Slim profile magnetic user interface devices

• US 10,296,095 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seescan, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Seescan, Inc.
• Inventors: Olsson, Mark S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Polo, Gustavo
• Application Number:
  US14/748,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20160378191A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 345156
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 5/14 influencing the magnitude of a current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 2009/04755 Magnetic sensor, e.g. hall generator, pick-up coil
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 9/047 the controlling member being movable by hand about orthogonal axes, e.g. joysticks for switches H01H25/04
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0338 with detection of limited linear or angular displacement of an operating part of the device from a neutral position, e.g. isotonic or isometric joysticks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors

Abstract

Slim profile magnetic user interface devices (slim UIDs) are disclosed. A slim UID may include a slim profile housing, a movable actuator assembly having user contact surfaces on opposite sides, along with a magnet, magnetic sensor, restoration element, and processing element. User mechanical interaction with the actuator element may be sensed by the magnetic sensor and processed to generate output signals usable by a coupled electronic computing system.

Claims

1. A slim profile magnetically sensed user interface device, comprising:

a slim profile housing assembly having a front face and a back face;

a movable actuator assembly disposed in the housing assembly, the movable actuator assembly including;

a front contact element having a front contact surface disposed on the front face for receiving user touch input;

a back contact element having a back contact surface disposed on the back face for receiving user touch input;

an actuator support assembly; and

a permanent magnet;

a three-axis magnetic sensor that senses magnetic fields in three orthogonal axes at a compact point in space, the magnetic sensor positioned to sense a position or motion of the magnet of the movable actuator assembly and generate a magnetic sensor output signal associated with the position or motion of the magnet in three axes in space;

a processing element for receiving the magnetic sensor output signal as an input and generating, based at least in part on the magnetic sensor output signal, a processing element output signal corresponding to a position or motion of the actuator assembly in response to a user actuation; and

an output interface circuit for operatively coupling the processing element output signal to a notebook or laptop computer, cellular phone, or tablet device.

2. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the front and back contact elements comprise actuator caps.

3. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the front and back contact elements comprise elastomeric materials.

4. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the magnetic sensor and the processing element are disposed on a printed circuit board positioned within the slim profile housing assembly.

5. The user interface device of claim 4, wherein the actuator assembly includes an actuator PCB and the magnet is disposed on the actuator PCB.

6. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the actuator assembly includes a switching element comprising a dome switch.

7. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a semicircular shaped portion and a rectangular shaped portion adjacent to the semicircular portion.

8. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the actuator assembly includes the magnetic sensor and the magnet is fixed relative to the user interface device.

9. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the actuator assembly includes the magnet and the magnetic sensor is fixed relative to the user interface device.

10. The user interface device of claim 1, further including an accelerometer disposed in the slim profile housing, wherein the accelerometer senses a motion or position of the device and provides corresponding information to the processing element to generate the processing element output signal.

11. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the actuator assembly further includes a force-sensing mechanism coupled to the front contact element.

12. The user interface device of claim 11, wherein the force-sensing mechanism comprises a force-sensing resistor.

13. The user interface device of claim 1, further comprising a switching element coupled to one or both of the front contact element and the back contact element with a punch element.

14. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the output interface circuit comprises a USB circuit and a USB electrical connector.

15. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the output interface circuit comprises a USB circuit and a USB electrical connector.

16. The user interface device of claim 1, including an output interface circuit for operatively coupling the processing element output signal to a video game device.

17. The user interface device of claim 1, wherein the housing assembly comprises a video game controller housing and the movable actuator assembly comprises a video game user actuator assembly.