Patent ID: 8384536

Claim:
An instrument control apparatus comprising: an interface surface that is used to interface with at least one electronic application; at least one interface component removably coupled to the interface surface; at least one control component electronically coupled to the at least one electronic application and configured to control at least one function of the electronic application, wherein the at least one interface component is remotely coupled to the at least one control component, wherein manipulation of the at least one interface component provides a means for controlling the at least one function of the electronic application wherein the at least one interface component further comprises: a component body having a turning knob with a component cavity; and one or more component magnets disposed within the component cavity; wherein the at least one control component further comprises: an encoder body having an encoder cavity; and one or more encoder magnets disposed within the encoder cavity, wherein the one or more component magnets magnetically couple with the one or more encoder magnets through the interface surface; and a means for communicating encoder data to a processor, wherein the processor translates the encoder data into control data indicating how the component body was manipulated, wherein at least one function of the application is controlled by the control data.