JP2008027020A - Writing tool and collation system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a hand-written input storage apparatus capable of highly accurately and digitally storing drawn data simultaneously with performing drawing on paper and reproducing the inclination of a pen without adding a specific device, having strong resistance against dirt on paper and excellent portability. <P>SOLUTION: An electronic tablet is composed of: a pen provided with an antenna and an RF part incorporating a radio wave transceiver; and a pencil board where ICs each provided with an antenna and a radio wave transceiver and to which IDs for indicating respective coordinates are applied on its surface are laid, and the electronic tablet is characterized in that the position of a pen tip is specified by ID information received from each IC, wherein the ID transmitted from the IC is received by the radio wave transceiver and the position of the pen is specified on the basis of the information. The position of the pen chip is specified from a plurality of received ID data, inclination is reproduced from the received ID data and a drawing result similar to data drawn on paper is stored, so that the electronic tablet capable of obtaining high consistency between the drawn data and electronic data can be achieved. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a writing instrument capable of electronic recording, and particularly to a technique effective for use during movement.

Various types of electronic tablets have been proposed as devices for drawing on a personal computer screen.
As the method, the method described in Patent Document 1 is a method of recognizing characters by a camera and reflecting them on a personal computer screen or the like. The method of Patent Document 2 is a method using ultrasonic waves, and Patent Document 3 is a coordinate system. Is provided with a unique unevenness on the drawing surface, and this is read by an optical sensor to recognize the pen tip coordinates. The method disclosed in Patent Document 4 is a method using an electromagnetic induction method. In either case, it is difficult to make the size suitable for portable use while recognizing the coordinates of the pen tip with high accuracy.

  On the other hand, the computerization of social systems is progressing, and with the movement of e-government etc. accompanying it, digitization of documents is progressing. On the other hand, the application of official documents is mainly done by documents. In general, application documents are managed with electronic data and base paper to provide evidence of the application. In order to digitize such application documents, it is necessary to read them with a large device such as a scanner and digitize them, which is not convenient.

JP2002-196873 JP 10-111117 A JP 6-309084 JP 7-44301 A EPC Radio-Frequency Identity Protocols Class-1 Generation-2 UHF RFID Protocol for Communications at 860MHz-960MHz Version 1.0.9

In the method according to Patent Document 1, since a camera is used, the apparatus becomes large and unsuitable for carrying. Moreover, although the method of patent document 2 is a method using an ultrasonic wave, it cannot reproduce inclination and writing pressure. In the optical tablet disclosed in Patent Document 3, in order to read the unevenness of the dots on the paper surface, it is weak against dirt on the paper surface, and it is difficult to reproduce the inclination and the writing pressure. In addition, since dedicated paper is used, there is a problem of high operating costs. The method shown in Patent Document 4 obtains the coordinates of the pen tip using electromagnetic induction. However, a coil for detecting the tilt is required, and a loop coil is embedded under the drawing surface. This is a method for specifying coordinates by sensing voltage or current induced in a loop coil. It is necessary to ensure strength in order to avoid a change in characteristics due to bending of the loop coil under the drawing surface, but there is a possibility that the apparatus becomes large.
In the present invention, a pen with excellent portability, which reproduces the tilt without adding a special device, is resistant to dirt on the paper, draws on the paper, and at the same time can store the drawn data electronically with high definition. The purpose is to provide.

  It consists of a pen with an RF unit that contains an antenna and radio transmitter / receiver, and an underlay with an IC with an antenna and radio transmitter / receiver and an ID that indicates the coordinates. In the electronic tablet characterized by specifying the ID information, the ID transmitted by the IC is received by the radio wave transmitter / receiver, and the pen position is specified based on the information. The position of the pen tip is identified from the received multiple ID information, the tilt is reproduced from the received ID information, and the drawing result is similar to the data drawn on the paper. An electronic tablet with high consistency can be realized.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a writing instrument with an electronic recording function that can be easily carried.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 1, 1 is a pen housing, 2 is a pen unit, 3 is a pressure sensor, 4 is an antenna, 5 is an RF unit, 6 is a processing unit, 7 is a storage unit, 8 is a battery, 9 is an external interface, 10 is a button, 11 is a display, 20 is an underlay, 21 is an RFID, 22 is an RFID ID, and 23 is the current position of the pen tip.

A pen part 2 made of a material that can draw letters or figures and does not affect radio waves transmitted and received from the antenna 4, a pressure sensor 3 that can measure the pressure applied to the pen part 2, and an antenna 4 that transmits and receives radio waves An RF unit 5 that processes radio waves to be transmitted / received from the antenna 4 and a processing unit that determines what radio waves are transmitted / received, controls the RF unit 5, receives information from the pressure sensor 3, and performs processing 6, a recording unit 7 that stores data obtained by digitizing drawn characters, a button 10 that controls page switching, a display unit 11 that displays current setting information, and a battery 8 that supplies current. The pen unit 2 is composed of a pen case 1 and an underlay 20 composed of a plurality of RFIDs 21 having IDs 22 capable of specifying the absolute coordinates of the paper and made of a material that does not interfere with radio wave transmission / reception. Is touched to the current position 23 Then, the pressure sensor 3 reacts with the pressure, the pressure sensor 3 notifies the processing unit 6 of the start of drawing, and the processing unit 6 drives the RF unit and transmits radio waves from the antenna 4.
The RFID 21 is activated by the transmission wave, and the activated RFID 21 transmits the ID 22 on the radio wave and receives it by the antenna 4.

  The radio wave received by the antenna 4 is demodulated by the processing unit via the RF unit, and the ID 22 is determined and stored in the recording unit 7. Since the determined ID 22 includes the coordinate position, the pen tip position 23 can be specified by the received ID 22. By connecting to a portable terminal or the like using the interface 9 and transferring drawing data consisting of ID 22 stored in the recording unit 7, data similar to characters or figures drawn on paper in the portable terminal can be obtained. It can be saved. Further, when the page to be written is switched, the button 10 can be pressed to control the page number of the page on the underlay to match the stored page number. At this time, if the currently stored page number is displayed on the display unit 11, it is possible to provide a function for visually confirming whether the page number matches the page number being drawn.

On the other hand, since the pressure sensor does not react when not drawing, the processing unit determines that there is no writing, and is configured to stop radio wave transmission from the antenna. Since radio waves are not transmitted, power consumption at this time can be suppressed. Further, since there is no recognizable RFID, the RFID transferred to the storage unit automatically becomes 0, and it is possible to easily realize an operation state without writing.
The RFID constituting the underlay may be in a form that conforms to Non-Patent Document 1, but since a writing function for RFID is not required, the RFID writing function can be deleted and used. In Non-Patent Document 1, as a method for enabling simultaneous reading of a plurality of RFDs, time-sharing congestion control using Slotted Aloha or Binary Tree is used. If the data is spread with the assigned ID and the communication is performed by the CDMA system, a plurality of simultaneous readings at the same frequency and the same time can be performed.

  In addition, when the paper surface and the underlay are shifted during writing on the same page, the consistency between the stored data and the drawing result on the paper surface is lost. For this reason, it is preferable to mount a clip on the underlay so that the paper surface and the underlay do not shift. In this case, it is desirable to attach the clip in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction in order to suppress the shift between the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. In addition, it is desirable that the material does not interfere with radio waves transmitted and received from the antenna.

  Next, a specific operation during drawing will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the underlay 20 in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the pen housing 1 is positioned perpendicular to the underlay 20 and the pen tip 23 is in contact with the paper. Then, it is assumed that the drawing start is detected by the pressure sensor 3 and radio waves are transmitted and received from the antenna. It is assumed that the transmission output from the antenna is adjusted so that the range in which the RFID can be activated by the radio wave is a concentric circle 32 centered on the pen tip 23. Further, it is assumed that the RFID displayed in gray at the timing of time T1 can be received as RFID 30, and the RFID displayed in white as RFID 31 that cannot be received. In the same nib 23 as time T1, the reading results at times T2 and T3 are also shown.

  If the antenna is omnidirectional, the RFID activation range is a concentric circle 32 in an ideal environment, but it is actually affected by interference. For this reason, RFIDs that can be activated may vary depending on time even with the same pen tip 23. Even if the RFID can be activated, the establishment that the information from the activated RFID can be received varies depending on the time due to the influence of interference. In T1 seconds of FIG. 2, 1111 ID is an RFID that is erroneously read due to interference. In T2 and T3 seconds, there are RFIDs read in error as well.

  In order to eliminate such a reading error with respect to interference, in this embodiment, among the RFIDs received at times T1, T2, and T3, IDs that can be continuously received at T1, T2, and T3 are taken into the recording unit. Therefore, the ID to be captured is as shown in FIG. In this way, only RFIDs that are less affected by interference can be extracted as received IDs. By obtaining the center of gravity of the received ID, it is possible to specify the position of the pen tip, and by saving this position information in the recording unit, the drawn content can be digitized.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment stores all IDs that can be recognized in the configuration of the first embodiment. Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
In FIG. 4, it is assumed that 101 RFIDs in the x direction and 251 RFIDs in the y direction are evenly spread on the underlay 40 on which RFIDs are spread. With the upper left corner as the origin, in this example, the RFID ID is the left 3 digits as x-axis coordinates and the right 3 digits as y-axis coordinates. Here, it is assumed that when the pen tip is brought into contact with 42, the RFID in the circle indicated by the radius r41 can be read.

  It is assumed that the center of gravity 42 at this time is the horizontal axis 50 and the vertical axis 125. On the other hand, for displaying the read ID on the mobile terminal, when reproducing the characters drawn on the base 40 in the space 44 of the X axis 200 and Y axis 500, the coordinates of the base 40 and the space 44 on the mobile terminal are It is necessary to scale because it is different. Since the coordinates that can be expressed in the underlay are twice in the mobile terminal, the coordinates (x, y) = (50,125) of the center of gravity 42 in the underlay are (X, Y) = (100,250) in the mobile terminal. The center of gravity can be converted to 45.

  Further, since the information transmitted from the pen is not only the center of gravity, the ID in the circle of r41 is transferred to the mobile terminal. The reading range circle is also configured so that it can be scaled by a user's favorite magnification. That is, the RFID reading result in the circle of r41 in the underlay 40 can be displayed as a surface of radius R on the portable terminal. As r41 is larger, the number of IDs that can be read is larger than the number of IDs that cannot be read due to interference, so the detection accuracy of the center of gravity increases. Further, even if the surface constituted by the RFID within the stored radius r is received so as not to be circular due to interference, it can be displayed as almost circular if it is scaled sufficiently small in the portable terminal.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, consider a case where the antenna 2 incorporated in the pen 4 is configured by a directional antenna having the characteristics of the transmission / reception range 50. If the pen is tilted in this configuration, the RFID reception range is affected by the antenna directivity, so that the reception range extends in that direction when the pen is tilted. The antenna shown in gray inside the transmission / reception range 50 can be received by the antenna, and the surface information composed of the received ID can be obtained corresponding to the inclination of the pen 2. If the received ID is also scaled when displayed in the space on the portable terminal, the influence of interference becomes difficult to see and can be displayed as an image reflecting pen tilt information.

  In addition, when the drawing speed is fast and the pen moves during the next reading timing, there is a possibility that the information drawn on the paper surface cannot be sufficiently reproduced on the screen by only the point or surface information. In this case, by linearly interpolating continuous drawing data, it is possible to display it as vector data connecting continuous points and points or surfaces. This method will be described below with reference to FIG.

  In FIG. 6, it is assumed that the first received RFID is in a range indicated by 60. At this time, together with the received ID group, information on the presence or absence of drawing obtained from the pressure sensor is stored in the storage unit as one set. Next, since the received ID is 61 and the received ID group including data with drawing is continuous, linear interpolation is performed between the centroids obtained by determining the information of the received ID group on the portable terminal. If the thickness of the line to be complemented is the same as the size of the surface of the received ID group, it is possible to complement the line with the same line thickness with no sense of incongruity. Since there is no drawing next to the received ID group 61, it can be determined that there is no continuous data. Since there is a received ID group 62 including data with drawing again, and the received ID group 63 continues subsequently, linear interpolation is performed between the received ID groups 62 and 63. In this way, it is possible to store drawing data with high definition closer to the paper surface and display it on the mobile terminal.

  In the previous example, the information received from the pressure sensor has been handled only as binary information indicating the presence or absence of drawing, but is not limited to this. As shown in FIG. 7, the pressure sensor value is paired with the received RFID and stored in the recording unit, and the density of the data drawn on the portable terminal changes according to the pressure sensor value. For example, it is possible to store and display data whose density changes according to writing pressure.

  In addition to this, if the transmission output of the antenna changes according to the value of the pressure sensor, the range of IDs that can be received increases according to the writing pressure. As shown in FIG. 8, when the range is large, the display is set so that the density is high, and the data whose density changes according to the writing pressure is saved and displayed without saving the pressure sensor value. Is possible. When realizing the shading expression method in the second embodiment, the range of the RFID that can be received varies depending on the pressure. Therefore, if the scale is scaled to a range determined in advance by the user at the time of screen display, It can be prevented from changing.

  Further, the pressure sensor value is stored in the recording unit in combination with the received RFID, and the configuration in which the density of data drawn on the mobile terminal changes according to the pressure sensor value, and the pressure sensor value Accordingly, by combining the above-mentioned configuration in which the transmission output of the antenna is changed, it is possible to change the thickness of the character to be displayed by the pressure applied to the pen and change the shading information by the pressure of the pen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention. In the configuration of the first and second embodiments, a timer 12 is added to the pen housing 1. Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
When storing the received RFID information with a pen, the current date and time are obtained from the timer 12, and the RFID information is stored together with the current date and time. Since the stored ID has date and time information, it is possible to search for drawing data input at a specified date and time, and to provide a drawing database that is easy to search.
In addition, date information may be added to page information. In this case, the date / time information may be received from the timer and stored together with the page information at the timing when the button for controlling the page is pressed. Since the date / time information is not saved for each drawing, the storage area can be reduced.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the information provided from this pen case, when drawing data in a single page is transferred as it is and scaled and stored in coordinate information handled in the mobile terminal, the drawing data and the pre-registered data are collated. Is possible. Here, as in the second embodiment, when continuously received IDs are handled as vector data, the vector data and vector data of pre-registered data are collated at the time of collation, and a correlation value is derived. You can determine how much the characters match. In addition, since IDs are stored in chronological order, collation in writing order is also possible.

  In the method of storing a plurality of IDs without storing only the center of gravity, since the inclination information and the thickness information can be known from the plurality of IDs, the inclination and the thickness information and the previously registered inclination and thickness information are used. It is possible to collate and provide a more accurate collation result. If the pressure sensor value is stored at the same time as the received ID, the pressure sensor value can also be used for collation with previously registered data. As described above, by using this embodiment, it is possible to collate with data registered in advance by vector data, writing order, writing inclination, thickness, and writing pressure.

In the case of a system for collating signatures, the person's signature is registered in the system in advance, and the vector data at the time of signing, writing order, writing inclination, thickness, writing pressure and the previously registered signature are If verified, a signature verification system that is extremely difficult to counterfeit can be provided.
Also, as pre-registered data, general character data is registered, vector data at the time of drawing, writing order, writing inclination, thickness, writing pressure and the pre-registered character data are collated, If the character code of the matched character data is replaced with the drawing data, it is possible to provide a character recognition engine with a high recognition rate.

  In addition, when vector data, stroke order, writing inclination, thickness, and writing pressure are saved as data, the handwriting on the paper written in the past is traced, the vector data, stroke order, and writing time By comparing the inclination, thickness, and writing pressure with stored vector data, the writing order, the writing inclination, thickness, and writing pressure, it is possible to easily retrieve data drawn in the past.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 10 shows the configuration of the first and second embodiments, in which the coordinates displayed on the underlay and the portable terminal are expanded in three dimensions with a depth. In this embodiment, the plurality of RFIDs embedded in the underlay are assigned IDs 70 characterized by their three-dimensional coordinates, and the coordinates of the center of gravity obtained from the result of receiving the plurality of IDs are on the mobile terminal. This corresponds to the three-dimensional coordinates 71 such as the display space. If you want to draw a figure or text on an object with a complicated shape and store the result electronically and display it on the screen of a mobile terminal, you can embed RFID in the object with the complicated shape as in the above configuration and read the RFID It becomes possible to cope with this.

