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US 9,546,921 B2Granted
Piezoresistive sensors and sensor arrays
AssigneeBeBop Sensors, Inc.
InventorsKeith A. McMillen, Conner Lacy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Highly expressive and flexibly programmable foot-operated controllers are described. Specific implementations are intended for musical applications and allow musicians an unprecedented degree of control of a wide variety of musical components and subsystems for recording and/or performance.
Claims17
A sensor array, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
- a plurality of sets of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric, each set of traces forming a corresponding sensor with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric, wherein four of the sets of traces are arranged to form a four-quadrant sensor with the corresponding portions of the piezoresistive fabric;
- and
- sensor circuitry configured to receive a sensor signal from each set of traces, each sensor signal representing pressure applied to a surface of the sensor array near the corresponding sensor, and wherein the sensor circuitry is configured to collectively process the sensor signals received from the four sets of traces to generate information representative of the pressure relative to the four-quadrant sensor in a plurality of spatial dimensions.
1 more element
A sensor array, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
- a plurality of sets of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric, each set of traces forming a corresponding sensor with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric;
- and
- sensor circuitry configured to receive a sensor signal from each set of traces, each sensor signal representing pressure applied to a surface of the sensor array near the corresponding sensor;
- wherein the piezoresistive fabric is secured to one or more movable mechanical structures and the traces are on an adjacent substrate, and wherein the piezoresistive material is configured to make contact with one or more of the sets of traces in response to the pressure on the surface of the sensor array.
2 more elements
A sensor array, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
- a plurality of sets of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric, each set of traces forming a corresponding sensor with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric;
- and
- sensor circuitry configured to receive a sensor signal from each set of traces, wherein each sensor signal represents pressure applied to a surface of the sensor array near the corresponding sensor, and wherein each sensor signal monotonically represents variations over time of the pressure for the corresponding sensor.
1 more element
A sensor array, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
- a plurality of sets of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric, each set of traces forming a corresponding sensor with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric;
- and
- sensor circuitry configured to receive a sensor signal from each set of traces, wherein each sensor signal represents pressure applied to a surface of the sensor array near the corresponding sensor, and wherein each sensor signal represents a continuous range of the pressure for the corresponding sensor.
1 more element
A sensor array, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
- a plurality of sets of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric, each set of traces forming a corresponding sensor with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric;
- and
- sensor circuitry configured to receive a sensor signal from each set of traces, wherein each sensor signal represents pressure applied to a surface of the sensor array near the corresponding sensor, and wherein the sensor circuitry is further configured to adjust a sensitivity to the pressure for each of the sensors.
1 more element
A sensor array, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
- a plurality of sets of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric, each set of traces forming a corresponding sensor with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric;
- and
- sensor circuitry configured to receive a sensor signal from each set of traces, wherein each sensor signal represents pressure applied to a surface of the sensor array near the corresponding sensor, and wherein the sensor circuitry is further configured to collectively process the sensor signals received from more than one of the sets of traces to generate information representative of movement of an object relative to the surface of the sensor array.
1 more element
A sensor array, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
- a plurality of sets of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric, each set of traces forming a corresponding sensor with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric;
- and
- sensor circuitry configured to receive a sensor signal from each set of traces, wherein each sensor signal represents pressure applied to a surface of the sensor array near the corresponding sensor, and wherein the sensor circuitry is further configured to generate control information from the sensor signals, and to map the control information to one or more control destinations representing operation of one or more processes or devices.
1 more element
A method for generating control information representing pressure applied to a surface associated with a sensor array by an object, comprising:
- receiving a plurality of sensor signals, each sensor signal representing interaction of a portion of piezoresistive fabric and a corresponding set of traces adjacent a same side of the piezoresistive fabric resulting from the pressure on the surface;
- digitizing the sensor signals;
- and
- generating the control information from the digitized sensor signals, the control information representing movement of the object relative to the surface, the control information also representing a time-varying magnitude of the pressure.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.