A directional spatial controller

Abstract

The present invention comprises a mechanism that resolves a force or forces applied to a contact surface into a one or more on / off or multi-pressure button activations, computing and communication means to transform the raw button activation data into motion or selection data and deliver the data to an application program. A spatial form of the present invention employs six pairs of buttons arranged about three orthogonal axes to resolve a combined spatial push and spatial twist of the contact surface into translation indication along and rotation indication about X, Y and Z directions or a subset thereof. Planar forms of the present invention employ four or more buttons arranged in a plane about a central point to resolve a force or forces applied to a pad into translational, rotational and / or selection data.

Description

A DIRECTIONAL SPATIAL CONTROLLERDescriptionField of the inventionThe present invention relates to an input device for controlling virtual or physical motion based on button technology. The spatial form of the present invention is simpler in construction than existing analogue input devices. A planar form of the present invention provides additional capabilities to the common direction-pad (D-pad).Background of the invention

[0001] Three-dimensional (3D) force and torque sensing devices have been in common use for the past several decades notably for use in controlling a 3D view, or an object within the view, in Computer Aided Design (3D CAD) applications and in 3D games. Commercial devices use optical sensing technology to detect a simultaneous 3D push and 3D twist applied by the operator’s fingers to a suitably hand-sized ball or puck shaped body. The 3D force vector resulting from a spatial push through the centre of the ball or puck shaped body is typically transformed into a 2D pan vector and 1 D zoom value that in turn control the panning and zooming velocity of a 3D object or of the 3D mono or stereo view. Likewise, the 3D torque vector resulting from a spatial twist about an axis passing through the centre of the ball or puck shaped body is typically transformed into a 3D spin velocity vector to control the rotational velocity of the 3D mono or stereo view. The transformations from force / torque values to pan / zoom / spin values typically provide slow, fine control at small pushes and twists transitioning to fast, coarse control at stronger pushes and twists which is analogous to the mouse warp techniques used universally with common 2D mice.

[0002] There are many types of 2D controllers with 2D mice, joysticks, digitizing tablets, touchscreens and direction pads (D-pads) being very common. The 2D output of these devices is commonly used to control either pan, zoom and / or rotational positions or pan, zoom and / or spin speeds. D-pads, also called navigation switches, are unique in that they are not analogue devices but typically have four buttons under a pad that operate as two pairs of buttons. Only one button in each pair can be pressed at any one time providing nine states: idle, left, right, up, down, left / up, right / up, left / down and right / down. There are also D-pads with eight buttons arranged in an octagonal fashion for indicating one of sixteen possible directions.

[0003] D-pad input is typically used to control two of the six pan / zoom / spin velocities at any given time. Digital input values may be used to provide a constant speed, or the speed may start slow then accelerate while the button or buttons remain depressed. Where the speed increases after a button is pressed and slows after the button is released the user can repetitively press and release the button in a way that the duty cycle controls, for example, the speed of motion. This technique is also called feathering of the button. Analogue input devices can emulate D-pads with feathering techniques implemented in firmware or software to interface them to applications that support D-pads. Likewise, feathering used with devices like D-pads can be used to emulate analogue input. D-pads are occasionally used for selection purposes such as selecting a musical chord.

[0004] Most buttons are simply on / off. There are examples of a multi-pressure button action where, for example with dual-pressure, light button pressure operates one set of button contacts and additional button pressure operates a second set of contacts. In this case there are three states for a button: off, soft and hard. Multi-pressure button operation can be extended with suitable design to detect three or more levels of pressure.

[0005] Any reference herein to known prior art does not, unless contrary indication appears, constitute an admission that such prior art is known by those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, at the priority date of this application.Summary of the invention

[0006] The present invention comprises a sensor mechanism, sensor interface circuitry, control circuitry, communication means, power means and computing means. Raw button input can be transformed into motion input values or selection values for use by, for example, a 3D program or physical machine.

[0007] The spatial form of the sensor mechanism comprises twelve on / off or multi-pressure buttons arranged as six pairs about a central point, each pair having a common activation axis and each pair of pairs being arranged along cartesian X, Y and Z axes, as shown in figures 1 and 2, to be mutually orthogonal to each other and to detect a combined push through the central point along one cartesian axis and twist about an axis passing through the central point and perpendicular to said push axis.

[0008] One planar form of the sensor mechanism comprises a pad for receiving pressure with four or more multi-pressure buttons having at least 25 states to provide a range of left / rightand up / down indications.

