Use of Transparent Photosensor Array to Implement Integrated Combinations of Touch Screen Tactile, Touch Gesture Sensor, Color Image Display, Hand-Image Gesture Sensor, Document Scanner, Secure Optical Data Exchange, and Fingerprint Processing Capabilities
A system and method for implementing a display with a photosensor overlay, permitting the arrangement to also serve as one or more of a proximate hand gesture sensor, light field sensor, lensless imaging camera, document scanner, fingerprint scanner, and secure optical communications interface. The resulting arrangements are accordingly advantageous for use in handheld devices such as cellphone, smartphones, PDAs, tablet computers, and other such devices.
1 . A system for implementing integrated combinations of a touch screen tactile sensor, a touch gesture sensor, a color image display, and one or more of a hand-image gesture sensor, a document scanner, a secure optical data exchange, and fingerprint processing capabilities, the system comprising:
a color display;
a transparent photosensor array overlaid atop the color display, the transparent photosensor array comprising a plurality of transparent photosensors, each transparent photosensor configured to be responsive to both reflective light and non-reflective light, the reflective light reflected from an object proximate to the color display; and
a controller configured to control the color display, the controller having at least one electrical interface, the controller interfaced to the color display via the at least one electrical interface, the controller further comprising software configured to implement at least one reflected-light image-formation operation and software configured to implement at least one non-reflected-light image-formation operation,
wherein the color display selectively operates as a color image display and selectively operates at least one non-reflected light imaging application.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least some individual transparent photosensors in the transparent photosensor array perform a light detection function at least for an interval of time and provide a result of the light detection function to the controller via the at least one electrical interface.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one photosensor in the transparent photosensor array comprises organic semiconductor material.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one photosensor in the transparent photosensor array comprises an organic photodiode.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one photosensor in the transparent photosensor array comprises an organic phototransistor.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one photosensor in the transparent photosensor array comprises an organic light-emitting diode configured to act as a photosensor for at least some interval of time.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the transparent photosensor array comprises a wavelength-selective photosensor array.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the transparent photosensor array is further configured to provide a vignetting arrangement to impose a specific structure on an incoming light field to create a structured light field for image formation of non-reflected light by the at least one non-reflected-light image-formation operation.
9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein a resulting system is further configured to selectively operate as a light-field sensor utilizing the at least one non-reflected-light image-formation operation.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the system is further configured to implement a lensless imaging camera.
11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system further comprises software configured to implement gesture user interface recognition and parameter extraction functions.
12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is further configured to operate as a proximate hand gesture sensor utilizing the at least one non-reflected-light image-formation operation.
13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-reflected-light image-formation operation comprises proximate hand gesture processing functions.
14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is further configured to operate as a document scanner utilizing the at least one reflected-light image-formation operation.
15 . The system of claim 14 , the system further comprising software configured to implement document scanner processing functions.
16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to operate as a fingerprint scanner based on optical image sensing resolution of the transparent photosensor array.
17 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is further configured to operate as a fingerprint scanner utilizing the at least one reflected-light image-formation operation.
18 . The system of claim 1 , the system further comprising software configured to implement fingerprint processing functions.
19 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is further configured to operate as a secure optical communications interface utilizing at least a light sensing capability of the transparent photosensor array.
20 . The system of claim 1 , the system further comprising software configured to implement optical communications processing functions facilitating optical communications exchange with at least a display of another system.