IES20070658A2 - A peripheral for a computing device - Google Patents

Abstract

A peripheral for a computing device comprises: a pointing device for generating spatial data; a memory for storing machine readable data; a microphone for generating an audio signal in response to an audio stimulus; and a controller operably connected to said pointing device, said memory and said microphone; and an interface for communicating said spatial data and data corresponding to said audio signal to said computing device and for transferring data between said peripheral and said computer system. <Figure 1>

Description

The present invention relates to a peripheral for a computing device.

US 6,933,919 discloses a computer pointing device employing a memory for the storage of data allowing information to be copied from one computer to another without the need for a network or removable media such as a floppy disk. The device may connect to a computer via a cabled interface or wireless interface, such as a universal serial bus link or a radio frequency link.

According to the present invention there is provided a peripheral for a computing device, said peripheral comprising: a pointing device for generating spatial data; a memory for storing machine readable data; a microphone for generating an audio signal in response to an audio stimulus; and a controller operably connected to said pointing device, said memory and said microphone; and an interface for communicating said spatial data and data corresponding to said audio signal to said computing device and for transferring data between said peripheral and said computer system.

Preferably, said peripheral is generally elongate in form and incorporates a writing instrument, arranged to be deployed from one end of the peripheral.

Alternatively or in addition, said peripheral incorporates an ignition key for a vehicle.

Preferably, said peripheral is arranged to be wom about the body of a user.

Preferably, said peripheral comprises a clip for securing the peripheral to an item of user’s clothing.

Alternatively, said peripheral includes means for a receiving chain allowing said peripheral to be wom around a user’s neck. [go 70 658 Preferably, said writing instrument comprises one of a pen, a pencil or a light-pen.

Preferably, said pointing device comprises one of: a roller-ball mechanism or a joystick.

Preferably, said memory is flash memory.

Preferably, said interface comprises a serial link and more preferably, said interface comprises a universal serial bus port.

Alternatively, said interface comprises a wireless network adaptor port and more preferably, one of a Bluetooth or a wireless Ethernet port.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a peripheral for a computing device, said peripheral comprising: a memory for storing machine readable data; a microphone for generating an audio signal in response to an audio stimulus; and a controller operably connected to said pointing device, said memory and said microphone, said controller being operable to store at least a portion of said audio signal in said memory; and an interface for communicating data corresponding to said audio signal to said computing device.

Preferably, said controller is operable to recognise commands within said audio signal and to communicate said commands to said computing device.

Preferably, peripheral includes a user actuable device; and wherein said controller is responsive to user actuation of said device to begin acquiring said audio signal.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 65· Figure 1 is a front view of a peripheral according to a first embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 is a side view of the peripheral of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a top view of the peripheral of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a perspective view of the peripheral of Figures 1 to 3; Figure 5 is a front view of a peripheral according to a second embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 is a side view of the peripheral of Figure 5; Figure 7 is a top view of the peripheral of Figure 6; Figure 8 is a perspective view of the peripheral of Figures 5 to 7; and Figure 9 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the present invention.

Referring now to Figure 1, there is shown a peripheral 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The peripheral is generally formed in the shape of a writing instrument and comprises an elongate barrel 12. The barrel is divided into upper, middle and lower portions 12’, 12” and 12’” respectively. The middle and lower portions 12” and 12’” are screw threaded together to allow the lower portion to be removed. The barrel defines an internal cavity in which a writing instrument can be accommodated.

In this embodiment, the writing instrument comprises a conventional pen having a cartridge (not shown) terminating in a nib 14 which extends through a hole in the lowest end of the barrel 12. In alternative implementations the writing instrument could comprise for example, a pencil or even a light pen. In any case, the nib for the writing instrument can either be permanently deployed or it can be deployed and retracted in any suitable conventional manner, for example, by twisting the upper and middle portions 12’ and 12” relative to one Ή «5β another. In the case of a light pen, an actuator would be provided to switch on and off the light source emitting from the lowest end of the barrel. For a pencil, a clutch mechanism would be provided to enable a user to deploy fresh leads through the lowest end of the barrel.

Connected to the upper end of the barrel 12 is the electronics section 16 of the peripheral. This section incorporates a central processor (not shown) connected to a flash memory, a pointer 18 and an interface enabling the processor to communicate with a remote computing device.

In the preferred embodiment, the interface comprises a Bluetooth adapter, and the central processor provides file transfer services to a correctly paired remote computing device allowing files stored in flash memory to be retrieved by the remote computing device and allowing files to be received from the remote computing device and stored in flash memory for later retrieval.

Nonetheless, it will be seen that the interface can comprise any suitable wireless alternative, including for example a wireless Ethernet adapter.

In the embodiment, the pointer 18 comprises a joystick which can be deflected in one of four directions - up, down, left or right and depressed to act as a button. Each of these signals are communicated to the processor. In a Bluetooth implementation, when suitably paired with a remote computing device which seeks to read pointer signals through the Bluetooth interface, the pointer signals are transmitted to the remote computing device. An application running on the remote computing device can treat the pointer signals in any way but normally these are used to drive an interactive application, with joystick deflections corresponding to cursor movements on a screen of the remote computing device and button presses acting to indicate user selection of an item.

In an alternative implementation (not shown), the joystick is replaced by a roller-ball which can be preferably either mounted so as to act as a button or have an associated button. Again, the roller-ball x and y signals as well as the button signal are communicated to the processor which in turn transmits these to the remote computing device.

UtMoese Fitted to the top of the electronics section 16, is a microphone section 20 comprising a generally conical outer shell having slots therein for protecting and allowing a microphone transducer to pick-up sound. The transducer is in turn connected to the processor which receives the (audio) signal generated by the transducer and provides this signal (coded and/or compressed as necessary) via the Bluetooth interface to the remote computing device.

In the preferred embodiment, the electronics section is further provided with a clip 22 which allows the peripheral to be worn by the user both when in use as a wireless microphone/pointer peripheral and when carried by the user as a portable storage medium.

In an alternative embodiment, the clip is replaced with or provided in addition to a pair of hooks again formed on the electronics section 16 of the peripheral. A chain may be fitted to the hooks to allow the peripheral to be worn around the neck of the user.

In either case, it will be seen that the ability to reliably locate the peripheral on the body of a user, allows for reliable operation of the microphone which can then provide a sufficiently good quality of signal to allow the peripheral to drive a voice driven application running on the remote computing device.

The peripheral is particularly advantageous when acting as a pointer in an environment where a user may not have a desk available and in particular, where the user does not wish to be distracted by using the peripheral. So for example, the peripheral finds particular utility in an automotive environment when operated by the driver of a vehicle. The remote computing device may be running a vehicle control application and the peripheral may allow the user to interact with the application without looking away from the road. Equally, the peripheral can be easily passed to a passenger who may wish to control the application.

Turning back to the particular embodiment of Figures 1 to 4, it will be seen that the electronics components of the device need to be powered. This can be achieved with an inbuilt replaceable battery preferably located in one of the electronics section 16 or the barrel 12 and connected to the electronics section.

GgO 70 β5· However, it may also be desirable for the peripheral to include a power/data socket either for powering the peripheral and enabling communications where the peripheral is to operate in a wired mode, or simply to allow an in-built battery to be re-charged from an external source (either a mains powered adaptor or a computer power output) and/or wired data transfer between the peripheral storage and the connected computing device.

In one such particular implementation, the power/data socket comprises a USB port enabling the peripheral to appear as a removable USB device providing audio input, pointer signals and removable storage.

The physical port can either be permanently exposed or alternatively, the port may be exposed by opening the electronics section 16 away from the barrel 12 either through a hinge mechanism or completely removing one from the other to expose the USB port.

