JPH0887374A - Input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an input device which enables drawing operation by individual attendants at their seats when characters, figures, etc., are drawn on a white board, a screen, etc., and is small in the influence of a reflected wave, etc., causing malfunction and an input device on which a three-dimensional image or body can easily be inputted, and to provide an input device which enables multiple input without widening an in-use frequency band and can send additional information of a click switch, etc. CONSTITUTION: This device consists of a position input device 10 such as a stylus for inputting a figure, etc., and a position detecting device 11. A signal sent periodically from the input device 10 such as the stylus equipped with a transmitting means 13 is received by plural receivers 14 which are spatially remote and the reception time points are detected and compared to detect the position of the position indicating device; and the reception time points are prescribed to limit unnecessary reflected waves, thereby preventing malfunction. Further, when plural position indicating devices are used, only transmission timing is controlled to enable them to be used at the same time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an input device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional device of this type is shown in FIG. FIG. 12 is composed of a drawing board 101 such as a white board and a dedicated writing tool 102, and a person who wants to draw goes to the drawing board 101 and directly writes using the writing tool 102. According to this conventional equipment, there is a problem that the person who draws must move to the drawing board 101 each time. In order to solve this inconvenience, it takes a lot of time to move the drawing board, and there arises a problem that a passage for the movement must be secured. In addition, if each person is provided with dedicated equipment, the problem that it is expensive and wasteful is not used. When each person is provided with drawing equipment, it is necessary to look over each drawing board in order to see the drawing object, which causes a serious problem that it becomes difficult to compare and recognize the drawing contents.

In order to solve these problems, a plurality of input devices corresponding to the number of persons and a common display device capable of displaying the input contents are required.

Further, for example, there is a device called a tablet (or digitizer) as a typical device for inputting a figure to a computer terminal, and there is one shown in Table 1.
For inputting graphic information such as drawing, there is a method of reading a graphic as a set of position information with a pen-type device or a mouse.

[0005]

[Table 1] This type of device has a configuration as shown in FIG. This is a kind of coordinate input device for inputting two-dimensional or three-dimensional position information to a computer. It is a pen-type or cursor-type stylus that traces the drawing and inputs it as coordinate information. FIG. 14 shows an electrostatic coupling type tablet, which includes a tablet base 103 and a stylus 104.
Made of. As shown in FIG. 14, the stylus 104 provided with a conductor indicates the position, and the capacitance of the electrodes arranged in the tablet changes, and the stylus position is calculated from the capacitance change.

According to this conventional device, the stylus 104
It is indispensable to operate the stylus 104 on the tablet board having the electrodes for detecting the position of the stylus. When the position detection electrode is placed at a remote position, the stylus 104
Since the distance between the position detection electrodes becomes large and the capacitance change cannot be detected, accurate position detection becomes extremely difficult and practical position detection becomes impossible. The tablet base is indispensable for solving this problem, which causes a problem that the use position is limited only to the tablet base. This is
The same applies when a magnetostriction method or an electromagnetic induction method as shown in FIG. 15 is used, and a tablet stand for detecting position information is indispensable.

FIG. 16 shows an ultrasonic type tablet.
It consists of a stylus with a sound wave oscillator and a position detector with a receiver with multiple microphones. A position is detected by transmitting a sound wave from the stylus in the figure, counting the delay time until it is received by each microphone, and numerically processing it in the arithmetic processing unit of the position detection unit. In this case as well, a microphone for detecting the vertical and horizontal positions is provided, and the work range is limited only within the range. In order to solve this problem, it is possible to maintain a fine resolution by expanding the usable range by increasing the transmission output and increasing the sampling frequency of sound wave detection, but it is possible to increase the transmission output to some extent by increasing the transmission output. The work range can be expanded, but the range is limited,
Both the transmission and reception will lead to an increase in the size of the device. As shown in FIG. 16, the receiving device is required along the upper end and the left end, and if the effective work area increases, the receiving device will inevitably become large, and the trouble of installing the equipment will increase significantly. In addition, the reason why ultrasonic waves are used is that the propagation time is slower than that of radio waves having a shorter wavelength, so that the resolution of position detection can be easily increased. However, since the wavelength is very long, it is easy to diffract and so on, and when applied to a wide range of work, there are often objects between the transmitter and the receiver, which causes the problem of position measurement error due to diffracted waves. .
Therefore, the work area is limited to a narrow range.

