JP2010287032A - Input device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an input device allowing improvement of input operability by preventing that a screen component is concealed by a hand or the like of an operator. <P>SOLUTION: This input device includes a display pattern storage part 17 storing a position wherein display of the screen component is not shielded by an operation object associatively to a direction from which the operation object such as the hand of the operator touches a touch face as a display position of the screen component. By determining the display position wherein the display is not shielded by the operation object from the display pattern storage part 17 based on the direction of the operation object, the screen component is displayed on a screen of a display device 12 according to the touch of the touch face. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a touch input type input device.

  In recent years, devices including a touch input type input device have been widely used in various devices. A touch panel input device applied to a device such as a mobile phone terminal is generally limited to personal use, but there is also a device in which a plurality of people perform input operations on the same touch panel. For example, an installed navigation system is disposed between a driver seat and a passenger seat, and an operation from the driver seat direction and an operation from the passenger seat are performed on the same touch panel.

In such a touch input type input device, for example, there is an input device disclosed in Patent Document 1 as a conventional technique for performing display according to operability and operation direction.
In the input device of Patent Document 1, by determining from which direction the operator who is viewing the operation screen is performing an operation depending on whether or not an identification signal is received, the operator sees the operation screen in the direction of viewing. An appropriate image can be displayed.

  Further, in Patent Document 2, in order to improve the operability of character input, ten keys for hiragana character input are arranged as one set, and two sets of keys are arranged symmetrically in the vertical direction, thereby being right-handed. And a left-handed user have proposed a structure that allows easy character input.

JP 2007-94612 A Japanese Patent No. 3249791

  In the conventional input device, even when the same touch panel is operated from different directions, the user interface is generally constant regardless of the operation direction. For this reason, a part of the screen is hidden by the operator's hand depending on the operation direction, and there is a problem that the operability is deteriorated.

  Further, Patent Document 1 determines from which direction the operator is operating on the operation screen, but in the in-vehicle information device equipped with the dual view LCD, screens displayed separately for the passenger seat and the driver seat. On the other hand, it is determined from which side the operation is performed, and the solution to the above-described deterioration in operability is not considered.

  Furthermore, since the key group is fixedly arranged in Patent Document 2, in this Patent Document 2, the key may be hidden by the operator's hand depending on the operation direction.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an input device capable of preventing the screen parts from being hidden by the operator's hand and the like and improving the input operability. Objective.

  An input device according to the present invention touches a touch surface of a touch type input unit, a touch type input unit that touches and inputs a touch surface, a display unit that displays a screen corresponding to the touch surface of the touch type input unit, Sensor means for detecting the operation article, determination means for determining from which direction the operation article touches the touch surface based on the detection position of the operation article detected by the sensor means, and the display position of the screen component The first storage means for storing the position at which the display of the screen component is not shielded by the operation article in association with the direction in which the operation article touches the touch surface, and the operation article specified by the determination means Processing means for displaying a screen component on the screen of the display means according to the touch on the touch surface by determining a display position from which the display is not shielded by the operation article from the first storage means based on the direction. Is shall.

  According to the present invention, as the display position of the screen component, the first storage unit that stores a position where the display of the screen component is not shielded by the operation article in association with which direction the operation article touches the touch surface. And displaying a screen part on the screen of the display unit according to the touch on the touch surface by determining a display position where the display is not shielded by the operation item from the first storage unit based on the direction of the operation item. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent the screen parts from being hidden by the operator's hand and the like and to improve the input operability.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the input device by Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the determination process of an operator direction. It is a figure for demonstrating the other example of the determination process of an operator direction. It is a figure which shows an example of the data content which a display pattern storage part hold | maintains. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of operations performed by the input device according to the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example which applied the input device of Embodiment 1 to the software keyboard. It is a figure which shows the other example of the data content which a display pattern storage part hold | maintains. It is a figure for demonstrating the case where the reduction process of a screen component is performed with the software keyboard shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process which determines the start and completion | finish of a pop-up display according to the presence or absence of an operator's hand detection. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the input device by Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the input candidate prediction dictionary classified by direction. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the input log | history dictionary classified by operator direction. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of operations performed by the input device according to the second embodiment.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an input device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and shows a case where the input device of Embodiment 1 is applied to a character input system in a car navigation system. 1, an input device 10 according to the first embodiment includes a touch input device (touch type input unit) 11, a display device (display unit) 12, a sensor (sensor unit) 13, an input determination unit (determination unit) 14, An input processing unit (processing unit) 15, a drawing position determination unit (processing unit) 16, a display pattern storage unit (first storage unit) 17, and a drawing processing unit (processing unit) 18 are provided.

