Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6730863 | Touchpad having increased noise rejection, decreased moisture sensitivity, and improved tracking An improved touchpad and measurement circuitry for enabling input to a computer or other electronic device. The system includes an X electrode, a Y electrode, a common sensing electrode, and a “water” electrode, wherein these four separate electrodes can be impl... | 05/04/2004 |
| 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 |
| 6686546 | Static charge dissipation for an active circuit surface A structure and method is disclosed for dissipating electrostatic charges comprising an insulating layer between and over a plurality of conductive plates, wherein the insulating layer isolates the conductive plates and protects the conductive plates from... | 02/03/2004 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 6661410 | Capacitive sensing and data input device power management Capacitive proximity sensing is carried out by detecting a relative change in the capacitance of a "scoop" capacitor formed by a conductor and a surrounding ground plane. The conductor may be a plate provided in the form of an adhesive label printed with ... | 12/09/2003 |
| 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 |
| 6610936 | Object position detector with edge motion feature and gesture recognition Methods for recognizing gestures made by a conductive object on a touch-sensor pad and for cursor motion are disclosed. Tapping, drags, pushes, extended drags and variable drags gestures are recognized by analyzing the position, pressure, and movement of ... | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 6535200 | Capacitive position sensor A multi-electrode capacitive position sensor functions as part of a computer pointing device that can be integrated with the computer's keyboard and that employs ratiometric capacitive sensing techniques. This approach allows a computer user to move a cur... | 03/18/2003 |
| 6515654 | Touch-type pointing device with wireless input capability A touch-type pointing device with wireless input capability is disclosed, which includes a touch unit and a sensing pen. The touch unit has a transparent electrode and a control circuit connected to the transparent electrode for detecting a variance of im... | 02/04/2003 |
| 6489899 | Position detector A position detector is provided for detecting the relative movement of first and second members which are mounted for relative movement along a measuring path. One of the members comprises a magnetic field generator for generating a magnetic field and the... | 12/03/2002 |
| 6489575 | Sensor panel position coordinates signal detecting circuit A position coordinates signal detecting circuit of a sensor panel is provided. The position coordinates signal detecting circuit of the sensor panel according to the present invention includes first through fourth resistors each of which has one end conne... | 12/03/2002 |
| 6452514 | Capacitive sensor and array Proximity of a body, which may be a user's finger, to an electrode pair is sensed by a charge transfer capacitive measurement approach. The electrode pair thus acts as a key that can be arrayed with other electrode pairs to form a keypad, keyboard, linear... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6445383 | System to detect a power management system resume event from a stylus and touch screen A system to detect a power management system resume event from a stylus and touch screen. When an electronic device equipped with a touch screen display is within its quiescent low power state, the present invention enables an operator to activate it by t... | 09/03/2002 |
| 6424339 | Touch screen assembly 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... | 07/23/2002 |
| 6417846 | Multifunction input device A multifunction input device for use with a computer plotter system, word processing system, or Chinese hand-write recognition system, which includes a double-loop conductor array for use with a wireless battery-driven induction pen, a wireless non-batter... | 07/09/2002 |
| 6404353 | Method for optimizing the detection of the contact point of tactile capacitance surface A process for detecting the point of touching of a tactile surface. A high frequency signal is sequentially supplied to four corners of a plate having a capacitive surface. This is accomplished by supplying one diagonal with the others being idle. The out... | 06/11/2002 |
| 6373475 | Converter for resistive touchscreens A converter for connection between an electrographic sensor and an electrographic controller, and comprising: (a) a first set of contacts for connection to the sensor; (b) a second set of contacts for connection to the controller; and (c) an emulator for emulating ... | 04/16/2002 |
| 6310611 | Differential touch sensor and control circuit therefor A differential touch sensor apparatus for detecting the presence of an object such as a human appendage, the apparatus having a first electrode, a second electrode positioned proximate to the first electrode, a differential circuit connected to the first ... | 10/30/2001 |
| 6297811 | Projective capacitive touchscreen An improved touchscreen utilizing two sets of electrodes that are fabricated in a single plane is provided. The individual electrodes of each set of electrodes are formed from a continuous length of a conductive material. Suitable electrode materials incl... | 10/02/2001 |
