Patent ID: 7924175

Claim:
An electronic device, comprising: a main housing; a keypad housing attached to the main housing and adjustable in position or orientation relative to the main housing; a plurality of keys disposed along the keypad housing; a plurality of illumination sources, a corresponding illumination source for each of the plurality of keys; an optical receiver configured to be optically coupled to at least one of the plurality of illumination sources, and configured to convert a received optical signal representing data into an electrical signal representing data; and a keypad signal interface electrically connected to the keypad housing, the keypad signal interface including a connection for data between the keypad housing and the main housing, and the connection for data is an electrical connection configured as a data line, wherein the optical receiver comprises a plurality of optical receivers associated with the plurality of keys, the optical receivers positioned in the keypad housing and providing outputs in response to optical signals, and connected to the data line so that outputs of the plurality of optical receivers are summed to generate a summed output.