Patent ID: 8581855

Claim:
A jogbox for a coordinate measuring machine, the jogbox comprising: a first transmission element configured to send signals to a coordinate measuring machine controller associated with the coordinate measuring machine; a display configured to display a plurality of virtual interface elements, each of the virtual interface input elements being associated with a functionality; one or more processors configured to control the display of virtual interface elements on the display and further configured to recognize user selections of the virtual interface elements, the one or more processors also being configured to select the signals to send to the controller based on the user selections of the virtual interface elements; and a second transmission element configured to send signals from the jogbox to a computer, separate from the jogbox, the computer being configured to execute a dimensional metrology application, the dimensional metrology application being configured to act in response to the signals sent by the second transmission element; a processor configured to receive an indication of an identifying characteristic of the coordinate measuring machine; and a plurality of virtual interface elements associated with a plurality of different types of coordinate measuring machines, the virtual interface elements being stored in the jogbox; wherein the processor is configured to select which virtual interface elements from among the plurality of virtual interface elements to display based on the identifying characteristic of the coordinate measuring machine; and wherein the jogbox is hand-holdable and is physically separated from the coordinate measuring machine controller.