JPH03164798A - Controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the number of control parameters and to efficiently execute an input control operation by providing a pressing force detecting means in a mouse which is an input controller so that not only the X and Y moving quantities but also the pressing force of the operation are simultaneously detected by the moving operation of the mouse. CONSTITUTION:Rotating rollers 3, 4 in X and Y directions provided in a body 1 are rotated by the rotation of a rotating body 2 when the body 1 is moved on X-Y planes for operation. The rotations thereof are detected by rotary encoders 5, 6 in the respective X and Y directions and are sent as the respective rotation detection signals of the X- and Y directions to a control circuit 12. On the other hand, a pressure sensor 9 is pressed by pressing the rotating body 2 onto the X-Y planes, by which the pressing force of the operation at the time of the mouse operation is detected. This pressure detection signal is sent together with the rotation detecting signals of the X- and Y directions (X position data and Y position data) to the control circuit 12, by which the value of the controlled variable concerning the prescribed plural control parameters is calculated. The input parameters are increased in this way and the operability is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a human control device for a computer, an electronic musical instrument, and other various electronic or electrical devices, and particularly relates to the mechanical structure thereof.

[Prior Art] Control input for electronic devices, particularly electronic musical instruments, etc., is performed by operating switches or pressing keys on a keyboard. Therefore, each switch and pushbutton on the keyboard and operation panel constituted a conventional manual control device.

On the other hand, a mouse is used as a terminal human-powered device such as a computer, and is configured to be able to freely roll on an XY plane and outputs an input signal corresponding to the amount of movement in each of the XY directions.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventional input control devices consisting of keyboards, pushbuttons, or various switches have separate operating sections, which may result in poor operability and operational feel, and may also be susceptible to erroneous operation. It could be the cause.

Furthermore, since conventional mice send input signals based only on the amount of movement in the X and Y directions, they cannot be used in cases where human input signals for more control parameters are required.

This invention has been made in view of the above points, and improves the conventional mouse structure to increase human power parameters and improves operability by making it applicable to electronic devices such as electronic musical instruments that have a large number of control parameters. A large number of mouse movements! The purpose of the present invention is to provide a control device that can manually generate control signals for ttIJ control parameters.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a control device according to the present invention has the following features:
a main body constituting an operation grip, a rotating member held within the main body so as to be able to freely roll on the XY plane, means for detecting the amount of movement in the X and Y directions due to the rolling of the rotating member, and the
A pressing force detecting means with respect to the Y plane is provided, and the pressing force detecting means is connected to the controlled object together with the moving amount detecting means in the X direction and the Y direction.

[Operation] When the mouse is operated, the pressing force of the mouse on the operating XY plane is detected and used as an input control signal together with the amount of movement in the XY directions.

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

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an input control device according to the present invention.

A main body 1 made of a suitably shaped housing that is easy to grip constitutes a grip for operating the mouse. A rotating body 2 made of a sphere is mounted inside this main body 1. A rotary body 2 is rotatably held relative to the main body 1 by suitable means, and the mouse can be rotated in any direction on the XY plane via the rotary body 2.

Rotating rollers 3 and 4 for detecting the amount of movement in the X direction and Y direction, which are in pressure contact with the rotating body 2 and can rotate in the directions of arrows A and B.
will be provided. Rotary encoders 5.6 for rotation detection are attached to the ends of the rotating rollers 3 and 4 in the , X, and Y directions. The rotary encoder 5.6 has, for example, a constant continuous pattern, detects the rotational movement of this continuous pattern and generates a pulse signal, and detects the amount of rotation in each of the X and Y directions.
The rotation speed and rotation direction can be detected.

These rotary encoders 5.6 are fixed in the body 1 by suitable means.

A ball bearing 7 held by a holder 8 is provided on the upper surface of the rotating body 2. A pressure sensor 9 is arranged on the back side of the holder 8. This pressure sensor 9 is fixed to a support plate 10. The support plate 10 is elastically attached to the main body 1 via a spring 11.

Rotary encoders 5.6 in the X and Y directions are connected to the control circuit 12. ■The J control circuit 12 further includes:
The pressure sensor 9 is connected. The control circuit 9 is connected to, for example, an electronic sound generating device of an electronic musical instrument or a driving device 13 of another controlled object.

