JPS63184823A - Graphic display input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a graphic display input device having high resolution, and also, receiving no noise, by making a light beam from a light emitting pen incident on optical fibers provided crisscrossedly, and detecting it. CONSTITUTION:A transparent substrate 2 is constituted by superposing an X axis optical fiber layer 4 on which optical fibers 3 are provided in parallel in the X axis direction, and a Y axis optical fiber layer 6 on which optical fibers 5 are provided in parallel in the Y axis direction. The fiber layer 4 and the fiber layer 6 are adhered tightly with each other. The optical fibers 3, 5 are optical fibers made of a synthetic resin, whose diameter is about several ten of mum, and in each optical fiber layer 4, 6, ten or more pieces per 1mm are provided, respectively. On the end faces of the optical fiber layers 4, 6, contact type image sensors (photodetectors) 7, 8 are provided, and on the sensors 7, 8, eight or 16 pieces of light receiving parts are arrayed and provided per 1mm. To each light receiving part, light beams from the optical fibers 3, 5 whose end faces is brought into contact with said part are made incident. Outputs Px, Py of the sensors 7, 8 are inputted to an arithmetic circuit 9, and the tip position of a picture drawing pen 10 is determined by the circuit 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a drawing input device used in a sketch communication device or the like.

(b) Conventional technology In general, in sketch communication devices, etc., a drawing input device is mounted on the surface of a CR7 display device, plasma display device, or liquid crystal display device, and a pen is run over the drawing input device to draw. Some devices are equipped with a drawing input device that takes in the position coordinates of , that is, drawing data, and transmit the captured drawing data through a transmission circuit.

An electromagnetic digitizer is known as this type of drawing input device. As shown in FIG. 5, this electromagnetic digitizer uses a substrate in which an X-axis sense line 51 and a Y-axis sense line 52 (each forming a loop coil) are arranged in a matrix on a transparent glass plate. Ru. When the surface of this board is traced and drawn with the excitation pen 53 excited by the AC signal source 54, an electromagnetic induction voltage is generated on the sense line through which the excitation pen 53 passes, and the coordinates of the trajectory of the excitation pen 53,
In other words, drawing data is input.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention In the conventional electromagnetic digitizer described above, loop coils are arranged at intervals of about 311 rings, and the electromotive force generated by adjacent loop coils is processed in an analog manner. By this,
Alternatively, the generated electromotive force is digitally converted and interpolated through calculation processing by a CPU (microcomputer).
．． It had a resolution of about 1 mm.

However, the above-mentioned sense line is required to be transparent, and ITO etc. are used, but these have high impedance, so there are many restrictions, the arithmetic circuit is complicated, and the resolution is higher than 0, In1m1. was difficult to obtain.

In addition, as mentioned above, the conventional electromagnetic digitizer has
Although it is used integrally with a display device, there is a problem in that the display device and the electromagnetic digitizer are electrically coupled, and the electromagnetic digitizer is subject to noise.

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned disadvantages, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a drawing input device that can obtain high resolution without performing interpolation calculations and is not affected by noise from a display device.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems As a means for solving the above-mentioned disadvantages, the drawing input device of the present invention includes a transparent substrate on which optical fibers are arranged in parallel in the vertical and horizontal directions, and a a light-receiving element to which an end is connected; a drawing pen having a light-emitting part at the tip and drawing by bringing the tip into contact with the surface of the transparent substrate; and determining the position of the drawing pen based on an output signal of the light-receiving element. It is composed of arithmetic means.

(E) Function The drawing input device of the present invention allows light from the light emitting part at the tip of the drawing pen to enter the inside of an optical fiber that constitutes a transparent substrate and is located below the tip of the drawing pen, and the light generated at this time The scattered light is detected by a light receiving element provided at the end of the optical fiber.

Since optical fibers are arranged vertically and horizontally, 1. The - coordinate is detected by the vertical optical fiber, and the other coordinates are detected by the horizontal optical fiber.

By detecting the two coordinates, the drawing pen tip position is determined.

Since the optical fibers have a small diameter and can be arranged closely, the resolution of the drawing input device can be increased. Furthermore, since the drawing input is performed using light, there is no electrical noise from the display device.

(F) Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

FIG. 1 shows a transparent substrate 2 and circuit configuration of a drawing input device 1 according to this embodiment.

The transparent substrate 2 has an
It is constructed by layering an axial fiber layer 4 and a Y-axis fiber layer 6 in which optical fibers 5 are arranged in parallel in the Y-axis direction (see Figure 2). The shaft end fiber layer 6 is in close contact with the optical fiber 3 and the optical fiber 5.
is orthogonal to Note that the angle at which the optical fibers 3.5 intersect is not limited to 90°.

The optical fibers 3.5 are synthetic resin optical fibers with a diameter of about several tens of micrometers, and have cores 3a, 5a and claddings 3b, 5b, respectively. The optical fiber layer 4.6 is formed by integrally molding the optical fibers 3, . . . , 3.5, . It is something. , each optical fiber layer 4
．． 6, each with more than 10 lines per 1 mm (for example, 1
6) optical fibers are required.

The end faces 4a, 6a of the optical fiber layer 4.6 are mirror finished. On the other hand, the other end surface 4b of the optical fiber layer 4.6,
6b is provided with a contact type image sensor (light receiving element) 7.8.

