JP2637440B2 - Cursor control method - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a cursor control device, and more particularly to a cursor control device for controlling display of a cursor.

[Related Art] Normally, in a document processing device represented by a word processor or the like, kanji converted by kana-kanji conversion or the like is arranged at a cursor position displayed on a display screen.
At this time, the cursor position is usually updated sequentially according to the character input.

By the way, after a document is created by repeating the above-described operation or during the process, there are many requests for correction or insertion of the document.

Therefore, it is necessary to move the cursor to a position where the need is felt. Conventional means used for responding to such a request has been achieved by providing a key for controlling the movement of the cursor (often a key for moving the cursor up, down, left and right) and pressing the key.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when the cursor is moved to the target position using a key for controlling such cursor movement, the operation must be performed using the cursor control key. It was very troublesome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and the cursor can be moved to the target position at a stretch by simply touching the panel corresponding to the target position, and the cursor position is determined in a non-contact state. A further object of the present invention is to provide a cursor control device in which the operability is improved by changing the pattern of the cursor during the contact and the non-contact state.

[Means for Solving the Problem] In order to solve this problem, the cursor control device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a display control means for displaying a cursor pattern on a display screen, a substantially transparent panel arranged on the display screen, a position detection means for detecting a contact position on the panel, A cursor display position changing means for changing a display position of a cursor pattern based on the cursor pattern; and a position detecting means for detecting a contact position on a panel corresponding to the display position of the cursor pattern. And a change unit for changing the other pattern to the cursor pattern when the state is changed from a state where the contact is detected to a non-contact state.

[Operation] In the configuration of the present invention, by touching a desired position on the panel, the cursor is moved to a position corresponding to the contact position, and the cursor position is determined in a non-contact state. Then, during the contact, the user is notified by changing the cursor pattern.

Embodiment An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Description of Schematic Configuration of Apparatus (FIG. 1)> FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a document processing apparatus in the embodiment.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a CPU for controlling the entire apparatus, which operates according to a program stored in a program area 2a in the memory 2. In the program area 2a, a program relating to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 7, which will be described later, is stored after a document editing program. In the document area 2b in the memory 2, document information being edited is expanded. Reference numeral 3 denotes a VRAM, and the image data developed here is displayed on a CRT 4 which is one of display devices. 5 is a character font ROM, for example, a document area 2
It is used to expand the character pattern corresponding to the character code in b into VRAM3. Reference numeral 6 denotes a transparent pressure-sensitive touch panel located on the front of the display screen of the CRT 4, and position information touched by an operator's fingertip is taken into the CPU 1. In addition, 7 is a keyboard for inputting various information, and 8 is an external storage device capable of storing a plurality of document information. Reference numeral 9 denotes a speaker which is used when the touch panel 6 is pressed and released with a finger and when various states are acoustically notified to the outside.

<Explanation of Operation at Menu Selection (FIGS. 2 to 4)> Menu selection in the embodiment is to manually specify icons indicating various processing contents displayed on the display screen. Specifically, the user designates the touch panel 6 corresponding to the icon displayed on the CRT 4 by pressing the surface of the touch panel 6 with a finger or the like (see FIG. 2).

 The processing of the CPU 1 is as follows.

That is, when the operator presses on the touch panel 6,
The CPU 1 reads the coordinate position, inverts the corresponding icon, and notifies which icon (menu) has been selected. However, the processing of the menu is not executed unless the finger is once released from the touch panel 6.

 There are two reasons for this.

First, if the content of the icon designated by the finger is immediately executed, for example, when there is a menu during the execution process, there is a fear that one process is selected without confirming the menu content. Because there is. The second is a response when an unintended icon is selected.

Therefore, in the embodiment, when the designation of the icon is determined, the finger is released from the touch panel 6. For example, in FIG. 2, even if the operator erroneously selects "Menu B" in spite of the intention to select "Menu C", the operator keeps the state as it is (the state where the finger keeps pressing the touch panel). Then, select "Menu C". At this time, the icon of “Menu B” is normally displayed, and it goes without saying that “Menu C” is highlighted this time. Then, the operator confirms that “Menu C” is highlighted and releases the finger from the touch panel 6 to execute the “Menu C” process.

In short, as shown in FIG. 3, another icon can be selected from the time point α when the touch panel 6 is pressed to the time point β when the finger is released.

Explaining the above-mentioned processing contents as the processing procedure of the CPU 1, the flowchart is as shown in FIG.

First, in step S1, menus (icons) indicating various processing contents are displayed on the CRT 4. Next, in step S2, the process waits until the touch panel 6 is pressed with a finger or the like. When it is detected that the surface of the touch panel 6 has been pressed with a finger or the like, only the corresponding menu is highlighted in the next step S3, and the next step S4 is to execute the step S3 until the finger leaves the touch panel 6. That is, during this time, the menu selection can be changed. If it is detected in step S4 that the finger has left the touch panel 6, the processing of the corresponding menu (the icon that has been inverted) is executed.

When an area in which no icon is displayed is pressed with a finger, it is determined that no icon is specified.

<Explanation of Cursor Control (FIGS. 5 to 7)> Next, control of the cursor at the time of document editing in the embodiment will be described.

FIG. 5A shows a display example of a document. Reference numeral 50 in the figure indicates a cursor.

By the way, in the embodiment, when the document is being edited, that is, when the document is displayed on the CRT 4, the touch panel 6 is pressed with a finger.
The cursor 50 disappears, and the mark 51 is displayed at a position on the display screen corresponding to the position pressed by the finger. This state is shown in FIG. This mark 51 is displayed while the surface of the touch panel 6 is being pressed with a finger, and the designated position is linked to a change. After moving the mark 51 to a desired position, the operator can release the finger from the touch panel 6 to display the cursor 50 at that position (see FIG. 5 (c)). Less than,
The operator operates a normal editing process such as insertion or deletion at the cursor position.

This makes it possible to easily and quickly move the cursor to a desired position without using the cursor keys one by one as in the related art.

The touch area of the finger on the touch panel 6 is unstable, and when the mark 51 is displayed at the corresponding position on the display screen, the mark 51 fluctuates and is displayed. Therefore, the touch panel 6 corresponding to the position of the previous mark 51 is displayed. The display position of the mark 51 is not changed unless there is a shift of 16 dots (not necessarily the size of the displayed character) from the read coordinates of.

Further, when it is determined that the position of the mark 51 is finally determined, the cursor 50 is displayed at the character position closest to the position. At this time, the updated cursor 50 is displayed at least on the character adjacent to the target character position. To correct this, a cursor position correction window 61 is displayed as shown in FIG. I do.

In addition to the cursor position correction window 61, in the embodiment, there are windows 61 and 62 as shown in FIGS. 6 (a) and 6 (b), and these switchings correspond to areas 60a (61a and 62a) in the figure. The touch panel 6 is pressed once with a finger and then released. Now, when correcting the position of the cursor 50, the area of 60b to 60e indicating the direction can be corrected by executing the above-described operation.

The window 61 is used to display the front, rear, left and right screens of one display screen, and the window 62 is used to move to the beginning of the sentence, the end of the sentence where the cursor is located, or to both ends of the display screen. Each operation is executed when the finger is released from the touch panel 6 described above.

In implementing the above principle and its contents, the seventh
This can be achieved by the CPU 1 processing the flowchart shown in the figure. The flowchart will be described below, but it is assumed that a document is already displayed on the display screen at this time.

In step S10, it is determined whether or not the touch panel 6 has been pressed with a finger. If it is determined that the touch panel 6 has been pressed by a finger or the like, the process proceeds to the next step S11, in which the cursor 50 at that time is deleted, and a mark 51 is placed at a position on the display screen corresponding to the touch position. It is displayed (step S12).

