Apparatus for detecting proximity of object near a touchscreen

摘要

An exemplary apparatus comprises a housing attachable to a touchscreen-equipped computing device wherein one or more image sensors in the housing obtain images of an object in the vicinity of the touchscreen and a processor analyzes the images to compute the position of the object relative to the touchscreen and communicates to the computing device attribute data pertaining to the imaged object. Exemplary methods are also described.

主权项

1. An apparatus comprising:
a housing configured to attach to a computing device, the computing device having at least one surface on which at least a portion is a touch-sensitive region to receive user input for the computing device; at least one image sensor array disposed in the housing in a position such that, when the housing is attached to the computing device, an image formed on the image sensor array includes: at least a portion of the surface of the computing device, a direct first view of an object near the surface, and a reflected second view of the object as reflected from the surface; a processor receiving, from the image sensor array, image data corresponding to the image and performing image analysis of the image data to determine attribute data for the object; and a communications interface configured to communicate the attribute data between the processor and the computing device; wherein the attribute data comprises a corrected distance between the object and the surface and wherein the corrected distance is computed by analysis of the image data by the processor to determine an apparent distance between the object and the surface, to determine a distance between the object and the image sensor array, and to scale the apparent distance in proportion to the distance between the object and the image sensor array.