JP2006018503A - Portable terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a portable terminal whose realization easiness is excellent for inputting information from the inclination of a terminal. <P>SOLUTION: This portable terminal 10 is configured so that information to be inputted according to the pressure distribution of a predetermined site 18 on the surface or the change of the pressure distribution can be selected, and that the predetermined site 18 can be formed like a convex surface, and this portable terminal 10 is provided with a pressure distribution detecting part 12 for detecting the pressure distribution of the predetermined site 18. The pressure distribution detecting part 12 detects pressure distribution by one or more piezoelectric elements 11 set in the predetermined site 18. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable terminal in which pressure distribution at a predetermined site on a surface or information input according to a change in pressure distribution is selected.

Conventionally, in order to make it easy to input information to a mobile terminal, a terminal that detects the tilt of the mobile terminal and inputs information from the tilt has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-240883

  However, according to the above terminal, it is necessary to provide a rotation mechanism or a gimbal mechanism in the terminal in order to detect the tilt of the terminal. In a portable terminal that is required to be downsized or thinned, incorporating these mechanical mechanisms hinders downsizing and the like. Also, from the viewpoint of ease of implementation, the above terminal has room for improvement.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile terminal that is superior in terms of ease of implementation.

  In order to achieve the above object, a portable terminal according to the present invention is a portable terminal in which a pressure distribution at a predetermined part on the surface or information input according to a change in pressure distribution is selected. And pressure distribution detecting means for detecting the pressure distribution of the predetermined portion. Here, “input information” includes information generally assigned to keys of portable terminals, such as information on commands, characters, and numbers.

  In order to input information, the user of the mobile terminal according to the present invention applies pressure to a predetermined part of the mobile terminal corresponding to the information or changes the pressure. For example, the portable terminal can be brought into contact with a horizontal surface, and pressure can be applied or changed by the weight of the terminal. That is, the user can input information by inclining the portable terminal with respect to the plane as necessary, or by bringing the portable terminal into contact with the plane and then inclining it. Here, since the predetermined part which contacts the flat surface is formed in a convex curved surface shape, it is easy to perform contact with the flat surface or inclination after the contact.

  In the portable terminal according to the present invention, the pressure distribution detecting means detects the distribution of the pressure applied to the predetermined part as described above.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a portable terminal that inputs information from the inclination of the terminal, which is superior in terms of ease of implementation, by a simpler method of detecting pressure.

  More specifically, in the portable terminal according to the present invention, it is desirable that the pressure distribution detection means is configured to detect the pressure distribution by one or more piezoelectric elements provided at the predetermined portion.

  Further, the mobile terminal according to the present invention includes an allocation information holding unit that holds allocation information of each of the input information according to the pressure distribution of the predetermined part or a change in the pressure distribution, and the pressure distribution detection unit. An information selection unit that selects input information based on the detected pressure distribution of the predetermined part or a change in the pressure distribution and information held in the allocation information holding unit is further provided. Is desirable.

  In general, input of information to a mobile terminal includes two processes: selection of input information and confirmation of the selected information. According to this configuration, input information can be selected from the pressure distribution or the change in the pressure distribution.

  Moreover, it is desirable that the portable terminal according to the present invention further includes an information confirmation unit that confirms the information to be input after the information input by the information selection unit is selected.

  According to this configuration, the selected information can be determined as the input information.

  More specifically, in the portable terminal according to the present invention, the pressure distribution detection means detects the pressure intensity in addition to the pressure distribution, and the information determination means is detected by the pressure distribution detection means. It is desirable to determine whether or not the strength of the pressure satisfies a predetermined standard, and to confirm the input information based on the determination. Here, the predetermined reference corresponds to, for example, a predetermined value or more.

  More specifically, in the mobile terminal according to the present invention, the pressure distribution detecting means further detects a pressure distribution of a predetermined portion different from the predetermined portion on the surface or a change in the pressure distribution, and the information It is desirable that the confirmation unit is configured to confirm the pressure distribution of the another predetermined portion detected by the pressure distribution detection unit or information input based on the change of the pressure distribution.

