Combination mouse, optical scanner and digitizer puck

Claim 1

A hand-held device for inputting into a computer information regarding a relative position of the device during manual movement thereof over a generally planar surface and information representing characters, lines or other visible features delineated on the surface, comprising: a housing adapted to be grasped by a user and moved along the surface; surface engagement means mounted in the housing and extending from an underside of the housing for rolling along the surface; first position transducer means mounted in the housing and driven by the surface engagement means for generating first signals representative of an amount of rolling movement of the surface engagement means along a first axis in a plane of the surface; second position transducer means mounted in the housing and driven by the surface engagement means for generating second signals representative of an amount of rolling movement of the surface engagement means along a second axis in the plane of the surface which is substantially perpendicular to the first axis; optical means connectable to the housing for scanning adjacent portions of the surface and generating third signals representative of the characters or other visible features delineated thereon; digitizer puck means connectable to the housing for generating fourth signals resulting from inductive coupling with an underlying digitizer pad; means for releasably connecting the optical means to the housing; means for releasably connecting the digitizer puck means to the housing; and the first and second position transducer means each including encoder means for generating a moire pattern effect and optical means for sensing the moire pattern effect to generate the corresponding first and second signals.