Apparatus and method for detecting finger activity on a fingerprint sensor
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- placing a fingerprint sensor in one of a wait-for-event and a wake-on-event mode;
transmitting a probing signal to a fingerprint sensing transmitting element, comprising one of a stand alone wake-up transmitting element and a fingerprint sensing wake-up transmitting element, selected from a plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements and selectively kept active, while the remaining fingerprint sensing transmitting elements of the plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements are in a non-active mode, to reduce power consumption by the fingerprint sensor;
receiving a response signal from one of the stand alone wake-up transmitting element and the fingerprint sensing wake-up transmitting element at a fingerprint sensing receiving element;
monitoring the response signal on the fingerprint sensing receiving element to determine if a finger is present in a fingerprint sensing area; and
removing the fingerprint sensor from the one of the wait-for-event and the wake-on-event mode in response to the response signal.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for detecting the presence of a finger on a fingerprint sensor is disclosed in one embodiment of the invention as including transmitting a probing signal, comprising a series of probing pulses, to a fingerprint sensing area. A response signal, comprising a series of response pulses, is received from the fingerprint sensing area in response to the probing signal. An upper reference signal is generated and finger activity is detected on the fingerprint sensing area by monitoring whether the peaks of the response pulses exceed the reference signal.
371 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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placing a fingerprint sensor in one of a wait-for-event and a wake-on-event mode; transmitting a probing signal to a fingerprint sensing transmitting element, comprising one of a stand alone wake-up transmitting element and a fingerprint sensing wake-up transmitting element, selected from a plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements and selectively kept active, while the remaining fingerprint sensing transmitting elements of the plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements are in a non-active mode, to reduce power consumption by the fingerprint sensor; receiving a response signal from one of the stand alone wake-up transmitting element and the fingerprint sensing wake-up transmitting element at a fingerprint sensing receiving element; monitoring the response signal on the fingerprint sensing receiving element to determine if a finger is present in a fingerprint sensing area; and removing the fingerprint sensor from the one of the wait-for-event and the wake-on-event mode in response to the response signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A fingerprint detecting sensor, comprising:
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a transmitter configured to transmit a probing signal to a fingerprint sensing transmitting element, comprising one of a stand alone wake-up transmitting element and a fingerprint sensing wake-up transmitting element, selected from a plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements and selectively kept active while the remaining fingerprint sensing transmitting elements of the plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements are placed in a non-active mode, to reduce power consumption by the fingerprint detecting sensor; a fingerprint sensing receiving element configured to receive a response signal, from one of the stand alone wake-up transmitting element and the fingerprint scanner wake-up transmitting element at the receiving element; a first signal generator configured to generate an upper reference signal; and a detector configured to monitor the response signal in relation to the upper reference signal. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An fingerprint sensor comprising:
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probing signal transmitting means for transmitting a probing signal to a fingerprint sensing transmitting element, comprising one of a stand alone wake-up transmitting element and a fingerprint sensing wake-up transmitting element, selected from a plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements and selectively kept active while the remaining fingerprint sensing transmitting elements of the plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements are in a non-active mode, to reduce power consumption by the fingerprint sensor; fingerprint sensing receiving means for receiving response signal from one of the stand alone wake-up transmitting element and the fingerprint scanner wake-up transmitting element at a fingerprint sensing receiving element; reference generating means for establishing an upper reference signal; and monitoring means for monitoring the response signal from the fingerprint sensing receiving element to determine if a finger is present in a fingerprint sensing area. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A tangible machine readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
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transmitting a probing signal to a fingerprint sensing transmitting element, comprising one of a stand alone wake-up transmitting element and a fingerprint sensor fingerprint sensing wake-up transmitting element, selected from a plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements and selectively kept active, while the remaining fingerprint sensing transmitting elements of the plurality of fingerprint sensing transmitting elements are placed in a non-active mode, to reduce power consumption by the fingerprint sensor; receiving a response signal from one of the stand alone wake-up transmitting element and the fingerprint scanner wake-up transmitting element at a fingerprint sensing receiving element; and monitoring the signal from the fingerprint sensing receiving element to determine if a finger is present in a fingerprint sensing area.
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Specification