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Weatherproof electronic keypad with replaceable graphics overlay
| Details |
Inventors: Kaufman, Peter; Echols, John C.; Miszkiewicz, Henry;
Assignee: Essex Electronics, Inc. (Carpinteria, CA)
Primary Examiner: Hilten; John S.
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Learman & McCulloch
A weatherproof electronic keypad includes a molded plastic housing, a plurality of transducers attached to the inside surface of the front wall of the housing, an electronic circuit mounted within the housing and connected to the transducers, and a graphics overlay removably affixed to the outside surface of the front wall of the housing. The front wall and overlay are sufficiently flexible that finger pressure applied to the overlay results in enough deformation of the front wall to activate the transducer underlying that portion of the inside surface. The overlay contains indicia which identify the location and function of the transducers. The overlay need not be attached to the housing as a part of manufacturing the keypad, but rather can be added in situ as part of installation of the keypad. This enables customized selection of a particular overlay in accordance with aesthetic and/or functional considerations, as well as replacement of the overlay in the field if necessary. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION An electronic keypad according to the invention comprises a plastic housing that includes a generally planar front wall having an outside surface and an inside surface, two or more transducers secured to the inside surface of the front wall, an overlay covering at least a portion.
of the outside surface of the front wall, and an electronic circuit electrically coupled to each of the transducers.
The overlay is removable to permit its replacement.
The overlay contains indicia each of which is associated with one of the transducers and located on the overlay opposite its associated transducer to identify the location of the transducer.
The overlay and the front wall together have sufficient flexibility that the inside surface of the front wall is deformable upon application of finger pressure to the overlay.
Each of the transducers is deformable in response to localized deformation of the inside surface that results from the application of finger pressure to the overlay at a location opposite the transducer, and each of the transducers has a characteristic that undergoes a measurable change in response to the localized deformation of the inside surface.
Thus, finger pressure can be applied to any one of the indicia on the overlay to cause a measurable change in characteristic of the transducer associated with the selected one of the indicia.
The electronic circuit is operable in response to detecting this measurable change in characteristic to generate an output that indicates the activation of the selected transducer.
Preferably, the housing comprises a unitary molded plastic structure that includes the front wall and four side walls that extend perpendicularly to the plane of the front wall, thereby leaving the rear side of the housing open for installation of the keypad components.
The transducers can be of any suitable kind, such as piezoelectric elements or force sensitive resistors, that are adhered to the inside surface of the front wall.
The electronic circuit can be carried by a printed circuit board that is mounted within the housing behind the transducers
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