TW201719193A - Non-contact optical sensing device and method for sensing depth and position of an object in three-dimensional space - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a non-contact optical sensing device and its sensing method. In the same one period of time, a Time-Of-Flight Sensing procedure and a Proximity-Sensing procedure are respectively operated. The obtained information of the two procedures are manipulated to acquire the depth information of the object to be measured. With the result of the Time-Of-Flight Sensing procedure having high accuracy and the result of the Proximity-Sensing procedure having high resolution, the acquired depth information of the object to be measured is more precise.

Description

Non-contact optical sensing device and method for sensing depth position of object in three-dimensional space

The present invention is primarily an optical sensing device associated with the art of sensing the depth position of an object in a three-dimensional space using a non-contact optical sensing device.

With the advancement of technology, electronic products are changing with each passing day, and the way of inputting electronic products has also improved. From the traditional physical button input, the evolution to the virtual touch panel input, the recent development of non-contact input mode, the user does not need to touch the electronic device, the electronic device detects the user through the non-contact sensor The gestures that are operated in the air are recognized and the corresponding instructions are executed. Especially for devices with Augmented Reality (AR) functionality, the use of contactless inputs makes the input more intuitive and more convenient to use. The existing non-contact sensing methods mainly include two types, one is Proximity-Sensing and the other is Time-Of-Flight Sensing.

The proximity sensing system uses the energy of the reflected light generated by the optical element to illuminate the object to determine the depth of the object, but the energy of the light may be different due to the color of the object, so that the absorbed light energy is different, so that the same position is Different objects are judged to have different depths. For example, wearing metal jewelry on the user's finger may cause the metal jewelry to be judged to be shallower or deeper because the light absorption of the metal jewelry is different from that of the finger. Therefore, the proximity sensing is performed. It is easy to cause the object to be misjudged.

The time-of-flight sensing system uses the optical element to illuminate the object to the object, and when the reflected light is received, the time difference between the light emission and the reception is used to determine the depth of the object. Since the speed of light does not vary depending on the amount of energy absorbed by the object. Therefore, the object depth measured by the flight time sensing is more accurate.

However, the reliability of the measured object depth using the time-of-flight sensing is larger than the reliability of the object depth measured by the proximity sensing. See the following formula:

The time-of-flight sensing system calculates the information measured at different phases, and the calculated error range δd of the object depth position d is calculated as follows: The Poisson distribution during flight time sensing is: The unreliability of the depth position is: among them Where N ₀ and N ₉₀ represent the number of photons at 0 degree phase and 90 degree phase, respectively, so there is a nonlinear relationship between the unreliability of the depth position and the number of photons under time-of-flight sensing.

Relatively speaking, the proximity sensing system calculates the depth position of the object by using the measured reflected light energy, and the calculation formula and relationship are as follows: The Poisson distribution at the proximity sensing is: The unreliability of the depth position is: Therefore, under proximity sensing, the unreliability of the depth position and the number of photons have a linear relationship, and the unreliability of the proximity sensing is less than the unreliability of the flight time sensing.

Therefore, since the Signal-to-Noise Ration (SNR) is inversely proportional to the unreliability, it is known that the signal-to-noise ratio of the time-of-flight sensing is smaller than the signal-to-noise ratio of the proximity sensing, meaning that the time-of-flight sensing The error range of the measured depth result is greater than the error range of the depth result measured by the proximity sensing. For example, if the error range of the time-of-flight sensing is 0.02, the error range of the proximity sensing may be 0.005, so the proximity feeling is used. The measured resolution will be higher than the resolution using time-of-flight sensing.

In view of this, the present invention is directed to solving the respective disadvantages of using two different non-contact sensing methods in the prior art, respectively.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention creates a method for sensing the depth position of an object in a three-dimensional space, comprising: performing a time-of-flight sensing program and a proximity sensing program respectively in a single cycle time, wherein The time-of-flight sensing program obtains the first information of the depth position of the object by the time difference between the emission time of the emitted light and the reception time of the received reflected light, and the proximity sensing program obtains the object by the intensity of the received reflected light. The second information of the depth position; determining an object depth position after performing the operation according to the first information and the second information.

