JPH0266620A - Coordinate input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve operability for input of data by using a coordinate detecting means, plural parameter input means and a parameter detecting means. CONSTITUTION:When a mouse main body M is moved by a hand by reference to the screen of a CRT, the coordinates (X, Y) are detected by a ball 1, rollers 2 and 3, and rotary encoders 4 and 5. The information showing the coordinates (X, Y) is inputted to an interface circuit 10 and then to a work station. Then a coordinate axis where the coordinates (X, Y) serve as an intersecting point is displayed on the CRT. Then a dial 8 of the mouse M is rotated by a finger for input of the parameter of a rotational angle. This rotational angle is detected by a rotary encoder 9, and the information showing the rotational angle is is inputted to the work station via an interface circuit 10. A character string is moved to the position of the coordinates (X, Y) with rotation given in response to the rotational angle of the dial 8 and set at a desired position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a coordinate input device for an interactive processing system.

<Prior Art> Conventionally, various input devices have been devised for interactively inputting coordinates to a computer or the like. Among these, a human coordinate device called a mouse was developed for workstations and is often used to input commands to interactive processing devices.

Figure 5 shows the external shape of the mouse. This figure 5 shows the button Bl.
, B2 are of the type with two buttons, but there are also ones with one button and ones with three buttons. A mechanism for detecting the movement vector of the mouse body is provided on the bottom surface of the mouse body. The operator moves the mouse body by hand and presses button B.
By pressing B1 and B2 with a finger, coordinates (X, Y) and information on buttons B1 and B2 are input into the system. The mechanism for detecting the movement vector is a mechanical one with a built-in ball that rotates due to friction with the surface of the desk, and a mechanism that detects the movement vector by moving the mouse on a special sheet with a grid pattern printed on it and optically detecting the grid pattern. There are things to detect.

Usually, an interactive system has a display such as a CRT, and the cursor controlled by the mouse is
display on the display. The cursor is used to select commands from the menu or to specify text or figures to be processed. It is easy to correlate mouse movements with cursor movements, and input can be performed without taking your eyes off the display, making it extremely easy to input.

<Problem to be solved by the invention> As is clear from the above explanation, the above mouse has coordinates (
X, Y) and button B1. Information on whether B2 is pressed or not can be entered manually at once. However, depending on the application, just inputting coordinates (X, Y) and buttons may not be enough.
Parameters are often missing.

An example is shown in FIG. In this example, the character string ABCD is to be laid out, but the character string should be rotated and placed in an empty area of the screen. In this case, in addition to where to move, a parameter for the angle of rotation is required.

If you try to input parameters using a mouse, you can only input coordinates (X, Y) and button information with the mouse, so you need to provide two modes: a coordinate input mode and a rotation angle input mode. It won't happen. the result,
To operate, first move the character string to the desired layout location in coordinate manual mode (Figure 6 (b)), then change the mode to rotation angle input mode and rotate the character string (see Figure 6 (b)). 6(C)), and then parallel movement and rotational movement to position the character string ABCD in the target empty area (FIG. 6(d)).

In this way, in the above operation, translation and rotation are performed separately, so it is difficult to place the string in the intended location in one go, and the translation and rotation movements are repeated to make corrections. . This results in extremely poor operability.

The flow of processing using the mouse will be explained in detail with reference to FIG.

First, in step S1 in FIG. 7, a mode selection is made to determine whether coordinate input or rotation angle input is to be performed.

Here, if coordinate input is selected, the process branches to process S2, and if rotation angle manual input is selected, the process branches to process S3.

In process S2, the character string ABCD is translated in parallel using the values (X, Y) input from the mouse as coordinates (X, Y), and then the process advances to process S5.

In process S3, the value input from the mouse is converted into a rotation angle. For example, a method can be considered in which only the X component is extracted from the input from the mouse and its value is made to correspond to the rotation angle. Next, in process S4, a process of rotating the character string ABCD is performed. After that, the process advances to process S6.

In processing S5 and processing S6, mouse button Bl is pressed.

The state of B2 is manually adjusted. If the button is not pressed, the process branches to process S2 and process S4, respectively. Here, if the button is pressed, for example,
If the right button is pressed, the process branches to process S1, otherwise the process ends. That is, in this example, the parallel movement or rotational movement processing is interrupted by pressing the right button B2, and by changing the mode, the parallel movement and rotational movement data are input.

As described above, this method has very poor operability because the mode must be changed every time.

