Telautograph system

• US 4,631,355 A
• Filed: 12/18/1984
• Issued: 12/23/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/1984
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T, Inc.
• Inventors: Federico, Joseph, Waaben, Sigurd G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Schreyer, Stafford D.
• Application Number:
  US06/682,780
• Time in Patent Office: 735 Days
• Field of Search: 178/18, 178/19, 178/20
• US Class Current: 178/18.06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact

Abstract

The position (XY coordinate) of a pointed stylus on a conductive sheet is determined by injecting current from the stylus into the sheet and measuring the current responses at three or more spaced apart electrodes connected to the sheet.

Claims

1. A terminal comprising

(a) first large area conductive means provided with at least three spaced apart localized electrode connections thereto,

(b) means under control of recording information for injecting current into a point in the first conductive means for flow in the first conductive means and for dividing among said at least three electrodes and supplying a separate portion of the current to each of said at least three electrodes, and

(c) signal processing means, supplied with the separate current portions from at least the three electrodes, for processing the at least three current portions and deriving a pair of signals representative of the coordinates of the injection point.

2. A terminal in accordance with claim 1 in which the large area conductive means is essentially rectangular and is provided with a fourth localized electrode connection thereto, a separate one of the electrode connections thereto being localized at each of its four corners.

3. A terminal in accordance with claim 1 which further includes a second large area conductive sheet which while inactive is spaced opposite and electrically isolated from the first conductive means and is deformable under localized pressure for forming a localized injection point into the first conductive sheet.

4. A terminal in accordance with claim 3 which includes means for measuring the voltage drop across the localized injection point as a measure of the localized pressure.

5. A terminal in accordance with claim 1 which further includes movable conductive means for scanning the large area conductive means for injecting current therein at the localized point.

6. A terminal in accordance with claim 5 in which the injected current is alternating current and is injected capacitively.

7. A terminal in accordance with claim 2 in which the signal processing means includes means for current normalization, reducing the effect of nonuniformities in the large area conductive means and differences in the contact resistance of the electrodes thereto, and orthogonalization of astigmatic aberration.

8. A terminal in accordance with claim 7 in which the signal processing means provides also analog to digital conversion.