Electronic pointing device
First Claim
1. An electronic pointing device for determining a static position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the point device comprising:
- an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion, said vibrational pressure waves attenuating as they propagate across said elastic member;
at least three pressure sensing means disposed in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with attenuated results of said detected vibrational pressure waves; and
first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A compact, miniaturized pointing device for use with an electronic apparatus, such as a computer, personal data assistant (PDA), or digital watch display screen, is provided to indicate the position of a cursor mark on the display screen. The pointing device includes an elastic member which has a body portion that extends above the surface of the electronic apparatus with a section below the surface including pressure sensitive elements and corresponding position indicators. When a finger is placed on the elastic member, vibrational pressures are generated and pressure signals are propagated through the elastic member reaching the pressure sensing elements housed in the submerged section. The intensity of the propagating signal attenuates with a square of the distance traveled and, therefore, from a determination of the ratio of the magnitude the output voltage signals from the pressure sensing elements, the position of the pressed point on the elastic member can be computed. The pointing device computes the coordinates of the pressed point in relation to the projected pressed point on orthogonal axes of a planar surface at the submerged section, and from these coordinates are utilized by circuitry of the electronic apparatus to correspondingly position the cursor mark on the display screen. A movement of the finger on the elastic member can be translated into a movement vector, and sampling rates are adjusted to follow any velocity rate of the movement vector thereby allowing the screen to accurately reflect the movement of the finger.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. An electronic pointing device for determining a static position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the point device comprising:
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an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion, said vibrational pressure waves attenuating as they propagate across said elastic member; at least three pressure sensing means disposed in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with attenuated results of said detected vibrational pressure waves; and first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section. - View Dependent Claims (2, 5, 6, 16)
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3. An electronic pointing device for determining a moving position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the device comprising:
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an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion, said vibrational pressure waves attenuating as they propagate across said elastic member; at least three pressure sensing means disposed in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with attenuated results of said detected vibrational pressure waves; first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section; and second computing means for computing said position indicating signals at specified time intervals and computing a movement vector for indicating a positional change of said pressed point from a previously pressed point in a predetermined time interval. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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7. An electronic pointing device for determining a static position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion, said vibrational pressure waves attenuating as they propagate across said elastic member; four pressure sensing means disposed within said base section equidisitantly from a center point thereof in orthogonal symmetry, said pressure sensing means configured for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with attenuated result of said detected vibrational pressure waves; and first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section; wherein said four pressure sensing means are fabricated on a common semiconductor base section. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An electronic pointing device for determining a static position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion; at least three pressure sensing means disposed in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves; and first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section; wherein said extended upper body portion of said elastic member is covered with a material having a higher modulus of elasticity than a modulus of elasticity of said elastic member.
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14. An electronic pointing device for determining a static position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion; at least three pressure sensing means disposed in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves; and first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section; wherein said extended upper body of said elastic member is covered with a plurality of projections having a higher modulus of elasticity than a modulus of elasticity of said elastic member.
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15. An electronic pointing device for determining a static position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion; at least three pressure sensing means disposed in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves; and first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section; wherein said elastic member is disposed on a hand-held casing so as to expose said extended upper body portion on a control surface.
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17. An electronic pointing device for determining a static position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastic member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion; at least three pressure sensing means disposed in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point and providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves; first computing means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section; and biasing means for applying an equal bias to each of said at least three pressure sensing elements for generating output signals proportional to vibrational pressures generated from said pressed point. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. An electronic pointing device for determining a position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastomeric member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion, said vibrational pressure waves attenuating as they propagate across said elastic member; a plurality of pressure sensors disposed in equal lateral positions in said base section for detecting attenuated results of said vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed joint; transducers for providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves; and computational means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signal for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section.
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22. An electronic pointing device for determining a position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastomeric member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion; a plurality of pressure sensors disposed in equal lateral positions in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed joint; transducers for providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves; and computational means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signal for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section, said computational means comprising calibration means for increasing accuracy of position determination of said pressed point for correcting differences in performance of individual pressure sensors due to difference in the physical characteristics by sequentially selecting groups of said pressure sensors excluding at least one thereof wherein the total number of selected groups are determined by the representation of n Cn-1 where n is the number of said pressure sensors, said calibration means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for each of said selected groups and for determining any differences in voltage values among transducer means of said selected groups indicative of correction values corresponding to each of said pressure sensors having an equal response value for said pressed point. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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24. An electronic pointing device for determining a position on a viewing screen of a computing device, the pointing device comprising:
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an elastomeric member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section, said elastic member for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion; a plurality of pressure sensors disposed in equal lateral positions in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed joint; transducers for providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves; and computational means for computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signal for defining orthogonal coordinates of said pressed point relative to a reference point of said planar bottom section, said computational means comprising means for computing said position indicating signals at specified time intervals and computing a movement vector for indicating a positional change of said pressed point from a previously pressed point in a predetermined time interval.
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25. A method of calibrating an electronic pointing device for increasing the accuracy for determining a coordinate position on a viewing screen of a computing device by correcting for differences in performance of individual pressure sensors employed in the pointing device due to difference in their physical characteristics, the pointing device having an elastomeric member having an extended upper body portion and a planar bottom surface bonded to a base section for propagating vibrational pressure waves generated from a pressed point on said body portion, a plurality of said pressure sensors disposed in equal lateral positions in said base section for detecting vibrational pressure waves propagated from said pressed point, and transducers for providing position indicating signals in correspondence with said detected vibrational pressure waves, comprising the steps of:
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sequentially selecting groups of said pressure sensors excluding at least one thereof wherein the total number of selected groups are determined by the representation of n Cn-1 where n is the number of said pressure sensors, computing projected coordinates of said pressed point in accordance with said position indicating signals for each of said selected groups, determining any differences in voltage values among transducers of said selected groups indicative of correction values corresponding to each of said pressure sensors having an equal response value for said pressed point, and utilizing said correction values in subsequent determinations of projected coordinates of pressure points.
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Specification