Neonode Inc.

Neonoda Inc.

Niklas Kvist

Thomas Eriksson

Lars Bertil Sparf

Joseph Shain

John Karlsson

Robert Pettersson

Anders Jansson

Magnus Goertz

Stefan Johannes Holmgren

Remo Behdasht

Carl Richard Henriksson

A state machine for controlling a sensor including a chip package coupled with photo-emitters and photo-detectors mounted in a device, and with a host processor, including an emitter driver, a detector driver, a signal processor for generating signals representing amounts of light detected by the detectors, and a scan controller for controlling the emitter and detector drivers to activate an automated sequence of emitter-detector pairs, the scan controller including registers for storing parameters designating emitter-detector pairs that are to be activated during the automated sequence, and for storing the signals generated by the signal processor for the emitter-detector pair activations, and at least one input/output pin for receiving parameters from the host processor to be loaded into the registers, and for outputting the stored signals in the registers to the host processor, for the host processor to identify therefrom location coordinates of an object near or touching the device.

Light-based touch screen

A touch screen including a housing, a display mounted in the housing, a plurality of collimating lenses mounted in the housing along two opposite edges of the display and arranged along the two edges so as to be shift-aligned relative to one another, a plurality of light pulse emitters mounted in the housing that are spaced apart from and transmit light pulses through the collimating lenses of one of the two edges over the display, a plurality of light pulse receivers mounted in the housing that are spaced apart from and receive the light pulses through the collimating lenses of the opposite of the two edges, and a calculating unit, mounted in the housing and connected to the receivers, that determines a location of a pointer on the display that partially blocks the light pulses transmitted by the emitters, based on outputs of the receivers.

Light-based touch screen with shift-aligned emitter and receiver lenses

A touch screen including a housing, a display mounted in the housing, a plurality of collimating lenses mounted in the housing and arranged along a first edge of the display, a plurality of light pulse emitters mounted in the housing that are spaced apart from and serially transmit light pulses through the collimating lenses over the display, a light guide mounted in the housing along the edge of the display opposite the first edge, for receiving the light pulses, the light guide including a reflective strip that reflects light pulses to one end of the light guide, a light pulse receiver mounted in the housing near the one end of the light guide, for receiving the reflected light pulses, and a calculating unit, mounted in the housing and connected to the receiver, for determining a location of a pointer on the display that partially blocks light pulses transmitted by the emitters, based on outputs of the receiver.

Light-based touch screen using elongated light guides

A light guide for a light-based touch-sensitive surface, including first and second curved panels having substantially similar curvatures, wherein light undergoes a first refraction by the first curved panel as it enters the light guide, and undergoes a second refraction by the second curved panel as it exits the light guide, the second refraction being the inverse of the first refraction, and wherein one of the panels is curved in a horizontal plane parallel to the surface and forms a curved rim for the surface.

Light-based touch surface with curved borders

A touch screen system including a reflective display surface, a camera mounted so as to capture an image of (i) the reflective display surface, (ii) a pointer approaching the reflective display surface, and (iii) a reflection of the pointer on the reflective display surface, and a processor coupled with the camera that determines a three-dimensional location of the pointer relative to the reflective display surface, based on the positions of the pointer and the reflection of the pointer in the image captured by the camera.

Optical surface using a reflected image for determining three-dimensional position information

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor of an electronic device that includes a touch sensitive and pressure sensitive display, cause the processor to enable a user interface of the electronic device, by which a glide gesture along the display and an amount of pressure applied to the display both generate the same user interface command.

User interface for a touch screen

An optical element for a light based touch surface including a concatenated plurality of segments, wherein each segment is paired with a respective light emitter, each segment including an undulating series of pairs of reflective or refractive facets, wherein a first facet in each pair is oriented so as to collimate light emitted from a first light emitter associated with the segment and a second facet in each pair is oriented so as to collimate light emitted from a second light emitter associated with the segment, and wherein the first light emitter associated with the segment is the light emitter paired with the segment and the second light emitter associated with the segment is the light emitter paired with a neighboring segment.

Optical elements with alternating reflective lens facets

A method of calibrating optical components in a light-based touch screen, including providing (i) a display, (ii) a row of light pulse emitters that sequentially transmit light pulses over the display according to calibrated pulse current and pulse duration controls, and (iii) a row of light pulse receivers that receive the light pulses and that output values representing the received light pulses, each receiver having expected values for emitter-receiver pairs when the light pulses are not blocked, determining if each receiver output value for a receiver-emitter pair is within a respective designated range from the corresponding receiver expected value, and when a receiver output value for a receiver-emitter pair is outside the designated range, recalibrating the emitter, including adjusting at least one of the emitter pulse current and pulse duration such that subsequent receiver output values are within the designated range, and updating the receiver expected value for the receiver-emitter pair based on subsequent output values of the receiver.

