1. Device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein underneath every key of the keypad (11) sensors are located that measure the user’s finger position on any key of the keypad (11) and micro controller (13) is provided that evaluates this position and associates it with one of the possible input alternatives.
2. Device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein the keypad (11) contains keys with integrated sensors (76) or switches measuring the user’s finger position, the keys consisting of a soft, deformable material and are built either from an electrically conductive material that changes its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, or built with multiple layers, one layer consisting of an electrically conductive material changes its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, where there are sensors (76) or switches integrated into the keys that measure the position of an activation of any key of the keypad and a micro processor (13) is provided that associates the determined position to one of one or many input alternatives and a display (14) is provided that shows the current input.
3. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensor integrated into each key of the keypad (11) consists of multiple membrane switches, the switch count identical to the number of key assignments.
4. Device according to claim 1, wherein the keypad (11) consists of ten keys that are labelled with the digits 0 to 9 and eight of them are additionally labelled with the letters A to Z.
5. Device according to claim 1, wherein the keypad equipped with the digits and letters is intended for use with mobile electronic devices.
6. Device according to claim 1, wherein the micro processor (13) is equipped with an interface to an display (14) and the keypad (11) constitutes one functional unit together with the micro processor (13) and the display (14).
7. Device according to claim 1, wherein the keys of the keypad (11) exhibit a concave key surface running from the left to the right side.
8. Device according to claim 1, wherein the keypad (11) consists of twelve keys, two keys being designated for toggling to special characters.
9. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are composed of rocker switches (71), each key providing three activation positions that correspond to a pressure on the left side of this key, in the center of this key and the right side of this key.
10. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are composed of pressure sensors (72) designed as two pressure-sensitive force-sensing resistors (FSR) per key that measure the applied force on the left and right side of a slightly movable key, making it possible to determine the position of the finger from the relation of the two measured values.
11. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are composed of pressure sensors (73) designed as a pressure-sensitive force-sensing resistors (FSR) per key in the form of a strip that measures the position of applied force of the convex shaped bottom side of a slightly movable key on a base plate, making it possible to determine the position of the finger.
12. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are composed of two strain gauges (74) per key that measure the force applied to the left and right side of a slightly movable key in order to determine the finger position.
13. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are composed of two hall sensors (75) per key that measure the distances of a slightly movable key to a base plate in order to determine the finger position from the ratio of the measured values.
14. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are composed of angle sensors (76) formed by two or more contacts per key that determine the angle of the activation of a slightly movable key from the position of closed contacts between an electrically conductive key bottom side and one or multiple conductive paths on a printed circuit board to compute the finger position.
15. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are composed of a membrane keyboard (77) that contains one contact each for every letter of the corresponding key label, where these contacts identified with letters are combined in groups during numeric input, while these contacts are evaluated individually during text input.
16. Device according to claim 1, wherein the input of diacritical characters, i.e. umlauts and accented characters is achieved by pressing an activation key (46) and then another key, this second key having a mnemonic relationship to the specific letters on the key labels, leading to the input of a specified diacritical character.
17. Device according to claim 1, wherein the sensors measuring the key activation are located individually underneath the keys in case of an external sensor implementation or inside the keys at the left and right side of the keys in case of an integrated sensor implementation.
18. Device according to claim 1, wherein the keys inside the keypad (11) are tiltable against a pivot that lies parallel to the key surface.
19. Method for processing input impulses during text input by means of a device chosen from the group consisting of:
a device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein underneath every key of the keypad (11) sensors are located that measure the user’s finger position on any key of the keypad (11) and micro controller (13) is provided that evaluates this position and associates it with one of the possible input alternatives; and
a device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein the keypad (11) contains keys with integrated sensors (76) or switches measuring the user’s finger position, the keys consisting of a soft, deformable material and are built either from an electrically conductive material that changes its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, or built with multiple layers, one layer consisting of an electrically conductive material chances its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, where there are sensors (76) or switches integrated into the keys that measure the position of an activation of any key of the keypad and a micro processor (13) is provided that associates the determined position to one of one or many input alternatives and a display (14) is provided that shows the current input,
wherein special characters can be entered by pressing an activation key (46) first, leading to a display with an overview of all keys (61; 62) and their corresponding input choices, and then pressing a second key, whereas said overview disappears and the corresponding character from the overview is accepted as keypad input.
