Patent ID: 6930594

Claim:
An electronically-active vehicle gear-shift knob comprising: A. a hand-grasping section having an upper edge, a front surface, a rear surface, and a lower edge having means for being attached to a vehicle gear-shift lever, B. an electronics enclosure having a front edge, a rear edge, an upper surface, and a lower surface having means for being releasably attached to the upper edge of said hand-grasping section, C. an electronics control circuit comprising: a) a transmitting circuit enclosed within said electronics enclosure and comprising: (1) an encoder comprising: (a) an input consisting of a plurality of code-setting switches that are set to produce a unique address code, (b) an oscillator circuit that produces a fixed clock frequency, (c) a set of element-selecting switches, wherein the closing of any one of the switches produces an encoded signal that is unique to the closed switch, wherein the encoded signal consists of a serial digital code along with a unique address code as determined by the settings of the code-setting switches, wherein the encoded signal is further modulated by the fixed clock frequency produced by the oscillator circuit to allow the encoder to produce a unique digital output signal, (2) a transmitter module having means for receiving and processing the unique digital output signal and producing a corresponding RF output signal that is radiated through a transmitting antenna embedded within said electronics enclosure, (3) a transmitting circuit power source, b) a receiving circuit comprising: (1) a receiver module having means for receiving and processing, via a receiving antenna, the radiated RF output signal from the transmitter module and producing a serial digital output signal, (2) a microcontroller having means for receiving and processing the serial digital output signal and producing an output control signal that is determined by which of the element-selecting switches located on said transmitting circuit is closed, wherein each of the output control signals is connected to a specific element of a vehicle, wherein when a first element-selecting switch is closed, the element controlled by the first switch is energized; conversely, when the first switch is pressed again the vehicle element is de-energized, (3) an oscillator circuit that produces a fixed clock frequency, and (4) a receiving circuit power source.