Handheld device and a method

• US 20040119689A1
• Filed: 07/11/2003
• Published: 06/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Jerry Pettersson
• Original Assignee: Jerry Pettersson
• Inventors: Pettersson, Jerry
• Application Number:
  US10/618,010
• Publication Number:
  US 20040119689A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/157
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer

Abstract

The invention relates to a handheld device (10), having a position sensing means (14) on a rear side of the device for reading position coordinate data while manually moving the device rear side (12) on a working surface (22), a display (20) on a front side of the device, whereby the position sensing means controls a cursor (24) on the display.

Claims

1. A handheld device (10), having a position sensing means (14) on a rear side (12) of said device (10) for reading position coordinate data (x, y, z) while manually moving said device (10) rear side (12) on a working surface (22), a display screen (20) on a front side (21) of said device (10), said position sensing means (14) controlling a cursor (24) on said display (20), by further comprising:

a device-to-cursor position coordinate data (x, y, z) conversion means provided to process the device coordinate data (x, y, z) in accordance to a preset ratio for scaled cursor (24) coordinate data (x, y, z), thus defining a cursor (24) movement which is in scaled correspondence with the device movement; and

a cursor (24) controller means for a cursor (24) movement across said display according to the scaled cursor (24) coordinate data (x, y, z);

whereby the cursor (24) moves on the digital display concurrently as the device is manually moved across the surface in scaled correspondence with the movement pattern of the device.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said cursor (24) is cancelled on the display thus providing movement in Arcadian display environments.

3. A device according to claim 1, wherein the device coordinate data (x, y, z) is constituted of relative surface position readings in the X and Y direction axes according to a suitable coordinate system.

4. A device according to claim 1, wherein said sensing means is a trackball.

5. A device according to claim 1, wherein the sensing means comprises a light source radiating light on said surface.

6. A device according to claim 5, wherein said radiated light reflected from said surface is received by a charge coupled device for determining coordinate data (x, y, z).

7. A device according to claim 6, wherein the device is provided a digital camera, said camera in one mode functioning as said sensing means.

8. A device according to claim 1, wherein the device is provided a digital camera, said camera in one mode functioning as said sensing means.

9. A device according to claim 1, wherein a decision means when lifting/putting said device down is triggered to a decision regarding an object depicted by the cursor (24).

10. A device according to claim 7, wherein a coordinate system provides coordinates in three dimensions through a third axis Z, which coordinates are determined by said camera having distance determining means.

11. A method for a handheld device (10), having a position sensing means (14) on a rear side (12) of said device (10) for reading position coordinate data (x, y, z) (x, y, z) while manually moving said device (10) rear side (12) on a working surface (22), a display screen (20) on a front side (21) of said device (10), said position sensing means (14) controlling a cursor (24) on said display (20), comprising the steps of:

providing processing of device coordinate data (x, y, z) according to a preset ratio for scaled cursor (24) coordinate data (x, y, z), thus defining a cursor (24) movement which is in scaled correspondence with the device movement; and

controlling the cursor (24) during a cursor (24) movement across said display according to the scaled cursor (24) coordinate data (x, y, z);

whereby the cursor (24) moves on the digital display concurrently as the device is manually moved across the surface in scaled correspondence with the movement pattern of the device.

12. A method for a device according to claim 11, wherein said cursor is cancelled on the display thus providing movement in Arcadian display environments.

13. A method for a device according to claim 11, wherein the device coordinate data is constituted of relative surface position readings in the X and Y direction axes according to a suitable coordinate system.

14. A method for a device according to claim 11, wherein said sensing is provided by a trackball.

15. A method for a device according to claim 11, wherein the sensing comprises a light source radiating light on said surface.

16. A method for a device according to claim 15, wherein said radiated light reflected from said surface is received by a charge coupled device for determining coordinate data.

17. A method for a device according to claim 16, wherein the device is provided a digital camera, said camera in one mode functioning as said sensing means.

18. A method for a device according to claim 11, wherein the device is provided a digital camera, said camera in one mode functioning as said sensing means.

19. A method for a device according to claim 11, wherein a decision means when lifting/putting said device down is triggered to a decision regarding an object depicted by the cursor.

20. A method for a device according to claim 17, wherein a coordinate system provides coordinates in three dimensions through a third axis Z, which coordinates are determined by said camera having distance determining means.