Keyboard arrangement and method for identifying a pressed key

Abstract

In a keyboard arrangement and method for identifying a pressed key according to the present invention, conductor lines (4', 6') at each key (B), which may be connected together, are connected to a ground plane (24, 23, 27) as a response to a pressing (P) of a key. The pressed key (B) is identified by detecting the conductor lines that are connected to the ground plane. All the conductor lines may be connected as pulled-up inputs of a detector circuit, and any conductor line or combination of conductor lines may be used to identify a key. A noticeably greater number of keys may be simply identified with the same number of conductor lines than is possible in a solution according to the prior art. In an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the means for connecting the conductor lines (4', 5', 6', 7') to the ground plane (27) is a conductive plate (23), which essentially covers the whole keyboard. This also provides a good shield against electrostatic discharges and other interference.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.