JP2007286928A - Touch panel control device and graffiti-writing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress deterioration of processing speed caused by an elongated bit length of digital signal. <P>SOLUTION: In a cellular phone 1, input of a digital signal of a predetermined bit length showing coordinates of a user's instruction position in an input screen of a touch panel 300 with a predetermined resolution is received from the touch panel 300, and the received digital signal is converted to a digital signal of a bit length shorter than the predetermined bit length, which shows the coordinates of the user's instruction position in the input screen with a resolution lower than the predetermined resolution. The converted digital signal is used in processing for acquiring the user's instruction position. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a touch panel control device and a drawing device, and particularly to a technique for suppressing a decrease in processing speed.

  Some computers use a touch panel as an input device. The touch panel is an input device having an input surface, and outputs a digital signal having a predetermined bit length indicating the coordinates of a position touched by the user on the input surface (user specified position) with a predetermined resolution to the touch panel control device of the computer. To do. Patent Documents 1 and 2 describe specific examples of touch panels.

In recent years, the resolution of a touch panel has increased, and accordingly, the bit length of a digital signal output from the touch panel has increased. In a specific example, one that represents one coordinate with 10 bits appears.
JP 2000-20474 A JP-A-10-31257

  By the way, the touch panel normally outputs in units of 1 byte (8 bits), and the touch panel control apparatus also processes information byte by byte. For this reason, if one coordinate is represented by a 10-bit digital signal as described above, processing of one coordinate is completed by two times of information processing by the touch panel control device, and one coordinate is represented by 8 bits. Compared with the case where the digital signal is represented, the processing speed is reduced.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel control device and a drawing device that can suppress a decrease in processing speed due to an increase in the bit length of a digital signal.

  A touch panel control device according to the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problem is a digital signal input receiving means for receiving, from a touch panel, an input of a digital signal having a predetermined bit length indicating the coordinates of a user-instructed position on the input surface with a predetermined resolution. A digital signal for converting the digital signal received by the digital signal input receiving means into a digital signal having a bit length shorter than the predetermined bit length indicating coordinates of a user-designated position on the input surface with a resolution lower than the predetermined resolution. Signal conversion means, and the digital signal converted by the digital signal conversion means is used for processing for obtaining the user-instructed position.

  According to this, since the touch panel control apparatus shortens the bit length of the digital signal, it is possible to suppress a decrease in processing speed due to an increase in the bit length of the digital signal.

  Further, in the touch panel control device, the digital signal received by the digital signal input receiving means shows, by a part thereof, the coordinates of the user-designated position on the input surface at a resolution lower than the predetermined resolution, The digital signal after the conversion by the digital signal conversion means may be constituted by the part of the digital signal before the conversion.

  According to this, the digital signal can be converted by a simple process of acquiring a part of the plurality of bits constituting the digital signal.

  Further, in each of the touch panel control devices, based on either the digital signal received by the digital signal input receiving unit or the digital signal after conversion by the digital signal converting unit according to the user instruction position, the user instruction User-instructed position acquisition means for acquiring a position may be further included.

  For example, a handwriting area where an arbitrary figure can be written may be provided on the input surface. When the user writes in the handwriting area, if the processing speed is slow, the display does not follow the hand movement, and the user feels stress. For this reason, in the handwriting area, the processing speed is more important than the accuracy of the user instruction position.

  According to the touch panel control device, the digital signal before the conversion and the digital signal after the conversion are determined depending on whether or not the user instruction position is a position in an area where the processing speed is more important than the accuracy of the user instruction position. The user-instructed position can be acquired based on one of the signals. That is, if necessary, it is possible to suppress a decrease in processing speed due to an increase in the bit length of the digital signal.

  In addition, a drawing device according to the present invention includes the touch panel control device, and a drawing area for inputting an arbitrary figure and another area are provided on the touch panel, and the user-instructed position is provided. Includes an area determination unit that determines whether the drawing area or the other area is located, and the user instruction position acquisition unit is configured to position the user instruction position in the drawing area by the area determination unit. If determined, the user-instructed position is acquired based on the digital signal converted by the digital signal converting means, and the user-instructed position is determined to be located in the other area by the area determining means. And acquiring the user instruction position based on a digital signal received by the digital signal input receiving means. It is characterized in.

  According to this, when the user-instructed position is a position within the drawing area, it is possible to suppress a decrease in processing speed due to an increase in the bit length of the digital signal, and at a position within another area. In some cases, the position can be acquired with high accuracy.

  In the drawing apparatus, when the area determining unit determines that the user-instructed position is located in the drawing area, a predetermined instruction is obtained based on the user-instructed position acquired by the user-instructed position acquiring unit. The image processing apparatus may further include a drawing processing unit that performs a drawing process.

  Further, in each of the above drawing devices, the other area is an icon area in which one or more icons for operating instructions are provided, and when the user instruction position is located in the other area by the area determining means. If determined, icon processing means for detecting the icon touched by the user from among the one or a plurality of icons based on the user instruction position acquired by the user instruction position acquisition means, and performing processing related to the icon It is good also as including.

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

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an appearance of a mobile phone 1 according to the present embodiment. The mobile phone 1 is a foldable mobile phone that functions as a touch panel control device, and includes a touch screen 10, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 20, a power button 30, a selection button 31, and a scroll button 32. The

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a system configuration of the mobile phone 1. As shown in the figure, the mobile phone 1 includes a CPU 100, a memory 101, a voice input / output unit 102, a baseband processing unit 103, an LCD control unit 104, a memory 105, a touch panel control unit 106, a memory 107, a touch screen 10, and an LCD 20 It is comprised including.

  The CPU 100 performs processing related to control and communication of each unit of the mobile phone 1. The memory 101 stores various data used for the processing of the CPU 100.

  The voice input / output unit 102 includes a microphone and a speaker, collects a voice uttered by a user, outputs the voice as an electrical signal to the CPU 100, converts the electrical signal input from the CPU 100 into a voice, and outputs the voice.

  The baseband processing unit 103 receives a radio signal from a base station apparatus (not shown), converts it to a signal having a predetermined frequency (baseband frequency), and outputs the signal to the CPU 100. Also, the signal input from CPU 100 is converted into a radio signal and transmitted to the base station apparatus.

  The touch screen 10 includes a touch panel 300, and its input surface also functions as an LCD 301 that is a display device. When the user touches the input surface, the touch panel 300 acquires a digital signal (here, 10 bits) having a predetermined bit length indicating the coordinates of the touch position (user instruction position) on the input surface with a predetermined resolution. The data is output to the control unit 106. The LCD 301 displays information in accordance with instructions from the LCD control unit 104.

  The LCD 20 is also a display device that displays information in accordance with instructions from the LCD control unit 104. As described above, the touch screen 10 also includes a display device, and the mobile phone 1 includes two display devices.

  The LCD 301 and the LCD 20 include an LED (Light-Emitting Diode) 302 and an LED 200, respectively. Both the LED 302 and the LED 200 function as a backlight.

  The touch panel control unit 106 controls the touch panel 300. The memory 107 stores various data used for processing of the touch panel control unit 106.

  Touch panel control unit 106 receives an input of a digital signal from touch panel 300. The touch panel control unit 106 displays the digital signal thus received in a bit length shorter than the predetermined bit length (10 bits) (here, 8 bits) indicating the coordinates of the touch position on the input surface with a resolution lower than the predetermined resolution. To a digital signal. Furthermore, either the digital signal before conversion or the digital signal after conversion is output to the CPU 100 in accordance with the touch position indicated by the digital signal. The CPU 100 acquires coordinate information indicating the touch position on the input surface using the digital signal input from the touch panel control unit 106 in this way.

  The LCD control unit 104 controls the LCD 301 and the LCD 20. In addition, information input from the CPU 100 is displayed on the LCD 20 or the LCD 301. The memory 105 stores various data used for processing of the LCD control unit 104.

  Hereinafter, functions related to the operation of the mobile phone 1 by the user will be described.

  The power button 30, the selection button 31, and the scroll button 32 are operation means provided in the mobile phone 1 as hardware. On the other hand, the touch screen 10 realizes operation means by software. Hereinafter, each will be described in detail.

  The power button 30 is a push button for turning on / off the power of the mobile phone 1. When the user presses the power button 30, the power of the mobile phone 1 is switched on / off.

  The selection button 31 and the scroll button 32 are used when the user selects an object (icon, link, etc.) displayed on the LCD 20. That is, the user uses the scroll button 32 to highlight one of the one or more objects displayed on the LCD 20. When the user presses the selection button 31 while an object is highlighted, the CPU 100 starts processing corresponding to the object.

  Next, operation means realized by the touch screen 10 will be described. FIG. 1 shows an initial state (initial screen) of the screen displayed on the input surface of LCD 301, that is, touch panel 300. As shown in the figure, in the initial state, “drawing”, “outgoing”, “incoming”, “E-MAIL”, “0” to “9”, “*”, “#” icons are displayed on the LCD 301. Is displayed.

  When the user touches the “call” icon, the CPU 100 acquires coordinate information indicating the coordinates of the position where the “call” icon is displayed. When this coordinate information is acquired, the CPU 100 detects that the “call” icon has been touched, and starts the call process.

  At this time, the destination telephone number or the like is specified by the user touching each of the icons “0” to “9”, “*”, or “#”. Also at this time, the CPU 100 acquires coordinate information indicating the coordinates of the position where the icon touched by the user is displayed. By acquiring this coordinate information, the CPU 100 detects that each of the icons “0” to “9”, “*”, or “#” is touched.

  When the user touches the “incoming” icon, the CPU 100 acquires coordinate information indicating the coordinates of the position where the “incoming” icon is displayed. When this coordinate information is acquired, the CPU 100 detects that the “incoming” icon has been touched. When the CPU 100 detects that the “incoming” icon has been touched while receiving an incoming call, the CPU 100 starts incoming processing.

  When the user touches the “E-MAIL” icon, the CPU 100 acquires coordinate information indicating the coordinates of the position where the “E-MAIL” icon is displayed. When this coordinate information is acquired, the CPU 100 detects that the “E-MAIL” icon has been touched, and starts a predetermined process related to the e-mail.

  When the user touches the “drawing” icon, the CPU 100 acquires coordinate information indicating the coordinates of the position where the “drawing” icon is displayed. When the coordinate information is acquired, the CPU 100 detects that the “drawing” icon has been touched, and changes the screen displayed on the LCD 301 from the initial state to the “character input / drawing” screen.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a “character input / drawing” screen displayed on the LCD 301. As shown in the figure, the “character input / drawing” screen is provided with an icon area, a drawing area, and a keyboard area. In the icon area, a transmission icon, an incoming call icon, a line width selection icon, an eraser icon, a color use presence / absence designation icon, a color selection icon, and the like are displayed. When the user touches this icon area, the CPU 100 detects an icon touched by the user from among the icons, and performs processing related to the icon.

  The processing of the CPU 100 when the user touches the outgoing call icon and the incoming call icon is the same as the processing described above when the user touches the “outgoing” icon and the “incoming” icon on the initial screen.

  The drawing area is composed of a plurality of dots. The user sequentially moves the touch position, and inputs characters and pictures using the locus. At this time, the CPU 100 sequentially acquires coordinate information according to each touch position, and performs a predetermined drawing process based on the coordinate information.

  Specifically, the dot touched by the user is acquired from the coordinate information, among the dots constituting the drawing area.

  The user selects the thickness of the line when drawing a character or picture in the drawing area using the line width selection icon. CPU100 acquires a dot from coordinate information according to the thickness of the line selected by the user.

  In addition, the user designates whether or not to use a color by using a color use presence / absence designation icon.

  When it is specified that the color is used, the memory 101 determines which dot constitutes the drawing area and the color information (black, white, red, yellow, blue, transparent, etc.). Are stored in association with each other. The color information may be information indicating a gray scale. The user further designates a color by a color selection icon. The CPU 100 causes the memory 101 to store the dot acquired as described above and the color designated by the color selection icon when the dot is acquired in association with each other.

  Note that the user can also specify the eraser mode with the eraser icon. While the eraser mode is designated, the CPU 100 associates the dots acquired as described above with the transparent color and stores them in the memory 101.

  When it is designated that the color is not used, the memory 101 associates each dot constituting the drawing area with touch information indicating that it is touched or non-touch information indicating that it is not touched. Remember. The CPU 100 stores the dots acquired as described above and the touch presence information in the memory 101 in association with each other.

  In this case, when the user wants to change the information with touch stored in association with each dot to information without touch, the user designates the eraser mode with the eraser icon. While the eraser mode is designated, the CPU 100 stores the dot acquired as described above and the non-touch information in the memory 101 in association with each other.

  The CPU 100 performs display on the LCD 301 based on the stored contents of the memory 101. The CPU 100 performs the drawing process as described above.

