JP2013118565A - Portable terminal and proximity sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable terminal and a proximity sensor that accurately detect a user's proximity even on a change in floor noise.SOLUTION: A sensor control section 250 supplies a current to a light emission section 210 to trigger light emission every time incoming/outgoing call information is input from a control section 180. Specifically, the sensor control section 250 updates a threshold in a threshold storage section 240 in accordance with a current value output from an AD conversion section 230. The sensor control section 250 compares, in terms of magnitude, a current value output from the AD conversion section 230 with the threshold read out from the threshold storage section 240, and detects a user's proximity on the basis of a comparison result.

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable terminal and a proximity sensor that detect proximity of a user.

  In recent years, portable terminals equipped with a liquid crystal touch panel (hereinafter simply referred to as “touch panel”), particularly portable terminals called smartphones, are rapidly spreading. When talking on a mobile terminal equipped with a touch panel, if the user touches the touch panel, an input instruction unintended by the user may be erroneously performed.

  Therefore, in order to prevent such a malfunction, a proximity sensor that detects the user's face approaching the touch panel is mounted on the mobile terminal, and when the proximity sensor detects the user's face during a call, the function of the touch panel is turned off, The reception of input instructions from the user has been stopped. Note that even during a call, when the proximity sensor does not detect the user's face and when the call ends, the function of the touch panel is turned on so that an input instruction from the user can be accepted.

  As described above, a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as a technique for detecting a user who approaches a mobile terminal. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for determining the distance between a mobile terminal and a user by emitting infrared rays from a distance sensor during a call and during various function operations, measuring the time taken to receive a reflected wave from the user. ing.

JP-A-9-247260

  However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, it is assumed that the reflected wave is received in consideration of infrared internal reflection (floor noise) inside the mobile terminal. In this case, the infrared irradiation path may be shifted. In this case, the floor noise changes, and thus there is a problem that the distance between the mobile terminal and the user cannot be accurately determined.

  Factors that cause the floor noise to change include various external factors in the adjustment process before factory shipment, aging of the internal structure, difference between high reflection and low reflection, user customization such as sticking a protective sheet, and the like.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal and a proximity sensor that accurately detect the proximity of a user even when floor noise changes.

  The portable terminal of the present invention includes a light emitting unit that emits light upon receiving a current, and a light receiving unit that receives the light emitted by the light emitting unit and reflected by the object, and generates a current corresponding to the received light amount. When the transmission information indicating the transmission from the own terminal is acquired, the threshold value to be compared with the current value generated by the light receiving unit is updated according to the current value, and the updated threshold value and the current value are updated. And a sensor control means for detecting the proximity of the user based on the comparison result.

  The portable terminal of the present invention includes a light emitting unit that emits light upon receiving a current, and a light receiving unit that receives the light emitted by the light emitting unit and reflected by the object, and generates a current corresponding to the received light amount. And when receiving incoming information indicating an incoming call to the terminal, the threshold value to be compared with the current value generated by the light receiving means is updated according to the current value, and the updated threshold value and the current value are updated. And a sensor control means for detecting the proximity of the user based on the comparison result.

  The proximity sensor according to the present invention includes a light emitting unit that emits light upon receiving a current supply, and a light receiving unit that receives light emitted from the light emitting unit and reflected by an object, and generates a current corresponding to the amount of light received. And when acquiring outgoing / incoming information indicating transmission from the mobile terminal or incoming to the mobile terminal, the threshold value to be compared with the current value generated by the light receiving means is updated according to the current value, A configuration is provided that includes sensor control means for performing magnitude comparison between the updated threshold value and the current value and detecting the proximity of the user based on the comparison result.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately detect the proximity of a user even when floor noise changes.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the mobile telephone which concerns on one embodiment of this invention The block diagram which shows the internal structure of the proximity sensor shown in FIG. The flowchart which shows the control procedure of the sensor control part shown in FIG. The figure which shows the conditions of user proximity detection at the time of using two threshold values

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(One embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile phone 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, the configuration of the mobile phone will be described with reference to FIG.

  The display unit (liquid crystal touch panel) 110 displays various information and receives an input instruction from the user.

  The microphone (sending unit) 120 a converts the user's voice into a transmitting voice signal and outputs the signal to the voice processing unit 130. The receiver (receiver) 120b outputs the received voice from the other party based on the received voice signal from the voice processor 130.

  The voice processing unit 130 is controlled by the control unit 180 to convert the demodulated signal from the radio unit 140 into a received voice signal, and outputs the received voice signal from the earphone 120c or the receiver 120b via the earphone microphone terminal 120d. The transmitted voice signal from 120a is converted into a transmission signal and output to radio section 140.

  The radio unit 140 converts the received signal received via the antenna 145 into a demodulated signal and outputs the demodulated signal to the audio processing unit 130, while modulating the transmission signal from the audio processing unit 130 and the modulated signal via the antenna 145. Send.

  The battery 150 supplies power to each of the sound processing unit 130, the wireless unit 140, the memory 160, the proximity sensor 170, and the control unit 180. The memory 160 holds a computer program of the control unit 180 and the like.

  The proximity sensor 170 measures floor noise each time the mobile phone 100 makes and receives calls, performs calibration, detects proximity of the user, and outputs detection information to the control unit 180.

  The control unit 180 receives power from the battery 150, inputs and outputs information to and from the display unit 110, the audio processing unit 130, the wireless unit 140, the memory 160, and the proximity sensor 170, and controls these units. To do. In particular, when the detection information indicating the proximity of the user is input from the proximity sensor 170, the control unit 180 controls the display unit 110 to turn off the function of the touch panel. At this time, the display of the display unit 110 may be controlled to be turned off.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the proximity sensor 170 shown in FIG. Hereinafter, the configuration of the proximity sensor 170 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The light emitting unit 210 is an infrared LED (Light Emitting Diode) that emits infrared light when supplied with current from the sensor control unit 250.

