Coded data generation or conversion – Bodily actuated code generator – Including keyboard or keypad
Patent
1996-08-26
1999-11-02
Hjerpe, Richard A.
Coded data generation or conversion
Bodily actuated code generator
Including keyboard or keypad
341175, 341 22, 345173, 345168, 345111, 200 12, 200 5A, H03K 1794
Patent
active
059778881
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a switching device of a thin type which is employed for a factory automation apparatus (FA apparatus), a vending machine, a ticket-vending machine, an information apparatus, a domestic electrical product, a medical operation apparatus or the like and a display device with a switch employing the same.
BACKGROUND ART
A touch panel is well-known in the art as a typical switch of a thin type. In brief, the touch panel is a panel-type switch which has at least one switch part and can operate it with a substantially zero push-in stroke, or a panel-type switch having at least one switch part which can be operated by touching or lightly pushing the same.
In relation to touch panels, there are 1) a resistor film type (this is also called a transparent electrode type. Identical for the rest) opposing upper and lower transparent electrodes to each other between a transparent thin plate with a small space, 2) a photoelectric type cutting off or damping light outgoing from a light emitting device and entering a photodetector with a finger or the like, 3) an ultrasonic wave type of cutting off or damping ultrasonic waves outgoing from an ultrasonic oscillation device and entering a receiving device, and the like.
A touch panel 4 shown in FIG. 1 is of the resistor film type, and in brief, it is formed by providing at least one switch part which is turned on by being pushed from the exterior lightly (namely, with a substantially zero stroke) between transparent thin plates. In detailed description, this touch panel 4 is formed by superposing a transparent thin plate 10 having a plurality of opening portions 12 on a transparent thin plate 6 which is formed with a transparent electrode 8 on its upper surface, and superposing a transparent thin plate 16 which is formed with a transparent electrode 18 on its lower surface further thereon. The transparent electrodes 8 and 18 may be a plurality of stripy electrodes which are perpendicular to each other, or one electrode, e.g., the transparent electrode 18 may be a plurality of electrodes and the other electrode, e.g., the transparent electrode 8 may be a common electrode. The transparent thin plates 6 and 16 have flexibility since the same are thin plates. However, the lower transparent thin film 6 may not have flexibility.
Switch parts 4a are formed in portions of the respective opening portions 12, and when the portion of a desired opening portion 12 is lightly pushed from the transparent thin plate 16 side in this example, the transparent thin plate 16 and the transparent electrode 18 in the pushed portion are deflected so that the transparent electrode 18 comes into contact with the lower transparent electrode 8 through the opening portion 12 to be electrically turned on. However, the size, shape, number etc. of the respective switch parts 4a are arbitrary, and a plurality of small switch parts 4a may be electrically connected in parallel with each other to be employed as a single integrated switch part.
It is possible to form a display panel with switches by superposing such a touch panel 4 on a display panel 2 having an information display function as shown in FIG. 2, for example. Such a display panel with switches is disclosed in JP-U-61,723 (1986), for example. The display panel 2 is typically a liquid crystal display.
On the display panel 2, display regions 2a displaying contents selected by operation of the switch parts 4a such as control contents in an FA apparatus, destinations in a ticket-vending machine or the like, for example, are formed around lower portions of the switch parts 4a of the touch panel 4 in general, as shown in FIG. 3, for example. Thus, selection-operation of a desired switch part 4a is made easy.
The aforementioned touch panel 4 has such an advantage that the same is extremely thin with a thickness of about 1 mm at the most as a whole, while there is such a problem that the push-in stroke for the switch part 4a is extremely small at about zero (in more concrete terms, about 0.1 to 0.2 mm) and
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Fujita Toshihiro
Okamoto Akito
Tsuji Yoshitaka
Hjerpe Richard A.
IDEC Izumi Corporation
Tran Henry N.
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