Digital pen using interferometry for relative and absolute pen position
First Claim
1. A hand held input device, comprising:
- a body;
at least one laser oriented on the body to direct light onto a substrate against which the body can be positioned;
at least one diffraction grating reflecting at least one reference beam and passing at least one reflected beam from the substrate;
at least one translation detector receiving interference patterns of light generated by the combination of the reflected beam and the reference beam;
at least one bar code detector receiving a bar code beam from the substrate; and
a processor receiving signals from the detectors.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A digital pen that has an ink writing tip includes a laser on a pen body that directs light toward paper across which the writing tip is stroked. A diffraction grating reflects a reference beam and passes a scattered beam from the substrate toward translation detectors, which consequently receive interference patterns of light. A processor receives the signals from the detectors, generates position signals, and stores the signals. Also, a bar code detector receives a bar code beam from the substrate, and a three dimensional force sensor outputs a signal representative of multidimensional forces applied to the pen. Subsequently, the signals are uploaded to a host processor which combines them to produce rotation-corrected relative positions (if no bar coded paper is used) or rotation-corrected absolute positions (if bar coded paper is used) that can be used to render alpha-numeric characters or graphical representations.
122 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A hand held input device, comprising:
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a body;
at least one laser oriented on the body to direct light onto a substrate against which the body can be positioned;
at least one diffraction grating reflecting at least one reference beam and passing at least one reflected beam from the substrate;
at least one translation detector receiving interference patterns of light generated by the combination of the reflected beam and the reference beam;
at least one bar code detector receiving a bar code beam from the substrate; and
a processor receiving signals from the detectors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 21)
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12. A digital pen, comprising:
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an elongated body defining a writing tip;
at least one laser oriented on the body to direct light onto a substrate against which the writing tip can be positioned;
at least one diffraction grating reflecting at least one reference beam and passing at least one reflected beam from the substrate;
at least one translation detector receiving interference patterns of light generated by the combination of the reflected beam and the reference beam;
at least one force sensor supported by the body, the force sensor outputting a signal representative of a force acting on the pen; and
a processor receiving signals from the translation detector and force sensor. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22)
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23. A host processor receiving from a digital pen bar code detector data, force sensor data, and translation detector data, and including logic comprising:
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logic means for determining whether a known bar code was sensed by the pen;
logic means for, if a known bar code was sensed by the pen, combining bar code detector data with the force sensor data and translation detector data to render absolute pen positions corrected for pen rotation; and
logic means for, if a known bar code was not sensed by the pen, combining force sensor data and translation detector data to render relative pen positions corrected for pen rotation. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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Specification