Method and device for three-dimensional sensing
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a touchless sensing unit to generate a three-dimensional ultrasonic sensing space and track a relative location and movement of an object in the three-dimensional ultrasonic sensing space; and
a controller communicatively coupled to said touchless sensing unit for communicating a coordinate of said object within said three-dimensional space, wherein the sensing unit operates to;
emit an ultrasonic pulse from a first ultrasonic transducer configured to transmit the ultrasonic pulse that reflects off the object in said three-dimensional space and generates a reflected ultrasonic signal;
digitally sample the reflected ultrasonic signal to produce a sampled reflected ultrasonic signal;
suppress a ringing distortion of the sampled reflected ultrasonic signal via digital signal processingwherein the ringing distortion is a result of the close proximity interference and residual ringing of the emitted ultrasonic pulse;
and wherein the suppressing comprises subtracting a contribution of the ringing portion of the emitted ultrasonic pulse from the reflected signal to remove a ring-down effect;
estimate a time of flight between when said ultrasonic pulse was transmitted from said first ultrasonic transducer and when the suppressed reflected ultrasonic signal was received for a plurality of ultrasonic transducers configured to receive the reflected ultrasonic signal;
calculate a phase differential between the suppressed reflected ultrasonic signal and a previously received reflected ultrasonic signal both received at a same ultrasonic transducer for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers; and
determine a location and relative displacement of said object by weighting said time of flight measurements and with said phase differential measurements for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers from repeated operation.
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Abstract
An apparatus (100) and method is provided that identifies and tracks a relative location and movement of an object in a three-dimensional space. The sensing unit includes a processor (122) for communicating a coordinate information of the object within the three-dimensional space. The method includes emitting a pulse from a first transducer (101), estimating a time of flight from a reflection signal received by a second transducer (102), and determining a location and relative movement of the object from the time of flight measurements. The sensing unit can provide touchless control via touchless finger depression actions, finger slide actions, finger release actions, and finger hold actions.
60 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a touchless sensing unit to generate a three-dimensional ultrasonic sensing space and track a relative location and movement of an object in the three-dimensional ultrasonic sensing space; and a controller communicatively coupled to said touchless sensing unit for communicating a coordinate of said object within said three-dimensional space, wherein the sensing unit operates to; emit an ultrasonic pulse from a first ultrasonic transducer configured to transmit the ultrasonic pulse that reflects off the object in said three-dimensional space and generates a reflected ultrasonic signal; digitally sample the reflected ultrasonic signal to produce a sampled reflected ultrasonic signal; suppress a ringing distortion of the sampled reflected ultrasonic signal via digital signal processing wherein the ringing distortion is a result of the close proximity interference and residual ringing of the emitted ultrasonic pulse; and wherein the suppressing comprises subtracting a contribution of the ringing portion of the emitted ultrasonic pulse from the reflected signal to remove a ring-down effect; estimate a time of flight between when said ultrasonic pulse was transmitted from said first ultrasonic transducer and when the suppressed reflected ultrasonic signal was received for a plurality of ultrasonic transducers configured to receive the reflected ultrasonic signal; calculate a phase differential between the suppressed reflected ultrasonic signal and a previously received reflected ultrasonic signal both received at a same ultrasonic transducer for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers; and determine a location and relative displacement of said object by weighting said time of flight measurements and with said phase differential measurements for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers from repeated operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for identifying and tracking a relative location and movement of an object in a three-dimensional space comprising:
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emitting a first ultrasonic pulse from a first ultrasonic transducer configured to transmit the ultrasonic pulse at a first time and reflect off an object in said three-dimensional space and generate a first reflected ultrasonic signal; emitting a second ultrasonic pulse from the first ultrasonic transducer configured to transmit the ultrasonic pulse at a second time and reflect off the object in said three-dimensional space and generate a second reflected ultrasonic signal; digitally sampling the first and second reflected ultrasonic signal to produce first and second sampled reflected ultrasonic signals; suppressing a ringing distortion of the first and second reflected ultrasonic signals via digital signal processing; wherein the ringing distortion is a result of the close proximity interference, residual ringing of the first and second emitted ultrasonic pulses and an overlap with a ring-down of the first and second emitted ultrasonic pulse; and wherein the suppressing comprises subtracting a contribution of the ringing portion of the first and second emitted ultrasonic pulses from the first and second reflected ultrasonic signals to remove the ring-down effect; wherein a contribution of the emitted ultrasonic signal is subtracted from the reflected signal according to a symmetry of sensing elements that transmit and receive the ultrasonic signals to suppress the ring-down estimating a time of flight between when said second ultrasonic pulse was transmitted from said first ultrasonic transducer and when the second reflected ultrasonic signal was received for a plurality of ultrasonic transducers configured to receive the second reflected ultrasonic signal; calculating a phase differential between the first reflected ultrasonic signal and the second ultrasonic reflected signal both received at a same ultrasonic transducer for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers; determining a location and relative displacement of said object by weighting said time of flight measurements and with said phase differential measurements for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers;
wherein the object is within a predetermined range from the first transducer and plurality of transducers. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A mobile device having a sensing unit comprising:
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an array of sensing elements arranged for said communication device to identify and track touchless finger movements; at least one sensing element within a boundary of a display of the communication device; and a controller communicatively coupled to said array and said at least one sensing element for conveying touchless controls to a user interface of said communication device in response to said finger movements where the controller by way of the at least one sensing element;
emits a sequence of ultrasonic pulses from a first ultrasonic transducer configured to transmit the sequence of ultrasonic pulses that reflect off an object to produce reflected ultrasonic signals;digitally sample the reflected ultrasonic signals to produce sampled reflected ultrasonic signals; suppress a ringing distortion of the sampled reflected ultrasonic signals via digital signal processing; wherein the ringing distortion is a result of the close proximity interference, residual ringing of the emitted ultrasonic pulse and an overlap with a ring-down of the emitted ultrasonic pulses; and wherein the suppressing comprises subtracting a contribution of the ringing portion of the emitted ultrasonic pulses from the reflected signals to remove a ring-down effect; estimates a time of flight between when one ultrasonic pulse of the sequence was transmitted from said first ultrasonic transducer and when the reflected ultrasonic signal generated from a reflection of said one ultrasonic pulse off an object in said three-dimensional space was received for a plurality of ultrasonic transducers configured to receive the reflection of said one ultrasonic pulse; calculates a phase differential between the reflected ultrasonic signal and a previously received ultrasonic reflected signal at each ultrasonic transducer for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers; and determines a location and relative displacement of said object f-rein by weighting said time of flight measurement with said phase differential measurement for the plurality of ultrasonic transducers, wherein the sensing unit is less than 10 inches along any length. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification