Seeing eye mouse for a computer system

• US 6,433,780 B1
• Filed: 01/02/2001
• Issued: 08/13/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.), Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.), PixArt Imaging Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Badyal, Rajeev, Knee, Derek L., Gordon, Gary B., Hartlove, Jason T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Saras, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kumar, Srilakshmi K.
• Application Number:
  US09/753,805
• Publication Number:
  US 20020093486A1
• Time in Patent Office: 588 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156-163, 345/166, 382/313-319, 382/103, 250/211, 250/577
• US Class Current: 345/166
• 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 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• 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

Abstract

An optical mouse images as an array of pixels the spatial features of generally any micro textured or micro detailed work surface below the mouse. The photo detector responses are digitized and stored as a frame into memory. Motion produces successive frames of translated patterns of pixel information, which are compared by autocorrelation to ascertain the direction and amount of movement. A hold feature suspends the production of movement signals to the computer, allowing the mouse to be physically relocated on the work surface without disturbing the position on the screen of the pointer. This may be needed if the operator runs out of room to physically move the mouse further, but the screen pointer still needs to go further. The hold feature may be implemented with an actual button, a separate proximity detector or by detecting the presence of a characteristic condition in the digitized data, such as loss of correlation or velocity in excess of a selected limit. A convenient place for an actual hold button is along the sides of the mouse near the bottom, where the thumb and the opposing ring finger grip the mouse. The gripping force used to lift the mouse engages the hold function. Hold may incorporate a brief delay upon either the release of the hold button, detection of proper proximity or the return of reasonable digitized values. During that delay any illumination control or AGC servo loops stabilize. A new reference frame is taken prior to the resumption of motion detection.

Claims

1. A hand held pointing device for a computer system, the pointing device comprising:

a housing having a bottom surface that moves against a desktop surface;

the housing also having a top surface shaped to receive the human hand;

the housing also having a skirt connecting a perimeter of the bottom surface with the top surface;

the housing also having a first axis extending generally in the direction from where the heel of the hand rests on the top surface to where the middle finger rests on the top surface, and a second axis perpendicular to the first, both axes parallel to the bottom surface;

an aperture in the bottom surface;

a source of non-coherent illumination mounted within the interior of the housing, proximate the aperture, that illuminates, from a single location and with an angle of incidence in the range of about five to twenty degrees, a portion of the desktop surface opposite the aperture and having surface height irregularities forming a micro texture with feature sizes in the range of about five to five hundred microns, the illumination producing highlights upon surface height irregularities that extend out of the desktop surface and that intercept the illumination and shadows upon surface height irregularities that extend into the desktop surface and whose illumination is blocked by adjacent surface height irregularities that are illuminated, the highlights and shadows forming a pattern that varies as a function of rotations and translations of the aperture relative to the desktop;

an optical motion detection circuit mounted within the interior of the housing and optically coupled to the highlights and shadows from the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the desktop surface, the optical motion detection circuit producing motion signals indicative of motion in the directions along the first and second axes and relative to the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the desktop surface; and

wherein the optical motion detection circuit comprises an array of photo detectors each having an output, a memory containing a reference frame of digitized photo detector output values that is stored in a reference array of memory locations corresponding to the array of photo detectors and a sample frame of digitized photo detector output values obtained subsequent to the reference frame and that is stored in a sample array of memory locations corresponding to the array of photo detectors, and further wherein a plurality of comparison frames, each being a shifted version of one of the reference frame or the sample frame, is correlated with the other of the reference frame or the sample frame to ascertain motion in the directions along the first and second axes, the correlation being upon the values in all memory array locations that correspond to overlap between the comparison frame and the other of the reference frame or the sample frame.