[0009] Another planar form of the sensor mechanism comprises six buttons arranged to detect planar forces and a rotational twist normal to the plane containing the planar forces.Brief description of the drawings

[0010] A detailed description of preferred embodiments will follow, by way of examples only, with reference to the accompanying figures of the drawings, in which:Figure 1 illustrates is a sectioned perspective view of a preferred spatial embodiment;Figure 2 illustrates the PCB subassembly of the device of figure 1 ;Figure 3 illustrates a top view of one of the PCB subassemblies of the device of figure 1;Figure 4 illustrates is perspective view of one half of the outer ball 4a with the three button engaging protrusions 11 ;Figure 5 illustrates a circuit diagram of a preferred embodiment where the 12 buttons are interfaced to four pins for connection to I / O pins of a microcontroller;Figure 6 illustrates a planar embodiment having six buttons;Figure 7 illustrates a functional block diagram of a wired embodiment;Figure 8 illustrates a functional block diagram of a wireless embodiment;Figure 9 illustrates a functional block diagram of a wireless embodiment having a second microcontroller.Detailed description of embodiments

[0011] The present invention comprises a sensor mechanism, sensor interface circuitry, control circuitry, communication means, power means and computing means. The sensor mechanism has one or more on / off or multi-pressure buttons 2 where one or more buttons 2 activate in response to pushing and / or twisting pressure or pressures applied to the mechanism. The sensor interface circuitry interfaces the buttons 2 to the control circuitry. Thecontrol circuitry can contain a microprocessor which can transform the raw button data into motion control and / or selection data and which communicates either the raw button data, motion control data and / or selection data over the communication means to the computing means. The communication means can also be used by the computing means to configure the control circuitry. The computing means communicates with an application program whereby the application program can configure the computing means, the communication means and / or the control circuitry and whereby the computing means delivers the raw button, motion control and / or selection data to the application program. The computing means can transform or further transform the data received from the control circuitry before delivering data to the application program. The computing means can comprise several cooperating software or firmware modules whereby each module can operate on a different processor. The computing means can be integrated into the application program in which case it is a software module or modules within the application program that interact with other software modules. The power means provides power where it is needed and can comprise a battery and associated circuitry and / or derive power from the device running the application program.

[0012] The spatial form of the sensor mechanism comprises three printed circuit boards (PCBs) 1a 1b 1c each having four on / off or multi-pressure buttons 2, an inner ball 5 that supports the PCBs 1a 1b 1c with a stem 6 for mounting the device, and an outer ball for receiving the spatial pushes and twists and for conveying these loads to the appropriate buttons 2 through rectangular protrusions 11 and thereby activating the buttons 2. The three PCBs 1a 1b 1c are oriented perpendicular to each other about a central point. A push through the centre of the device provides a combination of left / right, up / down and forwards / backwards translation indication. A spin about an axis passing through the centre of the device provides a combination of rotation indication about left / right, up / down and forwards / backwards axes.

[0013] In the preferred embodiment depicted in figures 1 , 2 and 3, three printed circuit boards (PCBs) 1a 1b 1c each contain two sets of a pair of buttons 2 and four diodes, each diode being associated with a neighbouring button 2. Each PCB 1a 1b 1c has a set of four buttons 2 providing an indication of translation motion in one direction and rotation motion about an axis perpendicular to said translation axis. The orthogonal combination of the buttons on the three PCBs 1a 1b 1c provides both a translation and a rotation indication along left / right, up / down and forward / backward axes. A spatial push on the outer ball 4 through the central point is decomposed into three translation components. A spatial twist applied to the outer ball 4 about an axis passing through the central point is decomposed into three rotational components. A combined spatial push and spatial twist is decomposed into a total of six translation and rotation components.

[0014] The three PCBs 1a 1 b 1c are soldered together using two 2-pin right angle pin headers 8 and one 3-pin right angle pin header 9 to provide both mechanical and electrical connections. The PCBs 1a 1 b 1c fit into the inner ball 5 which provides support for the PCBs and has a stem 6 with three screw holes 7 for affixing the ball subassembly 13 to an enclosure that houses the main control board as illustrated in the diagram of figures 7, 8 and 9. The stem 6 is aligned at 45° to two of the PCBs 1a 1b 1c. The device is typically mounted with the stem at 45° to the horizontal and either facing towards the wrist or away from it to align the X, Y and Z axes with the left / right, up / down and forwards / backwards directions of the user.

[0015] In the preferred embodiment of figure 1, six internal protrusions 11 in the outer ball 4 fit in between the six pairs of buttons 2. Pushes and twists applied by a user’s fingers to the outer ball cause the six protrusions 11 to engage with the buttons 2, either sliding between or activating one or the other of their associated buttons 2. Stronger pushes and twists result in one or more of the six protrusions 11 to bend and flex once one of its associated buttons is pressed, the movement of the outer ball 4 being restricted by the edges of other protrusions 11 hitting the inner ball 5 or a PCB 1a 1 b 1c. A stress-relieving fillet 12 is included at the base of the protrusions 11 . Figure 4 illustrates an outer ball half 4a with its three protrusions 11.

[0016] In other preferred embodiments the buttons 2 restrict the movement of the six protrusions 11 and they do not otherwise contact the inner ball 5 or any of the PCBs 1a 1 b 1c.

[0017] The outer ball 4 consists of two halves that are assembled over the inner ball 5 and PCBs 1a 1b 1c subassembly and affixed to each other. Some flexing of the outer ball halves is used to assemble the outer ball 4. In other preferred embodiments one or more of the protrusions are assembled into the outer ball 4 after the two halves are affixed to each other.

[0018] The schematic diagram of figure 5 illustrates the signal connections of the two 2-pin headers 8 and the 3-pin header 9 to the 4-pin header. A cable is plugged onto the 4-pin header 10 which passes through the stem 6 and connects to a PCB containing the control circuitry.

[0019] A pair of opposing buttons 2 cannot be pressed simultaneously thereby three states are possible: 00, 01 , 10 where the 0 and 1 indicate if a button is not pressed (off) or pressed (on) respectively. Therefore, each set of four on / off buttons has 9 (=32) possible states.

[0020] In a preferred embodiment one set of four buttons has these 9 states configured for transformation to motion values in two ways as listed in the following table. A user selectableoption selects one or the other configuration. There are many other techniques to transform the raw button input states into motion values, including feathering techniques, that are well understood by one versed in the art.Table 1 - States and transformed values for a set of four on / off buttons.

[0021] Since each set of four on / off buttons operate independently there are a total of 729 (=93) states. The first configuration in table 1 has 125 (=53) possible states. The second interpretation has 729 states. The 12-button version of the present invention has significantly more capability compared with a common 4-button D-pad with its 9 states.

[0022] In another preferred embodiment the sets of four buttons use dual pressure buttons whereby each pair of opposing dual pressure buttons has 5 states: 0000, 0001, 0011 , 0100, 1100. Therefore, following similar logic as above there are a total of 25 (=52) states for each set of four dual pressure buttons and therefore a total of 15,625 (=253) states for such a device.

[0023] In a preferred embodiment dual pressure buttons are used to construct a 4-button D- pad. Similar logic to that provided above can be applied to the operation of such a device.Other embodiments with multi-pressure buttons having three or more pressure levels and with four or more buttons arranged in a circular pattern can be constructed.

[0024] In other preferred embodiments the buttons have three or more pressure states although the circuit complexity increases significantly.

[0025] In other preferred embodiments one or more buttons are mounted to the outer ball and activated by contact with an internal structure, effectively inverting the button action described above for those buttons.

[0026] In a preferred embodiment a suitable microcontroller is used whereby the four input / output (I / O) pins can be, for example, pulled low, pulled high, pulled high through a pull- up resistor or set to a high impedance (tri-stated). Diodes 3 are chosen whereby the forward voltage drop across one diode is detected by the pull-up enabled pin as a zero and whereby the forward voltage drop across two diodes is detected by the pull-up enabled pin as a one asthis can occur in certain situations where multiple buttons 2 are pressed. In other preferred embodiments resistors can be placed in series with diodes 3 to enhance this effect. In other preferred embodiments comparators or analogue-to-digital (A / D) converters can be used to convert the voltage levels into ones or zeros. To sense a given button one of the four I / O pins is pulled to ground and another is pulled high through a pull-up resistor, the other two pins are tri-stated. If the button is open no current flows through the pull-up resistor and reading the state of the pin with the enabled pull-up resistor will be 1 . If the button is pressed current will flow through the pull-up resistor and the state of the pin will be read as 0. The diodes are required to isolate their associated button when a reverse voltage occurs during the sensing of another button or buttons. An appropriate sequencing of the four I / O pins in this fashion is used to read the state of the twelve buttons. If the buttons have an electrically noisy bounce, a debouncing technique can be used in the firmware to filter out this noise. Alternatively, extra debouncing circuitry can be employed. These techniques are well known by one versed in the art. Other circuits may be used to detect the state of the twelve buttons.

[0027] In a preferred embodiment the four diodes 3 are replaced with four different valued resistors, for example 10K, 22K, 47K and 100K, and with a circuit having two signals per PCB 1a 1b 1c such that each button 2 enables current to flow from one signal, through the button’s 2 associated resistor to the other signal. In this way each of the three PCBs 1a 1b 1c act as a resistor that changes value depending on which buttons are pressed and thereby providing a measurable signal to a microprocessor such that the button states can be determined. A / D converters can be used to measure the resistance resulting from the buttons 2 states. Other circuits can be designed by one versed in the art to interface the on / off or multi-pressure buttons to a microcontroller.