  The touch input device 11 is an input device that accepts a touch operation. When a touch operation is received from the operator, the touch input device 11 outputs coordinates on the touch surface corresponding to the touch position to the input determination unit 14. The display device 12 is an output device that displays feedback of input from the touch input device 11. In FIG. 1, a general display device that displays a screen having the same content even when viewed from a plurality of directions is used. However, a display device (multi-view monitor) that can display different screen contents depending on the viewing direction is used. Also good.

  The sensor 13 is a detection device that detects where the operator's hand is on the touch surface of the touch input device 11. As this detection method, for example, when infrared rays or ultrasonic waves are used for the probe, the sensor 13 is arranged around the touch surface of the touch input device 11 to change the reflected waves of the infrared rays and ultrasonic waves. It is conceivable to monitor as an electrical signal. Further, an image processing technique for recognizing the position of the operator's hand from an image captured by the camera may be used.

  The input determination unit 14 acquires the signal from the sensor 13 at the timing when the signal from the touch input device 11 is output, and based on the acquired signal, from which direction the left, right, upper, and lower sides of the touch surface is input. It is the component which determines. Further, the input determination unit 14 calculates coordinates according to the touch position on the touch surface based on a signal from the touch input device 11, and the direction in which the operator performs an input operation on the touch surface (hereinafter referred to as the operator). Output to the input processing unit 15.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of the operator direction determination process, and an infrared sensor is used as the sensor 13. As shown in FIG. 2, an infrared sensor is arranged as a sensor 13 around the display screen of the display device 12 (the touch surface of the touch input device 11 is arranged in the upper layer).
By detecting infrared reflected waves with the sensor 13, it can be seen that the operator's hand is on the infrared sensor. The input determination unit 14 receives the detection signal of the reflected wave from the sensor 13 and determines whether the detection signal is from the region 1 or the region 2 so that the operator direction is the left direction. It is determined whether there is a right direction.

  In the example of FIG. 2, the area is divided only into the area 1 and the area 2. However, as shown in FIG. 3, the area is further divided to indicate that the operator direction is the left direction (right direction). In addition to 1 (region 2), a region other than the left and right direction may be detected by defining region 3 (region 4) indicating that the operator direction is the upward direction (downward direction). The areas 1 to 4 may be further divided so that the operator directions in various directions can be detected.

  The input processing unit 15 is a component that generates a screen component to be displayed on the display device 12 based on coordinates according to the touch position input from the input determination unit 14. The drawing position determination unit 16 is a component that determines the display position of the screen component generated by the input processing unit 15 with reference to the display pattern data stored in the display pattern storage unit 17. The drawing processing unit 18 is a component that performs screen display on the screen of the display device 12 based on a drawing instruction from the input processing unit 15.

  The display pattern storage unit 17 is a storage unit that stores display pattern data. The display pattern data is a screen ID assigned for each screen content displayed on the screen of the display device 12, and a component ID assigned to a screen component (for example, a pop-up display component) displayed on the screen specified by this screen ID. And the display coordinates of the screen parts corresponding to the operator direction are at least associated with each other.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of data contents held by the display pattern storage unit. As shown in FIG. 4, the display pattern data includes a screen ID, a screen component displayed on the screen specified by the screen ID, and a screen component display corresponding to the operator direction (left direction and right direction in FIG. 4). Coordinates (coordinate positions on the touch surface) are associated with each other. The drawing position determination unit 16 refers to the display pattern data in the display pattern storage unit 17 based on the screen ID, the screen component, and the operator direction, thereby specifying the coordinate position where the screen component is to be displayed.

In this way, the coordinates for displaying the pop-up component are uniquely determined in advance from the screen ID, the screen component, and the operator direction as the display pattern data. In addition, for example, as a function of the drawing processing unit 18, a certain number of pixels is provided on the right side of the touch position for input from the left direction (conversely on the left side of the touch position for input from the right direction). You may make it determine the display coordinate of a screen component dynamically, such as displaying a screen component in a distant place.
If the coordinate position is dynamically determined, the screen component may protrude from the image display area on the screen. In this case, the problem can be avoided by displaying the screen component above (or below) a certain number of pixels away from the touch position.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of operations performed by the input device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the input device according to the first embodiment is applied to a software keyboard. Hereinafter, the contents of FIG. 6 will be described with reference to FIG. The software keyboard shown in FIG. 6 determines input characters with two touches. First, “a”, “ka”, “sa”, “ta”, “na”, “ha” are the first characters in each line of the 50-note table. The input character is determined by selecting from “”, “MA”, “YA”, “RA”, and “WA”, and then selecting a character belonging to the selected line.

  First, when an operator performs touch input to the touch input device 11 (step ST1), the touch input device 11 detects the touch input from the operator and inputs the touch position coordinates on the touch surface. To the unit 14. At time (1) shown in FIG. 6, the operator depresses (touch input) the row key “ka” button 19 a from the left direction among the twelve key buttons displayed and arranged on the display screen of the display device 12. ing. As a result, the touch position coordinates of the row key “ka” button 19 a are output from the touch input device 11 to the input determination unit 14.

  When the touch position information is output from the touch input device 11, the input determination unit 14 acquires a detection signal of the sensor 13 for the touch input as a trigger, and the operator's hand is present based on the detection signal. The area on the touch surface to be determined is determined, and the direction of the operator is determined (step ST2). Further, the input determination unit 14 determines, based on the touch position information input from the touch input device 11, which screen component displayed on the display device 12 is touched.

  In the example of FIG. 6, the input determination unit 14 inputs a detection signal (sensor information) from the sensor 13 at a timing when the touch input device 11 outputs touch position information, and the touch input is performed based on the sensor information. It is determined that the operation direction is the left direction. Further, the input determination unit 14 determines based on the touch position information input from the touch input device 11 at this time that the row key “ka” button 19 a is pressed by the operator.

  Subsequently, the input processing unit 15 performs processing corresponding to the touch position coordinates, and generates screen information (screen component) to be displayed on the display device 12 according to this processing (step ST3). In the example of FIG. 6, when the input processing unit 15 specifies that the row key “ka” button 19 a is pressed from the touch position information, “ka” is a character string belonging to the “ka” row as the subsequent processing. It is determined that selection buttons for “”, “ki”, “ku”, “ke”, “ko” and “return” should be displayed. In response to this processing, the input processing unit 15 generates screen parts for six selection buttons 19b for selecting “ka”, “ki”, “ku”, “ke”, “ko”, and “return”.

  Next, the drawing position determination unit 16 determines the coordinates at which the screen component generated by the input processing unit 15 is to be displayed (step ST4). For the determination of the coordinate position, the drawing position determination unit 16 inputs information specifying the screen component and the operator direction from the input processing unit 15, and display pattern data stored in the display pattern storage unit 17 based on this information. The coordinate position where the screen component is to be displayed is determined by referring to.

  For example, the screen ID for specifying the screen at the time (2) in FIG. 6 and the screen parts corresponding to the screen parts generated by the input processing unit 15 (“ka” “ki” “ku” “ke” “ko” “return”) 4 on the basis of the selection button 19b) and the operator direction (in this case, "left direction"), the display pattern data shown in FIG. 4 is referred to and "ka" "ki" "ku" "ke" "ko" "return" The coordinates for displaying the selection buttons 19b are determined and acquired. The drawing position coordinates acquired by the drawing position determination unit 16 are fed back to the input processing unit 15.

  In step ST5, the input processing unit 15 creates layout information of the display screen on which the screen components are arranged based on the drawing position coordinates acquired from the drawing position determination unit 16, and draws a drawing instruction based on the layout information. Output to. The drawing processing unit 18 displays a screen according to the drawing instruction from the input processing unit 15 on the display device 12.

  In FIG. 6, after the position coordinates of the screen component to be drawn are determined, the input processing unit 15 instructs the drawing processing unit 18 to draw, so that “ka” “ki” is displayed as in the screen shown at the time point (2). Selection buttons 19b of “”, “K”, “K”, “K”, and “Return” are displayed on the screen of the display device 12. At this time, since the operator direction is the left direction, the selection button 19b is shifted to the right side of the screen so as not to be hidden by the operator's hand.

  Also, time points (3) and (4) shown in FIG. 6 indicate screen displays when the operator direction is the right direction. Even in this case, processing is performed in the same manner as described above, and the display position of the selection button 19b is set to the left side of the screen, thereby avoiding a problem that the selection button 19b is hidden by the operator's hand, leading to improved operability. .

  As shown in the screen at time (2) shown in FIG. 6, the selection buttons 19b for “ka”, “ki”, “ku”, “ke”, “ko”, and “return” are temporarily displayed (hereinafter referred to as pop-up display). By doing so, the selection buttons of “sa”, “ha”, “ra”, and “→” that were originally displayed on the screen are hidden. In order to select these buttons, it is necessary to end the pop-up display by pressing the “return” button of the selection button 19b pop-up displayed.

