JPH09146702A - Pointing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pointing device capable of inputting the rotational information of a pointing device body as a continuous variation in addition to information obtained by a conventional mouse only by mechanical structure having no arithmetic function. SOLUTION: The pointing device is provided with three spheres 11 to 13 having their centers on respective vertexes of a triangle and arranged so as to come into contact with each other, another sphere 14 arranged on the three spheres 11 to 13 so as to come into contact with them and detectors 23, 24 for detecting the rotation of the sphere 14. The spheres 11 to 13 are projected from the bottom of the pointing device body 26, the torque of the spheres 11 to 13 rotates the sphere 14, the rotation of the sphere 14 is detected by the detectors 23, 24, and momentum in the X-axis and Y-axis directions on an input plane for moving the pointing device and the rotational quantity of the device body 26 are detected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pointing device for information processing equipment such as a personal computer, workstation, word processor and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A pointing device controls the movement of a cursor shown on a display device based on the movement amount and movement direction input by some means. For example,
In the case of a mouse, the movement information on the plane is obtained by detecting the movement information of a single sphere, and the point designated by the mouse cursor is specified by the pushing information of several push buttons.

To this mouse, another sphere is added to obtain additional mouse rotation information from the difference between the movement information of the two spheres, or another input component is added to obtain another parameter. There has been proposed a pointing device for inputting. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
Japanese Patent No. 616022 discloses a pointing device in which two spheres are incorporated to obtain rotation information of a mouse body. In addition, JP-A-5-2820
Japanese Patent Publication No. 98 discloses a pointing device having a function of inputting another parameter by adding a dial to a mouse.

[0004]

In the case of a mouse having two spheres, it is necessary to have a mechanism for obtaining movement information of those two spheres. Further, in order to obtain the rotation information of the mouse body, it is necessary to have a calculation function for calculating the rotation amount from the difference between the movement information of the two spheres. Further, in such a mouse, a skewed state occurs in the mouse body due to the rotational movement of the mouse body. Therefore, in order to input the plane movement information based on the input plane coordinate axis as the movement information that changes simultaneously with the rotation momentum, , It is necessary to convert the parallel movement (oblique state) when the mouse body is tilted into parallel movement information based on the input plane coordinate axes. Also,
It is difficult to input a continuous change amount by a method of adding another input mechanism to the mouse.

An object of the present invention is to provide a pointing device which has only a mechanical structure without a calculation function and can input rotation information of the pointing device body as a continuous variation amount in addition to information obtained by a conventional mouse. To do.

Another object of the present invention is to provide motion information on a plane based on an input plane coordinate axis even in a skewed state caused by a rotational movement of a pointing device body, which has only a mechanical structure without a calculation function. It is to provide a pointing device capable of inputting.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the pointing device of the present invention is arranged so that the centers thereof are located at the respective vertices of a triangle and are in contact with each other.
One sphere, another sphere arranged in contact with the three spheres, and a detector for detecting the rotational movement of the other sphere. The X-axis direction on the input plane that projects from the bottom surface and the rotational force of the three spheres rotates the other sphere, and the detector detects the rotational movement of the other sphere to move the pointing device. , The Y-axis momentum and the amount of rotation of the pointing device body are detected.

Further, the momentum based on the coordinate axes on the input plane when the pointing device moves in a skewed state due to the rotation of the pointing device main body is set in the pointing device main body in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the main body. Absorb by rotating by the same amount.

In the pointing device of the present invention, the movements of the three spheres located on the bottom surface of the pointing device are integrated into the movements of the other sphere located on the upper side, and together with the planar movement on the input plane, The movement in the rotational direction is also accurately transmitted to the sphere located above. Therefore, by detecting the rotational movement of the sphere, it is possible to input three continuous parameters of the movement amount in the X-axis direction, the movement amount in the Y-axis direction, and the rotation amount of the pointing device body.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This information processing apparatus incorporates a mouse which is a pointing device using the present invention. In FIG. 4, the information processing device is a CPU 3
1, memory system controller 32, main memory 33, I
/ O bus controller 34, various I / O devices 35, drawing controller 36, display memory 37, keyboard 38,
It is composed of a mouse 39 and the like. The CPU 31 and the memory system controller 32 are bus-connected by a processor bus 40. Memory system controller 32, I
The / O bus controller 34, the drawing controller 36, the keyboard 38, and the mouse 39 are connected by a system bus 41. Similarly, the I / O bus controller 34 and various I / O devices 35 are bus-connected by an I / O bus.

