Digitizer tablet with reduced radiation susceptibility

• US 5,113,042 A
• Filed: 11/20/1990
• Issued: 05/12/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Summagraphics Corp.
• Original Assignee: Summagraphics Corp.
• Inventors: Mletzko, Alfred E.
• Primary Examiner(s): SCHREYER, STAFFORD
• Application Number:
  US07/615,981
• Time in Patent Office: 539 Days
• Field of Search: 178/18, 178/19
• US Class Current: 178/18.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means

Abstract

A digitizer tablet capable of reduced coordinate wobble due to beat interference between an induced display scan rate and the tablet scan rate by introducing a controlled delay to change the time between successive samples to increase the beat frequency to the point where it can be effectively filtered out.

Claims

1. A method of operating a digitizer tablet employing an electrode array adjacent a working surface and a pointing device wherein the electrode array is scanned at a given scan rate to obtain signals representative of the position of the pointing device over the working surface, said signals after processing including filtering being outputted for use by a controlled display to produce on the display objects representative of the pointing device position, said display objects exhibiting undesired wobble, the steps comprising:

(a) introducing controlled delay to modify the tablet scan rate to reduce or eliminate the wobble.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tablet scan rate is varied over a range of about 2% or less while observing the degree of wobble.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the tablet scan rate is decreased.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the introduced delay is incremented in fixed steps until the degree of wobble is acceptable.

5. A digitizer tablet comprising:

(a) an electrode array adjacent a working surface of the tablet,

(b) a pointing device,

(c) means for scanning the electrode array at a given scan rate which, when the pointing device is activated, produces desired signals representative of the position of the pointing device over the tablet working surface,

(d) means including filtering means for processing said desired signals to convert same into coordinate values representative of the pointing device position with respect to at least one coordinate of a coordinate system associated with the tablet working surface,

(e) means for outputting the said coordinate values to a display device for displaying objects representative of said coordinate values, said displayed objects exhibiting wobble,

(f) means for introducing delay to modify the tablet scan rate in a direction to reduce or eliminate the wobble.

6. A digitizer tablet as claimed in claim 5, wherein the means of (f) includes means for incrementing the introduced delay.

7. A digitizer tablet as claimed in claim 6, wherein the incrementing means comprises hardware on the tablet.

8. A digitizer tablet as claimed in claim 7, wherein the hardware comprises switches or a variable resistance or capacitance in the scanning means to vary the scan rate.

9. A digitizer tablet as claimed in claim 5, wherein software is provided to vary the scan rate.

10. A digitizer tablet as claimed in claim 5, wherein a utility program is used to detect wobble, and means are provided to increase the scan rate to minimize wobble.

11. The digitizer tablet of claim 5, further comprising means for averaging the said desired signals.

12. The digitizer tablet of claim 11, wherein the averaging means comprises a running average filter.

13. The digitizer tablet of claim 5, wherein the filtering means of element (d) is a low-pass filter.

14. The digitizer tablet of claim 13, wherein the filter has a passband of about 0-15 Hz.

15. The digitizer tablet of claim 5, wherein the means for introducing delay is operable to vary the scan rate by 1 percent or less.

16. The digitizer tablet of claim 5, wherein the means for introducing delay is operable to vary the scan rate by 0.25 percent or less.