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US 5,012,124 AGranted
Touch sensitive control panel
OwnerJerrell P. Hollawayinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A control panel having a series of touch sensitive sensors mounted under a protective cover. The outputs of the sensors are effected by the presence of a human finger on the surface of the cover due to the capacitance of the human body with the earth. A microcomputer is used to distinguish intentional touching of the sensors from incidential contact with the panel, thereby making the control panel useful for controlling multiple functions from a single location.
Claims18
A touch sensitive control apparatus comprising, in combination:
- an oscillator producing an oscillation output signal;
- a plurality of touch-responsive sensors coupled in circuit with said oscillator and producing respective analog signals associated with touch-dependent modifications of the oscillation output signal produced by said oscillator;
- an analog-to-digital converter which converts analog signals produced by said sensors into respective digital signals representative thereof;
- and
- a digital computer which processes said respective digital signals and generates an output associated with a selected one of said sensors on the basis of a prescribed relationship among the analog signals produced by plural ones of said sensors.
2 more elements
A touch sensitive control apparatus comprising, in combination:
- an oscillator which produces a reference oscillation signal;
- a plurality of touch-responsive circuit devices, each of which is coupled in circuit with said oscillator and produces a respective signal representative with a touch-dependent modification of the reference oscillation signal produced by said oscillator;
- and
- means, coupled to said plurality of touch-responsive circuit devices, for processing respective signals produced thereby and generating an output associated with a selected one of said touch-responsive circuit devices on the basis of a prescribed relationship among the signals produced by plural ones of said touch-responsive circuit devices.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.