Patent ID: 6265993
Filing Date: 2001-07-24
Classification: G06F,H01H

Abstract:
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; anda 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.