JP3155329B2 - Remote control 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 remote control device for remotely controlling a controlled device such as a television receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional remote control device, a touch panel is provided on an operation input section, and a key signal is identified from a coordinate value based on a voltage signal obtained by pressing the panel in accordance with a pressed position. There is a way. A remote control device having such an operation input unit will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a transmission unit included in a conventional remote control device. A remote control device 1 indicated by a dashed line is a transmission device that remotely controls the operation of a television receiver (hereinafter, referred to as a television), and an operation instruction thereof is displayed on a display unit (CRT) of the television. It does not have a display unit such as a liquid crystal. In the figure, an operation input unit 2 is provided in a remote control device 1. The operation input unit 2 is an operation unit for giving a control signal of the controlled device, and includes a touch panel 3. Touch panel 3
Is, for example, a rectangular panel. When a person presses a specific portion of the panel with a finger, a signal of the position (X, Y) of the pressed portion is output as an analog voltage.

Various configurations of the touch panel 3 are realized. Here, for example, a transparent conductive film fixed to a substrate is provided with an X-direction electrode and a Y-direction electrode at four edges, and each electrode has It is assumed that a voltage is applied. A transparent movable electrode is disposed opposite to the fixed electrode via a dot-shaped spacer. When a specific portion of the movable electrode is pressed, a portion surrounded by the dot spacer bends. At this time, the contact of the movable electrode comes into contact with the fixed electrode, and the divided voltage corresponding to the position (X, Y) is output alternately at predetermined cycles.

[0005] A voltage signal corresponding to the position (X, Y) of the touch panel 3 is given to a key signal generator 4. The key signal generator 4 is composed of a microcomputer and a memory, and includes an A / D converter 5, a coordinate value converter 6, and a coordinate data transmitter 7. The A / D converter 5 is a circuit that converts a voltage at a position (X, Y) given from the operation input unit 2 into digital data. The coordinate value converting means 6 is a circuit for converting the digital output of the A / D converting means 5 into coordinate data, and the output is given to the coordinate data transmitting means 7. The coordinate data transmitting means 7 converts the coordinate data into a transmission signal, and its output is given to a transmission circuit 8. The transmission circuit 8 is a circuit for transmitting the modulated coordinate data to a television set which is a remotely controlled device, for example, by infrared rays.

On the other hand, the television is provided with a data display processing unit (not shown) for displaying the pressed position of the touch panel 3 on the CRT based on the coordinate data transmitted from the remote control device 1. Therefore, corresponding to the display mode on the CRT,
The television main body is configured to identify the type of operation input by the remote control device 1 from the transmitted coordinate data.

The operation of the remote control device 1 configured as described above will be described. When a person presses a specific area of the touch panel 3 to operate the television, the contact at that part is turned on, and a voltage signal corresponding to the position (X, Y) is input to the key signal generation unit 4. The A / D converter 5 converts the voltage signal corresponding to the position into a digital signal at a predetermined cycle, converts the digital data into coordinate data by the coordinate value converter 6, and outputs the data to the coordinate data transmitter 7. When a transmission command is given, the coordinate data transmitting means 7 modulates the input coordinate data into a transmission signal, generates a reader code and a custom code, and then outputs the coordinate data to the transmission circuit 8. The transmission circuit 8 outputs the infrared ray by driving the light emitting diode using the signal as a current signal, for example. Note that these signal processes are performed during transmission of the trailer code of the signal corresponding to the previous operation.

[0008]

However, in such a configuration, even if the user of the remote control device intends to press the finger on the touch panel 3 while standing still, the finger unintentionally moves or the pressing force decreases. Touching the touch panel 3 unconsciously
Sometimes got away. For this reason, there have been cases where various kinds of erroneous operations have occurred such that other coordinate data is erroneously input or a signal to be input is interrupted on the way.
In addition, when a pointing vector signal of inputting by rubbing the operation surface of the touch panel 3 up and down or left and right with a finger is given, the finger often unintentionally leaves the operation surface during the operation, causing the same malfunction. There was a problem that there was.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and identifies the operation state of an operation input unit to ensure the reliability of coordinate data to be transmitted.
An object of the present invention is to realize a remote control device that prevents a malfunction of a controlled device.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention includes a touch panel, an operation input section for outputting an analog signal indicating the position of a pressed portion of the touch panel, and a digital signal at a predetermined cycle output from the operation input section. A / D conversion means for converting the signal output from the A / D conversion means, coordinate value conversion means for converting a signal output from the A / D conversion means into coordinate data of the touch panel,
A history data holding unit for storing at least three sets of coordinate data of the coordinate value conversion means output for each conversion cycle of the D conversion means, and a static data for identifying an operation state of the touch panel;
The operation state of the touch panel is determined based on a state table holding state data including stop, movement in different directions and stop, and a change in a plurality of sets of coordinate data stored in the history data holding unit. The state data is compared with the state data registered in the state table, and the state
A state determination processing unit that selects coordinate data output by the coordinate value conversion unit based on the data; and a coordinate data transmission unit that transmits output data of the coordinate value conversion unit selected by the state determination processing unit. It is characterized by the following.

