Hybrid low power computer mouse

• US 7,663,601 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2006
• Issued: 02/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Strickon, Joshua, Hotelling, Steve, Krah, Christoph, Huppi, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Hjerpe; Richard
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abdin; Shaheda A
• Application Number:
  US11/551,157
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 345/163, 345/173, 345/165, 345/167, 713/300
• US Class Current: 345/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3259 Power saving in cursor control device, e.g. mouse, joystick, trackball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0317 in co-operation with a patterned surface, e.g. absolute position or relative movement detection for an optical mouse or pen positioned with respect to a coded surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03543 Mice or pucks G06F3/03541 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Operating a pointing device in a low power manner by receiving first tracking information from a first tracking device, de-activating the first tracking device when the accuracy of the first tracking information is determined to be inadequate, activating a second tracking device in order to acquire second tracking information when the first tracking device is deactivated, wherein the first tracking device is substantially lower power device that the second tracking device.

Claims

1. A method for operating a pointing device in a low power manner, comprising:

receiving first position tracking information from a first position tracking device;

de-activating the first position tracking device when the accuracy of the first position tracking information is determined to be inadequate; and

activating a second position tracking device in order to acquire second position tracking information when the first position tracking device is deactivated, wherein the first position tracking device is substantially lower power device than the second position tracking device.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

de-activating the second position tracking device and activating the first position tracking device when the accuracy of the first position tracking information is determined to be adequate.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first position tracking device is an accelerometer and wherein the second position tracking device is an optical tracking engine.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the pointing device further includes a surface sensor.

5. A method as recited in claim 4 wherein the pointing device is a computer mouse.

23. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first position tracking information and the second position tracking information are each used to generate coordinate data that is used to move an on-screen icon.

6. A low power pointing device, comprising:

a first position tracking device arranged to provide first position tracking information when the accuracy of the first position tracking device is adequate, otherwise the first position tracking device is not active; and

a second position tracking device that provides second position tracking information when the first position tracking device is not active, wherein the first position tracking device is substantially lower power device than the second position tracking device.

7. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 6 wherein the second position tracking device is de-activated concurrently with the first position tracking device being activated when the accuracy of the first position tracking information is determined to be adequate.

8. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 6, wherein the first position tracking device is an accelerometer and wherein the second position tracking device is an optical tracking engine.

9. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 8, wherein the pointing device further includes a surface sensor.

10. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 9 wherein the pointing device is a computer mouse.

11. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 10, wherein the accelerometer provides a measure of mouse acceleration and mouse velocity.

12. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 11, wherein the surface sensor is arranged to observe a number of surface quality parameters and determine, based upon the observed surface quality parameters, if the mouse is in physical contact with a suitable surface.

13. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 12, wherein when the surface sensor determines that the mouse in not in physical contact with a suitable surface, then the surface sensor causes the mouse to deactivate.

14. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 13, wherein when the optical tracking system is only providing the position tracking information, the accelerometer provides corresponding accelerometer based velocity values each of which are compared to each other to provide an error value.

15. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 14, wherein a number of error values are combined to form an accumulated error value.

16. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 15, wherein the accumulated error value is used to reset an offset value for the accelerometer.

17. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 16, wherein the reset offset value reduces the accumulated error thereby commensurable reducing positional error at the computer.

18. A low power pointing device as recited in claim 10, wherein the low power pointing device is in wireless communication with a computer.

19. A computer readable storage medium for storing computer code executable by a processor for operating a pointing device in a low power manner, comprising:

computer code for receiving first position tracking information from a first position tracking device;

computer code for de-activating the first position tracking device when the accuracy of the first position tracking information is determined to be inadequate; and

computer code for activating a second position tracking device in order to acquire second position tracking information when the first position tracking device is deactivated, wherein the first position tracking device is substantially lower power device than the second position tracking device.

20. A computer readable storage medium for storing computer code executable by a processor as recited in claim 19, further comprising:

computer code for de-activating the second position tracking device and activating the first position tracking device when the accuracy of the first position tracking information is determined to be adequate.

21. A computer readable storage medium for storing computer code executable by a processor as recited in claim 19, wherein the first position tracking device is an accelerometer and wherein the second position tracking device is an optical tracking engine.

22. A computer readable storage medium for storing computer code executable by a processor as recited in claim 19, wherein the pointing device further includes a surface sensor.