Abstract:
A mouse includes a left button, a right button, a touch sensing unit and a processing unit. The left button and the right button generate click signals in response to click operations. The touch sensing device generates touch positional signals when the left or right button is touched. The processing unit is used to receive the touch positional signals, calculate y-coordinate values of all points in the touched areas; select two significant points respectively from the left touched area and the right touched area; compare the y-coordinate values of the two significant points to generate a comparison result; confirm a current operated mode; if the confirmed operated mode is a left handed operation, send a control signal with a left-button identifier to a computer configured therewith; if the confirmed operated mode is a right handed operation, send a control signal with a right-button identifier to the computer configured therewith.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to a mouse, and more particularly, to a mouse that can automatically identify if it is being left hand operated or right hand operated. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     A computer mouse is an input device of a computer. Depending on the configuration of an Operating System of the computer, the computer mouse may have one or more operational buttons. Computer mice with more than one operational buttons generally have a left button and a right button for generating click signals in response to click operations. 
     Humans are cognitive symmetrical when it comes to cognitive association, i.e., the human brain associates the index finger on the right hand to the index finger on the left hand. Thus, a right handed computer user would associate the index finger (innermost finger) to the left button of the mouse and the middle finger (outermost finger) to the right button of the mouse and not the leftmost finger nor the rightmost finger. When the right arm of a right handed computer user is tired or not free and needs to use the left hand to control the computer mouse, due to the cognitive association, will tend to press the left button of the mouse with the middle finger of the left hand for a right button operation and vice versa. The same is true for left handed computer users. 
     Although the mouse button functions can be reconfigured in the Operating System to adapt the switch of right hand to the left hand, reconfiguring the Operating System every time is very troublesome and inconvenient. 
     Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to overcome the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In order to solve said problems, the present invention provides a mouse that can automatically identify if it is being left hand operated or right hand operated. The present invention can detect the hand that is using the mouse, thereby automatically switch to a corresponding operated mode to adapt to the hand. 
     The mouse includes a left button, a right button, a touch sensing device and a processing unit. The left button and the right button generate click signals in response to click operations. The touch sensing device generates touch positional signals when the left or right button is touched. The processing unit is used to receive the touch positional signals generated by the touch sensing unit and determines positions of a left touched area on the left button and a right touched area on the right button, calculate y-coordinate values of all points in the touched areas after receiving click signals generating by the left button and the right button in response to click operations; select two significant points respectively from the left touched area and the right touched area; compare the y-coordinate values of the two significant points to generate a comparison result; confirm a current operated mode according to the comparison result; if the confirmed operated mode is a left handed operation, send a control signal with a left-button identifier to a computer configured therewith; if the confirmed operated mode is a right handed operation, send a control signal with a right-button identifier to the computer configured therewith. 
     Other systems, methods, features, and advantages will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a planar view of a left/right-hand operated sensing intelligent mouse in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a hardware infrastructure of the mouse of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a function module diagram of a processing unit of the mouse of  FIG. 2 ; and 
         FIG. 4  is a flow chart of a preferred method for automatically identifying if it is being left hand operated or right hand operated. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The mouse of the present invention is capable of automatically identifying if it is being left hand operated or right hand operated, and further switching to a corresponding operational mode accordingly. The mouse may be any appropriate mouse such as, for example, a photoelectric mouse, a mechanical mouse, a laser mouse, and so on. The following detailed description of the embodiment is made with reference to the attached drawings. 
       FIG. 1  is a planar view of a mouse for automatically identifying if it is being left hand operated or right hand operated in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention. The mouse  10  includes a left button  11  and a right button  12  at the front of the mouse. The left button  11  and the right button  12  share a boundary line  13 . The boundary line  13  has a start point  14  and an end point  15 . The left button  11  and the right button  12  are capable of generating click signals in response to click operations. When operated, for example, an area of the right button  12  that is touched by the operator is defined as a right touched area  17  and an area of the left button  11  that is touched by the operator is defined as a left touched area  16 . A significant point  18  is selected from all points of the left touched area  16  and a significant point  19  is selected from all points of the right touched area  17  by calculation and comparison. For example, the significant point  18  is the point that has a maximum y-coordinate value among all the points of the left touched area  16 , and the significant point  19  is the point that has a maximum y-coordinate value among all the points of the right touched area  17 . However, in other cases, the significant points  18 ,  19  can have a minimum y-coordinate value among all the points in the touched areas  16 ,  17 . 
     Since the middle finger of is longer than the index finger, when the mouse  10  is right hand operated with an index finger and a middle finger, the significant point  19  in the right touched area  17  is further away than the significant point  18  in the left touched area  16 . By comparing which of the left significant point  18  and the right significant point  19  is further away, the mouse  10  can identify if it is being left hand operated or right hand operated. 
