516 results about "Optical mouse" patented technology

A pen-type optical mouse device indicates a cursor position or inputs writing or a movement of the pen-type optical mouse. An aspect of the pen-type optical mouse is to calculate coordinate values of the mouse device in accordance with a movement of the pen-type optical mouse device. The pen-type optical device includes an image sensor on a side of the interior of a main body of pen-type the mouse device, thereby allowing the pen-type optical mouse device to be slim and easy to hold.

A small optical mouse that is easy to use, that provides a standard mouse like user experience, that works efficiently in combination with a keyboard, that can be used as a stylus, and that can be used on the viewing surface of a computer monitor as well as related devices and methods.

There is described a method as well as a device for motion detect ion in an optical sensing device, such as an optical mouse. A photodetector array comprising a plurality of pixels is used to detect successive light intensity patterns of an illuminated portion of a surface with respect to which a measurement of relative motion is to be determined. Light intensity between neighbouring pixels is compared in order to determine edge direction data descriptive of light intensity differences between the pixels, such data including (i) a first edge condition, or positive edge, defined as a condition wherein light intensity of a first pixel is less than light intensity of a second pixel, and (ii) a second edge condition, or negative edge, defined as a condition wherein light intensity of the first pixel is greater than light intensity of the second pixel. Through comparison of this edge direction data with edge direction data determined from a previous illumination (or by comparing data extracted from this edge direction data) a measurement of the relative motion of the optical sensing device with respect to the illuminated portion of the surface is determined.

In order to measure the movement of a vehicle, especially an aircraft, an imaging optical system 2 which is to be positioned on the vehicle is used to detect an image of the environment 4, and an optoelectronic shift sensor 3 chip of the type comprising an inherent evaluation unit is used to measure any shift of the image from structures thereof. The shift sensor is equal or similar to the sensor used on an optical mouse. The sensor is positioned in such a way that infinite objects are focused. The measuring signal is evaluated to indicate movements and / or the position of the aircraft. The inventive system can also be used to measure distances e.g. in order to control the flight altitude. The invention further relates to methods for automatically controlling particularly a hovering flight by means of a control loop using optical flow measurement.

An optical mouse images as an array of pixels the spatial features of generally any micro textured or micro detailed work surface below the mouse. The photo detector responses are digitized and stored as a frame into memory. Motion produces successive frames of translated patterns of pixel information, which are compared by autocorrelation to ascertain the direction and amount of movement. A hold feature suspends the production of movement signals to the computer, allowing the mouse to be physically relocated on the work surface without disturbing the position on the screen of the pointer. This may be needed if the operator runs out of room to physically move the mouse further, but the screen pointer still needs to go further. The hold feature may be implemented with an actual button, a separate proximity detector or by detecting the presence of a characteristic condition in the digitized data, such as loss of correlation or velocity in excess of a selected limit. A convenient place for an actual hold button is along the sides of the mouse near the bottom, where the thumb and the opposing ring finger grip the mouse. The gripping force used to lift the mouse engages the hold function. Hold may incorporate a brief delay upon either the release of the hold button, detection of proper proximity or the return of reasonable digitized values. During that delay any illumination control or AGC servo loops stabilize. A new reference frame is taken prior to the resumption of motion detection.

Disclosed is a pen-shaped optical mouse. The optical mouse has an optical fiber on the optical path of illuminating light, and an optical fiber bundle on the optical path of reflected light, respectively. The optical system of the optical mouse is realized irrespective of the optical paths and their lengths, showing a good image-transmitting feature to transmit good image to an image sensor. An image is input to the image sensor through an end of an optical tip where the image directly contacts a reflecting surface, which enhances the accuracy of the pen-shaped optical mouse since there is no change in the location of a mouse pointer or a focal length in spite of the change in the angle between the pen-shaped optical mouse and the reflecting surface.

An optical structure of the optical mouse is disclosed, which comprises a light source providing an incident light beam transmitted onto a target surface at a specific incident angle and a photosensor pre-disposed at an angle of between 1 and 179 degrees or between 181 and 359 degrees so as to be aligned to stand at a right angle with respect to a path of the reflected version and thus achieve a proper acquirement of luminance and image of the reflected version of the incident light from the target surface.

An optical navigation sensor apparatus for an optical mouse includes an optical navigation sensor having an electronic chip, an aperture plate and an imaging lens integrated into a single package. The imaging lens includes a lens housing surrounding the aperture and providing a barrier to the entry of foreign matter into the aperture. In one form, the optical navigation sensor also includes a light emitting diode (LED) for illuminating a small area of a surface under the sensor and generating a reflected image that is detected by the electronic chip. In a sensor having an integral LED, an integral collimating lens is included for receiving light from the LED and focusing the light from the LED on the surface to be illuminated. The collimating lens is incorporated into a lens housing surrounding the LED and protecting the LED from exposure to foreign material.

An input apparatus including an optical mouse module and a mouse pad module is provided. The optical mouse module includes a light source and an optical sensor. The light source is adapted to emit a light beam. The optical sensor has a sensible distance. The mouse pad module is disposed on the optical mouse module. The mouse pad module includes a sliding sheet elastically coupled to the optical mouse module. The sliding sheet is adapted to move in a three-dimensional space. The optical sensor and the sliding sheet are arranged in an arrangement direction. An operation method of the input apparatus is also provided.

An optical navigation system for determining movement relative to a navigation terrain includes a first source and a second source of optical radiation for illuminating the navigation terrain, the first source differing from the second source in at least one operating parameter. The system further includes means to select the first source and the second source independently based on decision criteria. The system further includes a detector for capturing patterns in the optical radiation subsequent to illuminating of the navigation terrain.

An input apparatus including an optical mouse module and a mouse pad module is provided. The optical mouse module includes a light source and an optical sensor. The light source is adapted to emit a light beam. The optical sensor has a sensible distance. The mouse pad module is disposed on the optical mouse module. The mouse pad module includes a sliding sheet elastically coupled to the optical mouse module. The sliding sheet is adapted to move in a three-dimensional space. The optical sensor and the sliding sheet are arranged in an arrangement direction. An operation method of the input apparatus is also provided.

A test strip reader is provided with an optical mouse integrated circuit sensor that reads the test line, reference line and control line of a lateral flow assay strip by light absorption and determines the position of the test strip beneath the image on the integrated circuit board using digital signal processing algorithms. The digital signal processing algorithms process the imaged surface at a very high rate (e.g., 1500 frames per second) to determine the direction and speed of movement of the lateral strip with respect to the reader optics and image capture components. The sensor outputs this position information in a quadrature pattern format. A microcontroller uses the known position of the strip with respect to the reader to calculate the optical absorption of each colored reagent line, and the diagnostic significance (i.e., either qualitative or quantitative) of the test strip.

A pointing device, such as an optical mouse, includes a light unit for illuminating a surface, a photodetector array configured to generate image information related to the illuminated surface, a navigation engine for generating navigation information at a target resolution of the pointing device, and a resolution input interface for controlling or adjusting the target resolution value of the pointing device via input of a resolution scaling ratio. The resolution input interface is configured for user input of the resolution scaling ratio, such that the target resolution of the pointing device can be readily adjusted, in real time, over a broad range of resolution values and in small increments. A technique for mitigating cursor jitter problems at high resolution values is also disclosed.

A pointing device having an illumination system, camera system, and positioning mechanism is disclosed. The illumination system illuminates a surface below a transparent plate having a constant thickness. The camera system records images of the illuminated surface. The positioning mechanism adjusts the relative position of the illumination with respect to the camera system. The relative position is determined by the constant thickness. The positioning mechanism has a first position corresponding to a predetermined value for the constant thickness and a second position corresponding to the constant thickness being zero. The positioning mechanism is operable by a user of the pointing device to compensate for different thicknesses of transparent plates.

In order to allow key input without operation of a keyboard or allow click and drag operations by finger tips of the hands, the present invention is primarily characterized in that a user wears a glove (7) (including a glove that covers only finger tips), which has a motion detection sensor (4) (based on the same principle as a laser mouse or an optical mouse) and a tactile sensor (5) (a conductive rubber, a piezoelectric element or the like) mounted on each finger-tip part thereof, on each hand (like mounting a small laser mouse or optical mouse on each finger tip), motion information about each finger tip is transmitted to an information processing device, such as a personal computer (PC), a PDA and a cellular phone, the position of each finger tip is displayed on a virtual keyboard (2) shown on a display (3) of the information processing device, and the tactile sensor (5) detects the pressure on a finger tip when the finger tip is pressed against an arbitrary object, such as a desk, thereby allowing input of a key corresponding to the finger tip pressed against the arbitrary object.

An optical mouse scanner allows users to perform quick scans of paper documents (or of some other surface) without requiring a separate, standalone scanner. Scanning functionality may be provided to an optical mouse, such as a wireless optical mouse. The scanning sensor and / or the scanning light source could be same as that used for the optical motion detection for the mouse. Alternatively, a separate light source and / or imaging element could be provided for purposes of scanning. Image stitching software could use a number of captured images (e.g., a stream of captured frames) alone, or in association with mouse orientation and / or position information, to assemble a larger image from smaller captured image frames.

An improved structure of a mouse pen is disclosed. The mouse pen mainly comprises a hollow pen shaft inside which a refill having a spring is mounted. A pen cover for press is mounted on a distal end of the pen shaft. A cursor control device is mounted on the pen shaft beside the pen point. An optical mouse circuit board having a wireless transmission circuit and a Bluetooth chip module is mounted inside the pen shaft. Furthermore, a refill is connected to the optical mouse circuit board via a sensor. As a result, the mouse pen structure is a pen for use in handwriting input and an optical mouse for use in computer input, and synchronizes the handwriting input and the computer input. Moreover, the mouse pen structure can be applied to listen to digital music and answer the phone.

There is described a method as well as a device for motion detect ion in an optical sensing device, such as an optical mouse. A photodetector array comprising a plurality of pixels is used to detect successive light intensity patterns of an illuminated portion of a surface with respect to which a measurement of relative motion is to be determined. Light intensity between neighbouring pixels is compared in order to determine edge direction data descriptive of light intensity differences between the pixels, such data including (i) a first edge condition, or positive edge, defined as a condition wherein light intensity of a first pixel is less than light intensity of a second pixel, and (ii) a second edge condition, or negative edge, defined as a condition wherein light intensity of the first pixel is greater than light intensity of the second pixel. Through comparison of this edge direction data with edge direction data determined from a previous illumination (or by comparing data extracted from this edge direction data) a measurement of the relative motion of the optical sensing device with respect to the illuminated portion of the surface is determined.

An optical pointing device has a rotatable optics housing and provides cursor control in one of two modes: a finger navigation mode and a desktop navigation mode. In the finger navigation mode, the rotatable optics housing is in a first position and moving a finger across a transparent plate in the optics housing controls the cursor movement. In the desktop navigation mode, the rotatable optics housing is in a second position and moving the entire optical mouse in a conventional manner across a fixed surface controls cursor movement. The optical pointing device may further include a touchpad scroll input device and a laser pointing device.

The size of a print area may be determined using a hand-held printer including an internal tracking device, such as an optical mouse device. Based on the size of the print area, and one or more user settings, an image to be printed on the print surface by the hand-held printer may be scaled and / or repositioned. The hand-held printer may print the image to a desired size while centering the image or otherwise repositioning it, scaling it to fit within user-defined margins or areas, and the like.

A pointing device such as an optical mouse is equipped with a top surface lift detection system that is able to provide lift detection whether the pointing device sits on a transparent structure or on an opaque structure. The top surface lift detection system relies on the separate detection of a light beam that reflects off the surface upon which the pointing device sits to detect lift whether the pointing devices sits on an opaque surface or a transparent surface.

A highly sensitive inertial mouse is in particular to one using an MEMS(Micro-Electrical-Mechanical System)inertial sensitive principle; the mouse uses MEMS inertial sensitive principle including a two-dimensional or three-dimensional inertial sensors or accelerometers and with the use of signal processing methods such as collecting of data, noise cancellation, setting of threshold of dead zone, tracking of baseline, calculation of displacement and adjustment of sensitivity and so on, enable the MEMS sensor acting as the manufacturing component of a computer mouse; furthermore, the present invention is not only light and energy saving, but also obviates the drawbacks of high power consumption of optics mice or easy-dirt collection of roller mice. Moreover, with the increase in sensitivity, the bottleneck in the manufacturing of inertial mouse is overcome such that the functions of MEMS inertial mouse is very stable and reliable and can be easily used.

A test strip reader is provided with an optical mouse integrated circuit sensor that reads the test line, reference line and control line of a lateral flow assay strip by light absorption and determines the position of the test strip beneath the image on the integrated circuit board using digital signal processing algorithms. The digital signal processing algorithms process the imaged surface at a very high rate (e.g., 1500 frames per second) to determine the direction and speed of movement of the lateral strip with respect to the reader optics and image capture components. The sensor outputs this position information in a quadrature pattern format. A microcontroller uses the known position of the strip with respect to the reader to calculate the optical absorption of each colored reagent line, and the diagnostic significance (i.e., either qualitative or quantitative) of the test strip.

The invention discloses a computer input device with Bluetooth hand-free handset comprises: an electric source module, for providing power to the computer input device, comprising a voltage step-up circuit and a battery, in which the battery can be an one-time-battery or a rechargeable battery used as the electric source for the computer input device; an optical mouse circuit, for detecting movement vector caused by a movement of the computer input device by the principles of optical transmitting and receiving; a Bluetooth module, coupled to the optical mouse circuit, wherein the module is further connected to an antenna for transmitting / receiving signals, a power LED for indicating whether the computer input device is powered, and a link LED for indicating whether the computer input device is in a communication state; an echo cancellation circuit, coupled to the Bluetooth module and used for canceling echoes of audio signals; a sound receptor, coupled to the echo cancellation circuit for receiving the audio signals; an audio signal amplifying circuit, coupled to the echo cancellation circuit for receiving and amplifying the audio signals outputted from the echo cancellation circuit; and a loudspeaker, coupled to the audio signal amplifying circuit for playing sounds corresponding to the audio signals from the audio signal amplifying circuit.

A magnetic tracker system for use on an operator's head makes “mouse” / cursor movements on a screen similar to that of the classic computer “mouse” / track ball / touchpad / joystick. Only head movements are used as opposed to lifting a hand from the keyboard for making such moves. The new “mouse” avoids interrupting the hands from their position on the keyboard and has no moving mechanical parts that become clogged and that need a special surface (mouse pad) or special surface measurements (optical mouse).

An optical mouse is operated on a work surface and includes at least one light emitter for emitting a light beam; a light receiver contained by a casing; a rolling ball arranged on the casing and opposite to the light receiver. The light beam has only one reflection by the rolling ball during an optical path thereof and then is detected by the light receiver. The rolling ball is made of transparent material and the distance thereof with the light receiver is adjustable to vary image resolution. The optical mouse can be turned over and placed on a notebook computer for using as a track ball.

A power saving method and apparatus for wireless optical mouse is disclosed, the apparatus comprising: a micro control unit (MCU), for controlling the operation of a sensor integrated circuit (IC) of an optical sensor of the wireless optical mouse; a wireless transceiver module, connected to the MCU, for transmitting / receiving electronic signals to / from a corresponding wireless interface of a computer; an oscillation frequency control circuit, for switching the operation frequency of the sensor IC so as to enable the same to be defined by a RC oscillation circuit of the sensor IC while the sensor IC being in a sleep mode, and switching the operation frequency of the sensor IC so as to enable the same to be defined by a crystal oscillation circuit; a light emitting diode (LED) control circuit, for controlling the activation of a LED and thus enabling the motion of the wireless optical mouse to be detected; a sensor cell control circuit, for enabling only one of a plurality sensor cells of a sensor cell array while the sensor IC being in the sleep mode, and enabling every sensor cell of the sensor cell array while the sensor IC being in a working mode; and a mode switch circuit, for controlling the mode the sensor IC to be switched between the sleep mode and the working mode according to the output of the sensor cell control circuit.

A method of determining a movement vector between two images is disclosed. The method comprises capturing a first image using a sensor array. Next, a first feature set is extracted from the first image. A second image subsequent in time from the first image is captured. Similarly, a second feature set is extracted from the second image. The first feature set is compared to the second feature set to determine a shift in position of the second image relative to the first image. Finally, the movement vector is output based upon the shift in position.