Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6947031 | Data processing apparatus with replacement keyboard Data processing apparatus (101 and 102) configured to receive signals from an input sensor (106) arranged to duplicate or replace operations of a keyboard, in which the signals correspond to positions of mechanical interactions with the sensor (... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6940494 | Display unit with touch panel and information processing method A display unit with a touch panel to move a touch-driven member such as a functional button to a desired position through a touch operation. By touching a draggable icon displayed on a screen with a finger, the icon is changed in color to indicate that the user can ... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6933931 | Method and apparatus of position location An apparatus for sensing the location of user input is disclosed. The apparatus may include a display unit including a screen having a resistive coating disposed on its surface. The apparatus may utilize a sensing signal emanating from the screen through the resisti... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6926106 | Wheelchair having speed and direction control touchpad A wheelchair having a speed and direction control touchpad. The touchpad comprises two separated semi-conductive film layers, one measuring an X coordinate and one measuring a Y coordinate. When pressure is applied to the layers bringing them into contact with each ... | 08/09/2005 |
| 6914595 | Digitizing apparatus Graphics are drawn with an input pen, which is provided with an optical sensor at its tip, on a display surface of an EL display. At this time, the EL display is caused to emit light in dot sequence, and the position of the input pen is detected as coordiante inform... | 07/05/2005 |
| 6909425 | Touch panel Laser etching is used to form channels which divides a conductive film adhered on a board of a touch panel into a plurality of regions of desired form. A conductive film damage preventing element is attached on the board of the moving-side panel of a pair of panels ... | 06/21/2005 |
| 6903561 | Circuitry for measuring mechanical stress impressed on a printed circuit board A circuit for measuring mechanical stress impressed on a printed circuit board includes a number of electrically conductive pads formed on at least one outer surface of the printed circuit board, and a resistive material applied in a pattern to the printed circuit b... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6903841 | Decorating system for edible items A system for creating a decorative edible item from a selected image. The system includes at least one image source, such as a scanner and/or a library of stored images, a controller unit and a printer. An edible media is inserted into the printer. The user then sel... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6894682 | Connection structure for connecting between touch panel and external conductor Improves the connection between a touch panel and an external harness. A first electrode cable (11) and a third electrode cable (13) are disposed on a first ITO film (20) on a glass substrate (10) of a touch panel, and a second ele... | 05/17/2005 |
| 6862019 | Coordinate input apparatus, control method therefor, and computer-readable memory A signal waveform detection circuit detects the three-dimensional coordinate value of an indicating tool which is defined in the first, second, and third dimensions. An arithmetic control circuit compares the coordinate value in the first dimension of the three-dime... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6861961 | Foldable alpha numeric keyboard The present invention relates to a foldable alpha numeric keyboard device (2301) configured to input data items into a computer or similar processing device (2307). The keyboard device comprises a first electrically conductive fabric sheet, a second el... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6819316 | Flexible capacitive touch sensor A flexible, capacitive touch sensor, and a method of manufacturing a plurality of such touch sensors, are provided. The capacitive touch sensor comprises a thin, flexible, transparent, insulating substrate. A thin, flexible, transparent layer of resistive material i... | 11/16/2004 |
| 6816153 | Touch-panel device A touch-panel device including a conductive membrane, current measurement resistors which are connected at one end to both ends of the conductive membrane and which are connected at the other end to one another, an oscillator which is connected on one end to the con... | 11/09/2004 |
| 6784948 | Touch panel for display device with pet film having transparent gel layer A touch panel has a reduced whole thickness when attached to a display device, increases the accuracy of the positional information, and improves the display quality and durability inexpensively. One of a pair of resistive layers facing each other across insulating ... | 08/31/2004 |
| 6781579 | Touch panel with improved linear response and minimal border width electrode pattern A touch screen panel including an insulative substrate; a resistive layer disposed on the insulative substrate; and a plurality of spaced conductive segments on the resistive layer along the border thereof. The conductive segments are disposed in rows, and every row... | 08/24/2004 |
| 6781577 | Capacitive sensor-based input device A capacitive sensor-based input device for coordinate data input includes an input unit that detects the variation of capacitances at a plurality of detection points, and a control unit that calculates detection outputs from the plurality of detection points to dete... | 08/24/2004 |
| 6781576 | Wireless input apparatus and method using a three-dimensional pointing device A wireless input apparatus by which a user can input various types of information is provided. A conventional remote control of electronic equipment has many buttons or switches to perform various kinds of functions. Therefore, its operability is likely to be lost b... | 08/24/2004 |
| 6765558 | Multiple touch plane compatible interface circuit and method A method of determining a type of touch plane operator input device comprises sensing the impedance across first and second terminals of a touch plane operator input device to distinguish the touch plane operator input device as being one of at least two different t... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6753853 | Low power dissipation touch plane interface circuit A method of determining a type of touch plane operator input device comprises sensing the impedance across first and second terminals of a touch plane operator input device to distinguish the touch plane operator input device as being one of at least two different t... | 06/22/2004 |
| 6731270 | Piezoelectric transducer for data entry device A piezoelectric transducer is provided, in which a piezoelectric shell has conductive layers on the outside and inside of the shell, which are adapted to be connected to a signal input source. When the conductive layers are activated, the piezoelectric layer resonat... | 05/04/2004 |