[0028] The switch sensing technique described above operates with pairs of switches, each having an associated diode to allow current to flow only one way through the switch. The maximum number of buttons that can be sensed using n pins is n2-n. Two I / O pins can sense 2 buttons, three can sense up to 6 buttons and four can sense up to 12 buttons.

[0029] The preferred embodiment illustrated in figure 6 comprises six buttons arranged in a planar fashion. The contact surface (not shown) receives a spatial force and a spatial torque but is constrained to only move parallel to the X-Y plane and to rotate about the Z axis. Movement of the contact surface is transferred to the bar 16 which then accordingly activates one or more of the six buttons.

[0030] The preferred embodiment illustrated in figure 7 is a wired configuration whereby awired communications link 14 is implemented with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface providing both communication and power means.

[0031] The preferred embodiment illustrated in figure 8 is a wireless configuration whereby a wireless communications link 15 is implemented with a Bluetooth interface. Power means comprises a battery and associated circuitry.

[0032] The preferred embodiment illustrated in figure 9 is a wireless configuration whereby a wireless communications link 15 uses a custom wireless interface implemented using a wireless USB dongle. Power means comprises a battery and associated circuitry. A module of the computing means can be implemented in a firmware module running on the microprocessor in the wireless USB dongle whereby data received from the spatial controller can be transformed by the microprocessor before being sent to the interface software.

[0033] The interface software of figures 6, 7 and 8 can transform the data it receives before sending it to the application program.

[0034] In a preferred embodiment of the spatial mechanism a finger landing area is provided on one or both sides of the ball allowing a finger or fingers to press on this area to provide stability for the hand as the other fingers push, pull and twist the ball and to also provide additional stability to the base due to the extra load provided by the landed finger or fingers.

[0035] The present invention may be an input component of a device having other input components such as buttons, dials, joysticks and / or D-pads and / or output components such as audio devices or display screens.

[0036] Other applications of the invention may use the motion values to control physical movement as with, for example, the motion of a physical robot, a wheelchair or a crane. An example of a non-motion use is a security input device whereby a sequence of pushes and / or twists is a sequence key in a similar fashion to that of a keypad on hotel safe where a sequence of four numbers unlocks the safe. The use of either the spatial or the planar form of the present invention could be out of sight wherein the hand reaches into an opening in an enclosure or under a curtain to operate the present invention while hidden from view. The present invention can be used for selection purposes such as selecting a musical chord.

[0037] Wherever it is used, the word “comprising” is to be understood in its “open” sense, that is, in the sense of “including”, and this not limited to its “closed” sense, that is the sense of“consisting only of”. A corresponding meaning is to be attributed to the corresponding words “comprise”, “comprised” and “comprises” where they appear.

[0038] It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined herein extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text. All these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention.

[0039] While particular embodiments of this invention have been described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments and examples are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all modifications which would be obvious to those skilled in the art are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

AMENDED CLAIMS received by the International Bureau on 14 May 2025 (14.05.2025)Claims

1. [Amended] A device having a moveable body for receiving spatial pushes and twists and having twelve buttons arranged as three sets of four buttons, each set being oriented perpendicular to the other two in a cartesian coordinate-like fashion, each set of buttons providing translation output along one axis and rotation output about an axis perpendicular to said translation output, the moveable body conveying the received loads to the buttons.

2. [Amended] A device having a moveable body with a contact surface for receiving a spatial force and a spatial torque and having six buttons arranged as two pairs of buttons being responsive to a force along one axis and / or a torque about an axis perpendicular to said force axis and a third pair of buttons responsive to a force perpendicular to the force and torque axes responded to by the other two pairs, the moveable body conveying the received loads to the buttons.

3. [Amended] A device having a moveable body for receiving one or more pushes, four or more multi-pressure digital buttons arranged in a circular fashion about a central point, each button providing two or more digital outputs, the moveable body conveying the received loads to the buttons.

4. [Amended] A device having a fixed structure, a moveable structure and a set of on / off and / or multi-pressure digital buttons placed in a non-planar spherical arrangement about a central point, whereby each button is attached to either said fixed structure or said moveable structure and whereby said buttons are activated in response to a 3D force and / or a 3D torque applied to said moveable structure, each said multipressure digital button providing two or more digital outputs.

5. The device of claim 4 and having circuitry capable of reporting the applied 3D force and / or 3D torque.

6. The device of claims 1 , 2 or 3 operated in conjunction with software transforming the raw button data to motion or selection data suitable for use by an application program or a physical machine.

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