TAOS has launched a digital colour sensor, which has IR filtering and proximity sensing capabilities. The newly introduced chips are the TCS3x71 and TCS3x72 Series, which are colour RGBs and proximity sensors that can be used for colour measurement and proximity detection. These sensors can be used along with IR LEDs and with a variety of attenuating materials.
TCS3771/2
The TCS3x72 series exhibits the ability of blocking IR rays and can be integrated directly on-chip, by avoiding the errors that may occur due to IR spectrum interfering with colour measurement. The IR blocking feature also allows ambient light sensing; this feature is useful for applications such as tablets, smartphones, notebook OCs and monitors to enable automatic adjustment of backlight brightness. The colour chip series provides for colour measurement, discrimination and colour determination, which prove useful in applications such as printers, industrial quality control, medical diagnostics etc. The TCS3x71 series suits applications that require closed-loop colour temperature feedback control, which is needed in solid-state lighting and LED RGB backlit displays.
The new series of colour sensors come with proximity sensing capabilities, which makes them useful in applications such as smart phones, detecting object presence in display-based products, industrial process controls and home appliances. Proximity sensors are now being used to sense a finger in order to design a virtual button, which will replace mechanical or capacitive touch switches with higher consistency, better space requirements and industrial design. These chips are compatible with pin and register and come with simple design options that require minimum software to operate. The features of proximity detection as viewer detection or a virtual button, ambient light detection for automatic backlight control, and outer colour temperature sensing for adjustment of the gamma table is beneficial for display-based devices and TVs