Electronic Device With Ambient Light Sensor System

• US 20170229059A1
• Filed: 08/16/2016
• Published: 08/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bonnier, Nicolas P., Johnson, Paul V., Chen, Cheng, Wu, Jiaying, Chen, Wei, Zhong, John Z.
• Granted Patent: US 10,217,439 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• 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 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0666 for control of colour parameters, e.g. colour temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/10 Intensity circuits

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a display mounted in a housing. Color ambient light sensors may make measurements of ambient light intensity and color through windows in an inactive border region of the display or other portions of the device. The electronic device may process the ambient light measurements based on ambient light information from the ambient light sensors and based on information from additional sensors such as an image sensor, a force sensor, a capacitive touch sensor, a proximity sensor, an orientation sensor, and other devices. Control circuitry in the electronic device may produce reliable ambient light measurements by combining readings from multiple reliable sources and by discarding readings from ambient light sensors that are blocked by a user'"'"'s fingers or other external objects. Display color cast and intensity may be adjusted based on ambient light information.

Claims

1. An electronic device that is exposed to ambient light, comprising:

a housing;

control circuitry in the housing;

first and second color ambient light sensors;

an additional sensor; and

a display, wherein the control circuitry adjusts the display based on information from the first and second color ambient light sensors and the additional sensor and wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust a color cast of the display based on ambient light color information from the color ambient light sensors.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the additional sensor comprises an image sensor.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the housing has front and rear faces, wherein the display is mounted on the front face, and wherein the display has light-transmitting windows in an inactive portion of the display.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the light-transmitting windows include first and second light-transmitting windows through which ambient light passes respectively to the first and second ambient light sensors.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein the light-transmitting windows include a third light-transmitting window that is located between the first and second light-transmitting windows and wherein ambient light passes to the image sensor through the third light-transmitting window.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the additional sensor comprises a capacitive touch sensor having an electrode that monitors whether an object is blocking the first color ambient light sensor.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the additional sensor comprises a light-based proximity sensor adjacent to the first color ambient light sensor that monitors whether an object is blocking the first color ambient light sensor.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the additional sensor comprises a force sensor.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the additional sensor comprises an orientation sensor.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the display by adjusting display brightness based on ambient light intensity information from the first and second color ambient light sensors.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the color cast based on ambient light color information produced by computing a mean of an ambient light color measurement from the first color ambient light sensor and an ambient light color measurement from the second color ambient light sensor.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to maintain a history of ambient light intensity and color measurements from the first and second color ambient light sensors and is configured to adjust the display based at least partly on the history.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to maintain a history of ambient light intensity and color measurements from the first and second color ambient light sensors and is configured to discard ambient light sensor intensity and color information from at least a given one of the first and second color ambient light sensors when it is determined from a comparison between the ambient light sensor intensity and color information and the history of ambient light intensity and color measurements that the ambient light sensor intensity and color information from the given one of first and second color ambient light sensors is not to be trusted.

14. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine how much to adjust the display based at least partly on comparing ambient light sensor readings from the first color ambient light sensor to ambient light sensor readings from the second color ambient light sensor.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine whether to discard data from the first and second color ambient light sensors by comparing data from the first and second color ambient light sensors to damaged sensor criteria.

16. A method of adjusting a display in an electronic device having first and second color ambient light sensors and having control circuitry, comprising:

with the control circuitry, gathering ambient light measurements from the first and second color ambient light sensors;

with the control circuitry, processing the ambient light measurements from the first and second color ambient light sensors to produce ambient light color information; and

with the control circuitry, adjusting a color cast of the display based on the ambient light color information.

17. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the electronic device further comprises an image sensor and wherein processing the ambient light measurements comprises processing both the ambient light measurements from the first and second color ambient light sensors and measurements from the image sensor to produce the ambient light color information.

18. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the electronic device further comprises a touch sensor and wherein processing the ambient light measurements comprises using ambient light measurements from the second color ambient light sensor and not from the first color ambient light sensor in response to detecting with the touch sensor that the first ambient light sensor is blocked.

19. The method defined in claim 16 wherein electronic device further comprises an orientation sensor and wherein processing the ambient light measurements from the first and second color ambient light sensors comprises using orientation information from the orientation sensor to determine whether the first and second color ambient light sensors have been blocked by external objects.

20. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

a display mounted in the housing;

a color ambient light sensor that makes ambient light intensity measurements and ambient light color measurements;

an additional sensor that produces additional sensor data; and

control circuitry that is configured to adjust display intensity and display color cast for the display based on ambient light information produced by processing the ambient light intensity measurements, the ambient light color measurements, and the additional sensor data, wherein the display has an active area that displays images and an inactive area that borders the active area, wherein the color ambient light sensor is mounted under a first window in the inactive area, wherein the additional sensor is mounted under a second window in the inactive area, and wherein the additional sensor comprises a sensor selected from the group consisting of;

a camera, a touch sensor that monitors whether the color ambient light sensor is blocked, an orientation sensor, a force sensor, and a light-based proximity sensor.