JPH08234914A - Unit and method for cursor control - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a unit and method for cursor control which control a cursor so that an intended icon is easy to select and icons other than the intended icon are hardly selected without expanding the areas of the icons even when the display area of the icon to be operated is hard to specify with the cursor. CONSTITUTION: A moving vector calculating means 7 calculates a moving vector on the basis of the attracting force that a weight point gives the current display position of the cursor and a cursor movement position calculating means 10 calculates a cursor movement position on the basis of the moving vector calculated by the moving vector calculating means 7. Cursor moving means 11 and 14 moves the currently displayed cursor to the cursor movement position calculated by the cursor movement position calculating means 10. Further, an actuating means actuates the respective means in repetition order for those serial operations to move the displayed cursor toward the weight point in order.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cursor control device and a cursor control method in a computer system for selecting an object to be processed and instructing execution of processing by a cursor displayed on a display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a so-called graphic cursor, which moves on a display following a user's operation on a pointing device such as a mouse, a joystick, or an electronic pen, is displayed. Computer systems are often used in which predetermined processing is executed by performing an appropriate operation after aligning with the area where is displayed.

In an actual computer system having such a so-called graphical user interface (GUI), the area where the icon on the display to be selected by the cursor is displayed is much smaller than the area where the background is displayed. Often slightly limited. Therefore, in order to operate the icon, the user needs to accurately position the cursor with respect to the display area of the icon to be operated, and if the display area of the icon and the cursor position are displaced by even one pixel. The icon is never selected. That is, the user is required to perform an accurate alignment operation with respect to the display area of the icon, which makes it difficult for an inexperienced user to perform an operation. Further, if the display area of the icon cannot be displayed so large due to the limitation of the display resolution or the design, this problem becomes more serious.

In order to solve the above problem, in addition to the display area of the icon displayed on the screen, the area of the icon is expanded so as not to be displayed on the screen, and the area of the icon not displayed on the screen is expanded. It may be considered that the icon is selected even if the area is designated by the cursor.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, when a plurality of icons are present close to each other on the screen, the boundary line of the area for each icon is not displayed on the screen, and the boundary line that is not displayed is displayed. There is a high possibility that an icon different from the intended icon may be selected without knowing which icon will be selected when the cursor is present near.

Further, in the above-mentioned prior art, for example, in a drawing tool for operating a cursor to create a figure as shown in FIG. 14, if the area of the icon 201 is expanded to the area 2011 without being displayed, The area 202 for creating a figure with the cursor and the expanded area 2011 overlap. Then, the cursor existing in this area 2011 is changed to the icon 20.
Exists to select 1 or region 20
In Fig. 2, it is unclear whether the icon 201 exists to create a figure, so that the icon 201 cannot be expanded.
Therefore, there are cases where the icon cannot be expanded even when it is not displayed.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and even if it is difficult to specify the display area of the icon to be operated with the cursor, the intended icon can be displayed without expanding the icon area. An object of the present invention is to provide a cursor control device and a cursor control method for controlling a cursor so that an icon other than an intended icon is easy to select and difficult to select.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in the invention of claim 1, the movement vector is set based on the attractive force exerted on the current display position of the cursor by the weight point set at a specific position on the screen. A moving vector calculating means for calculating, a cursor moving position calculating means for calculating a cursor moving position from the current display position of the cursor based on the moving vector calculated by the moving vector calculating means, and a cursor moving position calculating means for calculating The present invention is characterized by further comprising cursor moving means for moving the currently displayed cursor to the cursor moving position, and starting means for repeatedly activating each means.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the cursor control device further includes an instruction presence / absence determining means for determining whether or not there is an instruction to move the cursor from the user, and the movement vector calculating means includes the instruction. The movement vector is calculated only when it is judged by the presence / absence judging means that there is no instruction to move the cursor from the user, the cursor moving means moves the cursor after a predetermined time has passed, and the starting means causes the cursor to move. Each of the means is repeatedly activated until the moving means moves the cursor to the weight point.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the cursor moving position calculating means sets the cursor moving position away from the current cursor display position by a distance proportional to the magnitude of the moving vector calculated by the moving vector calculating means. It is characterized by calculating. In the invention of claim 4, the movement vector calculation means calculates the movement vector such that the magnitude of the movement vector is inversely proportional to the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the movement vector calculation means calculates the movement vector such that the magnitude of the movement vector is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor. To do. In the invention of claim 6,
The movement vector calculation means is characterized in that the movement vector is calculated such that the magnitude of the movement vector is further proportional to the weight value of the weight point.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the movement vector calculation means includes an attraction vector calculation unit that calculates the movement vector as an attraction vector for each weight point, and all attraction vectors calculated by the attraction vector calculation unit. 9. The invention according to claim 8, further comprising: an attractive force vector synthesizing unit for synthesizing the vector and the synthesized vector as a movement vector. The cursor moving position calculating means includes a weight point inclusion detecting means for detecting a weight point included in an area diagonal to the cursor moving position calculated by the cursor moving position calculating means. If a weight point is detected in the area, it is located at the position of the weight point, and if no weight point is detected in the area by the weight point inclusion detection means, the weight point is detected. The cursor movement position calculated by the Sol movement position calculating means, characterized in that a cursor moving means for moving the cursor is currently displayed after a predetermined time.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the instruction presence / absence determining means determines that there is no cursor movement instruction if there is no cursor movement instruction from the user for a predetermined time. According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the cursor control device further includes a weight point coincidence determination unit that determines whether or not the current position of the cursor coincides with any weight point prior to the calculation of the movement vector, When the weighted point coincidence determination means determines that the weighted point coincides with any one of the weighted points, the control means is provided to control not to perform the following processing.