  Next, details of the processing of the touch panel control unit 106 when the “character input / drawing” screen is displayed on the LCD 301 will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating functional blocks of the touch panel control unit 106. As shown in the figure, the touch panel control unit 106 includes ADCs (Analog-to-Digital Converters) 110 and 111, registers 112 to 114 and 116 to 118, majority circuits 115 and 119, a multiplexing unit 120 and 121, an area determination unit 123, a payload generation unit 124, a header generation unit 125, a sequencer 126, a register 127, and a register / latch 128.

  The touch panel 300 has a quadrangular input surface, and hereinafter, the direction of one side is referred to as an X-axis direction, and the direction orthogonal to the X-axis direction is referred to as a Y-axis. The touch panel 300 continuously acquires a resistance value corresponding to the position on the input surface touched by the user by a predetermined number of times (here, three times) in each of the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction, and the ADC 110 and the touch panel 300 respectively. Output to the ADC 111.

  The ADC 110 and the ADC 111 convert the resistance value input from the touch panel 300 into a digital signal. Hereinafter, a digital signal obtained for one resistance value is referred to as a unit digital signal. Here, the bit length of this unit digital signal is 10 bits. In this way, the touch panel control unit 106 receives an input of a unit digital signal from the touch panel 300. The ADC 110 and the ADC 111 output unit digital signals obtained by the conversion to the register 112 and the register 116, respectively.

  Each of the registers 112 to 114 stores the input unit digital signal. When the next unit digital signal is input while storing the unit digital signal, the register 112 outputs the stored unit digital signal to the register 113. When the next unit digital signal is input while storing the unit digital signal, the register 113 outputs the stored unit digital signal to the register 114. When the next unit digital signal is input while the unit digital signal is being stored, the register 114 discards the stored unit digital signal. As a result, the unit digital signals for each of the three resistance values acquired by the touch panel 300 three times are stored in the registers 112 to 114, respectively.

  The majority circuit 115 decides a unit digital signal stored in each of the registers 112 to 114 by one bit. As a result, for each bit, a value that appears twice or more is output to the multiplexing unit 120 as a true value.

  The multiplexing unit 120 reconstructs the unit digital signal based on the value output from the majority circuit 115 and outputs the unit digital signal to the payload generation unit 124.

  The registers 116 to 118, the majority circuit 119, and the multiplexing unit 121 also reconfigure unit digital signals in the same manner as the registers 112 to 114, the majority circuit 115, and the multiplexing unit 120, and output the unit digital signals to the payload generation unit 124.

  The payload generation unit 124 generates a payload part of a digital signal (hereinafter referred to as an output digital signal) to be output to the CPU 100 from the unit digital signals output from the multiplexing unit 120 and the multiplexing unit 121.

  The area determination unit 123 acquires the area to which the touch position belongs based on the unit digital signal output from the multiplexing unit 120 and the multiplexing unit 121. That is, it is determined whether the user has touched the icon area, the drawing area, or the keyboard area, and area information indicating the touched area is acquired.

  In addition, the CPU 100 causes the register 127 to store the content specified by the color use presence / absence specification icon and the content specified by the color selection icon.

  The header generation unit 125 generates a header portion of an output digital signal to be output to the CPU 100 based on the area information acquired by the area determination unit 123 and the stored contents of the register 127.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an output digital signal generated by the header generation unit 125 and the payload generation unit 124. As shown in the figure, the output digital signal is composed of a header portion and a payload portion. The header portion includes the content specified by the color use presence / absence designation icon and area information. In addition, when the designation content in the color use presence / absence designation icon is to use a color, the designation content in the color selection icon is also included in the header portion. The payload portion includes a unit digital signal in the X-axis direction and a unit digital signal in the Y-axis direction.

  The output digital signal thus generated is output to the register / latch 128. The register latch 128 stores the output digital signal thus input.

  The sequencer 126 acquires area information from the header portion of the output digital signal. Then, the output digital signal is converted according to the area information. Specifically, a part of the payload portion of the output digital signal stored in the register latch 128 is discarded. More specifically, only when the area information indicates a drawing area, a part of the payload portion of the output digital signal stored in the register latch 128 is discarded.

  More specifically, the unit digital signal indicates the coordinates of the touch position with a resolution lower than the predetermined resolution by a part (more specifically, upper 8 bits). The sequencer 126 is configured by only the part (upper 8 bits) by discarding the remaining part (lower 2 bits) other than the part (upper 8 bits) of each unit digital signal included in the output digital signal. Unit digital signal to be included in the payload portion of the output digital signal.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a digital signal after conversion performed in this way. As shown in the figure, the payload portion of the converted digital signal is composed of an 8-bit unit digital signal.

