Sensor and method for operating the sensor

An all-optical sensor for detecting gesture inputs and force inputs, the sensor comprising:

• at least two emitter-detector pairs comprising a first emitter-detector pair and a second emitter-detector pair, each emitter-detector pair of the sensor comprising an emitter and a detector, and
• a reflector,
• wherein
• the emitter of each emitter-detector pair is configured to emit a sensor light with a main emission direction at least substantially parallel to a vertical direction,
• the detector of each emitter-detector pair is configured to detect the sensor light emitted by the emitter of the same emitter-detector pair,
• the reflector is partially reflective and partially light-transmissive for the sensor light emitted by all of the emitters of the sensor,
• the first emitter-detector pair has a first baseline and the second emitter-detector pair has a second baseline,
• the baseline of each of the emitter-detector pairs is defined by a distance between the emitter of the emitter-detector pair and the detector of the emitter-detector pair in a lateral direction,
• the reflector is arranged, along the vertical direction, over all emitter-detector pairs of the sensor and has a first height along the vertical direction in an idle state of the sensor, so that for the first emitter-detector pair a first part of the sensor light emitted by the emitter of the first emitter-detector pair is reflected by the reflector onto the detector of the first emitter-detector pair, the detector of the first emitter-detector pair producing a first intensity signal, and so that for the second emitter-detector pair a second part of the sensor light emitted by the emitter of the second emitter-detector pair is reflected by the reflector onto the detector of the second emitter-detector pair, the detector of the second emitter-detector pair producing a second intensity signal,
• the first height, the first baseline and the second baseline are chosen so that, when at least a part of the reflector is moved from the first height to a second height that is less than the first height, the first part of the sensor light is increased and the second part of the sensor light is decreased.