Granted Patent B2

US 10,687,184 · App. 15/481,289 · Granted Jun 16, 2020

Inventors: Brian Silverstein (San Carlos, CA); Eden Sherry (San Francisco, CA)

Assignee: GOOGLE LLC

H04W4/33G01S7/006G01S13/42G01S13/56G01S13/58G01S13/86G01S13/878G01S13/88H04W4/029H04W8/005

Abstract

Claims (71)

1. A method, comprising:

at a computing device having a casing, a radar transceiver, one or more processors, and memory:

detecting, via the radar transceiver, one or more signals indicating that an object is in proximity to the computing device;

determining one or more variations in the one or more signals associated with movement of the object;

determining an amount of jitter in the one or more signals;

determining whether the object is in contact with the casing based on:

the one or more variations in the one or more signals, wherein the one or more variations distinguish contact of the object with the casing from lack of contact of the object with the casing; and

detected movement of the object with respect to a surface of the casing, wherein the detected movement of the object includes determining whether the amount of jitter exceeds one or more predetermined thresholds or whether there is a drop in the amount of jitter;

in accordance with a determination that the object is in contact with the casing, identifying an input command based on at least one of: a location of the object on the casing, and a movement of the object on the casing; and

adjusting operation of the computing device based on the input command.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is located within a particular room, and the method further comprises:

determining that the particular room is unoccupied;

detecting motion via the radar transceiver; and

determining that the particular room is occupied based on the detected motion.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

operating the computing device in a first mode, the first mode utilizing a first gain for the radar transceiver to detect motion within the particular room; and

in response to detecting the object meeting one or more predefined criteria, operating the computing device in a second mode, the second mode utilizing a second gain less than the first gain for the radar transceiver to identify input commands received via objects in contact with the casing.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

while operating the computing device in the second mode, determining that no detected objects meet one or more predefined criteria; and

in response to determining that no detected objects meet the one or more predefined criteria, operating the computing device in the first mode.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the one or more signals indicating that an object in proximity to the computing device comprises:

transmitting one or more radio signals via the radar transceiver;

receiving one or more radio signals corresponding to the one or more transmitted radio signals; and

the method further comprises:

determining whether the object is within a particular proximity radius by analyzing the one or more received radio signals; and

identifying the object as being in proximity with the computing device in accordance with a determination that the object is within the particular proximity radius.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting motion of the object along a particular axis; and

wherein determining whether the object is in contact with the casing based on the detected movement of the object includes determining whether the particular axis is perpendicular to the surface of the casing.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device comprises a smart thermometer, and wherein adjusting operation of the computing device based on the input command comprises adjusting a desired room temperature target.

8. A computing device, comprising:

a casing;

a radar transceiver configured to detect one or more objects in the vicinity of the computing device; and

one or more controllers coupled to the radar transceiver, the one or more controllers configured to, for each detected object in the one or more detected objects:

determine variations in data from the radar transceiver associated with movement of the one or more objects;

determine whether the detected object is in contact with the casing based on:

the variations in the data received from the radar transceiver, wherein the variations distinguish contact of the object with the casing from lack of contact of the object with the casing; and

detected movement of the object with respect to a surface of the casing, wherein the detected movement of the object includes determining whether an amount of jitter of the object exceeds one or more predetermined thresholds or whether there is a drop in the amount of jitter;

in accordance with a determination that the detected object is in contact with the casing, identify an input command based on at least one of: a location of the detected object on the casing, and a movement of the detected object on the casing; and

adjust operation of the computing device based on the input command.

9. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the computing device is located within a particular room, and wherein the one or more controllers are further configured to determine whether the particular room is occupied based on at least one of: the location of the detected object, and the movement of the detected object.

10. The computing device of claim 9 , the radar transceiver further configured to:

operate in a first mode, the first mode utilizing a first gain for detecting motion within the particular room; and

operate in a second mode, the second mode utilizing a second gain less than the first gain to identify input commands received via objects in contact with the casing; and

the one or more controllers further configured to:

in accordance with a determination that a detected object meets one or more predefined criteria, instruct the radar transceiver to operate in the second mode; and

in accordance with a determination that no detected objects meet the one or more predefined criteria, instruct the radar transceiver to operate in the first mode.

11. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the radar transceiver is configured to:

transmit one or more radio signals; and

receive one or more radio signals corresponding to the one or more transmitted radio signals; and

wherein the one or more controllers are further configured to, for each detected object in the one or more detected objects:

determine whether the detected object is within a particular proximity radius to the computing device by analyzing the one or more received radio signals; and

identify the detected object as being in proximity with the computing device in accordance with a determination that the detected object is within the particular proximity radius.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which, when executed by a computing device with one or more processors, a casing, and a radar transceiver, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

detecting, via the radar transceiver, one or more signals indicating that an object is in proximity to the computing device;

determining one or more variations in the one or more signals associated with movement of the object;

determining an amount of jitter in the one or more signals;

determining whether the object is in contact with the casing based on:

the one or more variations in the one or more signals, wherein the one or more variations distinguish contact of the object with the casing from lack of contact of the object with the casing; and

detected movement of the object with respect to a surface of the casing, wherein the detected movement of the object includes determining whether the amount of jitter exceeds one or more predetermined thresholds or whether there is a drop in the amount of jitter;

in accordance with a determination that the object is in contact with the casing, identifying an input command based on a location and/or motion of the object on the casing; and

adjusting operation of the computing device based on the input command.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein detecting the one or more signals indicating that an object in proximity to the computing device comprises:

transmitting one or more radio signals via the radar transceiver;

receiving one or more radio signals corresponding to the one or more transmitted radio signals; and

the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:

determining whether the object is within a particular proximity radius by analyzing the one or more received radio signals; and

identifying the object as being in proximity with the computing device in accordance with a determination that the object is within the particular proximity radius.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:

operating the computing device in a first mode, the first mode utilizing a first gain for the radar transceiver to detect motion within a room where the computing device is located; and

in response to detecting an object meeting one or more predefined criteria, operating the computing device in a second mode, the second mode utilizing a second gain less than the first gain for the radar transceiver to identify input commands received via objects in contact with the casing.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (5)

Cited By (10)

US 1,069,612 US 1,071,880 US 1,082,721 US 1,092,534 US 12,262,289 US 12,316,472 US 12,366,924 US 12,510,934 US 12,645,263 US 12,710,788