GB2559603A

GB2559603A - Flexible sensing device

Info

Publication number: GB2559603A
Application number: GB1702288.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Philip Pisani Justin; Robert Gordon Simon; Wright Matthew
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2017-02-11
Filing date: 2017-02-11
Publication date: 2018-08-15
Also published as: GB201702288D0

Abstract

A sensing mechanism and flexible housing mechanism 1 to detect gestures including squeezing, shaking and throwing and to transfer these events to a remote computing device for the purposes of control and interaction with the remote computing device 2. The device comprises a sensing mechanism with a power source, an accelerometer and a microprocessor means to record one or more movement events and a flexible outer housing. A wired or wireless charging means is also included. Other sensing means include a gyroscope, and strain gauge and a peizo microphone. A vibrating motor or a light indicator provides feedback to the user.

Description

(71) Applicant(s):

(56) Documents Cited:

GB 2492754 A US 20130222270 A1

US 20130222271 A1 US 20070259716 A1

Justin Philip Pisani

High Street, Over, CAMBRIDGE, Cambs, CB24 5NB, United Kingdom (58) Field of Search:

INT CL G06F

Other: EPODOC, WPI, INTERNET

Simon Robert Gordon

Pease Way, Histon, CAMBRIDGE, Cambs, CB24 9YZ, United Kingdom

Matthew Wright

Brookfields Close, NEWMARKET, Suffolk, CB8 7DY, United Kingdom (72) Inventor(s):

Justin Philip Pisani Simon Robert Gordon Matthew Wright (74) Agent and/or Address for Service:

Justin Philip Pisani

Wellington Court, CAMBRIDGE, Cambridgeshire, CB1 1HZ, United Kingdom (54) Title of the Invention: Flexible sensing device Abstract Title: Flexible Sensing Device (57) A sensing mechanism and flexible housing mechanism 1 to detect gestures including squeezing, shaking and throwing and to transfer these events to a remote computing device for the purposes of control and interaction with the remote computing device 2.

The device comprises a sensing mechanism with a power source, an accelerometer and a microprocessor means to record one or more movement events and a flexible outer housing. A wired or wireless charging means is also included. Other sensing means include a gyroscope, and strain gauge and a peizo microphone. A vibrating motor or a light indicator provides feedback to the user.

Figure 1 - Sensing Device System

1/2

Drawings

©

Figure 2 - Sensing Mechanism Mount

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Figure 3 - Sensing Mechanism

Application No. GB1702288.0

RTM

Date :26 July 2017

Intellectual

Property

Office

The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document:

Texas Instruments and Duracell

Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.gov.uk/ipo

Flexible Sensing Device

Description

Wearable personal computing devices which have access to the fixed and mobile internet computing devices are now commonplace. Often these devices use microminiature accelerometers (e.g. ST Microelectronics LIS2DH) or gyroscopes to detect accelerative forces when worn by a user.

Commonly these forces can be used to detect physical actions such as waving or shaking and use these actions to trigger device functions. Furthermore, typically these devices are embedded in caseworks such that they can be worn on the body on the wrist (eg: Apple Inc iWatch™).

Several drawbacks exist with the wearing of such devices on the wrist or on clothing in this form. Mounting the unit on the body requires both space to attach the device and, for occasional use, the inconvenience of attaching and de-attaching the device. Sharing of the device can be difficult as in general such devices are intended for personal wear. Furthermore, certain types of hand motor skills may be difficult to detect, for example, squeezing, waving and throwing hand gestures. In addition, such gestures may be preferable for persons who have impaired motor skills.

This invention proposes a method to house such a sensing device within a flexible body which allows these restrictions to be overcome.

Preferred Embodiment

The invention is now described with reference to the following figures:

Figure 1 shows an example of the sensing device

Figure 2 shows an example of how the sensing mechanism may be placed within the sensor device housing

Figure 3 shows a block diagram of the sensing mechanism.

Referring to Figure 1, the sensing device comprises a flexible housing, in this case a sphere [1], containing a sensing mechanism. The sensing device can communicate wirelessly using a radio or magnetic link [4] to a computing device [2] in order to transfer information about the actions its senses. The computing device [2] may be, for example but not limited to, a smartphone, computer tablet or personal computer, with a wireless connection means. Optionally, the sensing device may also have a mounting mechanism [3] to store the device when not in use. This mounting mechanism may also serve to recharge the battery in the sensing device.