Further, as an input device for operating the graphic cursor on the screen of the computer terminal, there is, for example, a mouse. This is an input device used to control the relative position by movement, and has a very high degree of freedom in operating the cursor. The input person operates the mouse in any direction, the mouse detects the direction and the amount of movement, and controls the graphic cursor on the screen by transmitting the information to the computer body electrically connected by wire. . As the mouse movement amount detecting means, there are various types such as a mechanical type for converting a rotation amount of a ball into coordinate values, an optical type using an optical sensor, and an acoustic type for detecting a distance from a friction sound when moving. Whichever method is used, there is a major drawback in that a flat area provided with a pad or the like is required to detect the movement amount correctly, and the work range is extremely limited by this. Further, the work on the pad means that the input is limited to two-dimensional input, and the input of the three-dimensional shape has no choice but to rely on command processing or the like.

[0009]

As described above, in the conventional device, since the inputtable area is limited, the user has to move to the input place, and the input of the two-dimensional planar image is required. There was a problem that it was limited to. Then, there is a problem that information other than the position information cannot be sent. In addition, when a wide range of work is targeted by wireless, it often happens that the input device and the position detection device are blocked by a person or other object. Although ultrasonic waves can improve the resolution of position detection, malfunctions due to diffracted waves and the like occur due to the long wavelength. Also, malfunctions due to reflected waves become an important issue indoors.

Therefore, the present invention eliminates this problem, provides an input device capable of simultaneous input using a plurality of input devices in a wide range, and easily realizes three-dimensional stereoscopic drawing work. Provide a possible input device. Another object is to provide a device capable of simultaneously transmitting information other than position information.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the first structure of the present invention comprises a position input section having a transmitting means for transmitting a position signal in response to a position input operation,
A plurality of receiving means for receiving each of the position signals, a detecting means for detecting a relative position of the position input section with respect to the plurality of receiving means from a difference in time delay between respective reception timings, and a predetermined effective A position detection unit that excludes the position signals that come from other than the input region, and that has a signal selection unit that inputs to the detection unit the position signals that come from within the not-excluded effective input region. It is characterized by that.

A second configuration is characterized in that each of the plurality of transmitting means in the position detecting section is arranged at a position physically separated in the three-dimensional direction.

Further, in the first or second configuration, the position detecting unit is characterized in that the transmitting unit transmits the modulated signal and the receiving unit has a demodulating function.

Further, in the first or second configuration, when there is a plurality of transmitting means, it has a function of controlling a signal transmission interval so that the transmitting means does not transmit at the same time as the other transmitting means. To do.

Furthermore, the first or second structure is characterized in that it has a function of controlling the signal transmission interval of the transmitting means by its moving speed.

[0016]

In the present invention, the relative position of the input device is detected from the difference between the time delays of the respective received signals by transmitting from the input device and receiving the radio waves by the plurality of receiving devices. ing. Therefore, the influence of the diffracted wave can be removed even in a wide range by using the radio wave having a shorter wavelength, and the influence of the reflected wave can be removed by limiting the signal detection time. By arranging the receiving means three-dimensionally, three-dimensional drawing input is possible.

Further, by synchronizing the plurality of input devices, the interference of the transmission signal can be avoided, and by adding the modulation circuit to the control circuit of the reception signal, the position detection which enables the transmission of information other than the position information can be performed. It can be configured by a device.

With such a configuration, a radio signal is transmitted from the input device and the radio waves are received by a plurality of receiving devices arranged in the surroundings, so that the receiving time at each receiving device is detected and delayed. By detecting the relative position of the input device from the difference in quantity, it is not necessary for the position detection device and the input device to be close to each other. Therefore, a wide range can be set as a work area, and highly flexible and efficient work can be performed. This time,
Since diffracted waves and reflected waves can be removed, malfunctions can be greatly suppressed. Since a small input device can be realized, operability is greatly improved.

