JPH02299013A - Electronic system notebook device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suppress malfunction with simple structure by providing a decision means which judging the writing of information when the area of a part touching a touch panel is less than certain area and judges the erasure of information when the area is larger than the certain area. CONSTITUTION:When necessary information is inputted by handwriting, the information is inputted by handwriting to a display part 11 by drawing necessary character and a graphic form on a pressure-sensitive sensor 5 with a pen 6. When necessary information is entered into the image plane with the thin part of the pen 6, only the narrow part (a) of the pressure-sensitive sensor generates an output. When information in inputted with the thick part, on the other hand, the wide part (b) generates an output. When a CPU 26 judges that the depression area on the touch panel is larger than the specific value, a write mode is entered and data are written on a memory 27. When it is judged that the depression area is smaller than the specific value, on the other hand, an erasure mode is entered and erased data are written on the memory 27.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an electronic notebook device having an electronic processing function.

[Prior Art] In recent years, as IC cards and large capacity memories have become easily available, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-1073
ROM and RAM as disclosed in Publication No. 60
Electronic devices have been proposed that can be used for a variety of purposes by making a card into a card and replacing the card with a portable case.

In this case, if you prepare various ROMs with different data written in them, you can use them for various purposes just by replacing the cards.

Furthermore, if this device uses a touch panel capable of detecting coordinates as the display, information can be input directly from the touch panel by tracing the touch panel, so even complex information can be input immediately.

If you want to erase all of the information entered in this way, you can perform a reset process, but in such a case it is not possible to erase only a part of the information that you have traced.
As disclosed in Publication No. 781.6, when using a stylus pen that only one end emits infrared rays and tracing the touch panel with the end that emits infrared rays, it is judged as inputting information and does not emit infrared rays. If you trace the touch panel on the edge side, it may be determined that the traced portion is to be erased.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in such a device, in order to emit infrared rays from the stylus, it is necessary to supply power to the stylus, so it is necessary to use a built-in battery or a cord from the notebook side. There was the issue of having to supply power.

As a method to solve this problem,
Another embodiment is proposed in Japanese Patent No. 816. In other words, on the main body side, a coil is wound around the touch panel, and the coil oscillates at a frequency determined by the coil.Instead of installing an infrared emitter at one end of the stylus pen, a metal is attached to one end of the stylus pen, and when the metal approaches, Although the oscillation frequency changes, information is written and erased using the fact that no frequency change occurs at the other end.

However, although this method does not require a power source for the stylus pen, it does require wrapping a coil around the touch panel, which not only increases the size of the touch panel, but also makes it difficult to operate the stylus pen with the hand wearing a metal object, such as a watch. This left the problem of malfunctions.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve these problems, the present invention determines that information is being written when the area that touches the touch panel is less than a certain area, and erases information when the area that touches the touch panel is larger than a certain area. A determination means is provided to determine that.

[Operation] Information is written when the touch panel is traced on a narrow area, and information is written when the touch panel is traced on a wide area.

[Embodiment] Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an electronic organizer device to which the present invention is applied.
1, Cursor key 1□, Function key 1. It has an IC card 14゜19 and a power supply 16 inside the back cover, and the main body 1 has a CPU (not shown) inside, which can process input data and process results. It has the basic function of display. Further, for a left-handed operator, a display section 11, cursor keys 12, and function keys 13 are provided on the inside of the back cover, and IC cards 14, 15 and a power source 16 can be mounted on the inside of the front cover.

2 is a recording paper mounting device attached to the inside of the spine of the main body 1, and this includes a ring 2 for mounting the recording paper 3;
and an opening/closing fitting 2□ that opens and closes the ring 2□. 4 is an expansion card that inputs various data, processes data when the processing capacity of the internal CPU of the main unit is insufficient, and has additional memory and other functions when the memory capacity of the IC card is insufficient. ,
A recording paper attachment ring 21 is used to attach the recording paper together with the recording paper. Necessary data is transmitted and received between the installed expansion card 4 and the main body 1 by communication means, which will be described later.

In a device configured in this manner, data is normally input using an input means such as a key provided on the expansion card 4. However, when handwritten input is required,
A pen-like object such as letters or figures can be displayed on the display section 11.
Handwritten input is performed by writing the necessary information.

For this purpose, the display unit 11 is displayed by writing necessary characters or figures on the pressure-sensitive sensor 5 with the pen 6, as shown in FIG. 2(a). This pen 6 is, for example, shown in FIG.
), it is made of a hard material such as plastic and has a thin tip and a thick rear end.