Other examples of parameters include parameters representing color information such as hue, saturation, brightness, or RGB. For example, if you want to color text or figures created by performing the above processing, you must also change the mode to a mode for inputting color information. In other words, with the conventional mouse mentioned above, the number of modes increases in proportion to the number of parameters, so the more types of input information, the more
Mode switching must be performed frequently, resulting in noticeable poor operability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to input coordinates representing the moving direction and amount of movement of a main body such as a mouse, and to input a plurality of different types of parameters other than coordinates without switching modes. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a coordinate input device with excellent data input operability.

Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above objects, the coordinate input device of the present invention includes coordinate detection means for detecting coordinates representing the moving direction and amount of movement of the main body, and inputting different types of parameters for each. A plurality of parameter manual means, a parameter detection means for detecting the parameters input by the parameter input means, a plurality of switches, and information representing the coordinates and parameters respectively output by the coordinate detection means and the parameter detection means. and a transmission means for transmitting information representing the state of the switch to the outside.

When holding the main body with one hand, multiple switches are placed near the index and middle fingers, and one or more parameter input means are placed near the remaining fingers, making it easy to operate the switches and parameter input means with your fingers. It is preferable to do so.

In addition, when holding the main body with one hand, there is probably one or more parameter input means near the index finger and middle finger, and multiple switches are placed near the remaining fingers, making it easy to use the parameter input means and switches. It is also preferable to be able to operate the switch using the .

It is also preferable to arrange one or more parameter input means and a plurality of switches near the index finger and middle finger when the main body is held with one hand so that they can be easily operated with the fingers.

Further, it is preferable to use a dial type parameter input means.

It is also preferable to use a sliding type parameter input means.

Effect> When the main body is moved, the direction and amount of movement, that is, the movement vector, are detected by the coordinate detection means. Parameters representing the desired rotation angle and the like are input by the parameter input means independently of the coordinate detection means and the movement of the main body. The information representing these coordinates and parameters, together with the information representing the state of the switch,
It is transmitted to the outside by a transmission means. Therefore, according to this coordinate input device, a movement vector can be input by moving the main body, and information representing, for example, rotation, enlargement, reduction, color, etc. can be input by separately operating the parameter input means. Therefore, for example, when inputting information representing parallel movement and information representing rotational movement, there is no need to switch modes, and information representing parallel movement and rotational movement can be input at the same time, resulting in extremely high operability. Become.

<Example> The present invention will be described in detail below using an example in which the present invention is applied to a mechanical mouse.

FIG. 1 is an external view of the mechanical mouse, and FIG. 1(a) shows the dial 8, which is an example of a manual means, with parameters placed exactly where the thumb would be when the mouse body M is grasped with the hand.
, and buttons Bl and B2 are placed at the positions of the index finger and middle finger.

In addition to the dial 8 shown in FIG. 1(a), another dial 18 is placed in FIG. 1(b) exactly at the position where the middle finger would be when the mouse body M is grasped by hand. . The dials 8 and 18 are rotated directly with fingers.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the mouse shown in FIG. 1(a). In FIG. 2, 2. l is a ball provided on the underside of the mouse body and rotates as the mouse body moves;
3 is a roller having axes perpendicular to each other and rotates in contact with the ball 1; 4 and 5 are rotary encoders connected to the rollers 2 and 3; The rotation of the ball 1 in the X direction is detected by the roller 2 and the rotary encoder 4, and the rotation of the ball l in the Y direction is detected by the roller 3 and the rotary encoder 5. Therefore, the amount of change in the movement vector of the mouse body M That is, the amount of change in the coordinates (X, Y) can be detected by the output of the rotary encoder 4.5.

This ball 110-ra 2.3 and rotary encoder 4.5 determine the coordinates (X) of the main body.

A coordinate detection means for detecting Y) is configured.

Further, 6.7 is a switch corresponding to the buttons B1 and B2 shown in FIG. In this example, there are two buttons, but if the mouse has three buttons, one more switch will be added.

Further, 8 is a dial as shown in FIG. 1, and 9 is a rotary encoder directly connected to the dial 8 as a parameter detection means. The amount of rotation of the dial 8 indicating the parameter is detected by a row encoder 9.

The coordinates (X
, Y) and the rotary encoder θ
Information representing the amount of change in the rotation angle of the dial 8, that is, a predetermined type of parameter, outputted from the IO is input to an interface circuit 10 serving as a transmission means, and is sent from the interface circuit IO to a system such as a workstation. The interface circuit 10 uses a known technology. For example, the transmission technology called the R5232C standard is a technology commonly used in data communication between personal computers, and can be easily implemented using it. In addition, if there are two or more dials,
For the mouse that has been dialed, the row encoder will be increased according to the number of dials.

Next, the operation of the mouse configured as described above will be explained by taking as an example the task of rotating and arranging the character string ABCD on the screen.

