Patents by Inventor Roland Aubauer

Roland Aubauer 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).

  • Patent number: 10873330
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement for an electric field sensor device with a transmitting electrode and at least one receiving electrode may have a nonconductive substrate having a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer. A first electrode is arranged within the first conductive layer, wherein the first electrode is a receiving electrode of the electric field sensor device, and a second electrode is arranged within the second conductive layer, wherein the second electrode is a transmitting electrode of the electric field sensor device wherein the second electrode covers a larger area than the first electrode and wherein the second electrode is textured to reduce the capacitance between the first and second electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH II & CO. KG
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Claus Kaltner
  • Patent number: 10649488
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement has a transmitting electrode which during a measurement cycle is configured to receive an alternating transmission signal and a plurality of receiving electrodes configured to detect disturbances in an electric field formed by the transmitting electrode. The transmitting electrode and the receiving electrode are arranged in a single layer such that a single transmitting electrode is formed by an electrode structure that substantially surrounds each receiving electrode of the plurality of receiving electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: Microchip Technology Germany GmbH
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Andreas Dorfner
  • Patent number: 10352976
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement has a transmitting electrode configured to generate a quasi-static alternating electric field which extends into an observation area, a first electrode extending in a first direction and configured to be connected to an evaluation device as a receiving electrode, and a second electrode extending in a second direction different from the first direction wherein for evaluating disturbances of the quasi-static alternating electric field an enhanced sensitivity profile is obtained by combining the first and second electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Claus Kaltner, Lucian Rosca
  • Patent number: 9927933
    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: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Andreas Dorfner, Roland Aubauer
  • Patent number: 9921690
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the contactless detection and recognition of gestures in a three-dimensional movement space (3D gestures), wherein in an electrical near-field which defines the three-dimensional movement space, deformations of the electrical near-field are detected which can be performed by movements of at least one object, e.g. one or two fingers in the three-dimensional movement space, at least one movement path is generated from the detected deformations of the electrical near field, which corresponds to the movement of the at least one object in the three-dimensional movement space, and wherein during the generation of the movement path in the movement path a gesture start is determined, wherein beginning with the gesture start the gesture is extracted from the movement path. The invention also relates to a system for the contactless detection and recognition of gestures in a three-dimensional movement space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Artem Ivanov, Thomas Kandziora, Manfred Schacht
  • Patent number: 9857828
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement has a matrix with rows and columns of capacitive touch sensors arranged in a single layer, wherein each touch sensor has a first electrode and an associated second electrode, wherein the first electrodes in each row of the matrix are connected and the second electrodes in each column of the matrix are connected, and wherein the electrode arrangement further has a capacitive coupling operable to feed an alternating transmission signal only to the top and bottom row of connected first electrodes and to the most left and most right column of connected second electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Andreas Dorfner
  • Patent number: 9552068
    Abstract: A gesture detection system according to embodiments includes an input device including a touch sensitive surface and a contact-free detection system; and a controller configured to determine characteristic parameters for the position in three-dimensional space of a user input object and select an operational mode of the input device based on the position of the user input object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Johannes Matokic, Claus Kaltner
  • Publication number: 20160322971
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement for an electric field sensor device with a transmitting electrode and at least one receiving electrode may have a nonconductive substrate having a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer. A first electrode is arranged within the first conductive layer, wherein the first electrode is a receiving electrode of the electric field sensor device, and a second electrode is arranged within the second conductive layer, wherein the second electrode is a transmitting electrode of the electric field sensor device wherein the second electrode covers a larger area than the first electrode and wherein the second electrode is textured to reduce the capacitance between the first and second electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2016
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Applicant: Microchip Technology Germany GmbH II & CO. KG
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Claus Kaltner
  • Patent number: 9459296
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement for an electric field sensor device with a transmitting electrode and at least one receiving electrode may have a nonconductive substrate having a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer. A first electrode is arranged within the first conductive layer, wherein the first electrode is a receiving electrode of the electric field sensor device, and a second electrode is arranged within the second conductive layer, wherein the second electrode is a transmitting electrode of the electric field sensor device wherein the second electrode covers a larger area than the first electrode and wherein the second electrode is textured to reduce the capacitance between the first and second electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH II & CO. KG
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Claus Kaltner
  • Patent number: 9360975
    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: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Artem Ivanov, Roland Aubauer
  • Patent number: 9354263
    Abstract: 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, 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 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 the switching device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Artem Ivanov, Roland Aubauer
  • Patent number: 9323379
    Abstract: The invention relates to an electronic device for determining a first positional information and a second positional information regarding a user input object, such as at least one user hand or at least one stylus, the electronic device comprising: a touch-sensitive surface; contact-free detection means; and controller means that are operatively connected to the touch-sensitive surface and to the contact-free detection means; wherein the first positional information depends on where the user input object contacts the touch-sensitive surface, and wherein the second positional information depends on the spatial configuration of the user input object with regard to the touch-sensitive surface, characterized in that the controller means are adapted for simultaneously and/or alternately determining the first positional information via the touch-sensitive surface and the second positional information via the contact free detection means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2016
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Roman Gebhard
  • Patent number: 9323985
    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: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2016
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Axel Heim, Eugen Roth, Roland Aubauer
  • Publication number: 20160054850
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement has a transmitting electrode which during a measurement cycle is configured to receive an alternating transmission signal and a plurality of receiving electrodes configured to detect disturbances in an electric field formed by the transmitting electrode. The transmitting electrode and the receiving electrode are arranged in a single layer such that a single transmitting electrode is formed by an electrode structure that substantially surrounds each receiving electrode of the plurality of receiving electrodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2015
    Publication date: February 25, 2016
    Applicant: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Andreas Dorfner
  • Publication number: 20160054754
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement has a matrix with rows and columns of capacitive touch sensors arranged in a single layer, wherein each touch sensor has a first electrode and an associated second electrode, wherein the first electrodes in each row of the matrix are connected and the second electrodes in each column of the matrix are connected, and wherein the electrode arrangement further has a capacitive coupling operable to feed an alternating transmission signal only to the top and bottom row of connected first electrodes and to the most left and most right column of connected second electrodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2015
    Publication date: February 25, 2016
    Applicant: Microchip Technology Germany GmbH
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Andreas Dorfner
  • 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
  • Patent number: 9141148
    Abstract: The invention relates to a mobile communication device and an input device provided for operating said communication device by means of which input operations necessary for using the communication device may be carried out. The aim of the invention is to provide solutions by means of which it is possible, in particular for relatively compact mobile electronic devices, in particular communication devices and digital cameras to carry out said input operations in a manner which is particularly easy to coordinate for the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY GERMANY GMBH
    Inventors: Wolfgang Richter, Roland Aubauer
  • Publication number: 20140267155
    Abstract: An electrode arrangement has a transmitting electrode configured to generate a quasi-static alternating electric field which extends into an observation area, a first electrode extending in a first direction and configured to be connected to an evaluation device as a receiving electrode, and a second electrode extending in a second direction different from the first direction wherein for evaluating disturbances of the quasi-static alternating electric field an enhanced sensitivity profile is obtained by combining the first and second electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2014
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Claus Kaltner, Lucian Rosca
  • 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
  • Patent number: 8823393
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for touch/proximity detection, especially a capacitive switch device, which is designed to set switching states by approaching the switch device or by touching the switch device, in order to perform, for example, switching actions on an instrument. The invention also relates to a switch device, especially a switch device on a capacitive basis, for a cooktop, for operating the cooktop.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: Ident Technology AG
    Inventors: Roland Aubauer, Hans Schwaiger