Motion sensitive mechanical keyboard
OwnerJohn Greer ELIASinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A motion sensitive mechanical keyboard configured to enable a standard look and feel mechanical keyboard to sense hand/finger motion over the surface of the keys. Command and cursor input (e.g., pointing and gestures) can be received from the user on the motion sensitive mechanical keyboard without requiring the user to move the user's hand off the keyboard. Hand/finger motion can be detected by optical sensors via an in-keyboard-plane slot camera system. The motion sensitive mechanical keyboard can operate in two or more modes—e.g., a typing mode and a mouse mode—and operating the keyboard in mouse mode or switching between the modes can be facilitated by holding (depressing and holding) or tapping (depressing and releasing) arbitrary combinations of keys.
Claims21
An input device comprising:
- multiple mechanical keys aligned in a plane;
- and
- multiple optical sensors oriented toward the keys and having optical axes parallel to the plane.
An input device comprising:
- multiple mechanical keys;
- first sensors configured to detect depression of the keys;
- and
- second sensors configured to track motion across the keys while an arbitrary combination of the keys is concurrently depressed.
A method, comprising:
- providing a first input mode associated with multiple mechanical keys in which detection of depression of the keys to provide textual input is enabled and tracking of motion across the keys to provide cursor input is disabled;
- providing a second input mode associated with the keys in which tracking of motion across the keys to provide cursor input is enabled;
- and
- switching between the first input mode and the second input mode when an arbitrary combination of the keys is concurrently depressed and released.
A personal computer comprising:
- multiple mechanical keys aligned in a plane;
- and
- multiple optical sensors oriented toward the keys and having optical axes parallel to the plane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.