TWI669639B - Electronic device for detecting power of stylus pen - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an electronic device comprising a touch screen, a recording circuit and a signal processing circuit. The touch screen is configured to receive a plurality of input signals of a stylus, the recording circuit is configured to estimate a first time length of the stylus operating in an active mode and a second time length of an idle mode, and The signal processing circuit calculates a remaining battery information of the stylus according to the first time length and the second time length, and sets the touch screen to display the remaining battery information.

Description

Electronic device for detecting the power of the stylus

The invention relates to a stylus, and more particularly to an electronic device for detecting the power of a stylus.

Active stylus technology is widely divided into active electromagnetic pen and active capacitive pen. When the electronic device uses an active capacitive pen to input, the tip of the active capacitive pen preloads a voltage and clicks on the touch screen of the electronic device, and the electronic device calculates the click position of the pen tip on the touch screen, which is advantageous in that the electronic device There is no need to separately set a separate sensor board, and the touch screen can sense the input signal of the finger and the active capacitor pen, so the cost is more advantageous, and the popularity of the touch panel has become mainstream today.

In the active capacitive pen, there will be a battery to supply power to the electronic components of the pen itself. In order to meet the requirements of long-term power supply and appropriate pen size, many active capacitive pens use AAAA 1.5V alkaline batteries. However, as the stylus is stored in the body, the size of the stylus must be miniaturized and a small-sized lithium battery or super capacitor is used. However, lithium batteries or supercapacitors, although small in size, are also plagued by less power, and cannot be compared to AAAA batteries for several months. Lithium batteries and supercapacitors are less powerful, and their usage time is usually only in the range of hours to days and may be powered off at any time. Many electronic devices are designed to accommodate and charge the stylus.

In addition, compared with the past stylus used for several months without worrying about power consumption, when using a stylus with a small battery, how to know the battery state of the stylus to charge at the right time is more important. It is. In the prior art, some styluses transmit battery status to the electronic device through a communication interface such as Bluetooth for the user to understand. However, in addition to power consumption, the electronic components of these communication interfaces also cause the size of the stylus. Can't effectively shrink.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device for detecting the power of a stylus, which can accurately estimate the remaining of the stylus without transmitting the remaining power information to the electronic device through the stylus. Power information to solve problems with prior art.

In an embodiment of the invention, an electronic device is disclosed that includes a touch screen, a recording circuit, and a signal processing circuit. In the operation of the electronic device, the touch screen is configured to receive a plurality of input signals of a stylus; the recording circuit is configured to estimate a first time length of the stylus operating in an active mode and an idle mode a second time length; and the signal processing circuit calculates a remaining battery information of the stylus according to the first time length and the second time length, and sets the touch screen to display the remaining battery information; The recording circuit receives the plurality of first time periods of the plurality of input signals of the stylus and counts the first time period; and the touch screen receives the plurality of input signals of the stylus A plurality of second time periods greater than a first predetermined time length are included in the second time length.

110‧‧‧Electronic devices

112‧‧‧Touch screen

114‧‧‧recording circuit

116‧‧‧Signal Processing Circuit

118‧‧‧Charging circuit

120‧‧‧ stylus

122‧‧‧Conductive nib

124‧‧‧pressure sensor

126‧‧‧Control circuit

128‧‧‧Battery

400~406‧‧‧Steps

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device and a stylus according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the stylus operating in an active mode and an idle mode according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the stylus operating in an active mode, an idle mode, and a sleep mode according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method for detecting the power of a stylus according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device 110 and a stylus 120 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , the electronic device 110 includes a touch screen 112 , a recording circuit 114 , a signal processing circuit 116 , and a charging circuit 118 . The stylus 120 includes a conductive tip 122 and a pressure sensor. 124. A control circuit 126 and a battery 128. In this embodiment, the electronic device 110 can be a notebook computer, a smart phone, a tablet computer, or any electronic device including a touch screen and can be controlled by the stylus pen 120. The stylus pen 120 can be any included The stylus of the rechargeable battery, and the stylus 120 itself does not include a wired or wireless communication component for transmitting power information of the battery 128 to the electronic device 110.

In operation of stylus 120, battery 128 is used to power control circuit 126 for control circuit 126 to control the operation of internal components of stylus 120, wherein control circuit 126 may include internal processing circuitry and associated charging and powering circuitry The pressure sensor 124 is configured to detect whether the conductive tip 122 touches the touch screen 112.

