Sensing circuit

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a sensing circuit, and particularly, to a sensing circuit for an electronic device.

2. Description of Related Art

Most electronic devices use sensing circuits to measure physical quantity around the electronic devices. Generally, a sensing circuit includes sensors, linear optocouplers, and controllers; sensing signals generated by the sensors are transferred with electrical isolation by the linear optocouplers to the controllers for analyzing. However, referring to FIG. 1 , in a traditional sensing circuit, if eight sensors (S 1 -S 8 ) are used, eight linear optocouplers (K 1 -K 8 ) are required to be correspondingly connected with the eight sensors, and this increases cost.

The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of a sensing circuit. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a sensing circuit in accordance with a prior art.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a sensing circuit in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic device with the sensing circuit.

Referring to FIG. 2 , a sensing circuit 1 of an exemplary embodiment includes sensors S 1 -S 8 , a multiway switch 20 , a logical control unit 30 , a linear optocoupler 40 , a digital optocoupler 50 , and a controller 10 .

The sensors are connected to the controller 10 sequentially through the multiway switch 20 and the linear optocoupler 40 . The multiway switch 20 has input terminals A 1 -A 8 respectively connected with the sensors S 1 -S 8 , and has output terminals B 1 -B 8 connected with the linear optocoupler 40 . The multiway switch 20 can selectively connect one of the input terminals A 1 -A 8 to its corresponding output terminal B 1 -B 8 . For example, when the multiway switch 20 connects the input terminal A 1 to the output terminal B 1 , a sensing signal generated by the sensor S 1 can be transferred to the linear optocoupler 40 , and is coupled with electrical isolation in the linear optocoupler 40 and transferred to the controller 10 for analysis.

The logical control unit 30 is connected with the multiway switch 20 , and generates a switch signal to the multiway switch 20 to control the multiway switch 20 to connect one of the input terminals A 1 -A 8 to its corresponding output terminals B 1 -B 8 . The logical control unit 30 is further connected with the controller 10 through the digital optocoupler 50 . When the logical control unit 30 controls the multiway switch 20 to connect one of the sensors to the controller 10 , it simultaneously generates a control signal to the controller 10 through the digital optocoupler 50 . The control signal indicates which sensors are connected to the controller 10 , and thus the controller 10 can determine which sensor is transferring the sensing signal. Therefore, the sensors can be alternately connected to the controller 10 for analyzing the sensing signals, and the sensing signals are then transformed into sensing events in the controller 10 . In an exemplary embodiment, the sensors are touch sensors located on different positions of a touch screen (not shown), and when the touch sensors are transferring touch signals to the controller 10 , the touch signals are analyzed and transformed into touch events in the controller 10 .

Referring to FIG. 3 , an electronic device 100 includes the sensing circuit 1 , a processing unit 2 , and a storage unit 3 . The processing unit 2 is connected between the sensing circuit 1 and the storage unit 3 . The storage unit 3 stores a number of sensing events, pre-defined commands, and the correspondence of the sensing events to the pre-defined commands. The processing unit 2 receives the sensing events transferred from the controller 10 , and determines which pre-defined command the sensing event corresponds to by acquiring the pre-defined commands corresponding to the sensing events in the storage unit 3 . The processing unit 2 then executes the corresponding pre-defined command. In an exemplary embodiment, the sensors are touch sensors, the sensing events are touch events, and the pre-defined commands are selecting an object displayed on the touch screen.

Although the present disclosure has been specifically described on the basis of this exemplary embodiment, the disclosure is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various changes or modifications may be made to the embodiment without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure.