JP2005190353A - Operation apparatus and information processing apparatus applied with it - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a highly general-purpose operation apparatus provided with excellent operability, and an information processing apparatus applied with the operation apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: The operation apparatus is provided with a pad 13, a detector 15 which is provided under the pad 13 and detects operations of the pad 13 to output signals corresponding to the detection results, and a cushioning material 15 to prevent damages caused by operations of the pad 13. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an operation device having high versatility and excellent operability, and an information processing device to which the device is applied.

  Personal computers (hereinafter referred to as “PCs”) are widely used. When a user performs control of a PC (particularly, movement of a cursor on a display screen), in addition to a keyboard, a pointing device (hereinafter referred to as a mouse) In general, an “operating device” is also used. There are the following types of pointing devices used in PCs.

1. Mouse pointer
The mouse pointer is disposed at the center of the keyboard, and is often mounted on overseas notebook PCs. In this pointing device, the cursor can be moved by operating the mouse pointer with one finger. However, it is difficult for beginners to control this mouse pointer operation, and sometimes the mouse pointer moves in an unexpected direction. In addition, when moving the cursor, the user has to concentrate on the operation of the mouse pointer, so the user may feel frustrated.

2. Touchpad
The touch pad is mounted on many PCs, and the cursor can be moved in the tracing direction by tracing the pad (sensor) of the touch pad with, for example, a finger. Since this touch pad is arranged closer to the user than the keyboard, when a hand touches the touch pad when performing input using the keyboard, the cursor moves and unexpected characters such as characters are moved. It will be entered.

3. Mouse (external wheel mouse, light mouse, etc.)
Mice have been widely used in the past and are easy to operate. For example, when used for a notebook PC that is moved and used, it is not portable and often used for a desktop PC that does not move. It is used. However, when operating the mouse, it is necessary to release the hand from the home position of the keyboard, which leads to time loss.

In order to solve the above problems, an input device that can perform operations such as position input without removing fingers from the keyboard has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).
This input device includes a key input unit, a bar-like or plate-like hand stand placed at a position where a palm is present at the time of key input, and an angle sensor connected to the hand stand for movement and tilt. Alternatively, a position input means for detecting by a pressure sensor and converting it into movement amount information is provided. According to this input device, it is considered that the above problem can be almost solved, but lacks versatility, and there may be a problem of strength when operated with a palm. In addition, when the hand table is in a rod shape, it cannot be applied to a portable notebook PC.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-3338

  An object of the present invention is to provide an operation device having high versatility and excellent operability, and an information processing device to which the device is applied.

An information processing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a main body, a keyboard provided in the main body,
A front portion provided in the main body and positioned in front of the keyboard; a recess provided in the front portion; a pad that covers the recess and is tiltable with respect to the recess; and provided in the recess, An elastic member that abuts the inner surface of the pad and the recess, and a detection unit that is provided on the pad and detects the inclination of the pad.

  An operating device according to another aspect of the present invention includes a pad, a detection unit that is provided below the pad, detects the operation of the pad, and outputs a signal corresponding to the detection result, and the operation of the pad And a cushioning material for preventing breakage. In this operating device, it is preferable that an attachment portion for attaching a lever to the pad is provided on the pad.

  An information processing apparatus according to still another aspect of the present invention is an information processing apparatus including a keyboard and a pointing device disposed on an armrest portion provided in front of the keyboard, wherein the pointing device is An operation button disposed substantially at the center of the armrest and the operation device disposed on both sides of the operation button are provided. In this information processing apparatus,

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an operating device having high versatility and excellent operability and an information processing device to which the device is applied.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of an information processing apparatus to which an operating device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. Here, a portable notebook personal computer is exemplified as the information processing apparatus. ing.

  The computer according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 is composed of a computer main body 11 and a display unit 12. The display unit 12 incorporates a display device 121 composed of an LCD. The display unit 12 is attached to the computer main body 11 so as to be rotatable between an open position and a closed position. The computer main body 11 has a thin box-shaped casing. On the upper surface of the casing, a power button 114 for turning on / off the computer main body 11, a keyboard 111, and the like are arranged. An armrest 115 is formed on the upper surface of the casing part 111 (on the user side). A left (left) button 113a, a right (right) button 113b, and a middle (middle) button 113c are disposed at substantially the center of the armrest 115, and two pointing devices 112, which will be described in detail later, are disposed on both sides thereof. (In FIG. 1, the pad portion 13 of the pointing device is shown).

