Electronic stylus with writing feel

Claim 2

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system; movement of the tip onto and across the writing surface producing sound, the system including selecting the structure and material of the tip and writing surface so that the sound falls within the characteristic range of sound of the selected physical writing system.

Claim 3

A system according to claim 1, wherein the tip is structured and made of selected material and the writing surface is made of selected materials so that the actual resilience of the tip against the writing surface during writing falls within the characteristic range of resilience of the selected physical writing system.

Claim 4

A writing system according to claim 1, wherein the material of the writing surface has an actual thermal conductivity which is selected to fall within the characteristic range of thermal conductivity of the selected physical writing system.

Claim 5

A writing system according to claim 1, wherein the tip comprises a housing and a ball rotating in the housing for rolling across the writing surface, the housing being made of material selected from the group consisting of brass and DELRIN, the ball being made of material selected from the group consisting of steel, semi-precious stone, hard plastic and ceramic, the housing being free of ink and the ball rotating directly against the housing without lubrication.

Claim 6

A writing system according to claim 1, wherein the sound is below about 22 dB at a frequency between about 400 to 7000 Hz.

Claim 7

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system; wherein the material of the writing surface has an actual thermal conductivity which is selected to fall within the characteristic range of thermal conductivity of the selected physical writing system.

Claim 8

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system; wherein the material of the writing surface has an actual thermal conductivity which is selected to fall within the characteristic range of thermal conductivity of the selected physical writing system.

Claim 9

A writing system according to claim 6, wherein the tip comprises a housing having an open end at the one end of the shank, and a dry ball mounted for rotation in the housing and at the one end of the shank.

Claim 10

A writing system according to claim 7, wherein the ball has a diameter which is at most about 1/4 inch.

Claim 11

A writing system according to claim 8, wherein the shank is axially symmetrical.

Claim 12

A writing system according to claim 9, wherein the shank has an axis, the ball being positioned on the axis.

Claim 13

A writing system according to claim 7, wherein the ball is made of hard smooth material, the housing being made of softer slippery material so that the ball rotates with low friction in the housing and without lubrication.

Claim 14

A writing system according to claim 7, including a spring mounted between the housing and the shank for contributing to resiliency of the tip against the writing surface.

Claim 15

A writing system according to claim 7, wherein the ball has a diameter of from 0.010" to 0.250".

Claim 16

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system; the tip comprising a housing having an open end at the one end of the shank, and a dry ball mounted for rotation in the housing and at the one end of the shank, the ball is being made of hard smooth material, the housing being made of softer slippery material so that the ball rotates with low friction in the housing and without lubrication.

Claim 17

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system; the tip comprising a housing having an open end at the one end of the shank, and a dry ball mounted for rotation in the housing and at the one end of the shank, the ball is being made of hard smooth material, the housing being made of softer slippery material so that the ball rotates with low friction in the housing and without lubrication.

Claim 18

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system, the actual writing resistance being within the range of about 0.4 to 0.7 N.

Claim 19

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system, the actual writing resistance being within the range of about 0.4 to 0.7 N.

Claim 20

A writing system according to claim 15, wherein the structure and material of the tip and writing surface is selected to have an actual resilience of from about 5 to about 9 N/mm.

Claim 21

A writing system according to claim 16, wherein the structure and material of the tip and writing surface is selected so that an actual sound produced when the tip moves across the writing surface is below about 22 dB at a frequency between about 400 to 7000 Hz.

Claim 22

A writing system according to claim 15, wherein the writing surface is made of transparent material.

Claim 23

A writing system according to claim 18, wherein the transparent material is a coating on a computer screen adapted to be written on.

Claim 24

A writing system according to claim 19, wherein the coating is made of a material selected from the group consisting of polyurethane and silicone elastomers.

Claim 25

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance, the writing surface being a transparent material coating on a computer screen adapted to be written on, the coating being made of a material selected from the group consisting of polyurethane and silicone elastomers; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system.

Claim 26

A non-marking, writing system which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance, sound, resilience and thermal conductivity, the non-marking writing system comprising: a non-marking writing instrument having an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and movement across a writing surface; a writing surface onto and across which the tip is moved for non-marking writing under an actual writing resistance, the writing surface being a transparent material coating on a computer screen adapted to be written on, the coating being made of a material selected from the group consisting of polyurethane and silicone elastomers; and the tip being structured and made of selected material and the writing surface being made of selected material so that the actual writing resistance falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system.

