Manually controllable cursor in a virtual image

• US 5,977,950 A
• Filed: 11/29/1993
• Issued: 11/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ryo Holdings, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rhyne, George W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shalwala, Bipin H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHANG, KENT WU
• Application Number:
  US08/158,337
• Time in Patent Office: 2,164 Days
• Field of Search: 345/32, 345/169, 345/173, 345/156, 345/145, 345/157, 345/31, 345/7, 345/8
• US Class Current: 715/856
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1637 Details related to the display arrangement, including those related to the mounting of the display in the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1649 the additional display being independently orientable, e.g. for presenting information to a second user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0338 with detection of limited linear or angular displacement of an operating part of the device from a neutral position, e.g. isotonic or isometric joysticks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0266 for a display module assembly

Abstract

Portable communication equipment having a virtual image display including display electronics and optics for providing a virtual image in the display, cursor electronics connected to the display electronics for producing a manually controllable cursor virtual image in the display, and manual controls mounted on the portable communication equipment and externally accessible by an operator. The manual controls are connected to the cursor electronics for controlling the position and function of the cursor virtual image to provide functions such as pull-down menus and image selection.

Claims

1. Portable electronics equipment with manually controllable cursor comprising:

a hand held electronic device;

a virtual display including display electronics having a two-dimensional array of pixels providing a small real image of a complete frame of alphagraphics and magnifying optics for providing a magnified perceivable virtual image of the complete frame of alphagraphics in the virtual display, the virtual display being mounted in the hand held electronic device for viewing of the magnified perceivable virtual image by an operator;

cursor electronics mounted in the hand held electronic device and connected to the display electronics for producing a manually controllable cursor virtual image in the virtual display; and

manual controls mounted on the hand held electronic device and externally accessible by the operator, the manual controls being connected to the cursor electronics for controlling the position and function of the cursor virtual image within the magnified perceivable virtual image of the complete frame of alphagraphics.

2. Portable electronics equipment as claimed in claim 1 wherein the display electronics and the cursor electronics include circuits for controlling the virtual image in the virtual display including the function of selecting specific virtual images from a menu of virtual images.

3. Portable electronics equipment as claimed in claim 1 wherein the manual controls include a touch pad.

4. Portable electronics equipment as claimed in claim 3 wherein the touch pad includes means for providing a control signal continuously alterable in accordance with portions of the touch pad being touched.

5. Portable electronics equipment as claimed in claim 3 wherein the touch pad includes means for providing an image selection control signal.

6. Portable electronics equipment as claimed in claim 3 wherein the hand held electronic device is designed to be held by the operator with one hand and the touch pad is positioned on the hand held electronic device so as to be operated with a finger of the one hand.

19. Portable electronics equipment as claimed in claim 1 wherein the virtual display includes a plurality of pixels formed on a single substrate in an array arranged in rows and columns with each row including in the range of 500 to 1500 pixels and each column including in the range of 500 to 1500 pixels, each of the plurality of pixels including at least one light emitting diode and the array providing a very small real image, the optics including components to magnify the real image at least ten times into a virtual image such that the complete frame of alphagraphics can be perceived by a human eye.

7. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor comprising:

a hand held communication receiver; and

a miniature virtual image display electrically connected to and mounted in the hand held communications receiver and having a viewing aperture, the virtual image display including

image generation apparatus having a two-dimensional array of pixels with each pixel including at least one light emitting device and driving electronics connected to the array for providing a real image of a complete frame of alphagraphics,

cursor electronics connected to the image generation apparatus for producing a manually controllable cursor image in the real image of the complete frame of alphagraphics,

manual controls mounted on the hand held communication receiver and externally accessible by an operator, the manual controls being electrically connected to the cursor electronics for controlling the position and function of the cursor image within the complete frame of alphagraphics, and

an optical system mounted adjacent the image generation apparatus to receive the real image of the complete frame of alphagraphics and the cursor image therefrom, magnify the real image of the complete frame of alphagraphics and the cursor image and produce a virtual image including a manually controllable cursor and the complete frame of alphagraphics at the viewing aperture, the optical system producing a magnification sufficient to easily perceive the virtual image of the complete frame of alphagraphics and the manually controllable cursor through the viewing aperture.

8. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 wherein the image generation apparatus includes a plurality of pixels positioned in rows and columns and sufficient in number, each row including in the range of 500 to 1500 pixels and each column including in the range of 500 to 1500 pixels, to form an image of an entire page.

9. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 8 wherein the plurality of pixels each includes at least one semiconductor light generating device and all of the light generating devices are formed on a single semiconductor substrate.

10. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 wherein the two-dimensional array of pixels with each pixel including at least one light emitting device of the image generation apparatus providing the real image includes a light emitting diode array.

11. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 including in addition image forming electronics connected to the image generation apparatus providing the real image and to the hand held communication receiver, the image generation apparatus producing the real image in accordance with signals received from the hand held communication receiver.

12. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 wherein the two-dimensional array of pixels with each pixel including at least one light emitting device of the apparatus providing the real image includes semiconductor lasers.

13. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 wherein the hand held communications receiver is a pager.

14. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 wherein the image generation apparatus and the cursor electronics include circuits for controlling the virtual image in the display including the function of selecting specific virtual images from a menu of virtual images.

15. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 wherein the manual controls include a touch pad.

16. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 15 wherein the touch pad includes means for providing a control signal continuously alterable in accordance with portions of the touch pad being touched.

17. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 16 wherein the touch pad further includes means for providing an image selection control signal.

18. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 15 wherein the hand held communication receiver is designed to be held by the operator with one hand and the touch pad is positioned on the portable communication equipment so as to be operated with a finger of the one hand.

20. A portable communication receiver with virtual display and manually controllable cursor as claimed in claim 7 wherein the image generation apparatus includes a plurality of pixels formed on a single substrate in an array arranged in rows and columns with each row including in the range of 500 to 1500 pixels and each column including in the range of 500 to 1500 pixels, each of the plurality of pixels including at least one light emitting diode and the array providing a very small real image, the optical system including components to magnify the real image and the cursor image at least ten times into a virtual image such that the complete frame of alphagraphics and the manually controllable cursor can be perceived by a human eye.