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:
May. 21, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1998
Alberto Ferrari, Camposanto, IT;
Marco Tartagni, Meldola, IT;
STMicroelectronics, Inc., Carrollton, TX (US);
Abstract
A plurality N of capacitance sensing cells are arranged in a row/column array top to cooperate with a fingertip and produce an output signal that controls the movement of a cursor/pointer across a display screen. The output of each individual sensing cell is connected to the corresponding individual node of a resistor array that has N nodes arranged in a similar row/column array. A centroid output of the resistor nodes in row configuration provides an output signal for control of cursor movement in a row direction. A centroid output of the resistor nodes in column configuration provides an output signal for control of cursor movement in an orthogonal column direction. A mass signal output of the row/column resistor mode array provides a switch on/off signal.