JPH09107494A - Operation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation device like a pointing device of high operability. SOLUTION: In a pointing device 1, one of switches SW1 to SW8 consisting of eight tact switches 5 arranged on a switch board 6 is selectively turned on in accordance with the operation direction in which one operation lever is included. The state of each of switches SW1 to SW8 is always sampled, and the result is stored in a register 20c. A flag register 21 is referred to, and the correspondence relation between the operation direction and switches SW1 to SW8 is kept as normal when all bits are '0', and this relation is shifted right by one when the flag of the first bit is '1', and the relation is shifted left by one when the flag of the second bit is '0'. Thus, the same operation as turning-on of the switch SW2 or SW8 is practically performed when the switch SW1 is turned on.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an operating device such as a pointing device for operating an electronic device such as a video camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an electronic device such as a video camera, for example, to perform an operation such as moving a cursor displayed on a monitor or selecting one of a plurality of menu items. Pointing devices are often used. FIG. 9 shows an example in which the pointing device 1 is provided in the main body of the video camera 100. still,
Reference numeral 2 denotes a monitor using an EVF (electronic viewfinder).

In such a pointing device, since the operations for a plurality of functions of the device can be centralized in one operation member, the operation portion can be simply put together and the device can be made compact. . Further, since two or more switches can be assigned to one operation member, the operator can perform two or more switch operations without releasing the keys by merely selecting the operation direction of the pointing device. it can. For this reason, it is necessary to groping for the operation member or visually confirming the operation member, as compared with the case where a plurality of switch operation members are assigned to a plurality of functions at a ratio of 1: 1 as in the past. Without
It is easy to use.

[0004]

However, a conventional small pointing device operated with a fingertip, which has a structure in which the base is fixed to the main body of the device, is different depending on the size of the operator's hand or the posture of the main body. Operation feeling may be different. For example, due to individual differences such as the size of the hand and the length of the finger, the positions of the fingertip and the pointing device are not properly aligned, and the device becomes cramped, which may impair operability.

Therefore, for example, when the cursor 3 displayed on the monitor 2 as shown in FIG. 10 is moved by operating the pointing device with a fingertip, the operator moves the cursor 1 to the right as shown in FIG. Even if it is intended to move the cursor in the direction, the operation direction is shifted due to a slight displacement of the fingertip, and the cursor 3 moves in a direction different from the intended one, such as the upper right direction or the lower right direction, as shown in FIG. 10B. Sometimes it moved.

When the pointing device 1 shown in FIG. 9 is used to move the cursor displayed on the EVF as the monitor 2 or to select a menu item, the operator holds his / her face close to the body of the video camera 100. , EVF
Look into and operate the pointing device 1 with your fingertips. Therefore, it is difficult to operate while visually confirming the position and operation direction of the pointing device 1, and actually, the operation is performed by groping. For this reason, the operability may be impaired depending on the size of the operator's hand, the length of the finger, the posture of holding the video camera 100, and the like, and as a result, the cursor can be moved and menu items can be selected as desired. There were things I couldn't do.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an object thereof is to obtain an operating device such as a pointing device having excellent operability.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided an operating member movably provided in a plurality of operating directions and a plurality of switches selectively operated in accordance with the operating directions of the operating members. The operating device is provided with a changing unit that electrically changes the correspondence between the operating direction of the operating member and the plurality of switches.

[0009]

According to the present invention, by changing the correspondence between the operating direction of the operating member and each switch, the device provided with the operating device can be arranged in an easy-to-use switch according to the operator.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 4 shows a pointing device 1.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view [FIG. (A)] and a side sectional view [FIG. In FIG. 4, a switch plate 6 having eight tact switches 5 provided on the same circumference is provided in the cover 4, and an operation lever 7 is provided so as to be supported by a support member 8 formed of a spherical body. Support member 8
Is rotatably held by a holding member 9. The operation lever 7 is provided with a disc-shaped pushing plate 10 for pushing the tact switch 5.

According to the above construction, the operating lever 7 can be tilted in the direction of 360 ° within a certain angle range with the support member 8 as a fulcrum. When the operator tilts the operation lever 7 in a certain direction, the push plate 10 is also tilted, and one of the tact switches 5 provided in that direction is pressed to turn on the switch. Therefore, one of the eight tact switches 5 can be selectively turned on by selecting the direction in which the operating lever 7 is tilted (operating direction). still,
Different switch functions are assigned to the eight tact switches 5, respectively. Also, in the following description, the eight tact switches 5 will be referred to as SW1, SW2 ... SW8, respectively, as necessary.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of a video camera 100 using the pointing device 1. In FIG. 5, the subject image is incident on the imaging unit 11,
It passes through the zoom lens 12 and the focus lens 13 and is photoelectrically converted into an image signal by an image pickup device 14 such as a CCD. This video signal is processed by the camera signal processing unit 15,
After being converted into a video signal of a predetermined format, the recording / reproducing apparatus 1
6 and the signal recording / reproducing section 16a records the information on a magnetic tape or the like and also sends it to the synthesizing circuit 17.

The microcomputer 18 outputs various control signals, controls the zoom lens 12 and the focus lens 13 via the servo mechanisms 20 and 21, and also controls the camera signal processing circuit 15, the recording / reproducing device 15 and the character generator 20. To do. In addition, a manual switch group 1 including a camera operation switch, a recorder operation switch, etc.
9 and the output signal based on the operation of the pointing device 1 are received, and the control according to each is performed.

Assuming that the pointing device 1 is for moving the cursor 3, the microcomputer 18
Is a character generator 2 that sends a control signal based on an output signal from the pointing device 1 according to the operation direction.
Send to 0. The character generator 20 sends the character signal of the cursor 3 moving in the operation direction to the synthesizing circuit 17. The synthesizing circuit 17 sends the video signal obtained by synthesizing the video signal from the camera signal processing circuit 15 and the cursor 3 to the monitor 2 for display.

FIG. 6 shows a circuit diagram of the pointing device 1. When one of the tact switches 5 in FIG. 6 is pressed, the switch SW in the figure is turned on and grounded, so that an L-level output signal is sent to the microcomputer 18.
There are eight switches SW, SW1 to SW8.
The microcomputer 18 constantly samples the individual output signals in a predetermined cycle. The sampling result (H level or L level) is sequentially stored in an 8-bit register.

FIG. 7 shows the contents of the register 20 by the above sampling. The present sampling result is stored in the register 20a and the previous sampling result is stored in the register 20b. Next, the logical sum (OR) of each bit of the registers 20a and 20b is calculated, and the result is stored in the register 20c. Referring to this register 20c, in the illustrated example, since the second bit corresponding to SW2 is at L level (0), this SW2 is considered to be ON. As a result, the microcomputer 18 controls the character generator 20 to generate the cursor 3 that moves in the upper right direction.

By repeating the above series of processing,
As shown in FIG. 8 (A), the waveform of the output signal of a certain tact switch 5 finally becomes a waveform as shown in FIG. 8 (B). In (B), when the signal is at L level, the microcomputer 18 performs a process corresponding to the tact switch 5.

In the pointing device 1 according to the present invention described above, the operating direction of the operating lever 7 and each switch SW
1, the correspondence relationship between SW2 to SW8 can be changed by software.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the above change. Here, an 8-bit flag register 21 is provided,
By referring to the contents, the contents of the register 20c (see FIG. 7) are rotated rightward or leftward.

First, in the case of FIG. 1A, since all the bits of the flag register 21 are at the L level, the rotation is not performed, and the contents of the register 20c (1 in the figure) as usual.
The cursor 3 on the monitor 2 is moved upward, assuming that the SW1 is turned on according to the bit "0").

Next, in the case of FIG. 1B, since the first bit of the flag register 21 is "1", the content of the register 20c is rotated right by one as shown by the register 20d. To do. As a result, the bit "0" corresponding to SW2 corresponds to SW1. As a result, by pressing SW2, the cursor 3 moves in the direction assigned to SW1. That is, the cursor 3 is moved upward by pressing SW2 which is normally moved in the upper right direction.

In the case of FIG. 1C, since the second bit of the flag register 21 is "1", the contents of the register 20c are rotated one by one to the left and the result is changed to register 20d. To do. As a result, by pressing SW8, the cursor 3 moves in the direction assigned to SW1.

As described above, the flag register 21 has "1".
By rotating one or more contents of the register 20c rightward or leftward depending on the position of
Each of 8 can be substantially replaced by another SW. As a result, the operator can rearrange the switches SW1 to SW8 so as to be the easiest to use, depending on the length of his or her hand, the length of his finger, or the attitude of holding the video camera 100.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an operation for registering a flag in the flag register 21.
First, in step S1, both flags 0 and 1 are set to "0", and then in step S2, the pointing device 1 is operated so that the cursor 3 moves upward (Y direction in FIG. 1). At this time, if SW1 is pressed, step S
No processing is performed through 3 and S5. Step S
If SW2 is pressed in step 3, flag 0 is set in step S4.
Is set to "1", and the flag register 21 of FIG.
Create If SW8 is pressed in step S5, flag 1 is set to "1" in step S6 to create the flag register 21 of FIG. 1 (C). The contents of the flag register 21 are stored thereafter until a new change is made in the same procedure.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation when the pointing device 1 is used after the flag is registered as described above. When the pointing device 1 is operated in step S11 after the power is turned on, the contents of the registers 20a and 20b are ORed in step S12, and the result is stored in the register 20c. Next, in step S13, the flag 0 of the flag register 21 is checked, and if it is not "0", the contents of the register 20c are rotated rightward in step S14, and then the process proceeds to step S17.

If the flag 0 is "0", the flag 1 is checked in step S15. If the flag 0 is 0, step S17 is performed.
If it is not "0", register 2 is set in step S16.
After rotating the contents of 0c to the left, step S
In step S17, the microcomputer 1 performs processing in accordance with the presence / absence of left or right rotation, and sends a control signal for moving the cursor 3 to the character generator 20. The character generator 20 generates a character signal for moving the cursor 3 in step S18, and displays it on the monitor 2 in step S19 through the synthesizing circuit 17. The above process is repeated until the power is turned off.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the correspondence between the operating direction of the operating member and each switch can be electrically changed, so that the operation contents can be arranged according to the user. The operation device can be replaced or rotated, which makes the operation device easy for the user to use. Further, unlike the arrangement change by the mechanical mechanism, the operation device does not increase in size, and the effect of not hindering the downsizing of the device can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram for explaining software rotation of a switch according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of registering a rotation of a switch.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of rotating a switch.

FIG. 4A is an exploded perspective view and FIG. 4B is a side sectional view showing an embodiment of a pointing device.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video camera to which a pointing device is applied.

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of a pointing device.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram illustrating a method of determining which switch is being pressed.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart showing an operation of sampling the state of a switch.

FIG. 9 is an external perspective view of a video camera provided with a pointing device.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram showing a screen when a cursor is displayed on a monitor by a pointing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Pointing Device 5 Tact Switch 7 Operating Lever 8 Supporting Member 10 Push Plate 18 Microcomputer 19 Manual Switch Group 20c, 20d Register 21 Flag Register

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An operating device comprising: an operating member movably provided in a plurality of operating directions; and a plurality of switches selectively operated in accordance with an operating direction of the operating member. An operating device comprising: a changing unit that electrically changes a correspondence relationship between a direction and the plurality of switches. 2. The operating device according to claim 1, further comprising storage means for storing the states of the plurality of switches, wherein the changing means changes the stored contents of the storage means. 3. The operating device according to claim 1, wherein the changing unit has a registering unit for registering a change in the correspondence relationship in advance. 4. The operating device according to claim 3, wherein the registration means is configured so that an operator can perform registration. 5. The operating device according to claim 1, wherein the changing means changes the correspondence between the operation direction and the plurality of switches by performing regular rotation. 6. The changing means is configured to change the correspondence by regularly rotating the stored contents of the storage means.
The operating device as described. 7. A display means for displaying an index, wherein the operating member is for moving the index displayed by the display means. The operating device according to.