The disclosure relates to a recognition apparatus, and more particularly to a recognition apparatus with a photoluminescent unit.
Biometrics refers to personal identification or recognition based on metrics related to a person's biological features, such as fingerprint, face, etc. Compared with conventional recognition methods, such as asking the person to be identified to enter password or signal, biometrics has relatively high reliability in verifying identity. In the field of biometrics, fingerprint recognition is one of the widely-used recognition methods. The fingerprint recognition is classified into optical-type, capacitive-type, ultrasonic-type, etc. The optical-type fingerprint recognition is carried out based on the principle of light reflection and has a relatively low cost and a relatively good reliability.
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Therefore, an object of the disclosure is to provide a recognition apparatus that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the disclosure, a recognition apparatus includes a light-transmissible top plate, a bottom plate, a light emitting unit, a photoluminescent unit, and a sensor module.
The light-transmissible top plate has a first surface facing an object to be recognized and a second surface opposite to the first surface.
The bottom plate is spaced apart from the light-transmissible top plate and faces the second surface of the light-transmissible top plate. The light-transmissible top plate and the bottom plate cooperatively define an inner space therebetween.
The light emitting unit is disposed in the inner space and is adapted to emit an initial light.
The photoluminescent unit is disposed in the inner space. The photoluminescent unit includes a plurality of quantum dots that is able to be excited by the initial light to emit an excitation light having a wavelength range different from that of the initial light. The excitation light travels along a first path to exit from the inner space through the light-transmissible top plate for irradiation on the object and is reflected from the object to generate a reflection light travelling along a second path to re-enter the inner space.
The sensor module is disposed in the inner space on the second path so as to receive the reflection light and to recognize an image of the object generated by the reflection light.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
Before the disclosure is described in greater detail, it should be noted that where considered appropriate, reference numerals or terminal portions of reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements, which may optionally have similar characteristics.
Referring to
The recognition apparatus 3 may be integrated into various electronic equipment requiring a touch screen or panel, which includes but not limited to a portable electronic device, e.g., a cell phone and a tablet, a liquid crystal display television (LCD TV), an automatic teller machine (ATM), or an access control machine. The light-transmissible top plate 51 is adapted to serve as the touch screen or panel of the electronic equipment for image display or touch operation.
In this embodiment, the light-transmissible top plate 51 has a first surface 511 facing the object 4 to be recognized and a second surface 512 opposite to the first surface 511. The bottom plate 52 is spaced apart from the light-transmissible top plate 51 and faces the second surface 512 of the light-transmissible top plate 51. The light-transmissible top plate 51 and the bottom plate 52 cooperatively define an inner space therebetween. Specifically, the light-transmissible top plate 51 may be integrated with other elements, such as a printed circuit board, a polarizer, a liquid crystal layer, and so forth. The elements adapted to be integrated with the light-transmissible top plate 51 are well known to those skilled in the art, further details thereof are not provided herein for the sake of brevity. In one form, the light-transmissible top plate 51 may be a glass plate without touch function, and the first surface 511 of the light-transmissible top plate 51 facing the object 4 is an outer surface of the glass plate.
The light emitting unit 6 is disposed in the inner space 53 and is adapted to emit an initial light. More specifically, the light emitting unit 6 is disposed on the bottom plate 52. The light emitting unit 6 includes a plurality of light emitting members 61, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), each of which is disposed on the bottom plate 52. In the embodiment, the light emitting members 61 are blue LEDS such that the initial light is a blue light. Alternatively, the light emitting unit 6 may be in coordination with the photoluminescent unit 7 to emit the initial light of other light colors. In another form, the light emitting members 61 may not be disposed on the bottom plate 52 and the initial light may be reflected by the bottom plate 52. It is noted that when the recognition apparatus 3 is integrated into a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFTLCD), the light emitting unit 6 may be configured to be a backlight module.
The photoluminescent unit 7 is disposed in the inner space 53. The photoluminescent unit 7 includes a plurality of quantum dots 71 that are able to be excited by the initial light to emit an excitation light having a wavelength range different from that of the initial light. The excitation light travels along a first path (P1) to exit from the inner space 53 through the light-transmissible top plate 51 for irradiation on the object 4 and is reflected from the object 4 to generate a reflection light travelling along a second path (P2) to re-enter the inner space 53. The quantum dots 71 of the photoluminescent unit 7 are selected from pervoskite quantum dots and core-shell quantum dots. When the quantum dots 71 are the pervoskite quantum dots, the pervoskite quantum dots may be made from CsPbX3, wherein X is selected from one of Cl, Br, and I. When the quantum dots 71 are the core-shell quantum dots, as shown in
The sensor module 8 is disposed in the inner space on the second path (P2) so as to receive the reflection light and to recognize an image of the object 4 generated by the reflection light. The sensor module 8 includes an imaging unit 81, a data storage unit 82, and a recognition unit 83.
In the embodiment, the imaging unit 81 is disposed on the second path (P2) and is used for generating the image of the object 4 from the reflection light received by the sensor module 8. Specifically, the imaging unit 81 includes a photosensitive element 811 for generating the image from the infrared light, which is reflected from the object 4 to be recognized, such as the user's fingerprint, and re-enters the inner space 53 to irradiate on the photosensitive element 811. In this embodiment, the photosensitive element 811 is exemplified to be a charge-coupled device (CCD). In one form, the photosensitive element 811 may be a thin-film photodiode or a phototransistor light sensor.
The data storage unit 82 is used for storing reference data 821. In the embodiment, the reference data 821 relates to types and locations of a plurality of featuring points (such as ridge ending points or bifurcations of fingerprint ridges). The featuring points are obtained by processing reference fingerprint images that is created and prestored in the data storage unit 82 using image processing techniques.
The recognition unit 83 is in communication with the imaging unit 81 and the data storage unit 82 to convert the image to recognition data 831 and compares the recognition data 831 with the reference data 821. In the embodiment, the recognition data 831 relates to locations of a plurality of featuring points obtained by processing the user's fingerprint image using image processing techniques. The recognition data 831 is then compared with the reference data 821 that is stored in the data storage unit 82 by the recognition unit 83. When a level of matching between the recognition data 831 and the reference data 821 achieves a predetermined threshold stored in the recognition unit 83, the recognition unit 83 will generate a positive signal representing that the recognition data 831 corresponds with the reference data 821. When the level of matching between the recognition data 831 and the reference data 821 is lower than the predetermined threshold, the recognition unit 83 will generate a negative signal representing that the recognition data 831 does not correspond with the reference data 821, i.e., the user's fingerprint cannot be recognized by the recognition apparatus 3 and the identification of the user should be further inspected.
It is noted that conversion of the images generated by the imaging unit 81 to the recognition data 831 or conversion of the prestored images to the reference data 821 may be conducted by various other image converting or processing methods. Since the image converting or processing methods are not the essence of the present disclosure, they will not be further elaborated for the sake of brevity.
When the embodiment of the recognition apparatus 3 is operated to recognize the user's fingerprint, the user first presses the light-transmissible plate 51 with a finger, the initial blue light emitted from the light emitting unit 6 first excites the photoluminescent unit 7 to generate the excitation infrared light, and then the excitation infrared light irradiates the user's finger and is reflected from the user's finger to generate the reflection infrared light. Thereafter, the reflection infrared light irradiates the photosensitive element 811 of the imaging unit 81 to generate the user's fingerprint image, and the fingerprint recognition is then carried out by the recognition unit 83 by comparing the recognition data 831 based on the user's fingerprint image with the reference data 821.
In the embodiment, since the excitation infrared light will not be interfered by a visible light used in the touch panel 51, the photoluminescent unit 7 and the sensor module 8 may be directly disposed under the light-transmissible plate 51. Hence, the problem of light interference encountered by the conventional optical recognition apparatus 1 can be eliminated. More specifically, in this embodiment, the light-transmissible top plate 51 is configured to be a touch panel 51 pressable by the human being, and the sensor module 8 is configured to be a fingerprint recognition module 8. The photoluminescent unit 7 and the sensor module 8 are disposed between the touch panel 51 and the light emitting unit 6. The photoluminescent unit 7 has a photoluminescent layer 70 underlying the touch panel 51. The sensor module 8 is disposed on the photoluminescent unit 7. More specifically, the sensor module 8 is disposed between the photoluminescent layer 70 and the touch panel 51, and the photoluminescent layer 70 entirely covers a normal projection of the touch panel 51 onto the photoluminescent layer 70. Hence, the whole first surface 511 of the touch panel 51 to be pressed by the user can have the recognition function. More specifically, the touch panel 51 has a fingerprint area 510 that is aligned with the sensor module 8 along a direction perpendicular to the touch panel 51. In addition, when the recognition apparatus 3 is integrated into the electronic equipment that has a backlight module (not shown), the light emitting unit 6 can be replaced with the backlight module. Since the photoluminescent layer 70 is a thin film, the electronic equipment provided with the backlight module and the recognition apparatus 3 can be maintained as a thin structure.
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To sum up, by virtue the inclusion of the photoluminescent unit 7, the excitation light emitted therefrom is the infrared light, which is not interfered by other visible light present in the recognition apparatus 3 or the electronic equipment integrated therewith. Thus, the recognition quality is enhanced. Furthermore, the structural design of the photoluminescent layer 70 facilitates maintenance of the thin structure of the electronic equipment that is provided with the backlight module and the recognition apparatus 3 of this disclosure.
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiment(s). It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects, and that one or more features or specific details from one embodiment may be practiced together with one or more features or specific details from another embodiment, where appropriate, in the practice of the disclosure.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is (are) considered the exemplary embodiment(s), it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment(s) but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201810132613.9 | Feb 2018 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2018/089623 | 6/1/2018 | WO | 00 |