Methods and systems for capacitive motion sensing and position control
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsMark A. Johnson, Vivek Bhatt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for detecting motion and proximity by determining capacitance between a sensor and an object. The sensor includes sensing surfaces made of a thin film of electrically conductive material mounted on a non-conductive surface. In another embodiment, the sensor is a human body. The sensor senses the capacitance between a sensor's surface and an object in its vicinity and provides the capacitance to a control system that directs machine movement. Because the sensor does not require direct contact or line-of-sight with the object, a machine can be controlled before harm occurs to the object.
Claims61
A method for detecting motion of an object using a capacitance based sensing and control system, said method comprising the steps of:
- sensing a presence of the object based on measured capacitance between a sensor and the object;
- sensing a change in capacitance of the object;
- and
- adjusting operation of the control system based upon said sensed capacitance change.
A capacitance based proximity sensor comprising:
- a sensing surface of thin film conducting material;
- and
- a non-conducting backing material comprising a front side and a back side, said sensing surface mounted on said front side.
A medical imaging system comprising
- a radiation source further comprising at least one capacitance based proximity sensor;
- a capacitive sensing circuit;
- and
- a control system configured to control positioning of said x-ray source and proximity sensor.
An apparatus comprising:
- a sensing surface of thin film conducting material;
- a non-conducting backing material comprising a front side and a back side, and
- said sensing surface mounted on said non-conducting backing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.