2. A hand held pointing device as in claim 1 wherein the optical coupling is performed by a lens.

3. A hand held pointing device as in claim 1 wherein the optical coupling is performed by a mirror.

4. A hand held pointing device for a computer system, the pointing device comprising:

a housing having a bottom surface that moves against a work surface;

the housing also having a top surface shaped to receive the human hand;

the housing also having a skirt connecting a perimeter of the bottom surface with the top surface;

the housing also having a first axis extending generally in the direction from where the heel of the hand rests on the top surface to where the middle finger rests on the top surface, and a second axis perpendicular to the first, both axes parallel to the bottom surface;

an aperture in the bottom surface;

a source of illumination mounted within the interior of the housing, proximate the aperture, that illuminates a portion of the work surface opposite the aperture and having surface height irregularities forming a micro texture with feature sizes in the range of about five to five hundred microns, the illumination producing a pattern of highlights upon surface height irregularities that extend out of the desktop surface and that intercept the illumination and of shadows upon surface height irregularities that extend into the desktop surface and whose illumination is blocked by adjacent surface height irregularities that are illuminated;

an optical motion detection circuit mounted within the interior of the housing and optically coupled to the pattern of highlights and shadows from the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface, the optical motion detection circuit producing motion signals indicative of motion in the directions along the first and second axes and relative to the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface;

wherein the optical motion detection circuit comprises a plurality of photo detectors each having an output, a memory containing a reference frame of digitized photo detector output values and a sample frame of digitized photo detector output values obtained subsequent to the reference frame, and further wherein a plurality of comparison frames, each being a shifted version of one of the reference frame or the sample frame, is correlated with the other of the reference frame or the sample frame to produce a corresponding plurality of correlation values and ascertain motion in the directions along the first and second axes; and

an arithmetic comparison mechanism coupled to the plurality of correlation values, and wherein the motion signals are not output to the computer system whenever a correlation surface described by the plurality of correlation values fails to exhibit a selected curvature.

5. A hand held pointing device for a computer system, the pointing device comprising:

a housing having a bottom surface that moves against a work surface;

the housing also having a top surface shaped to receive the human hand;

the housing also having a skirt connecting a perimeter of the bottom surface with the top surface;

the housing also having a first axis extending generally in the direction from where the heel of the hand rests on the top surface to where the middle finger rests on the top surface, and a second axis perpendicular to the first, both axes parallel to the bottom surface;

an aperture in the bottom surface;

a source of illumination mounted within the interior of the housing, proximate the aperture, that illuminates a portion of the work surface opposite the aperture and having surface height irregularities forming a micro texture with feature sizes in the range of about five to five hundred microns, the illumination producing a pattern of highlights upon surface height irregularities that extend out of the desktop surface and that intercept the illumination and of shadows upon surface height irregularities that extend into the desktop surface and whose illumination is blocked by adjacent surface height irregularities that are illuminated;

an optical motion detection circuit mounted within the interior of the housing and optically coupled to the pattern of highlights and shadows from the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface, the optical motion detection circuit producing motion signals indicative of motion in the directions along the first and second axes and relative to the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface;

wherein the optical motion detection circuit comprises a plurality of photo detectors each having an output, a memory containing a reference frame of digitized photo detector output values and a sample frame of digitized photo detector output values obtained subsequent to the reference frame, and further wherein a plurality of comparison frames, each being a shifted version of one of the reference frame or the sample frame, is correlated with the other of the reference frame or the sample frame to produce a corresponding plurality of correlation values and ascertain motion in the directions along the first and second axes; and

an arithmetic comparison mechanism having inputs coupled to the motion signals and wherein the motion signals are not output to the computer system whenever the motion signals indicate a velocity that exceeds a preselected limit.

