Control Unit With Variable Visual Indicator

Abstract

A system for controlling an apparatus ( 11, 21, 31 ), which system comprises a control unit ( 13, 23, 33 ) adapted to transfer control signals to the apparatus dependent on the control data. Said control unit comprises data input means ( 14, 24, 34, 44 ) to input said control data, and said apparatus comprises interpreting means adapted to translate said control signal into an action. Aiming to indicate for a user of the control unit, which action the apparatus is arranged to take when activating the data input means, a visual indicator is arranged on said data input means. The invention is characterized in that said data input means comprises a variable presentation means ( 45, 57 ), arranged to realise said indicator, wherein said control unit comprises a first storage means ( 53 ) adapted to store the visual data presentable with said presentation unit. Preferably, said control unit comprises several separate data input means, each provided with a presentation means, in which each presentation means comprises separate displays, arranged to present a picture dependent on said visual data.

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       29 . A method of configuring a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys of a control unit of an electronic device, comprising the steps of:
 (a) visualizing on a display screen of an electronic device, an image that is displayable on a display of a display-equipped depressible key comprised of a plurality of rows and columns of editable pixels;   (b) editing the image by activating one of the pixels using a human interface device;   (c) accepting the image after editing is finished in step (b) using the human interface device; and   (d) communicating image appearance data corresponding to the edited image to the Internet.   
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the image appearance data corresponding to the edited image is downloadable from the Internet by a connected electronic device having a control unit equipped with a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys and displayable on a display of one of the plurality of display-equipped depressible keys. 
   
   
       31 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the image appearance data corresponding to the edited image is communicated in step (d) to the Internet by transmitting the image appearance data to a database on the Internet from which the electronic device that is connected to the Internet can download the image appearance data. 
   
   
       32 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the electronic device comprises a computer and the human interface device comprises a mouse that activates one of the pixels in step (b) by marking the pixel. 
   
   
       33 . The method of  claim 32  wherein a mouse pointer is used to mark the one of the pixels in step (b). 
   
   
       34 . The method of  claim 33  wherein after step (c) the edited image is placed in a table. 
   
   
       35 . The method of  claim 34  further comprising the step of associating the edited image with a specific display-equipped key of a control unit of the electronic device. 
   
   
       36 . The method of  claim 35  further comprising the step of associating an action with the display-equipped key with which the edited image has been associated. 
   
   
       37 . The method of  claim 29  wherein before step (a) the further step of transforming a picture into a file format displayable on a display-equipped depressible key of a control unit of an electronic device. 
   
   
       38 . The method of  claim 29 , comprising the further steps of ( 1 ) visualizing on the display screen, a plurality of characters of a character configuration that are each displayable on a display-equipped depressible key, ( 2 ) visualizing on the display screen, a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys of a control unit, and ( 3 ) selecting one of the characters of the visualized character configuration and associating the selected one of the characters with one of the visualized display-equipped depressible keys using the human interface device. 
   
   
       39 . The method of  claim 38 , wherein the human interface device comprises a mouse and the one of the characters of the visualized character configuration is selected and associated with one of the visualized display-equipped depressible keys by clicking and dragging the selected character to the one of the visualized display-equipped depressible keys using the mouse. 
   
   
       40 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the visualized character configuration comprises a table. 
   
   
       41 . The method of  claim 29 , comprising the further steps of (1) visualizing on the display screen, a plurality of character configurations each comprised of a plurality characters displayable on a display-equipped depressible key, (2) visualizing on the display screen, a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys of a control unit, and (3) selecting one of the character configurations using the human interface device for associating with the visualized plurality of display-equipped depressible keys of a control unit. 
   
   
       42 . A method of configuring a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys of a control unit of an electronic device, comprising the steps of:
 (a) providing a computer-executable program configured to (1) visualize, on a display screen of a computer equipped with a display screen and a human interface device, (i) an image displayable on a display of a display-equipped depressible key, comprised of a plurality of rows and columns of pixels, (ii) a plurality of characters displayable on a plurality of displays of display-equipped depressible keys as a character configuration comprised of appearance image data for each character of the character configuration and configuration data of which image of which character is to be displayed on which display-equipped depressible key of a control unit, (iii) a plurality of character configurations, and (iv) a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys of a control unit, and (2) manipulate, using the human interface device, (i) the image visualized on the display screen by marking pixels to produce image appearance data, (ii) one of a plurality of characters of the character configuration by associating it with one of the visualized plurality of display-equipped depressible keys of the control unit, and (iii) one of the plurality of sets of character configurations by selecting the one of the plurality of sets of character configurations;   (b) producing image appearance data and configuration data for a control unit having a plurality of display-equipped keys of an electronic device using the computer-executable program in step (a); and   (c) communicating at least one of the image appearance data and configuration data for a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys to an electronic device equipped with a control unit having a plurality of display-equipped depressible keys.   
   
   
       43 . The method of  claim 42  comprising the further step of communicating the at least one of image appearance data and configuration data to a database on the Internet and during step (c) the at least one of the image appearance data and configuration data is communicated from the Internet by the electronic device equipped with the control unit having the plurality of display-equipped depressible keys. 
   
   
       44 . The method of  claim 42 , comprising the further step of using the human interface device to assign an action to be taken for at least one of the display-equipped depressible keys of a control unit of electronic device. 
   
   
       45 . The method of  claim 44 , wherein the assigned action is selected from a list of actions using the human interface device. 
   
   
       46 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the human interface device comprises a mouse. 
   
   
       47 . The method of  claim 42  wherein in step (a) the computer-executable program is further configured to transform a picture into a format displayable on at least one display-equipped depressible key of a control unit of an electronic device.