  More specifically, in the mobile terminal according to the present invention, the pressure distribution detecting means is configured to detect the pressure distribution of the part by one or more piezoelectric elements provided in the different predetermined part. Is desirable.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a portable terminal that inputs information from the inclination of the terminal, which is superior in terms of ease of implementation.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a portable terminal according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an external configuration of a mobile terminal 10 in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1A, the mobile terminal 10 has a predetermined portion 18 (a portion surrounded by a broken line) having a convex curved surface. As shown in FIG. 1B, a plurality of piezoelectric elements 11 are attached to a predetermined portion 18 on the convex curved surface, so that pressure applied to the portion can be detected. Specifically, the mobile terminal 10 corresponds to, for example, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), a mobile phone as shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the mobile terminal 10 includes a pressure distribution detection unit 12, an allocation information holding unit 13, an information selection unit 14, and an information determination unit 15.

  The pressure distribution detector 12 detects the pressure distribution by the plurality of piezoelectric elements 11. Specifically, the function of the pressure distribution detection unit 12 is realized by a configuration including an amplifier circuit 12a and a signal processing circuit 12b, for example, as shown in FIG. A specific detection method will be described later.

  The allocation information holding unit 13 holds the allocation information of each piece of input information according to the pressure distribution of the predetermined part 18. The holding is performed, for example, by holding, in a table, information that the “camera” function corresponds to the pressure distribution made up of the pressure applied to each piezoelectric element 11 shown in FIG.

  The information selection unit 14 selects input information based on the pressure distribution of the predetermined part 18 detected by the pressure distribution detection unit 12 and the information held in the allocation information holding unit 13. After the information input by the information selection unit 14 is selected, the information determination unit 15 determines the selected information as input information. A specific determination method will be described later.

  Hereinafter, processing executed by the mobile terminal 10 in the present embodiment will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the predetermined part 18 of the portable terminal 10 is pressurized by the user so as to generate a pressure distribution corresponding to information that the user intends to input (S01). Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, a portion of the predetermined portion 18 is inclined with respect to a horizontal surface so that a pressure distribution corresponding to information to be input by the user is generated. . At this time, since the pressure is applied to the predetermined portion 18 by the weight of the mobile terminal 10, the user does not need to apply a strong force to apply pressure to the mobile terminal 10. Here, since the predetermined portion 18 that is in contact with the horizontal plane is formed in a convex curved surface shape, it is easy to perform contact with the horizontal plane and inclination after the contact. In addition, what contacts is not restricted to a horizontal surface, What is necessary is just to apply a pressure to the predetermined site | part 18. FIG.

  Subsequently, the pressure distribution detector 12 detects the pressure distribution by the plurality of piezoelectric elements 11 attached to the predetermined portion 18 (S02). Specifically, detection is performed as follows from the configuration shown in FIG. First, an analog electric signal is generated from the pressurized piezoelectric element 11. Subsequently, the amplifier circuit 12a amplifies the generated electric signal to a size that allows signal processing. Subsequently, the signal processing circuit 12b converts the amplified signal into a digital signal as a pressure distribution. The converted digital signal is sent to the application control apparatus, and the following functions are realized.

  When the pressure distribution is detected, the information selection unit 14 selects information to be input based on the pressure distribution of the predetermined part 18 and the allocation information held by the allocation information holding unit 13 (S03). For example, when the pressure distribution is as shown in FIG. 4, the “camera” function is selected.

  Subsequently, the information confirmation unit 15 confirms the selected information as input information (S04). The determination may be performed unconditionally after the information is selected by the allocation information holding unit 13, but can also be performed as follows. In general, the input of information to the mobile terminal includes two processes, selection of input information and confirmation of the selected information.

  First, the pressure distribution detector 12 can detect the strength of pressure in addition to the pressure distribution. After selecting the information, the pressure distribution detection unit 12 detects the pressure intensity of the predetermined portion 18. The pressure distribution detection unit 12 determines whether or not the detected pressure intensity satisfies a predetermined criterion, and performs based on the determination. Here, the predetermined standard corresponds to, for example, a standard that the intensity of pressure is a predetermined value or more. According to the confirmation method, the user can confirm the input information by inclining the portable terminal 10 and bringing it into contact with a plane, and then pressing the portable terminal 10 strongly against the plane.

