JPH10171596A - Mouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently move a mouse by converting displacement signals and acceleration signals at the time of moving a mouse main body to the position information of a pointer. SOLUTION: At the time of lifting this mouse in the air, by the interruption of the signals of a contact sensor 23, signals from acceleration sensors 21 and 22 are sent through an A/D converter 24 and a digital signal processor 25 to a mouse controller IC 14. In the digital signal processor 25, two-dimensional acceleration signals are integrated for two times and converted to the position information of the pointer. In such a manner, by floating the mouse in the air and moving it, the position of the pointer on a display is moved to a target position. When the mouse is returned on a desk after that, the signals are outputted from the contact sensor 23. Then, by counting pulse signals from rotation switches 12 and 13 generated by the rotation of a mouse ball 11, the position information of the pointer is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mouse used as an input device for a personal computer or the like, and more particularly to a mouse with an acceleration sensor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Computer GUI (Graphical User)
With the adoption of interfaces and multi-windows, the mouse is indispensable as an input device for personal computers (PCs), such as moving a mouse cursor (pointer) on a computer screen to operate icons. .

Conventionally, a mouse used as an input device of a personal computer, a workstation, or the like has a configuration shown in FIG. That is, the mouse body 10
A ball (mouse ball 11) having a diameter of about 2 cm, which is rotatable in a free direction, is held on the bottom surface of the mouse ball. The rotation switches 12 and 13 are connected. The rotation switches 12 and 13 rotate with the rotation of the mouse ball 11 and generate one pulse each time the mouse rotates by a predetermined angle, so that a pulse signal proportional to the moving direction and the moving amount of the mouse body 10 is transmitted to the personal computer. It is configured to be output to the side.

Therefore, by moving such a mouse on a flat surface such as a desk while rubbing its bottom surface, the mouse ball 11 is rotated, and the number of pulse signals proportional to the amount of vertical and horizontal movement of the mouse is increased. (Displacement signal) is generated. The amount of movement of the pointer on the display of the personal computer 15 is determined by counting the pulse signal by, for example, an 8-bit counter inside the mouse controller IC 14, and a specific position is indicated by the pointer. be able to.

[0005]

However, the mouse having the above configuration has the following problems.

[0006] Current personal computers and workstations are becoming one with GUI and multi-window.
Large displays such as 7 inches, 19 inches, and 21 inches have been used. In that case, the position on the display to be indicated by the mouse, for example, from one end of the display to the other,
If they are far apart, the mouse must slide a considerable distance on the desk in order to move the pointer between them. Performing such a task requires a considerable area on the desk. However, this is a very severe condition considering the current office environment and residential environment.

In general, when a large area cannot be occupied by the mouse operation, the mouse is slid slightly,
Lift the mouse from the desk to the air and return it to its original position,
The operation of sliding the mouse in the same direction again is repeated. However, such repetitive operations were complicated.

Further, the ratio (mouse sensitivity) between the amount of movement of the pointer and the number of pulses generated from the mouse is increased.
If the pointer is configured to move greatly with a small mouse movement, the amount of mouse movement is small. However, if the pointer is set to move greatly with a slight movement of the mouse as described above, there arises a problem that it is difficult to perform detailed operations such as graphics.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mouse which can move a cursor efficiently.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a mouse provided on a bottom surface of a mouse main body, wherein the mouse ball freely rotates by sliding the mouse main body on a flat surface such as a desk. A rotational speed detecting means that comes into contact with the spherical surface of the mouse ball in two vertical and horizontal directions and detects the rotational speed thereof, and is connected to the rotational speed detecting device, and outputs a displacement signal corresponding to the moving direction and the moving amount of the mouse body A mouse for moving a pointer of a personal computer or the like in accordance with the displacement signal, the acceleration signal generating means generating an acceleration signal from an acceleration when the mouse body is moved; And signal conversion means for converting the displacement signal and the acceleration signal into position information of the pointer.

