JPS6381275A - Abnormality detector for touch sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the abnormality of a touch sensor in its early stage by providing a control means which decides that the touch sensor is abnormal when the sensor is continuously on exceeding a specific time and excludes the on signal from the sensor. CONSTITUTION:Plural light emitting element arrays 1a and 1b (or light receiving element arrays 1c and 1d) are provided on the right and upper (or left and lower) sides of the touch sensor 1. On signals [X-axial signal sequence (x) and Y-axial signal sequence (y)] from the element arrays 1a and 1b are supplied to a touch sensor abnormality detection parts 5a and a touch point detection part 7. The detection part 5 part consists of a switch-on detection part 5a and a watchdog timer function part 5b and the detection part 7 consists of an abnormal touch sensor signal excluding part 7a and a and a touch point detecting function part 7b. Consequently, when the sensor 1 turns on, the on time is clocked by the detection part 5a and when this on time exceeds the specific time, the function part 5b decides that the sensor is abnormal. Then the on signal from the sensor is excluded 7 and following processing operation 13 is carried out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a device for detecting an abnormality in a touch sensor used in a touch panel type CRT or the like.

(Prior Art) In recent years, so-called touch panel CRTs, which have the function of directly touching and selecting the contents of the menu displayed on the CRT screen, have been used as man-machine interfaces between various information processing devices and operators, making them easier to operate. difference,
It is used in many fields for its reliability and convenience.

The touch sensor used in this touch panel type CRT has infrared emitting/receiving element arrays arranged on the top/bottom and left/right sides of the CRT screen, and the operator blocks the light from the light emitting elements with his/her finger. A thin transparent film with electrodes arranged in a matrix is pasted on the CRT screen, and when the operator touches the touch point with a finger, the contact closes and the touch-on state is achieved. An electrode film type for detecting a touch, and a capacitive film type for detecting a change in capacitance in a touch state by attaching a film type key sheet to a CRT screen are known. Regardless of which type of touch sensor is used, the presence or absence of a touch is determined by detecting the change in the signal state from the normal off state to the on state when a touch point is touched. .

By the way, abnormalities of the touch point of the touch sensor include (1) an abnormality in which it is not possible to detect a touch at all;
(2) There are two types of abnormalities in which it is determined that a touch is being made even though the touch is not being made.

In the case of the abnormality (1), the abnormality can be covered by sensors around the touch sensor corresponding to the abnormal point. However, in the case of abnormality (2), it is always determined that the signal is being touched until the next state change occurs, and even if the actual operator makes a touch operation, the operation request is not detected and it is completely unresponsive. The problem is that it becomes. In particular, this abnormality (2) where a touch is detected even when no touch is being made often occurs with optical touch sensors due to dust adhering to the surface of the light-emitting/light-receiving element, and with film-type touch sensors. This frequently occurs when the film becomes hard or inelastic, and this has been a factor that impairs the reliability of touch panel type CRTs.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the touch sensor of the touch panel type CRT, the abnormality in which it is determined that the touch is always being made even though no touch occurs occurs only at one touch point of the touch sensor. There is a problem in that even if you do this, the next normal operation will be impossible and you will not be able to perform any processing work at all.

This invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and its purpose is to develop a touch sensor that can quickly detect abnormalities in a touch sensor that is always determined to be being touched even when no touch has been made. An object of the present invention is to provide an abnormality detection device.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides that, while touching any of a number of touch points determined in the X row and the Y column, A device for detecting an abnormality in a touch sensor in which a corresponding touch sensor is in an on state, comprising a timer for measuring the on time, and determining that the touch sensor is abnormal when the on state continues for a predetermined time or more. and a control means for excluding the ON signal from the touch sensor.

(Function) When the touch sensor is in the on state, the on time is counted by the timer. The control means determines that the touch sensor is abnormal when the on-time of the touch sensor measured by the clock means is longer than a predetermined time. Then, the ON signal from the touch sensor determined to be abnormal is excluded, and subsequent processing work is executed. As a result, control is performed using only normal touch sensors.

(Embodiments) Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the apparatus according to the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram thereof.

In this embodiment, the above-mentioned optical touch sensor is used as the touch sensor (1), and this touch sensor 1 is a CRT.
They are provided at both ends of the front side of the display 3. That is, in FIG. 1, a plurality of light emitting element rows 1a are provided on the right side and the upper side of the figure.

1b, and a light emitting element array 1a is provided on the left side and the upper side.

The touch sensor 1 includes a plurality of light receiving element rows 1c and 1d facing the light receiving element 1b. Each light receiving element row 1
ON signals from a and 1b (X-axis signal string X and Y-axis signal string y
) are the touch sensor abnormality detection section 5 and the touch void detection section 7
and is supplied to.

The touch sensor abnormality detection unit 5 includes a switch-on detection unit 5a and a watchdog timer (hereinafter referred to as W) as shown in FIG.
(abbreviated as DT) functional section 5b. Further, the touch point detection section 7 includes an abnormal touch sensor signal exclusion section 7a and a touch point detection function section 7b.

