Abstract: Disclosed herein are various embodiments of a capacitive touchscreen system that is capable of sensing finger touches made on a capacitive touchscreen according to various scanning modes that reduce power consumption of the capacitive touchscreen system. The disclosed power saving scanning modes are modally focused, and can be used not only to reduce system power consumption, but also to enhance the user experience with the capacitive touchscreen system.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are various embodiments of a capacitive touchscreen system that is capable of sensing finger touches made on a capacitive touchscreen according to various scanning modes that reduce power consumption of the capacitive touchscreen system. The disclosed power saving scanning modes are modally focused, and can be used not only to reduce system power consumption, but also to enhance the user experience with the capacitive touchscreen system.

Abstract: A mouse having improved input methods and mechanisms is disclosed. The mouse is configured with touch sensing areas capable of generating input signals. The touch sensing areas may for example be used to differentiate between left and right clicks in a single button mouse. The mouse may further be configured with force sensing areas capable of generating input signals. The force sensing areas may for example be positioned on the sides of the mouse so that squeezing the mouse generates input signals. The mouse may further be configured with a jog ball capable of generating input signals. The mouse may additionally be configured with a speaker for providing audio feedback when the various input devices are activated by a user.

Abstract: A system and method is described for manipulating a plurality of discrete objects in a graphics application, the method comprising generating a set of coordinates for each discrete object, each discrete object bound by at least a horizontal boundary guide and a vertical boundary guide, selecting the boundary guide bounding one of the plurality of discrete objects intended for manipulation, rendering a feedback guide responsive to the selecting, dragging the feedback guide to a final location, and resizing the one of the plurality of discrete objects intended for manipulation and others of the plurality of discrete objects that have the boundary guide sharing an axis with the selected feedback slice guide responsive to the final location.

Abstract: According to one aspect of the invention, a movable cursor control device is provided for controlling a cursor on a display screen of a digital processing system. One exemplary cursor control device comprises a housing, an electromagnetic emitting device coupled to the housing, and an electromagnetic detector coupled to the housing. The electromagnetic detector detects reflections of signals emitted from the electromagnetic emitting device and determines when the housing has been lifted from a surface. In another aspect of the invention, an exemplary method is provided for controlling a cursor on a display screen of a digital processing system. The exemplary method includes holding the cursor relative to an object on the display screen using a cursor control device activated by a user, detecting that the user no longer activates the cursor control device, and detecting that the user has lifted the cursor control device from a surface when the cursor control device is no longer activated by the user.