Data steering flip pen system

• US 20020040817A1
• Filed: 05/14/2001
• Published: 04/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Karidis, John Peter, Inoue, Ken, Dumarot, Dan Peter, Kesavarapu, Sreenivasulu, Seminara, Mary R., LeKuch, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,102,628 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 178/18.09
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/165 the additional display being small, e.g. for presenting status information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus

Abstract

A computing system includes a handwriting input device and a computing device, the handwriting input device including an electronic pen input device having a first tip that emits a signal having a first characteristic and second tip that emits a signal having second characteristic; a detector for detecting the characteristic of the emitted signal; and a controller, interfaced with the computing device, for selectively interpreting the emitted signal as handwriting or as control information for the computing device based on the detected characteristic of the emitted signal.

Claims

1. A computing system, said computing system comprising:

a handwriting input device and a computing device, said handwriting input device including an electronic pen input device having a first tip that emits a signal having a first characteristic and a second tip that emits a signal having a second characteristic;

a detector for detecting said characteristic of the emitted signal; and

a controller, interfaced with said handwriting input device, for selectively interpreting the emitted signal as handwriting or as control information for said computing device based on the detected characteristic of said emitted signal.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the characteristic of said emitted signal depends on the tip selected by a user.

3. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said first tip comprises an inking tip for writing and said second tip comprises a non-inking tip.

4. The computing system of claim 3 wherein said inking tip is located at one end of said electronic pen input device and said non-inking tip is located at the opposite end of said electronic pen input device.

5. The computing system of claim 4 wherein a user selects an inking function or a non-inking function of said electronic pen input device by manipulating said electronic pen input device to use one end of said electronic pen input device or the other end.

6. The computing system of claim 3 wherein pen stroke information is detected from said inking tip and from said non-inking tip.

7. The computing system of claim 6 wherein said non-inking tip pen stroke information is forwarded to said computing device and is used for display control of said computing device.

8. The computing system of claim 7 wherein said display control comprises at least one of cursor control, object selection, and object manipulation.

9. The computing system of claim 6 wherein said inking tip pen stroke information is forwarded to said computing device and is displayed on a display of said computing device.

10. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said pen input device emits radio frequency (RF) signals, and wherein said characteristic is comprised of frequency.

11. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said pen input device emits radio frequency (RF) signals, and wherein said characteristic is comprised of modulation.

12. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said pen input device emits infrared (IR) signals, and wherein said characteristic is comprised of light pulse frequency.

13. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said pen input device emits infrared (IR) signals, and wherein said characteristic is comprised of light pulse position.

14. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said pen input device emits ultrasonic signals, and wherein said characteristic is comprised of frequency.

15. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said pen input device emits ultrasonic signals, and wherein said characteristic is comprised of modulation.

16. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said handwriting input device further comprises a local memory for storing data therein.

17. The computing system of claim 16 wherein said local memory comprises Flash RAM type memory.

18. The computing system of claim 1 wherein said detector detects said emitted signal through at least one sheet of paper.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said first tip comprises an inking tip for writing and said second tip comprises a non-inking tip.

19. A method of routing electronic pen input stroke information in a computing system having a handwriting input device and a computing device, said method comprising the steps of:

selectively one of emitting a signal having a first characteristic from a first tip of an electronic pen input device of said handwriting input device or emitting a signal having a second characteristic from a second tip of said electronic pen input device;

detecting said characteristic of the emitted signal; and

interpreting the emitted signal as handwriting or as control information for said computing device based on the detected characteristic of the emitted signal.

21. A storage medium having computer readable program instructions embodied therein for selectively interpreting in a computing system comprising a handwriting input device having an electronic pen input device and a computing device, said storage medium comprising:

program instructions, for detecting signal emissions having a first characteristic from a first tip of said electronic pen input device or signal emissions having a second characteristic from a second tip of said electronic pen input device; and

program instructions for selectively interpreting the detected signal emissions as handwriting or as control information for said computing device based on the detected characteristic of said emitted signal.

22. A computing system, said computing system comprising:

an input device and a computing device, said input device including an electronic pen input device operative to emit a first signal having a first characteristic and a second signal having a second characteristic;

a detector for detecting said characteristic of the emitted signal; and

a controller interfaced with said input device for selectively interpreting the emitted signal as information to be stored by said input device system or information to be forwarded to said computing device.

23. The electronic pen input device of claim 22 comprising a switch wherein the characteristic of said emitted signal is determined by operation of said switch.

24. The electronic pen input device of claim 22 further comprising two tips wherein the characteristic of said emitted signal depends on which one of said two tips is selected by a user.

25. The computing system of claim 22 wherein said input device further comprises a local memory for storage of information therein.

26. The computing system of claim 25 wherein said local memory comprises Flash RAM type memory.