Underwater Touchpad
OwnerFrederick E. Frantz, Mary D. Frantzinventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An underwater touchpad with optional visual information display especially suitable for swimming event timing and training sessions is provided with piezoresistive force sensors, signal processing circuitry, and signaling outputs. By replacing underwater electrical contacts found in some touchpad designs, problems with leaking water and ambient pressure sensitivity are addressed. By replacing accelerometers found in some other touchpad designs, new data can be gleaned from the pressure of the touch, for example. Optionally, the touchpad may also be provided with an integrated display capability to highlight areas to be touched, to provide timing feedback, and other information useful both in training and in competition.
Claims15
A touchpad sensor for use in an underwater environment comprising:
- at least one touch surface to receive a physical touch by a user;
- at least one piezoresistive force sensor communicative with the touch surface, and having a force measurement output;
- a signal processor which receives the force measurement output, filters the measurement output to detect a user's touch event and rejects non-touch events, and produces a touch event signal;
- and
- an output to a timing system responsive to the producing of the touch event signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.