JP2006172230A - Notebook device with handwriting input function and electronic notebook system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a notebook device with a handwriting input function capable of performing a handwriting input by employing general purposely used writing material and paper. <P>SOLUTION: The notebook device having a handwriting input function capable of performing handwriting on paper by using a writing material 10 and inputting handwritten information as handwriting data is provided with an underlay 7 placed under paper at the time of using the writing material 10 to perform a handwriting input; a touch panel part 6 provided on the top face side of the underlay 7 to detect the writing pressure of the writing material 10, an XY coordinates detection circuit for detecting handwriting coordinates on the basis of detection results of the touch panel part 6, and a circuit unit 5 having a protocol processing circuit for applying prescribed protocol processing to coordinates information detected by the XY coordinate detection circuit and an infrared transmission circuit for transmitting data subjected to the protocol processing by the protocol processing circuit. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention is a notebook device having a handwriting input function capable of inputting handwritten information as handwritten data, and an electronic device provided with the notebook device having the handwriting input function, while allowing handwriting on paper using a writing instrument. It relates to a notebook system.

In recent years, an apparatus capable of inputting characters by handwriting, such as an electronic notebook apparatus, is becoming popular. Unlike an ordinary word processor, an apparatus that can input characters by hand can input characters by writing on the board using a pen instead of a keyboard. You can easily input characters as if you were writing on them with a pencil. Compared to the case of using a keyboard, it is not necessary to memorize key positions and the like, so even beginners can easily input characters.
Patent Document 1 discloses a technique related to an electronic pen as a pen-type input device. This electronic pen is used as a pair with special paper on which a predetermined dot pattern is printed. In addition to the normal ink-type pen tip, the electronic pen is equipped with a small camera and communication unit for reading the dot pattern on the special paper. ing. When a user writes characters on the special paper with an electronic pen, the small camera detects the dot pattern on the special paper as the pen moves and acquires input data such as characters written by the user. The communication unit compatible with Bluetooth is transmitted from the electronic pen to a terminal device such as a nearby personal computer or mobile phone.
Patent Document 2 discloses a technique related to a handwriting input device using an imaging device such as a CCD or artificial retina.
JP 2004-046424 A JP 2000-132340 A

However, the conventional handwriting input device has the following drawbacks.
First, it is necessary to use a dedicated object for the writing instrument or the writing medium, which lacks the feeling of operation.
Further, since the entry medium is often other than paper, there is a sense of incongruity for users who write on paper on a daily basis.
In addition, a dedicated input pen used as a writing instrument is difficult to use because it is heavier than a ballpoint pen or the like that is used everyday, and cannot be used when the battery runs out. Also, many entry media are thick and difficult to carry.
Specifically, for example, information terminal devices (information processing devices) such as PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) use a display with a touch panel as an entry medium, but the touch panel surface is made of glass, plastic, etc. A special stylus is recommended so that it is not bad and does not write or hurt directly on the writing surface. Moreover, since there is a gap between the entry surface and the display surface, writing operability is poor.
The electromagnetic induction tablet type handwriting input device requires a dedicated pen using a battery. In addition, the ultrasonic sensor type handwriting input device requires a dedicated pen using a battery as described above, and the receiving device is thick and difficult to use.
The handwriting input device using an imaging device such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or artificial retina disclosed in Patent Document 2 requires an expensive CPU and power to perform image processing, and the detection device is thick. Difficult to use.
Moreover, since the pen-type input device disclosed in Patent Document 1 requires a dedicated pen and a dedicated sheet, the degree of freedom in selecting a sheet is low and the sheet is expensive and difficult to obtain.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above points, and a notebook device having a handwriting input function capable of performing handwriting input using a general-purpose writing instrument or paper, and the handwriting thereof It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic notebook system including a notebook apparatus having an input function.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 is a notebook device having a handwriting input function capable of handwriting on paper using a writing instrument and inputting the handwritten information as handwritten data. An underlay laid under the paper when performing handwriting input using the writing instrument, a touch panel means provided on the upper surface side of the underlay to detect the writing pressure of the writing instrument, and a detection result of the touch panel means Coordinate detection means for detecting handwritten coordinates based on the information, protocol processing means for performing predetermined protocol processing on the coordinate information detected by the coordinate detection means, and data subjected to protocol processing by the protocol processing means are transmitted. And a transmission means.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the notebook device having the handwriting input function according to the first aspect, the transmission means transmits the data by infrared rays.
An invention according to claim 3 is an information processing apparatus comprising: a notebook device having the handwriting input function according to claim 1 or 2; and a receiving means for receiving data transmitted from a transmitting means of the notebook device; The electronic notebook system consisting of

