JPH10293642A - Optical handwritten character and pattern input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cope with display shape and structure even when a pen is put on front side, to functionally reduce constraint, to improve an S/N ratio and to easily enhance accuracy by making a light receiving part which receives light with an input pen a taper shape. SOLUTION: Light from a semiconductor laser light source is converged into parallel light by a collimator lens that is arranged in front, further a rotational mirror surface which is fixed to a position that is preliminarily defined is irradiated with the light and the light is rotationally scanned in parallel with an input plane. A light receiving window which is arranged at the tip of an input pen is irradiated with the light that is rotationally scanned, and the light is guided by a photodetector 6, converted into an electric signal, amplified by an amplifier and inputted to a CPU. The light receiving window consists of two members that are a transparent member 7b whose conical recessed part is turned down from the bottom of a cylinder toward a center and a member 7c which slidingly writes on the input plane. The conic recessed part of the transparent member 7b is mirror finished and efficiently guides scanning light that is reflected on a rotational mirror to the phtodetector 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of inputting two-dimensional position coordinate values to an information processing apparatus such as a computer, and to input position coordinates of handwritten characters and figures input to an input surface using light. The present invention relates to an optical handwritten character / graphics input device for detecting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional handwritten character / graphic input devices of the type for detecting position coordinates for inputting two-dimensional coordinates by handwriting on an input surface include various types of digitizers, tablets and touch sensor panels. .
These have been put to practical use as computer input devices, handwritten character / graphic terminal devices, and design drawing making machines. There are an electromagnetic coupling method, an electrostatic coupling method, a pressure-sensitive method, an ultrasonic method, an optical method, a mechanical method, and the like as methods for detecting the input position coordinates of the handwritten character graphic input device. Specific examples include a touch panel system in which resistance sheets and conductive sheets are stacked at a fixed interval, and a system in which a light pen is applied to a CRT display.

[0003]

The above-mentioned prior art, when mounted on the front of a display panel, cannot cope with the shape or structure of the display panel, has functional restrictions, or has a complicated structure. In particular, there is a problem that it is difficult to increase the size. Further, even when the optical system is used, if the light receiving efficiency is poor, there is a possibility of malfunction or a decrease in accuracy due to the influence of extraneous light or the like, and it is necessary to improve the S / N ratio.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has an input pen for receiving incident light when a character or a figure is input, and an input pen which can be actually written with the input pen. A directional light that rotationally scans a plane parallel to the surface with a reflecting mirror attached to the rotating mechanism, a rotating mechanism having a rotation angle detecting unit for the directional light, and a reference position of the rotating mechanism. Device for detecting the position of the pen when the input value of the received light reaches a certain level, from a rotation angle detection unit or a reference position built in the motor that drives the rotation mechanism. The present invention proposes an optical handwritten character / graphics input device that detects X, Y coordinates of an input pen based on a scan angle calculated by the elapsed time of
In order to improve the S / N ratio, the light receiving portion for receiving light with the input pen has a tapered shape having good light receiving efficiency.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an input pen for receiving light, and a rotary mechanism for rotating and scanning a plane parallel to an input surface which can be actually written with the input pen in a parallel plane with a reflecting mirror attached to the rotary mechanism. And a device for detecting a reference position of the rotation mechanism, and receives light and detects a position of the pen when an input value of the pen reaches a predetermined level. The X and Y coordinates of the input pen are calculated based on the scanning angle calculated from the elapsed time from the position.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention relates to an input pen for receiving light, a rotating mechanism for rotating and scanning a plane parallel to an input surface which can be actually written with the input pen, with a reflecting mirror attached to the rotating mechanism. It consists of a mechanism that detects the reference position of this rotating mechanism.The position of the pen when light is received and the input value reaches a certain level is determined by the angle of the rotating mechanism and the elapsed time from the reference position. Identifies and detects the coordinates of the input pen, eliminating the need to install a detection mechanism on the display panel surface, and can be adapted to the shape and structure of the display even if it is placed on the front of the display panel, and has functional limitations. Is less.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a main configuration of the present invention. Reference 1
Is an optical system unit for controlling light, which comprises a rotating mirror 1a for rotating and scanning light, a light source 1b, and a light receiving element 1c for detecting a signal of a reference position, outside a valid input surface indicated by a dotted line. Are located in The rotating mirror 1a is composed of a polyhedral reflecting mirror, and its rotation is driven by a motor that rotates at a constant speed. The number of faces of the polyhedron can be determined by the required number of scans per unit time and the scan angle. The greater the number of faces, the faster the scanning speed and the smaller the scan angle. For a hexahedron, the scan angle is 120
°.

The light source 1b has good directivity and the light receiving element 1
Use the one close to the peak of the spectral sensitivity of c. Usually, a small-sized semiconductor laser whose output can be controlled by current is used.
Light from the semiconductor laser is converted into a parallel light beam by a collimator lens
a surface is irradiated. The light beam is reflected by the rotating mirror 1a and is rotationally scanned in parallel with the flat input surface 3.

The input pen 2 mainly guides the received light to a light receiving window 5 for receiving the scanning light reflected from the rotating mirror 1a and a light receiving element 6 (see FIG. 3) in the input pen 2. And a transparent columnar optical component 7a of acrylic resin or the like. Light receiving element 6
Is converted into an electric signal and connected to the amplifier 11 in the control board 9.