In the invention of claim 11, the control means is
When it is determined by the weighting point coincidence determining means that the weighting point coincides with any one of the weighting points, it is controlled to execute a specific process defined in association with the weighting point. According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the control means further performs control to delete the weight point after executing a specific process defined in association with the weight point.

In the thirteenth aspect of the invention, the cursor control device further performs the same processing for weight points set in an area outside the display area on the plane including the screen, and as a result of cursor movement, When the cursor reaches the end of the screen, display control means is provided for performing scroll display in that direction. According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, a moving vector calculation step of calculating a moving vector based on the attractive force exerted on the current display position of the cursor by the weight point set at a specific position on the screen, and the moving vector calculation step from the current display position of the cursor are performed. A cursor moving position calculating step for calculating a cursor moving position based on the moving vector calculated in the moving vector calculating step, and a cursor for moving the currently displayed cursor to the cursor moving position calculated in the cursor moving position calculating step. Move step,
It is characterized in that it comprises an activating step for activating each step repeatedly in order.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the cursor control method further comprises an instruction presence / absence determining step of determining whether or not there is an instruction to move the cursor from the user, and the movement vector calculating step includes the instruction. The movement vector is calculated only when it is determined that there is no instruction to move the cursor from the user in the presence / absence determining step, and the cursor moving step moves the cursor after a predetermined time has passed,
In the starting step, each step is repeatedly started in order until the cursor moving step moves the cursor to the weight point.

According to the sixteenth aspect of the present invention, the cursor moving position calculating step determines a cursor moving position separated from the current cursor display position by a distance proportional to the magnitude of the moving vector calculated in the moving vector calculating step. It is characterized by calculating. According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, in the moving vector calculating step, the moving vector is calculated such that the magnitude of the moving vector is inversely proportional to the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor.

According to the eighteenth aspect of the invention, the movement vector calculation step is characterized in that the movement vector is calculated such that the magnitude of the movement vector is further proportional to the weight value of the weight point.

[0019]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the movement vector calculation means calculates the movement vector based on the attractive force that the weight point exerts on the current display position of the cursor, and the cursor movement position calculation means calculates the movement vector. The cursor movement position is calculated based on the movement vector calculated by the means. The cursor moving means moves the cursor currently displayed to the cursor moving position calculated by the cursor position position calculating means. Further, the activation means sequentially moves the displayed cursor in the direction of the weight point by repeatedly activating each of these means in sequence.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the instruction presence / absence determining means determines whether or not there is an instruction to move the cursor from the user, and the movement vector calculating means uses the instruction presence / absence determining means to determine the user. The movement vector is calculated only when it is determined that there is no instruction to move the cursor from. Therefore, the cursor control device moves the cursor only when there is no instruction to move the cursor from the user. Further, the movement of the cursor waits for a predetermined time to elapse, and then the cursor is moved.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the cursor moving position calculating means calculates the cursor moving position separated from the current position by a distance proportional to the magnitude of the moving vector. According to the invention of claim 4, the movement vector calculation means calculates the movement vector such that the magnitude of the movement vector is inversely proportional to the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor.

According to the invention of claim 5, the movement vector calculation means calculates the movement vector such that the magnitude of the movement vector is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor. According to the invention of claim 6, the movement vector calculation means calculates the movement vector such that the magnitude of the movement vector is further proportional to the weight value of the weight point.

According to the invention of claim 7, the attraction vector calculation unit calculates the movement vector for each weight point as an attraction vector even when there are a plurality of weight points.
An attractive force vector synthesizing unit synthesizes all the calculated attractive force vectors and sets the synthesized vector as a movement vector. According to the invention of claim 8, the weighted point inclusion detection means detects a weighted point included in an area whose diagonal is the current position of the cursor and the cursor movement position calculated by the cursor movement position calculation means. To do. Then, the cursor moving means moves the currently displayed cursor to the position of the detected weight point only when the weight point inclusion detection means detects the weight point, and the weight point inclusion detection means If the included weight point is not detected, the currently displayed cursor is moved to the cursor moving position calculated by the cursor moving position calculating means as usual.

