JPH0793094A - Coordinate input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a coordinate input device which enables application software, designed for the operation of a mouse having two buttons, to be used only by finger input operation. CONSTITUTION:This coordinate input device is equipped with a coordinate input part 9 which obtains coordinate value by converting a potential difference generated when a tablet is in touch with a finger, into a digital value, a coordinate and status storage part 10 which stores a status value indicating whether or not the tablet is in touch with the finger, and the obtained coordinate values, and a status monitor part 11 which monitors a status so as to decide left-button operation or right-button operation. And, the device is equipped with an output data generation part 12 which converts the coordinate values and the value determined by the status monitor part 11 into the format of data outputted by the mouse having two buttons.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coordinate input device using a tablet which allows coordinate input by a finger.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, applications in terminal devices such as computers are graphical user interfaces (G) that provide an operating environment that is easy to grasp intuitively.
UI (UI) is becoming mainstream. A mouse is widely used as a pointing device under the GUI environment. Some mice have one or more buttons, but the most common are those with two left and right buttons. Each button outputs a signal to the terminal device that it is ON when it is pressed and OFF when it is released. This mechanism is used to create states such as click, double click, and drag. A mouse operation type application uses these states to support various operations.

On the other hand, with the progress of miniaturization and portability of terminal devices, tablets have come to be widely used as pointing devices. The tablet outputs the coordinates of the contact point to the terminal device when a finger or a pen contacts the surface of the tablet. Further, like a button on a mouse, it outputs an ON signal to the terminal device when the finger or the pen is in contact with the tablet, and an OFF signal when the tablet is not in contact. Using this mechanism, the state of click, double click, and drag is created by the action of a finger or pen, similar to a mouse. Therefore, an operating environment equivalent to that of a one-button mouse can be realized by the conventional tablet and control program (hereinafter referred to as device driver).

[0004]

However, since the conventional coordinate input device using a tablet can perform only the same operation as a one-button mouse, an application based on the operation with a mouse having two buttons is required.
There was a problem that it could not be operated without changing the application.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a coordinate input device which can realize an operating environment with two buttons while using a tablet without changing an application.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a tablet, and a coordinate input section for A-D converting a potential difference caused by contact between a finger and the tablet to obtain a coordinate value, and A coordinate / status storage unit that stores coordinate values and a status value indicating contact / non-contact between the finger and the tablet, a status monitoring unit that monitors the status value and determines the left / right button operation, and the status monitoring unit An output data generation unit that converts the determined value and the coordinate value into a data format output by a two-button mouse is provided.

[0007]

With the above-described structure, the operator inputs his / her finger to the tablet in a mode corresponding to the left button operation of the mouse and a mode corresponding to the right button operation, so that the coordinate input section obtains the coordinates and the status monitoring is performed. The unit determines which of the left and right button operations corresponds to this contact mode, and the output data generation unit converts it into the data format output by the mouse of the two buttons and outputs it to the application.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are external structural views showing a state in which the coordinate input device in one embodiment of the present invention is connected to a terminal device. In the figure, the tablet 3,
Similar to a mouse, the reference numeral 7 is connected to terminal devices 1 and 5 such as a personal computer and has a configuration in which it is superposed on the CRT display 2 and the liquid crystal display 6. Then, the operator instructs the input coordinates by bringing the fingers 4 and 8 into contact with the specific positions of the tablets 3 and 7.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the coordinate input device in one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, as a functional block, a coordinate input unit 9 for A-D converting the potential difference caused by the contact between the fingers 4, 8 and the tablets 3, 7 to obtain coordinate values, the fingers 4, 8 and the tablets 3, 7. 7, a coordinate / status storage unit 10 that stores the status value indicating contact / non-contact and the obtained coordinate value; and a status monitoring unit 11 that monitors the status to determine whether the button operation is the left button operation or the right button operation. An output data generation unit 12 is provided for converting the coordinate values and the values determined by the status monitoring unit into a data format output by a two-button mouse.

