Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080266261 | Keystroke Error Correction Method - An electronic device and method of correcting keystroke errors in which a sequence of characters entered by actuating text character keys on a keyboard is checked against at least one database to determine if there is at least one word in the at least one database that begins with the sequence of words. Where no such words are found in the at least one database, a table of text character key locations is accessed to locate text character keys adjacent to each of the text character keys actuated to enter the sequence of characters, and one at a time, each character of the sequence of characters is substituted with a character corresponding to a text character key found to be adjacent to the text character key corresponding to the substituted characters, thereby creating one or more alternate sequences of characters. The alternate sequences of characters are checked against the at least one database to determine if there is at least one word in the at least one database that begins with any of the alternate sequences of characters. | 10-30-2008 |
20090096417 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE, INCLUDING HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH INTELLIGENT HOLSTER - A handheld electronic device that includes a first battery and a holster that includes a second battery and a charging apparatus. When the handheld electronic device and the holster are electrically connected together, the charging apparatus charges the first battery on the handheld electronic device from the second battery on the holster when the first battery charge has been depleted to a given level and the second battery charge is above a second given level. Alternatively, if the first battery charge is above a third given level the first battery charges the second battery if the second battery is not fully charged. The holster further includes a microcontroller that communicates with a microprocessor on the handheld electronic device to identify alerts and activate a notification device powered by the second battery on the holster. | 04-16-2009 |
20100090957 | LIGHT ASSISTED KEYBOARD FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE - A mobile communication device having a keyboard with a set of keys representing alpha-numeric characters, the keyboard comprising a light source, located within said mobile communication device; for providing a light; a set of sensors, associated with said keys, for sensing an amount of said light in a vicinity of each of said set of sensors, to determine which of said set of keys has been selected; and a transparent flat cover, overlying said set of sensors, displaying said set of alpha-numeric characters, for associating said set of alpha-numeric characters with said set of sensors. | 04-15-2010 |
20110018501 | TEMPERATURE-BASED CHARGE AND DISCHARGE CONTROL FOR A BATTERY - A protection circuit for a battery pack, comprising: a thermistor for indicating a temperature of a cell in the battery pack; a first comparator coupled to the thermistor for determining whether the temperature has exceeded a charge cut-off temperature threshold for the cell, and if so, for turning off a first switch in series with the cell to prevent charging of the cell; and, a second comparator coupled to the thermistor for determining whether the temperature has exceeded a discharge cut-off temperature threshold for the cell, and if so, for turning off a second switch in series with the cell to prevent discharging of the cell. | 01-27-2011 |
20120162939 | APPARATUS FOR VIBRATING A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A portable electronic device includes: a housing, a power pack received in the housing, and an actuator disposed between the power pack and a component of the portable electronic device, the component being in a fixed position relative to the housing, wherein the actuator imparts a force on the power pack to move the power pack relative to the housing. | 06-28-2012 |
20120202092 | DISABLING A POWER PACK FROM A HOST DEVICE - This document discusses, among other things, a method for disabling an internal power pack comprising receiving a command from an external source at a processor for a portable electronic device. The command can instruct the portable electronic device to disable an internal power pack for the portable electronic device. The method also includes sending a signal from the processor to the internal power pack to disable the internal power pack in response to the command. | 08-09-2012 |
20140035882 | APPARATUS AND METHOD PERTAINING TO A STYLUS HAVING A PLURALITY OF NON-PASSIVE LOCATION MODALITIES - A stylus, configured for interactive use with a surface such as but not limited to a display, includes a stylus housing that supports a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to selectively effect at least two different non-passive location modalities wherein each of the non-passive location modalities imparts location-determination information. The plurality of non-passive location modalities can be selectively used in combination with one another or in a singular fashion as desired. | 02-06-2014 |
