Position pointing device

• US 20050043918A1
• Filed: 06/16/2004
• Published: 02/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wacom Co Limited (Wacom)
• Original Assignee: Wacom Co Limited (Wacom)
• Inventors: Katsurahira, Yuji
• Granted Patent: US 7,149,647 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3237 by disabling clock generation or distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A position pointing device includes a resonant circuit, a resonance-characteristic control circuit for controlling characteristics of the resonant circuit in accordance with pointing-device information at timing synchronized with at least part of an electromagnetic wave that is intermittently transmitted from a tablet and for returning the pointing-device information to the tablet, a clock oscillator circuit for generating a clock signal for driving the resonance-characteristic control circuit, and clock starting means for stopping an operation of the clock oscillator circuit when a start condition is set and for starting the operation of the clock oscillator circuit when the resonant circuit generates a signal specified by the start condition. The position pointing device further includes start-condition setting means for setting the start condition in the clock starting means at timing in accordance with an operation of the resonance-characteristic control circuit.

Claims

1. A position pointing device comprising:

a resonant circuit;

a resonance-characteristic control circuit for controlling characteristics of the resonant circuit in accordance with pointing-device information at timing synchronized with at least part of an electromagnetic wave that is intermittently transmitted from a tablet and for returning the pointing-device information to the tablet;

a clock oscillator circuit for generating a clock signal for driving the resonance-characteristic control circuit;

clock starting means for stopping an operation of the clock oscillator circuit when a start condition is set and for starting the operation of the clock oscillator circuit when the resonant circuit generates a signal specified by the start condition, wherein the start condition specifies that, in response to what type of signal generated at the resonant circuit, the clock oscillator circuit is to be started; and

start-condition setting means for setting the start condition in the clock starting means at timing in accordance with an operation of the resonance-characteristic control circuit, the start condition corresponding to content of controlling performed by the resonance-characteristic control circuit.

2. The position pointing device according to claim 1, wherein the clock oscillator circuit operates in accordance with a charging/discharging operation of a capacitor, the charging/discharging operation being controlling by the clock starting means so as to be put into an operating or stopped state.

3. The position pointing device according to claim 1, further comprising number-of-transmission counting means for counting the number of transmissions when the tablet intermittently transmits an electromagnetic wave, wherein, when the number of transmissions counted by the number-of-transmission counting means reaches a predetermined value, the resonance-characteristic control circuit controls the characteristics of the resonant circuit in accordance with specific information in the pointing-device information.

4. The position pointing device according to claim 3, further comprising a time-constant circuit for setting a period in which the resonance-characteristic control circuit performs controlling, wherein generation of a signal from the time-constant circuit is used together as one start condition set by the start-condition setting means.

5. The position pointing device according to claim 3, wherein an electromagnetic wave that is intermittently radiated from the tablet with at least first and second duration times is received, and when an electromagnetic wave that is transmitted with the first duration time is received, the counting of the number of transmissions of the electromagnetic wave that is repeatedly transmitted with the second duration time is started.

6. The position pointing device according to claim 3, further comprising transmission-duration-time detecting means for receiving an electromagnetic wave that is intermittently transmitted from the tablet with at least two duration times and for detecting duration time of each transmission of the electromagnetic wave, the electromagnetic wave including control information for the position pointing device;

and control-information extracting means for extracting the control information transmitted from the tablet in accordance with each detected individual transmission duration time or a combination of the transmission duration times, wherein the characteristics of the resonant circuit are controlled in accordance with predetermined pointing-device information based on the extracted control information.

7. The position pointing device according to claim 6, wherein the transmission-duration-time detecting means comprises transmission-duration-time determining means that comprises an integration circuit having a predetermined time constant and a comparator.

8. The position pointing device according to claim 3, further comprising continuous-amount detecting means for detecting information corresponding to an operation expressed in a continuous amount;

and analog-to-digital converting means for converting the detected continuous amount into a digital value, wherein the characteristics of the resonant circuit are sequentially controlled in accordance with the continuous amount converted into the digital value.

9. The position pointing device according to claim 8, wherein the continuous-amount detecting means comprises a time constant circuit that includes an element having a continuously-variable characteristic, and the continuous-amount detecting means detects the continuous amount by counting the number of signal waves generated at the resonant circuit during a period defined by a time constant of the time-constant circuit, and wherein generation of a signal from the time-constant circuit is used together as one start condition set by the start-condition setting means.

10. The position pointing device according to claim 1, further comprising a power extracting circuit for extracting power from the signal generated at the resonant circuit.

11. A method for transmitting information from a cordless, batteryless pointing device to a digitizer or tablet configured to detect the position of the pointing device, comprising the method steps of:

(a) providing a digitizer adapted to transmit an electromagnetic digitizer signal at a first selected frequency;

(b) providing a cordless, batteryless pointing device including a resonant circuit that is responsive to the electromagnetic digitizer signal to generate a pointing device resonant signal;

(c) transmitting an electromagnetic digitizer signal at the first selected frequency from the digitizer to the pointing device and, in response, generating a pointing device resonant signal;

(d) generating a supply voltage from the pointing device resonant signal; and

(e) generating a pointing device clock signal from the pointing device resonant signal.

12. The method for transmitting information of claim 11, further comprising:

(f) providing a pointer resonance characteristic control circuit in the pointing device and connected to the resonant circuit, the pointer resonance characteristic control circuit being responsive to the pointing device clock signal; and

(g) supplying power to the pointer resonance characteristic control circuit from the supply voltage; and

(h) actuating the pointer resonance characteristic control circuit in response to the pointing device clock signal.

13. The method for transmitting information of claim 12, further comprising:

(i) placing the pointer resonance characteristic control circuit in a sleep state.

14. The method for transmitting information of claim 12, wherein the pointer resonance characteristic control circuit comprises a microprocessor, the microprocessor being programmed for:

(i) placing the microprocessor in a sleep state.

15. The method for transmitting information of claim 14, further comprising:

(j) sensing a rising edge of a selected signal at a pointing device circuit terminal, and, in response,

(k) waking the pointer microprocessor from the sleep state.

16. The method for transmitting information of claim 15, further comprising:

(l) reading at least one signal having a pointer input value from a selected pointer circuit terminal; and

(m) storing the pointer input value.

17. The method for transmitting information of claim 16, further comprising:

(n) detecting that the pointing device clock signal is not present for a selected interval; and

(o) placing the microprocessor in the sleep state.

18. The method for transmitting information of claim 11, wherein step (c),transmitting an electromagnetic digitizer signal at the first selected frequency from the digitizer to the pointing device and, in response, generating the pointing device resonant signal, comprises:

(c1) continuously transmitting an electromagnetic digitizer signal at the first selected frequency for a first transmission period; and

(c2) transmitting an electromagnetic digitizer command transmission signal at the first selected frequency for a second command transmission period.

19. The method for transmitting information of claim 18, further comprising:

(c3) transmitting an electromagnetic digitizer dial information detection signal at the first selected frequency for a third period.

20. The method for transmitting information of claim 19, further comprising:

(c4) transmitting an electromagnetic digitizer coordinate detection signal at the first selected frequency for a fourth period.