Patent ID: 8698752
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: H01H

Abstract:
1. A user control interface for controlling multiple device functionality, comprising: a support structure; control regions formed on the support structure, each of the control regions comprising one or more light emitting areas; depressible interaction devices covering respective ones of the control regions and substantially eliminating lateral output of the one or more light emitting areas of each control region, the depressible interaction devices comprising at least one of one or more labels, one or more characters, or one or more symbols; respective label mask layers coupled to corresponding ones of the depressible interaction devices, each label mask layer comprising a translucent portion or a transparent portion; a controller coupled to the control regions that controls which of the light emitting areas output light from respective ones of the interaction devices based on one or more modes of operation of the user control interface; and tinted layers coupled to the depressible interaction devices, the tinted layers making the one or more light emitting areas invisible to a human eye during a rest mode of the one or more modes of operation of the user control interface, and the tinted layers being configured to optically hide the at least one of the one or more labels, the one or more characters, or the one or more symbols from the human eye during the rest mode.