JPH04205219A - Pointing device controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable operation equivalent to that of a pointing device which has many buttons by informing a host device of the same event with that by the depression of a virtual button when plural buttons are pressed at the same time. CONSTITUTION:An information read part 11 reads button information indicating whether or not the buttons 31 and 32 of a mouse (pointing device) 3 are pressed and updates the contents of a state information write area 120 of a shared memory 12 at each time. An event simulator 13 reads the state information write area 120 and informs the host device 15 of the events of the respective buttons through an event informing means 132 if button information changes. When both the buttons 31 and 32 are pressed at this time, the event indicating that the virtual button is pressed is reported to the host device 15. Consequently, the operation of software using a mouse having three buttons can be performed by using the mouse with the two buttons.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a pointing device control device for processing button information of a pointing device used together with a keyboard for data input in personal computers, workstations, and the like.

(Conventional technology) In recent years, computers and software have become more sophisticated.

As devices become more complex, an increasing number of devices use not only a keyboard but also a pointing device commonly called a mouse.

FIG. 2 shows an external view of a conventional general information processing device.

In the figure, in addition to a keyboard 2, a pointing device 3 is attached to an information processing apparatus 1. When the pointing device 3 is moved on the desk, the cursor moves in the same direction on the screen of the information processing device 1 due to the tilt of a built-in position sensor (not shown). Alternatively, by pressing 32, operations such as selecting a command (instruction) displayed on the screen become possible.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, pointing devices commonly used in the past are often of the two-button type, as shown by the solid line in FIG. Therefore, much software is written with the assumption that two-button pointing devices are used. However, as shown by the dashed line in FIG. 2, there are also three-button pointing devices.

Therefore, in the case of software designed for a three-button pointing device, it is difficult to perform the same processing on a two-button pointing device. In this case, the pointing device may be replaced with a three-button pointing device, but there are some configurations in which the information processing apparatus 1 itself cannot be equipped with a three-button pointing device.

In this case, one key provided on the keyboard 2 is
The method used was to define it in correspondence with the second button and operate it. However, in general, unlike each key provided on the keyboard 2, the button of the pointing device is often controlled by the length of time the button is pressed or the timing at which the button is pressed. Therefore, replacing it with a keyboard is not appropriate in terms of improving operability.

The present invention has been made with attention to the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a pointing device control device that allows a pointing device with a small number of buttons to perform operations equivalent to a pointing device with a large number of buttons. That is.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A pointing device control device of the present invention includes an information reading unit that receives position information detected by a position sensor and button information obtained by operating a plurality of buttons from a pointing device and reads status information thereof. , button information transition state recognition means that accepts the button information and recognizes a transition state from a state in which each button is pressed to a state in which it is released, and a transition state from a state in which each button is released to a state in which it is pressed; When multiple buttons are pressed at the same time, the same event as when a virtual button that does not exist on the pointing device is pressed is notified to the host device, and when the transition state is recognized, each of the before and after The present invention is characterized by comprising a button and an event notification means for notifying a host device of an event of the virtual button.

(Operation) The above device monitors button information generated by button operations on a pointing device and recognizes the transition state thereof. Furthermore, when a plurality of buttons are pressed at the same time, the same event as when a virtual button that does not exist on the pointing device is pressed is notified to the host device. This results in
You can operate virtual buttons that are not available on pointing devices. In addition, by transmitting the events of each button before and after the transition state to the higher-level device, it is possible to accurately report to the higher-level device the timing when each button, including virtual buttons, was pressed and released. function can be demonstrated.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a pointing device control device of the present invention.

The device shown in the figure accepts position information 3a detected by a position sensor (not shown) built into the pointing device 3 and button information 3b from multiple button operations, and outputs events for each button to the host device 15. It is a device.

The illustrated device is provided with an input boat 10, an information reading section 11, a shared memory 12, an event simulator 13, and an output boat 14.

The information reading section 11 and the event simulator 13 are actually composed of a microprocessor for controlling an input/output device such as the pointing device 3. The information reading section 11 reads the position information 3a and button information 3b to be input into the input boat 10 at an appropriate sampling interval, for example, 10 m.
This circuit performs control to read data at 5ec intervals and write its contents to the shared memory 12. A state information writing area 120 is provided in a part of the shared memory 12.

In addition, in this shared memory 12, in addition to a status information writing area 120 for writing information regarding this pointing device 3, there are several areas as indicated by broken lines for storing control information for various other input/output devices. It is provided. This shared memory 12 is formed, for example, in the main memory of a microprocessor.

This status information writing area 120 consists of right button information 121, left button information 122, and position information 123, as shown in the lower left of the figure.