  According to the present invention, the touch panel means for detecting the writing pressure of the writing tool is provided on the upper surface side of the underlay that is laid under the paper when the user performs handwriting input using the writing tool. The handwritten character information can be input to the information processing apparatus by handwriting the character or the like using the writing instrument or paper being used.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an electronic notebook system using a notebook apparatus having a handwriting input function as an embodiment of the present invention.
The electronic notebook system shown in FIG. 1 includes a notebook apparatus 1 and a PDA (information processing apparatus) 51, and the PDA 51 is attached to the notebook main body 3 of the notebook apparatus 1.
The notebook body 3 is attached with a sheet bundle 4 of paper that can be written with a general-purpose writing instrument 10 such as a ballpoint pen, and a circuit unit 5 that houses various circuit blocks and a battery power source. Further, a plastic underlay 7 having a pressure-sensitive touch panel 6 on the upper surface is connected by a joint 8. Note that the thickness of the paper is not limited as long as the writing pressure and resolution can be obtained by the touch panel unit 6 provided on the underlay 7 when writing is performed from above the paper. The thickness may be any thickness (for example, around 0.001 mm). The writing instrument 10 may be anything that has a hard tip, such as a commercially available ballpoint pen or pencil.
In the electronic notebook system configured as described above, when the user lays the underlay 7 under the sheet positioned at the top of the sheet bundle 4 and performs handwriting on the sheet with the writing instrument 10, the handwriting is used as the electronic handwriting on the PDA 51. Is characterized in that it can also be input. That is, the user can input the handwritten character information into the PDA 51 simply by handwriting characters on the paper with the same feeling as a notebook that is used on a daily basis.
In this case, since the writing instrument 10 can use a pen that is normally used by the user, it is easy for the user to use and a battery is not required, so that troublesome processing such as battery replacement is unnecessary.
Moreover, since the underlay 7 on which the touch panel unit 6 is mounted is connected to the notebook main body 3 by the joint 8, the underlay 7 is not dropped and lost.
Further, if the sensitivity of the touch panel unit 6 or the like is set so that only one sheet is set on the underlay 7 in order to obtain a good input resolution in the touch panel unit 6, such an operation is performed daily by the user. Because it is the same as writing characters in the notebook, you can do it without any discomfort.
Further, in this case, since the size of the touch panel unit 6 is a notebook size, the user's elbow or the like does not touch the touch panel, and thus erroneous detection at the touch panel unit 6 can be prevented.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the electronic notebook system shown in FIG.
The notebook device 1 shown in FIG. 2 includes a touch panel unit (touch panel means) 6, a battery power source 11 such as a battery, an XY coordinate detection circuit (coordinate detection means) 12, a protocol processing circuit (protocol processing means) 13, an infrared transmission circuit ( Transmission means) 14 and the like.
The touch panel unit 6 is, for example, a two-dimensional pressure-sensitive touch panel, and converts a user's handwriting into an electric signal when the user performs writing with a writing tool 10 such as a ballpoint pen on a sheet. In addition, it is preferable that the dot pitch of a touchscreen part shall be 0.4 mm or less as a dot pitch used as a handwritten character by a notebook size.
The XY coordinate detection circuit 12 detects the coordinate position of the pen from the detection result of the touch panel unit 6 and also detects the state of the pen (pressing, moving, and lifting the pen) to create coordinate information, state information, and the like.
The protocol processing circuit 13 shapes the coordinate information and status information from the XY coordinate detection circuit 12 into a bit packet that can be interpreted by the touch panel driver of the PDA 51 on the host side, and passes the bit packet to the infrared transmission circuit 14. The infrared transmission circuit 14 wraps this packet with a protocol required by the IrDA (Infrared Data Association) standard and transmits it by infrared rays. The information processing circuits of the XY coordinate detection circuit 12, the protocol processing circuit 13, and the infrared transmission circuit 14 may be realized by microcomputer firmware.
On the other hand, the PDA 51 on the host side includes an infrared receiving circuit 52, a touch panel driver 53, an information processing circuit 54, and the like. The data received by the infrared receiving circuit 52 is subjected to necessary processing by the touch panel driver 53, and the pressing information and coordinate information obtained as a result are output to the information processing circuit 54. In the information processing circuit 54, reception processing is performed in the same manner as an input device conforming to a normal IrDA standard. For example, when a program for executing handwritten character recognition processing is provided as an application, character recognition processing or the like is executed.
As described above, the electronic notebook system of the present embodiment connects the notebook apparatus 1 as the handwriting input apparatus of the PDA 51 using infrared rays. In addition, since most information processing devices such as the PDA 51 can be equipped with the IrDA standard as an infrared communication system as a standard or can be added as an option, the infrared transmission circuit 14 of the notebook device 1 also conforms to the standard. Then, wireless communication between the PDAs 51 can be easily performed. In this case, each circuit unit can be realized by inexpensive general-purpose parts.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a signal processing sequence when handwritten input is performed in the electronic notebook system shown in FIG.
In this case, first, when the user presses the pen to write characters on the paper (S1), the XY coordinate detection circuit 12 performs pen press detection (S2) and XY coordinate detection (S3) to execute the pen press information and the pen. Create coordinate information. Next, the protocol processing circuit 13 composes a pen press packet based on the pen press information and the pen coordinate information (S4), and then transmits the packet (S5). The packet transmitted from the notebook device 1 is received by the touch panel driver 52 of the PDA 51 on the host side (S6), and processing based on the packet is executed.
Next, when the user moves the pen to write characters on the paper (S7), the XY coordinate detection circuit 12 detects XY coordinates (S8) to create pen coordinate information. Next, after the pen processing packet is constructed based on the pen coordinate information in the protocol processing circuit 13 (S9), the packet is transmitted (S10). The packet transmitted from the notebook device 1 is received by the touch panel driver 52 of the PDA 51 on the host side (S11), and processing based on the packet is executed. Such a pen movement process is repeatedly executed until no pen movement is detected. Thereafter, when the user finishes the process of writing characters on the paper and lifts the pen (S12), the XY coordinate detection circuit 12 executes the pen lifting detection process (S13) and the XY coordinate detection process (S14) to hold the pen. Create top information and pen coordinate information. Next, the protocol processing circuit 13 constructs a pen lifting packet based on the pen lifting information and the pen coordinate information (S15), and then transmits the packet (S16). The packet transmitted from the notebook device 1 is received by the touch panel driver 52 of the PDA 51 on the host side (S17), and processing based on the packet is executed.
In the present embodiment, a PDA has been described as an example of a host computer, but a personal computer (PC) or the like may be used.
In this embodiment, information is transmitted from the notebook device 1 to the PDA by infrared rays. However, for example, radio waves may be used or connection may be made by wire.

It is the figure which showed schematic structure of the electronic notebook system using the notebook apparatus which has a handwriting input function as embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of the electronic notebook system shown in FIG. It is the figure which showed the signal processing sequence when handwritten input is performed in the electronic notebook system shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  1 Notebook device, 2, 3 Notebook body, 4 Paper bundle, 5 Circuit unit, 6 Touch panel, 7 Underlay, 8 Joint, 10 Writing instrument, 11 Battery power supply, 12 XY coordinate detection circuit, 13 Protocol processing circuit, 14 Infrared transmission Circuit, 51 PDA, 52 Infrared receiver circuit, 53 Touch panel driver, 54 Information processing circuit

Claims (3)

  A notebook device capable of handwriting on paper using a writing instrument and having a handwriting input function capable of inputting the handwritten information as handwritten data when the handwriting input is performed using the writing instrument. An underlay to be laid down, touch panel means for detecting the writing pressure of the writing instrument, provided on the upper surface side of the underlay, coordinate detection means for detecting handwritten coordinates based on a detection result of the touch panel means, and the coordinate detection means A handwriting input function comprising: protocol processing means for performing predetermined protocol processing on the coordinate information detected by the information processing means; and transmission means for transmitting data subjected to protocol processing by the protocol processing means. Notebook device having   2. The notebook device having a handwriting input function according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting means transmits the data by infrared rays.   3. An electronic device comprising: a notebook apparatus having a handwriting input function according to claim 1; and an information processing apparatus including a receiving means for receiving data transmitted from a transmitting means of the notebook apparatus. Notebook system.

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