Patent ID: 8633893

Claim:
A pointing device comprising: a housing; a pointing sensor disposed in the housing, for detecting a physical displacement of the pointing device; a stationary scrolling sensor disposed in the housing, wherein the stationary scrolling sensor comprises: a plurality of discrete electrodes including a first electrode and a second electrode; and a capacitive sensing circuit; and a processor coupled to the capacitive sensing circuit, wherein the processor is operable to: detect a first contact between a user's finger and the first electrode; detect a second contact between the user's finger and the second electrode; wherein detecting the first contact or detecting the second contact further comprises detecting that a time to discharge a capacitance is longer than a reference time value; determine that a delay between the first contact and the second contact is less than a predetermined time period; and provide a scrolling command; and a transmitter disposed in the housing, configured to transmit the physical displacement and the scrolling command from the pointing device to a host device.