According to the ninth aspect of the invention, the instruction presence / absence determining means determines that there is no cursor movement instruction unless the user instructs the cursor movement for a predetermined time. According to the invention of claim 10, the weight point coincidence determining means determines whether or not the current position of the cursor coincides with any of the weight points. The control means controls so as not to perform the following processing when the weight point coincidence determination means determines that they match. That is, the movement of the cursor stops at that point.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, when the weighting point coincidence determining means determines that the weighting point coincidence determining means coincides with any one of the weighting points, the control means specifies the definition defined in association with the weighting point. Controls to execute the process. According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, the control means further performs control to delete the weight point after executing a specific process defined in association with the weight point.

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the display control means similarly performs processing such as cursor movement even when the weighting point is set in an area outside the display area on the plane including the screen. . Further, as a result of the movement of the cursor, when the cursor reaches the end of the screen, scroll display of the screen in that direction is performed. The fourteenth to seventeenth aspects of the invention have the same operations as the first to fourth aspects of the invention.

The invention of claim 18 has the same operation as the invention of claim 6.

[0028]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a cursor control device for realizing an embodiment of the present invention. The cursor control device includes a cursor position register 1, a pointing device 2, a weight point management table 3, and a weight point associated processing storage unit. 4, a start delay unit 5, a weight point coincidence detection unit 6, an attractive force vector calculation unit 7, an attractive force vector register 8, a combined vector calculation unit 9, a cursor movement position calculation unit 10, and a cursor movement position storage unit. 11, a weight point inclusion detection unit 12, a cursor movement position correction unit 13, a cursor position updating unit 14,
A cursor display unit 15, a weight point associated process execution unit 16,
The weighting point deleting unit 17 is provided. Such a cursor control device is used for controlling a cursor displayed in a computer system such as a presentation device used for giving a presentation.

The cursor position register 1 is realized by, for example, a semiconductor memory and stores the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of the display position of the cursor on the display as a pair. The pointing device 2 is realized by, for example, a mouse and its control circuit, and directly updates the contents of the cursor position register 1 by a user's operation.

The weight point management table 3 is realized by using a partial area of the main storage device or the auxiliary storage device,
For each of a plurality of preset weight points, the coordinate values, weight values, and pointers to the processing contents associated with the weight points are held in a table format. Here, the weight point is, for example, an icon, and the processing content associated with the weight point is the content of the program specified by the icon or the like. FIG. 3A is a diagram showing the specific content held in the weight point management table 3. In line 301, the weight point of the name A is located at the coordinate (160, 320), and the weight value is 3
00, indicating that the pointer to the processing content associated with the weight point is “prog-A”. 302
The row indicates that the weight point of the name B holds information such as coordinates in the same manner. The coordinate values are coordinate values in a coordinate system in which the upper left is (0, 0) and the lower right is (640, 480) as shown in FIG. Therefore, the weight points “A” and “B” stored in the weight point management table 3 are displayed at the positions indicated by 401 and 402 in FIG. 4 based on the stored coordinate values.

The weight point associated process storage unit 4 is realized by using a partial area of the main storage device or the auxiliary storage device, and the content of the process to be executed when each weight point is designated is, for example, Pre-registered in program format. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the contents stored in the weight point associated process storage unit 4. The program “prog_” that is the content to be processed stored in the weight point associated process storage unit 4
It can be seen that “A” is designated by the pointer “prog-A” stored in the weight point management table 3.
Similarly, it can be seen that the program “prog_B” is also designated by the pointer “prog-B” stored in the weight point management table 3.

The start delay unit 5 is realized by, for example, a timer circuit using a real-time clock, starts measurement from the time when the pointing device 2 was last operated, and outputs an interrupt signal when a certain time has elapsed. appear. The weight point coincidence detection unit 6 is realized by, for example, a comparison arithmetic circuit, receives the interrupt signal from the start delay unit 5, and receives the contents of the cursor position register 1 and the weight point management table 3.
The coordinate values of the weight points stored in are sequentially compared to detect the matching weight points.

The attraction vector calculation unit 7 is realized by, for example, a CPU and an arithmetic operation program, and when the weight point match detection unit 6 determines that there is no matching weight point, the contents of the cursor position register 1 and Coordinate values of the weight points stored in the weight point management table 3,
An attraction vector that each weight point exerts on the current display position of the cursor is calculated from the weight value for each weight point. In calculating the attractive force vector, for the magnitude of the attractive force vector,
It is calculated as being proportional to the weight value at the weight point and inversely proportional to the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor, that is, the weight value of the weight point divided by the distance. The direction of the attraction vector is obtained by the difference between the coordinates of the weight point and the coordinates of the current cursor position. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the current position P of the cursor is (160, 120), and the weighting points A and B are (160, 320) and (480, 36), respectively.
0) position, and the value of each weight is 30
When 0 and 1000, the attractive force vector f of the weight point A
The attractive force vector fB between A and the weight point B is obtained as shown below.

