Touchless interaction

• US 10,459,579 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2012
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elliptic Laboratories AS
• Original Assignee: Elliptic Laboratories AS
• Inventors: Dahl, Tobias Gulden, Syversrud, Cato
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, William
• Application Number:
  US14/125,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20140176467A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,695 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3259 Power saving in cursor control device, e.g. mouse, joystick, trackball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- 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 without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/043 using propagating acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0433 in which the acoustic waves are either generated by a movable member and propagated within a surface layer or propagated within a surface layer and captured by a movable member
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A portable electronic device comprises means 4 for transmitting ultrasonic signals 8, means 6 for receiving ultrasonic signals 12 reflected from an input object 10, and means for processing received ultrasonic signals to determine an input to the device. The device is configured to reduce the transmission power of the ultrasonic signals transmitted by the transmitting means in the event that: the device determines that a reflection 16 from an object 14 other than the input object meets a predetermined criterion; or if an event is detected which indicates that the user is or will be using a function of the device which does not support touchless interaction.

Also disclosed is an electronic device comprising transmission means 4 for transmitting ultrasonic signals 8, means 6 for receiving ultrasonic signals 12 reflected from an input object 10 and means for processing received ultrasonic signals to determine an input to the device, the device further comprising user operable control means for allowing a user to turn a touchless interaction mode on and off, the device being configured to execute an additional operation when the touchless interaction mode is turned off.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit ultrasonic signals at a first transmission power,

a receiver for receiving ultrasonic signals reflected from an input object, and

a processor for processing received ultrasonic signals to determine an input to the device, wherein the device is configured to continue transmitting ultrasonic signals at a second, lower, transmission power in the event that the device determines that a reflection from an object other than the input object meets a predetermined criterion.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the other object is part of a user'"'"'s body.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said predetermined criterion comprises determining a difference metric between two temporally-separated received signals and the device is configured to transmit said ultrasonic signals at said second transmission power if the difference between the signals is below a threshold.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said predetermined criterion comprises whether a level of the received signal exceeds a threshold.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1 configured to determine that the received signal has resulted in an overload condition occurring in the processor.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1 configured to transmit said ultrasonic signals at said second transmission power upon detection of an event indicative that the user is using a function of the device which does not support touchless interaction.

7. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said ultrasonic signals transmitted at said second transmission power have a lower peak signal strength than said ultrasonic signals transmitted at said first transmission power.

8. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said ultrasonic signals transmitted at said second transmission power have a lower transmission rate than said ultrasonic signals transmitted at said first transmission power.

9. The device as claimed in claim 1 configured to transmit said ultrasonic signals at said second transmission power if it is determined that the input object is beyond a boundary.