JPH07175571A - Pen input type computer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily find a cordless exclusive stylus pen even if it is lost. CONSTITUTION:The pen input type computer having a coordinate detecting device which detects a coordinate position inputted with the exclusive stylus pen 200 is provided with a transmission circuit 102 which is provided in the pen input type computer body 50 and sends a radio signal 103 for searching the pen, reception circuits 308-311 which are provided in the stylus pen body 200 and receive the radio signal 103 from the transmission circuit 102, and 312 which is provided in the stylus pen body 200 and indicates the whereabouts of the stylus pen 200 with, for example, a speech signal on the basis of the radio signal obtained by the reception circuits 308-311.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pen input type computer using a dedicated stylus pen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various pen-input type portable computers which can be driven by a battery have been developed. This type of computer has a tablet that detects coordinates input by a dedicated stylus pen instead of the keyboard, and uses the detection signal from the tablet to detect the pointing position input by the stylus pen. And handwritten characters are recognized.

However, as the stylus pen,
There is an example of adopting a cordless type that has a battery built in the stylus pen and a connection cord is abolished, which is superior in mobility and storage, from the cord type connected to the computer main body with a cord for energization is increasing.

[0004]

As described above, the pen-input type computer is premised on the input by a dedicated stylus pen, and often does not have other input means such as a keyboard. Also, as described above, a cordless type stylus pen tends to be adopted in many cases as a dedicated stylus pen.

Therefore, there is a possibility that the stylus pen will be lost in the cordless stylus pen, and in the event that the stylus pen is lost,
There was a problem that after that point, all input to the computer itself became impossible.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and the purpose thereof is to:
An object of the present invention is to provide a pen-input type computer that can easily find a cordless type stylus pen if it is lost.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a pen input type computer having a coordinate detecting device for detecting a coordinate position input by a dedicated stylus pen. A transmitting circuit for transmitting a wireless signal of the stylus pen body, a receiving circuit for receiving the wireless signal by the transmitting circuit, and a receiving circuit provided for the stylus pen body, based on the wireless signal obtained by the receiving circuit The stylus pen is provided with a notifying circuit for notifying and outputting the location of the stylus pen, for example, by a light emission signal of voice or visible light.

According to the present invention, the pen input type computer main body is provided with the stylus pen for accommodating the stylus pen, and the stylus pen is abutted in the pen accommodating part when the stylus pen is accommodated. position,
For example, a communication port for transferring and outputting information indicating whether or not the notification of the stylus pen is set in accordance with the setup process, an input / output interface provided at the specific contact position of the stylus pen, and the stylus pen. And a control controller for controlling the operation of the notification means in accordance with the information indicating whether or not to execute the notification transmitted through the input / output interface.

[0009]

With the above-described configuration, if the stylus pen is lost, the stylus pen can output voice or visible light by a wireless signal from the computer body side. Therefore, it can be easily found.

Further, by adopting the latter configuration, the user can set whether or not to perform the notification with the stylus pen as needed, and at the same time, wasteful power consumption on the stylus pen side. It is possible to effectively use the limited battery power source.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of a pen-input type portable computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This pen-input type portable computer is of a type having a liquid crystal display panel and a transparent tablet provided integrally therewith, and includes a CPU 11, an input / output gate array (I / O GA) 12, and a main memory 1.
3. A system management RAM (SM-RAM) 14 is provided. Main memory 13 and system management RAM (S
The M-RAM) 14 is connected to the local bus 1.

The system also includes a BIOS-RO.
M15, real time clock (RTC) 16, super integration (SI circuit) 26, liquid crystal controller (liquid crystal CNT) 27, first and second IC card controllers (IC-CNT) 28 and 29, keyboard controller (keyboard CNT) 30. , A pen I / O controller (pen I / O-CNT) 100 is provided, and these are ISA (International Standard Assass).
(ociation) specification system bus 2.

The CPU 11 is a microprocessor 80386SL manufactured and sold by Intel Corp.
Or its compatible processor is used. This CPU1
1 has a power save mode for low power consumption, such as powering down various I / Os at idle. This power save mode has a suspend mode. The suspend mode is the power save mode that consumes the least power. In suspend mode, almost all units in the system are powered down, except for the memory that stores the data needed to restart the application program. This suspend function is performed by the system management interrupt (SMI) supported by the above-mentioned microprocessor 80386SL or compatible processor.
errupt) can be used to start.

