Door handle with optical proximity sensors

• US 9,741,184 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2014
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Neonode, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Neonode, Inc.
• Inventors: Iyer, Sairam, Holmgren, Stefan, Rosengren, Per
• Primary Examiner(s): BROWN, VERNAL U
• Application Number:
  US14/555,731
• Publication Number:
  US 20150248796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 998 Days
• Field of Search: 340 562
• 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 3/021 Arrangements integrating additional peripherals in a keyboard, e.g. card or barcode reader, optical scanner
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2009/00396 starting with prompting the keyless data carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2009/00769 with data transmission performed by wireless means
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00309 operated with bidirectional data transmission between data carrier and locks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/20 involving the use of a pass

Abstract

A door handle including light emitters for emitting light out of the handle, light detectors, lenses oriented relative to the emitters and detectors such that for each emitter-detector pair, when a reflective object is located at a target position near the handle, corresponding to that emitter-detector pair, then the light emitted by that emitter passes through one of the lenses and is reflected by the object back through one of the lenses to that detector, a keyless lock that, when activated, scans for a digital key via wireless communication, and a processor operable to synchronously activate emitter-detector pairs, to recognize from the amounts of light received by the activated detectors, and from the target positions corresponding to the activated emitter-detector pairs, that the object is approaching the handle and performing a sweep gesture and, in response thereto, to activate the keyless lock.

Claims

1. A proximity sensor for a door of a structure, comprising:

a printed circuit board (PCB) mounted in a structure;

a plurality of light emitters mounted on said PCB emitting light out of the structure;

a plurality of light detectors mounted on said PCB;

a plurality of lenses mounted on said PCB and oriented relative to said emitters and to said detectors such that for each emitter-detector pair, when a reflective object is located at a target position near the structure, corresponding to that emitter-detector pair, then the light emitted by that emitter passes through one of the lenses and is reflected by the object back through one of the lenses to that detector, wherein at least one of said lenses comprises;

an upper portion, comprising;

an upper refractive surface located nearer to said emitters and detectors; and

an upper reflector located further from said emitters and detectors, and being curved in two dimensions and cut horizontally by a top horizontal plane of the lens; and

a lower portion, coplanar with said emitters and detectors, comprising;

a lower refractive surface located nearer to said emitters and detectors; and

a lower reflector located further from said emitters and detectors, the lower reflector being curved in the two dimensions and cut horizontally by a bottom horizontal plane of the lens, wherein said upper and lower reflectors are symmetrical and vertically aligned, and wherein non-collimated light reflected by said lower reflector onto said upper reflector is partially collimated by said lower reflector and further collimated by said upper reflector; and

a processor mounted in the structure and connected to said emitters and to said detectors, (i) synchronously activating emitter-detector pairs, (ii) recognizing from the amounts of light received by the activated detectors, based on the target positions corresponding to the activated emitter-detector pairs, that the object is approaching the structure and is performing a sweep gesture, and (iii) in response to the recognized sweep gesture, activating a keyless lock for locking and unlocking a door of the structure, wherein the keyless lock, when activated, scans for a digital key via wireless communication.

2. The proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein at least some of said lenses are oriented so that for each emitter-detector pair from a group of said emitters and a group of said detectors, when the object is located at the target position corresponding to that emitter-detector pair, the light emitted by the emitter of that pair is projected at an angle θ

with respect to an optical axis of one of said lenses, and is reflected by the object back to the detector at an angle −

θ

with respect to the optical axis.

3. The proximity sensor of claim 2, wherein θ

is approximately 20°

.

4. The proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein at least some of said lenses comprise a curved refractive surface for collimating light in one dimension.

5. The proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein said lenses are oriented so that for each emitter-detector pair from a group of said emitters and a group of said detectors, when the object is located at the target position corresponding to that emitter-detector pair, the light emitted by the emitter of that pair is reflected by the object back to the detector of that pair at an angle θ

or −

θ

with respect to an optical axis of one of said lenses.

6. The proximity sensor of claim 5, wherein θ

is approximately 27°

.

7. The proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein at least some of said lenses are situated between said emitters and said detectors.

8. The proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein said emitters and said detectors comprise diodes that are mounted on said PCB without individual plastic casing lenses and without individual substrates.

