System and method for digital recording of handpainted, handdrawn and handwritten information

• US 8,830,212 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2011
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vladimir Vaganov
• Original Assignee: Vladimir Vaganov
• Inventors: Vaganov, Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): SIMPSON, LIXI CHOW
• Application Number:
  US13/116,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20110298709A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• Field of Search: 345/179, 345/156
• US Class Current: 345/179
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03546 using a rotatable ball at the tip as position detecting member

Abstract

The present invention provides method and system for recording hand-painted, hand-drawn and handwritten information defined by a hand and/or fingers movement. The system corresponding to the invented method comprises: a computing device with a display, an input device comprising: an end-point coupled to a force sensor, additional motion sensors, IC circuit for digitizing the information from sensors and processing the data related to the force and motion vectors components; hardware and software for providing a digital description of how the device has been pressed to the surface and how the device has been moved. Besides above mentioned applications the method and system can also be used for precise cursor navigation on the display, computer gaming and as a universal remote control for electronic equipment and appliances or as a security device with multi-level authentication. With an addition of several components the input device can be used as a smart cell-phone.

Claims

1. A method of digital recording of hand-painted, hand-drawn and handwritten information and navigating a cursor on the display defined by a hand and/or fingers movement, said method comprising:

providing a computing device with a display;

providing an input device comprising;

an interchangeable end-point;

a single force vector sensor integrated on a semiconductor substrate chip, wherein the semiconductor substrate chip is included in the interchangeable end-point;

providing any working surface suitable for moving the input device comprising the interchangeable end-point across the working surface in a process of painting, drawing, writing or cursor navigating;

moving the input device with a hand and/or fingers such that the interchangeable end-point is contacting the working surface during the hand and/or fingers movement relative to the surface while recording with the single force vector sensor the change of a vector of force applied to the sensor by the end-point;

digitizing this information and processing the data related to the change of the force vector components;

providing a description in digital format of how the input device has been pressed to the working surface based at least in part on the force applied by the end-point to the working surface; and

providing a description in digital format of how the input device has been moved over the working surface based at least in part on the correlation between the force vector components and corresponding movement vector components.

2. The method according to claim 1, further providing a description in digital format of whether the input device has been moved over the working surface or not based at least in part on the presence of vibrations of the end-point, as a result of the movement, measured by the single force vector sensor.

3. The method according to claim 1, further providing displaying the hand-painted, hand-drawn and handwritten information and the cursor navigating information based on said description and using this displaying for different purposes including using it as a visual feedback in the process of painting, hand-drawing, handwriting and cursor navigating.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the handwritten information comprises characters and further comprising identifying the characters with the aid of the description and storing them in character-coded digital format and further comprising displaying the handwritten information based on said description.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing an ink within the input device to generate permanent marks on the working surface while the end-point is contacting the working surface during the hand movement relative to the surface, wherein the ink flows directly through the semiconductor substrate chip.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing an at least two-axis motion sensor within the input device;

moving the input device with a hand and/or fingers such that the end-point is contacting the working surface during the hand and/or fingers movement relative to the surface while recording with the at least two-axis motion sensor the change of the vector of movement and recording with the integrated single force vector sensor the change of the vector of force applied to the force sensor by the end-point;

digitizing this information and processing the data related to the change of the movement vector components and force vector components;

providing a description in digital format of how the input device has been moved and pressed to the surface based at least in part on the movement sensor components and force applied by the end-point to the working surface.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of comparing at least one of the characteristics chosen from the group consisting of:

graphical image data, corresponding speed data, acceleration data, angular rate data, angular acceleration data, angular orientation data with pre-recorded graphical image, corresponding speed, acceleration, angular rate, angular acceleration and angular orientation images data for multilevel (checking) determining the authenticity of the handwritten information.

8. The method according to claim 6, further providing an additional inputs control device with at least one button/joystick coupled with corresponding multi-axis sensor, which controls additional functions during movement of the hand-painting, hand-drawing, handwriting and cursor navigating device.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the force sensor vector components and motions sensors vector components are associated with different functions required to be inputted into a computer system, where

control functions to be linked to individual vector sensors components are chosen from the list of functions consisting of:

action, turning on and off, navigation of a cursor on the display of the electronic device, scrolling, zooming, shadowing, screening, selecting, deleting, restoring, saving, opening, closing, searching, setting up, previewing, undoing, clearing, repeating, pasting, finding, replacing, inserting, formatting, color selection, color mixing, line or stroke width, brush size, swatch size, sponge size, eraser size . . . or combination.

