Sensitivity adjustment device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9247171-B2
Application number	US-201314028096-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2013
Priority date	Sep 19, 2012
Publication date	Jan 26, 2016
Grant date	Jan 26, 2016

Abstract

A sensitivity adjustment device may include: a light receiver configured to receive a reflected light that has been emitted from a light emitting unit and reflected by a reflector, the light receiver being configured to convert the reflected light into an analog electrical signal; an A/D converter configured to convert the analog electrical signal into a digital signal; a threshold value calculator configured to calculate a threshold value with reference to a voltage level of the digital signal that has been sequentially converted and output by the A/D converter; and a determination unit configured to compare a high voltage level of the digital signal with the threshold value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sensitivity adjustment device comprising:
a light receiver configured to receive a reflected light that has been emitted from a light emitting unit and reflected by a reflector, the light receiver being configured to convert the reflected light into an analog electrical signal;
an A/D converter configured to convert the analog electrical signal into a digital signal;
a threshold value calculator configured to calculate a threshold value with reference to a voltage level of the digital signal that has been sequentially converted and output by the A/D converter; and
a determination unit configured to compare a high voltage level of the digital signal with the threshold value,
wherein the threshold value calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value by using at least one of a maximum value and a minimum value of the voltage level of the digital signal that has been converted and output by the A/D converter when the light emitting unit is emitting a light, and the digital signal that has been converted and output by the A/D converter when the light emitting unit is not emitting the light.

2. The sensitivity adjustment device according to claim 1 , wherein
the threshold value calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value by using a statistic of at least one of a maximum value and a minimum value of the voltage level of the digital signal that has been converted and output by the A/D converter when the light emitting unit is emitting a light, and the digital signal that has been converted and output by the A/D converter when the light emitting unit is not emitting the light.

3. The sensitivity adjustment device according to claim 1 , wherein
the sensitivity adjustment device is incorporated in an infrared touch switch, and
the threshold value calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value as a sensitivity adjustment parameter to adjust touch detection sensitivity in the infrared touch switch.

4. The sensitivity adjustment device according to claim 3 , wherein the infrared touch switch is incorporated in a field device as a switch mechanism that is manually operated.

5. The sensitivity adjustment device according to claim 1 , wherein
the determination unit is configured to compare the threshold value, which has been calculated and output by the threshold value calculator, with respect to a value of the voltage level of the digital signal, which has been sequentially converted and output by the A/D converter, corresponding to the analog signal, which has been converted by the light receiver, so as to determine presence or absence of a touch detection operation.

6. The sensitivity adjustment device according to claim 1 , wherein
the determination unit is configured to determine “Switch OFF” if the signal level of the digital signal, which has been output from the A/D converter, is less than the threshold value, and
the determination unit is configured to determine “Switch ON” if the signal level of the digital signal, which has been output from the A/D converter, is equal to or more than the threshold value.

7. A sensitivity adjustment device comprising:
a light receiver configured to receive a reflected light that has been emitted from a light emitting unit and reflected by a reflector, the light receiver being configured to convert the reflected light into an analog electrical signal;
an A/D converter configured to convert the analog electrical signal into a digital signal;
a threshold value calculator configured to calculate a threshold value with reference to a voltage level of the digital signal that has been sequentially converted and output by the A/D converter;
a determination unit configured to compare a high voltage level of the digital signal with the threshold value; and

a RAM configured to store the digital signal, which has been converted and output by the A/D converter, a reference value, a minimum value, and a maximum value of the voltage level of the digital signal,
wherein
the threshold value calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value based on the reference value, the minimum value, and the maximum value, which have been stored in the RAM, and to output a calculated result to the determination unit, and
the RAM is configured to update and store:
an A/D reference value that is a value or an average value of the voltage level of the digital signal that has been output by the A/D converter when the light emitting unit is not emitting a light;
an A/D minimum value that is a past minimum value of the voltage level of the digital signal that has been output by the A/D converter when the light emitting unit is emitting the light; and
an A/D maximum value that is a past maximum value of the voltage level of the digital signal that has been output by the A/D converter when the light emitting unit is emitting the light,
based on the digital signal, which has been converted and output by the A/D converter, the reference value, the minimum value, and the maximum value of the voltage level of the digital signal.

8. The sensitivity adjustment device according to claim 7 , wherein
the threshold value calculator has two kinds of threshold values including a first threshold value when a switch is off and a second threshold value when the switch is on for each switch,
the threshold value calculator is configured to calculate the first threshold value by using a first threshold value calculation equation when the switch is off, the first threshold value calculation equation being: the first threshold value=A/D minimum value+(A/D minimum value−A/D reference value)×K 1 (K 1 : constant),
the threshold value calculator is configured to calculate the second threshold value by using a second threshold value calculation equation when the switch is on, the second threshold value calculation equation being: the second threshold value=A/D minimum value+(A/D maximum value−A/D minimum value)×K 2 (K 2 : constant), and
the constants K 1 and K 2 correspond to a margin that alleviates design and assembly conditions by adding variation of characteristics of the switch.

9. A sensitivity adjustment method comprising:
receiving a reflected light that has been emitted from a light emitting unit and reflected by a reflector;
converting the reflected light that has been received into an analog electrical signal;
converting the analog electrical signal into a digital signal;
calculating the threshold value with reference to a voltage level of the digital signal that has been sequentially converted;
comparing a high voltage level of the digital signal with the threshold value; and
calculating the threshold value by using at least one of a maximum value and a minimum value of the voltage level of the digital signal that has been converted when the light emitting unit is emitting a light, and the digital signal that has been converted when the light emitting unit is not emitting the light.

10. The sensitivity adjustment method according to claim 9 , further comprising:
calculating the threshold value by using a statistic of at least one of a maximum value and a minimum value of the voltage level of the digital signal that has been converted when the light emitting unit is emitting a light, and the digital signal that has been converted when the light emitting unit is not emitting the light.

11. The sensitivity adjustment method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
calculating the threshold value as a sensitivity adjustment parameter to adjust touch detection sensitivity in an infrared touch switch.

12. The sensitivity adjustment method according to claim 11 , wherein
the infrared t

Assignees

• Yokogawa Electric Corp

Inventors

• Ebisumoto Shunsuke
• Hashizumi Kazuhiro
• Shiratori Yoshiharu

Classifications

• H03K17/9636 Primary

  using a pulsed light source · CPC title

• H03K2217/94031

  Calibration involving digital processing · CPC title

• H03K2217/94108

  making use of reflection · CPC title

• G01J1/18

  using comparison with a reference electric value · CPC title

• H03K2217/94026

  Automatic threshold calibration; e.g. threshold automatically adapts to ambient conditions or follows variation of input · CPC title