Measuring system for measuring pitches between keycaps on keyboard

Abstract

A measurement system for measuring a plurality of lateral and vertical spacings of a plurality of keycaps on a keyboard includes an image capturing device, a plate-shaped electroluminescent element, and a data processing device. The plate-shaped electroluminescent element has a plurality of perforations. Each perforation corresponds to one keycap. The plate-shaped electroluminescent element is placed on the keyboard such that each keycap is placed within its corresponding perforation. The plate-shaped electroluminescent element is driven to emit light to illuminate the plurality of key skirts of the plurality of keycaps. The image capturing device captures an initial image of the keyboard. The initial image is compared to display the respective side edges of the bottom edge of each key skirt. The data processing device receives the initial image, performs preprocessing on the initial image to create a preprocessed image, and calculates the plurality of lateral and vertical spacings based on the preprocessed image.

Claims

1. A measurement system comprising a keyboard defining a horizontal direction and a vertical direction and including a plurality of keycaps, a base plate, and a functional element, the plurality of keycaps being movably connected to the base plate, the functional element being disposed between the base plate and the plurality of keycaps, each keycap having a key skirt, each key skirt having a key bottom edge, the plurality of keycap bottom edges defining a plurality of horizontal spacings and a plurality of vertical spacings along the horizontal and vertical directions, each horizontal spacing being defined between two adjacent keycap bottom edges, and each vertical spacing being defined between two adjacent keycap bottom edges, the measurement system being used to measure the plurality of horizontal spacings and the plurality of vertical spacings and comprising: A compartment; an image capturing device disposed within the compartment and positioned at the top of one of the compartments, wherein the keyboard is placed within the compartment with the plurality of keycaps facing the image capturing device; a plate-shaped electroluminescent element having a plurality of perforations, each perforation corresponding to a keycap, the plate-shaped electroluminescent element being placed on the functional element such that each keycap is placed within its corresponding perforation; and a data processing device communicating with the image capturing device, wherein the plate-shaped electroluminescent element is driven to emit light to illuminate the plurality of keycaps and the plurality of key skirts, wherein, alternatively, the image capturing device slides relative to the keyboard, or the keyboard slides relative to the image capturing device, such that the image capturing device captures an initial image of one of the keyboards, the initial image contrasting with the side edges of the bottom edge of each key skirt, the data processing device receiving the initial image, performing a preprocessing on the initial image to create a preprocessed image, and calculating the plurality of lateral spacings and the plurality of longitudinal spacings based on the preprocessed image.

2. The measurement system as described in claim 1, wherein the upper surface of one of the plate-shaped electroluminescent elements is not higher than the plurality of skirt edges.

3. The measurement system as described in claim 2, wherein the chamber is light-proof.

4. The measurement system as described in claim 2, wherein the image capturing device includes a telecentric lens.

5. The measurement system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the preprocessing includes at least one selected from the group consisting of a brightness and contrast adjustment process, a noise filtering process, an image smoothing process, and an image sharpening process.

6. A measurement system comprising a keyboard defining a horizontal direction and a vertical direction and including a plurality of keycaps, a base plate, and a functional element, the plurality of keycaps being movably connected to the base plate, the functional element being disposed between the base plate and the plurality of keycaps, each keycap having a key skirt, each key skirt having a key bottom edge, the plurality of keycap bottom edges defining a plurality of horizontal spacings and a plurality of vertical spacings along the horizontal and vertical directions, each horizontal spacing being defined between two adjacent keycap bottom edges, and each vertical spacing being defined between two adjacent keycap bottom edges, the measurement system being used to measure the plurality of horizontal spacings and the plurality of vertical spacings and comprising: A compartment; N image capturing devices, disposed within the compartment and positioned at the top of one of the compartments, where N is an integer greater than 1, wherein the keyboard is placed within the compartment with the plurality of keycaps facing the image capturing devices; a plate-shaped electroluminescent element having a plurality of perforations, each perforation corresponding to a keycap, the plate-shaped electroluminescent element being placed on the functional element such that each keycap is placed within its corresponding perforation; and a data processing device communicating with the image capturing devices, wherein the plate-shaped electroluminescent element is driven to emit light to illuminate the plurality of keycaps and the plurality of key skirts, the N image capturing devices capturing N sub-images of the keyboard, the N sub-images comparing and displaying the respective side edges of the bottom edge of each key skirt, the data processing device receiving the N sub-images, assembling the N sub-images into an initial image, performing a preprocessing on the initial image to create a preprocessed image, and calculating the plurality of horizontal spacings and the plurality of vertical spacings based on the preprocessed image.

7. The measurement system as described in claim 6, wherein the upper surface of one of the plate-shaped electroluminescent elements is not higher than the plurality of skirt edges.

8. The measurement system as described in claim 7, wherein the chamber is light-proof.

9. The measurement system as described in claim 7, wherein the image capturing device includes a telecentric lens.

10. The measurement system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the preprocessing is selected from at least one of the group consisting of a brightness and contrast adjustment process, a noise filtering process, an image smoothing process, and an image sharpening process.

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