The I / O gate array 12 is a dedicated logic for realizing the support function of the CPU 11 and the memory, and is the main memory 1 connected to the local bus 1.
3, SM-RAM 14, additional memory card 25 and CPU
Input / output control between the CPU 11 and various units connected to the system bus 2 is performed, including input / output control with respect to the CPU 11. Further, the I / O gate array 12 is a unit for realizing a function necessary for system control, that is, a DMA controller for direct memory access control and an interrupt controller (PIC; Programmable).
Interrupt Controller, timer (PIT; Progr)
ammable Input Timer), serial I / O controller (SIO; Serial Input / Output Control)
r) is built in.

CPU 11 and I / O gate array 12
Communication between them is performed via a dedicated interface line. Interface signals between the CPU 11 and the I / O gate array 12 include, for example, signals for controlling the SMI function of the CPU 11.

That is, the interrupt request input SMI of the CPU 11 is supplied with the active-low SMI signal output from the I / O gate array 12. This SMI signal is generated, for example, in response to a request from an internal timer of the I / O gate array 12 or a request from an external unit such as a real time clock (RTC) 16 and a power supply controller (PSC) 31. For example, a request from the power supply controller (PSC) 31 turns on / off the system power.
It is generated when the power switch 31a for the off control is turned off, or when the capacity reduction of the battery 31b (low battery state) is detected.

The main memory 13 is, for example, a standard 4M memory.
It has a storage capacity of bytes, and stores an operating system, an application program to be processed, user data created by the application program, and the like. The operating system includes an I / O system that supports pen input, and is configured to operate in the protected mode of the CPU 11. Also, various character recognition programs can be incorporated in this operating system. For this operating system,
For example, a pen point developed and sold by GO Company, USA can be used.

The SM-RAM 14 is provided to realize the power management function of this system.
It has a storage capacity of K bytes. This SM-RAM 14 is
Main memory 13 address 60000H to 67FF
It is an array mapped in the address space up to FH and can be accessed only when the SMI signal is input to the CPU 11. When the system shifts to the suspend mode, the system status necessary for restarting the application program, that is, the status of the CPU 11 registers and various peripheral hardware when the SMI is generated is saved in the SM-RAM 14 in a stack format. It

The additional memory card 25 is optionally connected to an 88-pin dedicated card slot provided in the computer body. This additional memory card 25 is a dedicated DRAM card, and has 2M bytes, 4M bytes, and 8M bytes.
There are types such as byte and 16 MB.

The BIOS-ROM 15 is a BIOS (Bas
ic I / O System) for storing
It is composed of a flash memory (flash EEPROM) so that the program can be rewritten.
The BIOS is configured to operate in real mode. The BIOS includes an IRT routine for testing and initializing memory and various hardware devices at power-on, various device drivers for controlling various hardware devices according to a request from the operating system, a suspend SMI routine, and It includes an SMI service program including a resume SMI routine and an SMI handler for determining an SMI service routine to be executed.

The SMI handler is a program in the BIOS which is first activated when an SMI occurs, whereby the cause of the SMI is checked and the SMI service routine corresponding to the cause is executed. .

The real time clock (RTC) 16 is
It is a timepiece module having its own battery for operation, and has a CMOS static RAM (hereinafter referred to as a CMOS memory) to which power is constantly supplied from the battery. This CMOS memory is used to store setup information indicating the system configuration.

Super Integration (SI) 26
Is connected to a power supply controller (PSC) 31 and an RS232C connector 34 and controls communication with these by serial data, while a floppy disk connector (FDD connector) 32 and a printer / floppy disk connector (PRT / FDD connector). 33, a hard disk drive (HDD) 35, and a tablet controller 26, and communication control is performed between them by parallel data.

The power supply controller (PSC) 31 is a CP
This is for controlling the power supply to each unit in response to an instruction from U11, and communication with the CPU 11 is executed via a command register in the super integration (SI) 26. Power controller (PSC)
31 generates the backup power supply BK even when the system is in the suspended state, and supplies it to the main memory 13, S
The data is supplied to the M-RAM 14 and the image memory (VRAM) 38.

