JP7250451B2 - Programs, electronic devices, and methods - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a program and the like, and more particularly to a program and the like executed in an electronic device having a touch panel.

With recent improvements in touch panel technology, electronic devices that perform user input via a user interface on a touch panel have become widespread. In games executed on electronic devices, a form in which user input is performed via a touch panel provided in the electronic device instead of user input using a conventional physical controller has become widespread.

In particular, small portable electronic devices such as smart phones have rapidly spread, and many games have been released to be executed on such portable electronic devices. Under such circumstances, various techniques have been proposed for operating a virtual object such as a player character displayed on a touch panel, including a technique relating to a virtual pad disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, for example.

For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a game apparatus having a touch panel, and a game apparatus and a program capable of setting an origin according to a user's touch operation and performing an operation simulating a joystick. The game device sets the reference coordinates based on the coordinates at the start of detection when the touch panel changes from a state in which the touch panel does not detect a touch to a state in which the touch panel detects a touch. Set the indicated coordinates based on the coordinates. The game device realizes a virtual joystick by recognizing that the direction of the vector from the reference coordinates to the designated coordinates is the direction in which the joystick is tilted, and the magnitude of the vector is the extent to which the joystick is tilted, thereby operating the virtual object. Realized.

Patent No. 3734820

Matthias Baldauf, Peter Frohlich, Florence Adegeye, and Stefan Suette. 2015. Investigating On-Screen Gamepad Designs for Smartphone-Controlled Video Games. ACM Trans. Multimedia Comput. pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2808202

In the prior art disclosed in Patent Document 1, a user touches a point on a touch panel with a finger to cause the game device to recognize reference coordinates, slides the finger while in contact, and starts a game based on the contact position of the finger after sliding. Make the device recognize the indicated coordinates. With the conventional technology configured in this way, it is difficult to achieve high responsiveness because it is necessary to generate a significant distance from the reference coordinate to the indicated coordinate when the user inputs the direction. For example, when the user wants to perform an operation in which the virtual joystick is greatly tilted, it is necessary to generate the magnitude of the vector from the reference coordinates to the designated coordinates corresponding to the tilting degree of the joystick that has been tilted greatly.

Therefore, as an operation method for controlling a virtual object placed in a virtual space and displayed on a touch panel, there is a demand for realizing a faster and more intuitive operation method, for example. More generalized, there is a demand for an operation method with higher operability as an operation method for controlling an operation target object, which is an object that is placed in a virtual space and can be a user's operation target.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and the main object thereof is to provide a program or the like that can improve operability when controlling an object to be manipulated in a virtual space. do.

In order to achieve the above object, a program as one aspect of the present invention is a program executed in an electronic device having a touch panel, wherein the electronic device receives a touch event generated by a user's operation on the touch panel. holding data points indicated by a first axis value and a second axis value obtained based on and holding data points of said held data points that have exceeded a predetermined holding time determining the slope of a regression line based on the retained data points; and determining the slope of the determined regression line based on the displacement direction as a set of the retained data points. and determining an angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space based on the determined slope of the regression line and the determined rotation amount. and is characterized by executing

Further, in the present invention, preferably, the step of determining the amount of rotation includes determining an angle for controlling the operation target object based on displacement directions of data points that chronologically precede and follow in the held data points. is determined, a rotation amount indicating whether or not to rotate 180 degrees with respect to the determined inclination is determined.

Also, preferably in the present invention, the program causes the electronic device to perform determining one of the first axis and the second axis as an axis of an independent variable; and determining the other axis as an axis of a dependent variable; The step of determining the slope of determines the slope of the regression line further based on the determined independent variable axis and dependent variable axis.

In addition, preferably in the present invention, the step of determining one of the axes includes the difference value between the maximum value and the minimum value of the first axis and the difference value of the second axis in the retained data points. Based on the difference value between the maximum value and the minimum value, one of the axes is determined as the axis of the independent variable.

Further, preferably in the present invention, the step of determining one of the axes weights the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the first axis in the retained data points. One of the axes is determined as the axis of the independent variable by comparing the values and the magnitude of the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the second axis.

In addition, preferably in the present invention, the step of determining the amount of rotation includes determining the positive and negative quantities of the difference values of the determined axis values of the independent variables that chronologically change in the held data points. By the comparison, a rotation amount indicating whether or not to rotate the determined regression line by 180 degrees is determined in determining the angle for controlling the operation target object.

Also preferably in the present invention, the step of determining the slope of the regression line comprises determining the mean of the independent variable and the mean of the dependent variable in the retained data points; determining an independent variable deviation and a dependent variable deviation at the retained data points; using the determined independent variable deviations to determine the independent variable variance at the retained data points; using the determined independent variable deviations and dependent variable deviations to determine covariances at the retained data points; determining the slope of the regression line by dividing by the variance of the independent variable.

Further, in the present invention, preferably, the first axis is an X-axis indicating a lateral direction of a direction in which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged, and the second axis is an X-axis along which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged. The Y-axis indicates the longitudinal direction and is orthogonal to the first axis, and the step of determining the slope of the regression line includes, if the determined axis of the independent variable is the second axis, the Determine the slope of the regression line by subtracting from 90 degrees the angle corresponding to the slope of the regression line determined by dividing the determined covariance by the determined variance of the independent variable.

Further, in the present invention, preferably, the first axis is an X-axis indicating a lateral direction of a direction in which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged, and the second axis is an X-axis along which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged. The Y-axis indicates the longitudinal direction of the direction and is orthogonal to the first axis.

Also, in the present invention, preferably, the step of determining the angle determines the angle for each predetermined processing time.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, a set of programs as one aspect of the present invention is a set of programs for a game executed on the electronic device provided with the touch panel, including the above program. wherein the predetermined processing time is a time corresponding to a frame rate for executing the game, and based on an angle determined for each predetermined processing time, an angle and a size are determined for each predetermined processing time. and controlling the operation target object displayed on the touch panel based on the angle and size determined for each predetermined processing time.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, a set of programs as one aspect of the present invention is a set of programs for a game executed on the electronic device provided with the touch panel, including the above program. wherein the predetermined processing time is a time corresponding to a frame rate for executing the game, and based on an angle determined for each predetermined processing time, an angle and a size are determined for each predetermined processing time. and controlling a virtual camera, which is the operation target object for capturing a game image displayed on the touch panel, based on the angle and size determined for each predetermined processing time. and is characterized by executing

Further, in order to achieve the above object, an electronic device according to one aspect of the present invention is an electronic device including a touch panel, wherein a touch event is acquired based on a touch event generated by a user's operation on the touch panel. Retaining data points indicated by a value of one axis and a value of a second axis, terminating retention of data points exceeding a predetermined retention time among the retained data points, and determining a slope of a regression line based on the data points; determining an amount of rotation to rotate the determined slope of the regression line based on a displacement direction for the set of retained data points; An angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space is determined based on the inclination of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, a method according to one aspect of the present invention is a method executed in an electronic device having a touch panel, the method comprising: retaining data points indicated by the obtained first axis value and second axis value; and terminating retention of data points of said retained data points that have exceeded a predetermined retention time. determining a slope of a regression line based on the retained data points; and rotating the determined slope of the regression line based on a displacement direction as a set of the retained data points. determining an amount of rotation; and determining an angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space based on the determined slope of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation. characterized by having

According to the present invention, operability can be enhanced when controlling an operation target object in a virtual space.

1 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. It is a figure which shows the coordinate axis which consists of the 1st axis of this embodiment, and the 2nd axis. It is a figure explaining an example of the direction corresponding to the angle which an angle determination part determines, and an angle. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by a data point buffer at time t1; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by a data point buffer at time t1; Figure 6 shows a regression line obtained from the set of data points shown in Figure 5; FIG. 8 is a diagram showing angles calculated by a function aop(x, y) using the slope of the regression line shown in FIG. 7; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by a data point buffer at time t2; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing angles calculated by a function aop(x, y) using the slope of the regression line shown in FIG. 9; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by a data point buffer at time t3; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by a data point buffer at time t3; FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an angle calculated by a function aop(x, y) using a regression line obtained from the set of data points shown in FIG. 11 and the slope of the regression line; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by the data point buffer at time t4; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by the data point buffer at time t4; FIG. 15 shows a regression line obtained from the set of data points shown in FIG. 14; FIG. 17 is a diagram showing angles calculated by a function aop(x, y) using the slope of the regression line shown in FIG. 16; FIG. 4 illustrates an electronic device controlling a virtual character from a set of data points according to one embodiment of the invention; It is a figure which shows the flowchart of the information processing of the angle determination part by one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 illustrates a virtual camera placed in a virtual space capturing an image displayed by an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The same reference numerals in each drawing indicate the same or corresponding parts unless otherwise specified, and for convenience of explanation, the vertical and horizontal scales of the drawings may be different from the actual ones. Further, for convenience of explanation, more detailed explanation than necessary may be omitted. For example, detailed descriptions of already well-known matters and redundant descriptions of substantially the same configurations may be omitted.

