USER INTERFACES FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES

• US 20140029384A1
• Filed: 09/25/2013
• Published: 01/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elliptic Laboratories AS
• Original Assignee: Elliptic Laboratories AS
• Inventors: DAHL, Tobias Gulden, SYVERSRUD, Cato, BANG, Hans Jrgen
• Granted Patent: US 9,910,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 367/95
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/02 using reflection of acoustic waves G01S15/66 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• 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 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/043 using propagating acoustic waves

Abstract

An electronic device comprises a transmitter 6 for transmitting ultrasonic signals, a receiver 8 for receiving reflections 20 of said ultrasonic signals, wherein the device is adapted to control a function thereof in dependence on said received reflections, the device further comprising means for providing to a user an indication 14 of the presence of signals or noise which could interfere with said reflections.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising a transmitter for transmitting ultrasonic signals, a receiver for receiving reflections of said ultrasonic signals, wherein the device is adapted to control a function thereof in dependence on said received reflections, the device further comprising an indicating arrangement providing to a user an indication of a presence of signals or noise which could interfere with said reflections.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 configured to give an indication of a relative level of interference.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 configured to give an indication of the presence of potential interference of any one or more of interference types comprising:

signals from other devices of the same type as the first device and reflections thereof;

signals from other devices employing ultrasound to perform a function but of a different type to the device, and reflections thereof; and

random or environmental noise which spans a part of an ultrasonic frequency band used by the device.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3 configured to distinguish at least one of the interference types.

5. A device as claimed in claim 4 arranged to recognise transmissions from a similar device and give a different indication and/or perform a different action than when one of said other types of interference is detected.

6. A device as claimed in claim 1 arranged to carry out an action in response to a detection of the presence of signals or noise which could interfere with said reflections.

7. A device as claimed in claim 6 arranged to carry out said action if said signals or noise which could interfere with said reflections exceeds a threshold.

8. A device as claimed in claim 6 wherein said action is selected from a group comprising:

switching off a touchless interaction mode so that said function is no longer controlled by said received reflections;

increase a power at which said signals are transmitted;

or initiating or altering a collision-avoidance algorithm.

9. A device as claimed in claim 6 arranged to give an indication to the user of a direction and/or distance to a source of interference.

10. A device as claimed in claim 6 wherein said action is dependent on a type of interference detected.

11. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the indication comprises a graphical indication on a display screen of the device.

12. A device as claimed in claim 11 wherein said indication comprises a graphical icon.

13. A device as claimed in claim 12 wherein the icon comprises successive parts which are progressively displayed or extinguished depending upon a level of potential interference.

14. A device as claimed in claim 11 wherein the graphical indication comprises an alteration to a way in which other information is displayed on the screen.

15. A device as claimed in claim 1 arranged to measure a total energy of signals received and relate this to one or more thresholds based on an expected energy level associated with signals reflected from an input object.

16. A device as claimed in claim 1 arranged to take into account a frequency of energy it receives.

17. A device as claimed in claim 1 arranged to determine potential interference from signals received within a defined time window.

18. A device as claimed in claim 1 arranged to apply a de-convolution to the received reflections based on the transmitted signals.

19. A device as claimed in claim 1 arranged to suspend its own transmissions and to listen for and analyse signals received during a time window corresponding to a region of interest defined by times of flight of said signals corresponding to reflections from an input object when it is within a predefined zone of sensitivity.