Calibration and Detection Techniques in Haptic Systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017193768-A1
Application number	US-201715396851-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 3, 2017
Priority date	Jan 5, 2016
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Described is a system for producing an acoustic field from a plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays, each of which has known relative positions and orientations. The acoustic field comprises a carrier wave and a modulated wave. The carrier wave has a plurality of modulated focal areas. A plurality of control points having a known spatial relationship relative to at least one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays is used. The plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays are calibrated by using the relative position of each of the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method comprising:
i) producing an acoustic field from an ultrasonic transducer array with known relative positions and orientations, wherein the acoustic field comprises a carrier wave and a modulated wave having a plurality of wave portions and wherein the carrier wave has a plurality of modulated focal areas; ii) defining a plurality of control points wherein each of the plurality of control points has a known spatial relationship relative to the ultrasonic transducer arrays; iii) delaying the plurality of wave portions so that the plurality of wave portions arrive at one of the control points nearly simultaneously.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the modulated wave uses amplitude modulation.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the modulated wave uses frequency modulation.

4 . The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying the carrier wave so that it chirps into a range of frequencies.

5 . The method of claim 4 wherein the carrier wave is used to locate an object within the acoustic field.

6 . A method comprising:
i) producing an acoustic field from a plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays, each of which has known relative positions and orientations, wherein the acoustic field comprises a carrier wave and a modulated wave and wherein the carrier wave has a plurality of modulated focal areas; ii) defining a plurality of control points wherein each of the plurality of control points has a known spatial relationship relative to at least one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays; iii) calibrating the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays by using the relative position of each of the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays.

7 . The method as in claim 6 , wherein the step of calibrating the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays also uses one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays as a receiver of signals from another of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of calibrating the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays also uses a time difference of arrival algorithm.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the step of calibrating the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays compensates for clock drift.

10 . The method as in claim 7 , wherein one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays is connected to another of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers by a hinge.

11 . A method comprising:
i) producing an acoustic field from a plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays, each of which has known relative positions and orientations, wherein the acoustic field comprises a carrier wave and an modulated wave and wherein the carrier wave has a plurality of modulated focal areas; ii) defining a plurality of control points wherein each of the plurality of control points has a known spatial relationship relative to at least one of the plurality of ultrasonic transducer arrays; iii) using the amplitude modulated wave to create an audio effect emanating from at least one of the plurality of control points.

12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the modulated wave uses amplitude modulation.

13 . The method of claim 11 wherein the modulated wave uses spatio-temporal modulation.

14 . The method of claim 11 wherein the modulated wave uses amplitude modulation to produce parametric audio at a frequency audible to humans at the at least one of the plurality of control points.

15 . The method of claim 11 wherein the carrier wave is used to locate an object within the acoustic field.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the object has object properties and the carrier wave is used to measure the object properties.

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the modulated wave uses amplitude modulation at a frequency not audible to humans.

18 . The method of claim 16 wherein the modulated wave uses amplitude modulation at a frequency audible to humans.

19 . The method of claim 16 wherein the measurement of the object properties uses phases of the frequency of the carrier wave.

20 . The method of claim 19 wherein the measurement of the object properties also uses a time-of-flight determination.

Assignees

• Ultrahaptics Ip Ltd

Inventors

• Long Benjaimin John Oliver
• Iodice Michele
• Carter Thomas Andrew

Classifications

• G08B6/00 Primary

  Tactile signalling systems, e.g. tactile personal calling systems · CPC title

• G06F3/016 Primary

  Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user · CPC title

• G01S15/06

  Systems determining the position data of a target · CPC title

• G10K11/34

  using electrical steering of transducer arrays, e.g. beam steering {(constructional aspects B06B1/0607, B06B1/085)} · CPC title

• G06F3/017

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title