JPS6131472B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device that electronically controls and displays the amount of attenuation, etc. By matching the operating point and the display point, the present invention improves ease of operation, reliability, speed, and so on.
The purpose is to improve the operating feel and eliminate anxiety when turning on the power.

Recently, electronic volume controls using analog switch elements have begun to appear as volume controls for audio equipment, replacing rotary or sliding types.

A typical example of the current electronic volume control and display section is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a pushbutton switch for selecting increase or decrease in volume, 2 is a finger, and 3 is a row of display cells such as light emitting diodes that display the amount of attenuation.

A specific configuration example of the switch 1 and the light emitting diode 3 is shown in FIG.

The operation shown in FIG. 12 will be explained.

When switch 1 (increase or decrease) is pressed, the up/down counter 27 will count up or down in synchronization with the clock input 28, and one of the counter outputs 29 will be sequentially selected accordingly. The light emitting diode 3 corresponding to the selected output lights up, and the corresponding attenuation amount, ie, the volume, of the electronic volumetric volume 18, 19 is selected.

In the example shown in Figure 1, the speed at which the volume increases or decreases is constant, so you cannot change it at the speed you like, and even if you try to stop it at the desired volume,
If you stop short of it, or go too far,
There were problems in that it was difficult to stop at the desired point, and because the area to be operated and the area displayed were different, it did not feel like you were directly operating the device.

In order to solve these problems, the present invention provides a control and display system in which the operation point and the display point are aligned, and by directly touching the display section and sliding it, the volume etc. can be controlled together with the display section. It provides equipment.

FIG. 2 shows a display and operation section of an embodiment of the control and display device according to the present invention.

2 and 3 in FIG. 2 correspond to the same numbers in FIG.

The sectional view of the display and operation section shown in Figure 2 is shown in Figure 3.
As shown in the figure. In FIG. 3, 4 is a light emitting diode, 5 is a lead wire, 6 is glass, and 7 is a transparent electrode.

The display cell 3 in FIG. 2 corresponds to the light emitting diode 4 in FIG.

A specific example of the structure of the transparent electrode 7 and light emitting diode 4 shown in FIG. 3 is shown in FIG. 13.

To explain the operation of FIG. 13, the transparent electrode touched by the finger 2 is detected by the detection circuit 30, and one of the corresponding control outputs 31 is selected by the control section 12.

The following operation is the same as that shown in FIG. 12 if the control section output 31 is made to correspond to the counter output 29 shown in FIG.

The operation of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 will be explained.

First, it is assumed that one of the display cell rows is currently emitting light, and the amount of attenuation corresponds to its position.

Next, as shown in Fig. 2, touch this emitting display cell with finger 2 and slide the finger left and right.The light emitting position will follow this and slide left and right, and the attenuation amount will correspond to that. It also changes, and so on.

In order to detect this finger touch, a detection electrode is required, and this electrode is placed on a glass 6 in front of the light emitting diode 4, as shown in FIG.
A transparent electrode 7 is printed on the back side of the glass 6 at a position facing each light emitting diode 4.

As shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 shows an example of a method for detecting that the object has been touched.

In Fig. 4, 2 to 7 correspond to the same numbers in Figs. 2 and 3, 8 is a capacitor, and 9 is a capacitor.
1 is a coil, 10 is a high frequency current source, 11 is a rectifier circuit, and 12 is a control section.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, when the finger 2 is not touched, a series resonant circuit is formed by the capacitance 8 between the electrode 7 and the ground and the coil 9, and a high frequency current having a resonant frequency is supplied from the current source 10. There is. In this state, the impedance of the series resonant circuits 8, 9 is very low, so the high frequency voltage entering the rectifier 11 is very small, and therefore nothing is detected.

Next, when the finger 2 touches the electrode 7 through the insulator 6, the capacitance between the electrode 7 and the ground increases, the resonant frequency shifts, the impedance of the resonant circuits 8 and 9 increases, and a high frequency voltage appears. , rectifier 11
The signal is rectified by and sent to the control unit 12,
Detection of touch by finger 2.

In the examples shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, transparent electrodes are used for the electrodes, and the electrodes are touched through an insulator, but the electrodes may be exposed to the surface and touched directly. An example of the detection circuit in that case is shown in Figure 5.
It is shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 detects the hum voltage of a commercial power supply induced in the human body, 13 is an electrode, and 14 is an amplifier for amplifying the hum voltage.

In Fig. 6, the electrode is divided into two parts, and by touching them at the same time, the resistance value between the two electrodes changes. is the leakage resistance.

Other examples of the arrangement of display cells and electrodes in the case where the electrodes are exposed to the surface are shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of electrodes 13 arranged horizontally in rows of display cells 3.

In Figures 2, 3, 7, and 8, light emitting diodes are used as display cells, but other types of displays include lamps, fluorescent display tubes, neon lights, electroluminescent display elements (EL), and electrophoretic displays. Display elements such as an element (EPID), plasma display, liquid crystal, and electromagnetic rotary display (Magsign) can be used.

Among the above display elements, those having transparent electrodes may also be used as detection electrodes.

Next, I will add a little more explanation about the operation. For example, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, if two or more electrodes 7 are touched at the same time with the finger 2, all the display cells corresponding to the touched electrodes may emit light; If only the electrode that is touched most strongly is detected, the design will be more efficient, and the operation of the attenuator controlled by the output will be more reliable.

As shown in FIG. 9, a method of detecting only the most strongly touched electrode is to inject the detection output of each electrode into the base of the transistor 16 constituting the differential amplifier, and send each differential output to the control unit 12. You can inject it into In Figure 9, 2 to 1
2 corresponds to the same numbers in FIG. 4, 16 is a transistor constituting a differential amplifier, and 17 is a constant current source of a common emitter circuit.

Next, as shown in Fig. 8, when display cells and electrodes are arranged alternately, for example, each display cell and the electrode to the right of it are set in a corresponding relationship, and two or more electrodes are touched at the same time. In this case, if only the rightmost electrode is detected, the touched position will almost match the displayed position.

By the way, when applying the device of the present invention to adjust the volume of audio equipment, in order to respond to the need to suddenly reduce the volume to zero, touch the display part that is currently emitting light, and then shift it to adjust the volume. In addition to the method of going all the way down, it would be convenient to have a function that allows you to narrow down to zero with a single touch. To this end, the electrodes corresponding to the zero volume may be operated preferentially, regardless of the current display position.

Next, the power supply of equipment to which the device of the present invention is applied
The ON/OFF operation will be explained using the volume adjustment of audio equipment as an example.

First, it is desirable to turn off the power to the device, and when it is turned on again, it operates at the same volume level as before it was turned off. To this end, it is sufficient to provide a function that stores the previous display position when the power is turned off.

However, this is not enough; the operator does not know where the volume is before turning on the power, which creates a sense of unease. For example, last time,
If you are using the unit at high volume during the day and then want to use it at low volume at night, simply turn on the power.
There are inconveniences such as sudden loud noises.

Therefore, the following methods can be considered to solve this problem.

Normally, even when the power is turned on, audio equipment
It does not work immediately and remains in a muting state for several seconds. Therefore, by utilizing this property, first turn on the power.
When turned on, the memorized volume position will be displayed (no sound will be output at this time). At this time, if the displayed volume position is inappropriate, it can be moved and corrected using the method described above. Then, after the muting time, the device operates at this modified volume position.

Furthermore, when the device enters the operating state after the muting time has elapsed, if the volume gradually increases from zero until it reaches the volume at the storage location, a fade-in operation will be performed, which will give a very good feel.

During this fade-in period, the display cells are sequentially displayed and moved from the zero position in response to the volume at each time, and then stop when they reach the above-mentioned memorized position. The changes and the display match, and it feels good. During this fade-in period, the display cell at the above memory location may disappear, but this display cell is also displayed at the same time, and the display position that moves with the fade operation overlaps with this display, so that It would be even better if it turned and then stopped.

In addition, when performing this fade operation, it is possible to correct the above-mentioned storage position during the fade period even without the above-mentioned muting time.

Next, the control section of the present invention will be explained using adjustment of the amount of attenuation or the amount of amplification as an example.

First, as shown in FIG.
In this method, a tap corresponding to each attenuation amount is provided, and a desired attenuation amount is obtained by selecting from these taps using the switch element 19. This method has the advantage that even if two or more electrodes are touched at the same time as described above, the amount of attenuation will be in the middle.

However, this method requires as many switch elements as the number of attenuations, making it expensive. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 11, the number of switch elements can be reduced by combining the attenuation and amplification amounts that operate independently to obtain the desired attenuation and amplification amounts.

In FIG. 11, 20 to 22 are resistors constituting an attenuator, 23 to 25 are switch elements, and 26 is an amplifier. For example, in FIG. 11, attenuator 2
If the settings are set so that they can be changed by 1 dB, 2 dB, and 4 dB at 0, 21, and 22, respectively, it is possible to make eight changes from +2 dB to -5 dB in 1 dB steps.

