JPS593538A - Key switch for movement of cursor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To move easily and quickly a cursor to an objective position, by outputting a moving direction deciding signal of a cursor and a moving speed selecting signal of the cursor, in response to displacement in the horizontal direction of a key top and in response to displacement in its vertical direction, respectively. CONSTITUTION:A CPU manages the movement of a cursor, and checks periodically a terminal 8t2 of a plate spring contact 8. Subsequently, when a cursor moving key 4 is pushed in the horizontal direction, and plate spring contacts 81 and 82 are closed, the terminal 8t2 is short-circuited to a grounded terminal 8t1, therefore, ''0'' V is outputted. In case when they are not closed, however, it becomes, for instance, +5V by an operation of a pull-up resistance R. Accordingly, whether the contact is opened or closed is known by checking the terminal 8t2. Therefore, in which direction the cursor is to be moved can be detected by monitoring the terminal 8t2 of four sets of plate spring contacts. In the same way, whether the cursor is to be moved quickly or not can be detected by monitoring a terminal 11t2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a key switch for moving a cursor.

Conventionally, among the means for changing the display position on the CRT screen,
There is one in which four cursor movement key switches indicating up/down and left/right movement directions are arranged for easy operation in accordance with the human sense of direction. This is the most popular type of console for general-purpose computers because it is cheap and simple.

To change the display position on the screen using such key switches, for example, press the Up key with an upward arrow to move the cursor vertically upwards, then press the Left key to move the cursor horizontally to the left. It will be done.

Whether or not the mechanism consisting of these multiple direction designation keys matches the finger operations based on the sense of direction designation of the operator looking at the screen is to be examined, for example, when playing a game using a personal computer that has recently become popular. You'll understand when you go there. In order to quickly move the cursor on a maze partitioned into rectangular shapes, a user is required to be quite skilled in operating the cursor movement keys.

That is, although the cursor moving means consisting of the four keys has a rational functional configuration, it cannot be said that it necessarily matches the finger operations resulting from the sense of direction designation of the operator looking at the screen. Furthermore, when operating the cursor in the direction of movement toward the desired display position (in the case of sequential operation, it is necessary to visually select the key switch, press the key switch, etc.), and therefore it is difficult to move the cursor smoothly. It is difficult and takes time to set the cursor position.

The present invention has been proposed in view of these problems in the prior art, and its purpose is to obtain a control signal for moving a cursor by operating a single key top. It has a key switch that allows the operator to select the direction of cursor movement by sliding it horizontally, and also allows the operator to easily change the speed of cursor movement by pressing the key top in the vertical direction. It is there to provide.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a cursor movement key switch that matches the natural movement of a finger resulting from an operator's direction designation sense and is configured to extract selection information on the cursor movement speed from the up and down movement of the finger.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a personal computer equipped with a cursor moving key switch according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, the main body 1 of this personal computer houses a CPU 13 that controls cursor movement, a ROM 15 that stores a control program, and a RAM 14 that is used by the CPU 13. Further, a display section 2 and a keyboard section 3 are provided on the front section. Note that FIG. 2 is a plan view showing details of the keyboard portion 3 including the cursor movement keys 4. As shown in FIG.

Next, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the operation of the key tops when moving the cursor k on the display section 2 to the position of point (a) along the dotted line as shown in FIG. 83 will be explained. Fourth
In the plan view of the cursor movement key 4 shown in the figure, place your finger near the center (point B) of the key top 5, or apply a sliding force to the edge in the upper left direction (arrow A) as if pinching it with multiple fingers. Then, the cursor starts moving toward point (a) on the display section 2. Here, if the distance to point (a) is long and you want to move the cursor quickly, slide the key top 5 upward to the left and add a pressing blade near the center (point B). Good. The cursor speed is increased, and when the pressing blade is removed when the cursor approaches point (a), the cursor returns to its original moving speed.

Next, when the cursor k reaches the position of point (a), if the sliding force is removed, the cursor comes to rest at the position of point (a) and ends its movement.

