Patents by Inventor Axel Heim

Axel Heim has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20160013790
    Abstract: A sensor electrode (SE) for a capacitive sensor device is designed such that the width of the sensor electrode decreases towards the center such that the capacity between the sensor electrode and an object (F) with constant distance between the sensor electrode and the object (F) substantially is equal in size for each position of the object (F) relative to the sensor electrode along a longitudinal axis of the sensor electrode. The sensor electrode may consist of a plurality of segments arranged in a strip with decreasing width towards the center of the electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2015
    Publication date: January 14, 2016
    Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventor: Axel Heim
  • Publication number: 20160011692
    Abstract: A system has a gesture detection device with a plurality of input channels and an output channel which uses an alternating electric near field generated through at least one transmission electrode coupled with the output channel, wherein some of the input channels are coupled with receiving electrodes of the gesture detection device. The system further has a plurality of touch electrodes, wherein the touch electrodes are coupled with one of the input channels by multiplexing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2015
    Publication date: January 14, 2016
    Applicant: Microchip Technology Incorporated
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Andreas Dorfner, Roland Aubauer
  • Publication number: 20150378482
    Abstract: An input device has one or more electrodes configured for capacitive sensing, an electronic circuit, one or more conductive feed line(s) connecting the one or more electrode(s) with the electronic circuit, wherein the device is configured to increase or decrease a signal received from at least one of the electrodes through an associated feed line in function of at least one other signal from another electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2015
    Publication date: December 31, 2015
    Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Lionel Portmann, Axel Heim, Andreas Dorfner, Claus Kaltner
  • Publication number: 20150301735
    Abstract: A system has a two-dimensional (2D) touch detection system operable to be activated and de-activated and an additional sensor operable in communication with the 2D touch detection system. The additional sensor is capable to determine whether a touch event has occurred or is about to occur and to activate the 2D touch detection system if a touch event has occurred or is about to occur.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2015
    Publication date: October 22, 2015
    Inventors: Martin Hoch, Axel Heim
  • Patent number: 9142363
    Abstract: A sensor electrode (SE) for a capacitive sensor device is designed such that the width of the sensor electrode decreases towards the center such that the capacity between the sensor electrode and an object (F) with constant distance between the sensor electrode and the object (F) substantially is equal in size for each position of the object (F) relative to the sensor electrode along a longitudinal axis of the sensor electrode. The sensor electrode may consist of a plurality of segments arranged in a strip with decreasing width towards the center of the electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventor: Axel Heim
  • Publication number: 20150227252
    Abstract: A display device is provided that allows detecting contact positions (contact mode) and contactless detection of positions of a finger in front of the display device (non-contact mode). The display device includes a panel layer connected to a transparent electrode layer that is subdivided into a plurality of electrode segments that form a segment array. An interpretation circuitry coupled to the electrode segments switches between a contact mode state in which a contact detection is performed by the electrode segments, and a second state in which the contactless position or movement detection of the finger is performed in an area in front of the display device, wherein at least a part of the electrode segments are used for detection in both the contact mode and the non-contact mode, and wherein the contactless position or movement detection is performed by a grouped of the electrode segments in the segment array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2012
    Publication date: August 13, 2015
    Inventors: Artem Ivanov, Axel Heim, Thomas Kandiziora
  • Publication number: 20150097809
    Abstract: A method for detecting a continuous circle gesture, has the following steps: receiving vectors representative of an object movement by a object detection unit; determining from the received sequence velocity vectors a sequence of velocity vectors or an approximation thereof; estimating an angle between subsequent velocity vectors; and determining a rotation direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2014
    Publication date: April 9, 2015
    Inventor: Axel Heim
  • Publication number: 20150022490
    Abstract: A method for state tracking based gesture recognition engine for a sensor system has the steps of: defining a plurality of sequential states of a finite-state machine, determining a Sequence Progress Level (SPL) for each state, mapping a state probability distribution to a (single) SPL on run-time, and utilizing the mapped SPL estimate as an output value of the sensor system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2014
    Publication date: January 22, 2015
    Inventor: Axel Heim
  • Publication number: 20140267153
