JPH06102997A - pointing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] A pointing device that provides feedback to the tactile sense in addition to the visual state of the mouse cursor on the screen. [Structure] In addition to the structure of a conventional mouse, a movable cover 111 mounted to be movable up and down, and a cover drive mechanism 112 for moving the movable cover 111 up and down are provided. [Effect] It is possible to know by tactile sense that the mouse cursor has passed over the boundaries of windows and buttons.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pointing device for moving a mouse cursor on a display device by moving a mouse.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the conventional pointing device of this type, the state of the mouse cursor on the screen, as represented by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-196621, is only displayed on the display device.

[0003]

In the pointing device according to the above-mentioned prior art, since the state of the mouse cursor on the screen is only displayed on the display device, it is difficult to operate when the object to be clicked or dragged is small. There was a problem.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems and provides feedback to the tactile sense as well as the state of the mouse cursor on the screen.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the user can know that the mouse cursor has passed over the boundaries of windows and buttons by the feedback means not only visually but also by touch.

[0006]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the structure of the mouse in the present invention. The mouse 100 according to the present invention is an X-side encoder 1 that generates a pulse signal by moving the mouse in the X direction.
01, a Y-side encoder 102 that generates a pulse signal by moving the mouse in the Y-direction, a ball 103 that transmits the amount of mouse movement to both encoders, a mouse button 104 for designating a selection item such as a menu on the screen, hand,
Movable cover 11 attached so that it can be moved up and down
1 and a cover drive mechanism 112 that moves the movable cover 111 up and down.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a system using the present invention. The user uses the mouse 100 to move the mouse cursor on the display device 203 via the computer 202, and uses the keyboard 201 to input characters and numerical values. The computer 202 moves the mouse cursor on the display device 203 in accordance with the movement of the mouse 100, software for transmitting the position information of the mouse cursor on the screen and the state information of the mouse button to the application program, and the state of the mouse cursor on the screen. The software for feeding back to the cover drive mechanism 112 of the mouse 100 is built in.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of software in the computer 202. The movement information of the mouse 100 is received by the mouse driver unit 301, converted into position information, and then passed to the OS unit 302. The OS unit 302 uses the position information of the mouse for the application program 3
03, and the color of the point on the screen where the hot point of the mouse cursor is currently located is passed to the feedback unit 304. The feedback unit 304 drives the cover driving mechanism 112 of the mouse 100 based on the color information to return the feedback information to the user.

Next, the feedback section 304 causes the OS section 3 to operate.
A process of performing feedback to the mouse 100 based on the color information received from 02 will be specifically described. Figure 4
6 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of feedback processing in the present invention. Here, the feedback unit 304
Outputs four levels of output to the cover drive mechanism 1 of the mouse 100.
By outputting to 12, it is possible to change the height of the movable cover 111 in four steps. In addition, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the color information passed from the OS unit, in which 501 is red luminance, 502 is green luminance, and 503 is blue luminance. Each brightness consists of 8 bits,
Values between 0 and 255 can be retained. As shown in this figure, it is assumed that the color information is composed of 24 bits in which 8 bits are assigned to each of the three primary colors. In this feedback processing, first, in processing 401, the average of the luminance of the color information passed from the OS unit 302 is calculated. Since this value is a value between 0 and 255, the value is set to 64 in the process 402.
Convert to a value between 0 and 3 by dividing by. Finally, this value is output to the cover drive mechanism 112. According to the present embodiment, the height of the movable cover 111 of the mouse 100 is changed in four steps in response to the change in the color on the screen where the hot point of the mouse cursor is located. Passing over the boundaries of windows and buttons can be known not only visually but also by touch.

In the present embodiment, the method of managing the color on the screen where the hot point of the mouse cursor is located and the value to be output to the finite number of cover drive mechanisms 112 by preparing a correspondence table or the like, It can be easily implemented as another embodiment of the invention, and the description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a second embodiment of the feedback processing in the present invention. Here, the feedback unit 304 outputs the two-level output to the mouse 100.
It is assumed that the height of the movable cover 111 can be changed in two steps by outputting to the cover driving mechanism 112. In this feedback process, first, in process 601, it is tested whether the color information passed from the OS unit 302 is different from the previously stored value. If not, the movable cover 111 of the mouse 100 is lifted using the cover driving mechanism 112 in step 602. Immediately after that, in the subsequent processing 603, similarly, the movable cover 111 is returned to the original state, and finally, in processing 604, the color information passed from the OS unit 302 is stored. According to this embodiment, the movable cover 111 of the mouse 100 vibrates once each time the color on the screen where the hot point of the mouse cursor is located changes, so that the user can see the boundary of windows and buttons. You can know that you have passed the top not only visually, but also by touch.

In this embodiment, whenever the color on the screen where the hot point of the mouse cursor is located changes, the movable cover 111 of the mouse 100 is returned if it is lifted and lifted if it is returned. A method of changing to another state can also be easily realized as another embodiment of the present invention, and a description thereof will be omitted.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The feedback unit 304 notifies the user of this by the movable cover 111 of the mouse 100 when the color on the screen where the hot point of the mouse cursor is located changes, so that the user can move the mouse cursor to a window or button. Not only that it passed on the boundary of
You can also know by touch.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of a mouse according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a system using the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of software.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of the feedback processing in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of color information passed from an OS unit.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of the feedback processing in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 ... Mouse, 101 ... X side encoder, 102 ... Y side encoder, 103 ... Ball, 104 ... Mouse button, 111 ... Movable cover, 112 ... Cover drive mechanism, 201 ... Keyboard, 202 ... Computer, 203 ... Display device, 301 ... mouse driver section, 302 ... OS section, 303 ... application program, 304 ... feedback section, 501 ... red brightness, 502 ... green brightness, 503 ... blue brightness.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Tadashi Matsuo 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Stock company Hitachi Micro Software Systems

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A pointing device for moving a mouse cursor on a display device by moving a mouse and designating a selection item on the display device, by tactile sensation that the mouse cursor has passed over a window or button boundary. A pointing device characterized in that a feedback means is provided so that the user can know it.