JP2002123350A - Input system by pointing device and character input system by the same system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an input system which can efficiently select an item, correct a wrong choice, and determine a choice only by the movement input of a pointing device. SOLUTION: An area which can be specified with the pointing device includes an item selection area which is related to items to be selected and a selected item determination area wherein a selected item is determined. When the item selection area is specified by the movement input of the pointing device, a currently selected item is changed into an item related to the item selection area. When the selected item determination area is specified by the movement input of the pointing device, the currently selected item is determined.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an input system using a pointing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, in systems such as computers,
A pointing device is often used as a means for the user to input to the system. The pointing device mentioned here is a specific area or point (in this invention, this area is referred to as a specifiable area) in the area created in the system (this area is referred to as a specifiable area). Is called a designated area). The specifiable area is
It is constructed as a virtual plane or space, or associated with a real world plane or space. The user uses the pointing device to select the designated area in the plane or space and operates the system (in this invention, the operation of selecting the designated area with the pointing device is called the designated operation).

For example, a mouse is a pointing device used in a computer. The mouse corresponds to the movement of its own plane and the movement of the designated area within a virtually constructed planar designable area. Therefore, you can move the designated area by moving the mouse and select the designated area.

[0004] There is also a pointing device that moves in space and specifies a specified area, such as a three-dimensional mouse. In this case, the specifiable area is a virtual space.

A touch panel is a device in which the physical position of the device corresponds to a designated area, and a user performs a designation operation by directly touching the physical position of the device.

As similar examples, there are a pen input, a tablet and the like.

Another input device is called a joystick. In this device, when you input the direction in which you want to move the specified area, the specified area moves in the direction corresponding to that direction, and as a result, you can select the specified area. Similar input devices include joypads, trackballs, and analog sticks.

In the present invention, a device which can input only a virtual plane or space direction is treated as a pointing device when used as described above.

[0009] The pointing device is also used to select and determine a specific item (this item is called a selection item in the present invention) from several items. However, in the conventional pointing device, when selecting an item in this way, it was not possible to confirm the selected item only by moving the specified area. In order to confirm the selection item, the user usually presses a button, taps with a pen called tapping in the case of pen input or a tablet,
In the case of a touch panel, it was necessary to touch the device. As a result, extra parts were needed for the device, and operations other than the operation of moving the designated area by the user were required, resulting in reduced operation efficiency.

In the case of a touch panel, items can be selected and confirmed by moving a portion touching the device. However, when an incorrect item is selected, it is determined immediately after the selection, so an operation to correct the incorrect input is required, and the efficiency of the operation is reduced.

[0011]

A conventional input system using a pointing device cannot efficiently select an item, correct an erroneous selection, and confirm the selection only by moving a selection area. .

An object of the present invention is to create an input system using a pointing device that can select an item efficiently, correct an erroneous selection, and finalize a selection only by moving a selection area. I do.

Another object of the present invention is to create a character input system using the above input system.

[0014]

In order to solve the above problems, in the input system according to the present invention, an item selection area associated with an item to be selected and a selection item determination for determining the selected item are set in a specifiable area. There is an area. Each region has one or more.

When the item selection area is changed to the specified area by the specification operation, the currently selected item is changed to an item associated with the item selection area. If the selected item confirmation area is changed to the specified area by the specification operation, it is determined by the currently selected item. Some systems then leave the choices blank.

As a result, the input system according to the present invention is:
Even if the item selection area associated with the wrong item becomes the specified area by the specification operation, the correct item selection area is changed to the specified area instead of the selected item fixed area by the subsequent specification operation. It can be easily corrected. After that, if the selected item confirmation area is changed to the designated area by the designation operation, it is decided with the correct item. Furthermore, since these operations can be operated only by moving the specified area specified by the pointing device, it is possible to select, correct, and fix items efficiently.

Further, in the present invention, the selected item is not changed while the selected item confirmation region is present in the extension of the moving direction of the designated region.

As a result, when the designated area is moved to the selected item confirming area for confirming the selection, the selected item is not changed even if another item selecting area is mistakenly set as the designated area. As a result, input mistakes can be reduced and input efficiency can be improved.

Further, the present invention can be used together with another input method using a pointing device. For example, in the case of pen input or tablet, tap operation is not related to movement of the specified area, so it can be used together. In the case of a touch panel, the operation when shifting from the state where the device is not touched to the state where the device is touched is input by the conventional operation, and the other continuous operation is input by the present invention. It is possible.

Further, in the present invention, the efficiency of character input can be improved by setting items as characters, symbols, and numbers.

Further, since the present invention is a subsystem for assisting the input, it is possible to increase the efficiency of the input of the computer by mounting it on a computer having a pointing device.

The present invention also provides the above input system,
A computer-readable recording medium that records a program to be executed by a computer having a pointing device. As a result, a computer having a pointing device can execute these systems.

[0023]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the operation of the system according to the present invention. The operation of this example is explained below in correspondence with the figure. This example is 5
It consists of two steps. This system starts from step 101.

Step 101: The system is provided with a pointing device. A mouse, keyboard, joypad, joystick, tablet, or pen input can be used as a pointing device.
In step 101, it is determined whether or not the designated area is an item selection area. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 102. If not, the process proceeds to step 104.

Step 102: If the designated area is an item selection area, it is determined whether or not there is a selection item confirmation area in the moving direction of the designated area. If the condition is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step 103.

Step 103: Step 103 is to change the selection item. Changes the selected item to the item associated with the current item selection area.

