JP2795583B2 - Wireless keyboard system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless keyboard system, and more particularly, to a wireless keyboard system in which a key code and information are transmitted from a keyboard each time a key is pressed and released.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a wireless keyboard system used for an information processing apparatus or the like, communication between a keyboard and a main body is often one-way communication from a keyboard. Was sending only the code. For example, if you press the [A] key while pressing the [shift] key, the [shift] key code and [A] key code are sent, then release the [A] key and release the [shift] key In this case, a [key release code] is transmitted.

FIG. 8 shows an example in which only a conventional key code is transmitted. In this example, to input “AbAb”, the [shift] key, the [A] key, the [B] key, and the [shift] key
The key, [A] key, and [B] key are operated in this order.
(A) is an example of a case in which all data is normally received, and (B)
Is an example in which the reception of the [shift] key code has failed.

[0004]

However, if a key code that is not finally encoded as a [shift] key but affects the character encoding of another key is not received due to some obstacle, Even if the code of the key pressed subsequently is correctly received, the code is erroneously encoded at the time of character encoding.

[0005] As shown in the example of FIG.
If a key code communication error occurs, even if a subsequent character key is normally received, a lowercase “a” may be recognized as a lowercase “a” where a capital “A” should be originally. May be recognized as capital "B".

[0006] In some cases, the key arrangement of the keyboard used is different. For example, the position display of "Y" and the position display of "Z" are switched between a keyboard for the United States and a keyboard for Germany. The only difference between the two keyboards is that the display positions of “Y” and “Z” are different. The operation of the keyboard controller that generates a code for each key is the same. "And" Z "in Germany have the same key code output. That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the character code "y" (79H) is output both when "Y" is pressed on the U.S. keyboard and when "Z" is pressed on the German keyboard. For this reason, in the conventional method of transmitting only the key code, it is difficult to distinguish between the two keyboards and convert the character code into a character code by the key code received on the main body side. Needed to be converted.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and even if communication of a single key that affects the character encoding of another character key such as a shift key fails, the character is actually It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless keyboard system in which, when a key is pressed, a character intended by an input person is correctly displayed on a main body.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises key input means 101 for inputting characters or symbols,
Information about input characters or symbols and shift key
A key information generation control means 102 for generating the operation state information of the sub-operation keys over such Wai the generated key information
Wireless keyboard 109 comprising a transmitting means 103 for converting the signal into a wireless signal and transmitting the signal.
Includes a receiving means 104 for converting the key information by Shin, the character code storage means 106 which stores the character code by type of keyboard, the received key information to the key information
And a keyboard or signal input control unit 110 comprising a storage unit 105 for storing the converted character or symbol code by referring to the operation state information to be converted into a character or symbol code. To provide a wireless keyboard system.

Also, information representing the type of the keyboard to be used can be combined with the input character or symbol code and transmitted simultaneously. Further, in the wireless keyboard system, the code of the input character or symbol is combined with the information of the operation state of one or more other predetermined key or keys and the information indicating the type of keyboard to be used at the same time. Preferably, it can be transmitted. Note that a CPU is generally used as the control unit 107 and the character code storage unit 1 is used.
As 06, a ROM is used.

[0010]

When a key in the key input means 101 is input, the key information generation control means 102 presses another predetermined key or keys together with the key code of the character or symbol corresponding to the key. Key code information to be transmitted to the main body is created by generating state information of a lowered or released state, or by generating information indicating a type of a keyboard to be used. The generated key code information is converted from an electrical signal into infrared light 108 by the light emitting unit 103 and is converted into a keyboard signal input control unit 110.
Sent to

The keyboard signal input control section 110 receives the infrared light 108 by the light receiving means 104,
Is converted to an electrical signal. The key code information converted into the electric signal is converted by the control unit 107 into a key code of a character or a signal intended at the time of input by referring to a character code table in the character code storage unit 106, and is stored in the storage unit 105. It is memorized.