The right button information 121 is a part that stores data such as "1" when the button 32 arranged on the right side of the pointing device 3 is pressed, and "O" when it is not pressed. The left button information 122 is “1” when the left button 31 provided on the pointing device 3 is pressed.
", and "O" when not pressed. The position information 123 consists of 6-bit data, and is a part that stores the output from a position sensor (not shown) attached to the pointing device 3. be.

If positional information is expressed by orthogonal coordinates about the X and Y axes, this positional information 123 consists of 3 bits for the
It consists of bit data.

The event simulator 13 is a means for reading the contents of the state information writing area 120 written in the shared memory 12 by the information reading section 11 at predetermined intervals, for example, every 10 m5ec, and recognizing the transition state of the button information. That is, this means does not operate if the button information does not change compared to what was read immediately before. However, when any button is recognized as transitioning from a pressed state to a released state, or from a released state to a pressed state, it operates to notify the event notification means to that effect. This is a circuit that does this.

The event notification means 132, via the output boat 14,
This is a circuit that notifies the host device 15 of events for each button in a manner described later.

FIG. 3 shows an explanatory diagram of events related to buttons described in this embodiment.

In the figure, 3' indicates a three-button mouse, and 3 indicates a two-button mouse. In the following embodiments, all pointing devices will be referred to as mice for the sake of explanation.

As shown in FIG. 3, in the device of the present invention, events obtained from a three-button mouse 3' are replaced by a two-button mouse 3.

FIG. 3(a) shows an event when the left button 31' of the three-button mouse 3' is pressed, which is similar to the event when the left button 31 of the two-button mouse 3 is pressed. Match. Also, in the same way, use a three-button mouse 3
When the button 32' on the right side of ' is pressed, it is associated with the case where the button 32 on the right side of the two-button mouse 3 is pressed.

Further, when the center button 33' of the three-button mouse 3' is pressed, it is associated with the case where both the left and right buttons 31 and 32 of the two-button mouse 3 are pressed at the same time.

In addition, it is conceivable that the event of each button of the mouse 3 of the two buttons may be directly translated and notified to the host device according to the correspondence shown in FIGS. 3(a), (b), and (c). . However, in the case of a mouse, unlike the keys on a regular keyboard, the state in which the key is pressed, the duration of the key press, the timing, etc. are accepted by the host device, and each button operation is dynamically recognized. , processing is often executed in response to the event. Therefore, the handling differs from a case where only the pressed state of a key on a keyboard is statically recognized and a certain process is performed.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the device of the present invention recognizes the transition state from the pressed state to the released state, or the transition state in the opposite direction, and The host device 15 is notified of button events.

First, basically, when the button 31 is pressed, as in the two-button mouse 3 shown in FIG.
The host device 15 is notified of the event that the button 31' of the mouse 3' has been pressed. Also, Figure 3 (
As shown in b), the button 32 of the two-button mouse 3
is pressed, button 32 on the three-button mouse 3'
The host device 15 is notified of the event that ' was pressed. Further, as shown in FIG. 3(C), when both buttons 31 and 32 of the two-button mouse 3 are pressed, the button 33' of the virtual three-button mouse 3' is pressed.
(hereinafter referred to as a virtual button) is pressed, the host device 15 is notified.

Furthermore, in addition to these events, transition states as shown in FIG. 4 are recognized, and the events of the buttons before and after each are notified to the host device 15.

FIG. 4(a) shows the mouse 3 as shown in FIG. 3(C).
This shows a case where both buttons 31 and 32 are pressed and the event that the virtual button was pressed is notified to the host device 15. Here, as explained earlier, the time and timing of mouse button presses are important information, so the transition from the event that no button was pressed to the event that a virtual button was pressed is The host device 15 is notified.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 4(b), both buttons 31.
32 is released, a transition completely opposite to that in (a) occurs, and the event that the virtual button is released is transmitted to the host device 1.
5 will be notified.

On the other hand, when the state where the button 31 is pressed changes to the state where the virtual button is pressed, the operator usually
An operation such as pressing another button while holding down the button 31 is performed. In this case, before and after the button information transition,
It is necessary to notify that the event has been switched.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4(C), if the button 31 is pressed and then the button 32 is pressed, and both buttons 31 and 32 are pressed, the host device An event is notified in which the button 31 is pressed, and then the button 31 is released and a virtual button is pressed. The same can be said about the other button 32.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 4(d), both buttons 31.
In some cases, the state in which the user presses the button 32 changes to the state in which only one of the buttons, for example, the button 32, is pressed. In such a case, for example, when the transition shown in the figure occurs, the host device is notified of the event that the virtual button is released,
Furthermore, the event that the button 32 has been pressed is notified to the host device.

Returning to FIG. 1 again, in this device, button information indicating whether or not each button of the mouse (pointing device) 3 has been pressed is read by the information reading unit 11 every 10 m5ec, and the state in the shared memory 12 is The contents of the information writing area 120 are updated each time.

The event simulator 13 reads the written state information writing area 120 in the shared memory 12 at an appropriate timing, and when there is a change in button information, recognizes the transition state in the manner described in FIG. Then, via the event notification means 132, the host device 15 is notified of the event of each button including the virtual button.

The specific operation of the above apparatus will be explained using the flowcharts of FIGS. 5 and 6.

FIG. 5 is a schematic operational flowchart of the apparatus of the present invention.

The apparatus of the present invention first recognizes the occurrence of a mouse event (step S1), and then determines whether the event is related to a button (step S2). If the event is related to a button, the event simulator 13 shown in FIG. 1 performs a three-button mouse simulation process (step S3), and notifies the host device of the result (step S4). However, if the event is not related to a button, it actually relates to a change in only the position information 123 in the status information writing area 120 shown in FIG. 1, and this is directly notified to the host device 15. As a result, the host device 15 receives a notification of an event that is apparently the same as wearing a three-button mouse, and executes a predetermined process.

FIG. 6 shows an operation flowchart for recognizing transition states.

This operation is executed by the button information transition state recognition means 131 and the event notification means 132 of the event simulator 13 shown in FIG.

First, button information is accepted from the shared memory 12 shown in FIG. 1, and the distribution of its transitions is monitored (step SL).

If there is a transition, it is determined whether any button has been pressed (step S2). If any button is pressed, first, it is determined whether any other button was pressed before (step S3). Here, if another button has been pressed, the higher level is notified that the previously pressed button has been released (step S4). On the other hand, if no other button has been pressed before, the process directly advances to step S5.

In step S5, it is determined whether any other button is still pressed. If the other button is still pressed, if you press a new button, 2
Since two buttons have been pressed at the same time, the higher level is notified that the virtual button has been pressed (step S6).

On the other hand, if no other button is pressed, the event of the currently pressed button is notified to the higher level (step S7).

If it is determined in step S2 that any button has not been pressed, it is determined in step S8 whether or not both buttons were previously pressed. If both buttons were previously pressed, the higher level is notified in step S9 that the virtual button has been released. On the other hand, if it is determined that both buttons were not previously pressed, the higher level is notified that the button that was previously pressed has been released. After any notification ends, the current state of the mouse button is saved in a register (not shown) or the like. Then, after that, the shared memory 12
The state information write area 120 of is read, and the process of step 1 in FIG. 6 is executed while comparing the contents with the contents of this register.

Through the above processing, changes in the events of each button are accurately communicated to the host device 15 before and after the transition state.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, even if there is a mouse with three or more buttons, it is possible to perform the above operations using a mouse with fewer buttons and perform equivalent button operations.

(Effects of the Invention) The pointing device control device of the present invention described above recognizes the transition state from the button information received from the pointing device, and raises the same event as when a virtual button that does not exist in the pointing device is pressed. The event of each button is also transmitted to the host device when recognizing the transition state, so the host device can clearly tell when each button, including virtual buttons, was pressed and how long it was pressed. This makes it possible to fully utilize the original functions of the pointing device. Therefore, for example, it is possible to operate software using a three-button mouse instead of a two-button mouse.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the pointing device device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an external view of a conventional general information processing device using a pointing device, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of events related to buttons, and Fig. 4 is a transition diagram. FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart for transition state recognition. 1..., 2..., 3... Pointing device, 3a... Location information, 3b... Button information, 10.
...Input boat, 11...Information reading section, 12...
Shared memory, 13...Event simulator, 14...Output board, 15...Host device. Conventional general information processing device Figure 2 (a) (b) (c)
Diagram explaining events related to buttons Figure 3 Diagram explaining transition state recognition Figure 4 Operation of the device of the present invention Figure 5 Procedural amendment (voluntary) 1 Indication of the incident 1990 Patent Application No. 330185 2 Name of the invention Pointing device Control device 3 Relationship with the case of the person making the amendment Patent application Office (105) 1-7-12 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Address (108) 4-10-3 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo
No. 6, Contents of amendment (1) In the 8th line of page 3 of the specification, the phrase "two-button type" is amended to read "two-button type."

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An information reading unit that receives position information detected by a position sensor and button information obtained by operating a plurality of buttons from a pointing device and reads status information thereof; button information transition state recognition means for recognizing a transition state from a released state to a released state and a transition state from a released state to a pressed state of each button; and when a plurality of buttons are pressed at the same time; Notify the higher-level device of the same event as when a virtual button that does not exist on the pointing device is pressed, and when the transition state is recognized, notify the higher-level device of each button before and after that and the event of the virtual button. What is claimed is: 1. A pointing device control device, comprising: event notification means.