Re:TrackPoint (2011)
by DonHopkins on Saturday April 25, 2015 @05:57PM
(#9439694)
If the Trackpoint can be called the "Joy Button", then this patented invention of Ted's can only be called the "Joy Button Frobulator".
I imagine that somewhere deep in Lenovo's labs there are a few refrigerated shipping containers from IBM full of these contraptions, working hard all day and night, poking and tweaking and twiddling and twisting hundreds of Trackpoints, making a dynamo hum like so many centrifuges applying rotation in a secret lab.
Assembly suitable for life testing a multi-dimensional force transducer
>US 5544530 A
ABSTRACT
A test assembly suitable for life testing a computer pointing stick includes a rigid shaft that is rotated by a motor and a mounting mechanism for holding and positioning the pointing stick under test in a coaxial relationship with the rigid shaft. A cantilever spring arm is rigidly connected at one end to the rigid shaft so that it rotates with the rigid shaft and is mechanically coupled under lateral spring tension at its other end to the pointing stick. The spring rotates with the rigid shaft and applies lateral force to the pointing stick via a collar attached to the pointing stick, the direction of the applied force rotating with the rigid shaft and cantilever spring. A counter records the cumulative number of flexure cycles required to make the pointing stick functionally fail.
Weighing in at an astounding 37, Ted Selker wins the award for Most Uses of the Phrase "Rigid Shaft" in a Patent!
I imagine that somewhere deep in Lenovo's labs there are a few refrigerated shipping containers from IBM full of these contraptions, working hard all day and night, poking and tweaking and twiddling and twisting hundreds of Trackpoints, making a dynamo hum like so many centrifuges applying rotation in a secret lab.
https://www.google.com/patents/US5544530?dq=ininventor:%22Ed...
Assembly suitable for life testing a multi-dimensional force transducer
>US 5544530 A ABSTRACT A test assembly suitable for life testing a computer pointing stick includes a rigid shaft that is rotated by a motor and a mounting mechanism for holding and positioning the pointing stick under test in a coaxial relationship with the rigid shaft. A cantilever spring arm is rigidly connected at one end to the rigid shaft so that it rotates with the rigid shaft and is mechanically coupled under lateral spring tension at its other end to the pointing stick. The spring rotates with the rigid shaft and applies lateral force to the pointing stick via a collar attached to the pointing stick, the direction of the applied force rotating with the rigid shaft and cantilever spring. A counter records the cumulative number of flexure cycles required to make the pointing stick functionally fail.
Weighing in at an astounding 37, Ted Selker wins the award for Most Uses of the Phrase "Rigid Shaft" in a Patent!