Next, in step S13, it is determined whether or not the finger has been released from the touch panel 6. At this time, if it is determined that the finger is still touched, the touch position is set to 16 with respect to the currently displayed mark 51. It is determined whether the position is more than a dot away. If it is determined that the input touch position is within 16 dots of the position of the mark 51, the process returns to step S13 (the mark 51 is immovable), but if not, the process proceeds to step S15 and the input is performed. The mark 51 is displayed at the position on the display screen corresponding to the touched position. That is, in steps S13 to S15,
The mark 51 can be changed and moved to an arbitrary position.

If it is detected in step S13 that the finger has left the touch panel 6, the process proceeds to step S16 to mark
1 is deleted, and the cursor 50 is displayed at a character position near the mark position instead (step S17). Next, in step S18, the cursor position correction window 60 is displayed at a position away from the position where the cursor 50 is displayed, and in step S19.
Then, post-processing is executed, such as switching to the windows 61 and 62 described above or correcting the cursor position.

In the above description of the flowchart, the cursor 50 disappears when the touch panel 6 is pressed with a finger. However, when the finger is released, the original cursor is deleted and the cursor is displayed at the updated position. It does not matter. In this case, this can be achieved by executing the processing in step S11 before or after step S16.

The display position of the cursor position correction window 60 can be easily achieved by displaying the window on the left side of the display screen if the display position of the cursor 50 is on the right side of the display screen. That is, it is sufficient that four coordinate positions (up, down, left, and right positions) with respect to the display position of the cursor 50 are set in advance.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to change the cursor position during document editing by touching the touch panel, and it is possible to significantly improve operability.

Although the mark 51 in the above-described embodiment moves relatively smoothly and is easy for the operator to see, the mark 51 may be moved in units of the size of the displayed character. At this time, when the finger is released from the touch panel 6, the cursor 50 is displayed at the position of the mark 51 (the cursor 50 itself may be used).

Further, in the embodiment, the present invention is not limited by the application to the document processing apparatus and the description of the cursor movement when the content of the document is displayed. That is, the present invention can be applied as it is to a conventional information processing apparatus that executes various processes by controlling a cursor. For example, even when the menu is selected, when a finger is pressed on the touch panel 6, a mark 51 is displayed on a display screen corresponding to the pressed position, and when the mark 51 comes over one icon, the icon is displayed. May be displayed in reverse.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the cursor can be moved to the target position at a stretch by simply touching the panel corresponding to the target position, and the cursor position can be changed in the non-contact state. The operability can be improved by changing the pattern of the cursor in the non-contact state during the contact.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a document processing apparatus according to an embodiment, FIG. 2 is a view showing a state of menu selection in the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a change in pressure from contact with a touch panel to release in the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart relating to menu selection in the embodiment; FIGS. 5 (a) to 5 (d) are diagrams for explaining the outline of cursor movement in the embodiment; FIGS. 6 (a) and (a); b) is a diagram showing another window displayed after setting the cursor position in the embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart relating to cursor control. In the figure, 1 ... CPU, 2 ... Memory, 2a ... Program area, 2b ... Document area, 3 ... VRAM, 4 ... CRT, 5
... Character font ROM, 6 ... Touch panel, 7 ... Keyboard, 8 ... External storage device, 9 ... Speaker, 50 ...
... cursor, 51 ... mark.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hideyuki Kobayashi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Murayama 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Shigehiro Kadota 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroo Teraichi 3-30-2, Shimomaruko 3-chome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56 References JP-A-62-78621 (JP, A) JP-A-61-119196 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A display control means for displaying a cursor pattern on a display screen; a substantially transparent panel arranged on the display screen; a position detection means for detecting a contact position on the panel; A cursor display position changing unit that changes a display position of the cursor pattern based on the position information; and a position detection unit that detects a contact position on the panel corresponding to the display position of the cursor pattern.
Changing the cursor pattern to another pattern different from the pattern, and changing the other pattern to the cursor pattern when the state changes from a state in which a contact is detected to a state in which the cursor pattern is not contacted. Cursor control device. 2. The cursor control device according to claim 1, wherein the movement of the cursor pattern is not performed when the movement of the detected contact position is shorter than a predetermined distance.