[0011] The mouse according to the second aspect of the present invention is provided with a detecting means for detecting whether the mouse main body is on a plane such as the desk or in the air, and the signal converting means is provided when the mouse main body is the mouse. When it is determined that the mouse body is on the plane, it outputs position information corresponding to the amount of movement of the mouse body based on the displacement signal, and when it is determined that the mouse body is in the air, the acceleration It is configured to output position information corresponding to the acceleration of the mouse body based on the signal.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the mouse signal converter detects whether or not a displacement signal is generated from the pulse generator, and ignores the acceleration signal while the displacement signal is generated. Only when the displacement signal has not been generated for a certain period of time, position information corresponding to the acceleration of the mouse body is output based on the acceleration signal.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the signal conversion means has a difference in mouse sensitivity between the displacement signal and the acceleration signal.

[0014]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a personal computer including a mouse according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

In the mouse body 20, the mouse ball 1
1, the rotary switch 12, and the rotary switch 13 have the same configuration as the conventional mouse (FIG. 3). Rotation switch 12,
The pulse signal output from 13 is measured by an 8-bit counter in mouse controller IC 14.

In the mouse of this embodiment, acceleration sensors 21 and 22 capable of measuring two-dimensional acceleration in the vertical and horizontal directions are further provided.
And a contact sensor 23 for detecting whether or not the mouse is in contact with the surface on the desk. The analog signals output from the two acceleration sensors 21 and 22 are processed by the mouse controller IC 14 via the A / D converter 24 and the digital signal processor 25 in the mouse main body 20, and converted into signals for determining the amount of movement of the pointer. Is converted. The contact sensor 23 outputs a signal to the A / D converter 24 to stop the operation when the mouse body 20 is in contact with the surface on the desk. The mouse controller IC 14 is connected to a personal computer 15.

Next, the operation of the mouse having the above configuration will be described.

When the mouse is placed on the desk, a signal from the contact sensor 23 is output, and the operation of the A / D converter 24 is stopped. Works. That is, when the mouse body 20 is slid on the desk, the mouse ball 11 rotates, and accordingly, the pulse signals output from the rotation switches 12 and 13 are supplied to the mouse controller IC 14.

The number of pulses generated from the rotary switches 12 and 13 is counted by an 8-bit counter in the mouse controller IC 14, and the movement amount of the pointer corresponding to the current position of the mouse is measured.

When the mouse is lifted into the air, the signal from the contact sensor 23 is interrupted, and the acceleration sensor 2
1 and 22 are passed through an A / D converter 24 and a digital signal processor 25 to the mouse controller I.
Sent to C14. In the digital signal processor 25, the two-dimensional acceleration signal is integrated twice and converted into pointer position information. At this time, it is preferable that the moving amount of the pointer determined based on the acceleration signal is set larger than the actual moving amount of the mouse in the air.
In the mouse controller IC 14, the rotation switch 1 is used.
Pulse signals from 2 and 13 are ignored.

By moving the mouse while floating in the air in this way, the position of the pointer on the display can be moved to a target position. Thereafter, when the mouse is returned to the desk again, a signal from the contact sensor 23 is output. Is output. Then, similarly to the conventional mouse, the rotation switches 12 and 13 generated by the rotation of the mouse ball 11 again.
The position information of the pointer can be obtained by counting the pulse signals from.

As described above, according to the mouse of the first embodiment, the acceleration sensor 2 capable of measuring the two-dimensional acceleration in the vertical and horizontal directions is provided.
A / 22 for digitally converting signals from an acceleration sensor and a contact sensor 23 for detecting whether or not the mouse is in contact with a surface on the desk, and A /
The provision of the D converter 24 and the digital signal processor 25 provides the following special effects in addition to the functions of a conventional mouse. That is, the position information of the pointer can be input by two signals from the rotation switch and the acceleration sensor generated by the rotation of the conventional mouse ball. This enables the following method of using a mouse.

For example, assume that a personal computer is used with a large screen of 21 inches. In order to process graphics using a mouse, it is preferable to perform the work by moving the mouse on a desk. This is because the ratio between the number of pulses generated from the mouse and the amount of movement of the pointer is set low, so that it is possible to easily cope with fine work. by the way,
This graphic processing is performed in the lower left window of the screen, and a tool in the middle is needed, but if the tool is at the upper right of the screen, move the pointer from the lower left to the upper right Will be. The conventional method of operating the mouse with the same sensitivity is inconvenient because the mouse must be moved by a considerable amount.

