US 12,013,302 B2
Multipoint contact detection device and method
Florian Porte, Grenoble (FR); Raphaël Morvillier, Grenoble (FR); and Christophe Prat, Grenoble (FR)
Assigned to COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES, Paris (FR)
Filed by COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES, Paris (FR)
Filed on Oct. 15, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/451,066.
Claims priority of application No. 20 10654 (FR), filed on Oct. 16, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0163417 A1, May 26, 2022
Int. Cl. G01L 5/22 (2006.01); B60K 35/00 (2024.01); B62D 6/00 (2006.01)
CPC G01L 5/221 (2013.01) [B60K 35/00 (2013.01); B62D 6/001 (2013.01); G01D 2205/26 (2021.05)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A multipoint contact detection device, comprising:
at least two capacitive or inductive sensitive structures, associated with respective primary detection zones of a surface that a person is likely to contact, at least two of these sensitive structures being positioned with a separation that is small enough between them to define at least one intermediate detection zone that the person is likely to contact while exerting a capacitive or inductive disturbance on the sensitive structures, and
a processing circuit configured to
detect, for each sensitive structure, a disturbance induced by the person coming into proximity or into contact, the processing circuit being configured to generate a signal representative of an amplitude of the disturbance induced by the contact or proximity of the person with each primary detection zone,
locate, from the detected disturbances, a region or regions of the surface with which the person comes into contact, relative to the primary detection zones and the at least one intermediate detection zone, the contact being considered to be made in an intermediate detection zone when the disturbances induced on all or part of the primary detection zones satisfy predefined relationships, and
measure a contact pressure of the person with said surface, the processing circuit being configured to generate a signal representative of the amplitude of the disturbance induced by the contact pressure of the person with the surface.