As shown in FIG. 3, this coordinate input device controls a transparent tablet 13 with which a finger comes into contact and a tablet 13 as a hardware configuration block, and coordinate values of a point where the finger comes into contact by A-D conversion. , A liquid crystal display 15 on which the tablet 13 is superposed, an LCD controller 16 for controlling the liquid crystal display 15, and a CPU (central processing unit) for controlling this device according to a control program in the ROM 18. ) 17, a ROM (read only memory) 18 and a RAM (random access memory) 19 as storage means.

The RAM 19 uses a coordinate / status storage area 20 for storing the coordinate values input by the tablet 13 and processed by the tablet controller 14 and the status value of the tablet 13, and a mouse having two buttons. Application operating area 21 for operating an application program based on
Then, from the change in the status value stored in the coordinate / status storage area 20, it is determined which operation of the mouse the tablet input with the finger corresponds to, and the data is converted into the data format output by the mouse together with the coordinate value. A device driver operation area 22 for operating a device driver that outputs the generated data to an application is provided.

The data stored in the coordinate / status storage area 20 has the data structure shown in FIG. This data consists of byte a1 representing the status and X
Byte a2 representing coordinates and byte a3 representing Y coordinates
It consists of 3 bytes. Further, as shown in FIG. 4B, two types of bits S2 and S1 represent four types of status.

[00] indicates the state where the finger is not in contact with the tablet, [01] indicates the change from the non-contact state to the contact state,
[10] shows the change from the contact state to the non-contact state as [1
1] represents that the state changed from non-contact to contact and then again to non-contact within the minimum time.

For comparison, FIG. 4C shows the data structure output to the application by the mouse having two buttons. This data is composed of 3 bytes: a byte c1 representing the button status, a byte c2 representing the X coordinate, and a byte c3 representing the Y coordinate. Further, the bit S2 and the bit S1 of the byte c1 represent four types of statuses like the data of the tablet 13. Byte c1
Bits BL and BR of represent the states of the left button and the right button, respectively. Bits BL and BR indicate that the button is pressed when the bit is [1].

When it is [0], it means that the button is not pressed.

When the normal finger input operation to the tablet 13 is associated with the operation of the left button of the mouse, the determination of the finger input operation corresponding to the right button is made in the minimum time when the status of the tablet data is [01]. This is done by changing the coordinate values inside. This determination procedure will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of this embodiment shown in FIG.

First, in step 1, the operator touches the tablet 13 with a finger to instruct the coordinates, and in step 2, the tablet controller 14 causes A-
In step 3, the D-converted coordinate value and status are stored in the coordinate / status storage area 20 of the RAM with the data structure shown in FIG.

Next, in step 4, the device driver reads the coordinates and the status stored in step 3, and the device driver outputs the status bits S2 and S1 in step 5.

[00] That is, it is determined whether or not the tablet and the finger are in the non-contact state, and if the non-contact state, the process returns to step 4. If it is not in the non-contact state, the device driver determines in step 6 whether or not the status bits S2 and S1 are [01], that is, whether the tablet and the finger are in the contact state. It is regarded as the left button operation, and in step 15, the BL bit representing the left button is set to 1, and in step 16
Then, the status bit of the data to be output to the application and the coordinate value are set, and the data equivalent to the mouse including the button information (see FIG. 4C) is created.
At 7, the above data is output to the application. That is, the application can obtain the data having the data structure shown in FIG. 4C, and the application based on the mouse having two buttons can operate as it is.

On the other hand, in step 6, the status bit S
2, if S1 is [01], the routine for determining whether or not the right button of the mouse is operated (step 7 to step 1
Go to 4).

Then, in step 7, the coordinate values obtained in step 4 are held at (X1, Y1), and in step 8,
Read the new coordinates / status and set the coordinate value to (X2,
Hold Y2).

In step 9, if the new status obtained in step 8 is not [01], it is regarded as the left mouse button operation, and the process proceeds to step 15. If [01],
In step 10, held in step 7 (X1, Y
1) is compared with (X2, Y2) held in step 8,
If they are equal, it is considered that there is no operation corresponding to the right button of the mouse, and the step 15 is performed because of the processing of the left button operation.
Go to. On the other hand, when (X1, Y1) is not equal to (X2, Y2), the same processing as in Step 8 and Step 9 is performed in Step 11 and Step 12,
The new coordinate value is held in (X3, Y3).

Then, in step 13, the initially obtained coordinate values (X1, Y1) are compared with the new coordinate values (X3, Y3), and if they do not match, the operation corresponding to the right button of the mouse is performed. If not, the process proceeds to step 15 for the left button operation. On the other hand, if they match, it is considered that the operation corresponding to the right button of the mouse has been performed, the BR bit representing the right button is set to 1 in step 14, and the process proceeds to step 16 to determine whether or not the right button is operated. The judgment routine ends.

FIG. 6 shows an operation example of the tablet 13 corresponding to the left button click operation and the right button click operation of the mouse 23 in this embodiment.

The finger input operation corresponding to the click of the left button 23a of the mouse 23 (FIG. 6 (a)) starts from the state where the finger is away from the tablet 13 (FIG. 6 (b)), and the desired coordinates of the tablet 13 are designated. Touch your finger to
(C)), and a series of operations for releasing again (FIG. 6 (d)).
When this operation is performed within the minimum time, the status output from the tablet controller 14 becomes [11], which is regarded as the left button click operation (step 5,).
6, 15).

On the other hand, in the finger input operation corresponding to the click of the right button 23b of the mouse 23 (FIG. 6 (e)), first, the finger is brought into contact with the desired coordinates on the tablet (see FIG. 6).
(F)), with the contacted finger as it is, another finger is contacted with arbitrary coordinates within the minimum time (FIG. 6 (g)), and then released again (FIG. 6 (h)). At this time, the tablet controller 1
The status output from 4 is [01], and the coordinate value changes from "designated coordinate" to "arbitrary coordinate" to "designated coordinate" within the minimum time, and is regarded as a left button click operation (step 5). 14).

As described above, in this coordinate input device, the two buttons 23 of the mouse 23 are operated by the tablet input with the finger.
It is possible to obtain the output corresponding to the operation to a and 23b.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, the coordinate input device of the present invention can be operated by a tablet operation with a finger.
It is possible to output data equivalent to a mouse having two buttons to the application. Further, since this is realized without depending on the application, it is possible to use the existing application without any modification.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A is an external configuration diagram of a coordinate input device and a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is an external configuration diagram of a coordinate input device and a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a coordinate input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a hardware block diagram of a coordinate input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4A is a bit configuration diagram of tablet data according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4B is a status table of tablet data according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4C is mouse data according to an embodiment of the present invention. Bit configuration diagram

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the coordinate input device in the embodiment of the present invention.

6A is an exemplary diagram of an operation procedure of a coordinate input device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6B is an exemplary diagram of an operation procedure of a coordinate input device according to an embodiment of the present invention; (D) is an example of the operation procedure of the coordinate input device in one embodiment of the present invention. (E) is the operation of the coordinate input device in one embodiment of the present invention. Example of procedure (f) is an example of operation procedure of the coordinate input device in one embodiment of the present invention (g) is an example of operation procedure of coordinate input device in one embodiment of the present invention (h) is the present invention FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of an operation procedure of the coordinate input device in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 Coordinate input unit 10 Coordinate / status storage unit 11 Status monitoring unit 12 Output data generation unit 13 Tablet

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A tablet having a tablet, a coordinate input section for A-D converting a potential difference caused by the contact between the finger and the tablet to obtain a coordinate value, and a status indicating the coordinate value and contact / non-contact between the finger and the tablet. A coordinate / status storage unit that stores the values, a status monitoring unit that monitors the status values and determines left and right button operations, and a mouse that has two buttons for the values and the coordinate values determined by the status monitoring unit. A coordinate input device, comprising: an output data generation unit for converting into an output data format.