Method and apparatus for producing an acoustic field

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12345838-B2
Application number	US-202318188584-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 23, 2023
Priority date	May 8, 2013
Publication date	Jul 1, 2025
Grant date	Jul 1, 2025

Abstract

The present invention concerns a method and apparatus for the modulation of an acoustic field for providing tactile sensations. A method of creating haptic feedback using ultrasound is provided. The method comprises the steps of generating a plurality of ultrasound waves with a common focal point using a phased array of ultrasound transducers, the common focal point being a haptic feedback point, and modulating the generation of the ultrasound waves using a waveform selected to produce little or no audible sound at the haptic feedback point.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising: a) producing an acoustic field using an array of real transducers having known relative positions and orientations; b) tracking an object within the acoustic field; c) using at least one point of focused ultrasound, defining a virtual shape that occupies a virtual volume within the acoustic field, wherein the at least one point of focused ultrasound is modeled as being produced by a virtual transducer; and d) positioning the at least one point of focused ultrasound in a region where the object intersects the virtual shape.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the virtual transducer is below the at least one point of focused ultrasound.

3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the virtual transducer is in a plane with the array of real transducers.

4. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the virtual transducer enables a lookup table to be pre-computed.

5. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the virtual transducer matches at least one of the array of real transducers.

6. The method as in claim 1 , wherein tracking an object occurs in real time, and further comprising repositioning the at least one point of focused ultrasound in response to a movement in position of the object.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the object is a human hand.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein an acoustic field comprises ultrasonic frequencies.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a modulator to modulate acoustic waves within the acoustic field at a frequency between 0.1 Hz to 500 Hz.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the array of transducers is substantially air coupled.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the array of transducers is substantially water coupled.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the array of transducers amplitudes are scaled such that a highest amplitude transducer operates at substantially full power.

13. A system comprising: an acoustic field in air produced using a plurality of ultrasonic transducers having known relative positions and orientations to each other, wherein at least one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is a virtual transducer; a tracker of an object within the acoustic field; a virtual shape defined using at least one point of focused ultrasound produced from at least two of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers that occupies a virtual volume within the acoustic field, wherein the virtual shape is 3-dimensional; and one of the at least one point of focused ultrasound positioned in a region where the object intersects the virtual shape.

14. The method as in claim 13 , wherein the virtual transducer is below the virtual shape.

15. The method as in claim 13 , wherein the virtual transducer is in a plane with the plurality of ultrasonic transducer.

16. The method as in claim 13 , wherein the virtual transducer enables a lookup table to be pre-computed.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein one of the at least one point of focused ultrasound is positioned on an edge of the virtual shape.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein one of the at least one point of focused ultrasound is positioned within the virtual shape.

19. The system of claim 13 , further comprising one of the at least one point of focused ultrasound repositioned in response to a movement of the object.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the object is a human hand.

21. The system of claim 13 , further comprising acoustic waves within the acoustic field modulated at a frequency between 0.1 Hz to 500 Hz.

22. The system of claim 13 , further comprising acoustic waves within the acoustic field modulated at a frequency between 0 Hz and half of a carrier frequency of the acoustic waves.

23. A system comprising: an acoustic field in air produced using a plurality of ultrasonic transducers having known relative positions and orientations to each other, wherein at least one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers is a virtual transducer; a tracker of an object within the acoustic field; a virtual shape defined using at least two points of focused ultrasound produced from at least two of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers that occupies a virtual volume within the acoustic field; wherein two of the at least two points of focused ultrasound are positioned in a region where the object intersects the virtual shape.

24. The method as in claim 23 , wherein the virtual transducer is below the virtual shape.

25. The method as in claim 23 , wherein the virtual transducer is in a plane with the plurality of ultrasonic transducer.

26. The method as in claim 23 , wherein the virtual transducer enables a lookup table to be pre-computed.

27. The system of claim 23 , wherein two of the at least two points of focused ultrasound are positioned on an edge of the virtual shape.

28. The system of claim 23 , wherein two of the at least two points of focused ultrasound are positioned within the virtual shape.

29. The system of claim 23 , further comprising two of the at least two points of focused ultrasound repositioned in response to movement of the object.

30. The system of claim 23 , wherein the object is a human hand.

31. The system of claim 23 , further comprising acoustic waves within the acoustic field modulated at a frequency between 0.1 Hz to 500 Hz.

32. The system of claim 23 , further comprising acoustic waves within the acoustic field modulated at a frequency between 0 Hz and half of a carrier frequency of the acoustic waves.

33. The system of claim 23 , wherein the virtual shape is 3-dimensional.

Assignees

• Ultrahaptics Ip Ltd

Inventors

• Carter Thomas Andrew
• Long Benjamin John Oliver
• Subramanian Sriram

Classifications

• G01S2007/52007

  involving adjustment of transmitted power · CPC title

• G01S15/876

  Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector (G01S15/872 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S15/36

  with phase comparison between the received signal and the contemporaneously transmitted signal · CPC title

• G01S7/539

  using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation; Target signature; Target cross-section · CPC title

• G01S7/52003

  Techniques for enhancing spatial resolution of targets (G01S7/52046 takes precedence) · CPC title