Touch screen calibration and update methods

A controller for a light-based touch screen including a chip package coupled with a light-based touch screen, emitter driver circuitry inside the chip package for selectively activating a plurality of photoemitters that are outside of the chip package, detector driver circuitry inside the chip package for selectively activating a plurality of photo detectors that are outside of the chip package, detector signal processing circuitry for generating detection signals representing measured amounts of light detected on the plurality of photo detectors, a first plurality of signal conducting pins for connecting the plurality of photoemitters outside the chip package to the emitter driver circuitry inside the chip package, a second plurality of signal conducting pins for connecting the plurality of photo detectors outside the chip package to the detector driver circuitry and to the detector signal processing circuitry inside the chip package, controller circuitry inside the chip package for controlling the emitter driver circuitry and the detector driver circuitry, and at least one input/output pin for communicating with a host processor and for outputting the detection signals generated by the detector signal processing circuitry to the host processor, for the host processor to identify one or more locations on the touch screen that are being touched.

ASIC controller for light-based sensor

A user input device, including a user input area, light emitters arranged along a first edge of the input area so as to be evenly spaced, light receivers arranged along a second edge of the input area, a curved lens arranged in front of the emitters, such that light emitted by each of the emitters is refracted as it enters the curved lens, and is again refracted as it exits the curved lens, resulting in unevenly spaced collimated light exiting the curved lens and crossing the input area, the collimated light being shifted laterally by a non-zero offset along a direction parallel to the first edge, the offset being a characteristic of the arrangement of that emitter vis-&#xe0;-vis the curved lens, and a calculating unit for determining location of an object inserted into the input area from outputs of the receivers, based on the characteristic offsets of the emitters.

A method of determining a touch coordinate on a touch screen, including providing a display, a plurality of collimating lenses along two opposite edges of the display, the collimating lenses being arranged along the two edges so as to be shift-aligned relative to one another, a plurality of light pulse emitters that transmit light pulses through the collimating lenses of a first of the two edges over the display, and a plurality of light pulse receivers that receive the light pulses through the collimating lenses of the opposite of the two edges, and that output values representing the received light pulses, wherein light pulses emitted by each emitter are detected by at least two of the receivers, wherein each receiver detects light pulses emitted by at least two emitters, and wherein each receiver has expected values for emitter-receiver pairs when light pulses are not blocked, selecting receiver output values for emitter-receiver pairs that deviate significantly from corresponding receiver expected values, wherein the selected values indicate at least that light pulses transmitted by two emitters are blocked from reaching one receiver, or that light pulses transmitted by one emitter are blocked from reaching two receivers, associating a screen coordinate along a first screen axis with each selected receiver output, and calculating a touch coordinate by interpolating the associated screen coordinates according to the respective deviations between the selected receivers' output values and corresponding expected values.

Methods for determining a touch location on a touch screen

A pressure-sensitive touch screen including a housing, at least one light receiver rigidly mounted in the housing, a display flexibly mounted in the housing substantially above the at least one receiver, which depresses in response to pressure of a touch, and a calculating unit connected to the at least one light receiver for receiving outputs indicating amounts of received light by the at least one receiver, and for determining that the display is being depressed based on an increase in an output of the at least one receiver.

Pressure-sensitive touch screen

A light-based touch-sensitive surface, including a housing, a surface attached to the housing for receiving touch input, a plurality of light sources in the housing for emitting light that crosses the surface, a plurality of light receivers in the housing for detecting the light emitted by the light sources, a curved lens adjacent to the surface through which the light emitted by the light sources passes, including two substantially similarly curved exterior panels, one of which forms a curved rim for the surface, and a calculating unit in said housing, connected to the light receivers, for calculating a touch location based on an absence of light expected to be received by the receivers.

A controller including a chip package coupled with a light-based touch screen, emitter driver circuitry inside the chip package for selectively activating photoemitters that are outside of the chip package, detector driver circuitry inside the chip package for selectively activating photo detectors that are outside of the chip package, detector signal processing circuitry for generating detection signals representing amounts of light detected on the photo detectors, signal conducting pins for connecting the photoemitters to the emitter driver circuitry, signal conducting pins for connecting the photo detectors to the detector driver circuitry and to the detector signal processing circuitry, controller circuitry inside the chip package for controlling the emitter driver circuitry and the detector driver circuitry, and at least one input/output pin for outputting the detection signals to a host processor, for the host processor to identify one or more locations on the touch screen that are being touched.

Growing community of inventors

Varmdo, Sweden

Niklas Kvist