Patents Examined by Steven Saras
  • Patent number: 6760016
    Abstract: An integrated digitizing tablet with color display is disclosed. The digitizing tablet portion of the integrated digitizing tablet and display apparatus includes an array of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cells that can be modified by at least one externally-applied magnetic field, wherein each memory cell has a magnetic bit that changes orientation upon the application of the externally-applied magnetic field to produce an electrical signal based on the orientation of the bit when an electric field is applied across the array. The display portion comprises an array of color pixel cells, each color pixel cell being selected from more than one color type and being coupled to one of the MRAM cells. The MRAM cell is operated to activate the coupled color pixel cell in response to the electrical signal produced by the MRAM cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2004
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventor: Manish Sharma
  • Patent number: 6760015
    Abstract: A keyboard having a plurality of first keys on one side and second keys on the other, separated by a circuit board and a plurality of domes. The circuit board can be activated for entering information in an electronic device by pressing one or more keys on either side via the domes. The keyboard can be fixedly mounted on the cover of the electronic device such that the first keys can be used when the cover is closed and the second keys can be used when the cover is open. The keyboard can also be removably mounted so as to allow a user to change the keyboard side to be used. Alternatively, one side of the keyboard has a touch pad instead of keys.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2004
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Toni Östergård, Seppo Salminen, Jaakko Nousiainen
  • Patent number: 6756964
    Abstract: A magnetophoresis type display device is provided with a transparent front panel sheet, a back panel sheet arranged with respect to the front panel sheet so as to form a sealed space with it, and a partitioning member is between the front panel sheet and the back panel sheet for partitioning the sealed space into a large number of cells, where a liquid dispersion containing magnetic particles is sealed inside the cells formed by partitioning by the partitioning member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2004
    Assignee: Takara Corporation Limited
    Inventors: Yoshito Nihira, Takahiro Itou, Kenji Imamura
  • Patent number: 6756959
    Abstract: A display driving apparatus in accordance with the present invention outputs a plurality of types of driving voltages that vary depending on display data to display device from a plurality of output terminals for liquid crystal driving voltages via voltage follower circuits. Each of the voltage follower circuits is connected with the output terminals for liquid crystal driving voltages via an analog switch circuit. The analog switch circuit is shared by the output terminals for liquid crystal driving voltages in accordance with the switching of the analog switch circuit. This allows to suppressing the increasing in the circuit scale with the increasing in the number of terminals and the increasing of the power consumption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2004
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroaki Fujino
  • Patent number: 6753881
    Abstract: An adapter (e.g., connector, dongle) is used to connect a component video television, such as an SDTV or HDTV, to a video providing unit, such as a computer or any other suitable video providing unit, that includes a plurality of video input pins, a plurality of video output pins, a plurality of control pins and a circuit. The circuit is operative to identify to a video providing unit through the control pins, that the component video input television is not of a display type that the video providing unit expects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: ATI International SRL
    Inventors: Edward G. Callway, Glen David
  • Patent number: 6753835
    Abstract: The liquid crystal display is a “Cs on Gate type” active matrix liquid crystal display in which an auxiliary capacitor is formed by each pixel electrode and an adjacent gate line. By driving gate lines sequentially line by line to control the potential of the pixel electrode through the auxiliary capacitor Cs at a predetermined time before one frame period ends, a blanking (BL) writing is performed, thereby for forcedly blanking a display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Hideaki Sakai
  • Patent number: 6750877
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for controlling haptic feedback to enhance navigation of a cursor or other controlled displayed object in a graphical environment. An interface device is capable of communicating with a computer running an application program and generating a graphical environment includes an actuator for outputting a haptic effect to a user of the interface device. A modulator modulates the magnitude of the haptic effect in relation to, in various embodiments, a velocity of the cursor or user manipulatable object; a rate of interaction of the cursor with graphical objects; or an amount of time that the cursor engages the graphical object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2004
    Assignee: Immersion Corporation
    Inventors: Louis B. Rosenberg, Matthew Mather, Danny Grant, Christophe Ramstein
  • Patent number: 6747627
