MULTIDIRECTIONAL SWITCH ASSEMBLY FOR HAND HELD RECORDING DEVICES

摘要

A hand held digital recording device (10) having a multidirectional switch assembly. A printed circuitboard (16) including a microprocessor (20) electrically coupled to switch terminals (22) operates to control the processing of original sound into first electrical signals and store said signals on a digital recording medium (18). A casement (12) about three inches wide contains the printed circuitboard and includes a pivot support (32) disposed therein. A single, manually operable rocker-pad (30) centrally mounted upon the pivot support (32) such that said Rocker-pad (30) is pivotable in respective right-angle directions responsive to manipulation by the thrumb. The combination of the small size of the casement and the position of the rocker-pad enables a user to grip the recording device with one hand and easily manipulate the rocker-pad with the thumb of the gripping hand to selectively execute any of a plurality of command schemes.