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:
Jan. 14, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 10, 2005
John Joseph Hayes, Jr., Wake Forest, NC (US);
Curtis Wayne Thornton, Cary, NC (US);
John Joseph Hayes, Jr., Wake Forest, NC (US);
Curtis Wayne Thornton, Cary, NC (US);
Ericsson Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC (US);
Abstract
A radiotelephone includes a housing, and a radiotelephone communications transceiver and display are attached to the housing. A contact-sensitive transducer such as a resistive transducer, a capacitive transducer or a semiconductive transducer, is attached to the housing and produces an output signal that characterizes contact with a contact-sensitive surface of the contact-sensitive transducer. A controller is responsive to the output signal and operatively associated with the display and the radiotelephone communications transceiver, and controls at least one of the display and the radiotelephone communications transceiver according to the output signal of the contact-sensitive transducer. The controller, responsive to the contact-sensitive transducer, may determine a position of contact along an axis of the contact-sensitive transducer. A graphical object is selectively displayed based on the determined position of contact to thereby identify the graphical object, e.g., by highlighting one of a plurality of displayed graphical objects or by displaying a cursor that indicates one of a plurality of displayed graphical objects. In yet another embodiment, the controller is configured to cause the display or the radio-telephone communications transceiver to perform a plurality of actions. An action of the plurality of actions may be associated with an identified graphical object, and the controller may initiate the action associated with the identified graphical object in response to, for example, detection of a momentary contact of an object with the contact-sensitive transducer.