Furlable keyboard

Claim 2

A furlable keyboard apparatus, comprising: a generally cylindrical housing; a flexible keyboard mounted to said housing so as to be furlable around said housing when said keyboard apparatus is not in use, said keyboard having keyboard indicia formed thereon providing a plurality of visual key representations arranged in a plurality of generally horizontal key rows and partially diagonal key columns; a plurality of keystroke signal generators underlying said keyboard indicia and arranged in one-to-one correspondence with said key representions forming said key columns and key rows, said keystroke signal generators being responsive to finger pressure and being interconnected by logical ORing to form key groups providing key group signals whenever a keystroke signal generator underlying one said key groups is pressed or released; an imaging device mounted on said housing and positionable over said keyboard, said imaging device being adapted to generate an output comprising an imaging signal representing a visual image of said keyboard; and a keystroke recognizer mounted within said housing, said keystroke recognizer including first means for activating said imaging device to generate an imaging signal in response to a key group signal being generated by one of said keystroke signal generators, and second means for generating a keystroke output signal based on said imaging signal and said key group signal, said keystroke output signal being indicative of one of said key representations being pressed by a user of said keyboard apparatus.

Claim 3

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said keystroke signal generators are piezoelectric transducers.

Claim 4

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said imaging device is a solid state camera.

Claim 5

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said keystroke recognizer includes a digital controller mounted within said housing, said digital controller having input connections receiving key group inputs representative of said key group signals and image inputs representative of said keyboard images, and said digital controller further having output connections providing said keystroke signals.

Claim 6

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 4 wherein said digital controller is a programmed microprocessor.

Claim 7

A furlable keyboard in accordance with claim 4 wherein said keystroke recognizer further includes an interface device mounted within said housing, said interface device having key group input connections receiving said key group signals and key group output connections providing binary key group output values that are indicatative of a key representation in one of said key groups being pressed or released, said key group binary output values being provided by said interface device to said digital controller key group inputs.

Claim 8

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein said interface device includes diode pairs associated with each key group input connection for separating positive and negative key group signals and distinguishing key representation presses from key representation releases.

Claim 9

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein said interface device includes edge detectors associated with each key group input connection for identifying positive and negative key group signals and distinguishing key representation presses from key representation releases.

Claim 10

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein said interface device is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

Claim 11

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 further comprises: a pair of mouse-click buttons mounted on said keyboard apparatus; a mouse position recognizer mounted within said housing, said mouse position recognizer including first means responsive to said imaging signals for generating a mouse position signal, and second means responsive to activation of said mouse-click buttons for generatating a mouse-click signal.

Claim 12

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said flexible keyboard includes a flexible base layer supporting said keyboard on a surface, an intermediate layer formed from a flexible circuit board and mounting said keystroke signal generators and the interconnections therebetween, and a flexible upper layer.

Claim 13

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 11 wherein said keyboard indicia are formed on said upper layer.

Claim 14

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 11 wherein said keyboard indicia are formed on said keystroke signal generators and said upper layer is substantially transparent to allow said keyboard indicia to be viewed therethrough.

Claim 15

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 further including retractable legs mounted on said housing for preventing said housing from rolling during use of said flexible keyboard.

Claim 16

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 further including means for generating sounds in response to a user pressing one of said key representations.

Claim 17

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 15 wherein said sound is a click.

Claim 18

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 15 wherein said sound is a voice response identifying the key representation that was pressed.

Claim 19

A furlable keyboard apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said housing is a cylindrical plastic case that measures no more than about 1 inch in diameter by five inches in length.

Claim 20

In a keyboard input device, a method for identifying keystrokes made by a keyboard user, comprising the steps of: capturing a keyboard image with an imaging device in response to the user pressing a keyboard key; identifying a key group to which the pressed keyboard key belongs; using the identified key group as a filter, comparing the captured keyboard image against a pre-stored library of keyboard patterns corresponding to each possible keystroke that can be made on the keyboard, said key group filter being used to exclude library patterns that are not within the identified key group; and upon a match occuring between said captured keyboard image and one of filtered key group library patterns, outputing a keystroke signal to the host device.

Claim 21

In a keyboard input device, a method for identifying keystrokes made by a keyboard user, comprising the steps of: capturing a keyboard image with an imaging device in response to the user pressing a keyboard key; identifying a key group to which the pressed keyboard key belongs; using the identified key group as a filter, comparing the captured keyboard image against a pre-stored library of keyboard patterns corresponding to each possible keystroke that can be made on the keyboard, said key group filter being used to exclude library patterns that are not within the identified key group; and upon a match occuring between said captured keyboard image and one of filtered key group library patterns, outputing a keystroke signal to the host device.

Claim 22

A furlable keyboard apparatus, comprising: a generally cylindrical housing; a flexible keyboard mounted to said housing so as to be furlable around said housing when said keyboard apparatus is not in use, said flexible keyboard including a flexible base layer supporting said keyboard on a surface, an intermediate layer formed from a flexible circuit board, and a flexible upper layer; a plurality of peizoelectric keystroke signal generators mounted on said intermediate layer in a pattern of generally horizontal key rows and partially diagonal key columns, said keystroke signal generators being responsive to finger pressure and being interconnected by logical ORing to define key groups providing key group signals whenever a keystroke signal generator in one of said key groups is pressed or released; a plurality of key image representations formed on said flexible keyboard over each of said keystroke signal generators, in one-to-one correspondence therewith, said key image representations being formed either on said upper flexible keyboard layer, or directly on said keystroke signal generators; a solid state camera imaging device mounted on said housing and positionable over said keyboard, said imaging device being adapted to generate an output comprising an imaging signal representing a visual image of said keyboard; and a keystroke recognizer mounted within said housing, said keystroke recognizer including a digital controller having input connections receiving key group inputs representative of said key group signals and image inputs representative of said keyboard images, and said digital controller further having output connections providing said keystroke signals; first means in said digital controller for activating said imaging device to generate an imaging signal in response to a key group signal being generated by one of said keystroke signal generators, and second means in said digital controller for generating a keystroke signal based on said imaging signal and said key group signal, said keystroke signal being indicative of one of said key representations being pressed by a user of said keyboard apparatus; said keystroke recognizer further including an interface device formed from an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), said interface device having key group input connections receiving said key group signals and key group output connections providing binary key group output values that are indicatative of a key representation in one of said key groups being pressed or released, said key group binary output values being provided by said ASIC to said digital controller key group inputs; said interface device including either diode pairs or edge detectors associated with each key group input connection for identifying positive and negative key group signals and distinguishing key representation presses from key representation releases; a pair of mouse-click buttons mounted on said housing; a mouse position recognizer mounted within said housing, said mouse position recognizer including first means responsive to said imaging signals for generating a mouse position signal, and second means responsive to activation of said mouse-click buttons for generatating a mouse-click signal; retractable legs mounted on said housing for preventing said housing from rolling during use of said flexible keyboard; and means for generating sounds in response to a user pressing one of said key representations.

Claim 23

A furlable keyboard apparatus, comprising: a generally cylindrical housing; a flexible keyboard mounted to said housing so as to be furlable around said housing when said keyboard apparatus is not in use, said flexible keyboard including a flexible base layer supporting said keyboard on a surface, an intermediate layer formed from a flexible circuit board, and a flexible upper layer; a plurality of peizoelectric keystroke signal generators mounted on said intermediate layer in a pattern of generally horizontal key rows and partially diagonal key columns, said keystroke signal generators being responsive to finger pressure and being interconnected by logical ORing to define key groups providing key group signals whenever a keystroke signal generator in one of said key groups is pressed or released; a plurality of key image representations formed on said flexible keyboard over each of said keystroke signal generators, in one-to-one correspondence therewith, said key image representations being formed either on said upper flexible keyboard layer, or directly on said keystroke signal generators; a solid state camera imaging device mounted on said housing and positionable over said keyboard, said imaging device being adapted to generate an output comprising an imaging signal representing a visual image of said keyboard; and a keystroke recognizer mounted within said housing, said keystroke recognizer including a digital controller having input connections receiving key group inputs representative of said key group signals and image inputs representative of said keyboard images, and said digital controller further having output connections providing said keystroke signals; first means in said digital controller for activating said imaging device to generate an imaging signal in response to a key group signal being generated by one of said keystroke signal generators, and second means in said digital controller for generating a keystroke signal based on said imaging signal and said key group signal, said keystroke signal being indicative of one of said key representations being pressed by a user of said keyboard apparatus; said keystroke recognizer further including an interface device formed from an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), said interface device having key group input connections receiving said key group signals and key group output connections providing binary key group output values that are indicatative of a key representation in one of said key groups being pressed or released, said key group binary output values being provided by said ASIC to said digital controller key group inputs; said interface device including either diode pairs or edge detectors associated with each key group input connection for identifying positive and negative key group signals and distinguishing key representation presses from key representation releases; a pair of mouse-click buttons mounted on said housing; a mouse position recognizer mounted within said housing, said mouse position recognizer including first means responsive to said imaging signals for generating a mouse position signal, and second means responsive to activation of said mouse-click buttons for generatating a mouse-click signal; retractable legs mounted on said housing for preventing said housing from rolling during use of said flexible keyboard; and means for generating sounds in response to a user pressing one of said key representations.