Note that the amount to be controlled may be other than the volume.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to control the volume, etc., as quickly as desired, and the desired control position can be reliably brought to the desired control position. Furthermore, since the operating position and the display position are the same, the operating feel is improved, and the user can be informed of the volume level etc. even when the power is turned on, so that the user's anxiety can be alleviated.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the display and operation section of a conventional example, FIGS. 2 and 3 are front views and sectional views showing the display and operation section of the embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 4 to 6 are 7 and 8 are front views showing other embodiments of the display and operation section of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the detection circuit of the present invention. 10 and 11 are circuit diagrams showing an embodiment of the control section of the present invention.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of a conventional example.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. 3... Display cell, 6... Insulator, 7... Electrode,
8, 9...Series resonant circuit, 10...High frequency current source, 13...Electrode, 18...Attenuator, 19...Switch element.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A plurality of display cells arranged in a line, a plurality of electrodes arranged in close proximity to each display cell, and means for controlling the amount. The amount is displayed by displaying the display cell at the corresponding position, and the display position is displayed by directly or indirectly touching the electrode corresponding to the display cell adjacent to the display position. A control and display device that controls the amount by sequentially moving the amount and correspondingly changing the amount. 2. In claim 1, the display cell is a light emitting diode, a lamp, a fluorescent display tube, a neon display, an electroluminescent display element, an electrophoretic display element, a plasma display, a liquid crystal display, or an electromagnetic rotating display cell. A control and display device comprising any one of a display device. 3. In claim 1, each electrode is formed of a transparent or semi-transparent conductive material, and
A control and display device characterized in that the control and display device is arranged overlappingly in front of each display cell. 4. A control and display device according to claim 3, characterized in that the transparent or translucent electrode also serves as an electrode of a display cell. 5. The control and display device according to claim 1, wherein each display cell and each electrode are arranged in a line, and corresponding display cells and electrodes are arranged adjacent to each other. 6. The control and display device according to claim 1, characterized in that each display cell and each electrode are arranged alternately. 7. The control and display device according to claim 1, characterized in that touching is detected by detecting a hum voltage induced when each electrode is touched. 8 In claim 1, each of the above-mentioned Touching an electrode is detected by supplying a high frequency current having a frequency near the resonance frequency to the series resonant circuit and detecting a high frequency voltage across each of the series resonant circuits. Control and display equipment. 9. The control set forth in claim 1, characterized in that when two or more electrodes are touched at the same time, the display cell corresponding to the electrode touched most strongly is preferentially brought into a display state; Display device. 10 In claim 6, when each display cell and adjacent electrodes on one side are in a corresponding relationship, and two or more electrodes are touched at the same time, the earliest of them in the operating direction 1. A control and display device characterized in that a display cell corresponding to an electrode located toward is preferentially placed in a display state. 11 In claim 1, when an electrode corresponding to the minimum value or maximum value of a quantity is touched, the display position corresponds to the minimum value or maximum value of the quantity, regardless of the display position immediately before that. A control and display device, characterized in that the control and display device moves to a position, and correspondingly, the amount also becomes a minimum value or a maximum value. 12. According to claim 1, even after the power is turned off, the immediately previous display position is memorized, and when the power is turned on again, the display cell at the memorized position is brought into the display state. A control and display device featuring: 13 In claim 12, when the power is turned on again, the display cell at the memorized position enters a temporary display state, and after it disappears, the amount gradually changes from the maximum value or the minimum value, and A control and display device characterized in that a display cell at a position corresponding to the amount at each time enters a display state, and stops when the display cell reaches the stored position. 14 In claim 12, when the power is turned on again, the display cell at the memorized position enters the display state, and thereafter, the amount gradually changes from the maximum value or the minimum value, and the amount at each time A control and display device characterized in that a display cell at a position corresponding to the above-mentioned position is brought into a display state, and the display cell is stopped at a position overlapping with a display cell displaying the memorized position. 15 In claim 13, by directly or indirectly touching the electrode corresponding to the display cell adjacent to the memorized position, the display of the memorized position can be sequentially moved, and the maximum value or A control and display device characterized in that a display cell corresponding to an amount that gradually changes from a minimum value is stopped at a place where the display cell corresponding to the amount of change gradually from the minimum value overlaps with the display cell of the moved storage position. 16. The control and display according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that when the power is turned on, the amount maintains the maximum value or the minimum value for a certain period of time, and then gradually changes. Device. 17. The control and display device according to claim 1, wherein the amount is an attenuation amount or an amplification amount of a signal. 18 In claim 16, the means for controlling the amount of attenuation or the amount of amplification comprises an attenuator or amplifier having a plurality of attenuation taps or amplification taps, and a switch element for selecting each of the taps. A control and display device characterized by: 19 Claim 16 is characterized in that the means for controlling the amount of attenuation or amplification is configured by combining a plurality of attenuators or amplifiers and a switch element smaller than the number of display cells. control and display equipment.