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:
Nov. 12, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 23, 1999
Gilles Van Ruymbeke, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Bernard Kasser, Ceyreste, FR;
Jean-Philippe Fricker, Mountain View, CA (US);
Marc Ledin, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Logitech Europe S.A., Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
A joystick that detects position and movement using a capacitive sensor. The joystick has a stick mounted to allow movement within a housing, a conductive element at a first end of the stick, and a capacitive sensor. The capacitive sensor may be a capacitive touchpad. It determines position by measuring the change in capacitance on a set of conductive traces. The capacitive sensor may be shaped as a plane or may be hemispherically-shaped. The conductive element may also be triangular or other distinctive shape to allow detection of movement. An advantage of such a joystick is that absolute positioning may be determined, along with relative positioning.