Keyboard Electrode Arrangement for Gesture Navigation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional computer keyboards require users to switch hands between typing and pointing devices for navigation, which is inefficient and space-consuming, especially in compact portable computers.
Innovation Solution
Integration of an electrode arrangement in the keyboard that detects and responds to finger and hand movements using electrical fields, allowing for gesture-based cursor control and navigation without the need for a separate pointing device, utilizing a driver circuit to generate signals correlating with position and movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a separate pointing device like a touchpad is provided, then cursor control functionality is achieved, but device complexity and space consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the keyboard and pointing device functions into a single integrated input device. The keyboard structure incorporates electrodes that detect finger movements and gestures, merging two separate devices (keyboard and touchpad) into one unified device, thereby reducing overall device complexity while maintaining both typing and cursor control functionalities
Solution Approach 2:
The keyboard is designed to serve multiple functions: it acts as both a traditional typing device and a pointing device for cursor control. The same physical keyboard structure supports both keyboard input and gesture-based navigation, making the device universal and eliminating the need for separate specialized devices
2Ease of operation
If a touchpad zone is provided in portable computers, then pointing functionality is achieved, but device compactness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates the need for a separate touchpad zone by integrating pointing functionality directly into the keyboard structure. The keyboard area itself serves as the interaction zone for both typing and gesture-based pointing, maximizing space utilization and maintaining device compactness in portable computers
3Ease of operation
If hands are moved out of the space above the keyboard for using a pointing device, then cursor control is achieved, but operational efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system prepares the keyboard area in advance to accept both typing and gesture inputs. The electrode arrangement is continuously active and ready to detect finger movements anywhere above the keyboard, eliminating the need to physically relocate hands to a separate pointing device area
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables intuitive and precise cursor control and navigation directly on the keyboard, eliminating the need for a touchpad and improving usability for both left and right-handed users, while allowing for additional functions and gestures to be recognized and processed.
Implementation Method 1
the detection of the spatial position or movement of a finger or a hand in an area in front of the keyboard is effected by use of an electrical-field
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2a~2b
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The invention concerns an input device, especially in the form of a computer keyboard. It is an object of the present invention to provide solutions in which for a user of a computer keyboard special operator benefits result as compared to conventional keyboard systems in association with a pointing device. According to the present invention, this object is performed by a computer keyboard with a keyboard that includes a multitude of manually operable keys, and in this keyboard an electrode arrangement is integrated, which is designed in such a way and over a driver circuit exploited in such a way that by means of this electrode arrangement the detection of the spatial position or movement of a finger or a hand in an area in front of the keyboard is made possible in a electrical-field way, and by means of the driver, circuit system signals are provided that have an information content that correlates with position and/or movement of a finger or a hand of the user.