United States Patent 4,109,315

Wristwatch Calculator with Selectively Scanned Keyboard

Aug. 22, 1978
Inventor: Michael Pan, San Jose, Calif.
Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, Calif.
Appl. No.: 718,741
Filed: Aug. 30, 1976

Abstract:

A wristwatch calculator is provided with a keyboard for the entry of information into and control of operation of the apparatus. The keyboard comprises an array of switches connected in an X-Y matrix that is scanned by row and column to find and identify a key that has been depressed. The scanner is operated only when the calculator circuitry in the apparatus is in a sleep or inactive mode in order to save battery power.

1 Claim, 8 Drawing Figures


An image of first page of this patent is available (approximately 35 Kbytes). It is a TIFF class F file at 300 DPI resolution using ITU-T Group 4 Facsimile (T.6) coding.

Eric's notes:

This patent describes the keyboard scanning circuitry of the HP-01. The approach to saving battery power described in this patent seems to be less than ideal even for mid-70s technology. A more typical approach would be to drive all of the key scan lines active while in sleep mode, and return to "waking" mode and activate the key scanning when any key return line become active.
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Last updated July 17, 1995

Copyright 1995 Eric Smith

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