JPH029231A - Information input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decide whether or not a pushbutton switch is operated manually and to avoid the input of erroneous information due to a cause other than manual operation by providing a detector detecting the manual operation to the pushbutton switch. CONSTITUTION:The pushbutton switch consists of a movable part 1, an electrode 2 provided on the upper part of the moving part 1, a movable contact 3 provided on the lower part of the movable part 1, a spring 5 keeping the electric connection between the electrode 2 and the terminal 4, and terminals 6, 7 being fixed contacts. The electrode 2 to which a human being touches is connected to a human body contact detection circuit 8 detecting the presence of the contact with a human body and the presence of the contact between the human body and the electrode 2 is outputted from the human body contact detection circuit 8. Furthermore, the state signal from the switch 9 operated manually by a resistor 10 connecting in series with the switch 9 comprising the terminals 6, 7 and the moving contact 3 is given to a gate circuit 11 together with the signal outputted from the human contact detection circuit 8, the state signal of the switch 9 controlled by the human being with the gate circuit 11 is outputted.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention provides a method for inputting information by a human operation using a push-button switch used in electronic equipment, etc. The present invention relates to an information input device that detects the

[Prior Art] As is generally known, an information input device using a push-button switch generates electrical power by applying force to the movable part of the push-button switch to move it.
N (ON') 10FF (OFF) can be obtained, and such information input devices usually use one or more push button type switches, and these electrical 0N10
Information on a wide variety of human operations is obtained from FF information.

Figure 6 shows, for example, the catalog "Best Control Equipment Omron New Products Edition (1985 Edition)" published by Tateishi Electric Co., Ltd.
FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway side view showing a push button type switch used in a conventional information input device, which is listed as product 85Y on page 240.

In the figure, 19 is a key top, 20 is a movable contact, 21
2 is a fixed contact, and 22 is a return spring.

Next, the operation of the push-button type switch used in the above-mentioned conventional information input device will be explained. When force is applied to the key top 19, as the key top 19 moves, the movable contact 20 moves until it comes into contact with the fixed contact 21, and the switch is opened by the contact between the movable contact 20 and the fixed contact 21. It becomes ON state. When the force applied to the key top 19 is removed, the key top 19 and the movable contact 20 return to their original positions due to the elastic restoring force of the return spring 22, the contact between the movable contact 20 and the fixed contact 21 is broken, and the switch is turned off. It is opened and becomes OFF state.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] An information input device using a conventional push-button switch as described above, such as a keyboard-type information input device (keyboard) that is widely used as an information input device for information processing equipment.
If a book is placed on top of it, or if the book falls over, the weight of the book or the shock of the fall may cause the keys to be pressed and incorrect information to be entered. This may cause serious damage such as erasing the entered information.

In this way, information input devices using conventional push-button switches only use the 0N10FF of the switch to determine whether the information has been input or not, and to determine the information that has been input.・The switch turns on when the switch is touched or pressed, or when an object is placed on the switch, causing some information to be input incorrectly even though the switch is not operated by a human. There was a point.

This invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it can detect that a push button switch has been operated by a human, thereby avoiding inputting incorrect information due to causes other than human operation. The object of the present invention is to obtain an information input device that can perform the following tasks.

[Means for Solving the Problem] An information input device according to the present invention includes one or more push button type switches, a detector for detecting that the push button type switch is operated by a human, and the push button type switch. The present invention is provided with means for detecting opening/closing of a button type switch, means for determining whether the push button type switch has been operated correctly by a human being, and a gate circuit for outputting the result of the determination as an operation by a human being.

