JPS6029832A - Controller for object movement - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the overall operability of position specifying operation by setting a specific range for the movement of an object previously, and limiting the moving speed and movable range of an object within the range. CONSTITUTION:The specific range is set previously for the movement of the object, and the moving speed and movable range of the object are limited within the range. For example, one of keys 41-44 and 49 at an operation part 4 is pressed to input a control signal, and a CPU5 decides on whether the hit key is the home position key 49 or not; when so, the coordinates of a cursor are set to the center position on a screen. Then, the contents of the cursor register of an RAM7 are sent to a cursor control part to shift the cursor in display position. When the result of said decision indicates ''NO'', it is decided whether the input is for a set mode of the range or not; when so, the setting alteration arithmetic of the range is carried out according to a selection key, and the bright line display frame of the range is altered according to the coordinate values after the arithmetic.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to an object movement control device that controls the movement of an object according to an operation.

BACKGROUND ART Cursor movement control is a typical example of controlling the movement of an object according to operation input.

There are various conventional devices for performing this type of movement control, but one is called a joystick, and the cursor position is specified by operating a lever or the like. This method requires an AD converter, which makes the device itself expensive, and although it has good responsiveness and an excellent operating feel for rough movements, it requires accurate positioning for fine movements. It is difficult and lacks operability.

Another typical example is a cursor movement key. In this method, the direction of movement of the cursor is determined in advance using a plurality of operation keys, and the operator moves the cursor by pressing a key in the desired direction. In other words, the direction of movement of the cursor is determined by the selection of a key, and the amount of movement of the cursor is controlled by the number of presses of the key and the duration of the press. Recently, especially in low-cost devices, the latter seems to be more commonly used due to cost considerations.

However, this latter method has a major problem in operability. Conventionally, this type of device has a constant moving speed and has good operability for small movements, but lacks quickness when moving large distances. Or, on the contrary, it was good for moving large distances, but lacked accuracy when it came to small movements.

Purpose The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art.The purpose of the present invention is to set a specific range for the movement of an object, and to move the object within that range. An object of the present invention is to propose an object movement control device that can significantly improve the overall operability of position specifying operations by limiting the moving speed and movable range of objects.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure gt is an external perspective view of a personal computer equipped with an embodiment of the present invention as a cursor movement control device. In the figure, l is no - the main body of the sonal computer,
2 is a CRT display section, 3 is a keyboard section, and 4 is an operation section of a cursor movement control device (hereinafter referred to as the device) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view showing details of the operating section 4. As shown in FIG.

In the figure, 4□ to 44 are keys for moving the cursor, and white arrows indicating the moving direction of the cursor are written on the upper surface of each key. The other function of this key is also a selection key for a range setting register used when setting the range of cursor movement, which will be described later. Whether these keys 4□ to 44 function for cursor movement or register selection is selected by operating the mode selection key 46. The mode selection key 46 is a key that is reversed each time it is pressed, and when the mode selection key 46 is in the range setting mode, this is notified to the operator by lighting the LED 48.

When the mode is in range setting mode, further enlarge/reduce keys 4. works. This key is also a key that inverts each time it is pressed, and is used to select whether to enlarge or reduce the range of cursor movement, which will be described later. In other words, while the register selection keys 41 to 44 are pressed, the contents of the register selected by this key are increased or decreased, and when enlarging, the setting range is expanded, and when shrinking, the setting range is reduced. I will update it as I go. Similarly, when reducing the size, LED 4, . . . lights up to notify the operator of this.

Further, 49 is a home position key that returns the cursor to the center of the screen.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the cursor movement control device according to the embodiment. In the figure, 2 is the CRT display section shown in FIG. 1, 4 is the operation section, and 5 is the central processing unit (CP) which is in charge of the main control of the cursor movement control device.
U), 6 is a ROM containing a control program, and 7 is a RAM used as a work area. Note that the configuration 5.6.7 in FIG. 3 is a microprocessor that originally executes the main functions of the personal computer. Therefore, the apparatus of the embodiment uses this configuration and is shown as shown in FIG. 3 for clarity of explanation.

The principle of cursor movement control in the above configuration will be explained below. FIGS. 4A and 4B are explanatory diagrams showing the operating principle of the embodiment.

In the 9th 4th section (A), a cursor K is located approximately in the center of the CRT display section 2, and a rectangular range 2I surrounding it is shown. What determines this range 2□ is the X axis of the screen,
two registers XL each corresponding to the Y axis;
These are the coordinate values held by XR, YL, and YU. The CPU 5 can change the contents of these registers provided on the RAM 7 based on signals received from the operating section 4 in the range setting mode.

For example, when the key 46 is in the range setting mode, a rectangular range 21 is displayed on the screen. At this time, enlarge/reduce key 4. or is set to the enlargement side, the contents of register YL are decreased while the operator presses the selection key 43 of register YL.

'In other words, the rectangular range 21 is updated in the direction of enlarging it.

Also, in this state, press key 4. to the reduction side).Then, the contents of register YL are increased. In other words, it is updated in the direction of reducing the rectangular range 2□. Thus, the up and down arrows displayed on the keys 46 in FIG. 2 indicate that register YL is selected and the corresponding display frame is moved up and down in accordance with the enlargement/reduction keys. On the other hand, when register YU is selected by pressing selection key 4□, whether the range 21 is expanded or YU is selected.
This is an increase in the content of range 2. This is either a reduction in the content of YU or a reduction in the content of YU. The same applies to the X axis.

Once the predetermined range is set in this manner, the operator then switches to cursor movement mode and the rectangular range 2.0 display disappears. The speed and range of movement of the cursor within this range 21 are restricted.

First, the restriction on the movement speed is, for example, if the amount of movement of the cursor per unit time Δt is Δy? −α(
YU-YL), and for X car ΔX-α(XR-
XL). When a rectangular range is set in this way, by controlling the movement speed in proportion to the length of the range, the access time for cursor movement can be averaged, and as a result, accurate positioning can be achieved when accessing a narrow range. It also has the effect of making it easier to access and moving quickly when accessing a wide area. Of course, if this range becomes narrower than a predetermined value, the movement may be made at a constant speed to avoid unnecessary reduction in speed.

Next, the limit on the range of movement is the coordinates of the cursor (
XC, YC) cannot exceed the outside of the rectangular range 2I. This means that when moving to the cursor, register
This is done by comparing the range determined by the contents of L, XR, YL, and YU with the coordinates (xc, yC) of the cursor. By doing this, even if the operator accidentally overruns the cursor, the cursor will stop at the boundary of the rectangular range 2□, eliminating the need for a wasteful return operation. Therefore, it is quite effective when performing rough cursor operations within a relatively narrow range.

The key to return cursor K within range 21 to the center of the screen is home position key 4! It is I. Figure 4 (B)
As shown in the figure, when the rectangular range 22 does not include the center of the screen, there is an effect of moving the cursor within the range 22 out of the range at once. In the same figure (B), the operator can move the cursor in any direction from the home position,
It is also possible to move the cursor K into the range 22 again. For example, if a range 22 in which fine cursor movement is required is defined in advance on a part of the screen, the operator can move the cursor K at high speed outside that range, and when accessing within the range, When the line segment a is moved at high speed and the cursor K enters within the range 22, the speed is automatically limited and the line segment a can be moved at a low speed.

In the example, a case will be described in which the device is moved at high speed outside a predetermined range and moved at low speed within the range, but conversely, it can also be used to move outside the range at low speed and move within the range at high speed. The good news is obvious. In short, by setting a predetermined range on the screen in advance and controlling cursor movement under different conditions inside and outside that range, the operating efficiency of the entire screen can be improved in response to various information processing purposes. .

Next, the configuration for performing such cursor movement control is shown in a functional block diagram as shown in FIG.