In the operation of the electronic device 110, the touch screen 112 is configured to receive a touch of the stylus 112 to generate a corresponding action, and the recording circuit 114 is configured to detect a time point at which the touch screen 112 receives the contact of the stylus 120. Estimating the length of time that the stylus 120 is in different operating modes, and the signal processing circuit 116 A remaining battery information of the battery 128 of the stylus 120 is calculated based on the length of time that the stylus 120 is estimated in the different operating modes. In addition, the charging circuit 118 is used to charge the battery 120 of the stylus 120.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the stylus 120 is operable in an active mode and an idle mode, wherein the active mode is mainly a time when the user continues to start writing under pressure when the user writes a handwriting, which can be regarded as a pen. The idle mode can be regarded as the rest time of the stylus 120, or a pen hover time without a pen pressure, wherein the active mode consumes more power than the idle mode. In the operation of the stylus pen 120, since the user may interrupt during writing using the stylus pen 120, for example, after ten minutes, the time for calculating the active mode is the sum of the durations of the respective pen pressures. . In addition, in order to write no delay for each use of the stylus pen 120, the idle mode is not immediately entered when the pen pressure is stopped, and a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) is set as a delay, that is, The stylus 120 will still operate in the active mode within 5 minutes after the stylus 120 leaves the touch screen 112; and the stylus 120 will be detached 5 minutes after the stylus 120 leaves the touch screen 112. Enter the idle mode.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the stylus 120 in different modes. In FIG. 2, since the user frequently uses the stylus 120 to contact the touch screen 112 (ie, the stroke interval is less than 5 minutes), the stylus 120 operates in the active mode, and then, in The stylus 120 switches to the idle mode after the stylus 120 leaves the touch screen 112 for 5 minutes. Then, when the user touches the touch screen 112 again using the stylus 120, the stylus 120 switches to the stylus 120 again. Active mode.

As described above, since the recording circuit 114 in the electronic device 110 can detect the time point when the stylus pen 120 contacts the touch screen 112, the recording circuit 114 can accurately calculate the operation of the stylus 120. The length of time in active mode and idle mode. Specifically, the recording circuit 114 can estimate a first time length of the stylus 120 operating in the active mode and a second time length of the idle mode, wherein the recording circuit 114 receives the plurality of touch pens 120 from the touch screen 112. The plurality of first time periods of the input signal are counted in the first time length, and the touch screen 112 receives the plurality of input signals of the stylus 120 less than a first predetermined time length (for example, as shown in FIG. 2 The plurality of third time periods of 5 minutes) (eg, each time period in which the stroke interval is less than 5 minutes in FIG. 2) is included in the first time length, and the touch screen 112 receives the plural number of the stylus 120 A plurality of second time periods between the input signals greater than the first predetermined time length (for example, a period after 5 minutes without a stroke in FIG. 2) are included in the second time length. In addition, since the engineer has measured the power consumption (eg, the average current value per unit time) of the active mode and the idle mode of the stylus 120 at the design stage, and the related information may be stored in the electronic device 110. Therefore, the signal processing circuit 116 can obtain the current battery of the stylus pen by multiplying the length of the active mode by the power consumption of the active mode, and the length of the idle mode by the power consumption of the idle mode. The total power consumption of 128. Then, the signal processing circuit 116 can subtract the calculated total power consumption from the current full power of the battery 128 to obtain a remaining battery information of the battery 128.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the stylus 120 can operate in a more power-saving sleep mode in addition to the active mode and the idle mode, wherein the sleep mode is when the stylus 120 enters idle state. The mode that enters after the mode exceeds a second preset time length (for example, 10 minutes). FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the stylus 120 in different modes. In FIG. 3, initially, since the user frequently uses the stylus 120 to contact the touch screen 112 (ie, the stroke interval is less than 5 minutes), the stylus 120 operates in the active mode, and then, in After the stylus 120 leaves the touch screen 112 for 5 minutes, the stylus 120 switches to the idle mode; then, after the user touches the touch screen 112 again using the stylus 120, the stylus 120 switches to the active mode again. Then, since the stylus 120 does not touch the touch screen 112 for more than 5 minutes, the stylus 120 switches to the idle mode, and then the stylus 120 does not touch. The time to touch the touch screen 112 exceeds 10 minutes, so the stylus 120 then switches to the sleep mode.

As described above, since the recording circuit 114 in the electronic device 110 can detect the time point when the stylus 120 contacts the touch screen 112, the recording circuit 114 can accurately calculate that the stylus 120 operates in the active mode and the idle mode. And the length of time in sleep mode. Specifically, the recording circuit 114 can estimate a first time length of the stylus 120 operating in the active mode, a second time length of the idle mode, and a third time length of the sleep mode, wherein the recording circuit 114 will touch the screen The plurality of first time periods of receiving the plurality of input signals of the stylus 120 are counted in the first time length, and the plurality of input signals received by the touch screen 112 receiving the stylus 120 are less than a first preset time. a plurality of third time periods of length (for example, 5 minutes shown in FIG. 3) (for example, each time period in which the stroke interval in FIGS. 2 and 3 is less than 5 minutes) is included in the first time length, and the touch is performed. The screen 112 receives a plurality of second time periods between the plurality of input signals of the stylus 120 that are greater than the first preset time length (eg, a period after 5 minutes without a stroke in FIG. 2) is included in the second The length of time and the plurality of fourth time periods between the plurality of input signals greater than the second predetermined time length (eg, 10 minutes shown in FIG. 3) are included in the third time length. In addition, since the engineer has measured the power consumption (for example, the average current value per unit time) of the active mode, the idle mode, and the sleep mode of the stylus 120 during the design phase, and the related information can be stored in In the electronic device 110, the signal processing circuit 116 can multiply the power consumption of the active mode by the power consumption of the active mode, the length of the idle mode, the power consumption of the idle mode, and the time of the sleep mode. The length is multiplied by the power consumption of the sleep mode to obtain the total power consumption of the battery 128 of the current stylus 120. Then, the signal processing circuit 116 can subtract the calculated total power consumption from the current full power of the battery 128 to obtain the remaining power information of the battery 128.

