System and method for dynamic controls
AssigneeEnvironique, Inc.
InventorWilliam J. Johnson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided is a dynamic control (dycon). A dycon is a conventional control coupled with a dedicated display means, coordinated by data processing. Preferably, the dedicated display means is affixed to the control. A dycon has one, and only one, dedicated display means which depicts information for only that particular dycon. A dycon's dedicated display means has one, and only one, mechanical control for which it displays meaning. Information displayed on the dedicated display means assigns a current meaning to the dycon. A dycon may have many meanings over a period of time as indicated by the many variations in what is displayed for the dycon.
Claims18
A dycon, comprising:
- a mechanical control constructed of hardware, said mechanical control manipulated manually and capable of communicating a plurality of values;
- a dedicated display means coupled with said mechanical control;
- means for dynamically displaying a plurality of purposes for said mechanical control to said dedicated display means;
- and
- means for processing any one of said plurality of values in context to any one of said plurality of purposes upon recognition of user manipulation of said mechanical control, said context corresponding to one of said plurality of purposes displayed to said dedicated display means at the time of said user manipulation.
A prefabricated dycon component which is provided to manufacturers of a controllable system device, said component comprising:
- a housing;
- at least one mechanical control constructed of hardware and coupled to said housing, said mechanical control manipulated manually and capable of communicating a plurality of values;
- a dedicated display means coupled to said housing;
- graphics interface means coupled to said housing for dynamically displaying a plurality of purposes for said mechanical control to said dedicated display means;
- and
- control interface means coupled to said housing for communicating any one of said plurality of values to said controllable system device in context to any one of said plurality of purposes upon recognition of user manipulation of said at least one mechanical control, said context corresponding to one of said plurality of purposes displayed to said dedicated display means at the time of said user manipulation, and said controllable system device a receiving system of said prefabricated dycon component.
A method of managing a dycon, comprising the steps of:
- accepting a plurality of values from a mechanical control constructed of hardware, said mechanical control manipulated manually;
- and
- dynamically displaying a plurality of purposes for said mechanical control to a dedicated display means coupled with said mechanical control;
- and
- processing any one of said plurality of values in context to any one of said plurality of purposes for said mechanical control upon recognition of user manipulation of said mechanical control, said context corresponding to one of said plurality of purposes displayed to said dedicated display means at the time of said user manipulation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.