JPH1091324A - Pointing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To point the positions on a display of a personal computer, etc., in a simple constitution and with no use of hands by pointing the position of a pointer on the display in response to the angle of a human head part, etc., detected by an angle detector which is mounted on the head part, etc. SOLUTION: An angle detector 3 mounted on a human head part 1 includes the photodetectors such as four right-left and upper-lower photodiodes, etc. When the part 1 is turned to the right, a difference is caused between the beams of right and left photodetectors. Thus, it's possible to decide a position X of a pointer 30 based on the right or left direction of the part 1 by controlling the position X via a personal computer 21 based on the said difference of beams. So is in the upper and lower directions. The computer 21 monitors the moving speed of the pointer 30. If the pointer 30 suddenly moves to the left at a speed higher than a fixed level, the computer 21 produces a signal equal to that produced when the 1st button of a mouse is clicked at the position of the pointer 30. In the same way, a similar signal is also produced when the pointer 30 suddenly moves to the right at a speed higher than a fixed level.

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 indicating the position of a pointer on a display in place of a mouse in a personal computer, a workstation, or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a mouse has been most widely used as a pointing device, and various other pointing devices such as a trackball and a digitizer are commercially available. However, since it is necessary to manually operate any of these devices, it is necessary to release the hand from the keyboard when using the pointing device, which hinders smooth key input. In addition, some of them use a power adapter to obtain electric power from a commercial power supply or use a battery, so that the configuration is complicated.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A pointing device according to the present invention is provided to prevent the above-mentioned disadvantages in operation, and is capable of indicating a position on a display of a personal computer or the like without using a hand. The aim is to obtain a simple pointing device.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pointing device including an angle detecting device which is mounted on a human head or a part of a body, and which is detected by the angle detecting device.
The above operational problem is solved by indicating the position of a pointer on a display of a personal computer or the like according to the angle of a human head or the like. A pointing device according to a second aspect of the present invention indicates a position on a display of a personal computer or the like by detecting an angle of an angle detector with respect to light emitted from a light projector. The pointing device according to claim 3 of the present invention reduces power consumption by causing the light emitter to emit pulses with a small duty ratio, and eliminates the need for a power adapter or battery by obtaining circuit power from a serial or parallel interface. Solve the above problems. A pointing device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention uses a tiltmeter to indicate a position on a display of a personal computer or the like according to an angle of a human head or the like with respect to gravity. A pointing device according to claim 5 of the present invention includes an angle detection device that is mounted on a human head or a part of a body, and the like.
By providing a communication means for wirelessly transmitting a signal to and from a main body connected to a personal computer or the like, a cable between a person and the main body of the apparatus is eliminated, and the above-described configuration problem is solved. A pointing device according to a sixth aspect of the present invention generates a signal corresponding to a mouse button in accordance with a constant operation pattern of a pointer, so that a button signal can be input without using a hand. Solve the problem. The pointing device according to claim 7 of the present invention is:
The operability is improved by adjusting the correspondence between the output of the angle detector and the operation of the pointer, or by providing a controller that stops the movement of the pointer regardless of the operation of the angle detector.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a pointing device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. Example 1 In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a head of a person who operates a personal computer, 6 denotes a device main body, 2 denotes a projector provided with an infrared light emitting diode 17 provided in the device main body 6, and 3 denotes a human head 1. The attached angle detector, 8 is a cable connecting the angle detector 3 and the apparatus main body 6, 21 is a personal computer, 20 is an EIA-232 cable (commonly called R) connecting the personal computer 21 and the apparatus main body 6.
S-232-C), 22 is a display, and 30 is a pointer displayed on the display 22. From the viewpoint of the operator, the right side of the display is defined as the positive direction of the X axis, and the upper side is defined as the positive direction of the Y axis. FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view showing the internal structure of the angle detector 3. In the figure, 4 is a light shielding plate, 9 is a light introducing hole formed in the center of the light shielding plate 4, and 5a to 5d are angle detectors 3.
, A light receiving element such as a photodiode provided behind the light shielding plate 4, wherein the light receiving element 5a is on the left side of the light introducing hole, 5b is on the right side, and 5c is on the upper side.
d is arranged on the lower side. 19 is a light receiving element 5a to 5d
Is a preamplifier connected to FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the connection of the pointing device according to this embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a transmitting circuit provided in the apparatus main body 6, and reference numeral 11 denotes a pulse circuit. The projector 2 is connected to the pulse circuit 11. 12, a synchronous detection circuit connected to the preamplifier 19 by the cable 8, 13 a differential amplifier circuit connected to the synchronous detection circuit 12, 14 an AD conversion circuit connected to the differential amplifier circuit 13, and 15 an EIA-
This is a power supply circuit that receives power from the H.232 interface and generates a constant voltage VCC required by the circuit. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing connection of the pulse circuit 11. The pulse circuit includes only a decimal up / down counter 16 which is a general-purpose CMOS IC, an output of the transmission circuit 10 is input to a clock input terminal, and a carry output terminal is connected to the light emitting diode 17 and a current limiting resistor. 18 series circuits. The resistance value of the resistor 18 is selected so that the current flowing during light emission is several mA.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 5 is a chart showing the operation of the present invention. The transmitting circuit 10 generates a rectangular wave having a constant cycle. When this rectangular wave is input to the clock input terminal of the decimal up / down counter 16, the carry output terminal generates a pulse of LO potential having one cycle width of the oscillation circuit output every ten pulses. When the potential of the carry output terminal is HI, no current flows through the light emitting diode 17 because the potential becomes equal to the power supply voltage VCC.
At the time of a potential, a current flows to emit light. Light receiving elements 5a to 5
d is always affected by disturbance light, and Vna to V
nd dark voltage, and only when the light-emitting diode 17 emits light, the light is applied to Vs.
A voltage waveform to which the optical signal voltages a to Vsd are added is output. This output voltage is amplified by the preamplifier 19 and then input to the synchronous detection circuit 12, where only the optical signal voltages Vsa to Vsd are extracted based on the synchronization signal obtained from the pulse generation circuit 11. Is input to In the differential amplifier circuit 13, Vsa and Vsb, Vsc and V
The differential amplification of two sets of optical signal voltages sd is performed, and two output voltages Vx and Vy are obtained by the following equations. Vx = α · (Vsa−Vsb) + β (1) Vy = α · (Vsc−Vsd) + β (2) where α is an amplification factor and β is an offset voltage. The output voltages Vx and Vy are AD-converted by the AD conversion circuit 14 and
The data is transmitted to the personal computer 21 via the IA-232 interface 20. Since the optical signal voltage is based on the light received by the light receiving elements 5a to 5d through the light introducing holes provided in the angle detector 3, it changes according to the angle of the angle detector. For example, when a person turns his / her head to the right as shown in FIG. 1, as apparent from FIG. 2, the light receiving element 5a receives stronger light than 5b, so that Vsa becomes larger than Vsb and Vx becomes higher. Become. Therefore, V
By controlling the X position of the pointer 30 according to x,
The X position of the pointer 30 can be determined by the left and right directions of the person's head. Similarly, by controlling the Y position of the pointer 30 in accordance with Vy, the pointer 3 is moved in the vertical direction of the human head.
The Y position of 0 can be determined.

The personal computer 21 monitors the speed of movement of the pointer 30. When the pointer 30 suddenly moves to the left at a certain speed or more, the same signal as when the first button of the mouse is clicked at that position. Is generated, and when it suddenly starts moving to the right at a certain speed or more, the same signal as when the second button of the mouse is clicked at that position is generated. Also, if you suddenly move to the left and then move to the right, you can double-click and if you move up suddenly, you will be able to drag by holding down the mouse button. Then, when the pointer is suddenly moved down, the mouse button is released, and the dragging can be completed.

In the above embodiment, an example of the correspondence between the operation pattern of the pointer and the mouse button has been described. However, the pointer is moved twice in a fixed direction in a short time, moved in a key shape, or circularly moved. An operation pattern such as an operation pattern may be used, and any combination of the operation pattern and the function may be used. If it is difficult for a person to execute this operation pattern, the button operation may be performed using a dedicated switch or a keyboard.

It is desirable that the current flowing through the light emitting diode 17 be several mA or more, but if it is about that, it is possible to absorb the current only with the decimal up / down counter 16 which is a CMOS IC without using a transistor or the like. It is possible. Although the current obtained from the EIA232 interface is less than several mA, the current consumption of the light-emitting diode that consumes the most current is suppressed to 1 mA or less on a time average by the pulse emission with the duty ratio of 1/10 as described above. As a result, the circuit power can be obtained from the serial interface, and no power adapter or battery is required. Since the serial interface of EIA-232 or EIA-574 is widely used as an interface for a serial mouse, it is easy to change from a mouse. Further, since a circuit that converts an analog voltage into an analog signal and outputs a serial signal is commercially available as a one-chip IC at low cost, the circuit can be easily manufactured.

