Input apparatus

• US 5,453,758 A
• Filed: 07/29/1993
• Issued: 09/26/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sato, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Hjerpe, Richard
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saras, Steven J.
• Application Number:
  US08/098,896
• Time in Patent Office: 789 Days
• Field of Search: 345/157, 345/156, 345/164, 345/158, 73/514, 73/497, 364/453, 341/20, 341/21
• US Class Current: 345/158
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1006 having additional degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors

Abstract

An input apparatus comprising one or more detectors for detecting a physical displacement of a given movement in space, an information generating device for generating position specifying information based on a detection result outputted from the detectors, and a transmitter for transmitting the position specifying information generated by the information generating device to predetermined equipment as input information. The input apparatus according to the invention outputs as operator information the position specifying information obtained by detecting input apparatus'"'"'s physical displacement, movement velocity, or acceleration to generate a predetermined command signal corresponding to movements of a human being for example, thereby providing the input apparatus excellent in both operator efficiency and human interface.

Claims

1. A input apparatus comprising:

motion detecting means for detecting a momentum of either a given traveling motion in space in a main body of said input apparatus or a motion applied to said main body and generating a detected output having a predetermined temperature characteristic;

transmitting means for transmitting information corresponding to the detected output from said motion detecting means to predetermined equipment as input information in either a wired or wireless manner;

temperature detecting means for detecting a temperature in said main body at a predetermined interval of time to output the detected temperature as temperature information;

storage means for storing the temperature information obtained by said temperature detecting means; and

detected output control means for comparing the temperature information obtained by said temperature detecting means with temperature information stored in said storage means to detect a temperature variation in said main body and, if a temperature variation exceeding a predetermined level is found, correct the detected output of said motion detecting means and store an amount of the correction in said storage means in correspondence with the temperature information obtained by said temperature detecting means.

2. An input apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said detected output control means supplies a drive voltage to said motion detecting means when a temperature variation in said main body exceeding the predetermined level has been found with said input apparatus being in a standby state.

3. An input apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising operating means for outputting output of code information to establish, on a side of the predetermined equipment, the input information entered in the predetermined equipment in correspondence with the detected output of said motion detecting means, wherein said detected output control means stops supplying a drive power to said motion detecting means at least while said code information is outputted by operating said operating means.

4. An input apparatus as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein said detecting means are provided in plurality and said information generating means generates, based on a detection result outputted from each of said detecting means, position specifying information at multidimensional coordinates corresponding to a given movement in space.

5. An input apparatus as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein said detecting means are held in said input apparatus in a floating state to be always held in a constant direction relative to gravity direction.