[0011]

According to the present invention having the above features, when a person presses the touch panel of the operation input unit to control a remote controlled device, an analog signal indicating the position of the pressed portion is output. The A / D conversion means converts the analog signal into a digital signal at a predetermined cycle and provides the digital signal to the coordinate value conversion means. The coordinate value converting means converts the digital signal into coordinate data of the touch panel. Next, the history data holding unit stores a plurality of sets of coordinate data output for each conversion cycle of the A / D conversion unit. On the other hand, a state table for holding state data for identifying the touch panel operation state is provided, and the state determination processing unit identifies a change in a plurality of sets of coordinate data stored in the history data holding unit, and The operation state is determined, and the data of the operation state is compared with the data registered in the state table to determine whether or not the coordinate data output from the coordinate value conversion means can be transmitted. The coordinate data transmitting means converts the selected coordinate data and operation state data into a transmission signal. In this way, the signal of the operation unit operated by the person is transmitted from the remote control device.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A remote control device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a remote control device mainly including a transmission device according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a remote control device 10 includes an operation input unit 2, a key signal generation unit 11, and a transmission circuit 8. The operation input unit 2 is the same touch panel 3 as the conventional example.
have. The A / D conversion means 5, coordinate value conversion means 6, and coordinate data transmission means 7 included in the key signal generation unit 11 are the same as those in the conventional example, and a description thereof will be omitted. In FIG. 1, a key signal generation unit 11 is a circuit that generates coordinate data serving as a control signal of a controlled device based on a position signal output from the operation input unit 2. The key signal generation unit 11 differs from the conventional example in that a history data holding unit 12, a state determination processing unit 13, and a state table 14 are provided.

The history data holding unit 12 is a memory for storing the coordinate data output by the coordinate value conversion means 6.
It stores coordinate data for N points corresponding to N times the sampling period of the / D conversion means 5.
That is, the history data holding unit 12 stores all coordinate data output at a time required for one operation when a person presses the touch panel 3.

The state determination processing unit 13 determines the operation state of the touch panel based on a change in a plurality of pieces of coordinate data stored in the history data holding unit, compares the operation state with the data registered in the state table, and determines the final state. The operation state is determined, and the coordinate data to be transmitted is selected.

The state table 14 is generated on the panel, such as a finger operated by a person on the touch panel 3 at rest (state A), upward movement (state B), downward movement (state C), and stop (state D). It is a table in which the obtained states are classified.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of this table. That is, the state table 14 indicates that the three state data input from the state determination processing unit 13 at a predetermined sampling cycle are, for example, (A, A, A) or (C, A, A) as shown in FIG. For example, it is determined that the operation of the finger of the person is stationary (A),
In the case of (B, B, B) or (B, A, B), it is a table storing combination data such that the operation of a human finger can be determined to be upward movement (B).

Next, among the coordinate data generated by the coordinate value converting means 6, the coordinate data selected by the judgment result of the state judgment processing unit 13 is given to the coordinate data transmitting means 7. Then, the coordinate data transmitting means 7 modulates the coordinate data into a transmission signal and supplies the signal to the transmission circuit 8. Thereafter, the same remote control signal as in the conventional example is transmitted to the controlled device.

The operation of the thus configured remote control device will be described. For example, it is assumed that the user of the remote control device operates the operation input unit 2 with a finger to watch the television, for example, and the television is already turned on. Next, when an operation for selecting a channel is started, for example, all channel numbers are displayed in a line on a display unit (CRT) of the television. Then, a person presses a region of the touch panel 3 corresponding to the channel number displayed on the CRT with a finger. At this time, a voltage signal at the pressed position is given from the operation input unit 2 to the A / D conversion means 5, and digital data is output at a predetermined sampling cycle. This signal is given to the coordinate value conversion means 6,
It is converted into coordinate data of the position (X, Y). The coordinate data is always input to the history data holding unit 12 for a prescribed time. However, if the pressed position on the touch panel 3 changes unconsciously in a short time, the coordinate value converting means 6 gives the changed coordinate data to the history data holding unit 12.

