JPS62241080A - Cursor control system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to computer systems, and more particularly to systems for controlling the movement of a cursor on a computer display screen.

Prior art graph ink computer displays are very useful for understanding types of information that are otherwise difficult to understand.

With the advent of bit-mapped graphics, high quality computer graphics displays are becoming commonplace. Automated design systems, data processing systems, etc. are operated by displaying or drawing on a computer screen graphics, which the user makes changes to or questions by moving a pointing device over the display. be able to.

A user can indicate an object or position on a graphical display by moving an indicator called a cursor on the screen. This is often done by physically moving an optical or mechanical device such as a mouse, joystick, or trackball. Movement of the physical device is detected by the computer system and the cursor is moved on the display device in a corresponding manner.

Computer displays often show three-dimensional objects or data.What is shown on the display is a two-dimensional projection of a three-dimensional structure stored within the computer system. When you want to indicate parts of a three-dimensional structure, it is necessary to move the cursor in three dimensions. In many applications, mapping a 2D object of a physical positioning device onto a 2D device.
g) would give unclear information about the three-dimensional position of the cursor. In this way, the display device
There must be some way to input physical cursor movement information so that movement in dimensions, typically x, ySz coordinate systems, can be detected.

Currently, three-dimensional cursor movement control signals are provided by inputting three separate signals into the display system. These signals are, for example, separate X1Y, Z1lII
l? generated by control directed movements in a plane, such as a mouse or di-twist, augmented by an il device or by another control for three dimensions.

Mouse movement is therefore used to indicate position in the XY plane, along with another dial control to indicate movement along the Z axis.

Standard 2 known to computer system users
Preferably, a dimensional physics controller is used to control three-dimensional cursor movement. It is desirable that such a control device be used for unambiguous three-dimensional cursor movement in such a way that the correspondence between the movement of the physical device and the display screen is intuitively natural.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a two-dimensional physical input device for three-dimensional cursor control on a computer display.

Therefore, according to the invention, a two-dimensional physical input device provides input signals to an interpreter for a computer display system. This interpreter system logically divides the plane of movement into six regions corresponding to positive and negative motion along three coordinate axes. These regions are arranged such that movement of the input element in a direction that approximates the angle of a major axis shown on the computer display results in movement of the cursor along that axis.

The novel features of the present invention are set forth in the claims.The above objects and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be made clear by the examples taken together with the accompanying drawings, but are not limited thereto. .

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a simple three-dimensional configuration diagram displayed on a computer display system. This structure has been simplified to show a simple rectangular parallelepiped 10, although in actual use the display object or data structure is typically more complex. In Figure 1, the origin of the Cartesian coordinate system is a rectangular parallelepiped 10
, with the X direction extending to the right along edge 12, the Y direction extending rearwardly and upwardly along edge 14, and the Z direction extending downwardly along edge 16. It extends to A cursor 18 is shown within the rectangular parallelepiped in FIG. Three cross lines 2o pass through the cursor 18 in directions parallel to the three coordinate axes and end at the wall surface of the rectangular parallelepiped 10. By using this configuration, the user can
The cursor 18 can be unambiguously located within the dimensional object.

When a user operates the system, the intuitive way to move along the positive direction of the X-axis is to move down and to the right, and the negative direction is to move up and to the left. This is a direction that clearly follows the direction of the coordinate axes. This intuitive, natural motion tracking device is easy to use.

FIG. 2 will be explained. The flat surface 3o is divided into a plurality of regions 2122.23.24.25.26. This flat surface is, for example, one on which a mouse is moved. Line 32 is drawn 3 degrees above the surface.
34 and 36 respectively showing two-dimensional projections of x, y, and z shown in FIG. Axis 32.3 by projection
The corner between 4.36 and 36 is bisected by dotted line 38. The area 21.22.23.24 .
25, 26 are named to correspond to the direction of movement along the axis contained within that region.

The lines 32, 34, 36, 38 drawn on the surface 30 are not actually drawn on the mouse movement surface; these are just logical regions defined by the interpreter in the system, and the lines 32, 34, 36, 38 drawn on the surface 30 are not actually drawn on the mouse movement surface; can move into it.

The mouse is initially considered to be located at the intersection of the three axes 32, 34, 36. When the mouse is moved, a scanner within the system senses the movement and calculates its direction using well-known techniques. The interpreter in the system then
Calculates the logical area moved by the mouse. The interpreter moves the cursor along the axis corresponding to the area over which the mouse has moved. Thus, for example, if the user moves the first cursor in the positive direction of Y, moving the mouse towards the top right in a single motion brings +Y pHHgI2, the angle of that axis will be accurately tracked. Even if there is a slight inaccuracy when doing so, it is not important, since any movement of the +Y region 21 translates into movement only in the +Y direction. In this way, by moving the two-dimensional mouse in a direction approximately corresponding to the direction of the two-dimensional projection 34 of the three-dimensional configuration, three-dimensional movement occurs along that axis. As cursor 18 moves, crosshair 20 is also moved to indicate its new position.

