Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Cursor mark position control device
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-06
2001-03-06
Hjerpe, Richard (Department: 2674)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Cursor mark position control device
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198473
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to desk top computer control devices such as desk top operated mice, of the type having a rotatable ball for pointing control, and which further include depressible buttons which can be depressed inward to a main housing by the user's finger for scrolling applications in Windows or the like.
2. Description of the Related Prior Art
Prior art desktop operated computer control devices for pointing control and for controlling certain functions of computers, such as the mouse type desktop operated computer control device, have been used for years, the structures of which and means for interfacing with computers and computer programs being well understood by those skilled in the art.
The term “desktop” associated with desktop mouse and/or desktop operated computer control device(s) as herein used has the meaning of the mouse (computer control device) resting on top of or being supported on a desktop or like stationary surface when operated for controlling the pointer and other functions of the computer, thereby the user's hand and arm remain in a rested or supported position, thus eliminating the undesirable “tired arm syndrome” associated with continuously holding aloft hand supported computer control devices.
A typical prior art desktop mouse comprises a housing usually small enough to be graspable and operable in a single hand. Within the housing is a rotatable ball in-part exposed through a bottom opening of the housing, so that movement of the housing across a surface such as a desktop rolls the ball which is engaged with the surface. Ball movement detectors within the housing, commonly being rotary encoders, such as optical encoders, detect movement of the ball relative to the housing, and electronics in the housing transmit information about ball movement to the computer, via wire (cables) or wireless communication. The computer uses the information in a manner appropriate with the software setup, but typically a cursor or pointer shown on the monitor is moved in the direction of the housing movement.
The rotatable pointer control ball arrangement of a conventional desktop mouse is a certain position type pointer control device or arrangement. Such certain position type pointer control provides advantages (particularly when associated with the limited positions possible on a monitor screen) because a certain rotational position of the ball can directly correspond to a certain location on a computer monitor screen. Pointer control on hand supported computer control devices, sometimes referred to as remote controllers or remote mice such as sold by Interlink Electronic, Inc. of Camarillo, Calif., USA, are operable via a variable speed pointer control button (and possibly scroll control button), yet such devices do not contain the very accurate rotatable ball for pointing control, thus such devices having no rotatable ball for pointing control are considered inferior and not to be within the scope of the herein described invention or the legal claims and their equivalents for claims that include a rotatable ball in the claim. The certain pointing control of a rotatable ball pointing device is clearly superior to any device having pointing control embodied as a vector output device such as depressible buttons or joystick type of manipulated input.
A desktop trackball is a very similar device to a desktop mouse but with the rotatable ball exposed on the top of the housing for rotating by hand, the housing being stationary in use atop a desktop, and thus the term mouse and trackball are herein interchangeable and usable as synonyms of one another, as this disclosure teaches improvement of desktop ball type pointer control devices, and specifically such rotatable ball type devices with depressible buttons dedicated for scrolling control.
Exposed on the exterior top of the housing of the typical or conventional desktop mouse is a plurality of finger depressible selection buttons, commonly two buttons and sometimes more than two, the two buttons commonly referred to as a right select button and a left select button. The finger depressible buttons interface with momentary-On sensors or sensors used only as momentary-On On/Off sensors by the electronic circuitry. The momentary-On sensors are simple On/Off switches which assume a normally off or open position, and which interface between the exposed buttons and the circuitry within the housing. The momentary-On sensors typically are positioned between the exposed button portions and the circuitry which is typically on a circuit board or member sheet or the like. The exposed depressible buttons allow interfacing of a human digit such as a finger or thumb in a natural movement with the electrical switches to close the switches in order to control the circuitry to actuate (or deactuate) a function of the computer via a function-control signal generated electronically in the circuitry and communicated to the computer.
In more recent years, computer desktop mice with pointer control balls have been developed to include exposed finger depressible buttons associated with electrical switches or sensors operable for screen or window scrolling control, such switches or sensors being either structured such that they can be used only as momentary-On only On/Off switches, or being used in conjunction with the associated circuitry such that the switches are only read as having two readable states, On and Off, or activated and de-activated. Such Window or screen scrolling switches allow scrolling vertically up and down if two switches are used, one switch for each direction, and both vertically and horizontally (left and right) if four switches are used.
Such prior art computer desktop mice which include window or screen scrolling finger depressible buttons associated with switches (sensors) generally use one of two types of common switches, i.e., packaged switches or elastomeric dome-cap type switches.
The first type of switch is a packaged momentary-On only On/Off switch capable of providing only two readable states. A typical packaged momentary-On only On/Off switch generally comprises a depressible button-like actuator movably retained to a housing, a pair of electrically conductive proximal circuit elements each in-part within the housing and each in-part exposed exterior of the housing to allow connection thereof to a circuit board, the proximal circuit elements being normally separated from one another within the housing until the depressible button is depressed sufficiently to bring an electrically conductive concavo-convex resilient metal disk downward to contact across both the proximal circuit elements to in effect serve as a conductive link to close the circuit. Upon release of the depressive pressure on the button, the conductive concavo-convex metal disk being resilient, returns to a raised normal position wherein the electrical path across the two proximal circuit elements is again rendered open. The metal disk typically remains in constant contact with one of the proximal circuit elements. A prior art computer desktop mouse which I have seen on the market which uses such packaged switches for use in control of scrolling functions is sold under the tradename of WEB MOUSE with the mouse retail packaging further including MAXXTRO and MUS8 printed thereon.
The second type of switch commonly employed in prior art computer desktop mice which include window or screen scrolling finger depressible buttons associated with such sensors is an elastomeric injection molded dome-cap switch or sensor. A prior art computer desktop mouse currently on the market which uses such elastomeric injection molded dome-cap switches or sensors for use in control of scrolling functions through depressible buttons is sold under the tradename of NET MOUSE by KYE INTERNATIONAL. U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,051 issued Aug. 12, 1997 to J. Liao and assigned to KYE International, describes such a mouse but with the dome-cap switches (only On/Off switches) utilized to control pointer move
Hjerpe Richard
Nguyen Kevin M.
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