Contactless user interface having organic semiconductor components

• US 9,417,731 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2012
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), ISORG SA
• Original Assignee: French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, ISORG SA
• Inventors: Gomez, Jean-Yves, Jamet, Laurent, Guerineau, Emmanuel, Premont, Christophe
• Primary Examiner(s): Legasse, Jr., Francis M
• Application Number:
  US14/347,986
• Publication Number:
  US 20140306097A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04102 Flexible digitiser, i.e. constructional details for allowing the whole digitising part of a device to be flexed or rolled like a sheet of paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means

Abstract

The invention relates to a tactile or contactless user interface device (50), comprising organic semiconductor components (52) made by depositing organic conducting and semiconducting material in liquid form on a dielectric support (54).

Claims

1. A touch or contactless user interface device, comprising:

organic semiconductor components formed by deposition of organic conductor and semiconductor materials in liquid form on a dielectric support, said semiconductor components comprising an array of infrared emitters and an array of photon sensors; and

a darkness sensor and means for activating the infrared emitters when the luminosity is below a threshold;

wherein said array of photon sensors is capable of detecting variations of the shadow of an actuation member and of deducing therefrom information representative of a variation of the position of the actuation member.

2. The device of claim 1, capable of deducing from said shadow variations information representative of a variation of the distance between the actuation member and the sensor array.

3. The device of claim 1, capable of deducing from said shadow variations information representative of a variation of the position of the actuation member parallel to the sensor array.

4. The device of claim 1, having no optical system between the sensor array and the actuation member.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein a translucent protection layer coats the sensor array.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the surface of the sensor array is higher than the surface of the actuation member in front of said array.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the actuation member is at a distance greater than ten centimeters away from the sensor array.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the dielectric support is made of a material from the group comprising glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, and fabric.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein said components are formed at a temperature smaller than 150°

C. and at atmospheric pressure.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein said semiconductor components comprise a light-emitting display pixel array.

11. The device of claim 1, further comprising a darkness sensor and means for activating the infrared emitters when the luminosity is below a threshold.

12. An interactive display surface comprising the device of claim 1, said device comprising display means and at least one photosensitive presence sensor.