JPS6378222A - Touch sensor controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain touch information in response to a variety of recognition modes by detecting the way that a touch sensor is operated as separate split sections on the screen of a display and processing a signal according to the contents that the split section gives. CONSTITUTION:The recognition modes that a touch sensor controller requires according to the simultaneous multidisplay on the display come in an intermittent mode, a continuous mode, an action recognition mode and so on. For processing in said modes, a touch start and end detection circuit 5 detects a touch start point and a touch end point based on a signal from a touch position detection circuit 2. According to a start detection signal T-ON from the detection circuit 5, a calculation control circuit 6 inputs X and Y direction position detection signals X and Y from the position detection circuit 2, and stores them in a memory. A control circuit 6 processes the position detection signal, which is obtained in such a way, in response to each recognition mode. Thus the touch information in response to the each recognition mode can be obtained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] With respect to a touch sensor attached to the front of a display such as a CRT display, the CRT display is divided and a touch operation is detected for each divided w4 area associated with the divided display. , is a touch sensor control device that performs signal processing in a form required for each divided region.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention is attached to the front surface of a CRT display, and by specifying a position on the CRT display by touching it with a human finger, an instruction is given to a computer connected to the CRT display via the CRT display. The present invention relates to touch sensors used in man-machine communication.

[Conventional technology]

Touch sensors perform the same functions as keyboards and light pens by directly touching human fingers, but they are also used as data input devices in man-machine interfaces as interactive devices that are easier to operate than keyboards and light pens. It is used as.

Conventional examples of control devices using such touch sensors include the analog type shown in FIG. 9(a) and the analog type shown in FIG. 9(b).
A digital type shown in the figure is known.

The analog touch sensor control device includes two opposing transparent resistive films 10. ．． A touch sensor 10 consisting of 10□, a touch position detection circuit 2a' with a built-in bridge circuit and a differential amplifier, an A/D converter 3a', and a data output circuit 6.
a', and is connected to a CPU (not shown) or the like via an interface 7. Touch sensor 10 is attached to the front of a CRT display (not shown). User uses CRT
The information displayed on the display is visually recognized via the touch sensor 10, and the corresponding indicated point on the CRT display is touched by the touch sensor 1.
Instruct by pressing 0 with your finger. Transparent resistive film 10 of the touch sensor due to finger pressure. ．． 10□ contacts, and the resistance ratio changes in two directions, the X direction and the Y direction, depending on the pressing point. This resistance change in the X direction and the Y direction is detected by the touch position detection circuit 2a' and converted into a digital quantity by the A/D converter 3a'. Data output circuit 6a
' outputs the digitally converted position data to the CPU via the interface 7.

As a result, the position of the CRT display can be specified directly by detecting the pressed position on the touch sensor 10, and indirectly by detecting the pressed position on the touch sensor 10.

The digital touch sensor control device includes a touch sensor 10' composed of a key matrix, one in the X direction, one in the Y direction, respectively.
It consists of a direction demultiplexer 2b, a multiplexer 2C, a scan control section 2d, a comparison circuit 2e, and a data output circuit 6a'', and is connected to the CPU via an interface 7.

The analog touch sensor control device shown in FIG. 9(a) detects the resistance ratio via a bridge circuit and converts it into a digital quantity, while the digital sensor control device shown in FIG. 9(b) uses the touch sensor 10'. Since they are arranged in a matrix, the X-direction coordinates and Y-direction coordinates of the pressed points can be directly detected.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The basic function of the touch sensor control devices shown in FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) is to detect the position of a pressed touch sensor in a single instance.

However, the development of man-machine communication via display devices requires so-called paper culture-uniform operations, such as turning the display screen over to the pages of a book, turning the document over, going back, scrolling several lines, etc. It has reached this point. Therefore, it is desired to be able to perform these operations via a touch sensor, but as mentioned above, simply being able to detect the position at the time of finger touch cannot meet this demand. It is.

Further, in the conventional touch sensor control device described above, one display is displayed on one display, and a touch operation on this display is only detected. Therefore, when one display device is divided and a plurality of types are displayed at the same time, it is not possible to effectively detect touch operations on each divided area.

[Means to solve the problem]

First, the present invention aims to provide a touch sensor control device that can detect movement, size, direction, etc. related to touch operations that can respond to paper culture uniform operations.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a touch sensor control device that can detect multiple touch operations for simultaneous multiple displays on a display device to which a touch sensor is attached as various types of signals as described above.

The principle block diagram of the touch sensor control device of the present invention is shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure. The touch sensor control device is an analog type,
It includes both digital types, and consists of a touch sensor section 1, a touch position detection circuit 2, a touch start/end detection circuit 5, and an arithmetic control circuit 6. The touch sensor section 1 and the touch position detection circuit 2 are the same as conventional ones, although there are differences between analog and digital types.

[Operation] Recognition modes required of the touch sensor control device in response to simultaneous multiple display on the display include the following.

(1) Intermittent mode 1 During touch operation, the first position data of the touch operation is output.

(2) Intermittent mode 2 Outputs position data at the end of touch operation.

(3) Continuous mode 1 All position data is captured along the trajectory of the touch operation from the beginning to the end and is output continuously.

(4) Continuous mode 2 In continuous mode 1, changed position data is output only when there is a substantial change in position data.

(5) Motion recognition mode From the start to the end of the touch operation, the direction, direction, and amount of movement are detected and output.

(6) Combination of the above modes, for example, mixed mode of motion recognition mode and intermittent mode 1 or intermittent mode 2, etc. To perform the above processing, touch start. The end detection circuit 5 detects the touch start time and the evening/Sochi end time based on the signal from the touch position detection circuit 2. The arithmetic control circuit 6 receives the position detection signals X and Y in the X and Y directions from the touch position detection circuit 2 in response to the start detection signal T-ON from the touch start/end detection circuit 5, and stores them in the memory. The arithmetic control circuit 6 performs signal processing on the position detection signal obtained in this manner in accordance with each of the above-mentioned modes.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an analog type touch sensor control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, the touch sensor control device includes a touch sensor 10, a touch position detection bridge and an amplifier circuit za, and an A/D converter 3 similar to those shown in FIG. 7(a).
a, a sampling control circuit 4a, a touch start/end detection circuit 5a, and an arithmetic control processor 6a. Corresponding to FIG. 1, the touch sensor 10 is the touch sensor section 1 of FIG. 1, the bridge and amplifier circuit 2a, the A/D converter 3a and the sampling control circuit 4a are the touch position detection path 2, and the touch start/end detection. The mouth i5a corresponds to the touch start/stop detection circuit 5, and the arithmetic control processor 6a corresponds to the arithmetic control circuit 6.

FIG. 3 shows an example of multi-display on the display. In this figure, the left screen M1 displays a case where information is searched by pressing the O mark with a finger, and the right screen displays a case where the displayed content is scrolled by a specified amount. Is going.

Therefore, the recognition mode required of the touch sensor control device for touch operations is intermittent mode 1 for the left screen. The right screen is in motion recognition mode.

As a touch sensor control device, it is necessary to be able to respond to these motes at the same timing, but the basic operation is to respond to each split screen, Ml in the example in Figure 3.
The same applies to M2.

Therefore, in the following explanation, processing for each split screen will be described.

FIG. 4 shows a more specific circuit diagram of the touch sensor control device shown in FIG. 2, and the circuit shown in FIG. 4 and its operation will be described below.

The bridge and amplifier circuit 2a includes a constant current source 20, bridge resistors 21-24, resistors 25-26, a transistor 27, and differential amplifiers 28 and 29.

The pre-fuji circuit is connected as shown in the equivalent circuit shown in FIG. 5, and the resistances ROA and ROI of the transparent electrode films 10 and 102, which change depending on the pressing point on the touch sensor 10, are operatively connected to one side of the bridge. The bridge is configured so that when the touch sensor 10 is pressed, the transistor 27 is turned off, and when the touch sensor 10 is released, the transistor 27 is turned off. Differential amplifier 28
, 29 differentially input resistance changes in the X and Y directions that vary depending on the pressing point as voltages using current from the constant current source 20, and output voltage signals corresponding to the coordinate positions in the X and Y directions. The A/D converter 3a converts these into digital data and outputs them as X-direction position data X and Y-direction position data Y to the calculation side control processor 6a.

The sampling control circuit 4a includes an oscillator 41, an AND gate 42, a one-shot multipipe rake 43, a delay circuit 44, a one-shot multivibrator 45, and an OR gate 46. As shown in FIG. 6(a), the oscillator 41 generates pulses with a sampling period τ0 for the A/D converter 3a. When the one-shot multivibrator 43 receives a rising pulse from the AND gate 42, it outputs a single pulse, and after this pulse is delayed by a delay circuit 44 for a certain period of time, the one-shot multivibrator 45 outputs a single pulse again. is output. As a result, the OR gate 46 outputs two series of pulses at an interval of .tau.1, as shown in FIG. 6(b). τ1〈τ. The reason for outputting two consecutive pulses with a time of This is to convert. The delay time τ is the minimum time longer than the A/D conversion time. On the other hand, the output pulses of the oscillator 41 are output at a sampling period of sufficient time to follow the finger touch operation, for example, 30 ms.

The touch start/end detection circuit 5a includes an inverter 51,
It consists of flip-flops (FF) 53 and 54 at 52 and J-. When the touch panel 10 is pressed, the transistor 27 is turned on, a high level signal is applied from the inverter 51 to the FF 53, and a touch start detection signal T is generated.
-ON is output. Further, when the pressing of the touch panel 10 ends, a touch end detection signal T-OFF is sent from the FF 54.
is output.

Note that the AND gate 42 of the sampling control circuit 4a
Since a high level signal is applied via the inverter 51 from the start to the end of touching the touch panel 10, the sampling pulse shown in FIG. 6(b) is output only during this period.

The arithmetic control processor 6a performs processing according to the recognition mode.

First, the motion recognition mode accompanying the scroll display on the right side of FIG. 2 will be described.

As shown in the schematic flowchart of FIG. 6, the arithmetic control processor 6a receives the touch start signal T-ONO (step 5QL) and receives the X, Y coordinate data X, Y from the A/D converter 3a due to the touch input. The data reading is started (5o2), and the read data is stored in the memory in the arithmetic control processor 6a (503). The above operations are repeated until the touch end signal T-OFF is applied.

When the touch end signal T-OFF is applied (SO4)
, data X stored in memory at the start of the touch,
, Y, and the data x, , yE at the end of the touch, its direction, orientation, and amount of movement ((Xs ””X()
2+(Ys ~ Yt)2) Calculate "" (SO5
, 506). The results of these calculations represent so-called vector quantities, and are calculated via an interface (X-, Y
a), orientation, direction, amount of movement, (XE.

YE) etc. are output to the CPU (SO7). After that,
Outputs the reset pulse RESET and activates FF53, 54
(SO8). Therefore, once the above-mentioned processing is started, no intermediate touch operations are actually accepted until the touch operations are completed and the FFs 53 and 54 are reset.

In addition, when calculating the orientation, direction, and amount of movement described above, in order to improve the reliability of the results due to the use of unstable instantaneous data at the start or end of a touch, for example, data several times after the start of a touch. , data from several pieces before the end of the touch,
Alternatively, it is also possible to use the average of a plurality of pieces of relatively similar data for calculation.

Based on the various data calculated in this way, the CPU scrolls the screen M2 on the right side of FIG. 3 by a specified amount.

Since the screen M1 on the left side of FIG. 3 is an operation in intermittent mode 1, it is sufficient to jump to the processing of steps 507 and S08 after processing steps Sol to SO3 in the flowchart of FIG.

Regarding intermittent mode 2, in the flowchart of FIG. 7, after steps Sol to SO4, steps SO7 and 508 may be performed for the data immediately before touch-off.

FIG. 8 shows a flow chart of continuous modes 1 and 2. In the case of continuous mode 1, the arithmetic control processor 6a bypasses step 323 and outputs all input data to the CPU. On the other hand, in the case of continuous mode 2, in step S23, only change data is sent to the CPU only when there is a difference from the previous time. As a result, continuous mode 2 can avoid sending out unnecessary data. Regarding the difference from the previous time in step S23, it is possible to compare the difference to a degree of significance and send data to the CPU only when a substantial change has occurred.

Note that after the touch-off (step 526), it is preferable to report the touch-off (S27).

The same applies to other recognition modes.

Although the above embodiments have been described with respect to an analog type, the same applies to a digital type touch sensor control device.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, touch information according to the various recognition modes described above can be provided.

Furthermore, even in the case of multiple display, the present invention can provide touch information fVi for the recognition mode corresponding to each divided display area.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 shows the touch sensor system of the present invention? 11 is a block diagram of the principle of the device, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an analog type touch sensor control device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the multi-display of the display, and FIG. A circuit diagram of the sensor control device, Fig. 5 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the bridge circuit in Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 (a
) (b) is a timing diagram of the sampling control circuit in Figure 4, Figures 7 and 8 are processing flow charts of the arithmetic control processor in Figure 4, and Figures 9 (a) and (b) are conventional touch sensor control devices. This is a block diagram of (Explanation of symbols) 1...Touch sensor section, 2...Touch position detection circuit, 5...Touch start/end detection circuit, 6...Arithmetic control circuit. Principle block diagram of the touch sensor control device of the present invention (Fig. 1) Touch sensor unit 2 Touch position detection circuit 5 Touch start/end detection circuit 6 Arithmetic control circuit Implementation of the present invention Block diagram of an example analog touch sensor control device 2019. Pritsuno and amplifier circuit 3 for touch position detection
Q...~■Converter 4q...Sampling control circuit 50...Touch start/end detection circuit 6o...Arithmetic control processor 7...Interface 10...Touch sensor Fig. 4 Processing of arithmetic control processor 7th flowchart of
Figure 4: Flowchart of other processing by the arithmetic control processor Figure 8

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A touch sensor control device equipped with a touch sensor attached to the front surface of a display device in which one screen can be arbitrarily divided and used, and touch-operated for each divided section corresponding to the divided area of the display device. . A touch sensor control device that detects a touch sensor operation for each of the divided sections, and performs signal processing of the detection result according to the content given for each divided section.