Logitech, Inc.

Logitech Europe S.a.

Aldo Bussien

Nicolas Sasselli

Peter Sheehan

Marc A Bidiville

Denis O'Keeffe

Brian Stephens

Javier Arreguit

Harthmuth Buczek

Floris A Van Shaik

Rene Sommer

Fabien Droz-Dit-Busset

Bernard Steenis

Berni Joss

William J Sheehan

Philippe Junod

A pointing device with a planar element for supporting it on a horizontal surface. On top of the planar element is a housing having a palm and finger-supporting surface extending from a thumb-side to a small-finger side, and from back to front across the planar element. A soft-grip is coupled to the palm and finger-supporting surface and is made of material which is more resilient than the rest of the housing, and is also less porous than foam so as to be resistant to soiling.

Mouse with cushioning pads

A cordless mouse with an upper and lower housing. The lower housing includes a hole for receiving a ball which extends through the hole in the bottom of the mouse. The upper housing is uniquely provided with a cavity for receiving a battery, with a portion of the cavity extending over the ball.

Mouse with battery compartment on top

The present invention provides a wireless radio frequency ('RF') communications interface between peripherals and the host personal computer or workstation. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a wireless electronic mouse which uses an RF transmitter to transmit information unidirectionally to a receiver which is coupled to a host computer. This arrangement eliminates the need for a cable connection between the mouse and the receiver, while at the same time permitting continuous communication therebetween. The present invention also provides a method and apparatus to allow the receiver to differentiate between multiple RF wireless mice operating within the same transmission zone by a combination of providing a unique identification code to each transmitting mouse and allowing the user to choose from a plurality of transmission channels. The receiver then automatically switches to the channel selected by the user. The present invention can further receive transmissions from either one or two peripheral devices. In one device mode, the receiver filters out stray frequencies from other RF peripherals. In two device mode, the receiver has the ability to receive information from two RF peripherals, while filtering out other stray RF peripherals operating in the same transmission zone. This allows a user to use the same receiver for one peripheral, such as a mouse, for detailed work and another peripheral for other types of special applications, such as a pointing device for software presentations. The present invention further provides for a power consumption minimization method in the wireless peripheral.

Wireless mouse

A cursor control device for personal computers and workstations includes a randomly speckled ball illuminated with diffuse lighting. An image of at least a portion of the illuminated area of the speckled ball is focused by an optical element such as a diffractive optical element onto a photosensitive array. Logic associated with the photosensitive array determines movement of the ball across the array, and translates that movement into conventional cursor control signals supplied to a host system.

Cursor pointing device utilizing a photodetector array with target ball

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Vullierens, Switzerland

Aldo Bussien