System and method for detecting deformation of a membrane
First Claim
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1. A system for detecting deformation of a membrane comprising:
- a membrane having a surface;
an emitter disposed to impinge, upon a segment of said surface, electromagnetic radiation, with a portion of said electromagnetic radiation impinging upon said segment being reflected therefrom along a reflected path; and
a detector having an electromagnetic radiation collection area lying in said reflected path, with said segment being adapted to reflect, in a first state, substantially all electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon along said reflected path, defining reflected radiation, and scattering, in a second state, a portion of said reflected radiation away from said reflected path.
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Abstract
A system and method for detecting, measuring the intensity of, and determining the location of a deformation of a membrane. In one embodiment, the intensity and location of membrane deformations is used as control input to a sound generation system that simulates the sound of a drum. The disclosed system and method may be capable of responding to distinct simultaneous deformations of the membrane.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A system for detecting deformation of a membrane comprising:
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a membrane having a surface; an emitter disposed to impinge, upon a segment of said surface, electromagnetic radiation, with a portion of said electromagnetic radiation impinging upon said segment being reflected therefrom along a reflected path; and a detector having an electromagnetic radiation collection area lying in said reflected path, with said segment being adapted to reflect, in a first state, substantially all electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon along said reflected path, defining reflected radiation, and scattering, in a second state, a portion of said reflected radiation away from said reflected path. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for detecting pressure on a membrane and estimating position of said pressure on said membrane, said system comprising:
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a membrane having a surface; a plurality of emitters, each of which is disposed to direct electromagnetic radiation along an incident path, defining a plurality of incident paths, with said membrane lying in a sub-portion of said plurality of incident paths, said membrane being adapted to reflect electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon along a reflected path so that each incident path of said sub-portion has a reflected path associated therewith, defining a plurality of reflected paths, with each incident path of said sub-portion being associated with an emitter, of said plurality of emitters, differing from the emitters, of said plurality of emitters, associated with the remaining paths of incident said sub-portion; and a plurality of detectors, a sub-part of which lies in one of said plurality of reflected paths differing from the reflected path in which the remaining detectors of said plurality lie, with the reflected paths associated with said sub-part being associated with said incident paths of said sub-portion and said surface being adapted to reflect, in a first state, substantially electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon along one said plurality of reflected paths, defining reflected radiation, and scattering, in a second state, a portion of said reflected radiation away from said one of said plurality of reflected paths, wherein each of said detector of said sub-part is uniquely associated with one of said plurality of emitters and a position of deformation of said membrane is indicated by said electromagnetic radiation received by one of said plurality of detectors of said subpart. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26)
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- 24. The system of 16 further comprising a position resolving system that monitors deformation at multiple particular locations of said plurality of selected locations by stimulating said emitters of said pairs specifying said particular locations and monitoring outputs of said detectors of said pairs specifying said particular locations.
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27. A computer system comprising:
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an input device comprising; a membrane having a surface; a plurality of emitters, each of which is disposed to direct electromagnetic radiation along an incident path, defining a plurality of incident paths, with said membrane lying in a sub-portion of said plurality of incident paths, said membrane being adapted to reflect electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon along a reflected path so that each incident path of said sub-portion has a reflected path associated therewith, defining a plurality of reflected paths, with each incident path of said sub-portion being associated with an emitter, of said plurality of emitters, differing from the emitters, of said plurality of emitters, associated with the remaining paths of said subportion; a plurality of detectors, a sub-part of which lies in one of said plurality of reflected paths differing from the reflected path in which the remaining detector lie, with the reflected paths associated with said sub-part being associated with said incident paths of said sub-portion and said surface being adapted to reflect, in a first state, substantially electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon along one said plurality of reflected paths, defining reflected radiation, and scattering, in a second state, a portion of said reflected radiation away from said one of said plurality of reflected paths, wherein each of said detector of said sub-part is uniquely associated with one of said plurality of emitters, defining a plurality of emitter-detector pairs, and a position of deformation of said membrane is indicated by electromagnetic radiation received by one of said plurality of detectors of said subpart, with each emitter-detector pair positioned to sense deformation of a segment of said membrane differing from the segments associated with the remaining emitter-detector pairs; a position resolving system in data communication with each of said plurality of emitter-detector pairs, that monitors deformation at a particular location of said plurality of selected locations by stimulating one of the emitters of said plurality of emitter-detector pairs and monitoring an output of the detectors associated therewith; and a processor that controls operation of said position resolving system. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A method for operating a user input device comprising steps of:
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providing a membrane having a surface; providing an emitter disposed to impinge, upon a segment of said surface electromagnetic radiation with a portion of said electromagnetic radiation impinging upon said segment being reflected therefrom along a reflected path;
providing a detector lying in said reflected path, with said segment being adapted to reflect, in a first state, substantially all electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon along said reflected path, defining reflected radiation, and scattering, in a second state, a portion of said reflected radiation away from said reflected path, defining scattered electromagnetic radiation and remaining electromagnetic radiation with said detector producing a signal in response to a level of remaining electromagnetic radiation impinging thereupon; andmeasuring deformation of said segment based upon said signal. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification