JPH10340156A - Pointing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pointing device which can easily move a pointer to an optional position that is designated on a display screen. SOLUTION: The jump buttons 28L, 28C and 28R are added to a mouse 20P in addition to the existing operation buttons 26L, 26C and 26R. Then a microcomputer 29 and a memory 29m are also added to the mouse 20P. The prescribed software is started by a computer, and the absolute coordinate information on a desired position set on a display screen is stored in a memory in response to each jump button before the input of data. The absolute coordinate information on the desired position that is preset to each jump button is sent to the computer when the jump button is operated in a data input mode. Then a pointer is jumped to a desired position on the display screen.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a pointing device suitable for use with, for example, a display computer and a graphic display device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been widely used as software for computers. When using the software incorporating the GUI, a user operates a pointing device such as a mouse, a trackball, or a touch pad to move a pointer such as an arrow displayed on a display screen. , According to the selected display target selection area such as icons displayed on the screen or virtual control buttons,
By, for example, "clicking (pressing)" a mouse operation button at a position in the selection area, a desired process corresponding to the specified icon, virtual control button, or the like can be executed.

[0003]

The so-called,
In the “worksheet” of spreadsheet software, for example, a plurality of “rows” in the horizontal direction include numbers of 1, 2, 3 ‥‥,
Alphabets of A, B, and C are sequentially assigned as coordinates to a plurality of “columns” in the vertical direction, and a “cell” where “row” and “column” intersect is, for example, “A1”. Or "B3".

A user operates a mouse, designates a desired cell with a pointer, and inputs characters and data into the cell to create a table.

[0005] However, there are cases where the pointer must be repeatedly moved to a cell in a specific column (row), for example, "A1" during this data input.

In such a case, conventionally, the pointer must be moved by operating the mouse each time, which causes a problem that a burden is imposed on a user and workability is significantly impaired.

However, depending on the spreadsheet software, it is possible to move the pointer to the cell "A1" by pressing a specific key on the keyboard, for example, the "HOMECLR" key.

However, in order to designate an arbitrary cell and move the pointer to this cell, three specific keys on the keyboard, for example, a "SHIFT" key, a "C
It is necessary to press the "TRL" key and the "C" key at the same time, so that there remains a problem that operability is significantly impaired.

In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pointing device capable of designating an arbitrary position on a display screen and easily moving a pointer to the designated position.

[0010]

In order to solve the above problems, a pointing device according to the present invention comprises a movement detecting means for detecting an arbitrary moving direction and a moving amount by a user operation, and information from the movement detecting means. Information generating means for generating relative coordinate information according to a moving direction and a moving amount based on the information, and a display information generating apparatus for generating display information including a pointer displayed on a display screen by a communication line And a pointing device that supplies the relative coordinate information to the display information generating device through the communication line so that the pointer displayed on the display screen moves according to the operation of the user. A desired position information storage means for storing absolute coordinate information of a desired position designated by the user on the display screen; Button, detecting that the operation button has been operated, reading the absolute coordinate information of the desired position from the desired position information storage means, and replacing the relative coordinate information with the display information generating device through the communication line. And desired position information reading means for supplying the desired position information.

In the pointing device according to the present invention having the above-described configuration, when an operation button is operated by a user, the absolute position information stored in advance in the desired position information storage means corresponding to the operation button is stored in the relative position information. It is supplied to the display information generating device instead of the position information. The display information generating device displays the pointer at its absolute coordinate position.
For this reason, the user does not need to move the pointing device to move the pointer to the desired position, but only to operate the operation button, thereby simplifying the pointing operation.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a pointing device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows an electrical configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an electrical configuration around the embodiment of the present invention. The mechanical configuration of the configuration is shown in FIG.

First, a computer 10 as an example of a display information generating apparatus and its peripheral configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, a computer 10 has a CP
U11, ROM12, RAM13 and video RAM1
4 are connected to the system bus 15.
The ROM 12 stores various control programs such as a pointer control routine to be described later, and the RAM 13 is mainly used as a work area for calculations.

A keyboard 40 is connected to the system bus 15 via an interface circuit 16, and a disk device 50 for auxiliary storage is connected via the interface circuit 17. further,
A mouse 20P as an example of a pointing device is connected to the system bus 15 via the interface circuit 18. The computer 10 and the mouse 20P are connected by a communication line 20w.

A display 30 is connected to the video RAM 14. On the screen 30s, a pointer 31 which is moved in response to a user's operation of the mouse 20P and a disk device 50 are stored. The worksheet 32 or the like corresponding to the spreadsheet software is appropriately displayed. Although illustration is omitted, icons, operation buttons, and the like can be displayed outside the worksheet 32.

When the button of the mouse 20P is clicked while the pointer 31 is in the display area of each cell or the like of the worksheet 32, the computer 10 selects and determines the area of each cell or the like by the user. As setting and recognizing.

Next, the configuration of the mouse 20P as an embodiment of the pointing device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 1, the mouse 20P has a rotating sphere 21 housed in a housing so as to be freely rotatable as a moving body. Then, the arrow Ax and the arrow Ay
In order to detect the amount of rotation of the rotating sphere 21 in two directions orthogonal to each other as shown in FIG.
And 22Y are attached in such a manner that the rotating side surfaces thereof respectively contact the rotating ball 21 and rotate in accordance with the rotation of the rotating ball 21. In this case, the two rubber rollers 22X
And 22Y are arranged such that the rotation axes 22Xa and 22Ya are orthogonal to each other.

Therefore, the rubber roller 22X rotates by an amount corresponding to the amount of rotation of the rotating ball 21 in the direction indicated by the arrow Ax, and the rubber roller 22Y rotates by the arrow Ay of the rotating ball 21.
Rotate by an amount corresponding to the amount of rotation in the direction indicated by. And
By synthesizing the rotation amounts of the two rubber rollers 22X and 22Y, the rotation amount (corresponding to the moving amount of the moving body) and the rotation direction (corresponding to the moving direction of the moving body) of the rotating ball 21 are obtained.

The rotary shafts 22Xa and 22Ya of the rubber rollers 22X and 22Y are respectively provided with rotary encoders 23x and 23Y composed of photo interrupters. The encoders 23X and 23Y generate pulse outputs Px and Py with the number of pulses corresponding to the rotation amounts of the rubber rollers 22X and 23Y.
In this case, the pulse output Px is a pulse number corresponding to the rotation amount of the rotating sphere 21 in the direction indicated by the arrow Ax, and the pulse output Py is a pulse number corresponding to the rotation amount of the rotating sphere 21 in the direction indicated by the arrow Ay. It becomes a number.

The pulse outputs Px and Py are supplied to a relative coordinate information generator 24. The relative coordinate information generating unit 24 generates relative coordinate information as information on the rotation amount and the rotation direction of the rotating sphere within the fixed time interval from the pulse numbers of the pulse outputs Px and Py, for example, at fixed time intervals. Generate. The relative coordinate information in the case of this example is based on the x coordinate axis direction (for example, the screen 30s) within the fixed time interval.
Of the pointer 31 in the horizontal direction (in the horizontal direction) and in the Y coordinate axis direction (for example, in the vertical direction of the screen 30s). The relative coordinate information generating unit 24 transmits the generated relative coordinate information to the computer 10 (see FIG. 1) through the communication unit 25 and the communication line 20w at the predetermined time intervals.

The mouse 20P includes, for example, a click detector 27 to which three switches 26Ls, 26Cs, and 26Rs are connected. Switches 26Ls to 26R
s is the upper surface 20 of the housing of the mouse 20P as shown in FIG.
three conventional operation buttons 26 disposed at the front end of the t
It is a non-locking type switch facing L, 26C, 26R. In addition, the click detection unit 27 is provided with the operation button 2
By the click operation of the user for 6L to 26R,
When it is detected that the corresponding switches 26Ls to 26Rs have been turned on, a signal indicating that a click operation has been performed is generated.
The data is transmitted to the computer 10 through the communication unit 25 and the communication line 20w. The above configuration is the same as that of a conventional mouse.

As shown in FIG. 3, with the mouse 20P of this embodiment, the conventional operation buttons 26L
26R, and three buttons 28L, 28C, 28R for preset position jump, and a preset button 28P corresponding to these operation buttons.
Are provided.

Jump buttons 28L, 28C, 28R
In this example, on the upper surface 20t of the housing of the mouse 20P,
The corresponding conventional operation buttons 26L, 26C, 2 respectively
6R. Also, preset button 2
8P is provided on the side surface 20s of the housing of the mouse 20P.

As with the conventional operation buttons 26L to 26R, switches are provided opposite to the jump buttons 28L to 28R and the preset button 28P, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 1, the mouse 20P of this embodiment is provided with a microcomputer 29 for presetting a jump position. The microcomputer 29 has a memory 2 for presetting.
9 m is included.

The microcomputer 29 includes switches 28L, 28C, 28R and a preset button 28P, which are opposed to the above-described jump buttons 28L, 28C, 28R.
Ls, 28Cs, 28Rs, and 28Ps are connected, and the communication unit 25 is connected.

Next, the movement control of the pointer in the pointing device according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

[Preset of Jump Position] When the spreadsheet software as described above is started, a worksheet 32 is displayed on the screen 30s of the display 30 as shown in FIG. Pointer 3
1 is displayed.

Then, before inputting the data, the user sets the desired jump position to the jump buttons 28L and 28L.
Preset work to be registered in C, 28R is performed. FIG.
The microcomputer 29 for the preset work
Is a processing routine.

First, the user moves the pointer 31 to a desired position on the screen 30 s of the display 30, for example, the cell “A 1” of the worksheet 32 by a normal mouse operation.
Move to

Next, the user simultaneously presses any of the jump buttons of the mouse 20P, for example, the first jump button 28L and the preset button 28P, while keeping the pointer 31 at the cell "A1".

The microcomputer 29 determines in step S1 that the preset operation has been performed by this operation. Then, the process proceeds to step S2, and a transmission request for transmitting the absolute coordinate information of the current display position of the pointer is issued to the computer 10 to which the mouse 20P is connected. Then, after confirming the reception of the absolute coordinate information from the computer 10 in the next step S3, in step S4, the acquired absolute coordinate information is stored in the memory 29m of the microcomputer 29 corresponding to the operated jump button. To do it.

Thus, the absolute coordinate information corresponding to the cell "A1" is stored in the memory 29m of the microcomputer 29, and the desired cell "A1" is preset to the first jump button 28L.

Similarly, absolute coordinate information of a desired cell is preset in each of the second and third jump buttons 28C and 28R.

[Release of Preset] The above-mentioned preset is released when a new preset is performed on the same jump button, and new absolute coordinate information is stored in the memory 29m.

The preset is also released when only the preset button 28P is pressed for a predetermined time, for example, 5 seconds or more. In this case, all the absolute coordinate information corresponding to the three jump buttons is stored in the memory 29m. Is cleared.

[Jump of Pointer] After the spreadsheet software is activated and the preset processing of the mouse 20P is completed as described above, data is input to the worksheet 32 displayed on the screen 30s of the display 30. Is started. During this data input, the processing routine of FIG. 5 is started from the mouse 20P at regular time intervals, for example.
Information for moving the pointer is sent to the computer 10.

That is, the microcomputer 29 of the mouse 20P first determines in step S11 whether any one of the jump buttons has been operated. When it is determined that the jump button has not been operated, the process proceeds to step S12, and the relative coordinate information from the relative coordinate information generating unit 24 is sent to the computer 10 through the communication unit 25. At this time, for example, an identification flag indicating that the information is relative coordinate information is added to the transmission information.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S11 that the jump button has been operated, the process proceeds to step S13, where the absolute coordinate information corresponding to the operated jump button is read out from the memory 29m and replaced with the computer instead of the relative coordinate information. Send to 10. At this time, for example, an identification flag indicating that the information is absolute coordinate information is added to the transmission information.

During the data input, the computer 10 causes the pointer movement control routine 1 as shown in FIG.
When 00 is started, in the first step 101, reception of data from the mouse 20P is waited, and when data from the mouse 20P is received, the process proceeds to the next step 102, where the identification flag is used to transmit the data from the mouse 20P. It is determined whether the received data is absolute coordinates.

As described above, when the jump button 28L in which the absolute coordinate information of the desired cell "A1" is preset is pressed, the absolute coordinate information of the cell "A1" corresponding to the jump button 28L is Under the control of the microcomputer 29, the data is read from the memory 29m,
The data is transmitted to the computer 10 through the communication unit 25 and the communication line 20w.

If it is determined in step 102 that the received data is absolute coordinates, the process proceeds to step 103
In the computer 10, the desired cell “A” of the worksheet 32 displayed on the screen 30s of the display 30 is determined based on the absolute coordinate information received from the mouse 20P.
After the pointer 31 is jumped to "1", the routine 1
00 ends.

If it is determined in step 102 that the data received from the mouse 20P is not absolute coordinate information, that is, if the data is received from the relative coordinate information generating unit 24, the process proceeds to step 104, and based on the received data, After the pointer 31 is relatively moved on the screen 30s of the display 30, the routine 100 ends.

In the above embodiment, the display 30
The absolute coordinate information such as the desired cell “A1” of the worksheet 32 displayed on the screen 30s of
By presetting to the P jump button 28L or the like, the preset jump button 28L or the like is operated, and a desired cell “A1” or any other cell of the worksheet 32 displayed on the display screen 30s is operated. The pointer 31 can be easily moved, and the workability of data input is improved.

[Other Embodiments] In the above-described embodiment, the number of operation buttons and the number of buttons for jumping to preset positions are all three. However, one or an arbitrary plurality of buttons may be used.

In the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to a mouse. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and may be applied to another mouse such as a trackball or a touch pad. The same applies to a pointing device.

Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, a case has been described in which worksheet cells are preset using spreadsheet software. However, when graphic tool software or the like is used, absolute coordinates on a display screen are used. Can be preset.

[0051]

As described above, according to the present invention, an arbitrary position on the display screen can be designated, and the pointer can be easily moved to the designated position.
Workability of data input can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of an embodiment of a pointing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration around an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a mechanical configuration of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining pointer control according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining pointer control according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining pointer control according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Computer, 11 CPU, 12 ROM, 1
3 RAM, 14 video RAM, 16-18 interface circuit, 20P mouse, 20w communication line,
21: rotating ball, 22X, 22Y: rubber roller, 23X,
23Y: rotary encoder, 24: relative coordinate information generation unit, 25: communication unit, 26L, 26C, 26R: operation buttons, 26Ls, 26Cs, 26Rs: operation button corresponding switches, 27: click detection units, 28L, 28C, 2
8R: Jump button, 28P: Preset button, 2
8Ls, 28Cs, 28Rs ... jump switch, 28
Ps: preset switch, 29: microcomputer, 29m: memory, 30: display, 30s: screen, 31: pointer, 32: worksheet, 100: pointer movement control routine

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A movement detecting means for detecting an arbitrary moving direction and a moving amount by an operation of a user, and generating relative coordinate information corresponding to the moving direction and the moving amount based on information from the movement detecting means. And a display information generating device for generating display information including a pointer to be displayed on a display screen through a communication line, and generating the relative coordinate information through the communication line. A pointing device for supplying to the device, the pointer displayed on the display screen moving in accordance with the operation of the user, the absolute coordinate information of a desired position specified by the user on the display screen. A desired position information storage means for storing the desired position information, an operation button operated by a user, and operation of the operation button. Desired position information reading means for reading the absolute coordinate information of the desired position from the storage means and supplying the absolute coordinate information to the display information generating device through the communication line in place of the relative coordinate information. Pointing device. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of operation buttons are provided, and different absolute coordinate information corresponding to each operation button is stored in said desired position information storage means. 2. The pointing device according to claim 1, wherein which one of the buttons is operated is detected, and absolute coordinate information corresponding to the detected operation button is read from the desired position information storage means.