JPS5983282A - Pen for input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the contact between a pen and an input board surface without stroke by changing the characteristic of a mechanical-electric transducer with pressing force which is given to the pen point by an input operation. CONSTITUTION:A voltage is impressed to a driving electrode 21 of a piezoelectric oscillator 18 of the mechanical-electric transducer through a conductive rubber 17, a pressure screw 16, a penholder 11, and a housing 13. When the pen point is brought into contact with the input board surface, its stress is impressed to the conductive rubber 17 through the penholder 11 to suppress the oscillation of the oscillator 18. The change of the resonance frequency of the oscillator 18 or the change of Q is detected at this time to detect the contact between the pen and the input board surface. In this case, the contact is detected without stroke because only the stress acts upon the oscillator 18. Since the pen and the oscillator 18 are connected electrically by the conductive rubber 17, it is unnecessary to lead out directly a leading-out line from the electrode, and the reliability is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a pen for an input device filI' which is effective for use in a coordinate human-powered device, digitizer, etc. for inputting figures, handwritten characters, etc. into information equipment such as a computer. It is something.

Configuration of conventional examples and their problems In recent years, coordinate input devices that read the position of the pen as coordinates on the input panel have been frequently used as input devices for computers. has been done. 2.1. As a coordinate detection method for human-powered devices, electromagnetic coupling between a pen and an input panel is often used.

This is because, since the pen and the input panel surface are spatially coupled, the coordinate accuracy does not deteriorate even when the manual panel surface becomes dirty, and a highly reliable device can be realized. However, even if the pen is located at Nl (Nl) from the manual surface, the coordinates are input because the above spatial connection exists.
A microswitch is provided, and the pressure of the pen tip activates a microswitch to detect contact between the pen and the input panel surface.

Hereinafter, a conventional pen for an input device will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a conventionally used pen for a human power device.

At the same time, 1 is a detection coil for detecting the magnetic field generated from the input panel surface, 2 is a pen, 3 is a microswitch, 4 is a case, and 5 is a signal extraction cable from the detection coil 1 and microswitch 3. . FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the microswitch 3 in FIG. 1. 6.7 constitutes a switch A11; child pair; 8 is a spherical metal toggle spring; 9d is a movable contacting the top of the toggle spring 8;
That's it.

The operation of the conventional human-powered device pen configured as described above will be described below. When writing pressure is applied to the pen 111112, the central force of the toggle spring 8 comes into contact with the 4-piece 6, and the switch is closed. In this case, the opening/closing stroke of the switch is determined by the gap between the toggle spring 8 and the terminal 6, and in order to ensure reliable opening/closing operation, the gap cannot be made extremely narrow.

Therefore, in the above configuration, a stroke occurs at the pen tip, and the pen tip moves upward in the negative direction when inputting coordinates.
It had the disadvantage that it was difficult to use human power to create delicate characters and figures.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 1-1 of the present invention is to detect the contact between the pen and the input panel surface without the troublesome strokes described above, and to provide a highly reliable contact detection operation f'1 or Kawano f: I: To provide a pen for human powered devices.

Structure of the Invention The pen for an input device of the present invention includes a plate-shaped mechanical-electrical conversion element with electrodes provided on both sides, and a pen tip that comes into contact with the input panel surface at the time of input edge f'F. By applying a pressing force to the pen tip to the mechanical-electrical transducer, the characteristics of the mechanical-electrical transducer are changed, and contact of the pen tip with the input panel surface is detected. Then, the mechanical-electrical conversion element is held between a pair of conductive parts having 9iif properties,
The electrode of the mechanical-electric conversion element is connected to an external circuit through the pair of conductive parts, thereby making it possible to detect contact between the pen and the input panel 1f11 without a stroke, -C also enables stable contact detection for long-term operation.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3(A) is a cross-sectional view 1r11 of a pen for an input device in an embodiment of the present invention. 10il'1 is a detection coil that detects the magnetic field from the surface of the manual panel, 11 is a metal pen shaft, 1
2 is a case made of an insulator, 13υ is a metal housing, and 18 is rE '7 which is a type of mechanical-electric conversion element.
(X 4 rolls, shaped as shown in Figure 3 (B). 17 is a conductive rubber, 16 is a conductive rubber 1.
7 is a metal pressure screw that applies an appropriate pressure to the piezoelectric vibrator 18; 15 is a holder made of an insulator that supports the pressure screw 16; 19 is connected to the pressure screw 16 and the housing 13; This is the leader line. 14, piezoelectric vibration 7-18, conductive rubber 17, and housing 13;
This is an isolator that insulates both. Figure 3 (B)
1 is a perspective view showing the shape of a piezoelectric vibrator 18, in which a drive electrode 21 is shown on the biplanar surface of a disk-shaped piezoelectric ceramic 20. FIG.

The operation of the input device pen of this embodiment configured as described above will be described below. A voltage is applied to the drive electrode 21 of the piezoelectric vibrator 18 (a voltage is applied through the conductive screw 1', gonograph 17, and the pressure screw 16 and the pen shaft 11 and the link 13). When the pen tip is brought into contact with the manual panel surface, the response is applied to the conductive rubber 17 via the pen 1ft+11, suppressing the vibration of the 1-pin electric stationary R-18. At this time, if the change in the resonant frequency of the piezoelectric vibration 1"1B or the change in Q (equivalent impedance) is detected, it is possible to detect the contact between the pen and the surface of the manual panel. In this case, the stress on the vibrator 18 by 1 pressure Since it is only necessary to apply only a single stroke, the stroke of the pen shaft can be regarded as zero, and non-stroke contact detection is possible. In addition, as described above, since the piezoelectric vibrator 18 is supported by the conductive rubber 17 and electrical connection is made with the piezoelectric vibrator, a lead wire is taken out directly from the electrode 21 of the piezoelectric vibrator 18. There is no need to worry about the problem of the lead wire breaking due to frequent use, and reliability is greatly improved.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a detection circuit for detecting a change in the resonance frequency or Q (equivalent impedance) of the piezoelectric vibrator 18 in the input device pen having the above structure. A piezoelectric vibrator 18 constitutes an oscillation circuit with a transistor 24 and capacitors 22 and 23. Oscillation output port,
It is amplified by an amplifier 25 and rectified by a diode 26 to obtain a DC voltage vO. The element constants of this oscillation circuit are determined so that it oscillates at least when the tip of the pen shaft 11 does not touch the input board surface. Therefore, in the circuit of FIG. 4, a positive DC voltage Vo can be obtained.

When pressure is applied to the tip of the pen shaft 11, the piezoelectric lift element 18
When a stress of 7L is applied to , the Ll-type vibration j'18 is suppressed, and the Q of the piezoelectric vibrator is lowered to the pole IHii (the equivalent impedance is increased). Therefore, the low 1 of this Q
-' (above equivalent impedance f'i), the oscillation stops and the DC voltage Vo becomes zero.

That is, by monitoring the output DC voltage VO, it is possible to detect contact between the pen and the input panel surface.

In the above embodiment, the I'f: type vibration r was supported by conductive rubber, but the support is not limited to this.
, and suppresses the vibration of the piezoelectric element 1 due to stress. ``Anything is possible as long as it works.'': It's impossible to say anything.'' In the second example, Isowa 1 (using a piezoelectric ceramic vibrating r- as an electric transducer) Similar effects can also be obtained by using crystal resonators, magnetostrictive vibrations, etc.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, the "Unexploded 1jJ" is a human-powered Y1' pen, in which the pressure of the pen tip is applied as stress to a plate-shaped mechanical-electrical conversion element, and the stress causes the mechanical - Since it is configured to suppress the vibration of the electrical transducer and to detect changes in the characteristics of the electrical transducer, the stroke of the pen tip can be considered virtually non-existent, making it a non-stroke. This makes it possible to detect contact between the input panel surface and the pen tip.

In addition, the ease of handwriting when inputting handwritten characters manually is significantly improved, and even delicate figures can be entered manually without any problems.

Since the electrical connection between the mechanical-electrical transducer and the external circuit is still made by supporting the mechanical-1 electrical transducer with a conductive assembly, there is no lead wire directly connected to the drive electrode of the mechanical-electrical transducer. There is no need to attach a wire, and there is no problem of the lead wire breaking when using a high 4Lfi degree. Therefore, operational reliability is significantly improved.

Furthermore, by using a plate-shaped piezoelectric vibrator having drive electrodes on both sides, the method of applying stress to the piezoelectric vibrator becomes very simple, and the structure becomes simple. In addition, the effect of using the above-mentioned conductive part 1'1 part 4] greatly simplifies the mounting method of the piezoelectric vibrator, making it easier to manufacture and leading to cost reduction.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a pen for a conventional human-powered device, Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the microphone switch 3 in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 (A) is an example 1i of the present invention. Disruption + Ai
Figure 3 (B) shows the piezoelectric vibration f in Figure 3 (A).
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a detection circuit for detecting a change in the resonant frequency of a piezoelectric vibrator or a change in Q (equosensal impedance) in an embodiment of the present invention. . 11 ・ ... pen'l'll+, 1 3
・・・ ・・・ノ＼ nurturing non gu, 14...
・Isolator, 15...Holder, 16...
・・Pressure screw, 17・・・・Conductive rod・, 18・
...Piezoelectric vibrator, 19 ... Lead wire,
21...5 drive electric 11V,,,' Name of agent Ben Sokumo Naka Jf-Toshi Male Sekika 1st Figure 4 Figure 4

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A plate-shaped mechanical-electrical transducer with electrodes provided on both sides and a pen tip that is brought into contact with the surface of the manual panel during input operations, and the pressing force applied to the pen tip during input operations is applied to the - The mechanical-electrical transducer is configured to detect contact of the pen tip with the input panel surface by changing the characteristics of the mechanical-electrical transducer by applying an elastic force to the mechanical-electrical transducer. 1. A pen for an input device, characterized in that the pen is held between a pair of conductive parts, and the electrodes of the mechanical-electric conversion element are connected to an external circuit via the pair of conductive parts. (2) Using a piezoelectric vibrator as a mechanical-electrical conversion element,
and the pen tip is made of a conductive member, and the piezoelectric vibrator is held between the rear end of the pen tip and the conductive pressure screw via the elastic conductive member. 7. The electrode of the piezoelectric vibrator is configured to be connected to an external circuit through the pen tip and the pressure screw.
Input device pen 0 according to claim (1), which is characterized by