Further, the present invention is directed to a non-contact optical sensing device, comprising: at least one light emitting unit that emits light to an object to be tested; and a photoelectric element that receives reflected light of the object to be tested; a first switching element is coupled to the photoelectric element; a second switching element is coupled to the photoelectric element; and a control unit electrically connected to the light emitting unit, the photoelectric element, and the first switch An element, and the second switching element, by controlling the first switching element and the second switching element to obtain an output of the photoelectric element, wherein the first switching element is not simultaneously turned on with the second switching element; wherein the controlling The unit time and the proximity sensing program are respectively executed in a single cycle time, wherein: the time of flight sensing program is a reflection time of the light emitted by the light emitting unit and a reflection received by the photoelectric element The first sensing signal generated by the time difference of the receiving time of the light receives the first sensing signal through the first switching element and the second switching element No. to obtain the first information of the depth position of the object to be tested; the proximity sensing program is a second sensing signal generated by the intensity of the reflected light received by the photoelectric element, through the first switching element and the second The switching component receives the second sensing signal to determine the second information of the depth position of the object to be tested; and the control unit determines the depth position of the object to be tested according to the first information and the second information.

The invention has the advantages that by performing the time-of-flight sensing program and the proximity sensing program separately in the same cycle time, the depth position of the object detected by the two different sensing methods can be obtained, and then the object is obtained through the operation. Depth position, to compensate for the low accuracy of proximity sensing by using the high accuracy of time-of-flight sensing, and to compensate for the low resolution of time-of-flight sensing by using the high resolution of proximity sensing, therefore, the invention can be more accurate Determine the depth position of the non-contact object in the three-dimensional space.

The technical means adopted by the present invention for achieving the intended purpose of the invention are further explained below in conjunction with the drawings and the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2A , the non-contact optical sensing device 10 of the present invention is applied to an electronic device 20 . The non-contact optical sensing device 10 includes a light emitting unit 11 , a photoelectric component 12 , and a first The switching element 13, a second switching element 14, and a control unit 15.

The light emitting unit 11 emits light onto the object to be tested, and the light emitting unit 11 may include one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). In an embodiment (as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C), the present invention may include a first illumination unit 111 and a second illumination unit 112; in an embodiment (as shown in FIG. 2A), the present invention includes The single light emitting unit 11, that is, the first light emitting unit and the second light emitting unit are the same light emitting unit.

The photoelectric element 12 is configured to receive the reflected light of the object to be tested, and the reflected light is derived from the reflected light generated by the light emitting unit 11 and emitted to the object to be tested, and the photoelectric element 12 can be a photoelectric gate. (photogate) type or photodiode type. The photoelectric element 12 receives the reflected light and converts it into a corresponding electron, thereby generating a corresponding signal.

As shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 3 , the first switching element 13 and the second switching element 14 are respectively coupled to the photoelectric element 12 for transmitting the signal of the photoelectric element 12 to the control unit 15 . In one embodiment, the first switching element 13 includes a first pass gate TX1, the second switch element 14 includes a second pass gate TX2, and the first switch element 13 is coupled to a first charge storage relay point FD1. The second switching element 14 is connected to a second charge storage relay point FD2.

The control unit 15 is electrically connected to the light-emitting unit 11, the photoelectric element 12, the first switching element 13, and the second switching element 14. The control unit 15 is configured to respectively control the opening and closing of the light-emitting unit 11, The potential of the photoelectric element 12, the opening and closing of the first switching element 13 and the second switching element 14, and the signal of the photoelectric element 12 are obtained by switching the first switching element 13 and the second switching element 14.

