Pattern generating fonts and sheets of writing material bearing such fonts

• US 7,635,090 B1
• Filed: 09/07/2004
• Issued: 12/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Expedata, LLC
• Original Assignee: Expedata, LLC
• Inventors: Voss, Andrew, Daley, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hess; Daniel A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Savusdiphol; Paultep
• Application Number:
  US10/935,603
• Time in Patent Office: 1,932 Days
• Field of Search: 235/494, 235/454, 235/462.08, 235/462.2, 235/487
• US Class Current: 235/494
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0317 in co-operation with a patterned surface, e.g. absolute position or relative movement detection for an optical mouse or pen positioned with respect to a coded surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0321 by optically sensing the absolute position with respect to a regularly patterned surface forming a passive digitiser, e.g. pen optically detecting position indicative tags printed on a paper sheet constructional details of pen-shaped pointing devices G06F3/03545, G06F3/03542, G06F3/037

Abstract

A sheet of writing material bears a plurality of position indicating markings. The markings on the sheet constitute parts of a plurality of characters which are printed on the sheet, directly abutting each other. The characters make up a font in which each character is defined within a substantially rectangular area having a predetermined width and height. The predetermined area is divided into four virtual grids with each grid containing a marking, and each marking being located in one of four positions within its associated virtual grid. The four positions are displaced from the center of the virtual grid in four directions.

Claims

1. A sheet of writing material bearing a plurality of position indicating markings, said markings on said sheet constituting parts of a plurality of characters from a character font on said sheet, said characters directly abutting, each character defined within a substantially square area having a predetermined width and height, said square area being divided into four square virtual grids of substantially equal size with each grid containing a substantially round marking, each marking having a diameter that is substantially one-third the size of the height and width of the virtual grid in which it is contained and being located in one of four positions within its associated virtual grid, and said four positions being displaced from a center of said virtual grid in four directions, the center of a round marking being displaced from the center of the virtual grid by one half of the diameter of the round marking when the marking is in any one of the four positions within the associated virtual grid, said position indicating markings permitting an optical detector on a pen to determine the location on the sheet where the point of the pen makes a mark.

2. The sheet of writing material of claim 1, in which said font comprises 256 characters of unique dot patterns.

3. The sheet of writing material of claim 1, in which said virtual grids are positioned in upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right portions of said substantially square area.

4. The sheet of writing material of claim 1, in which said four positions are equally spaced around said center of said virtual grid.

5. The sheet of writing material of claim 1, in which said four positions are above, below, to the left and to the right of said center of said virtual grid.

6. The sheet of writing material of claim 1 in which said characters are printed side-by-side and stacked in respective rows and columns.