GB2533148A - Electrically-conductive pattern - Google Patents

Electrically-conductive pattern Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2533148A
GB2533148A GB1422094.1A GB201422094A GB2533148A GB 2533148 A GB2533148 A GB 2533148A GB 201422094 A GB201422094 A GB 201422094A GB 2533148 A GB2533148 A GB 2533148A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
article
reader
input
electrodes
article according
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB1422094.1A
Inventor
Jessie Stone Kate
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Novalia Ltd
Original Assignee
Novalia Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Novalia Ltd filed Critical Novalia Ltd
Priority to GB1422094.1A priority Critical patent/GB2533148A/en
Publication of GB2533148A publication Critical patent/GB2533148A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06K—GRAPHICAL DATA READING; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS
    • G06K19/00—Record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings
    • G06K19/06—Record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings characterised by the kind of the digital marking, e.g. shape, nature, code
    • G06K19/067—Record carriers with conductive marks, printed circuits or semiconductor circuit elements, e.g. credit or identity cards also with resonating or responding marks without active components
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63H—TOYS, e.g. TOPS, DOLLS, HOOPS OR BUILDING BLOCKS
    • A63H33/00—Other toys
    • A63H33/38—Picture books with additional toy effects, e.g. pop-up or slide displays
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06K—GRAPHICAL DATA READING; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS
    • G06K7/00—Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, e.g. for reading patterns
    • G06K7/08—Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, e.g. for reading patterns by means detecting the change of an electrostatic or magnetic field, e.g. by detecting change of capacitance between electrodes
    • G06K7/081—Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, e.g. for reading patterns by means detecting the change of an electrostatic or magnetic field, e.g. by detecting change of capacitance between electrodes electrostatic, e.g. by detecting the charge of capacitance between electrodes
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
    • H03K—PULSE TECHNIQUE
    • H03K3/00—Circuits for generating electric pulses; Monostable, bistable or multistable circuits
    • H03K3/02—Generators characterised by the type of circuit or by the means used for producing pulses
    • H03K3/023—Generators characterised by the type of circuit or by the means used for producing pulses by the use of differential amplifiers or comparators, with internal or external positive feedback
    • H03K3/0233—Bistable circuits
    • H03K3/02337—Bistables with hysteresis, e.g. Schmitt trigger
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
    • H03K—PULSE TECHNIQUE
    • H03K3/00—Circuits for generating electric pulses; Monostable, bistable or multistable circuits
    • H03K3/02—Generators characterised by the type of circuit or by the means used for producing pulses
    • H03K3/353—Generators characterised by the type of circuit or by the means used for producing pulses by the use, as active elements, of field-effect transistors with internal or external positive feedback
    • H03K3/356—Bistable circuits
    • H03K3/3565—Bistables with hysteresis, e.g. Schmitt trigger

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Artificial Intelligence (AREA)
  • Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition (AREA)
  • Toys (AREA)

Abstract

Disclosed is a reader, 1, for capacitively-reading a coded electrically-conductive pattern (4; Fig. 5). The reader comprises a set of electrodes, 7, (including a sense electrode, 13, and a plurality of excitation electrodes, 14), an amplifier, 8, a Schmitt trigger, 9, and a microcontroller, 10. The microcontroller comprises a plurality of input/output ports, 11, wherein each excitation electrode is coupled to one of the respective input/output ports. The microcontroller is configured to apply a signal waveform, 16, of a given shape and a given frequency to each excitation electrode at different phase offsets and to process the detected signal from the sense electrode. A second inventive concept is for an article comprising a substrate with an electrically conductive pattern. The pattern comprises a central pad and at least one peripheral pad extending from the central pad. The number position and size of the pads may be used to encode data.

Description

Electrically-conductive pattern
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reader for capacitively-reading a coded electrically-conductive pattern and to an article comprising an electrically-conductive pattern.
Background
GB 2 455 779 A describes an electronic tag system in which a conductive tracks are used to encode data and a device which couples capacitively to the tag to reads the data.
Summary
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a reader for capacitively-reading a coded electrically-conductive pattern. The reader comprises a set of electrodes supported on a substrate, the set of electrodes comprising a sense /5 electrode and a plurality of excitation electrodes. The reader comprises an amplifier comprising an input and an output, wherein the input is coupled to the sense electrode. The reader comprises a Schmitt trigger comprising an input and an output, the input is coupled to the output of the amplifier. The reader comprises a microcontroller comprising a plurality of input/output ports, wherein a first input/output port is coupled to the output of the Schmitt trigger and each excitation electrode is coupled to a respective input/output port. The microcontroller is configured to apply a signal waveform of given shape and given frequency to the excitation electrodes at difference phase offsets and to determine a shape and/or size of the electrically-conductive pattern in dependence upon a signal received via the input port.
The given shape may be square such that the signal waveform is a square wave.
The given frequency may lie between 1kHz and too kHz, preferably between 5 kHz and 20 kHz and more preferably at or around to kHz.
The set of electrodes may have a centre and the sense electrode may be disposed at the centre and the excitation electrodes may be arranged at angularly-offset positions in a ring around the centre. The sense electrode may be circular-shaped and the excitations electrodes are truncated sector-shaped.
The substrate maybe a printed circuit board and wherein the detector is supported on the printed circuit board.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a toy comprising a reader according to the first aspect.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided an article comprising a substrate and an electrically-conductive pattern supported on the substrate. The pattern comprises a central pad and at least one peripheral pad jo extending from the pad.
Thus, the number, position and/or size of the peripheral pads, and optionally, the central pad, can be used to encode data.
The central pad may be disk-shaped. The peripheral pad may be sector-shaped. Each peripheral pad maybe separated from an adjacent peripheral pad by at least 0.5 mm and/or 5°.
The pattern may comprise conductive ink, such as carbon-based conductive ink or silver-based conductive ink. The pattern may comprise conductive foil.
The article may be a printed article, such as a book, a magazine, a board game, a poster or a map. The article may be a game or a toy.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a set of articles according to the fourth aspect, wherein at least two articles have differently-arranged electrically-conductive patterns thereby encoding two different sets of data.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention there is provided a reader according to the first aspect or a toy according second aspect and an article according to third aspect or a set of articles according to the fourth aspect.
According to sixth aspect of the present invention there is provided a first production line configured to make a reader according to the first aspect. -3 -
According to seventh aspect of the present invention there is provided a second production line configured to make an article according to the third aspect.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Certain embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a reader and an article comprising an electrically-conductive pattern; Figure 2 is a block diagram of a reader; Figure 3 is a plan view of set of reader electrodes; Figure 4 a circuit diagram of an amplifier and a Schmitt trigger; Figures is a plan view of an electrically-conductive pattern; and Figures 6A to 6C illustrate examples of electrically-conductive patterns.
Detailed Description of Certain Embodiments
Referring to Figiirei, a reader iand an article 2 which can be read by the reader are shown. The article 2 may take the form a toy or game, or a printed article, such a book, magazine or poster. The article 2 comprises a substrate 3, for example comprising a fibre-based material such as paper or card, which supports a coded electrically-conductive pattern 4, for example, formed of carbon-based conductive ink. The substrate 3 may support printed indicia 5 including images and/or text.
Referring also to Figure 2, the reader 1 comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) 6 supporting a set of electrodes 7, an amplifier 8, an inverting Schmitt trigger 9 and a microcontroller 10 having a plurality of input/output ports 11. The reader 1 includes one or more output devices 12, such as a speaker in the form of a piezoelectric sounder. The PCB may have a first face 6, which supports the electrodes 7.
Referring also to Figure 3, the set of electrodes 7 may include a receive pad 13 (or 'sense electrode") and a set of two or more transmit pads 14 (or "excitation electrodes"). The sense pad 13 is generally circular and arranged in the centre of the set of electrodes and the excitation electrodes 14 are arranged at angularly-offset positions in a ring around the centre. Tn this case, there are eighth excitation electrodes 14. However, there maybe fewer or more excitation electrodes 14.
A dual op amp integrated circuit 15 may provide the amplifier 8 and Schmitt trigger 9. -4 -
The microcontroller to sends square waves 16 at frequency f, which in this case is to kHz, to the transmit pads 14 one at a time, i.e. phased. The centre sense pad 13 is connected to a microcontroller to digital input 11 and, in time with the send signals, reads the input port to detect if it is high or low at a frequency much lower than frequency f.
Referring to Figure 4, the amplifier 8 includes a first operational amplifier Al having a first, input resistor 121, a second, feedback resistor R2 and a high pass filter 17 comprising a first capacitor Cr and third resistor R3. In this case, 121 = 1 MI-2, R2 = 27 10 Mn, R3 = 910 ki-2 and C1 = 1 pF.
Referring still to Figure 4, the Schmidt trigger 9 includes a second operational amplifier A2. Fourth and fifth resistors R4, R5 provide a potential divider 18 for providing a reference voltage \TREF to the non-inventing input of the second operational amplifier A2. The second operational amplifier A2 has a sixth, feedback resistor R6. The output of the first operational amplifier Al is directly coupled to the inverting input of the second operational amplifier A2 via a seventh, input resistor R7. In this case, R4 = too kfl, R5 = 6.8 kn, R6 = 220 LQ, R7 =1 ICA, C2 = DNP and C3 = 100 nF.
Referring again to Figure 1, the coded electrically-conductive pattern 4 may be provided directly on the substrate 3 or on a sticker or decal 19.
Referring to Figure 5, the pattern 4 comprises a central pad 20 of electrically-conductive material, such as conductive carbon-or silver-ink or metal foil, and one or more petal-like peripheral pads 21 extending from, and unitary with, the central pad 21. By changing the combinations of peripheral pads 21 different values can be encoded. For example, in the case of eight peripheral pads 21, there are 255 codes (no peripheral pads 21 is not considered here to be a code). As shown in Figure 5, the central area has a radius r, and the outer perimeter of the pattern has a radius ro.
Figures 6A to 6B illustrate different patterns 4 on a heart-shaped substrate 3.
Referring to Figures 1, 2, 3, and 5, the conductive pattern 4 can be capacitively coupled to the read head 1 at a distance typically less than 1 mm or 0.1 mm. The signal 16 is capacitively coupled from one of the excitation electrodes 14 into a corresponding petal 21 (if that code has a petal at that point) and the signal is transmitted to the central -5 -sense area 20. The transmitted signal is capacitively coupled to the sense pad 13 and is amplified by the amplifier 8. The Schmitt trigger 9 pushes the ampllified signal to either power rail, i.e. turns it into a digital signal that can be read by the digital input 11 of the microcontroller 10.
The reader 1 and artide 2 may include notches and corresponding pins for keying the reader iand article 2.
The microcontroller lo need not have an analogue input and so a low-cost jo microcontroller can be used. Furthermore, the amplifier 8 and Schmitt trigger 9 can be implemented using a single IC and a few discrete components which can be cheap to implement.
A square wave of a known frequency is used where the digital input is on the same chip 15 that is sending out the square wave. This means that the read and send can be coordinated and any signal that is not at the frequency f can be filtered out.
The microcontroller 10 can carry out an error check and use sampling and averaging or other logic to separate signal from noise.
Once a pattern has been identified, an appropriate signal can be transmitted to the output device.
It will be appreciated that many modifications may be made to the embodiments hereinbefore described. -6 -

Claims (9)

  1. Claims 1. A reader for capacitively-reading a coded electrically-conductive pattern, the reader comprising: a set of electrodes supported on a substrate, the set of electrodes comprising: a sense electrode; and a plurality of excitation electrodes; an amplifier comprising an input and an output, wherein the input is coupled to the sense electrode; a Schmitt trigger comprising an input and an output, the input is coupled to the output of the amplifier; and a microcontroller comprising a plurality of input/output ports, wherein a first input/output port is coupled to the output of the Schmitt trigger and each excitation electrode is coupled to a respective input/output port, wherein the microcontroller is configured to apply a signal waveform of given shape and given frequency to the excitation electrodes at difference phase offsets and to determine a shape and/or size of the electrically-conductive pattern in dependence upon a signal received via the input port.
  2. 2. A reader according to claim 1, wherein the given shape is square such that the signal waveform is a square wave.
  3. 3. A reader according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the given frequency lies between 1 kHz and too kHz.
  4. 4. A reader according to any preceding claim, wherein the given frequency lies between 5 kHz and 20 kHz.
  5. 5. A reader according to any preceding claim, wherein the set of electrodes has a centre, the sense electrode disposed at the centre and the excitation electrodes arranged at angularly-offset positions in a ring around the centre.
  6. 6. A reader according to claim 5, wherein the sense electrode is circular-shaped and the excitations electrodes are truncated sector-shaped.
  7. 7. A reader according to any preceding claim, wherein the substrate is a printed circuit board and wherein the detector is supported on the printed circuit board.
  8. 8. A toy comprising a reader according to any preceding claim. 5
  9. 9. An article comprising: a substrate; and an electrically-conductive pattern supported on the substrate, the pattern comprising: a central pad; and at least one peripheral pad extending from the central pad, The number, position and/or size of the peripheral pads can be used to encode data.ro. An article according to claim 9, wherein the central pad is disk-shaped.An article according to claim 9 or ro, wherein each peripheral pad is sector-shaped.12. An article according to any one of claim 9 to 11, wherein the pattern comprises conductive ink.13. An article according to claim 12, wherein the conductive ink comprises carbon-based conductive ink.14. An article according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the conductive ink comprises silver-based conductive ink.15. An article according to any one of claim 9 to 11, wherein the pattern comprises conductive foil.16. An article according to any one of claims 9 to 15, wherein the article is a printed article.17. An article according to claim 16, wherein the article is book.18. An article according to claim 16, wherein the article is magazine.19. An article according to claim 16, wherein the article is poster or map.20. An article according to any one of claims 9 to 15, wherein the article is a toy.21. A set of articles according to any one of claims 9 to 21, wherein at least two articles have differently-arranged electrically-conductive patterns thereby encoding two different sets of data.22. A system comprising: a reader according to any one of claim ito 7 or a toy according to claim 8; and an article according to any one of claims 1 to zo or a set of articles according to claim 21.
GB1422094.1A 2014-12-12 2014-12-12 Electrically-conductive pattern Withdrawn GB2533148A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB1422094.1A GB2533148A (en) 2014-12-12 2014-12-12 Electrically-conductive pattern

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB1422094.1A GB2533148A (en) 2014-12-12 2014-12-12 Electrically-conductive pattern

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB2533148A true GB2533148A (en) 2016-06-15

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Family Applications (1)

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GB1422094.1A Withdrawn GB2533148A (en) 2014-12-12 2014-12-12 Electrically-conductive pattern

Country Status (1)

Country Link
GB (1) GB2533148A (en)

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3028672A1 (en) * 1980-07-29 1982-03-04 Licentia Patent-Verwaltungs-Gmbh, 6000 Frankfurt Capacitive sensor for data input from data carrier - has combination of transmitter and receiver electrodes capacitively coupled over field elements
GB2455779A (en) * 2007-12-21 2009-06-24 Novalia Ltd Reader and electronic tag with conductive tracks having narrow and wide sections
WO2010116029A1 (en) * 2009-04-07 2010-10-14 Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus Method and apparatus for detecting an electric code
US20120048924A1 (en) * 2010-08-25 2012-03-01 Myland Limited Read only card identification system

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3028672A1 (en) * 1980-07-29 1982-03-04 Licentia Patent-Verwaltungs-Gmbh, 6000 Frankfurt Capacitive sensor for data input from data carrier - has combination of transmitter and receiver electrodes capacitively coupled over field elements
GB2455779A (en) * 2007-12-21 2009-06-24 Novalia Ltd Reader and electronic tag with conductive tracks having narrow and wide sections
WO2010116029A1 (en) * 2009-04-07 2010-10-14 Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus Method and apparatus for detecting an electric code
US20120048924A1 (en) * 2010-08-25 2012-03-01 Myland Limited Read only card identification system

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WAP Application withdrawn, taken to be withdrawn or refused ** after publication under section 16(1)