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:
Oct. 24, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Masaru Komatsu, Fukushima-ken, JP;
Alps Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A coordinate input apparatus is provided which is capable of detecting a switching operation of a stick-type operation section without providing a specific sensor and/or circuit element for detecting a switching operation. The coordinate input apparatus includes a stick-type operation section, pressure sensor sections for detecting operational loads in directions intersecting at right angles to each other when the operation section is operated and outputting the detected operational loads as load data, a coordinate computation section for computing the amount of cursor movement in directions intersecting at right angles to each other corresponding to the size of the operational load from the load data, a storage section for storing load data when load data is sampled at a predetermined time interval, a peak value detection section for computing the peak value of the stored load data of the storage section, a time measurement section for measuring the time during which the stored load data continuously exceeds a threshold value, an inclination computation section for computing the load change inclination value per unit time from the stored load data, and an operation determination section for determining whether the operation of the operation section is a normal pressing operation or a switching operation on the basis of the peak value, the threshold-value exceeding time, and the value of the load change inclination.