The electronic device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention is installed with a game application that presents virtual objects arranged in a virtual space to the user and progresses the game. When the game application is executed, the electronic device 10 of the present embodiment is a virtual virtual machine for controlling an operation target object, which is a virtual object to be operated by the user in the virtual space, in accordance with the user's operation. provides a simple controller (virtual controller). The virtual space is defined by the game application, and can be a two-dimensional space or a three-dimensional space. For example, a virtual object is a character or item placed in virtual space. For example, control of the operation target object is control of actions of characters or items placed in the virtual space.

For convenience of explanation, in the present embodiment, it is assumed that the game application as described above is installed in the electronic device 10, but the present invention is not limited to this. The electronic device 10 may be equipped with an application capable of controlling an operation target object in accordance with a user's operation. For example, instead of or in addition to the game application, the electronic device 10 may be implemented with an input support application or a simulation application that causes an operation target object to move according to a user's operation. The virtual controller provided by the electronic device 10 of the present embodiment can be used for user input that requires direction and magnitude. In the following description, applications mean application programs in general, and can mean applications installed on smartphones and tablet terminals.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of an electronic device 10 according to one embodiment of the invention. The electronic device 10 comprises a processor 11 , an input device 12 , a display device 13 , a storage device 14 and a communication device 15 . Each of these components are connected by a bus 16 . It is assumed that an interface is interposed between the bus 16 and each constituent device as required. In this embodiment, the electronic device 10 is a smart phone. However, the electronic device 10 can be a terminal such as a tablet computer or a computer equipped with a contact input device such as a touch pad as long as it has the above configuration.

Processor 11 controls the overall operation of electronic device 10 . For example, processor 11 is a CPU. Note that an electronic circuit such as an MPU may be used as the processor 11 . The processor 11 performs various processes by reading and executing programs and data stored in the storage device 14 . In one example, processor 11 is comprised of multiple processors.

The input device 12 is a user interface that receives input from the user to the electronic device 10, and is, for example, a touch panel, touch pad, keyboard, or mouse. A display device (display) 13 displays application screens and the like to the user of the electronic device 10 under the control of the processor 11 . In this embodiment, the electronic device 10, which is a smartphone, includes a touch panel 17 as the input device 12, the touch panel 17 also functions as the display device 13, and the input device 12 and the display device 13 are integrated. The touch panel 17 of this embodiment is a projected capacitive touch panel, but if there is a device having equivalent functions, it may be used.

The storage device 14 is a storage device included in a general smart phone, including a RAM that is a volatile memory and a ROM that is a nonvolatile memory. Storage device 14 may also include external memory. The storage device 14 stores various programs including game applications. For example, the storage device 14 stores an operating system (OS), middleware, application programs, and various data that can be referred to during the execution of these programs.

In one example, memory device 14 includes primary memory and secondary memory. The main memory is a volatile storage medium from which information can be read and written at high speed, and is used as a storage area and work area when the processor 11 processes information. The auxiliary storage stores various programs and data used by the processor 11 when executing each program. The auxiliary storage device is, for example, a hard disk device, but may be any nonvolatile storage or nonvolatile memory that can store information, and may be removable.

The communication device 15 exchanges data with another computer such as a server via a network. For example, the communication device 15 performs wireless communication such as mobile communication and wireless LAN, and connects to a network. In one example, electronic device 10 downloads a program from a server via communication device 15 and stores it in storage device 14 . However, the communication device 15 may perform known wired communication. The electronic device 10 does not have to include the communication device 15 if data is not transmitted/received to/from another computer.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of electronic device 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device 10 includes an input section 21 , a display section 22 and a control section 23 . The control unit 23 includes an angle determination unit 24 , a state determination unit 25 and an application unit 26 . In this embodiment, these functions are realized by executing a program by the processor 11 . For example, the program to be executed is a program stored in storage device 14 or received via communication device 15 . In this way, since various functions are realized by program loading, one part (function) may be partly or wholly included in another part. However, these functions may also be realized by hardware by configuring an electronic circuit or the like for realizing part or all of each function.

The input unit 21 is configured using the input device 12 and receives input from the user to the electronic device 10 . In the present embodiment, the input unit 21 receives a user's touch operation on the touch panel 17 and generates a touch event. can.

The display unit 22 displays a game application screen on the display device 13, and displays a screen corresponding to a user's operation.

The control unit 23 implements a virtual controller. In this embodiment, the control unit 23 employs a three-layered architecture, and the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25, and the application unit 26 correspond to each layer. For example, the control unit 23 is implemented by the processor 11 executing a set of programs each program corresponding to each layer.

The role of the angle determination unit 24 in the virtual controller realized by the control unit 23 corresponds to the sensor IC chip inside the controller in the physical controller. The angle determination unit 24 mainly determines an angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space by using a touch event generated by the user's touch operation on the touch panel 17 , and sends the angle to the state determination unit 25 . .

The role of the state determination unit 25 corresponds to the overall controller to be operated in the physical controller. The state determination unit 25 mainly uses the angle sent from the angle determination unit 24 to determine a vector (angle and magnitude) corresponding to the user's touch operation on the touch panel 17 and sends it to the application unit 26 .

The application unit 26 corresponds to a specific game application that implements in-game actions and the like. A game application has a frame rate determined in the same manner as a general game application, and processes the main loop of the main program, for example, every time corresponding to the frame rate. The frame rate is typically 30 fps (frames per second) or 60 fps.

The angle determination unit 24 determines an angle necessary for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space. In one preferred example, angle determiner 24 is a software module that is a library of mathematical functions that computes angles in real time and that implements statistical processing algorithms that compute angles from a sequence of short duration touch events. be. A column of touch events corresponds to finger movements on the touch panel 17 .

Storage device 14 includes a data point buffer. The data point buffer is a buffer for holding data points indicated by the first axis value and the second axis value obtained by the angle determination unit 24 based on the touch event.

The angle determination unit 24 holds data points indicated by the first axis value and the second axis value acquired based on the touch event generated by the user's operation on the touch panel 17 in the data point buffer. Here, the touch events are when the user touches the touch panel 17 with the finger (touchstart), when the user moves the finger while touching the touch panel 17 (touchmove), and when the user releases the finger from the touch panel 17 (touchstart). touchend), etc. The angle determination unit 24 acquires the touch event when the touch event occurs. When acquiring a touch event, the angle determination unit 24 acquires a set of numerical values (x, y) consisting of two variables corresponding to the position on the touch panel 17 where the capacitance changes, and (x, y ) and store the triplet of numerical values (x, y, t) in the data point buffer. The data of the numerical value set consisting of the two variables is obtained by the angle determination unit 24 accompanying the touch event, and corresponds to the data points indicated by the values on the first axis and the values on the second axis. It is something to do. t is a value representing the data point acquisition time, which is the time at which (x, y) is acquired, and is stored in the data point buffer in association with (x, y) as described above. In one example, t is an integer value called UNIX time, which can be obtained from the OS, or a character string such as "2017/07/14 15:48:43.444". Hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, holding (or ending holding) of a data point by the angle determination unit 24 means holding (or ending holding) the data point acquisition time t associated with the data point. ).

In this embodiment, for convenience of explanation, the first axis and the second axis are defined as follows. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing coordinate axes consisting of the first axis and the second axis of this embodiment. The first axis is an axis that indicates the short side of the directions substantially parallel to the direction in which the sensors of the touch panel 17 are arranged, and the horizontal axis (x-axis) that is substantially parallel to the short sides of the touch panel 17. ). The second axis is orthogonal to the first axis and indicates the longitudinal direction of the directions substantially parallel to the direction in which the sensors of the touch panel 17 are arranged. Parallel vertical axis (y-axis). Thus, the first axis and the second axis are substantially parallel to the direction in which the sensors of the touch panel 17 are arranged, and a position on the touch panel 17 is defined by the two axes as coordinates (x, y). expressed. Therefore, in this embodiment, the coordinates (x, y) of the data point correspond to the position on touch panel 17 . In this embodiment, the angle determining unit 24 holds the coordinates (x, y) as data points in the data point buffer. The coordinate setting shown in FIG. 3 is an example, and can be set differently from the above example depending on the sensor arrangement of the touch panel 17 and the program implemented by the electronic device 10 . In addition, the sensor is, for example, an electrode.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the angle determined by the angle determination unit 24 and the direction corresponding to the angle when the coordinate axes are determined as shown in FIG. Angle 31 in the first quadrant corresponds to direction 32 , angle 33 in the second quadrant corresponds to direction 34 , and angle 35 in the fourth quadrant corresponds to direction 36 . Here, it can be confirmed that the angles 33 and 35 differ by 180 degrees because the direction 34 and the direction 36 have the same inclination but the directions are opposite to each other.

The angle determining unit 24 terminates holding data points that have exceeded a predetermined holding time among the data points held in the data point buffer. For example, when the angle determination unit 24 ends holding data of a data point, the angle determination unit 24 may delete the data, invalidate the data, or indicate in the data that the holding has ended. A flag may be associated and deleted as appropriate. The angle determiner 24 defines a variable D that specifies the lifetime in milliseconds of the data points stored in the data point buffer. The time specified by variable D corresponds to the default holding time. However, the value of variable D is not limited to milliseconds.

For example, when the angle determiner 24 stores a data point in the data point buffer, it monitors the elapsed time since the data point was stored and continuously compares it with the variable D. When the elapsed time of the monitored data point exceeds the variable D, the angle determination unit 24 stops holding the data point in the data point buffer. In this way, angle determiner 24 manages the lifetime of each of all data points held by the data point buffer. At this time, the angle determination unit 24 can calculate the elapsed time using the data point acquisition time t. It should be noted that when it is determined that the variable D has been exceeded can mean when it is determined that the variable D is exceeded. Moreover, it is preferable that the unit of the elapsed time of the data points managed by the angle determination unit 24 is the same as that of the variable D.

For example, when the variable D is set to 165, the angle determining unit 24 holds the data point stored in the data point buffer for 165 milliseconds, and after 165 milliseconds has passed, the data point is stored in the data point buffer. exit.

The angle determination unit 24 periodically determines whether or not the angle can be calculated. If the angle can be calculated, the angle determining unit 24 uses the data points held by the data point buffer to calculate the angle indicated by the set of data points, so that the user can control the operation target object in the virtual space. is determined as the angle of In this way, the angle determination unit 24 can determine the angle of the direction intended by the user who performed the touch operation on the touch panel 17 by obtaining the angle indicated by the set of data points.

Angle determination unit 24 outputs the determined angle to state determination unit 25 . When outputting the determined angle to the state determining unit 25, the angle determining unit 24 outputs it together with information indicating an angle event, for example. The angle determination unit 24 may store information indicating the determined angle or angle event in a memory area in the storage device 14 to which the state determination unit 25 refers without directly outputting to the state determination unit 25 .

When the acquired touch event is touchstart, the angle determination unit 24 outputs the start event to the state determination unit 25 and does not calculate the angle. When the acquired touch event is touchend, the angle determination unit 24 outputs a stop event to the state determination unit 25 and does not calculate the angle.

The angle determining unit 24 determines a variable B, and when the number of data points held by the data point buffer is equal to or greater than the number of the variable B, uses the data points to calculate and determine an angle. If the number of data points held by the data point buffer is less than the number of variables B, the angle determination unit 24 cannot calculate the angle indicated by the set of data points with a certain accuracy or more. A keep event is output to the state determination unit 25 and the angle is not calculated. In general, it is preferable to have 3 or more data points when determining the slope of the regression line, so variable B is preferably set to 3 or more. Variable B is set to 3 in this embodiment.

The angle determination unit 24 defines a variable I that specifies a time interval in milliseconds for determining whether the angle determination unit 24 can calculate the angle. When the angle determination unit 24 can continue to calculate the angle, such as when touch events continue to occur, the interval is the time interval for the angle determination unit 24 to calculate the angle. However, the value of variable I is not limited to milliseconds.

As described above, the angle determination unit 24 determines whether or not the angle can be calculated for each predetermined processing time, and determines the angle for each predetermined processing time. In one preferred example, the default processing time is the time corresponding to the frame rate for running the game. Variable I is set to 33 if the frame rate is 30 fps (30 Hz). When the variable I is set to 33, the angle determining unit 24 determines whether the angle can be calculated once every 33 milliseconds, determines the calculated angle if the angle can be calculated, and sends the determined angle to the angle event. together with the output to the state determination unit 25 . If the calculation is not possible, the angle determination unit 24 outputs any one of the start event, stop event, and keep event to the state determination unit 25 . The angle event can include information indicating an angle. In this case, the angle determination unit 24 outputs the angle event to the state determination unit 25 when the angle can be calculated.

In calculating the angle indicated by the set of data points held in the data point buffer, the angle determination unit 24 determines the slope of the regression line based on the data points held in the data point buffer. Here, the number of data points referred to by the angle determination unit 24 is 3 or more. In determining the slope of the regression line, the angle determination unit 24 determines the axis of the independent variable based on the amount of displacement of the x-axis value and the amount of displacement of the y-axis value at the data points held in the data point buffer. Determine one of the x-axis and y-axis. At the same time, the angle determination unit 24 determines the other axis as the axis of the dependent variable.

In this embodiment, the angle determining unit 24 calculates the slope of the regression line using the method of least squares. A method of obtaining the slope of a regression line using the method of least squares is known, but this method obtains the strength of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable as the slope. The method of least squares is generally applied with the x-axis as the axis of the independent variable and the y-axis as the axis of the dependent variable. The dependent variable will have no dependence on the independent variable. Also, when determining the tilt along the y-axis, the determined tilt may change from a large negative value to a large positive value across the y-axis, and it is difficult to stably determine the tilt. Therefore, the angle determination unit 24 determines which of the x-axis value and the y-axis value is appropriate as the independent variable, and uses the least squares method based on the determined independent variable axis and dependent variable axis. determines the slope of the regression line.

The angle determination unit 24 determines the slope a of the regression line of y=ax+b when the axis of the independent variable is the x-axis, and the slope c of the regression line of x=cy+d when the axis of the independent variable is the y-axis. to decide. Specifically, the angle determining unit 24 obtains the slope of the regression line by the following (a) to (e).
(a) The angle determining unit 24 calculates (determines) the average of the independent variables and the average of the dependent variables in the data points held in the data point buffer.
(b) The angle determination unit 24 uses the averages determined in (a) to calculate (determine) the independent variable deviation and the dependent variable deviation for the data points held in the data point buffer.
(c) The angle determining unit 24 uses the independent variable deviation determined in (b) to calculate (determine) the independent variable variance for the data points held in the data point buffer.
(d) The angle determination unit 24 calculates (determines) the covariance of the data points held in the data point buffer using the independent variable deviation and the dependent variable deviation determined in (b).
(e) The angle determination unit 24 calculates (determines) the slope of the regression line by dividing the covariance determined in (d) by the variance of the independent variable determined in (c).

In one example, the angle determiner 24 determines the difference between the maximum and minimum x-axis values and the maximum and minimum y-axis values of the data points held in the data point buffer. Based on this, either the x-axis or the y-axis is determined as the axis of the independent variable, and the other axis is determined as the axis of the dependent variable. Preferably, the angle determination unit 24 weights the difference between the maximum and minimum x-axis values of the data points held in the data point buffer using a weighting factor and the y-axis value. Based on the difference between the maximum and minimum values, either the x-axis or the y-axis is determined as the axis of the independent variable, and the other axis is determined as the axis of the dependent variable.

The angle determination unit 24 calculates (determines) the slope of the regression line using the method of least squares as described above. Preferably, the calculation of the slope of the regression line by the angle determination unit 24 means that the angle determination unit 24 calculates the angle of the slope of the regression line. Here, the slope of the calculated regression line does not have a positive or negative direction. It is calculated within the range of 360 degrees. Therefore, for example, whether the angle indicated by the set of data points is 45 degrees or 225 degrees, 45 degrees is calculated as the slope of the regression line. Therefore, after determining the slope of the regression line, the angle determination unit 24 determines the amount of rotation for rotating the determined slope of the regression line based on the displacement direction as a set of data points held in the data point buffer. decide. Specifically, after determining the slope of the regression line, the angle determining unit 24 determines the angle for the user to control the operation target object, with respect to (the angle of) the determined slope of the regression line. A rotation amount indicating whether to rotate 180 degrees is determined. Here, the displacement direction as a set of data points indicates the direction in which the data points are displaced over time, and corresponds to the rough direction in which the user moves his/her finger on the touch panel 17, for example.

In one example, the angle determination unit 24 determines the amount of rotation based on the displacement direction of the data points that chronologically follow each other in the data points held in the data point buffer. Preferably, the angle determining unit 24 compares the positive and negative quantities of the difference values of the determined axis values of the independent variables that chronologically precede and follow the data points held in the data point buffer. Determine quantity. The determined amount of rotation indicates whether or not to rotate the determined regression line by 180 degrees.

The angle determiner 24 stores each data point such that the data point buffer holds data points in order from the data point stored first. Alternatively, when storing the data points in the data point buffer, the angle determination unit 24 associates and stores identification information that enables identification of the order in which the data points were stored. Thus, the angle determiner 24 maintains the data points in the data point buffer such that the order in which they were stored is identifiable, ie, the chronological order of the stored data points is identifiable. At this time, the angle determination unit 24 can use the value of the data point acquisition time t.

The angle determination unit 24 calculates the angle indicated by the set of data points based on the determined slope of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation, and calculates the angle as the angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space. decide.

（１）
関数ａｏｐ（ｘ，ｙ）は、場合分けをするため、関数ｒｏｔａｔｅ（ｘ，ｙ）、関数ｌｅｆｔ（ｘ）、関数ｄｏｗｎ（ｙ）を使用する。最初に、関数ａｏｐ（ｘ，ｙ）は、関数ｒｏｔａｔｅ（ｘ，ｙ）を用いて、ｘとｙのいずれか一つを独立変数として決定する。 In this embodiment, the determination of the inclination of the regression line, the determination of the amount of rotation, and the determination of the angle performed by the angle determining unit 24 are realized using the function aop(x, y) shown in Equation (1). . The function aop(x,y) calculates an angle in real numbers between 0 and 360 degrees. Assume that the datapoint buffer holds n datapoints P(x,y) when the function aop(x,y) computes the angle. Also, the x-coordinate value and y-coordinate value of each of the n data points P _k (k=1 to n) are represented by P _k (x _k , y _k ) and P ₁ (x ₁ , y ₁ ), P ₂ (x ₂ , _{y 2} ) _{, .}

(1)
The function aop(x, y) uses the function rotate(x, y), the function left(x), and the function down(y) to separate cases. First, the function aop(x, y) uses the function rotate(x, y) to determine one of x and y as an independent variable.

（２）
関数ｒｏｔａｔｅ（ｘ，ｙ）は、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）が主にｙ軸方向に変位しているか否かを判定し、例えば真偽値を返す。ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）が主にｙ軸方向に変位している場合とは、例えばタッチパネル１７上でユーザの指が主として上下方向に動いた場合である。このようにして、関数ｒｏｔａｔｅ（ｘ，ｙ）は、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）が主にｘ軸（左右）方向に変位しているか又は主にｙ軸（上下）方向に変位しているかを判定し、ｘ軸の値とｙ軸の値のどちらが独立変数として適切であるかを判定する。 The function rotate(x,y) is defined by equation (2).

(2)
The function rotate(x, y) determines whether the n data points P(x, y) are displaced mainly in the y-axis direction, and returns a true/false value, for example. The case where the n data points P(x, y) are displaced mainly in the y-axis direction is, for example, the case where the user's finger moves mainly in the vertical direction on the touch panel 17 . In this way, the function rotate(x,y) determines whether the n data points P(x,y) are displaced primarily along the x-axis (left-right) or displaced primarily along the y-axis (up-down). It determines whether the x-axis value or the y-axis value is appropriate as an independent variable.

In equation (2), (max(x)−min(x)) is the absolute difference between the maximum and minimum values of x values (x ₁ , x ₂ , . . . x _n ) of n data points P. , which indicates the amount of displacement of n data points P in the x-axis direction. Similarly, (max(y)−min(y)) is the absolute value of the difference between the maximum and minimum y values (y ₁ , y ₂ , . . . y _n ) of n data points P. , indicating the amount of displacement of n data points P in the y-axis direction. The variable w is a weighting factor that weights (max(x)-min(x)).

The function rotate(x, y) satisfies the inequality when (max(y)-min(y)) is greater than the product of (max(x)-min(x)) and the variable w, and the function aop(x,y) performs a coordinate transformation. In this case, the function aop(x,y) uses the y-axis as the axis of the independent variable, the x-axis as the axis of the dependent variable, and the function down(y) to determine the amount of rotation. On the other hand, the function rotate(x, y) does not satisfy the inequality when (max(y)-min(y)) is less than or equal to the product of (max(x)-min(x)) and the variable w. , the function aop(x,y) does not perform a coordinate transformation. In this case, the function aop(x,y) uses the x-axis as the independent variable axis and the y-axis as the dependent variable axis, and further uses the function left(x) to determine the amount of rotation.

If the function rotate(x,y) is not weighted by the variable w, the function aop(x,y) will perform a coordinate transformation if the displacement along the y-axis is slightly greater than the displacement along the x-axis. . By weighting with the variable w, the function aop(x,y) can cause the n data points P(x,y) to undergo a coordinate transformation if they are more tilted along the y-axis. It becomes possible.

For example, since smartphones are often held vertically and used, the y-axis of the touch panel 17 shown in FIG. 3 is often substantially parallel to the direction of gravity. Considering that the dimension of the touch panel 17 in the y-axis direction is larger than the dimension in the x-axis direction, the variable w is preferably set to a value greater than one. For example, it is preferable to set the variable w to 2. In another example, when the smartphone is held horizontally and the game engine included in the game application does not convert the vertical and horizontal coordinates, the angle determination unit 24 determines w to be a value smaller than 1, such as 0.5.

（３）
関数ｌｅｆｔ（ｘ）は、関数ｒｏｔａｔｅ（ｘ，ｙ）が不等号を満たさない場合、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）の変位方向が－ｘ軸方向（左方向）か否かを判定し、例えば真偽値を返す。具体的には、関数ｌｅｆｔ（ｘ）は、ｎ個のデータポイントＰのｘの値（ｘ₁，ｘ₂，…ｘ_n）における時系列的に前後する値の差分値（ｘ₂－ｘ₁，ｘ₃－ｘ₂，…ｘ_n－ｘ_n-1）を算出する。関数ｌｅｆｔ（ｘ）は、差分値がマイナスとなる個数が、差分値がプラスとなる個数より多いか否かを判定することにより、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）の変位方向が－ｘ軸方向（左方向）か否かを判定する。このようにして、関数ｌｅｆｔ（ｘ）は、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）の変位方向が－ｘ軸方向（左方向）か＋ｘ軸方向（右方向）であるかを判定し、決定された回帰直線の傾きに対して１８０度回転させるか否かを示す回転量を決定する。例えば、関数ｌｅｆｔ（ｘ）が真である場合、関数ａｏｐ（ｘ，ｙ）は回転量を１８０度と決定し、関数ｌｅｆｔ（ｘ）が偽である場合、関数ａｏｐ（ｘ，ｙ）は回転量を０度と決定する。 The function left(x) is represented by Equation (3).

(3)
The function left(x) determines whether or not the displacement direction of the n data points P(x, y) is in the −x-axis direction (to the left) if the function rotate(x, y) does not satisfy the inequality. , for example returning a boolean value. Specifically, _the function left(x ₎ is the difference _value (x ₂ −x ₁ , x ₃ −x ₂ , . . . x _n −x _n-1 ). The function left(x) determines whether the number of negative difference values is greater than the number of positive difference values, so that the displacement direction of the n data points P(x, y) is − It is determined whether or not it is in the x-axis direction (leftward direction). Thus, the function left(x) determines whether the direction of displacement of the n data points P(x,y) is in the direction of the −x axis (to the left) or the direction of the +x axis (to the right), A rotation amount indicating whether to rotate the determined regression line by 180 degrees is determined. For example, if the function left(x) is true, the function aop(x,y) determines the amount of rotation to be 180 degrees, and if the function left(x) is false, the function aop(x,y) rotates Determine the volume as 0 degrees.

（４）
関数ｄｏｗｎ（ｙ）は、関数ｒｏｔａｔｅ（ｘ，ｙ）が不等号を満たす場合、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）の変位方向が－ｙ軸方向（下方向）か否かを判定し、例えば真偽値を返す。具体的には、関数ｄｏｗｎ（ｙ）は、ｎ個のデータポイントＰのｙの値（ｙ₁，ｙ₂，…ｙ_n）における時系列的に前後する値の差分値（ｙ₂－ｙ₁，ｙ₃－ｙ₂，…ｙ_n－ｙ_n-1）を算出する。関数ｄｏｗｎ（ｙ）は、差分値がマイナスとなる個数が、差分値がプラスとなる個数より多いか否かを判定することにより、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）の変位方向が－ｙ軸方向（下方向）か否かを判定する。このようにして、関数ｄｏｗｎ（ｙ）は、ｎ個のデータポイントＰ（ｘ，ｙ）の変位方向が－ｙ軸方向（下方向）か＋ｙ軸方向（上方向）であるかを判定し、決定された回帰直線の傾きに対して１８０度回転させるか否かを示す回転量を決定する。例えば、関数ｄｏｗｎ（ｙ）が真である場合、関数ａｏｐ（ｘ，ｙ）は回転量を１８０度と決定し、関数ｄｏｗｎ（ｙ）が偽である場合、関数ａｏｐ（ｘ，ｙ）は回転量を０度と決定する。 Function down(y) is represented by equation (4).

(4)
The function down (y) determines whether the displacement direction of the n data points P (x, y) is the -y axis direction (downward) when the function rotate (x, y) satisfies the inequality, For example, return a boolean value. _Specifically , _the function down(y) is the difference value (y _{2 −y 1} , y ₃ −y ₂ , . . . y _n −y _n-1 ). The function down(y) determines whether the number of negative difference values is greater than the number of positive difference values, so that the displacement direction of the n data points P(x, y) is − It is determined whether it is in the y-axis direction (downward). Thus, the function down(y) determines whether the direction of displacement of the n data points P(x,y) is in the direction of the −y axis (downward) or in the direction of the +y axis (upward), A rotation amount indicating whether to rotate the determined regression line by 180 degrees is determined. For example, if the function down(y) is true, the function aop(x,y) determines the amount of rotation to be 180 degrees, and if the function down(y) is false, the function aop(x,y) rotates Determine the volume as 0 degrees.

（５）
ここで、

は、ｘ（独立変数）の平均であり、

は、ｙ（従属変数）の平均であり、

は、ｘ（独立変数）とｙ（従属変数）の共分散であり、

は、ｘ（独立変数）の分散である。 The function aop(x, y) calculates the slope using the least squares method after determining the independent variable (axis of the independent variable) and the amount of rotation as described above. In the function aop(x, y), where x is the independent variable and y is the dependent variable, the slope a of the regression line of y=ax+b is calculated by Equation (5).

(5)
here,

is the mean of x (the independent variable),

is the mean of y (the dependent variable) and

is the covariance of x (independent variable) and y (dependent variable),

is the variance of x (the independent variable).

（６）
ここで、

は、ｘ（従属変数）の平均であり、

は、ｙ（独立変数）の平均であり、

は、ｘ（従属変数）とｙ（独立変数）の共分散であり、

は、ｙ（独立変数）の分散である。 In the function aop(x, y), where y is the independent variable and x is the dependent variable, the slope c of the regression line of x=cx+d is calculated by Equation (6).

(6)
here,

is the mean of x (the dependent variable) and

is the mean of y (independent variable),

is the covariance of x (dependent variable) and y (independent variable),

is the variance of y (the independent variable).

The angle determining unit 24 determines a variable V, and when the variance of the independent variable is V or more, calculates and determines the angle using the function aop(x, y). When the variance of the independent variable is less than V, the angle determination unit 24 outputs a keep event to the state determination unit 25 and does not calculate the angle. If the variance of the independent variable is less than V, it means that the n data points P(x,y) are locally concentrated. Therefore, by setting the variable V by the angle determining unit 24, it is possible to ignore too minute movements of the finger and to calculate a stable angle. Variable V is preferably set to 0.7.

The function aop(x, y) directly calculates the angle obtained from the slope of the regression line when the function rotate(x, y) is false and the function left(x) is false. The function aop(x, y) calculates the angle obtained by adding 180 degrees to the angle obtained from the slope of the regression line when the function rotate(x, y) is false and the function left(x) is true. The function aop(x, y) calculates the angle by subtracting the angle obtained from the slope of the regression line from 90 degrees when the function rotate(x, y) is true and the function down(y) is false. do. The function aop(x, y) is the angle plus 180 degrees to calculate the angle.

The state determination unit 25 determines the angle and the size for each predetermined processing time based on the angle determined by the angle determination unit 24 for each predetermined processing time. The state determination unit 25 outputs the determined angle and size to the application unit 26 . The state determination unit 25 may store information indicating the determined angle and size in a memory area referred to by the application unit 26 without directly outputting the information to the application unit 26 . In one preferred example, the state determiner 25 is a software module that translates a series of continuously calculated angles into controller functions. This module does not use any touch coordinates, and is implemented as a state management model (state machine) using angles and time.

When the state determination unit 25 receives the information output by the angle determination unit 24 every predetermined processing time, the state determination unit 25 outputs the tilt state of the virtual controller every predetermined processing time according to the received event. A virtual controller is a software implementation of a physical analog controller, and the tilt of the virtual controller corresponds to the tilt of the joystick or lever of the physical controller. The state determination unit 25 outputs the tilt state of the virtual controller as a vector, ie, direction (angle) and magnitude. The magnitude can be acceleration information or velocity information. The tilt state of the virtual controller corresponds to the input quantity of the physical analog controller.

In this way, the state determination unit 25 can be considered to provide a state transition model for interpreting the meaning of touch events that have occurred. The state determination unit 25 manages the tilt of the virtual controller as a state, and upon receiving the information output by the angle determination unit 24 every predetermined processing time, changes the state every predetermined processing time.

In one example, the state determination unit 25 accumulates angle information output from the angle determination unit 24 and calculates the output to the application unit 26 according to time. For example, when the angle determination unit 24 continues for 165 ms and outputs 45 degrees every 33 ms, the state determination unit 25 determines acceleration information for 165 ms in the direction of 45 degrees. For example, when the angle determination unit 24 continuously outputs the same angle, the state determination unit 25 outputs information to accelerate in the direction of the angle, and the angle determination unit 24 subsequently inputs an angle 180 degrees opposite to the angle. If so, the state determination unit 25 outputs information about deceleration. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to obtain the input amount of the controller as the time corresponding to the number of state transitions without using the actual touch coordinates as they are.

In one example, when the state determination unit 25 receives the information output by the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25 sets the tilt state of the virtual controller according to the received event, and sends a movement event or an acceleration event to the game application. and size information. Specifically, the state determination unit 25 can implement acceleration processing that imitates a physical analog controller using a predetermined program language.

In one preferred example, the state determination unit 25 holds the state of the tilt of the virtual controller as a vector, and outputs the held vector every predetermined processing time. Upon receiving the start event from the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25 starts state management. When the state determination unit 25 first receives an angle event from the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25 starts holding the received angle and a vector having the size of one state transition, and outputs the vector. When the state determination unit 25 further receives an angle event from the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25 adds the received angle and a vector having the size of one state transition to the internally retained vector, and stores and outputs the vector. do. If the length of the output vector exceeds 1.0, the state determination unit 25 normalizes it to 1.0.

For example, when the state determination unit 25 receives the angle information of 45 degrees from the angle determination unit 24 once, it outputs a vector with an angle of 45 degrees and a magnitude of 0.2 and holds the vector. When the state determination unit 25 receives the angle information of 45 degrees from the angle determination unit 24 four more times, the state determination unit 25 holds and outputs the angle of 45 degrees and the magnitude vector of 1.0. When the state determination unit 25 further receives the angle information of 45 degrees from the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25 holds and outputs the angle of 45 degrees and the vector having the magnitude of 1.0. When the state determination unit 25 receives the angle information of 30 degrees, the state determination unit 25 adds the vector of the angle of 30 degrees and the magnitude of 0.2 to the vector of the angle of 45 degrees and the magnitude of 1.0. Retain and output a vector of angle and magnitude of 1.0. Also in this case, since the magnitude of the vector exceeds 1.0, the state determination unit 25 normalizes it to 1.0 and outputs it.

Upon receiving the keep event from the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25 continues to hold the internally held vector and outputs the vector. Upon receiving the stop event from the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25 releases the vector held internally and outputs a zero vector or a stop event.

With such a configuration, it is possible to realize the same operation on the smartphone as a physical analog controller.

The application unit 26 has the function of an application started on the electronic device 10, and provides services by the application. In one preferred example, the application unit 26 converts the vector output from the state determination unit 25 into a specific motion of the virtual character, and is a function implemented in general game applications. be. When the application is a web application, a server that communicates with the electronic device 10 has part or all of the application unit 26, and the application transmits and receives data to and from the server.

An example of angle calculation using the function aop(x, y) shown in Equation (1) by the angle determination unit 24 will be described below. In the following illustration, it is assumed that the variable w is 2, the variance of the independent variables is V or more, and the times t1 to t4 indicate any one time at which the angle determination unit 24 calculates the angles.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by the data point buffer at time t1. A set 40 of data points held by the data point buffer consists of six data points P41-46. The x-coordinate values and y-coordinate values (x, y) of P41 to 46 are respectively P41 (x ₄₁ , y ₄₁ ), P42 (x ₄₂ , y ₄₂ ) . . . P46 (x ₄₆ , y ₄₆ ). , and the data point buffer stores the data points in the order of P41, P42, . . . , P46.

First, the function aop(x, y) compares abs(max(x)-min(x)) and abs(max(y)-min(y)) using the function rotate(x, y) do. From FIG. 6, the difference value x ₄₆ −x ₄₁ (=Δx) of the x-coordinate values of P46 and P41 corresponds to abs(max(x)−min(x)), and the y-coordinate values of P45 and P41 It can be confirmed that the difference value y ₄₅ −y ₄₁ (=Δy) corresponds to abs(max(y)−min(y)). From FIG. 5, Δx>Δy. Therefore, the function rotate(x,y) returns a false value because it does not satisfy the inequality.

Subsequently, the function aop(x, y) uses the function left(x) to obtain the difference values (x ₄₂ −x ₄₁ , x ₄₃ −x ₄₂ , . . . x ₄₆ −x ₄₅ ) is calculated. From FIG. 5, the difference values are all positive. Therefore, the function left(x) does not satisfy the inequality and returns a false value.

In the above example, the function rotate(x,y) is false and the function left(x) is false. The function aop(x,y) thus determines the regression line 81 shown in FIG. 7 from the set of data points 40 and calculates the angle 91 from the slope of the regression line 81 as shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by the data point buffer at time t2. A set 60 of data points held by the data point buffer consists of six data points P61-66. The x-coordinate value and y-coordinate value of P61, P62, . . . P66 are the same as the x-coordinate value and y-coordinate value of P46, P45, . store the data points in .

The function rotate(x,y) returns a value of false because the inequality is not satisfied, as in the embodiment of FIG. Subsequently, the function aop(x, y) uses the function left(x) to calculate the difference value between the values preceding and succeeding in time series. From FIG. 9, all the difference values are negative. Therefore, the function left(x) satisfies the inequality and returns a true value.

In the above example, the function rotate(x,y) is false and the function left(x) is true. The function aop(x,y) thus determines from the set of data points 60 the regression line 82 shown in FIG. 9, and the angle 92a calculated from the slope of the regression line 82 as shown in FIG. Calculate Here, the slope of the regression line 82 is the same as the regression line 81, and the angle 91 is the same as the angle 92a, but the order in which the data points were stored in the data point buffer is reversed, so the function aop(x, y ) are different from each other by 180 degrees.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by the data point buffer at time t3. A data point set 70 held by the data point buffer consists of six data points P71-76. The x-coordinate values and y _- coordinate values of P71 to P76 are respectively P71 _{( x71} , _y71 ), P72 ( _x72 , _y72 ) . stores the data points in the order of P71, P72, . . . , P76.

From FIG. 12, the difference value x ₇₅ −x ₇₁ (=Δx) of the x-coordinate values of P75 and P71 corresponds to abs(max(x)−min(x)), and the y-coordinate values of P76 and P71 It can be confirmed that the difference value y ₇₆ −y ₇₁ (=Δy) corresponds to abs(max(y)−min(y)). From FIG. 11, 2×Δx<Δy. Therefore, the function rotate(x,y) returns a true value because it satisfies the inequality.

Subsequently, the function aop(x, y) uses the function down(y) to obtain the difference values (y ₇₂ −y ₇₁ , y ₇₃ −y ₇₂ , . . . y ₇₆ −y ₇₅ ). From FIG. 11, the difference values are all positive. Therefore, the function down(y) does not satisfy the inequality and returns a false value.

In the above example, the function rotate(x,y) is true and the function down(y) is false. The function aop(x,y) thus determines from the set of data points 70 the regression line 83 shown in FIG. to calculate the angle 93b. Here, the angle 93a shown in FIG. 13 is the angle calculated from the slope of the regression line 83 when y is the independent variable and x is the dependent variable, and is returned to the coordinates where x is the independent variable and y is the dependent variable. It is shown corresponding to the position in the case of

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of data points held by the data point buffer at time t4. Time t4 is the time when time Δt has elapsed from time t1. A set 40' of data points held by the data point buffer consists of eight data points P45-52. The x-coordinate values and y-coordinate values of P45-52 _{are respectively} P45 (x ₄₅ , y ₄₆ ), P46 (x ₄₆ , y ₄₆ ) . stores the data points in the order of P45, P46, . . . , P52.

From FIG. 15, the difference value x ₅₂ −x ₄₅ (=Δx) of the x-coordinate values of P52 and P45 corresponds to abs(max(x)−min(x)), and the y-coordinate values of P46 and P52 It can be confirmed that the difference value y ₄₆ −y ₅₂ (=Δy) corresponds to abs(max(y)−min(y)). From FIG. 14, 2×Δx<Δy. Therefore, the function rotate(x,y) returns a true value because it satisfies the inequality.

Subsequently, the function aop(x, y) uses the function down(y) to obtain the difference values (y ₄₆ −y ₄₅ , y ₄₇ −y ₄₆ , . . . y ₅₂ −y ₅₁ ) is calculated. From FIG. 11, difference values other than y ₄₆ -y ₄₅ are negative. Therefore, the function down(y) satisfies the inequality and returns a true value.

In the above example, the function rotate(x,y) is true and the function down(y) is true. The function aop(x,y) thus determines from the set of data points 40' the regression line 84 shown in FIG. An angle 94c is calculated by adding 180 degrees to the calculated angle 94b.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating electronic device 10 controlling virtual character 121 from set 120 of data points according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 18 shows a data point set 120 that visualizes data points corresponding to touch events generated by a user's manipulation of the touch panel 17 . Based on the angle 122 indicated by the data point set 120, the electronic device 10 controls the motion of the virtual character 121, which is the operation target object, such as walking, running, turning direction, and the like.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a flowchart of information processing of the angle determining section 24 according to one embodiment of the present invention. This flow chart starts when a touch event occurs and the angle determiner 24 acquires data points from the touch event.

At step 101, the angle determination unit 24 stores the obtained data points in the data point buffer. At this time, the angle determination unit 24 associates the data points to be stored with T, which indicates the elapsed time after storage in milliseconds, and a variable D, which indicates the time (retention life) that can be stored in the data point buffer in milliseconds.

Subsequently, at step 102 , the angle determining section 24 outputs a start event to the state determining section 25 .

Subsequently, at step 103, the angle determination unit 24 determines whether or not a touch event has occurred. Step 103 is executed Ims after the start of this flowchart. If a touch event has occurred, the flowchart proceeds to step 104 , and if no touch event has occurred, the flowchart proceeds to step 106 .

At step 104, the angle determining unit 24 determines whether or not the generated touch event is touchend. If the acquired touch event is touchend, this flowchart ends. If the acquired touch event is not touchend, the flow proceeds to step 105 .

At step 105, the angle determiner 24 acquires data points from the touch event that occurred and stores them in the data point buffer. At this time, the angle determining unit 24 associates the data point to be stored with T, which indicates the elapsed time after storage in milliseconds, and a variable D, which indicates the time that can be stored in the data point buffer in milliseconds.

Subsequently, at step 106, the angle determining unit 24 ends holding data points whose elapsed time T is equal to or greater than the variable D among the data points held in the data point buffer. The angle determining unit 24 compares the elapsed time T and the variable D for each data point stored in the data point buffer, and when the elapsed time T is equal to or greater than the variable D, the data point is terminated.

Subsequently, at step 107, the angle determining unit 24 determines whether or not the number n of data points held by the data point buffer is equal to or greater than the number of variables B. FIG. If the number n is greater than or equal to the variable B, the flowchart proceeds to step 108 , and if the number n is less than the variable B, the flowchart proceeds to step 113 .

In step 108, the angle determining unit 24 determines the x-axis and y-axis as independent variable axes based on the x-axis value displacement and the y-axis value displacement of the data points held in the data point buffer. Determine one axis of The angle determination unit 24 simultaneously determines the other axis as the axis of the dependent variable.

