JP2001109575A - Pointing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pointing device which is made small-sized by integrating an information exchanging means of a card type information recording medium and also inexpensive. SOLUTION: This device is provided with operation means 31 and 32 having a detecting means 33 detecting its movement quantity and at least one switching means, an operation signal generating means 23 which generates an operation signal based upon the operations of the operation means 31 and 32, and an information exchanging means 17 which at least reads information out of the card type information recording medium 15.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pointing device provided with, for example, a detecting means for detecting its own moving amount and an operating means having at least one switching means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various electronic devices have been developed with the development of the information industry. An example of the electronic device is a computer, for example. Computers are mainly of the so-called tower type, desktop type and notebook type. In these inner tower type and desktop type computers, a mouse is used by being externally attached to a predetermined connector.

FIG. 6 shows a main body 105 of a conventional computer.
2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of peripheral devices of the main body 105. FIG. The main body 105 of the computer is, for example, a USB
(Universal Serial Bus), and has a USB port 119 corresponding to the standard.
B via the signal line 113a corresponding to the USB hub 111
It is connected to the. The USB hub 111 is, for example, a concentrator having a plurality of USB ports. Here, the “concentrator” refers to a device that can perform data communication between these signal lines by connecting a plurality of signal lines in a star shape around the concentrator. That is, the USB hub 111 is for exchanging data between devices connected to each USB port. The USB hub 111 is, for example, a signal line 11 that also supports USB.
The mouse 109 is connected by 3d, and the card reader 117 is connected by a signal line 113c also corresponding to USB.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional computer, when attempting to connect such a card reader 117, the USB hub 111 is connected to the main body 105, and the card reader 117 is connected to the USB hub 111. I needed to. Therefore, in the conventional computer, the card reader 17 of the main body 105 or the USB hub 111
And other peripheral devices are provided independently of each other, which is large in space and complicated in connection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to reduce the size by integrating information exchange means for a card-shaped information recording medium, and to provide an inexpensive pointing device.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an operation means having a detection means for detecting a moving amount of the apparatus and at least one switching means; The present invention is attained by an instruction device including: an operation signal generating unit that generates the operation signal based on an operation; and an information exchange unit that reads at least information on a card-shaped information recording medium. According to the configuration of the first aspect, the operation unit has the detection unit for detecting the own movement amount and at least one switching unit. The detecting means detects the amount of movement of the pointing device itself including the operating means. The switching means generates an ON / OFF signal by operation. The operation signal generating means includes:
An operation signal based on the operation of the operation means is generated. Further, the information exchange means can read at least information on the card-shaped information recording medium. Therefore, the pointing device can exchange information of the card-shaped information recording medium as well as the detection of the movement amount by the detecting means. For this reason, the pointing device can read information from the card-shaped information recording medium without separately providing information exchange means. Further, since the information exchange means is integrated with the pointing device, the size can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the configuration of the first aspect, a line concentrator for connecting the operation signal generating means and the information exchanging means is provided. According to the configuration of the second aspect, the pointing device can easily connect the operation signal generating means and the information exchanging means, respectively, if the concentrator is provided. In addition, as for the pointing device, if the line concentrator is a general-purpose device, connection with each device is further facilitated.

A third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the configuration of the second aspect, the concentrator uses a universal serial bus. According to the configuration of the third aspect, the pointing device can easily connect the operation signal generating means and the information exchanging means, respectively, if the concentrator using the general-purpose interface is provided. In addition, the pointing device can be manufactured at low cost because the concentrator is a general-purpose device.

[0009]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the embodiments described below are preferred specific examples of the present invention,
Although various technically preferable limits are given, the scope of the present invention is not limited to these modes unless otherwise specified in the following description. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of an electronic device 1 including a mouse 9 as a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
2 is a transparent perspective view showing a configuration example of the mouse 9 in FIG.
The electronic device 1 is, for example, a stationary (so-called tower type or desktop type) computer in which a mouse 9 (pointing device) is connected to the main body 5. The electronic device 1 has, for example, a display unit 3 and a main body 5, and a mouse 9 is connected to the main body 5 by a signal line 1.
3a. Note that the electronic device 1 may be provided with a keyboard (not shown).

