JPH04259022A - Handwriting input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the accurate instruction and input of the position coordinates by performing the display/non-display of a cursor and the change of a cursor pattern in accordance with the switching state of a stylus pen. CONSTITUTION:When a power supply is applied, an input device main body 3 initializes various flags and also the buffers 15-18. Then an initial screen is displayed on a display device 2. The left half of the initial screen is used as an input area for the holographs by a stylus pen 1i and the right half is used as a command instruction area for display of various icons and the selective instruction of icons. In such display state of the initial screen, a position is designated by the pen 1i to the coordinate surface of a coordinate input device 1. Meanwhile an input part 11 monitors whether the coordinate value is inputted or not. Then the input coordinate value is stored in a position data buffer 15.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a handwritten information input device that can easily input handwritten information using a coordinate input device that is integrated into a display device.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, with the development of information processing technology, various character recognition devices have been developed. One such example is a so-called online character recognition device that inputs character information by recognizing a character pattern written through a coordinate input device such as a tablet. For example, this device displays the locus of character information handwritten using a stylus pen on the coordinate plane of the coordinate input device on a display device laminated and integrated with the coordinate input device, while displaying the input information. The computer is configured to perform recognition processing. Such a character recognition device has the advantage that character information can be easily and naturally inputted into an information processing device in the same way as writing characters on paper with a pencil. have

Now, this type of online character recognition device is
Basically, information on a character pattern (handwriting) written down is inputted as a series of coordinate values via a coordinate input device. By analyzing this coordinate value series, the characteristics of the writing stroke and their positional relationships are extracted as characteristic information of the written character pattern, and compared with the characteristic information of the recognition target character registered in advance in the recognition dictionary. By doing so, the character pattern is recognized.

[0004] However, in this type of device in which a coordinate input device and a display device are laminated and integrated, the tablet surface and the display surface do not exist on the same plane, so their coordinate systems are combined and integrated. It is undeniable that errors occur due to parallax. In other words, when displaying the trajectory of a writing pattern by displaying dots at the same coordinates on the display surface according to the coordinate values of the indicated position on the tablet surface, unless the display surface is viewed from the vertical direction, the indicated position and display position will not match. There appears to be a discrepancy between the two. For this reason, there are problems such as it being extremely difficult to specify and input accurate coordinate positions using a stylus pen.

[0005]Conventionally, therefore, when a coordinate position is specified using, for example, a stylus pen, a cursor is displayed at the specified position so that the specified position can be confirmed. However, with this type of cursor display, when displaying the trajectory of a character pattern written with a stylus pen, the cursor is displayed superimposed on the writing trajectory, making it very difficult to see the writing trajectory. There is a problem with this. Moreover, when the writing stroke is short, the cursor hides the writing path, making it impossible to check how much input has been made, and the only way to judge is by feeling the slight movement of the stylus pen. There is.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, in the conventional handwriting input device, the display of the cursor to assist in confirming the indicated position actually makes inputting positional information using a stylus pen, especially inputting written information, more cumbersome. There was a problem.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its object is to provide a handwriting input device with excellent operability, which allows the user to input position coordinates simply and accurately. Our goal is to provide the following.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides coordinates of the coordinate input device according to a series of position information input through the coordinate input device that inputs position information on a coordinate plane indicated using a stylus pen. Input processing of information written on a surface, and displaying various information on a display device that has the same coordinate plane as the coordinate plane of the coordinate input device and is laminated and integrated with the coordinate input device by aligning the coordinate planes. In the handwriting input device, a means for controlling display of a cursor on the display device according to a switch state of the stylus pen, for example, means for erasing the cursor when the switch of the stylus pen is turned on and information is input by hand. The present invention is characterized in that it is provided with a cursor display control means that changes the cursor pattern when the stylus pen is turned on to instruct display information.

[0009]

[Operation] According to the present invention equipped with such a cursor display control means, the cursor is displayed/hidden and the cursor pattern is changed depending on the switch state of the stylus pen. When the coordinates of a position are detected, by displaying a cursor at the detected coordinate position, it is possible to input coordinates to an accurate position. Furthermore, when the stylus pen switch is turned on and a character pattern is input by hand, the display of the cursor is stopped (hidden), so it is possible to easily input written information without bothering the cursor. becomes possible. Furthermore, since the cursor pattern is changed according to the operation mode, it is possible to easily visually confirm the information input state from the displayed cursor pattern.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A handwriting input device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus.
1 is a coordinate input device such as a transparent tablet, 2 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display, 3 is the device main body (control section), and 4 is an external storage device. The coordinate input device 1 and the display device have the same coordinate plane, and (b
), the coordinate planes are aligned, laminated and integrated, and assembled onto the device main body 3. and display device 2
The information displayed is configured to be visible via the coordinate input device 1.

As will be described later, the coordinate input device 1 inputs information on a position on a coordinate plane indicated using a stylus pen as coordinate values, and for example, as shown in FIG. 2, an electrostatic transparent tablet is used. It is realized as.

This electrostatic type transparent tablet is shown in FIG.
) As shown in FIG.
A pair of transparent glass plates 1a, 1b each having electrodes 1a, 1b arranged parallel to each other at a predetermined interval, with the transparent electrodes 1c, 1d facing each other perpendicularly, and bonded via an insulating protective film (not shown). It is constructed by forming a tablet surface (coordinate surface for position input).

Then, as shown in FIG. 2(b), the shift
A predetermined voltage is sequentially applied to the transparent electrodes 1c and 1d by the shift registers 1f and 1g that operate under the control of the controller 1e, and the transparent electrodes 1c and 1d to which the voltage is applied are
The entire area of the tablet surface is scanned as the intersection point.

This whole area scanning of the tablet surface is performed by selecting one of the transparent electrodes 1c and applying a predetermined voltage, and then sequentially selecting all of the other transparent electrodes 1d and applying a predetermined voltage. This is done by applying a voltage sequentially and selectively to all of the other transparent electrodes 1d, and then shifting the transparent electrode 1c to which the predetermined electrode is applied by one. In other words, while the transparent electrode 1d is main-scanning, the transparent electrode 1c is sub-scanned every time one scan is completed, thereby scanning the entire surface of the tablet. The counter 1h performs a counting operation in synchronization with such scanning of the tablet surface, and the counted value represents the position coordinates on the tablet surface.

The stylus pen 1 points to the tablet surface (matrix plane) configured as described above.
i detects the scanning voltage applied to the above-mentioned transparent electrodes 1c and 1d at the indicated position by electrostatic coupling. The scanning signal detected by this stylus pen 1i is amplified via a preamplifier 1j, and after filtering and removing noise components via a filter (FIL) 1k, it is given to the counter 1h as an indicated position detection signal. . This counter 1h outputs the count value when receiving this indicated position detection signal as information (coordinate values) of the indicated position on the tablet surface indicated by the stylus pen 1i.

The coordinate input device 1 configured as described above outputs the coordinate value on the tablet surface indicated by the stylus pen 1i as a count value by the counter 1h. When a character pattern is written on the tablet surface using the stylus pen 1i, information indicating the writing stroke (trajectory of writing) is input as a connection of position coordinates (sequence of position coordinate values) as described above. will be done.

In this way, the coordinate input device 1
Information on the character pattern input by hand through the device, that is, a sequence of position coordinate values, is given to the display device 2 through the device main body 3, and the display device 2 is displayed according to the sequence of position coordinate values, as will be described later. The same position coordinates are displayed. Through this display control, the character pattern input in writing on the tablet surface is displayed on the display device 2 as a trajectory of the writing.
The characters are simultaneously displayed on the display screen, and the character information can be input naturally as if writing characters on a piece of paper using a pen.

Now, as described above, the device main body 3 that takes in the coordinate values input from the coordinate input device 1 is shown in FIG. 1(a).
As shown in FIG.
5, an area buffer 16, an output buffer 17, and a display cursor buffer 18. Then, according to the processing procedure shown in FIG. 3, processing is performed on the input information indicated by the coordinate values.

That is, when the power is turned on, the main body 3 of the apparatus first initializes various flags and also initializes the buffers 15, 18, respectively (step a). Then, an initial screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display device 2 (step b). This initial screen has an area extending from the center to the left as an input area a1 for handwriting with the stylus pen 1i, and an area on the right as a command instruction area b1 for displaying various icons and selectively instructing the icons.

In this initial screen display state, the stylus pen 1i is inserted into the coordinate plane of the coordinate input device 1.
The input unit 11 monitors whether or not a position has been specified and coordinate values have been input (step c). When coordinate values are input, the input coordinate values are stored in the position data buffer 15.

Thereafter, the input area is searched (step d). This input area search is set by defining rectangular diagonal position coordinates [xs, ys] [xe, ye] as shown in FIG. This is done by comparing the input position coordinates and determining which area the input position coordinates are included in. Then, this determination result (area information) is associated with the input position coordinates and the area buffer 1 is
6.

