Patent ID: 9607206
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: G06K

Claim:
1. A biometric sensing apparatus comprising: an array of piezoelectric ceramic elements; a set of electronics for excitation of said elements and for monitoring a motion of each of said elements; and wherein said electronics being controlled by software that is configured for transmitting pulses of acoustic energy, and wherein each of said pulses being transmitted from one or more individual transmitting elements within said array, and wherein at least two of said pulses are each transmitted from different transmitting locations within said array, and wherein a start of transmission of each of said at least two pulses are each offset in time for the purpose of causing each of said at least two pulses to arrive at a same location and at a same time within a volume of space that is adjacent to said array; and wherein at least some acoustic energy of said pulses is redirected as reflected acoustic energy within said volume of space and redirected towards at least two different receiving locations within said array, and wherein an amplitude measurement and a time of arrival measurement of said reflected acoustic energy in association with each of said at least two receiving locations within said array is measured to determine an amount of reflected acoustic energy that was redirected from said same location and towards each of said receiving locations.