The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 06, 1991
Filed:
Mar. 14, 1989
Dale R Flower, Atlanta, GA (US);
Pat Gallarelli, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Kevin P Goffinet, Cary, NC (US);
Anthony W Miles, Raleigh, NC (US);
Charles A Rudisill, Apex, NC (US);
Kevin H Vorhees, Raleigh, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A touch sensing direct input data display device is described. The data display screen is directly and solely supported within a housing by stiff springs having essentially uniaxial freedom of motion. Strain gauge sensors are applied directly to the springs and are connected in a full Wheatstone bridge sensing circuit. The outputs of the sensors are fed to a calculating and processing device for calculaating the X, Y and Z coordinate information relative to the point on the face of the display which has been pushed or touched. The Z component is of total force and the X any Y components give the two dimensional location for the application of the force measured in the Z axis. The stiff springs allow very little deflection to occur under normal touch imposed fores on the display screen. They permit essentially uniaxial motion only in the Z axis. The system is mechanically robust and may be shipped and subjected to dropping or impact loads normally encountered in shipping without damage, has a relatively high natural frequency of vibration and produces high level, relatively continuous output signals for use.