A motion gesture sensor using photodiodes with limited field-of-view

This paper presents a low-power and small-size motion gesture sensor (MGS) based on an active infrared (IR) proximity sensor. While conventional proximity-based MGSs require two LEDs (the most power-hungry components) and one photodiode, the proposed MGS eliminates one of LEDs at the expense of an additional photodiode as a separate channel. In conjunction with an optical block that limits the field-of-view of each photodiode, the power consumption and area of the proposed MGS can be reduced by up to 52% and 69%, respectively, compared with conventional proximity-based MGSs. Optical simulation and test results validate theoretical analysis presented.