JPH06208435A - Device for switching coordinate input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve operability by accurate and easy input operation by preventing each coordinate input device from being selected by slight movement such as the oscillation of a coordinate input device in the case of utilizing plural coordinate input devices and selecting a required coordinate input device by the indicating operation of the coordinate input device to be operated. CONSTITUTION:The contents of preceding coordinate information from coordinate information input parts 16, 18 connected to a mouse 4 and a tablet 5 are respectively stored in coordinate information storing parts 15, 19. The information amounts of current coordinate information from the input parts 16, 18 are compared with that of coordinate information stored in the storing parts 15, 19 respectively by coordinate information comparing parts 20, 21 and the coordinate information amounts of the compared results are respectively counted by coordinate information counting parts 22, 24. A coordinate information selecting part 23 selects and outputs one of plural coordinate information based on the counted results.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coordinate input device switching device which is used in an information processing device such as a computer and which selects and outputs one of coordinate information from a plurality of coordinate input devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in computer systems and the like,
A mouse, a tablet, a trackball, a digitizer, etc. are used as a coordinate input device for giving a processing content (menu) and an instruction corresponding to the processing content.

FIG. 3 is a top view showing the external structure of the mouse, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the external structure of the tablet.

In FIG. 3, by manually moving the mouse 4 vertically and horizontally, a ball (not shown) provided on the lower surface of the main body is moved. By designating this moving point with the buttons (switches) 4a and 4b, the coordinate information of the X-axis and the Y-axis for detecting the moving direction and the moving distance can be obtained. In this case, it is general to output relative coordinate information from the current position. Since such a mouse 4 is small and easy to handle, a pointer interlocked with the movement of the mouse is displayed on the display screen of the computer to indicate an arbitrary position on the display screen with the buttons 4a and 4b, or the mouse is displayed on the screen. It is suitable for selecting menus, but not suitable for high-precision operations such as drawing on the display screen.

In FIG. 4, the tablet 5 is a pen 5.
This is to obtain coordinate information in which the moving position of a on the trace plate 5c or the ON (ON) position of the pen side switch 5b is used as the X-axis and the Y-axis. Normally, absolute coordinates on the trace plate 5c on the plate are obtained. Output.

Such a tablet 5 is suitable for screen drawing because it is highly accurate and similar to the operation of a conventional writing instrument, but it has a large installation area and outputs absolute coordinates, so that it can be used at any position on the display screen. Is not suitable for instructing or selecting the menu displayed on the screen.

In consideration of the respective advantages of the mouse 4 and the tablet 5, there is a proposal to select and use the mouse 4 and the tablet 5. As a proposal of this kind, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-
The mouse / tablet common control device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 113721 and the input device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-142522 can be mentioned.

In the mouse / tablet common control device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-113721, when the mouse and the tablet are connected and a figure is input, the state change of the mouse or the tablet is read and one of the mouse and the tablet is read. The cursor coordinates are calculated, and control processing and the like are performed thereafter.

Further, in the input device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 142522/1993, a plurality of interfaces are provided when a keyboard, a mouse, a digitizer, etc. are connected to a host computer, and the keyboard is connected by the plurality of interfaces.
Information signals from a mouse, digitizer, etc. are processed and sent to the host computer. That is, the device scale of the interface in the host computer is reduced.

[0010]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional example, when a plurality of coordinate input devices are provided, unnecessary coordinate information is output from the unused coordinate input device. For example, when the mouse and tablet are connected at the same time, when the pen of the tablet moves slightly during operation with the mouse, or vice versa, unnecessary coordinate information contrary to the operator's intention is output. I will end up. That is, there is a drawback that an accurate and easy input operation becomes difficult and operability is poor.

The present invention solves the above problems in the prior art, and when a plurality of coordinate input devices are used, they are not selected by a slight movement such as vibration of the coordinate input device, Provided is a coordinate input device switching device that enables an accurate and easy input operation and improves its operability.

As a second object, the coordinate input device is not selected by a slight movement, and a desired coordinate input device is selected by an instruction operation of the coordinate input device to be operated.
Provided is a coordinate input device switching device that enables more accurate and easy input operation and further improves operability.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the coordinate input device switching device according to claim 1 corresponding to the first object obtains coordinate information for each operation of a plurality of coordinate input devices. It is configured to include a plurality of coordinate information processing units and a coordinate information selection unit that selects and outputs one coordinate information based on a plurality of coordinate information from the plurality of coordinate information processing units.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a coordinate input device switching device, wherein the plurality of coordinate information processing units have a plurality of coordinate information processing means to which a plurality of coordinate input devices are connected and a plurality of coordinates. The coordinate information storage unit that stores the previous coordinate information from the information processing unit is compared with the current coordinate information from each of the plurality of coordinate information processing units and the amount of information in the coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storage unit. A plurality of coordinate information comparing means, and a comparison result counting means for counting the amount of coordinate information as a result of the comparison by the coordinate information comparing means, and the coordinate information selecting section has a plurality of coordinate information according to the counting result by the comparison result counting means. The coordinate information selecting means for selecting and outputting one of the coordinate information from the processing means is provided.

A coordinate input device switching device according to a third aspect of the present invention, which corresponds to the first object, displays a counting result when one of coordinate information from a plurality of coordinate information processing means is selected and output according to the counting result. The coordinate information exceeding the predetermined time is output as compared with the predetermined time set in advance.

The coordinate input device switching device according to a fourth aspect of the invention corresponding to the second object, in addition to these respective configurations, selects and outputs coordinate information exceeding a predetermined time and performs an instruction operation. The coordinate input device selecting means for selecting the coordinate input device is provided.

[0017]

In the inventions according to claims 1, 2 and 3 having such a configuration, the coordinate information is obtained as a result of comparing the current coordinate information from a plurality of coordinate information processing units with the information amount in the stored coordinate information. Is output. As a result, when a plurality of coordinate input devices are used, they are not selected by a slight movement such as vibration of the coordinate input device.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the coordinate information exceeding the predetermined time is selected and output, and the coordinate input device for which the instruction operation has been performed is selected, and is not selected by a slight movement of the coordinate input device. A desired coordinate input device is selected by an instruction operation on the coordinate input device to be operated.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of a coordinate input device switching device of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the coordinate input device switching device of the present invention. It should be noted that the mouse and tablet here will be described with reference to the configurations shown in FIGS.

In FIG. 1, this example is provided with a mouse 4 which is a coordinate input device for giving a processing content (menu) and an instruction corresponding to the processing content to a computer (not shown) and a tablet 5. Further, in this example, a mouse coordinate information processing unit 6 that obtains X-axis and Y-axis coordinate information that detects a moving direction and a moving distance when the mouse 4 is operated, and X-axis and Y-axis coordinates input from the tablet 5. A tablet coordinate information processing unit 7 for obtaining information and a coordinate information selecting unit 8 for selecting one of mouse coordinate information or tablet coordinate information obtained at a fixed time and sending it to a computer (not shown) or the like.

The mouse coordinate information processing unit 6 is connected to the mouse 4 and the mouse input processing unit 13, the coordinate information storage unit 15 for storing coordinate information, and the mouse input processing unit 13 for performing a predetermined input process. It has a coordinate information input unit 16 to perform. Furthermore, a coordinate information comparison unit 20 that compares the current coordinate information with the coordinate information of one cycle before, and a comparison result counting unit 22 that includes a counter that counts according to the comparison result here.
And have.

The tablet coordinate information processing unit 7 has a tablet input processing unit 14 that performs the same operation as the mouse coordinate information processing unit 6, a coordinate information input unit 18, and a coordinate information storage unit 19.
And have. Further, it has a coordinate information comparison unit 21 and a coordinate result counting unit 24.

The coordinate information selection unit 8 includes a sampling clock generation unit 17 which outputs a sampling clock signal,
As will be described in detail below, when the coordinate information selection unit 23 that selects one of the coordinate information from the mouse coordinate information processing unit 6 and the tablet coordinate information processing unit 7 and the selected coordinate information is sent to a computer (not shown) or the like. The coordinate information processing unit 25 that performs the predetermined processing of.

Next, the operation of the configuration of this embodiment will be described.

In the mouse coordinate information processing section 6, the mouse input processing section 13 performs processing for inputting coordinate information from the mouse 4. The coordinate information input unit 16 operates in the cycle of the sampling clock from the sampling clock generation unit 17 to obtain the coordinate information from the mouse input processing unit 13 and at the same time store the coordinate information obtained one period before in the coordinate information storage unit 15. Output.

The coordinate information comparison unit 20 includes a coordinate information input unit 1
When the coordinate information is obtained in 6, the amount of coordinate information in the obtained present coordinate information and the coordinate information of one cycle before stored in the coordinate information storage unit 15 are compared, and the comparison of the amount of coordinate information is performed. The counter value in the comparison result counting unit 22 is changed according to the result as described below.

In the tablet coordinate information processing section 7, the tablet input processing section 14 performs processing for inputting coordinate information from the tablet 5. The coordinate information input unit 18 operates in the cycle of the sampling clock from the sampling clock generation unit 17, acquires the coordinate information from the tablet input processing unit 14, and simultaneously outputs the coordinate information obtained one cycle before to the coordinate information storage unit 19. To do.

In the coordinate information comparison unit 21, when the coordinate information is obtained by the coordinate information input unit 18, the obtained current coordinate information and the coordinate information of one cycle before stored in the coordinate information storage unit 19 are obtained. The amount of coordinate information in the coordinate information is compared, and the counter value in the coordinate result counting unit 24 is changed according to the comparison result of the amount of coordinate information.

In the coordinate information selecting section 8, the sampling clock generating section 17 outputs the sampling clock from the sampling clock generating section 17. Coordinate information selection unit 2
3 refers to the counter values of the comparison result counting units 22 and 24, performs the selection process described in detail below, and sets the coordinate information of one of the coordinate information input units 16 and 18 to the coordinate information processing unit 25. Output.

Next, the selection process of the coordinate information selection unit 23 will be described in detail.

When the comparison results of the coordinate information amounts in the coordinate information comparing units 20 and 21 are different, "1" is added to the counter values of the comparison result counting units 22 and 24. The coordinate information selection unit 23 compares the counter values of the comparison result counting units 22 and 24.
In this comparison, if either one of the counters exceeds a preset threshold value, both counter values of the comparison result counting units 22 and 24 are reset to "0", and the comparison result counting unit exceeding the threshold value is reset. 22 and 24 side coordinate information input section 16 and 1
One of the coordinate information items of No. 8 is switched so as to be selected by the coordinate information processing unit 25 and is output.

In this case, the mouse 4 and the tablet 5 which exceed the amount of coordinate information in the current coordinate information from the coordinate information input units 16 and 18 and the coordinate information of one cycle before stored in the coordinate information storage units 15 and 19. It is determined that the operator operates the mouse 4 or the tablet 5 in the case of the movement of, and the counter value in the coordinate result counting units 22 and 24 is changed. When this counter value exceeds a predetermined value, the coordinate information of one of the coordinate information input units 16 and 18 is output to the coordinate information processing unit 25. Therefore, if the mouse 4 and the tablet 5 are slightly moved unintentionally, the mouse 4 and the tablet 5 are moved.
Will no longer be selected.

As described above, since the mouse 4 or the tablet 5 is selected only when the mouse 4 or the tablet 5 operates for a predetermined time, the other mouse 4 or the tablet 5 slightly moves against the operator's intention. Also, the coordinate information is not output to the coordinate information processing unit 25.

The time for switching between the mouse 4 and the tablet 5 is adjusted by the comparison threshold value in the coordinate information selection section 23.

Next, a case where the operator selects a desired coordinate input device by an instruction operation on the coordinate input device in addition to this selection processing will be described.

In FIG. 1, the coordinate information input section 16 shows the pressing information of the buttons 4a and 4b of the mouse 4 and the coordinate information input section 18 shows the pressing information of the pen 5a of the tablet 5 or the pen side switch 5b. The selection unit 23 refers to it. When either one is detected by this reference, both counter values of the comparison result counting units 22 and 24 are reset to “0”, and the pressing information in the coordinate information input unit 16 or the coordinate information input unit 18 Switching is performed so that the detected pressing information in the pressing information is output to the coordinate information processing unit 25.

As described above, in addition to the case where one of the mouse 4 and the tablet 5 described above is selected by operating for a fixed time, the buttons 4a and 4b of the mouse 4 are pressed or the pen 5a of the tablet 5 is pressed. Touching the trace part 5c or pressing the pen side switch 5b of the tablet 5 automatically selects the desired mouse 4 or tablet 5 to be operated by the operation when the mouse 4 or tablet 5 is selected by the operator. You can do it.

Next, a case where a coordinate input device is added in addition to the mouse 4 and the tablet 5 will be described. In this example, a trackball 28 is added as another coordinate input device to the configuration shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of another embodiment. In FIG. 2, this example shows a trackball 28 added to the configuration shown in FIG.
It has a mouse coordinate information processing unit 6 and a trackball coordinate information processing unit 30 for processing the coordinate information from the same as the tablet coordinate information processing unit 7.

This trackball coordinate information processing unit 30
Is connected to the coordinate information selection unit 8 like the mouse coordinate information processing unit 6 and the tablet coordinate information processing unit 7.

In this configuration, the trackball 28 is used for the ball 2 together with the coordinate information from the mouse 4 and the tablet 5.
The coordinate information when the rotary operation of 8a is performed, the coordinate information selection unit 8
The selected coordinate is output as output coordinate information to a computer or the like.

The operation of the trackball coordinate information processing unit 30 in this case is the same as that of the mouse coordinate information processing unit 6 and the tablet coordinate information processing unit 7. As described above, the coordinate information selection unit 8 combines the coordinate information from the mouse coordinate information processing unit 6 and the coordinate information input units 16 and 18 of the tablet coordinate information processing unit 7 with the trackball coordinate information processing unit 30. The coordinate information from the coordinate information input unit is used as the coordinate information selection unit 23.
To output to the coordinate information processing unit 25.

That is, since any one of the mouse 4, the tablet 5 and the trackball 28 is selected only when it operates for a preset time, the other mouse 4, the tablet 5 and the trackball 28 are operated by the operator. The coordinate information is not output to the coordinate information processing unit 25 even if it slightly moves unintentionally.

Further, in the configuration shown in FIG. 2, the mouse 4, the tablet 5, the trackball 28 as described above.
Either one of them is selected when it operates for a certain period of time, and the buttons 4a and 4b of the mouse 4 are pressed, the pen 5a of the tablet 5 is touched on the trace portion 5c, and the pen side switch of the tablet 5 is selected. Press 5b,
Further, by the operation of the operator pressing the button on the trackball 28, any one of the desired mouse 4, tablet 5 and trackball 28 can be automatically selected.

[0046]

As is apparent from the above description, in the coordinate input device switching device according to claims 1, 2 and 3,
Since the coordinate information is output as a result of comparing the current coordinate information from the plurality of coordinate information processing units with the amount of information in the stored coordinate information, the coordinate input device is used when using the plurality of coordinate input devices. There is an effect that an accurate and easy input operation becomes possible without being selected by a slight movement such as vibration and the operability is improved.

In the coordinate input device switching device according to the fourth aspect, the coordinate information that exceeds a predetermined time is selected and output, and the coordinate input device for which the instruction operation has been performed is selected. There is an effect that a desired coordinate input device can be selected by an instruction operation with the coordinate input device that is not selected by movement, and a more accurate and easy input operation is possible, further improving operability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a coordinate input device switching device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of another embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a top view showing an external configuration of a mouse used for describing a conventional example and an example.

FIG. 4 is a top view showing an external configuration of a tablet used for describing a conventional example and an example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 mouse 5 tablet 6 mouse coordinate information processing unit 7 tablet coordinate information processing unit 8 coordinate information selection unit 13 mouse input processing unit 14 tablet input processing unit 15, 19 coordinate information storage unit 16, 18 coordinate information input unit 20, 21 coordinate information Comparison unit 22, 24 Comparison result counting unit 23 Coordinate information selection unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of coordinate information processing units for obtaining respective coordinate information in operating a plurality of coordinate input devices, and selecting one coordinate information based on the plurality of coordinate information from the plurality of coordinate information processing units. A coordinate input device switching device, comprising: 2. A plurality of coordinate information processing sections, a plurality of coordinate information processing means to which a plurality of coordinate input devices are connected, and coordinate information storage means for storing previous coordinate information from the plurality of coordinate information processing means. And a plurality of coordinate information comparing means for comparing each current coordinate information from the plurality of coordinate information processing means with the information amount in the coordinate information stored in the coordinate information storing means, and the coordinate information comparing means. And a comparison result counting means for counting the coordinate information amount of the comparison result, wherein the coordinate information selection section selects one of coordinate information from a plurality of coordinate information processing means according to the counting result by the comparison result counting means. The coordinate input device switching device according to claim 1, further comprising coordinate information selection means for outputting the same. 3. When one of coordinate information from a plurality of coordinate information processing means is selected and output according to the counting result, the counting result is compared with a preset predetermined time, and the coordinate information exceeding the predetermined time is displayed. The coordinate input device switching device according to claim 2, wherein the coordinate input device switching device outputs. 4. The coordinate input device selecting means for selecting and outputting coordinate information exceeding a predetermined time and selecting a coordinate input device for which an instruction operation has been performed is provided. The coordinate input device switching device described.