    Abstract: A capacitive sensor device has at least one measuring electrode, at least one ground electrode, and an evaluation device being coupled with the at least one measuring electrode and being configured to detect a capacitive coupling between the at least one measuring electrode and a ground of the evaluation device. At least one ground electrode can be galvanically coupled with the ground of the evaluation device via a switch. The switching status of the switch can be changed by the evaluation device. The evaluation device is further adapted to detect a common-mode change of the capacitive coupling between the at least one measuring electrode and the ground of the evaluation device when the switching status of the switch changes. An input device, particularly a keyboard with a capacitive sensor device, as well as a method for operating a capacitive sensor device may be designed accordingly.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 2, 2012
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Artem Ivanov, Roland Aubauer
  • Publication number: 20140238834
    Abstract: A sensor electrode (SE) for a capacitive sensor device is designed such that the width of the sensor electrode decreases towards the center such that the capacity between the sensor electrode and an object (F) with constant distance between the sensor electrode and the object (F) substantially is equal in size for each position of the object (F) relative to the sensor electrode along a longitudinal axis of the sensor electrode. The sensor electrode may consist of a plurality of segments arranged in a strip with decreasing width towards the center of the electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2013
    Publication date: August 28, 2014
    Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH II & CO. KG
    Inventor: Axel Heim
  • Publication number: 20140232418
    Abstract: The invention relates to a capacitive measuring device for a hand-held device, particularly an electric hand-held device for the detection of an approach to the hand-held device, wherein the capacitive measuring device has a switching device, wherein the ground of the capacitive measuring device is galvanically connectable with an electrically conductive structure of the hand-held device by means of a switching device, and wherein the capacitive measuring device has a ground electrode structure with at least one ground electrode that can be arranged on the hand-held device, wherein the ground of the capacitive hand-held device is galvanically connectable with the at least one ground electrode by means of the switching device. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for the detection of an approach of a hand to a hand-held device, particularly an electric hand-held device, with a capacitive measuring device according to the invention.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Publication date: August 21, 2014
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Artem Ivanov, Roland Aubauer
  • Publication number: 20140210489
    Abstract: A sensor device for detecting a number of objects, has a number of electrode configurations forming a sensor surface, each electrode configuration having a number of measurement electrodes and each electrode configuration being associated with at least one transmitter electrode, and an evaluation device coupled to the measurement electrodes and the transmitter electrodes, which is adapted for using a time multiplexing method for applying an alternating signal to one of the transmitter electrodes, and to apply a predetermined constant electrical potential to the remaining transmitter electrodes, and tapping an electrical signal indicating the position of the object relative to the sensor surface at the measurement electrodes associated with the transmitter electrode having the electrical alternating signal applied.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2012
    Publication date: July 31, 2014
    Inventors: Artem Ivanov, Axel Heim
  • Publication number: 20140050354
    Abstract: A method for gesture recognition including detecting one or more gesture-related signals using the associated plurality of detection sensors; and evaluating a gesture detected from the one or more gesture-related signals using an automatic recognition technique to determine if the gesture corresponds to one of a predetermined set of gestures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2013
    Publication date: February 20, 2014
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Eugen Roth, Roland Aubauer
  • Publication number: 20140049266
    Abstract: A capacitive sensor includes a transmit electrode configured to provide an alternating electric field to a sensor; one or more receive electrodes for detecting variations in the alternating electric field; and an adaptive frequency adjustment unit configured to adjust an operating frequency of the alternating electric field responsive to detection of a noise measure, such as noise power.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2013
    Publication date: February 20, 2014
    Applicant: Microchip Technology Incorporated
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Martin Hoch
  • Publication number: 20090285312
    Abstract: A transmitter, provided with a sequence of bits for transmission to a receiver, carries out coding of the bit sequence and distribution of the bits of the coded bit sequence over a number of radio channels according to a distribution pattern. Based on the distribution pattern, important features of the bits of the coded bit sequence and information regarding a quality of at least one of the radio channels are taken into account. These important features correspond to a significance of each bit on decoding by the receiver. The transmitter transmits the bits of the coded bit sequence using the number of radio channels according to the executed distribution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2007
    Publication date: November 19, 2009
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Martin Weckerle