[Function] The information input device of the present invention detects that the information inputted based on the 0N10FF of the push button switch is correctly operated by the human based on the output of the detector that detects the human operation of the push button switch. It is determined whether or not the

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a push button switch used in an information input device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, l is the movable part of the push button type switch, 2
3 is an electrode provided on the upper part of the movable part 1 to detect contact with the human body, which is a surface that is touched by humans; 3 is a movable contact that is provided in the lower part of the movable part 1 and serves as a contact for 0N10FF of the switch; 5 1 is a spring that maintains the electrical connection between the electrode 2 and the terminal 4, and 6 and 7 are terminals that become fixed contacts that come into contact with the movable contact 3 and separate from it to perform ON/OFF operation of the switch.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing electrical connections of the information input device of FIG. 1. As shown in the figure, the electrode 2 shown in FIG. The presence or absence of is output. In addition, a switch 9 consisting of terminals 6, 7 and a movable contact 3 shown in FIG.
A resistor 10 connected in series with this switch 9 provides the state signal of the switch 9 operated by the human being to the gate circuit 11 together with the signal output from the human body contact detection circuit 8. A state signal of the switch 9 is output.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the human body contact detection circuit shown in FIG. 2. As shown in the figure, the electrode 2 that contacts the human body is connected to a Schmitt trigger circuit 17 through a resistor 12 for protecting the circuit. Resistors 13 and 14 are used to maintain the input voltage to the Schmitt trigger circuit 17 at V/2, which is half of the power supply voltage when the human body is not in contact with the electrode 2, and diodes 15 and 16 are used to maintain the input voltage to the Schmitt trigger circuit 17 at V/2, which is half of the power supply voltage. It has the role of protection to prevent excessive voltage from being applied to the The output of the Schmitt trigger circuit 17 is input to a retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18 that operates depending on the rising and falling edges of the input signal.
This retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18 outputs a signal indicating whether or not there is contact between the human body and the electrode 2.

4 is a diagram showing the human output characteristics of the Schmitt trigger circuit of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a voltage waveform diagram of each part for explaining the operation of the human body contact detection circuit of FIG. 3.

Next, the operation of the information input device described in J-1, which is an embodiment of the present invention, will be described. When the push-button switch shown in FIG. 1 is operated, the movable part 1 receives some force and moves from position A to position B, causing the movable contact 3 to come into contact with the terminals 6 and 7, as shown in FIG. The switch 9 shown in FIG. 1 is closed, but at this time, it is necessary to press down the electrode 2 in order to apply force to the movable part 14. When a human operates the electrode 2, the human body (usually a fingertip) presses down on the electrode 2.
A signal indicating that a human body is in contact with the electrode 2 is sent from the human body contact detection circuit 8 to the switch 9 status signal and the cane gate circuit 1 through the terminal 4 electrically connected to the terminal 4, which is operated by a human. A state signal of the switch 9 is output from the gate circuit 11.

On the other hand, when an object other than a human presses down the electrode 2, the human body contact detection circuit 8 does not send a signal indicating that the human body is in contact with the electrode 2 to the gate circuit 11, so that the gate circuit 11 does not send a signal to the switch 9. No status signal is output.

Next, a method for detecting the presence or absence of contact between the human body and the electrode 2 using the human body contact detection circuit 8 shown in FIG. 3 will be described.

When the human body comes into contact with the electrode 2, a part of the voltage induced in the human body due to the influence of the commercial power source is input to the Schmitt trigger circuit 17 through the resistor 12. This input terminal is waveform-shaped according to the human output characteristics of the Schmitt trigger circuit 17 as shown in FIG. 4, and becomes a rectangular wave signal having approximately the same frequency as the commercial power supply. This rectangular wave signal is input to the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18 and converted into a signal indicating the presence or absence of contact between the human body and the electrode 2.