The CPU 31 performs numerical operation, logical operation, conditional branching, input / output processing, etc. according to a program stored in the main memory 33 in advance.

The memory system controller 32 is a CP
Controls data transfer between the U31 and the main memory 33 or a ROM (not shown) and the system bus 41.
The actual main memory 33 has a vast storage space that 31 virtually has.
Projected onto In addition, the memory system controller 32
Is input / output data to / from the main memory 33 and the system bus 41,
Resources such as internal registers of the CPU 31 are efficiently shared,
Arbitration between data transfer requests is performed so that data transfer can be performed. Data transfer using the memory system controller 32 transfers the initialization program stored in the ROM to the CPU 31, and various I / O devices 35.
When the direct memory access from the main memory to the main memory, the main memory 33 is read out.

Further, the memory system controller 32
Transfers the drawing command issued by the CPU 31 to the drawing controller 36. The drawing controller 36 calculates the drawing function according to the transferred drawing command and stores the calculation result in the corresponding display memory 37. Through the series of operations, the calculation result of the drawing command issued by the CPU 31 is displayed on the CRT which is a display device.

In the information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 4, the keyboard 38 and the mouse 39 are directly connected to the memory system controller 32, and the keyboard 38 and the mouse 39 are connected.
The memory system controller 32 receives the input signal from
Transfer to PU31.

The I / O bus controller 34 transfers data between the system bus 41 and various I / O devices 35 connected to the I / O bus 42, and various I / O devices connected to the I / O bus 42. The data transfer between the O devices 35 is controlled.

In the information processing apparatus of this embodiment, an input signal from the mouse 39 is transferred to the CPU 31 via the system bus 41, the memory system controller 32, and the processor bus 40, and the calculation result of the CPU 31 is transferred to the processor bus 40. It is displayed on the display device via the memory system controller 32, the system bus 41, the drawing controller 36, and the display memory 37. The calculation result includes drawing of the cursor in response to the input of the mouse 39.

The position of the mouse 39 shown in FIG. 4 is an example, and the mouse 39 may be positioned below the I / O controller controlled by the I / O bus controller 34, for example. As described above, FIG. 4 merely shows an example of the positioning of the mouse 39 in the information processing apparatus, and the positioning of the mouse 39 is not defined by the embodiment shown in FIG.

Next, the appearance of the mouse 39 will be described. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the appearance of the mouse 39. The mouse 39 includes a switch button 2 on the top of the mouse body 1. The mouse body 1 is a portion that an operator holds when operating the mouse 39. The switch buttons 2 are provided on the upper surface of the mouse body 1 in the number required for operation.

As an appropriate shape of the mouse body 1, it is desirable that the operator of the mouse 39 has an advantageous shape not only for moving the mouse 39 on a plane but also for rotating the mouse 39.

Next, the operation of the mouse 39, which is a pointing device to which the present invention is applied, will be described by dividing it into two methods, that is, a method of detecting rotation information as well as movement information on a plane, and a method of handling skew.

FIG. 5 is a functional explanatory diagram when the mouse body 1 moves on the input plane, and is a diagram for explaining a method of detecting rotation information as well as movement information on the plane only by a mechanical method. As shown in FIG. 5, the mouse body 1 holds four spheres, the spheres 11, 12 and 13 are rotatably held by projecting from the bottom surface of the mouse body 1, and the sphere 14 is the three spheres. It is rotatably held in contact with. The distance and size of each of the four spheres need to be the same in diameter because the three spheres 11, 12 and 13 have the same role, but the others are not particularly limited. However, if the distance between the three spheres 11, 12 and 13 is widened, the diameter of the sphere 14 also increases. Therefore, it is possible to set the diameter and the distance between the spheres so that the spheres have a reasonable size when used as a pointing device. desirable.

First, there is no rotational movement in the mouse body 1,
Only consider moving up and down and left and right on a plane. In this case, since the three spheres 11, 12 and 13 perform exactly the same rotational movement, the rotational movement of the sphere 14 obtained from the contact point with these three spheres causes the mouse 39 which moves in a plane.
Performs rotational movement equivalent to a sphere rolling in the direction opposite to the movement direction of. Therefore, by detecting the rotational movement of the sphere 14 with the detector normally used in the mouse, it is possible to obtain the movement direction and the momentum on the input plane of the mouse body 1.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram when the mouse body 1 makes a rotational movement. When the mouse body 1 makes a rotary motion, the motion of the sphere 14 becomes a rotary motion centered on the normal line from the input plane due to the combined action of the motions of the spheres 11, 12, and 13. By detecting, it becomes possible to detect the rotational movement of the mouse body 1 without a calculation function.

Next, the operation when the mouse body is skewed will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the mouse body seen from above, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the mouse body seen from the side. The sphere 14 is a sphere for detecting the movement of the mouse 39 as described above, and is actually 3
Although it is in contact with one of the spheres 11, 12 and 13, it is omitted in FIG. Reference numeral 26 is a mouse body, and 21 is a detector for detecting a rotational movement about the normal line of the input plane of the sphere 14. Reference numeral 22 is a supporting component installed on the opposite side of the detector 21 with the sphere 14 as the center so that the sphere 14 does not move freely due to contact with the detector 21. Reference numerals 23 and 24 are detectors for detecting rotations of the spherical body 14 in the X-axis and Y-axis directions, respectively. 25 is the detector 2
1, 23 and 24, a supporting component 22, and a rotating component 27, which will be described later, are mounted on the mouse body 26 and can be freely rotated in the rotational direction about the normal to the input plane.
By contacting the detector 21 and the inner wall of the mouse body 26, 27 serves to rotate the rotating component 25 in the direction opposite to the rotating direction of the spherical body 14.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which the mouse body 26 is rotated rightward from the state shown in FIG. At this time, as shown in FIG. 6, the spherical body 14 makes a rotational movement in the same direction as the mouse body 26. This rotational movement is detected by the detector 21 and the rotating component 27.
Since the rotating component 27 makes a rotational motion while contacting the inner wall of the mouse body 26, the rotating force is applied to the rotating component 25 in a direction opposite to the direction in which the mouse body 26 rotates. By selecting an appropriate rotation ratio that allows the mouse body 26 to rotate by the same amount as the mouse body 26,
Even if 6 rotates, the detector mounted on the rotating component 25 always keeps the parallel state with the X-axis and the Y-axis on the input plane, so that the mouse body 26 is skewed. Even in this case, it is possible to always accurately detect the plane motion information based on the coordinate axes on the plane.

As described above, by placing each sphere at the apex of a regular triangular pyramid, the motion of the sphere located at the apex of the regular triangular pyramid is detected, and thus the motion information on the same plane as that of a normal mouse is detected. At the same time, an input device for inputting the rotation amount can be realized.

Further, by making the complete detection mechanism rotatable inside the mouse body and rotating it by the same amount in the opposite direction to the rotation direction of the mouse body, even if the mouse body rotates in a skewed state, it is always accurate. It is possible to output the plane motion information based on the coordinate axes on the plane without any calculation function.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a pointing device capable of inputting another continuous parameter information in addition to the movement information of plane information by a mouse only by a mechanical mechanism.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main body of a mouse to which the present invention is applied as seen from above.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main body of a mouse to which the present invention is applied as seen from the side.

FIG. 3 is an internal function explanatory diagram when the body of the mouse to which the present invention is applied is rotated.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional explanatory diagram when the body of the mouse of the present invention moves on an input plane.

FIG. 6 is a functional explanatory diagram when the main body of the mouse of the present invention makes a rotational movement.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the appearance of a mouse to which the present invention has been applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Mouse main body, 2 ... Button switch, 11-13 ... Sphere located under a mouse, 14 ... Sphere for detecting mouse movement, 21 ... Rotational motion detector, 22 ... Sphere support component, 23 ... X Axial rotation detector, 24 ... Y-axis rotation detector, 25 ... Rotating parts, 26 ... Mouse body, 27
... Rotating parts, 31 ... CPU, 32 ... Memory system controller, 33 ... Main memory, 34 ... I / O bus controller, 35 ... I / O, 36 ... Drawing controller, 37 ...
Display memory, 38 ... keyboard, 39 ... mouse, 40 ...
Processor bus, 41 ... System bus, 42 ... I / O bus.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A three sphere centered at each apex of a triangle and arranged in contact with each other, and another sphere arranged in contact with the top of the three spheres.
A pointing device having a detector for detecting the rotational movement of the other sphere, wherein the three spheres project from the bottom surface of the pointing device body, and the rotational force of the three spheres is different from that of the other sphere. Rotating one sphere, detecting the rotational movement of the other sphere by the detector, and moving the pointing device in the X-axis direction on the input plane, the momentum in the Y-axis direction,
And a pointing device that detects the amount of rotation of the pointing device body. 2. A momentum based on a coordinate axis on the input plane when the pointing device moves in a skewed state due to rotation of the pointing device body,
The pointing device according to claim 1, wherein the detector is absorbed by rotating the detector inside the pointing device body by the same amount in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the body.