The image sensor 7.8 is formed by arranging 8 or 16 light receiving sections per 1 mm. Light from the optical fiber 3.5 whose end face is in contact with each light receiving portion is incident on each light receiving portion.

The outputs Px and Py of the image sensor 7.8 are output from the arithmetic circuit 9.
is input. The arithmetic circuit 9 determines the X and Y coordinates of the tip position of the drawing pen 10, which will be described later, based on the output signals Px and Py. Further, a clock pulse Pc is input to the image sensor 7.8.

The drawing pen IO has an optical fiber (light emitting part) 11 protruding from its tip 10a (see FIGS. 2 and 3). A light emitting diode element (not shown) is provided at the upper end of the optical fiber 11.

On the other hand, the lower end of the optical fiber 11 contacts the surface of the transparent substrate 2. Note that if a battery for driving the light emitting diode element is built into the drawing pen 10, the drawing pen 10 can be made cordless. Furthermore, - it is possible to use a laser diode or other light source as the light source.

When inputting handwritten drawing data using this embodiment drawing input device, hold the drawing pen 10 in your hand,
The lower end of the optical fiber 11 at 0a is brought into contact with the surface of the transparent substrate 2 to draw a desired trajectory.

The light from the light emitting diode element transmitted through the optical fiber 11 is incident on the transparent substrate 2 and transmitted through the optical fiber layer 6.4 (see FIGS. 3 and 4).

At this time, the incident light from the optical fiber 11 passes through the optical fibers 5' and 3' below the optical fiber 11 i3!4.

When the incident light passes through the optical fiber 5°, the scattered light generated within the core 5'a travels within the optical fiber 5°. The light ax1 transmitted in the X-axis transverse direction enters one of the light receiving sections of the image sensor 7 as it is.

On the other hand, the light 1xz transmitted in the X-axis stopping direction is totally reflected at the other end of the optical fiber 5' and is also incident on the same light receiving section of the image sensor 8.

Based on the pulses included in the image sensor output signal Py at this time, the arithmetic circuit 9 determines which light receiving section of the image sensor 8 receives the input, and determines the Y coordinate. The time required for this is 1/200 to 1/100 seconds.

Similarly, the image sensor 7 detects the scattered lights IV+ and lVz when the incident light passes through the optical fiber 3°, and the arithmetic circuit 9 determines the X coordinate based on the output signal Px. The X and Y coordinates thus obtained, that is, the drawing data, are output to a transmission circuit (not shown) or the like. Although only one mode of the scattered light is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in reality, the scattered light propagates through the optical fibers 3' and 5' in many modes.

The resolution of this drawing input device 1 is the image sensor 7.8
It is determined by the resolution of , that is, the number of light receiving areas per 1 mm. For example, in the case of 16 per 1 mn+, 0.6
A resolution of 25 nuw is obtained. Further, interpolation calculation is not necessary, and the calculation circuit 9 can be made simpler than the conventional one.

Furthermore, since this drawing input device 1 inputs the coordinates of the drawing pen using light, it is not affected by electrical noise from a display device, especially when noise occurs like a plasma display. It can also be used for display devices with a large number of

Of course, this drawing input device 1 is not completely free of noise. Light from another light source can be considered as such noise. However, by adjusting the light intensity of the light emitting diode element or by using a filter in combination with the image sensor 7.8, this noise can be easily removed and a higher S/N ratio than before can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, the optical fibers are arranged in parallel at a high density, but for example, the optical fibers may be arranged in parallel at intervals of several 1 m11, and a photodiode may be provided at the end of each optical fiber. However, in this case, interpolation calculations are required.

In addition, in the above embodiment, sheet-like fiber layers are used in which optical fibers are lined up and integrally molded, but it is also possible to use one in which optical fibers are woven vertically and horizontally, and the design can be changed as appropriate. It is.

(g) As described in detail of the invention, the human-powered drawing device of the present invention inputs drawing data by light using an optical fiber, and has the advantage of not being affected by electrical noise from a display device. It also has the advantage that high resolution can be obtained without performing interpolation calculations.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a drawing input device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part of the drawing input device, and FIG. 3 is a main part of the drawing input device. Enlarged sectional view, 4th
The figure is an enlarged plan view of a main part of the transparent substrate of the drawing input device, and FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a conventional electromagnetic digitizer. 2: Transparent substrate, 3...3.5...5: Optical fiber, 7
・8: Close-contact image sensor, 9: Arithmetic circuit, lO: Drawing pen. Patent applicant: Shimadzu Corporation Agent
Patent Attorney Shigeru Nakamura Figure 3

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A transparent substrate on which optical fibers are arranged in parallel in the vertical and horizontal directions, a light receiving element to which the ends of each of these optical fibers are connected, and a light emitting part at the tip, and the tip is in contact with the surface of the transparent substrate. What is claimed is: 1. A drawing input device comprising: a drawing pen that draws by moving the light receiving element; and a calculation means that determines the position of the drawing pen based on an output signal of the light receiving element. (2) The light receiving element is a pair of image sensors,
The drawing input device according to claim 1, wherein these image sensors are provided in close contact with the ends of the optical fibers arranged in parallel in the vertical direction and the ends of the optical fibers arranged in parallel in the horizontal direction, respectively. .