JPH0844496A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an information processor having a screen to be easily observed and high operability in respect to an information processor connected to plural input devices and capable of displaying plural cursors. CONSTITUTION:A display 104 has a cursor display synthesizer 101, a control device 100 has a cursor management table 20, and when there is no input from an input device, cursors are erased. Input devices such as a joy stick 3 and a tablet 4 are provided with a function similar to that of a mouse. Thereby when there is no input from the input device, cursors are erased, and since the input devices are provided also with a pointing device function as device function operation, a screen can easily be observed and operability in case of window selection can be improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal device to which an input device is connected, in which input from one input device is controlled to coordinate input / data input, and data is input when there is no input for a certain period of time. The present invention relates to an information processing device that switches from a mode to a coordinate input mode.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an information processing apparatus to which a pointing device such as a mouse is connected, at least one cursor is displayed, and an input mode is switched by using a button attached to the pointing device. .

Further, a plurality of cursors are provided, each cursor is assigned to correspond to an operation unit, automatic switching by a program according to the progress of the operation, or a cursor corresponding to an operation to be input next by a cursor switching control operation by an operator. As a method of switching to
There is one described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-42485. According to this method, the cursor movement range can be narrowed, and even a low-cost coordinate input device such as a mouse or a joystick can be used without deteriorating the operability.

[0004]

However, if a plurality of cursors are provided for each of a plurality of pointing devices and each cursor is assigned to correspond to an operation unit, the number of cursors increases and a plurality of cursors are displayed. And there is a problem that the screen is difficult to see. Particularly in a plant monitoring system, if important information is hidden by the cursor display, it may cause a serious problem.

Further, when the input is switched by the operation of the operator, the operation such as pushing / releasing the button of the pointing device may be repeated many times in a short time, which increases the burden on the operator.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus which is easy to see on the screen and has good operability.

[0007]

The above-mentioned object comprises an input device, a table storing input mode information for switching an input from the input device to a coordinate input mode / data input mode, and display information of a cursor, and a display medium. In the display device described above, there is provided means for switching from the data input mode to the coordinate input mode when there is no input for a certain period of time, a means for changing cursor color and shape depending on the input mode, and a means for displaying / hiding the cursor. It

[0008]

The present invention reduces the burden on the operator by eliminating the operator's intervention when the input from the input device is switched from the data input to the coordinate input, and changes the cursor shape / color etc. depending on the input mode. By
The operability can be improved.

[0009]

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

FIG. 1 shows the overall construction of an embodiment of the present invention.
A control device 100 to which a pointing device such as a joystick 3, a tablet 4, etc. having buttons in addition to a keyboard 1 and a mouse 2 is connected, and a display 10
It consists of four.

The control unit 100 includes a bus 9 for an arithmetic processing unit 5 (hereinafter referred to as MPU), a readable / writable memory 7 (hereinafter referred to as RAM), a read-only memory 6 (hereinafter referred to as ROM), and an external computer. In addition to the network interface 8 for exchanging the transmission of data, a window management table 50 for holding information on windows to be displayed, a window control unit 104 for controlling the window management table 50, and a cursor management table 20 for holding cursor information are connected. ing.

A keyboard interface 1a for controlling the keyboard 1, a mouse interface 2a for controlling the mouse 2, a joystick interface 3a for controlling the joystick 3, and a tablet interface 4a for controlling the tablet 4 are connected to the bus 9.

An image of a window or the like has a frame memory 101 having a capacity capable of accommodating screen data in pixel units.
Is converted into a bitmap format with and the cursor display synthesizer 1
An image such as a window or a cursor is displayed on the display 104 through the DA converter 103 in combination with the cursor in 02.

A case in which the pointing device according to the first embodiment is only a mouse will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 shows the cursor management table 20. In addition to the current position, color, and shape of the cursor, the saver time, which indicates the time from the end of mouse input until the mouse cursor disappears, the cursor display information, and the last time input by the mouse are stored. A cursor color information table 21, a cursor color information table 22 containing cursor color information, and a cursor shape table 23 containing cursor shape information.

FIG. 3 shows a processing flow of displaying and erasing the mouse cursor.

