Embedded optic fiber page

• US 4,418,278 A
• Filed: 05/20/1981
• Issued: 11/29/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1981
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lee F. Mondshein
• Original Assignee: Lee F. Mondshein
• Inventors: Mondshein, Lee F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pitts, Harold I.
• Application Number:
  US06/265,533
• Time in Patent Office: 923 Days
• Field of Search: 235/473, 235/488, 235/487, 340/815.31, 455/612
• US Class Current: 235/487
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0386 for light pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/04 characterised by the shape

Abstract

A page fabricated with embedded optical fibers is used as an input/output device to facilitate man-machine communication. Pinhole-size perforations in the surface of the page serving as entry/exit ports are located above ends of the embedded optical fibers, thereby to expose the ends of the fibers to the top surface of the page, with the fibers being routed beneath the surface of the page to exit points at the edge of the page. As an input device, information is entered by marking the page with a pencil such that pencil lead is deposited in a selected perforation to prevent light from passing through the perforation in the page and into the underlying optical fiber, the state of the fiber being detected and converted into one bit of information. The user'"'"'s actions in marking the page may be guided by pictures and words printed on the page, which may be made of paper. As an output device, selected optical fibers are driven with a light source which results in a display of information by light emanating from the perforations at the ends of the driven fibers. In a further embodiment, a light path is established by a fiber embedded in the page, in which the fiber is separated along its length at a point under a perforation, with occluding material deposited through the perforation for blocking transmission of light through the fiber. In another embodiment a matrix of fibers is embedded in a page, with connections of a row and a column at a crossover point being provided by a coupling fiber spliced therebetween, the coupling fiber being separated under a perforation in the paper through which occlusive material may be deposited to selectively block the optical coupling between the row and column. In a still further embodiment, the embedded fiber optic page may be used with either light-detecting or light-emitting pens.

Claims

1. An input/output device in the form of a page having one or more optical fibers therein, said device being selectively codeable by an individual using the device, the one or more optical fibers being capable of being switched, after manufacture, by said individual from one informational state to another, each of said fibers having a normal light-transmissive state and a non-light-transmissive state in which the selection of the informational state of an optical fiber is selectively codeable in real time from a position readily accessible by the individual at a designated location on a surface of the page, the device comprising:

a thin, planar sheet having opposed surfaces, a plurality of edges, and one or more designations on one of said surfaces at one or more predetermined locations;

at least one optical fiber embedded in said thin sheet, said fiber being divided into two sections to provide two ends embedded in the sheet, said embedded ends having faces orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of said fiber, the embedded ends being spaced apart by an amount which permits light transmission therebetween such that light in one section of the fiber is transmitted to the other section of the fiber across an interface established by said embedded ends for establishing the normal light-transmissive state of said fiber;

the designation-containing surface of said sheet having at least one aperture therethrough associated with a respective designation, said aperture extending through said designation-containing surface to the space defined by the corresponding spaced-apart ends, said embedded ends being disposed within said aperture;

each section of said fiber extending within the plane of said thin sheet to an edge thereof; and

means insertable from said apertured surface through said aperture into the space defined by the spaced-apart embedded ends for selectively changing the normal light-transmissive state of said fiber to the non-light-transmissive state by occluding the space between said embedded ends, such that the state of said optical fiber embedded in said thin planar sheet is readily changeable from one state to the other from the designation-containing surface of said device after the manufacture thereof, thereby to permit real-time coding of said device by the individual using said device.

2. The input/output device of claim 1, wherein said page includes at least two sheets laminated together with said optical fiber embedded therebetween, one of said sheets forming said designation-containing surface and having said aperture therethrough.

3. The input/output device of claim 1 wherein said sheet contains a plurality of said optical fibers embedded therein;

the designation-containing surface of said sheet having a plurality of apertures therethrough, the spaced-apart embedded ends of each of said optical fibers being disposed within a respective aperture.

4. The input/output device of claim 1 wherein said means insertable from said apertured surface includes means for selectively depositing occlusive material in said aperture.