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:
Jul. 10, 2001
Filed:
Aug. 16, 1999
Masato Anzai, Machida, JP;
Yoshinari Toyosato, Yamato, JP;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A touch panel section, which is formed by affixing transparent resistive film sheets onto both of front and back surfaces of a transparent glass plate respectively, is rotatably mounted between a keyboard and a flat panel display each being provided in a portable electronic device such as a notebook computer. The touch panel section is rotated toward the flat panel display or keyboard for selectively switching the involved input methods. That is, with the introduction of the rotatable touch panel section into the portable electronic device, it becomes possible to support three different input operations; an input operation by a fingertip (tablet function), a handwritten input operation (digitizer function) by a pen and a conventional input operation by the keyboard.