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:
Feb. 26, 2008
Filed:
Jul. 06, 2004
Toshiaki Sugimura, Yokohama, JP;
Masaaki Fukumoto, Yokohama, JP;
Toshiaki Sugimura, Yokohama, JP;
Masaaki Fukumoto, Yokohama, JP;
NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An object of the present invention is to provide an input apparatus and input key capable of reducing the number of operations on the input key for input of symbols and permitting a user to designate a symbol to be inputted, by a simpler operation. An input keyto which a plurality of symbols or marks are assigned, has a key topto be pushed, a sensor partfor detecting a push position on a surface of the key topby a finger or the like used to push the key top, a moving direction detectorfor detecting a change of the push position of the finger or the like detected by the sensor partand for detecting a moving direction of the finger or the like during movement thereof on the surface of the key top, and a switchto change a state with a push on the key top, and has a converterfor converting a state of the switchand the moving direction detected by the moving direction detector, into symbol information.