Electronic pen holding

• US 7,773,076 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2006
• Issued: 08/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Candledragon, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Candledragon, Inc.
• Inventors: Goldman, Andrew M., Shleppi, Garry, Selitsky, Simon, Subach, Vladimir V., Stein, Mario A., Schiller, Ilya, Pittel, Arkady
• Primary Examiner(s): Hjerpe; Richard
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shapiro; Leonid
• Application Number:
  US11/327,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20060176288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,677 Days
• Field of Search: 345/179, 345182-183, 178 1801- 1802, 178 1902- 1905
• US Class Current: 345/179
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3259 Power saving in cursor control device, e.g. mouse, joystick, trackball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03542 Light pens for emitting or receiving light
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0386 for light pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Motion of a writing instrument is tracked from sensors located in the vicinity. The signals generated from the sensors are processed and used in a wide variety of ways.

Claims

1. An Apparatus comprising:

a holder for a writing instrument;

the holder having elements used in wireless transmission of signals associated with motion of a writing instrument in the vicinity of the holder;

the holder having a clipping mechanism for attaching the holder to a writing substrate in an orientation that enables the elements to be used in conjunction with the wireless transmission;

wherein the clipping mechanism includes a switch to activate functions of a processor in the holder when the clipping mechanism is manipulated.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the holder comprises a pen cap.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the clipping mechanism includes a clip configured to attach the holder to a stack of pages or to a notebook.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the holder includes at least two light sensors and a processor that processes signals from the light sensors to determine a sequence of positions of the writing instrument.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the holder includes a receptacle for holding the writing instrument and enabling recharging of batteries in the writing instrument.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 in which one of the functions comprises a new page function.