The temporally continuous coordinate data obtained from the history data holding unit 12 is represented by (x ₁ , y
_{1), (x 2, y} 2), (x 3, y 3), (x 4,
y ₄ ), (x ₅ , y ₅ ). First, three consecutive coordinate data (x ₁ , y ₁ ), (x ₂ , y ₂ ),
One coordinate data is selected from (x ₃ , y ₃ ), and the state *
1 (X ₁ , Y ₁ ). Also, (x ₂ , y ₂ ), (x ₃ ,
One piece of coordinate data is selected from (y ₃ ) and (x ₄ , y ₄ ), and is set to state * 2 (X ₂ , Y ₂ ). Similarly, (x ₃ , y
_{3), (x 4, y} 4), (x 5, y 5) selects one of the coordinate data from state * 3 (X _3, Y ₃₎ to (state * 1 * 3 state A~ D). Next, the state determination processing unit 13 determines a finger operation state described later from the obtained three position data.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the signal processing in the state judgment processing unit 13. When the operation is started, in step 20, the count value k of the processing number counter is set to 1. The number of processing counters is the state shown in FIG.
The number of times of signal processing for obtaining 3 is counted. In step 21, it is determined whether or not three or more sets of coordinate data input after the coordinate data (X, Y) transmitted immediately before are stored in the history data holding unit 12.
If it is less than the set, the acquisition of the coordinate data is continued. Three or more sets of coordinate data (x ₁ , y ₁ ), (x ₂ , y ₂ ), (x
₃ , y ₃ ) are stored in the history data holding unit 12, and the following processing is performed on the change in the x coordinate and the y coordinate.

In step 22, if a = x ₁ −x ₂ and b = x ₁ −x ₃ , the process proceeds to step 23,
Check the signs of a and b. If a and b have the same sign, the process proceeds to step 24 to check whether or not the absolute value of b is 3 or more.
If the absolute value of b is less than 3, the process proceeds to step 25, it is determined that the position of the pressing point is not largely changed, the coordinates X and x _1. If it is determined in step 23 that a and b are not the same sign, the process proceeds to step 26, where x from the previous transmission coordinate value X is x.
_The value obtained by subtracting ₁ is c. Next, proceed to step 27, where c
Check the value of. If the absolute value of c is 4 or more, the process proceeds to step 28. In step 24, the absolute value of b is 3
In each case above, the process proceeds to step 28, x the position in this case the pressing point is judged that the change, the coordinates X and x _3. The process proceeds to step 25 when the absolute value of c in step 27 is less than 4, the coordinate X as x _1, completing the signal processing of x-coordinate.

Next, signal processing of the y coordinate is performed. The process proceeds to step 29 in FIG. 5, where a ′ = y ₁ −y ₂ and b ′ = y ₁ −y ₃ using the coordinate data stored in step 21. Proceeding to step 30, it is checked whether a 'and b' are less than two. a ', b' value of If both less than 2, the process proceeds to step 31, it is determined that the position y of the pressing point does not change significantly, state A, the coordinates Y and y _1. If it is determined in step 30 that both a ′ and b ′ are not less than 2, the process proceeds to step 32. Here examining the sign of a ', b', if the same sign, the process proceeds to step 33, it is determined that the position y of the press point is stopped, state D, and coordinates Y and y _1.
If a 'and b' are the same sign in step 32, the flow advances to step 34 to check the sign. Where a ', b'
There If + code, the process proceeds to step 35, it is determined the position y of the press point is the lower moving, the state C, the coordinates Y and y _3.
In step 34 a ', b' is - if the sign, the flow proceeds to step 36, it is determined that the upper movement position y of the press point, a state B, completing the process of y-coordinate coordinate Y as y _3.

It is checked whether or not the processing for obtaining such a sign and the position data (X, Y) has been performed three times by the processing number counter k (step 37). If this process has not been performed three times, k is incremented and the process returns to step 20, where the sampling cycle is shifted by one week and the same process is continued three times. As shown in FIG. 3, the three coordinate data obtained in this way are represented by representative coordinate data (X1, Y
1), (X2, Y2), (X3, Y3).

When the count value k becomes 3 in step 37, the signal processing is completed, and the routine proceeds to the next routine 39. Here, three sets of state data (* 1,
Using * 2 and * 3), the data is collated with the data of the state table 14 shown in FIG.

