JPH028923A - Coordinate input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To discriminate the current coordinate inputting state by detecting whether or not coordinates of plural points are inputted almost simultaneously and, when coordinate inputs of plural points are detected, making the inputted coordinate values ineffective and notifying the outside that the coordinate values are ineffective. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 50 checks whether or not a coordinate input is made through an input pen 61 and, upon detecting a coordinate input, reads the designated coordinate values (X, Y) and saves the values in a RAM 50b. Then the CPU 50 checks whether the coordinate input is made by a multi-point input and, when a multi-point input is detected, the CPU 50 drives a buzzer 60 to produce warning sounds. Production of the warning sounds is continued until the non-contacted state of resistance bodies is detected. In addition, the next coordinate inputting process is not started until the non-contacted state of the resistance bodies by all input points is detected when the multi-point input is detected. Therefore, the coordinate input by means of an unconscious object (for example, a ring, etc.,) pressing a coordinate input board can be prevented when the input pen 61 is removed from the board.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a coordinate input device, and more particularly to a coordinate input device that inputs coordinates by pointing to a coordinate input surface.

[Prior Art] A typical example of this type of device is a pressure-sensitive coordinate system.

Usually, sheets coated with resistive films are arranged above and below the coordinate input surface of this device, and by picking up and calculating the partial voltage of these sheets that come into contact with pressure,
The coordinate position of the pressure point is detected.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Coordinate input using this method is normally performed by pressing the pen tip of a dedicated input pen on the coordinate input board, but at the same time, for example, the finger holding the input pen must You may end up entering coordinates in unexpected places, such as when you are wearing a ring. This is so-called multi-point human power.

In this case, coordinates that are completely different from what the operator expected will be input, and there is a possibility that completely unexpected processing will be performed on the host side that is the output target.

Therefore, it is conceivable to provide some kind of means for detecting multi-point human power, and to perform processing such as not outputting data to the outside when such a state is detected.

However, in this case, there is a drawback that the operator may think that the coordinates have not been input even though the input has been made, and may continue to press the coordinate input surface with excessive force, damaging the input pen or the coordinate input surface.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a coordinate input device that is capable of notifying the outside when multi-point input is detected.

[Means for Solving the Problem] The present invention for solving this problem includes the configuration shown below.

That is, in a coordinate input device that detects a specified coordinate position by specifying a desired position on a coordinate input surface,
Detection means for detecting whether or not coordinates have been input at multiple locations at approximately the same time, and when the detection means detects coordinate input at multiple locations, invalidating the input coordinate values and notifying the outside. Equipped with notification means.

[Operation] In the configuration of the present invention, when the detection means detects coordinate inputs at a plurality of locations, the notifying means invalidates the coordinates input at that time and notifies them to the outside.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Explanation of the principle of coordinate detection (Figures 1 to 4) The coordinate input device in this embodiment adopts a method of detecting the pressed position of a coordinate human pen, and is intended to be connected to a copying machine. This will be explained using an example. Note that on the copying machine side, the input coordinate values are used to specify, for example, an output color within the input area, but the present invention is It is not limited.

FIG. 1 shows the structure of a coordinate input board of a coordinate input device (hereinafter simply referred to as an editor) according to an embodiment.

As shown in the figure, the coordinate input board has an X-resistance element 2 on a metal base plate 1 for detecting the position in the Y-axis direction, an X-resistance element 4 for detecting the position in the X-axis direction above it, and an upper surface ( In other words, it has a so-called laminated structure in which a protective sheet is overlaid on the surface on which coordinates are input. However, as shown in the figure, the X resistor 2 is provided with a dot spacer 3 for insulating contact with the X resistor 4 when no pressure is applied. Furthermore, electrodes are arranged on each resistor at equal intervals in each direction to maintain uniformity of potential.

FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the editor of the embodiment.

In the figure, 7 is the coordinate input board having the laminated structure described above, 8 is the operating section of the editor, and 9 is the mounting table for the input ben 6.

