Data acquisition and measurement acquisition device for a door handle and associated method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10147252-B2
Application number	US-201515513929-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2015
Priority date	Sep 24, 2014
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

According to the invention, just one voltage device (14) is provided for common adjustment of the voltages of the at least one communications device (11) and the at least one sensor device (12).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device for data and measurement acquisition for a door handle of a vehicle comprising:
at least one communication device;
at least one sensor device for measurement of a change in capacitance;
one voltage device electrically connected to both of the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device, the one voltage device for conjoint voltage adjustment of the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device;
an evaluation and control device electrically connected to both the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device, the evaluation and control device configured to:
monitor operation activity of both of the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device; and
prevent an erroneous measurement of the at least one sensor device by at least one of:
(a) determining an at least partially simultaneous operation of the at least one communication device and the sensor device, and, in response to determining the at least partially simultaneous operation of the at least one communication device and at least one sensor device, rejecting the detected operation of the at least one sensor device as erroneous; or
(b) detecting an operation of the at least one communication device and, in response to detecting an operation of the at least one communication device, interrupting operation of the at least one sensor device during the operation of the at least one communication device.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the voltage adjustment of the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device can be directly carried out via the voltage device.

3. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the evaluation and control device is configured to metrologically detect the at least partially simultaneous operation of the communication device and the sensor device at an instant.

4. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the evaluation and control device has a data connection to at least one of the at least one communication device, the at least one sensor unit, and to a vehicle electronics.

5. The device according to claim 1 , wherein via the evaluation and control device, data from the data exchange of the communication device can be at least received, evaluated or transferred to vehicle electronics that can be connected to the evaluation and control device.

6. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a non-volatile memory unit, the non-volatile memory unit including data that is at least one of transferable or receivable by the communication device.

7. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a switching unit configured to switch between an operation of at least one sensor unit of the sensor device and the communication device in order to reduce disruptions of the measurement.

8. The device according to claim 7 , wherein the switching unit is integrated in the evaluation and control unit.

9. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the communication device is an NFC device for NFC data exchange with an external communication device.

10. A method for operating a device for data and measurement acquisition for a door handle of a vehicle comprising:
monitoring, by an evaluation and control device electrically connected to at least one communication device and at least one sensor device for measuring a charge in capacitance, operation activity of both of the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device; and
preventing an erroneous measurement of the at least one sensor device by at least one of:
(a) determining an at least partially simultaneous operation of the at least one communication device and the sensor device, and, in response to determining the at least partially simultaneous operation of the at least one communication device and at least one sensor device, rejecting the detected operation of the at least one sensor device as erroneous; or
(b) detecting an operation of the at least one communication device and, in response to detecting an operation of the at least one communication device, interrupting operation of the at least one sensor device during the operation of the at least one communication device;

wherein the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device are electrically connected to precisely one voltage device, and wherein the one voltage device serves for conjoint voltage adjustment of the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device.

11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
cyclically initiating, by the evaluation and control device, a measurement by the sensor device; and
carrying out, by the communication device, a query in temporal dependency on the measurement.

12. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising operating, via the voltage device, the communication device and the sensor device with an equal electrical operating voltage or are connected to an equal electrical potential.

13. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising cyclically carrying out, by the communication device, a query in order to detect a communication-ready, external communication device, wherein such a query of the communication device always being metrologically determined by the evaluation and control device.

14. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
wherein, upon recognition of the communication-ready external communication device, sending, by the communication device, an interrupt request to the evaluation and control unit to initiate a data exchange; and
interrupting, by the evaluation and control device, the measurement acquisition of the sensor device during the data exchange.

15. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the monitoring the operation activity of the at least one sensor device comprises carrying out, by the evaluation and control device, a measurement acquisition of the sensor device at least as a function of an output signal from the communication device that is received by the evaluation and control unit, or as a function of an input signal sent by the evaluation and control device to the communication device.

16. A device for a door handle of a vehicle, comprising:
a communication device;
a sensor device configured to measure a change in capacitance;
a power supply;
a voltage regulator coupled to (i) the power supply, (ii) the communication device, and (iii) the sensor device; and
an evaluation and control device electrically connected to both the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device, the evaluation and control device configured to:
monitor operation activity of both of the at least one communication device and the at least one sensor device; and
prevent an erroneous measurement of the at least one sensor device by at least one of:
(a) determining an at least partially simultaneous operation of the at least one communication device and the sensor device, and, in response to determining the at least partially simultaneous operation of the at least one communication device and at least one sensor device, rejecting the detected operation of the at least one sensor device as erroneous; or
(b) detecting an operation of the at least one communication device and, in response to detecting an operation of the at least one communication device, interrupting operation of the at least one sensor device during the operation of the at least one communication device;

wherein the voltage regulator is configured for conjoint voltage adjustment of the communic

Assignees

• Huf Huelsbeck & Fuerst Gmbh & Co Kg

Inventors

• Schindler Mirko
• Gerdes Bernd
• Raulin Sebastian

Classifications

• G07C2009/00769

  with data transmission performed by wireless means · CPC title

• G07C9/00309 Primary

  operated with bidirectional data transmission between data carrier and locks · CPC title

• H04L2012/40273

  the transportation system being a vehicle · CPC title

• G07C2009/00777

  by induction · CPC title

• H04L12/40

  Bus networks · CPC title