The floppy disk connector 32 is a connector used when the floppy disk drive (first FDD) 42 is optionally connected, and the printer / floppy disk connector 33 is the option when the printer or the floppy disk device (second FDD) 43 is optionally connected. This is the connector used.

The tablet controller 36 detects a coordinate point input by the stylus pen 200 via the transparent tablet 37 and sends it to the I / O gate array 12 via the super integration 26 and the system bus 2. In this case, the detection of the coordinate points is performed by using, for example, the electromagnetic induction method.

The liquid crystal controller 27 controls the display of the liquid crystal display panel 39, expands the display data sent from the CPU 11 via the system bus 2 into the image memory (VRAM) 38, and displays it on the liquid crystal display. Display on panel 39.

The liquid crystal display panel 39 is of a transmissive type composed of, for example, a dot matrix of vertical 640 dots × horizontal 480 dots.
A backlight 40 using "L" is arranged on the back side thereof.

The IC card controllers 28 and 29 are 6
8-pin PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory)
Card Alternativeal Associatuon) Card 44, 4
5 read / write control is performed. The keyboard controller 30 controls the key input of the keyboard 46 connected as an option.

Pen I / O controller (pen I / O-C
The NT) 100 is a communication port for exchanging control information with the stylus pen 200, is connected to the pen connector 101 to which the stylus pen 200 is coupled, and is connected to the search signal transmission circuit 102. Instruct to send the search signal. The search signal transmission circuit 102 uses the pen I
In response to an instruction from the / O controller 100, the search signal radio wave 103 having a preset frequency is transmitted.

The stylus pen 200 has a reception notification circuit 201 that receives the notification of the search signal radio wave 103 transmitted by the search signal transmission circuit 102, and notifies the search signal electric wave 103. The stylus pen 200 is also connected from the pen I / O controller 100 via the pen connector 101. The transferred information indicating whether or not to execute the notification process is received via the connector 202 and held in the power supply controller 304 described later.

FIG. 2 shows an external view of the pen input type portable computer of FIG. As shown,
A display panel unit 55 is provided on the surface of the pen-input type portable computer main body 50. The display panel unit 55 has a laminated structure of the tablet 37, the liquid crystal display panel 39, and the backlight unit 40 described above. A pen housing port 60 is provided on the side surface of the main body 50 of the pen-input type portable computer.

The pen housing opening 60 is used for the stylus pen 20.
It is for accommodating 0, and the above-mentioned pen connector 101 is provided here. Star Rice Pen 20
In a state where 0 is accommodated in the pen accommodating port 60, the connector 202 of the stylus pen 200 is connected to the pen connector 101.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, the computer main body 5
A specific circuit configuration of part of 0 and the inside of the stylus pen 200 will be described. As shown in the figure, in the computer main body 50, the transmission waveform generator 104 that constitutes the search signal transmission circuit 102 excites the transmission antenna 105 in response to the search instruction signal from the pen I / O controller 100 to generate the search signal radio wave 103. Send it.

On the other hand, the stylus pen 200 is roughly divided into three circuits, that is, a pen function circuit, a data processing circuit and a data input / output circuit. The pen function circuit is a circuit for causing the stylus pen 200 to function as a pointing device, and includes a coil 302 and an alternating current generation circuit 303. The circuit including the coil 302 and the alternating current generation circuit 303 is always on regardless of whether the pen tip switch 301 is on or off, and an alternating magnetic field is generated from the tip of the pen tip switch 301. The frequency of the alternating magnetic field is controlled by the power supply controller 304 described later.

The data processing circuit includes a power supply controller 3
04, the battery 305, the amplifier 309, the filter 310, and the controller 3 which constitute the reception notification circuit 201.
11 and a speaker 312 are included. The microcomputer 304 performs read / write access to the flash memory 201 according to an instruction from the CPU 11. Further, the power supply controller 304 controls the frequency of the AC magnetic field generated from the pen functional circuit according to the on / off of the pen tip switch 301. The battery 305 is the stylus pen 20 under the supervision of the power supply controller 304.
Power is supplied to each circuit within 0.