Thereafter, it is determined whether the switch of the stylus pen 1i is turned on (step e). When the switch is not ON, that is, when the switch is OFF, a cursor is displayed at the input position according to the cursor pattern information shown in FIG. The cursor is displayed according to the determination result as to whether the input position coordinates are included in the handwriting input area a1 or the command instruction area b1, and the cursor number is stored in the display cursor buffer 18 according to the determination result. According to the cursor number stored in the display cursor buffer 18, for example, if it is within the handwriting input area a1, the cursor pattern A1 is displayed, and if it is within the command instruction area b1, the cursor pattern B1 is displayed.

On the other hand, when the switch of the stylus pen 1i is ON, it is determined whether the input position coordinates are in the handwriting input area a1 or the command instruction area b1 (step g). , h). If it is the handwriting input area a1, the cursor number stored in the display cursor buffer 18 is erased, and the switch of the stylus pen 1i is turned off as described above.
The cursor pattern A1 that was displayed when the cursor pattern A1 was displayed is deleted (step i). Also, command instruction area b1
If so, the cursor number stored in the display cursor buffer 18 is updated. Then, as described above, the cursor pattern B1 that was displayed when the stylus pen 1i was turned off is erased (step j), and a new cursor pattern B2 indicated by the cursor pattern information is displayed (step k).
).

In this way, the cursor display on the display device 2 is controlled by the switch state of the stylus pen 1i.
The information input process for the input coordinate values as described above is executed while controlling according to the information of the area designated by the stylus pen 1i. Information input processing based on this input coordinate value has been proposed in various ways, such as extracting the characteristics of a writing stroke indicated by a series of coordinate values and comparing the characteristics with dictionary data registered in advance in a recognition dictionary. This will be carried out using appropriate methods.

According to the present device having the function of controlling the display of the cursor in this manner, the area designated by the stylus pen 1i is the handwriting input area a1, as shown in FIG. b1, the switch of stylus pen 1i is turned on.
OFF or OFF. When writing a character pattern or the like using the stylus pen 1i, the display of the cursor is stopped. As a result, it is possible to easily and accurately input handwritten information even when the handwritten stroke is short, without causing problems such as the cursor causing the trajectory of the handwriting to become unclear as in the past.

Furthermore, when instructing the command instruction area b1, cursor patterns B1 and B different from the cursor pattern A1 displayed in the handwriting input area a1 are used.
2 is displayed, it becomes possible to perform input processing while easily visually confirming which area is being specified. Therefore, great practical effects can be achieved, such as improving the operability and making it possible to input various handwritten information accurately.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, as for the display form of the cursor, it is possible to change the cursor pattern itself, but it is sufficient to make it easy to identify it by displaying it in reverse, displaying it with high brightness, displaying it with blinking, etc. It is. Further, the cursor may be displayed while the stylus pen 1i is brought close to the tablet surface. In addition, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[0029]

As explained above, according to the present invention, since the display of the cursor is controlled according to the switch state of the stylus pen that indicates the position coordinates of the coordinate input device, it is possible to input handwritten information via the coordinate input device. This can bring about great practical effects, such as simplifying the process and increasing its accuracy.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a coordinate input device in the embodiment device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the flow of cursor display control of the embodiment device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of an area table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of cursor pattern data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an initial screen in which a handwriting input area and a command instruction area are set.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a cursor pattern depending on the area and the state of the pen switch.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Coordinate input device, 1i...Stylus pen, 2...Display device, 3...Device main body (control unit), 4...External storage device, 11...Input unit, 12...Cursor display control unit, 13...Display control unit, 14 ...area search unit, 15...position data buffer, 16...area buffer, 17...output buffer, 18...
Display cursor buffer.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A coordinate input device for inputting position information on a coordinate plane indicated using a stylus pen; and a coordinate input device for inputting position information on a coordinate plane indicated by using a stylus pen; means for inputting and processing information written down on the coordinate input device; and a display device having the same coordinate plane as the coordinate plane of the coordinate input device, and integrated with the coordinate input device by laminating the coordinate planes together to display various information. A handwriting input device comprising: a means for controlling information display on the display device; and a means for controlling display of a cursor on the display device according to a switch state of the stylus pen. [Claim 2] The cursor display control is such that the cursor is erased when the stylus pen is turned on and information is input by hand, and the cursor pattern is changed when the stylus pen is turned on and the display information is instructed. The handwriting input device according to claim 1, characterized in that: