GB2397132A

GB2397132A - Apparatus for producing a virtual spatial array

Info

Publication number: GB2397132A
Application number: GB0326006A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Duncan Rigby
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-11-06
Filing date: 2003-11-06
Publication date: 2004-07-14
Also published as: GB0326006D0; GB0225828D0

Abstract

Apparatus for producing a virtual spatial array comprises a number of individual cells comprising a number of field transducers 9 producing fields which are scanned cyclically by a scan controller 10 to identify and record the position of a disturbance in the array. A position register 11 records the position of the cell or cells in which the disturbance has taken place and produce an output, representative of the position or positions. The arrangement may be used for example to produce a virtual keypad for a phone, for a computer mouse or in a three dimensional security passed panel. The field transducers produce magnetic, electric or electrostatic fields wherein an inductive disturbance, radio disturbance or capacitive disturbance is detected respectively.

Description

1 2397132 Apparatus for producing a virtual spatial array The present

invention relates to the apparatus for producing a virtual spatial array. The array may be used, for example, to facilitate the operation of a mobile (cellular) phone.

As technology advances the physical size of mobile (cellular) phones is becoming smaller and smaller. This in turn leads to a reduction in the size of the keypad and to difficulties in its operation. Similar problems may be encountered with certain computer keyboards, and personal computer devices.

Attempts have been made to address this problem. In EP-A-1,168233 a system is described in which infra-red radiation is emitted towards an obstacle and the reflected radiation from the obstacle measured to give an indication on the position of the obstacle. This leads to a relatively complex arrangement requiring a plurality of emitters and receivers.

According to the present invention there is provided an electronic apparatus for producing a virtual spatial array comprising a number of individual cells comprising means for producing magnetic, electric, or electrostatic fields for covering the virtual spatial array, means for scanning the fields to determine the presence or absence of a field disturbance, and means for storing the position of the cell or cells in which a disturbance has occurred and for producing an output representative of the position or positions sensed.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, there are three fields. The fields are powered by a field transducer. The means for scanning the fields comprises a scan controller. The scan controller is operative to enable and cyclically polls each > field to identify and record the position of a disturbance. The means for storing preferably comprises a position register having means for recording position values along the XYZ axes of a three dimensional coordinate system. The position register is advantageously connected to an XYZ position stack to which XYZ values from the position register are sequentially transmitted. In this way the path of the field disturbance may be stored as a sequence of positional values representing the sequence of cells on the path.

Advantageously a microprocessor is provided which operates software routines to analyse the XYZ position stack. In the case of the application of electronic apparatus to the production of a virtual keypad or keyboard for a phone or computer, the routines are keypad/keyboard template masking and de-bounce routines. The output of the actuated keys is output via a keypad/keyboard buffer. In the case of the application of the apparatus to a mouse, the mouse coordinates are output. In the case of the application of the apparatus to a security three dimensional (3D) password panel, the XYZ position stack values provide the history of the password movement.

This can be matched or encrypted for output to a security controlling device for authorization.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood, embodiments thereof will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates the application of the invention to a mobile phone, Figure 2 illustrates the use of the application of figure 1, Figure 3 is a block circuit diagram of apparatus according to the invention, Figure 3a is a block circuit diagram showing a field transducer forming part of the circuit of Figure 3 Figures 4a-4d illustrate the use of the apparatus of figure 3 in the application of figure l, and Figure 5a-5c illustrates an alternative embodiment to that shown in figures l - 4.

Referring to figure 1, the application of the invention to the keypad of a mobile (cellular) phone is shown. This virtual keypad 1 shown above the mobile phone 2 is not visible but indicates a spatial array of cells 3 which may be made to correspond to the individual keys of the keypad and which are located within three, electrostatic capacitive fields transmitted from an aerial (not shown) contained within the phone. The user looks through the space occupied by the cells 3, and sees the existing topical keyboard. The keys may also be operated not only in the normal way but also by using the virtual keyboard as will be described in more detail below.

The use of three scanning electrostatic fields enables the position of a disturbance of those fields to be determined by a process of triangulation as shown in figure 2. This process of triangulation effectively assigns cells in three dimensional (3D) space to the keyboard layout of the keypad of the phone mentioned above.

Referring to figure 3, field transducers 9 all accept a gated 17 signal from a scan controller 10 which is used to route the physical transducer circuitry to a selected one of three aerial points 18 and capture its "Proximity Disturbance" value via an analogue to digital converter 19. When the values from each aerial have been acquired, the scan controller gates the release of the "X", "Y" & "Z" values to the position register 11. Referring to Figure 3a, each field transducer may be a solid state device utilizing surface mount V.L.S.I (very large scale intergrated) technology. It may therefore be made very small and with low power consumption.

Each transducer comprises a capacitor 20 to which a voltage controlled oscillator 21 is connected. A reference oscillator 22 is connected to the oscillator 21. Outputs from the oscillators 21 and 22 are fed to an AND gate 23 the output of which is connected to a frequency to voltage converter 24 which in turn is connected to the analogue to digital converter 19. Power is supplied from a power source 25. A microprocessor 12 sequentially moves XYZ values from the position register to an XYZ position stack 3 under the control of a controlling program so that the last field disturbed trajectory is stored as a sequence of positional movements.