20. Method for processing input impulses during text input by means of a device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein underneath every key of the keypad (11) sensors are located that measure the user’s finger position on any key of the keypad (11) and micro controller (13) is provided that evaluates this position and associates it with one of the possible input alternatives,
wherein during activation of keys of a keypad (11) a list with possible input alternatives appears on the connected display (14), where exactly one input alternative that corresponds to the activation position is highlighted and a change of the activation position allows to freely move the highlighting on the shown alternatives, and after release of any key the previously highlighted input alternative is registered as a keypad input.
21. Method for processing input impulses during text input by means of a device chosen from the group consisting of:
a device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein underneath every key of the keypad (11) sensors are located that measure the user’s finger position on any key of the keypad (11) and micro controller (13) is provided that evaluates this position and associates it with one of the possible input alternatives; and
a device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein the keypad (11) contains keys with integrated sensors (76) or switches measuring the user’s finger position, the keys consisting of a soft, deformable material and are built either from an electrically conductive material that changes its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, or built with multiple layers, one layer consisting of an electrically conductive material changes its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, where there are sensors (76) or switches integrated into the keys that measure the position of an activation of any key of the keypad and a micro processor (13) is provided that associates the determined position to one of one or many input alternatives and a display (14) is provided that shows the current input,
wherein the micro processor (13) computes the key tilt and therefore the activating finger’s position regularly with a frequency of 10 to 50 Hz from the relative measurements of two sensors on the left and right side that are activated proportionally to the pressure angle of the activated key.
22. Method for processing input impulses during text input by means of a device for inputting text by actuating keys of a numeric keypad for electronic devices, wherein the keypad (11) contains keys with integrated sensors (76) or switches measuring the user’s finger position, the keys consisting of a soft, deformable material and are built either from an electrically conductive material that changes its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, or built with multiple layers, one layer consisting of an electrically conductive material changes its resistance upon pressure and has a high electrical resistance, where there are sensors (76) or switches integrated into the keys that measure the position of an activation of any key of the keypad and a micro processor (13) is provided that associates the determined position to one of one or many input alternatives and a display (14) is provided that shows the current input,
wherein the electrical resistance of the deformable material of the keys or of the deformable, electrically conductive material of a layer integrated into the keys of the keypad (11) is scanned by rows and columns with the micro processor (13) and the activating position is detected within the keys or within the electrically conductive material of the layer and the position of the applied force on the keys or on the electrically conductive material of the layer is computed, thus determining the input letter.
23. Device according to claim 2, wherein the keypad (11) consists of ten keys that are labelled with the digits 0 to 9 and eight of them are additionally labelled with the letters A to Z.
24. Device according to claim 2, wherein the keypad equipped with the digits and letters is intended for use with mobile electronic devices.
25. Device according to claim 2, wherein the micro processor (13) is equipped with an interface to an display (14) and the keypad (11) constitutes one functional unit together with the micro processor (13) and the display (14).
26. Device according to claim 2 wherein the keys of the keypad (11) exhibit a concave key surface running from the left to the right side.
27. Device according to claim 2, wherein the keypad (11) consists of twelve keys, two keys being designated for toggling to special characters.
28. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors are composed of rocker switches (71), each key providing three activation positions that correspond to a pressure on the left side of this key, in the center of this key and the right side of this key.
29. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors are composed of pressure sensors (72) designed as two pressure-sensitive force-sensing resistors (FSR) per key that measure the applied force on the left and right side of a slightly movable key, making it possible to determine the position of the finger from the relation of the two measured values.
30. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors are composed of pressure sensors (73) designed as a pressure-sensitive force-sensing resistors (FSR) per key in the form of a strip that measures the position of applied force of the convex shaped bottom side of a slightly movable key on a base plate, making it possible to determine the position of the finger.
31. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors are composed of two strain gauges (74) per key that measure the force applied to the left and right side of a slightly movable key in order to determine the finger position.
32. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors are composed of two hall sensors (75) per key that measure the distances of a slightly movable key to a base plate in order to determine the finger position from the ratio of the measured values.
33. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors are composed of angle sensors (76) formed by two or more contacts per key that determine the angle of the activation of a slightly movable key from the position of closed contacts between an electrically conductive key bottom side and one or multiple conductive paths on a printed circuit board to compute the finger position.
34. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors are composed of a membrane keyboard (77) that contains one contact each for every letter of the corresponding key label, where these contacts identified with letters are combined in groups during numeric input, while these contacts are evaluated individually during text input.
35. Device according to claim 2, wherein the input of diacritical characters, i.e. umlauts and accented characters is achieved by pressing an activation key (46) and then another key, this second key having a mnemonic relationship to the specific letters on the key labels, leading to the input of a specified diacritical character.
36. Device according to claim 2, wherein the sensors measuring the key activation are located individually underneath the keys in case of an external sensor implementation or inside the keys at the left and right side of the keys in case of an integrated sensor implementation.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A bone implant material formed of a molded composition having a predetermined shape and comprising: a crosslinked bioactive hydrogel matrix comprising a polyglycan crosslinked to a polypeptide, and at least one enhancing agent selected from the group consisting of polar amino acids, intact collagen, divalent cation chelators, and combinations thereof; and an osteoinductive or osteoconductive material comprising hydroxyapatite.
2. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the polyglycan is a polysaccharide or a sulfated polysaccharide.
3. The bone implant material of claim 2, wherein the polyglycan is selected from the group consisting of glycosaminoglycans, glucosaminoglycans, dextran, heparan, heparin, hyaluronic acid, alginate, agarose, carageenan, amylopectin, amylose, glycogen, starch, cellulose, chitin, heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, dextran sulfate, dermatan sulfate, and keratan sulfate.
4. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the polyglycan has a molecular weight of about 2,000 to about 8,000,000 Da.
5. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide is selected from the group consisting of collagens, gelatins, keratin, decorin, aggrecan, glycoproteins, laminin, nidogen, fibulin, and fibrillin.
6. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide has a molecular weight of about 3,000 to about 3,000,000 Da.
7. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the polyglycan is dextran and the polypeptide is gelatin.
8. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the at least one enhancing agent comprises at least one polar amino acid selected from the group consisting of tyrosine, cysteine, serine, threonine, asparagine, glutamine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, arginine, lysine, histidine, and mixtures thereof.
9. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the at least one enhancing agent comprises ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid or a salt thereof.
10. The bone implant material of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional osteoinductive or osteoconductive material selected from the group consisting of calcium aluminate, hydroxyapatite, alumina, zirconia, aluminum silicates, calcium phosphate, bioactive glass, ceramics, collagen, autologous bone, allogenic bone, xenogenic bone, coralline, and derivates or combinations thereof.
11. The bone implant material of claim 1, wherein the osteoinductive or osteoconductive material is in the form of a powder.
12. A method of preparing a bone repair implant comprising:
combining an osteoconductive or osteoinductive material comprising hydroxyapatite with a bioactive hydrogel matrix comprising a polyglycan, a polypeptide, and at least one enhancing agent selected from the group consisting of polar amino acids, intact collagen, divalent cation chelators, and combinations thereof; and
allowing the bioactive hydrogel matrix to react through crosslinking of the polyglycan to the polypeptide in the presence of the osteoconductive or osteoinductive material to provide a hardened, crosslinked bioactive matrix suitable for use as the bone repair implant.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising casting the combination into a mold wherein at least a portion of the crosslinking is carried out.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the osteoconductive or osteoinductive material is selected from the group consisting of calcium aluminate, hydroxyapatite, alumina, zirconia, aluminum silicates, calcium phosphate, bioactive glass, ceramics, collagen, autologous bone, allogenic bone, xenogenic bone, coralline, and derivates or combinations thereof.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the polyglycan is a polysaccharide or a sulfated polysaccharide.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein the polyglycan is selected from the group consisting of glycosaminoglycans, glucosaminoglycans, dextran, heparan, heparin, hyaluronic acid, alginate, agarose, carageenan, amylopectin, amylose, glycogen, starch, cellulose, chitin, heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, dextran sulfate, dermatan sulfate, and keratan sulfate.
