Electronic apparatus having optical navigation circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10990195-B2
Application number	US-201916432952-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2019
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	Apr 27, 2021
Grant date	Apr 27, 2021

Abstract

An electronic apparatus includes a structure and an optical navigation circuit. A first end of the structure is located inside the electronic apparatus and its second end corresponds to a user's control. The structure can be moved forward/backward in a specific direction and/or rotated in another direction. The optical navigation circuit captures reflection of a light emitting to the structure to detect displacement of the image along a specific axis of the structure, and determines the user's operating behavior as a specific operation according to a change of the sensed displacement of the image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic apparatus comprising:
a structure, having a first end located inside the electronic apparatus, and a second end protruding out of the electronic apparatus and arranged to be controlled by a user, wherein the structure is configured to move forward/backward in a specific direction and rotate around a specific axis, and there is no artifact for generating encoding patterns on the surface of the structure;
an optical navigation circuit, configured to use an optical sensor to directly capture reflection of a light emitting to the structure, to simultaneously detect a rotation displacement of a surface image of the structure around the specific axis and a forward/backward displacement of the surface image along the specific direction of the structure, and determine an operation of the user as performing specific behavior according to the detected at least one of the rotation displacement and the forward/backward displacement; and
a flexible structure, connected to the first end of the structure, wherein the user presses or releases the flexible structure via the second end of the structure;

wherein the optical navigation circuit is configured to sequentially detect first displacement and second displacement of the structure along a central axis, and determine whether the user presses or releases the flexible structure via the second end of the structure according to whether the first displacement and the second displacement sequentially satisfy a specific displacement condition.

2. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein when the first displacement and the second displacement sequentially correspond to two displacement amounts in two opposite directions along the central axis, the optical navigation circuit determines that the user presses and then releases the flexible structure via the second end of the structure.

3. The electronic apparatus of claim 2 , wherein when each of displacement amounts of the first displacement and the second displacement is smaller than a specific displacement amount, the optical navigation circuit does not refer to the first displacement and the second displacement to determine whether the user presses or releases the flexible structure.

4. The electronic apparatus of claim 2 , wherein when the first displacement and the second displacement sequentially correspond to two displacement amounts in two opposite directions along the central axis, the optical navigation circuit determines that the user presses and then releases the flexible structure, and temporarily stops referring to displacement of the structure to determine an operation of the control of the user during a subsequent time interval.

5. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein when the first displacement and the second displacement sequentially correspond to two displacement amounts in a same direction along the central axis, the optical navigation circuit determines that the user presses the flexible structure via the second end of the structure.

6. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the flexible structure is one of a flexible button, a spring, and a metal dome.

7. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the structure is one of a column object, a needle object, and a rod object.

8. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the user rotates the structure along a central axis of the structure via the second end of the structure; and the optical navigation circuit is configured to detect at least one third displacement of the surface image along a transverse axis of the structure, and determine that the user rotates the structure via the second end of the structure according to the at least one third displacement.

9. The electronic apparatus of claim 8 , wherein according to the at least one third displacement, the optical navigation circuit determines a rotation amount and a rotation direction after the structure is rotated, and determines a corresponding angle and direction of the structure rotated by the user.

10. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the electronic apparatus is an optical mouse, and the structure is configured to realize at least one of a button function and a function of locking/unlocking a host screen.

11. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the electronic apparatus is a rotary combination lock device, and the structure is configured to realize a password rotary disc of the rotary combination lock device.

12. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the electronic apparatus is a wearable device, the second end of the structure is configured to realize at least one of a button and a rotary disc for the user to operate the wearable device.

13. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the structure is a roller element comprising a runner hub and a wheel shaft, the wheel shaft passes through the runner hub, and the roller element moves upward/downward or makes the runner hub rotate in response to the control of the user; and the optical navigation circuit is configured to detect at least one displacement of the surface image on a wheel face of the runner hub to determine displacement of the surface image in the direction of at least one specific axis of the structure.

14. The electronic apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the wheel face of the runner hub comprises at least one of a circumferential end surface of the runner hub and a wheel face in a direction of a radius of the runner hub.

Assignees

• Pixart Imaging Inc

Inventors

• Chung Ching-Lin
• Tsai Kai-Ho

Classifications

• G04C3/005

  Multiple switches (G04C3/004 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/0304 Primary

  Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means (constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042) · CPC title

• G06F3/0312

  for tracking the rotation of a spherical or circular member, e.g. optical rotary encoders used in mice or trackballs using a tracking ball or in mouse scroll wheels (tracking relative movement in co-operation with a regularly or irregularly patterned surface, e.g. as in optical mice G06F3/0317; constructional details of scroll or thumb-wheels G06F3/0362; optical rotary encoders G01D5/3473) · CPC title

• G06F3/03543

  Mice or pucks (G06F3/03541 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E05B37/00

  Permutation {or combination} locks ({handles with combination locks E05B13/103; keyhole guards with combination locks E05B17/145;} electric permutation locks E05B49/00); Puzzle locks · CPC title