  The CPU 100 acquires the digital signal stored in the register / latch 128 in this way, and acquires coordinate information indicating the touch position on the input surface using the digital signal. Further, the CPU 100 performs either the drawing process or the icon process based on the area information included in the header portion of the digital signal.

  As described above, since the touch panel control unit 106 shortens the bit length of the payload portion of the output digital signal, it is possible to suppress a decrease in processing speed due to an increase in the bit length of the output digital signal.

  In addition, the output digital signal can be converted by a simple process of acquiring a part of the plurality of bits constituting the payload portion.

  Furthermore, the touch panel control unit 106 determines whether the touch position is a position in an area (drawing area) where the processing speed is more important than the accuracy of the touch position. The user-instructed position can be acquired based on either the digital signal or the converted output digital signal, and as a result, processing speed reduction due to an increase in the bit length of the output digital signal can be suppressed as necessary. can do.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a mobile phone has been described, but the present invention can be widely applied to a touch panel control device.

  In the above embodiment, the majority circuit 115 has a large number of unit digital signals for three times. However, the number of unit digital signals is not limited to three, but may be determined for a large number of unit digital signals (an odd number is desirable).

It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the mobile telephone which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the "character input / drawing" screen which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the functional block of the touchscreen control part which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the output digital signal before the conversion which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the output digital signal after the conversion which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  1 mobile phone, 10 touch screen, 20, 301 LCD, 30 power button, 31 selection button, 32 scroll button, 100 CPU, 101, 105, 107 memory, 102 voice input / output unit, 103 baseband processing unit, 104 LCD control 106, touch panel control unit, 110, 111 ADC, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 127 register, 115, 119 majority decision circuit, 120, 121 multiplexing unit, 123 area determination unit, 124 payload generation unit, 125 header generation unit, 126 sequencer, 128 register latch, 200, 302 LED, 300 touch panel.

Claims (6)

A digital signal input accepting means for accepting an input of a digital signal having a predetermined bit length indicating the coordinates of the user-designated position on the input surface at a predetermined resolution from the touch panel;
A digital signal for converting a digital signal received by the digital signal input receiving means into a digital signal having a bit length shorter than the predetermined bit length, which indicates coordinates of a user-designated position on the input surface at a resolution lower than the predetermined resolution. Conversion means;
Including
The digital signal converted by the digital signal conversion means is used for processing for obtaining the user-instructed position.
A touch panel control device characterized by that. The touch panel control device according to claim 1,
The digital signal received by the digital signal input receiving means shows the coordinates of the user-designated position on the input surface at a resolution lower than the predetermined resolution, by a part of the digital signal.
The digital signal after conversion by the digital signal conversion means is constituted by the part of the digital signal before conversion.
A touch panel control device characterized by that. The touch panel control device according to claim 1 or 2,
User instruction position acquisition means for acquiring the user instruction position based on either the digital signal received by the digital signal input reception means or the digital signal after conversion by the digital signal conversion means according to the user instruction position. ,
The touch panel control device further comprising: A touch panel control device according to claim 3,
On the touch panel, a drawing area for inputting an arbitrary figure and another area are provided,
Area determining means for determining whether the user-designated position is located in the drawing area or the other area;
The user instruction position acquisition means includes
When it is determined by the area determining means that the user-instructed position is located in the drawing area, the user-instructed position is acquired based on the digital signal converted by the digital signal converting means,
If the area determining means determines that the user-instructed position is located in the other area, the user-instructed position is acquired based on a digital signal received by the digital signal input receiving means.
A drawing device characterized by that. The drawing apparatus according to claim 4,
A drawing processing unit for performing a predetermined drawing process based on the user instruction position acquired by the user instruction position acquisition unit when the area determination unit determines that the user instruction position is located in the drawing area;
A drawing device further comprising: In the drawing apparatus according to claim 4 or 5,
The other area is an icon area in which one or more icons for operating instructions are provided,
When the area determining unit determines that the user-instructed position is located in the other area, the user touches one of the one or more icons by the user-instructed position acquired by the user-instructed position acquiring unit. An icon processing means for detecting the icon and performing a process related to the icon;
A drawing device characterized by that.

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