These controlling programmes are stored in a controller read only memory 14 (ROM), connected to the microprocessor 12. The microprocessor 12 operates keyboard template masking and de-bounce routines 15, under which the XYZ position stack 13 is analysed and the area of the disturbance mapped with a keyboard character value determined by the software template being used. The circuitry and also the field transducer antenna may be housed in the casing of the phone.

The process of typing a word "WORD" using the above described arrangement will now be described with reference to figure 4a to 4d. The user holds the phone 2, in the left hand 20 and with the right hand 21 points into the "lookthrough" keyboard area 22. It should be noted that the user only sees the phone itself. The virtual keypad in the keyboard area 22 is not visible to the user. The pointing right hand finger triggers the scan controller to identify and capture the XYZ position which corresponds to the first letter "W".

This positional data is then processed for keyboard de-bounce and template mapping and the corresponding keyboard output character, is stored in a buffer 16, ready for reading and display on the screen of the phone. A similar procedure is followed to produce the other three letters O. R. and D of the word.

There is no visible projection of the phone keyboard into space. The user effectively "learns" the position of the invisible magnified keyboard and similarly the position of individual keys by usage and trial and error. It is expected that this learning procedure will not take long.

The arrangement described above is based upon the detection of electrostatic capacitor disturbance. However, other forms of detection technology may be used.

For example, electric field based radio disturbance or magnetic field based inductive disturbance may be used. The three types have different merits and uses. The following table gives typical resolutions, detection ranges, aerial spacing and 1 0 environments.

Type Resolution Detection Aerial Environment (cell size) Range Spacing Capacitive High ->lScm l.5cm Hand Held, non (.5cm) Obstructed, low power Radio Med (2crn) 0-30cm Scm Surface mounted, obstructed Inductive Low (Scary) 0->2m 50cm Surface mounted, _ non obstructed The "Capacitive Disturbance" detection technology is low power and small footprint, suitable for computerized mobile devices, Phone, PDA's and Single handed control devices.

The "Radio Disturbance" detection technology is low power, low emission, and can use encrypted shifting frequencies to avoid "monitoring" or "stimulating" from external sources. It has a range which can be used through barriers, like glass and so it is suited to, Sterile/Hostile and the security industries.

The "Inductive Disturbance" detection technology is low/medium power and has the greatest range. This could be used in hostile under water environments or where, a lower cell resolution, but bigger disturbance area is required, as in body motion interface for a computer games console.

The system and procedure has many other applications. One such other application will be described with reference to figures Sa, 5b and Sc. If this alternative as invisible field in the form of a three dimensional cube of cells 30 is created by the field transducer 31. Within this cube of cells the path 32 of the movement of a finger may be identified by the disturbance of the field it causes and this path recorded. This offers a "3D password" capability for security systems where the user draws his own private three dimensional shape in free space in front of the field transducer 31. The recorded path of movement may then be forwarded to an authorisation system for analysis or processed locally in the keyboard template masking program to confirm or deny authorisation and thus, for example, entry or not IS to a secure area. The processing system is substantially the same as that already described in relation to the first embodiment and comprises a scan controller 10, XYZ position stack 13, a keyboard template masking and 3D password analysis program 33 and microprocessor control 12, and associated controller ROM (not shown). The system comprises an authorisation server 34 which receives the analysed password from the microprocessor control which in turn is matched to activate a lock controller to either permit or deny entry. If desired, the analysed 3D password may be encrypted for output to a securitycontrolling device for authorization.

It will be appreciated that the above embodiment has been described by way of example only and that many variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

Claims 1. An electronic apparatus for producing a virtual spatial array

comprising a number of individual cells comprising means for producing magnetic, electric, or electrostatic fields for covering the virtual spatial array, means for scanning the fields to determine the presence or absence of a field disturbance, and means for storing the position of the cell or cells in which a disturbance has occurred and for producing an output representative of the position or positions sensed.
2. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, in which there are three fields.
3. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which the fields are

powered by field transducer means.
4. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, in which, when the field is electrostatic, the means for producing is capacitive.
5. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, in which, when the field is magnetic, the means for producing is inductive.
6. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, in which, when the field is electric, the means for producing is inductive.
7. An electronic apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the means for scanning the fields comprises a scan controller.
8. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 7, when appendant directly or indirectly to claim 3 in which the scan controller is operative to enable and cyclically poll each field to identify and record the position of a disturbance.
9. An electronic apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the means for storing comprising a position register having means for recording position values along the XYZ axes of a three dimensional coordinate system.
10. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 9, in which the position register is connected to an XYZ position stack to which, in operation, values from the position register are sequentially transmitted.
11. An electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 10, in which a microprocessor is provided to analyse the XYZ position stack.
12. An electronic apparatus for producing a virtual spatial array substantially as hereinbefore described with referenced to Figure 1 to 4d or to figures Sa to 5c of the accompanying drawings.