JP2562344Y2 - Coordinate input device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coordinate input device capable of changing a coordinate signal based on a change in capacitance.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional coordinate input device, a mouse, a trackball, a controller, a cursor key and the like are known. A coordinate signal output by these coordinate input devices is specified only through a relative operation of confirming a cursor position displayed on a display such as a CRT, and only a state of an operation unit of the coordinate input device is determined. In addition, it is not possible to specify a coordinate signal from, and it is not possible to assume a standard of the coordinate signal.

[0003]

On the other hand, in recent years, the use of dedicated computers, multifunctional home remote controllers, sophisticated game software, and diversified places of use have been advanced in recent years. Therefore, instead of a conventional coordinate input device that specifies a coordinate signal by a relative operation, an absolute operation in which the coordinate input device itself can specify a coordinate signal or assume a standard of the coordinate signal. There is a long-awaited demand for a coordinate input device that is excellent in operability that can perform the above.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and can be used for a wide range of applications such as computers, game machines, and other audio-visual equipment, and has a CR
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coordinate input device which is excellent in operability because a coordinate position on a display such as T always corresponds to a state of an operation unit. Another object of the present invention is to provide a coordinate input device that can easily achieve miniaturization, high performance, and long life.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a coordinate input device comprising a first electrode surface having four divided electrode surfaces in a circumferential direction.
The four electrode surfaces of the member and the electrode surface provided on the second member are opposed to each other at an interval, and the four electrode surfaces of the first member are
A movable plate made of a conductor is slidably disposed in all directions between the electrode surface of the member via an insulating layer, and an operation unit for sliding the movable plate is connected to the movable plate. A connection terminal is connected to each of the four electrode surfaces of one member and the electrode surface of the second member.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a coordinate input device in which four electrode surfaces of a first member having electrode surfaces divided into four in a circumferential direction and an electrode surface provided on a second member are spaced apart from each other. A movable plate made of a material having a high dielectric constant is disposed between the four electrode surfaces of the first member and the electrode surface of the second member so as to be slidable in all directions. An operation unit for sliding a plate is connected, and connection terminals are connected to each of the four electrode surfaces of the first member and the electrode surface of the second member.

[0007]

According to the invention of claim 1, for example, a potential is applied between the four electrode surfaces of the first member and the electrode surface of the second member,
When the position of the movable plate made of a conductor is changed, the capacitance between the electrodes of the first member and the second member changes according to the position of the movable plate. Therefore, it is possible to extract a differential voltage based on the change in the capacitance and output a coordinate signal. Further, it is possible to specify the position of the movable plate or assume the position of the movable plate depending on the state of the operation unit.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the movable plate itself is formed of a material having a high dielectric constant, the structure is simplified and the thinning is facilitated.

[0009]

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing components constituting a main part of a coordinate input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a first member, 2 denotes a second member, and 3 denotes a movable plate. The first member 1 includes an insulating substrate 11
The electrode surface 12 divided into four at every 90 degrees in the circumferential direction
a, 12b, 12c, and 12d,
A central opening is provided with a rectangular opening 13 having the same aspect ratio as that of a display (not shown). Each electrode surface 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d has a connection terminal 14 formed therein.
a, 14b, 14c, and 14d are connected. The second member 2 is provided with one electrode surface 22 on the entire surface on one side of the insulating substrate 21, and the opening 13 of the first member 1 is provided at the center.
An opening 23 having the same shape and size as above is provided, and a connection terminal 24 is connected to the electrode surface 22. A printed wiring board can be used for the first member 1 and the second member 2. The movable plate 3 is made of a disc-shaped conductor, and has a center hole 31 at the center. This movable plate 3 has a printed wiring board 32 on which copper foils 33, 33 are formed on both sides and the copper foils 33, 33 on both sides are short-circuited via through holes.
(See FIG. 4) can be diverted, in which case the through hole can be used as the center hole 31. The movable plate 3 can be made of a conductor such as a copper plate or a dielectric such as a plate made of a polymer material.

As shown in FIG. 4, four electrode surfaces 21 of the first member 1 are provided.
a, 21b (the electrode surfaces 21c, 21d are not shown in the drawing) and the electrode surface 21 of the second member 2 are opposed in parallel at an interval. The movable plate 3 is slidably disposed in all directions between the four electrode surfaces 21 a, 21 b, 21 c, 21 d of the first member 1 and the electrode surface 22 of the second member 2 via the insulating layers 4, 4. You. In FIG. 4, which is an embodiment of the invention of claim 1, an air layer is used as the insulating layers 4, 4, but as the insulating layers 4, 4, as shown in FIG. It is also possible to use a film or an insulator coat covering the conductive portion of the movable plate 3.