The data input / output circuit is an interface between the microcomputer 304 and the pen I / O controller 100 of FIG. 1, and in addition to the connector 202 described above, a driver / receiver 306 and a push switch 30.
7 and a receiving antenna 308. The push switch 307 is for controlling the power supply to the circuits in the stylus pen 200 by the power supply controller 304, and the push switch 307 is in a depressed state (switch on), that is, the stylus pen 200 is in the computer main body 50. While being accommodated in the pen accommodating port 60, power supply to each circuit in the stylus pen 200 is stopped by the control operation of the power supply controller 304, and useless power consumption is suppressed.

The reception antenna 308 includes the amplifier 309 of the data processing circuit section, the filter 310, the controller 311, and the speaker 312, and the reception notification circuit 20.
1, which receives the search signal radio wave 103 when it is transmitted from the transmitting antenna 105 on the computer main body 50 side. Then, the radio wave received by the receiving antenna 308 is appropriately amplified by the amplifier 309, only a specific frequency component is extracted by the filter 310, and reaches the controller 311. The controller 311 performs processing such as modulation under the control of the power supply controller 304, and supplies the obtained signal to the speaker 312 to drive the speaker loud. The speaker 312 is attached to the inside of the stylus pen 200 by forming a number of holes in a part of the peripheral surface of the stylus pen 200. The speaker 311 outputs a voice signal for searching when the stylus pen 200 is lost by driving the speaker 311. .

Next, the above embodiment will be described. By operating the stylus pen 200 on the display panel unit 55, a setup menu screen for defining and controlling each basic operation of the computer main body 50 is called, and for example, “call stylus pen” in the menu is called.
It is assumed that the item "Yes / No" is selected and set to the "Yes" side. In this case, the set information is stored in the system management RAM 14 and is always held by the backup power source BK regardless of the power on / off state of the system.

Based on this information, the CPU 11 inserts the stylus pen 200 into the pen housing opening 60 of the computer main body 50.
If the stylus pen is stored, the storage state is detected, and the information indicating that the stylus pen is to be notified, which is stored in the system management RAM 14, is read to read the pen I / O controller 100.
To the stylus pen 200 via.

In the stylus pen 200, the power supply controller 304 appropriately operates the reception notification circuit 201 according to the information from the CPU 11 as needed. That is, while the stylus pen 200 is taken out from the pen housing opening 60 of the computer main body 50 and some application software is being executed, the CPU 11 executes the SI based on the above information held in the system management RAM 14.
This is to monitor the coordinate detection state by the pen input of the stylus pen 200 on the transparent tablet 37 input from the tablet controller 36 via the circuit 26. When there is no input for a certain period of time, for example, 30 minutes, the input / output gate array This is detected by the system management interrupt (SMI) from 12 and almost all the units in the system are powered down except for the memory that stores the data necessary for restarting the application program by executing the suspend mode described above. To do.

At the same time, the CPU 11 causes the pen I / O
The search signal transmission circuit 102 is operated via the controller 100, and the search signal radio wave 103 is transmitted from the transmission antenna 105.
To send. It is assumed that the search signal radio wave 103 has an output that can be sufficiently reached even in any room.

On the other hand, in the stylus pen 200, the power supply controller 304 drives the alternating current generating circuit 303 as needed to excite the coil 302. At the same time, the on / off state of the pen tip switch 301 is detected, and a certain period of time is detected. For example, when the pen tip switch 301 does not turn on for 30 minutes, this is detected to detect the AC current generation circuit 303.
Pause the drive of. Along with this, the power supply controller 304 turns on the operation of the controller 311 and waits for the arrival of the search signal radio wave 103 from the computer main body 50.

Then, the receiving antenna 308 receives the search signal radio wave 103 from the transmitting antenna 105 of the computer main body 50, and this is the amplifier 309 and the filter 31.
When it is input to the controller 311 via 0, the controller 311 appropriately performs processing such as modulation on the received search signal based on the control of the power supply controller 304, and drives the loudspeaker 312 by the obtained signal. Therefore, the stylus pen 20 may be damaged by the user's carelessness.
Even if 0 is lost temporarily, the location of the stylus pen 200 can be easily found by the voice signal as long as the search signal radio wave 103 can reach from the computer main body 50. The process of can be continued.

When the user carries the stylus pen 200 and is far away from the computer main body 50, the search signal radio wave 103 from the computer main body 50 does not reach, so that the loudspeaker 312 is made to perform a loud voice operation. I can't. Therefore, when the search signal radio wave 103 from the computer main body 50 is not declined for a certain period of time or more, the power supply controller 304 may detect this and cause the loudspeaker 312 to perform the loud-speaking operation as described above.

