FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10)
"AN IMPROVED APPARATUS HAVING MULTIDIMENSIONAL COORDINATE SIGNAL INPUT"
Best IT World (India) Private Limited, a Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and having its office at 87, Mistry Industrial Complex, MIDC Cross Road 'A', Andheri (East), Mumbai - 400 093, Maharashtra State, India, Indian.
The following specification particularly describes and ascertain the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
The present invention is directed to An Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input. More particularly, the present invention is directed to An Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input which is intergrable into an input hardware interface for use in a data procession unit.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
At present, computer mouse device has become an indispensable peripheral input means to an ordinary computer user. The operation of the common computer mouse device basically utilizes a light-emitting diode (LED) to emits lights, and generates flickering optical signals by permitting the lights to pass through the photo grid which is provided with particulars shadowing effect during the computer mouse device movement. The flickering optical signals are then converted by the photoelectric converting device into signals each having a phase difference, which are provided to be processed by the microprocessor of the computer mouse device to determine the moving direction of the computer mouse device.
In prior art, the photo grid mounted in a typical computer mouse device for providing shadowing effect to generate flickering optical signals is generally embodied in dual wheels. Fig. 1 depicts a prior art dual-wheel mouse device, in which one of the wheels (101,102) is responsible for providing the computer mouse device with the input signal along the X-axis, and the other wheel is responsible for providing the computer mouse device with the input signal along the Y-axis. With respect to the practical moving direction and the displacement of the prior dual-wheel mouse device, it is resolved by the mechanism of the computer mouse device and the firmware program embedded therein.
Nonetheless, the computer mouse device using a single wheel or dual wheels as the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input has some innate limitations, and is swore by the computer user for a long time. More particularly, the operation of the dual wheels will offend against the ergonomics. The only solution to fix the matter of operational inconvenience for the current computer mouse device is to select a trackball which is adapted for the human to manipulate the input data of the computer as the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input , instead of using dual wheels as the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input. Furthermore, only the x and y coordinates of the mouse cursor address on the display screen require a high resolution, while the requirements imposed on the resolution of the other coordinates of the mouse cursor address on the display screen are set to be extremely low. Accordingly, the trackball is considerably suitable for the design of the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input for the computer mouse device.
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In view of the foregoing advantages of taking the trackball as the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input, there tends to provide a Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input which is integrated into an input meanse for use in a data processing unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input, which employs a trackball to provide multidimensional control signals to control a moverrient of a scroll bar of an application program running on a data processing unit.
To this end, an Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input is designed to be integrable into an input hardware interface for use in a processing unit, wherein the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input is operatively configured to provide multidimensional control signals to control a movement of a scroll bar of an application program running on the data processing unit. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input comprised a trackball module which is revolvable in response to an impetus caused by a user, and at least two wheels, each of which has a side surface being in contact with the trackball module and revolves with trackball module for detecting a movement of the trackball module along one axix of a multidimensional coordinate system and generating a multidimensional control signal along the axis of the multidimensional coordinate system. For the sake of clarifying the interrelation between the moving direction of the trackball module and the scroll bar, the firmware program embedded in the microprocessor of the multidimensional coordinate signal input apparatus is designed to coordinate the correspondence between the moving direction of the trackball module and the scrolling direction of the corresponding scroll bar of the application program.
In particular, the trackball module is formed from a marble or a polished refined ball by a resin injection molding process, and it can be implemented as a semi-optical mechanism or a pure optical mechanism. Moreover, the input hardware interface can be a computer mouse device, a key board, a digital camera or a trackball input measne, and the data processing unit can be a personal computer or an image processing device.
Now the foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood through the following descriptions with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is an exterior view of a prior dual-wheel mouse device;
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Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the computer mouse device with a built-in Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 3 (a) schematically illustrates a functional block diagram of the multidimensional scroll bar control apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 3 (b) is a schematic graph explicating a first type of interrelation between the moving direction of the trackball and the scroll bar of an application program running on a data processing unit.;
Fig. 3 (c) is a schematic graph explicating a second type of interrelation between the moving direction of the trackball and the scroll bar of an application program running on a data processing unit;
Fig. 4 (a) is a outlined view of a computer mouse device with a trackball-implemented scroll bar control apparatus being integrated thereinto according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 4 (b) is outlined view of a computer keyboard with a trackball-implemented scroll bar control apparatus being integrated thereinto according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 4 (c) is a outlined view of a digital camera with a trackball-implemented scroll bar control apparatus being integrated thereinto according to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention; and
Fig. 4 (d) is an outlined view of a trackball input manse 44 with built-in-scroll bar control function.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input integrable into an input hardware interface according to the present invention will now be illustrated in detail by the following descriptions. Referring now to Fig. 2, a first embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. The first embodiment of the present invention is to integrate the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input into a computer mouse device including a computer mouse body comprising a housing 111. The housing 111 further comprises a top cover 1111 and a base member 1112. The multidimensional coordinate signal input apparatus for providing the computer mouse device with input signals of a second multidimensional coordinate system according to the present embodiment is implemented by a trackball 12 and at least two wheels 13 and 14. Both of the wheels 13 and 14 has a side surface being in contact with the trackball 12. Specifically, the trackball 12 can be made up of a marble or a polished refined ball, and can be
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manufactured by a resin injection molding process. When the computer user rotates the trackball 12, the wheels 13 and 14 will rotate with the trackball 12, in which the wheel 13 is mated with the trackball 12 to detect the movement of the trackball 12 along a first axix of the second multidimensional coordinate system and provide the computer mouse device with input signals along the first axix, whereas the wheel 14 is control function for controlling the two-dimensional coordinate address of the scroll bars fin a application program is further provided by the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input of the present invention, and it is inclined to give detailed descriptions afterwards.
Referring to Fig. 3 (a), a functional block diagram of the multidimensional scroll bar control apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. The multidimensional scroll bar control apparatus 30 which is put through by a trackball module is able to out put a scroll bar control signal to an application program 31 running on a data processing unit having a display screen (such as a personal computer or an image processing device) for controlling the coordinate address (X-coordinate, Y-coordinate) of the scroll bars of the application program 31. The interrelation between the moving direction of the trackball and the scroll bars can be best understood by way of chart of Fig. 3 (b). It can be clearly seen from Fig. 3 (b) that the two-dimensional coordinate plane is divided into zones 32, 33, 34 and 35. When the trackball is moving toward a certain zone, the scroll bar corresponding to the zone that the trackball is moving toward zone 32, the X-axix scroll bar of the application program will be scrolled toward right. The scroll movement of the other scroll bar can be deduced in an analogous manner. On the other hand, the interrelation between the moving direction of the trackball and the scroll bars can further be defined in accordance with the requirements on the control mechanism. As shown in Fig. 3 (c), the two dimensional coordinate plane is divided into zones 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366, 367 and 368. Therefore, in addition to the scroll bar movement control functions of the X-axix scroll bar and the Y-axix scroll bar of the application program along the up, down, left and right directions (which respectively corresponds to the trackball movement toward zones 362, 364, 366 and 368), the scroll bar control apparatus of the present invention can additionally support the scroll bar movement control functions along other directions (which respectively corresponds to the trackball movement toward zones 361, 363, 365 and 367) for future application program interface design.
Turning to Figs. 4 (a) to 4 (d), the preferred embodiments of the Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input being integranted into various input means are shown. Fig. 4 (a) shows an outlined view of a computer mouse device 41 with a trackball-implemented scroll bar control apparatus 40 being integrated thereinto. Fig. 4 (b) shows an outlined view of a computer keyboard 42 with a trackball-implemented scroll bar control apparatus 40 being integrated thereinto. Fig. 4 (c) shows an outlined view of a digital camera 43 with a trackball-implemented scroll bar control apparatus 40 being integrated thereinto, and Fig. 4 (d) shows an outlined view of a trackball input meanse 44 with built-in scroll bar control function. In fig. 4 (d), the user only needs to press a function key 45 to switch
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control signals that is used to adjust the cursor location on the display screen into the control signals for controlling the scroll bar movement of an application program. In a similar way, the trackball-implemented scroll bar control apparatus as shown in Figs. 4 (a) to 4 (c) can be designed to output the control signals for adjusting the cursor location or controlling the scroll bar movement. Certainly, the transmission between the input means with built-in multidimensional coordinate signal input apparatus and the data processing unit can be selected as in a wired form or in a wireless form as required.
It should be noted that though the trackball implemented scroll bar control apparatus of the present invention can be made of a semi-optical mechanism as shown in Fig. 2. On the other hand, it can be made of a pure optical mechanism as well.
The present invention substantially provides a multidimensional coordinate signal input apparatus integrable into an input means for adjusting the cursor location or controlling the scroll bar movement of an application program. Comparing to the prior dual-wheel-implemented multidimensional coordinate signal input apparatus, the trackball-implemented multidimensional coordinate signal input apparatus of the present invention is more conformable to the user's requirements and additionally supports the control function of scroll bar movement of an application program. By way of combining the functions of cursor address adjustment and scroll bar movement control into an input hardware interface and further integrating the input interface into an input means, a convenient and ingenious manipulative interface for controlling the cursor movement or scroll bar rolling has become feasible.
Although the present invention has been described and illustrated in detail, it is to be clearly understood that the same is by the way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims.
WE CLAIM:
1. An Improved Apparatus Having Multidimensional Coordinate Signal Input integrable into an input hardware interface for use in a data processing unit, wherein the said multidimensional signal input is operatively configured to provide a multidimensional control signal to control a movement of a scroll bar of an application program running on said data processing unit, said apparatus having multidimensional coordinate signal input comprising :
a trackball module which is revolvable in response to an impetus caused by a user; and at least two wheels, each of which has a side surface being in contact with said trackball module and revolves with said trackball module for detecting a movement of said trackball module along one axix of a multidimensional coordinate system and generating said multidimensional control signal along said axix of said multidimensional coordinate system.
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2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trackball module is formed from a marble.
3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trackball module is formed from a polished refined ball.
4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trackball module is formed by a resin injection molding process.
5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trackball module is a semi-optical mechanism.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said trackball module is a pure optical mechanism.
7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said input hardware interface is one selected from a group of computer mouse device, a keyboard, a digital camera and a trackball input means.
8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data processing unit is a
personal computer.
9. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said data processing unit is an image
processing device.
10. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 further comprising a microprocessor for
receiving said multidimensional control signal of said multidimensional coordinate
system.
Dated this 35th day of September, 2003
BHARAT S.SHAH Duly Constituted Attorney