JP2003315045A - Portable terminal device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily know bearings by a portable terminal device. <P>SOLUTION: When a present location and a preset date and time are inputted, the north direction and the direction of shadow formation are displayed on a display 2 by line segment N and D. While approximately horizontally maintaining the display 2, a touch pen 5 is vertically erected on the display 2. When the shadow of the touch pen 5 is matched with the line segment D indicating the direction of shadow formation, the direction of the line segment N indicating the north then is the north direction. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable terminal device in which an azimuth can be easily known. [0002] For example, when walking in a town you do not know, you may want to know the direction. It is very convenient if a portable terminal device, for example, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance) has a means for detecting the direction.
However, since the azimuth detection requires a geomagnetic azimuth detecting device, a gyro, and the like, there is a problem in that if the PDA has an azimuth detecting function, the cost increases. [0003] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal device capable of easily knowing the direction. According to the present invention, a direction of a shadow formed by sunlight at the location and a date and at least one of four directions are determined from a current position and a current date and time. Display on the display unit, so that the shadow formed by the bar standing on the display unit matches the direction of the shadow displayed on the display unit, so that at least one orientation displayed on the display unit The direction can be easily known. An embodiment of the present invention applied to a PDA will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a PDA, which is configured by mounting a display unit 2 and a plurality of pushbutton switches 3 on a rectangular main body 1. The display unit 2 is composed of a liquid crystal panel, and a transparent touch panel 4 (see FIG. 3) is attached to a surface of the liquid crystal panel. In this PDA, various menus are displayed on the display unit 2 by operating a menu display push button switch among a plurality of push button switches 3. Then, among the various menus shown on the display unit 2,
When a display portion of a desired menu is pressed by the attached touch pen 5, the menu is selected.
When the selected menu is executed, the main input items are configured by operating the touch panel 4 with the touch pen 5. FIG. 3 schematically shows an electrical configuration of the PDA. As shown in the figure, the PDA mainly includes a control unit 6 as a control unit, a clock unit 7 as a clock unit, and a shadow / north direction information storage unit 8 as a direction information storage unit for azimuth detection described later. And so on. The control unit 6 includes a CP
U, a ROM storing operation programs and the like, and a RAM for temporary storage. The control unit 6 executes a predetermined operation based on an input signal from the push button switch 3 and the touch panel 4 and an operation program. The timer 7 measures a calendar date and time by a timer operation. In addition, the shadow / north direction information storage unit 8 is configured as shown in FIG.
As shown in the table, the location is indicated by prefecture (prefecture), and the direction in which the shadow is formed at each time indicated by the prefecture is indicated by an angle based on north, and the location is indicated by latitude and longitude. And a database indicating the direction in which a shadow is formed for each time at each location indicated by the latitude / longitude at an angle with respect to north. Next, the operation when the azimuth is detected by the PDA having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the azimuth detection menu is selected from various menus displayed on the display unit 2, the routine shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is executed. When the execution of this routine is started, the control circuit 6 displays on the display unit 2 a selection as to whether to perform the location by prefecture name or by latitude / longitude (step S1). In accordance with this display, the user presses the touch panel 4 with the touch pen 5. When the selection of the prefecture name is performed, the control section 6 turns to "YES" in step S2, and displays a list of city names on the display section 2 in the next step S3. And
When the user selects the name of the prefecture to which the current position belongs with the touch pen 5 (step S4; current position input means),
The control unit 6 stores the selected prefecture name in the RAM (step S5). On the other hand, when the user selects the input of a location in latitude and longitude ("NO" in step S2,
6 "YES"), the control section 6 displays a portion for inputting the latitude and longitude on the display section 2 (step S7). Then, the user uses the touch pen 5 on the touch panel 4 to determine the latitude,
When the longitude is input (Step S8; current position input means), the control unit 6 stores the input latitude and longitude in the RAM.
(Step S5). Next, the control unit 6 obtains the current date and time from the clock unit 7 and stores the current date and time in the RAM (step S9). Obtain the angle of the direction-based shadow (step S1)
0). Subsequently, the control unit 6 displays, for example, a line segment (arrow) N indicating the north direction of the four directions (east, west, north and south) on the display unit 2 as shown in FIG. A line segment (arrow) D indicating the direction in which a shadow can be formed from the base point is displayed (step S11). As described above, the line segment N indicating the north direction is displayed on the display unit 2.
And the line segment D indicating the direction of the shadow are displayed,
While keeping the surface of the display unit 2 as horizontal as possible, a touch pen 5 as a bar is set upright on the display unit 2 at the intersection of the line segment N and the line segment D as shown in FIG. Then, the main body 1 is rotated in a horizontal plane so that the shadow of the touch pen 5 coincides with the shadow segment D of the display unit 2. In this manner, in the state where the shadow of the touch pen 5 is coincident with the line segment D, the direction indicated by the line segment N (the direction of the arrow) is north, so that the azimuth can be easily known. After that, when the operation of ending the azimuth detection menu is performed, the control unit 6 makes "YES" in step S12 and ends the menu. The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, but can be extended or modified as follows. The stick to make the shadow is a touch pen 5
Not limited to The line segment indicating the azimuth displayed on the display unit 2 is:
It does not necessarily point to the north. All four directions may be displayed. The display of the direction is not limited to the arrow.
The current position is not limited to the input using the touch panel 4. It may be input by a key switch. In the above-described embodiment, the detection of the azimuth has been described by taking Japan as an example. However, the invention may be applied not only to Japan but also to each state in the United States and each country in Europe. Not limited to the PDA, a mobile phone or the like may be used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the present invention, and is a perspective view of an azimuth detection state. FIG. 2 is a plan view of a display unit displaying a line segment indicating a north direction and a shadow direction. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an outline of an electric configuration. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of control contents. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of a database for acquiring a shadow direction from latitude and longitude. Conceptual diagram of a database for acquiring directions [Description of symbols] In the figure, 2 is a display unit (display unit), 4 is a touch panel (current position input unit), 5 is a touch pen (bar member), and 6 is a control unit (control unit) ) And 7 are timekeeping units (timekeeping means), and 8 is a shadow / north direction information storage unit.

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. A display unit, a current position input unit for inputting a current position, a clock unit for measuring a calendar date and time, and a current position input from the current position input unit and From the current date and time obtained from the clocking means, the direction of the shadow formed by the sun ray at the place and the date and time, and at least one of the four orientations is obtained and displayed on the display unit, and the control means is provided. The mobile phone is characterized in that an orientation is known from the at least one orientation displayed on the display unit by matching a shadow of a bar placed on the display unit with a direction of the shadow displayed on the display unit. Terminal device.