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US 10,296,095 B2Granted
Slim profile magnetic user interface devices
AssigneeSeescan, Inc.
InventorMark S. Olsson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Slim profile magnetic user interface devices (slim UIDs) are disclosed. A slim UID may include a slim profile housing, a movable actuator assembly having user contact surfaces on opposite sides, along with a magnet, magnetic sensor, restoration element, and processing element. User mechanical interaction with the actuator element may be sensed by the magnetic sensor and processed to generate output signals usable by a coupled electronic computing system.
Claims17
A slim profile magnetically sensed user interface device, comprising:
- a slim profile housing assembly having a front face and a back face;
- a movable actuator assembly disposed in the housing assembly, the movable actuator assembly including:
- a front contact element having a front contact surface disposed on the front face for receiving user touch input;
- a back contact element having a back contact surface disposed on the back face for receiving user touch input;
- an actuator support assembly;
- and
- a permanent magnet;
- a three-axis magnetic sensor that senses magnetic fields in three orthogonal axes at a compact point in space, the magnetic sensor positioned to sense a position or motion of the magnet of the movable actuator assembly and generate a magnetic sensor output signal associated with the position or motion of the magnet in three axes in space;
- a processing element for receiving the magnetic sensor output signal as an input and generating, based at least in part on the magnetic sensor output signal, a processing element output signal corresponding to a position or motion of the actuator assembly in response to a user actuation;
- and
- an output interface circuit for operatively coupling the processing element output signal to a notebook or laptop computer, cellular phone, or tablet device.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.