Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Cursor mark position control device
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-13
2002-02-26
Jankus, Almis R. (Department: 2675)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Cursor mark position control device
C345S166000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06351257
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a pointing device, and more particularly, to a pointing device which uses an image picture to generate pointing signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A pointing device such as a mouse is used for generating pointing signals to control movements of a cursor on a display device. A prior art mouse commonly comprises two or three buttons installed on its housing for inputting button signals. The scrolling of a window on the display device can be performed by moving a scroll square on the scroll bar to another position. This is done by moving the cursor to a scroll bar of the window first and then depressing one of the buttons on the mouse.
Please refer to FIG.
1
and FIG.
2
.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a prior art mouse
10
.
FIG. 2
is a functional block diagram of the mouse
10
. The mouse
10
is electrically connected to a computer system
20
, and the computer system
20
is electrically connected to a display device
22
. The mouse
10
comprises a housing
12
, two buttons
14
positioned on an upper side of the housing
12
for inputting button signals, and a roller ball (not shown) installed on a bottom side of the housing
12
for controlling movements of a cursor on the display device
22
.
The computer system
20
comprises a memory
24
for storing programs and data, a processor
26
for executing the programs stored in the memory
24
, a button control program
28
stored in the memory
24
for receiving and processing the button signals generated by the buttons
14
, and a display control program
30
such as Microsoft Word stored in the memory
24
for controlling the scrolling of a window
32
displayed on the display device
22
according to the button signals.
Because scrolling the window
32
requires a user to move the cursor to a scroll bar of the window
32
first, and then input button signals from one of the buttons
14
. It is extremely inconvenient for the user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a pointing device to solve the above mentioned problem.
Briefly, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a pointing device comprising:
a housing;
a line-shaped contact image sensor installed on an upper side of the housing for inputting a line-shaped image and generating a corresponding line image signal, each line image signal comprising a predetermined number of data bits; and
an image processing circuit installed in the housing and connected to the image sensor for receiving and processing the line image signal generated by the image sensor;
wherein a user can move an image picture across the image sensor in a direction perpendicular to the line direction of the image sensor to sequentially generate a series of line image signals, and the image processing circuit saves the series of line image signals in a bit map format which contains the image of the image picture in it, and then the user can move the image picture across the image sensor to generate a first line image signal and a second line image signal, and the image processing circuit will convert the first and second line image signals into first and second coordinates according to the positions of the first and second line image signals within the bit map, and generate a pointing signal according to the difference between the first and second coordinates.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the pointing device comprises a line-shaped contact image sensor for inputting an image picture so that scrolling a window becomes an easy task.
These and other objects and the advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5526481 (1996-06-01), Parks et al.
patent: 5991431 (1999-11-01), Borza et al.
patent: 5994710 (1999-11-01), Knee et al.
patent: 6198473 (2001-03-01), Armstrong
Awad Amr
Hsu Winston
Jankus Almis R.
Primax Electronics Ltd.
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