As described above, when a key is input, the key code corresponding to the key indicates the pressing or releasing state information of one or more other keys or the type of the keyboard to be used. Since the information is combined and transmitted at the same time, even if the communication of the key alone that affects the character encoding of other character keys such as the shift key fails, the character intended by the input person is transmitted to the main unit side. It can be displayed correctly.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited by this. FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an information processing apparatus having an infrared communication keyboard according to one embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 2 denotes a wireless keyboard unit for inputting characters and symbols, and reference numeral 1 denotes a main unit of the information processing apparatus except the keyboard unit 2. Main device 1
Receives the infrared light 17 and converts it into an electric signal, the main body controller 4 that selects an intended key code from the received key code information, and performs conversion for giving data to the printer 16. Parallel I / F8,
Serial I / F 9 for sending data to the outside, ROM 13 and RAM for storing data and programs
14, a floppy disk device 10, a hard disk device 11, a display device 15 for displaying characters and symbols entered by data and keys, an LED group 18 for notifying an operation state of the main body, and an input in the main device 1. ,
It comprises a CPU 12 for controlling operations such as display and storage.

The wireless keyboard unit 2 comprises:
Light emitting device 5 that converts an electric signal into infrared light 17 and outputs it
And a keyboard 7 for inputting characters and symbols, and a keyboard-side controller 6 for generating key code information to which key status information or keyboard type information is added together with the input key code.

FIG. 3 shows an internal block diagram of the main controller 4. The CPU 20 controls the entire controller. The serial IO 21 is an interface for sending an electric signal from the light receiver 3 to the CPU 20, and the parallel IO 24 is an interface for outputting a signal indicating an operation state to the LED group 18.
The RAM 23 is a memory for the generated key code.
The OM 24 is a memory including tables 25, 26, 27, and 28 that store character codes for each keyboard type. The parallel IO 29 is an interface for sending the generated key code to the main CPU 12.

FIG. 4 shows a data format of key code information used for communication in this embodiment. Fig. 4- (A)
Is the entire format, and FIG. 4B shows an example of the format of the key state information therein. In FIG.
D41 is a unique number of the keyboard unit 2, and use of only the keyboard unit 2 having an ID registered on the main body side is permitted. The key type 42 is data representing the type of the keyboard unit used, and is classified into, for example, "25" for the United States and "26" for Germany.

The key code 44 is a numerical value assigned to each key. For example, "A" is 41H,
"Y" is represented by 79H. Check code 45 is
This is data for checking whether there is any error in the information 41 to 44, and a data checksum or BCS is often used. The key state information 43 is shown in FIG.
(B) indicates whether the [shift] key or [ctrl] key is pressed or released. For example, when the left shift is pressed, the bit of the first byte is displayed. Set "1" at the position of 0, and set "0" when it is not pressed.

Next, a flow of generating a key code according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 shows an operation flowchart of the main controller 4. First, the data in the RAM is initialized (step S1), and the received data is analyzed to check whether normal received data has been obtained (step S2). It is determined whether or not normal data has been received (step S3). If normal received data has not been received, the process is skipped to step S6. The following processing is performed in the reception data analysis.

When the infrared light 17 is received by the light receiver 3,
It is converted to an electrical signal of serial data,
1 is output. Serial / parallel conversion is performed by the serial IO 21, and the data is temporarily stored in the RAM 23 via the CPU 20 in the data format shown in FIG. When the check code is received, it is verified by using the check code whether or not the check code has been received.
If it is determined that there is an error, the temporarily stored data is discarded. Further, the ID is confirmed. If the ID is not registered, the data is discarded in the same manner as described above.

When normal data is received, it is determined whether the data is a command (step S).
4) If it is a command, execute the command processing (step S9), and return the processing to step S2.

If it is not a command, it is determined whether a key code has been received (step S5). If no key code has been received, repeat-related processing is performed. That is, it is determined whether or not the current key is being repeated (step S6). If the current key is being repeated, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed (step S7).
If the predetermined time has elapsed, a repeat code is output (step S8). When the repeat is not being performed or when the predetermined time has not elapsed, the process returns to step S2.

When the key code is received, first, the key state information is referred to, and it is determined whether or not there has been any change from the immediately preceding state (step S10). If even one of the key status information has changed, the code of the changed key (if the change from release to press, the code of press,
If it changes from pressing to release, a release code is output (step S11).

If there is no change in the key state information, or if the codes for all the keys whose state has changed have been output, the received key code is registered in the character key or key state information. It is determined which of the keys is present (step S12). If it is not a character key, since the code output has already been completed, the process returns to step S2.

