(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,470,078 Bi
Armstrong (45) Date of Patent: *Oct. 22,2002
(54) ANALOG CONTROLS HOUSED WITH ELECTRONIC DISPLAYS FOR TELEPHONES
(76) Inventor: Brad A. Armstrong, P.O. Box 2048, Carson City, NV (US) 89702
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term ol this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
(21) Appl. No.: 09/699,655
(22) Filed: Oct. 30, 2000
Related U.S. Application Data
(63) Continuation of application No. 09/568,662, filed on May 10, 2000, now Pat. No. 6,347,997, which is a continuationin-part of application No. 08/942,450, filed on Oct. 1, 1997, now Pat. No. 6,102,802.
(60) Provisional application No. 60/133,682, filed on May 11, 1999.
(51) Int. CI.7 H04M 11/00; H04M 1/03
(52) U.S. CI 379/93.19
(58) Field of Search 455/566; 463/36,
463/37; 273/143 B; 345/156, 159; 200/513;
379/167.12, 93.17, 93.19, 433.04
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
(List continued on next page.)
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
S.F. Kambic, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 20
No. 5 Oct. 1977.
Questel-Orbit QWEB pp. 1-24 (submitted herewith).
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin pp 230-235 Feb. 1990
Mouse Ball-Actuating Device With Force And Tactile Feed-
back.
Research Disclosure Nov. 1987 28373 Joystick with Tactile
Feedback.
Primary Examiner—-John Paradiso (57) ABSTRACT
A telephone having a general image display and including a pressure-sensitive analog or proportional sensor for creating a varying value according to varying depression applied by a finger of a human user to the sensor. Multiple analog or proportional sensors are sometimes utilized. In one preferred embodiment the proportional or analog sensor(s) include resilient dome cap(s) for providing tactile feedback to the finger depressing the sensor. Circuitry within a housing is connected to the proportional or analog sensor for reading the varying value from the sensor and causing representative varying of the imagery shown by the display.
18 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets
