Force sensing stylus
AssigneeBlackBerry Limited
InventorsCornel Mercea, Yu Gao
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure provides a force sensing stylus that includes a shaft. The shaft has a tip-end, which protrudes from the stylus body, and an interior-end that is located within the body. The shaft is supported in the body at the tip-end by a compliant element. A multi-axis force sensor, in contact with the interior-end of the shaft, senses lateral and longitudinal components of a force applied to the tip-end of the shaft, or a combination thereof. The sensed force components may be transmitted to an electronic device and used to control an application executed on the device.
Claims21
A stylus comprising:
- a body;
- a shaft disposed within the body and having a tip-end that protrudes from the body and an interior-end located within the body;
- a transverse support through which the shaft passes and on the shaft is cantilevered and/or pivoted, the transverse support located between the tip-end and the interior end of the shaft;
- a compliant element configured to support the tip-end of the shaft;
- a multi-axis force sensor in contact with the interior-end of the shaft and operable to sense lateral and longitudinal forces applied to the tip-end of the shaft, the multi-axis force sensor comprising at least three sensing elements each in contact with a convex surface of the interior-end of the shaft;
- a signal combiner circuit operable to combine signals output from the at least three sensing elements to produce a representation of the lateral and longitudinal forces applied to the tip end of the stylus;
- and
- a transmitter operable to transmit the representation of the lateral and longitudinal forces over a communication link to a host electronic device.
A method of operating a stylus, the stylus comprising a body, a shaft disposed within the body and having a tip-end that protrudes the body and an interior-end located within the body;
- and a compliant:
- one more of cantilevering and pivoting the shaft on a transverse support through which the shaft passes, wherein the transverse support is located between the tip-end and the interior end of the shaft;
- sensing lateral and longitudinal forces applied to the tip-end of the shaft using a multi-axis force sensor in contact with the interior-end of the shaft, the multi-axis force sensor comprising at least three sensing elements each in contact with a convex surface of the interior-end of the shaft;
- combining signals from the sensing elements of the multi-axis force sensor to provide a representation of the sensed lateral and longitudinal forces applied to the tip end of the stylus;
- and
- outputting the representation of the sensed lateral and longitudinal forces applied to the end of the stylus,
- where outputting the representation of the lateral and longitudinal forces applied to the tip end of the stylus comprises transmitting the representation over a communication link to a host electronic device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.