When inputting coordinates, the operator uses this input bench 6.
This is done by holding the pen and pressing the pen tip against the desired position on the coordinate input board 7. In this embodiment, as explained earlier, since it is connected to a copying machine, when inputting the coordinates, the input ben 6 is used to specify the surface of the original to be copied, and pressure is applied indirectly. .

The principle of coordinate detection in the embodiment with the above-described structure will be explained below.

As described above, electrode wires (pickup bins to be described later) are arranged on the X resistor 2 and the X resistor 4 at equal intervals.

Now, when the input board is pressed with the pen tip of the input ben 6, the X resistor 4 and the X resistor 2 are connected by a contact resistance Re, as shown in FIG.

At this time, the illustrated transistors TXH and TXL of the X resistor 4 are turned on, and the transistor TYH of the X resistor 2 is turned on.
and when TYL is turned off, the input ben 6 on the X resistor 4
A potential at the contact point position is generated in the pickup bin on the X resistor 2.

Therefore, the detected voltage at this time is Vx, the interval between the pickup bins of the X resistor is β, and the input vent 6 is
The potential of the peak-up bin across the contact point of V s, V
Assuming H+H, the X coordinate of the desired contact point will be expressed as follows (where VN is less than voltage 18 and indicates the maximum potential of the pickup bin).

In this way, the transistors TX)l and TxL are turned on, the transistors TYH and T□ are turned off, the potential vx corresponding to the contact point is detected from the peak-up bin of the X resistor 2, and from that potential Vx VN.

By taking in VN, l from the N, N+1-th bin of the X resistor 4, it becomes possible to detect the X coordinate.

Furthermore, since the relationship between each pickup bin and the potential of that pickup bin is linear as shown in Figure 4,
By examining the detected potential vX, it becomes clear at a glance which pickup bin it is between.

Further, since the same principle is used for the Y coordinate, the explanation will be omitted, but the arithmetic expression is as follows.

<Description of the structure of the apparatus (FIGS. 5 to 7)> Next, FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of the electric circuit of the editor of this embodiment based on the above-mentioned principle.

In the figure, 50 is a CPU that controls the entire editor, and a ROM that stores control processing procedures (programs) inside.
50a and a RAM 50b used as a work area. Note that the ROM 50a stores a program related to a flowchart shown in FIG. 10, which will be described later.

51 to 54 are 8-channel multiplexers for selecting pickup bins; multiplexers 51 and 52 select one of the pickup bins of the X resistor;
3.54 allows you to select one of the Y resistor pickup bins. 55 is an A/D converter that converts the voltage of one selected pip-up bin into digital data;
The CPU 50 detects the voltage Vx, VN, and VN+ based on the converted digital data. Reference numeral 56 indicates a group of signal lines for controlling on/off of voltage application transistors (see Fig. 3) for each of the X resistor 4 and the Y resistor, and 57 indicates an operation unit on the coordinate board. 8 is a group of various switches provided on the operating section 8, and 58 is a group of LEDs that indicate various statuses on the operation section 8. 59 is a signal line group that controls data exchange with the copying machine main body, 60 is a buzzer that notifies external multi-point input, and 61 is a pen switch provided at the tip of the input pen 6. It is. Each of these components has a CPU50
The output of the boat is controlled by the signal.

A timing chart of data exchange between the signal line group 59 and the copying machine is shown in FIG.

The copying machine body periodically sends REQ to the editor of the embodiment.
Output (ON) the signal. After confirming that the REQ signal is turned on, the editor immediately turns on the ACK signal to notify the copying machine that it has received the signal, and if the coordinate position previously input with the input pen 6 has been determined, 7th
The data in figure (a) is output to the copying machine, and the copying machine outputs the 7th data.
The data shown in Figure (b) is output.

The first byte of the data sent from the editor shown in FIG.
'° indicates that the following data is valid, and 'O' indicates that it is invalid.The next 1 byte contains data indicating the pressed state of each switch group 57. , data indicating the X-coordinate value and Y-coordinate value follows.

