JPH086693A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To use software which is applicable to a pointing device by converting input data which are arbitrarily inputted from an input device such as a keyboard into data of the pointing device. CONSTITUTION:To perform mouse cursor operation on the keyboard, the mode is switched to a mode wherein the keyboard operates as a mouse with a keyboard/mouse switching key 1-8. Then an optional key 1-5 on the keyboard 1-1 is pressed and in the state, a key 1-4 slanting above it to the right is pressed. The key 1-4 which is pressed later is slantingly above the key 1-5 which is pressed first to the right, so a keyboard data converting process part converts the data of the keys 1-5 and 1-4 into mouse data for right slanting upward movement and sends the data to a system device 1-2 through a keyboard/mouse data interface cable 1-6. The system device 1-2 processes the mouse data to move up the mouse cursor 1-7 slantingly to the right.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to any computer device, and is particularly effective for a laptop computer or a notebook personal computer which is lightweight and compact and can be carried.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mouse is used as a pointing device for a small electronic computer such as a laptop computer or a notebook personal computer, but when the portable electronic device is carried with the small electronic computer, it is a device that cancels the characteristic of the small electronic computer. Is. Also, when operating the small computer on the knees of the operator, there is no place to operate the mouse and it is difficult to operate. Another pointing device is a trackball with a built-in system unit, but this hinders downsizing of the system unit.

As described above, in the conventional pointing device, it is necessary to secure a place for installing the device itself and a place for operating the device.

Further, there is software that can move a mouse cursor by key input in application software, but the operation method is such that the mouse operates when there is a specific key input, and an input device such as a keyboard. In some cases, it was difficult to perform the operation depending on the layout.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By converting input data arbitrarily input from an input device such as a keyboard into data of a pointing device and using it as a pointing device, software compatible with a pointing device can be used without a pointing device. And This makes it possible to downsize the system.
Also, since any input data is automatically converted into data for the pointing device, the operability is improved as compared with the system for converting specific input data into data for the pointing device.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems An input device or a system device is provided with a switching control unit for operating the input device with a pointing device, and when the control unit indicates the operation with the pointing device, Data is passed to the input device data conversion processing section.

The input device data conversion processing unit allocates specific coordinates to the input data, converts the input data into the data of the pointing device, and passes the data to the normal pointing device data processing unit. The pointing device data processing unit moves the cursor of the pointing device and executes mouse button processing.

[0008]

The pointing device switching control unit is composed of a switch, a flag on the memory, and the like that can be confirmed by the input device data conversion processing unit. When inputting data from an input device such as a keyboard, the input device data conversion processing unit applies specific coordinate data in the input data and creates direction data based on the difference in the coordinates of two or more input data, Also, some input data is button data. In addition, the movement data is created based on a preset value. In this way, the direction data, button data, which is the data output by the pointing device,
Creates movement data and sends it to the data processing unit of the pointing device. The data processing unit of the pointing device performs normal pointing device processing and controls the cursor on the screen.

[0009]

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

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of pointing device cursor operation by a keyboard according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of this embodiment. 1-
Reference numeral 1 is a keyboard, 1-2 is a system device, 1-3 is a display device, 1-7 is a mouse cursor, and 1-8 is a keyboard / mouse switching key. Pressing the keyboard / mouse switching key switches to a mode in which the keyboard operates as a mouse. After that, the arbitrary key 1 (1-5) on the keyboard is pressed, and in that state, the key 2 (1-4) on the upper right is pressed. Since the first pressed key 1 is the starting point and the next pressed key 2 is diagonally upper right, the keyboard data conversion processing unit converts the data of key 1 and key 2 into mouse data that moves diagonally right 1 Send data to the system unit via a 6 / keyboard / mouse data interface cable. The mouse data is processed by the system unit and the mouse cursor is moved diagonally upward to the right. FIG. 1 shows the outline of the method of moving the mouse cursor. The detailed method is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, 2-1 is a keyboard, 2-2 is a system unit, and 2-3 is a display unit. The mouse cursor operating method using the keyboard and the processing associated therewith in this embodiment will be described below.

(1) Keyboard / mouse operation switching of keyboard 2-9 The CPU 1 monitors the keyboard / mouse switching key 2-7 and switches the keyboard / mouse operation each time the keyboard / mouse switching key is pressed.

In the keyboard mode, the CPU 1 converts the key input data into keyboard data according to the program stored in the ROM 1 of 2-10, and passes the data to the keyboard / mouse controller in the system unit via the 2-12 keyboard interface line. In the mouse mode, the CPU 1 converts the key input data into mouse data according to the program stored in the ROM 1 and passes the data to the keyboard / mouse controller in the system unit via the 2-11 mouse interface line.

(2) Mouse cursor control In the mouse operation mode, the CPU 1 converts key input data into direction data, movement data and button data according to a program stored in the ROM 1 of 2-10.

Direction data is created by the following method. R
The coordinate data of each key is stored in the OM1, and the CPU 1 can know the positional relationship of the input key. Here, when there is no key input and the key 3 of any key 2-5 is pressed, the CPU 1 recognizes the key 3 as the starting point data. When the key adjacent to the key 3 is pressed while the key 3 is being pressed, the CPU 1 sets the key direction starting from the key 3 as the direction data. When the key 3 is used as the starting point and two adjacent keys are next pressed, the CPU 1
Uses the key 3 as a starting point, and the direction data is the middle of the smaller angle formed by the two keys.

In FIG. 2, when the key 3 is the starting point, 2-6
When the key 4 is pressed next time, the direction at the upper right 45 degrees becomes the direction data. When the 2-20 key 5 is pressed next with the key 3 as the starting point, the right lateral direction becomes the direction data. Further, if the keys 4 and 5 are pressed with the key 3 as the starting point, the direction diagonally to the upper right 22.5 degrees becomes the direction data.

Button data is created by the following method. C
PU1 is a key which is one or more keys away from the arbitrary key 3, and in the embodiment, when there is an input of the key 7 of 2-8, it is regarded as button-on and when there is no input, it is regarded as button-off and button data is created To do.

The movement data is created by the following method. The movement data indicates the movement amount of the mouse cursor. This data is previously stored in ROM 1 of 2-10 or RAM 1 of 2-21.
It is stored inside. The CPU 1 acquires the movement data by reading the data in the ROM 1 or the RAM 1. In addition, when there is an input of the key 6 of the specific key 2-22, the ROM 1 is set to halve or double the movement data.
It is possible to adjust the moving speed by programming to.

When there are two or more key inputs as described above, the CPU 1 converts the input data into direction data and button data, and adds movement data to create mouse data. hand over.

Thereafter, the processing of mouse data in the system device is the same as the normal mouse processing, and it is not necessary to change the software, the hardware and the like. The processing of mouse data in the system unit will be described below. After creating mouse data, the CPU 1 in the keyboard 2-11 in the system unit 2-11 via the mouse interface line.
3 Sends data to the keyboard / mouse controller. When the keyboard / mouse controller receives the mouse data, it causes an interrupt to the CPU 2 of 2-16, and the CPU 2 stores the mouse data in the RAM 2 of 2-19 according to the interrupt processing program of the ROM 2 of 2-18.
The software such as the operating system of 2-15 and the application program of 2-14 monitors the mouse data of the RAM 2 of 2-19, and the mouse cursor displayed on the display of 2-3 via the display control unit of 2-17. To control.

In the present embodiment, by adding the keyboard data conversion processing unit in the keyboard, it becomes possible to control the cursor of the mouse with a system configuration without a mouse without changing the software and hardware of the system unit. As a result, it is not necessary to secure a mouse operation place, a mouse installation place, etc., and the system can be downsized.
Further, since the mouse cursor can be operated by inputting an arbitrary key, the operability can be improved.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the keyboard data conversion processing unit is added to the keyboard and the mouse data is converted in the keyboard to solve the problem that does not change the software and hardware of the system unit. It goes without saying that the invention can be implemented without changing the keyboard and only by changing the software in the system unit.

In FIG. 2, the keyboard of 2-1 has 2
-5 When the key 4 is input, the CPU 1 of 2-9
The keyboard data is converted according to the program stored in the ROM-1 of -10, and the data is sent to the 2-13 keyboard / mouse controller via the keyboard data interface line of 2-12. The keyboard / mouse controller raises an interrupt to CPU2 of 2-16, and C
PU2 stores keyboard data in RAM2 of 2-19 according to the interruption processing program of ROM2 of 2-18. 2-15 operating system, 2-14
This application program monitors the keyboard data in the RAM 2 and controls the keyboard data to be displayed on the display 2-3. Here, by causing the software such as the application program and the operating system in the system device to perform the above-described processing corresponding to the keyboard data conversion processing, the problem that is a problem can be solved. First, when the keyboard / mouse switching key 2-7 is pressed, the software in the system unit sets the mouse mode flag in the RAM 2 2-19. When it is pressed again, the mouse mode flag is reset.
When the mouse mode flag is set, the software in the system unit is thereafter in a mode for converting keyboard data into mouse data. In the mode in which keyboard data is converted into mouse data, mouse direction data, button data, and movement data are created and mouse data is created, as in the above-described conversion method. Thereafter, the mouse data is processed by software in the system device and displayed on the display device.

In this embodiment, the problem which is a problem can be solved without changing the hardware of the system. This means that the present invention can be used in existing devices.

[0026]

By converting vice data into pointing device data such as a mouse by inputting with a keyboard or the like, software compatible with the pointing device can be used even in a system configuration having no pointing device. This is effective for downsizing the system. Further, since the pointing device can be operated by an arbitrary key input, the operability can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of pointing device cursor control by a keyboard according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1-1 ... Keyboard, 1-2 ... System device, 1-3 ... Display device, 1-4 ... Key 1, 1-5 ... Key 2, 1-6 ... Keyboard / mouse interface cable, 1-7 ... Mouse cursor , 1-8 ... Keyboard / mouse switching key, 2-1 ... Keyboard, 2-2 ... System device, 2-3 ... Display device, 2-4 ... Key input part, 2-5 ... Key 3, 2-6 ... Key 4, 2-7 ... Keyboard / mouse switching key, 2-8 ... Key 8, 2-9 ... CPU1, 2-10 ... ROM1, 2-11 ... Mouse interface line, 2-12 ... Keyboard interface line, 2- 13 ... Keyboard / mouse controller, 2-14 ... Application program, 2-15 ... Operating system, 2-16 ... CPU2, 2- 7 ... the display control unit, 2-18 ... ROM2, 2-19 ... RAM2, 2-20 ... key 5, 2-21 ... RAM1, 2-22 ... key 7.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus for performing various kinds of information processing, comprising a keyboard having a plurality of input keys for inputting data, and a display for displaying execution results, wherein arbitrary keys on the keyboard are coordinate input keys. An information processing apparatus, comprising: a switching control unit for converting the key data input from the coordinate input key into coordinate data.