Hand-held mobile mouse

• US 6,809,722 B2
• Filed: 11/19/1999
• Issued: 10/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cyber Group USA Inc.
• Original Assignee: Jin Xia Bao, Si Ping Bao, Yu Mei
• Inventors: Bao, Jin Xia, Bao, Si Ping, Mei, Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Xiao
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abdulselam, Abbas I
• Application Number:
  US09/443,518
• Publication Number:
  US 20020118167A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,803 Days
• Field of Search: 345/163, 345/167, 345/157, 345/158, 345/164, 345/169, 345/172, 345/184, 345/173, 345/159, 341/22, 348/734, 273/148.B
• US Class Current: 345/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203
• 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 3/03549 Trackballs G06F3/03541 takes precedence

Abstract

A hand-held or palm mobile mouse is contained in a mini hand-held shaped housing to be held in the palm of a user with a sphere arranged on the top easily and naturally reached by the user'"'"'s thumb. The thumb of the user can rotate the sphere, which contains a magnetic core inside, to cause a corresponding cursor movement on a computer screen through a magnetically activated rolling movement detection unit or units and press down on the sphere to carry out click function commands or menu functions pointed to by the cursor on the screen. Alternatively, the magnetic core may be omitted by supporting the sphere on four free rolling roller units, two of which are used to implement the rolling movement detection function. There may also be key-buttons on the area where the user'"'"'s fingers rest to implement click function by a user'"'"'s fingers. There may also be a wheel/click button for cursor extension movement and click command functions. The mouse is pad-less, wire-less, freely used in any direction or position for the comfort of a user'"'"'s wrist, and easily carried by a user for convenience. The remote wireless signals of the mouse or additional mice can be programmed for user identification, for added security. The mouse is a flexible and convenient input device for computers, especially miniaturized notebook computers.

Claims

1. A hand-held mobile mouse for a computer system having an associated screen comprising:

(a) a housing having a shape designed to be held in a user'"'"'s hand, said housing having a top portion with an opening and a lower portion;

(b) a sphere rotatable in any direction in said housing and having a portion partially surrounded by said opening so that said sphere is readily rotatable by the user'"'"'s thumb when said lower portion of said housing is held in the user'"'"'s palm;

(c) a rolling movement detection unit for generating a cursor signal in response to rotation of said sphere for cursor movements on the screen of the computer system;

(d) a plurality of spring units mounted in the housing for vertical movement of the sphere to generate a signal to activate a computer programmed click function operation;

(e) four roller units mounted to support a lower surface of the sphere and enclosed within said housing by said lower surface of said sphere;

(f) a remote wireless signal unit for converting the signals from the rolling movement detection unit to signals transmitted to the computer system;

(g) a circuit board connected to remote wireless signal unit; and

(h) a receptacle for batteries formed within the housing;

wherein said rolling movement detection unit forms signals processed by the computer system to produce cursor movements on the screen of the computer system corresponding to the rotation of said sphere; and

wherein said cursor movement can be continually produced on the screen of the computer system in any direction in two dimensional space corresponding to the rotation of said sphere pushed by the user'"'"'s thumb during activation of the computer programmed click function operation by vertical movement of said sphere pushed by the thumb simultaneously.

2. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 further comprising at least one click key activator disposed on the housing for generating a signal to activate a computer programmed click function operation.

3. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 wherein the four roller units are mounted on the spring units.

4. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 wherein the four roller units are mounted on a board supported by the spring units.

5. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 wherein the sphere is made of an elastic material coated with a slippery material to promote rolling smoothness and further comprising four freely rotatory wheel units mounted in the housing to support an upper surface of the sphere.

6. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 further comprising a first support mounted on the spring units, a second support mounted on the first support, and a wheel/click button disposed on the housing connected to a switch for generating an electrical signal to activate a computer programmed click function operation.

7. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 2 wherein said click key activator comprises a press button and an associated switch for generating an electrical signal to activate a computer programmed operation.

8. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 7 having two press buttons and two switches associated with the press buttons.

9. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1, wherein said roller units comprise freely rotatory elongated roller units.

10. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1, wherein said sphere has a magnetic core and said rolling movement detection unit is magnetically activated.

11. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1, wherein said rolling movement detection unit transfers rotation movements of said roller units into “

X-”

axis and “

Y-”

axis motions to form digital signals for corresponding cursor movements on the screen of the computer.

12. A hand-held mouse according to claim 1 comprising two electrical processing circuit boards for electric currents and electronic signals of the rolling movement detection unit.

13. A hand-held mouse according to claim 1 wherein the housing comprises a top and a bottom shell which may be opened or closed along an opening line.

14. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 wherein the housing comprises a top edge having a plurality of feet around an upper surface of the sphere.

15. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 14 wherein the top edge has a shape selected from the group consisting of straight edges, downwardly extending curves, and downwardly extending curves having a straight bottom.

16. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 further comprising an antenna to operate the remote wireless signal unit.

17. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 16 wherein the antenna is an external antenna.

18. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 16 wherein the antenna is an internal antenna.

19. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 further comprising a central processing unit chip mounted on the circuit board.

20. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 further comprising a memory chip mounted on the circuit board.

21. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 wherein the remote wireless signal unit has radio signal sending and receiving functions.

22. A hand-held mobile mouse according to claim 1 wherein the four roller units form a frame supported on the spring units to allow for up and down movements of the sphere to generate a signal to activate a computer programmed click function operation.

23. A notebook computer and mouse system comprising

(a) A notebook computer comprising

(i) a screen;

(ii) a keyboard;

(iii) a remote wireless multiple signal receiver;

(iv) a removable drawer; and

(b) A hand-held mobile mouse comprising

(i) a housing having a shape designed to be held in a user'"'"'s hand, said housing having a top portion with an open and a lower portion;

(ii) a sphere rotatable in any direction in said housing and having a portion partially surrounded by said opening so that said sphere is readily rotatable by the user'"'"'s thumb when said lower portion of said housing is held in the user'"'"'s palm;

(iii) a rolling movement detection unit for generating a signal in response to rotation of said sphere for cursor movements on the screen of the computer;

(iv) a plurality of spring units mounted in the housing for vertical movement of the sphere to generate a signal to activate a computer programmed click function operation;

(v) four roller units mounted to support a lower surface of the sphere and enclosed within said housing by said lower surface of said sphere;

(vi) a remote wireless signal unit for converting the signals from the rolling movement detection unit to signals transmitted to the computer;

(vii) a circuit board connected to the remote wireless signal unit; and

(viii) a receptacle for batteries formed within the housing;

wherein said rolling movement detection unit forms signals processed by the computer system to produce cursor movements on the screen of the computer system corresponding to the rotation of said sphere; and

wherein said cursor movements can be continually produced on the screen of the computer system in any direction in two dimensional space corresponding to the rotation of said sphere pushed by the user'"'"'s thumb during activation of the computer programmed click function operation by vertical movement of said sphere pushed by the thumb simultaneously.

24. A notebook computer and mouse system according to claim 23 further comprising at least one click key activator disposed on the housing for generating a signal to activate a computer programmed click function operation.

25. A notebook computer and mouse system according to claim 23 wherein the four roller units are mounted on the spring units.

26. A notebook computer and mouse system according to claim 23 wherein the four roller units are mounted on a board supported the spring units.

27. A notebook computer and mouse system according to claim 23, wherein said removable drawer is under the keyboard.

28. A notebook computer and mouse system according to claim 23, wherein said removable drawer is in front of the keyboard.

29. A hand-held mobile mouse for a computer system having an associated screen comprising:

(a) a housing having a shape designed to be held in a user'"'"'s hand, said housing having a top portion with an opening and a lower portion;

(b) a sphere rotatable in any direction in said housing and having a portion partially surrounded by said opening so that said sphere is readily rotatable by the user'"'"'s thumb when said lower portion of said housing is held in the user'"'"'s palm;

(c) a rolling movement detection unit for generating a cursor signal in response to rotation of said sphere for cursor movements on the screen of the computer system;

(d) a plurality of spring units mounted in the housing for vertical movement of the sphere to generate a signal to activate a computer programmed click function operation;

(e) four roller units mounted to support a lower surface of the sphere and enclosed within said housing by said lower surface of said sphere;

(f) a remote wireless signal unit for converting the signals from the rolling movement detection unit to signals transmitted to the computer system;

(g) a circuit board connected to remote wireless signal unit; and

(h) a receptacle for batteries formed within the housing;

wherein at least two of said roller units are arranged orthogonally to each other in an X-axis and a Y-axis direction respectively so as to translate rotation of said sphere into corresponding rotation of said at least two roller units in the respective X-axis and Y-axis directions, said rolling movement detection unit detecting said respective rotation of said at least two roller units and forming signals processed by the computer system to produce cursor movements on the screen of the computer system in the X-axis and Y-axis direction corresponding to the respective rotations of said at least two roller units; and

wherein said cursor movements can be continually produced on the screen of the computer system in any direction in two dimensional space corresponding to the rotation of said sphere pushed by the user'"'"'s thumb during activation of the computer programmed click function operation by vertical movement of said sphere pushed by the thumb simultaneously.