| 6720956 | Apparatus and method for obtaining geographical information using a touch-sensitive globe device An apparatus is provided that includes a touch-sensitive three-dimensional globe and an information handling system coupled to the touch-sensitive three-dimensional globe and adapted to receive the signals corresponding to the touched area of the globe. The informat... | 04/13/2004 |
| 6689965 | Digitizer system with cursor shape changing as a function of pointer location on menu strip and/or physical structure on tablet surface indicating menu strip location A digitizer system includes a pointer (e.g. stylus or puck) for manipulation by a user over a work surface of a tablet. The tablet includes a menu strip area thereon. According to certain embodiments of this invention, the cursor shape shown on the displa... | 02/10/2004 |
| 6683601 | Electronic apparatus including pen Disclosed is a user-friendly electronic apparatus having a pen and a panel as the input devices. The pen is tethered to the apparatus by a cord on which position data is recorded along its length direction. Responding to the readout of the position data, ... | 01/27/2004 |
| 6677542 | Touch panel A touch panel comprises a pair of glass substrates (11, 12) each having a transparent conducting, film (13, 14) formed on its one side surface. The glass substrates disposed with their respective transparent conducting films (13, 14) is faced each other a... | 01/13/2004 |
| 6661408 | Touch screen capable of isolating noise signals A touch screen capable of isolating noise signals is mainly a touch screen installing at the front side of a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen or cathode ray tube (CRT) for eliminating electromagnetic and radio frequency interference received by the LCD... | 12/09/2003 |
| 6654006 | Touch panel for display device integrated with front light unit A touch panel for a display device is structured such that one resistive layer of a pair of resistive layers disposed opposing each other across a plurality of insulating dot spacers is laid on a flat hard glass plate which is integrally combined with a l... | 11/25/2003 |
| 6646634 | Touch panel coordinate determination Method and system for determining (x,y) location coordinates for a contact point on a touch sensitive panel or input screen. Selected, substantially constant voltages are provided for two electrodes that are part of the input screen, from one voltage sour... | 11/11/2003 |
| 6642458 | Touch screen device and method for co-extensively presenting text characters and rendering ink in a common area of a user interface A touch screen device and method for co-extensively and contrastingly presenting text characters (34) and rendering ink (36) in a common area of a user interface. The text characters (34) and the rendering ink (36) are presented in relative contrast such ... | 11/04/2003 |
| 6639587 | Method and apparatus for a scaleable touch panel controller A method and an apparatus for determining the contact position on a touch panel sensor. The method and apparatus utilizes a counter to determine the elapsed time that occurs before a circuit discharges from a peak value to a predetermined threshold value.... | 10/28/2003 |
| 6628269 | Touch panel input device capable of sensing input operation using a pen and a fingertip and method therefore A touch panel input device includes layers A and B. Layer A includes a first transparent film, a first transparent resistive film, a second transparent film, a second transparent resistive film, and first dot spacers. Layer B includes a second transparent... | 09/30/2003 |
| 6621486 | Expanded touch panel display Apparatus for a touch sensitive panel or input screen for a hand held computing device that provides increased active or key area for the input screen. Four wires, each connected to one of the electrodes, are divided into smaller two-wire and one-wire uni... | 09/16/2003 |
| 6611257 | Automatic detection of touch plane type A method of determining a type of touch plane operator input device comprises sensing the impedance across first and second terminals of a touch plane operator input device to distinguish the touch plane operator input device as being one of at least two ... | 08/26/2003 |
| 6611256 | Touch screen dielectric separators A touch screen assembly for contact input systems, with the touch screen including a base substrate with an electrically resistive coating thereon. An array of reticulated spaced raised projections are formed on the inner surface, with the raised projecti... | 08/26/2003 |
| 6603464 | Apparatus and method for record keeping and information distribution A method of capturing data having the steps of writing on a form with a pen to leave an image on the form, scanning the written image as the written image is being written, and storing the scanned written image in a specific data field. A method of captur... | 08/05/2003 |
| 6573155 | Contact structure of substrates of touch panel and method of bonding the same Process steps for bonding substrates of a touch panel. Steps include forming an insulator layer around a flexible printed cable (FPC) contact formed on electrodes, forming a low resistive metal layer, to which the FPC is attached, on the insulator layer, ... | 06/03/2003 |
| 6570103 | Method and apparatus for coordinate inputting capable of effectively using a laser ray A coordinate input apparatus includes light sources, a reflecting member, light receiving members, a signal analyzing mechanism, and a coordinate determining mechanism. Each light source is fixed around a perimeter of a predefined input region at a fixing... | 05/27/2003 |
| 6559835 | Touch screen superimposed electrode configuration An improved electrode arrangement for touch screen panels wherein the conductive segments forming the edge arrays and the elongated buses which deliver input signals to the arrays are in stacked superimposed relationship, one to the other. At the respecti... | 05/06/2003 |
| 6559834 | Glare-resistant touch panel A touch panel is constructed of a top sheet member having a resistive membrane on its inner surface and a base sheet member having a resistive membrane on its inner surface, the top and base sheet members facing each other with dot spacers being located i... | 05/06/2003 |
| 6552718 | Contact structure of substrates of touch panel and method of bonding the same A contact structure of a touch panel having X-axis (Y-axis) potential compensating electrodes arranged along peripheries of the conductive film of a substrate; a FPC contact for another substrate constructed on an electrode arrangement defined by electrod... | 04/22/2003 |
| 6549193 | Touch panel with improved linear response and minimal border width electrode pattern A touch screen panel including an insulative substrate; a resistive layer disposed on the insulative substrate; and a plurality of spaced conductive segments on the resistive layer along the border thereof. The conductive segments are disposed in rows, an... | 04/15/2003 |
