JP2516762B2 - Vector input device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION [Overview] A pressure sensor detects the direction and amount of pressure applied to an operation plate to enable various types of vector inputs.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a vector input device capable of inputting a vector amount by minutely moving one operation plate in multiple directions.

[Conventional technology]

For electronic devices that require character input, a device that can input the character pattern itself may be used instead of the keyboard because of the ease of input. For example, an example is a matrix-shaped character input plate in which switches (sensing points) that are turned on and off with minute strokes are arranged in each grid-shaped block. By tracing the surface of the character input plate with a fingertip, the switches of the pressed portion are sequentially turned on, and the input pattern can be determined from the order.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the sensing point method described above, the number of switches increases to improve the resolution, which complicates the structure and increases the cost. There is also a method of forming a grid-like sensing point by using a plurality of pairs of infrared emitting and receiving pairs instead of the switch, but the apparatus becomes large and expensive.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention uses one operation plate that can move in a plane and a pressure sensor that can detect the direction and amount of force applied thereto as an input unit, thereby inputting various kinds of vector amounts necessary for pattern configuration. It is possible.

[Means for solving problems]

The vector input device of the present invention includes an operation plate for input that can be moved minutely in a plane, a plurality of pressure sensors that detect the direction and amount of force applied to the movable direction of the operation plate, and each of the sensors. An A / D converter for sampling the output and converting it into a digital value, a storage means for storing a plurality of standard patterns corresponding to the digital value, and an input pattern consisting of the digital value and the standard pattern are collated. And a processor for discriminating the type of the input vector.

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of the present invention, in which 1 is a pressure sensor and 2 is a pressure sensor.
Is an amplifier (for example, operational amplifier) used as necessary, 3 is an A / D converter that converts the output (analog value) into a digital value, 4 detects an input pattern from the input digital value, and It is a microprocessor (MPU) or digital processor (DSP) that performs determination processing by comparing with a reference pattern.

[Action]

The pressure applied to the pressure sensor 1 is 1 of the operation plate described later.
For one direction, the sensor converts the amount of pressure into an electrical value. In the present invention, this amount of pressure becomes one of the input information. The other input information is the direction in which pressure is applied. This can be determined by which of the four pressure sensors arranged in the four directions of one operation plate has produced an output. Of course,
It is also possible to detect in an oblique direction where two pressure sensors produce outputs at the same time. If the detection of this direction and the detection of the above amount are combined, the amount of information that can be input will increase dramatically. In addition, the temporal change of the vector is also important input information.

To give a simple example, when pressure is applied to the operation plate according to the pattern of the character you want to input, one character will be input if the amount of force does not matter, but whether it is strong or weak even if pressure in the same direction Can be determined as another character pattern. For example, when the number "3" is input, if the pressure is strong, it is determined to be uppercase, and if it is weak, it is determined to be lowercase. Of course, it is not limited to such clear character patterns. For example, it is possible to selectively use the process A when the pressure is strong and the process B when the pressure is weak even if the pressure is applied in the same direction.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 and subsequent drawings are explanatory views of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a structural diagram applied to an on-vehicle audio device, 5 is a device housing, 6 is a cassette insertion port, 7 is a common display, 8 is an individual display period, 9 is an operation plate (pattern input plate), Reference numeral 10 is a spacer, and S _{1 to} S ₄ are four pressure sensors (each corresponding to the sensor 1 in FIG. 1).

The operation plate 9 includes a four-way eyepiece for independently applying pressure to the sensors S _{1 to} S ₄ , two adjacent sensor pairs (S ₁ , S ₂ ), (S ₂ ,
S ₃ ), ... can be moved in four directions by applying pressure simultaneously. The spacer 10 is for preventing the load of the operation plate 9 from being applied to the lower sensor S ₁ when it is not operated.

The outputs of the sensors S _{1 to} S ₄ are input to the A / D converter 3 after being amplified by the amplifier 2 as shown in FIG. This A
The / D converter 3 selects only one input from four inputs by the 2-bit selection signal SEL and performs A / D conversion. SO is a serial output of A / D converted digital value (for example, 1 sample 8 bits), and CLK IN is a clock input for transfer. A /
The control of the D converter 3 is performed by the MPU 4. This MPU4 is output OUT0, OUT1 for 2-bit selection signal SEL, output CLK OUT for transfer clock, serial input for A / D conversion data
Equipped with SI and other control outputs OUT2 to OUTn.

