Patent ID: 11863175
Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. An analog input device comprising:
at least one mounting panel;
a matrix of analog push button assemblies mounted to the at least one mounting panel, each analog push button assembly comprising an analog pressure sensor, wherein the analog pressure sensor comprises:
a pressure reception arrangement having an optical sensing sub-arrangement configured to measure an amount of light varied according to a pressure sensed at the pressure reception arrangement and an output terminal for outputting an analog signal corresponding to the amount of light measured, and
a plunger element configured to exert the pressure on the pressure reception arrangement when the analog push button assembly is pressed by a user's finger;

a multiplexer including an input side and an output side, wherein the input side is coupled to the output terminals of the matrix of analog push button assemblies;
an analog-to-digital converter which is coupled to the output side of the multiplexer, wherein the analog-to-digital converter converts the analog signal into a digital-step-value;
a processor which is coupled to the analog-to-digital converter and which is configured to output a data packet including a button identity (ID) of the push button assembly pressed by the user's finger and the digital-step-value converted from the analog signal of the push button assembly by the analog-to-digital converter; and
a communication interface configured to transmit the data packet to a host computing device.