20140035885 | Apparatus and Method for Selecting Stylus Location-Determination Information Provided by a Plurality of Non-Passive Stylus-Location Modalities - A stylus includes a stylus housing that supports a control circuit. The control circuit is configured automatically compare data quality as corresponds to stylus location-determination information being provided by at least two different stylus-based candidate non-passive location modalities to thereby select a particular stylus-based non-passive location modality and to then use that particular stylus-based non-passive location modality when transmitting stylus location-determination information to a corresponding electronic device. | 02-06-2014 |
20140035886 | Apparatus and Method to Determine an Angle of Inclination and/or Rotation of a Stylus - An electronic device has a control circuit that receives first location-determination information from such a stylus as per a first location modality along with second location-determination information as per a second location modality, wherein the second location modality is different from the first location modality. This control circuit then uses the first location-determination information in combination with the second location-determination information to determine at least one of an angle of inclination of the stylus with respect to the aforementioned scribing surface and rotation of the stylus about a central longitudinal axis. | 02-06-2014 |
20140098074 | APPARATUS AND METHOD PERTAINING TO THE USE OF MULTIPLE LOCATION MODALITIES WITH A STYLUS - A stylus is configured for interactive use with a scribing surface. The stylus comprises a stylus housing and a first control circuit support by the stylus housing. The first control circuit is configured to simultaneously effect, as a primary operating state as regards tracking movement of a stylus, at least two different location modalities wherein each of the location modalities imparts location-determination information. The aforementioned two different location modalities can both be selected from a group consisting of capacitively-based non-passive approaches, acoustically-based non-passive approaches, magnetically-based non-passive approaches, light-emitting-based non-passive approaches, camera-based non-passive approaches, and radio-frequency-based non-passive approaches. | 04-10-2014 |
20140111135 | SOLAR CELL AND PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A solar cell and a portable electronic device are provided. The solar cell includes a semiconductor material configured to absorb light for generating a current. The solar cell further includes a positive contact and a negative contact. In addition, the negative contact is configured to couple with an external interface. The portable electronic device includes an energy storage unit. The portable electronic device also includes a semiconductor material configured to absorb light for generating a current, a positive contact, and a negative contact. The negative contact of the portable electronic device is configured to couple with an external interface. | 04-24-2014 |
20140160087 | Method and Apparatus Pertaining to Gestures with Respect to a Stylus - An apparatus and method pertaining to detecting a user's gesture(s) with respect to a stylus and the wireless transmission of information regarding that gesture. The detected gesture can comprise, for example, movement of a user's finger along the stylus and/or displacement of a user's finger from contact with the stylus. | 06-12-2014 |
20140160088 | ACTIVE STYLUS FORCE SENSING MECHANISM FOR GENERATING A WAKEUP INTERRUPT TO THE CONTROLLER - An active stylus having a control circuit configured to wake up the stylus from a sleep mode to an active mode in response to pressure applied to a tip of the stylus. The stylus includes a force sensor electrically coupled to a power source, an operational amplifier, and a voltage level comparator, the voltage level comparator configured to output a digital wake up interrupt signal when pressure is applied to the tip when the control circuit is in the sleep mode. The operational amplifier is configured to provide an analog signal representative of varying pressure on the tip. This signal is processed by the control circuit such that the stylus goes into the sleep mode after a specified period of time following cessation of variations in the analog signal. | 06-12-2014 |
20140168173 | AUTOMATIC CALIBRATION OF STYLUS LOCATION USING MAPPING BETWEEN COLOR AND LOCATION - The present disclosure describes an electronic device, a stylus having a color sensor, and methods for calibrating the stylus relative to a screen of the electronic device. A color image is displayed on the screen of the electronic device, the color image comprising pixels each having one or more color components. A first screen location is determined at which the color components of a pixel match one or more color components sensed by the stylus. A second screen location is determined in response to a sensed location of the stylus and dependent upon one or more calibration parameters. The calibration parameters are adjusted dependent upon the first and second screen locations. | 06-19-2014 |