The display unit 3 includes a liquid crystal display and a CRT.
(Cathode Ray Tube) or the like. The display unit 3 is connected to, for example, the main body 5 and displays characters, symbols, and / or images under the control of the main body 5. The main unit 5 includes a CPU (Central Processes).
sing Unit), and displays characters, symbols, and / or images on the display unit 3 connected by operating the mouse 9. The main body 5 is provided with information exchange software for reading or preferably writing data on the card 15 and device driver software for the card reader 17.

The mouse 9 includes, for example, a first button 31 (switching means), a second button 32 (switching means), a movement amount detection unit 33 (detection means), and a card slot 5.
3. Mouse board 23 (operation signal generating means), USB (U
A universal Serial Bus) hub 12 (concentrator) and at least one card reader 17 (information exchange means). Note that the USB hub 12 may be configured to be integrated with the mouse board 23.

The card slot 53 is used for inserting and removing the card 15 when attaching and detaching the card 15 to and from the mouse 9. The card insertion slot 53 is provided, for example, at the rear of the mouse 9 without the signal line 13a. The card slot 53 may be provided at the front of the mouse 9 where the signal line 13a is located, for example, as shown in FIG. By providing the card mounting slot 53 at any suitable place of the mouse 9 in this manner, the operator can easily attach and detach the card 15.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration example of the mouse 9 and the main body 5 of FIG. The first button 31 and the second button 32 are provided, for example, on the mouse board 23, respectively. The first button 31 and the second button 32
When each is operated by the operator, the mouse board 23 is turned on by the switching means corresponding to the operated button.
Apply an N / OFF signal. The movement amount detection unit 33 is for detecting a movement amount when the mouse 9 is moved on a predetermined plane by an operation of the operator. Moving amount detector 3
Numeral 3 includes, for example, a sphere having a constant friction with the plane and a detection unit for detecting the amount of rotation of the sphere. The mouse board 23 is connected to, for example, the USB hub 12 and is provided with a key 37. The mouse board 23 is a circuit board for generating an operation signal corresponding to the switching means operated by the operator. The generated operation signal is, for example, U
It is transmitted to the main body 5 via the SB hub 23 and the signal line 13a. The main body 5 displays predetermined characters or the like on the display unit 3 of FIG. 1 based on the operation signal. Also the mouse board 23
Converts the amount of rotation of the sphere into the amount of movement of the mouse pointer displayed on the display unit 3 in FIG. 1 on the screen.

The USB hub 12 is connected to a USB port 19 of the main body 5 via a signal line 13a, a card reader 17 via a signal line 13c and a mouse board 23 via a signal line 13d, for example. These signal lines 13a,
13c and 13d respectively correspond to, for example, the USB standard. The USB hub 12 is, for example, a concentrator or a concentrator circuit having a plurality of USB ports. Here, the “concentrator” refers to a device that can perform data communication between these signal lines by connecting a plurality of signal lines in a star shape around the concentrator. USB hub 12
Is for exchanging data between devices connected to each USB port. The USB hub 12
It is needless to say that a line concentrator compatible with, for example, IEEE 1394 as another standard may be used.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the card reader 17 and the like in FIG. The card reader 17 is, for example, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer).
Memory Card Internationala
l Association) A card, a magnetic card for recording information by magnetism, and a card 15 (card-shaped information recording medium) such as a card-shaped information recording medium having a built-in semiconductor memory can at least read and preferably write data. Device. This card 15
Is detachably connected to the card reader 17 by a predetermined connector.

The card reader 17 includes, for example, a power supply terminal 5
1, control unit 43, card control unit 39, output control unit 41,
It has a light emitting section 45, a synchronization signal generating section 47 and a reset signal generating section 49. The power supply terminal 51 is supplied with power by a predetermined power supply means (not shown). Power supply terminal 5
1 is connected to, for example, a reset signal generation unit 49, a control unit 43, an output control unit 41, and a card control unit 39, and supplies power thereto.