In addition, the data output from the copying machine shown in FIG. 7(b) includes a flag "PKCATC" indicating the end of coordinate reception.
The 1-byte data containing "H" is placed at the beginning, followed by display instruction information for the LED group 57, and then data containing predetermined information follows.Please note that the format of these transmitted and received data deviates from the spirit of the present invention, so I will omit the details.

Explanation of the principle of multi-point input detection (FIGS. 8 and 9)> The principle of multi-point manual detection in the editor of the embodiment in the above-described configuration will be explained below.

Now, assume that there are two points A and B as pressure points. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the relationship between the X resistor 4 and the Y resistor 2 at that time, and the coordinate values of these two points are A (Ax, Ay
) and B (BX, BY).

Incidentally, ① to [phase] indicate the pickup bins of each resistor.

Now, pay attention to the X resistor 4 in this state when the resistance between points Ax and Bx on the X resistor 4 is Rx, and the resistance between points A and BY on the Y resistor 2 is RY. I'll try it. That is, by applying a voltage p to the X resistor 4, the transistors TXH and TXL are turned ONL, and the Y resistor 2 is turned on.
transistors TYH and T7. This is the case when turning off.

At this time, a resistor Rx and a resistor Rc2 are connected between the point Ax and the point Bx.
+ Ry + Rc + are arranged in parallel. That is, it becomes smaller than the value of the single resistor Rx.

Therefore, under this situation, the voltage distribution becomes as shown by the solid line, compared to the one-point input (normal input) shown by the broken line in FIG. At this time, the voltage Vx is the coordinate data approximately at the center between points A and B, so the potential difference ΔV between the pickup bins sandwiching it is the relationship of ΔV × ΔV, when the voltage at one point input is 8■' It is in. In other words, when such a situation is detected, it can be determined that multi-point input is occurring.

In reality, in consideration of various electrical influences (for example, noise, etc.), a specified value α is used, and multi-point input is determined when the following relationship holds: 1ΔV−Δv° 1>α.

The above principle is exactly the same for Y resistor 2, and 3
Since it can be detected in the same way even in the case of an input of points or more, a description thereof will be omitted.

Description of Processing Procedure (FIG. 10)> The processing procedure of the CPU 50 of this embodiment based on the above-mentioned principle will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S1, it is determined whether coordinates have been input. The criterion for this judgment may be, for example, whether or not the coordinate input board is pressed, or whether the pen switch 61 is pressed or not.
You can make a decision by investigating the situation.

Now, when a coordinate input is detected, the process advances to step S2 and the specified coordinate values X and Y are read. This read coordinate data is temporarily stored in the RAM 5 in the next step S3.
0b, and it is determined in step S4 whether or not it is a multi-point input. If it is determined that it is not a multi-point input, that is, a single-point input, the process advances to step S5 and the -
The degree coordinate data X, Y is taken in and compared with the previously saved coordinate data in the next step S6. As a result of this comparison, if it is determined in step S7 that the difference is outside the preset error range, the process returns to step S3 and it is determined that the difference with the coordinate data read immediately before is within the error range. Repeat these processes until the

Note that this process of determining whether or not it is within the error range is a process to prevent unexpected data from being taken in due to noise, for example. That is, when the same coordinates are detected continuously, the validity of the data is established.

Now, when the input coordinate values are determined, the process proceeds to the next step S8, and the obtained coordinate values are corrected. In the embodiment, this correction process is performed by calculating the average of the coordinate values input immediately before, but the present invention is not limited to this. The corrected coordinate value data is transmitted to the main body of the copying machine in step S9 in the format shown above. and,
In the next step S10, it is determined whether or not the resistor is still in contact, and when non-contact is detected, the process returns to step S1.

On the other hand, when multi-point input is detected in step S4, the buzzer 60 is driven in step Sll to generate a warning sound,
The warning sound continues to be generated until non-contact of the resistor is detected in step S1o.

With the above-described processing, it is possible to generate a warning sound when multi-point input is performed and notify the operator of this fact.

