Interchangeable Surface Input Device Mapping

• US 20130346636A1
• Filed: 08/23/2013
• Published: 12/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bathiche, Steven Nabil, Panay, Panos C., Groene, Ralf, Wang, Hua, Shaw, Timothy C., Lane, David M., Kim, Young Soo
• Application Number:
  US13/974,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20130346636A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1669 Detachable keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881

Abstract

An input device with an interchangeable surface is described. In one or more implementations, an input device base includes a connection portion configured to provide a physical and communicative coupling to a computing device and a plurality of sensors configured to initiate respective inputs responsive to contact from a user. The input device also includes an interchangeable surface that is removable and connectable, physically, to the input device base, the interchangeable surface having a plurality of indications of inputs that are to be initiated via respective ones of the plurality of sensors.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying an interchangeable surface that has been physically connected to an input device base of an input device, the input device base having a plurality of sensors configured to initiate respective inputs;

obtaining a mapping of indications of inputs of the interchangeable surface to respective one or more said sensors of the input device base based at least in part on the identifying; and

applying the obtained mapping such that a computing device communicatively and physically coupled to the input device associates the indications with the respective one or more sensors.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the identifying is based on an identifier stored as part of the interchangeable surface.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the mapping is stored as part of the interchangeable surface.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the obtaining of the mapping is performed by the computing device.

5. A method as described in claim 4, wherein the mapping is exposed for accessibility to the computing device via a network by a service provider.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors are configured as pressure sensitive sensors.

7. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the plurality of sensors are pressure sensitive sensors that are each configured to communicate different amounts of pressure as part of the respective inputs responsive to contact from a user.

8. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the mapping is configured to also map the different amounts of pressure for recognition by the computing device as part of respective said inputs.

9. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the mapping specifies that a single one of the indications corresponds to two or more respective said sensors.

10. A system comprising:

an input device comprising;

an input device base comprising a plurality of sensors configured to initiate respective inputs; and

an interchangeable surface that is removable and connectable, physically, to the input device base, the interchangeable surface having a plurality of indications of inputs that are to initiated via respective ones of the plurality of sensors and an identifier usable to identify a mapping corresponding to the input device; and

a computing device communicatively coupled to the input device, the computing device configured to initiate the inputs as indicated by the interchangeable surface responsive to contact from a user through utilization of the mapping.

11. A system as described in claim 10, wherein the plurality of sensors are pressure sensitive sensors.

12. A system as described in claim 11, wherein the plurality of sensors are pressure sensitive sensors that are each configured to communicate different amounts of pressure as part of the respective inputs responsive to contact from the user.

13. A system as described in claim 10, wherein the mapping is performed by the input device to expose the inputs as indicated by the interchangeable surface.

14. A system as described in claim 10, wherein the input device further comprises a connection portion configured to provide a physical and communicative coupling to the computing device, the computing device having a slate configuration.

15. A service provider implemented by one or more computing devices, the service provider configured to perform operations comprising exposing a mapping via a network to be obtained by a computing device, the mapping configured to cause the computing device to map indications of an interchangeable surface of an input device to respective one or more sensors of an input device base of the input device.

16. A service provider as described in claim 15, wherein the mapping is configured to map the plurality of sensors of the input device base as pressure sensitive sensors.

17. A service provider as described in claim 15, wherein the mapping is configured to configure the computing device to recognize different amounts of pressure of the pressure sensitive keys as part of the respective inputs responsive to contact from the user.

18. A service provider as described in claim 15, wherein the mapping specifies that a single one of the indications corresponds to two or more respective said sensors.

19. A service provider as described in claim 15, wherein the exposing is performed such that the mapping is locatable using an identifier stored as part of the interchangeable surface.

20. A service provider as described in claim 15, wherein the mapping is usable by an operating system of the computing device to expose the indicated inputs to one or more applications that are executable on the computing device.