Digital joystick using capacitive sensor
AssigneeLogitech Europe S.A.
InventorsGilles Van Ruymbeke, Bernard Kasser, Jean-Philippe Fricker, Marc Ledin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A joystick that detects position and movement using a capacitive sensor. The joystick has a stick mounted to allow movement within a housing, a conductive element at a first end of the stick, and a capacitive sensor. The capacitive sensor may be a capacitive touchpad. It determines position by measuring the change in capacitance on a set of conductive traces. The capacitive sensor may be shaped as a plane or may be hemispherically-shaped. The conductive element may also be triangular or other distinctive shape to allow detection of movement. An advantage of such a joystick is that absolute positioning may be determined, along with relative positioning.
Claims25
A joystick comprising:
- a stick mounted to allow movement;
- a first conductive element toward a first end of the stick;
- and
- a spacial capacitive sensor responsive to the conductive element for determining a position of the conductive element, wherein the spacial capacitive sensor is non-planer, and the first conductive element is relatively equidistant from the spacial capacitive sensor throughout its range of motion.
A digital system comprising:
- a CPU;
- a memory;
- and
- ajoystick comprising:
- a stick mounted to allow movement,
- a first conductive element toward a first end of the stick,
- a spacial capacitive sensor responsive to the conductive element for determining a position of the conductive element, wherein the spacial capacitive sensor is non-planer, and the first conductive element is relatively equidistant from the spacial capacitive sensor throughout its range of motion.
A joystick comprising:
- a stick with a first end and a second end, the stick being mounted to allow movement of the first end in a first direction;
- a conductive element at a first end of the stick, the conductive element having a shape that is non-uniform in the first direction;
- and
- a capacitive sensor having a first conductive trace, the capacitive sensor being responsive to capacitance on the first conductive trace.
Ajoystick comprising:
- a stick mounted to allow movement, a first end of the stick having a first prong and a second prong;
- a first conductive element coupled to the first prong;
- a second conductive element coupled to the second prong;
- and
- a capacitive sensor responsive to the first and second conductive elements for determining positions of the first and second conductive elements.
Ajoystick comprising:
- a stick mounted to allow movement;
- a conductive element toward a first end of the stick;
- and
- a spacial capacitive sensor responsive to the conductive element for determining a position of the conductive element, wherein the spacial capacitive sensor is planer;
- and
- a spring coupling the conductive element toward the first end of the stick, wherein the spring provides the conductive element remains equidistant from the spacial capacitive sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.