Method in Electronic Pen, Computer Program Product, and Electronic Pen

• US 20080129711A1
• Filed: 02/22/2006
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Anoto Group AB
• Original Assignee: Anoto Group AB
• Inventors: SANDSTRÖM, Ola, BERGSTRÖM, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,094,139 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/179
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03546 using a rotatable ball at the tip as position detecting member
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device

Abstract

An electronic pen capable of recording position data representative of its movement runs a time handling method. In this method, a counter is operated to sequentially generate a monotonous sequence of counter values. Further, a time calculator is operated to generate a current time value. Also, a control device is operated to derive a current counter value from the counter and the current time value from the time calculator, and to associate at least a subset of the position data with the current counter value and the current time value. If each subset defines a pen stroke, counter values may represent the order in which pen strokes were created. The pen may allow an external device to arbitrarily adjust the time calculator, e.g. to reflect a local time, since the resulting time values need not be used to determine the mutual order of the pen strokes.

Claims

1. A method in an electronic pen capable of recording position data representative of the movement of the pen, said method comprising:

operating a counter to sequentially generate a monotonous sequence of counter values;

operating a time calculator to generate a current time value; and

operating a control device to derive a current counter value from the counter and the current time value from the time calculator, and to associate at least a subset of said position data with the current counter value and the current time value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

operating the control device to output, by means of a communications interface of the pen, said subset together with the current counter value and the current time value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said subset is a pen stroke which represents the movement of the pen in proximity to a base.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

operating the control device to derive the current counter value for each of a plurality of pen strokes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the counter defines an autonomous system time within the pen, each current counter value being represented as a current system time value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the current system time value and the current time value indicate the recording of the subset.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

operating the time calculator to generate the current time value as a difference value with respect to the current system time value.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

operating the control device to associate the difference value with the current system time value.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

operating the control device to output the subset of position data combined with the current system time value, and the difference value combined with the current system time value.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

operating the control device to arrange the difference value and a plurality of subsets of position data in a sequence given by their associated current system time values.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

operating the control device to output at least part of said sequence.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

operating the control device to associate the difference value with all position data stored in a memory of the pen.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting the time calculator upon receipt of a user-defined time reference value.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

upon receipt of a time reference value, operating the time calculator to update the difference value by calculating a difference between the time reference value and the current system time value.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

operating the time calculator for generating the current time value in a first operation mode of the control device, and operating a further time calculator for generating a second current time value in a second operation mode of the control device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

operating the control device, in the first/second operating mode, to derive a first/second current time value from the first/further time calculator.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

operating the control device, in the second operation mode, to execute a one-way exposure of a file object to an external device, said file object including data representative of said subset.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

operating the control device, in the first operation mode, to execute a request-based two-way communication with at least one trusted network server, said communication including data representative of said subset.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the counter defines an autonomous system time within the pen, each current counter value being represented as a current system time value, said method further comprising:

operating the control device, in the second operation mode, to incorporate in the file object a transfer time value which is indicative of the current system time value at said exposure of the file object.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the counter defines an autonomous system time within the pen, each current counter value being represented as a current system time value which indicates the recording of the subset, said method further comprising:

operating the control device to output, by means of a communications interface of the pen, said subset together with the current system time value and the current time value, wherein the current time value indicates the system time value at said operating to output.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the monotonous sequence is incrementing.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

operating the control device to intermittently store the counter value as a backup value in non-volatile memory;

an operating the control device, at startup, to derive the backup value and set the counter value to the higher of the stored value and the counter value.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the counter is operated as an autonomous realtime clock (RTC).

24. A computer program product that can be loaded into a memory associated with a processor and which comprises instructions for carrying out the method of claim 1.

25. An electronic pen, comprising processing circuitry for carrying out the method of claim 1.

26. The electronic pen of claim 25, further comprising:

a positioning system for recording the position data.

27. The electronic pen of claim 26, wherein the positioning system is configured to calculate the position data to represent movement of the pen in proximity to a base.

28. The electronic pen of claim 7, wherein the positioning system is configured to infer the movement form at least one of:

a roller ball contacting the base, triangulation of signals from one or more external transmitters, integrated acceleration sensors, strain sensors associated with a pen point contacting the base, and images of the base generated by an integrated optical reader.