In obtaining the attractive force vector fA,
First, the vector PA from the current position P of the cursor to the target weight point A is obtained. The component of this vector PA is obtained by simply subtracting the coordinate value of the point P from the coordinate value of the point A, and the vector PA = (160-160, 320-12)
0) = (0,200). This vector is a vector of size 200 that goes in the positive direction of the Y axis, that is, in the direction directly below on the display. On the other hand, the obtained attractive force vector fA is a value obtained by dividing the weight 300 of the weighting point A by the distance 200 of the PA in the same direction, that is, 1.5, and therefore, the attractive force vector fA = (0,1.5) Desired.

Similarly, the attraction vector exerted on the current position P of the cursor by the weight point B is calculated, but the calculation method is slightly more complicated than in the case described above. FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing a process of calculating the attractive force vector fB. As shown in FIG. 9A, first, the component of the vector PB from the current position P of the cursor toward the target weight point B is obtained, and then the magnitude of the vector PB is obtained. Vector PB (Bx, B
The component of y) is obtained by simply subtracting the coordinate value of point P from the coordinate value of point B, as in the case described above, and PB = (480-16
0,360-120) = (320,240).

The magnitude | PB | of the vector PB is | PB | = SQRT (320 ^ 2 + 240 ^) from the Pythagorean theorem.
2) = 400 is required. Next, as shown in FIG. 7B, the attractive force vector fB is obtained. The magnitude | fB | of the attractive force vector fB is | fB | = (weight of B) / | PB |
= 1000/400 = 2.5.

Since the direction of the attractive force vector fB coincides with the direction of the vector PB, the component of fB is (fBx, fBy)
Then, the following relationship holds. | FB | / | PB | = fBx / Bx = fBy / By From this, fBx = (2.5 / 400) × 320 = 2 fBy = (2.5 / 400) × 240 = 1.5 is obtained.

In this way, the attractive vector fB = (2,1.5) that the weight point B exerts on the current position P of the cursor is obtained. The attraction vector register 8 is realized by using, for example, a partial area of the main storage device, and temporarily stores all attraction vectors calculated by the attraction vector calculation unit 7. For example, if the attractive force vector fA (0, 1.5) and f
It stores B (2,1.5).

The composite vector calculation unit 9 is realized by an adder circuit, for example, and calculates the sum of the X component and the Y component of all the attraction vectors stored in the attraction vector register 8 to calculate the resultant force vector. For example, the attraction vector fA (0,
1.5) and fB (2,1.5) are stored, the resultant force vector F is obtained as follows.

F = fA + fB = (0 + 2,1.5 + 1.5) = (2,3) As shown in FIG. 7, which is a conceptual diagram showing the process of calculating the resultant force vector F, it can be seen that the attractive vector fA and the attractive vector fB are vector-synthesized.

The cursor movement position calculation unit 10 is realized by, for example, a constant multiplication operation circuit, an integer conversion circuit, and an addition circuit, and the decimal point of the composite vector calculated by the composite vector calculation unit 9 multiplied by an appropriate proportional constant. The cursor movement vector obtained by rounding up the following is calculated, and the cursor movement position is calculated by adding the cursor movement vector to the current value of the cursor position register 1. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the current position P of the cursor is (160, 120), the resultant force vector F calculated by the combined vector calculation unit 9 is (2, 3), and the proportional constant is 10. Then, the cursor movement vector dp
Becomes dp = 10 × F = 10 (2,3) = (20,30).

Further, the obtained cursor movement vector dp (20, 30) is used as the current position P (1
60, 120) to calculate the moved cursor position P '(180, 150) as shown in FIG. The cursor movement position storage unit 11 includes a cursor movement position calculation unit 10
The coordinate value of the cursor movement position calculated in step 3 is stored.

The weight point inclusion detection unit 12 is realized by, for example, a comparison operation circuit, and the coordinate value of each weight point stored in the weight point management table 3 is converted into the current value of the cursor position register 1 and the cursor movement position. By comparing the magnitude with the coordinate values stored in the storage unit 11, these 2
A weight point included in a moving area having a diagonal point is detected. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 9, the current value of the cursor position register 1 is P (160, 120), and the coordinate value stored in the cursor movement position storage unit 11 is P ′ (1
80, 150), the moving region having the point P and the point P ′ as a diagonal becomes a region 901. Therefore, neither weight point A nor B is detected in this area 901.

The cursor movement position correction unit 13 is, for example, C
When the weight point inclusion detection unit 12 detects a weight point included by the PU and the control program, the coordinate value stored in the cursor movement position storage unit 11 is used as the weight point inclusion detection unit 12. It is rewritten to the coordinate value of the weight point detected in. The cursor position updating unit 14 is realized by, for example, a CPU and a control program, and replaces the value of the cursor position register 1 with the coordinate value stored in the cursor moving position storage unit 11. However, the replacement of the coordinate values by the cursor position updating unit 14 is
It is performed after a predetermined time has elapsed. This predetermined time is the CPU
Since the processing in step 2 is fast, each part is repeatedly activated and the coordinate values of the cursor are repeatedly replaced, so that the time is set so that the cursor does not move a large distance in an instant.