In the figure, a key manual operation signal outputted by operating the operating section 4 is processed by a decoder means 11. Decoder r stage 1
1 samples this key input at a period described later, further discriminates this input, and decodes home position designation information and cursor movement direction x>o, x<o
, y>o, y>O, cursor/iii Enclosure setting mode, enlargement/reduction set state, etc. are output, and if necessary, these information are stored in the FLAGS of the RAM 7.

Information specifying the home position is processed by the cursor movement position determining means 9. Read constant 1iXP, YP of RAM 7 via memory path 15 and write it as Ilo,
The signal is output to the cursor control section 14 of the CRT control section 8 via. This includes a positioning register that holds the actual display position of the cursor.

The range determining means 10 is set to enlarge/reduce and x>o.
, x<o, y>o, Y<0 (7) According to the information, RA
M 7 ty) Registers XL, XR, YU, YL (
7) Update the contents. At the same time, the display pattern frame in the rectangular range is readjusted in the video RAM 13 according to the updated value. Alternatively, instead of writing the frame pattern in the video RAM as in the embodiment, a configuration for generating a frame display pattern using hardware may be provided in the cursor control unit 14, and the frame pattern may be generated in the same manner as in the case of cursor display. may be displayed in an overlapping manner on the screen. By doing so, the processing load on the CPU 5 is significantly reduced.

The cursor movement position determining means 9 determines a new cursor movement position in the cursor movement mode while referring to the contents of the already set ranges XL, XR, YU, and YL. The result is the register X that holds the current position of the cursor.
C, YC and sent to the cursor control unit 14.

A procedure for controlling cursor movement in such a configuration will be described below.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the control procedure executed by the CPU 5. This flow includes keys 41 to 4 on the operation unit 4.
Enter by pressing 4 or 49. In step 500, it is determined whether or not the home position key 49 is pressed, and if the determination is YES, the process proceeds to step 501, where the coordinates of the cursor are initialized to the center position (XP, YP) of the screen.

In step 504, the cursor register xc of RAM7,
The contents of yc are sent to the cursor control unit to actually change the cursor display color -1. Further, if the determination in step 500 is No, the process proceeds to step 502, where it is determined whether or not it is a range setting mode. If the determination is YES, the process proceeds to step 600, and calculations for changing the range settings are performed according to the selection key manual. In step 503, the bright line display frame of the range is changed according to the calculated coordinate values. If the determination in step 502 is No, the cursor movement mode is selected, and the process proceeds to step 700 to calculate the cursor movement position.

In step 504, the cursor is actually moved and displayed according to the calculation result.

The state of manual operation of these keys on the operation unit 4 is sampled once when the key is pressed for the first time, and takes approximately 1/2 sec.
sampled again later. After that, 100m5
The data is sampled each time and input to the processing from step 500 each time. Therefore, if the key 42 is held down in the cursor movement mode, the cursor will continuously move to the right. Also, when zooming in range setting mode, press key 4.
If you keep pressing , the bright line in the corresponding rectangular area will move upward continuously.

Further, when the apparatus changes from the cursor movement mode to the range setting mode, it is determined in step 800 that a frame should be displayed, and direct input is made to step 503 to display bright lines in a rectangular range. In step 503, Y=Y is stored in the video RAMJ2 corresponding to the display screen to be scanned.
The process of writing the horizontal line segments of U and Y=YL respectively in the range of X=XL to ×R, and the process of writing the vertical line segments of X=XL and X=XR respectively in the range of Y=YL to YU. I do. Conversely, when changing to cursor movement mode, step 80
If the value is 0, it is determined that the display of the frame should be erased, and it is directly input to step 503 to erase the bright lines in the rectangular range.

In this case, the frame data on the video RAM may be erased using the method described above. Furthermore, when inputting from step 600 to step 503, old frames are erased and new frames are written in accordance with the updated frame data.