It is judged whether or not there is an input from the mouse 2 at present (step 301), and if there is an input from the mouse 2, the cursor is currently displayed in the display information column of the cursor management table 20 and the cursor information 21. If it is not displayed (step 302), and if it is not displayed, the cursor is displayed (step 303), and the display information fields of the cursor management table 20 and the cursor information 21 are set to 1.

On the other hand, when there is no input from the mouse 2 and the cursor is displayed (step 305), when the last time column of the cursor management table 20 and the cursor information 21 is 0 (step 306), the final time is set. After storing the current time in the time column (step 307), the time obtained by subtracting the final time from the current time (step 308) is compared with the saver time of the cursor information 21 (step 30).
9) If the save time is longer, the cursor is erased (step 310), and 0 is stored in the display column and the final time column of the cursor information 21 (step 311).

According to the above embodiment, when the mouse is not used, the cursor can be erased to make the screen easier to see.

Next, a case where a plurality of input devices are connected to the multi-window system and a cursor is displayed for each device will be described.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a screen display.

The windows windowA41 and windowB having a title bar with the window name on the screen 40
42 and window C43 are displayed. Bitmap icons of input devices such as 47 that can be input are displayed in the title bar added to each window.

The cursor 44 of the mouse 2, the cursor 45 of the tablet 4, the cursor 4 of the joystick 3
6 are displayed in different shapes.

FIG. 5 shows the window management table 50.

The window management table 50 includes the position and size of each window, image data, information on devices that can be input for each window, and icon information displayed on the title bar of the window. There is a table 51 and an icon data table 52 that collects icon data.

FIG. 6 shows the cursor management table 20 including the cursor information table 61, the cursor color information table 22, and the cursor shape table 23.

The cursor information table 61 stores the current cursor status for each input device.

The transition of the cursor state in the case of the joystick 3 will be described with reference to FIG. Joystick 3
If there is an input from (step 701) and the cursor 46 of the joystick 3 is not displayed (step 702), the cursor 46 of the joystick 3 is displayed and the joystick of the cursor information table 61 is displayed. 1 is stored in the display of the column (step 703). If there is no input, it is determined whether or not the cursor 46 of the joystick 3 is displayed (step 704).

When it is displayed, it is determined whether or not the joystick final time column of the cursor information table 61 is 0 (step 705). If it is 0, the current time is stored in the final time column (step 705). 706). Then, the difference between the current time and the final time is calculated (step 70
7) and compare with the saver time of the joystick 3 (step 708). If the saver time is longer, the cursor 46 of the joystick 3 is erased (step 709), and 0 is stored in the display column and the final time column of the cursor information table 61 of the joystick 3 (step 710).

Mouse 2, cursor 4 of tablet 4,
45 also performs the same processing as in FIG. 7 to solve the problem that the screen is difficult to see even when the cursor is displayed for each input device when a plurality of input devices are connected, and the input is performed for each device. By changing the shape of the cursor, it is possible to distinguish which device the cursor is.

Since the joystick 3 has a device-specific usage such as screen or window scrolling, in the second embodiment, the cursor 44 of the mouse 2 is changed to the mouse 2 once when the window is designated.
It is necessary to move to the window for inputting, specify the window, and then input with the joystick 3.

Therefore, in the input device such as the joystick 3 or the tablet 4, the window is designated without changing to the mouse 2, and when there is no input from the device, the cursor is erased.
An example of the above will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 8 shows the movement of the cursor. Three windows are displayed on the screen 81. In FIG. 8A, the cursor 86 of the mouse 2 is displayed on the window 84, but the cursor 86 is erased because there is no input from the mouse 2.

A joystick-shaped cursor 87 is displayed at the position where the cursor 86 of the mouse 2 was located because there was input from the joystick 3.
After that, the cursor 87 is moved to the title bar of the window 85 in accordance with the movement of the joystick 3, as shown in FIG. 8B.

In FIG. 8C, the window 85 is selected by moving the joystick cursor 87 to the title bar of the window 85 and then pressing the button of the joystick 3, and the input of the joystick 3 is scrolled by the window. When the input from the joystick 3 disappears for a certain period of time after switching to, the cursor 88 disappears again.

