Input Techniques to the Surface around a Smartphone using a Magnet Attached on a Stylus

We present input techniques for smartphones using a stylus based on magnetism. Our techniques use a magnet attached on a stylus and a three-axis internal magnetic sensor in a smartphone. Using our techniques, users can input into a smartphone using a stylus on the surface on which the smartphone is placed. This enables users to employ a wider surface than the display of the smartphone for input. In addition, our techniques require no additional sensors on the smartphone. In this paper, we present two input techniques: nonelectric and electric ones. In addition, we describe our stylus for use with each technique and a coordinates-estimation algorithm we implemented. We also describe two applications: a digit recognizer and a paint application.

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