JPH11338634A - Mouse input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable the detection point of a moving vector to set to a virtually free position by calculating a movement detected as measured rotation of a virtual ball through geometric coordinate conversion. SOLUTION: A two-dimensional coordinate system 8 is called a mouse coordinate system, the center of a 1st ball 6 is regarded as an original point, and rollers 9 and 10 are in contact with the 1st ball 6, so that rotations along an X axis and a Y axis are detected respectively. A roller 11 is in contact with a 2nd ball 7 and the rotation of the 2nd ball 7 along the X axis is detected. The rollers 9, 10, and 11 are fitted with rotary encoders 12, 13, and 14 respectively, and the rotary encoders output corresponding pulses as the rollers rotate. A control part 15 counts those pulses to measure the movement of the 1st ball 6 and 2nd ball 7, and calculate the moving vector at a virtual ball position set to an arbitrary position and sends it to a computer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an input device connected to a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a word processor, or the like, and to a mouse used as a pointing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as a mouse best used as a pointing device, a mouse using a ball in a portion for reading a moving amount is known. In general, a mouse is moved by a user's hand on a surface of a mouse pad or the like (by sliding) so that a ball built in the mouse is moved to a surface of the mouse pad or the like. By contacting and rotating, the amount of rotation of the ball is transmitted to a rotary encoder incorporated in the mouse, and the movement vector (horizontal (X-axis direction), This is for calculating a moving distance in the vertical direction (Y-axis direction). There are various types of mice having the above-described configuration, and some of the balls installed on the bottom surface of the mouse are arranged at various positions. Is fixed, and it is impossible to change the position of the ball.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional structure, the detection unit (the ball for reading the movement amount) of the movement vector of the mouse is fixed at a specific position. When a plurality of mice (mouse in which the movement amount reading balls are provided at different positions) are used in different scenes, and when the entire mouse is moved uniformly, the movement vector is the same, but the movement vector is the same. When the user moves the mouse with the wrist of the hand holding the mouse as a fulcrum, a rotational motion is applied to the mouse, so that a different movement vector is obtained even if the user performs the same operation. Therefore, there is a problem that the usability is poor depending on the user's preference.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is connected to a computer or a word processor having a display screen, and is used for inputting characters, numerals, symbols, and the like. A mouse for inputting an amount of movement of a coordinate serving as an index on a display screen. The mouse has a built-in ball that freely rotates in accordance with the movement of the mouse, and measures the rotation of the ball to provide the mouse with the mouse. A virtual ball at a detection point virtually set at an arbitrary position with respect to the mouse based on the parallel movement amount and the rotation amount of the origin of the fixed coordinate system is calculated based on the parallel movement amount and the rotation amount. In this case, the amount of movement detected when measuring the result of rotation of the virtual ball according to the movement of the mouse is calculated by geometric coordinate transformation, and the amount of movement is connected. To the computer It is intended to propose a mouse input device.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention relates to a method for detecting the movement of a cursor on a mouse body used for controlling the position of a cursor serving as a mark when inputting data or the like using a computer. For a mouse with a built-in ball, measure the amount of translation and rotation of the coordinate system fixed to the mouse, and determine whether the virtual ball set at an arbitrary position has rotated according to the movement of the mouse. Is used to calculate the movement vector of the mouse.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a mouse 1 according to the present invention in use. By moving the mouse 1 connected to the computer 2, the pointer 4 on the screen of the display device 3 of the computer 2 moves in accordance with the movement of the mouse 1, and the pointer 4 is adjusted to a desired position. be able to. Reference numeral 5
Is a button used to designate a cursor (not shown), and one or a plurality of buttons are provided depending on the type of mouse.

The configuration of the mouse used in the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The mouse 1 has a first ball 6 and a second ball 7 therein. The bottom surface of the mouse 1 has a longitudinal direction so that the first ball 6 and the second ball 7 can be installed on a flat place such as a mouse pad (not shown). Has two openings (not shown) so that the user (not shown) can rotate the mouse 1 in any direction by moving the mouse 1.

A two-dimensional coordinate system 8 fixed to the mouse 1 is called a mouse coordinate system. The center of the first ball 6 is the origin, the longitudinal direction along the central axis of the mouse 1 is the Y axis, and is orthogonal to it. Are defined as the X axis. The rollers 9 and 10 are in contact with the first ball 6, and the roller 9 rotates the first ball 6 in the direction along the X-axis, and
Numeral 0 detects the rotation of the first ball 6 in the direction along the Y axis. The roller 11 is in contact with the second ball 7, and detects the rotation of the second ball 7 in the direction along the X axis. Rotary encoders 12, 13, and 14 are attached to the rollers 9, 10, and 11, respectively, and output pulses corresponding to the rotation of each of the above-described rollers. Control unit 1
5 counts those pulses to form the first box.
The movement amounts of the ball 6 and the second ball 7 are measured, a movement vector of a virtual ball position set at an arbitrary position is calculated, and transmitted to a computer (not shown).