20140168174 | STYLUS LOCATION UTILIZING MULTIPLE MAGNETOMETERS - The present disclosure provides a host electronic device, a stylus and a method for determining the location of a stylus with respect to a host electronic device. A magnetic field generator of the stylus is energized and a first magnetic field is sensed at two or more magnetometers of the host electronic device. The location of the stylus with respect to the host electronic device is determined dependent upon the first magnetic field. A second magnetic field may be sensed, while the magnetic field generator is either deactivated or energized with an opposite polarity, to correct for the presence of a background magnetic field. The magnetometers may be directional magnetometers and may be arranged in an array. | 06-19-2014 |
20140168175 | MAGNETICALLY COUPLING STYLUS AND HOST ELECTRONIC DEVICE - Magnetic coupling between a stylus and a host electronic device is provided using an array of magnetic field generators that produce a magnetic field in proximity to a drawing surface of the host electronic device. The magnetic field produces a force on a magnetic tip of the stylus. The magnetic field may be controlled dependent upon the location, motion, tilt angle and/or contact force of the stylus and may also be controlled dependent upon images rendered on a display screen that is combined with the drawing surface. The magnetic field may also cause motion in a movable magnet of the stylus. The energy associated with the motion may be harvested to provide power to the stylus. | 06-19-2014 |
20140198051 | Apparatus and Method Pertaining to the Stylus-Initiated Opening of an Application - A particular application is pre-associated with the detection of a predetermined stylus action that occurs while a given electronic device is in a standby mode of operation. Upon then detecting that predetermined stylus action these teachings provide for responsively opening that particular application. By one approach this opening of the particular application occurs in conjunction with switching the electronic device from the standby mode of operation to the active mode of operation. The pre-association can be based, at least in part, upon an automatic association based upon identifying the most-used application for the electronic device. As another example, the pre-association can be based, at least in part, upon a specific user-based selection. | 07-17-2014 |
20140204126 | Method and Apparatus Pertaining to Predicted Stylus Movements - An apparatus and method pertaining to the display of a stylus path that includes both a validated portion and a predicted portion. Upon determining an error between subsequent stylus movement and that predicted portion, these teachings provide for morphing a display of the predicted portion to accord with the subsequent stylus movement over time rather than abruptly switching the display to an immediately fully-corrected representation. | 07-24-2014 |
20140375573 | System and Method of Authentication of an Electronic Signature - An apparatus and method pertaining to detecting user input, such as a signature, with respect to a stylus and the transmission of information regarding that input. The detected input can comprise, for example, characteristics of the input and transmit them to a secondary device to verify the input matches a stored template. | 12-25-2014 |
20150028186 | BACKLIGHT FOR TOUCHLESS GESTURE DETECTION - A device and method to detect a gesture performed by an object in touch-less communication with the device are described. The device includes two or more ambient light sensors arranged at respective first surface locations of the device, each of the two or more ambient light sensors sensing light intensity at the respective first surface location. The device also includes one or more processors to operate one or more light sources at respective second surface locations of the device based on the light intensity sensed by the two or more ambient light sensors, and detect the gesture based on the light intensity sensed by each of the two or more ambient light sensors. | 01-29-2015 |
20150029085 | Apparatus and Method Pertaining to the Use of a Plurality of 3D Gesture Sensors to Detect 3D Gestures - A device having at least two 3-dimensional gesture sensors that employ differing gesture-sensing modalities as compared to one another further includes a control circuit that operably couples to both of these 3-dimensional gesture sensors and employs both to detect three-dimensional gestures. By one approach the control circuit employs both sensors in a temporally-overlapping manner to reliably and accurately detect the 3D gesture. As another illustrative example, the control circuit may employ different sensors during different portions of a given 3D gesture to detect those corresponding portions of the 3D gesture. | 01-29-2015 |
20150049011 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCING THREE-DIMENSIONAL IMAGE PROCESSING - A system and method of controlling displayed three-dimensional visual content is disclosed. A signal is received from a user operated adjustment device, the signal being generated by a physical movement of the adjustment device by the user, wherein the signal corresponds to a desired adjustment of the displayed three-dimensional content. A value of an image-generation parameter of the three-dimensional visual content is adjusted corresponding to the signal received from the adjustment device. A physical parameter of a display device that displays the three-dimensional visual content is changed based on the adjusted value of the image-generation parameter in order to implement the desired adjustment of the displayed three-dimensional visual content. | 02-19-2015 |