When such a pen 6 is used to write the necessary information on the screen in a narrow section as shown in Figure 2 (a), the output will be generated only from the narrow section of the pressure sensor, as shown by symbol A. . On the other hand, if necessary information is input in the thick part as shown in FIG. 2(b), the output will be generated from the wide part as shown by the symbol opening. Therefore, if you write information when output occurs from a narrow area, and delete written information when output occurs from a wide area, functions such as writing and erasing information can be performed. Separation can be done without any troublesome operations such as changing a switch. As for Ben 6, even if the thickness is the same at both ends as shown in Fig. 2(d), if a soft member 61, such as rubber, is attached to the rear end, when tracing the screen with the hard part, The output signal is generated from a narrow range, but when you trace the screen with the soft part, the soft part 61 is distorted and the output signal is generated from a wide range, so you can still determine whether it is writing or erasing. You can write and erase information in the same way as erasing with a regular eraser.

Also, the thick and thin parts of Ben 6 are shown in Figure 16 (a
), (b), it may be shaped like an actual pen and eraser, and in this case it will be even easier to use. 16th
Figures (C) and (d) show changes in the output of the display section 11 at this time, and the "1" portion is the pressed portion.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a circuit that determines the pressed range and controls switching between write mode and erase mode by the CPU. In FIG. 0, 25 is the display section 1! Tablet or touch panel installed in , 26 is CP
U, 27 is a memory. As shown in FIG. 18, this circuit determines that Ben 6 is pressed in step 100,
If it is determined in step 101 that the pressed area is larger than a predetermined value, the writing mode is set in step 102, and data writing processing is performed in the memory 27 in step 103. On the other hand, step 101
If it is determined in step 104 that the pressed area is smaller than a predetermined value, the erase mode is set in step 104. In step 105, a process of writing erased data into the memory 27 is performed.

The above is an example of inputting information to the display section 1□ using a pen, but if you do not have a suitable pen at hand, you can also erase the information by directly tracing the display section 1 with your bare hand. It is.

Further, the display section 1□ can be used in the same manner as when a plurality of keys are arranged on the display screen. In this case, the coordinates of the touched part are detected and it is determined that the key corresponding to that part has been operated.

In FIG. 3, a touch panel 7 is used as the display section 11, and a liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as LCD) 8 is detachably attached. By doing this, it is possible to initially use an economically efficient LCD and replace it with an expensive but high-resolution LCD as needed.

Displays using LCDs have no problems in bright places, but they have the problem that the display is difficult to see in dark places.

In such a case, as shown in FIG.
If a light emitter such as L9 is provided, the display visibility of the LCD can be improved by its light emission. In this case, EL9
emits light when a voltage is supplied through the electrode 12 that contacts the electrode 11 on the display side, but since light emission involves a certain amount of power consumption, it is necessary to attach a reflector plate 10 to the back side of the EL9 to emit light. If they are not there, just turn them (the EL 9 and the auxiliary display 13 to which the reflector 10 is attached) upside down. Figure 4(b)
4(C) is a side view showing details of the auxiliary display 13, and FIG. 4(C) is a side view showing details of the LCD 8.
Power is supplied from the LCD via the electrode 81 of the LCD. Note that the LCD 8 is provided with a recess 8□, into which the reflective plate 10 is fitted when the auxiliary display 13 is turned over. Further, symbol 15 in FIG. 3 is a lever that releases the mechanical lock when the LCD 8 is removed.

The above is an example of using the display section 11 on the main body side. However, when the display section 11 on the main body side does not have enough display area, for example when there are many display items, if you try to display using only the display section on the main body side. It will be displayed in a reduced size, but if it is reduced too much, it will become difficult to see. In such a case, it will be easier to see if the information is displayed in an appropriate size on the main body side, and if there is insufficient display area, it is displayed on the display section of the expansion card. FIG. 5 shows an example in which the expansion card 16 is used as a display section. In the figure, 16□ is an information input unit such as a touch panel, 162
1.63 is a transmission type LCD, and 1.63 is a light emitting element such as EL. These are connected to each other by connecting portions 164 provided at the ends, and the connecting portions and the main body are connected by a communication means to be described later. This expansion card has mounting hole 16.
5, it is attached to the main body as shown in FIG. In this case, the light emitting element 163 may be provided with a reflecting plate on the back side as shown in FIG. 4, and by turning it over, the light emitting element 163 may function as either a light emitter or a reflector. When using both the expansion card and the display section on the main unit as display sections, there is no problem when displaying independent screens on both, but when displaying one wide image, the graphics may be interrupted by the recording paper attachment 2. It becomes difficult to see. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, it is desirable to connect both the display section 11 on the main body side and the display section 16 on the expansion card to display continuous figures over a wide screen. At this time, by connecting the display section 11 on the main body side and the expansion card 16 at the flexible display section 17 via the connecting sections 17z, 17z, continuous display can be performed on both screens.

