JPH11184585A - Electronic device and information storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic device for allowing plural operators to simultaneously operate touch pens and desired input instruction information. SOLUTION: A software cartridge 12 of a picture book type is mounted on a folding game device main body 10. On the inner side of the bottom lid 14 of the game device main body 10, a drawing tablet 20 is provided on the center, an execution button 22 is provided on the lower center of the drawing tablet 20 and touch pen holders 24 and 26 are provided on both left and right sides. The touch pen holders 24 and 26 respectively hold the touch pens 28 and 30. Respective players touch the drawing tablet 20 with the touch pens 28 and 30 and operate a picture book software.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an electronic device for inputting desired instruction information by bringing a touch pen close to a tablet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various video games for home use have been developed with a variety of exciting games, and some of them are very popular as entertainment. As one type of such a video game device, a video game device mainly for infants has been developed. As such a video game device,
There has been known a cartridge employing a picture book type cartridge so that an infant can play with interest (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. WO 96/22580, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-160752). Various games can be played by instructing a picture book with a touch pen to switch game screens, or by instructing a specific position of a game screen displayed on a monitor screen with a touch pen. In addition, by tracing a tablet with a touch pen like drawing a picture on paper with a paintbrush, a picture can be freely drawn on a monitor screen.

[0003]

However, the conventional video game apparatus is based on single play, and when playing with a large number of players, the only option is to play the single play game in turn. In addition, there was a lack of expansion as a game due to the restriction of playing alone. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device that allows a plurality of operators to simultaneously operate a touch pen and input desired instruction information.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an information storage medium suitable for an electronic device in which a plurality of operators can simultaneously operate a touch pen and input desired instruction information.

[0005]

The above object is achieved by providing a plurality of touch pens in an electronic device for inputting desired instruction information by bringing the touch pen close to the tablet.
This is achieved by an electronic device wherein desired instruction information is input by bringing each touch pen close to the tablet.

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device for inputting desired instruction information by bringing a touch pen close to a tablet, wherein the electronic device is provided with instruction information input means for inputting instruction information separately from the touch pen. And / or by inputting desired instruction information by bringing the instruction information input means close to the tablet.

In the above electronic device, the touch pen and / or the instruction information input means receives an electromagnetic wave from the tablet to detect a proximity position of the touch pen and / or the instruction information input means to the tablet. It may be. In the electronic device described above, an electromagnetic wave may be alternately received from the tablet by the touch pen and / or the instruction information input unit.

[0008] In the above electronic device, a storage means for storing the instruction information input by the touch pen and / or the instruction information input means may be further provided. The object is an information storage medium mounted on the electronic device described above, wherein a program to be executed based on instruction information input by the touch pen and / or the instruction information input unit is stored. This is achieved by an information storage medium.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A video game device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the game device body of the video game device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the video game device of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the video game device of the present embodiment.

The video game apparatus of the present embodiment has a picture book type software cartridge 12 mounted on a foldable game apparatus body 10. As shown in FIG. 1, the upper lid 16 is detached from the bottom lid 14 of the game apparatus main body 10 and opened, and the software cartridge 12 is inserted into a cartridge slot (not shown) inside thereof. On the inner side of the bottom cover 14 of the game apparatus body 10, a drawing tablet 20 is provided at the center, an execution button 22 is provided at the lower center of the drawing tablet 20, and touch pen holders 24 and 26 are provided on both left and right sides. .

The execution button 22 is operated by both players located on the left and right sides, and gives an execution instruction. In addition,
In addition to the execution button 22, direction buttons for instructing four directions of up, down, left, and right may be further provided. The right and left touch pen holders 24 and 26 hold the touch pens 28 and 30, respectively. The touch pens 28 and 30 are used to operate the picture book software by touching the drawing tablet 20. A pen button 28 is provided at the tip of the touch pens 28 and 30.
a, 30a are provided. The player is the pen button 28
An instruction is given by pressing a and 30a.

The drawing tablet 20 detects a position where the touch pens 28 and 30 are close to each other by an electromagnetic induction method. The drawing tablet 20 is provided with a plurality of parallel antenna lines extending vertically and horizontally, and sequentially transmits radio waves from these antenna lines. The touch pens 28 and 30 receive radio waves emitted from the antenna line of the drawing tablet 20. The position of the antenna line at the peak of the reception level is detected as the proximity position of the touch pens 28 and 30. By pressing the pen buttons 28a and 30a, the player gives an instruction based on the position. A method for identifying the two touch pens 28 and 30 will be described later.