Referring to FIG. 2B, FIG. 2C, FIG. 4A and FIG. 5A, in the implementation of the present invention, the control unit 15 respectively executes a time-of-flight sensing program TOF and a proximity sensing program PS in a single cycle time. The unit 15 controls the first lighting unit 111, the second lighting unit 112, the first switching element 13 and the second switching element 14 by a control signal, and the control unit 15 controls the first switching element 13 and The second switching element 14 obtains the output of the photoelectric element 12, and the frequency of the control signal for executing the time-of-flight sensing program TOF is different from the frequency of the control signal for executing the proximity sensing program PS. The time-of-flight sensing program TOF obtains the first information of the depth position of the object to be tested by using the time difference between the emission time of the light emitted by the first light-emitting unit 111 and the receiving time of the reflected light received by the photoelectric element 12; The proximity sensing program PS obtains the second information of the depth position of the object to be tested by the intensity of the reflected light corresponding to the second light emitting unit 112 received by the photoelectric element 12; the control unit 15 according to the first information and After the second information is calculated, the depth position of the object to be tested is determined.

Referring to FIG. 2B, FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, in an embodiment, the time-of-flight sensing program TOF is executed first, and then the proximity sensing program PS is executed, and the time of executing the time-of-flight sensing program TOF is the same. The time at which the proximity sensing program PS is executed. Referring to FIG. 2C, FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, in another embodiment, the proximity sensing program PS is executed first, and then the time-of-flight sensing program TOF is executed.

Please refer to FIG. 2B, 4B, and 5B, when the execution time of the program senses the TOF flight, the control unit 15 controls the photovoltaic element 12 is turned on, the control unit 15 to a first control signal S ₁ controls the second The first switching element 13 is controlled by a second control signal S ₂ , and the second switching element 14 is controlled by a third control signal S ₃ . The frequency of the first control signal S ₁ is first. The frequency of the second and third control signals S ₂ , S ₃ is a first sampling frequency, and the first lighting frequency is the same as the first sampling frequency. In an embodiment, when the first lighting unit 111 is turned on, the first switching element 13 is turned on at the same time, and the second switching element 14 is turned on. Specifically, the second and third control signals S ₂ , S ₃ have The phase difference, for example, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees, is 90 degrees as shown in FIGS. 4B and 5B. Further, the phase of the first control signal S ₁ and the second control signal S ₂ may be the same, or The phase of the first control signal S ₁ and the third control signal S ₃ may be the same. In an embodiment, the second control signal S ₂ is applied to the first transfer gate TX1 and the third control signal S ₃ is applied to the second transfer gate TX2.

Referring to FIG. 2C, FIG. 4B and FIG. 5B, when the proximity sensing program PS is executed, the control unit 15 controls the photoelectric element 12 to be turned on, and the control unit 15 controls the second by a fourth control signal S _{4 .} The first switching element 13 is controlled by a fifth control signal S ₅ , and the second switching element 14 is controlled by a sixth control signal S ₆ . The frequency of the fourth control signal S ₄ is a second illumination. Frequency, the frequency of the fifth and sixth control signals S ₅ , S ₆ is a second sampling frequency, and the second lighting frequency is the same as the second sampling frequency, but the first sampling frequency of the time-of-flight sensing program TOF is greater than the proximity The second sampling frequency of the sensing program. In an embodiment, when the second lighting unit 112 is turned on, the first switching element 13 is turned on at the same time, and the second switching element 14 is turned on, specifically, the fifth and sixth control signals S ₅ , S ₆ There is a phase difference, for example, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, as shown in FIGS. 4B and 5B is 180 degrees. Further, the phase of the fourth control signal S ₄ and the fifth control signal S ₅ may be the same. Or the phase of the fourth control signal S ₄ and the sixth control signal S ₆ may be the same. In an embodiment, the fifth control signal S ₅ is applied to the first transfer gate TX1 and the sixth control signal S ₆ is applied to the second transfer gate TX2.

Furthermore, the time for executing the time of flight sensing program TOF may be longer than the time for executing the proximity sensing program PS (as shown in FIG. 6); or the time for executing the time of flight sensing program TOF may be shorter than performing the proximity feeling Test the time of the program PS (as shown in Figure 7).

Further, the control unit 15 determines the depth position of the object to be tested according to the first information and the second information, and the operation manner may include the following two types (but is not limited to):

1. Referring to FIG. 8, the control unit 15 multiplies the first information and the second information by different weight parameters (a, b), and then calculates the depth position of the object to be tested. In an embodiment, a=b=0.5, the first information and the second information are respectively multiplied by 0.5 and then added to obtain the depth position of the object to be tested.

2. Referring to FIG. 9, the control unit 15 first obtains the initial position of the object to be tested according to the first information obtained by executing the time-of-flight sensing program TOF, and then executes the proximity sensing program PS. Obtaining the second information, and performing correction compensation on the obtained preliminary position of the object to be tested according to the second information to obtain a depth position of the object to be tested. In this way, the first information of the absolute depth data but the absolute depth data of the object is detected to obtain the preliminary position, and then the second information of the high resolution is used to correct the preliminary position to obtain the object to be tested. Depth position. In an embodiment, the order in which the time of flight sensing program TOF and the proximity sensing program PS are performed may be reversed. In an embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, in a cycle time, a time-of-flight sensing program TOF is performed to obtain a preliminary depth position (z ₁ ), and two proximity sensing procedures PS are performed to obtain two groups. The auxiliary judgment depth positions are (z' ₁₁ ) and (z' ₁₂ ), respectively, and the auxiliary judgment depth positions are subtracted to obtain Δz' ₁ (Δz' ₁ = z' ₁₂ -z' ₁₁ ), and Δz' ₁ Correcting the compensation z ₁ , the obtained depth position of the object to be tested is (z ₁ +Δz' ₁ ). In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, a time-of-flight sensing program TOF and a proximity sensing program PS are executed in a cycle time, and are obtained by two adjacent cycle times. The information is compared with each other to obtain a preliminary depth position (z ₁ ) and an auxiliary judgment depth position (z' ₁₁ ) and (z' ₁₂ ), and the auxiliary judgment depth position is also subtracted to obtain Δz' ₁ (Δz' ₁ = z ' ₁₂ -z' ₁₁ ), and the compensation z ₁ is corrected by Δz' ₁ , and the obtained depth position of the object to be tested is (z ₁ +Δz' ₁ ).

Therefore, the present invention can simultaneously obtain two different non-contact sensing programs by performing a high-accuracy time-of-flight sensing program TOF and a high-resolution proximity sensing program PS in the same cycle time. By measuring the depth position information detected by the object and obtaining the depth position of the object to be tested through the operation, the invention has high accuracy and high resolution, and can accurately determine the depth position of the object.

The above is only the embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The present invention has been disclosed by the embodiments, but is not intended to limit the invention, and any one of ordinary skill in the art, In the scope of the technical solutions of the present invention, equivalent modifications may be made to the equivalents of the embodiments of the present invention without departing from the technical scope of the present invention. Any simple modifications, equivalent changes and modifications made to the above embodiments are still within the scope of the technical solutions of the present invention.

10‧‧‧ Non-contact optical sensing device
11‧‧‧Lighting unit
111‧‧‧First lighting unit
112‧‧‧second lighting unit
12‧‧‧Optoelectronic components
13‧‧‧First switching element
14‧‧‧Second switching element
15‧‧‧Control unit
20‧‧‧Electronic devices
S ₁ ‧‧‧First control signal
S ₂ ‧‧‧second control signal
S ₃ ‧‧‧ third control signal
S ₄ ‧‧‧fourth control signal
S ₅ ‧‧‧ fifth control signal
S ₆ ‧‧‧ sixth control signal

1 is a schematic view of a non-contact optical sensing device of the present invention disposed on an electronic device. 2A is a block diagram of a non-contact optical sensing device of the present invention. 2B is a schematic diagram of blocks and signals of the non-contact optical sensing device of the present invention under execution of TOF. 2C is a schematic diagram of blocks and signals of the non-contact optical sensing device of the present invention under the execution of PS. 3 is a circuit diagram of a photovoltaic element, a first switching element, and a second switching element of the present invention. 4A is a flow chart of a first embodiment of a sensing method of the present invention. 4B is a timing diagram of a first embodiment of the sensing method of the present invention. FIG. 5A is a flow chart of a second embodiment of a sensing method of the present invention. FIG. 5B is a timing diagram of a second embodiment of the sensing method of the present invention. Fig. 6 is a timing chart of a third embodiment of the sensing method of the present invention. Fig. 7 is a timing chart of a fourth embodiment of the sensing method of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a flow chart of the first embodiment of the depth position of the computing object in the sensing method of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing a second embodiment of the depth position of the computing object in the sensing method of the present invention. Figure 10 is a schematic view of the first embodiment of Figure 9. Figure 11 is a schematic view of the second embodiment of Figure 9.

S ₁ ‧‧‧First control signal

S ₂ ‧‧‧second control signal

S ₃ ‧‧‧ third control signal

S ₄ ‧‧‧fourth control signal

S5‧‧‧ fifth control signal

S6‧‧‧ sixth control signal

Claims (10)

A method for sensing a depth position of an object in a three-dimensional space includes: a. performing a time-of-flight sensing procedure to obtain a depth position of the object by a time difference between a time of emission of the emitted light and a reception time of the received reflected light. b. performing a proximity sensing procedure to obtain a second information of the depth position of the object after receiving the reflected light, and receiving the intensity of the reflected light; c. according to the first information and the second The information is judged to determine the depth position of an object. The method for sensing the depth position of an object in a three-dimensional space according to claim 1, wherein the step a and the step b are performed once in a single cycle time, and then the step c is performed. The method for sensing the depth position of the object in the three-dimensional space according to claim 1, wherein the step a and the step b are performed once in a single cycle time, and then the step c is performed. The method for sensing the depth position of the object in the three-dimensional space according to claim 3, wherein in step c, the preliminary depth position of the object is first calculated according to the first information, and then the step b is performed separately. After the second information is subtracted, the initial depth position of the object is corrected and compensated by the subtracted result to obtain the depth position of the object. The method for sensing the depth position of the object in the three-dimensional space according to claim 1, wherein the step a and the step b are performed once in each cycle time, and the first information and the second information obtained by using the adjacent cycle time are used. To perform step c. The method for sensing the depth position of the object in the three-dimensional space according to claim 5, wherein in step c, the first depth information of the object is obtained according to the first information obtained by the adjacent cycle time, and then the adjacent period is obtained. After the second information obtained by the time is subtracted, the initial depth position of the object is corrected and compensated by the subtracted result to obtain the depth position of the object. The method for sensing an object depth position in a three-dimensional space according to claim 1, wherein the time-of-flight sensing program obtains the first information at a first sampling frequency and emits light at a first lighting frequency. The proximity sensing side program obtains the second information by using a second sampling frequency, and emits light at a second lighting frequency, the first sampling frequency being the same as the first lighting frequency, the second sampling frequency The same as the second illumination frequency, and the first sampling frequency is greater than the second sampling frequency. The method for sensing the depth position of an object in a three-dimensional space according to claim 1 or 2, wherein after obtaining the first information, calculating a preliminary depth position of the object according to the first information, and then performing a proximity sensing process. Obtaining the second information, and then using the second information to perform correction compensation on the initial depth position of the object to obtain the object depth position. The method for sensing the depth position of an object in a three-dimensional space according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first information and the second information are respectively multiplied by different weight parameters, and then calculated to obtain the depth position of the object. A non-contact optical sensing device, comprising: at least one light emitting unit that emits light to an object to be tested; a photoelectric element that receives reflected light of the object to be tested; and a control unit that is electrically connected to The illumination unit and the optoelectronic component, wherein the control unit performs the following steps: a. Performing a time-of-flight sensing procedure to obtain an object depth position by a time difference between a transmission time of the emitted light and a reception time of the received reflected light. The first information; b. performing a proximity sensing process, the second information of the depth position of the object is obtained by the intensity of the reflected light after the reflection of the emitted light; c. according to the first information and the The second information is used to determine the depth position of an object.