Semi-autonomous touch I/O device controller operation under control of host

• US 9,026,691 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2013
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Corlett, Barry J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alrobaye, Idriss N
• Assistant Examiner(s): MARTINEZ, DAVID E
• Application Number:
  US13/927,812
• Publication Number:
  US 20130346641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 678 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 710/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A touch I/O device controller may operate in an idle state, a wait for finger on state, and a finger on state. The finger on state may include a hold sub-state, a capture sub-state, a navigation sub-state, and a pre-capture sub-state. The controller may switch states and/or sub-states based on commands received from its host or based on a sub-state variable set by the host. When the controller detects a finger of a user and enters the finger on state, the touch I/O device may enter a particular sub-state based on the sub-state variable. Further, when a fingerprint is captured in capture sub-state, the controller may switch sub-states based on the value of the sub-state variable. In various implementations, the host may provide one or more APIs that may be utilized by applications to directly influence the controller and/or request that the host do so.

Claims

1. A system for semi-autonomous operation of touch I/O device controllers under control of host devices, comprising:

at least one host device including at least one host processing unit;

at least one touch I/O device hosted by the at least one host device; and

at least one touch I/O device controller that controls the at least one touch I/O device;

wherein;

the at least one touch I/O device controller is configured to operate in at least;

(1) a wait state where the at least one touch I/O device controller waits to detect that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched;

(2) an idle state where the at least one touch I/O device controller does not wait to detect that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched; and

(3) an on state where the at least one touch I/O device controller has detected that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched;

the at least one touch I/O device controller configured to operate in at least one of a plurality of sub-states when operating in the on state; and

the at least one touch I/O device controller is configured to determine which of the plurality of sub-states to operate in when entering the on state;

the determination based at least on a value assigned to a sub-state variable by the at least one host processing unit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller switches at least one of to the wait state, to the on state, or to one of the plurality of sub-states in response to at least one command received from the at least one host processing unit.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sub-states includes at least a capture sub-state where the at least one touch I/O device controller attempts to capture at least one user fingerprint utilizing the at least one touch I/O device and a navigation sub-state where the at least one touch I/O device controller interprets user finger movement received via the at least one touch I/O device as at least one navigation instruction.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller captures the at least one user fingerprint when operating in the capture sub-state and then switches sub-state based at least one the value assigned to the sub-state variable.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller captures the at least one user fingerprint when operating in the capture sub-state and remains in the capture sub-state based at least one the value assigned to the sub-state variable.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of sub-states further includes a pre-capture sub-state where the at least one touch I/O device controller obtains data via the at least one touch I/O device, switches to the capture sub-state and utilizes the data for fingerprint capture if the data does not include more than a threshold value of movement, and switches to the navigation sub-state and utilizes the data for navigation if the data does include at least the threshold value of movement.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one touch I/O controller detects more than a threshold amount of user finger movement via the at least one touch I/O controller while attempting to capture the at least one user fingerprint when operating in the capture sub-state and the at least one touch I/O controller aborts the attempt to capture the at least one user fingerprint.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sub-states further includes a hold sub-state where the at least one touch I/O device controller does not capture user fingerprints utilizing the at least one touch I/O device or interpret user finger movement received via the at least one touch I/O device as at least one navigation instruction.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller performs at least one of reducing power provided to the at least one touch I/O device or ceasing to provide power to the at least one touch I/O device when operating in the hold sub-state.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller switches to another sub-state of the plurality of sub-states when the at least one touch I/O device controller is operating in the hold sub-state and detects motion via the at least one touch I/O device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller selects the another sub-state of the plurality of sub-states based at least on the value assigned to the sub-state variable.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller generates at least one command interrupt upon exiting at least one of the wait state, the on state, or one of the plurality of sub-states.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one command interrupt includes at least one notification transmitted by the at least one touch I/O device controller to the at least one host processing unit indicating that the at least one touch I/O device controller is exiting the at least one of the wait state, the on state, or the one of the plurality of sub-states.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one host processing unit changes the value assigned to the sub-state variable.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one host device further includes at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions, which when executed by the at least one host processing unit, cause the at least one host processing unit to perform operations to generate at least one application programming interface (API) that allows an API-calling component to perform at least one of:

setting the value assigned to the sub-state variable,

changing the value assigned to the sub-state variable,

receive at least one command interrupt generated by the at least one touch I/O device controller, or

command the at least one touch I/O device controller to switch at least one of to the wait state, to the on state, or to one of the plurality of sub-states.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one host device further includes at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions, which when executed by the at least one host processing unit, cause the at least one host processing unit to perform operations to generate at least one application programming interface (API) that allows an API-calling component to request the at least one host processing unit perform at least one of:

setting the value assigned to the sub-state variable,

changing the value assigned to the sub-state variable,

receive at least one command interrupt generated by the at least one touch I/O device controller, or

command the at least one touch I/O device controller to switch at least one of to the wait state, to the on state, or to one of the plurality of sub-states.