Inside the upper lid 16 of the game apparatus body 10,
A picture book tablet 32 on which the picture book type software cartridge 12 is mounted is provided at the center. The picture book tablet 32 detects the position where the touch pens 28 and 30 approach each other by the same electromagnetic induction method as the drawing tablet 20. The picture book tablet 32 is also provided with a plurality of parallel antenna lines extending vertically and horizontally, and sequentially transmits radio waves from these antenna lines. The touch pens 28 and 30 receive radio waves emitted from the antenna line of the picture book tablet 32 and detect the proximity position. Two touch pens 28,
The identification method of 30 will be described later.

A power switch 34 for turning the power on and off is provided at the lower left portion of the picture book tablet 32. A microphone 36 for voice input is provided at the center of the picture book tablet 32. At the lower right side of the picture book tablet 32, a cartridge slot (not shown) into which the software cartridge 12 is inserted is provided.
The installed software cartridge 12 can be removed from the cartridge slot by pressing a reject button (not shown).

A page sensor 38 (see FIG. 2) is provided on the upper right side in the picture book tablet 32. The page sensor detects which page 12a of the picture book of the software cartridge 12 is open. A cut is formed in each page 12a of the picture book, and the cut width is widened in the page order. By doing so, the number of sensors to be shielded differs depending on the opened page, and the currently opened page can be detected.

The software cartridge 12 has a basic form like a picture book in which a plurality of pages 12a are bound by a binding ring 12b on the left edge. On each page 12a, a picture corresponding to the game program is drawn. A circuit board (not shown) is stored in a board storage section (not shown) below the software cartridge 12, and a program ROM 54 (FIG. 2) storing a game program is stored in the circuit board.
See).

The game apparatus main body 10 has an execute button 22
A keyboard 40 is connected for inputting character data or the like that is difficult to input by itself. Next, the hardware configuration of the video game device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The game device body 10 will be described. MPU
60 controls the entire video game device. The RAM 62 is a work memory of the MPU 60. A video display processor (VDP) 64 controls a drawing process of a background, a character, and the like. The video information is written to the video RAM 66. The video signal from the video display processor 64 is output from the video terminal 70 to the monitor 90.

The voice synthesis LSI (ADPCM) 72 synthesizes all voices such as words spoken by a character. Synthesize voice according to the game and pronounce. Voice signal from video display processor 64 and voice synthesis LSI 7
The audio signals from the two are mixed and output to the monitor 90 via the audio terminal 76. The controller 78 includes an execution button 22, touch pens 28, 30, and pen buttons 28a, 30.
a, monitor the states of the page sensor 38 and the keyboard 40 and output to the MPU 60 the input information by the operation of the player.

The controller 78 includes an analog switch 8
0, the picture book tablet 32 and the drawing tablet 20 are driven, input information is received from the touch pens 28 and 30 by the operation of the player, the positions of the touch pens 28 and 30 are determined from the detection signals, and the input positions are determined. MPU information
Output to 60. The microphone 36 is provided with a voice recognition LSI 37, and recognizes voice input from the microphone 36.

The MPU 60, RAM 62, video display processor 64, voice synthesis LSI 72, controller 78, and voice recognition LSI 37 are connected to an address bus 8
4, connected by a data bus 86 and a control bus 88. In the software cartridge 12, a program ROM 54 storing a game program is mounted on a circuit board (not shown). The software cartridge 12 is connected to the game device main body 10 via connectors 49 and 82, and an address bus 84, a data data bus 86, and a control bus 88 are connected thereto. The power lines (not shown) are also connected to the connectors 49 and 8.
2 is connected to the software cartridge 12.

Next, the touch pen input method according to the present embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram for explaining the touch pen input method, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing antenna sheets provided on the picture book tablet 32 and the drawing tablet 20, and FIG.
Is a time chart for explaining the touch pen input method.

In the game apparatus body 10 according to the present embodiment, a plurality of, for example, two touch pens 28 and 30 are used. The picture book tablet 32 and the drawing tablet 20 are treated as one continuous tablet, and the picture book tablet 32 and the drawing tablet 20 are distinguished by their positions. Below the tablet surface 100 of the continuous picture book tablet 32 and the drawing tablet 20, one continuous antenna sheet 102 is provided. As shown in FIG. 4, m antenna lines X0 to Xm are stretched in the X direction on the antenna sheet 102, and Y is orthogonal to the X direction.
The antenna lines Y0 to Yn are extended in the direction.

The antenna output signal generator 104 generates an antenna output signal for emitting radio waves from the antenna lines X0 to Xm and Y0 to Yn. The antenna output changeover switch unit 106 is connected to the antenna line X0 in the antenna sheet 102.
Xm and which of antenna lines Y0 to Yn are used to generate an antenna signal. The antenna output signal from the antenna output signal generation unit 104 is switched by the antenna output changeover switch unit 106, and the antenna line X
0 to Xm and Y0 to Yn.

An antenna (not shown) for detecting radio waves output from the antenna lines X0 to Xm and Y0 to Yn is provided in the touch pens 28 and 30 and a pre-stage for amplifying a signal detected by the antenna. An amplifier (not shown) is provided. The pen output signal selection switch unit 108
The detection signals from the two touch pens 28 and 30 are switched. The pen selection control unit 110 receives the two touch pens 28, 3
The user selects which one of the touch pens is valid among 0, and outputs a selection signal to the pen output signal selection switch unit 108.

The detection signal selectively switched by the pen output signal selection switch 108 is sent to the processing circuit 112
Is processed by The processing circuit unit 112 includes a filter,
A post-stage amplifier, a demodulation (detection) device, a comparator, and the like are provided to convert a detection signal, which is an analog signal, into a digital signal. Detection signals from the plurality of touch pens 28 and 30 are as follows:
The signal is selected by the pen output signal selection switch unit 108, converted into a digital detection signal by the processing circuit unit 112,
The signal is output to the antenna output control unit / pen coordinate value detection control unit 114.

The antenna output control unit / pen coordinate value detection control unit 114 controls the switching of the antenna lines X0 to Xm and Y0 to Yn by the antenna output changeover switch unit 106, and controls the digital detection signal from the processing circuit unit 112. The coordinate values at which the touch pens 28 and 30 are located are detected based on the coordinates. The coordinate values of the touch pens 28 and 30 are determined by the antenna lines X0 to Xm and Y0 to Yn that are switched when the digital detection signal is detected.

The pen coordinate value memory 116 stores the coordinate values of the touch pens 28 and 30 detected by the antenna output control unit / pen coordinate value detection control unit 114, and outputs the coordinate values of each pen. Next, the two touch pens 28, 3
The method of detecting the position of 0 will be described with reference to FIG.

The antenna lines X0 to Xm, Y0 of the antenna sheet 102 are controlled by the antenna output switch 106.
To Yn are alternately scanned as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. After scanning the antenna lines X0 to Xm in order,
The antenna lines Y0 to Yn are sequentially scanned. Thereafter, scanning of the antenna lines X0 to Xm and the antenna lines Y0 to Y
The scanning of n is repeated alternately.

In this embodiment, the detection of the coordinate value of the first touch pen 28 and the detection of the coordinate value of the second touch pen 30 are performed alternately. When selecting the first touch pen 28, the pen selection signal is set to a high level, and when selecting the second touch pen 30, the pen selection signal is set to a low level. Initially,
The pen selection signal is set to high level, and the pen selection control unit 11
By selecting 0, the first touch pen 28 is selected. Only the detection signal of the first touch pen 28 is output to the processing circuit unit 112 by the pen output signal selection switch unit 108. First,
The antenna lines X0 to Xm are scanned, and the Y coordinate position is detected as shown in FIG. Then, the antenna line Y
0 to Yn are scanned, and the X coordinate position is detected as shown in FIG. The detected position coordinate value of the touch pen 28 is stored and held in the pen coordinate value memory 116.

Next, the pen selection signal is set to low level,
The pen selection control unit 110 selects the second touch pen 30. The pen output signal selection switch unit 108
Only the detection signal of the touch pen 30 is output to the processing circuit unit 112. First, the antenna lines X0 to Xm are scanned,
As shown in FIG. 5D, the Y coordinate position is detected. Subsequently, the antenna lines Y0 to Yn are scanned, and the X coordinate position is detected as shown in FIG. The detected position coordinate value of the touch pen 30 is stored and held in the pen coordinate value memory 116.

Thereafter, similarly, the first touch pen 28
And the position detection of the second touch pen 30 are alternately repeated. Thus, the two touch pens 28, 3
The detection of the position coordinate value of 0 is alternately repeated, and the coordinate value is stored and held in the pen coordinate value memory 116, so that the coordinate value of the pen is appropriately read out from the pen coordinate value memory 116 as necessary, and each touch pen 28, 30 coordinate values can be known at any time.

According to the present embodiment, since two touch pens can be used, an interesting game different from the conventional game can be realized. For example, a plurality of players can participate in the same game at the same time, and the inconvenience of giving up a pen and the inconvenience of scrambling as in the related art are eliminated. Also, a plurality of people can draw together on the same monitor 90, and can develop an interesting drawing game different from the conventional one. Also, a plurality of respondents can simultaneously answer the same question as in a quiz program.

In this embodiment, the touch pen 28,
30 is provided with a connector and can be detachably connected to the game apparatus body 10. Therefore, by using another device having a built-in antenna for position detection in place of the touch pen, it is possible to realize more various games. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, instead of the touch pen 28, a doll 120 having a built-in antenna is connected to the game apparatus body 10. The game device body 10 can detect the position of the doll 120. Various developments are possible from the position information of the doll 120. For example, when the doll 120 is placed on the drawing tablet 20, the doll image 124 is made to appear at a corresponding position in the monitor 90 from the position information of the doll 120. Further, when the doll 120 is moved on the drawing tablet 120, the doll image 124 in the monitor 90 is moved to a corresponding position in the monitor 90 where the doll 124 is walking.
Is displayed as if walking.

A bat-type switch (not shown) for rotating the bat may be provided on the drawing tablet 20, and an antenna may be built in at the tip of the bat. By operating the bat, a unique baseball hitting operation input is possible.

[If there is a game example using other things instead of the touch pen, please describe. A video game device according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an outline of the video game device of the present embodiment.

The video game apparatus according to the present embodiment also has a picture book type software cartridge 202 mounted on a foldable game apparatus main body 200. The upper cover 206 is removed from the bottom cover 204 of the game apparatus main body 200 and opened, and the software cartridge 202 is inserted into the cartridge slot 222 inside the same. Game device body 2
00, a drawing tablet 210 is provided at the center, a run button 212 and a direction button 214 are provided on the left side of the drawing tablet 210, and a run button 216 is provided on the right side of the drawing tablet 210. ing.

The execute button 212 and the direction button 214
It is mainly operated by the player located on the left side, and gives an execution instruction and four direction directions of up, down, left, and right. The execution button 216 is mainly operated by the player located on the right side, and gives an execution instruction. In addition,
A direction button may be provided on the right side. The drawing tablet 210 uses the touch pens 230 and 23 by an electromagnetic induction method.
2 detects an approaching position. On the drawing tablet 210, a plurality of parallel antenna lines are stretched vertically and horizontally, and radio waves are sequentially transmitted from these antenna lines. The touch pens 230 and 232 are connected to the drawing tablet 210.
To receive the radio waves emitted from the antenna line. The position of the antenna line at which the peak of the reception level is the touch pen 2
30 and 232 are detected as proximity positions.

Inside the upper cover 206 of the game apparatus main body 200, a picture book type software cartridge 20 is provided at the center.
2 is provided with a picture book tablet 220 to which the tablet 2 is attached. This picture book tablet 220 uses the same electromagnetic induction method as the drawing tablet 210 to use the touch pen 23.
0 and 232 detect the proximity position. The picture book tablet 230 is also provided with a plurality of parallel antenna lines extending vertically and horizontally, and sequentially transmits radio waves from these antenna lines. The touch pens 230 and 232 receive radio waves emitted from the antenna line of the picture book tablet 220 and detect the proximity position.

Touch pen holders 226 and 228 for inserting and holding the touch pens 230 and 232 are provided on both left and right sides of the picture book tablet 220. The touch pens 230 and 232 are used to operate the picture book software by touching the drawing tablet 210 and the picture book tablet 220. At the tips of the touch pens 230 and 232, pen buttons (not shown) are provided. The player gives an instruction by pressing a pen button. A power switch 224 for turning the power on and off is provided at the lower left portion of the picture book tablet 220.