It will be seen that many different physical implementations of the peripheral are possible. Referring now to Figures 5-8 wherein similar reference numerals have been used to indicate like parts, the electronics section 16 and barrel 12 have been provided as an integral piece.

In the embodiments described above, the central processor is disclosed as communicating the audio signal generated by the microphone generally directly to a remote computing device.

However, it will be seen that where the central processor is capable, its functionality can be expanded to include more audio processing. So for example, rather than transmitting a raw bit stream to the remote computing device, the processor could analyse and encode the audio signal, for example, into MPEG3 format, to compress the amount of data which needs to be transmitted to the remote computing device.

Also, the audio signal or an encoded version thereof could be stored in the memory for later access by a suitably paired remote computing device. This could allow the peripheral to be used as a digital Dictaphone supplying recorded speech to the remote computing device for processing thereon; ‘ ‘ g|6 76 85® In a further extension of the processor’s capabilities, voice recognition can be employed, preferably to recognise a limited number of commands within a received audio signal. The audio signal can therefore be stored as a sequence of recognised commands followed by or in association with command data either in bitstream and/or encoded format. Again, this data can be used with an application on a suitably paired remote computing device both to supply data to the application and also to drive the application user interface.

In any case, the pointer device 18 can be used as an actuator to turn on recording of the microphone signal and/or recognition of commands within the signal.

Such a peripheral again finds particular utility in automotive applications. For example, where the remote computing device includes an in-car navigation system, a user can switch on the peripheral and record a destination location by providing the appropriate voice commands and an address location.

Communication between the peripheral and the vehicle can either be initiated automatically when the switched on peripheral comes within range of the user’s vehicle using a suitable pairing protocol; or manually, with the user actuating the pointer device 18 to begin pairing of the peripheral and the in-car navigation system.

This can allow a user to begin interaction with their in-car navigation system before arriving at the vehicle, so enabling them to begin driving their vehicle immediately rather than needing to spend time initiating their navigation system.

Referring now to Figure 9, there is shown a peripheral 100 according to a further embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the barrel 12 of the above embodiments is replaced with an ignition key 120 allowing the peripheral to be used to start a vehicle. Of course, it will be appreciated that in this embodiment, even when an ignition slot (not shown) is located on the dashboard of a vehicle, the microphone 20 will be more distant from the user than in other embodiments, and as such the peripheral of the embodiment of Figure 9 may find more utility in applications where a user speaks commands into the peripheral prior to entering a vehicle and these commands are uploaded to the vehicle when the peripheral is located in the ignition slot. So for example, a user might dictate a destination address into the jjg© 7 0 6ί»β peripheral prior to entering the vehicle and the in-car navigation system then responds to the presence of the key to acquire this information from the peripheral and to program the navigation system accordingly.

Use of the peripheral as the vehicle key can also be applied to the embodiments of Figures 1 8, where the vehicle when paired either logically or physically with the peripheral allows a suitably authenticated user, perhaps through voice recognition or otherwise, to start the vehicle.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment(s) described herein but can be amended or modified without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (5)

Claims:

1. A peripheral for a computing device, said peripheral comprising: a pointing device for generating spatial data; 5 a memory for storing machine readable data; a microphone for generating an audio signal in response to an audio stimulus; and a controller operably connected to said pointing device, said memory and said microphone; and an interface for communicating said spatial data and data corresponding to said audio signal 10 to said computing device and for transferring data between said peripheral and said computer system.

2. A peripheral according to claim 1 wherein said peripheral is generally elongate in form and incorporates a writing instrument, arranged to be deployed from one end of the 15 peripheral.

3. A peripheral according to claim 1 wherein said peripheral incorporates an ignition key for a vehicle. 20

4. A peripheral according to claim 1 wherein said peripheral is arranged to be worn about the body of a user.

5. A peripheral according to claim 1 wherein said peripheral comprises a clip for securing the peripheral to an item of user’s clothing.