Method carried out in system including active stylus and sensor controller, sensor controller, and active stylus

1. A method carried out in a system including an active stylus and a sensor controller, the method comprising:

establishing, by the stylus and the sensor controller, frame synchronization between the sensor controller and the active stylus;

selecting, by the sensor controller, a first variable-length command from a plurality of variable-length commands, each of the variable-length commands including data of a variable number of bits;

transmitting, by the sensor controller, the first variable-length command in a first portion of a first frame using an uplink signal having a variable time length that depends on a number of bits of the first variable-length command;

receiving, by the active stylus, the uplink signal having the variable time length;

detecting, by the active stylus, the first variable-length command by decoding the uplink signal having the variable time length up to a tail of the uplink signal having the variable time length; and

transmitting, by the active stylus, a downlink signal that depends on the received first variable-length command, the downlink signal being transmitted in a second portion of the first frame that is different from the first portion of the first frame.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

supplying, by the sensor controller, a frame reference time by repeatedly transmitting the uplink signal in a plurality frames,

wherein the establishing of the frame synchronization includes acquiring, by the active stylus, the frame reference time by detecting the uplink signal.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the first variable-length command has a length field representing the number of bits of the first variable-length command; and

the method comprises:

determining, by the sensor controller, the number of bits of the first variable-length command upon selection of the first variable-length command and changing a value of the length field in the first variable-length command based on the determined number of bits; and

decoding, by the active stylus, the value of the length field in the received first variable-length command and determining a time period during which to continue receiving the first variable-length command based on the decoded value of the length field.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the first variable-length command includes one or more fields each having a predetermined bit length; and

each of the one or more fields includes a flag indicating whether there is a next field.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the first variable-length command includes a plurality of fields each having a predetermined bit length;

each of the plurality of fields includes a flag indicating whether there is a next field and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field including an error detection value calculated from a bit train included in the field; and

the method includes calculating, by the active stylus, a plurality of error detection values based on a bit train included in each of the plurality of fields of the received first variable-length command, and comparing each of the calculated error detection values with a value included in a corresponding CRC field of the received first variable-length command; and

wherein the transmitting of the downlink signal is in response to determining that each of the calculated error detection values agrees with the value included in the corresponding CRC field, for all of the fields of the received first variable-length command.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein:

the first variable-length command includes at least a first field and a second field, the second field following the first field; and

the sensor controller transmits the second field continuously after the transmission of first field, or transmits the second field a predetermined time after completion of the of the transmission of the first field.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the first variable-length command has an end field indicating a command end at a tail of the first variable-length command;

the active stylus ends receiving of the first variable-length command upon detection of the end field of the first variable-length command.

8. The method according claim 7 , wherein:

the method includes, correlating, by the active stylus, a known spread code and the uplink signal; and

the active stylus detects the end field if a peak value is not obtained as a result of the correlating of the known spread code and the uplink signal.

9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising:

directly spreading, by the sensor controller, a bit train representing the first variable-length command with the known spread code to obtain the uplink signal;

wherein, after the transmitting of the uplink signal, the sensor controller does not transmit for a period of time that is at least as long as a duration of the known spread code; and

detecting, by the sensor controller, the downlink signal the period of time that is at least as long as the duration of the known spread code after the transmitting of the uplink signal.

10. A sensor controller comprising:

a transmitter which, in operation,

establishes frame synchronization with an active stylus,

selects a first variable-length command from a plurality of variable-length commands after establishing frame synchronization with the active stylus, each of the variable-length commands including data of a variable number of bits, and

transmits the first variable-length command in a first portion of a first frame using an uplink signal having a time length that depends on a number of bits of the first variable-length command; and

a receiver which, in operation, receives a downlink signal from the active stylus in a second portion of the first frame that is different from the first portion of the first frame, the downlink signal depending on the first variable-length command.

11. An active stylus comprising:

a receiver which, in operation,

establishes frame synchronization with a sensor controller, and

receives a first variable-length command by detecting an uplink signal transmitted by the sensor controller in a first portion of a first frame, the first variable-length command being selected from a plurality of variable-length commands, each of the variable-length commands including data of a variable number of bits; and

a transmitter which, in operation, transmits a downlink signal that depends on the received first variable-length command in a second portion of the first frame that is different from the first portion of the first frame.