Controlling device operation relative to a surface

A multimode control system for a handheld device, comprising:

• an optical assembly for imposing incident light on a tracking surface in a mouse mode;
• a sensing assembly for sensing reflected tracking light from the tracking surface to track movement of the device relative to the tracking surface and sensing reflected switching light for mode switching, the sensing assembly includes an image sensor that senses the reflected tracking light and a photodetector that detects the reflected switching light;
• a switching assembly for automatically switching between the mouse mode and a presenter mode based on sensing of the reflected switching light;
• and
• delay logic for delaying the automatic switching between the mouse mode and the presenter mode according to a delay value.

A method of multimodal optical switching, comprising:

• imposing incident light on a tracking surface;
• detecting specular light on an optical sensing assembly;
• and
• automatically switching between a tracking mode and a different mode based on the detected specular light.