US 12,026,327 B2Granted

Writing instrument

AssigneeBIC Violex Single Member S.A.

InventorsPanagiotis Polygerinos, Nikolaos Chrysanthakopoulos

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Abstract

A writing instrument comprising: an elongate body portion with distal and proximal ends defining a principal axis of the writing instrument; an electronically actuated nib manipulator with an end portion comprising a nib, attached to the proximal end to move the end portion within a spatial domain defined along first and second axes of a plane that is substantially orthogonal to the principal axis, and along a third axis that is an extension of the principal axis; an inertial measurement unit that measures the position of the principal axis relative to a writing surface; and an electronic control unit coupled to the inertial measurement unit and nib manipulator to obtain segment formation commands, and receive the position of the principal axis from the inertial measurement unit. The electronic control unit electronically actuates the nib manipulator so that the end portion moves within the spatial domain to scribe predefined characters.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A writing instrument comprising:

an elongate body portion enabling a user to grip the writing instrument, wherein the elongate body portion comprises a distal end (D) and a proximal end (P), the proximal end and the distal end defining a principal axis (A) of the writing instrument;
an electronically actuated nib manipulator attached to the proximal end of the elongate body portion, wherein the nib manipulator further comprises an end portion comprising a nib, and the nib manipulator is configured to move the end portion within a spatial domain defined (i) along first (XP) and second (YP) axes of a plane that is substantially orthogonal to the principal axis (A), and (ii) along a third (ZP) axis that is an extension of the principal axis (A);
an inertial measurement unit configured to measure at least a position of the principal axis (A) relative to a writing surface;
and
an electronic control unit operatively coupled to at least the inertial measurement unit and the nib manipulator;
wherein the electronic control unit is configured to obtain one or more segment formation commands, and to receive the position of the principal axis (A) from the inertial measurement unit, and wherein the electronic control unit is configured to electronically actuate the nib manipulator so that the end portion moves within the spatial domain to scribe a predefined character defined by the one or more segment formation commands onto the writing surface.

3 more elements

A system comprising:

a writing instrument;
an external processing apparatus;
and
a wireless communications network configured to communicably couple the writing instrument and the external processing apparatus;
wherein a wireless modem of the writing instrument is configured to transmit an audio sample obtained by a microphone of the writing instrument to the external processing apparatus via the wireless communications network;
wherein the external processing apparatus is configured to perform speech recognition on the audio sample, thus converting the audio sample to one, or more, character identifiers;
wherein the external processing apparatus is configured to reference one, or more, records of a predefined character store corresponding to the one, or more, character identifiers, wherein the predefined character store comprises a plurality of records indexed by one, or more, corresponding character identifiers, wherein each record comprises one or more segment formation commands configured to cause an electronically actuated nib manipulator of the writing instrument to form a predefined character;
and
wherein the external processing apparatus is configured to transmit the one or more segment formation commands to the writing instrument.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/187,156Filed 21 Mar 2023
Priority: EP 2216438625 Mar 2022
Published: US 2023/0305647 A128 Sep 2023
Granted: 2 Jul 2024
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification13 codes

G06F 3/03545
With detection of two-dimensional [2D] relative movements between the device, or an operating part thereof, and a plane or surface, e.g. 2D…
G06F 3/03546
Pens or stylus: using a rotatable ball at the tip as position detecting member
B25J 9/0084
Program-controlled manipulators: comprising a plurality of manipulators
B25J 9/1679
Program controls: characterised by the tasks executed