A device for the recording of the instantaneous location of a sensing probe such as a pencil or stylus on the surface of a plate, made of piezoelectric material in which mechanical wave fronts are caused to travel in the x- and y- directions for detecting the coordinates of the location of the probe or stylus. Means for producing the mechanical wave trains in the plate are provided at the edges of a predetermined area of the surface of the piezoelectric plate and these means are arranged and directed in such a way that the mechanical wave trains produced in the plate move through the plate in the range of the given surface, in nonparallel directions and disperse practically without echo in acoustic sumps at the opposite sides of the plate. Two adjacent edges of the piezoelectric plate are provided with electrodes on opposite marginal surface portions of the plate, whereby a vibrating electro-mechanical system is provided in which the portion of the piezoelectric material lying between the electrodes is caused to vibrate mechanically when an alternating voltage is provided to the pair of electrodes located on oppposite sides of the marginal portion of the piezoelectric plate. The scanning probe is a means for sensing the arrival of the wave front produced by each pair of electrodes. Suitable means is provided for electrically pulsing the pairs of electrodes to produce a traveling wave front and means is further provided for measuring the transit time of the pulsed wave from the edge where it is produced to the location on the plate of the probe. The instantaneous position of the probe on the plate is thereby determined. In this new device, an accompaning electrical signal is produced in said plate by the propagating wave. Said electrical signal is received by the electrode of the probe.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Cross-reference is made to two related applications filed on the same day as the present application, one of which being an application of Richard Veith, identified in filing as Ser. No. 239,640, and an application of Walter Heywang, indentified as Ser. No. 239,641 both assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
The invention relates to data acquisition devices making it possible, by the use of elastic surface waves, to mark the coordinates of a stylus (7) making a line on the surface (2) of a piezoelectric plate (1). The invention relates to a device in which the measuring surface (2) is provided with roughnesses or unevennesses of negligible size compared with the wavelength of the surface waves. The stylus (7) also comprises a member (8) for supplying a marking substance (10). The invention is more particularly applicable to the remote transmission of graphic symbols and to the processing of digital data representing such symbols.
A coordinate digitizer wherein a field generating device is positioned in proximity to the surface at a location to be digitized. Further means are provided for triggering the production of a magnetic field by the field generating device, the magnetic field transducing a propagating vibrational mode into the transmission media. Pick-up means are coupled to the transmission media and respond to the propagating vibrational mode for providing a signal to a utilizational device which will respond to the means triggering production of the field as well as to the pick-up means in order to provide a position signal corresponding to the time of propagation of the vibrational mode from its time of generation to its time of pick-up. The vibrational mode is effected by means of a strain wave magnetostrictively induced by the magnetic field into the transmission media. The transmission media constitutes a sheet of magnetostrictive material positioned beneath the support surface. The magnetic field generating device is positioned along the coordinate edges of the surface, and the pick-up is a point location in the form of an individual stylus in the shape of a writing implement or a cursor. The field may be energized by means of a series of pulses or by individual pulses as desired.
A co-ordinate plate for a co-ordinate reader, which utilizes delays of oscillation waves in a magnetostrictive material. The co-ordinate plate is composed of a thin plate of magnetrostrictive material having a co-ordinate plane and similar propagation characteristics of magnetostrictive oscillation waves in directions of at least two co-ordinate axes of the co-ordinate plane, two exciting coils for producing magnetostrictive oscillation in the thin plate of magnetostrictive material in one and the other of co-ordinate directions of the co-ordinate plane, and flux keepers for shielding magnetic fluxes emanating from the exciting coils.
A device for the transmission of information pertaining to handwriting with a piece of equipment which records the x and y-coordinates of the location of the writing pen. The device transmits the coordinates of the writing information after a suitable delay and transmits the coordinates of the commencement point of a new item of writing without delay. In this way the output receives the coordinate information of the commencement point at a time prior to the receipt of information pertaining to the writing itself, thus permitting a lower speed printing device than would be required if the output printer received the new coordinates of a handwritten item substantially simultaneously with the commencement of the coordinate information of the writing.
It is an object to provide a portable coordinates input apparatus which can be manufactured at low costs. An input pen applies a voltage to a desired position in a coordinate input area on a vibration propagating plate having a piezoelectric performance and having a first surface including the coordinate input area and a second area that faces the first surface. A vibration generated by the voltage is detected as an electric signal by a vibration detecting electrode arranged out of the coordinate input area.
