Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Including keyboard
Reexamination Certificate
1995-03-06
2001-11-27
Hjerpe, Richard (Department: 2674)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Including keyboard
C345S173000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06323845
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates in general to computers, and in particular, to computer input devices.
BACKGROUND
Existing computer systems have numerous input devices. The most common input device is a standard keyboard. The standard keyboard comprises, at a minimum, four rows of keys with ten keys in each row. It is common practice that the four keys on each end of the next to the last row are home keys for the fingers of an operator. The operator's thumbs are used to actuate a space bar which may be considered as a fifth row. Another common computer input device is the mouse. The mouse includes a housing with a rotatable ball on the base of the housing. The ball is moved over a mouse pad. The top cover of the mouse has one or more buttons. In operation, the mouse is used to acquire control over the cursor on the display of a computer. The mouse includes an arrow display or mouse pointer. By moving the mouse pointer to any point on the display and actuating the mouse button one time, the display cursor is automatically moved to the position indicated by the mouse pointer. The mouse has other functions. If the mouse pointer is disposed over one or more graphical user interfaces that appear on display, the function indicated by the graphical user interface may be selected by clicking on the mouse. Still another function of the mouse is to select portions of the display for further operation. In a typical word processing operation, the mouse is positioned at the start of a text to be selected, a mouse button is held down; and then the mouse pointer is dragged over selected text. With the text selected, further functions may be performed on that text by entering commands from the keyboard or making further use of the graphical user interface with or without the mouse. For example, the text may be underlined, copied, set in a different font, etc.
There are other input devices that are somewhat similar in operation to the mouse. These devices include track balls, touch pads, and joy sticks. Joy sticks are more commonly used in connection with computer games since they normally require two hands for operation of all the joy stick controls. Some laptop computers have used small joy sticks located in the keyboard for controlling a pointer. Other input devices include track balls and touch pads. Track balls work similar to a mouse except the ball is disposed separate from the keyboard or fixed to one side and it is moveable by one or more fingers of the operator. Touch pads are also attached to either one side or the bottom of the keyboard or provided as separate input devices like the mouse. Touch pads provide an input system that is readily learnable by most operators. One advantage of the touch pad is that it uses an intuitive ability to point with one's index finger to a desired item.
SUMMARY
The invention provides a computer and a computer input apparatus and method with a highly intuitive touch pad input device. The computer of the invention has a central processing unit, a memory that holds data and an operating system, a visual display, and an input device with a touch sensitive input pad. The input device particularly comprises a keyboard that has a plurality of keys. Each key corresponds to one of a plurality of alphanumeric or punctuation characters. The keys are arranged in first and second sets. The sets are spaced apart from each other. The touch sensitive input pad is deposed in the space between the sets. Each set of keys has a plurality of rows including at least the four rows typical of keyboard. With an operator's fingers disposed on the corresponding home keys, the index fingers of the operator may readily access the touch pad which is spaced only one key away from the home key row. As such, in order to acquire control of the cursor and/or the touch pad pointer, an operator removes an index finger from a home key and places it on the touch pad. Once placed on the touch pad, a first pressure will acquire the touch pad pointer. The pointer on the display can be moved by simply sliding the index finger over the touch pad until the touch pad pointer is located at the desired final position on the display. At that time, a second, somewhat harder pressure is exerted on the touch pad in order to set the cursor to the position indicated by the touch pad pointer. The second pressure is also used to drag the pointer and thereby select large areas of the display.
As such, the touch sensitive pad generates one or more signals that correspond to different touches or different pressures applied to the pad by the operator. The first touch or first pressure generates an acquisition signal that enables the operator to acquire positional control of the touch pad pointer on the display. The second touch generally made with a pressure greater than the first touch will set the cursor to the position indicated by the touch pad pointer. When the touch pad pointer is disposed over an icon of a graphical user interface, the icon may be selected by two rapid touches on the touch pad. This operation is similar to the double clicking of a mouse.
The touch sensitive pad of the invention comprises a matrix of touch sensitive elements for generating different signals in accordance with the different touches of the pad. The touch pad provides either absolute or relative positioning of the cursor using a scale factor control. When using an absolute positioning, the preferred scale factor is one to four. The touch pad provides relative control of the touch pad pointer by dividing the display into a number of quadrant. With relative positional control, the margins of the touch pad generate marginal signals indicating that the user desires the touch pad pointer to cross from one quadrant to the next. By maintaining one's finger on the margin, the touch pad pointer will move in a step wise manner toward sequential quadrant align with the selected marginal position.
Another feature of the invention is that the touch pad is disposed on a moveable table. The moveable table may be translatable or rotatable into alignment with the index finger of the operator. Once set to its desired alignment, a keeper control maintains the table in the desired position. By moving the table to a desired position, an operator may customize the position of the table for access by one's left or right index finger. The touch pad may include one or more transducers such as piezoelectric, capacitive, resistive, or optical transducers.
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Ken Sakamura; “BTRON”; 7(1987) Apr.; IEEE No. 2 pp. 53-65.*
“Combined-User Interface For Computers, Television, Video Recorders, And Telephone, ETC.”; IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 33 No. 3B; Aug./90; pp. 116-118.
Fatahi-yar M.
Hjerpe Richard
NCR Corporation
Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle
LandOfFree
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