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the computer shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the computer includes a CPU 201, a host bridge 202, a main memory 203, a graphics controller 204, a PCI-ISA bridge 206, an I / O controller 207, a hard disk drive (HDD) 208, a CD-ROM drive 209, A USB controller 210, an embedded controller / keyboard controller IC (EC / KBC) 211, a power controller 213, and the like are provided.

  A pointing device 112, which will be described in detail later, is connected to the USB controller 210.

  The CPU 201 is provided to control the operation of the computer, and executes an operating system (OS) loaded from the hard disk drive (HDD) 208 to the main memory 203, application programs, utility programs, and the like.

  The host bridge 202 is a bridge device that bidirectionally connects the local bus of the CPU 201 and the PCI bus 1. The graphics controller 204 includes a video RAM (VRAM), and controls a display device 121 used as a display monitor of the computer under the control of a dedicated display driver. An I / O controller 207 controls a hard disk drive (HDD) 208, a CD-ROM drive 209, and the like. The PCI-ISA bridge 206 is a bridge device that connects the PCI bus 1 and the ISA bus 2 bidirectionally, and various system devices such as a system timer, a DMA controller, and an interrupt controller are also incorporated therein.

  The embedded controller / keyboard controller IC (EC / KBC) 211 is a one-chip microcomputer in which an embedded controller (EC) for power management and a keyboard controller (KBC) for controlling the keyboard 111 are integrated. The embedded controller / keyboard controller IC (EC / KBC) 211 has a function of powering on / off the computer according to the operation of the power button 114 by the user in cooperation with the power controller 213.

  In the configuration as described above, the pointing device 112 is disposed so as to sandwich the middle button 113 c from the left button 113 a on the armrest 115 of the computer main body 11. Further, the position of the pointing device 112 is in front of the keyboard 111, and is almost the position of the palm when the hand is placed at the home position when inputting characters from the keyboard. As shown in FIG. 3, the pointing device 112 is provided in the recess 11 a of the computer main body 11 and includes a pad portion 13 and a rod portion 14. The pad portion 13 covers the recess 11a and is configured to be inclined with respect to the recess 11a. The pointing device 112 is further disposed so as to contact the inner surface of the pad portion 13 and the concave portion 11a, and includes a buffer portion 15 for preventing the rod portion 14 from being overloaded. 3A is a top external view of the pointing device 112 when the pad portion 13 is removed, and FIG. 3B is a 3B-3B arrow view of FIG. The pointing device 112 also includes a left (left) button 113a, a right (right) button 113b, and a middle (middle) button 113c. The rod unit 14 includes a detection unit (not shown) that detects the inclination of the rod (or the pad unit 13) at the lower part thereof, and controls the position of the cursor displayed on the display device 121 according to the load applied to the rod unit 14. Outputs a signal to

  FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the buffer unit 15. As shown in FIG. 4, the buffer portion 15 is fixed to the upper portion of the rod portion 14 at the center thereof. The buffer portion 15 has spring portions 151 that extend in four directions perpendicular to each other with the rod portion 14 as the center, and the tip portions are curved. The spring portions 151 are each provided with the pointing device 112. It comes in contact with each corner of the recess 11a. And if the rod part 14 moves by the pad part 13, the spring part 151 will deform | transform and it will prevent that a big load is applied to the rod part 14 with the restoring force.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the pad portion 13 is provided with a lever mounting portion 131, and an L-shaped protrusion 161 provided on the lever 16 is fitted into the lever mounting portion 131, so that the lever The pad 16 can be mounted by rotating 16 by a predetermined angle. In this case, instead of rotating the lever 16, for example, a lock pin or the like may be provided on the lever 16 and only the protrusion 161 may be rotated and attached to the pad portion 13. By operating the lever 16, the cursor displayed on the display device 121 can be moved. The lever 16 can also be used as, for example, a joystick in a game machine. An external view of the lever 16 attached to the computer main body 11 is shown in FIG.

  With the configuration described above, even when the pad portion 13 is operated with a palm, there is no damage, and the pointing device 112 is easy to use. Further, since the lever can be attached as necessary, it is easy to use even when used as a game, for example.

  In the configuration as described above, since it is basically not possible to use the two pointing devices 112 at the same time, for example, the pointing device 112 to be used can be switched by a special key (Fn key or function key), It is preferable that the use of one of them can be stopped. Similarly, when using a keyboard, for example, by temporarily using a special key (Fn key or function key) or reducing the sensitivity to the operation of the pointing device 112, for example, This is more preferable because there is no movement of the cursor due to an operation of the pointing device 112 during key input.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied as a part of an input device of a personal computer has been exemplified. However, the present device may be used alone as a control operation device such as a game machine.

  The following inventions can be extracted from the above embodiments. Each of the following inventions may be applied alone or in appropriate combination.

