JPH0850534A - User interface device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a mouse, by which the operation of the mouse or the information inputted by the mouse can be fed back to a user, and to provide a user interface using the mouse. CONSTITUTION:A reaction force control part 11 for braking the rotation of a detecting ball 104 for detecting the movement of the mouse is provided. This reaction force control part 1 consists of a friction pad 10 to be slid with the detecting ball 104 and having a suitable friction coefficient for braking the ball, an arm 11 supported to a rotation center 12 so as to be freely rotated for supporting the friction pad 10, a magnet 13 fixed to the top end of the arm 11, and an electromagnetic coil 14 arranged inside the mouse to be faced to the magnet 13 and generating a magnetic field corresponding to a current value. Since the reaction force against the movement of the mouse is generated in accordance with the movement at the time of operating the mouse, the operation of the mouse or the information by the mouse is fed back to the user by using the reaction force control part 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a user interface device, and more particularly to a user interface device using a mouse for inputting information regarding the amount of movement by moving the user interface on a predetermined plane.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, input devices such as a keyboard, a tablet, and a mouse have been used to operate a computer and input data. In particular, a tablet or mouse that can input coordinate information and trajectory information to a computer while observing a monitor is often used together with a graphical interface, which can improve the operability of the computer.

In particular, the mouse has a close relationship with the so-called graphical user interface system of recent years, and intuitive operation is possible by clicking or dragging an icon or window, and is widely accepted by general users. .

FIG. 8 is an external view of a conventional mouse, which is designated by reference numeral 10.
Reference numeral 0 is a housing of a mouse, 101 and 102 are mouse buttons operated by a user, and 103 is a lead wire for exchanging data and power with a host computer.

FIG. 9 is a side view of FIG. 8, and FIG. 10 is FIG.
And the reference numeral 104 denotes a spherical detection ball for detecting the position of the mouse. As shown in the figure, the detection ball 104 has an opening 104 on the bottom of the mouse.
It projects from a and is supported by a support mechanism (not shown) so that it can freely rotate depending on the direction and amount of mouse movement. Reference numerals 105 and 106 denote sliding members for stabilizing the sliding of the mouse, which are made of resin members such as polyacetal and Teflon.

FIG. 11 shows the entire system using the mouse 114. Here, reference numeral 110 is a host computer, which includes an operation system 111, a mouse driver 112, a mouse interface 113, and the like, and is compatible with various application software and the like.

Reference numeral 114 denotes a mouse, which has a movement amount detection unit 115 and a button detection unit 116 for detecting the ON / OFF state of the mouse buttons 101 and 102.

FIG. 12 shows a typical method of a moving amount detecting section of a mouse. As shown in the figure, inside the mouse, the detection ball 104 has a detection roller 12 that rotates in one axial direction and has an optical disk-shaped slit.
0 and 121 are in contact. Detection rollers 120, 121
Encoder plates 120a and 121a are coupled to the sensor plate 1, and the rotation of the encoder plates 120a and 121a is detected by the sensor 1
Optical detection by 22 and 123 detects the components of the movement of the mouse on the placement plane in the respective directions of the two orthogonal coordinate axes. Reference numeral 124 is a pressure roller for generating a frictional force on the detection roller.

Here, the structure in which the movement amount is detected through the mechanical movement of the ball is shown, but in addition to this, as the detecting means, a magnetic change is used instead of the optical blinking. Various schemes have been proposed.

[0010]

The conventional mouse as described above is a means of a user interface and is used to convey the user's intention to the host computer.

That is, the conventional mouse is one-way information input from the user to the computer, and a display or the like is indispensable for feeding back the input information to the user. is there.

1) Confirmation means other than watching the display while dragging an icon or window (moving the mouse while holding down the mouse button to pull an object such as an icon or window on the display) There is no.