  RFID is not limited to the configuration embedded in the underlay. For example, if the configuration is embedded in a desk, an electronic tablet can be configured using only a pen. In addition, if it is configured to embed RFID in the building and carry a transceiver as a pen, the information of multiple IDs read is processed as in the present invention, so there is less influence of interference and a high-precision traveling locus Can be saved. Moreover, although the portable terminal was taken as an example of the display device, this electronic tablet can also be used as an electronic tablet having a display device such as a personal computer or a TV.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the pen and underlay in Example 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the enlarged drawing of the draft in Example 1, and RFID which could be read for every time. It is a figure which shows ID which could be received in Example 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the underlay in Example 1, 2 and the data displayed on a portable terminal. It is a figure which shows a RFID recognition range when the pen in Examples 1 and 2 is slanted. It is a figure which displays the coordinate information of ID received continuously in Examples 1 and 2 by linear interpolation. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the pressure sensor output in Examples 1 and 2, writing pressure, and drawing density. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the pen pressure in Example 1, 2 and a pressure sensor output, transmission output, a reading range, and a density | concentration. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a pen in Example 3. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the underlay in Example 5, and the data displayed on a portable terminal.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... pen housing, 2 ... pen unit, 3 ... pressure sensor, 4 ... antenna, 5 ... RF unit, 6 ... processing unit, 7 ... memory unit, 8 ... battery, 9 ... interface, 10 ... button, 11 ... display 12 ... Timer, 20 ... Underlay, 21 ... RFID, 22 ... RFID ID, 23 ... Needle point in contact with underlay, 30 ... Received RFID, 31 ... Unreceived RFID, 32 ... In ideal state RFID reception range, 40 ... underlay, 41 ... radius of RFID range received in a circle, 42 ... nib, 43 ... RFID ID associated with coordinates, 44 ... space on PC to display stored drawing data , 45: Pen point coordinates on the screen, 46: Radius of the RFID range received in a circle, scaled by the user specified magnification to display on the screen, 47 ... Coordinates on the screen, 50 ... Antenna transmission / reception range 60 ... Received ID group 1, 61 ... Received ID group 2, 62 ... Received ID group 3, 63 ... Received ID group 4, 70 ... 3rd order With ID characterized in coordinates, RFID embedded within the underlay, 71 ... three-dimensional coordinates of the display space on the mobile terminal.

Claims (11)

  It consists of a pen with an antenna and radio transmitter / receiver, and an underlay with an antenna and radio transmitter / receiver, and an IC with an ID that indicates the coordinates. The position of the pen tip is based on the ID information received from the IC. An electronic tablet characterized by identification.   2. The electronic tablet according to claim 1, wherein the IC to which the ID indicating the coordinates is assigned is an RFID.   The electronic tablet according to any one of claims 1 and 2, wherein a material other than metal is used as a material for the pen including the antenna and the radio wave transmitter / receiver so as not to interfere with radio waves transmitted / received from the antenna. .   The electronic tablet according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a pencil lead or a structure in which ink is drawn at a pen tip so that writing can be performed on a paper surface by the pen.   5. The electronic data stored in the pen is divided into pages, a button for controlling the page is provided, and page information in which current drawing data is written is displayed. The electronic tablet as described in any one.   The pressure sensor is provided in the pen, the pressure applied to the pen tip is sensed by the pressure sensor, and the transmission output from the antenna is adjusted according to the pressure. Electronic tablet.   Read the RFID information a plurality of times, extract only the RFID information that could be reliably read from the plurality of RFID reading results, and use this extracted information as the RFID information for determining the pen tip position The electronic tablet according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein   The electronic tablet according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein a center of gravity of a received range is specified from the plurality of received IDs, and the center of gravity is stored as coordinates of a pen tip.   9. The electronic tablet according to claim 1, wherein the received plurality of IDs are stored and reduced and displayed at a predetermined magnification at the time of display.   10. The electronic tablet according to claim 6, wherein the information of the pressure sensor and the received ID information are stored as a set. When collating drawing data with the electronic tablet according to any one of claims 1 to 10, the received ID information is collated with the information attached thereto, and the collation accompanying the electronic tablet is characterized in that system.

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