Portable music players have become increasingly popular in the recent years, from the rather large CD players to small MP3 units incorporated in mobile phones, PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants) etc, or being adapted to be connected to such. With the increasing popularity there is also an increasing demand for further features other than just playing the music, such as simulating"scratching" which originally was introduced by disk jockeys moving LP records back and forth over a chosen part of music, thus obtaining a rythmic sound effect being popular in certain types of music.

Player of the type specified above are usually expensive and like mobile phones or PDAs may be provided with PIN codes or other ways to personalise the equipment and to reduce the changes for theft.

The market of biometrics is evolving rapidly, and the industry is becoming more mainstreamed. However, for biometrics to penetrate the consumer market, requirements are strict in respect to both price and performance (eg. power consumption).

Currently finger scanners are typically pure capturing devices, hence the responsibility of any signal processing is left to the host. Thus, for implementation in an electronic unit, e. g. a mobile phone or MP3 player or PDA, requirements are also strict in respect to the use of processing power and memory of the signal processing.

Nevertheless, as these processes mature and can be implemented in the finger scanner device, the requirements will still apply.

International patent application no. PCT/N098/00182 describes a stripe finger scanner requiring that the finger is moved over the scanner, which then samples information about the finger surface and generates a two dimensional

representation of the finger image.

For stripe finger scanners, the user must be allowed to pull the finger over the scanner at various velocity. If the finger scanner samples at a fixed rate, this causes for a method that detects the speed of a finger and remaps the rows that are sampled, so that the axes of the remapped finger image are equal and linear.

Examples of such speed measurements are discussed in international patent applications No PCT/N001/00241 and PCT/NO01/00242, while PCT/NO01/00243 and PCT/NO01/00244 describes sensors providing motion sensitivity in more than one direction.

The presence of sensors of the abovementioned type, which are not used constantly, provides the possibility for additional features. It is an object of this invention to utilise an existing sensor for popular features like sound manipulation in a music player of any kind, for manipulating music or sounds stored in a memory related to the electronic unit.

This object is obtained by a unit as decribed above being characterised in that it comprises a sensor provided with means for with real time measurements of the movements of a surface moving relative to the sensor, the unit being provided with means for changing the played music according to chosen characteristics being dependent of the measured movement, and in the use of a sensor provided with real time measurements of the movements of a surface moving relative to the sensor, in which the sensor is provided on an electronic unit, said electronic unit being provided with means for music playback.

The invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, illustrating the invention by way of examples.

Figure 1 illustrates an essentially linear fingerprint scanner.

Figure 2 illustrates the use of a fingerprint scanner for navigation purposes in at least two directions.

Figure 3 illustrates a possible division of measured

directions into categories.

Figure 4 illustrates a simple sequence for performing the method according to the invention.

This invention describes an additional functionality of a finger scanner or similar by utilising the structure of the finger. While a touchpad detects a finger being moved over its surface, this method detects the movement of the sensor area over the finger surface. For a stripe finger scanner this requires some additional sensor elements, while for matrix finger scanners a selection of the already existing sensor elements is sufficient. As this mode will be active for a substantial amount of time during the use of a mobile phone or PDA, it is of importance that the number of sensor elements being used is reduced to a minimum, to keep the consumption of power, processor and memory of the host low.

Figure 1 illustrates the sensor in international patent application no. PCT/N098/00182 comprising sensor elements for speed compensation 2,3. In addition to the detection of movements along the axis of the speed compensation sensor elements 2,3, neighbouring sensor elements 4 may be used to detect angular movements, and a sensitivity along the array may be provided by detecting the first sensor element detecting the presence of a finger. Thus the essentially line shaped sensor may be sensitive to movements in at least 4 directions.

Figure 2 illustrates an essentially linear finger scanner being capable of detecting movements in two dimensions, such as described in PCT/NO01/00244. The principle of the pointer function is to determine the direction of the finger being moved and then calculate the distance on the basis of the speed of the finger.

Referring to figure 3 a omni-directional functionality is illustrated indicating the categorising of directions into categories, in this case 12 categories. According to one embodiment of the invention each category may provide a different sound effect. The categories may, if a the

electronic unit is provided with a display be indicated to improve the functionality of the system. Some of the categories may also provide commands to the system, such as on/off of the sound effect mode. The use of a similar system for feeding information to the unit is described in the simultaneously filed application No. (our ref: P1807NO00).

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the sensitivity may be limited to movements along one axis, so that a scratching effect may be obtained by moving the finger back and forth over the sensor, or simply as a volume control. As the abovementioned sensors provide a possibility for real time speed measurements, the acoustic signals stored in the electronic unit may be played with a pitch being proportional to the measured speed, thus corresponding directly to the disk jockeys movements on the turntable. Adding filters to the signal almost any effect may be obtained.

More in detail, in order to simulate the scratching based on the output of the sensor unit and the speed and direction calculations, the following two operations must be performed: 1 A digitally recorded sample or reproduction of the scratching sound must be played as the finger moves over the sensor unit. The pitch of the sound should e adjusted according to the speed of the finger. The relationship between the pitch and the speed can be a fixed constant or a parameter or filter that may be changed by the end user.

2 The current position in the played music must be moved forward or backwards, depending on the direction of the finger movement, and at an offset based on the speed and time or distance of the finger swipe. The relationship between the offset position in the music and the length of the finger swipe may also be a fixed constant or a parameter or filter which may be changed by the end user.

Figure 3 indicates a simple procedure for using the

sensor to change the pitch of music being played, in which a constant the change in the pitch of the music is changed by with a factor df being proportional to the speed v of the finger over the sensor. The constant k may be chosen depending on the effect.

Several extensions to the scratching simulation can be enabled to encourage coming DJ's to explore other effects based on this method. For example different modes may be selected by the user where effects that are typical in synthesisers can be changed by moving the finger over the sensor unit. As mentioned above different effects may apply to different directions over the sensor.

Using a sensor unit being sensitive to movements in two dimensions a more advanced manipulation of the music may be performed, e. g. shifting of the pitch along one axis and simultaneous adjustments of tone levels along the second axis.

This invention is described as primarily based on a finger print scanner of the type described in International patent application no. PCT/N098/00182 thus primarily on capacitance measurements on a finger surface. It is, however, clear that the invention may used different sensor types, such as thermal sensors, within the scope of this invention.

Also, the invention is primarily described in relation to finger scanners of the abovementioned type. Other speed detection means are, however, also possible in some cases, e. g. roller drums consisting of a drum which may be rotated by the user. This solution does, however, have a number of disadvantages, since the drum is a mechanically complicated structure being sensitive to dust and wear. Also, the drum is only capable of measuring movements along one axis, while the sensors above, especially as described in PCT/NO01/00244, may measure movements in two dimensions.