Digitizer, stylus and method of synchronization therewith

• US 8,481,872 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: N-Trig Ltd (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zachut, Rafi
• Primary Examiner(s): PARDO, THUY N
• Application Number:
  US12/643,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20100155153A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• Field of Search: 178/18.01, 178/18.03, 178/18.04, 178/18.07, 178/19.01, 178/19.03, 178/19.04, 345/174, 345/177, 345/179, 367/129, 235/449, 702/75, 702/150
• US Class Current: 178/18.03
• 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 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• 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 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• 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 3/041661 using detection at multiple resolutions, e.g. coarse and fine scanning; using detection within a limited area, e.g. object tracking window
• 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 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A method for operating a digitizer with an autonomous asynchronous stylus includes sampling outputs from a digitizer, detecting from the outputs at least one pulsed signal transmitted from an autonomous asynchronous stylus at a defined rate, determining a location of the stylus interaction with respect to the digitizer, and tracking stylus interaction with the digitizer over subsequent pulsed signals transmitted from the stylus.

Claims

1. A method for operating a digitizer with an autonomous stylus, the method comprising:

autonomously transmitting a signal burst at a defined rate by a stylus in accordance with a transmission repeat cycle of the stylus, wherein the transmission repeat cycle of the stylus is asynchronous with a refresh cycle of a digitizer and wherein the duration of the transmission repeat cycle is predefined and known to the digitizer;

sampling outputs of a digitizer sensor, wherein the digitizer sensor is sampled over a plurality of chunk sampling periods, wherein the plurality of chunk sampling periods are sampling periods separated by periods wherein the digitizer sensor is not sampled, and wherein positioning of each of the plurality of chunk sampling periods is staggered with respect to the refresh cycle of the digitizer;

determining one chunk sampling period over which a signal burst transmitted from the stylus is detected;

determining a timing of signal bursts transmitted by the stylus over subsequent refresh cycles based on subsequent output sampled in a corresponding time vicinity of the one chunk sampling period at times responsive to the duration of the transmission repeat cycle; and

synchronizing the refresh cycle of the digitizer with the transmission repeat cycle of the stylus in accordance with the timing of the signal bursts.

2. The method according to claim 1, comprising simultaneously detecting finger touch interaction and stylus interaction with the digitizer.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the finger touch interaction is detected with at least one of a single touch detection method and a multi-touch detection method.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the digitizer switches from detection using a multi-touch detection method to detection using a single touch detection method in response to detection of the signal bursts transmitted from the stylus.

5. The method according to claim 1, comprising simultaneously detecting conductive object interaction and stylus interaction with the digitizer.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the digitizer includes a grid based digitizer sensor including conductive lines arrayed along a first and second axis of the digitizer sensor.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein timing of the signal bursts is determined from output obtained from 1-4 selected conductive lines from which the signal bursts are most strongly detected.

8. The method according to claim 6, comprising triggering during a refresh cycle of the digitizer at least a portion of the conductive lines with a triggering signal, and detecting finger touch interaction in response to the triggering.

9. The method according to claim 8, comprising synchronizing triggering of the conductive lines with timing of the signal bursts.

10. The method according to claim 6, comprising sampling conductive lines arrayed along the second axis of the digitizer sensor in response to triggering of a conductive line arrayed along the first axis of the digitizer sensor.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the timing of the signal bursts transmitted from the stylus is determined based on output sampled from only one of the first or second axis of the digitizer.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the synchronizing is performed while the stylus is hovering over the digitizer.

13. The method according to claim 1 further comprising sampling outputs of the digitizer sensor over more than one chunk sampling period per refresh cycle prior to the synchronizing, and sampling outputs of the digitizer sensor over only one chunk sampling period per refresh cycle after the synchronizing.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising synchronizing the one chunk sampling period per refresh cycle of the digitizer with the timing of the signal bursts.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising initiating the one chunk sampling period at a predetermined period before the determined timing of the signal bursts.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining an interaction location of the stylus with respect to the digitizer from the outputs; and

tracking stylus interaction over the subsequent refresh cycles of the digitizer.

