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US 10,503,254 B2Granted
Motion and gesture input from a wearable device
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsNicholas Paul Joseph Allec, Xiaoyi Mu
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Abstract
This disclosure relates to detecting hand gesture input using an electronic device, such as a wearable device strapped to a wrist. The device can have multiple photodiodes, each sensing light at a different position on a surface of the device that faces skin of a user. Examples of the disclosure detect hand gestures by recognizing patterns in sensor data that are characteristic of each hand gesture, as the tissue expands and contracts and anatomical features in the tissue move during the gesture.
Claims18
A device comprising:
- a housing, configured to be strapped to a wrist of a user with a surface of the housing proximate to one side of the wrist;
- a plurality of light emitters disposed within the housing and configured to emit light through the surface toward a tissue of the user;
- a plurality of photodiodes disposed within the housing and configured to:
- receive at least a portion of a reflection of the emitted light through the surface;
- and
- generate sensor data indicative of movement of anatomic features in the tissue of the user;
- a plurality of channels, each channel associated with one of the plurality of light emitters and one of the plurality of photodiodes and further associated with a signal pattern including the sensor data from the respective photodiode;
- and
- logic disposed within the housing and configured to:
- receive the signal patterns of the plurality of channels,
- determine signal characteristics from the signal patterns,
- determine a difference in the signal characteristics of at least two of the plurality of channels, and
- determine a hand gesture from the determined difference in the signal characteristics.
10 more elements
A method of determining a hand gesture, the method comprising:
- emitting light from a plurality of light emitters disposed in a housing strapped to a wrist of a user, the housing having a surface proximate to one side of the wrist, and the light emitted through the surface toward a tissue of the user;
- receiving at least a portion of a reflection of the emitted light through the surface, the portion of the reflection being received using a plurality of photodiodes disposed within the housing;
- generating sensor data from the received light, the sensor data indicative of movement of anatomic features in the tissue of the user;
- associating the plurality of light emitters and plurality of photodiodes with a plurality of channels;
- associating signal patterns included in the sensor data to the plurality of channels;
- determining signal characteristics from the signal patterns;
- determining a difference in the signal characteristics of at least two of the plurality of channels;
- and
- determining the hand gesture from the determined difference in the signal characteristics.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.