Next, a detection point of a moving vector representing a virtual ball will be described with reference to FIG. In the mouse coordinate system 16, the center of the first ball 6 is located at the first detection point P.
1 = (0,0) and the center of the second ball 7 is defined as a second detection point P2 = (0, d). In addition, virtual
Is defined as an arbitrary position P0 = (x0, y0) in the mouse coordinate system as a virtual detection point. The distance of the virtual detection point from the origin is d0, and the distance of the virtual detection point from the y axis is θ0. The mouse movement vector is calculated and output as a result of the virtual ball of the mouse being rotated with the movement of the mouse.

A method of converting the movement vector detected at the first detection point and the second detection point into the movement vector at the virtual detection point will be described with reference to FIGS. The detected movement vector is decomposed into a translation vector related to the origin of the mouse coordinate system and a rotation vector around the origin of the mouse coordinate system, and these vectors are mapped to virtual detection points. More specifically, if the mouse 1 moves from the position 18 at the time T in the reference absolute coordinate system 17 to the position 19 at the time T ′ in the reference absolute coordinate system 17 from time T to time T ′ = T + ΔT, the absolute coordinate system 17 The mouse coordinate system moves from position 20 at time T to position 21 at time T '. The movement amount detected at the first detection point and the second detection point during this ΔT is represented by Δx1, the detection amount of the first ball 6 in the X-axis direction is represented by Δx1, and the detection amount of the first ball 6 in the Y-axis direction is represented by Δx1. Δ
y1 and the detected amount of the second ball 7 in the x-axis direction is Δx2
Is defined as Since the first detection point and the second detection point are on the same axis with respect to the Y-axis of the mouse coordinate system, only the detection amount in the X-axis direction can be obtained. Just define it.

Then, with reference to the mouse coordinate system 20 at the time T in the absolute coordinate system 17, the mouse coordinate system 21 that has moved during ΔT moves relative to the mouse coordinate system 20 at the time T as measured on the mouse coordinate system 20. Considering that the relative movement vector of the first detection point is ΔP1, the relative movement vector of the second detection point is ΔP2. If there is no rotational movement around the origin during ΔT, ΔP1 is equal to (Δx1, Δy1). However, if there is a rotational movement around the origin, the measurement system itself fixed to the mouse coordinate system will rotate, and thus will not be equal to (Δx1, Δy1). However, if the measurement time interval ΔT is made sufficiently small, the rotation around the origin becomes very small, so that ΔP1 ≒ (Δx
1, Δy1). Since the measurement time interval ΔT can be determined independently of the time interval for sending the movement amount to the computer, it may be set based on the required accuracy.

On the other hand, ΔP2 is ΔP1 ≒ (Δx2, Δy1) because the first detection point and the second detection point are on the same axis with respect to the Y axis of the mouse coordinate system as described above. Therefore, the mouse 1 at the time T in the absolute coordinate system 17
Based on the mouse coordinate system 20 at time 8, the vector representing how much the mouse coordinate system 21 at the time of the mouse 19 moved during the time ΔT has been measured on the mouse coordinate system 20 at time T is , ΔPr, ΔPr = ΔP2−Δ
P1 = (Δx2−Δx1,0) = (Δxr, 0)

By mapping the rotation vector .DELTA.Pr to the virtual detection point and further applying the translation vector .DELTA.P1, the virtual detection point moves during the time .DELTA.T with respect to the mouse coordinate system 20 at the time T. You can ask. (See FIG. 5) In FIG. 5, however, the movement vector is shown extremely large for easy understanding. ΔP
To map the virtual detection point P0 with r as the origin, ΔPr may be multiplied by d0 / d and rotated by θ0. In the affine transformation for geometrically transforming the two-dimensional coordinate system (x, y), the affine transformation multiplied by α is expressed as follows.

[0014]

(Equation 1)

An affine transformation rotating by φ around the origin is expressed as follows.

[0016]

(Equation 2)

Further, the affine transformation for translating the vector transformed as described above by (a, b) is expressed as follows.

[0018]

(Equation 3)

Accordingly, the following is obtained by combining the coordinate transformations.

[0020]

(Equation 4)

Where cos θ0 = y0 / d0, sin
θ0 = −x0 / d0 was used. As a result, the movement vector of the virtual detection point can be obtained by the following equation.

ΔP0 = (Δx1 + y0 × Δxr / d, Δ
y1−x0 × Δxr / d)

The mouse movement vector thus obtained is transmitted in a format required by the computer.

