Patent ID: 7557796

Claim:
A manually-operated control for generating a vector signal comprising: a housing; a handle with an elongate axis pivotally mounted to the housing for universal rotation about a pivot point on the axis of the handle, wherein the universal rotation of the handle is provided by a ball and socket connection, the ball being connected with the handle and the socket being formed at least partially in the housing; a structure supporting an imaged surface that moves in two directions with the rotation of the handle about two perpendicular axes intersecting at the pivot point; a circuit board fixed to the interior of the housing; a camera and LED fixed to the circuit board and focused on the imaged surface; and a microprocessor-based controller mounted on the circuit board and connected to input and process images sequentially input from said camera for detecting and quantifying the movement of the imaged surface in two directions and generating a vector signal indicative thereof, wherein the housing is comprised of a cover with an opening therein for the handle to pass through, a base having the lower half of a spherical socket therein, and a slider support structure that is located between the base and the cover and having the upper half of a spherical socket therein and a slider support surface thereon.