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.
1 . An apparatus comprising:
a stylus configured for interactive use with a scribing surface, the stylus comprising:
a stylus housing;
a first control circuit supported by the stylus housing and configured to simultaneously effect at least two different location modalities such that each of the location modalities imparts location-determination information.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the two different location modalities both comprise non-passive location modalities.
3 . The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the two different location modalities are selected from a group consisting of:
a capacitively-based non-passive location modality;
an acoustically-based non-passive location modality;
a magnetically-based non-passive location modality;
a light-emitting-based non-passive location modality;
a camera-based non-passive location modality;
a radio-frequency-based non-passive location modality.
4 . The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the two different location modalities comprise a pair of location modalities selected from a group of pairs of location modalities consisting of:
a passive location modality and an acoustically-based location modality;
a radio-frequency-based location modality and an acoustically-based location modality;
an electromagnetically-based location modality and an acoustically- based location modality;
an infrared light-based location modality and an acoustically-based location modality;
a radio-frequency-based location modality and a camera-based location modality;
an electromagnetically-based location modality and a camera-based location modality;
an acoustically-based location modality and a camera-based location modality.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the two different location modalities both report location information regarding a scribing tip for the stylus.
6 . The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the two different location modalities are selected from a group consisting of:
a radio-frequency-based location modality;
an electromagnetically-based location modality;
an infrared light-based location modality.
7 . The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a second control circuit is configured to simultaneously use the location-determination information from the at least two different location modalities to determine a present location of the stylus with respect to the scribing surface.
8 . The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the second control circuit is configured to simultaneously use the location-determination information from the at least two different location modalities to track movement of the stylus with respect to the scribing surface.
9 . A method comprising:
at a stylus:
using a first location modality to impart first location-determination information that can be employed by a scribing surface control circuit to track movement of the stylus with respect to a scribing surface;
simultaneous with using the first location modality also using a second, different location modality to impart second location-determination information that can also be employed by the scribing surface control circuit to track movement of the stylus with respect to the scribing surface.
10 . The method of claim 9 wherein the simultaneous use of both the first location modality and the second location modality comprises a primary operating state of the stylus.
11 . The method of claim 9 wherein the first and second location modalities both comprise non-passive location modalities.
12 . A method comprising:
at a scribing surface control circuit:
receiving first location-determination information for a stylus as corresponds to a first location modality;
receiving second location-determination information for the stylus as corresponds to a second, different location modality;
using both the first location-determination information and the second location-determination information to determine a location of the stylus with respect to a scribing surface.
13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the scribing surface control circuit uses the location of the stylus to track movement of the stylus with respect to the scribing surface.
14 . The method of claim 12 wherein the scribing surface control circuit uses both the first and second location-determination information as a primary operating state as regards tracking movement of the stylus.