JPH02238318A - Display apparatus for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow a track ball to always perform accurate input operation without receiving the effect of the vibration of a vehicle by permitting the control of the movement of a mark during a period when the detection signal for detecting the operation state of the track ball is generated. CONSTITUTION:When the position of a mark to the data displayed by a display means 1 is improper, an operation means 2 generates an operation signal when a track ball 2a is set to an operative state and a detection means 3 generates a detection signal and a control means 4 moves the mark under the generation of the detection signal. When the operation of the track ball 2a is stopped, the control means 4 stops the movement of the mark at the time of the extinction of the detection signal. As mentioned above, since the movement control of the mark due to the control means 4 is permitted only during a period when the detection means 3 generates the detection signal, even when the operation signal is generated from the operation means 2 by mistake, the control means 4 performs no movement control of the mark.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a display device for a vehicle, and particularly to a display device for a vehicle that employs a trackball as a data input means.

(U.S. technology) Trackballs are widely used to facilitate cursor input to personal computers, etc. 6 However, trackballs are used, for example, in vehicle navigation systems that display maps on displays. It is also very effective in fortune-telling systems. For example, using a trackball makes it very easy to enter your current location on a displayed map or scroll the displayed map.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such a configuration, if the trackball is used while the vehicle is running, the trackball may rotate or bounce due to the vibrations of the vehicle during or immediately after use. This sometimes led to incorrect input.

Therefore, in order to cope with this problem, the present invention attempts to make the trackball always perform correct input operations without being affected by vibrations of the vehicle, etc. in a vehicle display device that employs a track pole. It is something.

(Means for solving !lli!) In solving this problem, the structural features of the present invention are as follows:
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the vehicle is equipped with a display means 1 that displays necessary information together with a predetermined mark, and has a trackball 2a that is operated when moving the mark, and responds to the rotation of the trackpole 2a. A rubbing means 2 that generates an operation signal, and a detection means 3 that detects this only when the trackball 2a is in an operation state and generates a detection signal.
and control means 4 for controlling the mark to move in response to the operation signal when the detection signal is generated and to stop this movement when the detection signal disappears.

(Function) By configuring the present invention as described above, if the position of the mark with respect to the information displayed by the display means 1 is inappropriate, the operation means 2 can be operated when the trackball 2a is in the rubbing state. The detection means 3 generates a detection signal, and the control means 4 moves the mark under the generation of the detection signal. Further, when the rubbing of the trackball 2a is stopped, the control means 4 stops the movement of the mark when the detection signal disappears.

(Effect) In this way, since the control means 4 is allowed to control the movement of the mark only while the detection means 3 is generating the detection signal, after the detection signal disappears, the vibration of the vehicle causes the track ball to move. Even if 2a is placed in an operating state against one's will and an operating signal is erroneously generated from the rubbing means 2, the control means 4 will not control the movement of the mark (1. Therefore, The position of the mark when the detection signal disappears can be maintained correctly.

(Example) Hereinafter, one example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
3 and 3 show an example in which the present invention is applied to a navigation system for a vehicle.

This navigation system is equipped with a display 10, which is arranged on an instrument panel 20 in the passenger compartment of the vehicle so that its display surface is exposed inside the vehicle. It is set up. The navigation system also includes a track pole mechanism 30, and the track ball mechanism 30 is disposed on the instrument panel 20 at the lower edge of the display surface of the display 10. In addition, the second
In the figure, reference numeral 11 indicates a cursor.

Trackball l9! The structure 30 includes a trackball 31 rotatably protruding upward from a bottom wall 21a of a substantially U-shaped recess 21 formed at the lower edge of the display 10 in the instrument panel 20, and an enfugment attached to the trackball 31. 32 (see FIG. 3). The enfugu 32 decodes the rotation of the trackball 31 in the horizontal direction or the vertical direction as shown in FIG. 2, and generates the decoding result as a first or second pulse train.

