Granted Patent B2

US 9,001,041 · App. 13/165,597 · Granted Apr 7, 2015

Inventor: Kim Phan Le (Eindhoven, NL)

Assignee: NXP, B.V.

G06F3/0338G06F3/0304G06F3/038

Abstract

Claims (44)

1. Detection system for the detection of movements of a movable object, said system comprising:

a light emitting device for emitting light,

a reflecting unit being arranged in functional connection with said movable object and being adapted for reflecting the emitted light,

a plurality of detectors for detecting the reflected light and outputting detection signals for determining a movement of said movable object,

wherein said plurality of detectors includes a first subset of detectors for the detection of a tilt movement of said movable object in a first direction, and a second subset of detectors for the detection of a tilt movement of said movable object in a second direction, and the detection of the tilt movement of said movable object is performed based on a difference in an irradiance of the reflected light on the detectors within each subset of detectors, and

wherein said movement of said movable object includes a linear movement in a third direction perpendicular to said first and said second directions, and said linear movement of said movable object in said third direction is detected based on a sum of all of the detection signals,

wherein the system compensates for an unintentional tilt movement of said movable object in at least one of the first direction and the second direction when a linear movement in the third direction is detected, wherein the system compensates for the unintentional tilt movement of said movable object by:

determining a norm of a differential signal vector, said differential signal vector being formed by the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the second direction;

calculating a derivative of said norm with respect to time;

comparing said derivative with a predetermined threshold; and

if said derivative exceeds the predetermined threshold, forcing said norm to zero such that a cursor position on a display is frozen, and if said derivative is not more than the predetermined threshold, leaving said norm unchanged,

wherein the detection system determines the cursor position on said display in dependence of the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the second direction,

wherein coordinates of the cursor position are stored only when the coordinates of the cursor position of an iteration are identical to coordinates of the cursor position of a previous iteration,

and wherein the unintentional tilt movement of said movable object is compensated by restoring the cursor position to the stored values when a linear movement in the third direction is detected.

2. Detection system according to claim 1 , wherein said norm is determined iteratively, and

wherein said derivative is defined as the norm of the differential signal vector at iteration i minus the norm of the differential signal vector at iteration i−n,

i and n being integer numbers and i≧n, and the duration of the iterations being substantially constant.

3. Portable device comprising a detection system according to claim 1 .

4. Portable device comprising said display and a detection system according to claim 1 ,

wherein said portable device is arranged such that the detection system determines the cursor position on said display in dependence of the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the second direction,

wherein values of the cursor position are stored when the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the second direction has ended,

and wherein the unintentional tilt movement of said movable object is compensated by restoring the cursor position to the stored values when a linear movement in the third direction is detected.

5. Detection system according claim 1 , wherein said detection signals of said plurality of detectors are communicated to a plurality of processing units for obtaining signals indicative of the movement of said movable object based on said variation of the irradiance on said plurality of detectors.

6. Detection system according to claim 5 , wherein said processing units include differential circuits for detecting differences in said output signals of said plurality of detectors and which are adapted for outputting a differential signal indicative of said movement of the movable object.

7. Detection system according to claim 1 , wherein said light emitting device and said plurality of detectors are integrated on a substrate.

8. Detection system according to claim 1 , wherein said light emitting device is located at a center position between said plural detectors and said plural detectors are located symmetrically around said light emitting device.

9. Integrated circuit having implemented therein a detection system for detecting movements of a movable object according to claim 1 .

10. Method for detecting movements of a movable object of a detection system, said method comprising the steps of:

emitting light to a reflecting unit,

reflecting said emitted light by said reflecting unit being arranged in functional connection with said movable object,

detecting said reflected light by a plurality of detectors and outputting detection signals for determining a movement of said movable object by said plurality of detectors,

detecting a tilt movement of said movable object in a first direction by a first subset of detectors of said plurality of detectors, and detecting a tilt movement of said movable object in a second direction by a second subset of detectors of said plurality of detectors, the detection of the tilt movement of said movable object being performed based on a difference in the irradiance of the reflected light on the detectors within each subset of detectors,

said movement of said movable object including a linear movement in a third direction perpendicular to said first and said second directions, and said linear movement of said movable object in said third direction being detected based on a sum of all of the detection signals,

and compensating for an unintentional tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and/or in the second direction when a linear movement in the third direction is detected, wherein compensating for the unintentional tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and/or in the second direction when the linear movement in the third direction is detected comprises:

determining a norm of a differential signal vector, said differential signal vector being formed by the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the second direction;

calculating a derivative of said norm with respect to time;

comparing said derivative with a predetermined threshold; and

if said derivative exceeds the predetermined threshold, forcing said norm to zero such that a cursor position on a display is frozen, and if said derivative is not more than the predetermined threshold, leaving said norm unchanged,

wherein said method comprises determining the cursor position on said display in dependence of the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the first direction and the detected tilt movement of said movable object in the second direction,

wherein coordinates of the cursor position are stored only when the coordinates of the cursor position of an iteration are identical to coordinates of the cursor position of a previous iteration,

and wherein the unintentional tilt movement of said movable object is compensated by restoring the cursor position to the stored values when a linear movement in the third direction is detected.

11. The detection system of claim 1 , wherein said derivative of said norm is of a first value when the changes in said norm of said differential signal vector are of a second value, wherein said derivative of said norm is of a third value when the changes in said norm of said differential signal vector are of a fourth value, wherein the first value is smaller than the third value, and wherein the second value is smaller than the fourth value.

12. The detection system of claim 11 , wherein said third direction is the Z direction.

13. The detection system of claim 12 , wherein said first and second directions comprise the X direction and the Y direction.

Assignments (10)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)