US 5,712,725 A · One-hand control unit for controlling movements

Abstract

The invention relates to a one-hand control unit for controlling movements in optical instruments. The control unit corresponds in its configuration essentially to a computer mouse and has a mouse roller ball 2 on its lower side, an additional rotational transducer 3 at the thumb position and two or three keys (5, 6, 7) on the side of the mouse lying opposite to the rotational transducer 3. The keys (5, 6, 7) are for actuation by the middle finger, index finger and little finger, respectively. The mouse roller ball 2 and the rotational transducer 3 preferably function to drive continuously movable elements such as the illuminating field diaphragm 13, the aperture diaphragm 12, the motorized focus 20 or a motorized object stage 21. The keys (4, 5, 6, 7) are provided for driving discretely adjustable elements such as the objective-lens turret 14 or the incident-light reflector turret 15 or for switching over between coarse drive and fine drive for a motor-driven focus drive.

Claims26

Dependent claims

A one-hand control unit which is placed on and moved over a support surface to control movements in instruments, the one-hand control unit comprising:

a body which can be manually grasped by an operator;
said body having a lower side for placing said control unit, on the support surface and for guiding said control unit thereover;
said body having two lateral sides lying opposite each other;
a rotational transducer mounted in one of said lateral sides for detecting one or two dimensional movement;
at least two momentary-contact switches mounted on said other one of said lateral sides;
said rotational transducer being located on said one lateral side so as to correspond to the position of the thumb of said operator;
said two momentary-contact switches being located on said other lateral side so as to correspond to the respective positions of the middle finger and the ring finger;
and,
a third momentary-contact switch mounted on said other one of said lateral sides and located thereon to correspond to the position of the little finger.

6 more elements

A microscope arrangement comprising:

a microscope having a plurality of motor movable elements;
and,
a one-hand control unit which is placed on and moved over a support surface to control said motor movable elements in said microscope;
the one-hand control unit including:
a body which can be manually grasped by an operator;
said body having a lower side for placing said control unit on the support surface and for guiding said control unit thereover;
said body having two lateral sides lying opposite each other;
a rotational transducer mounted in one of said lateral sides for detecting one or two dimensional movement;
said control unit including a plurality of momentary-contact switches mounted-in the other one of said lateral sides;
a first one of said movable elements being an objective-lens turret;
and,
a first one of said momentary-contact switches being provided to effect a counter-clockwise rotation of said turret and a second one of said momentary-contact switches being provided to effect a clockwise rotation of said turret.

9 more elements

A microscope arrangement comprising:

a microscope having a plurality of motor movable elements;
and,
a one-hand control unit which is placed on and moved over a support surface to control said motor movable elements in said microscope;
the one-hand control unit including:
a body which can be manually grasped by an operator;
said body having a lower side for placing said control unit on the support surface and for guiding said control unit thereover;
said body having two lateral sides lying opposite each other;
a rotational transducer mounted in one of said lateral sides for detecting one or two dimensional movement;
said control unit including a plurality of momentary-contact switches mounted in the other one of said lateral sides;
a first one of said movable elements being an objective-lens turret;
a first one of said switches being provided to effect a counter-clockwise rotation of said turret and a second one of said switches being provided to effect a clockwise rotation of said turret;
a second one of said movable elements being a reflector turret;
and,
a third one of said switches being adapted to effect a switchover of the association of said first switch between said objective-lens turret and said reflector turret and to effect a switchover of the association of said second switch between said objective-lens turret and said reflector turret.

11 more elements

A microscope arrangement comprising:

a microscope having a plurality of motor movable elements;
and,
a one-hand control unit which is placed on and moved over a support surface to control said motor movable elements in said microscope;
the one-hand control unit including:
a body which can be manually grasped by an operator;
said body having a lower side for placing said control unit on the support surface and for guiding said control unit thereover;
said body having two lateral sides lying opposite each other;
a rotational transducer mounted in one of said lateral sides for detecting one or two dimensional movement;
at least one momentary-contact switch mounted in the other one of said lateral sides;
said microscope including a motorized focus drive and said rotational transducer being adapted to drive said motorized focus drive;
said motorized focus drive including a gear reduction;
and,
said at least one switch being adapted to control said gear reduction of said motorized focus drive.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

One-hand control unit for controlling movements

Life of this patent

One-hand control unit for controlling movements

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims26