JP2000357044A - Touch panel device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a touch panel device with which a touch panel is constituted so as to prevent faulty double operating caused by the operator of the touch panel. SOLUTION: This touch panel device is provided with a resistance film type touch panel 20. Respective light emitting elements 27 are arranged at intervals along with a left side part and an upper side part on the outer surface of the touch panel 27 and on the other hand, respective light receiving elements 28 are arranged along with a lower side part and a right side part on the outer surface of the touch panel 20 while facing the respective light emitting elements 27. When the quantity of light received by at least two light receiving elements among respective corresponding light receiving elements 28 for receiving the light from the respective light emitting elements 27 is decreased together by the finger operation of the operator along with the surface of the touch panel 20, it is judged as erroneous operation and a switch function based on the pressure of the touch panel is invalidated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a touch panel device suitable for use in displays such as navigators mounted on vehicles, CRTs used for OA equipment, and televisions for home appliances.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a touch panel device of this type, there is a touch panel device provided with a resistive touch panel as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-175576, for example. In this touch panel device, when the touch panel is pressed on a part of its surface, the touch panel exerts a switch function at the pressed portion to operate the display.

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned touch panel device, when the touch panel is pressed at, for example, two different places, the touch panel exerts a switch function at each of the two pressed portions. Will be done. Therefore, there is a problem that a malfunction of the display is caused.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel device in which the configuration of the touch panel is devised in order to cope with such a problem, thereby preventing the operator of the touch panel from operating repeatedly. .

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when a finger of an operator is pressed from the surface, a resistive film type which exerts a switch function at the pressed portion. A touch panel (20), a plurality of light emitting elements (27) arranged on the surface of the touch panel at intervals along one side thereof, and driving means (40, 200) for driving each of the light emitting elements to emit light. ), Each light-receiving element (28) disposed on the surface of the touch panel along the other side to face each light-emitting element and receiving light from each light-emitting element; With the operation of the operator's finger along the surface of the touch panel, when the amount of received light of at least two of the light receiving elements of each of the light receiving elements decreases, it is determined that an erroneous operation has occurred. Received light And determination means to be normal operation when reduced (230), when the determining means determines that erroneous operation, switching function disabled means (70a to disable the switch function of the touch panel, 70b, 80a, 80b,
240), and processing means (70a, 70b, 80a, 80) for performing processing corresponding to the pressing portion based on the switch function of the touch panel when the determination means determines that the operation is normal.
b, 260 to 280).

According to this, even if the operator tries to simultaneously press two or more portions of the touch panel with his / her finger, the switch function invalidating unit invalidates the switch function of the touch panel based on the determination that the determining unit is erroneously operated. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent processing by the processing means from being performed erroneously. This can prevent an erroneous operation in which the operator simultaneously presses two or more portions of the touch panel.

Here, according to the invention described in claim 2,
2. The touch panel device according to claim 1, wherein when the determination unit determines that the operation is erroneous, an alarm unit (250,
L).

Thus, the operator can be reliably informed of the erroneous operation, and as a result, the operation and effect of the first aspect of the present invention can be further improved.

[0009] The reference numerals in parentheses of the above means indicate the correspondence with specific means described in the embodiments described later.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example in which a touch panel device according to the present invention is applied to a television 10. This touch panel device is for switching channels of the television 10, and the touch panel device includes a resistive touch panel 20 provided alongside the screen of the television 10.

As shown in FIG. 1, the touch panel 20 has both rectangular panels 20a and 20b.
These panels 20a and 20b are arranged in parallel with each other via a band-shaped partition wall 20c (see FIG. 2). Here, the partition wall 20c is interposed between the inner surfaces of the panels 20a and 20b along the outer peripheral portion. Thereby, the inside area of the partition wall 20c of both panels 20a and 20b is opposed via a narrow gap.

The panel 20a has a transparent substrate 21 made of a glass material, and the transparent substrate 21 is provided along the screen of the television 10 on the outer surface thereof. The panel 20a includes a transparent resistance film 22 made of ITO, and the transparent resistance film 22
1 is formed on the inner surface by sputtering or the like.
Further, the pair of strip electrodes 23a and 23b are provided along both sides of the inner surface of the transparent resistance film 22 inside the partition wall 20c.

On the other hand, the panel 20b includes a transparent substrate 24 made of a glass material and a transparent resistive film 2 made of ITO formed on the inner surface of the transparent substrate 24 by sputtering or the like.
5, and the transparent resistance film 25 faces the inner surface of the transparent resistance film 22 via the partition wall 20 c on the inner surface. Further, the pair of strip electrodes 26a and 26b are provided inside the partition wall 20c along both sides of the inner surface of the transparent resistive film 25 which are orthogonal to the above both sides of the panel 20a (FIGS. 1 and 2). 2).

The touch panel device has a low reflection film 30
The low reflection film 30 is provided on the transparent substrate 2
4 is provided along its outer surface.

Further, the touch panel device is shown in FIGS.
As shown by, a plurality of light emitting elements 27 and the same number of light receiving elements 28 as the light emitting elements 27 are provided. Each light-emitting element 27 is disposed at an interval along the left side and the upper side of the outer surface of the low-reflection film 30 shown in FIG. The outer surface is disposed to face each light emitting element 27 along the lower side and the right side in FIG.

As a result, the light emitting elements 27 facing each other
Each axis connecting the light-receiving element 28 and the low-reflection film 30
Intersect to form a plurality of intersections in a matrix on the outer surface of the.

Here, each light-emitting element 27 has a built-in light-emitting diode 27a (see FIG. 3), and each of these light-emitting elements 27 receives light from the light-emitting diode 27a along a corresponding light-receiving element 28 along its axis. It emits as a beam light toward. In addition, each light receiving element 28 is a phototransistor 2
8a (see FIG. 3).
Numeral 8 receives beam light from each corresponding light emitting element 27 along its axis. In the present embodiment, the touch panel of the touch panel device includes the low-reflection film 30, the light emitting elements 27, and the light receiving elements 28 in the resistive touch panel 20.

Next, a control circuit of the touch panel device will be described with reference to FIG. This control circuit includes the same number of transistors 40 as the light-emitting diodes 27a. Each of these transistors 40 is connected at its collector to the positive terminal + Vcc of the DC power supply via the corresponding light-emitting diode 27a. I have. Thereby, each transistor 40 is turned on, and the corresponding light emitting diode 27 is turned on.
a is made conductive. In addition, each transistor 40 turns off the corresponding light emitting diode 27a when turned off. In other words, each light emitting diode 27a emits light by its conduction and stops emitting light by its non-conduction. The DC power supply generates a positive DC voltage + Vcc from its positive terminal + Vcc.

The control circuit has the same number of transistors 50 as the number of phototransistors 28a.
Each of the transistors 50 is connected at its collector to the positive terminal + Vcc of the DC power supply via the corresponding phototransistor 28a and resistor 28b.

As a result, when each transistor 50 is turned on, the emitter of the corresponding phototransistor 28a is grounded, and when the transistor 50 is turned off, the emitter of the corresponding phototransistor 28a is not grounded. In other words,
Each phototransistor 28a receives the light beam of each corresponding light emitting element 27 only when the corresponding transistor 50 is turned on, and generates a light receiving signal from its collector. Each amplifier 60 is connected to each corresponding phototransistor 28.
a) to amplify the received light signal from a to generate an amplified signal.

Further, the control circuit includes a transistor 7
0a, 70b, 80a, and 80b. The transistor 70a has its collector connected to the electrode 23a. The transistor 70a grounds the electrode 23a when turned on, and turns off the electrode 23a when turned off.
To ground. The transistor 70b is connected at its collector to the electrode 23b. When the transistor 70b is turned on, the transistor 23b connects the electrode 23b to the positive terminal + Vcc of the DC power supply.
3b is disconnected from the positive terminal + Vcc of the DC power supply.

Therefore, when the transistor 70b is turned on, the transistor 70a is turned on and the two electrodes 23 are turned on.
A positive voltage + Vcc of a DC power supply is applied between the first and second transistors b and 23a via the transparent resistance film 22.
Stops when a is turned off.

The transistor 80a has its collector connected to the electrode 26a.
When 0a is turned on, the electrode 26a is grounded, and when turned off, the electrode 26a is not grounded. Transistor 8
0b is connected at its collector to the electrode 26b. The transistor 80b connects the electrode 26b to the positive terminal + Vcc of the DC power supply when turned on, and connects the electrode 26b to the DC power supply when turned off. Positive terminal + Vc
c.

Therefore, when the transistor 80b is turned on, the transistor 80a is turned on and the two electrodes 26 are turned on.
A positive voltage + Vcc of a DC power supply is applied between the transistors 80b and 26a via the transparent resistance film 25, and this application is applied to the transistor 80
Stops when a is turned off.

The filter 90a filters a noise component in the voltage corresponding to the resistance value of the transparent resistance layer 22 generated between the electrodes 23a and 23b when the touch panel 20 is pressed, and generates a filtered signal. The filter 90b filters a noise component in a voltage corresponding to the resistance value of the transparent resistance layer 25 generated between the electrodes 26a and 26b when the touch panel 20 is pressed, and generates a filtered signal.

The microcomputer 100 executes a computer program according to the flowchart shown in FIG.
Control processing of 0, 70a, 70b, 80a, 80b, calculation processing based on the output of each amplifier 60, output of each filter circuit 90a, 90b, and blinking processing of the alarm lamp L are performed. The computer program is stored in the ROM of the microcomputer 100 in advance.

In the present embodiment configured as described above,
When the microcomputer 100 is in the operating state, the microcomputer 100 starts executing the computer program according to the flowchart of FIG.

Accordingly, in step 200, a light emission driving process, that is, an ON process of each transistor 40 is performed. Therefore, each transistor 40 is turned on to turn on the corresponding light emitting diode 27a to emit light. Accordingly, each light emitting element 27 emits light from the light emitting diode 27a toward the corresponding light receiving element 28 as a light beam.

Next, in step 210, a light receiving driving process, that is, an ON process of each transistor 50 is performed. Therefore, each transistor 50 is turned on to ground the corresponding emitter of each phototransistor 28a.

In such a state, each light receiving element 28
When the phototransistors 28a receive the light beams from the corresponding light emitting elements 27 and become conductive, each phototransistor 28a generates a light receiving signal from its collector. Then, each amplifier 60 amplifies the light receiving signal from each corresponding phototransistor 28a and outputs it as an amplified light receiving signal. Accordingly, in step 220, the amplified received light signal from each amplifier 60 is
00 is input.

Next, in step 230, it is determined whether or not each level of the plurality of amplified light receiving signals has decreased.

At this stage, the low reflection film 30 is
When the operator's finger touches, for example, two intersections among the above intersections, the light beams from both light emitting elements 27 corresponding to these two intersections are cut off at the two intersections. For this reason, the levels of the respective light receiving signals of the two light receiving elements 28 respectively facing the two light emitting elements 27 which are the generation sources of the respective light beams blocked as described above decrease.

This means that the operator is trying to double-press the touch panel 20 at two different places, which means an erroneous operation. Therefore, a determination of YES is made in step 230, that is, a determination of an erroneous operation by the operator. Then, in step 240, both transistors 70a,
The off process of 80a is performed. For this reason, the output of both filter circuits 90a and 90b is stopped. Thereby, even if the touch panel 20 is pressed at two places at the same time, a malfunction of switching the channel of the television 10 may be prohibited. As a result, it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation due to the operator's double pressing on the touch panel 20.

In the next step 250, an alarm process, that is, a flashing process of the alarm lamp L is performed. Accordingly, the alarm lamp L blinks. This alerts the operator of the erroneous operation. As a result, prevention of the erroneous operation can be further improved.

On the other hand, when the low-reflection film 30 is brought into contact with the operator's finger at one of the above intersections (see reference numeral P in FIG. 5), the light from the light emitting element 27 corresponding to this intersection is emitted. The light beam is blocked at the intersection P. For this reason, only the level of the light receiving signal of the light receiving element 28 facing the light emitting element 27 which is the source of the light beam blocked in this way is reduced. This means that the operation of the operator is normal. Therefore, step 230
, A determination of NO, that is, a determination of a normal operation by the operator is made.

Thereafter, in step 260, X coordinate determination processing is performed. Specifically, first, in a state where both transistors 80a and 80b are off, on-processing of both transistors 70a and 70b is performed. Along with this, transistor 70a turns on electrode 23a when turned on, while transistor 70b connects electrode 23b to the positive terminal + Vcc of the DC power supply when turned on. For this reason, the voltage + Vcc of the DC power supply is
a and 23b are applied via the transparent resistance film 22.

In such a state, the touch panel 2
0 is the low reflection film 3 at the portion corresponding to the intersection point P.
0, the panel 20b is pressed by this pressing portion.
Is in contact with the transparent resistance film 22 of the panel 20a.

Then, the resistance of the transparent resistance film 22 is divided into both resistance values R1 and R2 (see FIG. 5) at a portion corresponding to the intersection P between the electrodes 23a and 23b. Therefore, a voltage corresponding to R1, which is a resistance value between the electrode 23a and the portion corresponding to the intersection P, is output to the filter circuit 90b through the electrode 23b. This filter circuit 90
When b filters the voltage corresponding to the resistance value R1 to generate a filtered signal, the X coordinate (corresponding to the intersection P) is determined based on the filtered signal. Note that, with this determination, both transistors 70a and 70b are turned off.

When the X coordinate is determined in this way, in step 270, the Y coordinate is determined. First, in a state where both transistors 70a and 70b are off, an ON process of both transistors 80a and 80b is performed. Accordingly, the transistor 80a turns on the electrode 26a to ground, while the transistor 80a
b connects the electrode 26b to the positive terminal + Vcc of the DC power supply when turned on. Therefore, the voltage of the DC power supply + V
cc is applied between the electrodes 26a and 26b via the transparent resistance film 25.

At this time, as described above, the resistance of the transparent resistance film 25 of the panel 20b is in contact with the transparent resistance film 22 of the panel 20a at the portion corresponding to the intersection P, as described above. , Between the two electrodes 26a and 26b, at a portion corresponding to the intersection P, substantially in the same manner as in the case of the transparent resistive film 22. Therefore, a voltage corresponding to the resistance value between the electrode 26a and the portion corresponding to the intersection P is output to the filter circuit 90a through the electrode 26b. When the filter circuit 90a filters the voltage to generate a filtered signal, the Y coordinate (corresponding to the intersection P) is determined based on the filtered signal. Note that with this determination, both transistors 80a and 80b are turned off.

When the Y coordinate is determined in this way, in step 280, processing for switching to the channel of the television 10 corresponding to the determined X coordinate and Y coordinate is performed.

In practicing the present invention, the present invention is applied to a touch panel device used for a display such as a navigator mounted on a vehicle, a display such as a CRT of OA equipment, etc., without being limited to the television. You may.

In implementing the present invention, step 2
In the process at 40, both transistors 70b and 80b may be turned off instead of both transistors 70a and 80a.
Both 80a and 80b may be turned off.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the touch panel of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a control circuit of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the microcomputer of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a partially broken plan view of the touch panel in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

20: resistive touch panel, 27: light emitting element, 28:
Light receiving element, 40, 50, 70a, 70b, 80a, 80
b: transistor, 100: microcomputer, L
... alarm lamp.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A resistive touch panel (20) that exerts a switch function at a pressing portion when pressed from the surface by an operator's finger, and a gap along one side on the surface of the touch panel. A plurality of light emitting elements (27) arranged in the above, and driving means (40, 20) for driving each of these light emitting elements to emit light.
0), each light-receiving element (28) disposed on the surface of the touch panel along the other side and facing each of the light-emitting elements, and receiving light from each light-emitting element; With the operation of the operator's finger along the surface of the touch panel at the time of pressing, when each of the light receiving elements of at least two of the light receiving elements is reduced, the operation is determined to be erroneous, and with the operation of the finger, Determining means (230) for determining normal operation when the amount of light received by one of the light receiving elements decreases; and switch function invalidating means (70a) for invalidating a switch function of the touch panel when the determining means determines an erroneous operation. , 70b, 80a, 80b, 240), and when the determination means determines that the operation is normal, performs a process corresponding to the pressing portion based on a switch function of the touch panel. Processing means (70a, 70b, 80a, 80b, 2
60 to 280). 2. When the determining means determines that an erroneous operation has occurred,
The touch panel device according to claim 1, further comprising an alarm unit (250, L) for issuing an alarm.