First, while looking at the screen of the CRT, the mouse body M is held and moved so that the coordinate axes are indicated at the position where the character string ABCD should be placed on the CRT of the workstation (not shown). This movement vector or coordinates (X, Y) is a ball! , rollers 2, 3 and roller encoder 4.5
The coordinates (X, Y) are detected by
) will be displayed.

Next, the dial 8 of the mouse is rotated with a finger so that the character string ABCD is rotated to a desired position on the screen, and a parameter for the rotation angle is input.

The rotation angle of the dial 8 is detected by a rotary encoder 9 directly connected to the dial 8, and information representing this rotation angle is manually input to the workstation via an interface circuit 10. Then, the process described below will be performed,
The character string ABCD is moved to the position of coordinates (X, Y), rotated in accordance with the rotation angle of the dial 8, and placed at a desired position.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the parallel movement of the character string ABCD can be input by moving the mouse, and the rotation movement can be input by operating the dial 8. Therefore, input for parallel movement and input for rotation movement can be performed. These inputs can be performed separately or at the same time, greatly improving the operability of data input.

Next, the flow of data processing will be explained with reference to FIG.

In process Sl, the mouse is moved to input coordinates. Next, in step S2, it is checked whether there has been a change in the coordinates. If there is a change in the coordinates, the character string AB is changed in process S3.
Processing to move the CD in parallel is performed. Next, in step S4, dial values, that is, parameters for rotational movement are input. In process S5, it is checked whether there has been a change in the dial value. If there is a change in the dial value,
In step S6, the character string ABCD is rotated. Further, in step S7, information is input using the mouse button B1. If button B1 has been pressed, the process ends. If it is not pressed, the process returns to process St. The above is an example of basic data processing when one dial is installed.

If the coordinate input device shown in Figure 1(b) is equipped with multiple dials, many different parameters can be entered, including parallel translation, rotational translation, magnification for enlargement and reduction, and color. It is clear that information, etc., will also become human-powered at the same time. Moreover, these operations can be performed without changing the input mode, further improving the operability of data input.

Although the above embodiment is a mechanical coordinate input device, the present invention can also be applied to an optical coordinate input device that detects a grid pattern on a dedicated sheet.

In addition to the above embodiments, the coordinate input device of the present invention may have various embodiments depending on the position of the button and the position and shape of the parameter input means.

Some of them are shown below in correspondence with FIG.

(a) A slide volume is used instead of a dial.

(b) Two slide volumes arranged one on top of the other.

(c) Two dials are placed on the top of the device and the buttons are placed on the side of the device.

In this case, operate the dial with your middle finger or index finger, and operate the buttons with your thumb.

(d) placing two slide volumes on the top of the device;
A button placed on the side of the device.

In this case, as in (c), the slide volume is operated with the middle finger or index finger, and the button is operated with the thumb.

(e) Alternating buttons and dials on the top of the device.

In this case, the middle finger or index finger is used to operate both the buttons and dials.

The CD button and slide volume are arranged alternately on the top of the device.

In this case, as in (e), the middle finger or index finger is used to operate both the button and the slide volume.

(g) so that the rotation is parallel to the top surface of the device;
The dial is arranged by changing the direction of rotation.

In this case, the middle finger or index finger is used to operate the button, and the thumb and index finger are used to operate the dial.

<Effects of the Invention> As is clear from the above, the coordinate input device of the present invention includes a coordinate detection means, a plurality of parameter manual means, and a parameter detection means, so that the main body cannot be moved without operating the parameter input means. For example, coordinates for parallel movement can be input via the coordinate detection means, and if the parameter input means is operated without moving the main body, the rotation angle, enlargement,
Different types of parameters such as reduction magnification or color information can be input, and each person can perform the operations independently without changing the mode, greatly improving operability. In addition, by placing the parameter input means at the position of each phase when holding the device body with one hand, you can immediately input parameters other than coordinates while holding the device body, further improving operability. do.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 (a) and (b) are external diagrams of the mouse of each embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a configuration diagram of the mouse of Figure 1 (a), and Figure 3 is a diagram of the mouse of other embodiments. Outline drawing, Figure 4 is the second
FIG. 5 is an outline diagram of the conventional example, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the conventional example, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating data processing of the conventional example. M...Body, Bl, B2...Button, ■...Ball, 2.3...Roller, 4.5.9...Rotary encoder, 8.18...Dial, 10... interface circuit. Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Coordinate detection means for detecting coordinates representing the direction and amount of movement of the main body, a plurality of parameter input means for inputting different types of parameters, and detection of parameters input by the parameter input means. a plurality of switches, and a transmission means for transmitting to the outside information representing the coordinates and parameters outputted by the coordinate detecting means and the parameter detecting means, respectively, and information representing the state of the switch. A coordinate input device characterized by: