Wacom Co., Ltd.

Sony Corporation

Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Masayuki Miyamoto

Hideyuki Hara

Sadao Yamamoto

Haruhiko Hisano

Takeshi Koike

Naoki Watanabe

Yoshifumi Konda

Takeshi Ono

Jun Kadowaki

Yoshio Nomura

Kazuya Shimomura

Masato Hirose

Naoki Hasegawa

Tsukasa Nomi

Yasunori Matsui

Hideki Fujimaki

Mari Sasaki

Masanobu Kimoto

Hideyuki Yoshimura

Yoshinori Ota

Yuji Anami

Gen Igarashi

Hiroshige Hayakawa

Atsuro Hirakawa

Akihiro Shironouchi

Kaoru Kamiyama

An active pen is provided, which facilitates avoiding complex computation for phase acquisition on the side of a sensor integrated circuit configured to receive downlink signals from active pens, and allows for generating carrier waves for the downlink signals using a simple configuration, namely, a frequency dividing circuit, while reducing a difference in unused time in one time slot between the active pens. An active penis configured to transmit one or more symbol values in one time slot, and includes a frequency dividing circuitconfigured to frequency-divide a reference clock with a frequency division ratio based on each of a plurality of frequencies different from each other, to thereby generate a plurality of carrier waves having frequencies different from each other. The active penincludes a modulation (transmission) circuitconfigured to transmit a first downlink signal in a symbol duration that is common among the plurality of frequencies, the first downlink signal obtained by modulating a first carrier wave, which is among the plurality of carrier waves generated by the frequency dividing circuit, with a value of a first symbol that is a transmission target.

Active pen and sensor integrated circuit

An auxiliary device according to the present disclosure includes a ruler part, a plurality of electrodes provided at the ruler part, a receiving electrode for receiving an uplink signal transmitted from a sensor controller, and a processor that transmits a downlink signal to the sensor controller while sequentially switching the plurality of electrodes in response to reception of the uplink signal.

Sensor controller

Disclosed herein is a coordinate output device that outputs absolute coordinates indicating a position in a predetermined region or relative coordinates, according to a position indicated by a position indicator. The coordinate output device continues to output the relative coordinates while the absolute coordinates are not acquired, and starts output of the absolute coordinates and stops the output of the relative coordinates in response to acquisition of the absolute coordinates.

Coordinate output device, pen-shaped device, and electronic equipment

An active pen and a touch controller are configured to use a frame F including a plurality of temporally separated time slots TSto TSm to transmit and receive signals with each other. Each of the active pen and the touch controller can transmit and detect a reference signal for synchronizing a frame position, which is a temporal position of the frame F, and upon detecting the reference signal acquires the frame position based on the reference signal and operates according to the acquired frame position. The active pen is configured to transmit, when changing a master of the synchronization, a reference change signal CH indicating that the active pen itself is the master of the synchronization.

System including pen and touch controller, method executed by pen, pen, and touch controller

An active pen communicates with a sensor controller using a series of time slots, to receive uplink signals from and transmit downlink signals to the sensor controller. The series of time slots are determined based on the reception timing, by the active pen, of an uplink signal used as a reference time. The active pen determines whether or not the uplink signal is received and, if yes, the active pen transmits a first downlink signal using a time within the series of time slots. If no, the active pen transmits a second downlink signal using both a time within the series of time slots and a time outside the series of time slots. The second downlink signal is formed by repeating a unit signal that is shorter in duration than each of the series of time slots, to ensure reception by the sensor controller of at least one unit signal.

Active pen, sensor controller, and position detection device configured for bidirection communication using time slots

An active pen that is used together with a sensor controller includes: an electrode provided at a pen tip, a memory that stores identification data, and a processor connected to the electrode and the memory. The processor returns, as a response to a first uplink signal transmitted from the sensor controller, a response signal including the identification data stored by the memory, and decides, based on whether data corresponding to the identification data is included in a second uplink signal received after the response signal is transmitted, whether the active pen is detected by the sensor controller.

Active pen and sensor controller that use data generated from identification data

A method of palm rejection is executed by a sensor controller that is connected to a plurality of sensor electrodes and that detects a downlink signal transmitted from an active pen. The method includes determining whether or not a phase of the detected downlink signal matches a phase shared in advance between the sensor controller and the active pen, and outputting, when it is determined that the phases match, a position of the active pen derived on the basis of a distribution of levels of the downlink signal in the plurality of sensor electrodes.

Method of palm rejection and sensor controller

To prevent drawing by pen input from stopping due to a failure in receiving an uplink signal, an active pen according to the present disclosure includes a processing circuit that transmits, at a second timing decided based on a first timing of a first uplink signal received from a sensor controller, a position signal and a data signal from a pen-tip electrode and receives a second uplink signal, and a wireless communication circuit that wirelessly communicates with the sensor controller. The processing circuit determines whether the second uplink signal has been received at the second timing, and in a case of determining that the second uplink signal has not been received, the processing circuit transmits at least part of the data signal via the wireless communication circuit while transmitting the position signal from the pen-tip electrode.

Active pen, position detection system, and integrated circuit

A position detection system is provided including an electronic pen including M (M is a natural number) pen electrodes, and a sensor control circuit that is connected to a capacitance touch sensor including N (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2) sensor electrodes. The sensor control circuit controls transmission of uplink signals through the touch sensor. The electronic pen selects one or more reception electrodes from the M pen electrodes, and the sensor control circuit selects transmission electrodes that are L sensor electrodes satisfying 1<L<N from the N sensor electrodes. A set of the transmission electrodes and the reception electrodes of the uplink signals is changed according to time.

Position detection system, sensor control circuit, and electronic pen using selected portion of sensor electrodes as transmission electrodes

A method to be performed by a sensor controller that periodically transmits an uplink signal, and by a stylus that, upon receiving the uplink signal, determines a transmission and reception schedule for a downlink signal and the uplink signal on the basis of the reception timing of the uplink signal. The method includes executing, by the stylus, an uplink signal receiving operation for a first predetermined period of time according to the transmission and reception schedule. The method includes, responsive to the uplink signal not received through the receiving operation and expiration of the first predetermined period of time, continuing, by the stylus, the uplink signal receiving operation for a second predetermined period of time, instead of transmitting the downlink signal according to the transmission and reception schedule.

Method to be performed by stylus and sensor controller, stylus, and sensor controller

An active pen includes an integrated circuit that transmits a downlink signal through a first electrode and receives an uplink signal through a second electrode different from the first electrode. The active pen includes a stop filter inserted between the second electrode and the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit, in operation, performs transmission of the downlink signal and the reception of the uplink signal at the same time.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Masayuki Miyamoto