The movement of the cursor by such key top operations is closely related to the structure of the cursor movement keys 4 of the embodiment described below. FIG. 5(A) is a sectional view showing the structure of the cursor movement key. In the figure, a spherical motion-conducting ball and a leaf spring contact 8 are provided around the slide portion 6. Further, the leaf spring contact 8 includes leaf spring contacts 81 and 82 which are spaced apart by an insulator 9 as shown in FIG. 6(A). These leaf spring contacts 8I and 8
2, when a horizontal force is applied to the key top 5, the slide portion 6 is moved and comes into contact as shown in FIG. 6('B). FIG. 5(D) is a plan view showing the arrangement of four leaf spring contacts 8 and one leaf spring contact 11 included in the cursor movement key 4. FIG. In the figure, assuming that the X and Y axes are orthogonal to each other, for example, leaf spring contacts 8X and 8X' arranged on the X axis are associated with horizontal cursor movement on the display unit 2. The leaf spring contacts 8Y and 8Y' arranged on the Y axis are also associated with vertical cursor movement. Now, by sliding the key top 5 in any direction, one or two leaf spring contacts 8 come into contact, and information based on this contact is read by the CPU 13, which controls the direction of movement of the cursor. Ru. Similarly, a spherical motion-conducting ball 10 and a leaf spring contact 11 are provided on the underside of the key top 5 which is attached to the slide portion 6 so as to be able to freely slide vertically. As shown in FIG. 1 , leaf spring contacts 11 . and 112. These leaf spring contacts 11. and 112 are shown in FIG. 7 (
Contact as shown in B). Furthermore, this leaf spring contact 1
1 is located on the intersection of the X and Y axes in FIG. 5(D), and is provided to respond to the pressing blade on the X axis perpendicular to this, and the key top 5 is pressed in the slid state. By pressing down, the leaf spring contact 11 comes into contact, and information based on this contact is read by the CPU 13, thereby controlling the cursor to move faster.

This aspect will be specifically explained below by taking an example in FIG.

When you place your finger near the center of the key top 5 (point B) and slide the key top 5 in the direction of A, force is applied to both the leaf spring contacts 8X and 8Y in FIG. comes into contact.

The CPU 13 reads this contact information and moves the cursor k on the display section 2 vertically upward and horizontally to the left almost simultaneously. In this state, if you apply an increasing force in the vertical downward direction to the finger placed near the center of the key top 5 (the 5th
Figure C), the leaf spring contact 11 makes contact. The CPU 13 reads this contact information and works to increase the moving speed of the cursor on the display section 2. Furthermore, when you release your finger from the key top 5 in this state, the key top 5 returns to its original position due to the spring effect of each leaf spring contact, each contact is released, and the movement of the cursor ends accordingly. . Next, the means for detecting opening and closing of the leaf spring contacts 8 and 11 will be explained with reference to FIG.

The CPU 13, which controls cursor movement, periodically contacts the leaf spring contact 8.
It is configured to check the terminal 8t2 of the terminal 8t2. When the cursor movement key 4 is pressed in the horizontal direction, the leaf spring contacts 81 and 8
2 is closed, the terminal 8t2 outputs Ov to be short-circuited to the terminal 8t, which is grounded and connected to I/). but,
If it is not closed, it is +5■ due to the action of the pull-up resistor H. Therefore, by checking the output terminal 8t2, it can be easily determined whether the contact is closed or not.

Therefore, by monitoring the terminals 8t2 of the four sets of leaf spring contacts, it is possible to detect in which direction the cursor k is moved. By monitoring terminal 1it2 in the same way,
It can be detected whether the cursor k is moved quickly.

In the following explanation, even if the display section 2 and the cursor movement keys 4 are configured in a separate housing from the main body of the device, the operation conduction balls 7 and 10 and the leaf spring contacts 8 and 1
It goes without saying that a commercially available switch may be used instead of 1. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the cursor movement speed selection signal is used to speed up the cursor movement speed, but if it is used to slow down the cursor movement speed, accurate positioning near the cursor arrival position can be achieved. can be facilitated.

As described above (according to the present invention, it is possible to give control input for the movement of the cursor on the display section by operating only one key top, and moreover, by pressing the key top, it is possible to easily move the cursor at high or low speeds). Even beginners can quickly or accurately move the cursor to the desired position by blind touching while looking at the display, reducing time loss and making it very efficient.Furthermore, it uses four key switches. Compared to the conventional example, this system better matches the natural operation of the finger caused by the operator's direction designation interval, and can also extract information from the vertical movement of the finger and use this to select the cursor movement speed. In this way, although the key switch has a simple configuration, it can produce extremely large effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a personal computer equipped with a cursor moving key switch according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the keyboard portion of FIG. 1; FIGS. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the cursor movement key according to the present invention; FIGS. Figure (D) is the same (plan view), Figures 6 (A), (B) and Figure 7 (A). (B) is a partial detailed view of the leaf spring contact; FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a personal computer equipped with a cursor moving key switch according to the present invention; FIGS. 9(A) and (B) are FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a terminal structure of a leaf spring contact. Here, 4 is a cursor movement key, 5 is a key top part,
6 is a slide portion; 7. lO is the operating conduction pole, 8.11
is a leaf spring contact, and 9.12 is an insulator. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Shuttle 1 2nd cause Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 6 Φ2 Figure 7 (A), '(B) Figure 8 Figures 191-259

Claims (1)

[Claims] A key switch comprising a single key top and displacement detection means arranged at right angles to each other to form different electrical outputs in response to horizontal and vertical displacements of the key top. outputting a signal for determining the moving direction of the cursor in response to the displacement of the key top in the horizontal direction, and outputting a signal for selecting the moving speed of the cursor in response to the displacement of the key top in the vertical direction. A key switch for moving the cursor that outputs.