Segmented force sensors for wearable devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11009949-B1
Application number	US-201816057623-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 7, 2018
Priority date	Aug 8, 2017
Publication date	May 18, 2021
Grant date	May 18, 2021

Abstract

A wearable electronic device comprises a multi-segment force sensor and a signal aggregator. The sensor comprises at least a first segment and a second segment connected to a flexible substrate material. A first portion of the substrate material (to which the first segment is attached) and a second portion of the substrate material (to which the second segment is attached) collectively wrap at least partially around a portion of an individual's body. The signal aggregator receives respective signals indicative of forces applied by an individual to the segments, and causes a representation of the respective signals to be transmitted to an application processing engine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a sensor-equipped wearable device; and
a processing engine comprising one or more processors and a memory;
wherein the memory comprises program instructions that when executed on the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to implement a method comprising:
obtaining, from a first multi-segment sensor of a first finger of the sensor-equipped wearable device, an indication of a first distribution of force applied by the first finger of an individual during a particular time interval, wherein the first multi-segment sensor comprises at least a first segment positioned at a tip of the first finger and a second segment positioned along a palm-side surface of the first finger of the individual's hand;
obtaining, from a second multi-segment sensor of a second finger of the sensor-equipped wearable device for the individual's hand, an indication of a second distribution of force applied by the second finger of the individual during the particular time interval;
based at least on an analysis of individual ones of the first distribution of force applied by the first finger and the second distribution of force applied by the second finger, detect a command to be implemented; and
causing initiation of an operation which implements the command.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first segment comprises a mutual capacitive sensor, a strain gauge, a force sensitive resistor, or an inductive sensor.

3. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more operations comprise an operation of a mixed-reality application.

4. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said analysis of the first distribution and the second distribution comprises detecting a multi-touch gesture made by the individual using at least the first and second fingers.

5. The system as recited in claim 4 , wherein the first distribution of force comprises a force resulting from contact with a surface onto which a virtual object is projected.

6. The system as recited in claim 5 , wherein the virtual object comprises a virtual keyboard, a virtual trackpad, a virtual mouse, or a virtual button.

7. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the sensor-equipped wearable device comprises:
a signal aggregator;
wherein the first segment and the second segment are connected to a flexible substrate material, wherein a first portion of the flexible substrate material and a second portion of the flexible substrate material are configured to collectively wrap at least partially around a portion of the individual's hand, wherein the first segment is attached to the first portion, and wherein the second segment is attached to the second portion;
wherein the signal aggregator:
receives, from one or more segments of the first multi-segment sensor, respective signals indicative of forces applied by the individual to the segments; and
causes a representation of the respective signals to be transmitted to the processing engine.

8. The system as recited in claim 7 , wherein the portion of the individual's hand comprises the first finger.

9. The system as recited in claim 7 , wherein the first segment:
transmits, to the signal aggregator, a signal indicative of a force applied by the tip of the first finger of the individual; and
wherein the second segment transmits, to the signal aggregator, a signal indicative of a force applied by a ventral surface of the first finger.

10. The system as recited in claim 7 , wherein the first segment comprises a mutual capacitive sensor.

11. The system as recited in claim 10 , wherein the mutual capacitive sensor comprises a gel-based dielectric layer.

12. The system as recited in claim 7 , wherein the flexible substrate material is in a folded conformation, and wherein the flexible substrate material comprises a fold boundary separating one or more drive electrode elements of the first multi-segment sensor from a plurality of sense electrode elements, wherein individual ones of the sense electrode elements correspond to individual ones of the segments.

13. The system as recited in claim 7 , further comprising one or more inertial measurement units, wherein the one or more inertial measurement units are configured to:
cause an indication of a change of position or orientation of the first finger to be transmitted to a destination.

14. The system as recited in claim 7 , wherein the processing engine executes a mixed-reality application.

15. The system as recited in claim 7 , wherein the surface area of the first segment differs from the surface area of the second segment.

16. A method, comprising:
performing, by a processing engine comprising one or more processors and a memory:
obtaining, from a first multi-segment sensor of a first finger of a sensor-equipped wearable device, an indication of a first distribution of force applied by the first finger of an individual during a particular time interval, wherein the first multi-segment sensor comprises at least a first segment positioned at a tip of the first finger and a second segment positioned along a palm-side surface of the first finger;
obtaining, from a second multi-segment sensor of a second finger of the sensor-equipped wearable device for the individual's hand, an indication of a second distribution of force applied by the second finger of the individual during the particular time interval;
based at least on an analysis of individual ones of the first distribution of force applied by the first finger and the second distribution of force applied by the second finger, detect a command to be implemented; and
causing initiation of an operation which implements the command.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 , wherein the first distribution of force is a result of contact between the first finger and a flexible surface.

18. The method as recited in claim 16 , wherein the method comprises:
obtaining, from one or more optical sensors, a data set representing at least a portion of a visible environment of the individual, wherein the command is determined based at least on an analysis of the data set.

19. The method as recited in claim 18 , wherein the portion of the visible environment does not include a view of at least a portion of the sensor-equipped wearable device.

20. The method as recited in claim 16 , further comprising:
determining, based at least on an analysis of the first distribution of force, and based at least on a position of the first finger, the command on behalf of the individual.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Elias John G
• Chang Ray L
• Malkin Moshe H
• Pant Vivek

Classifications

• G06F2203/04808

  Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen · CPC title

• G06F1/163

  Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt · CPC title

• G06F3/0488

  using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures · 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

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title