Digitizer, stylus and method of synchronization therewith

• US 8,669,967 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2013
• Issued: 03/11/2014
• 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:
  US13/909,118
• Publication Number:
  US 20130265281A1
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/174, 345/179
• US Class Current: 345/179
• 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 a stylus wherein the digitizer includes a grid based digitizer sensor including conductive lines arrayed along a first and second axis of the digitizer sensor, the method comprising:

triggering at a defined time within a refresh cycle of the digitizer at least a portion of the conductive lines with a triggering signal;

detecting finger touch interaction with the digitizer during the refresh cycle in response to the triggering;

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

sensing the signal burst of the stylus with the digitizer sensor during the refresh cycle;

determining a time within the refresh cycle of the digitizer at which the digitizer sensor sensed the signal burst transmitted by the stylus; and

synchronizing the triggering of the at least a portion of the conductive lines in subsequent refresh cycles of the digitizer with the time within the refresh cycle of the digitizer at which the digitizer sensor sensed the signal burst transmitted by the stylus.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising synchronizing an onset of the subsequent refresh cycles with the time at which the digitizer sensor sensed the signal burst transmitted by the stylus.

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

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the finger touch interaction is detected in response to simultaneously triggering conductive lines along the first and second axis of the digitizer sensor or in response to sequentially triggering conductive lines along one axis of the digitizer.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the digitizer switches from sequentially triggering conductive lines along one axis of the grid to simultaneously triggering conductive lines along the first and second axis of the digitizer sensor in response to detection of the signal bursts transmitted from the stylus.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time within the refresh cycle of the signal burst is determined from output obtained from 1-4 selected conductive lines from which the signal burst are most strongly detected.

7. The method according to claim 1, 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.

8. The method according to claim 7, 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.

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

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

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the operational state is selected from a group including right click and eraser mode of the stylus.

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

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the digitizer detects the signal burst of the stylus based on detection of the pre-defined frequency.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the stylus transmits a train of signal bursts in succession over the transmission repeat cycle of the stylus and wherein the digitizer samples the train of pulsed signals over the refresh period of the digitizer.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein at least one of the signal bursts in the train of signal bursts includes encoded information.

16. The method according to claim 15, 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.