INPUT DEVICE

• US 20110050581A1
• Filed: 04/16/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Richard Steenfeldt Berg
• Original Assignee: Hypertec Mobile AS
• Inventors: Steenfeldt Berg, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 9,235,271 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/168
• 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 3/0213 Arrangements providing an integrated pointing device in a keyboard, e.g. trackball, mini-joystick for pointing devices integrated in a laptop computer G06F1/169; joysticks G05G9/047; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033

Abstract

The present disclosure relates generally to an input device, more specifically a small footprint keyboard with touch pad functionality. By disposing the touchpad and the mouse keys in the lower part and surrounded by the first and the second group one achieves a substantial ergonomic advantage in that the frequently used QWERTY keys are accessible while at the same time the touch pad is within reach of any finger.

Claims

1. An input device (1) comprising a small footprint keyboard with touch pad functionality wherein the keyboard is arranged in 4 distinct groups where the upper group (2) comprises a main part of the keyboard with a QWERTY type keyboard, a lower left (3) group comprising a first group such as function keys, a lower right (5) group comprising a second group such as numerical keys and arrow keys, and a lower middle (4) part comprising a touchpad (6) with additional mouse keys (7).

2. An input device according to claim 1 wherein the keys are arranged with a varying size that substantially matches a touch cross section of a finger pressing the respective keys.