JP2001331273A - Input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the generation of malfunction that a cursor can not be moved to a desired position due to dirt, the wideness of a plane, or the roughness of the plane. SOLUTION: A mouse 1 is provided with an X axial directional movement detecting acceleration sensor 2 and an Y axial directional movement detecting acceleration sensor 3 as detecting devices and also with a clock so that the movement distance of the mouse 1 can be calculated based on the obtained acceleration and time. Thus, it is possible to move a cursor on a screen without being affected by the wideness or roughness of the plane for operating the mouse 1. Also, it is possible to prevent the movement of the cursor from being turned to be insufficient due to the dirt of the mouse 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an input device used as a peripheral device in an electronic device such as a personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electronic device such as a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a personal computer) or a word processor is provided with a mouse as an input device as a peripheral device.

For example, in a personal computer system, a display device as an output device having a monitor screen, a keyboard and a mouse as an instruction input device for giving an instruction to a CPU inside the personal computer body are attached to the personal computer body. Has become commonplace.

In this mouse, after turning on the power of the personal computer, a cursor displayed on a monitor screen of a personal computer or the like is moved by a so-called draw operation of moving the entire mouse forward, backward, left and right on a plane such as a desk. Further, instructions are given to the personal computer system by performing operations such as so-called click, double click, and drag and drop on various icons on the monitor screen. Through these operations, various operations such as changing directories in a personal computer, reading programs, and copying and moving files are performed.

[0005] As shown in FIG. 3, the mouse 100 has a ball-shaped member 101 and an X-axis direction detecting roller 10.
2, the Y-axis direction detection roller 103, and the ball-shaped member 1
A wheel 104 for holding down 01 is provided, and a click button (not shown) is provided.

The ball-shaped member 101 moves the mouse 100 smoothly by rotating. The X-axis direction detection roller 102 and the Y-axis direction detection roller 103
The moving directions of the mouse 100 are detected by rotating the mouse 100 by the same number as the number of rotations of the ball-shaped member 101. More specifically, the X-axis direction detection roller 102 moves the mouse 1 in one direction as indicated by an arrow C (hereinafter, this direction is referred to as the X-axis direction).
00, and the Y-axis direction detection roller 103
The movement of the mouse 100 in a direction orthogonal to the X-axis direction as indicated by an arrow D (hereinafter, this direction is referred to as a Y-axis direction) is detected. The click button performs operations such as click, double-click, and drag-and-drop when pressed.

A method of moving the cursor on the screen by detecting the distance and direction of the mouse 100 when the mouse 100 is moved by the above-described draw operation and drag-and-drop operation will be described below.

First, the ball-shaped member 1 is drawn by a draw operation.
01 rotates. Next, the X-axis direction detection roller 102 and the Y-axis direction detection roller 103 rotate. Next, the X-axis direction detection roller 102 and the Y-axis direction detection roller 103
The X counter and the Y counter incorporated in the personal computer system are incremented (incremented) or decremented (decremented) according to the rotation of. next,
The processor detects the direction and distance that the mouse 100 has moved by periodically reading the X counter and the Y counter. Then, the processor counts a change in the value of the counter, thereby detecting the direction and distance in which the mouse 100 has moved, and moving the cursor on the screen.

Also, instead of reading the values of the X counter and the Y counter as described above, + x, -x, + y, -y
A method is also known in which a pulse is generated, and the processor counts the pulse to detect the direction and distance in which the mouse 100 has moved and move the cursor.

[0010]

By the way, since the processor detects the moving distance and direction of the mouse 100 and moves the cursor on the screen by the above-described method, the movement of the ball-shaped member 101 is controlled by the operation of the mouse 100 itself. sex,
As a result, the operability of the entire personal computer system is greatly affected.

In this case, a flat surface having a size enough to move the ball-shaped member 101 is required. The flat surface also needs to have such a roughness that the ball-shaped member 101 can be prevented from slipping without rotating.
Therefore, in the personal computer system, a mouse pad formed of a plate-like elastic member is placed on a desk or the like, and the cursor is moved by moving the mouse 100 on the mouse pad.

In addition, dirt adheres to the ball-shaped member 101 by rolling on a flat surface. And the X axis and Y
Dirt also adheres to the axial direction detection rollers 102 and 103. The adhesion of these stains also causes deterioration of the rotation of the ball-shaped member 101 on a plane.