The first detection point P1 and the second detection point P2 are physically fixed detection points, while P0 is a virtual detection point in calculation, so that it can be changed, for example, by software. can do. P0 does not need to be located on the bottom surface of the mouse 1 main body, and can be set at any position including the outside of the mouse 1 main body. Further, if the position P0 of the virtual ball can be changed through the driver and the application program of the computer 2 to which the apparatus is connected, the mouse 1 can be freely changed and set during operation. It is possible. For example, when the same computer is used by a plurality of users, it is conceivable that the position is changed according to each user's preference or the position is changed according to the purpose of use of a specific application program. it can.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of the mouse 22 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The ball 23 rotates in a free direction according to the movement of the mouse 22. The mouse coordinate system 24, a roller for measuring the rotation of the ball 23 in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction, and a rotary encoder similar to those in the first embodiment are used. doing.
In this embodiment, there is no second ball, and the roller 25 detects the rotation of the ball 23 about an axis orthogonal to both the X-axis and the Y-axis. A rotary encoder 26 is attached to the roller 25, and the control unit 27 controls each rotary.
From the outputs of the encoders 12 and 13, a virtual ball movement vector is calculated.

The movement vector of the virtual ball position is calculated as follows. In the mouse coordinate system, ball 2
The center of 3 is defined as P1 = (0,0), and the virtual ball position is defined as P0 = (x0, y0). In the absolute coordinate system for reference (see FIG. 4), from time T to time T ′ = T +
When the mouse 22 moves over .DELTA.T, the detected amount of the ball 23 in the X-axis direction is .DELTA.x1, the detected amount of the Y-axis is .DELTA.y1, and the detected amount of rotation is .theta. In radians. Based on the mouse coordinate system, the relative movement vector ΔP1 measured on the mouse coordinate system at the time T of the mouse coordinate system moved during ΔT is sufficient for ΔT as in the first embodiment. If it is small, ΔP1 ≒
(Δx1, Δy1).

The virtual ball position P0 is a position obtained by rotating (x0, y0) around the origin of the mouse coordinate system by θ from (x0, y0) during ΔT and translating by ΔP1. Go to Therefore, when the position of the virtual ball position P0 at the time T 'is obtained on the mouse coordinate system at the time T, the above-mentioned (Equation 2) and (Equation 3) are used. 1, it can be obtained as follows using sin θ ≒ θ.

[0028]

(Equation 5)

Therefore, .DELTA.P0, that is, the virtual ball position movement vector is as follows.

ΔP0 = (Δx1−y0 × θ, Δy1 + x
0 × θ)

[0031]

Since the present invention has the above configuration, the detection point of the movement vector of the mouse can be set at a virtually free position according to the user's preference. This makes it possible to obtain a feeling of use that is more suited to the user's preference than that of the mouse.

[Brief description of the drawings]

Fig. 1 Example of mouse usage

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a mouse according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing detection points of a movement vector.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a movement vector of a detection point.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a detection point movement vector.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a mouse according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mouse 2 Computer 3 Display device 4 Pointer 5 Button 6 First ball 7 Second ball 8 Two-dimensional coordinate system 9 Roller 10 Roller 11 Roller 12 Rotary encoder -Dot 13 Rotary Encoder 14 Rotary Encoder 15 Control Unit 16 Mouse Coordinate System 17 Absolute Coordinate System 18 Mouse 19 Mouse 20 Mouse Coordinate System 21 Mouse Coordinate System 22 Mouse 23 Ball 24 Mouse Coordinate System 25 Roller 26 Rotary encoder 27 Control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A mouse connected to a computer or a word processor having a display screen for inputting a moving amount of a coordinate serving as an index on the display screen when characters, numbers, symbols, etc. are input. There is a built-in ball that rotates freely in accordance with the movement of the mouse, and calculates the amount of translation and rotation of the origin of the coordinate system fixed to the mouse by measuring the rotation of the ball. When a virtual ball at a detection point virtually set at an arbitrary position with respect to the mouse based on the translation amount and the rotation amount is built in, the virtual ball rotates according to the movement of the mouse. A mouse input device for calculating a movement amount detected when the result of the measurement is measured by geometrical coordinate conversion and transmitting the movement amount to a connected computer. 2. A first and a second ball installed at a predetermined distance from each other in the direction of the central axis of the mouse, and are orthogonal to the central axis and the central axis of the first ball. It has a function of measuring the amount of movement in the axial direction, a function of measuring the amount of movement in the axial direction orthogonal to the central axis of the second ball, and has a function of measuring the amount of movement of the first ball. 2. The mouse input device according to claim 1, wherein a movement amount at a virtually set detection point is calculated by using the amount of translation and the amount of movement of the second ball as the amount of rotation. 3. A built-in one ball, having a function of measuring a movement amount of the ball in a central axis direction of the mouse and an axial direction orthogonal to the central axis, and an axis orthogonal to the two axes. 2. The mouse input device according to claim 1, further comprising a function of measuring a rotation amount of a surrounding ball, and calculating a movement amount at a virtually set detection point from the movement amount and the rotation amount. apparatus.