Also, instead of notifying multi-point input with a warning sound, for example, LE
If there is something that notifies the middle point input of 7 out of 5 groups of D group,
The LED may be turned on.

Furthermore, when multi-point input is detected, the next coordinate input process will not start until non-contact with the resistor by all input points is detected. Sometimes, things outside of consciousness (e.g. rings, etc.)
It is possible to prevent unexpected coordinate input from being made due to only one input pressing the coordinate input board.

Description of Second Embodiment (FIG. 11)> In the above-described embodiment, the editor side notifies the operator of multi-point input. In the following, a case will be described with reference to FIG. 11, in which the operator is notified of multi-point input at the destination of the editor's coordinate data. It is assumed that a program related to this process is stored in the ROM 50a.

To simplify the explanation, the processing procedure in the embodiment of the bookcase 2 will be described with respect to the processing after multi-point input is detected in step S4 of the previous flowchart. That is, it is assumed that the process from valid coordinate input to transmission is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

Now, when multi-point input is detected, multi-point extrusion information is output to the main body of the copying machine in step S12. It is assumed that the information indicating this multi-point extrusion information is transmitted with the 1 bit indicating error information in the 7th byte in FIG. 7(a) set to "1".

In the next step S13, the contact of the resistor is checked, and the process of step S13 is repeated until it is determined in step S14 that there is no contact.

If it is detected that the contacting bodies are in a non-contact state, the process advances to the next step S15, and the multi-point extrusion release information (setting the bit in the previously transmitted information to "o") is sent to the copying machine main body. , and then returns to step S1.

As described above, according to this embodiment, multi-point input can be prohibited and notification to that effect can be made.

Also, the next coordinate input will not be performed unless multi-point input is canceled once, so even if the state changes from multi-point input to single-point input, that single-point input will be ignored, so unexpected coordinates will be input. There will be nothing to do.

Note that in the first and second embodiments described above, a coordinate input device using pressure was used as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and devices using other methods may be used. Further, the output target is not limited to a copying machine.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when multi-point input is detected, a notification to that effect is provided, so that the operator can determine in what state the coordinates are currently being input. become.

Also, unless multi-point input is canceled, the next coordinate input will not be performed manually, so even if the state changes from multi-point input to single-point input, that single-point input will be ignored, so unexpected coordinates will be input. There will be nothing to do.

[Brief Description of the Drawings] Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of the coordinate input board in the embodiment, Fig. 2 is an external view of the coordinate input device in the embodiment, and Figs. 3 and 4 are coordinate detection in the embodiment. 5 is a block configuration diagram of the coordinate input device of the embodiment, FIG. 6 is a timing chart of transmitting and receiving coordinate data in the embodiment, and FIGS. 7(a) and (b) are 8 and 9 are diagrams illustrating the principle of multi-point coordinate input detection in this embodiment. FIG. 10 is a flowchart related to coordinate input in this embodiment. The figure is a flowchart related to coordinate input in the second embodiment. In the figure, 1...metal base plate, 2...Y resistor, 3...
...Dot spacer, 4...X resistor, 5...protective sheet, 6...input pen, 7...coordinate input board, 8...
・Usage operation unit, 9 ・Input pen mounting stand, 50 ・・
CPU, 50a...ROM, 50b/RAM, 51~
54... Multiplexer, 55... A/D converter, 56... Transistor control signal group, 57...
- Switch group, 58... LED group, 59... data transmission/reception signal group, 60... buzzer 61... pen switch.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a coordinate input device that detects the designated coordinate position by designating a desired position on a coordinate input surface, a detection means that detects whether or not coordinates have been input at multiple locations at approximately the same time; A coordinate input device characterized by comprising a notification device for invalidating input coordinate values when the detection device detects coordinate inputs at a plurality of locations and notifying the outside. (2) After detecting coordinate input at multiple locations with the detection means,
2. The coordinate input device according to claim 1, wherein the next coordinate input process is performed only when all coordinate inputs are canceled.