RU2235362C2 - Pen for hand-written input of data into computer - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: engineering of peripheral computer devices.

SUBSTANCE: pen has body, inside of which writing node is located, as well as optical sensor, electronic circuit and device for lighting observation field of optical sensor.

EFFECT: device makes possible fast and easy writing of text, drawing of graphical images on any surface, inputting of this information into computer while retaining capabilities of common mouse manipulator.

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Description

The invention relates to the field of peripheral devices of computers and can be used to enter handwritten and graphic information and commands into a computer without using a keyboard.

Known devices for entering graphic, and in principle handwritten, information into a computer, which is an electronic-mechanical or electron-optical unit (mouse) connected by a cable to a computer, in which, when moving it over the surface of a table (sheet of paper) , the rubberized ball rolls and the associated sensors rotate, fixing the movement of the ball relative to the coordinate axes.

The rotation of the sensors is converted into electrical signals coming through the cable to the computer and displayed on the display screen in the form of lines and / or signs. In addition, there are buttons on the unit that control the operation mode of the “mouse” (f. “Computer Press”, 1989, No. 10, p.22).

The disadvantage of this device is the practical impossibility of writing handwritten characters due to the large size of the ball (which, in principle, cannot be reduced), the absence of traces on paper, the inability to observe, as you write, what the ball is writing at the moment, since it is out of the field operator’s view, under the bottom of the mouse. This device in the manufacture of requires precision machining of mechanical parts and assemblies and therefore quite expensive.

Also known are devices for inputting handwritten and / or graphic information into a computer, which are an optoelectronic unit (“scanner”) connected to a computer, in which when it is moved across a sheet surface with already (previously) written text or a pattern, a narrow strip of sheet is localized and registering the image of this strip with a linear sequence of photoconverters.

The presence or absence of text or contours of drawings or letters is determined by different sizes of the light signal reflected from a sheet of paper (V. Figurnov. User work with IBM PC, M .: Interquadro, 1990, p.41).

The disadvantage of this device is the complexity of its technical implementation, the inability to enter or edit handwritten text or drawing in the process of writing it.

Known devices for inputting graphic and / or handwritten information of a tablet type, which are a tablet with a coordinate grid deposited on its surface or placed in adjacent layers near the surface, which is a mutually perpendicular to the conductors. The movement of the pen on a sheet of paper placed on a TABLET causes a shortening of the sequence of electrical contacts at the intersection points of the conductors of the coordinate grid (Japanese Patent B41-57366, G 06 F 3/03, G 06 K 11/06, published 05.12.89, No. 6 , - 1435).

A similar tablet-type device has a grid of orthogonal light rays above the tablet surface that a pencil or pen crosses when writing text (Japanese Application No. 63-131222, abstract published in the Russian Federation “Inventions of the World”, issue 117, No. 11, 1989, G 03 F 3/03).

Also known is a tablet-type device containing coordinate buses and an inductive current collector in the form of a handle with an inductor connected to a computer by cable (A.S. USSR No. 1506460, G 06 K 11/00, published on 07/07/89 in BI No. 33).

A disadvantage of the known devices is the need to have a tablet with a coordinate grid created in some way to determine the position of the end of the pen sensor, which records text or draws a picture on the paper located on this tablet. This limits the ability to create and operate autonomous personal computers, since it does not allow, for example, to record on any medium (notebook, notebook, notebook), but only using a tablet.

In addition, to obtain good resolution and accuracy of handwriting reproduction, a grid with a very small pitch between conductors (buses) is required, and this leads to the complexity of manufacturing and the high cost of such devices (the average touch panel costs about $ 200).

It is also known a pen for entering ink information containing a hollow body, inside which there is a writing element, a pressure sensor and an acceleration sensor made in the form of mutually perpendicular piezoelectric plates with inertial elements located along the axis of the writing element in two rows, in the upper of which inertial elements are fixed at the lower ends of the piezoelectric plates, and the pressure sensor is made in the form of a piezoelectric plate, the plane of which is parallel to the axis of the writing element and one end of which is rigidly fixed in the housing, and d ugoy connected to an arm of which one side through a damping member connected to the body, and the other through a spring loaded pusher - a writing element (AS USSR 3811307, G 06 K 11/06, published 03.07.81 in BI №9.).

A disadvantage of the known device is that, since the pen is placed at an angle to the surface of the paper when writing, the inertial vibrations of the piezoelectric elements in the plane of inclination of the pen and in the perpendicular occur differently, and the plane of oscillation of the piezoelectric elements is located along the axis of the pen, but the writing end of the pen oscillates in paper plane, and not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the pen, which determines the complex and interdependent nature of the oscillations, significantly complicating the task of decoding and identifying written oxen.

Another significant drawback of the device is the large mass of inertial elements necessary to obtain a sufficient deviation of the end of the piezoelectric sensor and, accordingly, the magnitude of the signal from it. This mass does not allow you to track when writing fast fluctuations in the end of the pen, characteristic of writing handwritten letters, which distorts the image of the character being written and makes it difficult to recognize.

Other disadvantages of this device:

- the need to strengthen a weak signal from piezoelectric plates,

- the presence of noise such as “creak of a pen”, comparable in magnitude with the useful signal and complicating the selection of the useful signal from the signal + noise mixture,

- mismatch of the plane of oscillation of the end of the writing element and inertial piezoelectric sensors, which leads to a complex ambiguous dependence of the magnitude of the electric signal on the magnitude of the accelerations in mutually perpendicular planes,

- inertial periodic damped oscillations of the sensor mass system (due to their significant magnitude) when the direction of movement changes, superimposed on the useful signal,

- and for this reason - inadequate identification of the written characters.

The device closest to the essence of the problem being solved is a pen for entering ink information containing a housing inside which a writing unit, an optical sensor, and an electronic circuit for processing signals of the optical sensor are located, which are pre-recorded on special paper included in the pen set, information in the form microsymbols about the coordinates of the grid placed on paper so that this information gets into the field of view of the optical sensor when moving the handle on the surface of special. paper (US Patent No. 56661506, publ. 08/26/1997, G 09 G 5/00).

The disadvantage of this device is its shape, inconvenient to hold it in your hand, which makes it difficult to write letters and signs on a certain surface (sheet of paper), similar to how it is done with an ordinary pen for writing. A fundamental drawback of the pen is the need to use special “labeled” paper, which radically limits the scope. To use this pen, in the municipality it will be necessary to mark all paper produced in the world with contrasting microdots, which is unrealistic, and, as we will see later, is not necessary.

The aim of the invention is the creation of a device that allows you to easily and conveniently write text, signs, formulas, draw graphic images on any surface and any type of paper and enter this information into a computer while preserving the capabilities of a conventional mouse - pointing and selecting objects on the screen.

To achieve this goal, the proposed device, a pen for handwriting data input into a computer, as well as the known one, contains a housing inside which there is a writing unit, an optical sensor and an electronic circuit, and the output of the optical sensor is connected to the input of the electronic circuit, and its output is connected to the computer .

Unlike the known one, in the proposed device, the case is made in the form of a handle with a bulge (“hump”) in its lower part, in which the optical sensor is located so that a controlled surface gets into the field of vision through the hole in the “hump”. To increase the contrast of the surface, the surface in the field of view of the optical sensor is illuminated from the side by an LED (p.p. laser) so that the microroughness of the controlled surface produces contrasting micro-shadows, which are “points” or reference points relative to which the direction of movement of the writing unit on the surface is determined ( paper).

Comparison with the prototype shows that the proposed device differs from it by a new LED (laser) backlight assembly located in the device’s body so that the light from it falls at a small angle onto the surface falling into the field of view of the optical sensor, therefore it meets the “novelty” criterion .

Obviously, such a backlight makes it possible to use any, not just special, writing paper with a pen, which significantly expands the scope of its application, makes the location of the data input device more convenient and familiar in the user's hand and provides the same easy and simple input of handwritten and graphic data to the computer, as is done with regular writing with a regular writing pen, which is unattainable when using either a mouse or keyboard.

An analysis of the information available to the author, and these are all copies of all computer editions available on the Internet, both domestic and foreign, by handwritten data entry shows that not one of the pens developed to date for entering handwritten information into a computer (desktop, laptops, handhelds, etc.) the side sliding backlight is not used to create a contrast of the surface on which data is written. Therefore, the proposed technical solution is not obvious and has an inventive step, as it clearly does not follow from the known technical solutions.

The proposed technical solution is necessary for each personal computer, and in existing ones it will work in parallel with the keyboard, and in future computers it will allow you to get rid of the keyboard in general, providing a natural (handwritten) input of information into the computer. That is, it will find wide application in industry, science and technology.

The drawing shows a General view of the pen, where 1 is the pen body, 2 is an optical sensor, 3 is a side light, 4 is an electronic circuit, 5 is a writing element.

A writing element 5 is installed in the pen body 1. An optical sensor 2 is installed in the tide (“hump”) of the pen so that the surface along which the pen moves and the electronic circuit 4 enters its field of vision. The backlight 3 is installed in the lower part of the body.

The operation of the device. If necessary, enter text or commands into the computer, the input device is taken into the hand like a regular writing pen and the writing element 5 is used to write text, commands or graphics on a sheet of plain paper. The light flux reflected from the surface (paper) enters through the hole in the lower part of the tide (“hump”) to the optical sensor 2, creating electrical signals at its output, which are processed by the electronic circuit 4 and transmitted to the computer. The backlight 3 provides the creation of a contrasting surface relief and thereby the correct functioning of the handle. The result of processing the input data are commands, text or graphic elements (characters) displayed on the computer screen.

The positioning of the pen relative to the sheet of paper is made by moving without touching the writing element above the sheet of paper in the right place.

Currently, the device is assembled in the form of a layout. As an optical sensor, an open CMOS RAM chip 565RU2 is used. The electronic part of the input device uses a processor company Micro Chip. As a backlight, a superbright LED made by Kingbright is used.

Currently, almost 100% handwriting recognition is performed and all the functions of the pointer (mouse) and graphics are implemented. Handwriting recognition uses PenOffice software from ParaGraph.

Using the proposed invention, ultimately, will get rid of the computer keyboard in general and enter information into it in a natural way - by writing it on paper with a pen.

Claims (1)

A pen for handwriting data input into a computer containing a housing inside which a writing unit, an optical sensor and an electronic circuit for processing electrical signals from the output of the optical sensor are located, the output of the optical sensor being connected to the input of the electronic circuit and its output being connected to the computer, characterized in that in the case there is a device for illuminating the field of view of the optical sensor so that on the illuminated surface along which the handle moves, an image of the microtrains of the surface relief is created, relative tionary which it is determined the direction of movement of the tip of said surface.