In the case of a character code, first, character code tables 25 to 28 to be searched for character codes are selected based on the key type information, and the intended character code is selected in consideration of the key state information. It is extracted from the character code table and output to the CPU 12 (step S13).

Next, FIG. 6 shows an example in which the character following [shift] is correctly encoded even when the key code of [shift] has failed to be received. In the figure, 60 and 6
Even if the key code of the [shift] key fails to be received at the position of 2, the state information of the [shift] key is simultaneously changed to the key state information (FIG. (A), the character code is correctly encoded as 61 or 63.

As described in the prior art, in the similar case shown in FIG. 8, when only the key code is transmitted, if either one of pressing / release of the [shift] key fails to be received, The following characters were incorrectly coded.

FIG. 7 shows the operation when the keyboard is replaced with a different type of keyboard during the operation. In FIG. 7- (A),
When a keyboard for the United States and a keyboard for Germany are connected to the keyboard-side controller 6 that performs the same operation, the same key code "59H" is transmitted because "Y" in the United States and "Z" in Germany are in the same position. (When pressed). However, as shown in FIG. 4A, the key type information is transmitted in addition to the key code, so that the controller on the main body side determines the character code corresponding to the keyboard type based on the received key type information. Select the table and extract the intended character code.

For example, if a keyboard for the United States is used, the character code of the [Y] key is "59H" and
“25” is transmitted as the key type information, and the character code table 25 is searched to retrieve the character code “79H” corresponding to “y”. When the keyboard is replaced with a German keyboard, "26" is transmitted as key type information together with the character code "59H" of the [Z] key, and a character code corresponding to "z" is searched by searching the character code table 26. “74H” is taken out.

FIG. 7B shows an example of a character code table, and one of the six output character codes on the right side of the input key code is extracted. In the character code table 25 for the United States, in the normal case where only the [Y] key without the CAPS and no shift is pressed for the input key code of "59H", the output character code is used. “79H” is taken out.

Since the key code is combined with the keyboard type information and transmitted, and the character code is extracted based on the type information, the setting of the main unit can be changed even if the keyboard is changed during operation. No, the characters are displayed exactly as they are engraved on the key top.

[0031]

According to the present invention, when a key input is made, the key code corresponding to the key is replaced with information on the operation state of another predetermined single or plural keys and the type of the keyboard to be used. Are transmitted simultaneously by combining the information representing the characters, even if the communication of the key alone, which affects the character encoding of other character keys such as the shift key, fails, It can be displayed correctly on the side. In addition, since a table for converting character codes for each keyboard is registered in the controller of the main body in advance, even if a keyboard having a different arrangement is exchanged during operation, character codes can be correctly converted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a main body side controller according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a data format of key code information according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the main body side controller of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing operations of key operation and character code generation according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation when a keyboard is replaced in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation in the case of a conventional key code transmission.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation when a conventional US keyboard and a German keyboard are used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main apparatus 2 Wireless keyboard unit 3 Light receiver 4 Main body controller 5 Light emitting device 6 Keyboard side controller 7 Keyboard 8 Parallel I / F 9 Serial I / F 10 Floppy disk device 11 Hard disk device 12 CPU 13 ROM 14 RAM 15 Display Device 16 Printer 17 Infrared light 18 LED group

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A key input means for inputting a character or a symbol, and information and a shift for the input character or a symbol.
A key information generation control means for generating an operation state information of the sub-operation keys such as a hotkey, the generated key information wire
A wireless keyboard that includes a transmitting unit that converts the wireless signal into a wireless signal, a receiving unit that receives a wireless signal and converts the wireless signal into key information , and a character code that stores a character code for each type of keyboard. the key information storage means, the received key information
And a keyboard signal input control means comprising storage means for storing the converted character or symbol code by referring to the operation state information included in the character string. Wireless keyboard system. 2. A key input means for inputting characters or symbols, keyboard information about the input characters or symbols
Key information generation control means for generating key information concatenated with the type information of the key, and wirelessly transmitting the generated key information.
A wireless communication device comprising a transmitting means for converting a signal into a signal and transmitting the signal.
Keyboard, receiving means for receiving a wireless signal and converting it to key information , character code storing means for storing character codes for each type of keyboard, and storing the received key information in the key information
And a keyboard signal input control unit comprising storage means for storing the converted character or symbol code by referring to the keyboard type information included in the character string. Wireless keyboard system.