Cirrus Logic Inc.

Hamid Sepehr

Pablo Peso Parada

Tom Birchall

Tejasvi Das

Matthew Beardsworth

Michael Allen Kost

Siddharth Maru

Bruce Eliot Duewer

Willem Zwart

Aleksey Sergeyevich Khenkin

Vadim A Konradi

Chin Huang Yong

Marco A Janko

Gavin McVeigh

Carl L Ståhl

Anil Lal

Filippo Rossi

Michael Allan Kost

Michael Kurek

Colin Campbell

Emmanuel A Marchais

Ning Li

Kyle Wilkinson

Aaron Treptow

Jason Kulpe

Peter Foskey

Ben Leslie

A force sensing system for determining if a user input has occurred, the system comprising: an input channel, to receive an input from at least one force sensor; an activity detection stage, to monitor an activity level of the input from the at least one force sensor and, responsive to an activity level which may be indicative of a user input being reached, to generate an indication that an activity has occurred at the force sensor; and an event detection stage to receive said indication, and to determine if a user input has occurred based on the received input from the at least one force sensor.

Force sensing system and method

A method of controlling a vibrational transducer, the method comprising: tracking a temperature metric of the vibrational transducer; and controlling a drive signal for the vibrational transducer, where the drive signal is limited to a value to protect the vibrational transducer from over excursion, and where said value is a function of the tracked temperature metric.

Vibrational transducer control

A method for determining and mitigating over-excursion of an internal mass of an under-damped electromechanical transducer may include transforming an electrical playback signal to an estimated displacement signal, based on the estimated displacement signal, determining an estimated over-excursion of the internal mass responsive to the electrical playback signal, and limiting, based on the estimated over-excursion, an electrical driving signal derived from the electrical playback signal and for driving the electromechanical transducer in order to mitigate over-excursion of the internal mass.

Determination and avoidance of over-excursion of internal mass of transducer

A method for determining and mitigating over-excursion of an internal mass of an electromechanical transducer may include measuring a sensed signal associated with the electromechanical transducer in response to a driving signal driven to the electromechanical transducer, determining a non-linearity value based on the sensed signal, mapping the non-linearity value to a probability of over-excursion of the internal mass, and applying a gain to a signal path configured to generate the driving signal based on the probability.

Detection and prevention of non-linear excursion in a haptic actuator

A haptics signal generator configured to generate a haptics signal for driving a haptics transducer by amplitude modulating and frequency modulating a carrier signal based on an input audio signal.

Haptics signal generation

Embodiments described herein relate to methods and apparatuses for controlling an operation of a vibrational output system and/or an operation of an input sensor system, wherein the controller is for use in a device comprising the vibrational output system and the input sensor system. A controller comprises an input configured to receive an indication of activation or de-activation of an output of the vibrational output system; and an adjustment module configured to adjust the operation of the vibrational output system and/or the operation of the input sensor system based on the indication to reduce an interference expected to be caused by the output of the vibrational output system on the input sensory system.

Methods and apparatuses for controlling operation of a vibrational output system and/or operation of an input sensor system

A method of recording measurement data for characterizing a response of a given type of device to an applied force, the given type defining devices of that type as comprising a defined arrangement of a surface and N force sensors of the device concerned, where N&#x2265;1, each force sensor configured to output a sensor signal, wherein in the defined arrangement the N force sensors are operatively coupled to a defined input region of the surface so as to sense a force applied to that input region, the method comprising: for a specimen device of the given type, performing at least one measurement procedure, each measurement procedure comprising at least one measurement operation, each measurement operation comprising applying a defined force at a corresponding location on the input region of the device concerned and recording measurement data for that device and location based on the sensor signals of the N force sensors of that device. Also disclosed are a related computer-implemented method of generating a characterization definition for devices of the given type, a computer-implemented method of generating a configuration definition for devices of the given type for a given use case defined by a use-case definition, a method of configuring a candidate device of the given type for the given use case, and a method of assessing or calibrating a candidate device of the given type.

Characterization of force-sensor equipped devices

A controller for use in a device which comprises at least two force sensors in a given arrangement, the controller operable, based on input sensor signals derived from the force sensors, to carry out an arrangement-related operation in which an output sensor signal is generated based on at least two said input sensor signals and the arrangement of the force sensors in the device so that the output sensor signal is dependent on said arrangement.

Controller for use in a device comprising force sensors

A method of controlling a force sensor system to define at least one button implemented by at least one force sensor, the method comprising: receiving a force sensor input; determining a gradient of the force sensor input; and controlling the force sensor system based on the determined gradient.

Control methods for a force sensor system

A baseline unit for use in a sensor system, the sensor system comprising N force sensors which output N sensor signals, respectively, where N&#x2265;2, the baseline unit configured to: monitor measures of gradients of the respective sensor signals; and, in dependence upon the measures of the gradients, control a stored baseline setting to control how a baseline signal for at least one of said sensor signals is calculated using a baseline-calculation method, the baseline-calculation method configured by the currently-stored baseline setting.

Baseline signal calculation

A device, comprising: a pair of force sensors located for detecting a user squeeze input; and a controller operable in a squeeze detection operation to detect the user squeeze input based on a cross-correlation between respective sensor signals originating from the pair of force sensors.

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London, United Kingdom

Hamid Sepehr