The navigation system also includes a light emitting element 40, a light receiving element 50, and a display element 60.
is the left side 121 of the recess 21 of the instrument panel 20.
b, the light-emitting surface is exposed inside the vehicle, and
On the other hand, the light receiving element 50 is disposed on the right wall 21c of the recess 21 with its light receiving surface exposed inside the vehicle interior. However,
The light emitting element 40 emits light generated from its built-in light emitting diode 40a as a beam along a light emitting pongee 40b. On the other hand, the light receiving element 50 transmits the beam light from the light emitting element 40 to the light emitting axis 40 using its built-in F transistor 50a.
The light is received along the direction b and a light receiving current is generated. In this case, the light-emitting pongee 40b is located above the apex of the trackball 31, and is in a position where it is blocked by the hand placed on the top surface of the trackball 31. In addition, the light emitting element 6
0 is disposed in a part of the instrument panel 20, and this display element 60 exhibits a lighting function by selectively emitting light from its built-in light emitting diode 60a.

The light emitting drive circuit 70 drives the light emitting diode 40a intermittently. The second thing means that the light emitting element 40 emits a beam of light intermittently. A current-voltage converter 80 (hereinafter referred to as an I-V converter 80) is a phototransistor 50.
Convert the light receiving current from a to the light receiving voltage. The detector 90 detects the light-receiving voltage from the IV converter 80 and generates a detection signal. Comparator 110 compares the level of the detected signal from detector 90 with a reference voltage generated from reference voltage generator 100. Thus, when the level of the detected signal is lower (or higher) than the reference voltage, the comparator 1110 generates a comparison signal at a high level (or low level).

Light emitting drive times lol! r120 drives the light emitting diode 60a in response to the high level comparison signal from the comparator 110, and stops driving the light emitting diode 60a in response to the change of the comparison signal to low level. The analog switch circuit 130 responds to the high level comparison signal from the comparator 110 to switch between the first and second signals from the trackball 32.
sequentially apply pulses to the microcomputer 140,
On the other hand, in response to the change of the comparison signal to low level, the application of pulses to the micro combinator 140 is stopped.

The microcomputer 140 executes a computer program in cooperation with the comparator 110 and the analog switch circuit 130 according to the 7-row chart shown in FIG. 4, and performs arithmetic processing necessary for controlling the display 10 during this execution.

However, the above-mentioned computer program is stored in the ROM of the microcomputer 140 in advance.

In this embodiment configured as described above, the system of the present invention is put into operation while the vehicle is running. Then, the microcomputer 140 starts executing the computer program in step 150a according to the 7-row chart in FIG. 4. Then, in the map display control routine 150b, the microcomputer 140
The map data previously stored in the ROM is generated as a map display signal, and the content of the map display signal is displayed on the display 10 as a map together with a cursor 11. Further, since the light emitting diode 40a is intermittently driven by the light emitting drive circuit 70 and emits light intermittently, the light emitting element 40
A beam of light is intermittently emitted along the direction b and is received by the light receiving element Sol2. Therefore, the light-receiving element 50 generates a light-receiving current from its phototransistor 50m according to the amount of light received,
An IV converter 80 generates a light receiving voltage, and a detector 90
produces a detected signal.

Therefore, at this stage, the position of the cursor 11 on the map displayed on the display 10 (the position indicated by the solid line in Figure 12) is the current position of the vehicle (see the broken line in Figure 2).
Assume that there is a deviation as shown in the figure. Therefore, when the driver places one hand on the top surface of the trackball 31 to initialize the cursor 11, the light emitting sleeve 40b
The middle part of the light receiving element 50 is blocked by one hand of the driver.
is blocked from the intermittent light beam from the light emitting element 40.

When light reception by the light receiving element 50 is interrupted in this way, the light receiving current from the phototransistor 50a decreases, the light receiving voltage from the I-■ converter 80 decreases, and the level of the detected signal from the detector 90 decreases. , becomes lower than the reference voltage from the reference voltage generator 100. Then, the comparator 110 generates a comparison signal at a high level, the light emitting drive circuit 120 drives the light emitting diode 60a, and the display element 60 lights up. This allows the driver to
The start of initialization of the cursor 11 can be visually recognized. After that,
If the driver sequentially rotates the trackball 31 rightward, downward and rightward while blocking the light reception of the light receiving element 50 with one hand, the enhancer 32 rotates the trackball 31 in the rightward and downward directions. and according to rotation to the right,
Each train of first, second and first pulses is generated in sequence.

Therefore, the analog switch circuit 130
encode 3 in response to a high level comparison signal from 0.
The first, second and first pulses from comparator 110 are sequentially applied to the microcomputer 140, and the microcomputer 140 receives each of the first, second and first pulse trains from comparator 110. In response to the high-level comparison signal, YES is determined in each step 151 and 152, and a cursor movement signal for moving the cursor 11 is generated in step 153, and thereafter the steps 151, 152, and 153 are executed. The arithmetic processing is repeated. In this case, the microcomputer 140 generates a cursor movement signal according to the number of pulses of each train of 11, $2, and the first pulse related to its input, so that the display 10 can move the cursor on the displayed map. , the cursor 11 located at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG.
is sequentially moved to the right, downward, and right to match the position indicated by the broken line in the figure.

When the driver visually confirms from the map displayed on the display 10 that the initial positioning of the current position of the cursor 11 has been completed in this way, the driver removes one hand from the trackball 31. Then, the light-receiving element 50 receives the beam of light from the light-emitting element 40 again along the light-emitting axis 40b, and generates a light-receiving current. Therefore, the voltage received from the IV converter 80 rises, and the level of the detection signal from the detector 90 rises above the reference voltage from the reference voltage generator 100. Therefore, the level of the comparison signal from the comparator 110 decreases to a low level, the light emitting drive circuit 120 stops driving the light emitting diode 60a, and the display element 60 turns off. Thereby, the driver can always reliably recognize that the initial setting of the current position of the cursor 11 has been completed. Further, as described above, when the level of the Jt signal from the comparator 110 becomes low level, the microcomputer 140 operates in step 15.
At step 2, it is determined as "No", and at step 154, it is determined that the initial setting of the current position of the cursor 11 has been completed.

As described above, the light emitting element 40 and the light receiving element 50 are disposed above the trackball 31 so as to face each other, and the driver's one hand is placed on the trackball 31.
Since the light receiving element 50 is configured to block reception of the beam light from the light emitting element 40 only when the light receiving element 50 is placed on the upper surface, the position of the cursor 11 on the display map of the display 10 is the current position of the vehicle. If not, place your hand on the top surface of the track pole 31 to block the reception of the beam light from the light emitting element 40 of the light receiving element 50, and rotate the track ball 31 in the desired direction. The position of the cursor 11 can be initialized during the cyclic calculation process of each step 151, 152, and 153 of the program. Furthermore, if the light receiving element 50 is allowed to receive the beam by letting go of the trackball 31 after completing this initial setting, the subsequent pulse input from the enfug 32 to the microcomputer 140 will be transmitted to the comparator 11.
0 and the analog switch circuit 130, so together with the determination of "NO" in step 152, the rotation of the track pole 31 due to the vibration of the vehicle causes a pulse to be generated from the encoder 32 against the intention. Even if something happens, the above-mentioned initial setting results can be maintained correctly without causing erroneous input.

Note that in implementing the present invention, the analog switch circuit 130 may be omitted and the pulses from the enfug 32 may be input directly to the microcomputer 140. Further, in carrying out the present invention, the present invention is not limited to navigation systems, but can also be applied to cases where a trackball is attached to a microcomputer of various electronic control systems employed in a vehicle.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram corresponding to the claims, FIGS. 2 and 3 are overall configuration diagrams of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a 7-row chart showing the operation of the microcomputer shown in FIG. 3. Explanation of symbols 10...Display, 11...Cursor, 31.
...Trackball, 32...Encoder, 40...
- Light emitting element, 40a... Light emitting diode, 50...
Light receiving element, 50a... Phototransistor, 70...
Light emission drive circuit, 80... I-V converter, 90... Detector, 100... Reference voltage generator, 110... Comparator, 140... Microcomputer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A display means for displaying information necessary for the vehicle together with a predetermined mark, an operating means having a trackball that is operated when moving the mark and generating an operation signal in response to rotation of the trackball; a detection means that detects this and generates a detection signal only when the detection signal is in an operating state; and a detection means that moves the mark according to the operation signal when the detection signal is generated, and stops this movement when the detection signal disappears. A display device for a vehicle is provided with a control means for controlling the display.