Ultra-low-power ring-based wireless tinymouse

DOI

Wireless mouse rings offer subtle, reliable pointing interactions for wearable computing platforms. However, the small battery below 27 mAh in the miniature rings restricts the ring's continuous lifespan to just 1-10 hours, because even low-powered wireless communication such as BLE is power-consuming for ring's continuous use. The ring's short lifespan frequently disrupts users' mouse use with the need for frequent charging. This paper presents picoRing mouse, enabling a continuous ring-based mouse interaction with ultra-low-powered ring-to-wristband wireless connectivity. picoRing mouse employs a coil-based impedance sensing named semi-passive inductive telemetry, allowing a wristband coil to capture a unique frequency response of a nearby ring coil via a sensitive inductive coupling between the coils. The ring coil converts the corresponding user's mouse input into the unique frequency response via an up to 449 uW mouse-driven modulation system. Therefore, the continuous use of picoRing mouse can last approximately 600 (8hrs use/day)-1000 (4hrs use/day) hours on a single charge of a 27 mAh battery while supporting subtle thumb-to-index scrolling and pressing interactions in real-world wearable computing situations.