TOUCHSCREEN KEYBOARD ATTACHMENT FOR A PERSONAL COMPUTER

Abstract

The invention is directed to a touchscreen keyboard attachment for a personal computer. The attachment is small, easily carried, and comprises a rectangular touchscreen displaying a keyboard image, such that it may be easily grasped, carried, and plugged into a Universal Service Bus (USB) port on the user's personal computer, laptop, or other electronic device. The attachment provides data input to device in the same protocol as an external keyboard.

Claims

1. A touchscreen keyboard attachment for a personal computer which is small, easily carried, and provided in an extremely low-profile, gently contoured rectangular design with a touchscreen visual display and a touchpad on the top surface, further comprised of factory installed software which displays a keyboard image on the visual display, such that it may be used as a touchscreen keyboard, similar to those used on smartphones and tablets.

2. The attachment of claim 1, wherein the keypad is operated in the same manner as the keypads found on many laptops.

3. The attachment of claim 1, wherein the software encodes keystrokes on the touchscreen keyboard, and fingertip motion on the touchpad, and provides data input to device in the same protocol as an external keyboard.

4. The attachment of claim 1, wherein the attachment draws electric power from the personal computer, laptop, or other electronic device to which it is attached.

5. The attachment of claim 1, wherein the electronic components of the attachment include microprocessor and a memory device.

6. The attachment of claim 1, wherein the user may plug the data cord into the USB port of a personal computer, laptop, or other electronic device. The user may then operate the touchscreen keyboard and touchpad of the attachment in the same manner as corresponding features on a smartphone and laptop.

7. The attachment of claim 1, wherein the attachment, the visual display, and the touchpad are preferably manufactured from rigid, durable materials, such as steel, aluminum alloy, brass, ceramics, copper alloy, and plastic.

8. The attachment of claim 1, wherein the data cord is preferably manufactured from braided copper alloy wire sheathed in flexible plastic, and is preferably six feet in length.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate various embodiments of the present disclosure. The drawings contain representations of various trademarks and copyrights owned by the Applicants. In addition, the drawings may contain other marks owned by third parties and are being used for illustrative purposes only. All rights to various trademarks and copyrights represented herein, except those belonging to their respective owners, are vested in and the property of the applicants. The applicants retain and reserve all rights in their trademarks and copyrights included herein, and grant permission to reproduce the material only in connection with reproduction of the granted patent and for no other purpose.

[0014] Furthermore, the drawings may contain text or captions that may explain certain embodiments of the present disclosure. This text is included for illustrative, non-limiting, explanatory purposes of certain embodiments detailed in the present disclosure.

[0015] FIG. 1 is a top view of a touchscreen keyboard attachment for a personal computer, in accordance with a first exemplary embodiment.

[0016] FIG. 2 is a side perspective view of the touchscreen keyboard attachment of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] As a preliminary matter, it will readily be understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art that the present disclosure has broad utility and application. As should be understood, any embodiment may incorporate only one or a pluralit of the above-disclosed aspects of the disclosure and may further incorporate only one or a plurality of the above-disclosed features. Furthermore, any embodiment discussed and identified as being preferred is considered to be part of a best mode contemplated for carrying out the embodiments of the present disclosure. Other embodiments also may be discussed for additional illustrative purposes in providing a full and enabling disclosure. Moreover, many embodiments, such as adaptations, variations, modifications, and equivalent arrangements, will be implicitly disclosed by e embodiments described herein and fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0018] Accordingly, while embodiments are described herein in detail in relation to one or more embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure is illustrative and exemplary of the present disclosure and are made merely for the purposes of providing a full and enabling disclosure. The detailed disclosure herein of one or more embodiments is not intended, nor is to be construed, to limit the scope of patent protection afforded in any claim of a patent issuing here from, which scope is to be defined by the claims and the equivalents thereof. It is not intended that the scope of patent protection be defined by reading into any claim a limitation found herein that does not explicitly appear in the claim itself.