Step 104: If the designated area is not an item selection area, it is determined whether or not the designated area is a selected item confirmation area. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 105.

Step 105 The selected item is determined. If the selected item is selected, confirm the selection of the item with the current selected item and change the selected item to a state where nothing is selected.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a character input system according to the present invention. In this example, character input is performed using the input system according to the present invention. At this time, normal operations are also used.

In this example, a pen input is used as a pointing device. Areas 231 to 231 where pen 202 can be specified
263, 271-273 are specified to specify the designated area. Areas 231 to 262 are selectable items, and area 263 is a selection item confirmation area. Further, the apparatus has a display unit 221, and a symbol representing an item associated with the selected item is displayed on the selected item display unit 222 in the display unit 221.

The items associated with the areas 231 to 262 change depending on the situation. The correspondence between the areas 231 to 262 and the items associated therewith can be represented in a table. This table is called the correspondence table.

The initial state is shown below. In the initial state, nothing is selected in the selection items. In addition, areas 231 and 2
62 is associated with the items shown in the alphabet correspondence table shown below. In the alphabet correspondence table, alphabets are associated with the regions 231 to 256 in alphabetical order. In the area 257, a period “.”, In the area 258, a comma “,”, and in the area 2
59 is associated with a question “?”, Area 260 is associated with a hyphen “−”, and area 261 is associated with an apostrophe “′”. A correspondence table is associated with the area 262. In the correspondence table associated with the area 262, Greek letters are associated in order from the areas 231 to 254, the alphabet correspondence table is associated with the area 262, and nothing is associated with the areas 255 to 261. Not. This correspondence table is called the Greek letter correspondence table.

In addition, in this example, the areas 231 to 2
The number from 0 to 9 is associated with 40, and the area 241
Use a numeric correspondence table that has no association with ~ 261.

Here, alphabets, Greek letters, numbers, and symbols are collectively called characters.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the present embodiment.
The operation of this example is explained below in correspondence with the figure. This example consists of 10 steps. Step 30
Start with 1.

Step 301: It is determined whether a tap has been performed. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 302. If not, the process proceeds to step 303.

Step 302: Out of the items associated with the areas 231 to 262, the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabetical characters are exchanged.

Step 303: It is determined whether or not the designated area is the area 271. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 304. If not, the process proceeds to step 305.

Step 304: The character determined immediately before is deleted. However, if the state where the designated area is the area 271 continues after the character is deleted, the character is not deleted. That is, in order for the user to delete a character, it is necessary to keep the area 271 from being a designated area, such as by removing the pen from the area 271 after deleting the character.

Step 305: It is determined whether or not the designated area is the area 272. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 306. If not, the process proceeds to step 307.

Step 306: Return to the initial state.

Step 307: It is determined whether or not the designated area is the area 273. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 308. If not, the process proceeds to step 309.

Step 308: Change items related to the areas 231 to 262 specified in the numeric correspondence table

Step 309: The designated area is the area 231 to 231
263 is determined. If the condition is satisfied,
Move to step 310.

Step 310: Select and confirm the selected item. FIG. 4 shows a detailed flowchart of this step. The following describes this step in correspondence with the figure.
This step consists of eight steps. Also,
Start from step 401.

Step 401: The designated areas are the areas 231 to 231.
263 is determined. If the condition is satisfied,
Move to step 402. If not, the process proceeds to step 404.

Step 402: It is determined whether or not there is a selection item confirmation area in the moving direction of the specified area. If the condition is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step 403.

Step 403: The current selection item is changed to an item associated with the item selection area.

Step 404: It is determined whether or not the designated area is the selected item confirmation area 263. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 405.

Step 405: It is determined whether or not the selected item is a character. If the condition is satisfied, step 406
Move to. If not, the process proceeds to step 407.

Step 406: If the selected item is selected, the selected character is determined by the current selected item, and the selected item is changed to a state in which nothing is selected.

Step 407: It is determined whether or not the selected item is a correspondence table. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 408.

Step 408: The items related to the areas 231 to 262 are changed to the items related to the current selection item correspondence table.

In this example, the portion touched by the pen is defined as the area 231.
By moving to a region 263 and moving to a region 263, the character input system is capable of selecting, correcting, and fixing characters only by moving the pointing device.

By using the conventional input method together,
It realizes more efficient character input.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By simply moving the pointing device, it is possible to create an input system that allows selection, correction, and confirmation of items.

It should be noted that the embodiments are merely examples, and the scope of the patent is related to the scope described in the claims, and is not limited to this example.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an example of an input system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an example of an apparatus using the input system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an example of a character input system according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a detailed flowchart of an example of the character input system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 to 105 step 202 pen 221 display section 222 selection item display section 231 to 241 selectable item 242 character input cancel area 243 selection item confirmation area 301 to 310 step 401 to 408 step

Claims (5)

[Claims] In an input system for selecting and confirming one of several items using a pointing device, an item selection region associated with the item to be selected is provided in a specifiable region that can be specified by the pointing device.
If there is a selection item confirmation area for confirming the selected item and the designated area specified by the pointing device is the item selection area, the currently selected selection item is changed to the item associated with the item selection area. An input system wherein, when the specified area is a selection item confirmation area, the selection is made with the currently selected selection item. 2. The input system according to claim 1, wherein the selected item is not changed while the selected item confirmation area is on an extension of the direction in which the designated area moves. 3. The window display control program according to claim 1, wherein the items include characters, symbols, and numerals. 4. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for causing a computer having a pointing device to execute the system according to claim 1. 5. A computer system having a pointing device, comprising the system according to claim 1.