Technology for touchless ultrasonic human computer interfaces

Elliptic Laboratories AS has as business concept to develop and be an OEM supplier and licensor of technology and systems for touchless ultrasonic human computer interfaces. In short, the concept refers to using reflected ultrasound from a finger or a han d to detect and track hand and finger movements. This can be used to control a computer, a mobile phone or similar through simple movements and gestures in front of the screen. Ultrasound solutions for air are still immature and new developments are neede d both on broadband transducers, system design and signal processing. The invention of PVDF films (Peazoelectric plastic) has enabled transducers which are potentially cheap, low power, and highly flexible with respect to shape and size. Measurement Spe cialties Inc, specialising on custom designed ultrasound transducers, will in this project bring up new technology for broadband transducers for use in air based on PVDF films. Broadband ultrasonic systems allow for a much larger degree of signal coding c ompared with narrowband systems, as e.g. today used in radar systems. We will use similar methods to obtain robust object detection and tracking under varying and dynamic environments. Also, by looking at the signals stacked as 2D images (A-scans), advanc ed image processing techniques, e.g. taken from seismic processing, can be used for noise suppression and event tracking. The market for touchless computer interfaces can be divided into two categories; industrial and consumer markets. The industrial mar ket is based on a need caused by 1) a need for hygienic non contact operations for instance in hospitals and 2) due to improved user functionality such as when operating systems with gloves and dirty hands. The consumer market is more driven by the gadg et effect, i.e. that companies want to be leading with new inventions and features. There is today a significant pull from the consumer market for new human interfaces of which touchless systems is important