2) Depending on the implementation of the graphical user interface, a situation may be set in which the movable range is set to the pointer whose position is determined by the movement of the mouse. In such a case, the pointer moves the movable range. Even if you go over, there is no other way to confirm than to watch the monitor TV.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and to provide a mouse that can feed back a user's operation of the mouse and information input by the mouse, and a user interface using such a mouse.

[0015]

In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, a user interface device using a mouse for inputting information on the amount of movement by moving the mouse on a predetermined plane is used. The mouse is equipped with a reaction force control unit that generates a reaction force for the mouse movement operation, and the information input by the mouse operation or the mouse is fed back to the user.

[0016]

According to the above construction, the operation of the mouse or the information input by the mouse can be fed back to the user via the reaction force control unit that generates a reaction force for the user's operation of moving the mouse.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

According to the present invention, the reaction force control for the movement of the mouse is performed, that is, when the user moves the mouse,
The reaction force, that is, the response is controlled, and the mouse operation or the information input from the mouse is fed back to the user via the reaction force.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows the structure of a computer system capable of such operations.
The difference from the conventional example is that the mouse 114 is provided with the reaction force control unit 1.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the mouse 114. Here, as shown in the figure, the reaction force control unit 1 including the members 10 to 14 is provided in the mouse.

That is, the reaction force control section 1 detects the detection ball 1
04, a friction pad 10 having an appropriate friction coefficient for sliding and braking the same, an arm 11 rotatably supported on a rotation center 12 for supporting the friction pad 10, and fixed to the tip of the arm 11. It is composed of a magnet 13 and an electromagnetic coil 14 arranged to face the magnet 13 and arranged in the mouse to generate a magnetic field according to a current value.

The reaction force control means of this embodiment is the electromagnetic coil 1
Due to the attraction force between the magnet 4 and the magnet 13, pressure is generated between the friction pad 10 and the detection ball 104 for detecting the movement of the mouse with the rotation center 12 as a fulcrum. The frictional force generated at that time generates a reaction force.

The strength of the reaction force at this time can be controlled by the value of the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 14. Further, in order to release the reaction force control means, a spring or the like is preliminarily urged or a current of the electromagnetic coil is passed in a direction in which the electromagnetic coil 14 and the magnet 13 repel each other.

At this time, the means for controlling the reaction force is not limited to the method using the electromagnetic coil and the magnet, and any electromechanical conversion element such as a piezoelectric element or a piezo element may be used. Further, the detection rollers 120, 121 or the pressure roller 124 (FIG. 12) may be provided with a braking means.

The reaction force control unit 1 includes a host computer 11
It can be used as appropriate by being controlled by control from 0, and can be used to feed back mouse operation or input information from the mouse to the user.

An example of such a graphical interface is shown in FIGS. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a screen of a monitor television connected to the host computer, and reference numeral 3
0 is an outer frame of the outermost boundary of the window, 31 is a window title bar, 32 is a menu bar, 33 is a window, 34a, 34b, 34c, 34d and 34e are icons, and 35 is a mouse pointer.

In an interface using such objects such as icons and windows, when a file is moved or copied, the icon associated with the file is moved or such work is performed on the display. To move the window associated with the file system directory, application software, etc. for the purpose of opening a place to do, the mouse is used for such a moving operation. The reaction force control unit 1 of the present invention can be used for the following purposes in such a moving operation.

1) Dragging a window or icon creates a reaction force in the mouse: In FIG. 3, the user has menu bar 32, window 33, icon 34a ...
34e is moved by moving the position of the pointer 35 with the mouse and operating the mouse button 101 or 102.

At this time, for example, when the icon 34b in the drawing is moved by dragging it with the pointer 35, the reaction force control section 1 of the mouse is operated to increase the usability of the mouse during normal operation. To let the user know that the icon is being dragged. When dragging not only the icon but also another object, for example, the window 33, the reaction force control can be similarly performed.