10. A system for digital recording of hand-painted, hand-drawn and handwritten information and for navigating a cursor on the display defined by a hand and/or fingers movement, said system comprising:

a computing device with a display;

an input device for hand-painting, hand-drawing and handwriting and for navigating a cursor on the display, said device comprising;

an interchangeable end-point;

a single force vector sensor integrated on a semiconductor substrate chip, wherein the semiconductor substrate chip is included in the interchangeable end-point;

IC circuit for digitizing the information from the single force vector sensor and processing the data related to the change of the force vector components;

hardware and software for providing a description in digital format of how the input device has been pressed to the surface based at least in part on the force applied by the end-point to the writing surface; and

hardware and software for providing a description in digital format of how the input device has been moved over the surface based at least in part on the correlation between the force vector components and corresponding movement vector components,

wherein the input device is moving with a hand and/or fingers such that the interchangeable end-point is contacting a surface suitable for such movement across the surface in a process of painting, drawing, writing or cursor navigating while recording with the single force vector sensor integrated on a semiconductor substrate chip the change of the vector force representing the motion of the input device and force applied to the sensor by the interchangeable end-point.

11. The input device according to claim 10, further comprising an overall housing (body) having a shape chosen from a group of shapes consisting of:

pen-like shape, pencil-like shape, brush handle-like shape, button-like shape, pill-like shape, thimble-like shape, ring-like shape, cylinder, rod, plate, parallelepiped, ellipsoid, sphere, semi-sphere, torus, cone, prism, or combination.

12. The input device according to claim 10, further comprising a transceiver selectively operating for wireless transferring said description to an external computing device with display.

13. The input device according to claim 10, further comprising an interchangeable cartridge with ink within the input device for generating permanent marks on the surface while the end-point is contacting the surface during the hand movement relative to the surface, wherein the cartridge comprises the single force vector sensor and electrical contacts for providing power to the single force vector sensor and transferring information from the single force vector sensor to the IC circuit for digitizing the information from the single force vector sensor and processing the data related to the change of the force vector components within the body of the input device.

14. The input device according to claim 10, further comprising at least one sensor chosen from the group of sensors consisting of:

one-axis linear accelerometer, two-axis linear accelerometer, three-axis linear accelerometer, one-axis gyro, two-axis gyro, three-axis gyro, one-axis angular accelerometer, two-axis angular accelerometer, three-axis angular accelerometer, one-axis compass, two-axis compass, three-axis compass for determining the motion parameters characterizing how the input device has been moved between recording of two positions on the writing surface.

15. The input device according to claim 10, wherein the interchangeable end-point is chosen from the group:

a tip or pin coupled to the single force vector sensor;

a ball sitting in a housing allowing rotation of the ball and contacting with the single force vector sensor;

a bunch of fibers coupled to the single force vector sensor.

16. The input device according to claim 15, wherein the interchangeable end-point comprises at least one of the following features:

a flexible portion connecting it with the force sensor providing the adequate transfer of a displacement of the end-point and the force applied to the end-point to the force sensor;

a housing, which has stops limiting the force, with which the end-point can press the force sensor, providing mechanical overload protection of the force sensor;

at least one channel inside the end-point for supplying an ink to the writing surface.

17. The input device according to claim 10, wherein single force vector sensor comprises:

a sensor chip formed within semiconductor substrate chip;

an elastic element within said semiconductor substrate chip;

a frame formed around said elastic element and coupled with at least part of the periphery of said elastic element all within the semiconductor substrate chip;

at least one channel through the sensor chip for an ink supply;

at least three mechanical stress sensitive IC components located in the elastic element for providing electrical output signals proportional to the mechanical stress in the location of the IC components;

at least one rigid island element formed in the semiconductor substrate chip and coupled with the elastic element;

at least one rigid force-transferring element coupled to the rigid island of a sensor chip, which transfers an external vector force to the elastic element and through it to the IC components, which provide electrical output signal; and

at least one electronic circuit for processing output signals from the mechanical stress sensitive IC components.

18. The input device of claim 17, further comprising electronic circuits from a group of electronic circuits consisting of amplifiers, multiplexers, analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters, microprocessor, flash memory, EEPROM, and I/O interface circuits.

19. The input device of claim 17, further comprising at least one stress sensitive IC component chosen from the group of stress sensitive IC components consisting of:

a piezoresistor, a pn-junction, a tunnel diode, a Schottky diode, a shear stress component, a piezoresistive Wheatstone bridge, a MOS transistor, a complementary pair of CMOS transistors, a bipolar transistor, a pair of p-n-p and n-p-n bipolar transistors, a bipolar transistor and at least one piezoresistor connected to transistor, a MOS transistor and at least one piezoresistor connected to transistor, a bipolar transistor circuit, and a CMOS transistor circuit.

20. The input device according to claim 10, further comprising hardware and software means for using this input device as a cell phone, said hardware comprises at least:

cell phone processor, transceiver, microphone, speakerphone, display, control buttons, photo-camera, video-camera, voice and video recorder, wherein different control functions are inputting into the cell phone via graphical presentation by input device itself and chosen from;

phone dialing by writing numbers, phone dialing by writing codes or symbols, phone dialing by writing names, text messaging by writing a message, text messaging by writing a letters, text messaging with personalized graphics, all required for cell phone commands coded in graphical images.