JPH1165756A - Handwriting input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To acquire the variance information with high sensitivity and to detect the up-down actions of a pen by using the signals sent from a switch part which is formed vertical to a penholder and undergone a conductive treatment at its projecting or recessing tip part as both writing direction and pressure data to recognize the characters. SOLUTION: A penholder store part 2 is unified with a store barrel 2b by the screwing via an outer circumference member having a hemispherical projection part 2a. The part 2a of the part 2 is supported with fixing in the tail plug direction of a penholder 1 via a support part 7 of a pen easing 4 which is cut in a hemispherical shape, and a fulcrum 2e where the penholder 1 can tilt around its ball core is set. At a switch part 3 formed by an elastic member and attached to the part 2 has a projecting part 3a which is undergone a conductive treatment so as to secure a key input operation against a switch base board part 6. Then the signals sent from the part 3 are used as both writing direction and pressure data to recognize the characters.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pen-type handwriting input device that recognizes handwritten characters by inputting them with a pen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Keyboards, mice, tablets, and the like are widely used as devices for inputting data to devices such as computers. As a device for inputting coordinates, a pen-type input device that does not require a tablet or the like and is more portable has also been realized.

[0003] The acceleration sensor inscribed in the pen device,
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1953/1992 discloses a technique for detecting movement information during writing of the apparatus itself and inputting and processing the writing information into a computer.
JP-A-21, JP-A-4-25609, JP-A-Hei7
110737 and JP-A-8-76914.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-95800 discloses a device for detecting acupressure applied to a pen tip during writing.
No. 78390, for example.

[0005] Most of such prior arts perform A / D conversion of analog data such as pressure changes and perform character recognition and calculations.

However, when the acceleration sensor is used, the behavior of the pen body during ordinary writing is very small, and there is a problem that information is not easily transmitted to the acceleration sensor. Although it is possible to electrically amplify the acceleration signal, noise is increased and it becomes difficult to extract necessary signal components. In particular, some sensors cannot detect static acceleration with a small acceleration sensor.

Further, it is necessary to precisely match the XY axes of the acceleration sensor with the direction of the pen axis when the pen is held, and to detect the up / down operation of the pen, which requires many sensors and switches in addition to the acceleration sensor. There was a big device.

[0008]

In order to solve these problems, a capacitance type force sensor is connected directly to a pen shaft,
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-16320 discloses an apparatus that uses an acceleration sensor together.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H11-207, an amplifying circuit is still necessary to detect a small behavior of the pen tip, and it is difficult to detect when the pen pressure is large.

Also, there is a problem of noise, a problem that the output deflection from the sensor becomes large in a pen holding direction at the time of writing, a home position return of the pen shaft and the sensor when writing is not performed, that is, when the pen tip is in a no-load state, There is a problem that it is difficult to correct the zero point output. In the case of a device that detects acupressure, there is a problem that noise other than the writing information actually required is large, and it is necessary to detect the pen up / down operation. However, there is a problem in that the device is greatly damaged in portability and expensive.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-289812, there is a device that outputs data by contact between a pen and a resistor and performs A / D conversion.
There is a possibility that a state where the contact is always made, that is, a state where the data is kept output. Also, when a user writes a character, the amount of movement of the pen tip is too large, and it is very difficult to write.