2) Change the weight of the drag depending on the size of the file: The icon may be associated with a specific file on the file system. For example,
In FIG. 3, when the capacities of the files associated with the icons 34a and 34b are different, the reaction force control unit 1 of the mouse is operated according to the size of the capacities. That is, the reaction force control unit 1 is controlled so that when an icon related to a large file is dragged, it becomes heavy and when an icon related to a small file is dragged, it becomes light. As a result, the user can recognize the size of the file based on the size of the feeling of use of the mouse.

Further, it can be applied to objects such as windows other than icons. In that case,
It is possible to control the reaction force according to the characteristics related to the object. For example, the size of the window on the screen, the amount of memory used by the application software associated with the window, the size on the file system, and the directory if the window is related to a directory in the file system. The reaction force control unit 1 can generate a reaction force proportional to the total capacity of the file system.

3) Warn the limit position of the mouse: As shown in FIG. 4, the pointer 35 is placed on the outer frame 30 of the monitor screen, and if it cannot be moved to the left any further, at this time, the mouse is moved. By strongly operating the reaction force control unit 1 of 1, it is possible to warn the user that the movement to the left cannot be performed any more. The same control can be performed when this range is set to a narrow range such as the window 33.

4) Generate reaction force when the menu is inverted: In the graphical interface as shown, the menu selection may be made by dragging an entry in the menu bar 32. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a pull-down menu as shown in the figure is displayed by dragging (or clicking) an entry (“edit” in this case) of a menu with the pointer 35 operated by the mouse. Drag with to select the item in the pull-down menu.

During this drag, cut → cop on the screen
By selecting y → paste → clear, the reversal position moves in sequence, and the item is selected by releasing the depression of the mouse button at the desired position.

During this drag, the reaction force control unit 1 of the mouse
By applying a reaction force with, the inverted state can be transmitted to the user's hand in addition to the visual sense. In this case, the same reaction force may be applied during dragging in the pull-down menu, or control such as temporarily changing the reaction force when moving from item to item is conceivable. In this way, the movement of the pointer can be fed back to the user.

In this way, when an icon, window, pull-down menu or the like is dragged by moving the mouse having the reaction force control unit 1 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,
Alternatively, when warning the movable range of the mouse corresponding to the range of the window or the like, by generating a reaction force in the mouse, information other than visual information can be provided to the user.

Therefore, the operation of the mouse and the input information from the mouse can be fed back to the user, and the operation of the mouse and the feedback of the input information from the mouse, which have been conventionally performed only by gazing the display, are assisted, and The burden can be reduced.

<Second Embodiment> As shown in FIG. 6, it is also possible to control the reaction force by controlling the rotation of the detection rollers 120 and 121 of the mouse. In FIG. 6, motors 40 and 41 for generating a reaction force are coupled to the rotation shafts of the detection rollers 120 and 121.

In the above embodiment, a mechanism for braking the user's force when the mouse is moved is used, but the reaction force generation means of FIG. You can give a reaction force that exceeds the input of.

For example, in the operation of crossing the window boundary shown in FIG. 4, the mouse is actively operated, that is, the mouse is moved by an amount corresponding to the movement of the pointer 35 to a position slightly away from the boundary position. By moving, it is possible to generate a stronger warning to the user. In addition, when playing a game on the host computer, the reaction force is actively generated to give a sense of presence,
It is possible to convey a sense of reality to the user. For example, in a game such as breaking a block, when the target block is destroyed, the reaction force control unit 1 can be used to give a shock to the user's hand. In such an application, not only the reaction force in one direction is given by the motors 40, 41, but also the motors 40, 41
The impact can be generated by repeating a slight reversal.

<Third Embodiment> FIG. 7 shows an example in which the reaction force control unit is constituted by magnetic means. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 50 is a coil for generating a magnetic field by an electric current, 5
Reference numeral 1 is a yoke which serves as a magnetic path of a magnetic field generated in the coil 50. Further, reference numeral 107 is a mouse pad, 107a is a pad surface member on which an optical pattern is drawn, 107b is a middle plate made of a magnetic material, and 107c is a bottom plate for stably installing the pad on a desk or the like.