The control unit 43 is connected to, for example, the output control unit 41, the card control unit 39, the light emitting unit 45, the synchronization signal generation unit 47, the reset signal generation unit 49, and the USB hub 12. When the card 15 is mounted on the card reader 17, the control unit 43 is also connected to the card 15. The control unit 43 includes an output control unit 41, a card control unit 3,
9 and the light emitting unit 45 while controlling the card 15 and the US
Data is exchanged with the B hub 12. Control unit 4
3 communicates data with the USB hub 12 via the signal line 13c.

The card control section 39 controls the reading and writing of data from the card 15 under the control of the control section 43, for example. In addition, the card control unit 39 recognizes, for example, that the card 15 has been removed. The output control unit 41 performs output control when, for example, reading data from the card 15.

The light emitting section 45 emits light under the control of the control section 43, for example, an LED (Light Emitting).
Diode). The light emitting unit 45 is, for example, a card 15
By emitting light at the time of reading or writing data, the card 15 is warned to prevent the card 15 from being pulled out at the time of reading or writing data.

The synchronization signal generator 47 is, for example, a signal generator for generating a synchronization signal for the entire card reader 17. The synchronization signal generation section 47 supplies a synchronization signal to the control section 43, for example. The reset signal generation unit 49 generates a reset signal at a timing each time reading or writing of a predetermined unit is completed, and supplies the reset signal to the control unit 43 to reset the control unit 43.

The electronic device 1 to which the mouse 9 is connected is configured as described above. Next, an operation example of the electronic device 1 to which the mouse 9 is connected will be described with reference to FIGS. The electronic device 1 is provided with a mouse 9 as shown in FIG. 1, and an operator can operate the mouse 9 to input characters and the like. The main body 5 of the electronic device 1 has the above-mentioned information exchange software and device driver software for a predetermined mouse 9, and recognizes an operation signal generated based on the operation of the mouse 9 by the device driver software, and performs the operation. The display unit 3 displays characters, symbols, images, and the like based on. The operator inserts the card 15 into the card slot 53 provided on the first side surface 7a.

The card controller 39 recognizes, for example, that the card 15 has been connected, and sends a predetermined recognition signal to the controller 43.
Give to. The control unit 43 reads, for example, data from the card 15, converts the data into a format corresponding to the USB standard, and sends the format to the USB hub 12. The USB hub 12 transmits this data to the main unit 5 of FIG. 1 via the signal line 13a of FIG. 1 which also corresponds to the USB standard. The main body 5 can recognize and use this data by the installed information exchange software.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the computer can read the data of the card 15 and the like only by connecting the mouse 9 to the computer having the USB port 19 in the main body 5, for example. In addition, mouse 9
Since the card reader 17 is integrated and there is no need to separately provide the card reader 17, the size can be reduced. The mouse 9 can be made inexpensive as a whole system.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. In the above description, the mouse 9 according to the present embodiment is provided in a tower type or desktop type computer, but it is needless to say that the mouse 9 may be provided in a notebook type computer.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By integrating the information exchange means of the card-shaped information recording medium, downsizing can be achieved and an inexpensive pointing device can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of an electronic device including a mouse as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a transparent perspective view showing a configuration example of the mouse of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary perspective view showing an example of the arrangement of card insertion ports of the mouse of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the mouse of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the card reader and the like in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional computer main body and peripheral devices of the main body.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... computer (electronic device), 9 ... mouse (pointing device), 12 ... USB hub (concentrator), 1
5 ... card (card-shaped information recording medium), 17 ...
Card reader (information exchange means), 23 ... mouse board (operation signal generation means), 31 ... first button (switching means), 32 ... second button (switching means), 33 ... movement Quantity detection unit (detection means), 53
・ Card slot (mounting section)

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B058 CA02 CA13 CA23 CA31 KA12 5B065 BA09 CA40 ZA11 5B072 AA03 BB00 CC24 DD01 LL11 LL13 5B087 AA00 AA06 AE00 BB05 BB12 DG01

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An operation unit having a detection unit for detecting a moving amount of the self unit and at least one switching unit; an operation signal generation unit for generating the operation signal based on an operation of the operation unit; An instruction device, comprising: an information exchange unit for reading at least information on a recording medium. 2. The pointing device according to claim 1, further comprising a line concentrator for connecting the operation signal generating unit and the information exchanging unit. 3. The pointing device according to claim 2, wherein the line concentrator uses a universal serial bus.