FIG. 7 shows details of the range change calculation process 600. In step 601, it is determined whether the state of the key 45 is enlarged or not, and if the determination is YES, the process proceeds to step 602, where x>0
It is determined whether or not. When X>0, press key 42 on the operation section.
indicates that the key 42 has been pressed, and the key 42 in this case is interpreted as a selection key for register XR. Therefore, the contents of the register XR increase or decrease according to the set state of the enlargement/reduction key 45, and the bright line frame indicating the range on the screen moves to the right or left. The same applies to the other cases, and when x<o, the key 44 is pressed, when Y>O, the key 4□ is pressed, and when Y<O, the key 43 is pressed.

Next, if the determination in step 602 is YES, step 6
The process advances to step 03 and the contents of register XR are updated by XR+ΔX3. The value of ΔX3 may be a constant value, but in the example, Δx
It is calculated as 3=β(XR-XL). In other words, the wider the range along the X-axis, the faster the update speed, improving the sense of operation and operability. On the other hand, if the range is narrow, it will shrink slowly, which has the effect of ensuring positioning in a narrow range. In step 604, X R> X P4A
Determine whether it is X or not. If the determination is YES, there is no meaning even if the contents of register XR exceed the maximum coordinate value xM8x of the screen, so the process proceeds to step 605 and the contents of XR are set to xM.
Replaced by Ax. If the determination is No, the process exits the flow.

The flow below is structured using the same idea. That is, if X is 0 in step 606, the contents of register XL are updated by XL-Δx3 in step 607. Furthermore, if xMIN is found in step 608, the process advances to step 609 and the contents of XL are replaced with XMIN. Even if YG gets stuck like this, step 610 to step 617
Similar processing is performed throughout.

Next, when it is determined in step 601 that the reduction setting state of the key 45 is set, the process advances to step 618.

Furthermore, it is determined whether x>O or not. If the determination is YES, the process advances to step 619, and the contents of register XR are converted to XR-Δ
Update with X3. In other words, since the range is reduced by selecting the key 42, the contents of XR are subtracted in the opposite manner to step 603 described above. In step 620, XR
<Determine whether it is XL or not, and if the determination is YES, it is XR.
There is no meaning in crossing the bright line frame corresponding to XL to the left side of the bright line frame corresponding to XL, so in step 621 the contents of XR are
Replace with the contents of L.

Hereinafter, the flow from step 622 to step 633 is constructed based on the same concept.

FIG. 8 shows details of the cursor movement position calculation process 700. First, in step 718, the current position coordinates of the cursor Y
It is determined whether C is within the range of YL or more and YtJ or less. If the determination is YES, the process advances to step 701, and furthermore, if the coordinates xC of the current position of the cursor are XL or more,
It is determined whether the value is within a range equal to or less than R. In other words, if both steps 718 and 701 are satisfied, the cursor is within the rectangular range, and the cursor is moved under different conditions in other ranges. If the determination in step 701 is YES, the process proceeds to step 702, where it is determined whether x>0. In cursor movement mode x>
O corresponds to the case where the key 42 is pressed and is to move the cursor to the right. Therefore, if the determination is YES, the process advances to step 703 and the contents of the cursor register XC are updated by XC+Δx2. The value of ΔX2 may be a constant, but in the embodiment, it is calculated as Δx2=α(XR-XL).

This effect was described above in the operating principle. Next, in step 704, it is determined whether XC>XR. If the determination is YES, this indicates that if this movement is performed, the cursor will jump out of the bright line frame corresponding to XR, and in the embodiment, such movement is restricted. Therefore, in step 705, the contents of xC are replaced by the contents of XR, and the cursor cannot be moved any further to the right. Next, in step 706, if the determination of X×O is YES, the cursor is moved to the left, and in step 707, the contents of XC are updated by xC-ΔX2. However, in step 708, the determination of XC<XL is YE.
When it becomes S, the contents of xc are replaced with the contents of XL, and the cursor cannot move outside the left side of the frame.

Hereinafter, steps 719 to 726 perform similar processing for the Y axis. In this way, even if the operator overruns the cursor within the rectangle, the cursor will be stopped within the frame.

If the cursor is not within the set range, step 710
Proceed to. In step 710, it is determined whether or not X>0,
If the determination is YES, the process further advances to step 711 and updates the contents of the cursor register xC with XC+ΔX1. In the embodiment, Δx was set to a predetermined value. In step 712,
It is determined whether or not C>XM A
Bypass processing. In other words, it is a process that must not extend beyond the entire screen. Similarly, in step 714,
If the determination is YES, the cursor is moved to the left, and in step 715 the crab register XC is moved.
The contents of are updated by XC-ΔX1. In step 716, it is determined whether XC<XMIN or not, and if YES, the contents of XC are replaced with xM and N, and if the determination is No.
If so, the flow bypasses step 717.

From step 727 to step 734, similar processing is performed for the Y axis. In this way, when the cursor is not within the rectangle, it moves at a constant speed, and once it enters the rectangle at the next sampling point, the movement speed is automatically limited to 0 degrees from then on, and , cannot go outside this range. When the desired process is completed, the operator presses the Baum position key to move the cursor K.
Return to the center of the screen. At this time, the center of the screen may or may not be within the set range. Subsequent cursor movement follows the conditions of each range.

Effects As described above, according to the present invention, by setting a specific range in advance for the movement of the object and limiting the moving speed and movable range of the object within that range, the entire position specifying operation can be performed. Therefore, it is possible to provide an object movement control device that can significantly improve operability.

If this is used for cursor movement control as in the embodiment, the operability of information processing consisting of characters and graphics will be greatly improved.

For example, if the left side of the screen is lined up with text menus for information retrieval, and the right side of the screen displays the shapes searched for by selecting the text menu, the operator can specify operations on the text menu. It is possible to quickly perform the operation by moving the cursor at high speed, and to specify the main part of the graphic display accurately by moving the cursor at low speed. Various types of figures are repeatedly searched from files one after another, and precise position designation operations are performed on the figures each time, thereby dramatically improving the operability of interactive information processing. Recently, such applications have been increasing in microcomputer systems as well.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view of a personal computer equipped with an embodiment of the present invention as a cursor movement control device, Fig. 2 is a top view showing details of the operating section of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a cursor movement control device of the embodiment. A block diagram showing the configuration of the movement control device. FIGS. 4(A) and (B) are explanatory diagrams for explaining the operating principle of the cursor movement control device of the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the cursor movement control device of the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the control sequence of the cursor movement control device of the embodiment, FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the range change calculation procedure, and FIG. 8 is the cursor movement position calculation procedure. It is a flowchart which shows. Here, 1... the main body of the personal computer, 2.
... CRT display section, 3... Keyboard section, 4... Operation section, 41 to 44... Cursor movement keys, 45...
・Enlarge/reduce key, 46...Mode selection key, 47° 48...LED, 49...Home position ¥-1
5...CPU, 6...ROM, 7...RAM, 8
. . . CRT control unit, 9 . . . Cursor movement position determination means, 10 . . . Range determination means, l'l . . . Decoder,
12...I10 bus, 13...Video RAM, 14
. . . Cursor control unit, 15 . . . Memory path. Figure 1 Figure 3 4 causes (A) Figure 4 (B)

Claims (6)

[Claims] (1) A movement control means that controls the movement of the object according to the operation, and a range setting means that sets the range according to the operation, and the movement control means controls the object within and outside the range set in the first stage of range setting. An object movement control device characterized by controlling the movement of objects in different ways. (2) The object movement control device according to claim 1, wherein the object is a cursor, which is a range or a plane forming part of a screen. (3) The object movement control device according to claim 2, wherein the object is moved relatively slowly within a set range, and moved relatively quickly outside the set range. (4) The range is rectangular, and within the range, the object moves at a speed proportional to the length of the range, and outside the range, the object moves at a predetermined speed. The object movement control device described above. (5) Claim 1, characterized in that the range setting means is capable of changing the size and position of the range according to the operation.
The object movement control device described in . (6) The object movement control device according to claim 5, wherein the range is rectangular and the change in size of the range is determined in proportion to the length of the range.