Therefore, the present invention is to solve these problems, and the information of the direction of friction on the writing paper surface directly applied to the pen tip during writing and the fluctuation of the intensity with respect to the time axis is written by a data processing device. By calculating and performing character recognition, the output from the switch becomes 0 in a state where the pen is raised above the writing surface, that is, in a no-load state, and it is possible to simultaneously detect the up-down operation of the pen. Since the output in the pen holding direction is generated at the moment when is written on the writing surface, the XY axes of the switch unit and the pen axis direction in the pen holding state can be easily matched with high accuracy.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a pen-shaped pen body and a pen shaft are housed so that a pen tip protrudes from an opening on one side of the pen body, and a hemisphere is formed in the center. The pen shaft receiving portion that forms the protrusion of the pen shaft, the pen shaft receiving portion is disposed perpendicularly to the pen shaft, and is provided with a plurality of convex portions at equal intervals on the circumference, and a conductive portion is provided on the convex portion or the tip of the convex portion. A switch part which has been subjected to a mechanical process, a support part which is fixed inside the pen body, and which is formed between the hemispherical projections of the pen shaft storage part so that the pen shaft can be tilted about a fulcrum, and a signal from the switch part. The above problem is solved by providing a data processing unit that performs character recognition processing as writing direction data and writing pressure data.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of non-conductive protrusions are provided at equal intervals on a circumference having a diameter different from the circumference of the conductive processed protrusion of the switch portion. Solve the problem.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned object is achieved by forming the switch portion from a material having elasticity.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the above object is achieved by disposing an elastic body between a pen body having a pen tip protruding and a pen shaft housing.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the pen shaft storage portion has a hollow pipe-shaped storage tube circumscribing the pen shaft and having a narrowed tail plug portion, and the pen shaft is configured to be detachable. This solves the above problem.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the above object is achieved by providing a rotation preventing portion between the pen shaft storage portion and the support portion for preventing the pen shaft storage portion from rotating.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the above object is achieved by providing a display unit for displaying the result of character recognition in the data processing unit on the pen body.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical and horizontal cross-sectional view of a writing information detection unit, which is a point of the present invention.
The pen shaft storage unit 2 integrates the storage cylinder 2b with an outer peripheral member having a hemispherical projection 2a by screwing or bonding. The storage tube 2b has a hollow pipe shape circumscribing the pen shaft 1 and has a shape in which the tail plug portion 2d is squeezed, the pen shaft 1 is stopped from going deep, and the pen shaft 1 is inserted through the other opening. Since the pen tip 1a is protruding, the pen tip 1 can be pinched and the pen shaft 1 can be replaced. For example, when the pen shaft 1 is a normal ballpoint pen core, a handwriting input device that can actually leave handwriting on paper or the like is used. In the case where the pen shaft 1 is a shaft center without ink, a pen-type handwriting input device like a normal mouse is provided.

Further, the pen shaft storage unit 2 is provided with a rotation prevention unit 2c for holding the pen shaft storage unit 2 and the support unit 7 so as not to hinder the tilting movement. Is prevented.

The hemispherical projection 2a of the pen housing 2 is fixedly supported in the direction of the tail plug side of the pen shaft by a supporting portion 7 corresponding to this and installed in a pen housing 4 having a hemispherical cutout shape. And a fulcrum 2e on which the pen shaft 1 can tilt about the main ball center 2a.
Is formed.

Therefore, by forming the tilting fulcrum 2e fixed in the direction of the tail plug side of the pen shaft, the direction of the resistance such as frictional force against the writing surface directly applied to the pen tip 1e and the strength of the direction with respect to the time axis. Variation information can be transmitted with high sensitivity.

The switch portion 3 formed of an elastic member attached to the pen shaft storage portion 2 has a convex portion 3a which is conductively processed so that a key input operation is performed between the switch portion 3 and the switch base portion 6. They are arranged at equal intervals on the circumference (in this embodiment, 8
Similarly, the same number of protrusions 3b for returning to the origin are formed. As another means for returning to the origin, the elastic body 5 can be disposed between the pen shaft housing 2 and the tip of the pen housing 4.

FIG. 3 is a pattern diagram of the switch base unit 6 of the device according to the present embodiment. The pattern of the common electrode 6a and the pattern in the respective directions 6b is as shown in FIG.
b. 6b is always pulled down and connected to the data processing device 8.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the tip of the pen when writing is performed in the direction of the arrow on the writing surface. When I write, 2
With e as a fulcrum, a key is input in the direction of the arrow, that is, on the side opposite to the writing direction.

FIG. 5 shows a key input correspondence table and an output data table. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5A, the number of key portions is eight. As shown in FIG. 5, key 0 is D0 of the data bus, key 1 is D1, key 2 is D1, and so on. And the key 7 is assigned as D7.
The common electrode is left high.