FIG. 9 shows a processing flow for the state transition of the cursor.

When the cursor is not displayed, when mouse 2 is input (step 901), the mouse cursor information is registered in the cursor display synthesizer 102 and the mouse cursor 86 is displayed (step 902). When the joystick 3 is input (step 903), the joystick cursor information is registered in the cursor display synthesizer 102, and the joystick cursor 87 is displayed (step 904). Similarly, when there is an input from the tablet 4 (step 905), the tablet cursor information is registered in the cursor display synthesizer 102 and the cursor is displayed.
(Step 906). If there are inputs from two or more devices, the mouse 2, the joystick 3, and the tablet 4 are prioritized in order, and the cursor with the highest priority is displayed.

After the cursor is displayed, when there is no input from the device registered in the cursor display synthesizer 102 (step 907), the cursor display synthesizer 102 is displayed.
If the final time of the cursor information registered in is 0 (step 908), the current time is registered as the final time (step 909). If the current time minus the final time (step 910) is longer than the saver time of the cursor information (step 911), the cursor is erased and the information registered in the cursor display synthesizer is erased (step 911). 912). If it is shorter than the save time (step 911), it is judged whether or not there is an input from another device (step 912). When there is an input from the other device, the cursor of the device having the input is displayed.

FIG. 10 shows a process of an example in which the input of the joystick 3 changes from the operation as a pointing device to the operation as a scroll device. When there is an input from the joystick 3 and no input from another device (step 111), the cursor of the joystick 3 is displayed, and the input from the joystick 3 is handled as a pointing device (step 112). When the cursor of the joystick 3 is moved to the window title bar and the button of the joystick 3 is pressed once (step 113), the data from the joystick 3 is treated as the scroll of the window based on the operation information of the device stored in the ROM ( Step 114). Further, when the button is pressed (step 115), the data from the joystick 3 is treated again as pointing (step 112). If no button is pressed (step 115), the cursor is erased when there is no input from the joystick 3 during the save time of the cursor information of the joystick 3 (step 116) and no input from other devices (step 115). 117). If there is an input before the save time has passed (step 116), the data from the joystick 3 is handled as a scroll device (step 114).

Similarly, in the case of the tablet 4, the operation as the pointing device and the operation as the tablet 4 are performed by the movement of the stylus pen and the pressing of the switch, so that the window instruction operation can be performed without holding the mouse.

According to the above-described embodiment, the window can be designated without changing the input device to the mouse 2 and the cursor can be hidden when there is no input from the device.

[0042]

According to the information processing apparatus of the present invention, when the input from the input device is switched from the data input to the coordinate input without any operator intervention, the operator's burden is reduced. There is.

Further, depending on the input mode, the cursor shape /
There is an effect that the operability of the operator can be improved by changing the color or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a cursor management table when there is one type of cursor display.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a cursor state transition flow.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen display.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a window management table.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a cursor management table when a plurality of cursors are displayed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state transition flow of a joystick cursor.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of screen display transition.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a cursor state transition flow.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a functional operation flow of a joystick.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Mouse, 3 ... Joystick, 4 ... Tablet,
20 ... Cursor management table, 50 ... Window management table, 102 ... Cursor display synthesizer.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Atsuhiko Nishikawa 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Hitachi Ltd. Omika Plant, Hitachi Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Kobayashi 5-chome, Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture No. 1 Incorporated company Hitachi Ltd. Omika factory (72) Inventor Shuji Ishikura 52-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki prefecture Incorporated company Hitachi Ltd. Omika factory (72) Inventor Ichiyoshi Suzuki Ibaraki prefecture Hitachi city 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Ltd. Inside the Omika Plant, Hitachi Ltd. (72) Inventor Norito Kanno 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus for displaying at least one cursor to which an input device is connected, wherein the input device has two input modes, a coordinate input mode and a data input mode, and there is no input for a certain period of time. An information processing apparatus having means for switching from a data input mode to a coordinate input mode. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
An information processing apparatus having means for storing cursor information such as cursor shape and color and means for displaying a cursor by using the stored cursor information, and notifying an operator of a change in input mode by cursor display. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for erasing the cursor when there is no input from the input device for a certain period of time.