17. A machine implemented method for semi-autonomous operation of touch I/O device controllers under control of host devices, the method comprising:

operating at least one touch I/O device controller of at least one touch I/O device in at least one of;

(1) a wait state where the at least one touch I/O device controller waits to detect that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched;

(2) an idle state where the at least one touch I/O device controller does not wait to detect that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched; and

(3) an on state where the at least one touch I/O device controller has detected that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched;

wherein the at least one touch I/O device controller operates in at least one of a plurality of sub-states when operating in the on state; and

determining which of the plurality of sub-states to operate in, utilizing the at least one touch I/O device controller, when entering the on state based at least on a value assigned to a sub-state variable by at least one processing unit of a device that hosts the at least one touch I/O device.

18. A data processing system for semi-autonomous operation of touch I/O device controllers under control of host devices, comprising:

at least one processor to execute instructions; and

at least one non-transitory storage medium communicably coupled to the at least one processor to store instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to generate an application programming interface (API) that allows an API-calling component to perform the following operations;

transferring an influence touch I/O device controller call through the API to cause at least one of;

a sub-state variable for the touch I/O device controller to be assigned a value;

a host device of the touch I/O device controller to be requested to assign the value to the sub-state variable;

a command to switch sub-state or state to be transmitted to the touch I/O device controller;

or

the host device of the touch I/O device controller be requested to transmit the command to switch the sub-state or the state to the touch I/O device controller;

wherein;

the touch I/O device controller operates in at least one of;

(1) a wait state where the touch I/O device controller waits to detect that at least one touch I/O device controlled by the touch I/O device controller is being touched; and

(2) an on state where the at least one touch I/O device controller has detected that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched;

the at least one touch I/O device controller operates in at least one of a plurality of sub-states when operating in the on state, the plurality of sub-states including at least a capture sub-state where the at least one touch I/O device controller attempts to capture at least one user fingerprint utilizing the at least one touch I/O device and a navigation sub-state where the at least one touch I/O device controller interprets user finger movement received via the at least one touch I/O device as at least one navigation instruction; and

the touch I/O device controller determines which of the plurality of sub-states to operate in when entering the on state based at least on a value assigned to a sub-state variable.

19. A machine implemented method for semi-autonomous operation of touch I/O device controllers under control of host devices in an environment which uses an Application Programming Interface (API), the method comprising:

transferring an influence touch I/O device controller call through the API to cause at least one of;

a sub-state variable for the touch I/O device controller to be assigned a value;

a host device of the touch I/O device controller to be requested to assign the value to the sub-state variable;

a command to switch sub-state or state to be transmitted to the touch I/O device controller;

or

the host device of the touch I/O device controller be requested to transmit the command to switch the sub-state or the state to the touch I/O device controller;

wherein;

the touch I/O device controller operates in at least one of;

(1) a wait state where the touch I/O device controller waits to detect that at least one touch I/O device controlled by the touch I/O device controller is being touched; and

(2) an on state where the at least one touch I/O device controller has detected that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched;

the at least one touch I/O device controller operates in at least one of a plurality of sub-states when operating in the on state;

the touch I/O device controller determines which of the plurality of sub-states to operate in when entering the on state based at least on a value assigned to a sub-state variable; and

the at least one touch I/O device controller generates at least one command interrupt upon exiting at least one of the wait state, the on state, or one of the plurality of sub-states.

20. A system for semi-autonomous operation of touch I/O device controllers under control of host devices, comprising:

at least one host device including at least one host processing unit;

at least one touch I/O device hosted by the at least one host device; and

at least one touch I/O device controller that controls the at least one touch I/O device;

wherein;

the at least one touch I/O device controller is configured to operate in at least;

(1) a wait state where the at least one touch I/O device controller waits to detect that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched; and

(2) an on state where the at least one touch I/O device controller has detected that the at least one touch I/O device is being touched;

the at least one touch I/O device controller configured to operate in at least one of a plurality of sub-states when operating in the on state;

the at least one touch I/O device controller is configured to determine which of the plurality of sub-states to operate in when entering the on state, the determination based at least on a value assigned to a sub-state variable by the at least one host processing unit; and

the at least one touch I/O device controller generates at least one command interrupt upon exiting at least one of the wait state, the on state, or one of the plurality of sub-states.