The table collating means 13b determines state data * 4 from three sets of state data (* 1, * 2, * 3). The state data * 4 indicates one of the states of stationary (A), moving up (B), moving down (C), and stopping (D) shown in the upper part of FIG. When the state data * 4 is determined, the routine proceeds to a routine 40, where coordinate data to be transmitted is determined. That is, in the case of the state A, the coordinate data (X1
, Y1), and in the state B, coordinate data (X3, Y3)
), And in state C, coordinate data (X3, Y3)
In the state D, the coordinate data (X1, Y1) is used as the transmission data (X, Y), and all the signal processing is completed. The coordinate data determined next is provided to the coordinate data transmitting means 7. The coordinate data transmitting means 7 modulates this signal into a transmission signal, and infrared rays are transmitted to the controlled device via the transmission circuit 8.

Here, the state judgment processing unit 13 executes step 20
38, the representative coordinate data is determined using the three sets of data stored in the history data holding unit 12, and the function of the coordinate determining unit 13a for identifying the operation state of the operation input unit is achieved. Further, the state determination processing unit 13 executes a routine 39
The function of the table matching means 13b for identifying the operation state of the finger by comparing the combination of a plurality of sets of state data determined by the coordinate determining means 13a with the data in the state table has been achieved. The function of the transmission data determination means 13c for determining coordinate data to be transmitted based on the data is achieved.

As described above, even if the finger of the person unconsciously moves on the touch panel 3 within a predetermined range, the difference from the history data does not increase, and it is determined that the specific portion of the touch panel 3 is continuously pressed. . At this time, the coordinate data transmitting means 7
Supplies the first generated coordinate data to the transmission circuit 8, and the transmission circuit 8 outputs a control signal. Therefore, a channel signal intended by a person is provided to the television, and a desired television image is obtained.

As described above, the state of the input operation on the touch panel 3 is identified by the key signal generation unit 10 so that the controlled device can stably operate even if a person temporarily moves the operation finger unconsciously. Thus, the control signal can be transmitted to prevent the operation of the controlled device against the user's intention.

[0028]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, coordinate data indicating the pressed position of the touch panel is stored in the history data holding unit, and the state table for identifying the operation state of the touch panel is provided. Therefore, when a person performs a pressing operation intended from the operation input unit, a control signal intended by the person can be transmitted to the controlled device even if the pressing position or the pressing pressure fluctuates. Therefore, there are few malfunctions,
A remote control device with excellent operability can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a remote control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a data table held by a state table according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating signal processing of a state determination processing unit according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart (part 1) illustrating signal processing of a state determination processing unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart (part 2) illustrating signal processing of the state determination processing unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional remote control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 operation input unit 3 touch panel 5 A / D conversion unit 6 coordinate value conversion unit 7 coordinate data transmission unit 8 transmission circuit 10 remote control device 11 key signal generation unit 12 history data storage unit 13 state determination processing unit 13a coordinate determination unit 13b table Collation means 13c transmission data transmission means 14 status table

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-62-185498 (JP, A) JP-A-62-171022 (JP, A) JP-A-2-24697 (JP, U) JP-A-2-216 100157 (JP, U) Hira 3-50234 (JP, U) (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04Q 9/00-9/16 G06F 3/03 380 G06F 3/033 310

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An operation input unit that includes a touch panel and outputs an analog signal indicating a position of a pressed portion of the touch panel, and an A / D that converts a signal output from the operation input unit into a digital signal at a predetermined cycle. A conversion unit, a coordinate value conversion unit that converts a signal output from the A / D conversion unit into coordinate data of the touch panel, and a coordinate value conversion unit that is output every conversion cycle of the A / D conversion unit. A history data holding unit for storing at least three sets of coordinate data; a stationary and a phase for identifying an operation state of the touch panel ;
A state table holding state data including movement and stop in different directions, and an operation state of the touch panel is determined based on a change in a plurality of sets of coordinate data stored in the history data holding unit. Is compared with the state data registered in the state table, and based on the state data,
That it comprises a state determination processing unit for selecting the coordinate data output by the coordinate value converting means have, the coordinate data transmitting means for transmitting the output data of the coordinate value conversion means selected by the state determination section, the A remote control device. 2. The state determination processing unit checks changes in each coordinate data using three sets of coordinate data stored in the history data holding unit, determines representative coordinates, and operates the operation input unit. Coordinate determination means for identifying state data; and table collation for comparing a combination of a plurality of sets of state data determined by the coordinate determination means with state data in the state table to identify an operation state of a finger in the operation input unit. Means, transmission data determination means for determining coordinate data to be transmitted from the data of the operation state identified by the table collation means and the plurality of coordinates determined by the coordinate determination means,
2. The remote control device according to claim 1, comprising: