JPH05307439A - Data input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a data input device where power can be saved when the data input device is not operated on the data input device outputting data corresponding to a prescribed operation and inputting it to an external device. CONSTITUTION:When an operation part 1 is operated, a data generation part 2 generates data corresponding to the operation and supplies it to the external device 4. The data generation part 2 operates by power from a power part 3. An operation detection part 5 detects that the operation part 1 is operating and generates a detection signal Dop. A power control part 6 controls a system to supply power from the power part 3 to the data generation part 2 when the operation part 1 is operating in accordance with the detection signal Dop and to suppress the supply of power when it is not operating.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data input device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a data input device that outputs data according to a predetermined operation and inputs the data to an external device.

For example, a cursor control device for moving a cursor or a pointer indicating an input position on the display of a personal computer to an arbitrary position on the display is known as one of the data input devices. A mouse, a trackball, a joystick, etc. are widely used as a cursor control device.

However, in recent years, there has been a demand for a cursor control device which can easily move a cursor due to the spread of multi-window processing and data processing by interactive operation. on the other hand,
As personal computers and word processors are becoming smaller, they are becoming more portable. Therefore, in addition to miniaturization, cursor control devices are also required to have low power consumption aiming at battery driving for portability.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional cursor control device (data input device) such as a mouse or a trackball rotates a rotating body and outputs data corresponding to the rotational position to an external device such as a personal computer. The external device moves and displays the cursor on the display according to the data from the cursor control device.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a schematic structure of a rotary encoder 50 for detecting a rotational position used in a conventional optical cursor control device such as a mouse.

A rotating shaft 51 that rotates in accordance with the rotation of the rotating body.
A plurality of slits 53 are formed in the light shield plate 52 pivotally supported on the light shield plate 52. Light from a light emitting element 54 disposed on one side of the light shield plate 52 is distributed to the other side of the light shield plate 52. It is provided and detected by the light receiving element 55. For mouse, etc.,
Two sets of the above configurations are provided so that 1 is orthogonal.
Accordingly, the rotational position of the rotating body in the directions orthogonal to each other is detected from the signals of the two light receiving elements, and the signal for controlling the movement of the cursor is output to the external device.

In a conventional optical cursor control device such as a mouse, a rotational position detecting circuit including a light emitting element, a light receiving element and the like is always operated when the power of the external device is turned on.

An electrostatic tablet, which is another example of the cursor control device, generates coordinate data of the cursor in accordance with a change in electrostatic capacitance at an arbitrary position of the coordinate detecting unit brought into contact with the input pen, and externally generates the coordinate data. Output to the device. In the electrostatic tablet, when the cursor control operation is not performed, the display of the display device is dimmed by detecting a slight change in the electrostatic capacitance when the input pen is brought close to the coordinate detection unit, and the external device saves. Can make electricity.

[0009]

However, it is difficult for the cursor control device having the above configuration to perform sufficient power saving.

That is, since the optical mouse or the like is always operated, power is consumed even when the cursor control operation is not performed, and the external device is also constantly operated and consumes power. On the other hand, in the electrostatic capacitance type electrostatic tablet, the power consumption of the external device can be suppressed when the cursor control operation is not performed. However, in order to detect the approach of the input pen to the coordinate detection unit, the entire electrostatic tablet needs to operate at all times, and power saving is limited.

In view of the above points, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cursor control device that can save power when a cursor control operation is not performed.

[0012]

The above problems can be solved by constructing according to the principle configuration diagram of FIG.

That is, it comprises an operation unit 1, a data generation unit 2 for generating data according to an operation, and a power supply unit 3 for supplying power to the data generation unit 2, and outputs data output from the data generation unit 2 to the outside. In the data input device 7 configured to input to the device 4, an operation detection unit 5 that detects whether or not the operation unit 1 is in an operation state, and a power supply control unit that controls the supply of power to the data generation unit 2. It is solved by providing 6 and.

[0014]

According to the above arrangement, the operation detecting section detects the operation state of the operation section and controls the power supply to the data generating section. For example, when the operation is not being performed, the data generating section is operated. The power supply is suppressed, and the power supply controller controls the power supply to the data generator during operation.

[0015]

According to the above configuration, when the operating section is not manually operated, the power supply to the data generating section is suppressed,
When the operation detection unit detects that the operation unit is manually operated, the power supply control unit controls so that power is supplied to the data generation unit.

[0016]

2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of an essential part of the embodiment of the present invention. In each drawing, the same constituent parts are designated by the same reference numerals. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

In the cursor control device 10 shown in each drawing, a hall sensor 12a composed of a pair of hall elements and a hall sensor 12b composed of a pair of hall elements are arranged on the printed circuit board 11 at right angles. Each Hall sensor is provided so as to detect magnetism in a direction perpendicular to the printed circuit board 11.

A housing 13 having a bell shape and a circular hole 13a formed in the center is disposed on the printed circuit board 11.
On the upper surface of the housing 13, a slider 14, which is an operating portion, is provided so as to cover the hole 13a while being in contact with the housing 13. A magnet holder 16 holding a permanent magnet 15 is arranged on the lower surface of the slider 14 so as to project from the hole 13a into a space 17 inside the housing 13. The permanent magnet 15 generates a magnetic field in the space 17.

The slider 14 (displacement member) is supported from above by a holder portion 19 formed in the case 18, and is freely slidable and displaceable with respect to the housing 13. When the operator operates the slider 14 to displace it, the magnetic field distribution in the void 17 changes, but at this time, the change in the vertical magnetic field is detected by the Hall sensors 12a and 12b.

The Hall sensors 12a and 12b are arranged orthogonally to each other as described above, and thereby the displacement of the slider 14 in the X and Y directions in the drawing is detected.

That is, the amplifier 21 detects the displacement detection signals Dx and Dy in the X and Y directions from the Hall sensors 12a and 12b.
Output data D converted to a displacement amount by being amplified by a and 21b, converted into a digital signal Dd by the A / D converter 22, and subjected to a predetermined arithmetic processing by the arithmetic unit 23 on this Dd.
out is output to a personal computer not shown in FIG.

The power supply voltage V _CC is applied to the Hall sensors 12a and 12b and the amplifiers 21a and 21b.
The power supply voltage V _DD is supplied to 2 and the calculation unit 23 from a power supply unit (not shown).

The personal computer operates so as to move the cursor on the display according to the displacement of the slider 14 according to the output data Dout.

The calculation unit 23 is a CPU (Cen
a central processing unit) and executes the predetermined arithmetic processing in synchronization with the clock pulse Ck from the clock generation circuit 24.

By the way, the housing 13 and the slider 14
Conductive paint is applied to the housing 13. The housing 13 has a capacitance change detection circuit 20 provided on the printed circuit board 11.
Is connected to the detection portion of by a print pattern. As a result, a change in the capacitance of the detection portion with respect to the ground when the operator touches the slider 14 to operate the slider 14 is detected.

Various structures have been conventionally known for detecting changes in electrostatic capacitance. For example, a bridge circuit is formed by the detection part by setting the detection part in a highly insulated state with respect to other conductive parts. However, it is conceivable that the change in the capacitance of the detection portion with respect to the ground is detected by detecting this equilibrium state.

The capacitance change detection circuit 20 fetches the detection signal thus detected in synchronization with the rising edge of the clock pulse Ck, and compares the detection signal previously fetched with the detection signal fetched this time by a comparator. ing. Then, when the value of these differences becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold value and the capacitance suddenly changes, the operator operates the slider 1
On the assumption that 4 has been touched, the operation detection signal Dop is output.
The threshold value is determined to be an appropriate value by an experiment in consideration of climatic conditions, clothes of an operator, and the like.

The operation detection signal Dop is supplied to the hall sensor 12
a, 12b, amplifiers 21a, 21b, A / D converter 22
The switch 28, which is a power supply control unit that opens and closes each ground line, is controlled to be turned on and off. The switch 28 is normally off, and the hall sensors 12a and 12b and the amplifier 21 are
The power supply currents of the a, 21b and the A / D converter 22 are blocked, and the respective operations are stopped.

Further, the operation detection signal Dop is C in the arithmetic unit 23 of the clock pulse Ck supplied to the arithmetic unit 23.
Control the supply to the PU. Power supply voltage V _DD
Is supplied and the clock pulse Ck is not supplied, that is, a so-called sleep state.

In the above structure, the Hall sensor 12
a, 12b, amplifiers 21a, 21b, A / D converter 2
2, and the calculation unit 23 constitutes the data generation unit 26,
The capacitance change detection circuit 20 and the clock generation circuit 24 form an operation detection unit 25.

According to the above configuration, when the operator touches the slider 14, the electrostatic capacitance Cop of the operator himself is passed through the slider 14 and the housing 13 to detect the capacitance change circuit 2.
0 connected to the detection part. As a result, the balance of the bridge of the capacitance change detection circuit 20 is lost and the clock pulse C
The detection signal at this time captured by k is compared with the detection signal captured by the previous clock pulse Ck when the operator is not touching the slider 14, and the operation detection signal Dop is output.

As a result, the switch 28 is turned on and the hall sensors 12a and 12b, the amplifiers 21a and 21b, and the A / D.
The power supply currents of the respective converters 22 flow to perform respective predetermined operations. Further, the clock pulse Ck is supplied to the CPU inside the arithmetic unit 23 to cancel the sleep state, and the arithmetic unit 23
Makes it possible to perform the predetermined arithmetic processing on the digital data Dd from the A / D converter 22.

As a result, when the operator touches the slider 14 and operates the slider 14 to displace it, the digital data Dd corresponding to the displacement amount and the displacement direction are converted into the output data Dout by the arithmetic unit 23 and the personal computer (not shown). Is output to.

As described above, according to the above embodiment, when the operator is not touching the slider 14, the data generator 2
The power consumption by 6 can be made almost zero, and the power consumption of the cursor control device 10 can be greatly reduced.

The present embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a magnetic detection type cursor control device. However, a conductive paint is applied to a portion touched by an operator such as an optical mouse when operating it. The same effect as described above can be obtained by connecting to the capacitance change detection circuit and controlling the power supply and the like.

The same applies to a data input device such as a keyboard device. The same effect can be obtained by applying a conductive paint to the keys and configuring the keys in the same manner as described above.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, power supply is suppressed when the normal operation section is not in the operating state, and power is supplied when the operation detecting section detects that the operating section is in the operating state. Since it can be controlled to input data to an external device, there is a feature that the power consumption of the data input device can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a main part of an example of a conventional data input device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Operation Unit 2, 26 Data Generation Unit 3 Power Supply Unit 4 External Device 5, 25 Operation Detection Unit 6 Power Supply Control Unit 7, 10 Data Input Device 12a, 12b Hall Sensor (Magnetic Detection Means) 14 Slider (Displacement Member) 15 Permanent Magnet (Magnetic member) 28 switch (Power control unit)

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshiaki Tanaka 1015 Kamiodanaka, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Fujitsu Limited

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An operation unit (1, 14), a data generation unit (2, 26) for generating data (Dout) according to the operation, and power is supplied to the data generation unit (2, 26). An output data (Dout) from the data generating section (2, 26)
In a data input device (7, 10) configured to input the data to an external device (4), an operation detection unit (5, 25) for detecting whether or not the operation unit (1, 14) is in an operation state. And an operation detection signal (Dop) from the operation detection unit (5, 25)
In accordance with the above, a power supply control unit (6, 2) that controls the supply of power from the power supply unit (3) to the data generation unit (2, 26).
8) A data input device comprising: 2. The power supply control unit (6, 28) shuts off a power supply current from the power supply unit (3) in accordance with the operation detection signal (Dop) and the data generation unit (2, 2).
Data input device according to claim 1, characterized in that it is arranged to stop the supply of the clock pulse (Ck) to 6). 3. The operation section (1) has a displacement member (14) which is displaced by an operation, and the data generation section (26) is responsive to a displacement amount or a displacement direction of the displacement member (14). The data input device according to claim 1, wherein the data input device is configured to generate the output data (Dout). 4. The magnetic member (15), wherein the data generator (26) is displaced according to the displacement of the displacement member (14).
The data input device according to claim 3, further comprising: a plurality of magnetic detection means (12a, 12b) for detecting a magnetism that changes according to the displacement of the magnetic member (15). 5. The data input device according to claim 3, wherein the operation detection unit (25) is configured so that the capacitance of the displacement member (14) changes during operation.