Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Sony Corporation

Ntn Corporation

Ryoichi Maeda

Akito Miura

Toshio Furudate

Kazuo Kaneo

Toshio Ogawa

Takeshi Igarashi

Hirofumi Okumura

Masahiro Soma

Kentaro Nishikawa

Susumu Tosaka

Goushi Koike

Koichi Takahashi

Katsuhiko Tochihara

Osamu Tanabe

Tekayuki Norimatsu

Yoshiharu Terauchi

Kiyoshi Suzuki

Takeshi Akahama

A load sensor includes a base substrate having two holes as two fixing portions to a frame member as a detection object, a pair of strain detecting elements provided on a surface of the base substrate, and input-output terminals provided on the surface of the base substrate. The strain detecting elements are arranged in a region that is between the holes and is opposite the input-output terminals with respect to at least one of the holes.

Load sensor

A load sensor that is inoperable even when applied with a large load, has a simple structure easily designed to be lightweight and compact and can detect a load with a high accuracy, and a legged robot apparatus including the load sensor in each of legs thereof. The robot apparatus includes the load sensors counting more than one and each of which detects, as an external force, a reaction applied when the leg abuts a ground surface. The load sensor includes a diaphragm, an activating member that is applied with an external force, a driving member forming along with the activating member a double structure and which presses the pressure-sensitive portion, and an elastic member.

Robot apparatus and load sensor

A load sensor is provided, which prevents defective printing of strain-sensing elements caused by the deflection of a pressure-receiving portion and provides stabilized quality and fabrication yields. The load sensor is provided with the strain-sensing elements printed on the pressure-receiving portion. The tip portion of the strain generating portions having a loading point is allowed to stay in advance below the plane containing the print surface of the strain generating portions in the direction of thickness. The tip portion of the pressure-receiving portion will never stay above the print surface of the strain generating portions even when the pressure-receiving portion is deflected in the heating process during fabrication. Therefore, this makes it possible to avoid defective printing of the strain-sensing elements caused by the deflection of the pressure-receiving portion.

Load sensor with strain-sensing elements

An input device for a game machine for inputting signals to a game machine using a computer, including: at least one control member projecting to the outside of a casing; a movement-transmitting member formed around the control member and operatively associated with the movement of an operating point of the control member, the movement-transmitting member being provided with a plurality of conductive elastic members; and a board provided in the casing and having formed thereon resistors corresponding to the conductive elastic members, the conductive elastic members changing the area of contact between the conductive elastic members and the resistors according to a direction of movement and a tilt angle of the operating point of the control member so as to vary the amount of resistance; wherein, by moving the operating point of the control member, analog signals corresponding to the movement are input to the game machine.

Analog input device to input multi directional signals

In a keyboard device of the present invention, a leader portion formed integrally with a film substrate is provided with switch terminal portions and pointing device terminal portions, and the film substrates are provided with lead-out conductors to be led out to the pointing device terminal portions. A flexible substrate is provided with connection conductors. The connection conductors are connected to lead-out conductors adjacent to the pointing device.

Keyboard device with pointing device using strain gauges incorporated therein

There is provided an input device which is small, has good productivity, is inexpensive, and can be surface-mounted. In an input device of the present invention, a plurality of terminals of a metal material connected to deflection detecting elements are connected in a substrate portion of an operation member, and the terminal allows the input device to be surface-mounted on a print board. It is thus possible to provide the input device which is inexpensive and small without using a conventional, large flexible substrate.

Input device having deflection detecting elements

An input device has a control member having an operating part and a base part. The base part has arms and connecting parts connecting the adjacent arms. Strain gages are placed on the arms, respectively. Projections are formed on the connecting parts or a holding member for holding the control member thereon to secure spaces between the arms and the holding member to enable the arms to be strained greatly when the operating part is tilted so that the respective electrical resistances of the strain gages can be changed greatly for the slight tilting of the operating part of the control member.

Input device provided with strain gages

A first resistive element and a second resistive element are serially connected to each other, and a contact element having a lower resistivity than the first resistive element elastically contacts the first resistive element. The resistance between both ends of the first resistive element varies with the contact area between the first resistive element and the contact element. When a predetermined voltage is applied to the first and the second resistive elements, an output voltage, which corresponds to the resistance ratio of the first resistive element to the second resistive element, is obtained from a conductive pattern. When the resistance ratio of the first resistive element to the second resistive element is set in the range of 1 to 3, the linearity is improved and a wide variation range of the output voltage is obtained.

Detection device in which output varies with amount by which elastically deformable contact element is pressed

The conventional variable resistor has a problem in that, because a pressure-sensitive member made of a pressure-sensitive conductive rubber is used, a serious scattering is caused in the characteristic (change curve), and scattering of thickness in the manufacture of the pressure-sensitive member results in a large scatter of the characteristic (change curve). The variable resistor of the invention uses the first resistor pattern forming the variable resistor. It is therefore possible to provide a variable resistor which scattering in the manufacture is smaller, can achieve a uniform resistance change characteristic, and gives a high accuracy.

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Miyagi-ken, Japan

Ryoichi Maeda