    Abstract: In a shift register circuit included in a driver circuit for driving an active matrix circuit in an active matrix type display device, a plurality of serial-connected registers constructing register lines are arranged to construct a redundancy shift register circuit. Whether or not each register line has defect is examined by detecting an output of a last register of each register line, then the register line having defect is detected by the examination, a normal register line is selected by a shift register selecting switch, and the serial-connected registers of the selected register line are used in the shift register circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2004
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jun Koyama, Yuji Kawasaki
  • Patent number: 6747610
    Abstract: A stereoscopic image display apparatus capable of presenting a stereoscopic image of a desired planer image includes an input operating unit for designating an image of a desired portion of the planer image, and a stereoscopic display control unit for displaying, on a stereoscopic display screen, stereo-pair images corresponding to the image of the designated portion by the input operating unit. The stereo-pair images are prepared in advance corresponding to the image of the designated portion. Alternatively, the stereo-pair images may be automatically generated for the partial image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2004
    Assignee: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenji Taima, Tetsuya Enomoto, Ryuhei Amano
  • Patent number: 6747629
    Abstract: An electronically controlled appliance capable of automatically adjusting a contrast level of a data display module is disclosed. The device includes an appliance, an intelligent control electrically connected to the appliance and adapted for controlling the appliance, a data display module capable of contrast adjustment and electrically connected to the intelligent control, a data storage medium electrically connected to the intelligent control storing software instructions for monitoring the amount of time the appliance is in an active state and instructions for compensating for the temperature change associated with the amount of time by adjusting the contrast level of the data display module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2004
    Assignee: Maytag Corporation
    Inventor: John F. Broker
  • Patent number: 6747612
    Abstract: An improved head-up display enables a user to view a light emitting display and an ambient environment simultaneously. The improved display comprises a light-transmissive block allowing the transmission of light from the ambient environment to the user's eye through the block from a first surface to a second surface opposing the first surface. A light emitting display is located on a third surface of the block, the third surface being substantially perpendicular to the first and second surfaces. A beam splitter has a plane surface arranged at substantially 45 degrees to the first and second surfaces, so as to reflect light from the light emitting display through the second surface. A shutter is located on the first surface and is adapted to block the transmission of light from the ambient environment to the user's eye. This provides a dark background for the light emitting display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2004
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Andrew Ramsay Knox
  • Patent number: 6747611
    Abstract: A head mounted virtual image display unit is provided which is compact in size and weight, and incorporates a high performance optical system offering a clear see-through capability. A sliding light shield may be incorporated for those instances when see-through capability is not desired. A focus adjustment may be incorporated to permit the focusing of the image, for example, at a distance of approximately 18 inches to infinity. An adjustable headband may be incorporated that adapts to fit the users head. A flexible boom structure may be incorporated to facilitate fine positional adjustment of the optical assembly. A slider and ball joint mechanism may also be incorporated to facilitate positional adjustment of the optical assembly. A built-in microphone may be incorporated to enable speech input by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2004
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Russell A. Budd, Derek B. Dove, Istvan Lovas, Robert S. Olyha, Jr., Carl G. Powell
  • Patent number: 6744417
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display driven by a dot-line inversion driving method in combination with a 2-step dot sequential precharge driving method which, if black window or black lines are displayed, is free of horizontal trails on circumscribing portions thereof is provided. Before video signals having opposite polarities are applied to signal lines, first, a full-line precharge pulse is generated in the horizontal blanking periods, and precharge gray signals which have the same polarity as that of the previous pixel potential are written together based on the full-line precharge pulse. Then, precharge black signals having the same polarity as that of one of the video signals and precharge gray signals having the same polarity of that of the other video signal are written in two steps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2004
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Junichi Yamashita, Tomohiro Kashima
  • Patent number: 6741228
    Abstract: There is provided behind an optical modulation panel (101) which is not provided with a color filter a planar light source which is provided with EL elements (100R, 100G and 100B) with a built-in optical resonator structure adapted to emit light in red, green and blue and which are periodically arranged on a single glass substrate (103). Lights of different colors obtained by lighting the EL elements (100R, 100G and 100B) are modulated by an optical modulation panel (101) to obtain a color image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2004
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Osamu Yokoyama, Tatsuya Shimoda, Satoru Miyashita
  • Patent number: 6741240
    Abstract: The invention provides an image display apparatus that efficiently adjusts a video display even when a change takes place in an input signal. The image display apparatus includes a video input device that receives a video signal, a video display that displays an optical image based on an input signal S1 from the video input device, and a video signal adjusting device that adjusts the display setting of the video display based on a signal mode of the input signal S1. The image display apparatus further includes a determining device that causes the video display adjusting device to adjust the display setting of the video display. The determining device includes an apparatus startup detector unit that detects whether a startup of the image display apparatus creates a change in the input signal, and a signal change detector unit that detects the change in the input signal. The determining device determines whether to cause the video display adjusting device to adjust the display setting only when it is needed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2004
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Shoichi Akaiwa, Shuichi Fujiwara, Miki Nagano
  • Patent number: 6737591
    Abstract: A sensing device for generating orientation data when positioned or moved relative to a surface, the orientation data being indicative of an orientation of the sensing device relative to the surface, the surface having coded data disposed upon it, the coded data being indicative, when sensed by the sensing device, of the orientation, the sensing device including: a housing; orientation sensing means configured to generate the orientation data using at least some of the coded data; and communications means configured to communicate the orientation data to a computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd
    Inventors: Paul Lapstun, Kia Silverbrook
  • Patent number: 6738802
    Abstract: A method for transmitting data among various memory units of one or more position measuring devices, specific data pertaining to the position measuring device being stored in the memory units. Data are transmitted via a data transmission line, from a first memory unit into a second memory unit, so that once the data are transmitted, the identical, specific data are at least partially contained in both memory units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: Dr. Johannes Heidenhain GmbH
    Inventors: Erich Strasser, Rudi Mittmann
  • Patent number: 6738107
    Abstract: A storage capacitance Cs0 (=Cs+Csadd) added to a pixel capacitance is set such that a transmittance T1 at a voltage V1 of a pixel electrode becomes substantially equal to a transmittance T2 at a voltage V2 of the pixel electrode when a holding period is terminated. In the case of a normally black type liquid crystal display device, for example, when it is assumed that a white data voltage is VdW, a liquid crystal capacitance in white display is ClcW, and a liquid crystal capacitance in black display is ClcB, a capacitance value of the storage capacitance Cs0 is set such that difference between the transmittance obtained at the pixel voltage, that is changed by an amount of variation &Dgr;Vs of a pixel voltage expressed by &Dgr;Vs=VdW((ClcW−ClcB)/(ClcW+Cs0)), and the transmittance obtained at the white data voltage VdW can be reduced smaller than 13% of the transmittance obtained at the white data voltage VdW.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: Fujitsu Display Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Yoji Nagase, Yoshinori Tanaka
  • Patent number: 6734842
    Abstract: A portable data entry apparatus adapted to be carried by a user including a planar member having top and bottom surfaces. A data entry device is secured to the top surface of the planar member leaving a gap therebetween. A first member is detachably attached to the bottom surface and towards a first edge of the planar member, and a second member is secured to the bottom surface and away from the first edge, the second member enabling a user's forearm to support the data entry apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2004
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Donald Ernest Woodmansee, Jeanette Marie Bruno
  • Patent number: 6734836
    Abstract: A current driving circuit includes a first terminal electrically connected to a voltage source, a second terminal grounded, a signal line through which a signal current runs, a first switch, a second switch electrically connected to the signal line and further electrically connected in series to the first switch, a third switch electrically connected to the first terminal, a memory stage converting the signal current into a voltage and stores the voltage therein, a driving transistor, a load electrically connected between a source of the driving transistor and the second terminal, and a selection line electrically connected to the first to third switches. The signal line is electrically connected to a gate of the driving transistor through the first and second switches. The memory stage is electrically connected between a gate of the driving transistor and the second terminal. The first switch is electrically connected between a drain and a gate of the driving transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2004
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Shigeo Nishitoba