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:
Sep. 18, 2001
Filed:
Feb. 22, 2000
Peter Sheehan, Bray, IE;
Cathal Loughnane, Tipperary, IE;
Logitech, Inc., Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
A pointing device provides increased comfort by supporting the user's hand to avoid extreme positions of posture ranges of the various fingers and joints of the hand and wrist. The device includes an upper surface having a crown on which to rest a palmar region of the palm of the hand of a user substantially at the metacarpal-phalangeal (MP) joint of the second digit and at least a portion of the metacarpal-phalangeal joint of the third digit. The upper surface has a front region on which to rest the second through fourth digits. The front region extends downwardly from the crown in a forward direction. The upper surface includes a back region on which to rest the hypothenar region of the hand. The back region extends downwardly from the crown in a rearward direction, and is configured to substantially avoid contacting the carpal tunnel and to substantially avoid supporting the thenar region of the hand. The housing further includes a generally concave inner side surface and a trackball having a portion exposed from the inner side surface to face the thumb, and an outer side surface on which to place the fifth digit. The inner side surface includes a ledge disposed below and to the left of the trackball on which the thumb may rest.