FIG. 4 is a specific example of the pressure sensor unit 1 and the amplification unit 2.
The pressure sensor unit 1 is equivalently a bridge-connected variable resistor
VR ₁ to VR flow a constant current from the reference unit 21 to the pressure sensitive element represented by _4, and inputs an output current flowing through the terminal 22 to the amplifying section 2. The amplification unit 2 the operational amplifier OP ₂ in the operational amplifier OP ₁ and level shifting for amplification with I / V conversion function
To generate a linear output voltage (only in the positive direction) with respect to the pressure.

Sampling by the A / D converter 3 is continuously performed for the same channel a plurality of times. FIG. 5 shows an example in which sample Nos. 0 to 40 are sampled 41 times continuously at the sampling interval T. In this way, it is possible to detect a temporal change pattern of the amount of pressure received by the same pressure sensor. A / D conversion value is 8 bits, taking a value from 00 _H to FF _H. The A / D conversion value for this sample No. 0 to 40 is 1.
One input pattern is stored in the memory map of FIG.

A basic pattern to be compared with an input pattern is registered at addresses # 0000 to ## of the memory map. For example, the address # 0000~ # 00BF is registered pattern of M _1. This is a standard value of the pattern obtained when the operation plate 9 is strongly pushed in the direction A in FIG. 2 (b).
In this pattern, only the sensor S ₁ produces an output and the remaining sensors S _{2 to} S ₃ do not produce an output, so the basic pattern of M ₁ is as shown in FIG. 7 (a). Since the A / D converted value is stored in the memory map of FIG. 6, effective values 3E, 6C, 99, ... Appear in the section corresponding to sensor S ₁ , but sensors S _{2 to} S ₄ The A / D conversion values of the categories corresponding to are all 00 (indicated by-in the figure). As for the basic pattern of M ₂ , effective pressure 3E, 6C, 99, ... appears only in the output of sensor S ₂ because pressure is applied in the direction of Fig. ₂ , but the remaining sensors S ₁ , S ₃ , S ₄
Has an output of 00. FIGS. 7A to 7D show sampling patterns of the basic patterns M _{1 to} M ₄ obtained in this way, and the arrows attached to the lower side of M _{1 to} M ₄ indicate the second pattern.
The directional eyewear of Drawing (b) is shown.

When the operation plate 9 is moved in the diagonal direction in FIG. 2B, two adjacent sensors produce outputs simultaneously. This standard value is the combination pattern of FIG. Fig. 9 and
FIG. 10 shows a standard value of a pattern generated when the operation plate 9 is operated weakly. For example, the basic pattern m _{1 in} FIG. 9 (a) is an operation in the same direction as in FIG. 7 (a), but the pressure is weak, so the A / D conversion value is lower than that in the basic pattern M ₁ . Similarly, the combination pattern m ₁₂ of FIG. 10 (a) is an operation in the same direction as in FIG. 8 (a), but since the pressure is weak, the A / D conversion value is lower than that of the basic pattern M ₁₂ .

The examples of FIGS. 7 to 10 described above are basic vector patterns, but a normal character pattern is a combination of these. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of this, and (a)-
(C) is each pattern of numbers "1" to "3". These are one-time learning patterns, while (d) is a five-time learning pattern. When the number of times of learning (for example, averaging) is increased in this way, the quality as a reference pattern is improved.
It should be noted that what is to be learned may be indicated by a separate switch operation. These reference character patterns are also registered in the memory map shown in FIG. 6, and when the input pattern is actually taken in, it is collated and the judgment result is obtained.

This process is shown in FIG. FIG. 9A shows a main routine "MAIN", an A / D conversion processing routine "ADT" and a timer interrupt processing routine "TINT" in the main routine "MAIN". Also, (B) and (C) show the respective subroutines of the pattern determination processing "PAT" and the pattern matching processing "PATM".

