Navigation and fingerprint sensor

A system for providing cursor manipulation when using a human finger comprising:

• a sensing surface operative to sense contact by the human finger, the contact corresponding to applied pressure, the sensing surface having a sampling resolution based on at least one of periodically sampling alternating pixels in an array such that sampled pixels are distributed in a periodic pattern throughout the array and monitoring at least one of a plurality of zones in the pressure sensor array, wherein the plurality of zones are distributed in a non-overlapping pattern throughout the pressure sensor array, and wherein each of the plurality of zones includes multiple pixels of the pressure sensor array, the plurality of zones collectively providing navigation data;
• a pressure sensor array disposed on the sensing surface, wherein a measurement of the plurality of pressure sensors corresponds to an image;
• and
• an image detector, receiving images from the pressure sensor array, generating cursor manipulation corresponding to changes between the images.

A method for finger navigation of a cursor comprising:

• sampling a portion of an array of pressure sensors to generate a first sample based on at least one of periodically sampling alternating pixels in the array such that sampled pixels are distributed in a periodic pattern throughout the array and monitoring at least one of a plurality of zones in the array, wherein the plurality of zones are distributed in a non-overlapping pattern throughout the array, and wherein each of the plurality of zones includes multiple pixels of the array, the plurality of zones collectively providing navigation data;
• re-sampling the portion of the array to generate a second sample;
• and
• comparing the first and second samples to determine planar movement of the finger to generate directional input reflected in navigational movement of the cursor.