Glove mouse with virtual tracking ball

• US 6,870,526 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2002
• Issued: 03/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: National Chung Hsing University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Original Assignee: Frank Zngf, Stan Huang
• Inventors: Zngf, Frank, Huang, Stan
• Primary Examiner(s): Shankar, Vijay
• Application Number:
  US10/196,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20040012564A1
• Time in Patent Office: 979 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/157, 345/158, 345/159, 345/160, 341/20, 341/21, 341/22
• US Class Current: 345/158
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves

Abstract

A glove-like apparatus mounted on a user'"'"'s hand to control the cursor movement and to click for providing functions of a computer mouse. The apparatus has a glove-like body with multiple finger tubes. A tilt sensor is mounted on the glove metacarpus, of which the roll angle of the hand is detected to determine the moving orientation of the cursor. Two pairs of bending sensors are mounted on the thumb tube and the index finger tube, each pair of the sensors is used to detect a bending angle of the corresponding finger. The bending of the thumb or the index finger at a time is used to move the cursor in the negative or the positive direction along the located orientation line. The data glove for cursor control is operated as a virtual mouse with a virtual tracking ball.

Claims

1. A glove mouse for providing cursor movement control for a cursor and click functions of a computer comprising:

a glove body formed with a plurality of glove fingers to be worn on a hand of a computer user;

two first bending sensors mounted on a thumb glove finger for a thumb and detecting an increment of bending angle of the thumb and to move the cursor a distance along a first direction;

two second bending sensors mounted on an index above finger for an index finger and detecting an increment of bending angle of the index finger to move the cursor along a second direction opposite the first direction; and

a tilt sensor mounted on a metacarpus of the glove body and detecting a rolling tilt angle of the metacarpus which defines an angle of a direction line along which the cursor is moved by one of the thumb and the index finger.

2. A glove mouse as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of third bending sensors, one of the plurality of third bending sensors is mounted on each of a middle glove finger, a ring glove finger, and a little glove finger, wherein a bending angle of one of a middle finger, a ring finger, and a little finger over a predefined threshold is detected to represent an ON state of a particular mouse click.

3. A glove mouse as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the first and the second bending sensors are positioned to measure the bending angle of a proximal interphalangeal joint.

4. A glove mouse as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the first and the second bending sensors are positioned to measure the bending angle of a metacarpophalangeal joint.

5. A glove mouse as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the first and the second bending sensors are positioned to measure the combination bend of metacarpophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints.

6. A glove mouse as claimed in claim 2, wherein one of the first and the second bending sensors are positioned to measure the bending angle of a proximal interphalangel joint.

7. A glove mouse as claimed in claim 2, wherein one of the first and the second bending sensors are positioned to measure the bending angle of a metacarpophalangeal joint.

8. A glove mouse as claimed in claim 2, wherein one of the first and the second bending sensors are positioned to measure the combination bend of metacarpophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints.