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. 09, 2010
Filed:
May. 31, 2007
Charles A. Marttila, Shoreview, MN (US);
John T. Strand, Stillwater, MN (US);
Alan G. Hulme-lowe, Woodbury, MN (US);
M. Benton Free, St. Paul, MN (US);
John S. Huizinga, White Bear Lake, MN (US);
James N. Dobbs, Woodbury, MN (US);
Serge Wetzels, Maplewood, MN (US);
Glen A. Jerry, Roseville, MN (US);
Jennifer R. Yi, Woodbury, MN (US);
William R. Dudley, Geneseo, NY (US);
Charles A. Marttila, Shoreview, MN (US);
John T. Strand, Stillwater, MN (US);
Alan G. Hulme-Lowe, Woodbury, MN (US);
M. Benton Free, St. Paul, MN (US);
John S. Huizinga, White Bear Lake, MN (US);
James N. Dobbs, Woodbury, MN (US);
Serge Wetzels, Maplewood, MN (US);
Glen A. Jerry, Roseville, MN (US);
Jennifer R. Yi, Woodbury, MN (US);
William R. Dudley, Geneseo, NY (US);
3M Innovative Properties Company, St. Paul, MN (US);
Abstract
A keypad having a virtual floating image that appears to a user to be in a plane other than the apparent plane of the keypad surface. More particularly, the indicia on the keypad appear to float above or below the surface of the device. The keypad can be, for example, the keypad on a cell phone. For such an application there would be more than one array of indicia present on the keypad. For example, there might be ten arrays of indicia, which provide the numerals from 0 to 9 and two more arrays to provide virtual images of the * and # keys. In some embodiments, the keypad is integrated with an illumination source that light up the indicia. The present disclosure also provides a method of manufacturing a key pad with a virtual floating image.