The main routine "MAIN" starts from "Initialize". This processing includes timer interrupt cycle (sampling cycle) set, each flag reset, and the like. When this initialization processing is completed, the A / D conversion processing "ADT" is entered. This is done only for one sample by selecting the A / D conversion start channel. The first is channel ch1 sample No. 0 and its AD
Put the value (A / D conversion value) in the register ADV. Similarly, the AD value of sample No. 0 of channels ch2 to 4 is obtained. Then, the timer interrupt flag TF is set to 0 and the process returns to the main routine. This flag TF is set by the timer interrupt routine "TINT", and when it is 1, the A / D conversion processing "ADT" is performed. In the processing of the main routine following this processing, the contents of the register ADV (*) are put into the old register ADO (*). * Indicates 1 to 4 corresponding to the sensor No. (channel No.)
So ADO (*) ← ADV (*) is ADO (1) ← ADV (1), ADO
(2) ← Indicates ADV (2), .... Next, the A / D conversion processing routine "ADT" is executed again. This is to detect a change in sensor input. In other words, this AD value ADV (*)
Into the new register ADN (*), and the difference between the two ADN (*)-AD
If O (*) exceeds a certain value kAD, there is a change. If there is no change, replace ADN (*) with ADO (*) and return to, but if there is a change, add #x to index register IXO.
Insert XX. This is the start address for storing the input pattern in FIG. This start address is the address to store the AD value ADO of each sensor (1) ~ADO (4) every 30 _H. Next, when the value of the index register is set to +1 (IXO ← IXO + 1), the storage address of sample No. 1 is pointed. After this, put the contents of the new register ADN (*) into the old register ADO (*) and sample the input pattern N
Store up to o.40 in the memory map.

As shown in detail in FIG. 12 (B), the next pattern determination process “PAT” takes out a standard pattern from the start address 0000 _H of the recognition pattern of the memory map, and performs the pattern matching of FIG. 12 (c). Match with the input pattern in the process "PATM". If they match, the pattern matching flag PS
Since 1 becomes 1, the pattern No. at that time is put in the variable P. If they do not match, PS = 0 remains, so the standard pattern start address MPC is increased by CO _H. This means the reading of the next standard pattern. If there is no corresponding pattern even after repeating this to the final address # ΔΔΔΔ of the standard pattern, the process returns to the main routine with P = 0. In the main routine, each process is performed according to the value of P. Taking a cassette deck as an example, process 1 is PLAY, process 2 is FF, and process 3 is REW. The main routine of this example is an example in which the time required for A / D conversion is very short compared to the sampling period (T).

The pattern matching process "PATM" is performed using constant allowable values mk and Ek as shown in FIG. 12 (c). mk is a permissible value of the deviation from the standard pattern, and this is the upper and lower widths allowed when the input pattern as shown in FIG. 5 is determined to match a certain standard pattern. On the other hand, the allowable value Ek of the pattern mismatch error is the allowable value mk of part of the input pattern.
Even if it exceeds, it is the number of errors (the value of the counter EC) that is judged as a match if it is less than a certain number. 2 like this
The readability can be improved by using the double tolerance.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, since the direction and amount of the force applied to the operation plate are used as input information, multiple inputs are possible. Therefore, the space in front of the device can be effectively used and the degree of freedom in design is improved. Especially for in-vehicle use, it is not necessary to check the switches, so the safety is improved. Further, by adding time and movement order in which force is further applied to the above direction and amount, it becomes possible to input a character pattern or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a basic configuration diagram of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the same embodiment, FIG. 4 is a partial circuit diagram of FIG. 3, and FIG. Is an explanatory diagram of a sampling pattern by A / D conversion, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a pattern storage memory, FIGS. 7 to 11 are explanatory diagrams of various standard patterns, and FIG. 12 is a process performed by the MPU of the present invention. It is a flowchart.

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An operation plate for input which can be moved minutely in a plane, a plurality of pressure sensors for detecting the direction and amount of a force applied to the movable direction of the operation plate, and sampling the output of each sensor. Then, an A / D converter for converting into a digital value, a storage means for storing a plurality of standard patterns corresponding to the digital value, and an input vector by collating the input pattern consisting of the digital value with the standard pattern. And a processor for discriminating the type of the vector input device. 2. The vector input device according to claim 1, wherein the processor has a function of discriminating a character pattern from a temporal change of an input vector. 3. The vector input device according to claim 2, wherein the standard character pattern to be matched with the input character pattern is learned by previously inputting the character pattern any number of times.