Patent ID: 7903090

Claim:
An input device suitable for determining at least a location of an applied force, the input device comprising: a base support having a periphery and a plurality of apertures formed near the periphery and extending completely through the base support to define inner and outer portions, the inner portion being movable relative to the outer portion; an input pad associated with the inner portion and adapted to receive the applied force; a plurality of isolated beam segments defined by the plurality of apertures operable to receive resultant forces as distributed to the isolated beam segments by the displacement of the input pad and the inner portion, wherein each isolated beam segment comprises at least one sensor that measures the strain within the respective isolated beam segment occurring as a result of the displacement of the input pad and the inner portion in response to the applied force, the at least one sensor also being configured to output a signal corresponding to the applied force and the measured strain to be used to determine a location of the applied force.