Apple Inc.

Mehmet Mutlu

Mark T Winkler

Tong Chen

Ahmet Fatih Cihan

Omid Momtahan

Michael K McCord

Wenrui Cai

Miaolei Yan

Orit A Shamir

Ryan J Linderman

Stephen E Dey

Prashanth S Holenarsipur

Yuhao Pan

Mengshu Huang

Adrian Z Harb

Giovanni Gozzini

Richard Yeh

Chau H Nguyen

David D Dashevsky

Michael K Brown

Richard T Chen

Serhan O Isikman

James Joseph Dudley

Gregory B Arndt

Wesley Scott Smith

Zachary Alvis Granger

Zachary A Granger

A sensor system includes a self-mixing interferometry sensor; a drive circuit configured to apply a modulated drive signal to an input of the self-mixing interferometry sensor; a mixer circuit configured to mix a modulated output of the self-mixing interferometry sensor with a local oscillator signal that is orthogonal to the modulated drive signal over a period of time; an integrator circuit configured to integrate an output of the mixer circuit over the period of time; and a processor configured to determine, using an output of the integrator circuit, at least one of a round-trip propagation time of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the self-mixing interferometry sensor and reflected back into the self-mixing interferometry sensor by an object or medium, or a velocity of the object or medium.

Self-interferometry based sensor systems capable of generating depth maps or velocity maps

Disclosed herein are wearable devices, their configurations, and methods of operation that use self-mixing interferometry signals of a self-mixing interferometry sensor to recognize user inputs. The user inputs may include voiced commands or silent gesture commands. The devices may be wearable on the user's head, with the self-mixing interferometry sensor configured to direct a beam of light toward a location on the user's head. Skin deformations or vibrations at the location may be caused by the user's speech or the user's silent gestures and recognized using the self-mixing interferometry signal. The self-mixing interferometry signals may be used for bioauthentication and/or audio conditioning of received sound or voice inputs to a microphone.

Wearable skin vibration or silent gesture detector

Disclosed herein are electronic devices having touch input surfaces. A user's touch input or press on the touch input surface is detected using a set of lasers, such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) that emit beams of light toward the touch input surface. The user's touch causes changes in the self-mixing interference within the VCSEL of the emitted light with reflected light, such as from the touch input surface. Deflection and movement (e.g., drag motion) of the user's touch is determined from detected changes in the VCSELs' operation due to the self-mixing interference.

Self-mixing interference based sensors for characterizing touch input

A watch body includes a housing at least partially defining an interior of the watch body. A retaining feature is formed in or extends from the housing. A watch crown is retained by the retaining feature and is operable to be rotated by a user. The watch crown has a surface facing the housing. The watch crown is entirely external to the interior of the watch body. An electromagnetic radiation source is disposed within the housing and is operable to emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation toward the surface. A sensor is disposed within the housing and is operable to characterize a movement of the watch crown based at least in part on a portion of the beam of electromagnetic radiation that impinges on the surface and is redirected by the surface.

Sensors for characterizing movement of a watch crown

An optical module includes a beam-tilting light source enclosure. The enclosure is coupled to a substrate that includes a light emitter connected thereto. The enclosure has a geometry such that the enclosure has a first surface configured to couple substantially flat to the substrate and a second surface tilted with respect to the first surface and configured to couple substantially flat to a component of an electronic device through which the light is to project. The enclosure is optically transmissive and covers the light source when coupled to the substrate. In this way, the enclosure may be assembled and used in the electronic device by coupling the first surface to the substrate and coupling the second surface to the component.

Beam-tilting light source enclosures

A wearable electronic device including a housing that is worn by a user and a SMI sensor contained within the housing. The SMI sensor may include an emitter that outputs coherent light toward the skin of a user when the housing is worn by the user. The SMI sensor may also include a detector that detects a portion of the coherent light reflected towards the sensor and generates electrical signals that indicate displacements of the skin based on the portion of coherent light received at the detector. The housing may include a transmitter that is operatively coupled with the SMI sensor and is configured to transmit physiological data to a receiving device based on electrical signals output from the SMI sensor.

Wearable self-mixing interferometry device used to sense physiological conditions

A system may include one or more finger devices that gather input from a user's fingers. A finger device may include one or more self-mixing interferometric proximity sensors that measure a distance to the user's finger. The proximity sensor may measure changes in distance between the proximity sensor and a flexible membrane that rests against a side portion of the user's finger. The self-mixing interferometric proximity sensor may include a laser and a photodiode. In some arrangements, a single laser driver may drive the lasers of multiple self-mixing proximity sensors using time-multiplexing. The self-mixing proximity sensor may operate according to a duty cycle. Interpolation and stitching may be used to determine the total displacement of the user's finger including both the on periods and off periods of the self-mixing proximity sensor.

Finger devices with self-mixing interferometric proximity sensors

A wearable device includes a device housing configured to be worn on a first surface of a user, a set of one or more SMI sensors, and a processor. The set of one or more SMI sensors is mounted within the device housing and configured to emit a set of one or more beams of electromagnetic radiation, with each beam emitted in a different direction extending away from the first surface. The set of one or more SMI sensors is also configured to generate a set of one or more SMI signals containing information about a relationship between the device housing and a second surface. The processor is configured to extract the relationship between the device housing and the second surface from digitized samples of the set of one or more SMI signals.

Self-mixing interferometry-based input device

An optical sensing system can be integrated into a camera module. In particular, an optical element of an optical sensing system can be disposed entirely or partly within a barrel of a camera module. The optical element can be oriented toward a reflective surface, such as an infrared cut filter, such that an optical path is defined between free space and the optical element via at least one reflection off the reflective surface.

Optical proximity sensor integrated into a camera module for an electronic device

A device includes an electronic display, a cover through which the electronic display projects an image, and an array of SMI sensors. The array of SMI sensors is positioned on a same side of the cover as the electronic display. Each SMI sensor is configured to emit electromagnetic radiation toward a respective portion of: an interior surface of the cover, or a surface of a component of the device attached to the cover; and generate a respective SMI output including information indicative of vibration of the respective portion of the cover or the component. The device also includes circuitry configured to characterize a vibratory waveform impinging on the device. The vibratory waveform is characterized using at least two of the SMI outputs.

Self-mixing interferometry sensors used to sense vibration of a structural or housing component defining an exterior surface of a device

Various sensors, including particulate matter sensors, are described. One particulate matter sensor includes a self-mixing interferometry sensor and a set of one or more optical elements. The set of one or more optical elements is positioned to receive an optical emission of the self-mixing interferometry sensor, split the optical emission into multiple beams, and direct each beam of the multiple beams in a different direction. The self-mixing interferometry sensor is configured to generate particle speed information for particles passing through respective measurement regions of the multiple beams.

Particulate matter sensors based on split beam self-mixing interferometry sensors

A head-mounted device may have a head-mounted housing and optical components supported by the head-mounted housing. The optical components may include cameras, movable optical modules, and other components. Each optical module may include a display that displays an image and a lens that provides the image to a corresponding eye box. Optical self-mixing sensors may be included in the optical modules and other portions of the head-mounted device to measure changes in optical component position. In response to detecting a change in optical component position, actuators in the device may be adjusted to move the optical components or other action may be taken to compensate for the change.

Head-mounted electronic device with self-mixing sensors

A device includes a first component, a second component having a reconfigurable distance from the first component, an optical element, an SMI sensor, and a processor. The optical element has a fixed relationship with respect to the first component, and has a known optical thickness between a first surface and a second surface of the optical element. The SMI sensor has a fixed relationship with respect to the second component, and has an electromagnetic radiation emission axis that intersects the first and second surfaces of the optical element. The processor is configured to identify disturbances in an SMI signal generated by the SMI sensor, relate the disturbances to the known optical thickness of the optical element, and to determine a distance between the first and second components using the SMI signal and the relationship of the disturbances to the known optical thickness of the optical element.

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Stanford, CA, United States of America

Mehmet Mutlu