Patent ID: 6121955
Filing Date: 2000-09-19
Classification: G05G

Abstract:
A computer joystick comprising:a housing having an opening at its top;a joystick mechanism having two mutually perpendicular shafts rotatably installed inside the housing, a joystick handle rotatably installed in the opening of the housing, and an engaging means mounted at a bottom end of the joystick handle for rotatably engaging the two shafts;two optical sensors installed in the housing next to the two shafts for detecting rotations of the two shafts and generating corresponding displacement signals;a control circuit having a memory for storing a coordinate indicating a position of the joystick handle, and a processor wired to the two optical sensors for updating the coordinate according to the displacement signals generated by the two optical sensors and generating vector signals according to the coordinate to indicate the current position of the joystick handle; anda button installed on the housing and wired to the processor of the control circuit wherein the button is depressed when the joystick handle is not exerted by any external force to set a predetermined position as a starting coordinate of the joystick handle.