9. The proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein the structure is a vehicle.

10. The proximity sensor of claim 1, wherein the structure is a building.

11. A method for activating a keyless lock for a structure, the structure including (i) a door, (ii) a keyless lock that locks and unlocks the door, (iii) a processor, (iv) a printed circuit board (PCB), (v) a plurality of light emitters, denoted E, mounted on the PCB and connected to the processor, for emitting light out of the structure, (vi) a plurality of light detectors, denoted D, mounted on the PCB and connected to the processor, and (vii) a plurality of lenses mounted on the PCB and oriented relative to the emitters and detectors such that for each emitter-detector pair (E, D), when a reflective object is located at a target position P(E, D) near the structure, corresponding to that emitter-detector pair (E, D), then the light emitted by emitter E passes through one of the lenses and is reflected by the object back through one of the lenses to that detector D, the method comprising:

for each of a sequence of times, t₁, . . . , t_n, synchronously activating a plurality of emitter-detector pairs (E, D);

for each time t_i, calculating a position, P_i, of the object, based on the amounts R(E, D) of light received by D, at time t_i, for the emitter-detector pairs (E, D) that are synchronously activated at time t_i, and based on the corresponding target positions P(E, D);

recognizing from the thus-calculated positions P₁, . . . , P_n of the object that the object is approaching the structure and is performing a sweep gesture along the structure; and

activating the keyless lock to scan for a digital key via wireless communication, in response to said recognizing.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said calculating a position, P_i, comprises:

determining that emitter-detector pair (E_max, D_max), for which the amount of received light R(E, D) is a maximum, for the emitter-detector pairs (E, D) that are synchronously activated at time t_i;

determining one or more others (E_neighbor, D_neighbor) of the emitter-detector pairs (E, D) that are synchronously activated at time t_i, whose corresponding target positions P(E, D) neighbor the target position P(E_max, D_max); and

calculating position P_i

P_i=Σ

W(E,D)*P(E,D),

as a weighted average of the target positions P(E_max, D_max) and P(E_neighbor, D_neighbor), with respective weights W(E, D) corresponding to the respective amounts of received light R(E_max, D_max) and R(E_neighbor, D_neighbor).

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the structure is a vehicle.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the structure is a building.

15. A proximity sensor for a door of a structure, comprising:

a printed circuit board (PCB) mounted in a structure;

a plurality of light emitters mounted on said PCB for emitting light out of the structure;

a plurality of light detectors mounted on said PCB;

a plurality of lenses mounted on said PCB and oriented relative to said emitters and to said detectors such that for each emitter-detector pair, when a reflective object is located at a target position near the structure, corresponding to that emitter-detector pair, then the light emitted by that emitter passes through one of the lenses and is reflected by the object back through one of the lenses to that detector, wherein at least some of the lenses comprise a curved reflector for collimating light in a first dimension and a curved refractive surface for collimating light in a second dimension; and

a processor mounted in the structure and connected to said emitters and to said detectors, (i) synchronously activating emitter-detector pairs, (ii) recognizing from the amounts of light received by the activated detectors, based on the target positions corresponding to the activated emitter-detector pairs, that the object is approaching the structure and is performing a sweep gesture, and (iii) in response to recognizing the sweep gesture, activating a keyless lock for locking and unlocking a door of the structure, wherein the keyless lock, when activated, scans for a digital key via wireless communication.

16. The proximity sensor of claim 15, wherein at least some of said lenses are oriented so that for each emitter-detector pair from a group of said emitters and a group of said detectors, when the object is located at the target position corresponding to that emitter-detector pair, the light emitted by the emitter of that pair is projected at an angle θ

with respect to an optical axis of one of said lenses, and is reflected by the object back to the detector at an angle −

θ

with respect to the optical axis.

17. The proximity sensor of claim 16, wherein θ

is approximately 20°

.

18. The proximity sensor of claim 15, wherein said lenses are oriented so that for each emitter-detector pair from a group of said emitters and a group of said detectors, when the object is located at the target position corresponding to that emitter-detector pair, the light emitted by the emitter of that pair is reflected by the object back to the detector of that pair at an angle θ

or −

θ

with respect to an optical axis of one of said lenses.

19. The proximity sensor of claim 18, wherein θ

is approximately 27°

.

20. The proximity sensor of claim 15, wherein at least some of said lenses are situated between said emitters and said detectors.

21. The proximity sensor of claim 15, wherein said emitters and said detectors comprise diodes that are mounted on said PCB without individual plastic casing lenses and without individual substrates.

22. The proximity sensor of claim 15, wherein the structure is a vehicle.

23. The proximity sensor of claim 15, wherein the structure is a building.