As shown in FIG. 5, the human body is in contact with the electrode 2 between time T1 and time T2, and the human body is in contact with the electrode 2 before time T1 or at time T2.
Thereafter, it is not in contact with the electrode 2. Further, τ in FIG. 5 is a time constant for the input trigger of the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18. Before time T1 or time T
After 2, since the human body is not in contact with electrode 2, the input terminal of Schmitt trigger circuit 17 is at V, which is half of the power supply voltage ■.
/2, and its output voltage is LOW or 11
Maintains the IGH state. On the other hand, between time T1 and time T2 when the human body is in contact with the electrode 2, due to the voltage induced in the human body, an AC voltage component with the same frequency as the commercial power supply is applied to the input terminal of the Schmitt trigger circuit 17. The output voltage is a square wave voltage. The rising edge of this rectangular wave voltage is input as a trigger to the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18, and the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18 attempts to return to r, o w after maintaining the HIGH state for a time constant τ. However, by setting the time constant τ of the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18 to be longer than the period T' of the frequency of the commercial power supply,
Before returning to LOW, the output voltage of the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 71 is held at HIC;I until time T2 when the trigger is applied again and the output voltage of the Schmitt trigger circuit 17 is held at LOW or HIC;H. Then, at time T3, when the time constant τ of the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18 has elapsed since the last rise of the input signal, the signal returns to LOW. For this purpose, the output voltage of the retriggerable monostable multivibrator 18 is outputted as a signal representing the presence or absence of contact between the human body and the electrode 2.

Although the above embodiment shows a case in which there is only one push button type switch, information configured by a plurality of push button type switches, such as a keyboard type information input device used in an information processing device, may be used. In the input device, an electrode is provided on the movable part of each push-button switch so that it comes into contact with the human body when the switch is pressed, and these electrodes detect contact with the human body, and the detection signal and the push-button switch are The input information obtained from the 0N10FF may be input to the gate circuit, and the same effect as in the above embodiment can be achieved.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, an electrode 2 is provided on the movable part 1 of the push-button switch to detect human operation, and a human body contact detection circuit 8 is used to detect the contact of the human body to the electrode 2. However, for the circuit configuration of this human body contact detection circuit 8, a well-known detection technology that uses a voltage induced in the human body or the earthing effect of the human body, which is generally called a "touch sensor", etc., can be used. The present invention is not limited to the actual contact between the human body and the electrode 2, and a technique for detecting the proximity of the human body to the electrode 2 may be used, and the same effects as in the above embodiments can be obtained.

Further, in the above embodiment, a case is shown in which the state signal of the switch 9 and the signal indicating that the human body is in contact with the electrode 2 are applied to the gate circuit 11, but both of the above signals are individually output to electronic equipment such as an information processing device. However, it is also possible to use a circuit within the electronic device or a computer to determine whether the switch is operated by a human, and the same effect as in the above embodiment can be achieved.

Furthermore, it is also possible to replace the gate circuit 11 used in the above embodiment with a computer and use this computer to judge the operation of the switch by a human, and the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the information input device of the present invention includes one or more push-button switches, a detector that detects when the push-button switch is operated by a human, A configuration comprising a detection means for detecting opening/closing of the push-button switch, a determination means for determining whether the push-button switch has been operated correctly by a human, and a gate circuit for outputting the determination result as an operation by a human. Therefore, it is possible to effectively avoid inputting erroneous information due to causes other than human operations, that is, objects other than humans.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a push button type switch used in an information input device according to an embodiment of the present invention;
The figure is a circuit diagram showing the electrical connection of the information input device in Figure 1;
Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the human body contact detection circuit shown in Fig. 2, Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the human output characteristics of the Schmitt trigger circuit shown in Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the human body contact detection circuit shown in Fig. 3. FIG. 6 is a voltage waveform diagram of each part for explaining the operation of the circuit, and a partially cutaway side view showing a push button type switch used in a conventional information input device. In the figure, 1... movable part, 2... electrode, 3...
Movable contact, 4. 6. 7...terminal, 5...spring,
8... Human body contact detection circuit, 9... Switch, 10.
12. 13゜14...Resistor, 11...Gate circuit, 15.16...Diode, 17...Schmitt trigger circuit, I8...Retriggerable monostable multivibrator, 19...Key top, 20... ...Movable contact, 21...Fixed contact, 22...Return spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] one or more push-button switches; a detector for detecting a human operation of the push-button switches; and means for detecting opening/closing of the push-button switches;
The opening/closing operation of the push-button switch is determined to be a human operation based on the output of the detection means for detecting the opening/closing of the push-button switch and the output of a detector that detects a human operation of the push-button switch. What is claimed is: 1. An information input device comprising a determining means for determining whether the determining means is correct, and a gate circuit for outputting a determination result by the determining means as an operation by a human.