US 4,839,634 A · Electro-optic slate for input/output of hand-entered textual and graphic information

Abstract

A portable interactive electro-optic data input/output, storage, processing, and display device responsive to hand printed text and hand drawn graphics. The device preferably comprises a combined flat panel display and pen sensing surface constructed from non-mechanical, non-emissive display elements, such as liquid crystal display elements. The device also comprises an input pen for manual entry of hand printed text and hand drawn graphics, as well as commands, directly onto the display surface for providing an electronic writing and drawing slate. The display elements themselves are preferably utilized as input pen sense locations. The flat panel display and pen sensing surface is constructed so that there is no display distortion when the input pen is in contact with the surface. Rapid input pen sensing is provided for accommodating natural pen movement on a high resolution, large area display. A character recognition method is also associated with the device for automatic and computationally efficient on-line recognition of hand printed text characters, while accommodating a natural printing style. Hand printed text characters are recognized and preferably stored in a compact and standardized format, such as ASCII, for later display, processing, or output to external equipment, such as a printer or computer. Graphics can also be entered and stored for later display, processing, or output to an external device, and graphics can be interspersed with text, if desired. Also, text and graphics can preferably be input to the device from external information processing equipment for display and/or processing.

Claims35

Dependent claims

A portable interactive electronic graphics device, comprising:

input pen means configured to be held in the hand of a user;
non-mechanical, non-emissive display means comprising a plurality of display elements including display electrode means for operating electro-optic material located between the display electrode means, the display means being alternatively operable in two modes, including a first node in which the display electrode means is activated to excite the electro-optic material therebetween for displaying graphical information and a second mode in which the display electrode means is electrically coupled with the input pen means manipulated by the user proximate the display means along a path to form graphics;
pen sense control means associated with the display means and responsive to electrical coupling of the display electrode means with the input pen means for producing position signals corresponding to positions of the input pen means with respect to the display means as the user manipulates the input pen means along the path;
and
display control means connected to the pen sense control means and display means and responsive to the position signals for energizing selected display electrode means of the display elements to display the graphics corresponding to the path followed by the input pen means;
whereby graphics are hand-entered by the user directly onto the display means.

3 more elements

A portable interactive electronic writing device, comprising:

input pen means configured to be held in the hand of a user;
non-mechanical, non-emissive display means comprising a plurality of display elements including display electrode means for operating electro-optic material located between the display electrode means, the display means being alternatively operable in two modes, including a first mode in which the display electrode means is activated to excite the electro-optic material therebetween for displaying textual information and a second mode in which the display electrode means is electrically coupled with the input pen means manipulated by the user proximate the display means along a path to form text characters;
pen sense control means associated with the display means and responsive to electrical coupling of the display electrode means with the input pen means for producing position signals corresponding to positions of the input pen means with respect to the display means as the user manipulates the input pen means along the path;
and
display control means connected to the pen sense control means and display means and responsive to the position signals for energizing selected display electrode means of the display elements to display the text characters corresponding to the path followed by the input pen means;
whereby text characters are hand-entered by the user directly onto the display means.

3 more elements

A portable interactive electronic writing and graphics device, comprising:

input pen means configured to be held in the hand of a user;
non-mechanical, non-emissive display means comprising a plurality of display elements including display electrode means for operating electro-optic material located between the display electrode means, the display means being alternatively operable in two modes, including a first mode in which the display electrode means is activated to excite the electro-optic material therebetween for displaying textual and graphic information and a second mode in which the display electrode means is electrically coupled with the input pen means manipulated by the user proximate the display means along alternative paths to form text characters and graphics, respectively;
pen sense control means associated with the display means and responsive to electrical coupling of the display electrode means with the input pen means for producing position signals corresponding to positions of the input pen means with respect to the display means as the user manipulates the input pen means along the path;
and
display control means connected to the pen sense control means and display means and responsive to the position signals for energizing selected display electrode means of the display elements to display the respective text characters and graphics corresponding to the alternative paths followed by the input pen means;
whereby text characters and graphics are hand-entered by the user directly onto the display means.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Electro-optic slate for input/output of hand-entered textual and graphic information

Life of this patent

Electro-optic slate for input/output of hand-entered textual and graphic information

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims35