JPS6324414A - Position information input unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize products by constituting the position information detection part of a position information detection means on a position information conversion means side. CONSTITUTION:At the other ends of rotary shafts 20a and 20b, the position information detection parts 22a and 22b are provided so as to detect the rotation amount of a sphere 19. From the position information detection parts 22a and 22b plural input-output terminals 23 to a light emitting device and a light receiving device project upward and they are connected to a print substrate 24 which constitutes a circuit converting a signal according to the detection values of the position information detection parts 22a and 22b, and also a cord 25 for an input-output is connected to the print substrate 24 to connect a computer. Since the position information detection parts 22a and 22b are arranged close each other, the print substrate 24 is made small.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a positional information input device that is effective when inputting handwritten figures drawn two-dimensionally on an operation panel into a computer online. It is.

Conventional technology Traditionally, the movement of a sphere attached to an object moving on a flat surface due to manual operation is converted into a signal to obtain positional information of the object, and the positional information is input into a computer etc. through a code etc. The devices illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 are considered. To explain this, FIG. 9 is a partially cutaway plan view of a conventional position information input device, and FIG. 10 is a partially cutaway side view thereof. In those drawings,
Reference numeral 1 denotes a grippable housing which is divided into upper and lower parts. An iron sphere 2 is rotatably housed inside the housing, and the lower part of the sphere 2 protrudes downward from an opening 3 provided at the bottom of the housing 1 and comes into contact with a mounting plane 4. I'm here. Further, the housing 1 is movably supported on the mounting plane 4 by the spherical body 2 and a plurality of poles 5 which are rotatably provided on the bottom surface of the housing 1. The sphere 2 is arranged at right angles to the housing 1.
rotational shafts 62L, 6b, and the rotational shaft 62L.

The horizontal position is regulated by elastic biasing bodies 7 attached at equal angular positions between the housings 1 and 6b.
The vertical position is regulated by being housed in a case 8 that is fixed to the case 8. The rotating shafts 62L, 6
At the tip of b, there is a position information detection section 9a made of an optical encoder for detecting the amount of movement.

9b is attached, and the position information detection unit ga,
A plurality of input/output terminals 10 protrude above gb. The input/output terminals 10 protruding upward are connected by solder to a printed circuit board 11 provided parallel to the housing 1. The printed circuit board 11 is provided with a circuit for converting the position information detected by the position information detection parts ga and gb into a signal corresponding to the detected value, and is connected to the input part of the computer through a cord 12. There is.

Next, the operation of this conventional example will be explained.

First, an input operator grasps the housing 1 with his/her hand,
When moved on the mounting plane 4, the sphere 2 also rolls on the mounting plane 4 as the housing 1 moves. Then, the rotating shafts 6a and 6b that are in contact with the outer periphery of the sphere 2 also rotate. In this case, the sphere 2 is
It rolls in the same direction as the moving direction of the housing 1, and rotates by an amount corresponding to the moving amount of the housing 1.

Furthermore, the rotation shaft 62L is detected by the position information detection units ga and gb provided on the rotation shafts 6& and sb.

6b, a circuit provided on the printed circuit board 11 generates a signal according to the detected value, and detects positional information according to the moving direction and amount of movement of the housing 1. Met.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention This conventional configuration has the following problems. As already explained, the rotary shafts aa and sb are provided at the tips of the rotary shafts aa and sb.
The input/output terminals 10 of the position information detection units 9a and 9b are fixed to the printed circuit board 11 by soldering, but at this time,
Conventionally, as is clear from FIGS. 9 and 10, there are two position information detection units 92L.

9b are arranged at positions farthest from each other with the sphere 2 in between. As a result, the printed circuit board 1
1 is disposed on the entire surface inside the housing, and due to the height, it is necessary to make a hole along the outer shape of the case 8 holding the sphere 2.

For this reason, the printed circuit board 11 has a drawback that the yield is extremely low, the cost is high, and the product cannot be miniaturized.

The present invention solves these conventional drawbacks, and aims to reduce the size of the printed circuit board, thereby providing an inexpensive and compact position information input device.

Means for Solving the Problem In order to solve this problem, the position information input device of the present invention includes a housing that moves on a plane, and a housing that rotates as the housing moves on the plane. A sphere rotatably provided in the housing, two position information detection means for detecting movement of the housing by rotation of the sphere, and a detection value detected by the position information detection means according to the detection value. and a positional information converting means for converting the positional information into a signal, each of the positional information detecting means being constituted by a rotating shaft and a positional information detecting section, one of the positional information detecting sections being close to the other positional information detecting section. It was arranged as follows.

Function The present invention has the positional information detecting section of the positional information detecting means on the positional information converting means side as in the above-mentioned configuration, so that the printed circuit board can be made smaller and cheaper, and the product can be made smaller. This is something that can be achieved.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cutaway plan view of essential parts showing an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a cutaway side view of essential parts, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view thereof. In those drawings, 13 is a position information input device, and 14 is a flat operation plate on which the position information input device 13 can be placed movably. Note that this does not necessarily have to be plate-shaped. Here, a housing 15 that can be gripped by the position information input device 13 and a bottom plate 152L that is a component of the housing 15 are provided.
A pole 16a made of steel, plastic, etc. is rotatably disposed on the lower surface of the bottom plate 15& to intersect movably on the housing 16 containing 2L and the operation plate 14 at a predetermined interval.

16b, 16C, 16d, a spherical body 19 which is rotatably disposed within the case 18 fixed in the No-Uji Puffer 15 so that its lower part is in contact with the surface of the operating plate 14, and the spherical body 19. two rotating shafts 20&, 20b provided parallel and perpendicular to the outer shape of the housing 15 so as to be in contact with each other;
The spherical body 19 and the rotating shaft 2 are used to keep the spherical body 19 and the rotating shafts 2C1 and 20b in contact with each other at all times.
0&.

An elastic biasing body 21 that is pressed by a spring or the like is provided at a position equiangular from the point of contact with 20b. Here, the sphere 1
No. 9 may be a metal ball or a metal ball overcoated with silicone rubber, urethane rubber, etc.

Furthermore, the other end of the rotating shaft 2C1, 20b is provided with the spherical body 1.
Position information detection unit 22+ that detects 90 rotations! L, 22
b is provided. This position information detection section 22&, 22
From b, a plurality of input/output terminals 23 for a light emitter and a light receiver, which will be explained in detail later, come out to the top, and constitute a circuit that converts signals according to the detected values of the position information detecting sections 22a and 22b. An input/output cord 26 is connected to the printed circuit board 24, so that it can be connected to a computer. Here, the position information detection units 22a and 22b are shown in FIG.
As can be seen in the figure, since they are arranged close to each other, it can be seen that the printed circuit board 24 is smaller than that of the conventional example. This is the location information detection section 22&,
The components of 22b are made as small as possible and can be arranged.

Here, with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7, the position information detection unit 22
a(22b) (l'i: Detailed explanation of Surt, 4th
The figure shows an example of the configuration of the position information detection section 22 & (22b). In the same figure, the rotating shaft 2oIL (2
0b), and the rotating shaft 20 & (20b
) is made of a material that does not transmit light, and the rotary plate 26 is provided with a large number of slits 27 at equal intervals on the circumference. On the other hand, a light emitter 28 and a light receiver 29 are provided corresponding to the slit positions of the rotary plate 26 and sandwiching the rotary plate 26 therebetween. As shown in the circuit diagram of FIG. 5, the light emitter 28 is supplied with a constant voltage from a power source 30 so that it always emits light with a constant amount of light.

Further, the light receiver 29 is connected to the terminal 23 depending on the amount of light received.
The output voltage obtained is changed accordingly. Therefore, when the slit position of the rotary plate 26 between the light receiver 29 and the light emitter 28 changes, the amount of light passing through it changes, and the output voltage of the light receiver 29 changes accordingly. Due to the above, the rotary plate 26
When rotates together with the rotating shaft 201L (20b),
The output voltage appearing at the terminal 23 changes as shown in FIG. 6a.

Also, the position information detection section 22+! L (22b) is provided with another set of a light emitter 31 and a light receiver 32 with the rotating plate 26 in between, as shown in FIG. The arrangement positions of the light emitter 31 and the light receiver 32 are such that the output voltage of the light receiver 29 is as shown in FIG. 6 &, whereas the output voltage of the light receiver 32 is as shown in FIG. The phase changes with a delay of 90 degrees with respect to the output voltage of the photoreceiver 29. Conversely, when the rotary plate 26 rotates in the direction of arrow B shown in FIG. 4, the output voltage of the light receiver 32 changes in phase with the output voltage of the light receiver 29 by 90 degrees.

The output voltages of the light receivers 29, 32 are each amplified by amplifiers 33, 34 as shown in FIG. 7, and then waveform-shaped into a rectangular wave by waveform shapers 35, 36. Thereafter, the phase comparator 37 detects the rotation direction of the rotary plate 26 by comparing the phases of the two signals, and the arithmetic unit 38 adds the number of waves of either signal, thereby detecting the rotation direction of the rotary plate 26. It is also possible to detect the rotation angle of the plate 260. Note that the signal detected by the arithmetic unit 38 is supplied to the computer main body and processed.

With the above configuration, the rotation direction and rotation angle of the rotation shafts 20a, 20b can be detected.

Next, the operation and operation of this embodiment will be explained in detail. First, when the position information input device 13 is placed on the operation plate 14 and operated, the sphere 19 also rolls on the operation plate 14 as the nozzle 16 moves. Then, the rotating shaft 20J 20b that is in contact with the outer periphery of the sphere 19 also rotates. In this case, the sphere 19 rolls in the same direction as the moving direction of the housing 16, and rotates by an amount corresponding to the moving amount of the housing 15. Further, the rotating shaft 2o&.

The rotation angles of the rotating shafts 20&, 20b are detected by the position information detection units 22&, 22b provided on the printed circuit board 24, and a signal is converted according to the detected value by a circuit provided on the printed circuit board 24 to determine the moving direction of the housing 15. It also detects position information according to the amount of movement.

Further, FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In the same figure,
The input/output terminals 23 extending upward from the position information detecting sections 221L, 22b are connected to flexible wiring boards 395L, 39b by soldering or the like. The wiring board 39a.

39b is detachably connected to the printed circuit board 24 directly or via connectors 4C1 and 40b.

According to this embodiment, the printed circuit board 24 can be further miniaturized.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, the present invention has the advantage of being able to significantly reduce the size of the printed circuit board compared to the conventional example, thereby significantly reducing the cost of the printed circuit board. This makes it possible to reduce the size of the product. According to the invention, therefore:
This makes it possible to provide an inexpensive and compact position information input device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cutaway plan view of essential parts showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
3 is a perspective view of the same, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the position information detection section, FIG. 5 is a circuit configuration diagram thereof, and FIGS. 6 a and b are 7 is a block diagram of an example of a signal processing circuit that can be used in the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example of a signal processing circuit that can be used in the present invention.
9 is a cutaway plan view of a main part showing another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 9 is a cutaway plan view of a main part showing a conventional example, and FIG. 10 is a cutaway side view of the main part. 13... Location information input device, 14...
Operation panel, 15...Housing, 152L...
...Bottom plate, 16&~d...Ball, 18...
...Case, 19...Sphere, 20Δ, 20
b...Rotating shaft, 21...Elastic biasing body,
22&, 22b...Position information detection unit, 23...
...Input/output terminal, 24...Printed circuit board. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person No. 3
Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8

Claims (1)

[Claims] A housing that moves on a plane; a sphere that is rotatably provided on the housing so as to rotate as the housing moves on the plane; and a movement of the housing is detected by rotation of the sphere. Two position information detection means and a detection value detected by the position information detection means,
It is equipped with a positional information converting means for converting the detected value into a signal according to the detected value, and each of the positional information detecting means is composed of a rotating shaft and a positional information detecting section, and one of the positional information detecting sections detects the positional information of the other. 1. A position information input device characterized in that the device is disposed close to a computer.