17. The method of claim 12, wherein the polyglycan has a molecular weight of about 2,000 to about 8,000,000 Da.
18. The method of claim 12, wherein the polypeptide is selected from the group consisting of collagens, gelatins, keratin, decorin, aggrecan, glycoproteins, laminin, nidogen, fibulin, and fibrillin.
19. The method of claim 12, wherein the polypeptide has a molecular weight of about 3,000 to about 3,000,000 Da.
20. The method of claim 12, wherein the polyglycan is dextran and the polypeptide is gelatin.
21. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one enhancing agent comprises at least one polar amino acid selected from the group consisting of tyrosine, cysteine, serine, threonine, asparagine, glutamine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, arginine, lysine, histidine, and mixtures thereof.
22. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one enhancing agent comprises ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid or a salt thereof.
23. A method of preparing a bone implant comprising:
providing an amount of an osteoconductive or osteoinductive material;
providing a bioactive hydrogel matrix comprising a polyglycan, a polypeptide, and at least one enhancing agent selected from the group consisting of polar amino acids, intact collagen, divalent cation chelators, and combinations thereof;
combining the osteoconductive or osteoinductive material with the bioactive hydrogel matrix such that the polyglycan crosslinks with the polypeptide in the presence of the osteoconductive or osteoinductive material to form a castable composite paste;
casting the paste into a shaped mold;
allowing the paste in the shaped mold to harden; and
removing the cast paste from the shaped mold.
24. A method of performing bone repair or reconstruction, the method comprising administering a bone implant material to a bone defect site, the bone implant material comprising: a crosslinked bioactive hydrogel matrix comprising a polyglycan crosslinked to a polypeptide, and at least one enhancing agent selected from the group consisting of polar amino acids, intact collagen, divalent cation chelators, and combinations thereof; and an osteoinductive or osteoconductive material comprising hydroxyapatite.
25. The method of claim 24, further comprising, prior to said administering step, forming the bone implant material into a paste and casting the paste into a desired shape.
26. The method of claim 24, wherein the polyglycan is a polysaccharide or a sulfated polysaccharide.
27. The method of claim 24, wherein the polyglycan is selected from the group consisting of glycosaminoglycans, glucosaminoglycans, dextran, heparan, heparin, hyaluronic acid, alginate, agarose, carageenan, amylopectin, amylose, glycogen, starch, cellulose, chitin, heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, dextran sulfate, dermatan sulfate, and keratan sulfate.
28. The method of claim 24, wherein the polyglycan has a molecular weight of about 2,000 to about 8,000,000 Da.
28. The method of claim 24, wherein the tissue-derived polypeptide is selected from the group consisting of collagens, gelatins, keratin, decorin, aggrecan, glycoproteins, laminin, nidogen, fibulin, and fibrillin.
30. The method of claim 24, wherein the polypeptide has a molecular weight of about 3,000 to about 3,000,000 Da.
31. The method of claim 24, wherein the polyglycan is dextran and the polypeptide is gelatin.
32. The method of claim 24, wherein the at least one enhancing agent comprises at least one polar amino acid selected from the group consisting of tyrosine, cysteine, serine, threonine, asparagine, glutamine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, arginine, lysine, histidine, and mixtures thereof.
33. The method of claim 24, wherein the at least one enhancing agent comprises ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid or a salt thereof.