Touchscreen accessory and software for motion-disabled users
US9996184B1 · kind B1 · utility
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | May 11, 2015 |
| Grant date | Jun 12, 2018 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 11, 2035 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2203/0331
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An accessory helps motion-disabled users operate a touchscreen device via an extra-software-layer running on the CPU of the device. The accessory may take the shape of a glove, stylus or thimble. The accessory has a circuit that selectively engages and disengages the electrical connection between the user and the touchscreen based on mode and/or user/transducer interaction to send extra information from the user to the extra-software layer. A controller in the accessory generates unique timing patterns of connection and disconnection which the extra-software layer reconstructs by computing statistics from motion-event timestamps. The extra-software layer uses one or more (x,y) coordinates to compute an (x′,y′) coordinate, which is shown on the pixel display. With (x′,y′) and the reconstructed-timing pattern in the extra-software layer, the user may separately 1) choose (x′, y′) non-destructively (leave unaltered the internal state of an underlying application) and 2) invoke an action associated with that (x′,y′).
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.