FIG. 5B is an output data table. FIG.
As shown in (B), when writing is performed with a weak force in the N direction, only the key 4 (D4) on the opposite side enters, and 10H (00001000B) is output to the data bus. When writing is performed in the N direction with a strong force, keys 3, 4 and 5 are simultaneously input, and 38H is output. Similarly N
In writing in the NW direction, 30H is output by simultaneously inputting the keys 4 and 5 with a weak force, and the keys 3, 4, 5, and 6 are simultaneously input with a strong force. It is output.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the data processing means from writing with the pen to performing character recognition. When writing with the pen is performed, the values shown in FIG. 5 can be obtained (S1), and this data is converted into character recognition data by the data processing means (S2). C1 is data obtained at this time (here, the numeral “2”) is directly converted into an image. This image is considerably deformed due to the tendency that the force in the SE direction (pen holding direction) becomes stronger in the right-handed direction than in the other directions. For this reason, the output data here becomes corrupted data. If a character recognition dictionary dedicated to the present invention that recognizes this corrupted data is used, character recognition is possible. It is determined whether there is a character recognition dictionary dedicated to the present invention (S3). If so, character recognition is performed using the dictionary dedicated to the present invention (S4). If there is no such data, the collapsed data is corrected in consideration of the force in the pen holding direction (S5) to obtain an image as shown in C2. As a result, the character recognition process can be performed using the normal character recognition process and the character recognition dictionary (S6).

[0029]

According to the present invention, by using a key input operation as a data acquisition method, the direction of the resistance such as frictional force against the writing surface directly applied to the pen tip at the time of writing with high sensitivity and the strength of the direction can be determined. Fluctuation information with respect to the time axis can be obtained, and the up-down operation of the pen can be detected at the same time. The XY axes of the switch unit and the pen axis direction in the pen holding state can be easily matched with high accuracy.

Further, since all can be digitally processed without using an expensive sensor, it can be constituted by a simple circuit, and is structurally low-priced and compact, and has a small moving amount of the pen tip. In addition, it becomes a pen-type input device that can be used like a normal pen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a writing information detection unit.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a switch base unit.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a pen tip.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing correspondence between key input and data output.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flow of processing from writing with a pen to character recognition.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 pen shaft 1a pen tip 2 pen shaft storage 2a hemispherical projection 2b storage cylinder 2c rotation prevention unit 2d storage cylinder tail plug 2e fulcrum 3 switch 3a conductive projection 3b home return projection 4 pen housing 5 elastic body Reference Signs List 6 board 6a common pattern 6b switch pattern 6c anti-rotation hole 7 indicating part 7a anti-rotation part hole 7b indicating part fixing fitting 8 data processing part 9 dictionary part 10 display part 11 battery part 12 interface part

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A pen-shaped pen body, a pen-shaft accommodating part for accommodating a pen shaft such that a pen tip protrudes from one side opening of the pen body, and forming a hemispherical projection in the center; A switch part with a plurality of protrusions arranged perpendicularly to the pen axis and at equal intervals on the circumference of the storage part, and a conductive part applied to the protrusions or the tips of the protrusions, and fixed inside the pen body And a support unit that forms the pen shaft so that it can be tilted about the fulcrum between the hemispherical projections of the pen shaft storage unit, and a signal from the switch unit that performs character recognition processing as writing direction data and writing pressure data. A handwriting input device comprising a data processing unit for performing the handwriting. 2. The handwriting according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of non-conductive protrusions are provided at equal intervals on a circumference having a diameter different from a circumference of the conductive processed protrusion of the switch portion. Input device. 3. The handwriting input device according to claim 1, wherein the switch unit is formed of a material having elasticity. 4. The handwriting input device according to claim 1, wherein an elastic body is disposed between the pen body having a protruding pen tip and the pen shaft storage portion. 5. The pen shaft storage portion has a hollow pipe-shaped storage tube circumscribing the pen shaft and having a narrowed tail plug portion, and the pen shaft is configured to be detachable. A handwriting input device as described. 6. The handwriting input device according to claim 1, further comprising a rotation preventing unit provided between the pen shaft storage unit and the support unit to prevent the pen shaft storage unit from rotating. 7. The handwriting input device according to claim 1, wherein a display unit for displaying a character recognition result in the data processing unit is provided on the pen body.