However, in the mouse according to the first embodiment, the pointer can be largely moved on the screen by slightly lifting the bottom of the mouse from the desk and moving the mouse only once for several centimeters in the air. Therefore, after moving the pointer to the position of the tool at the upper right of the screen, return the mouse to the desk, perform the work at the upper right of the screen, float the mouse again, move once in the opposite direction, and move the pointer back to the original position After returning to the window, you can place the mouse on the desk and proceed with graphics processing. Such a method of using a mouse brings a great improvement in efficiency for various operations performed by moving the pointer.

In the above description, the mouse sensitivity when used on a desk, that is, the ratio of the amount of movement of the pointer to the actual amount of movement of the mouse, and the mouse sensitivity when moving in the air are set to be significantly different. However, if these two mouse sensitivities are set equal to each other, the actual position on the desk where the mouse is operated and the point on the display correspond one-to-one, and a mouse of an absolute coordinate system such as a digitizer is used. Can be configured.

Embodiment 2 FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a personal computer provided with a mouse according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

In the mouse body 30, the mouse ball 1
1, the rotary switch 12, and the rotary switch 13 have the same configuration as the conventional mouse (FIG. 3). Rotation switch 12,
The pulse signal output from 13 is measured by an 8-bit counter in mouse controller IC 14.

In the mouse of this embodiment, acceleration sensors 21 and 22 capable of measuring two-dimensional acceleration in the vertical and horizontal directions are further provided.
, But does not include a contact sensor as in the first embodiment. Mouse controller IC14
Is provided with means for detecting whether or not a pulse signal is generated in the rotary switches 12 and 13. Here, only when no pulse signal is output, the A / D converter 24 and the digital signal processor 24 The acceleration signals from the acceleration sensors 21 and 22 converted into the position information are input.

The analog signals output from the two acceleration sensors 21 and 22 are processed by the mouse controller IC 14 via the A / D converter 24 and the digital signal processor 25 in the mouse main body 30 to determine the moving amount of the pointer. Is converted to a signal. When a pulse signal is output from the rotary switches 12 and 13, the mouse controller IC 14 determines the moving amount of the pointer by counting the pulse signal. But,
When no pulse signal is output for a certain period of time (for example, about 0.1 second), the movement amount of the pointer is determined by the acceleration signals of the acceleration sensors 21 and 22.

Next, the operation of the mouse having the above configuration will be described.

When the mouse is placed on the desk, when the mouse body 30 is slid on the desk, the mouse ball 11 rotates, and accordingly, the pulse signals output from the rotation switches 12 and 13 are sent to the mouse controller IC 14. Supplied.

The current position of the mouse is measured by counting the number of pulses output from the rotary switches 12 and 13 using an 8-bit counter in the mouse controller IC 14. In the personal computer 15, the position of the pointer on the display is determined by the mouse driver program. In the mouse controller IC 14, while the pulse signals from the rotary switches 12 and 13 are being output,
The signals from the acceleration sensors 21 and 22 are ignored.

When the mouse is moved vertically and horizontally while being lifted up in the air, pulse signals from the rotary switches 12 and 13 are not generated, but only the acceleration signals from the acceleration sensors 21 and 22 are A / D converters. 24, via the digital signal processor 25, the mouse controller IC 14
It is detected by. Therefore, the mouse controller IC1
In 4, the moving distance of the pointer is determined by the signals from the acceleration sensors 21 and 22.

As in the first embodiment, the two-dimensional acceleration signals from the acceleration sensors 21 and 22 are integrated twice by the digital signal processing processor 25 and converted into pointer position information.

As described above, according to the mouse of the second embodiment, similarly to the mouse of the first embodiment, the position information of the pointer is transmitted from the rotation switch and acceleration sensor generated by the rotation of the conventional mouse ball. Input becomes possible by two signals. Therefore, the present embodiment has the same effects as the first embodiment, but this embodiment also has the following effects.

That is, since a means for detecting whether or not a pulse signal is generated is used instead of a mechanically configured contact sensor, the device can be configured at low cost.
Simple as a system.

