Executing Gestures with Active Stylus

• US 20130106731A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wacom Co Limited (Wacom)
• Original Assignee: Atmel Corporation (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Inventors: Yilmaz, Esat, Pedersen, Trond Jarle, Logan, John, Bakken, Vemund Kval, Sundara-Rajan, Kishore, Polishchuk, Igor, Um, Joo Yong
• Granted Patent: US 9,116,558 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0384 Wireless input, i.e. hardware and software details of wireless interface arrangements for pointing devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• 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 3/04164 Connections between sensors and controllers, e.g. routing lines between electrodes and connection pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0441 using active external devices, e.g. active pens, for receiving changes in electrical potential transmitted by the digitiser, e.g. tablet driving signals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0442 using active external devices, e.g. active pens, for transmitting changes in electrical potential to be received by the digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

In one embodiment, a stylus with one or more electrodes and one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying logic for transmitting signals wirelessly to a device through a touch sensor of the device has one or more sensors for detecting movement of the stylus.

Claims

1. A stylus comprising:

one or more electrodes;

one or more sensors in or on the stylus for detecting movement of the stylus, one or more functionalities associated with the detected movement of the stylus defined based at least in part on input from a user of the stylus; and

one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying logic for wirelessly transmitting signals from the one or more electrodes to a touch sensor of device.

2. The stylus of claim 1, wherein the sensors comprise an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a global positioning system (GPS), or a gyroscope.

3. The stylus of claim 1, wherein the movement detected comprises shaking of the stylus or rotation of the stylus about one or more axes.

4. The stylus of claim 1, wherein the movement detected comprises vibration of the stylus resulting from an object tapping the stylus or an object sliding along at least a portion of the surface of the stylus.

5. The stylus of claim 4, wherein the portion of the surface is at least in part textured.

7. The stylus of claim 1, wherein a functionality associated with the detected movement of the stylus is based on one or more characteristics of the stylus selected from the group consisting of:

an orientation of the stylus;

a location of the stylus;

the user of the stylus;

data stored on the stylus; and

a sequence of movements of the stylus.

8. The stylus of claim 7, wherein at least one movement in the sequence of movements of the stylus comprises shaking, rotation, or vibration.

9. The stylus of claim 1, wherein a functionality associated with the detected movement of the stylus comprises one or more of:

modifying content displayed on a display of the device;

authenticating the user of the stylus to the stylus or the device;

altering a power setting of the stylus or the device;

transferring data between the stylus and the device;

accessing menus or commands specific to data stored on the stylus or the device; and

accessing menus or commands specific to content displayed on the display of the device.

10. The stylus of claim 9, wherein modifying content displayed on the display of the device comprises one or more of:

adding content displayed on the display of the device;

removing content displayed on the display of the device;

altering the characteristics of content displayed on the display of the device; and

moving content displayed on the display of the device.

6. (canceled)

11. A method comprising:

detecting movement of a stylus by one or more sensors in or on the stylus, the stylus comprising one or more electrodes and one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying logic for wirelessly transmitting signals from the one or more electrodes to a touch sensor of a device, one or more functionalities associated with the detected movement of the stylus defined based at least in part on input from a user of the stylus.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensors comprise an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a global positioning system (GPS), or a gyroscope.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the movement detected comprises shaking of the stylus or rotation of the stylus about one or more axes.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the movement detected comprises vibration of the stylus resulting from a body tapping the stylus or a body sliding along at least a portion of the surface of the stylus.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein a functionality associated with the detected movement of the stylus is based on one or more characteristics of the stylus selected from the group consisting of:

an orientation of the stylus;

a location of the stylus;

the user of the stylus;

data stored on the stylus; and

a sequence of movements of the stylus.

17. The stylus of claim 16, wherein at least one motion in the sequence of movements of the stylus comprises shaking, rotation, or vibration.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein a functionality associated with the detected movement of the stylus comprises one or more of:

modifying content displayed on a display of the device;

authenticating the user of the stylus to the stylus or the device;

altering a power setting of the stylus or the device;

transferring data between the stylus and the device;

accessing menus or commands specific to data stored on the stylus or the device; and

accessing menus or commands specific to content displayed on the display of the device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein modifying content displayed on the display of the device comprises one or more of:

adding content displayed on the display of the device;

removing content displayed on the display of the device;

altering the characteristics of content displayed on the display of the device; and

moving content displayed on the display of the device.

15. (canceled)

20. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying logic operable when executed to:

receive detected movement of a stylus, the movement detected by one or more sensors in or on the stylus;

define one or more functionalities associated with the detected movement of the stylus based at least in part on input from a user of the stylus; and

wirelessly transmit signals from one or more electrodes in or on a stylus to a touch sensor of a device.