Further, in FIG. 3 above, the location of the stylus pen 200 is notified by outputting an audio signal from the speaker 312. However, when it is expected that the stylus pen 200 will be used especially in a noisy environment, as shown in FIG. , The above-mentioned speaker 312
LED3 that emits visible light instead of outputting the audio signal in
13, the controller 311 may drive the LED 313 to emit light to notify the location of the stylus pen 200.

In this case, not only is an opening for the LED 313 provided in a part of the peripheral surface of the stylus pen 200 for attachment, but also a lens 31 for diffusing the light emitted from the LED 313.
By providing 4 so as to slightly project from the peripheral surface of the stylus pen 200, it becomes easier to search for the location of the stylus pen 200.

At this time, as shown in the figure, the search signal radio wave 1
03 for receiving a coil 3 for generating a magnetic field
By also using the number 02, the space in the stylus pen 200 whose size is restricted can be used more effectively, and it is also advantageous in terms of the number of parts, cost, and the like.

Further, in the operation of the above-described embodiment, the stylus pen 20 is set by setting items in the setup menu.
The search signal transmission circuit 102 transmits the search signal radio wave 103 after a lapse of a predetermined time after the pen operation at 0 is stopped, and the stylus pen 200 also controls the reception notification circuit 201 by the power supply controller 304 based on the control of the CPU 11. However, for example, the computer main body 50 may be provided with a switch for forcibly searching for the stylus pen 200, and the searching operation may be executed when the switch is operated. In this case, in the stylus pen 200, the power controller 30
4 must always operate the controller 311 and the like of the reception notification circuit 201, the battery 30
However, since the search operation is started immediately when the user operates the search switch, even if the stylus pen 200 is lost, the predetermined time is required. You don't have to wait for a while to find out where you are.

[0051]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a pen input type computer which can easily find a cordless type stylus pen even if it is lost. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a pen input type computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a computer.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the pen input type computer main body of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram illustrating a specific configuration of a stylus pen and a part of the pen input type computer main body of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram illustrating another specific configuration of the stylus pen used in the pen input type computer according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... CPU, 50 ... Pen input type computer main body, 6
0 ... Pen storage port, 100 ... Pen I / O controller, 1
01 ... Pen connector, 102 ... Search signal transmission circuit, 10
3 ... Search signal radio wave, 104 ... Transmission waveform generator, 105
..., transmission antenna 200 ... stylus pen, 201 ... reception notification circuit, 202 ... connector, 302 ... coil, 30
4 ... Power supply controller, 305 ... Battery, 308 ... Receiving antenna, 309 ... Amplifier, 310 ... Filter, 31
1 ... Controller, 312 ... Speaker, 313 ... LE
D, 314 ... Lens.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A pen input type computer having a coordinate detecting device for detecting a coordinate position input by a dedicated stylus pen, the transmitting means being provided in the main body of the pen input type and transmitting a wireless signal for pen search. And a receiving means provided on the stylus pen body for receiving a radio signal by the transmitting means, and a notification means for outputting the location of the stylus pen based on the radio signal obtained by the receiving means provided on the stylus pen body. A pen input type computer, comprising: 2. The pen-input computer according to claim 1, wherein the notification means has a speaker for outputting an audio signal. 3. The pen-input computer according to claim 1, wherein the notification means has an LED that outputs a light emission signal of visible light. 4. The stylus pen and the coordinate detecting device adopt an electromagnetic induction method, and the coil for generating a magnetic field in the stylus pen is also used as a receiving antenna for receiving a radio signal by the receiving means. The pen input type computer according to claim 1. 5. A pen storage portion provided in the main body of the pen input type computer for storing the stylus pen, setting means for setting whether or not to execute notification of the stylus pen, and a pen of the main body of the pen input type computer. A communication port provided in the storage unit for transferring the setting contents of the setting means to a specific contact position of the stylus pen in a state where the stylus pen is stored, and an input / output interface provided at the specific contact position of the stylus pen. And a control means which is provided in the stylus pen and which controls the operation of the notification means according to the setting contents of the setting means transferred through the input / output interface. Item 2. A pen input type computer according to item 1.