Using sequence identifiers to identify sequential touches in a capacitive sensing system

A method comprising:

• waking a processor from a low-power mode of operation in response to a predetermined amount of a storage element being filled with sensor data packets;
• and
• determining whether sequential touches of a sensor are continuous or discontinuous based on the sensor data packets by the processor operating in a normal mode of operation,
• repeatedly evaluating the sensor and storing a corresponding sensor data packet in the storage element in response to corresponding sensor data indicating a corresponding touch of the sensor and discarding the corresponding sensor data in response to the corresponding sensor data indicating no touch of the sensor;
• and
• incrementing a counter for each evaluation of the sensor by the repeatedly evaluating,
• wherein each of the sensor data packets includes an indication of sensed capacitance and a corresponding sequence identifier, and
• wherein the corresponding sequence identifier is based on a value of the counter coinciding with the indication of the sensed capacitance.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor having a low-power mode of operation and a normal mode of operation;
• a storage element;
• and
• digital logic configured to wake the processor from the low-power mode of operation in response to a predetermined amount of the storage element being filled with sensor data packets,
• wherein the processor is configured to determine whether sequential touches of a sensor are continuous or discontinuous based on the sensor data packets, and
• wherein the digital logic is further configured to repeatedly evaluate the sensor, store a corresponding sensor data packet in the storage element in response to corresponding sensor data indicating a corresponding touch of the sensor, and discard the corresponding sensor data packet in response to the corresponding sensor data indicating no touch of the sensor.