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EP-4735266-A1 - PEN

EP4735266A1EP 4735266 A1EP4735266 A1EP 4735266A1EP-4735266-A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a pen with a refill having a working end and an acceleration sensor. According to the invention, a pusher is provided at the end of the pen, opposite the working end of the refill, wherein the acceleration sensor is located in the pusher.

Inventors

  • KÄMPF, Karl-Peter

Assignees

  • Stabilo International GmbH

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240627

Claims (9)

  1. 1 . Pen having a refill (4) with a working end (41 ) and an acceleration sensor (84, 84a), characterized by a pusher (6, 7), located at the end of the pen, opposite the working end (41 ) of the refill, wherein the acceleration sensor (84, 84a) is located in the pusher.
  2. 2. Pen according to claim 1 , characterized by a rotation rate sensor (84, 84b), located in the pusher (6, 7).
  3. 3. Pen according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the acceleration sensor (84a) and the rotation rate sensor (84b) are combined to form a combined inertial sensor (84).
  4. 4. Pen according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pusher (6, 7) is coupled to the refill (4) and can be switched back and forth between two positions, namely a first position in which the refill is in an operating position, and a second position in which the refill is in a non-operating position, wherein the pen has an energy storage (5) and an electronic circuit (85), and the electronic circuit is designed to supply the acceleration sensor (84a) and/or the angular rate sensor (84b) and/or the inertial sensor (84) with energy from the energy storage in response to a displacement of the pusher into the first position.
  5. 5. Pen according to claim 4, characterized in that the electronic circuit (85) is designed to respond to the expiry of a predetermined period of time by switching off the power supply of the acceleration sensor (84a) and/or the rotation rate sensor (84b) and/or the inertial sensor (84), unless an output signal of the acceleration sensor and/or the rotation rate sensor and/or the inertial sensor (84) has changed within the predetermined period of time.
  6. 6. Pen according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the electronic circuit (85) is designed to reset a timer for the predetermined period of time in each case when an output signal of the acceleration sensor (84a) and/or the rotation rate sensor (84b) and/or the inertial sensor (84) changes.
  7. 7. Pen according to any one of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that the electronic circuit (85) is located in the pusher (6, 7).
  8. 8. Pen according to any one of claims 4 to 7, characterized by a circuit board (8) which, in addition to the electronic circuit (85), carries the acceleration sensor (84a) and/or the rotation rate sensor (84b) and/or the inertial sensor (84).
  9. 9. Pen according to claim 8, characterized in that the circuit board (8) is a rigid circuit board.

Description

PEN The invention relates to a pen having a refill with a working end and an inertial sensor. Pens of the above-mentioned type are known. These are electronic pens with, in most cases, wireless data transmission. Pens are generally designed to write on paper. Known pens have the sensor system, located near the working end of the refill, while the radio unit for data transmission is located at the end of the pen, opposite the working end, since at that position, the radio signal is not disturbed by the hand of the individual writing with the pen. Several parallel electrical connections are required to connect the sensors and the radio unit, which, in the case of the known pens, are implemented on a rigid-flex circuit board. This is because such circuit boards are easy to install, additional sensors such as a force sensor for measuring the writing pressure are positioned flexibly and this component is not bulky, which means that the diameter of the pen does not increase significantly. Rigid- flex circuit boards consist of a polyimide film, coated with circuit board tracks, and are reinforced with conventional circuit board material, made of glass fibre and epoxy resin in the regions where electronic components are soldered on. Rigid-flex circuit boards are expensive. In addition, their price increases with the length of the circuit board. For a pen with an overall length of 150 mm, for example, the flexible region of the circuit board can be up to 70% of its length. For assembling such a long circuit board, it is advantageous to divide the pen shaft into two half-shells, which makes it impossible to replace the refill by unscrewing the shaft. Instead, a sleeve that closes the pen shaft at the working end of the refill with a cone must be pushed and locked onto the assembled shaft halves. This leads to a higher number of parts as well as higher material and manufacturing costs. In view of the above-mentioned problems, the invention is based on the object of further developing the pen of the type initially mentioned, in such a way that the material and manufacturing costs are reduced. According to the invention, the mentioned object is achieved by a pusher, located at the end of the pen, opposite the working end of the refill, wherein the acceleration sensor is located in the pusher. Since the acceleration sensor has been moved to the end of the pusher, opposite the working end of the refill, the circuit board can be significantly shortened and made entirely of rigid circuit board, which significantly reduces manufacturing costs. At the same time, the pen shaft can be constructed from two parts screwed together (grip zone and central shaft), which reduces the number of parts and assembly effort. Surprisingly, it was discovered that the quality of the acceleration data increases as a result of this shift during processing, especially using machine learning methods, which initially contradicts intuition because, at first glance, data recorded near the end of the refill’s working life should describe the writing movement better. It is, however, a fact that during typical writing movements the rear end of the pen, i.e. the end, furthest from the working end of the refill, experiences greater deflections than the working end, which increases the ratio of the useful signal of the acceleration sensor to the gravitational acceleration, which is always present and thus becomes more favourable. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the pen has a rotation rate sensor, located in the pusher. Such a rotation rate sensor can be used together with the acceleration sensor to (more precisely) detect the writing movement. According to the invention, it may also be provided that the acceleration sensor and the rotation rate sensor are combined to form a combined acceleration and rotation rate sensor, thus referred to as an inertial sensor. The acceleration and rotation rate data, provided by such an inertial sensor, is referred to as inertial data. According to the invention, it is further preferred that the pusher is coupled to the refill and can be switched back and forth between two positions, namely a first position in which the refill is in an operating position and a second position in which the refill is in a non-operating position, wherein the pen has an energy storage and an electronic circuit; the electronic circuit is designed to supply the acceleration sensor and/or the rotation rate sensor with energy from the energy storage in response to a displacement of the pusher into the first position. In other words, according to this embodiment of the invention, the acceleration sensor and/or the rotation rate sensor and/or the inertial sensor are switched on by means of the pusher, and this happens whenever the refill is moved into the operating position. The energy storage device can be a battery or an accumulator. It is further preferably provided that the electronic circuit is designed to respond to