The operation of the mouse type input control device having the above configuration is as follows. The main body 1 is held in the hand and the rotating body 2 is moved while rolling on an XY plane for operation (not shown). At this time, the rotating body 2 is pressed onto the XY plane and
Rolling on a flat surface.

X and Y provided in the main body 1 due to the rotation of the rotating body 2
Rotating roller 3.4 in the direction rotates. The rotation of these rotating rollers 3.4 is controlled by rotary encoders 5 in each of the X and Y directions.
, 6 and sent to the control circuit 12 as rotation detection signals in the X and Y directions.

On the other hand, by pressing the rotating body 2 onto the XY plane,
The pressure sensor 9 is pressed via the ball bearing 7 and its holder 8 according to the pressure. As a result, the operation pressing force during mouse operation is detected. This pressure detection signal is the XY direction rotation detection signal (X position data,
Y position data) is sent to the control circuit 12. The control circuit 12 performs predetermined arithmetic processing using each detection signal and calculates the value of the control amount for a plurality of predetermined control parameters according to each detection signal. A control signal corresponding to the calculated value of the control amount is input to the drive device 13, and the drive device 13 performs a predetermined operation in response to the mouse operation.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of another embodiment of the mouse-type human power control device according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, a pressure sensor 9 is provided on the top surface of the main body 1. By pressing the pressure sensor 9 with the hand used when operating the mouse, the pressing force of the mouse against the operating surface is detected. Other structures, functions and effects are the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of still another embodiment of the mouse type input control device according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, the rotating body 2 is held within the main body 1 via a ball bearing 14 held in a holder 15. The holder 15 is attached to the other end of a spring 16 whose one end is fixed to the main body 1. Therefore, rotating body 2
can move up and down against the elastic force of the spring 16.

An electrode 18 is provided on the upper surface of the rotating body 2. The electrode 18 is connected to an oscillator 19 for detecting capacitance, and this oscillator 19
is connected to an external control circuit 12 (see FIG. 1) via a wave detector 20.

The mouse of this embodiment is moved and operated on an operation plate 17 made of a metal plate. This metal operation plate 17 is electrically connected to an oscillator 19 within the mouse body 1.

In such a configuration, the mouse body 1 is connected to the metal operation plate 1.
By moving the rotating body 2 while pressing it on the rotating body 7, the rotating body 2 moves up and down according to the pressing force. Since the rotating body 2 is electrically connected to the metal operation plate 17, the distance between the rotating body 2 and the electrode 18 on its upper surface changes according to the vertical movement of the rotating body 2, and the capacitance changes accordingly. This change in capacitance causes the oscillator 19
, and is sent to the outside via the detector 20 as a detection signal corresponding to the pressing force of the mouse. Other configurations,
The operation and effect are the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 above.

FIGS. 4, 45 and 6 each show different examples of modifications of the embodiment shown in FIG.'s3. On each side, the means for detecting the amount of vertical fluctuation of the rotating body 2 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is changed. The other configurations are similar to the embodiment shown in FIG.

In the example of FIG. 4, the zero-rotating body 2 is configured to detect light reflected from the rotating body 2 by an optical sensor consisting of a light emitting means 21 such as a light emitting diode and a light receiving means 22 such as a light receiving diode. By vertically varying, the position of the reflected light changes as shown by the dotted line according to the amount of variation. Therefore, the pressing force of the mouse is detected as a change in the position of the reflected light.

The example shown in FIG. 5 is a configuration using an ultrasonic sensor 23 consisting of an ultrasonic transducer and a detector. The vertical fluctuation of the rotating body 2 can be detected by irradiating the rotating body 2 with ultrasonic waves using such an ultrasonic sensor 23 and detecting the reflected waves.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, the rotating body 2 is made of a magnetic material, and a coil 24 is arranged on the upper surface of the magnetic rotating body 2. The inductance of the coil 24 changes due to the vertical movement of the zero rotating body 2. By detecting this change, a detection signal corresponding to the pressing force of the mouse can be obtained.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of still another embodiment of the mouse-type human power control device according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, the rotating body 2 does not move vertically with respect to the main body 1, and a ball bearing 2 is provided on the inner upper surface of the main body 1.
5 and is held in a fixed position. The mouse of this embodiment is moved and operated on the pressure detection rubber plate 26. By pressing the mouse against the rubber plate 26, the thickness between the upper and lower surfaces of the rubber plate changes depending on the pressing force, and the resistance value changes.