When using an expansion card, it is necessary to send and receive signals between the card and the main unit, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of this. Optical connector 1 installed in
Optical communication is performed by fitting 8□ into the connector 182 on the main body side.

In the figure, only one optical fiber cable is shown, but if full-duplex communication is to be performed, two cables can be used. 19□ for core on expansion card 4 so as to link with 21,
192, cores 193 and 194 are also provided on the main body side. With this configuration, communication can be performed without any special connection due to the electromagnetic induction effect via the ring 2□. In Figure 9, light emitting diodes 20 and 202 are provided on the expansion card 4 side, and light receiving diodes 21 and 202 are provided on the main body side.
, 21□ are provided, and this is an example in which signal transmission is performed by optical communication between a light emitting diode and a light receiving diode. In this example, the light-emitting diode and the light-receiving diode do not have their optical axes facing each other, but because they are close, communication can be ensured by the scattered light. However, the transmission efficiency is not very good, so if you want to improve the efficiency, it is a good idea to reflect the light emitted from the light emitting diode on the ring 21 and guide the reflected light to the light receiving diode 211, as shown in Figure 10. Become. Further, as shown in the cross section of the ring in FIG. 11, a concave groove 22 is formed inside the ring 21,
If the groove 22 allows the light to be reflected efficiently,
Transmission efficiency is further improved. FIG. 12 shows a method using electromagnetic induction, but this is an example in which the ring 21 passes current instead of magnetic flux, a coil 23 is provided on the expansion card 4 side, and the coil and ring are coupled by electromagnetic induction.

The display section 1□ on the main body side is normally used for vertical display as shown in FIG. However, if there is a large amount of content to be displayed in the horizontal direction, it may be necessary to display it in the horizontal direction as shown in FIG. On the other hand, a cursor (not shown) is displayed on the screen to indicate the information input position on the display screen, and the display position of the cursor can be freely moved using the cursor keys 12. However, the display is controlled by a program, and the cursor movement is based on the contact information when pressing the cursor keys, so even if the screen changes from vertical to horizontal display, the information from the cursor keys does not change. The moving direction of the cursor is the same as before; for example, in FIG. 13, if the cursor key is moved in the direction of the arrow in the figure, the cursor will move upward on the screen. However, in FIG. 14, the cursor moves upward even if it is operated in the same arrow direction. Generally, it is least uncomfortable to move the cursor in the direction of the physical position indicated by the cursor key. Therefore, when the display direction on the screen is changed, it is desirable to change the directional function of the cursor keys accordingly.

There are two methods for this: a method of changing the screen by software in conjunction with the change of the screen, and a method of mechanically rotating the cursor key 12 as shown in FIG.

In this method, the cursor key located at the position shown in FIG. 15(a) is rotated along a circular guide, and the cursor movement direction is moved as shown in FIG. 15(b). By doing this, the 1st side of the cursor key will always be at the top of the screen, and you will not feel any discomfort during operation.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the cursor key, in which the cursor key 12 is rotatably provided parallel to the mounting surface around the intersection of the arms, and is provided within the arm. When a switch (not shown) is operated, the signal is transmitted to the main body. That is,
When the cursor key is rotated, a switch (not shown) provided within the cursor key also rotates together with the cursor key. Near the tip of the arm of the cursor key 12, protrusions 301 to 304 (304 is not shown), which are engaging parts, are provided downward from the lower surface side of the cursor key 12. Groove 31 which is the engaged part. , 312 are provided.

In the device configured as described above, when the cursor key 12 is operated, a signal for designating the cursor display position is sent to the main body as described above. When the display direction of the screen is changed here, the cursor keys in FIG. 19 are also rotated in accordance with the screen direction so that the arrow in the figure always points toward the top of the screen. As a result, the cursor key is stably fixed by engaging the protrusion and the groove. When you operate the cursor keys at this location, the cursor direction and cursor movement direction always match.9 The above explanation assumes that the internal memory is used to store data, but as the storage capacity increases, the internal memory Capacity is running low.

In this case, it is effective to use a ROM or RAM as the expansion card. Furthermore, when a large storage capacity is required, it is advantageous to use a CD. The original purpose of a notebook is to record information on paper. All you have to do is use one of the expansion cards as a printer and print it on the recording paper of your notebook. In this case, if a paper feed mechanism is provided like in a normal printer, the width of the printer will increase, and the width of the notebook will also have to be increased, so in order to keep the width of the printer from increasing, the printer head must be aligned in the X-Y direction. With a movable structure, the head moves to the required location on the recording paper to perform printing.