Also, a three-dimensional input including a three-dimensional component is possible, and a very easy-to-use man-machine interface for inputting an object can be realized.

Further, by synchronizing the plurality of input devices, it is possible to eliminate the interference of the transmission signal, and the plurality of input devices can simultaneously input. Further, by adding a modulation circuit to the control circuit of the receiving device, it becomes possible to transmit information other than position information, for example, information such as clicking a switch on a mouse.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of an input device of the present invention. 10 is a position input device such as a pen, mouse or cursor for indicating a position, and 11 is a transmission point position from a received signal. It is a position detecting device for detecting. 12 is a transmission control circuit, 13 is a transmitter, 14 is a receiver, 15 is a reception control circuit, 16 is a buffer for holding incoming time data, etc.
Reference numeral 7 is an arithmetic circuit for obtaining the position coordinates and recognizing the content of the signal, and 18 is an external output device such as a display device.
Next, in order to operate this, a signal is periodically transmitted from the position input device 10 such as a pen having an input function, and the signal is transmitted by a plurality of receivers arranged at different positions provided in the position detection device 11. To receive. Each receiver detects the reception time and stores it in the buffer. At this time, the valid time of the incoming signal is from the incoming time of the first received signal to a certain time, and the subsequent signals are truncated. This effective time is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 show the case where the tabletop is the work target area, FIG. 2 shows the case where the reception antenna is installed at the corner of the room, and FIG. 3 shows the case where the reception antenna is installed on the tabletop (the work area). is there. When the distance from the antenna to the nearest point on the work area to a, the distance to the farthest point is b, the minimum value D _{mi n} of a, the maximum value of b and D _max. The received signal is validated during the time from the reception of the first signal to ( _{Dmax- Dmin} ) / c (c is the propagation speed of the signal), and is stored in the buffer. The arithmetic circuit 17 obtains the difference in delay amount between the receivers from this data, calculates the relative position of the position input device 10 based on this and the relative position of the transmitters, and outputs it as digital data from the external output terminal to the external output. Output to the device 18. The valid signal may be discriminated by the arithmetic circuit 17 depending on the reception time limit.

FIG. 4 is an example of a time chart when this is operated. The radio wave transmitted from the position input device 10 has a delay at the antennas 1, 2, 3 of the position detection device 11 and is delayed at times T1, T2, T3. To be received. Arithmetic circuit 17
Calculates the relative position coordinates of the position input device 10 from the difference between the relative arrangement position of each receiver and the delay amount. With such a structure, the effect is that the relative position from the receiving device can be detected wirelessly, and thus a dedicated position detection stand such as a tablet stand is not required. Therefore, it is possible to realize drawing work with a high degree of freedom in a wide range without limiting the work area. It is easy to see that reliability can be increased by increasing the number of receiving devices. When a wide range is set as the work target area as described above, the position input device and the reception device of the position detection device may be disconnected, and the signal in this case is invalidated. Increasing the number of receivers also compensates for invalid signals and prevents the reliability of the device from being impaired. In addition, the position input device 1
0 can be configured only by the control circuit 11 and the transmitter 12, and can be easily reduced in size and weight so that it can be accommodated in a pen-type position input device. Therefore, it is not necessary to connect the position input device to the control circuit in a wired manner, and the degree of freedom in working can be greatly improved.

