Patent ID: 8508244

Claim:
A method for scanning a plurality of capacitive sensors in a capacitive sensor array, the method comprising: detecting a stimulus in a field of capacitive sensors comprising said plurality of capacitive sensors, wherein detecting the stimulus in said field of capacitive sensors comprises scanning all capacitive sensors in said field at a coarse scanning rate; scanning said field of capacitive sensors to determine a first position of said stimulus in said field of capacitive sensors, wherein said first position indicates first one or more capacitive sensors in said field of capacitive sensors, and wherein scanning said field of capacitive sensors to determine said first position of said stimulus further comprises determining said first position of said stimulus according to a centroid positioning algorithm of activated sensors; and after determining said first position of said stimulus, selecting a subsection of said plurality of capacitive sensors within said field of capacitive sensors, wherein each of the capacitive sensors in the subsection is selected based at least in part on its proximity to said first one or more capacitive sensors indicated by said first position of said stimulus; and scanning only the selected subsection of said plurality of capacitive sensors at a second scanning rate, wherein said second scanning rate is greater than or equal to said coarse scanning rate.