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:
Aug. 30, 2005
Filed:
Jan. 29, 2002
Yat Shun (Damien) Yu, British Columbia, CA;
Yat Shun (Damien) Yu, British Columbia, CA;
VTech Telecommunications Ltd.,, Tai Po, HK;
Abstract
A two-axis ball-based cursor control apparatus with tactile feeling is provided, which includes a housing; a spherical ball contained partially within the housing and having a plurality of recesses distributed about its outer surface; two pairs of spring biased sensor mechanisms each including a probe, a spring, and a transducer; and a means for processing the signals received from the sensor mechanisms. Each of the four probes is positioned so that it rests within one of the recesses on the spherical ball when the ball is stationary. As the ball is rotated, the probes are pushed up and out of the recesses by the ball, causing the corresponding springs to alternately compress and decompress, before the probes come to rest in adjacent recesses. Each transducer generates an electrical signal corresponding to the rate of compression and decompression in the corresponding spring. The signal processing means then translates the signals from each of the transducers into movement of a cursor on an electronic display screen which corresponds to the rotation of the spherical ball about each of its axes.