JPH04308912A - Inputting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To conduct an operation which is conventionally operated with two fingers by both hands in order to reduce a misoperation by allocating the function of each button of a mouth to an arbitrary key on a keyboard. CONSTITUTION:The device is equipped with a keyboard 2, mouse 3, connecting means which connects the keyboard 2 with the mouse 3, and connecting means which connects the keyboard 2 with a computer main body 1. The button of the muse 3 and the key of the keyboard 2 are simultaneously pressed so that the button of the mouse 3 can be allocated to the simultaneously pressed key of the keyboard 2. The keyboard 2 is constituted of a CPU, ROM, RAM, key decoder pressing part, mouse data input processing part, and data transmission processing part. The key decoder processing part transmits an 8 bit ASCII code corresponding to the pressed key to a CPU, and the data transmission processing part process data obtained from the keyboard 2 and the mouse 3 on a constant format, and transmits the data to the computer 1.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the field of using a mouse and keyboard, for example, to an input device for a system using applications such as CAD.

0002

[Background Art] In recent years, with the advancement of computer processing power,
Systems using computers are in operation in many fields (CAD, DTP, software development, etc.). In these systems, characters are entered from the keyboard,
A common operating method is to specify coordinates and select menus using a pointing device such as a mouse.

FIG. 6 shows an external view of a conventional system. 1 represents a computer such as a personal computer or a workstation, 2 represents a keyboard, 3 represents a mouse, and 4 represents a display device. Here we will explain the data flow for the mouse and keyboard. In many systems, the mouse and keyboard are separately connected to the computer, and mouse data is
Coordinate data, Y coordinate data, and data on which button was pressed are input into the computer as parallel or serial data. In addition, the code corresponding to the pressed key of the keyboard data is also input to the computer as parallel or serial data, and although the data has the same structure as the mouse data, it is input to the computer separately via two connectors. It is connected. Mouses with one button, two buttons, and three buttons have been put into practical use, and each mouse is used depending on the system.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional configuration described above, the keyboard and mouse are connected to the computer separately, so there are problems such as the cables that connect them becoming complicated, and the hardware that receives the data. There was a problem in that two types had to be prepared. In some systems, these problems can be solved by connecting the mouse cable to the keyboard, connecting the keyboard and computer with a single cable, and using only one type of hardware. Although it is
The number of mouse buttons still differs depending on the system, and for people who are used to using a one-button mouse, operating multiple buttons for a long time with only the fingers of one hand can lead to finger fatigue and lead to erroneous operation. It had a problem that they said could be the cause.

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide an input device in which mouse buttons can be assigned to keyboard keys.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides keyboard means, pointing device means, means for connecting the keyboard means and pointing device means, and connecting the keyboard means and a computer. The keyboard means includes a central processing unit that controls data processing, a storage device that stores a control program, a storage device that temporarily stores input data and program control data, and a code that corresponds to a key. A configuration comprising a key data processing section that sends the data to the central processing unit, an input processing section that processes the data of the pointing device means, and a data processing section that processes the data obtained from each input device into a fixed format and sends it to the computer. have.

[0007]

[Operation] According to the present invention, by pressing the button attached to the pointing device means and the key on the keyboard means at the same time, the button attached to the pointing device means can be assigned to the simultaneously pressed keys on the keyboard means.

[0008]

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The configuration of FIG. 1 is similar to that of FIG. 6, with 1 representing a computer such as a personal computer or a workstation, 2 a keyboard, 3 a mouse, and 4 a display device.

[0009] Here, the most important item, keyboard processing, will be explained. Figure 2 shows the internal hardware of the keyboard, including a CPU (central processing unit) 5 that controls the keyboard 2, a ROM (read-only memory) 6 that stores programs for control, and a temporary A RAM (read/write memory) 7 that stores input data and program control data, a key decoder processing unit 8 that sends an 8-bit ASCII code corresponding to the pressed key to the CPU 5, and data from the mouse 3. The data transmission processing section 10 processes the data obtained from the keyboard 2 and mouse 3 into a certain format, and then transmits the data to the computer.

FIG. 3 shows the flow of control of the keyboard 2. From a software perspective, keyboard control includes initialization processing 11, mouse data input processing 12, determination processing 13 whether a key is pressed, and keyboard data input processing 14.
, mouse, keyboard data editing and output processing 15 to the computer, and once initialization processing 11 is performed, processing 12 to 15 is performed in an infinite loop.

The data sent from the keyboard to the computer consists of 4 bytes of data, as shown in FIG. The first byte is a status byte that indicates which mouse button or keyboard was pressed. If the 0th bit is set, it indicates that the left mouse button is pressed. If the 1st bit is set, it indicates that the right mouse button is pressed, and if the 7th bit is set, it indicates that the keyboard is pressed. The second byte of data indicates the amount of mouse movement in the X direction, the third byte of data indicates the amount of mouse movement in the Y direction, and the fourth byte stores ASCII data corresponding to the pressed key.

By performing the process shown in Figure 5, when you press any key on the keyboard while holding down a mouse button, that key will have the same effect as pressing a mouse button. As a result, it is possible to assign a button on the mouse to any key on the keyboard. A detailed explanation of FIG. 5 will be given below. The basic processing flow is the same as that in FIG. Here, we will consider a keyboard that is originally attached to a mouse with two buttons, and assign one of these buttons to the keyboard.
We will explain the case of replacing the mouse with a one-button mouse so that it can be operated with both hands. At this time, if the mouse remains a two-button mouse, the buttons assigned to the keyboard can be disabled, or the buttons assigned to the keyboard can have the same function as the remaining buttons. Mouse data input processing section 16
Use to display mouse X and Y movement data and button ON/OFF.
Data is input, and the button ON determination unit 17 determines whether the button has been pressed.The process is divided into two parts depending on whether the button has been pressed. If a button is pressed, the key input determination unit 22 determines whether keys are pressed at the same time, and if a key is pressed, it is further determined whether or not a setting flag is set. If so, perform a reset operation, and if it has been reset, perform a set operation and RA the ASCII code corresponding to the pressed key.
Store it in the code setting area in M7. With this operation, when you press a key on the keyboard while holding down a mouse button, the assignment of the mouse button on the keyboard is alternately set and canceled. Button ON determination section 17
If the button is not pressed, the key input determination unit 18 determines whether the key is pressed, and if the key is pressed, the setting flag determination unit 19 further determines whether the setting flag is set. Determine whether it is set. If the setting flag is set, the input data determination unit 20 determines whether the input key data is the same as the data stored in the code setting area, and if it is the same, it is assigned to the key. It determines that a key with the same function as a mouse button has been pressed, and sets the first bit of the status byte in the first byte of data sent to the computer, indicating that the right mouse button has been pressed, for example. Create it and send it to the computer. Key input determination section 18
If the key is not pressed, no key or button is pressed, so data is created with all 0 data set in the status byte. The key input determination unit 18 indicates that a key is pressed,
If either the setting flag determining unit 19 or the input data determining unit 20 determines NO, this indicates that a key other than the key assigned to the keyboard was pressed, so the first byte of the data sent to the computer is Create data with the 7th bit of the status byte set and send it to the computer.

[0013] Through the above operations, it becomes possible to assign a mouse button to any key on the keyboard and perform normal key input operations.

As described above, according to the input device of the embodiment of the present invention, mouse button signals are once input to the keyboard and processed, and the processed signals are sent from the keyboard to the computer. You can map mouse buttons to the keyboard by pressing the mouse button and a key on the keyboard at the same time.

The pointing device means, which is the second input means of the present invention, is a mouse in this embodiment, but it may also be a trackball, light pen, joystick, etc., which has the function of inputting the coordinate position on the screen of the display device. Any device can be used as long as it has the following.

[0016]

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above embodiments, according to the present invention, it is possible to assign the function of each button of a mouse equipped with a plurality of buttons to any key on the keyboard. This makes it possible to perform the following operations, and as a result, tasks that previously required two fingers can now be performed with both hands, and the load that would otherwise be concentrated on one hand can be distributed to both hands. In addition, it has a great operational effect in that erroneous operations can be reduced by changing the operation using two fingers to be performed with both hands. For example, when using application software such as CAD, it is possible to assign one of the element selection function, which was previously performed with one button, and the command execution and confirmation function, which was previously performed with the other button, to the space key. According to
You can alternately use both hands to select elements using the mouse, and press the space key to confirm and execute. Further, as an accompanying effect, it becomes possible to use a one-button mouse, and an environment that is easy to use for operators who are accustomed to using one button can be provided. Furthermore, by connecting a mouse to a keyboard, it is possible to provide an input device that has excellent effects such as reducing the complexity of cables.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

[Fig. 1] System configuration diagram of a computer in an embodiment of the present invention

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of keyboard hardware in an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 3] A flowchart of an overview of keyboard operation in an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 4] Format diagram of data sent to a computer in an embodiment of the present invention

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a procedure for assigning mouse buttons to a keyboard in an embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 6] System configuration diagram of a conventional computer

[Explanation of symbols]

1　　　　　　Computer body 2 Keyboard 3 Mouse 5 CPU 6 ROM 7 RAM 8 Key decoder processing section 9 Mouse data input processing section 10 Data transmission processing unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Keyboard means as a first input device; pointing device means as a second input device; first connection means for connecting the keyboard means and the pointing device; and the keyboard means. and second connection means for connecting the computer and the keyboard, the keyboard means comprising: a central processing unit that controls data processing within the keyboard; a first storage device storing a program that performs the control; a second storage device for storing input data and program control data; a key data processing unit for sending codes corresponding to keys to the central processing unit; an input processing unit for processing data from the pointing device means; and a data transmission processing unit that processes data obtained from the second input device into a predetermined format and sends the data to the computer, and the buttons attached to the pointing device means are allocated to the keyboard means. 2. An input device according to claim 1, wherein the pointing device means is a mouse.