Hand-held pointing device
First Claim
1. A hand-held device to control motion of a pointer on a display screen, the device comprising:
- a shell capable of being held by a hand;
a pressure sensor having pressure-sensitive zones that are each associated with a direction of motion of the pointer on the display screen; and
an actuator positioned to be manipulated by a digit of the hand holding the shell, and that when manipulated presses against at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones to cause the pointer to move on the display screen in a direction determined by the direction of motion associated with the at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones against which the actuator is pressed.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The primary purpose of this thesis is to explain a device which could be used as an alternative for a computer mouse. Instead of using a regular roller found in an ordinary mouse, the device uses a pressure sensitive sensor to control the computer cursor on the monitor. The device is developed mainly for a personal computer with Universal Serial Bus (USB) capability. The computer should have an operating system of Microsoft Windows 98 or newer. The device does not need any additional driver, and it has a USB hot-plug-and-play feature. It uses a Human Interface Device (HID) driver provided by Windows. The device mainly has two buttons (right and left) and is approximately 4″ by 3″ by 2″ in size. Users can press their fingers on to the device to control the cursor. The device will be small enough to be fit inside a person'"'"'s palm. The area has four pressure sensors used to move the cursor to the left, right, upward and downward. The user can control some parameters, such as cursor movement rate, by just controlling the amount of force pressed on that area. The device will be made from a soft material with a hard box inside. All the necessary components will be placed inside the box. Only the sensors are outside the box, so that the user can control the sensors by squeezing the device. This would make it comfortable for users to operate the device.
72 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A hand-held device to control motion of a pointer on a display screen, the device comprising:
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a shell capable of being held by a hand;
a pressure sensor having pressure-sensitive zones that are each associated with a direction of motion of the pointer on the display screen; and
an actuator positioned to be manipulated by a digit of the hand holding the shell, and that when manipulated presses against at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones to cause the pointer to move on the display screen in a direction determined by the direction of motion associated with the at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones against which the actuator is pressed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An actuator usable within a pointing device to control a pointer on a display screen, the actuator comprising:
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a top surface capable of being manipulated by a digit of a hand to cause the actuator to swivel about a pivot point; and
a bottom surface having at least four protrusions spaced apart in a polygonal pattern, wherein each protrusion is capable of being pressed against a pressure zone on a pressure-sensitive film to cause motion of the pointer on the display screen when the actuator swivels about the pivot point. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for controlling motion of a pointer on a display screen through operation of a pointing device, the method comprising:
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detecting an amount of pressure applied to pressure-sensitive zones on a pressure sensor when at least one protrusion of an actuator presses against at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones, the pressure sensor and the actuator being contained within the pointing device;
determining a direction of motion based on the amount of pressure applied to each of the pressure-sensitive zones using a vector calculation; and
sending information relating to the direction of motion to a computing device to cause motion of the pointer on the display screen. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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Specification