Patent ID: 7650811
Filing Date: 2010-01-26
Classification: F16H,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A shifting device, comprising: a housing; a shift lever supported by the housing, wherein the shift lever is movable along a first manipulation axis in a first direction and in a second direction opposite to the first direction, and further along, at least, a second manipulation axis in a third direction, for selecting one of a plurality of shift positions along each of the manipulation axes, where the first and second manipulation axes are non-parallel; a non-contact position detecting mechanism capable of detecting said plurality of shift positions of the shift lever along each of the manipulation axes, wherein the position detecting mechanism includes a plurality of detecting devices and a reflector member, wherein relative positions between the detecting devices and the reflector member are variable, and wherein the position detecting mechanism detects a selected shift position according to the relative positions; and a moving mechanism, wherein, according to movement of the shift lever, the moving mechanism moves at least one of the plurality of detecting devices and the reflector member at least along a first movement axis and a second movement axis, the first and second movement axes are non-parallel, wherein each of the detecting devices includes a pair of a light emitting portion and a photoreceptor portion, wherein the reflector member reflects light emitted by each light emitting portion so that reflected light is detected by a corresponding photoreceptor portion, and wherein the reflector member has a plurality of holes to selectively reflect or pass light through according to the relative positions between the detecting devices and the reflector member.