Hand-held pointing device
First Claim
1. A hand-held device to control motion of a pointer on a display screen, the device comprising:
- a shell capable of being held by a hand;
a pressure sensor having pressure-sensitive zones that are each associated with a direction of motion of the pointer on the display screen; and
an actuator positioned to be manipulated by a digit of the hand holding the shell, and that when manipulated presses against at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones causing each pressure-sensitive zone to generate a signal having a magnitude that is proportional to an amount of pressure exerted on that zone at a particular point in time, and further causing the pointer to move on the display screen in any angular direction that is determined both by the direction of motion associated with and also the magnitude of the signal generated by the at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones against which the actuator is pressed.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The primary purpose of this thesis is to explain a device which could be used as an alternative for a computer mouse. Instead of using a regular roller found in an ordinary mouse, the device uses a pressure sensitive sensor to control the computer cursor on the monitor.
The device is developed mainly for a personal computer with Universal Serial Bus (USB) capability. The computer should have an operating system of Microsoft Windows 98 or newer. The device does not need any additional driver, and it has a USB hot-plug-and-play feature. It uses a Human Interface Device (HID) driver provided by Windows.
The device mainly has two buttons (right and left) and is approximately 4″ by 3″ by 2″ in size. Users can press their fingers on to the device to control the cursor. The device will be small enough to be fit inside a person'"'"'s palm. The area has four pressure sensors used to move the cursor to the left, right, upward and downward. The user can control some parameters, such as cursor movement rate, by just controlling the amount of force pressed on that area. The device will be made from a soft material with a hard box inside. All the necessary components will be placed inside the box. Only the sensors are outside the box, so that the user can control the sensors by squeezing the device. This would make it comfortable for users to operate the device.
128 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A hand-held device to control motion of a pointer on a display screen, the device comprising:
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a shell capable of being held by a hand;
a pressure sensor having pressure-sensitive zones that are each associated with a direction of motion of the pointer on the display screen; and
an actuator positioned to be manipulated by a digit of the hand holding the shell, and that when manipulated presses against at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones causing each pressure-sensitive zone to generate a signal having a magnitude that is proportional to an amount of pressure exerted on that zone at a particular point in time, and further causing the pointer to move on the display screen in any angular direction that is determined both by the direction of motion associated with and also the magnitude of the signal generated by the at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones against which the actuator is pressed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An actuator usable within a hand-held pointing device to control a pointer on a display screen, the actuator comprising:
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a top surface capable of being manipulated by a digit of a hand to cause the actuator to swivel about a pivot point; and
a bottom surface having at least four protrusions spaced apart in a polygonal pattern that are associated with at least four pressure zones on a pressure-sensitive film, such that when the actuator swivels about the pivot point, each pressure zone on the pressure-sensitive film generates a signal having a magnitude that is proportional to an amount of pressure exerted on that pressure zone by one of the protrusions at a particular point in time, causing the pointer to move on the display screen in any angular direction determined by both a direction of motion associated with and also the magnitude of the signal generated by each pressure zone against which the protrusions are pressed. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method for controlling motion of a pointer on a display screen through operation of a hand-held pointing device, the method comprising:
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detecting amounts of pressure applied to pressure-sensitive zones on a pressure sensor when at least one protrusion of an actuator presses against at least one of the pressure-sensitive zones, the pressure sensor and the actuator being contained within the hand-held pointing device, wherein such detecting includes processing signals generated by each of the pressure-sensitive zones that have signal magnitudes proportional to the amounts of pressure applied to the zones at a particular point in time;
determining a direction of motion that is based on both a sensing direction of motion associated with and also on the magnitude of the signal generated by each pressure-sensitive zone against which the at least one protrusion is pressed; and
sending information relating to the direction of motion to a computing device to cause motion of the pointer on the display screen. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification