JP3407382B2 - Input/Output Devices - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THEINVENTION The present invention relates to an input/output device having a liquid crystal display with a touch sensor function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, touch panels have been used in handheld computers, bank cash dispensers, etc.
It is used to input commands such as "move cursor" and "execute" or to input handwritten text data. When inputting commands, commands can be input by touching with a finger the characters that indicate the command displayed on the display screen. When inputting by hand, text data can be input by writing characters on the display screen. Meanwhile, in bank cash dispensers, characters indicating commands such as "withdraw cash" and "transfer cash" are displayed, and commands can be input by touching these characters with a finger.

A touch panel has a structure in which a transparent resistive film is layered on a display screen, and there are various types of touch panels, such as the "resistive film type" which detects changes in resistance at the position touched by a finger, and the "capacitive type" which detects the electrostatic capacitance at the position touched by a finger.

[0004]

[Problem to be solved by the invention] A touch panel is a simple input device that allows necessary input to be made simply by touching with a finger the characters that indicate commands displayed on a display screen, so that even those without knowledge of office equipment can easily use it. For this reason, use of a touch panel as an input device for home video game machines has been considered.

However, touch panels are not suitable as an input device for games involving multiple players because, in order for a game player to operate the touch panel, he or she must sit in front of the display device and touch the display screen with their fingers, and while one player is playing, this player gets in the way and prevents the other players from seeing the display screen.

For this reason, there have been almost no game machines in the past that use a touch panel as an input device.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT EMBODIMENT An object of the present invention is to solve these problems and to provide an input/output device with a built-in touch panel suitable for use as an input device for a game machine.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, the input/output device according to claim 1 comprises: (a) a rectangular table top; (b) a liquid crystal display with a touch sensor provided in the center of the top surface of the table top; (c) a plurality of speakers provided around the periphery of the top surface of the table top;
(d) A plurality of microphones are provided at the center of each side of the periphery of the top surface of the table board.

[0009] The input/output device described in claim 2 comprises, in addition to the means of the invention described in claim 1, (e) a judgment means for judging which of the sides of the table top the position where a finger touches the touch sensor liquid crystal display is closest to, and (f) a display change means for changing the display direction of the image displayed on the touch sensor liquid crystal display so that the side judged by the judgment means is at the bottom.

[0010] The input/output device of claim 3 comprises, in addition to the means of the invention of claim 1, (g) a second determination means for determining which of the multiple microphones has received input of voice, and (h) a second display change means for changing the display direction of an image displayed on the touch sensor liquid crystal display so that the side on which the microphone determined by the second determination means is provided is facing downward.

The input/output device according to the fourth aspect of the present invention comprises, in addition to the means of the first to third aspects of the present invention,
(i) The touch sensor-equipped liquid crystal display is provided with an angle adjustment means for tilting the display at a predetermined angle relative to the top surface of the table top.

[0012]

The input/output device described in claim 1 is equipped with a liquid crystal display with touch sensors, multiple speakers, and multiple microphones on the top surface of a square tabletop. Players can sit around each side of the tabletop and perform input/output operations using the speakers and microphones while looking at the liquid crystal display with touch sensors. Since the tabletop has four sides, at least four players can perform input/output operations at the same time.

Therefore, by connecting this input/output device to a game machine, at least four players can participate in the game at the same time.

According to the input/output device of claim 2, the determining means determines which player has operated the touch sensor liquid crystal display. In other words, the player sitting around the edge of the table board closest to the position where the finger touched the touch sensor liquid crystal display is determined to be the player who operated the touch sensor liquid crystal display. Then, based on this determination result, the display direction of the image is changed so that the player who operated the touch sensor liquid crystal display can easily see the display on the display screen.

Therefore, even when this input/output device is connected to a game machine and a plurality of players take turns playing the game, the display direction of the image is automatically changed so that each player can easily view it, allowing each player to continue playing the game without changing their seat position.

According to the input/output device of the present invention, the determination means determines which player has input a voice from the microphone. Then, based on the result of this determination,
The display direction of the image is changed so that the player who has input voice from the microphone can easily see the display on the display screen.

Therefore, even when this input/output device is connected to a game machine and a plurality of players take turns playing the game, the display direction of the image is automatically changed so that each player can easily view it, allowing each player to continue playing the game without changing their seat position.

According to the input/output device of the fourth aspect, the liquid crystal display with touch sensor provided on the upper surface of the table board can be tilted by a predetermined angle, so that the angle of the liquid crystal display with touch sensor can be adjusted so that the player currently operating the device can easily see the display.

[0019]

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 shows the external appearance of the input/output device of this embodiment. The input/output device of this embodiment has a liquid crystal display 20 with a built-in touch sensor, speakers 30-33, and microphones 40-43 built into a rectangular table top 10. The table top 10 is placed on table legs 11, and multiple players can sit around the table. The liquid crystal display 20 is provided in the center of the top surface of the table top 10,
It consists of a transparent resistive film layered on top of a liquid crystal panel.
The coordinates of the position are detected based on the change in resistance at the position touched by the finger.
Microphones 33 are provided near each vertex of the upper surface of the table board 10, and microphones 40 to 43 are provided in the center of each side of the upper surface of the table board 10, respectively.

The input/output device of this embodiment can be connected to a game device 50. The liquid crystal display 20
A player can progress through the game by viewing game images displayed on the LCD 20 and touching the panel with his/her finger. Sound effects of the game are output from speakers 30-33, and each player can input voice through microphones 40-43 on the front. By connecting a modem to the game device 50, the input/output device of this embodiment can also be used as a videophone or FAX.

Next, the internal configuration of the input/output device of this embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of Figure 2. The input/output device of this embodiment comprises a processing unit 60 which performs screen display processing, a liquid crystal display 20 with a built-in touch sensor, speakers 30-33 which output sound effects and the like, microphones 40-43 which input the player's voice, and an input/output control unit 70 which controls these devices. The input/output device of this embodiment can be connected to a game device 50 via the input/output control unit 70. The processing unit 60 controls the liquid crystal display 20 with a built-in touch sensor, speakers 30-33 which output sound effects and the like, microphones 40-43 which input the player's voice, and an input/output control unit 70 which controls these devices.
A first step of judging which side of the top surface of the table board 10 is closest to the position (input position) of the touch panel 0.
Based on the determination result of the determination unit 61 and the first determination unit 61,
The processing unit 60 further includes a first display change unit 62 that changes the display direction of the image displayed on the liquid crystal display 20 so that the side closest to the input position is at the bottom. The processing unit 60 further includes a second determination unit 63 that determines the microphone through which the voice of the player is input, and a second determination unit 64 that determines whether the side on which the microphone is installed is at the bottom based on the determination result of the second determination unit 63.
and a second display change unit 64 for changing the display direction of the image displayed on the display unit 61.

Next, an example of using the input/output device of this embodiment by connecting it to a game device 50 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 7. FIG. 3 shows an example of using the input/output device of this embodiment.
This is an example of a board game played by two players. In this type of board game, the displayed image has no directionality, so the players can play the game no matter from which direction they look at the liquid crystal display 20. Therefore, two players sitting opposite each other can participate in the game at the same time. In this example, by directly pointing with a finger on the board displayed on the liquid crystal display 20, the image of a piece is displayed at the position pointed to by the finger, and the game progresses.

FIG. 4 shows the input/output device of this embodiment.
In this example, four players are divided into two teams and play a war game. As with the board game shown in Fig. 3, the displayed image in this war game has no directionality, so players can play the game no matter from which direction they look into the liquid crystal display 20. Therefore, four players sitting on all four sides can participate in the game at the same time. In this example, the players move the tanks displayed on the liquid crystal display 20 by directly touching and operating the operation switches 20a to 20d displayed on the periphery of the liquid crystal display 20 with their fingers to play the game.

FIG. 5 shows the input/output device of this embodiment.
This is an example in which two players, A and B, take turns playing a driving game. Unlike the examples of Figures 3 and 4, this example has an up and down direction in the displayed image, so while the image is facing the direction of player A, the game cannot proceed from the direction of player B (see Figure 5(a)). For this reason, it is necessary to change the direction of the displayed image on the liquid crystal display 20 to match the position where the player is sitting. In this embodiment, the direction of the displayed image is automatically changed by the action of the processing unit 60. There are two methods for changing the direction of the displayed image. The first method is to control the liquid crystal display 20 so that the displayed image faces the direction of the player who is playing the game by touching the panel of the liquid crystal display 20 with a finger. Specifically, the liquid crystal display 20 is
The first determination unit determines which player is closest to the position where the finger touches the panel 0, and the first display change unit 62 changes the direction of the display image so that the player closest to the position where the finger touches the panel 0 can easily see the image. The second method is a method of controlling the display image so that it faces the direction of the player who inputs the voice from the microphone in front. Specifically, the second determination unit 63 determines which microphone input the voice, and the second display change unit 64 changes the direction of the display image so that the player who is sitting in the position where the microphone that input the voice is in front can easily see the image. In the example of FIG. 5, one of these two types of change methods is used. That is, while player A is playing the game, the display image faces the direction of player A (see FIG. 5(a)), but when player B plays the game, the direction of the display image is reversed and the display image faces the direction of player B (see FIG. 5(b)).

6 and 7 show liquid crystal displays 21 and 2
In this example, the liquid crystal display 21 is inclined toward the player.
As shown in the figure, the liquid crystal display 21 is tilted toward each player, so there is less reflection of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, making the screen easier to see. Also, since it is possible to display different images to each player, and the images displayed to a specific player cannot be seen by other players, this embodiment is suitable for card games such as poker in which card hands must be kept secret from the other players.
This is an example in which a rectangular liquid crystal display 22 is tilted around one side as an axis. The liquid crystal display 22 is supported by four supports 23 that are hydraulically extendable and retractable. The axis can be any of the four sides of the liquid crystal display 22, and the liquid crystal display 22 can be tilted in any direction. A modem is connected to the game machine 50, and the input/output device of this embodiment is used as a videophone.

[0026] This embodiment can be modified in various ways. For example, the input/output device of this embodiment may not have a control unit, and may be operated by commands from the control unit of a game device to which it is connected. Also, a game device may be incorporated into the input/output device of this embodiment, making it into a table top with built-in game functions.

[0027]

As explained in detail above, the input/output device according to claim 1 allows at least four players to participate in a game at the same time by connecting it to a game machine. Furthermore, since multiple speakers and microphones are built in, sound effects of the game can be output from the speakers and the player's voice can be recorded into the microphone. In this way, since the input/output device according to claim 1 has speakers and microphones built in,
By connecting a modem, it can be used as a videophone or fax machine.

[0028] With the input/output device described in claim 2, it is determined which player has operated the liquid crystal display with touch sensor, and the display direction of the image is changed so that the player who operated the liquid crystal display with touch sensor can easily see the display on the display screen. Therefore, even when this input/output device is connected to a game machine and multiple players take turns playing a game, the display direction of the image is automatically changed so that each player can easily see, so that each player can continue playing the game without changing their seat position.

In the input/output device according to the third aspect, it is determined which player has input voice from the microphone,
The display direction of the image is changed so that the player who has input voice from the microphone can easily see the display on the display screen.
Therefore, even when this input/output device is connected to a game machine and a plurality of players play the game alternately, the display direction of the image is automatically changed so that each player can easily view it, so that each player can continue playing the game without changing his/her seat position.

[0030] With the input/output device described in claim 4, the touch sensor-equipped liquid crystal display mounted on the top surface of the table board can be tilted by a predetermined angle. Therefore, the angle of the touch sensor-equipped liquid crystal display can be adjusted so that the currently operating player can easily see it, and reflections of fluorescent lights on the screen can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an input/output device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an input/output device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a display example on a liquid crystal display of the input/output device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a display example on a liquid crystal display of the input/output device according to the embodiment.

5A and 5B are diagrams showing an example of display on a liquid crystal display of the input/output device of the present embodiment, in which (a) is a plan view showing an image in the direction of player A, and (b) is a plan view showing an image in the direction of player B. FIG.

FIG. 6 shows a modified liquid crystal display;
(a) is a perspective view, and (b) is a side view.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a modification of a liquid crystal display;
(a) is a perspective view, and (b) is a side view.

[Explanation of symbols]

10...table top 11...table legs 20-22...LCD display 23...support 30-33...speakers 40-43...microphone 50...game device 60...processing unit 61...first determination unit 62...first display change unit 63...second determination unit 64...second display change unit.

Continued from the front page (56) References JP 63-253427 (JP, A) JP 1-230387 (JP, A) Jpn 4-5888 (JP, U) (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A63F 13/00 - 13/12 A63F 9/20 G06F 3/147

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1] An input/output device comprising: a rectangular table top; a liquid crystal display with a touch sensor provided in the center of the top surface of the table top; a determination means for determining which of the sides of the table top a position touched by a finger on the liquid crystal display with a touch sensor is closest to; and a display change means for changing the display direction of an image displayed on the liquid crystal display with a touch sensor so that the side determined by the determination means is at the bottom. 2. An input/output device according to claim 1, further comprising an angle adjustment means for tilting said liquid crystal display with touch sensor by a predetermined angle with respect to the upper surface of said table board.