JPH02307114A - Pointing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a pointing device which ensures the improvement of operability by outputting the position information via a touch operation. CONSTITUTION:When an operator pushes an optional position of a plane plate 10, the push force is scattered to each support point at a certain rate. Each of pressure detectors 11 set at four corners of the plate 10 outputs a signal to a computing element 12 in response to the received pressure. The element 12 receives the outputs of four detectors 11 and performs a prescribed arithmetic process to compute the pushed position signals (x) and (y) and the pushed force. Then the cursor shift value signals (x') and (y') are previously defined in accordance with the pushed position coordinates and the pushed force. Thus the working of a pointing device is secured. In such a way, the finger shift value is reduced and the operability is improved.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Summary] Pointing device that outputs position information by touch operation.
For the purpose of improving the operability of the device, the device includes a suppressing member that transmits a pressing force and has a coordinate plane set thereon, and is provided at at least three predetermined coordinate positions on the coordinate plane,
a pressure detector that detects the pressure at the coordinate position of the suppression member; and holding the coordinate position signal of the pressure detector;
The detection signal from the pressure detector detected in accordance with the pressing force from the suppressing member is input, and the pressing force and pressing coordinate position on the suppressing member are calculated from the coordinate position signal and the detection signal, and the It consists of a calculation unit that outputs an instruction signal according to the calculated value. Further, the pressure sensor is configured to measure changes over time in the pressing force from the pressure detector, and to function as a switch if the pressure falls within a certain range.

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a pointing device that outputs position information through a touch operation.

When inputting data to a text screen or the like in a computer system, an operator uses a cursor to confirm the position of the input, and performs processing such as editing on the screen based on that information. Furthermore, opportunities to operate a cursor on a screen for purposes such as drawing have recently increased. In this case, a request arises to move the cursor to the desired position.

[Conventional technology] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional device.

In the figure, 1 to 4 are cursor keys for moving the cursor in the up, down, left, and right directions, and these keys are on the keyboard 5.
is placed on top. By pressing these keys with the finger 6, the cursor on the display screen is moved. For example, assume that the cursor 7 is located at point A in FIG. If the cursor 7 is to be moved to the position of point B, the operator presses the cursor key 3 as shown in the figure. While pressed, the cursor moves down the display screen until it reaches point B. Cursor 7 to point B
When this happens, release finger 6 from the cursor key.

The cursor 7 can also be moved using a touch method. For example, when a key is touched once, the cursor moves a predetermined distance, so the cursor 7 is moved a desired distance depending on the number of touches.

In addition, there are methods for moving the cursor that do not involve using cursor keys, such as using a device called a mouse, a device called a trackball, a device called a joystick, etc.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The one-sided cursor key system described above requires the role of the cursor keys to be defined in advance by software. In this case, the direction of movement and the amount of movement per unit time (travel speed) can be changed by software, but if you try to move in any direction, the number of cursor keys increases and operability deteriorates. There was a problem.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned method using a mouse, the cursor is moved by relative movement of the mouse, so a mouse action area that is large enough to accommodate the range of movement of the cursor is required. Furthermore, in the trackball method described above, in order to move the cursor according to the rotation of the ball, it was necessary to repeatedly move the finger or hand back and forth and left and right on the ball. In the above two examples, such an operation is required, and the moving speed of the cursor depends on the speed of the hand applied to the device.
Frequent operations may cause the user to feel fatigued. Furthermore, in the joystick method, since the stick is swung in correspondence with the direction in which the cursor is desired to be moved, it is necessary to switch the direction of swiveling by hand between front, back, left, and right, which is not suitable for specifying minute movements.

The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a pointing device that can improve operability.

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a flat disk used as a suppressing member, 11 is a pressure detector provided at the four corners of the flat disk 10, and 12 is a flat disk that receives the outputs of these four pressure detectors 11. Cursor movement corresponding to the pressed point J! This is an arithmetic unit that outputs EX'*y'.

[Operation] When the operator presses any position on the flat plate 10, the pressing force is distributed to each support point at a certain rate. The pressure detectors 11 provided at the four corners of the flat plate 10 detect the pressure (
A signal corresponding to the pressure (depending on the position x, y of the pressing point) is output and given to the calculator 12. The arithmetic unit 12 receives the outputs of the four pressure detectors 11, performs predetermined arithmetic processing, and calculates the position signals X and Y signals of the pressed point and the pressing force. If you define the cursor movement amount X' signal y/signal in advance according to the position coordinates of the pressed point and the pressing force,
It can be operated as a pointing device. According to the present invention, the suppressing member can function as a pointing device simply by pressing an arbitrary position, and the movement of the finger is small and the operability is extremely good.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for calculating the position and pressure of a pressing point. The supporting points are the y-axis orthogonal to the y-axis as shown in the figure, and the positions A and B are equidistant from the origin orthogonal to the y-axis.