Subsequently, in step 109, when the x-axis is determined as the axis of the independent variable in step 108, the angle determining unit 24 calculates the angle of inclination of the regression line by using equation (5). to decide. In one example, the angle determination unit 24 calculates the angle of inclination within the range of 0 to 90 degrees and 270 to 360 degrees when calculating the angle of inclination using Equation (5). When the y-axis is determined as the axis of the independent variable in step 108, the angle determination unit 24 calculates the angle of inclination using Equation (6), and subtracts the calculated angle from 90 degrees to obtain the regression line. Determine the angle of inclination. In one example, the angle determination unit 24 calculates the angle of inclination within the ranges of 0 to 90 degrees and 270 to 360 degrees when calculating the angle of inclination using Equation (6).

Subsequently, at step 110, the angle determination unit 24 determines whether to rotate the determined regression line by 180 degrees with respect to the determined slope of the regression line based on the displacement direction as a set of data points held in the data point buffer. Determines the amount of rotation that indicates In one example, when the x-axis is determined as the axis of the independent variable in step 108, the angle determining unit 24 calculates the difference values of the values on the x-axis that precede and follow each other in time series. The angle determination unit 24 determines the amount of rotation to be 180 degrees when the number of calculated negative difference values is greater than the number of positive difference values, and determines the amount of rotation to be 0 degrees when the number is less. In one example, when the y-axis is determined as the axis of the independent variable in step 108, the angle determining unit 24 calculates the difference values of the y-axis values that precede and follow each other in time series. The angle determination unit 24 determines the amount of rotation to be 180 degrees when the number of calculated negative difference values is greater than the number of positive difference values, and determines the amount of rotation to be 0 degrees when the number is less.

Subsequently, in step 111, the angle determination unit 24 determines the angle based on the determined slope of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation. Specifically, the angle determining unit 24 determines the angle by adding the determined amount of rotation to the angle corresponding to the determined slope of the regression line. For example, when the amount of rotation is 0 degrees, the angle determined by the angle determination unit 24 is the angle corresponding to the determined slope of the regression line. The angle determination unit 24 outputs the angle event together with the determined angle to the state determination unit 25 and proceeds to step 112 .

If the number n is less than the variable B in step 107 , the angle determination unit 24 outputs a keep event to the state determination unit 25 in step 113 , and proceeds to step 112 .

At step 112, the flow chart returns to step 103 unless terminated, for example, by termination of the game application. The angle determination unit 24 executes the processing of steps 103 to 112 for each Ims.

When this flowchart ends, the angle determination unit 24 deletes all data points held in the data point buffer.

Next, main functions and effects of the electronic device 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment utilizes the feature of the projected capacitive touch panel that, when a finger is swiped on the touch panel 17, six or more touch events occur in an extremely short period of time such as 100 ms. The system architecture of the software implemented by the electronic device 10 has a three-layer structure in which the angle determination unit 24, the state determination unit 25, and the application unit 26 correspond to the first layer, the second layer, and the third layer, respectively. corresponds to game applications. The first layer calculates the swipe direction at a linear angle of 360 degrees for a set of multiple touch events (a set of data points) that occur. Since the first layer can use touch events that occur in an extremely short period of time, it is possible to continue calculating angles at high speed. In addition, the first layer performs a touch operation on the touch panel 17 without using a reference point by obtaining an angle indicated by a set of data points held by the data point buffer for an extremely short predetermined holding time (for example, 165 ms). It is possible to obtain the angle of the direction intended by the user.

Note that the electronic device 10 of the present embodiment can be modeled as uniform linear motion in an extremely short time such as 100 ms even if the user's operation such as swiping is complicated. It is designed based on the concept that any nonlinear function (≈human operation) can be predicted and approximated by calculating .

The first layer calculates angles relatively infrequently when the value of variable I is set relatively large. In this case, the first layer can be used to measure the angle with a relatively large number of data points held in the data point buffer even immediately after a touch event begins to occur, e.g. will be calculated. By setting the value of the variable I to a relatively large value in this way, it is possible to calculate an angle that relatively gently reflects the user's operation. On the other hand, in the first layer, when the value of the variable I is set relatively small, the angle is calculated relatively frequently. In this case, the first layer computes the angle with a relatively small number of data points held in the data point buffer just after a touch event begins to occur, e.g. It will be. By setting the value of the variable I to a relatively small value in this way, it is possible to calculate an angle that reflects the user's operation relatively immediately.

The first layer uses the least squares method to calculate the slope of the regression line in calculating the angle indicated by the set of data points. When x is the independent variable and y is the dependent variable, it is difficult to calculate the slope along the y-axis. Once determined, the slope of the regression line is calculated. With such a configuration, the first layer can stably calculate the slope of the regression line.

In the first layer, when calculating the angle indicated by the set of data points, the regression line determined based on the displacement direction as a set of data points corresponding to the rough direction in which the user moves the finger on the touch panel 17. A rotation amount indicating whether to rotate 180 degrees with respect to the inclination is determined. Thus, by determining the amount of rotation that cannot be grasped from the slope of the regression line calculated using the least squares method, the angle of the direction intended by the user who performed the touch operation on the touch panel 17 can be obtained. It becomes possible.

The first layer calculates the angle corresponding to the swipe direction for a set of data points every predetermined processing time, such as the predetermined processing time corresponding to the frame rate in the game application. The second layer uses the continuously output angle information to determine the vector quantity (angle and magnitude) indicating the tilt state of the virtual controller for each predetermined processing time, and outputs it to the game application. By adopting such a configuration, in the present embodiment, it is possible to perform an input based on the angle calculated for each predetermined processing time to the game application. Further, with such a configuration, none of the layers uses the past touch coordinates as a reference point, and inputs based on the high frequency and accurate movement angle for each frame rate calculated by the first layer are performed. can be done. Thus, in the present embodiment, the electronic device 10 does not use the spatial concept of points such as a start point (start coordinates) and an end point (end coordinates), which is used in the conventional virtual controller. Calculate the angle.

Further, in this embodiment, unlike the virtual controller in the prior art, that is, the virtual controller using the vector obtained by the positional relationship between the reference coordinates and the currently indicated coordinates, there is no concept of the reference coordinates. It is possible to provide higher responsiveness than the defined virtual controller. In particular, in a direction change operation of a virtual character or the like, even if the user performs an operation on the touch panel in a direction significantly different from that before the direction change, there is no concept that the current indicated coordinates approach the reference coordinates. It can quickly respond to the intended operation content and change direction, which is a remarkable advantage. Moreover, by being configured as described above, it is possible to allow a user operating with a smartphone to operate with one hand. As a result, it is possible to solve the problem that the user always needs to be aware of the reference coordinates when operating the virtual joystick in the conventional technology, and it is sometimes difficult to operate with one hand. In this manner, the present embodiment realizes a virtual controller that enables faster and more intuitive operations.

Further, in the present embodiment, unlike the virtual controller in the conventional technology, the electronic device 10 does not perform input according to the finger movement distance from the reference coordinates. can be realized. Therefore, it is possible to achieve a smaller mounting area than in the prior art. For example, the same operability can be realized regardless of the size of the touch panel 17 .

In addition, the virtual controller technology provided by the electronic device 10 of the present embodiment mathematically models the recognition of angles from swipe operations. It is applicable to a wide range of genres such as command input.

The above effects are the same in other embodiments and examples unless otherwise specified.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a computer-readable storage medium storing a program for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments of the present invention and the information processing shown in the flow charts and the program can be used. In other embodiments, the functions of the embodiments of the present invention described above and methods for realizing the information processing shown in the flowcharts can also be used. In another embodiment, a server can supply a computer with a program for realizing the functions of the embodiments of the present invention described above and the information processing shown in the flowcharts. In another embodiment, it can be a virtual machine that realizes the functions of the embodiment of the present invention described above and the information processing shown in the flowchart.

Modifications of the embodiments of the present invention will be described below. Modifications described below can be appropriately combined and applied to any embodiment of the present invention as long as there is no contradiction.

In one modification, the electronic device 10 is a game application that arranges a virtual object in a virtual space, presents a game image taken by a virtual camera arranged in the virtual space to the user, and progresses the game. is installed. When the game application is executed, the electronic device 10 displays on the touch panel 17 a game image of a virtual object or the like placed in the virtual space, which is captured by a virtual camera placed in the virtual space. to control the virtual camera according to the operation of . In this way, when the game application is executed, the electronic device 10 provides a virtual controller for controlling the virtual camera, which is the operation target object, according to the user's operation. Controlling a virtual camera is controlling the movement or viewing area of a virtual camera placed in a virtual space.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a virtual camera 131 arranged in a virtual space for capturing images displayed by the electronic device 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 20 shows the position of the virtual camera 131 and the viewing direction 132 of the virtual camera 131 . The line-of-sight direction 132 is determined by a three-dimensional vector with the position of the virtual camera 131 as the viewpoint. A viewing area is defined at a certain viewing angle in a line-of-sight direction 132 from the virtual camera 131, and a two-dimensional screen 133, which is a plane perpendicular to the line-of-sight direction 132, is defined in the viewing area. A virtual object in the virtual space is projected onto the two-dimensional screen 133 to form a two-dimensional image.

In one variation, the input device 12 and the display device 13 are separate forms located at different locations. In this case, the input device 12 is a device having functions equivalent to those of a touch panel or projected capacitive touch panel. The display device 13 may display an application screen or the like to the user of the electronic device 10 under the control of the processor 11. For example, the display device 13 may be a liquid crystal display, a display using organic EL, a plasma display, or the like.

In one modified example, the angle determination unit 24 calculates the slope of the regression line using a known method other than the method of least squares. In this case, the angle determination unit 24 does not determine the rotation amount indicating whether to rotate the determined regression line by 180 degrees, and accordingly determines the axis of the independent variable and the axis of the dependent variable. do not. For example, algorithms such as Kalman filter or particle filter can be used.

In one variation, the angle determiner 24 does not define a variable D and does not stop holding data points held in the data point buffer that are determined to have exceeded a predetermined hold time. In this case, the angle determination unit 24 determines the angle by referring to the data points stored in the specific time period shifted by the time defined by the variable I for each time defined by the variable I.

In one variant, the angle determiner 24 does not define the variable V. In this case, the angle determination unit 24 calculates and determines the angle using the function aop(x, y) regardless of the value of the variance of the independent variable.

In one variant, electronic device 10 comprises an acceleration sensor capable of determining the direction of gravity. The angle determination unit 24 determines weighting factors using information obtained from the acceleration sensor. For example, when the smartphone is held vertically and the y-axis of the touch panel 17 is the direction of gravity, the angle determination unit 24 determines w to be 2. On the other hand, when the smartphone is held horizontally and the x-axis of the touch panel 17 is the direction of gravity, and the game engine provided in the game application does not convert the vertical and horizontal coordinates, the angle determination unit 24 sets w to less than 1, such as 0.5. Decide on a value.

In one modification, the angle determination unit 24 acquires a set of numerical values (x, y) consisting of two variables when acquiring a touch event, and does not associate the data point acquisition time t with the two variables A set of numbers (x, y) consisting of are stored in the data point buffer. For example, the angle determining unit 24 may store information corresponding to the data point acquisition time t in a memory area or the like in the storage device 14 other than the data point buffer, and manage the information in association with the data stored in the data point buffer. can.

In the processes or operations described above, as long as there is no contradiction in the process or operation, such as using data that cannot be used at that step in a certain step, the process or operation can be freely performed. can be changed. Moreover, each embodiment described above is an illustration for explaining the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to these examples. The present invention can be embodied in various forms without departing from the gist thereof.

10 electronic device 11 processor 12 input device 13 display device 14 storage device 15 communication device 16 bus 17 touch panel 21 input unit 22 display unit 23 control unit 24 angle determination unit 25 state determination unit 26 application unit 31, 33, 35 angles 32, 34 , 36 directions 81, 82, 83, 84 regression lines 91, 92a, 92b, 93a, 93b, 94a, 94b, 94c angle 120 set 121 virtual character 122 angle 131 virtual camera 132 viewing direction 133 two-dimensional screen

Claims (14)

A program to be executed in an electronic device having a touch panel, the electronic device comprising:
holding data points indicated by a first axis value and a second axis value obtained based on a touch event generated by a user's operation on the touch panel;
determining the slope of a regression line based on the retained data points held at a particular time period based on a predetermined variable ;
determining a rotation amount by which to rotate the slope of the determined regression line based on the displacement direction as a set of data points held in the specific time period ;
determining an angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space based on the determined slope of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation;
program to run. The step of determining the amount of rotation includes:
In determining the angle for controlling the operation target object based on the displacement directions of the data points that chronologically precede and follow in the retained data points, 180 is applied to the slope of the determined regression line. 2. The program according to claim 1, which determines an amount of rotation indicating whether to rotate by degrees. The program causes the electronic device to:
of the first axis and the second axis as independent variable axes based on the variability of the first axis value and the variability of the second axis value at the retained data points; further performing the steps of determining one of the axes and determining the other axis as the axis of the dependent variable;
Determining the slope of the regression line comprises:
3. The program according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising determining a slope of a regression line further based on the determined independent variable axis and dependent variable axis. The step of determining one of the axes includes:
any of the above as an axis of an independent variable based on the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the first axis and the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the second axis in the retained data points 4. A program according to claim 3, for determining one axis. The step of determining one of the axes includes:
A value obtained by weighting the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the first axis and the magnitude of the difference value between the maximum value and the minimum value of the second axis in the retained data points 5. The program according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said one axis is determined as the axis of the independent variable by comparison. The step of determining the amount of rotation includes:
An angle for controlling the operation target object is determined by comparing positive and negative amounts of difference values of the determined independent variable axis values chronologically before and after the held data points. 6. The program according to any one of claims 3 to 5, further comprising determining a rotation amount indicating whether or not to rotate the determined regression line by 180 degrees with respect to the determined slope of the regression line. Determining the slope of the regression line comprises:
determining the mean of the independent variables and the mean of the dependent variables at the retained data points;
determining the deviation of the independent variables and the deviation of the dependent variables in the retained data points using the determined means;
using the determined independent variable deviations to determine the variance of the independent variables in the retained data points;
using the determined independent variable deviations and dependent variable deviations to determine covariances in the retained data points;
determining the slope of a regression line by dividing the determined covariance by the determined independent variable variance;
7. The program according to any one of claims 3 to 6, comprising The first axis is an X-axis indicating a lateral direction of the direction in which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged,
The second axis is a Y-axis that indicates the longitudinal direction of the direction in which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged and is orthogonal to the first axis,
Determining the slope of the regression line comprises:
if the determined independent variable axis is the second axis, the angle corresponding to the slope of the regression line determined by dividing the determined covariance by the determined independent variable variance; 8. The program of claim 7, wherein the slope of the regression line is determined by subtracting from 90 degrees. The first axis is an X-axis indicating a short direction in the direction in which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged, the second axis indicates a longitudinal direction in the direction in which the sensors of the touch panel are arranged, and the 9. A program according to any preceding claim, wherein the Y-axis is orthogonal to the first axis. Determining the angle comprises:
10. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the angle is determined every predetermined processing time. A set of programs for a game executed on the electronic device comprising the touch panel, comprising the program of claim 10,
The predetermined processing time is a time corresponding to a frame rate for executing the game,
determining an angle and a size for each predetermined processing time based on the angle determined for each predetermined processing time;
a step of controlling the operation target object displayed on the touch panel based on the angle and size determined for each predetermined processing time;
A set of programs that run A set of programs for a game executed on the electronic device comprising the touch panel, comprising the program of claim 10,
The predetermined processing time is a time corresponding to a frame rate for executing the game,
determining an angle and a size for each predetermined processing time based on the angle determined for each predetermined processing time;
a step of controlling a virtual camera, which is the operation target object for capturing a game image displayed on the touch panel, based on the angle and size determined for each predetermined processing time;
A set of programs that run An electronic device comprising a touch panel,
holding data points indicated by a first axis value and a second axis value obtained based on a touch event generated by a user's operation on the touch panel;
determining a slope of a regression line based on data points retained at a particular time period based on a predetermined variable among the retained data points;
Determining a rotation amount for rotating the slope of the determined regression line based on the displacement direction as a set of data points held in the specific time period ,
determining an angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space based on the determined slope of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation;
electronic device. A method performed in an electronic device comprising a touch panel, comprising:
holding data points indicated by a first axis value and a second axis value obtained based on a touch event generated by a user's operation on the touch panel;
determining the slope of a regression line based on the retained data points held at a particular time period based on a predetermined variable ;
determining a rotation amount by which to rotate the slope of the determined regression line based on the displacement direction as a set of data points held in the specific time period ;
determining an angle for the user to control the operation target object in the virtual space based on the determined slope of the regression line and the determined amount of rotation;
How to have

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