Neonode Inc.
OPTICAL PROXIMITY SENSOR AND ASSOCIATED USER INTERFACE

Abstract:

A sensor, including light emitters projecting directed light beams, light detectors interleaved with the light emitters, lenses, each lens oriented relative to a respective one of the light detectors such that the light detector receives maximum intensity when light enters the lens at an angle b, whereby, for each emitter E, there exist corresponding target positions p(E, D) along the path of the light from emitter E, at which an object located at any of the target positions reflects the light projected by emitter E towards a respective one of detectors D at angle b, and a processor storing a reflection value R(E, D) for each co-activated emitter-detector pair (E, D), based on an amount of light reflected by an object located at p(E, D) and detected by detector D, and calculating a location of an object based on the reflection values and target positions.