Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Jon Gunderson

Gregg Charles Vanderheiden

David Paul Kelso

A long range optical pointing apparatus (10) is disclosed which can locate a spot (24) on a video screen (16) from a position several feet away from the screen. An optical pointer unit (11) focuses a portion of the raster lines traced over the video screen during one frame onto a photodetector (28), and provides an output pulse when a raster line is focused upon and detected by the photodetector. The detected raster line pulses are provided to a processing unit (13) which also receives the vertical and horizontal deflection signals from the video terminal (15). The processing circuitry (13) averages the positions of the group of raster line portions detected by the optical pointer unit to provide an averaged vertical and horizontal position for the area of the screen at which the pointer (11) is directed. The vertical and horizontal information provided by the processing circuitry can be used by a computer (19) to provide a cursor at the spot (24) on the video screen (16) to inform the user of the position on the screen at which he is pointing. The optical pointer unit (11) can be worn on the head of a user seated before the video terminal (15) so that communication with the computer (19) through the video screen can be accomplished with head pointing movements.

Growing community of inventors

Madison, WI, United States of America

Jon Gunderson