Each of the four electrode surfaces 12a, 12b, 12c, and 12d of the first member 1 having the three-layer structure described above, the second electrode 2, and the movable plate 3 cooperate to form a variable capacitor. Here, as shown in FIG. 5, two opposing electrode surfaces 12a and 12b of the first member 1 are made to correspond to the X axis,
When the other two opposing electrode surfaces 12c and 12d correspond to the Y axis, the movable plate 3 set at four different positions indicated by reference numerals w, x, y, and z in FIG. Each of the electrode surfaces 12a, 12b, 12c, and 12d has a different overlapping state. Therefore, the movable plate 3 is connected to the first member 4
By sliding between the two electrode surfaces 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d and the electrode surface 22 of the second member 2, the four electrode surfaces 12a, 12b, 12c,
Various overlapping states of 12d can be set, and the respective overlapping states differ depending on the position of the movable plate 3. Thus, coordinate signals in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction can be output.

FIG. 6 illustrates a bridge circuit for extracting a coordinate signal in the X-axis direction. In this bridge circuit, when the movable plate 3 slides rightward from the reference position p shown in FIG. 5 or slides leftward from the reference position p, the X-axis direction of the first member 1 is changed. The capacitance between the two electrode surfaces 12a and 12b and the electrode surface 22 of the second member 2 changes, the balance of the bridge circuit shown in FIG. 6 is lost, and a differential voltage is generated between Va and Vb. Although not shown, the same applies to a bridge circuit for extracting a coordinate signal in the Y-axis direction. Therefore, by processing the coordinate signal in the X-axis direction and the coordinate signal in the Y-axis direction, the synthesized coordinate signal can be displayed on a display (not shown). In this case, the position of the movable plate 3 corresponds to the position of the coordinate signal displayed on the display. If a differential signal between Va and Vb is extracted and a coordinate signal is output as described above, variations in component accuracy and errors due to environmental factors are canceled out, so that accurate detection can be performed. Become.

Next, a specific configuration for configuring the coordinate input device will be described. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a coordinate input device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing some components of the coordinate input device.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 51 denotes a back cover, on which a battery 52 as a power source and a wiring board 54 on which various necessary electronic components 53 are mounted are mounted. In the coordinate input device shown in the figure, a decision switch 55 constituted by a key switch or the like, a start switch 56, and a cancel switch 57 are mounted on a wiring board 54, and an optical element or a high-frequency element as a transmitter 58 is provided. It is installed. Then, the key plate 61 is arranged on the decision switch 55 in an overlapping manner, and the key top 62 is arranged on the start switch 56 and the cancel switch 57 in an overlapping manner.

Then, between the front cover 71 and the key plate 61, the first member 1 having the three-layer structure described above and the movable plate 3
And the second electrode 2 are interposed. The first member 1 and the second member 1
The space between the member 3 is secured by the spacer 10 shown in FIG. 3, and the space between the second member 3 and the wiring board 54 is secured by the spacer 20 shown in FIG. An operation knob 73 and a button 74 are arranged on the front cover 71 via a mask ring 72.

The shaft portion 75 of the button 74 has a central hole 73a of the operation knob 73 and a central hole 72 of the mask ring 72.
a through the opening 71a of the front cover 71 and the connecting shaft 34 provided on the movable plate 3 side shown in FIG.
The back cover 51 and the front cover 71 are connected as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 77 denotes a cover arranged on the entire surface of the transmitter 58.

With this configuration, the operation knob 73 is slidable in all directions, and the movable body 3 follows the movement of the operation knob 73 so that the movable body 3 is moved to the four electrode surfaces 1 of the first member 1.
2a, 12b, 12c, 12d and electrode surface 2 of second member 2
Slide between two. Then, regardless of the position of the operation knob 73, pressing the button 74 turns on the confirmation switch 55. When the keytop 62 is depressed, the start switch 56 or the cancel switch 57 is turned on.

Therefore, it is possible to display a coordinate signal on the display or to output the coordinate signal from the transmitter 58 by employing the control method represented by the block diagram shown in FIG.

