Mechanism for employing and facilitating placement of a sensor cover over a capacitive circuitry sensor at a computing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10120511-B2
Application number	US-201514998056-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2015
Priority date	Sep 30, 2011
Publication date	Nov 6, 2018
Grant date	Nov 6, 2018

Abstract

A mechanism is described for employing and facilitating placing a sensor cover over an external sensor of a computing device. A method of embodiments of the invention includes sensing, at a sensor of a computing device, user touches to an outer surface of an impregnated sensor cover placed over the sensor, wherein the sensor cover includes a plurality of holes through the outer surface and a plurality of conductive leads corresponding to the plurality of holes, and wherein sensing is performed through one or more of the plurality of holes and their one or more corresponding conductive leads; and facilitating an action in response to each of the sensed user touches.

First claim

We claim:

1. A computing system capable of being used in facilitating outer user touches for performing tasks at the computing device, the computing system comprising:
a sensor cover having a sense surface having multiple holes with conductive leads; and
the computing device having:
a capacitive sensor coupled to the conductive leads of the multiple holes of the sense cover to detect a user touch to the sense surface of the sensor cover, wherein the sense surface is to cover at least a portion of the sensor;
a processor; and
storage capable of storing instructions to be executed by the processor, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform an action in response to the user touch.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the multiple holes are arranged in an array where the holes are over the sensor while exposing a portion of the sensor.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the action comprises performance of a task at the computing device.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the capacitive sensor is located at front of the computing device.

5. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the user touch corresponds to one or more of a roll, a flick, a rub, or a press to the sensor cover.

6. A method for facilitating outer user touches for performing tasks at a computing device, the method comprising:
detecting, by a capacitive sensor, a user touch to a sense surface of a sensor cover having multiple holes with conductive leads coupled to the capacitive sensor, wherein the sense surface is to cover at least a portion of the capacitive sensor; and
performing, by a processor, an action in response to the user touch to the sensor cover.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the multiple holes are arranged in an array where the holes are over the capacitive sensor while exposing a portion of the sensor.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the action comprises performance of a task at the computing device.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the capacitive sensor is located at front of the computing device.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the user touch corresponds to one or more of a roll, a flick, a rub, or a press to the sensor cover.

11. A apparatus comprising:
a sensor cover having a sense surface having multiple holes with conductive leads; and a computing device having:
a capacitive sensor coupled to the conductive leads of the multiple holes of the sense cover to detect a user touch to the sense surface of the sensor cover, wherein the sense surface is to cover at least a portion of the sensor; and
a processor to perform an action in response to the user touch to the sensor cover.

12. The apparatus claim 11 , wherein the multiple holes are arranged in an array where the holes are over the sensor while exposing a portion of the capacitive sensor.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the action comprises performance of a task at the computing device.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the capacitive sensor is located at front of the computing device.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the user touch corresponds to one or more of a roll, a flick, a rub, or a press to the sensor cover.

16. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
detecting, by a capacitive sensor, a user touch to a sense surface of a sensor cover having multiple holes with conductive leads coupled to the capacitive sensor, wherein the sense surface is to cover at least a portion of the capacitive sensor; and
performing an action in response to the user touch to the sensor cover.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the multiple holes are arranged in an array where the holes are over the capacitive sensor while exposing a portion of the capacitive sensor.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the action comprises performance of a task at the computing device.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the capacitive sensor is located at front of the computing device.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the user touch corresponds to one or more of a roll, a flick, a rub, or a press to the sensor cover.

Assignees

• Graumann David L
• Williams Jameson H
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Graumann David L
• Williams Jameson H

Classifications

• G06F3/044 Primary

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• H03K17/962

  Capacitive touch switches · CPC title

• G06F1/182

  with special features, e.g. for use in industrial environments; grounding or shielding against radio frequency interference [RFI] or electromagnetical interference [EMI] · CPC title

• G06F1/169

  the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes (G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033) · CPC title