Assume that four points are placed at C and D. Assume that the point in the figure is the pressure point, and the position vector of the K point is P, the load (
Pressure force) is assumed to be W. p, , p2゜p, , p4 are the position vectors of detection points A, B, C, D, Wl, W2 . W
3. W4 is detection points A, B, and C.

This is the load of D. Position vector P+ of support point A-D,
P2, Pi, and P4 are known in advance. The position vector P and the pressing force W at the pressing point are respectively expressed by the following equations using gravity center calculation.

P-ΣW i P i /ΣW i (1) W
Castle ΣWi (2) However, i−1,
2, 3, 4 In other words, the computing unit 12 (see FIG. 1)
Upon receiving the detection signal No. 1, the positional information of the pressing point and the pressing force are calculated. Note that the pressing force is used as a signal for adjusting the speed at which the cursor is advanced according to its magnitude.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the mechanical configuration near the pressure detector. The pressure detector 11 is attached to a frame 14 and is in contact with the frame 13 via a packing 15. One end of the pressure detector 11 is a flat plate (key frame) 1.
It is in contact with 0.

That is, the planar disk 10 is supported by the pressure detector 11 fixed to the frame 14 (for example, a keyboard).

The flat disc 10 is made of, for example, hard plastic, and is designed not to deform when pressed with a finger.

When the operator presses the planar disk 10 with his finger as shown in the figure, pressure is distributed across each pressure sensor 11 as a function of pressing force and position. In each pressure detector 11, the resistance values of the four pressure sensors (for example, strain gauges) R1 to R4 change depending on the pressure. This change in resistance value is extracted as an electrical signal. Although only one pressure detector is shown in the figure, the same applies to the remaining three.

FIG. 4 is an electrical configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

The pressure detector 11 includes a strain gauge R, as shown in the figure.
1, R2, R3, and R4 in a Wheatstone bridge, and a power source E for supplying power to this bridge circuit. Although only one pressure detector 11 is shown in the figure, the configurations of the other three pressure detectors 11 are also the same. A voltage signal corresponding to the pressing force is output from both ends of this bridge circuit.

12g is an A/D converter that converts the output of the pressure detector 11 into a digital signal, and four A/D converters are provided according to the number of pressure detectors 11. 12b receives the outputs of the four A/D converters 12a and converts them to the above (1).

This is an arithmetic circuit that calculates the position coordinates and pressing force of the pressing point by calculating the equation (2), and further calculates the cursor movement amounts x/, y/. As the arithmetic circuit 12b, for example, a ROM comprising an LUT (Look Up Table) is used. The arithmetic unit 12 in FIG. 1 is composed of four A/D converters 12a and one arithmetic circuit 12b. These four A/D converters 12a and one arithmetic circuit 12b are controlled by control signals (for example, clock signals, etc.) for operating the system. The operation of the circuit configured as described above will be explained as follows.

When the operator presses any position on the flat disk 10 (not shown), pressure is distributed across each pressure sensor 11 as a function of the pressing force and position. Each pressure detector 11 detects dispersed pressure and outputs a signal according to the pressure. The signals from the four pressure detectors 11 each enter an A/D converter 12a and are converted into, for example, a 4-bit digital signal. 4
The outputs of the pressure detectors 11 are converted into digital signals and input to the arithmetic circuit 12b as address signals. Then, the calculation circuit 12b performs the calculations shown by the above-mentioned equations (1) and (2) stored at the address corresponding to the input address, and further performs a predetermined calculation from the position coordinates of the pressing point and the pressing force. and output the cursor movement amount. As a result,
The arithmetic circuit 12b outputs 4-bit cursor movement amount signals x/, yI.

Next, FIGS. 5 and 6 show a method for determining the amount of cursor movement from the position coordinates of the pressing point and the pressing force.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the load coefficient of the sensor. The horizontal axis is the distance from the presser center 0, and the vertical axis is the load coefficient.RO
An example of calculation recorded in M as a table is shown. A/
As shown in FIG. 2, the position of the pressing point and the pressing force can be estimated from the output of the D converter 12g, but if this is done alone, the position pressed by the finger and the output correspond directly to each other, and there is no flexibility in moving the cursor. Therefore, as shown in the figure, it is preferable to determine the distance from the pressing center 0 and the load coefficient k corresponding to the pressing force W in the sensor output.

By determining the load coefficient in this way, the calculation circuit (ROM
)12b output is expressed as follows.

x'-cos (kr) (3
)y' 5in (kr) (4) However, kr is expressed in radians.In other words, the suppression position coordinates x and y are multiplied by the weighting coefficient k,
For example, the amount of movement is small near the center of the key frame, and as the pressing force increases, the amount of movement becomes larger even at the same position.

Here, the load coefficient is a function of the position (x, y) and the pressing force W, and the functions of k in equations (3) and (4) may be different. Further, at k-1, the pressed position directly corresponds to the cursor movement amount.

