Use of a device as an input device for touch-sensitive, capacitive displays

Abstract

Use of an input device for capacitive, touch-sensitive displays, wherein the device is a simple pen, the simple pen being designed to be sharpened, characterized by that the device is in the form of a mine with a coating, or that the device is a mine with a casing, or that the device has a mine, a casing and a coating, that the mine, the casing and / or the coating is / are electrically conductive and that there is no direct contact or immediate electrically conductive transition or contact between the conductive lead, casing and / or coating and the hand of a user.

Description

[0001] The invention relates to the use of a device as an input device for so-called capacitive, touch-sensitive displays, according to the preamble of claim 1.

[0002] Input devices for such displays are generally known.

[0003] For example, input styluses are known which consist of an electrically conductive shaft, with a soft, conductive, elastically designed contact plug for the display or the surface of the display at one end.

[0004] A disadvantage of such styluses is that they are too expensive as a pure input stylus and also do not fulfill any writing or command function.

[0005] Furthermore, there are styluses which have a writing organ or applicator at one end and an electrically conductive arrangement in the form of a contact plug at the other end, which enables or triggers an input function when touching the capacitive display.

[0006] However, the well-known styluses listed above have a number of disadvantages.

[0007] These types of styluses are therefore expensive to manufacture. Almost all of these state-of-the-art styluses are ballpoint pens, which severely limits the user's choice.

[0008] Furthermore, simple pens or leads are known from the state of the art, the purpose of which lies exclusively in the area of ​​writing, drawing and / or painting.

[0009] Simple pencils are defined here as leads with coverings made of wood or wood substitutes. Such simple pencils may also have a surface coating, as is known, for example, from DE 20 2008 009 751 U1, DE-AS 2 203 635 and AT 412 627 B.

[0010] As an example of refills with a surface coating, DE 10 2005 004 176 A1 is cited. Furthermore, GB 418,502 discloses simple writing pencils consisting of a refill and a metal casing to prevent breakage.

[0011] The object of the invention is therefore to provide a device as an input device for use with capacitive, touch-sensitive displays that does not have the aforementioned disadvantages and is, in fact, very inexpensive to manufacture. Furthermore, it is an object of the invention that the input device remains available to the user in the usual manner as a fully functional writing, drawing, painting, or cosmetic device and does not have any additional elements for triggering an input function.

[0012] This problem is solved by the features according to claim 1. The input device for use on displays is a simple, sharpenable writing, drawing, painting, cosmetic or erasing device, wherein the sharpenable device consists of at least one lead for creating smears or one lead for removing smears.

[0013] The devices covered by this regulation can include, for example, a solid mechanical pencil or a lead encased in wood, plastic, and / or wood-plastic composite (WPC). The lead itself can be made of lead, colored lead, cosmetic lead, or eraser lead.

[0014] Furthermore, it is irrelevant whether the solid lead pencil or the coated lead has an additional coating or alternative decorative top layer, for example in the form of a foil.

[0015] It has been surprisingly shown that such a simply constructed and inexpensive device can be used as an input device if the mine material and / or the mine casing and / or the coating of the pointable device is / are designed to be conductive by adding conductive components or additives to the mine, the mine casing and / or coating.

[0016] Sharpenable devices – as described above – include devices which can be sharpened or re-sharpened by the user with a commercially available sharpener, hand sharpener or other sharpening device to maintain their usability.

[0017] In devices whose mine is encased in a wood substitute, the wood substitute can be made of plastic or so-called WPC (wood-plastic composite). Such devices, encasements, or components for the encasements are manufactured using extrusion, co-extrusion, or injection molding processes.

[0018] The device can also have a non-marking lead. The lead can be, for example, an eraser lead, which can be a solid lead eraser pencil or a lead / strand with a casing, also known as an eraser pencil. In this case, too, the eraser material and / or the casing is mixed with substances / additives—as already mentioned—giving the eraser material conductive properties. The use of an eraser lead also has the advantage that the eraser material leaves no residue on the display when it comes into contact with it. Comfortable, smooth contact with the display is possible because the eraser material is soft and flexible.

[0019] As stated, the mine and / or mine casing and / or coating must be designed to be conductive, as exemplified below.