The cursor display unit 15 is realized by, for example, a bitmap display, a video memory, and a control circuit, and displays a graphic cursor such as an arrow or a cross hair at a position designated by the cursor position register 1 for each frame cycle of the display. To do. Weight point associated process execution unit 1
6 is realized by, for example, a CPU and an operating system, and when a weighted point coincidence detection unit 6 detects a coincident weighted point, a program attached to the weighted point is loaded from the weighted point incidental processing storage unit 4. To execute.

The weight point deletion unit 17 is realized by, for example, a CPU and a control program, and deletes the weight point from the weight point management table 3 after the processing by the weight point accompanying process execution unit 16 is completed. The operation of the cursor control device according to this embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the start delay unit 5 resets the time measured by the timer (step S1). Next, it is determined whether or not the pointing device 2 is operated by the user, and when the operation is performed (step S2), the content of the cursor position register 1 is updated according to the operation content (step S3) and the operation is performed again. The process returns to step S1 and the subsequent processes are repeated. When the pointing device 2 is not operated by the user in step S2, it is determined whether or not the time measured by the timer by the start delay unit 5 reaches a predetermined delay time, for example, 3 seconds, and the delay time is reached. If not, the process returns to step S2 again to repeat the subsequent processing (step S4. Step S2). Step S
If the delay time is reached at 4, the weight point coincidence detection unit 6 sequentially compares the contents of the cursor position register 1 and the coordinate values of the weight points stored in the weight point management table 3 (step S5), and the coincidence is obtained. The weighting point to be detected is detected (step S6). For example, as shown in FIG. 5, coordinates P (160,
If the cursor is present at 120) and the weight points A and B are present at the coordinates (160, 320) and (480, 360), respectively, the coincident weight point is not detected (step S6). From the coordinates stored in the cursor position register 1 and the coordinate values of the weight points stored in the weight point management table 3 and the weight values, the calculation unit 7 calculates the attractive vector exerted by each weight point on the current display position of the cursor. It is calculated and stored in the attraction vector register 8 (step S7). The calculated and stored attraction vectors are fA (0,1.5) and fB (2,1.5).
Subsequently, the composite vector calculation unit 9 causes the attractive vector register 8 to
X component, Y for all attraction vectors stored in
The sum of each component is calculated (step S8), and the cursor movement position calculation unit 10 adds the cursor movement vector, which is obtained by multiplying the composite vector by an appropriate proportional constant, and rounded up to the decimal point, to the current value of the cursor position register 1. The moving position of the cursor is calculated by (step S
9). Here, the attractive force vectors fA (0,1.5), f
When the resultant force vector F (2,3) is obtained from B (2,1.5) and is multiplied by an appropriate proportional constant 10, the movement vector dp (20,30) is obtained. By adding the obtained movement vector dp (20, 30) to the current position P (160, 120) of the cursor, the cursor position P '(180, 150) after movement is as shown in FIG. It is calculated. Subsequently, the weight point inclusion detection unit 12 compares the coordinate value of each weight point stored in the weight point management table 3 with the current value of the cursor position register 1 and the coordinate value calculated by the cursor movement position calculation unit 10. As a result, the weight points included in the moving area having these two points as diagonals are detected (step S10). Here, a moving area having these two points as a diagonal becomes like an area 901 in FIG. 9, and since the weight points included in the area 901 are not detected, the process of step S11 is skipped, and a predetermined time After waiting the elapse of time (step S12), the cursor position updating unit 14 updates the value of the cursor position register 1 to P '(180, 150) which is the coordinate value of the cursor movement position (step S13). The cursor whose position has been updated is displayed on the cursor display unit 15 as shown in FIG. Hereinafter, returning to step S2 again, when the pointing device 2 is not operated by the user, the same processing is repeated to sequentially update the cursor position (steps S2 to S13). Here, when this process is repeated 11 times, the current position of the cursor becomes P11 (424, 350) in FIG. 11, and the cursor movement position calculated in step S9 in the 12th time of this process is P12 (586, 380) in FIG. ), P11-
The weighting point B (48
0,360) are included. Therefore, it is detected that the weight point is included in the moving area (step S10), and the cursor moving position is the coordinate of the weight point B (480, 36).
0) (step S11). After updating the cursor position register 1 in the same manner as described above,
The process returns to step S2 again to perform the process, but step S5
At this point, the current position of the cursor (480, 360) is compared with the coordinates (480, 360) of the weighting point B and it is determined that they match (step S6), and this is the process associated with that weighting point B. Execute prog_B (step S1
4) The weighting point is deleted (step S15). FIG.
2 shows the deleted weight point management table 3. Also,
The state of the screen at that time is the weighting point B as shown in FIG.
It can be seen that is deleted and only the weight point A is displayed. Then, it returns to step S1 and repeats the same processing (steps S1 to S15). That is, when the pointing device 2 is not operated by the user, the cursor is controlled so as to move to the weight point A after waiting the elapse of the start delay time. Then, the prog_A is executed similarly to the above-described processing, and then the weight point A is deleted. At this point, all the registered weight points are deleted, and the cursor stops until the user operates the pointing device.

