3D Interactive System Using Integral Photography by Embedded Optical Sensors for Portable Devices

An air-touch interactive system for portable devices is presented. An embedded optical sensor based on this approach was developed to realize a lightweight and thin-form-factor three-dimensional (3-D) interactive system. Using integral photography, the 3-D coordinates of an object are calculated. Moreover, the micro-lens array is implemented to improve the working range to 80 mm and achieve a position error of less than 5 mm. The spatial resolution in x-y and z domains is 1 and 5 mm, respectively. In addition, this system can also support a gesture vector sensing function in the far field up to 150 mm.