Compact optical pointing apparatus and method

• US 7,102,617 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2002
• Issued: 09/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gust, Lawrence Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hjerpe, Richard
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KIMNHUNG T
• Application Number:
  US10/331,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20040125072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,345 Days
• Field of Search: 345/166, 345/173, 345/179, 345156-158, 455/556.1
• US Class Current: 345/158
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0317 in co-operation with a patterned surface, e.g. absolute position or relative movement detection for an optical mouse or pen positioned with respect to a coded surface

Abstract

A display pointing device (10) includes a fingerprint sensing circuit (18) that optically senses, for example, a portion of a fingerprint or other skin texture, and a fingerprint movement detection circuit (20), operatively coupled to the fingerprint sensing circuit (18), that is operative to determine a direction of movement and a rate of movement of skin texture being sensed by the fingerprint sensing circuit (18) to produce pointing output data (24) for a display (12). The pointing output data (24) may be, for example, data representing a visual indication of a position on a display screen, such as a position of a cursor or of highlighted text, or any other suitable position indication. A method for providing pointing information for display includes sensing a fingerprint, determining a direction of movement and a rate of movement of the fingerprint and producing a pointing output for display based on a determined direction of movement and rate of movement of the sensed fingerprint.

Claims

1. A display pointing device comprising:

a surface texture sensing circuit;

a surface texture movement detection circuit, operatively coupled to the surface texture sensing circuit, and operative to determine at least one of;

a direction of movement and a rate of movement, of the surface texture and to produce pointing output data for a display;

wherein the fingerprint movement detection circuit determines at least one of a rate and a direction of movement of the skin texture by;

modifying at least one previously stored images to produce a plurality of candidate displacement images each with an associated respective displacement movement vector;

and compares by correlating a resolved first image against each of the plurality of candidate displacement images to produce a plurality of respectively associated displacement correlation scores;

and wherein determining at least one of a rate and a direction of movement further includes;

choosing the highest displacement correlation score and providing the associated respective displacement movement vector to determine the direction of movement of the skin texture.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the surface texture sensing circuit comprises a sensing array comprised of at least one of:

a plurality of charge coupled devices (CCD'"'"'s) and a plurality of thermal sensors.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the surface texture sensing circuit further comprises an illumination source operatively positioned to provide illumination of the surface texture, wherein sensing of the surface texture is responsive to the illumination.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the surface texture sensing circuit further comprises a sensing array focusing mechanism operatively coupled to focus charge coupled devices to detect the texture.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein the surface texture sensing circuit further comprises an optical filter positioned interstitially between the surface texture and the charged coupled devices to filter visible light from the charge coupled devices.

6. The device of claim 5 wherein the surface texture movement detection circuit uses ridges and furrows in surface texture as a reference pattern to sense motion of the surface texture.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the surface texture sensing circuit further comprises:

memory to store one or more images,

wherein the surface texture movement detection circuit iteratively resolves data received from the surface texture sensing circuit to produce an image and determines at least one of a rate and a direction of movement of the surface texture by comparing the image to one or more previously stored images, and wherein the memory is responsive to the surface texture movement detection circuit to store the image.

8. The display pointing device of claim 1 wherein the fingerprint movement detection circuit:

timestamps each resolved first image with an associated timestamp;

records the timestamp associated with a respective stored image;

computes the difference in time between the timestamp associated with at least one of the previously stored images and the timestamp associated with the first image and uses the computed time difference and the magnitude of the associated respective displacement movement vector to determine the rate of movement of the skin texture.

9. A method for providing pointing information for a display comprising:

sensing a surface texture;

determining at least one of;

a direction of movement and a rate of movement, of the surface texture; and

producing a pointing output for a display based on at least one of the determined direction of movement and the rate of movement of the surface texture by modifying at least one of previously stored images to produce a plurality of candidate displacement images each with an associated respective displacement movement vector; and

compare by correlating a resolved first image against each of the plurality of candidate displacement images to produce a plurality of respectively associated displacement correlation scores;

and wherein determining at least one of a rate and a direction of movement further includes;

choosing the highest displacement correlation score and providing the associated respective displacement movement vector to determine the direction of movement of the skin texture.

10. The method of claim 9 including the steps of iteratively:

resolving data received from a surface texture sensing means to produce a first image;

storing the first image as a previously stored image; and

wherein, the step of determining at least one of a rate and a direction of movement of fingerprint comprises comparing the first image to the previously stored image.

11. The method of claim 9 comprising:

timestamping each resolved first image with an associated timestamp;

recording the timestamp associated with a respective stored image;

computing the difference in time between the timestamp associated with at least one of the previously stored images and the timestamp associated with the first image and uses the computed time difference and the magnitude of the associated respective displacement movement vector to determine the rate of movement of the skin texture.