Apparatus for sensing the position of a pointing object

Abstract

A computer system (10) includes a keyboard (11), a first pair of position-sensing electrodes (18.1 and 18.2), a second pair of position-sensing electrodes (20.1 and 20.2), a signal injection electrode (22) and an oscillator (27). The oscillator injects a signal via the electrode (22) and the operators left hand L, creating a field around the operator's right hand R. The position electrodes are arranged underneath the keyboard and sense the strenght of the field enabling the position of the operator's right hand R in an X-Y plane above the keyboard to be determined. Each position-sensing electrode is coupled to a difference amplifier (28 and 30) via a pair of buffer amplifiers (40.1, 40.2, 30.1, 30.2). The amplification factor of the buffer amplifiers can be varied so as to scale the field strength values sensed by the electrodes, thereby permitting the output of the difference amplifier to be varied so as to adjust the sensivity of the system to different positions of the operator's hand R.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.