17. The method according to claim 16 comprising adjusting the synchronizing during tracking of the stylus based on the timing of the signal bursts transmitted by the stylus in the subsequent refresh cycles.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission repeat cycle of the stylus varies for different operational modes of the stylus.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signal burst comprises an AC burst signal of a pre-defined frequency.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the digitizer detects the signal burst of the stylus based on detection of the pre-defined frequency.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the detecting comprises running a DFT window tuned to the pre-defined frequency on the outputs sampled during at least one refresh cycle.

22. The method according to claim 1, comprising determining an operational state of the stylus from the signal burst, wherein the operational state is selected from a group including right click and eraser mode of the stylus.

23. The method according to claim 1, wherein the stylus transmits a train of signal bursts transmitted in succession over the transmission repeat cycle of the stylus and wherein the digitizer samples the train of signal bursts over one chunk sampling period of the digitizer.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein at least one of the signal bursts in the train of signal bursts includes encoded information.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the encoded information is selected from the group including:

identification of the stylus, right click mode of the stylus, eraser mode of the stylus, pressure on tip of the stylus, and user selected color.

26. The method according to claim 24, comprising decoding information encoded in at least one signal burst transmitted from the stylus and detected from the outputs.

27. A digitizer system operated with an autonomous stylus comprising:

a digitizer sensor that receives signals;

an autonomous asynchronous stylus that autonomously transmits signal bursts at a defined rate, the defined rate defining a transmission repeat cycle of the stylus, wherein the transmission repeat cycle of the stylus is asynchronous with a refresh cycle of the digitizer sensor, and wherein the duration of the transmission repeat cycle is predefined and known to the digitizer;

a controller associated with the digitizer sensor for sampling the digitizer sensor; and

a processor associated with the digitizer sensor to detect a signal burst transmitted from the stylus for determine a timing of the signal burst detected;

the controller further adapted to synchronize subsequent refresh cycles of the digitizer with the transmission repeat cycle of the stylus based on the determined timing of the detected signal bursts, wherein the controller samples the digitizer over a plurality of chunk sampling periods, wherein the plurality of chunk sampling periods are sampling periods separated by periods wherein the digitizer is not sampled, and wherein positioning of each of the plurality of chunk sampling periods is staggered with respect to the refresh cycle of the digitizer; and

wherein the processor determines one chunk sampling period over which a signal burst transmitted from the stylus is detected and determines a timing of signal bursts transmitted by the stylus over subsequent refresh cycles based on subsequent output sampled in a corresponding time vicinity of the one chunk sampling period in the refresh cycle at times responsive to the duration of the transmission repeat cycle.

28. The digitizer system according to claim 27, wherein the controller is further adapted to execute a single chunk sampling period per refresh cycle of the digitizer in synchronization with the detected timing of the signal burst.

29. The digitizer system according to claim 27, wherein the processor determines and tracks a position of interaction of the stylus over subsequent refresh cycles of the digitizer.

30. The digitizer system according to claim 29, wherein the controller adjusts synchronization between the digitizer sensor and the stylus during tracking of the stylus based on timing of signal bursts received by the digitizer sensor in the subsequent refresh cycles.

31. The digitizer system according to claim 27, wherein the digitizer sensor includes conductive lines arrayed along a first and second axis of the digitizer sensor.

32. The digitizer system according to claim 31, wherein timing of the detected signal bursts is determined from output obtained from 1-4 selected conductive lines from which the signal bursts are most strongly detected.

33. The digitizer system according to claim 31, wherein the controller is adapted to trigger at least a portion of the conductive lines with a triggering signal, and wherein the processor is adapted to detect finger touch interaction in response to the triggering.

34. The digitizer system according to claim 33, wherein the controller synchronizes triggering of the conductive lines with timing of the detected signal bursts.

35. The digitizer system according to claim 33, wherein the controller samples conductive lines arrayed along the second axis of the digitizer sensor in response to triggering of a conductive line arrayed along the first axis of the digitizer sensor.

36. The digitizer system according to claim 31, wherein the timing of signal bursts transmitted from the stylus is determined based on output sampled from only one of the first or second axis of the digitizer.

37. The digitizer according to claim 27, wherein the digitizer sensor senses finger touch interaction and wherein the processor determines position coordinates of the finger touch interaction.