| 6281888 | Pen input device using electrostatic coupling A pen input device includes an array of receiver electrodes and a transmitter juxtaposed with the array for coupling electric signals from the transmitter to a person's hand. A person can use an ordinary writing instrument to write on a paper or other sub... | 08/28/2001 |
| 6278443 | Touch screen with random finger placement and rolling on screen to control the movement of information on-screen A computer controlled display system with a user interactive touch screen is provided with an on-screen mouse to which user input may be applied by rolling of the touch finger to thereby move displayed information: the pointer or scrolled information on t... | 08/21/2001 |
| 6259043 | Methods, systems and products pertaining to a digitizer for use in paper based record systems Real time digitization of handwritten text and integration of digital recordation of handwritten text with traditional paper-based record making systems is achieved with a recording unit which may record a sequential data stream of strokes and associated ... | 07/10/2001 |
| 6255604 | Coordinate detecting device for outputting coordinate data when two points are simultaneously depressed, method therefor and computer control device In the coordinate detection of resistive film system, detection of the coordinates of simultaneously designated two points is made possible. On a touch panel composed of two conductive films, whether input is made in a point or simultaneously at two point... | 07/03/2001 |
| 6256022 | Low-cost semiconductor user input device A low-cost semiconductor user input device for controlling the position of a pointer on a display includes a small array of composite sensors. Each composite sensor of the array is adapted to detect movement of a fingerprint feature. The user input device... | 07/03/2001 |
| 6249234 | Position detector A position detector is provided for detecting the relative movement of first and second members which are mounted for relative movement along a measuring path. One of the members comprises a magnetic field generator for generating a magnetic field and the... | 06/19/2001 |
| 6239389 | Object position detection system and method A proximity sensor system includes a sensor matrix array having a characteristic capacitance on horizontal and vertical conductors connected to sensor pads. The capacitance changes as a function of the proximity of an object or objects to the sensor matri... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6239790 | Force sensing semiconductive touchpad A touchpad assembly and method for providing a signal to a computer indicative of the location and applied pressure of an object touching the touchpad assembly is provided. The touchpad assembly includes X and Y position and pressure sensitive semiconduct... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6184871 | Identification device of a manual action on a surface, in particular for a timeplace Device arranged to identify a manual action on a surface performed by a finger (32), comprising a set of sensors (41) each actuable by the finger so as to create a variation of an electrical quantity, these sensors being respectively arranged within a cor... | 02/06/2001 |
| 6130665 | Touch screen handling The present invention discloses a data input device including a touch screen. The touch screen has two information display levels. A first level displays a virtual alphanumeric keypad which allows a user to input textual data by simply touching the screen... | 10/10/2000 |
| 6118084 | Pointer position detection system A pointer position detection system for use in determining the position of a pointer relative to a tablet comprising a signal generating system coupled to the tablet for transmitting a driving signal, a movable pointer responsive to the transmitted drivin... | 09/12/2000 |
| 6111564 | Coordinate input display apparatus and method for constructing the same A coordinate input display apparatus includes an input pad, such as a digitizer, disposed over a display unit, such as an LCD. In order to provide an improved visual display, a distance between the digitizer and the LCD is minimized, as is the thickness o... | 08/29/2000 |
| 6104386 | Coordinate input device A coordinate input device of a low manufacturing cost is to be provided using a position detector and an arithmetic unit of simple configurations. The coordinate input device comprises a contact type coordinate detecting section provided with a first subs... | 08/15/2000 |
| 6100876 | Information processing apparatus In an information processing apparatus, a processing mode is switched on the basis of speed of change of coordinate data which is inputted by coordinate data input means comprising a pen and a tablet, the speed of change of the coordinate data being detec... | 08/08/2000 |
| 6096984 | Adjustable touchpad A touchpad assembly capable of providing an operating surface of a touchpad in a plurality of operating positions. The operating assembly can be adjusted by changing the orientation of the operating surface of the touchpad or by changing the form of the o... | 08/01/2000 |
