A remote pointing device by using modulated IR signals with a 2-D striped pattern

Handheld pointing devices are increasingly in demand in digital TV market to provide intuitive human-device interfaces (HDIs). HDIs with directional buttons, joysticks, and trackballs are not very intuitive owing to their limited motions. To overcome this problem, cameras, gyroscopes, or ultrasonic sensors have been incorporated into HDIs at the expense of higher power consumption. In this paper, a low-power intuitive pointing device is presented. The transmitter of the proposed device consists of a microcontroller, two infrared light-emitting diodes, and optical components. The receiver comprises a photodiode module and a motion estimation block. The proposed device reduces power consumption by 71.3% and 23.6% as compared with the conventional camera- and gyroscope-based HDIs, respectively. Test results and performance evaluations are presented for validation.