Optical translator device

Details Optical translator device Optical translator device

1987-04-09

1988-12-27

Caldwell, Sr., John W.

Communications: electrical

Land vehicle alarms or indicators

Internal alarm or indicator responsive to a condition of the...

340709, G09G 302

Patent

active

047943840

ABSTRACT:
An optical translator device capable of providing information indicative of the amount and direction of relative movement between the device and a surface positioned relative thereto. The device comprises a light source for providing at least partially coherent radiation and the source radiation is directed toward an area of the surface area. The reflected coherent radiation or light at the surface area undergoes optical interference due to the texture of the surface thereby forming a speckle pattern consisting of light and dark features. A detector array at the device comprises a plurality of photodetector cells and positioned in the path to receive the reflected light and to detect the light and dark features as represented by the cells in the array detecting light features in the reflected light thereby representative of a sample of the speckle pattern. Means is provided to compare consecutively produced samples which are indicative of the translatory information. A particular application of the optical translator device is a novel optical cursor control device which derives its translatory information from movement on substantially any sufficiently reflective surface. The output of the detector array is provided to circuit means to produce signals indicative of the amount and direction of relative cursor control device movement over the surface based upon observation of changes and movement of the speckle pattern as presented to the detector array. Such a device can be characterized as a "padless optical mouse" to provide orthogonal signals to move a cursor from position to position on a display screen in response to movement of the mouse over any sufficiently reflective surface, such as a desk top.

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Sakaguchi et al., "The Hologram Tablet-A New Graphic Input Device", AFIPS Conference Proceedings, vol. 37, 1970.

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