FINGER POSITION SENSING AND DISPLAY

• US 20150355723A1
• Filed: 06/10/2014
• Published: 12/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxwell Minoru Nakura-Fan
• Original Assignee: Maxwell Minoru Nakura-Fan
• Inventors: Nakura-Fan, Maxwell Minoru
• Granted Patent: US 9,557,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/023 Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as alphanumeric codes, operand codes or instruction codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

An apparatus includes a first sensor associated with a key location on a keyboard. The first sensor provides a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over the key location. A method includes generating a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over a key of a keyboard. The finger presence signal is received after it is generated. The finger presence signal is associated with a key of the keyboard to produce an association of the user'"'"'s finger and the key.

Claims

1. An apparatus for use with a data processing device, the apparatus comprising:

a first sensor associated with a key location on a keyboard, the first sensor to provide a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over the key location.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second sensor associated with the key location, the second sensor to provide a data signal when a user'"'"'s finger triggers the second sensor, wherein during operation the first sensor must be triggered before the second sensor can be triggered.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first sensor and the second sensor is a mechanical sensor and the other one is a capacitive sensor.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first sensor and the second sensor is a mechanical sensor and the other one is a resistive sensor.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first sensor is capacitive and the second sensor is capacitive.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first sensor and the second sensor is a capacitive sensor and the other one is a resistive sensor.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first sensor is resistive and the second sensor is resistive.

8. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

a processor communicatively coupled with the first sensor to receive the finger presence signal, and the processor communicatively coupled to the second sensor to receive the data signal, upon receipt of the finger presence signal the processor associates the finger presence signal with the key location to form a finger presence association.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first sensor having a first light source unit to produce a first thin fan shaped beam of light, and an optical sensing unit to detect light from the first thin fan shaped beam of light that is scattered from an object when an object is within a detectable range of the of apparatus, the detected light to be analyzed by the processor to provide a finger presence signal;

the second sensor having a second light source unit to produce a second thin fan shaped beam of light that is scattered from an object when an object is within the detectable range of the of apparatus, the detected light to be analyzed by the processor to provide a key press signal corresponding to a data input from the key, wherein the first thin fan shaped beam of light is above the second thin fan shaped beam of light.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein finger presence signal is the data input signal for the key, the apparatus further comprising:

a processor communicatively coupled with the sensor to receive the finger presence signal;

an association component, to associate the finger presence signal with the key location to form a finger presence association; and

a communication component, to communicate the finger presence association to a user, wherein the communication component provides information to a data display to display the finger presence association on a soft keyboard, the soft keyboard is displayed in a region of the data display.

11. An apparatus for use with a data processing device, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor associated with a key location on a keyboard, the sensor further comprising;

a first trigger position to provide a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over the key location and activates the first trigger position.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the sensor further comprising:

a second trigger position, the second trigger position to provide a data signal when a user'"'"'s finger triggers the second trigger position, wherein during operation the first trigger position must be activated before the second trigger position can be activated.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the keyboard is a virtual keyboard projected onto a flat surface and the first trigger position is at a first elevation, the second trigger position is at a second elevation and the first elevation is greater than the second elevation.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the sensor has a spring operated key and the first trigger position is activated when the key is depressed by a first amount and the second trigger position is activated when the key is depressed by a second amount.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first trigger position and the second trigger position is a capacitive sensor element and the other trigger position of the first trigger position and the second trigger position is a mechanical sensor element.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a processor communicatively coupled with the sensor to receive a first signal corresponding to the first trigger position and a second signal corresponding to the second trigger position; and

an association component, upon receipt of the first signal the processor executes the association component to associate the first signal with a key location to form a finger presence association.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the association component utilizes stored data pertaining to the keyboard to perform the association.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the stored data in a lookup table to establish a keyboard layout and the keyboard layout is selected from the group consisting of QWERTY, AZERTY, Dvorak, ABCDE, XPeRT, and user defined.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

a communication component, to communicate the association to a user.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the communication component provides information to a data display to display the association in a region of the data display.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the communication component provides information to a text-to-speech processor to provide an audible message related to the association.

22. An apparatus for use with a data processing device, the apparatus comprising:

a finger presence keyboard, the finger presence keyboard is co-located with a keyboard used with a data processing device;

the finger presence keyboard further comprising;

a finger presence sensor at each key location of the finger presence keyboard, the finger presence sensor to provide a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over a key location; and

an association component to associate the finger presence signal with the key location to form a finger presence association.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising:

a communication component to communicate the finger presence association to a user, wherein the communication component provides information to a data display to display the finger presence association on a soft keyboard, the soft keyboard is displayed in a region of the data display.

24. A method comprising:

generating a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over a key of a keyboard;

receiving the finger presence signal from the generating; and

associating the finger presence signal with a key of the keyboard to produce an association of the user'"'"'s finger and the key.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

communicating the association to the user.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the communicating to display the association on a data display.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein a keyboard icon is displayed in a region of the data display and the association is displayed on the keyboard icon.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the communicating is done with an audible communication.

29. A system for execution on a data processing system, the system comprising;

a finger presence generator to generate a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over a key of a keyboard;

an interface for receiving the finger presence signal; and

an association component coupled to the interface, to receive the finger presence signal for associating a finger location with a key of a keyboard to create a finger presence association.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising:

a display engine to receive finger presence association and to display a soft keyboard on a data display, the soft keyboard contains the finger presence association as a hot-key on the soft keyboard.

31. A computer readable storage medium storing program code for causing a data processing device to perform the steps comprising:

generating a finger presence signal when a user'"'"'s finger is over a key of a keyboard;

receiving the finger presence signal from the generating; and

associating the finger presence signal with a key of the keyboard to produce an association of the user'"'"'s finger and the key.

32. The computer readable storage medium of claim 31, further comprising:

displaying the association on a data display.

33. The computer readable storage medium of claim 32, wherein the association is displayed on a soft keyboard, the soft keyboard is displayed on the data display.