Patent ID: 6366273
Filing Date: 2002-04-02
Classification: A63F,B25J,G01B,G05B,G05G,G06F,H01H

Abstract:
A human interface device for enabling manual interactions with application software running on a host computer, said software providing images displayed on a display apparatus, said device comprising:(a) a user manipulatable physical object physically contacted and movable by a user, said user manipulating said user manipulatable physical object in a plurality of rotational degrees of freedom; (b) a sensor apparatus coupled to said user manipulatable physical object, said sensor apparatus producing a locative signal which is responsive to and corresponding with a position of said user manipulatable physical object at points in time during normal operation; (c) a communication bus coupled to said host computer; (d) a device controller separate from said host computer and coupled to said host computer by said communication bus, said device controller being coupled to said sensor apparatus, said device controller running a program contained at least in part in a non-volatile memory coupled to said device controller and separate from said host computer, said device controller providing information for use by said host computer an application program simultaneously with said device controller running said program, said information including a representation of said locative signal, wherein said application program of said host computer can provide images on a computer display, said images updated on said computer display in response to said locative signal, and wherein said host computer can provide host commands, said host commands being communicated to said device controller by said communication bus, wherein said device controller: (i) monitors said communication bus for said host commands; and (ii) decodes said host commands, wherein at least one of said host commands causes information to be reported from said device controller to said host computer, and at least one of said host commands causes said device controller to output control signals to cause a force to be output to said user, said at least one host command and said force being correlated with at least one of said images developed by said host computer on said computer display; and (e) a force generator controlled by said device controller for providing a force to to user in response to at least one of said control signals.