  The light receiving unit 220 receives infrared light emitted from the light emitting unit 210 and reflected by an object such as a user, and generates a current corresponding to the amount of received light by photoelectric conversion. The generated current is output to the AD conversion unit 230.

  The AD conversion unit 230 AD converts the current output from the light receiving unit 220 and outputs a current value represented by a digital signal to the sensor control unit 250.

  A predetermined threshold value is stored in the threshold value storage unit 240 in advance, and the stored threshold value is read by the sensor control unit 250, while the stored threshold value is updated by the sensor control unit 250.

  The sensor control unit 250 supplies current to the light emitting unit 210 to emit light whenever incoming / outgoing information indicating transmission from the mobile terminal 100 or incoming call to the mobile terminal 100 is input from the control unit 180. At this time, the sensor control unit 250 generates a new threshold value according to the current value output from the AD conversion unit 230 and updates the threshold value stored in the threshold value storage unit 240. This series of processing is called calibration. The sensor control unit 250 that has performed the calibration compares the current value output from the AD conversion unit 230 with the threshold value read from the threshold value storage unit 240 (or the threshold value if the threshold value is updated), and The proximity of the user is detected based on the comparison result. When the proximity of the user is detected, the sensor control unit 250 outputs detection information to the control unit 180.

  In this way, by performing calibration of the proximity sensor when there is an incoming / outgoing call of a mobile phone, various factors, that is, various external factors in the adjustment process before factory shipment, aging of internal structure, Even when the floor noise changes due to a difference between high reflection and low reflection, user customization such as application of a protective sheet, proximity of the user can be accurately detected.

  Next, the control procedure of the sensor control unit 250 shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, in step (hereinafter referred to as “ST”) 301, it is determined whether or not outgoing / incoming information has been acquired from the control unit 180, and when outgoing / incoming information is acquired, the process proceeds to ST <b> 302. If not acquired, the process returns to ST301.

  In ST302, a current is supplied to the light emitting unit 210 to emit light, and in ST303, a new threshold value is generated according to the current value output from the AD conversion unit 230 and stored in the threshold value storage unit 240. Do. ST301 to ST303 indicate calibration processing performed by the proximity sensor 170 when a mobile phone is made or received, that is, when the proximity sensor 170 is activated.

  In ST304, a current is supplied to the light emitting unit 210 to emit light, and in ST305, the current value output from the AD conversion unit 230 is compared with the threshold value read from the threshold value storage unit 240, and the current value is equal to or greater than the threshold value. If the current value is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the process proceeds to ST306, and if the current value is less than the threshold value, the process proceeds to ST307.

  In ST306, it is determined that the proximity of the user has been detected, and the detection information is output to control section 180. In ST307, it is determined that there is no proximity of the user, and the control procedure of sensor control section 250 ends.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the proximity sensor is calibrated every time a mobile phone is made or received, so that even when the floor noise changes due to various factors, the proximity of the user can be accurately detected. can do.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the threshold value to be compared with the current value is one has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and two threshold values may be used. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, when the threshold value th1 and the threshold value th2 (<th1), when the current value is equal to or greater than the threshold value th1, the sensor control unit determines that the proximity of the user has been detected, and the current value is the threshold value. If it is less than th2, the sensor control unit determines that there is no user proximity. If the current value is less than the threshold th1 and greater than or equal to the threshold th2, the determination is reserved. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the touch panel function from being frequently switched on / off.

  The portable terminal and proximity sensor according to the present invention are suitable for accurately detecting the proximity of a user even when floor noise changes.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 110 Display part 120a Microphone 120b Receiver 120c Earphone 120d Earphone microphone terminal 130 Audio | voice processing part 140 Radio | wireless part 145 Antenna 150 Battery 160 Memory 170 Proximity sensor 180 Control part 210 Light emission part 220 Light receiving part 230 AD conversion part 240 Threshold storage part 250 Sensor control part

Claims (3)

A light emitting means for emitting light upon receiving a current supply;
A light receiving means for receiving the light emitted by the light emitting means and reflected by the object, and generating a current corresponding to the received light quantity;
When transmission information indicating transmission from the own terminal is acquired, a threshold value to be compared with a current value generated by the light receiving unit is updated according to the current value, and the updated threshold value and the current value are Sensor control means for performing size comparison and detecting the proximity of the user based on the comparison result;
A mobile terminal comprising: A light emitting means for emitting light upon receiving a current supply;
A light receiving means for receiving the light emitted by the light emitting means and reflected by the object, and generating a current corresponding to the received light quantity;
When the incoming information indicating the incoming call to the terminal is acquired, the threshold value to be compared with the current value generated by the light receiving unit is updated according to the current value, and the updated threshold value and the current value are Sensor control means for performing size comparison and detecting the proximity of the user based on the comparison result;
A mobile terminal comprising: A light emitting means for emitting light upon receiving a current supply;
A light receiving means for receiving the light emitted by the light emitting means and reflected by the object, and generating a current corresponding to the received light quantity;
When the outgoing / incoming information indicating the transmission from the mobile terminal or the incoming call to the mobile terminal is acquired, the threshold value to be compared with the current value generated by the light receiving means is updated according to the current value, and updated. Sensor control means for performing a size comparison between the threshold value and the current value, and detecting the proximity of the user based on the comparison result;
A proximity sensor comprising:

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