US 8,941,619 B2Granted

Apparatus and method for controlling information display

AssigneeAu Optronics Corporation

InventorFang-Ching Lee

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Abstract

A display for controlling information display. In one embodiment, the display has a display panel having a display area for displaying information and a peripheral portion surrounding the display area, a plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers, {Xi}, arranged at a plurality of selected locations in the peripheral portion, each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi being configured to transmit a first signal S1i with frequency band fi in a first duration, Δtdi, and to receive a second signal S2i in a second duration, ΔTdi, periodically at each period, where the second signal S2i is reflected from the first signal S1i by at least one object, and a processor in communication with the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers {Xi} for processing the received second signals {S2i} from the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers {Xi} to determine a location and a gesture of the at least one object relative to the display area.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A display capable of detecting at least one object, comprising:

(a) a display panel for displaying information, the display panel having a display area and a peripheral portion around the display area;
(b) a plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers, {Xi}, arranged at a plurality of selected locations in the peripheral portion, i=1, 2, 3, . . . N, N being an positive integer, wherein at least one of said acoustic/ultrasonic transducers Xi is configured to transmit a first signal S1i in a first duration, Δtdi, and to receive a second signal S2i in a second duration, ΔTdi periodically, wherein the second signal S2i is reflected from the first signal S1i by said at least one object;
(c) a processor in communication with the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers {Xi} for processing the received second signal S2i to determine a location of the at least one object relative to the display area;
(d) a microcontroller coupled between the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers {Xi} and the processor for providing a control signal to drive the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers {Xi};
and
(e) an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) having a first port and a second port coupled to the microcontroller, and a third port coupled to each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi, the ASIC comprising:
a digital-analog converter (DAC) coupled between the first port and the third port for converting the control signal from a digital format into an analog format, and inputting the converted control signal to each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi so that the transmitter of each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi transmits the first signal S1i in the first duration Δtdi and the receiver of each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi receives the second signal S2i in the second duration ΔTdi for each period;
a receiver amplifier coupled to the third port for amplifying each second signal S2i received by the receiver of each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi;
and
an analog-digital converter (ADC) coupled between the second port and the receiver amplifier for converting each amplified second signal S2i from an analog format into a digital format and inputting each converted second signal S2i to the microcontroller;
wherein for each period of each of said acoustic/ultrasonic transducers Xi, the first duration Δtdi is from an initial time, t0i, to a first time, t1i, of the period, an effective time interval ΔTi is from the initial time, t0i, to a second time, t2i, of the period, and the second duration ΔTdi is from a third time, t3i=2ΔTi, to a fourth time, t4i=2(ΔTi+Δtdi), of the period, wherein t4i>t3i>t2i>t1i>t0i, wherein the first duration Δtdi defines a detecting region for the at least one object to be detected in the period, and wherein the effective time interval ΔTi=(t2i−t0i) determines an effective distance for the at least one object to be detected in the period.

8 more elements

A method for controlling a display for detecting at least one object, wherein the display comprises a display panel having a display area and a peripheral portion around the display area, and a plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers, {Xi}, arranged at a plurality of selected locations in the peripheral portion, i=1, 2, 3, . . . N, N being an positive integer, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a control signal to drive the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers {Xi} so that at least one of the plurality of acoustic transducer Xi transmits a first signal S1i in a first duration, Δtdi, and receives a second signal S2i in a second duration, ΔTdi, periodically, wherein the second signal S2i is reflected from the first signal S1i by said at least one object;
(b) collecting the received second signal S2i of at least one of the plurality of acoustic transducer Xi;
(c) processing the collected second signal S2i to determine a location of the at least one object relative to the display area;
and
(d) displaying desired information in the display area according to the determined location the at least one object;
wherein for each period of each of said acoustic/ultrasonic transducers Xi, the first duration Δtdi is from an initial time, t0i, to a first time, t1i, of the period, an effective time interval ΔTi is from the initial time, t0i, to a second time, t2i, of the period, and the second duration ΔTdi is from a third time, t3i=2ΔTi, to a fourth time, t4i=2(ΔTi+Δtdi), of the period, wherein t4i>t3i>t2i>t1i>t0i, wherein the first duration Δtdi defines a detecting region for the at least one object to be detected in the period, and wherein the effective time interval ΔTi=(t2i−t0i) determines an effective distance for the at least one object to be detected in the period;
wherein the processing step comprises the step of correlating each received second signal S2i to a matched filter using a sliding window protocol so as to obtain a distance, di, of the at least one object to each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi;
and
wherein the distance di of the at least one object to each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi satisfies the relationship of:
|X−Xi|2=XTX−2XiTX+XiTXi=di2,
wherein Xi=[xi yi]T is the position of the transducer Xi, and X=[x y]T is the position of the at least one object, wherein the position X of the at least one object is obtained from three transducers X1, X2 and X3 located in a non-straight line, to be in the form of:
X
=
1
2
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[
(
X
1
-
X
2
)
T
(
X
2
-
X
3
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]
-
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d
2
2
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+
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⁢
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2
d
3
2
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d
2
2
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X
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X
2
-
X
3
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X
3
]
.

79 more elements

An arrangement of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers for object detections in screen content control in a display panel, comprising:

a plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers, {Xi}, spatially arranged in one or more sonar bars detachably attached to a periphery of the display panel to define an acoustic/ultrasonic transducer array, i=1, 2, 3, . . . N, N≧4, each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi having a blind area, such that the blind areas of at least four acoustic/ultrasonic transducers of the acoustic/ultrasonic transducer array are un-overlapped, whereby when an object to be detected is in the blind area of one acoustic/ultrasonic transducer, at least three of the un-overlapped acoustic/ultrasonic transducers are capable of detecting respective distances between the object and the at least three of the un-overlapped acoustic/ultrasonic transducers so as to determine a location and/or gesture of the object relative to the display panel,
wherein at least one of the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers is configured to transmit a first signal S1i, and wherein each of the plurality of acoustic/ultrasonic transducers Xi is configured to receive a second signal S2i that is reflected from the first signal S1i by the object;
wherein the second signal S2i received by a respective acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi contains information of at least a reflection time, Tri, a reflection voltage Vri, and a reflection phase Ψri, wherein the reflection time Tri is associated with a distance, di, between the object and the respective acoustic/ultrasonic transducer, the reflection voltage Vri is associated with a size of the object or a distance between the object and the display panel, and the reflection phase Ψri is associated with a material of the object;
and
wherein the distance di of the object to each acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi satisfies the relationship of:
|X−Xi|2=XTX−2XiTX+XiTXi=di2,
wherein Xi=[xi yi]T is the position of the acoustic/ultrasonic transducer Xi, and X=[x y]T is the position of the object, and wherein the position X of the object is obtained from the at least three un-overlapped acoustic/ultrasonic transducers X1, X2 and X3, to be in the form of:
X
=
1
2
⁡
[
(
X
1
-
X
2
)
T
(
X
2
-
X
3
)
T
]
-
1
·
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d
2
2
-
d
1
2
+
X
1
T
⁢
X
1
-
X
2
T
⁢
X
2
d
3
2
-
d
2
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+
X
2
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-
X
3
T
⁢
X
3
]
.

75 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/300,081Filed 18 Nov 2011
Published: US 2013/0127783 A123 May 2013
Granted: 27 Jan 2015
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification3 codes

G06F 3/043
Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means: using propagating acoustic waves
G06F 2203/04101
Indexing scheme relating to G06F3/041 - G06F3/045: 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus,…
G06F
Computing and data processing