FIG. 5 is an antenna arrangement view of the second embodiment of the present invention, and 53 is an antenna device. Antenna device 5
The ANT4 of 3 is placed in a position separated from other antennas in the vertical direction, so that a three-dimensional figure in which the three-dimensional direction is also taken into consideration,
Alternatively, an object can be input. The reliability and the position detection accuracy are increased by increasing the number of receiving devices, as in the above-described embodiment. Even when the antenna device 53 is mounted on the wall surface as shown in FIG. 2, the same effect can be easily obtained by changing the height at which each antenna device is installed. This is illustrated in FIG. By tracing the surface of the input target object 70 with the position input device 10, the shape of the object can be displayed on the output device. With such a structure, three-dimensional pointing can be easily realized without being limited to the relative movement amount input of a plane like a mouse. In the present embodiment, it is possible to easily switch to the processing of the position detecting device 11 whether the relative movement amount is detected or the absolute movement amount is detected by determining the reference point.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the third embodiment of the present invention, in which 10A to 10C are pens, mice,
A position input device such as a cursor is shown, and a position detection device 11 detects the position of the transmission point from the received signal. Reference numeral 12 is a control circuit, 13 is a transmitter, 14a to 14c are receivers, 15 is a receiver control circuit, 16 is a buffer for holding incoming time data and the like, 17 is an arithmetic circuit for obtaining position coordinates and recognizing the contents of signals. 18 is an external output device such as a display device, and 19 is a modulation circuit.

FIG. 8 is an example of a time chart when this is operated, showing the transmission timing of the position input devices 10A to 10C and the modulation frequency of the transmitted electric wave, and 14a to
14c shows the timing of the signal received from each antenna of the position detecting device 11. The number of users of the position input device is three, and the transmission interval t, the modulation frequency at the time of non-drawing is f1, the modulation frequency at the time of drawing f2, the click frequency of the click switch is f3, and the number of antennas of the position detection device is three.
And Next, to operate this, it is necessary to synchronize a plurality of position input devices 10A to 10C before use. A position input device 40 such as a pen having an input function constantly transmits signals at regular intervals, and the signals are received by a plurality of receivers provided at different positions of the position detection device 11. Steady state (no drawing)
Then, a radio wave having a certain modulation frequency f1 is transmitted. Modulation circuit 1
At 9, the modulation frequency is identified and transmitted to the arithmetic circuit 17 at any time.
In the drawing state, by switching the modulation frequency to f2, the position detection circuit 11 detects the reception time of each receiver and stores it in the buffer, and the arithmetic circuit obtains the difference in delay amount between the receivers from this data, The relative position of the position input device 10 is calculated based on that and the relative position of each transmitter, and output from the external output terminal to the external output device as digital data. When the click button is pressed, by switching the modulation frequency to f3, the arithmetic circuit 17 of the position detecting device recognizes the click state and transmits the click information to the external output. With such a structure, the effect is that the relative position from the receiving device can be detected wirelessly, and thus a dedicated position detection stand such as a tablet stand is not required. For this reason, the work range is not limited, and the drawing work with a high degree of freedom can be realized. Also, by synchronizing and controlling the transmission time, it is possible to draw and recognize a plurality of images at the same time. Then, it becomes possible to transmit information such as a click button, which can be applied to more advanced drawing / editing work.

Further, the position input device 10 and the position detection device 1
By synchronizing with 1, the calculation of the distance between the position input device 10 and the position detection device 11 becomes very easy, so that the operation of the arithmetic circuit 17 of the position detection device 11 can be significantly reduced. In this case, the position can be detected by arranging at least two receivers 13.

FIG. 9 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention, which is a position input device such as a pen, a mouse, and a cursor for indicating a position, 51 is a control circuit, 52 is a transmitter, 53 is an antenna device, and 54. Is a drawing identification device, and 55 is an arbitrary number of click switches. Next, in order to operate this, it is determined whether or not drawing is being performed by the device 54 having a mechanism for identifying whether or not it is in the drawing state, and a wireless signal for position detection is periodically transmitted only during the drawing. To do. At this time, for drawing identification, there are methods such as using an element that senses a contact state on the pen tip or using a switch. In the position detecting device, the control circuit stores the arrival times of the received signals received by the plurality of antennas in the buffer, and the coordinates are processed by the calculation unit and output as coordinate data from the external output terminal. With such a structure, the effect is that unnecessary transmission operation is not performed and the possibility of interference with other devices and the like is suppressed. Also, since there is no unnecessary transmission, power consumption can be suppressed and the battery of the position input device can be saved.
And, the operation of the position detection device only catches the arrival time of the radio waves that are periodically transmitted, and performs some calculation,
Control can be greatly simplified.

FIG. 10 shows a fifth embodiment of the present invention, which is a position input device such as a pen, a mouse, and a cursor for indicating a position, and 60 is a drawing state recognition device. To operate this next, it is basically the same as the embodiment of FIG.
If the movement of the position input device is recognized by the drawing state recognition device 60 and it is recognized that there is no change in position, it is assumed that no transmission is made at the same position twice or more in succession. Further, when the movement speed of the position input device during drawing is high, transmission is performed at an interval close to the minimum transmission interval, and when the movement speed of the position input device during drawing is slow, the transmission interval is lengthened. Regarding the drawing state recognition, there are a method of identifying the position input device itself by using a sensitive element such as an acceleration sensor, and a method of communicating information from the position identification device using this as a receiver. When a receiver is used, there is an advantage that other information can be obtained by communication. With such a structure, the effect is that the position input device can minimize the transmission interval at the minimum transmission interval assuming the case where the position input device moves fast, so that the power consumption can be greatly reduced. Can be reduced.

FIG. 11 shows a sixth embodiment of the present invention, which is a receiving antenna device provided in the position detecting device 11 of the position input device. When fixedly installed in the room, the most accurate position detection can be performed by arranging antennas at each corner of the room. In the case of a movable position input device, the most accurate position detection can be performed with a small number of antennas by arranging them in a triangular shape as shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 10C, the position detection accuracy is significantly improved by increasing the number or increasing the antenna interval. By adopting such a shape, it is possible to reduce the positional variation in the position detection accuracy and to set the entire periphery as an inputtable area.

[0030]

As described above, by using the input device composed of the position input device and the position detection device as shown in FIG. 1, it is easy to set a wide range as the effective range of the work. It is possible to perform highly flexible work that is not limited to. And, it has an effect of reducing malfunction due to diffracted waves and reflected waves during work. Then, a stereoscopic image or object can be easily input.

Further, since one position detecting device can simultaneously recognize a plurality of position input devices, that is, input persons, it is possible to efficiently carry out simultaneous work, that is, a low cost input device can be provided. There is an advantage. Also,
There is an advantage that an input device such as a click switch that can transmit information other than position information can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which a receiving antenna is installed in a corner of a room.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example in which a receiving antenna is installed on a desk.

FIG. 4 is a time chart of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an antenna arrangement state of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram used for explaining the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a time chart of the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view used to explain another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram used for a schematic description of a conventional input device.

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram showing a conventional input device.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a conventional input device.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a conventional input device.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a conventional input device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Position Input Device 11 Position Detection Device 12,51 Transmission Control Circuit 13,52 Transmitter 14 Receiver 15 Reception Control Circuit 16,107 Buffer 17 Arithmetic Circuit 18 Output Device 19 Modulation Circuit 53 Antenna Device 54 Drawing Identification Device 55 Click Switch 60 Drawing state recognition device 70 Input target object 101 Drawing equipment such as whiteboard 102 Drawing pen 103 Pen stylus 104 Tablet stand 105 Scan register 106 Control unit 108 Main control circuit 109 Quantization circuit 111 X direction encoding electrode 112 Y direction encoding Electrode 113 Magnetic shield plate 114 X excitation winding 115 Y excitation winding 116 Excitation plate 117 Detection coil 118 Clock pulse input 119 Gate control signal input

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyasu Uchida 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Sachi-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Toshiba Research & Development Center (72) Inventor Tadahiko Maeda Komu-Toshiba-cho, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa 1 Incorporated Toshiba Research and Development Center

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A position input section having a transmitting means for transmitting a position signal in response to a position input operation, a plurality of receiving means for receiving each of the position signals, and a timing of each reception timing thereof. Detecting means for detecting the relative position of the position input part with respect to the plurality of receiving means from the difference in delay amount, and excluding the position signal arriving from other than a predetermined effective input area, and the effective input area not excluded An input device, comprising: a position detection unit having a signal selection unit for inputting the position signal coming from within the detection unit. 2. The input device according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of transmitting means in the position detecting section is arranged at a position physically separated in a three-dimensional direction.