User interface for white goods and associated multi-channel proximity sensors

• US 8,976,158 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2014
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Neonode, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Neonode, Inc.
• Inventors: Eriksson, Thomas, Holmgren, Stefan, Henriksson, Carl Richard, stergrde, Stefan
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): MAZZARA, ANNE MARIE
• Application Number:
  US14/229,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20140210793A1
• Time in Patent Office: 346 Days
• Field of Search: 345/175
• US Class Current: 345/175
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 7/083 on tops, hot plates
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 7/086 touch control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A touch sensor including a housing, a light guide mounted in the housing the light guide featuring an aperture through which light exits and enters the light guide, and an inner surface facing the interior of the housing, the sensor further includes two light emitters mounted in the housing for emitting light beams into the light guide that exit the aperture at diverging angles and a light receiver mounted in the housing for receiving reflected light beams entering the aperture at an angle of incidence different than the diverging angles.

Claims

1. A touch sensor comprising:

a housing;

a light guide mounted in said housing comprising;

an outer surface through which light exits and enters said housing; and

three reflective or refractive inner surfaces;

two light emitters mounted in said housing in such a way that light beams emitted by the two light emitters into said light guide are re-directed by two of said inner surfaces and exit said outer surface; and

a light receiver mounted in said housing in such a way as to receive the light beams exiting said outer surface that are reflected back into said light guide by an object outside said light guide and further re-directed by the third of said inner surfaces, the light receiver outputting a signal indicative of light beams that it receives.

2. The touch sensor of claim 1, wherein said two light emitters and said light receiver are arranged at three points beneath and surrounding said outer surface.

3. The touch sensor of claim 2, wherein the two of said inner surfaces comprise first and second prisms inside said light guide.

4. The touch sensor of claim 3, wherein the third of said inner surfaces comprises a third prism inside said light guide.

5. The touch sensor of claim 1, further comprising a processor connected to said two light emitters and to said light receiver, operative to detect a touch above said outer surface based on signals output by said light receiver, wherein said processor only reports a touch detection when said processor confirms that said light receiver outputs similar signals when each of said two emitters is separately activated.

6. An appliance in accordance with claim 1, comprising:

a panel comprising a plurality of illuminable icons, wherein a current setting for the appliance is indicated by one or more concurrently illuminated icons;

a plurality of touch sensors, each touch sensor comprising a touch sensor in accordance with claim 1 and being situated beneath a respective one of said icons; and

a processor connected with said touch sensors, operative to select one or more of said icons and to illuminate the selected one or more icons in response to the one or more icons'"'"' respective touch sensors detecting a touch.

7. The appliance of claim 6, further comprising a cavity into which items to be processed by the appliance are placed, the cavity comprising a circular opening, wherein said panel is an arc-shaped ribbon surrounding a portion of said circular opening.

8. The touch sensor of claim 1, wherein the two of said inner surfaces are positioned in such a way as to re-direct the light beams emitted by the two light emitters so that the light beams emitted by one of the two emitters diverge from the light beams emitted by the other of the two emitters, as they exit said light guide.

9. The touch sensor of claim 8, wherein the third of said inner surfaces is positioned in such a way that light beams, entering said light guide along a path substantially different than the exit paths of the emitted light beams, are re-directed by the third of said inner surfaces to said light receiver.

10. A touch sensor comprising:

a housing;

a light guide mounted in said housing comprising;

an outer surface through which light exits and enters said housing; and

three reflective or refractive inner surfaces;

a light emitter mounted in said housing in such a way that light beams emitted by the light emitter into said light guide are re-directed by a first of said inner surfaces and exit said outer surface; and

two light receivers mounted in said housing in such a way as to receive the light beams exiting said outer surface that are reflected back by an object outside said light guide and further re-directed by the second and third of said inner surfaces, the light receivers outputting signals indicative of light beams that they receive.

11. The touch sensor of claim 10, wherein said two light receivers and said light emitter are arranged at three points beneath and surrounding said outer surface.

12. The touch sensor of claim 11, wherein the first of said inner surfaces comprises a first prism inside said light guide.

13. The touch sensor of claim 12, wherein the second and third of said inner surfaces comprise second and third prisms inside said light guide.

14. The touch sensor of claim 10, further comprising a processor connected to said light emitter and to said two light receivers, operative to detect a touch above said outer surface based on signals output by said two light receivers, wherein said processor only reports a touch detection when said processor confirms that each of said light receivers outputs a similar signal when said emitter is activated.

15. An appliance in accordance with claim 10, comprising:

a panel comprising a plurality of illuminable icons, wherein a current setting for the appliance is indicated by one or more concurrently illuminated icons;

a plurality of touch sensors, each touch sensor comprising a touch sensor in accordance with claim 10 and being situated beneath a respective one of said icons; and

a processor connected with said touch sensors, operative to select one or more of said icons and to illuminate the selected one or more icons in response to the one or more icons'"'"' respective touch sensors detecting a touch.

16. The appliance of claim 15, further comprising a cavity into which items to be processed by the appliance are Placed, the cavity comprising a circular opening, wherein said panel is an arc-shaped ribbon surrounding a portion of said circular opening.

17. The touch sensor of claim 10, wherein the first of said inner surfaces is positioned in such a way as to re-direct the emitted light beams to exit said light guide along an exit path,

wherein the second of said inner surfaces is positioned in such a way as to re-direct light beams, that enter said light guide along a first entry path, to one of said light receivers,

wherein the third of said inner surfaces is positioned in such a way as to re-direct light beams, that enter said light guide along a second entry path, to the other of said light receivers, and

wherein the exit path, the first entry path and the second entry path are substantially different paths.

18. An appliance comprising:

a touch sensitive panel on which are displayed a plurality of icons representing different appliance settings, and comprising a demarcated area separate from the displayed icons; and

a processor connected with said panel, operative to select an icon'"'"'s appliance setting in response to detecting a finger gliding from that icon into said demarcated area.

19. The appliance of claim 18, wherein said panel comprises a touch screen, and wherein representations of the appliance settings selected by said processor are rendered on said touch screen inside said demarcated area.

20. The appliance of claim 19, wherein said demarcated area comprises a sunken portion of said panel.

21. The appliance of claim 19, wherein the appliance is a member of the group consisting of a dishwasher, a refrigerator, a washing machine, an oven and a clothes dryer.