[0019] Thus, for example, any sequence(s) and/or temporal order of steps of various processes or methods that are described herein are illustrative and not restrictive. Accordingly, it should be understood that, although steps of various processes or methods may be shown and described as being in a sequence or temporal order, the steps of any such processes or methods are not limited to being carried out in any particular sequence or order, absent an indication otherwise. Indeed, the steps in such processes or methods generally may be carried out in various different sequences and orders while still falling within the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of patent protection is to be defined by the issued claim(s) rather than the description set forth herein.

[0020] Additionally, it is important to note that each term used herein refers to that which an ordinary artisan would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of such term herein. To the extent that the meaning of a term used hereinas understood by the ordinary artisan based on the contextual use of such termdiffers in any way from any particular dictionary definition of such term, it is intended that the meaning of the term as understood by the ordinary artisan should prevail.

[0021] Furthermore, it is important to note that, as used herein, a and an each generally denotes at least one, but does not exclude a plurality unless the contextual use dictates otherwise. When used herein to join a list of items, or denotes at least one of the items, but does not exclude a plurality of items of the list. Finally, when used herein to join a list of items, and denotes all of the items of the list.

[0022] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While many embodiments of the disclosure may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosure. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims. The present disclosure contains headers. It should be understood that these headers are used as references and are not to be construed as limiting upon the subjected matter disclosed under the header.

[0023] The present disclosure includes many aspects and features. Moreover, while many aspects and features relate to, and are described in, the context of input devices for personal computers, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to use only in this context.

[0024] FIG. 1 is a top view of a touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 for a personal computer, in accordance with a first exemplary embodiment. The touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 includes a visual display 11, a touchpad 12, and a data cord 13.

[0025] It is to be understood that while the invention is intended for use to enable touchscreen data entry on a conventional personal computer or laptop, this is not intended as a limiting factor. With appropriate modifications or with no modifications at all, the invention could be used to enable such data entry on other devices,

[0026] According to some embodiments, the touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 is a small, portable, and provided in an extremely low-profile, gently contoured rectangular design with the touchscreen visual display 11 and the touchpad 12 on the top surface. The touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 may have a software installation that displays a keyboard image on the visual display 11, such that it may be used as a touchscreen keyboard, similar to those used on smartphones and tablets. The touchpad 12 is operated in the same manner as the touchpads found on many laptops. The software may also encode keystrokes on the touchscreen keyboard, and fingertip motion on the touchpad 12, and provides data input to device in the same protocol as an external conventional keyboard.

[0027] The touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 draws electric power from the personal computer, laptop, or other electronic device to which it is attached. Preferably, electronic components of the touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 include a microprocessor and a memory device.

[0028] The touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 is essentially a no call cell phone. The touchscreen keyboard is intended for those users who do not type at a reasonable speed on a conventional QWERTY keyboard. It is designed for typing on a computer as if the user were texting. The software may provide additional features such as a spell check function.

[0029] A user may plug the data cord 13 into the USB port of a personal computer, laptop, or other electronic device. The user may then operate the touchscreen keyboard and touchpad 12 of the touchscreen keyboard attachment 10 in the same manner as corresponding features on a smartphone and laptop.

[0030] The touchscreen keyboard attachment 10, the visual display 11, and the touchpad 12 are preferably manufactured from rigid, durable materials, such as steel, aluminum alloy, brass, ceramics, copper alloy, and plastic.

[0031] The visual display 11 may use at least one of Electroluminescent (EL) display, Liquid crystal (LC) display with Light-emitting diode (LED)-backlit Liquid crystal (LC) display, Light-emitting diode (LED) display, Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display, Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) display, Plasma (P) display, and Quantum dot (QD).

[0032] The touchpad 12 may use at least one of capacitive sensing and resistive sensing.

[0033] The data cord 13 is preferably manufactured from braided copper alloy wire sheathed in flexible plastic, and is preferably six feet in length. Longer and shorter lengths are also contemplated. Components, component sizes, and materials listed above are preferable, but artisans will recognize that alternate components and materials could be selected without altering the scope of the invention.

[0034] Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.