Granted Patent B2

US 12,602,949 · App. 18/335,046 · Granted Apr 14, 2026

Inventors: Xiaoyong Yang (San Jose, CA); Kalyan-Kumar Vadlamudi-Reddy (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS, INC.

G06V40/166G01B7/30G01B11/22G01C19/00G01P15/18G01S17/08G01S17/894G06F18/214G06F18/25G06V40/171

Abstract

Claims (52)

1 . An electronic device, comprising:

a top lid;

a bottom lid;

a hinge coupled to the top lid and the bottom lid;

a display in the top lid;

a depth sensor in the top lid and including a reflectance sensor and configured to sense a distance between the display and objects in view of the depth sensor and to generate a depth map including a plurality of zones;

a first inertial measurement unit in the top lid and configured to generate first inertial sensor data;

a second inertial measurement unit in the bottom lid and configured to generate second inertial sensor data; and

a sensor processing unit configured to:

receive the first inertial sensor data, the second inertial sensor data, and the depth map;

to determine a heading of the electronic device based on one or both of the first inertial sensor data and the second inertial sensor data;

to determine a rotational angle of the top lid and the bottom lid;

to identify an expected zone from the plurality of zones of the depth map in which a user of the electronic device is expected to be located based on the heading and the rotational angle, wherein identifying an expected zone includes identifying the expected zone based on rotation motion indicated by first and second inertial sensor data;

to detect a presence of the user within the expected zone by analyzing the expected zone; and

tracking a face of the user based on the first and second inertial sensor data indicating rotational motion.

2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the depth sensor includes a time of flight sensor.

3 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second inertial measurement units includes an accelerometer.

4 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second inertial measurement units includes a gyroscope.

5 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the sensor processing unit is configured to detect the presence of the user based on whether or not reflectance sensor signals of the reflectance sensor indicate a reflectance less than a threshold reflectance.

6 . A method, comprising:

generating depth sensor data with a depth sensor in a top lid of an electronic device and including a reflectance sensor;

generating first inertial sensor data with a first inertial sensor in the top lid of the electronic device;

generating second inertial sensor signals with a second inertial sensor in a bottom lid of the electronic device, the bottom lid being rotatably coupled to the top lid by a hinge;

generating a depth map based on the depth sensor signals;

receiving, with a sensor processing unit of the electronic device, the first inertial sensor data, the second inertial sensor data, and the depth map;

determining, with the sensor processing unit, a heading of the electronic device based on one or both of the first inertial sensor data and the second inertial sensor data;

determining, with the sensor processing unit, a rotational angle of the top lid and the bottom lid;

identifying, with the sensor processing unit, an expected zone from a plurality of zones of the depth map in which a user of the electronic device is expected to be located based on the heading and the rotational angle, wherein identifying an expected zone includes identifying the expected zone based on rotation motion indicated by first and second inertial sensor data;

detecting, with the sensor processing unit, a presence of the user within the expected zone by analyzing the expected zone; and

tracking a face of the user based on the first and second inertial sensor data indicating rotational motion.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the electronic device is a laptop computer.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the sensor processing unit includes a first neural network.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the sensor processing unit includes a second neural network.

10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising generating combined sensor data with the first neural network.

11 . A device, comprising:

an upper lid;

a lower lid coupled to the upper lid;

a depth sensor positioned in the upper lid, the depth sensor configured to generate a depth map including a plurality of zones;

a first inertial measurement unit positioned in the upper lid, the first inertial measurement unit configured to generate a first inertial measurement of the device;

a second inertial measurement unit positioned in the lower lid, the second inertial measurement unit configured to generate a second inertial measurement of the device; and

a sensor processing unit configured to:

receive the first inertial sensor data, the second inertial sensor data, and the depth map;

to determine a heading of the device based on one or both of the first inertial sensor data and the second inertial sensor data;

to determine a rotational angle of the upper lid and the lower lid;

to identify an expected zone from the plurality of zones of the depth map in which a user of the electronic device is expected to be located based on the heading and the rotational angle, wherein identifying an expected zone includes identifying the expected zone based on rotation motion indicated by first and second inertial sensor data;

to detect a presence of the user within the expected zone by analyzing the expected zone; and

track a face of the user based on the first and second inertial sensor data indicating rotational motion.

12 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the sensor processing unit is configured to detect the presence of the user based on whether or not reflectance measurement of the depth sensor is less than a threshold reflectance.

13 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the sensor processing unit includes a first neural network.

14 . The device of claim 13 , wherein the sensor processing unit includes a second neural network.

15 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the first inertial measurement unit includes an accelerometer.

16 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the first inertial measurement unit includes a gyroscope.

Continuity (2)

References Cited (40)