the second time.

8. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the data received from the first gesture sensor and the second gesture indicate a single gesture up the first side of the device and down the second side of the device.

9. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the gesture data indicates when a gesture is detected.

10. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the gesture data indicates when a gesture ceases to be detected.