JPH06274271A - Pen type data input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a compact pen type data input device excellent in operability. CONSTITUTION:In this pen type data input device, a sphere 4 is rotatably fixed to the tip of a grip member 2, an optical sensor 5 for transmitting/receiving sensor light to/from the sphere 4 is arranged in the member 2 and plural reflecting faces 6 are formed on the surface of the sphere 4 so that the light reflection rates of adjacent reflecting faces 6 are respectively different.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pen-type data input device for inputting data such as characters and images and outputting the data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a pen-type data input device such as a light pen or a tablet has been used because it can operate like a pen. The light pen has a light-receiving part at the tip and a light pen is brought into contact with the surface of the display.
Data is input by detecting a bright spot or the like of the display by the light receiving unit. In addition, the tablet generates an amount of electricity such as capacitive coupling between the input pen and the tablet by operating the input pen on a writing board called a tablet, and measures the amount of electricity to move the input pen. It is detected and input as data.

[0003]

The above-mentioned conventional example has the following problems. That is, the detection of the movement of the pen, whether it is a light pen or a tablet, cannot be performed only by the pen itself, but can be performed by combining it with a display or a tablet. Therefore, the device is large-scale.

Further, in the case of the light pen, the existing display can be used, and the device can be made compact by that much. However, the display is normally arranged in the horizontal direction, and thus the display is arranged in this way. It was not easy to operate the light pen on the display, and although it could be used with an auxiliary input device, it was not suitable for long-time input.

As a small-sized input device, there are a mouse and a trackball, but it is difficult to make detailed operations like those of a pen, and it is also difficult to make them structurally graspable. Met.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a pen-type data input device which is compact and has excellent operability.

[0007]

In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, a spherical body is rotatably attached to the tip of a gripping member, and sensor light is directed toward the spherical body in the gripping member. An optical sensor for transmitting and receiving is arranged, and a plurality of reflecting surfaces are formed on the surface of the spherical body, and the reflecting surfaces have different light reflectances from each other. A data input device was constructed.

[0008]

According to the above construction, when data such as characters is input by operating the gripping member on a flat surface such as a desk in the same manner as a normal pen, the sphere provided at the tip of the gripping member rotates according to the movement. Will be done. On the surface of the sphere, adjacent ones are formed with reflecting surfaces having different light reflectances, while sensor light is transmitted from the optical sensor to the sphere. Therefore, the reflecting surface that receives the sensor light changes as the sphere rotates, and the brightness of the sensor light reflected from the light reflecting surface changes. Therefore, the rotation direction and the rotation distance of the sphere can be measured based on the brightness change of the sensor light received by the optical sensor, and further, the pen-type data input device can be measured in this way and based on the rotation information of the sphere. You will be able to recognize what data you have entered.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external shape of a pen-type data input device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part thereof. The pen-type data input device 1 includes a grip member 2. The grip member 2 is formed of a rod-shaped body having a thickness that can be gripped by a hand, and an on / off switch 3 is provided on the peripheral surface thereof. A sphere 4 is rotatably attached to the tip of the grip member 2 with the tip exposed from the grip member 2. An optical sensor 5 is arranged inside the tip of the grip member 2. The optical sensor 5 transmits and receives sensor light to and from the sphere 4, and is arranged so as to face the sphere 4.

A plurality of reflecting surfaces 6, ... Are formed on the surface of the spherical body 4. Each of the reflecting surfaces 6 has a hexagonal shape and is connected to each other to cover the entire surface of the sphere 4. A pattern is formed on each of the reflecting surfaces 6. It should be noted that these patterns are not specifically depicted in the drawings, but are indicated by numbers of convenience letters A1 to A9. These patterns A
1 to A9 are formed so that the adjacent reflecting surfaces 6 have different reflectances and the order of formation is constant.
As the arrangement pattern, for example, as shown in the pattern pattern diagram of FIG. 3, a total of nine patterns A1 having different reflectances are provided.
~ A9 are arranged in a fixed arrangement order, and by arranging in this way, the reflectance is different between the adjacent reflecting surfaces 6,
Moreover, the order of pattern formation is constant.

Next, a data input operation using the pen-type data input device 1 having the above structure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The pen-type data input device 1 is used with an information processing device 10 that processes rotation information of the sphere 4 input by the pen-type data input device 1. That is, first, the on / off switch 3 is turned on to make the pen-type data input device 1 ready for input. Then, in this state, the pen-type data input device 1 is gripped, and data such as characters is input on a flat surface such as a desk top surface in the same manner as a normal pen is handled. Then, the sphere 4 rotates in a predetermined direction for a predetermined distance, and the sensor reflected light received by the optical sensor 5 with the rotation of the sphere 4 changes in brightness according to the rotation direction of the sphere 4. Therefore, the information processing device 10 that receives the sensor reflected light information from the pen-type data input device 1 first
It is determined whether or not the received sensor reflected light has a change in brightness (step 1).

If there is a change in brightness, the direction of rotation of the sphere 4 is judged from the brightness before and after the change.
Such a determination can be made because a plurality of reflecting surfaces 6 having patterns with different light reflectances are arranged on the surface of the sphere 4 under a certain formation pattern (step 2). ).

Further, the rotation information of the sphere 4 determined in step 2 is transferred to an external device (not shown). If there is no change in the brightness of the sensor reflected light in step 1, it is determined that the sphere 4 is not rotating, and the sphere non-rotation information is transferred to the external device (step 3).

After transferring such rotation direction information to the external device, it is determined whether the on / off switch 3 is turned off (step 4).

When the on / off switch 3 is not turned off,
Again, returning to step 1, the same input operation as above is performed. If the on / off switch 3 is turned off, the input operation is terminated.

The external device to which the rotation information of the sphere 4 has been transferred from the information processing device 10 forms a pattern from the rotation information and, in the case of character data, performs a recognition operation for discriminating the pattern into a character pattern. And store it as character data. In the case of image data, it is stored as it is as image data.

In the above embodiment, the on / off switch 3 is provided, and the operator operates the on / off switch to make the pen-type data input device 1 ready for input. A distance sensor may be used instead of the off switch 3. That is, a distance sensor including an optical sensor similar to the above-mentioned optical sensor 5 is attached near the sphere 4, and distance measuring light is transmitted and received from the distance sensor toward the tip of the sphere 4 to connect the sphere 4 and the writing surface. Measure the distance between. When the operator holds the pen-shaped data input device 1 and brings its tip into contact with the writing surface, the distance between the sphere 4 and the writing surface becomes almost zero, and this is used as the distance measurement information of the distance sensor. Based on the determination, the pen-type data input device 1 is made ready for input. In this way, data can be input without operating the on / off switch 3.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the patterns A1 to A9 having different reflectances were formed on each reflecting surface 6, but
The present invention is not limited to such a case, and even if substances having different reflectances are attached to the reflecting surface 6, the reflecting surface 6 is not limited to the above.
Different colors may be applied to the surfaces, or the spherical body 4 may be formed by combining block bodies having different reflectances. In addition, it goes without saying that the shape of the reflecting surface 6 is not limited to a hexagon, and may be another shape.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the rotation information of the sphere provided in the pen-type data input device is read by the optical sensor also provided in the pen-type data input device to input the data. became. Therefore, the data can be input only with the pen-type data input device, and the input device has become compact accordingly.

Further, since the pen-type data input device is treated like a normal pen, data can be input,
It has the effect of being excellent in operability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a pen-type data input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of the pen input device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a pattern formed on a reflecting surface.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an input operation using the pen input device according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Grip member 4 Sphere 5 Optical sensor 6 Reflective surface

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical sensor (5) which rotatably mounts a sphere (4) on the tip of a gripping member (2) and which transmits and receives sensor light toward the sphere (4) in the gripping member (2). And a plurality of reflecting surfaces (6) are formed on the surface of the spherical body (4). These reflecting surfaces (6) are different from each other in light reflectance. Characteristic pen type data input device.