JPH05113849A - Input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the number of key input buttons of the input device and reduce the size of equipment and to improve the operability by enabling the input device of a joy stick to move up and down and setting different input modes for an upper stage and a lower stage. CONSTITUTION:The input device of the joy stick 1 which inputs twodimensional information on a two-dimensional plane in the form of a combination of a front-rear component and a right-left component has a means 12 which inputs information in different mode between the upper and lower stages by moving up and down the whole input device in three dimensions; and the two- dimensional information is inputted at, for example, the upper stage to specify a cursor position and its range is specified at the lower stage.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an input device used in an electronic device (information processing device) such as a word processor or a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional electronic equipment is constructed as shown in FIGS. That is, in the case of designating the range of a text or the like on the screen of the display 4 in the configuration of FIG. 6, first, the push buttons 10a, 10b, 10 are made to correspond to the front, rear, left and right of the two-dimensional plane.
Press c and 10d to move the cursor to the beginning of the text or the like for which you want to specify the range. That is, the cursor 1 shown in FIG.
When 1 is moved to point A in the figure and range designation button 10e in FIG. 6 is pressed, range designation is started. Next, the cursor 11 is moved to the P point at the end of the sentence or the like and the range designation button 10e is pressed to end the range designation. Conventionally, the series of operations described above is shown in FIG.
The range is specified by moving the cursor via route a or route b shown in FIG. And it was difficult to go through the route c indicated by the broken line. Further, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the number of buttons required for specifying the range is 5, which is large, which is disadvantageous in space in the recent trend toward miniaturization. Further, since the cursor movement buttons (10a to 10d) and the range designating button (10e) are individually provided, the user must frequently move his / her finger when designating the range. There were many cases, so it was not uncommon to make mistakes.

[0003]

The problem to be solved is that if the number of buttons of the input device is large, the miniaturization of the device is hindered. In addition, when the cursor is moved or the range is specified, the operation is cumbersome or erroneous.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a joystick input device for inputting two-dimensional information by a combination of a front-back component and a left-right component on a two-dimensional plane. It has means for moving in the vertical direction and inputting information of different modes in the upper and lower stages.

Further, the operability of cursor movement and range designation is improved by inputting two-dimensional information in the upper stage to designate the cursor position and by designating the range in the lower stage.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an external view showing the best features of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a joystick, 2 is a keyboard, 3 is a device body, 4 is a display, 5 is a printer, 6 and 7 is FDD (floppy disk drive)
Is.

The internal structure is shown in FIG. 5, and the joystick 1 is a CP of the device body 3 via the keyboard 2.
A cursor movement signal is given to U. Therefore, when the tip of the joystick 1 is tilted in the direction shown by the arrow in FIG. 1, a cursor (not shown) functions on the screen of the display 4 to move in accordance with the movement of the joystick 1.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an input device according to the first embodiment of the present invention for performing a switching operation by pushing down the joystick 1. In the figure, 1a is a joystick unit, 12 is a small switch, 13 is a compression spring, and 14 is a keyboard housing.

A joystick unit 1 which is provided with a concave portion in the keyboard housing 14 and is slidable in the vertical direction d in the concave portion.
a is fitted. A small switch 12 is provided on the bottom surface of the recess. The joystick unit 1a is biased upward in the drawing by the compression spring 13, and the upper limit of upward movement is restricted by the keyboard housing.

When the joystick 1 is pushed down by the above structure, the small switch 13 can be pushed by the convex portion formed on the bottom surface of the joystick unit 1a in the lower stage. Since the joystick 1 returns to the original upper position by the restoring force of the compression spring 13, the joystick 1 is in the cursor movement mode, for example.

That is, when the cursor is moved to the beginning (see point A in FIG. 7) of the sentence or the like for which the range is to be specified in the upper part and the joystick 1 is pressed (the lower part), the range specification is started. Next, move the cursor to the end (see point P in the same figure) via the route c shown by the broken line in FIG. 7 in the upper section, and press the joystick 1 again (lower section) to end the range designation. The function of specifying the range can be executed.

(Regarding Second Embodiment) FIG. 3 is an internal structural diagram of an input device according to the second embodiment. In the above-described embodiment, a small switch is provided on the bottom surface of the recess provided in the keyboard housing 14. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the small switch 12 may be provided on the keyboard substrate 2a as shown in FIG. 3, for example. As a result, the assemblability and the wiring processability are improved.

(Regarding Embodiment 3) FIG. 4 is a drawing showing the internal structure of the input device in Embodiment 3, in which 2b is a contact point provided on the keyboard substrate 2a, and 15 is a contact point.
Is a leaf spring.

The leaf spring 15 is joined to the keyboard substrate 2a by soldering or the like to maintain electrical conductivity. When the joystick 1 is pushed in the figure, the joystick unit 1a
The leaf spring 15 and the contact point 2b are formed by the convex portion provided on the bottom surface of the
Is pressed and is electrically turned “ON”. If the joystick 1 is released, the joystick unit 1
Since a moves to the upper side of the figure, the elastic force of the leaf spring 15 causes the leaf spring 15 to separate from the contact 2b, and electrically "OF."
F ”.

According to the above construction, the cost can be reduced and the assemblability can be improved as compared with the first and second embodiments. The upper and lower functions may be exchanged.

FIG. 5 shows the keyboard housing 1 shown in FIG.
4 is a block diagram of an electric circuit incorporated in the device main body 4; In the figure, 1 is a joystick, 2 is a keyboard, 4 is a display device, 5 is a printer, and 6 and 7 are FDs.
D (floppy disk drive), 8 is power supply, 9 is C
It is a PU (Central Processing Unit).

As described in FIG. 1, the joystick 1
Although the cursor (not shown) can be moved on the screen of the display unit 4 by inclining the tip of the keyboard to the left, right, up and down directions, in this case, the output signal of the joystick 1 is the keyboard 2
Then, the CPU 2 determines that the mode is the “cursor movement mode”, and moves the cursor position on the display 4. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, when the joystick 1 is pushed in the direction of arrow d to specify the range, in this case, the output signal of the joystick 1 is judged to be in the "range specification mode" by the CPU 2 via the keyboard 2. Then, the predetermined processing is executed.

[0018]

As described above, in the input device of the present invention, the mechanism for moving the joystick up and down is provided so that the range can be designated. Since this eliminates the button required for specifying the range, the space on the input device can be reduced, which can contribute to the miniaturization of the input device. Further, when the range is designated, the user does not need to frequently move his / her finger, so that a smooth input operation can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an entire device to which an input device of the present invention is connected.

FIG. 2 is an internal structure diagram of a first embodiment according to the input device of the invention.

FIG. 3 is an internal structure diagram of a second embodiment according to the input device of the invention.

FIG. 4 is an internal structure diagram of a third embodiment according to the input device of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a circuit block diagram of a device to which the input device of the present invention is connected.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a device including a conventional input device.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a device including a conventional input device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Joystick 2 Keyboard 3 Main unit 4 Display 12 Small switch 13 Compression spring

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A joystick input device for inputting two-dimensional information by combining a front-rear direction component and a left-right direction component on a two-dimensional plane, wherein the entire input device is moved up and down which is a three-dimensional direction. An input device comprising means for inputting information of different modes in an upper stage and a lower stage. 2. The input device according to claim 1, wherein two-dimensional information is input in the upper section to specify a cursor position, and a range is specified in the lower section.