Electrostatic communication using an active stylus

• US 10,082,890 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2015
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Qiao, Tianzhu, Westhues, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Olson, Jason C
• Application Number:
  US14/842,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20170060276A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 345179
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04162 for exchanging data with external devices, e.g. smart pens, via the digitiser sensing hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means

Abstract

An active stylus includes an electrode and a controller. The controller is configured to 1) generate a report including stylus information represented by a plurality of bits including a first subset of bits and a second subset of bits, 2) encode the first set of bits differently than the second set of bits to reduce a size of the report, and 3) excite the electrode with a carrier signal to form an electrostatic communication channel, the carrier signal being modulated to transmit the report via the electrostatic communication channel.

Claims

1. An active stylus comprising:

an electrode; and

a controller configured to

     1) generate a report including stylus information represented by a plurality of bits including a first subset of bits having a lower priority against transmission error and a second subset of bits having a higher priority against transmission error,

     2) encode the first subset of bits differently than the second subset of bits, such that the first subset of bits has a higher data transmission rate than the second subset of bits to reduce a size of the report, and

     3) excite the electrode with a carrier signal to form an electrostatic communication channel, the carrier signal being modulated to transmit the report via the electrostatic communication channel.

2. The active stylus of claim 1, wherein the first subset of bits is encoded using a binary phase-shift keying modulation scheme and the second subset of bits is encoded using a quadrature phase-shift keying modulation scheme.

3. The active stylus of claim 1, wherein the first subset of bits is encoded using a forward error correction code, and wherein the second subset of bits is encoded without using the forward error correction code.

4. The active stylus of claim 1, wherein the electrode is excited during a stylus-drive subframe of a touch-sensing frame of a repeated touch-sensing sequence, and wherein the controller is configured to encode the report using a differential encoding scheme that includes transmitting a subset of bits of the report in a first touch-sensing frame, and not transmitting the subset of bits of the report in a second touch-sensing frame.

5. The active stylus of claim 1, wherein the electrode is excited during a stylus-drive subframe of a touch-sensing frame of a repeated touch-sensing sequence, wherein the stylus-drive subframe has a fixed number of time slots, and wherein the controller is configured to encode the report using a differential encoding scheme that includes using the fixed number of times slots to transmit a first set of stylus information in a first touch-sensing frame, and using the fixed number of time slots to transmit a second set of stylus information different than the first set of stylus information in a second touch-sensing frame.

6. The active stylus of claim 1, wherein the stylus information includes a stylus position value, and wherein the controller is configured to encode the stylus position value using a differential encoding scheme to reduce a number of bits of the stylus position value that are transmitted.

7. The active stylus of claim 6, wherein the differential encoding scheme includes, in a first touch-sensing frame, transmitting a subset of most significant bits of the stylus position value, and in a second touch-sensing frame, transmitting a difference of the stylus position value at a time of the first touch-sensing frame and the stylus position value at a time of the second touch-sensing frame.

8. The active stylus of claim 7, wherein the stylus information further includes a touch pressure value, and wherein the differential encoding scheme includes, in the first touch-sensing frame, transmitting a subset of least significant bits of the stylus position value at a time of the first frame, and in the second touch-sensing frame, transmitting the touch pressure value.

9. The active stylus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to, if the active stylus is operating in a touch mode, encode the report to include a first number of bits, and excite the electrode with a first carrier signal having a first amplitude to transmit the first number of bits, and if the active stylus is operating in a hover mode, encode the report to include a second number of bits that is less than the first number of bits, and excite the electrode with a second carrier signal having a second amplitude that is greater than the first amplitude.

10. The active stylus of claim 1, wherein the electrostatic communication channel is formed with a touch sensor of a display device, the touch sensor including a plurality of receive electrodes, and wherein the display device is configured to 1) identify a receive electrode of the plurality of receive electrodes having a greatest capacitance between the receive electrode and the electrode of the active stylus, 2) combine a signal of the identified receive electrode with signals of a plurality of receive electrodes proximate to the receive electrode to produce a combined signal, and 3) decode the combined signal to extract the report from the combined signal.

11. An active stylus comprising:

an electrode; and

a controller configured to

     1) generate a report including stylus information,

     2) encode the report using a plurality of encoding schemes such that different portions of the report that are encoded using different encoding schemes have different data transmission rates to reduce a size of the report, where the different portions of the report have different priorities against transmission error, and where portions having higher priority against transmission error are encoded using a first encoding scheme having a first data transmission rate and portions having lower priority against transmission error are encoded using a second encoding scheme having a higher data transmission rate than the first data transmission rate, and

     3) excite the electrode with a carrier signal to form an electrostatic communication channel, the carrier signal being modulated to transmit the report via the electrostatic communication channel.

12. The active stylus of claim 11, wherein the plurality of encoding schemes includes a binary phase-shift keying modulation scheme and a quadrature phase-shift keying modulation scheme.

13. The active stylus of claim 11, wherein the stylus information includes a stylus position value, and wherein the plurality of encoding schemes includes a differential encoding scheme that represents the stylus position value as a difference of a position of the active stylus in a current frame and a position of the active stylus in a previous frame.

14. The active stylus of claim 11, wherein the electrode is excited during a stylus-drive subframe of a touch-sensing frame of a repeated touch-sensing sequence, and wherein the controller is configured to encode the report using a differential encoding scheme that includes transmitting a subset of bits of the report in a first touch-sensing frame, and not transmitting the subset of bits of the report in a second touch-sensing frame.

15. The active stylus of claim 11, wherein the electrode is excited during a stylus-drive subframe of a touch-sensing frame of a repeated touch-sensing sequence, wherein the stylus-drive subframe has a fixed number of time slots, and wherein the controller is configured to encode the report using a differential encoding scheme that includes using the fixed number of times slots to transmit a first set of stylus information in a first touch-sensing frame, and using the fixed number of time slots to transmit a second set of stylus information different than the first set of stylus information in a second touch-sensing frame.

16. The active stylus of claim 11, wherein the plurality of encoding schemes includes a forward error correction encoding scheme that is applied to one or more bits of the report.

17. A system comprising:

an active stylus including, a transmit electrode, and a stylus controller; and

a display device including, a touch sensor including a plurality of receive electrodes, and a display controller,

wherein the stylus controller is configured to

     1) generate a report including stylus information,

     2) encode the report using a plurality of encoding schemes such that different portions of the report that are encoded using different encoding schemes have different data transmission rates to reduce a size of the report, where the different portions of the report have different priorities against transmission error, and where portions having higher priority against transmission error are encoded using a first encoding scheme having a first data transmission rate and portions having lower priority against transmission error are encoded using a second encoding scheme having a higher data transmission rate than the first data transmission rate, and

     3) excite the transmit electrode with a carrier signal to form an electrostatic communication channel with one or more receive electrodes of the touch sensor of the display device, the carrier signal being modulated to transmit the report to the display device, and

wherein the display controller is configured to

     1) identify a receive electrode of the plurality of receive electrodes having a greatest capacitance between the receive electrode and the transmit electrode,

     2) combine a signal of the identified receive electrode with signals of a plurality of receive electrodes proximate to the receive electrode to produce a combined signal, and

     3) decode the combined signal to extract the report from the combined signal.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the plurality of encoding schemes includes at least one of a binary phase-shift keying modulation scheme and a quadrature phase-shift keying modulation scheme.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the stylus information includes a stylus position value, and wherein the plurality of encoding schemes includes a differential encoding scheme that represents the stylus position value as a difference between a position of the active stylus in a current frame and a position of the active stylus in a previous frame.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the plurality of encoding schemes includes a forward error correction encoding scheme that is applied to one or more bits of the report.