In addition, the battery 128 itself will have battery life, and through the prior estimation, the full power of the battery 128 will be attenuated with the number of times of charging, such as 80% of the discharge depth (20% of the total used electricity) After 625 times, the full power of the battery 128 will only be 80% of the original capacity, so a more accurate calculation of the full battery power can be replaced by the full battery power multiplied by the de-rating rate (De-rating). Specifically, the signal processing circuit 116 can record each time the stylus 120 is charged by the electronic device 110, and count how many times the stylus 120 is charged to estimate the current full charge of the battery 128. So that the remaining battery information of the battery 128 calculated above can be more accurate.

In addition, when the stylus 120 is charged by the electronic device 110 and charged to a full charge, the signal processing circuit 116 and the recording circuit 114 reset the recorded operation time of the stylus 120 in each mode. That is, when the battery 128 of the stylus pen 120 is fully charged, the operation time length of each mode is restarted to avoid an error in the subsequent calculation of the remaining battery information.

In addition, the remaining power information calculated by the signal processing circuit 116 can be displayed on the touch screen 112 for reference by the user. As for the remaining battery information in the expression, there are many different ways of presentation, such as the percentage of available electricity, the available time, how long it has been used, etc., and can also use words or graphs to indicate the current situation and predict that it can continue. The time of use, the time that can still be used, or the time available immediately after fast charging. In addition, the remaining battery information can also be used as an eye protection reminder.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method for detecting the power of a stylus according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to the above disclosure, the process is as follows: Step 400: The process begins.

Step 402: Detect a time point at which the stylus is in contact with a touch screen to determine a length of time during which the stylus operates in an active mode and an idle mode.

Step 404: Calculate a remaining battery information of the stylus according to the length of time in which the stylus operates in the active mode and the idle mode.

Step 406: Display the remaining battery information of the stylus on the touch screen.

Briefly summarized in the present invention, in the method for detecting the power of the stylus of the present invention, the electronic device is used to estimate the stylus operation in the active mode and the idle mode according to the time point at which the stylus is in contact with the touch screen. Or the length of time the stylus operates in the active mode, the idle mode, and the sleep mode to calculate the total power consumption of the stylus to obtain the remaining power information. In the present invention, the electronic device does not receive any power related information from the stylus when calculating the remaining power information of the stylus, that is, the stylus does not need to set a wireless communication component that is associated with the electronic device, so It can reduce the size of the stylus and reduce the manufacturing cost, and also saves the power consumption of the prior art using wireless communication to transmit power information.

The above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all changes and modifications made to the scope of the present invention should be within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (6)

An electronic device includes: a touch screen for receiving a plurality of input signals of a stylus, wherein the stylus is an active stylus; and a recording circuit coupled to the touch screen Estimating the first time length of the stylus operating in an active mode and a second time length of an idle mode, wherein the active mode and the idle mode have different power consumption for the stylus; and The signal processing circuit is coupled to the recording circuit and the touch screen, and calculates a remaining battery information of the stylus according to a full charge of the stylus, the first time length, and the second time length. And setting the touch screen to display the remaining power information; wherein the recording circuit receives the plurality of first time periods of the plurality of input signals of the stylus from the touch screen, and counts the first time length; The touch screen receives a plurality of second time periods of the plurality of input signals of the stylus that are greater than a first predetermined time length, and is included in the second time length. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the recording circuit receives the plurality of third time periods in which the plurality of input signals of the stylus are less than the first preset time length, and the The first length of time. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the signal processing circuit operates the first power consumption in the active mode according to the stylus and the first time length, and operates in the idle mode according to the stylus The second power consumption and the second time length are used to calculate the remaining power information of the stylus. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the recording circuit further receives the plurality of fourth time periods between the plurality of input signals of the stylus that are greater than a second predetermined time length, a third time length of a sleep mode; and the signal processing circuit calculates the remaining power information according to the first time length, the second time length, and the third time length, to set the touch screen to display the remaining power News. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the signal processing circuit operates in the idle mode according to the stylus operating a first power consumption of the active mode and the first time length according to the stylus The second power consumption and the second time length, and the third power consumption in the sleep mode and the third time length according to the stylus operation, calculate the remaining power information of the stylus. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising: a charging circuit for charging the stylus; wherein the signal processing circuit is coupled to the charging circuit, and calculating the number of times of charging according to the stylus The remaining power information is calculated according to the first time length, the second time length, and the full power amount to set the touch screen to display the remaining power information.