Back to results
US 8,620,113 B2Granted
Laser diode modes
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorDawson Yee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Laser diode mode techniques are described. In one or more implementations, one or more laser diodes of a computing device are caused to operate below a lasing threshold to illuminate at least part of a physical surroundings of the computing device. One or more images of the illuminated physical surroundings are captured by a camera of the computing device and one or more inputs are recognized from the captured one or more images for interaction with a user interface displayed by the computing device.
Claims17
A method comprising:
- causing one or more laser diodes of a computing device to operate below a lasing threshold to illuminate at least part of a physical surroundings of the computing device;
- capturing one or more images of the illuminated physical surroundings by a camera of the computing device;
- recognizing, from the captured one or more images, one or more inputs for interaction with a user interface displayed by the computing device;
- and
- causing the one or more laser diodes of the computing device to operate above the lasing threshold to output coherent light to project a pattern into the physical surroundings.
2 more elements
A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:
- operating one or more laser diodes in a spontaneous mode to illuminate at least part of a physical surroundings of the computing device using incoherent light in an amount suitable to recognize one or more inputs for interaction with a user interface using a camera of the computing device;
- and
- operating the one or more laser diodes in a coherent mode to project a pattern using coherent light into the physical surroundings that is usable to determine a distance between the one or more laser diodes and one or more objects in the physical surroundings.
An apparatus comprising:
- one or more laser diodes;
- a camera;
- and
- one or more modules that are configured to operate in:
- a first mode to cause:
- the one or more laser diodes to operate below a lasing threshold to output light to illuminate at least part of a physical surroundings of the camera;
- and
- the camera to capture one or more images of the illuminated physical surroundings;
- and
- a second mode in cause:
- the one or more laser diodes to operate above a lasing threshold to cause output of coherent light arranged in a pattern;
- and
- the camera to capture at least one image of the pattern of coherent light in the physical surroundings to determine depth of one or more objects in the physical surroundings.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.