As previously mentioned, lines 32, 34, . . . drawn on surface 30.
36.38 are only logical products of the interpreter and do not actually exist on surface 30. At all times, the interpreter assumes that the mouse is currently located at the intersection of the axes. Thus, the direction of movement from the current position to the new position is one of the six areas 21 to 26, and the cursor is moved appropriately on the display by the interpreter.

FIG. 3 will be explained. A block diagram of system 4o is shown. Display 1W 42 includes a physical display device such as a CRT and the necessary hardware and software to drive it, such as a central processor, memory, video drivers, and an operating system. This hardware and software is common in computer systems and is well known in the art. As used herein, the term display device is intended to include all computer systems in addition to interpreters, scanners, and mice as described below. The mouse device 44 physically moves on a plane. This mouse device is connected to a scanner 48, which is a standard device for computer systems incorporating a mouse device as an indicator. The scanner 48 reads electrical or optical signals from the mouse 44 and determines the two-dimensional component of the direction of mouse 44 movement. This information is sent to interpreter 50 to determine which logical area 21-26 the mouse is moving to and sends a signal to display 42 to move cursor 18 as described above.

This interpreter is implemented either in hardware or primarily in software in a computer system. The calculations performed in interpreter 50 are very hourly in nature. This interpreter is
The movement angle is calculated based on the mouse movement information from the scanner 48, and the calculated angle is compared with an internal memory table indicating which range of angle corresponds to movement about which axis. A two-dimensional projection of this three-dimensional movement is then computed in known manner and signals are sent to the appropriate display driver routines to reposition the cursor 18 and crosshairs.

Although a mouse 44 is used as the physical positioning device in the preferred embodiment, other pointing devices that provide two-dimensional movement information can be used, such as a geostick or trackball.

The graphics system's polygon (is a three-dimensional object rectangular parallelepiped 1
Changing the viewing angle at which 0 is viewed. This rectangular parallelepiped can be rotated so that it can be viewed from any direction. When you do this,
Interpreter 50 limits the angular range corresponding to movement along each axis. That is, the orientation of the axes 32, 34, 36 and the angle they form is changed.

If a three-dimensional object, a rectangular parallelepiped 10, is viewed directly along one axis, the spatial information along that axis is lost and the rectangular parallelepiped appears two-dimensional. In this way, the movement of the cursor on the screen of the display device becomes a normal two-dimensional planar movement. In a preferred embodiment, the interpreter allows the cursor to move freely along only one axis at a time in this mode instead of restricting movement.

Interpreter 50 can be implemented in many different ways.

An addendum describes the software driver for the Texas Instruments
This is a program written in LISP (as Instruments Explorer). Of course, other software or hardware interpreters can also be used.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION By inherently natural movement of a two-dimensional pointing device, such as a mouse, the system of the present invention three-dimensionally positions a cursor on a computer display screen. In this way, three-dimensional movement is simplified and
Easily implemented on all current standard graphics display systems.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to embodiments as described above, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made. Such modifications are within the spirit of the invention and are limited in scope by the following claims.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional structural diagram shown on a two-dimensional computer display; FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the movement plane of a physical device divided into six logical areas; FIG. 3 is a cursor control system according to the present invention. It is a block diagram. 10-cuboid, 12.14.16-edge, 18-cursor, 20-crosshair, 30-surface, 44-mouse device, 46-plane. Engraving of drawings (no change in content) +Y Ft'g, / Procedure Correction Office (Method) Month, Day 1, Showa 1989, Case Indication Patent Application No. 302704, 1985
No. 2, Title of the invention Cursor control system 3, Relationship with the person making the amendment case Applicant

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A computer system having a display device for displaying a two-dimensional projection of a three-dimensional structure, comprising: an input device movable in two dimensions; a scanner for indicating direction; a computer system display; and an interpreter for dividing the two-dimensional space into logical regions, each of which corresponds to movement in a predetermined direction within the three-dimensional structure. A system for controlling the movement of a cursor within a three-dimensional structure, characterized in that the movements of said input device are translated by an interpreter into three-dimensional movements within the structure. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanner detects a speed of movement of an input device, and the interpreter converts the speed of movement of the input device into a speed of movement within a three-dimensional structure. (3) a two-dimensional display device for showing a projection of a three-dimensional structure; an input device for showing motion on a surface; a scanner coupled to the input device for sensing the motion; and the display device. and an interpreter coupled to the scanner for explicitly converting the velocity of the input device into a three-dimensional velocity within the structure. (4) a two-dimensional display device for showing a projection of a three-dimensional structure; an input device capable of showing a motion in two dimensions; a scanner for detecting the motion of the input device; and the scanner and the display device. an interpreter coupled to an interpreter for converting instructed motion in two dimensions into motion in a predetermined direction in three dimensions.