However, when the plane having the appropriate roughness is not sufficiently wide, it may not be possible to sufficiently move the cursor on the screen by moving the mouse 100. In particular, the ball-shaped member 101
If the X-axis and Y-axis direction detecting rollers 102 and 103 become dirty, the X counter and the Y counter will not be moved up and down accurately, and the processor will accurately read the moving distance and direction of the mouse 100. And the cursor cannot be moved sufficiently.

In order to remove dirt from the ball-shaped member 101 and the X-axis and Y-axis direction detecting rollers 102 and 103,
It is necessary to perform maintenance on the mouse 100, such as periodically disassembling and cleaning the mouse 100. However, maintenance for the mouse 100 is a complicated operation.

The present invention has been proposed in view of such a conventional situation, and is intended to move a cursor to a desired position even when a plane having an appropriate roughness is not sufficiently wide. It is an object of the present invention to provide an input device that can perform the above-mentioned operations and is easy to maintain.

[0016]

An input device according to the present invention comprises a detecting device for detecting a moving direction and a moving distance;
A moving distance calculation circuit for calculating a moving distance, wherein an acceleration sensor is used as the detection device.

The input device according to the present invention configured as described above can detect the moving direction and the distance of the input device without rotating the input device by providing a ball-shaped member and a roller. It becomes something. For this reason, the cursor can be moved without being affected by the size and roughness of the plane. Also, the movement of the cursor does not become insufficient due to the contamination of the input device.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

A mouse 1 as an input device to which the present invention is applied
As shown in FIG. 1, the device includes an X-axis direction movement detection acceleration sensor 2 and a Y-axis direction movement detection acceleration sensor 3 that are detection devices, and a movement distance calculation circuit 4. Although a clock for detecting the time when acceleration is applied to the mouse 1 is provided, it is not shown.

The X-axis direction movement detection acceleration sensor 2 detects an acceleration applied in one direction (hereinafter, referred to as X-axis direction) as indicated by an arrow A when the mouse 1 moves.
The Y-axis direction detection acceleration sensor 3 detects an acceleration applied in a direction orthogonal to the X-axis direction (hereinafter, referred to as a Y-axis direction) as indicated by an arrow B when the mouse 1 moves.
The moving distance calculation circuit 4 calculates the moving distance based on the input acceleration and the time corresponding to the acceleration.

X-axis direction movement detecting acceleration sensor 2 and Y
The axial movement detection acceleration sensors 3 are respectively arranged orthogonally. The moving distance calculation circuit 4 is concentrated on a rectangular portion formed by the pair of acceleration sensors described above.

When the mouse 1 moves in a predetermined direction, first, the acceleration in the X-axis direction is detected by the X-axis direction movement detecting acceleration sensor 2, and the acceleration in the Y-axis direction is detected by the Y-axis direction movement detecting acceleration sensor 3. You. The time during which acceleration is applied to the mouse 1 is detected by a clock provided in the mouse 1. The signals representing the detected acceleration and time are output to the moving distance calculation circuit 4. Next, the moving distance calculation circuit 4 calculates the moving distance of the mouse 1 according to the input signal. Next, the calculated moving distance is converted into a predetermined operation signal, and this operation signal is output to a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a personal computer). Then, the position of the cursor on the screen moves according to the operation signal.

The above-mentioned operation signal may be output to a personal computer by being transmitted not by wire communication but by wireless communication using radio waves, light rays, sound waves, or the like.

The calculation performed by the moving distance calculation circuit 4 will be described below.

The moving distance of the mouse 1 is L, the moving speed is V,
Assuming that the moving acceleration is A and the moving time is T, the following equations 1 and 2 hold.

[0026]

(Equation 1)

[0027]

(Equation 2)

When the mouse 1 moves, its maximum speed is set to V1 cm / sec. Then, the speed is 0 cm / s
ec. To V1 cm / sec. V1c after increasing to
m / sec. From 0 cm / sec. To decrease. This first 0 cm / sec. From the next 0 cm / sec. The moving distance L of the mouse 1 can be obtained by integrating the velocity V changed during the period. Further, since the following Expression 3 is obtained from Expressions 1 and 2, the time T
If the value of the acceleration A at that time is known, the moving distance L
Can be obtained.

[0029]

(Equation 3)

For example, the speed at 0 seconds is 0 cm / sec.
c. And the speed from T1 seconds to T2 seconds is V1 cm /
sec. And the speed at T3 seconds is 0 cm / sec.
c. Consider the relationship among the moving distance L, the moving speed V, the moving acceleration A, and the moving time T when. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, the area indicating the amount of change in the movement acceleration A from 0 seconds to T1 seconds and the area indicating the amount of change in the movement acceleration A from T2 seconds to T3 seconds are equal to the movement speed V. The area indicating the change amount of the moving speed V from 0 seconds to T3 seconds corresponds to the moving distance L of the mouse 1. Therefore, the moving distance L of the mouse 1 can be obtained by integrating the change in the moving speed V from 0 seconds to T3 seconds with time.

The moving distance L can be obtained by the following equation (4).

[0032]

(Equation 4)

In this case, the acceleration A is between A and T1 seconds.
With a constant and 1cm / (sec) ^2, if has been described an example in constant across simple A2cm / (sec) ² and between T3 seconds T2 seconds, the more complex the acceleration A changes With respect to, the moving distance L of the mouse 1 can be obtained by reading the time section in detail every time the acceleration changes, and forming the same equation.

The mouse 1 has an X-axis direction movement detection acceleration sensor 2 and a Y-axis direction movement detection acceleration sensor 3.
It is desirable to provide a changeover switch for shutting off the operation of. This makes it possible to move only the mouse without moving the position of the cursor on the screen of the personal computer.

Further, the mouse 1 is moved in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction.
By attaching a Z-axis direction movement detecting acceleration sensor that detects acceleration applied in a direction (Z-axis direction) orthogonal to each of the axial directions, it becomes possible to move the cursor on the screen in a three-dimensional direction. This allows the mouse 1 to be used even when it is necessary to move the cursor in a three-dimensional direction using, for example, game software.

The mouse 1 may also have a click button which is an operation button for inputting a signal of a main body of an electronic device such as a personal computer.

As is clear from the above description, the mouse 1 has the X-axis direction movement detecting acceleration sensor 2 and the Y-axis direction movement detecting acceleration sensor 3 as detecting devices, and also has a clock. The moving distance of the mouse 1 is obtained based on the acceleration and the time. For this reason, it is possible to detect the moving direction and the distance of the input device without providing the ball-shaped member and the roller on the mouse and rotating the mouse, and the flatness and roughness of the plane for operating the mouse 1 can be reduced. The cursor on the screen can be moved without being affected.

Further, since the ball-shaped member and the rollers do not rotate sufficiently due to the contamination of the mouse 1, the movement of the cursor does not become insufficient. And mouse 1
Maintenance becomes easier. In addition, the cursor can be moved even when the mouse 1 is lifted from a plane and used. Further, by further attaching a Z-axis direction movement detecting acceleration sensor, the cursor can be moved in a three-dimensional direction.

[0039]

As is clear from the above description, the input device according to the present invention includes an acceleration sensor as a detecting device and a clock, and the input device is based on the acceleration and time obtained from the clock. Find the travel distance. This makes it possible to move the cursor on the screen without being affected by the width and roughness of the plane for operating the input device. Also, the movement of the cursor does not become insufficient due to the contamination of the input device. And the maintenance of the input device is simplified. The input device can also move the cursor on the screen when the input device is lifted and moved from the plane.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a mouse to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a relationship among a moving time, a moving distance, a moving speed, and an acceleration.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a conventional mouse.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Mouse, 2 X-axis movement detection acceleration sensor, 3
Y-axis direction movement detection acceleration sensor, 4 movement distance calculation circuit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An input device comprising: a detection device for detecting a movement direction and a movement distance; and a movement distance calculation circuit for calculating a movement distance, wherein an acceleration sensor is used as the detection device. 2. The input device according to claim 1, wherein said pair of acceleration sensors are arranged in a direction perpendicular to each other. 3. The input device according to claim 1, wherein each of the three acceleration sensors is arranged orthogonally. 4. The input device according to claim 1, further comprising a clock for detecting a time when the acceleration applied to the input device changes. 5. The input device according to claim 1, further comprising a changeover switch for shutting off the acceleration sensor. 6. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising an operation button for inputting a signal to the electronic device.
Input device as described.