A vibrating stylus as two-dimensional PC input device

In recent years, the increasing usage of tablet PCs and smartphones has made obsolete the traditional keyboard and mouse as input devices, replaced by multi-touch or stylus-based input solutions that are perceived as being more user-friendly. Over the past 30 years, has been shown in literature and by patents, several solutions based on different types of interaction, from optics to acoustics. Our objective is to make surfaces, also wide, which have not been designed for use as a touch-screen, in particular with the new operating systems that widely use the intuitive features of the touch-methodology, usable. The goal of the work is to realize an autonomous stylus, at low cost, capable of generating flexural waves in any surface, which can be detected with a sensors system, also simple and low-cost, with an appropriate accuracy, in order to detect the position of the stylus, both to be used as pointer, either to be used as an input device for natural writing or drawing.