FIG. 6 is a processing map of the moving direction under the pressing force. This figure shows a characteristic in which a dead zone is provided at the suppressed position so that the key also functions as a normal cursor key. On the text screen, move the cursor in the up, down, left, and right directions (x,
The focus is on movement in the y direction). Therefore, x,
A dead zone is provided in only one direction on each axis of y. In the figure, the shaded area is the neutral range (dead zone). In other words,
Even if you press the shaded area, it will not function as a key. Furthermore, a predetermined width ±xs in each axis direction of x+Y.

The range having ±ys is the movement only in the Y+X axis directions, and the other regions are two-dimensional regions in the x and y directions as directions. These characteristics can also be written in the ROM as a table.

FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram when the device of the present invention is operated as a switch. In the figure, 20 is a planar disk 10 (first
21 is an AND gate that receives the outputs of these comparators 20, and 22 is the output of the AND gate 21. and a switch operation detection circuit that receives a clock and outputs a switch on/off signal. The operation of the circuit configured as described above will be explained below according to the time chart shown in FIG.

When the operator presses any position on the flat disk 10, the four pressure detectors 11 detect the distributed pressing force. 8th
(A) and (B) in the figure each show the outputs of two of the four pressure detectors.

When the operator continues to press a key for a while, the distribution of the pressing force becomes as shown in (a) and (b).

The same applies to the remaining two pieces.

A comparator 20 compares such a detection signal with a threshold value. As a result, a relatively long pulse is output and applied to the AND gate 21.

The AND gate 21 ANDs the four signals and outputs it, but the output is similarly long.

This pulse enters the switch operation detection circuit 22.

The switch operation detection circuit 22 allows only the width of this pulse to pass through the lock as shown in (c), but since the number of passed pulses is greater than a predetermined value, it is not regarded as a switch signal.

Here, when the operator presses the flat disk 10 momentarily,
Each pressure detector 11 outputs short pulse-like signals as shown in (a) and (b). This signal enters a comparator 20 and is converted into a pulse. The converted pulse enters an AND gate 21, which outputs a short width pulse. The switch operation detection circuit 22 allows only this short width to pass through the lock as shown in (c).

If the number of pulses that have passed is less than a predetermined number, it is assumed that the switch is on, and an ON pulse as shown in (d) is output. If this pulse is used as an on signal, it becomes a tick-off type switch.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the state of use of the present invention. A pointing device 30 of the present invention is mounted on the keyboard 31. This pointing device 30 is plate-shaped and functions by pressing it with a finger. By balance movement of pressing, it is possible to arbitrarily move from point M to point N on the screen 32 shown in the figure.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above in detail, according to the present invention, pressure detectors that also serve as support mechanisms are attached to multiple ends of the plate, and the center of gravity is calculated using the outputs of these pressure detectors. The position information and the pressing force of the pressing point can be obtained, and can be used as a signal indicating the amount of movement of the cursor. According to the present invention, the direction and amount of movement can be specified by the position and force at which one plate is pushed, so that operability can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a diagram of the principle of the present invention, Figure 2 is an explanatory diagram for calculating the position and pressure of the pressure point, Figure 3 is a diagram showing an example of the mechanical configuration near the pressure detector, and Figure 4 is the book. An electrical configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the invention, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing weighting coefficients of the sensor, FIG. 6 is a processing map of the direction of movement under the pressing force, and FIG. 7 shows how the device of the present invention operates as a switch. FIG. 8 is a time chart when the device of the present invention is operated as a switch, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how the present invention is used, FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional device, and FIG. The figure shows an example of a display. In FIG. 1, 10 is a flat disk, 11 is a pressure detector, and 12 is an arithmetic unit.

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A pressing member that transmits pressing force and has a coordinate plane set (
10), a pressure detector (11) that is provided at at least three predetermined coordinate positions on the coordinate plane and detects the pressure of the pressing member (10) at the coordinate position; The coordinate position signal is held, the detection signal from the pressure detector (11) detected according to the pressing force from the pressing member (10) is input, and the pressing member is detected from the coordinate position signal and the detection signal. (10) A pointing device comprising: an arithmetic unit (12) that calculates a pressing force and a pressing coordinate position, and outputs an instruction signal according to the calculated values. (2) The arithmetic unit (12) converts the output from the pressure detector (11) into digital data, and realizes a predetermined calculation by using the plurality of digital outputs as address signals of a table stored in memory in advance. 2. The pointing device according to claim 1, wherein the pointing device is configured to: (3) When the coordinate position of the pressing force on the pressing member (10) is in a predetermined coordinate area, the output of the instruction signal of the arithmetic unit (12) is prohibited. 2. The pointing device according to item 2. (4) The pressure sensor (11) measures changes over time in the pressing force, and if the pressure falls within a certain range, the device functions as a switch.
Pointing device as described.