Device and method for emulating a touch screen using force information

A method of operating an electronic system to emulate a touch sensitive interface using a touchpad and a display screen which does not overlap the touchpad, the method comprising:

• determining positional information and force information for an input object in a sensing region of the touchpad;
• positioning an input object representation on the display screen based on the positional information;
• selecting a user selectable item on the display screen based on the force information satisfying a first force threshold;
• and
• activating the selected item based on the force information satisfying the first force threshold and a second force threshold.

A processing system for use with a force enabled touchpad, comprising:

• a sensor module configured to detect input objects in a sensing region of the touchpad and to generate resulting signals comprising positional information and force information for an input object;
• and
• a determination module configured to:
• control the position of an input object representation on a display screen based on the positional information;
• control the selection of an item on the display screen based on a force imparted to an input surface of the touchpad by the input object satisfying a first force threshold;
• and
• control the activation of the selected item based on the force imparted to the input surface by the input object satisfying the first force threshold and a second force threshold.