By detecting this resistance value change with the detection means 27,
A detection signal corresponding to the pressing force of the mouse is obtained.

In each of the above embodiments, the amount of movement of the mouse in each of the X and Y directions is detected using a rotary encoder attached to a rotating roller provided with a spherical rotating body and pressed against the rotating body, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, two orthogonal rotating rollers having rotation axes in the X and Y directions may be directly rolled on the XY operation plane, and the rotation may be detected.

Next, an electronic musical instrument will be described in which the mouse-type input operator configured as shown in each of the above embodiments is used together with a keyboard as a human power device for a sound source for generating electronic sound.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of such an electronic musical instrument. A performance operator 22 consisting of the aforementioned mouse is connected to a microcomputer (CPU) 24 via a detector 23.

A keyboard (alt board) 25 is further connected to the microcomputer 24 via a key press detector 26 . The output side of the microcomputer 24 is connected to a sound source 27. This sound source 27 is an amplifier,
It is connected to a sound system 28 consisting of speakers.

The X position, Y position, and pressing force of the above-mentioned performance operator (mouse) 22 are based on, for example, the bow speed of a bowed string instrument such as a violin,
The signal lines x, y, and p in Figure 0, which are detected by each detector (shown as the detector 23 as a whole in the figure) as control parameters for each performance function such as bow pressure, correspond to the X position and Y position of the mouse, respectively. Each detection signal indicating the position and pressing force is converted into a signal that can be used as position data, etc. by a D/A converter, etc., and is processed by a microcomputer (CP
U) Input to 24. In addition, keyboard (&l board) 2
The key pressed by the operation 5 is detected by the key pressed detector 26. The detected signal of the pressed key is converted into a frequency of a predetermined tone number and inputted to the microcomputer 24. The signal line shows a detection signal of the key code of the pressed key.

The microcomputer 24 performs predetermined arithmetic processing based on each detection signal and other human input data, and calculates the bow speed signal a, bow pressure signal b1, pitch signal C, and other parameters d such as damping coefficients corresponding to the bow of the stringed instrument. and input it to the sound source 27. A musical tone is synthesized within the sound source 27 based on each parameter controlled by the operation of the performance operator 22, and this musical tone is outputted from the sound system 28 as a performance sound of a bowed string instrument such as a violin.

The mouse, which is an input operator of the present invention, can be applied not only to electronic musical instruments compatible with stringed instruments but also to other types of electronic musical instruments.

It can also be applied as an input device for various other electronic devices, gaming devices, and as a human power device for computers.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, in the present invention, by providing the mouse, which is a human-powered control device, with a pressing force detection means,
By moving the mouse, not only the amount of XY movement but also the operation pressing force is detected at the same time, increasing the number of control parameters, making it possible to perform input control operations efficiently, and improving operability.

In addition, if used as an input device for controlling the musical tone parameters of an electronic musical instrument, it can be used as a performance operator compatible with the bow of a bowed string instrument in addition to a keyboard, and can control the parameter manipulation of various musical tones while being moved arbitrarily on a flat surface. Therefore, an electronic musical instrument with improved operability and a good playing feel can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mouse-type input control device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of main parts of another embodiment of the mouse-type input control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a mouse-type input control device according to the present invention. FIGS. 4 to 6 are configuration diagrams of main parts of still another embodiment of the mouse-type human-powered control device according to FIG. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of main parts of still another embodiment of the mouse-type input control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an electronic musical instrument using the mouse-type input control device according to the present invention. . 1: Main body, 2: Rotating body, 5 to 6: Rotary encoder, 9: Pressure sensor, 22: Input operator, 25: TA board, 27: Sound source.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A main body constituting the operation grip, and an XY
a rotating member held so as to be able to freely roll on a plane; a means for detecting the amount of movement in the X direction and the Y direction due to the rolling of the rotating member;
A control device comprising: a pressing force detecting means with respect to the XY plane, and the pressing force detecting means is connected to a controlled object together with the moving amount detecting means in the X direction and the Y direction.