The switch-on detection unit 5a detects the ON signal from the touch sensor 1, that is, the X-axis signal train x and the Y-axis signal train y, at the rising edge of the ON signal, and detects the WDTI! Function section 5b outputs trigger signal @T.

The WDT function unit 5b monitors whether or not the supplied bird is supplied with an on signal using the signal T for more than the time specified by the system regulation time, and when the on signal is supplied for more than the specified time. determines that the touch sensor 1 is abnormal and outputs an alarm signal to the subsequent alarm section 9,
Touch sensor signal exclusion section 7a of touch point detection section 7
The position information of the touch sensor 1 determined to be abnormal is sent out.

The abnormal touch sensor signal exclusion section 7a includes the light receiving element 10.1.
Among the touch sensor signals determined by inputting the X-axis signal string X and Y-axis signal string y received at d, the touch sensor 1 determined to be abnormal by the WDT function section 5b is selected. For a normal touch sensor 1, a bit string of "1" is formed and supplied to the subsequent touch point detection function section 7b.

The touch point detection function unit 7b receives a bit string signal of “Q 11 , 1111+” from the abnormal touch sensor signal exclusion unit 7a and a signal string from the touch sensor 1 (“1” when touched, normally “O”). ), and
The signal from the touch sensor 1 determined to be abnormal is excluded and supplied to the information processing unit 11. Further, the position information of the excluded touch sensor 1 is output to the notification unit 13, and the notification unit 13
The position of the touch sensor 1 that has been excluded is notified.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained based on the flowchart of FIG.

In the flowchart of Fig. 3 (A), step 301, 303 and 305 are
Whether or not the axis signal train y is on is monitored. When either the X-axis signal string x or the Y-axis signal string y is off, the X-axis touch sensor 1a, ic or the Y-axis touch sensor 1b,
Since an abnormality such as malfunction has occurred in one of the parts 1d, the process advances to step 307, and the alarm unit 9 issues an alarm. However, at the time of this step 307, there are two types of abnormality: the touch sensor 1 is turned on but cannot be detected, and the touch sensor 1 is determined to be on even though it is not turned on.
There are many possible types.

When both the X-axis signal train X and the Y-axis signal train y are on,
Proceeding to step 309, the timer of the WDT function section 5b starts.

In the next step 311, it is monitored whether the detected touch point is turned off before time-up. If it is turned off, the WDT timer is stopped and reset, and the process returns to the start (step 313). In addition, if both the X-axis signal string If so, it is determined that the touch sensor 1 is abnormal, and the process proceeds to step 317 in FIG. 3(B), where the alarm unit 9 issues an alarm.

When an alarm is generated in steps 307 and 317, in step 319, the abnormal touch sensor signal exclusion section 7a performs a process of excluding signals of abnormal touch points from the X-axis signal sequence X and the Y-axis signal sequence y. Next step 3
At 21, a normal touch point is detected from the signal sequence after removing the abnormal touch point, and the position information of the abnormal touch point is output to the notification section 13. Then, in step 323, the information processing section 11 executes an operator request command based on the normal touch signal.

In this way, in this embodiment, even if an abnormality occurs in which it is determined that the touch sensor 1 is constantly being touched even though no touch has been made, the signal from the touch sensor 1 in which this abnormality has occurred is excluded, and the subsequent operation is performed using only the normal signal. Since the invasion is processed, it is possible to avoid a situation where a request for an actual touch on a touch panel CRT is not accepted, and the reliability of the system is improved. Furthermore, since a notification is generated at the time an abnormality occurs, the operator can quickly learn of the occurrence of an abnormality, and reliable operation and early detection of abnormal devices are possible.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, there is provided a timer for measuring the ON time of a touch sensor, and a timer for determining the touch sensor to be abnormal when the ON state continues for a predetermined time or more. , and a control means that excludes the ON signal from this touch sensor, so even if an abnormality occurs where it is determined that a touch is being made even though no touch is being made, the ON signal from the abnormal touch sensor will be removed. The signal is excluded from subsequent control processing, which prevents the request from being accepted due to an actual touch, improving the reliability of devices using touch sensors. do.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG.
A) and (B) are flowcharts showing the processing procedure of an embodiment of the present invention. 1...Touch sensor 3...CRT 5...Touch sensor abnormality detection section 5a...Switch-on detection section 5b...WDTI function section 7...Touch point detection section 7a...Abnormal touch sensor Signal exclusion section 7b...Touch point function detection section 9...Alarm section 11...Information processing section 13...Notification section

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A device for detecting an abnormality in a touch sensor in which the corresponding touch sensor is turned on while touching any of a number of touch points determined in X row and Y column, The touch sensor includes a timer that measures on time, and a control means that determines that the touch sensor is abnormal and excludes an on signal from the touch sensor when the touch sensor continues to be on for a predetermined time or more. Features: Touch sensor abnormality detection device. (2) The touch sensor abnormality detection device according to claim 1, wherein the time measurement means is a watchdog timer. (3) The touch sensor according to claim 1, wherein the control means includes notification means that issues an alarm signal when determining an abnormality in the touch sensor and notifies the position of the abnormal touch sensor. Anomaly detection device.