US 12,147,630 B2
Optical touch sensor
Stefan Johannes Holmgren, Sollentuna (SE)
Assigned to Neonode Inc., Stockholm (SE)
Filed by Neonode Inc., Stockholm (SE)
Filed on Jun. 1, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/327,419.
Application 18/327,419 is a continuation of application No. 17/487,195, filed on Sep. 28, 2021, granted, now 11,669,210.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/085,838, filed on Sep. 30, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0325035 A1, Oct. 12, 2023
Int. Cl. G06F 3/042 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 3/0421 (2013.01) 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical sensor detecting locations of objects, comprising:
a circuit board;
a plurality of light emitters mounted along a first edge of said circuit board, each light emitter operable when activated to emit light beams, wherein no light emitters are arranged along a second edge of said circuit board, the second edge being opposite the first edge;
a plurality of light detectors mounted along the second edge of said circuit board, each light detector operable when activated to detect an intensity profile of a light beam entering the light detector;
a plurality of focusing lenses mounted along a first edge of a rectangular detection area in relation to said light detectors such that each focusing lens refracts light beams from the detection area onto a respective one of said light detectors;
a plurality of diverging lenses mounted along a second edge of the detection area, the second edge being opposite the first edge, and in relation to said light emitters such that each light emitter, when activated, emits single light beams through a respective one of the diverging lenses, and the diverging lens refracts each single light beam into multiple divergent light beams, wherein each divergent light beam travels across the detection area in a different direction relative to the second edge, and is directed to a respective pair of said focusing lenses, wherein an intensity profile of each divergent light beam has maximum intensity along the center of the beam,
whereby the divergent light beams from two neighboring emitters that travel across the detection area, in the same direction relative to the second edge, arrive at two respective pairs of said focusing lenses that share a common focusing lens; and
a processor activating said light emitters and said light detectors, receiving light profile outputs from said light detectors, and calculating a location of an object in the rectangular detection area based on comparing received outputs from a single one of said detectors, that correspond to the divergent light beams from two neighboring emitters that traveled across the detection area in the same direction relative to the second edge, and that were both partially blocked by the object.