Figure 2 shows how the sensing mechanism may be embedded within the flexible housing sphere. The sphere can be constructed using a mouldable thermoplastic flexible foam. Within the sphere an appropriate pocket [7] is formed to enable the sensing mechanism [5] to be fitted and secured. Those skilled in the art will be aware that it is also possible to mould the sensing mechanism directly into the sphere on a permanent basis. The housing format may easily be changed to other shapes such as cubes or oblongs.

Figure 3 shows a block diagram of the sensing mechanism. The mechanism contains a microprocessor [11] and wireless transceiver [12]. Those skilled in the art will be aware that these functions may be achieved using a single electronic component such as a wireless system on chip (eg: CC2540 Texas Instruments, USA). The device measures acceleration forces using an accelerometer [9] as well as other environmental parameters such as temperature [15], The unit may be powered by a battery [14] such as a generic CR2032 coin cell (Duracell Inc, USA) or by a rechargeable cell. For the latter a rechargeable mechanism may be incorporated to allow wired or wireless charging for the cell.

The accelerometer [9] provides measures of acceleration in 3 or more axes. Optionally the accelerometer [9] may also contain a gyroscope to enable angular rotation to be measured.

The sensor may determine a gesture, such as shaking, throwing or catching, by monitoring the accelerative change of the sensor using the microprocessor [11] and determining if a threshold has been exceeded. The sensor may discriminate different gestures by using the orientation of the sensor and the speed or direction of rotation.

Furthermore, the sensor may determine patterns of gestures such as repetitive shaking and use this to provide additional information about the periodicity of the gestures.

The sensor may detect squeezing gestures. A variety of mechanisms exist to do this for example by the use of a strain gauge contained in the mechanism housing. However, the design advantageously provides an option to sense the movement of air within the mechanism storage cavity caused by the squeezing action by the use of a electret condenser typically found in microphone inserts [16] (ie: ABM-704-RC, ABM Ltd, UK). The insert [16] will detect the change in air pressure on its element and generate a change in its output which may be used after signal conditioning to trigger an indication of the event to the microprocessor [11],

The device may provide haptic feedback using a vibrator [10] to a user in order to provide indication of events to the user, or to confirm detection of gestures.

A light indicator [8] using microminiature LEDs may also be used in the case of housing devices which are translucent.

Power may be conserved when the unit is not in use by using the accelerometer to detect an absence of activity below a threshold and enabling the microprocessor [11] to place the unit into a power saving mode. The device may use the accelerometer to wake from power down mode by detecting for example the acceleration forces occurring when the device is picked up or shaken.

The reliability of the sensed gesture may be improved by combining a starting orientation followed by an acceleration change in an axis to define a specific gesture.

The microprocessor [11] on detection of gestures may communicate these via messages via wireless transceiver [12], for example using the Bluetooth™ Low Energy protocol, to a remote device (see Figure 1 [2]).

The remote device may interpret these gestures in a number of ways, for example but not limited to, triggering musical sounds, interacting with games, controlling aspects of the remote device operation. In addition, the remote device may analyse aspects of the gestures or events sent and make appropriate responses back to sensing device to trigger the device to provide user feedback.

Claims

Claims

We claim:1. A sensing device equipped with:

a. a sensing mechanism comprising a power source, an accelerometer and a microprocessor means to record accelerations and recognise one or more movement events.

b. a flexible outer housing to hold the sensing mechanism.
2. A device as defined in claim 1, where the sensing mechanism is permanently housed inside the flexible outer housing.
3. A device as defined in claim 1, which uses a vibrating motor to generate user feedback.
4. A device as defined in claim 1, which uses a gyroscope to sense angular rotation as a means to discriminate additional gestures.
5. A device as defined claim 1, where the device includes a wired or wireless means to recharge its power source.
6. A device as defined in claim 1, which detects a squeezing gesture by the use of a strain gauge.
7. A device as defined in claim 1, which detects a squeezing gesture using a piezo microphone element to sense a change in air pressure caused by the squeezing action on an inner cavity within the flexible housing.
8. A device as defined in claim 1, which uses a vibrating motor to generate user feedback.
9. A device as defined in claim 1, which uses a light indicator to generate user feedback.
10. A device as defined in claim 1, where an initial device orientation may be used to reduce false gesture detection at lower levels of activity.
11. A device as defined in claim 1, which transfers gesture events to a remote computing device to trigger actions and responses on the computing device and the sensing device.

Intellectual

Property

Office

Application No: GB1702288.0 Examiner: Mrs Margaret Phillips