This device can connect multiple cards, but in this case, it defines a serial data communication format, and connecting multiple cards on the same line can reduce the number of connection lines, and depending on the format, the connected cards can be automatically identified. VRAM is used for displaying, but instead of writing the content you want to display into VRAM, you can specify the VRAM address of the position you want to display as the address where the content you want to display is written, and you can Rewriting can be done quickly.

Furthermore, if the VRAM has something that indicates the linkage attributes of the VRAM on the front, back, left, and right sides of the screen, it is possible to check the area to which a specified point on the screen belongs and to display that area. FIG. 20 is an example of this, and as shown in FIG. 20(a), the memory contents are divided into 4 bits, and each bit is given a meaning for linking information on the upper, lower, left, and right sides. FIG. 20(b) shows the actual linkage state, where "1" has the meaning of linkage and presence. When switching the cursor movement direction, in the above explanation, software or mechanical rotation of the cursor key was used, but in addition, a gravity sensor or human anger sensor is used to detect the screen direction and move the cursor. This can be considered from detecting direction.

When inserting or removing an IC card, you can link it to the eject button so that the card can be removed after the power is turned off.
It is possible to protect the data on the card when the card is inserted or removed, and also to protect the device. By allocating memory at an arbitrary address under the control of the main CPU as VRAM when displaying and displaying that part, the dedicated VRAM can be omitted. Also, when displaying image data held in ROM, it can be transferred to VRAM. Since there is no need to do this, the speed can be increased. When using IC cards, security can be maintained by changing the bin arrangement depending on the type. When sending data from Beijer to this notebook, if data reception occurs while the power is off, a warning sound will be emitted, and if there is received data, a message to that effect will be displayed on the screen, so that you will know when receiving data from Beijer. You can know what happened. Also, as shown in Figure 21, a buffer is provided on the Beijer receiving side, and even if the notebook itself is powered off, the power is turned on by a regular interrupt, and if the received data is in the buffer, it is imported. By doing so, you can secure updated data from Beijer.

At this time, if a scheduler function is provided, when a new schedule is sent to the schedule shown in Figure 22 (a), the latest data will be updated as shown in Figure 22 (b). It will be displayed with a lot of information.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention, when inputting information by pressing the display section, determines whether the mode is writing mode or erasing mode based on the size of the display area.
Since the predetermined control is performed based on the judgment result, the structure is simpler than the conventional pen that requires a power source or a coil on the display.
It is easier to use and does not cause malfunctions unlike the coil method.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a device to which this invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of this invention, and FIG.
Figure 4 shows a structure for illuminating the LCD. Figure 5 shows an example of the structure when an expansion card is used as a display. Figure 6 shows a continuous figure. Figures showing the state displayed by both the main unit and the expansion card; Figures 7 to 12 are diagrams to explain the state of communication between the expansion card and the main unit; Figure 13 shows the display on the main unit side. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a state where the screen is displayed in a vertical direction, FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a state where the screen is displayed in a horizontal direction, and FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a state in which the direction of the cursor keys is changed depending on the display direction of the screen. , Fig. 16 is a diagram showing another shape of the pen, Fig. 17 is a block diagram showing a device for writing and erasing, Fig. 18 is a flow chart showing the operation of the device in Fig. 17, and Fig. 19 is a diagram showing the operation of the cursor key. A perspective view showing another example, FIG. 20 is a RAM
Figure 21 is a diagram to explain the relationship of data, Figure 22 is a diagram to explain the state when Bayer is used,
The figure is a diagram for explaining a state in which Bayer is provided with a scheduler function. 1...Electronic planner body, 1□...Display section, 1□, 12...Cursor keys, 13...
Function key, 14.15...IC card, 2...-
・Recording paper attachment device, 3...Recording paper, 21-...
Ring 1.4.16...Expansion card, 8...Liquid crystal display (LCD), 161...-Information input section, 16
3...Light emitting element, 164...Connection part, 17...
...Flexible display section, 18--Optical fiber cable, 19--Core.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an electronic notebook device using a touch panel that also functions as a display, information can be entered by tracing the surface and necessary display can be performed, and when the area of the part that comes into contact with the touch panel is less than a certain area, information can be written. An electronic system organizer characterized in that it is equipped with a determining means for determining that information is to be erased when the area exceeds a certain area, and a control section that performs control according to the determination result of the determining means.