By the way, the coordinate input device according to the present invention comprises:
Four electrode surfaces 12a, 12b, 12c, 1 of the first member 1
A non-contact structure of detecting a change in capacitance of a variable capacitor constituted by 2d, the electrode surface 22 of the second member 2, and the movable plate 3 is employed. Therefore, the mutual distance δ1 between each electrode surface (denoted by reference numeral 12) of the first member 1 and the electrode surface 22 of the second member 2 shown in FIGS.
Only by managing the precision of the thickness δ2 of the movable plate 3 and the accuracy of the coordinate input is possible. That is, the movable body 3 is
Even if it is deviated to any one between the first member 1 and the second member 2 as shown in FIG. 8, or if it is inclined between the first member 1 and the second member 2 as shown in FIG. It is independent of the accuracy of the output coordinate signal. The above δ1 is 1.6 m
m can be set in advance.

In the coordinate input device according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the printed wiring board 32 (see FIG. 4) having the copper foils 33, 33 short-circuited on both sides as the movable plate 3 is diverted. doing. That is, the movable plate 3 according to this embodiment is formed using a dielectric material made conductive by the copper foils 33, 33, and a coordinate input device using such a movable plate 3 is industrially produced. Useful above.

However, the movable plate itself is made of a material having a high dielectric constant, and such a movable plate is composed of the four electrode surfaces 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d of the first member 1 and the electrode surfaces 22 of the second member 2. May be slidably disposed in all directions. The coordinate input device according to the second aspect of the present invention adopts such a configuration. That is, the movable plate used in the coordinate input device according to the second aspect of the present invention is not made of a conductor, but the movable plate itself is made of a material having a high dielectric constant. According to such a coordinate input device, since the thickness of the movable plate can be reduced, the electrode surface 12 of the first member 1 can be reduced.
a, 12b, 12c, 12d and the electrode surface 22 of the second member 2
Can be reduced, which contributes to the miniaturization and thinning of the coordinate input device. In addition,
In the coordinate input device according to the second aspect of the present invention, other configurations are the same as those of the coordinate input device according to the first aspect of the present invention.

[0023]

According to the input device of the first and second aspects of the present invention, it is possible to specify a coordinate signal to be output according to the state of the operation unit or to assume the coordinate signal. Therefore, when displaying the coordinate signal on the display, the display position of the coordinate signal is assumed from the state of the operation unit, and the operability is extremely improved.

Further, since the input device of the present invention employs a non-contact structure for detecting a change in capacitance, it facilitates miniaturization, high performance, long life and high reliability. In addition to the above, there is an effect that a high-precision coordinate signal can be output only by controlling the accuracy of the distance between the first member and the second member and the thickness of the movable plate. In particular, according to the invention of claim 2, since the movable plate itself is formed of a material having a high dielectric constant, there is a useful effect that the structure is simplified and the thickness can be easily reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a coordinate input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing some components of the coordinate input device.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing components constituting a main part of the coordinate input device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a cross section of an overlapping state of a first member, a movable plate, and a third member.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a movable range of a movable plate with respect to four electrode surfaces of a first member.

FIG. 6 is a bridge circuit diagram used to output a coordinate signal in the X-axis direction.

FIG. 7 is an operation explanatory view.

FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory view.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of an overlapping state of a first member, a movable plate, and a third member.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st member 2 2nd member 3 Movable plate 4 Insulating layer 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d Four electrode surfaces 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d of 1st member Connection terminal on the electrode surface side of 1st member 22 2nd member Electrode surface 24 Connection terminal 73 on the electrode surface side of second member 73 Operation knob (operation section)

Claims (2)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] An electrode surface of a first member having an electrode surface divided into four in a circumferential direction and an electrode surface of a second member are opposed to each other at an interval. A movable plate made of a conductor is disposed between the two electrode surfaces and the electrode surface of the second member via an insulating layer so as to be slidable in all directions, and an operation unit for sliding the movable plate on the movable plate Are connected, and connection terminals are connected to each of the four electrode surfaces of the first member and the electrode surface of the second member. 2. Four electrode surfaces of a first member having electrode surfaces divided into four in the circumferential direction and electrode surfaces provided on a second member are opposed to each other at an interval, and four electrode surfaces of the first member are provided. A movable plate made of a material having a high dielectric constant is slidably disposed between the two electrode surfaces and the electrode surface of the second member, and an operation unit for sliding the movable plate on the movable plate is provided. A coordinate input device, wherein a connection terminal is connected to each of the four electrode surfaces of the first member and the electrode surface of the second member.