What is patent 20030095096?
Patent Application 2003/0095096 issued as United States Patent
No. 7,345,671 on 18 March 2008. 7,345,671 is titled "METHOD AND
APPARATUS FOR USE OF ROTATIONAL USER INPUTS". At a very general
level, the patent is directed to the clickwheel of an iPod. For
more specific details, please refer to the claims. Claim 1 is
copied below.
1. A portable media player, comprising: a storage device that
stores media content for each of a plurality of media items; a
display screen that displays a portion of the media items at a
time; a user input device having an exposed upper surface that
enables a user of said portable media player to at least identify a
particular media item from the media items being displayed through
a rotational action with respect to the exposed upper surface of
said user input device, wherein said user input device comprises a
rotary dial and a button, and wherein the button is provided at the
center of the rotary dial; and a processor operatively connected to
said storage device and said user input device, said processor
controls said portable media player to play the media content of
the particular media item that was identified using said user input
device, wherein, responsive to the rotational action with respect
to the exposed upper surface of said user input device, visual
feedback is provided on said display screen.