     In the preferred embodiment, for simplicity, the boundary line  13  is defined as a y axis, and a point such as the start point  14  on the boundary line  13  is set as a center to establish an x-y coordinate system such as that shown in  FIG. 1 . The left button  11  and the right button  12  of the mouse  10  are usually operated with the index finger and the middle finger. The index finger is shorter than the middle finger, so the maximum y-coordinate value of all the points in the left touched area  16  is smaller than that of all the points in the right touched area  17  when operating the mouse  10  with the right hand. That is, the y-coordinate of the significant point  18  is less than that of the significant point  19 . 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a hardware infrastructure of the mouse  10  of  FIG. 1 . The mouse  10  includes a touch sensing device  20 , a processing unit  21 , and an interface  22 . The interface  22  is configured to connect the mouse  10  to a computer (not shown). The interface  22  may be a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface, a wireless transmission interface, a blue-tooth interface, a PS/2 (Personal System/2) interface, or any other data transmission interface. The touch sensing device  20  may be a touch panel, a touch screen, or any other type touch-sensitive device. The touch sensing device  20  is disposed beneath the left button  11  and the right button  12 , and is divided into many touch sensing units and each of the touch sensing units is configured to generate a touch positional signal when it is touched. In other cases, the mouse  10  can have two touch sensing devices  20 , one of which corresponds to the left button  11  and the other corresponds to the right button  12 . 
     After receiving the click signals generated by the left button  11  or the right button  12 , the processing unit  21  further receives the touch positional signals generated by the touch sensing device  20  and computes positions of the left touched area  16  on the left button  11  and of the right touched area  17  on the right button  12 , computes and analyzes all the points in the touched areas  16  and  17  to obtain the left significant point  18  and the right significant point  19 . The processing unit  21  computes a comparison result between the y-coordinate value of the left significant point  18  and the y-coordinate value of the right significant point  19 , identifies if the mouse is in a left hand operated mode or in a right hand operated mode according to the comparison result and further detects a current operated mode. 
     After  21  identifies if the mouse is left hand operated or right hand operated, the processing unit  21  generates a control signal according to the current operated mode, and sends the control signal to the computer connected, the computer then determines the current operated mode automatically. 
     For example, if the mouse is in the right handed operated mode, the processing unit  21  sends the control signal assigned with a left-button identifier (e.g. “010”) in response to the click operation from the left button  11 , alternatively, sends the control signal assigned with a right-button identifier (e.g. “001”) in response to the click operation from the right button  12 . In the left handed operated mode, the processing unit  21  sends the control signal assigned with the right-button identifier (e.g. “001”) in response to the click operation from the left button  11 , alternatively, sends the control signal assigned with the left-button identifier (e.g. “010”) in response to the click operation from the right button  12 . 
       FIG. 3  is a function module diagram of the processing unit  21 . The processing unit  21  includes an identifying module  210 , a calculating module  211 , a selecting module  212 , a mode confirming module  213 , and a transmitting module  214 . The identifying module  210  receives the touch positional signals generated by the touch sensing device  20  and determines the left touched area  16  on the left button  11  and the right touched area  17  on the right button  12 . 
     The calculating module  211  receives the click signals generating by the left button  11  and the right button  12  in response to click operations, and then calculates y-coordinate values of all the points in the left touched area  16  and the right touched area  17 . 
     The selecting module  212  selects the two significant points  18 ,  19  respectively from the left touched area  16  and the right touched area  17 , compares the y-coordinate values of the two significant points  18 ,  19 , and generates a comparison result. 
     The mode confirming module  213  determines if the current operated mode is in the left handed operated mode or in the right handed operated mode according to the comparison result. 
     The transmitting module  214  generates the control signal according to the current operated mode, and sends the control signal to the computer connected. 
       FIG. 4  is a flow chart of a preferred method for automatically identifying if it is being left hand operated or right hand operated. In step S 40 , the processing unit  21  receives the touch positional signals generated by the touch sensing device  20  and determines positions of the left touched area  16  on the left button  11  and the right touched area  17  on the right button  12 . 
     In step S 41 , the processing unit  21  receives the click signals generated by the left button  11  or the right button  12  in response to the click operations. 
     In step S 42  the processing unit  21  calculates the y-coordinate values of all the points in the left touched area  16  and all the points of the right touched area  17 . 
     In step S 43 , the processing unit  21  selects the significant points  18  among all the points in the left touched area  16  and the significant points  19  among all the points in the right touched areas  17  respectively. 
     In step S 44 , the processing unit  21  compares the y-coordinate values of the significant points  18 ,  19 , and determines whether the y-coordinate value of the significant point  18  is smaller than that of the significant point  19 . 
     In step S 45 , if the y-coordinate value of the significant point  18  is smaller than that of the significant point  19 , the processing unit  21  sends the control signal corresponding to the click operation to the computer according to the right handed operated mode, that is, the processing unit  21  sends the control signal assigned with the left-button identifier (e.g. “010”) in response to the click operation from the left button  11 , and sends the control signal with the right-button identifier (e.g. “001”) after receiving the click operation from the right button  12 . 
     If the y-coordinate value of the significant point  18  is equal to or greater than that of the significant point  19 , in step S 47 , the processing unit  21  sends the control signal corresponding to the click operation to the computer according to the left handed operated mode, that is, the processing unit  21  sends the control signal assigned with the right-button identifier (e.g. “001”) in response to the click operation from the right button  12 , and sends the control signal with the left-button identifier (e.g. “010”) after receiving the click operation generated by the left button  11 . 
     In step S 46 , the computer receives the control signal generated by the processing unit  21  via the interface  22 , and performs a corresponding operation according to the control signal. 
     Although the present invention has been specifically described on the basis of a preferred embodiment and preferred method thereof, the invention is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various changes or modifications may be made to the embodiment and method without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.