In the reaction force generating means of this embodiment, the yoke 50 and the mouse pad 10 are activated by energizing the coil 50.
A magnetic flux is generated between the middle plates 107b of 7 to generate a suction force, and the suction force generates a friction force. That is, a reaction force is generated by controlling the current value to the coil 50. The mouse thus configured can be used for the applications shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, like the mouse of the first embodiment.

In the structure using a specific mouse pad as shown in FIG. 7, the movement amount of the mouse can be detected by reading the optical pattern of the pad surface member 107a by an optical reading means in the mouse. it can.

[0044]

As is apparent from the above, according to the present invention, a reaction force control unit for generating a reaction force with respect to a user's mouse movement operation is provided in the mouse, and information input by the mouse operation or the mouse is input. Since the configuration for feeding back to the user is adopted, it is possible to provide a user interface device capable of providing a superior user interface by being able to feed back the information on the operation of the mouse and the information input by the mouse to the user.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system that employs the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway side view of the mouse used in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a graphical interface to which the configurations of FIGS. 1 and 2 are applied.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a different graphical interface to which the configurations of FIGS. 1 and 2 are applied.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing still another graphical interface to which the configurations of FIGS. 1 and 2 are applied.

FIG. 6 is a top view showing a reaction force generation mechanism of different mice.

FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway side view of a mouse showing a different structure of the mouse.

FIG. 8 is an external view of a conventional mouse.

9 is a side view of the mouse of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a bottom view of the mouse of FIG.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a conventional computer system using a mouse.

FIG. 12 is a top view showing a conventional moving amount detecting mechanism of a typical mouse.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Reaction Force Control Section 10 Friction Pad 11 Arm 12 Rotation Center 13 Magnet 14 Electromagnetic Coil 30 Outer Frame 31 Title Bar 32 Menu Bar 33 Window 34a to 34e Icon 35 Pointer 40, 41 Motor 50 Coil 51 Yoke 100 Mouse Case 101, 102 Mouse Button 103 Lead wire 104 Detection ball 105, 106 Sliding member 107 Mouse pad 107a Pad surface member 107b Middle plate 107c Bottom plate 110 Host computer 111 Operation system 112 Mouse driver 113 Mouse interface 114 Mouse 115 Movement amount detection unit 116 Button detection unit 120, 121 detection roller 122, 123 detection sensor 124 pressure roller

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. By moving on a predetermined plane,
In a user interface device using a mouse for inputting information regarding the movement amount, a reaction force control unit for generating a reaction force with respect to a user's movement operation of the mouse is provided in the mouse, and the information input by the mouse operation or the mouse is A user interface device, which feeds back to a user via a reaction force control unit. 2. A graphical interface for operating objects such as icons, windows, and pop-up menus displayed on the display by moving the mouse is implemented, and the reaction force is generated according to characteristics associated with the object operated by the mouse. The user interface device according to claim 1, wherein a reaction force generated by the control unit is controlled. 3. The user interface according to claim 2, wherein the reaction force generated by the reaction force control unit is controlled according to a file size associated with an object such as the icon, window, or pop-up menu. apparatus. 4. The reaction force generated by the reaction force control unit is controlled according to movement of a pointer controlled by a mouse in the menu during operation of the pop-up menu. User interface device. 5. The reaction force control unit is composed of a braking means for a detection ball of a mouse, and the reaction force is generated by controlling the braking means from a host computer. The user interface device according to 1. 6. The user interface device according to claim 5, wherein the braking means is composed of a motor coupled to a rotation shaft of a detection roller that detects the rotation of the detection ball. 7. The magnetic force generating means provided inside the mouse, and the reaction force control section composed of an external magnetic material,
The user interface device according to claim 1, wherein a reaction force is generated by controlling the magnetic field generation unit from a host computer.