Track pad pointing device with areas of specialized function
US6757002B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 4, 1999 |
| Grant date | Jun 29, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 4, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F3/04886
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Prescribed areas of a track pad surface are dedicated to one or more prescribed or programmable pointing, clicking, scrolling or hot-key functions. These specialized touch sensing areas are adjacent to a main touch sensing area, and include a tactile cue such as a textured border or textured surface. A visual indication such as a label also may be used to identify the specialized function. A visual cue, such as a light, also may be generated when the user's finger is in a specialized touch sensing area. One specialized touch sensing area is dedicated to correspond to a window scrolling function adding convenience for scrolling web pages, word processing documents, tables and other content windows displayed on a computer screen. An on-off button is included to activate or deactivate the track pad operations.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.