At the lower right side of the picture book tablet 220, a cartridge slot 222 into which the software cartridge 202 is inserted is provided. The installed software cartridge 202 can be removed from the cartridge slot 222 by pressing a reject button (not shown). A page sensor (not shown) is provided on the upper right side in the picture book tablet 220. The page sensor detects which page 202a of the picture book of the software cartridge 202 is open.

The software cartridge 202 has a basic form like a picture book in which a plurality of pages 202a are bound by a binding ring 202b on the left edge. Each page 202
In a, a picture corresponding to the game program is drawn.
Substrate storage section 20 under software cartridge 202
A circuit board (not shown) is stored in 2c, and a program ROM (not shown) storing a game program is mounted on the circuit board.

According to this embodiment, since two touch pens can be used, an interesting game different from the conventional game can be realized. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. For example, in the above embodiment, the infant video game device is used, but the present invention may be applied to a game device having another configuration.

The present invention may be applied not only to the game device but also to an electronic device such as an electronic tablet for electronically drawing a picture. In the above embodiment, the proximity position of the touch pen is detected by a method of receiving an electromagnetic wave from the tablet with a touch pen or the like, but the position of the touch pen or the like on the tablet may be detected by another method.

[0043]

As described above, in the electronic apparatus for inputting desired instruction information by bringing the touch pen close to the tablet as in the present invention, a plurality of touch pens are provided and each touch pen is brought close to the tablet. Since each of the desired instruction information is input, a plurality of operators can simultaneously operate the touch pen to input the desired instruction information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a video game device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a video game device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram illustrating a touch pen input method of the video game device according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a picture book tablet and an antenna sheet provided on the drawing tablet in the video game device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a time chart for explaining a touch pen input method in the video game device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a video game device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a video game device according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

[Description of Signs] 10: Game device body 12: Game cartridge 12a: Page 12b: Binding ring 14: Bottom cover 16: Top cover 20: Draw tablet 22: Execution button 24, 26 ... Touch pen holder 28, 30 ... Touch pen 28a, 30a ... Pen button 34 ... Power switch 36 ... Microphone 37 ... Speech recognition LSI 40 ... Keyboard 49 ... Connector 50 ... Board accommodating part 54 ... Program ROM 60 ... MPU 62 ... RAM 64 ... VDP 66 ... Video RAM 70 ... Video terminal 72 ... ADPCM 76 Audio terminal 78 Controller 80 Analog switch 82 Connector 84 Address bus 86 Data bus 88 Control bus 90 Monitor 100 Tablet surface 102 Antenna sheet 104 Antenna output signal generator 10 ... Antenna output changeover switch section 108 ... Pen output signal selection switch section 110 ... Pen selection control section 112 ... Processing circuit section 114 ... Antenna output control section / pen coordinate value detection control section 116 ... Pen coordinate value memory 200 ... Game apparatus main body 202 ... Software cartridge 202a ... Page 202b ... Binding ring 202c ... Substrate storage unit 206 ... Top cover 210 ... Drawing tablet 212 ... Execute button 214 ... Direction button 216 ... Execute button 222 ... Cartridge slot 224 ... Power switch 226,228 ... Touch pen holder 230, 232 ... touch pen

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An electronic device for inputting desired instruction information by bringing a touch pen close to a tablet, comprising: providing a plurality of touch pens; and inputting desired instruction information by bringing each touch pen close to the tablet. An electronic device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. An electronic device for inputting desired instruction information by bringing a touch pen close to a tablet, comprising: instruction information input means for inputting instruction information separately from the touch pen; An electronic apparatus, wherein desired instruction information is input by bringing the instruction information input unit and the tablet close to each other. 3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the touch pen and / or the instruction information input unit receives an electromagnetic wave from the tablet, and the touch pen and / or the instruction information input unit to the tablet. An electronic device for detecting a proximity position of the electronic device. 4. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein electromagnetic waves are alternately received from the tablet by the touch pen and / or the instruction information input unit. 5. The electronic device according to claim 3, further comprising storage means for storing the instruction information input by the touch pen and / or the instruction information input means. 6. An information storage medium mounted on the electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the information storage medium is based on instruction information input by the touch pen and / or the instruction information input unit. An information storage medium storing a program to be executed.