Patent ID: 8830196

Claim:
An information processing apparatus, comprising: a touchpad; a hardware processor; and a storage medium coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the information processing apparatus to: receive a proximity signal indicative of whether a user is providing input to the touchpad; receive a movement signal indicative of whether the input includes movement of an object relative to the touchpad; and select one of a pointing user input mode or a scrolling user input mode based on at least one of: an amount of time for which the user continuously provides input not including movement of the object relative to the touchpad; or an amount of time for which the user continuously fails to provide input, wherein the scrolling user input mode is initially selected upon any initial occurrence of providing the input to the touchpad by the user, and then the pointing user input mode is subsequently selected upon an occurrence of a stoppage for a predetermined amount of time of the movement of the object relative to the touchpad.