  An operating device according to an aspect of the present invention includes a pad, a detection unit that is provided at a lower portion of the pad, detects an operation of the pad, and outputs a signal according to the detection result, and is damaged due to the operation of the pad. And a cushioning material for preventing the above. In this operating device, it is preferable that an attachment portion for attaching a lever to the pad is provided on the pad.

An information processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is an information processing apparatus that includes a keyboard and a pointing device disposed in an armrest portion provided in front of the keyboard, wherein the pointing device includes the armrest. It is characterized by comprising an operation button disposed substantially at the center and the operation device disposed on both sides of the operation button. In this information processing apparatus,
(1) Only one of the two operation devices can be used by a predetermined key operation.
(2) The operation device is unusable or can be reduced in sensitivity by a predetermined key operation.
(3) The information processing apparatus is a portable information processing apparatus.
Is preferred.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention at the stage of implementation.

  In the above embodiment, the buffer portion 15 has a shape as shown in FIG. 4, but other shapes, for example, a stopper for preventing the buffer portion 15 from being excessively inclined may be provided. An elastic member such as rubber may be used as a cushioning material. Furthermore, the shape of the spring is not limited to the shape shown in FIG. 4, and any shape may be used as long as the rod portion 14 is pushed back to the center. Moreover, although the part which the spring part 151 of the buffer part 15 contact | abuts to the side surface of the recessed part 11a was made into four places, it should just be at least three places.

  In the above embodiment, the lever is attached to 131 and then rotated by a predetermined angle to fix the lever. However, as long as the lever can be securely fixed to 13, any configuration can be used. May be adopted. For example, in addition to the fitting, the lever may be sucked or sucked. In the above embodiment, it is not explicitly stated that the buttons are arranged on the lever. However, an electrical contact may be provided on the fitting portion so that various controls can be performed from the lever. .

  Further, the above embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements.

  Further, for example, even if some constituent elements are deleted from all the constituent elements shown in each embodiment, the problems described in the column of problems to be solved by the invention can be solved, and are described in the effects of the invention. When an effect is obtained, a configuration in which this configuration requirement is deleted can be extracted as an invention.

The perspective view which shows the external appearance structure of the information processing apparatus with which the operating device which concerns on one embodiment of this invention is applied. The block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of the computer shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the operating device (pointing device) which concerns on one embodiment of this invention, Comprising: (a) is an upper surface external view of the pointing device at the time of removing a pad part, (b) The 3B-3B arrow directional view of (a). The figure which shows the structural example of a buffer part. (A) The top view of a pad part, (b) The figure which shows an example of the lever attached to a pad part. The external view at the time of attaching a lever to a computer main body.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... PCI bus, 2 ... ISA bus, 11 ... Computer main body, 11a ... Recessed part, 111 ... Keyboard, 112 ... Pointing device, 113a ... Left button, 113b ... Right button, 113c ... Middle button, 114 ... Power button, 115 ... Armrest, 12 ... Display unit, 121 ... Display device, 13 ... Pad part, 131 ... Lever mounting part, 14 ... Rod part (detection part), 15 ... Buffer part, 151 ... Spring part, 16 ... Lever, 161 ... Projection part , 201 ... CPU, 202 ... host bridge, 203 ... main memory, 204 ... graphics controller, 206 ... ISA bridge, 207 ... I / O controller, 208 ... hard disk drive, 209 ... ROM drive, 210 ... USB controller, 211 ... keyboard Control La IC, 213 ... power controller.

Claims (6)

The body,
A keyboard provided on the main body;
A front portion provided on the main body and positioned in front of the keyboard;
A recess provided in the front part;
A pad that covers the recess and is tiltable with respect to the recess;
An elastic member that is provided in the recess and contacts the inner surface of the pad and the recess;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a detection unit that is provided on the pad and detects an inclination of the pad. Pad,
A detection unit that is provided at a lower portion of the pad, detects an operation of the pad, and outputs a signal according to the detection result;
An operating device comprising a cushioning material for preventing damage due to operation of the pad. The operating device according to claim 2, wherein the pad is provided with an attachment portion for attaching a lever to the pad. In an information processing apparatus comprising a keyboard and a pointing device arranged on an armrest portion provided in front of the keyboard,
The said pointing device is provided with the operation button arrange | positioned in the approximate center of the said armrest, and the operation apparatus of Claim 2 or 3 arrange | positioned at the both sides of the said operation button. Information processing device. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein only one of the two operation devices can be used by a predetermined operation. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the operation apparatus is unusable or can be reduced in sensitivity by a predetermined operation.

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