JPS59151229A - Coordinate retrieving system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten considerably the time required for retrieval, by retrieving only a detecting electrode corresponding to a display item when the presence or the absence of finger touch is detected on a display device. CONSTITUTION:A control part 1 and a detection control circuit 3 are connected with a bidirectional communicating circuit 10, and a data bus 11 is provided which transmits a detection address designating signal designating a detecting electrode 12, which should be connected to a detecting circuit 8, out of plural detecting electrodes 12 on a touch panel 5 from a retrieval controlling CPU6 to the detecting circuit 8. When finger touch is detected, a detection output 9 is transmitted to the CPU6. The CPU6 transfers a designated address at this time to the control part 1 through the circuit 10, and the control part 1 detects an indicated item display area to detect contents of a corresponding item. Thus, the time required for retrieval is shortened considerably because it is sufficient if only the detecting electrode 12 corresponding to the display item is retrieved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement in a coordinate search method for a pointing position information input device.

(bl) Prior Art and Problems The coordinate instruction search method in conventional coordinate input devices sequentially searches for all detection electrodes (coordinates). There was a problem that the detection time became long.

When actually using a touch panel, it is rare that the coordinates to be selected cover the entire screen, and generally it is often enough to specify one of several specific coordinates. In such a case, it would be sufficient to perform the search operation only on the specific few coordinates, but in the past, the search operation was performed over the entire screen, resulting in wasted time for the search.

[01 OBJECT OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a coordinate search method that can shorten the search time by eliminating the above-mentioned wasted time in the search operation.

fdl Structure of the Invention The present invention is characterized by a control Qi, a display that displays predetermined items at a predetermined position based on instructions from the control unit, and a touch panel that includes a plurality of detection electrodes and is disposed on the display screen. a display section comprising: a display section that scans the detection electrode to detect when a touch operation is performed on the touch panel, detects the touch operation and its position coordinates, and notifies the control section of the position coordinates; In a coordinate input device comprising a detection control section, the control section and the detection control section are connected via a two-way communication means, and the position coordinates of a display item displayed on the display section are input to the coordinate input device. The control section notifies the detection control section via the two-way communication means, and the detection control section scans only the detection electrode corresponding to the notified position coordinates.

(e) Examples of the invention An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The figure is a block diagram showing the system configuration of a coordinate input device used in an embodiment of the coordinate search method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a control unit of the coordinate input device, 2 is a display device,
3 is a detection control circuit, the display device 2 is composed of a display 4 and a touch panel 5;
is a search control processor (CPU)6. Note ↑, a device (
It is composed of a memory) 7, a detection circuit, and an interface adapter (not shown).

In the conventional coordinate input device, information flows only in the direction of control unit l - display device 2 - detection control circuit 3 - control i++1, so between the control unit 1 and the detection control circuit 3, The detection control circuit 3 is connected to the control unit 1 via a unidirectional communication means, and between the search control CPU 6 and the detection circuit 8, the search control CPU
Only a transmission line 9 for transmitting the detection output to 6 was provided.

In contrast, in this embodiment, a bidirectional communication means 101, for example, an R3-232C
(serial interface) or CP-IB (parallel interface, often used as a measurement control means), current loop, etc. A data bus 11 is newly provided for sending a search address designation signal specifying whether to connect to the detection circuit 8 from the search control CPU 6 to the detection circuit 8.

Next, the coordinate search method of the present invention will be explained together with the operation of the coordinate input device.

Questions are displayed on the display 4 based on instructions from the control unit 1. At this point, the control unit 1 knows in advance the display position of the item (answer item, etc.) to be instructed (finger-touched) in response to the above question, so the control unit 1 controls the display position coordinates of the above item. A signal specifying the position is transferred to the detection control circuit 3 via the bidirectional communication means 10 such as the R3-232C, and based on this, the detection control circuit 3 sequentially searches for the specified position coordinates. Specifically, the specification of the position coordinates to be searched is specified by the detection electrode 1 to be searched.
2. That is, the address information of the detection electrode corresponding to the area in which the two-answer item is displayed is transferred from the control section 1 to the detection control circuit 3. This address information is used for sequential search control.
It is read by the PU 6 and temporarily stored in the memory 7.

When the transfer of the address information of all the search and detection electrodes 12 is completed, the address information stored in the memory 7 is sequentially read out under the control of the search control CPU 6, and the address information that has been read is read out. A multiplexing circuit (not shown) provided in the detection circuit 8 is activated to connect the detection electrode 12 at the above address, and
Detects whether or not an instruction is given (presence or absence of finger touch). This operation is repeated for all the detection electrodes 12 at the designated address. When a finger touch is detected, the detection output is sent from the detection circuit 8. Search control Cl)
When U 6 detects the above detection output, it controls O1! the specified address at that time via communication means 1o such as R3-232C. ■Transfer to. The control unit 1 learns the item display area designated by this address information and detects the contents of the corresponding item.

As described above, when detecting the presence or absence of a finger touch on a display device, in the conventional coordinate detection method, it was necessary to scan all of the detection electrodes 12 of the touch panel 5, but according to this embodiment, It is only necessary to search for the detection electrode 12 corresponding to the displayed item. Therefore, the time required for searching is significantly reduced. For example, in the case of a touch panel having coordinates of 20 columns and 5 rows, the number of searches is 20 + 15-35 times in the conventional method, regardless of the number of display items, whereas in this embodiment, the number of searches is 20 + 15-35 times, regardless of the number of display items. If there are 10 items, then
The number of searches is reduced to 10+1-11 times.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and can be implemented with various modifications.

For example, in the above embodiments, an example has been described in which the detection electrodes corresponding to each display item 1 are scanned one by one, but this can be modified as follows.

That is, the detection electrodes corresponding to the display items are divided into a plurality of electrode groups. Then, specify a search address for each electrode group, search multiple electrodes belonging to each electrode group at the same time, and if a finger is detected in any electrode group, search the electrodes belonging to that electrode group individually. Alternatively, a search may be performed to specify the detection electrode that has been touched by a finger.

This modification also significantly reduces the number of searches and shortens the coordinate search time.

The above modification is also effective when performing a coordinate search of a coordinate input device having a complicated recombination configuration.

For example, if a plurality of detection electrodes 12 exist within the display area of an item, all the detection electrodes 12 belonging to the display area are connected in parallel, and a search is performed for each electrode group.

In this case, after detecting the finger tuff, there is no need to search again for each electrode belonging to that electrode group.

In the present invention, the meaning of "coordinates" does not necessarily mean xY coordinates, but also includes positional coordinates tυ determined by the arrangement order of the detection electrodes.

[f+ As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to shorten the coordinate search time in a coordinate input device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Claims (1)

[Claims] a display section comprising a display that displays predetermined items at a predetermined position based on instructions from the control section, and a touch panel provided on the display and that includes a plurality of detection electrodes; An instruction position information input device comprising: a detection control unit that scans an electrode and, when a touch operation is performed on the touch panel, detects the touch operation and its position, and notifies the control unit of the position information; In the device,
The control section and the detection control section are connected via a bidirectional communication means, and the position information of the display item displayed on the display section is transmitted from the control section to the detection control section via the bidirectional communication means. The coordinate search method is characterized in that the detection control unit scans only the detection electrode corresponding to the notified position information.