6. A hand held pointing device for a computer system, the pointing device comprising:

a housing having a bottom surface that moves against a work surface;

the housing also having a top surface shaped to receive the human hand;

the housing also having a skirt connecting a perimeter of the bottom surface with the top surface;

the housing also having a first axis extending generally in the direction from where the heel of the hand rests on the top surface to where the middle finger rests on the top surface, and a second axis perpendicular to the first, both axes parallel to the bottom surface;

an aperture in the bottom surface;

a source of illumination mounted within the interior of the housing, proximate the aperture, that illuminates a portion of the work surface opposite the aperture and having surface height irregularities forming a micro texture with feature sizes in the range of about five to five hundred microns, the illumination producing a pattern of highlights upon surface height irregularities that extend out of the desktop surface and that intercept the illumination and of shadows upon surface height irregularities that extend into the desktop surface and whose illumination is blocked by adjacent surface height irregularities that are illuminated;

an optical motion detection circuit mounted within the interior of the housing and optically coupled to the pattern of highlights and shadows from the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface, the optical motion detection circuit producing motion signals indicative of motion in the directions along the first and second axes and relative to the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface;

wherein the optical motion detection circuit comprises an array of photo detectors each having an output, a memory containing a reference frame of digitized photo detector output values that is stored in a reference array of memory locations corresponding to the array of photo detectors and a sample frame of digitized photo detector output values obtained subsequent to the reference frame and that is stored in a sample array of memory locations corresponding to the array of photo detectors, and further wherein a plurality of comparison frames, each being a shifted version of one of the reference frame or the sample frame, is correlated with the other of the reference frame or the sample frame to ascertain motion in the directions along the first and second axes, the correlation being upon the values in all memory array locations that correspond to overlap between the comparison frame and the other of the reference frame or the sample frame; and

a switch disposed on the skirt in a location underneath the right thumb or the left ring finger of a hand grasping the pointing device, that is coupled to the optical motion detection circuit and that inhibits the output of the motion signals to the computer system when the hand activates the switch by squeezing against the skirt in a plane parallel to the bottom surface in order to lift the pointing device away from the desktop surface.

7. A hand held pointing device for a computer system, the pointing device comprising:

a housing having a bottom surface that moves against a work surface;

the housing also having a top surface shaped to receive the human hand;

the housing also having a skirt connecting a perimeter of the bottom surface with the top surface;

the housing also having a first axis extending generally in the direction from where the heel of the hand rests on the top surface to where the middle finger rests on the top surface, and a second axis perpendicular to the first, both axes parallel to the bottom surface;

an aperture in the bottom surface;

a source of illumination mounted within the interior of the housing, proximate the aperture, that illuminates a portion of the work surface opposite the aperture and having surface height irregularities forming a micro texture with feature sizes in the range of about five to five hundred microns, the illumination producing a pattern of highlights upon surface height irregularities that extend out of the desktop surface and that intercept the illumination and of shadows upon surface height irregularities that extend into the desktop surface and whose illumination is blocked by adjacent surface height irregularities that are illuminated;

an optical motion detection circuit mounted within the interior of the housing and optically coupled to the pattern of highlights and shadows from the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface, the optical motion detection circuit producing motion signals indicative of motion in the directions along the first and second axes and relative to the surface height irregularities of the illuminated portion of the work surface;

wherein the optical motion detection circuit comprises an array of photo detectors each having an output, a memory containing a reference frame of digitized photo detector output values that is stored in a reference array of memory locations corresponding to the array of photo detectors and a sample frame of digitized photo detector output values obtained subsequent to the reference frame and that is stored in a sample array of memory locations corresponding to the array of photo detectors, and further wherein a plurality of comparison frames, each being a shifted version of one of the reference frame or the sample frame, is correlated with the other of the reference frame or the sample frame to ascertain motion in the directions along the first and second axes, the correlation being upon the values in all memory array locations that correspond to overlap between the comparison frame and the other of the reference frame or the sample frame; and

a switch disposed on the skirt in a location underneath the left thumb or the right ring finger of a hand grasping the pointing device, that is coupled to the optical motion detection circuit and that inhibits the output of the motion signals to the computer system when the hand activates the switch by squeezing against the skirt in a plane parallel to the bottom surface in order to lift the pointing device away from the desktop surface.