Abstract: A magnetically coupled pushbutton plunger switch is discrete and may be used with a keyboard. A post attached to magnetic armature is normally magnetically held in coupled engagement with a magnetic coupler attached to a base. The post passes through the lumen of a sleeve attached to the base such that the post, when moved up and down through the lumen, causes the magnetic armature to move in and out of the coupled engagement with the magnetic coupler. The head of a fastener used to secure the magnetic armature to the post is used in a unique way to actuate a membrane switch assembly held in spaced relation to the base. The fastener head protrudes from the bottom of the magnetic armature so that the fastener head, when the magnetic armature is forced out of coupled engagement with the magnetic coupler, physically contacts the membrane switch assembly to close electrical conductors.

Abstract: A magnetically enhanced membrane switch operator is constructed with a rigid ferromagnetic base plate. This base plate is spaced from a rigid ferromagnetic cover plate, which has an opening through it. A resilient flexible membrane sheet is suspended between the base plate and the cover plate, and is located in close proximity to the cover plate. The sheet carries a circular magnetic disk which, in the rest condition operation of the switch operator, is adhered by magnetic attraction to the cover plate. To operate the switch, sufficient force to overcome the magnetic attraction between the magnet and the cover plate, along with the force required to distort the resilient membrane sheet, is used to move the sheet toward the base plate. When the membrane sheet is moved into close proximity to the base plate, magnetic attraction between the base plate and the magnet facilitates closure of the switch at the end of its travel.

Abstract: An ergometrically improved keyboard data input device particularly suited for computers includes a housing adapted to underlie the palm of the hand of an operator in a relaxed, natural, concave position; so that the fingertips of each finger extend substantially vertically downward through an aperture in the top of the housing. Data input keys are mounted on a data input key support member located inside the housing, beneath the aperture. The keys are arranged in groups of data input keys in three dimensional patterns at each of the fingertip positions of the hand of the operator. The device includes a provision for raising and lowering the key support member within the housing, relative to the aperture. Actuators also independently move the opposite ends of the key support member back and forth within the housing, relative to the aperture, to adjust the locations of the groups of keys relative to the portion underlying the palm of the hand of a user to compensate for hands of different sizes.