Architecture for variable pressure mouse

• US 9,389,711 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2012
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Casparian, Mark A., Ross, Carlos L., Sierra, Danae, Azor, Frank C., Seay, A. Fleming
• Primary Examiner(s): Bolotin, Dmitriy
• Application Number:
  US13/725,552
• Publication Number:
  US 20140176441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,299 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device

Abstract

User input devices with variable pressure buttons are configured. A user may specify a range of pressure to be associated with a pressure level. In some embodiments, a user may also associate a command or other instruction to an application with an identity of a variable pressure button and a pressure level of the button. In some embodiments, the associations may be represented in a configuration profile. In further embodiments, a microcontroller for a mouse may translate signals from variable pressure buttons into pressure levels based upon the configuration file. In many embodiments, a user may associate a reporting rate with a variable pressure button. A legacy application may receive reports of the state of the variable pressure button at the associated reporting rate.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

a user input device comprising a mouse, the mouse including a variable pressure button (VPB);

an application;

a variable pressure microcontroller (VPMCU) coupled to the VPB, the VPMCU including a VPB-translation module;

the VPMCU is to receive the signals generated by the VPB, to translate them into mouse events, and to broadcast the mouse events to the application; and

a VPB configuration module to;

provide an application programming interface to the application and to provide a graphical user interface (GUI) to a user, to enable the user through the GUI to assign amounts of pressure applied to the VPB to pressure levels and to assign the pressure levels in combination with an identity of the VPB to commands or other inputs to the application;

create a configuration profile to represent the user assignments of pressure ranges to pressure levels and the user assignment of pressure levels to the commands or other inputs to the application;

provide to the application through the application programming interface information about the assignment by the user of pressure levels in combination with the identity of the VPB to commands or other inputs to the application; and

provide the configuration profile to the VPB-translation module, wherein;

the VPB is to generate signals regarding amounts of pressure applied to the VPB; and

the VPB-translation module is to translate the amounts of pressure into pressure levels as specified by the configuration profile and to broadcast the commands or other inputs corresponding to the pressure levels to the application.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein:

the information handling system comprises a plurality of applications; and

the VPB configuration module is to create a plurality of configuration profiles and to associate each configuration profile with an application and with the user or another user.

3. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein:

the information handling system further comprises a monitoring module to monitor for a current user and a current application with focus; and

the VPB configuration module is to provide to the VPB-translation module a configuration profile associated with the current user and associated with the current application.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein:

the application is not aware of variable pressure buttons; and

the GUI is to enable the user to assign reporting rates to the VPB based upon the pressure levels for reports to the application.

5. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the VPB configuration module is to receive a list of user commands from the application through the application programming interface, to provide the list of user commands to the user through the GUI, to receive an assignment of VPB states to user commands from the user through the GUI, and to provide the assignment of VPB states to user commands to the application through the application programming interface.

6. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein:

the information handling system further comprises a lighting system to light up regions of the information handling system;

signals from the VPB regarding amounts of pressure applied to the VPB are to be transmitted to the lighting system; and

the lighting system is to light up the regions of the information handling system in response to the signals from the VPB.

7. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein:

the configuration profile is flashed into non-volatile memory of the VPMCU.

8. An information handling system comprising:

a user input device comprising a mouse, the mouse including a variable pressure button (VPB);

an application;

a variable pressure microcontroller (VPMCU) coupled to the VPB, the VPMCU including a VPB-translation module;

the VPMCU is to receive the signals generated by the VPB, to translate them into mouse events, and to broadcast the mouse events to the application; and

a VPB configuration module to;

provide an application programming interface to the application and to provide a graphical user interface (GUI) to a user, to enable the user through the GUI to assign amounts of pressure applied to the VPB to pressure levels and to assign the pressure levels in combination with an identity of the VPB to commands or other inputs to the application;

create a configuration profile to represent the user assignments of pressure ranges to pressure levels and the user assignment of pressure levels to the commands or other inputs to the application;

provide to the application through the application programming interface information about the assignment by the user of pressure levels in combination with the identity of the VPB to commands or other inputs to the application; and

provide the configuration profile to the VPB-translation module, wherein;

the VPB is to generate signals regarding amounts of pressure applied to the VPB; and

the VPB-translation module is to translate the amounts of pressure into pressure levels as specified by the configuration profile and to broadcast the commands or other inputs corresponding to the pressure levels to the application;

the mouse comprises a digital button to generate signals indicating whether the digital button is depressed or not depressed;

the mouse comprises a tracking component to generate signals indicating a direction and speed of mouse movement;

the information handling system comprises a legacy microcontroller coupled to the digital button and the tracking component; and

the legacy microcontroller is to receive the signals generated by the digital button and the tracking component and to broadcast events of a location of a cursor and events of a state of the digital button to the application.

9. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein:

the information handling system comprises a first human interface device (HID) driver and a second HID driver;

the broadcasting events by the legacy microcontroller comprises the legacy microcontroller transmitting events to the first HID driver; and

the broadcasting events by the VPB MCU comprises the VPB MCU transmitting events to the second HID driver.

10. The information handling system of claim 9 wherein both the first HID driver and the second HID driver are standard HID drivers.

11. The information handling system of claim 8 further comprising a variable pressure mouse on/off switch to turn variable pressure mouse functionality on and off;

wherein the mouse is to operate as a legacy mouse with the variable pressure mouse functionality turned off.

12. The information-handling system of claim 11 wherein the on/off switch is to immediately turn off the variable pressure mouse functionality when the switch is set to off, even with a variable pressure mouse profile in effect.

13. An information handling system comprising:

a user input device comprising a mouse, the mouse including a variable pressure button (VPB);

an application;

a variable pressure microcontroller (VPMCU) coupled to the VPB, the VPMCU including a VPB-translation module;

the VPMCU is to receive the signals generated by the VPB, to translate them into mouse events, and to broadcast the mouse events to the application; and

a VPB configuration module to;

provide an application programming interface to the application and to provide a graphical user interface (GUI) to a user, to enable the user through the GUI to assign amounts of pressure applied to the VPB to pressure levels and to assign the pressure levels in combination with an identity of the VPB to commands or other inputs to the application;

create a configuration profile to represent the user assignments of pressure ranges to pressure levels and the user assignment of pressure levels to the commands or other inputs to the application;

provide to the application through the application programming interface information about the assignment by the user of pressure levels in combination with the identity of the VPB to commands or other inputs to the application; and

provide the configuration profile to the VPB-translation module, wherein;

the VPB is to generate signals regarding amounts of pressure applied to the VPB; and

the VPB-translation module is to translate the amounts of pressure into pressure levels as specified by the configuration profile and to broadcast the commands or other inputs corresponding to the pressure levels to the application;

the application is a VPB-aware application; and

the application receives data from the VPMCU indicating actual pressure levels via a USB bus and the application programming interface.