TACTILE SENSOR MODULE HAVING UWB WIRELESS COMMUNICATION FUNCTION AND UWB COMMUNICATION METHOD USING THE TACTILE SENSOR MODULE

• US 20100302181A1
• Filed: 11/03/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science
• Original Assignee: Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science
• Inventors: Kim, Jong Ho, Kim, Min Seok, Park, Yon-Kyu, Kang, Dae Im
• Application Number:
  US12/611,369
• Publication Number:
  US 20100302181A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/719 Interference-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/23 Construction or mounting of dials or of equivalent devices; Means for facilitating the use thereof by improving visibility H04M1/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041

Abstract

Disclosed herein are a tactile sensor module including a sensing unit connected to an external electronic device through a UWB communication network and a UWB communication method using the tactile sensor module. The tactile sensor module includes the sensing unit which has a plurality of sensor cells and outputs an output signal corresponding tactile information on a force applied thereto by a user using a pointing object, and a UWB based module which wirelessly connects the sensing unit to the external electronic device to construct a UWB communication network, receives external data in the form of a UWB wireless communication signal from the external electronic device, converts the output signal into data that can be recognized by the external electronic device and transmits the converted data to the external electronic device as a UWB wireless communication signal.

Claims

1. A tactile sensor module having an ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication function, comprising:

a sensing unit having a plurality of sensor cells sensing an external force applied thereto and outputting an output signal based on tactile information in proportion to the applied force; and

a UWB wireless communication unit receiving the output signal, converting the received signal into a UWB wireless communication signal and transmitting the UWB wireless communication signal,

wherein the UWB wireless communication unit comprises a UWB receiver receiving external data in the form of a UWB wireless communication signal from an external electronic device and a UWB transmitter transmitting the output signal converted into the UWB wireless communication signal to the external electronic device.

2. The tactile sensor module of claim 1, wherein the sensing unit is of a contact resistance type.

3. The tactile sensor module of claim 1, wherein the sensing unit is of a capacitance type.

4. The tactile sensor module of claim 1, wherein the sensing unit further includes a multiplexer which has a matrix form, is connected to each of the plurality of sensor cells and transmits the output signal corresponding to the tactile information based on the applied force to the UWB wireless communication unit.

5. The tactile sensor module of claim 4, wherein the multiplexer comprises a first multiplexer connected to each of the plurality of sensor cells through input signal lines and a second multiplexer connected to each of the plurality of sensor cells through output signal lines, each of the input signal lines has two terminals respectively capable of selecting an input and ground and each of the output signal lines has two terminal respectively capable of selecting an output and ground.

6. The tactile sensor module of claim 5, wherein the UWB wireless communication unit further comprises an amplifier receiving the output signal and amplifying the output signal and an A/D converter converting the amplified output signal into a digital signal.

7. The tactile sensor module of claim 6, wherein the UWB wireless communication unit further comprises an operation processor converting the digital signal converted by the A/D converter into data that can be recognized by the external electronic device and transmitting the converted data to the UWB transmitter.

8. The tactile sensor module of claim 7, wherein the UWB wireless communication unit further comprises a controller which receives the UWB wireless communication signal received by the UWB receiver, controls the UWB transmitter to transmit the data converted by the operation processor to the external electronic device as a UWB wireless communication signal and controls the multiplexer to output the output signal to the UWB wireless communication unit.

9. The tactile sensor module of claim 8, further comprising a power supply supplying power to the UWB wireless communication unit.

10. The tactile sensor module of claim 1, wherein the external electronic device is a robot capable of performing UWB wireless communication with the tactile sensor module.

11. The tactile sensor module of claim 10, wherein the robot has a plurality of tactile sensor modules having the UWB wireless communication function, which are attached to the surface of the robot, and an output signal corresponding to tactile information based on a force applied to the sensing unit is transmitted to the robot as UWB wireless communication signal to operate the robot.

12. The tactile sensor module of claim 1, wherein the external electronic device is a mobile communication terminal capable of performing UWB wireless communication with the tactile sensor module.

13. The tactile sensor module of claim 12, wherein a touch screen of the mobile communication terminal includes a plurality of tactile sensor modules having the UWB wireless communication function and an output signal corresponding to tactile information based on a force applied to the sensing unit is transmitted to the mobile communication terminal as a UWB wireless communication signal to provide various interfaces to a user.

14. A UWB communication method using a tactile sensor module having a UWB wireless communication function, comprising the steps of:

receiving external data in the form of a UWB wireless communication signal from an external electronic device through a UWB receiver and constructing a UWB wireless communication network between a sensing unit and the external electronic device through a UWB wireless communication unit;

controlling a first multiplexer connected to a plurality of sensor cells of the sensing unit through input signal lines and a second multiplexer connected to the plurality of sensor cells through output signal lines to scan the input signal lines and the output signal lines to obtain signal information data and outputting an output signal corresponding to tactile information based on the signal information data from the second multiplexer;

amplifying the output signal output from the second multiplexer;

converting the amplified output signal into a digital signal;

converting the digital signal into data that can be recognized by the external electronic device; and

transmitting the converted data to a UWB transmitter and controlling the UWB transmitter to transmit the converted data to the external electronic device as a UWB wireless communication signal.

15. The UWB communication method of claim 14, wherein the external electronic device is a robot capable of performing UWB wireless communication with the tactile sensor module having the UWB wireless communication function.

16. The UWB communication method of claim 15, wherein the robot has a plurality of tactile sensor modules having the UWB wireless communication function, which are attached to the surface of the robot, and an output signal corresponding to tactile information based on a force applied to the sensing unit is transmitted to the robot to operate the robot.

17. The UWB communication method of claim 14, wherein the external electronic device is a mobile communication terminal capable of performing UWB wireless communication with the tactile sensor module having the UWB wireless communication function.

18. The UWB communication method of claim 17, wherein a touch screen of the mobile communication terminal includes a plurality of tactile sensor modules having the UWB wireless communication function and an output signal corresponding to tactile information based on a force applied to the sensing unit is transmitted to the mobile communication terminal to provide various interfaces to a user.