Hand held control device

• US 5,512,892 A
• Filed: 02/25/1994
• Issued: 04/30/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rutledge, Joseph D., Corballis, Liam P., Selker, Edwin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Peng, John K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MANNAVA, ASHOK K
• Application Number:
  US08/202,928
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• Field of Search: 341/20, 341/21, 341/22, 341/23, 341/24, 345/161, 345/156, 345/167, 364/709.9, 273/148 B, 273/148 R
• US Class Current: 341/22
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 9/047 the controlling member being movable by hand about orthogonal axes, e.g. joysticks for switches H01H25/04
• 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

A hand held control device formed as a rigid body adapted to be gripped and carried by a single hand of a user and comprising a plurality of control elements operable by the thumb or a finger of the user'"'"'s hand gripping and carrying the body, a pointing stick and a chirality detector for sensing whether a right or left hand is gripping and carrying the body for controlling the flow of information to or from a computer.

Claims

1. A hand held control device comprising:

a rigid body adapted for being gripped and carried by a single hand of a user while leaving the thumb and finger tips of said gripping and carrying hand free to operate control elements mounted in said rigid body;

a plurality of control elements mounted in the rigid body for activation by a thumb or finger tip of said gripping and carrying hand to generate control data;

transmission means located in the rigid body for communicating said control data between the hand held control device and a remotely located computing system having a display;

at least one of said control elements being a pointing stick for controlling in a joystick-like manner actions at said display;

at least one of said control elements corresponding to a left gripping and carrying hand-and being mounted on the rigid body for activation only by a finger tip of said gripping and carrying hand when said gripping and carrying hand is a left hand and at least one other one of said control elements corresponding to a right gripping and carrying hand and being mounted on the rigid body for activation only by a finger tip of said gripping and carrying hand when said gripping and carrying hand is a right hand; and

a chirality detector mounted in the rigid body for automatically sensing whether said gripping and carrying hand is a left hand or a right hand and automatically enabling said control elements corresponding thereto.

2. The hand held control device of claim 1 wherein the control elements include a four position switch.

3. The hand held control device of claim 2 wherein the four position switch controls voice communications through the device to a remotely located computer system.

4. The hand held control device of claim 1 having a feedback means for signaling the user of the device of an occurrence of selected conditions.