Patent Application
20090303182
The present invention relates to a scroll wheel device, particularly to a discrete vibration scroll wheel device.
The mouse is a pointer device widely used in computer systems. The mouse can detect 2-D movement and is very suitable to a GUI (Graphical User Interface) operating system. The traditional mouse has a pointer detecting movement and functional keys generating control signals. The user can control the cursor on the screen via merely moving the mouse and can enter an instruction via pressing the functional key on the mouse. Compared with the keyboard used to input complicated instructions or programming language, the mouse is much more user-friendly.
The user manipulates the traditional mouse via holding and moving it two-dimensionally on a plane. When the user is browsing a large size webpage or document, the manipulation of the mouse is likely to be confined by the space available for the mouse. Thus, some prior arts, such as US patents of U.S. Pat. No. 5,912,661 and No. 6,188,389, additionally adopted a scroll wheel unit, whereby the user can move the contents of the screen along a direction via merely rolling the scroll wheel. Thereby, the efficiency of browsing is effectively promoted. However, the scroll wheel rolled by the user will not stop unless the user applies an opposite-direct force to the scroll wheel. Further, the user cannot learn the exact displacement of the scroll wheel but has to roll the scroll wheel to-and-fro to adjust the position and search for the intended contents. Therefore, some prior arts, such as US patents of U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,392 and No. 6,697,050, additionally installed a stepping device in the circumference of the scroll wheel, which makes the user feel the step points and helps the scroll wheel stop, whereby the user has a better operation feeling. However, the stepping device and scroll wheel unit are dispersively arranged on an electronic substrate. In assembling a mouse, the dispersively-arranged components need aligning, soldering, etc., which make the assembling process of the traditional mouse more complicated and more time-consuming. Further, as the components are not compactly arranged on the electronic substrate, the space-efficiency of the traditional mouse is poor.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a discrete vibration scroll wheel device, which comprises: a scroll wheel and a support seat supporting the scroll wheel. The scroll wheel has a wheel portion and an axle portion. The support seat has an axle-receiving hole where the axle portion is inserted and held. The axle portion of the scroll wheel has a toothed disc with a plurality of protrusions and recessions arranged alternately. The support seat has a stepping generation member corresponding to the toothed disc. The stepping generation member has a pressing tip normally contacting the toothed disc. The rotation of the scroll wheel makes the pressing tip move to-and-fro between the protrusions and recessions and generates the vertical and reciprocating vibration travels of the pressing tip. The stepping generation member is arranged inside the axle-receiving hole or in another location of the support seat.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the stepping generation member has a ball containing the pressing tip and an elastic member pressing the ball to normally contact the toothed disc. The ball and elastic member are installed inside a holding track.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the stepping generation member is an elastomer having a pressing tip and a fixing portion fixed to the support seat.
The present invention can modularize the scroll wheel device having a stepping function and simplify the assembling process thereof. Further, the present invention can compactly arrange the components of the scroll wheel device and promote the space-efficiency of the mouse.
Below, the technical contents of the present invention are described in detail in cooperation with the drawings.
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In this embodiment, the stepping generation member 22 has a ball 23 containing the pressing tip 221 and an elastic member 24 pressing the ball 23 to normally contact the toothed disc 13. The ball 23 and elastic member 24 are installed inside a holding track 25. The elastic member 24 may be a spring, an elastic rubber, or a mechanical elastic device.
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In the present invention, the stepping generation member 22 has many embodiments. Refer to
The present invention incorporates the stepping generation member 22 with the support seat 20 and modularizes the discrete vibration scroll wheel device, whereby the assembling process thereof is simplified, and whereby the components thereof are compactly arranged to reduce the occupied space and promote the space-efficiency of the mouse device. Therefore, the present invention indeed has improvements over the conventional technologies and meets the conditions for a patent. Thus, the Inventor files the application for a patent. It will be appreciated if the patent is approved fast.
The present invention has been described in detail with the embodiments. However, the embodiments described above are only to exemplify the present invention but not to limit the scope of the present invention. Therefore, any equivalent modification or variation according to the spirit of the present invention is to be also included within the scope of the present invention.