In the display pattern data shown in FIG. 4, screen components are registered in association with the screen to be displayed and its display position. For this reason, when a screen component is displayed in a pop-up manner, a screen component that is hidden by the pop-up-displayed screen component can be specified from among the screen components displayed before that.
Therefore, in order to make it possible to select a button that was displayed before the pop-up is displayed, the display coordinate position of the button hidden by the pop-up display in the screen displayed before the pop-up display is shown in FIG. It is registered in advance in the display pattern data.
For example, in FIG. 6, the drawing position determination unit 16 is also hidden when determining the coordinates of the selection buttons 19 b of “ka”, “ki”, “ku”, “ke”, “ko”, and “return”. The coordinate positions of the buttons “sa”, “ha”, “ra”, and “→” are also acquired, and the position that is not hidden by the pop-up display of the selection button 19b is specified. The drawing processing unit 18 may display the buttons “sa”, “ha”, “ra”, and “→” at the position specified by the drawing position determination unit 16 (move to the specified position).

  Further, as described above, when there is no space on the display screen of the display device 12 where the position of the button is shifted, the button size may be reduced on the screen in addition to the change of the display position. For example, in addition to the display pattern data shown in FIG. 4, information on the screen part size after reduction is included as shown in FIG. 7, so that the pop-up display is based on the screen ID, the screen part, and the operator direction. The display coordinates and size of the screen parts can be determined. In this case, if “no reduction” is registered in the “size after reduction” item in FIG. 7, the screen parts generated by the input processing unit 15 are displayed without reduction, and if the size is specified, The screen parts are reduced according to the size specification. The reduced size is set by determining in advance a size that can be displayed in an empty space in consideration of the size of the screen and screen components.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a case where the screen part reduction processing is performed using the software keyboard shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, when the row key “ka” button 19 a is pressed, “sa”, “ha”, “ha”, “ka”, “ki”, “ku”, “ke”, “ko”, and “return” selection buttons 19 b are displayed. “→” selection buttons were hidden, but as described above, the display pattern data shown in FIG. 7 is referred to, the display position for pop-up display is changed, and the screen parts are reduced. As shown in FIG. 8, all buttons can be displayed on the display screen.

  Further, when the “return” button is pressed on the screen where the pop-up is displayed as shown in FIG. 6 (2), the pop-up display of the selection button 19b can be terminated, but when the operator's hand is not detected for a certain period of time. The pop-up display may be terminated assuming that the input operation has been completed.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for determining the start and end of the pop-up display in accordance with the above-described presence / absence of the operator's hand.
First, the input determination unit 14 starts pop-up display on the screen of the display device 12 by the drawing processing unit 18, and then starts acquisition of sensor information from the sensor 13 (step ST1a). Next, the input determination unit 14 determines and specifies the direction of the operator's hand (operator direction) based on the sensor information from the sensor 13 (step ST2a).

  Subsequently, the input determination unit 14 determines whether or not it is the first measurement after pop-up display on the screen of the display device 12 (step ST3a). Here, in the case of the first measurement (step ST3a; YES), the input determination unit 14 stores the operator direction determined in the current measurement in a memory (not shown), and waits for a predetermined time (FIG. 9 shows). , Waiting for 100 msec) (step ST6a), the process returns to step ST1a and the above process is repeated.

  In the case of the second and subsequent measurements (step ST3a; NO), the input determination unit 14 previously measured based on the sensor information of the sensor 13 (the direction of the operator's hand) and the operator measured this time It is determined whether or not the direction is the same (step ST4a). At this time, if the operator direction is the same (step ST4a; YES), the input determination unit 14 determines that the same operator's hand is on the screen, and determines the operator direction determined in the current measurement as described above. After storing in the memory, the process returns to step ST1a through the process of step ST6a, and the above process is repeated.

  When the operator directions are different (step ST4a; NO), the input determination unit 14 determines that the same operator's hand is not on the screen and ends the pop-up display on the current screen (step ST5a).

If it is determined in step ST4a that the operator's hand is not anywhere on the screen during the current measurement, the process may proceed to step ST5a.
In the process shown in FIG. 9, when the operator's hand leaves the screen, it is determined that the intention to continue the input operation is lost, and the pop-up display is terminated. By doing so, the pop-up display can be terminated without performing an explicit termination operation such as pressing the “return” button.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, as the display position of the screen component, the operation object such as the hand of the operator touches the touch surface from which direction and the screen is displayed on the operation object. A display pattern storage unit 17 for storing a position where the display of the component is not shielded is provided, and a display position where the display is not shielded by the operation article is determined from the display pattern storage unit 17 on the basis of the direction of the operation article. Screen components are displayed on the screen of the display device 12 in response to the touch.
By configuring in this way, it is possible to prevent the screen parts from being hidden by the operator's hand, and to improve the input operability. For example, when a dialog box, a message box, a menu, a help character string, or the like is popped up on the front screen of the display device 12, the operability can be improved by popping up the screen at a position not hidden by the operator's hand. .

  Further, according to the first embodiment, among the screen components originally displayed on the screen, the input processing unit 15 displays the display pattern data shown in FIG. By referencing, at least one of processing of changing the display position and reducing the component size is performed. By doing in this way, it becomes possible to visually recognize and select the screen component that was originally displayed before the pop-up display without performing the operation of erasing the pop-up display, and the operability can be improved.

  Further, according to the first embodiment, the input determination unit 14 determines whether or not the operator's hand is on the touch surface after pop-up display based on the sensor information from the sensor 13 and performs input processing. When the input determination unit 14 determines that the operator's hand is not on the touch surface for a predetermined time, the unit 15 deletes the pop-up display without waiting for an operation to delete the pop-up display, and displays the pop-up display. Display the previous screen part. By doing so, there is no need to explicitly perform an operation for deleting the pop-up display, and the operability can be improved.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the input device according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. 10, in addition to the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the input device 10A according to the second embodiment includes a character input candidate prediction unit 20 and a direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit 21.
In FIG. 10, the drawing position determination unit 16 and the display pattern storage unit 17 are not shown. 10, components having the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 have the same or similar functions and configurations as those in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.

The character input candidate predicting unit (character string predicting unit) 20 is a component that predicts a character string to be input later from characters input by the operator to the touch input device 11.
The direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit (second storage unit) 21 is a storage unit that holds an input candidate prediction dictionary (prediction dictionary) referred to in the prediction process by the character input candidate prediction unit 20. Yes, different dictionaries are stored in association with the operator direction.

  For example, in the display pattern storage unit 17, display positions for each prediction candidate of the dictionary held by the direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit 21 are registered for each operator direction. The character input candidate prediction unit 20 notifies the drawing position determination unit 16 when selecting a prediction candidate for each operator direction from the direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit 21 as described later. The drawing position determination unit 16 determines the display position of the prediction candidate notified from the character input candidate prediction unit 20 with reference to the display pattern storage unit 17 based on the operator direction specified by the input determination unit 14. Thereafter, by performing the same procedure as in the first embodiment, a prediction candidate is displayed at a position that is not hidden by the operator's hand on the screen of the display device 12.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary. As shown in FIG. 11, the direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit 21 has list information in which the operator direction is associated with the dictionary used in accordance therewith, and the character input candidate prediction unit 20 Refers to a dictionary specified in each operator direction when performing input prediction.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 12, each time the character input candidate prediction unit 20 performs input prediction, for example, an operator input history dictionary is created for each operator direction (for example, left and right) to generate direction-specific input candidate prediction. It is stored in the dictionary data holding unit 21. By doing in this way, a prediction candidate can be extracted from the character input log | history information according to operator direction, and input efficiency can be improved.

Next, the operation will be described.
FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations performed by the input device according to the second embodiment, and details of the operations will be described with reference to FIG.
First, when an operator performs touch input to the touch input device 11 (step ST1b), the touch input device 11 detects the touch input from the operator and inputs the touch position coordinates on the touch surface. To the unit 14. When the touch position information is output from the touch input device 11, the input determination unit 14 acquires a detection signal of the sensor 13 for the touch input as a trigger, and the operator's hand is present based on the detection signal. The area on the touch surface to be determined is determined, and the direction of the operator is determined (step ST2b).

Subsequently, based on the touch position information input from the touch input device 11, the input determination unit 14 determines which screen component displayed on the display device 12 corresponds to the touch position. Here, it is assumed that the row key “ka” 19a shown in FIG. 6 is selected.
The input processing unit 15 specifies that the first input character is “ka” based on the row key “ka” 19 a determined from the touch position information by the input determining unit 14.

