Hybrid low power computer mouse

• US 8,823,651 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hotelling, Steve, Strickon, Joshua, Huppi, Brian, Krah, Christoph
• Primary Examiner(s): ABDIN, SHAHEDA A
• Application Number:
  US12/643,896
• Publication Number:
  US 20100103108A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,716 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-167, 463 36- 39
• US Class Current: 345/166
• 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 touching a flat surface, comprising:

measuring tilt values of the pointing device from vertical relative to the flat surface;

receiving first position tracking information associated with horizontal movement of the pointing device from a first position tracking component in the pointing device wherein the first position tracking information is based upon dead reckoning tracking information when an error value of the dead reckoning tracking information is not greater than an error threshold and upon optical tracking datum when the error value is greater than the error threshold; and

modifying the first position tracking information of the pointing device upon the tilt values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pointing device is a mouse.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first position tracking component is an accelerometer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring includes:

using a surface sensor to measure tilt.

5. A method comprising:

receiving position tracking values from a pointing device associated with horizontal movement of the pointing device wherein the position tracking values are based upon dead reckoning tracking information when an error value of the dead reckoning tracking information is not greater than an error threshold and upon optical tracking datum when the error value is greater than the error threshold;

receiving tilt values from vertical of the pointing device from a series of contact sensitive feet on the pointing device; and

correcting the position tracking values using the tilt values.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

measuring and comparing tilt values from a plurality of different feet on the pointing device in order to compute tilt values for the pointing device as a whole.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the tilt values indicate relative tilt of the pointing device as compared to a plane parallel to a flat surface with which the pointing device is in contact.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the pointing device contains a first positional tracking device and a second position tracking device, and the position tracking values that are corrected are only those position tracking values obtained by the first positional tracking device.

9. A pointing device comprising:

a first position tracking component arranged to provide first position tracking information to track horizontal movement on a flat surface wherein the first position tracking information is based upon dead reckoning tracking information when an error value of the dead reckoning tracking information is not greater than an error threshold and upon optical tracking datum when the error value is greater than the error threshold; and

a tilt sensor arranged to provide tilt values regarding tilt of the pointing device from vertical relative to the flat surface with which the pointing device is in contact;

a microcontroller configured to determine relative tilt angle from the tilt values and to adjust the first position tracking information based on the relative tilt angle.

10. The pointing device of claim 9, wherein the tilt sensor includes a series of contact sensitive feet.

11. The pointing device of claim 9, further comprising:

a second position tracking component arranged to provide second position tracking information, wherein the first position tracking component is a lower powered component than the second position tracking component.

12. The pointing device of claim 11, wherein the first position tracking component is an accelerometer and the second position tracking component is an optical tracking device.

13. A pointing device comprising:

means for measuring tilt values of the pointing device from vertical relative to a flat surface;

means for receiving first position tracking information from a first position tracking component in the pointing device regarding horizontal movement wherein the first position tracking information is based upon dead reckoning tracking information when an error value of the dead reckoning tracking information is not greater than an error threshold and upon optical tracking datum when the error value is greater than the error threshold; and

means for modifying the first position tracking information based upon the tilt values.

14. The pointing device of claim 13, wherein the means for modifying is a microcontroller located in the pointing device.

15. The pointing device of claim 13, wherein the means for measuring tilt includes means for determining if a first portion of the pointing device is touching the flat surface.

16. The pointing device of claim 15, wherein the means for measuring tilt further includes means for determining if a second portion of the pointing device is touching the flat surface.

17. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of displaying portions of an image by a display device, the method comprising:

receiving position tracking values from a pointing device regarding horizontal motion wherein the position tracking values are based upon dead reckoning tracking information when an error value of the dead reckoning tracking information is not greater than an error threshold and upon optical tracking datum when the error value is greater than the error threshold;

receiving tilt values from a series of contact sensitive feet on the pointing device indicative of tilt from vertical; and

correcting the position tracking values using the tilt values.

18. The program storage device of claim 17, wherein the program storage device is located on a computer system coupled to the pointing device.

19. The program storage device of claim 17, wherein the program storage device is located in a peripheral controller.

20. The program storage device of claim 17, wherein the position tracking values are measured by an optical tracking component in the pointing device.