Further, in the above embodiment, four light receiving elements are used in the angle detecting device.
Geometrically, three light receiving elements are also possible. A two-dimensional spatial angle can be obtained by performing a vector operation on the optical signals from the three light receiving elements using a circuit or software in a personal computer. In the above embodiment, three or four light receiving elements are used to detect a two-dimensional spatial angle. However, a two-dimensional light receiving element such as a two-dimensional PSD may be used. The two-dimensional PSD is expensive, but has the effect of making the device compact. In the above embodiment,
Although the light introducing hole 9 is a simple hole, the light introducing hole 9 may be covered with glass or a transparent resin, or may have a lens effect. The use of lenses increases the cost, but can improve the performance.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 6 shows an overall view of a pointing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 3 denotes an angle detector for the direction of gravity using a known inclinometer principle, reference numeral 40 denotes a communication device using radio waves or infrared rays, and reference numeral 41 denotes a foot switch type controller. Reference numeral 42 denotes a first switch, and 43 denotes a second switch.
Corresponds to the second button. 44 is a stop switch and 45 is a speed switch. When the person moves his or her head, the spatial angle of the angle detector 3 with respect to gravity changes, and accordingly, as in the first embodiment, a signal Vx for controlling the X position of the pointer 30 and a signal Vy for controlling the Y position according to the angle. Are generated, and those signals are AD-converted into digital signals. The signal is transmitted to the apparatus main body 6 by the communication device 40. The power for the angle detector 3 and the communication device 40 is obtained from a battery.

Since the transmission of the signals takes place wirelessly, the person is released from the cable. Since it is difficult to completely stop the human body, if you want to stop the pointer at one point, you can stop it regardless of the movement of the head by pressing the stop switch with your foot. Further, depending on the operation posture of the person, there is a case where it is desired to change the neutral position of the pointer. In this case, by changing the direction of the head while holding down the stop switch and releasing the stop switch, the position of the pointer before pressing the stop switch corresponds to the head direction at the time when the stop switch is released, that is, , The neutral position can be changed. Also, when the speed switch is depressed, the ratio of the magnitude of the movement of the pointer to the magnitude of the movement of the head can be changed to high speed, medium speed, low speed, high speed, medium speed, and so on. Therefore, to move the pointer accurately, a low speed may be selected. However, since the speed switch 45 is used less frequently than other switches,
It is made small to prevent malfunction. In the above embodiment, all switches are arranged on one controller 41.
The controller 41 may be divided into a plurality. For example, since the stop switch 44 is frequently used, only the stop switch 44 may be separated, and the stop switch 44 may be operated by the right foot and the other switches may be operated by the left foot.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention, the position of the pointer on the display is operated according to the direction of the operator's head, so that the pointer and the mouse button can be operated without using the hands. And a pointing device that does not hinder key input can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a pointing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an internal structure of an angle detector of the pointing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing connection of a pointing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing connection of a pulse circuit of the pointing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a chart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an overall view of a pointing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 Projector 3 Angle detector 4 Light shielding plate 5 Light receiving element 6 Device main body 9 Light introduction hole 11 Pulse circuit 20 EIA-232 21 Personal computer 22 Display 30 Pointer 40 Communication device 41 Controller

Claims (7)

[Claims] An angle detector attached to a head or a part of a body of a person, and a personal computer or a workstation according to an angle of a part of the head or the body detected by the angle detector. Pointing device for indicating the position of a pointer on a display. A light-shielding plate having a light-introducing hole, three or four light-receiving elements disposed behind the light-shielding plate, or an optical angle detector and a light projector provided with a two-dimensional PSD; A pointing device characterized by indicating a position of a pointer on a display of a personal computer or the like by detecting an angle of an angle detector with respect to light emitted from a projector. 3. The power consumption is reduced by transmitting a signal to a personal computer or the like using a serial or parallel interface provided as standard in the personal computer or the like, and by providing a pulse circuit for causing the projector to emit a pulse with a small duty ratio. 3. The pointing device according to claim 2, wherein the power is reduced and the circuit power can be obtained from a serial or parallel interface. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an inclinometer is used as an angle detector, and a position of a pointer on a display of a personal computer or the like is indicated according to an angle with respect to gravity of a human head or the like. A pointing device as described. 5. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an angle detecting device mounted on a head or a part of a human body, a main body connected to a personal computer or the like, and communication means for wirelessly transmitting signals between the angle detecting device and the main body. The pointing device according to claim 1, wherein: 6. A fixed operation pattern of a pointer,
The pointing device according to claim 1, wherein a signal corresponding to a mouse button is generated. 7. A controller according to claim 1, further comprising a controller for adjusting the correspondence between the output of the angle detector and the operation of the pointer or stopping the movement of the pointer regardless of the operation of the angle detector. A pointing device as described.