JPS6265121A - Input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an input device having excellent operability by using the detection output of a mark detecting means to discriminate an item entry plate (address card) set into a gap between a transparent switch member and a substrate. CONSTITUTION:An address card AC corresponding to a touch switch TS is set into a gap 4c between a base part 4a and a 'one-touch' dial panel 4b. While a contact TS1 of the switch TS is formed on a glass substrate GB and a light emitting diode LD is bonded directly to the GB in the form of a chip. Then a contact TS2 set at the other side of the switch TS is formed on a transparent sheet PB made of a flexible material and set with a prescribed space secured to the GB. When a light touch is given to the switch TS from the side of the sheet PB, the sheet PB bends to secure a contact between both contacts TS1 and TS2. Thus the switch TS is turned on and a selected item (address) is recognized.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field] The present invention relates to an input device.

[Prior Art] In recent years, facsimile machines have become widespread and are installed in many business establishments and offices, and networking of a large number of facsimile machines is progressing.

In this way, when it is necessary to communicate with a large number of facsimile machines, it is necessary to use one Facsimile machines are in practical use that are equipped with so-called one-touch dial keys that allow destination information to be entered with a single key operation.

FIG. 11 shows a conventional example of a facsimile machine equipped with a one-touch dial key.

In this facsimile machine, the numeric keypad T for inputting telephone numbers or other numerical data is used as a one-touch dial key, and the destination name etc. can be written on the overlay sheet O3 of the numeric keypad TK. .

In addition to the one-touch dial key that uses the numeric keypad TK as described above, there is also one that has a dedicated key as the one-touch dial key vD, as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 13, this one-touch dial key wD includes dial keys DK arranged in two rows, a destination sheet DS for writing the destination name corresponding to each dial key DK, and this destination sheet. It consists of a rotating destination sheet R5 which is rotatably attached to the center of the DS and used to write destination names corresponding to the dial keys DK in the same way as the destination sheet DS. Note that switching between the destination sheet O5 and the rotated destination sheet R5 is performed by a mode changeover switch (not shown) or the like.

However, the input devices conventionally used as one-touch dial keys in facsimile machines have the following problems.

In the one shown in Fig. 11, the numeric keypad T is used for the one-touch dial key 1llD, but this numeric keypad T
is usually formed to have almost the same dimensions as a dial key on a telephone, so the entry field is very small, making it difficult to write in the destination name, etc., and the part where the overlay sheet O8 is attached There was also a problem that the overlay sheet O8 was easily damaged.

On the other hand, facsimile machines are becoming more sophisticated and smaller, and along with this, displays with an extremely high degree of display flexibility (for example, large LCD (displays, etc.) are becoming increasingly common, and as a result, the available space for the operation section is gradually shrinking.

For this reason, when dedicated one-touch dial keys WD are provided on the same operation panel as shown in FIG. Since one entry field is provided separately, the sizes of both the dial key and the entry field are extremely small.

As a result, it is difficult to enter the name, etc. in the address field, and the dial keys are not easy to operate.Furthermore, it is easy to accidentally press a nearby dial key and enter the wrong address. There are also risks.

Also, in the one shown in FIG. 1z, the rotation destination sea)-R
Further, since the mounting portion of the rotary destination sheet R5 is exposed, the appearance of the rotary destination sheet R5 may be damaged.

Furthermore, in such conventional devices, it is necessary to change the destination once set, and there is also a problem in that the number of destinations that can be set at the same time is limited to the number of keys provided.

[Objective] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an input device with good operability.

[Configuration] In order to achieve this object, the present invention configures a switch from a transparent material, provides a light emitting element adjacent to the switch to indicate that the switch is selected, and furthermore, The items to be entered are displayed directly below the switch. Furthermore, the item display board displaying this item can be identified, and any item can be set for each item display board for each switch.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a transmission original is loaded on the top surface of the housing of a facsimile machine 100.

The document is guided by document guides 1 and 2 and carried into the document reading section 3.

On the upper surface of the cover 38 of the document reading section 3, a one-touch dial part 4 is arranged with a predetermined inclination.

This one-touch dial key portion 4 is constructed by arranging a plurality of one-touch dial keys in a matrix.

In addition, a start key S is provided on the inclined portion 100a on the front of the housing.
An operation display section 5 is provided which includes various operation keys such as T, stop key SP, numeric keypad TK, and guidance key GK, and various displays such as a liquid crystal display LCD and a status display DST.

In this way, the one-touch dial key part 4 and the operation display part 5 are arranged separately, but the one-touch dial key part 4 is integrated with the operation display part 5.
The degree of inclination of the one-touch dial part 4 is set so that the inclined part 100a on the front surface of the housing and the surface of the one-touch dial part 4 form approximately the same plane.

Furthermore, in the operation display unit 5, the material of the cover disposed on the surface of the liquid crystal display LCD located directly below the one-touch dial part 4, and the surface material of the one-touch dial part 4, By making them the same in terms of color, degree of unevenness, transparency, etc., the sense of unity between the one-touch dial part 4 and the operation display part 5 can be further enhanced.

Now, as shown in FIG. 2, this one-touch dial part 4 includes a base part 4a consisting of a substantially chevron-shaped protuberance provided on the cover 38 of the document reading part 3 and rising edges on the sides; It is attached to cover the base part 4a from above, and is located in the center of the base part 4a.

It consists of a one-touch dial panel 4b in which touch switches made of a transparent material are arranged in a matrix.

Further, the one-unit unit 4a is provided with sensors Sl and S2 for reading marks formed on the destination card for identification, as will be described later.

FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) show a state in which the one-touch dial panel 4b is attached to the base portion 4a.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the touch switches TS of the one-touch dial panel 4b are set to have a substantially rectangular shape, and the light emitting diodes LD for indicating that each touch switch TS is selected are In addition, the 6 shi N arranged adjacent to each touch switch T
One-touch dial panel 4b for easy recognition of S
This is the frame line drawn from the back side of the .

Further, a destination card is inserted into the gap 4C between the one-touch dial panel 4b and the one-touch dial panel 4b, as will be described later, to display the destination name, etc. corresponding to the touch switch TS through the touch switch TS.

Therefore, in order to ensure sufficient gap 4C, the fourth
As shown in the figure, ribs RB are formed on the one-touch dial panel 4b at intervals slightly wider than the width of the destination card.

Now, FIG. 5 shows a specific configuration of the touch switch TS.

In the figure, one contact TSI of a touch switch TS is formed on the glass substrate GB, and a light emitting diode LD is directly bonded as a chip.

Further, the other contact point TS2 of the touch switch TS is formed on a transparent sheet PB made of a flexible material and arranged at a predetermined distance from the glass substrate GB.

These contacts TSI and TS2, wiring for passing electrical signals to the contacts TSI and TS2, and light emitting diode L
The wiring for lighting D is formed of a transparent conductive material. Further, the transparent sheet P8 is made of, for example, acrylic or polycarbonate synthetic resin in order to reduce the weight.

Therefore, when the touch switch TS is lightly touched from the transparent sheet PB side, the transparent sheet PB bends and the contact point TS
I and contact TS2 come into contact, and the touch switch TS is turned on. As a result, the selected item (in this case, the destination) is recognized.

Note that the distance between the glass substrate GB and the transparent sheet PB is determined by a spacer (not shown) inserted between them.
Retained. Moreover, the frame line LN mentioned above is formed on the back surface of the glass substrate GB.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the destination card AC.

This destination card AC is made of synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride, and on its surface, there is a matte printed entry field RR of approximately the same size as the touch switch TS at a position corresponding to the arrangement of the touch switch TS. is formed by. Further, a knob PL is formed for convenience of insertion and removal.

Also, write 11a on the back of this destination card AC.
RR is formed, and in order to detect which side is selected when inserted into the one-touch dial part 4, a mark 1. MK2 is formed on the side opposite to the selected side, respectively 6. In other words, in this case, the mark MK2 formed on the front side carries the data corresponding to the back side of this destination card AC, and , the mark MKI formed on the back side of this destination card A
Data corresponding to the surface of C is displayed.

The name of the destination, etc. can be easily written on the destination card AC using a pencil, ballpoint pen, or the like.

Furthermore, when writing with a pencil, the written content can be erased by erasing it with an eraser, so the written content can be easily corrected, and the written content can be corrected up to three times. In addition, if you fill in with a ballpoint pen,
You can correct the written content by filling it out with correction fluid.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, by inserting the destination card AC into the gap 4c between the base 4a and the one-touch dial panel 4b, the corresponding entry IRR is positioned directly below the touch switch TS of the one-touch dial panel 4b. Therefore, the destination of the touch switch TS can be visually seen through the touch switch TS.

Also, by this operation, either the mark MKI or MK2 formed on the destination card AC will be changed to the sensor Sl or S.
2 and the corresponding data is output from sensors S1 and S2.

In this way, the operation keys of the one-touch dial key, that is, the touch switch TS, and the display of the operation items (
In this case, since the input keys 1iRR) can be configured at the same position on a plane, the dimensions of the touch switch TS can be considerably increased, and the operability of the one-touch dial key is therefore improved. Also, fill in 1i1RR to enter the destination name, etc.
The dimensions of can also be made considerably larger for similar reasons, making it much easier to fill in the entry aRR.

Furthermore, since there are no elements that obstruct light around the light emitting diode LD that displays the operation status of the touch switch TS, it is possible to clearly visually capture the point light emitted by the light emitting diode LD. The light appears to be floating and has a great visual effect.

By the way, the configuration of the destination card AC is not limited to the one described above, and another example is shown in FIG. 8.

In the figure, a sticker SR with adhesive material attached to the back side
has a horizontal line of entry fields, and this sticker S
R is pasted on the destination card AC column by column.

Here, the control system in the facsimile machine 100 described above is shown in FIG.

In the figure, a system control unit 101 controls the entire facsimile machine 100, and is composed of a microcomputer system and inputs data from an image information storage memory and a one-touch dial part 4 to realize a single notification function. It is equipped with a non-volatile memory for storing information corresponding to the An example of this non-volatile memory is 1.

Battery backed CMO5-RAM, N
Semiconductor memories such as OVRAM and EEPROM, magnetic bubble memories, etc. can be used.

The system control unit 101 is supplied with operator key manual data output from the operation display unit 5, and a liquid crystal display (LCD)
Various display data are outputted for causing the display device and other display elements to perform predetermined display operations.

The one-touch dial key part 4 outputs key manual data corresponding to the operated touch switch TS to the system control unit 101, and the system control unit 101 outputs key data corresponding to the operated touch switch TS to the one-touch dial key part 4. A lighting signal for lighting the light emitting diode LD corresponding to the touch switch TS is output. In addition, sensors Sl, S
The output data of No. 2 is added to the system control unit 101 as destination card identification information.

The communication unit 102 includes a transmission control unit for realizing predetermined facsimile transmission control, an encoding/decoding unit for transmitting transmission data in a state where the information has been compressed by a predetermined encoding process, and a transmission unit for transmitting data. It is composed of a modulation/demodulation section for executing modulation/demodulation processing, and the network control device 1
03 to a public telephone line or the like which is a transmission line network.

Setting information of various transmission modes, destination information, transmission image signals, etc. are transferred from the system control unit 101 to the communication unit 102.
2, incoming call information, received image signals, etc. are transferred.

Further, a transmission image signal corresponding to the transmission source and the manuscript is outputted from the document reading section 3 to the system control section 101 and transmitted to the communication section 102.
The received image signal transferred to the system control unit 101 is transferred to the image recording unit 104 at a predetermined timing, and
Recorded and output as a hard copy. Note that when time-specified transmission or circular transmission is commanded, the transmitted image signal output from the document reading section 3 is temporarily stored in the image storage memory, and when received in confidential reception mode, a predetermined code is input. The received image signal is stored in the image storage memory until the image signal is received. Furthermore, detailed explanations of the elements of the facsimile machine 100 that are not directly related to the present invention will be omitted.

Now, the system control unit 100 is normally on standby in a state where it can transmit and receive data, and displays operable items in the standby mode on the operation display unit 5. At that time, the one-touch dial part 4 and the operation display All operations of section 5 are set to be possible.

Also, in this standby mode, the sensor Sl is always active.

The destination card identification information output from S2 is monitored, and if the contents change, data that correlates the output of the one-touch dial part 4 with the actually input items is added to the changed contents. Change accordingly. For example, the output of the one-touch dial key part 4 for the identification information is displayed in the form of a table.

The table is stored and a table corresponding to the content of the ra-specific information is selected.

In this standby mode, if either the transmission mode or the reception mode is selected, the system control unit 10
1 transitions to its selected operating mode, and
Only the data of keys that can be operated in the relevant operation mode is treated as input data.

In addition, when one of the setting modes in which the destination etc. are set in each entry field RR of the destination card AC is selected, guidance information is provided for the operator to execute the setting operation corresponding to the selected setting mode. It is displayed on the liquid crystal display LCD of the operation display section 5.

For example, when setting a destination in this setting mode, if you can input the destination name, you can select the destination more accurately.
To do this, as shown in Figure 10, in advance,
An alphabet board AA in which alphabets are set in each entry field RR may be used.

This alphabet board AA is registered in advance in the system control unit 101, and the system control unit 101 shifts to the alphabet input state by identifying the mark MK3.

In this way, in the present invention, the one-touch dial part 4
Since the one-touch dial part 4 can be used not only as a mere destination input means but also as other data input means, the degree of freedom in data input possible with the one-touch dial part 4 is greatly increased.

For example, input data in the initial setting mode regarding the facsimile machine 100 itself, which is not used in the normal sending/receiving mode, is stored in the VB corresponding to one destination card.
By doing so, the burden of selecting this initial setting mode and inputting operations in that mode can be greatly reduced.

Furthermore, by registering various input data for maintenance work on the facsimile device 100 in correspondence with one destination card, the procedure for selecting a maintenance mode during maintenance work can be reduced. Also, this thing is a facsimile machine! !
100 and the system control unit 101 are selected only by a specific destination card. Therefore, it is possible to restrict the users of such functions, and the system It is possible to ensure safety.

Furthermore, since both sides of one destination card can be used separately, the number of destinations that can be entered can be greatly increased. Also,
The operation for this is very simple, simply turning the destination card upside down.

In the above description, the present invention is applied to a one-touch dial key of a facsimile machine, but the present invention is not limited to this and can be used as other input means.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, two sensors are provided, and a corresponding two-digit mark is formed on the destination card, but it is obvious that the number of sensors and marks may be greater than this. However, the greater the number, the more types of destination cards that can be used, which is more effective.

Furthermore, the types of sensors and marks include optical ones,
Any magnetic or mechanical material can be used.

[Effects] As described above, according to the present invention, a switch is made of a transparent material, a light emitting element is provided adjacent to the switch to indicate that the switch has been selected, and Since the items to be input are displayed directly below the switch, there is an advantage that an input device with good operability can be realized. In addition, the item display board that displays this item can be identified, and any item can be set for each item display board for each switch, so the types of data that can be entered are significantly larger. You also get benefits.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing an example of a one-touch dial key, and FIG. 3(a). (b) is a front view and side view showing an example of a one-touch dial key, Fig. 4 is a sectional view showing an example of the gap between the one-touch dial panel and the base, and Fig. 5 is a sectional view showing an example of a touch switch. , FIG. 6 is a front view showing an example of the destination card, FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an example of the destination card installed, and FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another example of the destination card.
Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a control system of a facsimile machine, Fig. 10 is a front view showing an example of an alphabet card, Fig. 11 is a perspective view showing a conventional example of a facsimile machine, and Fig. 12 is a facsimile machine. FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing another conventional example of the device, and FIG. 13 is a front view showing a conventional example of a one-touch dial key. PB...transparent sheet, LD...light emitting diode, T
S...Touch switch, TSI, TS2...Contact,
GB...Glass substrate, AC, AC'...Destination card, Sl, S2...Sensor, MKI, MK2. MK3
···mark. Agent Patent Attorney Crest 1) Makoto. Figure 7'$ 2 Figure b Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 TS2 TS2 6 Figure 9 Figure 70

Claims (1)

[Claims] a transparent switch member formed by arranging a plurality of switches made of a transparent material; a plurality of light emitting elements disposed adjacent to each switch of the transparent switch member to indicate that the switch has been operated; A base material is arranged facing the transparent switch member at a predetermined distance, and an operation target is written in correspondence to each switch of the transparent switch member, and is inserted into the gap between the transparent switch member and the base material. an item entry board, a mark attached to an end of the item entry board for identifying the type of the entry board, and a mark detection means disposed at a position to read the mark,
An input device characterized in that the item entry board inserted into the gap between the transparent switch member and the base material is identified by the detection output of the mark detection means.