  When the character input candidate prediction unit 20 inputs the input character “ka” specified by the input processing unit 15 and the operator direction obtained by the input determination unit 14 in step ST2b, the character input candidate prediction unit 20 uses the operator direction and the input character. Then, the content stored in the direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit 21 is searched to determine a dictionary from which the input prediction candidates are extracted, and input candidates corresponding to the input characters are predicted from the determined dictionary (step ST3b). The input candidates acquired by the character input candidate prediction unit 20 are fed back to the input processing unit 15.

  In step ST <b> 4 b, the input processing unit 15 creates screen layout information for displaying input candidates acquired from the character input candidate prediction unit 20, and outputs a drawing instruction based on the layout information to the drawing processing unit 18. The drawing processing unit 18 displays input candidates on the screen of the display device 12 in accordance with a drawing instruction from the input processing unit 15.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the input character string prediction candidates registered in association with the direction in which the operation object such as the hand of the operator touches the touch surface is registered. When a character is input by touch with an operation article, the input candidate prediction dictionary corresponding to the direction of the operation article specified by the input determination section 14 is directed to the direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding section 21 that stores the candidate prediction dictionary. A character input candidate prediction unit 20 that selects from another input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit 21, refers to the input candidate prediction dictionary, and determines a prediction candidate of an input character string predicted from an input character; By having such a configuration, when there is a relationship between the operator direction and the tendency of the genre of the input vocabulary, it is possible to increase the efficiency of character input by using different input prediction candidate dictionaries for each operator direction. is there.
For example, if the passenger seat is mainly related to entertainment operations such as AV, and the driver seat is mainly used to operate navigation, the passenger seat is related to the genre tendency of the input vocabulary. For operations from the direction, input candidates are displayed from an entertainment dictionary such as music, and for operations from the driver's seat direction, input candidates are displayed from a navigation dictionary such as a facility name.

  Further, according to the second embodiment, the direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit 21 holds the character input history information for each operator direction, and therefore predicts input candidates from the character input history information for each operator direction. And input efficiency can be increased.

  10, 10A input device, 11 touch type input device (touch type input means), 12 display device (display means), 13 sensor (sensor means), 14 input determination unit (determination unit), 15 input processing unit (processing unit) 16 drawing position determination unit (processing unit), 17 display pattern storage unit (first storage unit), 18 drawing processing unit (processing unit), 19a, 19b selection button, 20 character input candidate prediction unit (character string prediction unit) ), 21 Direction-specific input candidate prediction dictionary data holding unit (second storage unit).

Claims (6)

Touch-type input means for inputting by touching the touch surface;
Display means for displaying a screen corresponding to the touch surface of the touch input means;
Sensor means for detecting an operation article touching the touch surface of the touch-type input means;
Determination means for determining from which direction the operation object touches the touch surface based on a detection position of the operation object detected by the sensor means;
First display means for storing a position at which the display of the screen component is not shielded by the operation article, in correspondence with which direction the operation article touches the touch surface as a display position of the screen component;
Based on the direction of the operation article specified by the determination means, a display position at which the display is not shielded by the operation article is determined from the first storage means, so that the screen component is displayed according to the touch on the touch surface. An input device comprising processing means for displaying on a screen of the means. When the first screen component is displayed, the first storage means displays the operation screen as the display position of the second screen component that is blocked by the first screen component at the initial display position. Memorize the position away from the display position of the first screen component without being shielded;
When displaying the first screen part in response to the touch, the processing means moves from the initial display position to the display position determined from the first storage means and displays the second screen part. The input device according to claim 1. The first storage means stores the reduced size of the screen component,
The processing unit displays the screen component as the reduced size when the screen component deviates from the display screen of the display unit at the display position determined from the first storage unit. The input device according to claim 2. When the screen component is popped up in response to the touch on the touch surface, the determination unit determines the presence / absence on the touch surface of the touched operation article from the detection result of the sensor unit,
The processing unit deletes the pop-up display of the screen component when the determination unit determines that the operation article does not exist on the touch surface for a predetermined time. The input device according to claim 1. A second storage unit that stores a prediction dictionary in which prediction candidates of the input character string are registered in association with which direction the operation article touches the touch surface;
When a character is input by touch with the operation article, the prediction dictionary corresponding to the direction of the operation article specified by the determination unit is selected from the second storage unit, and the input is performed by referring to the prediction dictionary. A character string predicting means for determining a prediction candidate of the input character string predicted from the received character,
5. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit displays a prediction candidate of the input character string determined by the character string prediction unit on a screen of the display unit.   6. The input device according to claim 5, wherein the character string predicting means updates the prediction dictionary of the second storage means with a history of character strings input by touch with an operation article.

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