As described above, the cursor is automatically guided to the position of the weight point even if the user does not operate the pointing device. Then, when the cursor coincides with the weight point, the pre-registered processing can be executed. For example, if the weight point is set for the icon or button, the user can move the cursor by using the pointing device. The cursor can be automatically guided and the process related to the icon or button can be performed without accurate alignment just by moving it to the vicinity and leaving it for a while. You can set multiple weight points,
In this case, since the direction and speed at which the cursor is guided are determined by the weight of each weight point and the distance from the current position of the cursor, it is possible to give the movement as if the cursor were attracted to nearby weight points. it can. Of course, when the user directly operates the pointing device, such guidance of the cursor is interrupted for a predetermined delay time, so that the operability of the conventional cursor control device is not impaired. For example, in a situation in which it is not necessary to move the cursor in the direction in which it is being guided, the user can directly operate the pointing device to instruct to move the cursor away. In addition, by performing the accompanying process of the weight point with which the cursor matches, by deleting the weight point, it becomes possible to guide the cursor toward a new weight point. It is also possible to perform an operation of sequentially tracing a plurality of weight points, which is very effective in an application such as hypertext. In addition, the user can infer these locations from the behavior of the cursor without having to explicitly display the icons and buttons that could not be selected unless they were displayed explicitly before, and the positions are automatically adjusted. It is also possible to execute a predetermined process.

In this embodiment, after the cursor is moved to the weight point, the process associated with the weight point is performed, but the cursor may be moved to the weight point. In that case, the weight point associated process storage unit 4, the weight point associated process execution unit 16, and the weight point deletion unit 17 are deleted from the cursor control device. Although the algorithm for determining the magnitude of the attractive force vector is proportional to the weight of the weight point and inversely proportional to the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor in the above embodiment, it is proportional to the weight of the weight point. , Inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor, an operation closer to the action of attractive force in the real world can be performed.

Further, various constants used in the above embodiment, for example, the resolution of the display 640 × 480 dots, the delay time of 3 seconds in the start delay unit, and the proportional constant of 10 which the cursor movement position calculation unit multiplies the combined vector by 10. Is not limited to this value. Round-up processing after the decimal point in the cursor movement position calculation unit is for avoiding the cursor staying at the same point by moving the cursor by at least one pixel even when the value of the attractive force is small. If the rounding error is stored and subtracted at the next calculation, more accurate position calculation can be performed. On the contrary, if the value after the decimal point is rounded down or rounded down, it is possible to prevent the cursor from reacting when the value of the attractive force is very small.

Although the weights of the weight points in the above embodiment are all positive numbers, the weight points are negative so that the repulsive force acts on the current position of the cursor from the weight points. It can be done easily. Further, the operation of the weight point deletion unit 17 in the above embodiment is to completely delete the entry of the weight point from the weight point management table, but this is left as it is and only the weight value is set to zero. Even if it is rewritten, it is obvious that the same operational effect can be obtained. By changing to such a configuration, the control of the weight point management table can be made simpler, and the existence of the weight point is continuously displayed in another form, for example, in gray display even after the accompanying processing is executed. Alternatively, it is possible to restore the weight point under a certain condition.

Further, the processing of the weight point inclusion detection unit 12 in the above embodiment is premised on that at most one weight point is detected, but a plurality of weight points are detected within the target area. 1 out of these weight points
Either of the following two methods can be implemented as an algorithm for selecting and deciding an individual. The first method is to select the weight point having the shortest distance from the current position of the cursor, and the second method is to select the weight point having the shortest distance from the straight line connecting the current position of the cursor and the cursor movement position. This is the method of choice.

Further, in the above embodiment, the execution method of the accompanying processing of the weight point is to start the program designated by the pointer from the weight point management table, but the execution method of the accompanying processing is limited to this method. is not. Generally, a computer system that performs a predetermined process by selecting an icon or a button using a pointing device detects that a key (for example, a mouse button) attached to the pointing device is pressed, and the coordinate value at that time is detected. Since a so-called event-driven method that determines the content of processing is often adopted, in such a system, the weighting point associated processing execution unit 16 occurs simply when a key attached to the pointing device is pressed. It is only necessary to generate an event having the same contents as the hardware event as a pseudo event.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the range in which the weight points can be set is limited to the display area of the display, but a logical plane larger than the display size may be targeted. In this case, it can be easily realized by using a technique conventionally used in a window system or the like, that is, a method of mapping a specific area on a logical plane as a viewport on a physical screen. However, in order to prevent the cursor from disappearing in the middle due to the cursor moving in the direction of the weight point set in the area outside the display area, when the cursor reaches the edge of the screen, scroll in that direction. Turn on the display.

[0055]

As described above, according to the invention of claim 1,
Since the displayed cursor moves to the weight point by setting the weight point at the icon position, expand the icon area even if it is difficult to specify the display area of the operation target icon with the cursor. The cursor can be controlled so that the user can easily select the intended icon, and the displayed cursor is sequentially moved in the direction of the weight point by sequentially activating each means. , It is easy to know that the cursor is moving to an unintended icon or has moved, and it is easy to correct the moving position of the cursor by normal operation, so it is difficult for the user to select an icon other than the intended icon. Can be controlled.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the instruction presence / absence judging means is provided, when the user gives an instruction to move the cursor, the cursor is moved preferentially according to the instruction from the user. The cursor can be controlled so that the intended icon can be selected more easily. According to the invention of claim 3, as the attractive force from the weight point is larger, the moving speed of the cursor is set to be faster, so that the cursor movement can be converged in a shorter time. Can be easy.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, since the weight point closer to the current position of the cursor moves the cursor with a larger attractive force, the movement of the cursor can be easily sensed and the movement of the cursor can be converged. Since it can be done in a shorter time than when the cursor movement speed is constant,
A more intended icon can be easily selected.

According to the invention of claim 5, the cursor can be moved in a manner similar to the action of universal gravitational force, magnetic field, and electric field in the real world. Can be converged in a shorter time than in the case where the speed of cursor movement is inversely proportional to the distance, so that the intended icon can be selected more easily.

According to the invention of claim 6, the cursor is moved with a larger attractive force as the weight point having a larger weight and the weight point closer to the current position of the cursor are moved. Therefore, the system builder changes the weight value. By changing it, you can set the priority of the weight point you want to select,
Since the user can easily select from icons that are relatively close to the current position of the cursor and have a high priority, make it easier to select more intended icons and make it difficult to select icons other than the intended icons. You can

According to the invention of claim 7, even when a plurality of weight points are set, the cursor is guided in a direction that comprehensively considers the magnitude and direction of the attractive force exerted by these weight points on the current position of the cursor. However, since it finally stops at the position of one of the weight points, cursor control is performed that matches both the intention of the system builder setting the weight points and the intention of the user operating the cursor. be able to.

According to the invention of claim 8, since the weight point inclusion detecting means is provided, the cursor moves to the position of the weight point when the cursor approaches the weight point to some extent, and the cursor movement converges in a shorter time. Therefore, it is possible to select the intended icon more easily. According to the invention of claim 9, after waiting for a predetermined time,
Since it is determined that there is no cursor movement instruction, by delaying the start timing of the cursor movement, the cursor can be automatically moved carelessly while the user operates the pointing device to directly control the movement of the cursor. Instead, since it is possible to concentrate on the cursor operation, it is possible to easily select a more intended icon and make it difficult to select an icon other than the intended icon.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, when the current position of the cursor is coincident with any of the weighting points, the process of moving the cursor is not performed, so that the useless process can be eliminated and the attractive force is calculated. You can avoid the problem of zero divide. According to the invention of claim 11,
When the weighting point coincidence determining means determines that the weighting point coincides with any one of the weighting points, the control means controls to execute a specific process defined in association with the weighting point. The operation can be made simpler.

According to the invention of claim 12, the control means comprises:
Furthermore, since the control for deleting the weight point is performed after the specific processing defined in association with the weight point is executed, the cursor moves to another icon after the specific processing is executed, Performs specific processing associated with the icon. Therefore, it is possible to execute a specific process that has not been executed while sequentially following the process, and it is possible to easily create an automatic presentation system that cycles through the items to be selected. .

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, by using the screen scrolling together, the weighting points can be freely arranged and set without being restricted by the size of the display screen. The inventions of claims 14 to 17 have the same effects as the inventions of claims 1 to 4, respectively.
The invention of claim 18 has the same effect as that of the invention of claim 6.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a cursor control device for realizing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of stored contents of a weight point management table 3 and a weight point associated processing storage unit 4 provided in the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display screen of a computer system using the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display screen of a computer system using the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing a process of calculating an attraction vector by the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a process of calculating a combined vector by the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing how the display position of the cursor on the display screen is changed by the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram showing a process of detecting weight points by a weight point inclusion detection unit included in the cursor control device in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display screen of a computer system using the cursor control device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram showing a process of detecting weight points by a weight point inclusion detection unit included in the cursor control device in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing an example of stored contents of a weight point management table 3.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing a display screen immediately after an accompanying process of one weight point is executed by the cursor control device in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a display screen of a drawing tool used in the description of the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cursor Position Register 2 Pointing Device 3 Weight Point Management Table 4 Weight Point Associated Processing Storage Section 5 Start Delay Section 6 Weight Point Match Detection Section 7 Gravity Vector Calculation Section 8 Gravity Vector Register 9 Combined Vector Calculation Section 10 Cursor Movement Position Calculation Section 11 Cursor movement position storage unit 12 Weight point inclusion detection unit 13 Cursor movement position correction unit 14 Cursor position update unit 15 Cursor display unit 16 Weight point accompanying process execution unit 17 Weight point deletion unit

Claims (18)

[Claims] 1. A cursor control device capable of moving a cursor displayed on a screen to an arbitrary position by a user's operation, wherein a weight point set at a specific position on the screen is the current position of the cursor. Moving vector calculating means for calculating a moving vector based on the attractive force exerted on the display position of the cursor, and cursor moving position calculating means for calculating the cursor moving position from the current display position of the cursor based on the moving vector calculated by the moving vector calculating means. And a cursor moving unit for moving the currently displayed cursor to the cursor moving position calculated by the cursor moving position calculating unit, and a starting unit for repeatedly activating each unit in sequence. Cursor control device. 2. The cursor control device further comprises instruction presence / absence determining means for determining whether or not there is a cursor movement instruction from the user, and the movement vector calculating means is used by the instruction presence / absence determining means. The moving vector is calculated only when it is determined that there is no instruction to move the cursor from the user, the cursor moving unit moves the cursor after a predetermined time has passed, and the starting unit is configured to move the weight by the cursor moving unit. 2. The cursor control device according to claim 1, wherein each means is activated in a repeating order until the cursor is moved to a point. 3. The cursor movement position calculation means calculates a cursor movement position away from the current cursor display position by a distance proportional to the magnitude of the movement vector calculated by the movement vector calculation means. The cursor control device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The moving vector calculating means calculates the moving vector so that the magnitude of the moving vector is inversely proportional to the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor. Any one cursor control apparatus. 5. The movement vector calculation means calculates the movement vector such that the magnitude of the movement vector is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the weight point and the current position of the cursor. The cursor control device according to claim 3. 6. The moving vector calculating means calculates the moving vector such that the magnitude of the moving vector is further proportional to the value of the weight of the weighting point. Cursor control device. 7. The movement vector calculation means combines an attraction vector calculation unit that calculates the movement vector as an attraction vector for each weight point and all attraction vectors calculated by the attraction vector calculation unit, The cursor control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising: an attractive vector combiner that uses the combined vector as a movement vector. 8. The cursor control device further detects a weight point included in an area having a diagonal line between the current display position of the cursor and the cursor movement position calculated by the cursor movement position calculation means. Weighting point inclusion detecting means, wherein the cursor moving means is located at the position of the weighting point when the weighting point inclusion detecting means detects a weighting point in the area, and the weighting point inclusion detecting means is in the area When the cursor is not detected, a cursor moving unit for moving the currently displayed cursor to the cursor moving position calculated by the cursor moving position calculating unit after a lapse of a predetermined time is provided. The cursor control device according to any one of claims 1 to 7. 9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the instruction presence / absence determining means determines that there is no cursor movement instruction if a user does not give a cursor movement instruction for a predetermined time. The described cursor control device. 10. The weight control unit, further comprising: a weight point matching determination unit for determining whether or not the current position of the cursor matches any weight point prior to the calculation of the movement vector; 10. The control means for controlling so as not to perform the following processing when the coincidence determining means determines that the weighting points match any one of the weight points, 10. Cursor control device. 11. The control means, when the weight point coincidence determination means determines that the weight point coincides with any one of the weight points, executes the specific processing defined in association with the weight point. The cursor control device according to claim 1, wherein the cursor control device is controlled. 12. The control means further executes control for deleting the weight point after executing a specific process defined in association with the weight point. Cursor control device. 13. The cursor control device further performs the same processing for weight points set in an area outside the display area on the plane including the screen, and as a result of the cursor movement, the cursor is moved to the screen end portion. 13. The cursor control device according to claim 1, further comprising display control means for performing scroll display in that direction when the display reaches. 14. A cursor control method capable of moving a cursor displayed on a screen to an arbitrary position by a user's operation, wherein a weight point set at a specific position on the screen is the current position of the cursor. A moving vector calculating step for calculating a moving vector based on the attractive force exerted on the display position of the cursor, and a cursor moving position calculating step for calculating a cursor moving position from the current display position of the cursor based on the moving vector calculated in the moving vector calculating step. And a cursor moving step of moving the currently displayed cursor to the cursor moving position calculated in the cursor moving position calculating step, and a starting step of repeatedly starting each step in sequence. Cursor control method. 15. The cursor control method further comprises an instruction presence / absence determining step of determining whether or not there is an instruction to move a cursor from a user, and the movement vector calculating step is used in the instruction presence / absence determining step. The moving vector is calculated only when it is determined that there is no instruction to move the cursor from the user, the cursor moving step moves the cursor after a predetermined time has passed, the starting step includes the weighting of the cursor moving step. 15. The cursor control method according to claim 14, wherein each step is repeatedly activated until the cursor is moved to a point. 16. The cursor movement position calculating step calculates a cursor movement position separated from a current cursor display position by a distance proportional to the magnitude of the movement vector calculated in the movement vector calculation step. 16. The cursor control method according to claim 14 or 15. 17. The moving vector calculating step calculates the moving vector such that the magnitude of the moving vector is inversely proportional to the distance between the weighting point and the current position of the cursor. Any one of the cursor control methods. 18. The moving vector calculating step according to claim 14, wherein the moving vector is calculated such that the magnitude of the moving vector is further proportional to the value of the weight of the weight point. Cursor control method.