In the first and second embodiments, the acceleration signal is integrated twice and converted into position information using the digital signal processor. However, a mouse driver program for instructing the conversion procedure is provided. Mouse controller IC
By providing the mouse in the mouse 14, a mouse having software conversion means can be provided.

When the pointer on the computer display is moved by the acceleration signal detected from the mouse, unless it is necessary to obtain a precise position, the acceleration signal is not necessarily converted by the digital signal processor.
There is no need to integrate multiple times. For example, it is also possible to set an appropriate conversion procedure such that the pointer is moved by a predetermined moving amount in the vertical direction only when a constant acceleration is detected in the vertical direction, and output the position information of the pointer.

Further, as the acceleration detecting means for detecting the two-dimensional acceleration signal, it is not always necessary to use two orthogonal acceleration sensors, but a single sensor capable of measuring two-dimensional acceleration may be used.

[0041]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

According to the mouse of the first aspect, a mouse ball provided on the bottom surface of the mouse main body, which is freely rotated by sliding the mouse main body on a plane such as a desk, and a spherical surface of the mouse ball And a rotation signal detecting means for detecting the rotation number of the mouse body, and a displacement signal connected to the rotation number detecting means for generating a displacement signal according to a moving direction and a moving amount of the mouse body. Generating means, further comprising: an acceleration signal generating means for generating an acceleration signal from an acceleration when the mouse body is moved; and a signal converting means for converting the displacement signal and the acceleration signal into position information of the pointer. Therefore, the pointer of a personal computer or the like can be moved by two types of position information, and the working efficiency with a mouse can be greatly improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the mouse is provided with a detecting means for detecting whether the mouse body is on a flat surface such as a desk or in the air. With location information according to the amount of movement of
When the mouse body is in the air, the pointers can be moved based on the position information corresponding to the acceleration of the mouse body, so that the work with the mouse can be easily performed even on a small desk.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the acceleration signal is ignored while the displacement signal is generated from the pulse generating means, and the acceleration of the mouse body is changed only when the displacement signal has not been generated for a certain period of time. Since it is configured to output the corresponding position information and move the pointer,
An inexpensive mouse can be configured.

According to the mouse of the fourth aspect, since a difference is provided in the mouse sensitivity between the displacement signal and the acceleration signal, detailed operations such as graphics can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a personal computer including a mouse according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a personal computer including a mouse according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a mouse used as an input device of a conventional personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 mouse ball, 12, 13 rotation switch,
14 mouse controller IC, 15 personal computer, 20, 30 mouse body, 21, 22
Acceleration sensor, 23 contact sensor, 24 A
D converter, 25 digital signal processor.

Claims (4)

[Claims] A mouse ball provided on a bottom surface of a mouse body, which is freely rotated by sliding the mouse body on a plane such as a desk, and coming into contact with the spherical surface of the mouse ball from two directions vertically and horizontally. A rotational speed detecting means for detecting the rotational speed, and a displacement signal generating means connected to the rotational speed detecting means for generating a displacement signal according to a moving direction and a moving amount of the mouse main body. A mouse for moving a pointer of a personal computer or the like in response to a signal, an acceleration signal generating means for generating an acceleration signal from an acceleration when the mouse body is moved, and a position of the pointer for the displacement signal and the acceleration signal. A mouse further comprising signal conversion means for converting the information into information. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a detection unit configured to detect whether the mouse body is on a plane such as the desk or in the air, wherein the signal conversion unit determines that the mouse body is on the plane. In this case, the position information corresponding to the amount of movement of the mouse body is output based on the displacement signal. If the mouse body is determined to be in the air, the mouse body is determined based on the acceleration signal. The mouse according to claim 1, wherein the mouse is configured to output position information according to the acceleration of the mouse. 3. The signal conversion means detects whether or not a displacement signal is generated from the pulse generation means, and ignores the acceleration signal while the displacement signal is generated; The mouse according to claim 1, wherein position information corresponding to the acceleration of the mouse body is output based on the acceleration signal only when the mouse does not occur for a predetermined time. 4. The mouse according to claim 1, wherein the signal conversion unit has a difference in mouse sensitivity between the displacement signal and the acceleration signal.