Claim 27

A non-marking, writing instrument which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance and sound, the non-marking writing instrument comprising: an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and for movement across a writing surface; and the writing instrument being structured and made of selected material so that an actual writing resistance caused by movement of the tip across a writing surface falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system; the structure and the material of the tip being selected so that the tip produces a characteristic range of sound which falls within the characteristic range of sound for the selected writing instrument.

Claim 28

A non-marking, writing instrument which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance and sound, the non-marking writing instrument comprising: an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and for movement across a writing surface; and the writing instrument being structured and made of selected material so that an actual writing resistance caused by movement of the tip across a writing surface falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system; the structure and the material of the tip being selected so that the tip produces a characteristic range of sound which falls within the characteristic range of sound for the selected writing instrument.

Claim 29

A writing instrument according to claim 22, wherein the actual writing resistance is within the range of about 0.4 to 0.7 N.

Claim 30

A writing instrument according to claim 22, wherein the tip comprises a housing having an open end at the one end of the shank, and a dry ball mounted for rotation in the housing and at the one end of the shank.

Claim 31

A writing instrument according to claim 24, wherein the ball is made of hard smooth material, the housing being made of softer slippery material so that the ball rotates with low friction in the housing and without lubrication.

Claim 32

A writing instrument according to claim 24, including a spring mounted between the housing and the shank for contributing to resiliency of the tip against the writing surface.

Claim 33

A writing instrument according to claim 24, wherein the ball has a diameter of from 0.010" to 0.250".

Claim 34

A writing instrument according to claim 24, wherein the tip comprises a housing and a ball rotating in the housing for rolling across the writing surface, the housing being made of material selected from the group consisting of brass and DELRIN, the ball being made of material selected from the group consisting of steel, semi-precious stone, hard plastic and ceramic, the housing being free of ink and the ball rotating directly against the housing without lubrication.

Claim 35

A writing instrument according to claim 24, wherein the ball has a diameter which is at most about 1/4".

Claim 36

A writing instrument according to claim 29, wherein the shank is axially symmetrical.

Claim 37

A writing instrument according to claim 30, wherein the shank has an axis, the ball being positioned on the axis.

Claim 38

A non-marking, writing instrument which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance and sound, the non-marking writing instrument comprising: an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and for movement across a writing surface; and the writing instrument being structured and made of selected material so that an actual writing resistance caused by movement of the tip across a writing surface falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system, the actual writing resistance being within the range of about 0.4 to 0.7 N.

Claim 39

A non-marking, writing instrument which simulates a selected physical writing system having characteristic ranges of writing resistance and sound, the non-marking writing instrument comprising: an elongated shank with opposite ends; a non-marking tip connected to one end of the shank for engagement against and for movement across a writing surface; and the writing instrument being structured and made of selected material so that an actual writing resistance caused by movement of the tip across a writing surface falls within the characteristic range of writing resistance for the selected physical writing system, the actual writing resistance being within the range of about 0.4 to 0.7 N.

Claim 42

A method according to claim 33, including selecting an actual resilience of the tip on the writing surface to be within a characteristic range of resilience of the selected physical writing system.

Claim 43

A method according to claim 33, wherein the coating is selected from the group consisting of polyurethane and silicone elastomers.

Claim 44

A method according to claim 33, including forming the tip to comprise: a housing having an open end at the one end of the shank, and a dry ball mounted for rotation in the housing and at the one end of the shank.

Claim 45

A method according to claim 36, wherein the ball has a diameter which is at most about 1/4.

Claim 46

A method according to claim 37, wherein the shank is axially symmetrical.

Claim 47

A method according to claim 38, wherein the shank has an axis, the ball being positioned on the axis.

Claim 48

A method according to claim 36, wherein the ball is made of hard smooth material, the housing being made of softer slippery material so that the ball rotates with low friction in the housing and without lubrication.

Claim 49

A method according to claim 36, including a spring mounted between the housing and the shank for contributing to resiliency of the tip against the writing surface.

Claim 50

A method according to claim 36, wherein the ball has a diameter of from 0.010" to 0.250".

Claim 51

A method according to claim 36, wherein the actual writing resistance is within the range of about 0.4 to 0.7 N.

Claim 52

A method according to claim 43, wherein the structure and material of the tip and writing surface is selected to have an actual resilience of from about 5 to about 9 N/mm.

Claim 55

A method according to claim 45, including providing the writing surface to be transparent.

Claim 56

A method according to claim 46, including applying the writing surface as a transparent coating on a computer screen adapted to the written on with the non-marking writing instrument.

Claim 59

A method according to claim 45, wherein the writing surface is selected from the group consisting of polyurethane and silicone elastomers.