Electronic device capable of detecting wearing state or touching state

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11016535-B1
Application number	US-202016748746-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 21, 2020
Priority date	Jan 21, 2020
Publication date	May 25, 2021
Grant date	May 25, 2021

Abstract

A wearable electronic device which can detect a wearing state, comprising: at least one first electrode, provided in a first region of the wearable electronic device; at least one second electrode, provided in a second region of the wearable electronic device; a capacitance calculating circuit, configured to calculate first capacitances generated by the first electrode and configured to calculate second capacitances generated by the second electrode, wherein the capacitance calculating circuit further calculates a capacitance difference between the first capacitance and the second capacitance; and a processing circuit, configured to determine the wearing state according to the capacitance difference. Via such structure, a wearing state, a wearing location, a wearing angle of the electronic device can be automatically detected, thus the problem caused by an improper wearing manner can be improved.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wearable electronic device with a function of detecting a wearing state, comprising:
at least one first electrode, provided in a first region of the wearable electronic device;
at least one second electrode, provided in a second region of the wearable electronic device;
a capacitance calculating circuit, coupled to the first electrode to calculate at least one first capacitance generated by the first electrode and coupled to the second electrode to calculate at least one second capacitance generated by the second electrode, wherein the capacitance calculating circuit further calculates a capacitance difference between the first capacitance and the second capacitance; and
a processing circuit, coupled to the capacitance calculating circuit, configured to determine the wearing state according to the capacitance difference;
wherein the wearing state comprises a worn state and a taken off state, wherein the processing circuit determines the wearing state is in the worn state if the capacitance difference is larger than a capacitance difference threshold, and determines the wearing state is in the taken off state if the capacitance difference is smaller than the capacitance difference threshold.

2. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the wearable electronic device comprises an inner region serving as the first region and an outer region serving as the second region.

3. The wearable electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the outer region is surrounding the inner region.

4. The wearable electronic device of claim 2 , wherein a distance between the first region and a user's skin is smaller than a distance between the second region and the user's skin while the user wearing the wearable electronic device.

5. The wearable electronic device of claim 2 ,
wherein the inner region is provided to a first part of the wearable electronic device and the outer region is provided to a second part of the wearable electronic device, wherein the inner region and the outer region are provided to a first surface of the wearable electronic device, wherein the first part is more protruding than a second surface of the wearable electronic device, wherein the second surface is opposite to the first surface.

6. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit further controls the wearable electronic device to switch from a recognized state to a non-recognized state when the smart watch changes from the worn state to the taken off state.

7. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least two light sources and at least one optical sensor, wherein the optical sensor senses light generated from the light sources to respectively generate light sensing signals;
wherein the capacitance calculating circuit further calculates a first capacitance variation based on the first capacitance and a second capacitance variation based on the second capacitance;
wherein the processing circuit further determines which one of the light sensing signals is reliable according to the first capacitance variation or the second capacitance variation.

8. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first electrode serves as at least one transmitter and at least one of the first electrode serves as at least one receiver, wherein the processing circuit further calculates biological information according to signals flowing between the transmitter and the receiver.

9. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising a sensing surface, by which a user can cause capacitance variation to the first electrode when the user wears the wearable electronic device, wherein the sensing surface is included in the first region.

10. The wearable electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the wearable electronic device comprises a front surface which can show desired information, and comprises a back surface served as the sensing surface.

11. A wearable electronic device with a function of detecting a wearing state, comprising:
a processing circuit, configured to receive a first group of touch sensing signal and a second group of touch sensing signal;
wherein the first group of touch sensing signal comprises a plurality of first touch sensing signals and the second group of touch sensing signal comprises at least one second touch sensing signal;
wherein each one of the second touch sensing signal respectively corresponding to one specific touch sensing signal of the first touch sensing signals;
wherein the processing circuit determines a wearing location or a wearing angle of the wearable electronic device according to differences between the first touch sensing signals; and
wherein the processing circuit determines the wearing state according to differences between the first touch sensing signals and the second touch sensing signals;
wherein the wearing state comprises a worn state and a taken off state;
wherein the processing circuit determines whether the wearable electronic device has the worn state or the taken off state according to whether the difference between the first touch sensing signals and the second touch sensing signals exceed a difference threshold;
wherein the difference threshold for determining the worn state and the taken off state is larger than the differences between the first sensing signals.

12. The wearable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the first group of touch sensing signal are generated by a plurality of first electrodes and the second group of touch sensing signal are generated by at least one second electrode, wherein the specific touch sensing signal is generated by one of the first electrodes which is closest to the second electrode corresponding to the specific touch sensing signal.

13. The wearable electronic device of claim 11 , further comprising a light sensing device configured to generate at least one light sensing signal, wherein the processing circuit calibrates the light sensing signal according to the wearing location or the wearing angle.

Assignees

• Pixart Imaging Inc

Inventors

• Tsai Ming-Hung
• Su Tse-Chung
• Gu Ren-Hau
• Su Tzung-Min

Classifications

• G06F3/0416

  Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title

• G06F3/044 Primary

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• G06F1/163 Primary

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

• G06Q20/321

  using wearable devices · CPC title