[0020] It should be noted that with the pen according to the invention, an input function can be triggered both with the tip and with the end opposite the tip. If an input function is to be triggered with the tip, the lead must be conductive, since only it touches the display. In this way, a pinpoint-precise input function is enabled.

[0021] A lubricating coating may be applied to the side of the input device opposite the tip, allowing it to glide smoothly across the display. This coating may be conductive, but it doesn't have to be.

[0022] In the case of conductivity, non-conductive areas are bridged, making functionality independent of the angle of the input device to the display.

[0023] The sliding lacquer can be seen as a coating, which is known as a so-called dipping cap in tippleable writing instruments.

[0024] The lead, casing, and / or coating are made conductive by the addition of certain additives. These additives themselves possess electrical conductivity.

[0025] Examples of such additives include graphite, carbon fiber, conductive carbon black, metal fibers, carbon nano tubes, copper pigments, silver-plated copper pigments and / or silver powder.

[0026] To make the lead, casing, coating, and / or components conductive, so-called antistatic agents can be added to the materials. Antistatic agents prevent or reduce the static charge of objects. A distinction is made between internal and external antistatic agents. Such antistatic agents can, for example, be incorporated internally as metal wires or vapor-deposited externally as metal powder.

[0027] An example of a conductive coating is conductive wood substitute, in this case a WPC known from the prior art DE 102008034013 A1, which is made conductive by the addition of 5 to 50 wt.%, preferably at least 10 to 40 wt.%, of graphite powder. The wood substitute material according to the prior art is composed of the following components: 15 - 30 wt.% at least one polymeric binder, 50 - 80 wt.% at least one organic filler, 0 - 20 wt.% at least one inorganic filler, 0.5 - 5 wt.% at least one custody intermediary, 1 - 30 wt.% at least one wax, 0 - 10 wt. % at least one color pigment and 0 - 10 wt.% at least one inorganic additive

[0028] A specific example of a wood replacement based on polyolefin is composed as follows. 60 wt. % Wood flour 12 wt. % graphite 4 wt. % Wax (amide wax) 2 wt. % inorganic additive (stearic acid) 21 wt. % Polyolefin 1 wt. % Adhesion promoter (polypropylene grafted with maleic anhydride)

[0029] It has proven surprisingly convenient that the addition of the conductivity additive does not impair the sharpening capability with commercially available sharpening tools. A sharpening torque of less than 10 Ncm is maintained.

[0030] All the familiar properties of well-known so-called wood-cased pencils are retained without restrictions.

[0031] If pure plastic is used as the cladding material instead of WPC, a conductivity additive must also be added to the plastic. Standard plastics have an electrical resistance of approximately 10 Ω. 14 Ohm. By adding additives to achieve the desired conductivity, this value can be increased to up to 10 ohms. 2 Lower the ohms.

[0032] As an example of a conductive plastic, the commercial product GraviTech GRV PP-030-IO Black FD from POLYONE can be mentioned.

[0033] The mines can be designed as lead, paint, eraser, and cosmetic leads, or as chalks.

[0034] A conductive lead mine, as known to those skilled in the art from the prior art, can be designed as follows: graphite 50 wt. % clay 40 wt. % Additive 1 wt. % impregnation 9 wt. %

[0035] As an example, a polymer-bonded graphite core, such as that used in a standard mechanical pencil, will be mentioned. graphite 70 wt.% Polymer (PS) 20 wt.% Additive 1 wt.% wax 9 wt. %

[0036] The following composition serves as an example of a conductive blue paint lead. Silver-plated copper pigments are the conductivity additive here. 1.5 wt.% Pigment Blue 39 wt.% Boron nitride 16 wt.% silver-plated copper pigments 5 wt.% Calcium stearate 7 wt.% Stearic acid 5 wt.% Carboxymethylcellulose 8 wt.% mica 16.5 wt.% Soapstone

[0037] To make conventional eraser leads conductive, graphite can be added to them, for example.

[0038] A basic formula for a conductive eraser compound is given as an example. polymer 15 to 90 wt.% Inorganic fillers 0 to 80 wt.% Oils (e.g. white oil) 0 to 10 wt.% graphite 10 to 50 wt.%

[0039] The polymers can consist of SEBS, SBS, EPDM / PP or mixtures thereof and / or with polyolefins, acrylates or PUR.

[0040] Classic fillers include chalk, talc and / or kaolin.

[0041] As an example of a conductive cosmetic lead, consider an eyeliner lead, which consists of 8 wt.% Lithium stearate 20 wt.% Isopropyl myristate 11 wt.% hydrogenated palm kernel glyceride 45 wt.% Pigment Blue 0.5 wt.% Pantenol 0.5 wt.% Propylparaben 15 wt. % silver powder is composed of

[0042] This formula is a modified formula according to DE 202005021251 U1, which has been made conductive by the addition / incorporation of silver powder.

[0043] The term coatings referred to below are thin layers of paint / varnish or thin film coatings, which serve primarily for decorative purposes or surface sealing.

[0044] An example of a conductive paint coating has the following components. Nitrocellulose 18 wt. % Plasticizers 6 wt. % Resins 6 wt. % Acrylate 6 wt. % graphite 12 wt. % Inorganic fillers 20 wt. % Organic additives 0.5 wt. % Solvents (VOCs) Remainder per 100 wt. %

[0045] Foil coatings can also possess or exhibit conductivity. An example of this is the product "Alufin" from Kurz. This is an aluminum-metallized embossing foil.

[0046] There is no direct contact or immediate electrically conductive transition between the conductive tip, casing and / or coating and the user's hand. A dielectric interruption may be present, creating a type of capacitor element that generates a sufficiently large charge displacement when the user's display touches the input device to trigger an input function on the tablet.

[0047] An example of this is an input device where the lead and casing are conductive, but the thin lacquer layer is not. The input function remains fully operational.

[0048] The invention will be further explained below with reference to the figure.

[0049] The figure shows an input device 1 comprising a lead 112 with a lead sheath 113 and a coating 118. In this illustrated embodiment, the sheath 113 and the lead 112 are electrically conductive. The thin coating 118 may, but need not, be electrically conductive. If the coating 118 is not electrically conductive, a capacitor / dielectric is formed between the user's hand and the input device 1 in the use case not shown. Since the capacitance is very high with thin coatings 118, the charge displacement upon contact with the tablet is sufficient to achieve or trigger an input function.

[0050] Since in this embodiment the lead 112 and thus also the tip 117 is designed to be conductive, an input function can be performed on the tablet via the tip 117 as well as via the end opposite the tip.

[0051] These input devices are used for / on capacitive, touch-sensitive displays of tablet computers and smartphones. The device is a simple stylus, which can be sharpened, and consists of a lead, a lead with a coating, a lead with a casing, or a lead, a casing, and a coating. The lead, casing, and / or coating is / are electrically conductive. The lead, casing, and / or coating contain conductive components or additives, such as graphite, carbon fiber, conductive carbon black, metal fibers, carbon nanotubes, copper pigments, silver-plated copper pigments, and / or silver powder. Position list 1 Input device 112 Mine 113 Envelope 117 top 118 Coating

Claims

Use of a device as an input device (1) for capacitive, touch-sensitive displays, wherein the device (1) is a simple pen, wherein the simple pen is designed to be sharpened, characterized in that the device (1) is in the form of a lead (112) with a coating (118), or that the device (1) is in the form of a lead (112) with a covering (113), or that the device (1) has a lead (112), a covering (113) and a coating (118), that the lead (112), the covering (113) and / or the coating (118) is electrically conductive and that there is no direct contact with an immediate electrically conductive transition between the conductive lead (112), covering (113) and / or coating (118) and the hand of a user. Use of a device according to claim 1, characterized in that the casing is made of plastic and / or wood substitute, such as WPC. Use of a device according to claim 1, characterized in that the lead is designed as a lead, a paint, a cosmetic or an eraser lead. Use of a device according to claim 1, 2 and 3, characterized in that the mine, the casing and / or the coating comprise conductive components or additives and that the additives are in the form of graphite, carbon fiber, conductive carbon black, metal fibers, carbon nano tubes, copper pigments, silver-plated copper pigments and / or silver powder. Use of a device according to claim 4, characterized in that the lead, the casing and / or the coating contain antistatic agents as an additive. Use of a device according to claim 4, characterized in that the conductive coating is in the form of a paint layer or a film layer. Use of a device according to one of claims 1 to 6, for capacitive, touch-sensitive displays of tablet computers or smart phones.

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