US 11,294,054 B2Granted

Information handling system infrared proximity detection with ambient light management

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsDaniel L. Hamlin, Vivek Viswanathan Iyer

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Abstract

An information handling system manages operation of an infrared time of flight sensor to provide accurate and timely user presence and absence detection through adjustments of the time of flight sensor detection sensitivity based upon ambient light brightness and color temperature sensed by an ambient light sensor. An integrated sensor hub in a central processing unit disables infrared illumination by the time of flight sensor, senses ambient light conditions with the ambient light sensor, looks up sensitivity settings from a lookup table that associates infrared time of flight sensor sensitivity and ambient light conditions, applies the associated sensitivity at the infrared time of flight sensor and then re-enables infrared illumination to detect end user presence and absence with the infrared time of flight sensor.

Claims19

Dependent claims

An information handling system comprising:

a housing;
a processor disposed in the housing and operable to execute instructions that process information;
a memory disposed in the housing and interfaced with the processor, the memory operable to store the instructions and the information;
an embedded controller interfaced with the processor and operable to manage inputs provided from one or more input devices for communication to the processor;
a display interfaced with the processor and operable to present the information as visual images;
an ambient light sensor disposed proximate the display and operable to detect ambient light conditions;
an infrared time of flight sensor disposed in the housing and configured to detect user presence and absence by illuminating an area proximate the display with an infrared source and sensing infrared light reflected by an object to determine a distance to the object;
and
a proximity detection service executing on the processor and interfaced with the infrared time of flight sensor and the ambient light sensor, the proximity detection service operable to disable presentation of visual images at the display in response to an infrared time of flight sensor user absence detection, the proximity detection service further operable to retrieve ambient light conditions from the ambient light sensor to look up infrared time of flight sensitivity levels associated with the ambient light conditions and to communicate the infrared time of flight sensitivity levels to the infrared time of flight sensor for application in sensing distance to the object;
wherein:
the ambient light conditions comprise at least ambient light brightness and ambient light color temperature;
and
the proximity detection service looks up the infrared time of flight sensitivity levels from a lookup table stored in non-transitory memory that relates both ambient light brightness and ambient light color temperature to infrared time of flight sensitivity.

10 more elements

A system for detecting end user presence and absence at an information handling system, the system comprising:

an infrared time of flight sensor operable to illuminate an object with an infrared light source, to detect reflections from the object of the infrared illumination with a configurable sensitivity, and to determine a distance to the object based on the reflections;
an ambient light sensor operable to detect ambient light conditions;
a sensor controller interfaced with the infrared time of flight sensor and the ambient light sensor, the sensor controller operable to retrieve the ambient conditions and to command the configurable sensitivity;
and
a non-transient memory interfaced with the sensor controller and storing:
a lookup table of plural ambient conditions each related to one of plural configurable sensitivities;
and
instructions that when executed on the sensor controller applies ambient conditions received from the ambient light sensor to determine the configurable sensitivity related by the lookup table and commands the infrared time of flight sensor to apply the related configurable sensitivity, the instructions further reporting end user absence and presence to the information handling system based upon distances sensed by the infrared time of flight sensor.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/599,224Filed 11 Oct 2019
Published: US 2021/0109213 A115 Apr 2021
Granted: 5 Apr 2022
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification16 codes

G01S 17/04
Systems using the reflection of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves: systems determining the presence of a target
G01J 1/0238
Details: making use of sensor-related data, e.g. for identification of sensor or optical parts
G01J 1/1626
Using electric radiation detectors: arrangements with two photodetectors, the signals of which are compared
G01J 1/4204
Using electric radiation detectors: with determination of ambient light