Demo of picoRing mouse: an ultra-low-powered wireless mouse ring with ring-to-wristband coil-based impedance sensing

TL;DR

The picoRing mouse uses coil-based impedance sensing for ultra-low-power wireless communication, enabling over 92 hours of continuous use on a small battery, significantly surpassing current wireless mouse durations.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-passive inductive telemetry method for ultra-low-power wireless communication in wearable mice, extending battery life dramatically.

Findings

Over 92 hours of continuous operation on a 20 mAh battery

Supports subtle scrolling and pressing interactions

Uses coil-based impedance sensing for communication

Abstract

Wireless mouse rings offer subtle, reliable pointing interactions for wearable computing platforms, but the small battery below 27 mAh in the miniature rings restricts the ring's continuous lifespan to just 1-2 hours due to the power consumption of current low-powered wireless communication like BLE. However, the picoRing mouse addresses this by enabling continuous ring-based mouse interaction with ultra-low-powered ring-to-wristband wireless communication through a coil-based impedance sensing method called semi-passive inductive telemetry. This allows a wristband coil to capture a unique frequency response of a nearby ring coil via sensitive inductive coupling, converting the user's mouse input into the unique frequency response via an 820 uW mouse-driven modulation module. Thus, the continuous use of picoRing mouse can potentially last over 92 hours on a single charge of a 20 mAh battery while supporting subtle scrolling and pressing interactions.