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:
Dec. 28, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Stephan A Mato, Jr, Katy, TX (US);
Richard M Knox, Houston, TX (US);
Kevin F Clancy, Spring, TX (US);
Assignee:
Compaq Computer Corporation, Houston, TX (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
345168 ; 345175 ;
Abstract
A method of determining an object's position and associated apparatus provides positional information in a form that may be conveniently communicated to a computer system to calculate the object's position. In a disclosed embodiment, representatively incorporated in a computer keyboard, a method of determining an object's position includes forming an optical grid of overlapping beacons and detecting reflections of the beacons produced by the object when it intersects the grid. The disclosed embodiment utilizes two focused beacons to produce the optical grid.