  Further, the information may be confirmed as follows. First, as shown in FIG. 7, an information determination piezoelectric element 19 is provided in the grip portion of the mobile terminal 10. After selecting the information, the pressure distribution detection unit 12 detects the pressure distribution of the portion to which the piezoelectric element 19 is attached, and determines the information if pressure is applied. According to the confirmation method, the user can confirm the input information by tilting the mobile terminal 10 and bringing the mobile terminal 10 into contact with a flat surface and then holding the mobile terminal 10 firmly.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to realize the mobile terminal 10 that inputs information from the inclination of the terminal, which is superior in terms of feasibility, by a simpler method of detecting pressure.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the information to be input is selected according to the pressure distribution has been described. However, the information may be associated with information for inputting a temporal change in the pressure distribution. The temporal change of the pressure distribution can be obtained from the time series data of the pressure distribution detected by the pressure distribution detector 12.

  In this embodiment, the pressure is detected by the piezoelectric element 11, but a piezoelectric film may be used, or a push switch or the like may be used.

  In the present embodiment, the input information is a selection of a function provided in the mobile terminal 10, but for example, input of characters or the like, adjustment of the volume of a television or radio, adjustment of a display image or sound, etc. It can be applied to input various information.

  Further, by adding the information selection unit 14 as in the present embodiment, it is possible to select input information. Further, by adding the information confirmation unit 15, it is possible to confirm the input information.

It is the figure which showed the external appearance structure of the portable terminal which concerns on embodiment of this invention, (a) is a general view, (b) is an enlarged view of the predetermined part in (a). It is a functional lineblock diagram of a personal digital assistant concerning an embodiment. It is the figure which showed the specific structure of the pressure distribution detection part. It is the figure which showed allocation of the information input according to the pressure distribution of a predetermined part. It is a flowchart which shows the process in the portable terminal which concerns on embodiment. It is the figure which showed an example of how the predetermined part is pressurized. It is the figure which showed another example of the external appearance structure of the portable terminal which concerns on embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Portable terminal, 11 ... Piezoelectric element, 12 ... Pressure distribution detection part, 12a ... Amplifier circuit, 12b ... Signal processing circuit, 13 ... Allocation information holding part, 14 ... Information selection part, 15 ... Information determination part, 18 ... Predetermined Part, 19 ... Information determining piezoelectric element.

Claims (7)

In the portable terminal in which the information input according to the pressure distribution of the predetermined part on the surface or the change of the pressure distribution is selected,
The predetermined portion is formed in a convex curved surface shape,
A portable terminal comprising pressure distribution detection means for detecting the pressure distribution of the predetermined part. The portable terminal according to claim 1, wherein the pressure distribution detecting means detects the pressure distribution by one or more piezoelectric elements provided at the predetermined part. Allocation information holding means for holding allocation information of each of the input information according to the pressure distribution of the predetermined portion or a change in pressure distribution;
Information selection means for selecting information to be input based on the pressure distribution of the predetermined portion detected by the pressure distribution detection means or the change in the pressure distribution and information held in the allocation information holding means. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: The portable terminal according to claim 3, further comprising: an information confirmation unit that confirms the information as input information after the information input by the information selection unit is selected. The pressure distribution detecting means detects the strength of pressure in addition to the pressure distribution,
The information determination means determines whether or not the intensity of pressure detected by the pressure distribution detection means satisfies a predetermined criterion, and determines information input based on the determination. The portable terminal according to claim 4. The pressure distribution detecting means further detects a pressure distribution of a predetermined portion different from the predetermined portion on the surface or a change in the pressure distribution;
5. The information determination unit performs determination of information input based on a pressure distribution of the different predetermined portion detected by the pressure distribution detection unit or a change in the pressure distribution. 6. Mobile devices. The portable terminal according to claim 6, wherein the pressure distribution detection unit detects the pressure distribution of the part by one or more piezoelectric elements provided in the another predetermined part.

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