Next, the operation will be described step by step. The light from the semiconductor laser light source 1b is converged into parallel rays by a collimator lens 1d installed on the front surface, and is further irradiated on the surface of a rotating mirror 1a fixed at a predetermined position and rotated in parallel with the input surface 3. Scanned. At this time, the parallel light is input to the light receiving element 1c for setting the reference position, and is converted into an electric signal. The rotationally scanned light irradiates a light receiving window 5 arranged at the tip of the input pen 2, which is guided to a light receiving element 6, converted into an electric signal, and converted into an electric signal.
The signal is amplified by 1 and input to the CPU 10.

As described above, the optical component 7a vertically moves the scanning light 9 to guide the parallel scanning light to the light receiving element 6 in the input pen 2.
In FIG. 6 of the conventional example, a 45 ° cut is provided in a tapered shape on the side surface of a transparent member such as a columnar glass or acrylic resin as a light receiving window. The greater the amount of light incident on the light receiving window, the higher the converted electric signal level. The shape of the light receiving window in the conventional example shown in FIG. 6 needs to be narrowed in consideration of the pressure intensity of sliding of the input pen and writing, and the amount of incident light cannot be increased.

The light-receiving window of the present invention comprises a transparent member 7b having a conical depression protruding downward from the column toward the center thereof;
The input surface is composed of two members, that is, a member 7c capable of sliding and writing. The transparent member 7b is made of a material such as a columnar glass or an acrylic resin, and the conical concave portion is mirror-finished so that the scanning light reflected from the rotating mirror 1a can be efficiently guided to the light receiving element 6. . The sliding writable member 7c can be written by attaching a nib of a marker pen or the like. In addition, by making the members 7b and 7c detachable with screws or the like, writing is necessary.
Unnecessary can be selected. Applicant figure
By adopting the shape of FIG. 4, the entire conical concave surface becomes a reflecting surface, so that a signal level several tens of times or more that of the shape of FIG. 6 could be obtained. Further, the plating efficiency of the conical portion of the member 7b could be further improved.

As shown in FIG. 5, the converted electric signal is detected as an elapsed time t1 from a time detected by the light receiving element 1c for setting the reference position to a time detected by the input pen 2, and a light receiving window passing time T. Is done. As an angle calculation method,
The CP in the control board 9 is determined based on the elapsed time t1 from the time detected by the rotation angle detector built in the motor or the light receiving element 1c for setting the reference position to the time when light is received at the position P.
The angle is converted from a data table stored in a memory or the like of U10.

If the number of rotations of the rotating mirror is fixed, the angular velocity ψ is determined, and dθ is obtained from the following equation.

Dθ = ψ × dt

The optical window 5 provided on the side surface of the input pen 2 for taking in light has a structure in which the cross section through which light passes through is constant. N per unit time by rotating mirror 1a
For the light that has been scanned for rotation, the cross section of the input pen 2 is d, the diameter of the light is φ, the distance from the reflecting surface of the rotating mirror 1a to the input pen 2 is r, and the peripheral speed of the light at the position r is ω. Ba

Ω = 2πrN × 2

## EQU1 ## That is, the peripheral speed ω is a function of r if other conditions are constant. The time T required for light of diameter φ to scan the point r from the reflecting surface at the peripheral speed ω to pass through the light receiving window of the cross section D is

T = (D + φ) / ω

= (D + φ) / 2πrN × 2

If Ti in ri (i = 1, 2, 3,...) Is obtained in advance, r is obtained from the following equation by detecting the time T passing through the light receiving window 5.

R = (D + φ) / 4πNT

Further, since θ is obtained, FIG.

X = rcos θ

Y = rsin θ

The coordinates can be calculated if the CPU 10 in the control board 9 performs arithmetic processing. As described above, since the position coordinates (X, Y) of the pen can be obtained with one optical system, it is a promising means as an economical handwritten character / graphics input device having a simple structure and economical.

[0027]

According to the present invention, there is provided an input pen for receiving light, a rotating mechanism for rotating and scanning a plane parallel to an input surface which can be actually written by the input pen with a reflecting mirror attached to the rotating mechanism, It consists of a mechanism that detects the reference position of this rotating mechanism.Since these are arranged outside the effective input surface, there is no need to install a detection mechanism on the display panel surface. And structure, and there are few restrictions on functions. In addition, since the light receiving portion for receiving light with the input pen has a tapered shape having good light receiving efficiency, the S / N ratio is improved, and high accuracy is easily achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the configuration of an optical handwritten character / graphics input device.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a pen position on an input surface.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an input pen.

FIG. 4 is a layout diagram of a main part of an input pen.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart of a light receiving element.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a conventional input pen.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Optical system unit 1a Rotating mirror 1b Light source 1c Light receiving element 1d Collimator lens 2 Input pen 3 Input surface 4 Light being rotationally scanned 5 Input pen light receiving window 6 Light receiving element 7a Optical component 7b Conical member 7c Sliding member 8 Signal Cable 9 Control board 10 CPU 11 Amplifier P Input position

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An input pen for receiving incident light at the time of inputting a character or a figure, and a direction in which a plane parallel to an input surface which can be actually written by the input pen is rotationally scanned by a reflecting mirror attached to a rotating mechanism. Directional light, a rotation mechanism having a rotation angle detection unit for the directional light, and a device for detecting a reference position of the rotation mechanism, the input value of the received light is a certain level In the optical handwritten character graphic input device for detecting the X, Y coordinates of the input pen based on the scanning angle of the reflecting mirror, the light receiving unit for receiving the incident light of the input pen An optical handwritten character / graphics input device which is transparent and has a tapered shape inside. 2. An optical handwritten character / graphics input device according to claim 1, wherein an inner tapered surface of said light receiving portion is plated.