JPS5914767B2 - Joystick device speed control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for controlling the speed of movement of a specific pattern, such as a cursor, displayed on a CRT display device or the like, when the position is moved to a desired position using a joystick device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Electronic display devices, such as CRT devices used in computer systems, use joysticks, track poles, light pens, etc. to move a cursor to a desired location. Among these, the joystick is a device that combines two sets of potentiometers, as shown in Figure 1, and is configured so that the intermediate terminal position changes depending on the X and Y components of the tilt of the operating lever. Ori, X3
Y The cursor position information is changed according to the output of each potentiometer, and the cursor is moved on the display screen.

In some types of joystick operation, the tilt of the lever corresponds to the position of the cursor on the display screen, but usually the steepness or slowness of the cursor movement speed is controlled by the magnitude or smallness of the tilt. .

5. Furthermore, in this case, when the operator releases his hand, the lever is designed to return to the neutral position by the force of a spring or the like.

As described above, the potentiometer drive mechanism is formed so that the direction in which the lever is pushed coincides with the cursor movement direction. 0 The following is a conventional method for changing the moving speed of the cursor depending on the inclination of the lever.

This system has the configuration shown in FIG.

The output from the X and Y5 potentiometers generated by the operation of joystick 1 is the X component of the lever tilt angle,
Although linear with respect to the Y component, these outputs are first converted into digital quantities by A/D converters 2, 2', respectively. Since the same processing is performed for each of the X-direction component and the Y-direction component, only the X-direction component will be described below. The digital signal obtained in this way is transmitted to the reference device 3.
is compared with a numerical table prepared in advance (hereinafter simply referred to as table), and a position displacement signal of the amount specified by the table is generated.

This position τ displacement signal is added to the value held in the X register 4 as cursor position information, and the cursor moves to a position corresponding to the information value. An example of potentiometer output, its A/D conversion value, and positional displacement amount is shown in Table 1, and the second and third columns of the same table correspond to the above table.

The reason why the displacement setting value changes exponentially is that it is easy to use if the relationship between the lever inclination angle and the movement speed is set as shown in Figure 3. The reason why the area is set slightly wide is to make it easier to keep the cursor stationary. Since the displacement setting value is set in advance, it is not necessary to follow any limited rules, and it is sufficient to set an easy-to-use value according to the width of the display surface and the size of the cursor movement unit length. . Although the digital signal values and displacement amounts are shown in decimal notation in Table 1, the actual processing is performed in binary notation, and the same applies to Table 2, which will be described later. In this way, the cursor position moves as the contents of the X register 4 and Y register 4' are updated, but in actual work the operator controls the movement while following it visually. The period for updating the contents of the registers 4 and 4' must be set accordingly, and is set to about 100 msec, for example.

When the cursor is moved in the above manner, the actual movement of the cursor on the display screen is performed at fixed time intervals while occupying discrete positions as shown in FIG.

That is, if the lever is tilted slightly to the right, it will move at relatively narrow intervals as shown in Figure 4 a, and if it is tilted a lot, it will move at relatively wide intervals as shown in Figure 4 b, but in either case. The time required to move to the next position is constant. Therefore, if the lever is tilted greatly when the cursor is desired to move quickly, the cursor moves in discrete positions, making it difficult to stop the cursor accurately at the desired position. The present invention provides a cursor movement method that solves these difficulties.Basically, the cursor is moved one unit length at a time, and the speed of movement is controlled by changing the cycle. In one embodiment, a table for setting the amount of movement is set with a large value for low-speed movement and a small value for high-speed movement, and the counter finishes counting the set value. It is characterized by moving the cursor position by a unit length depending on the timing.

The method of the present invention is illustrated in FIG.

The potentiometer output due to joystick operation is A.
/D conversion and reference to the table are similar to known methods, but the table prepared here is as shown in Table 2. What is read out in response to the output value of the controller is the numerical value to be set in the counter, and the numerical value is small when the lever tilt is large, and large when the tilt is small. A number are available. The numerical value read from the table 3 is set in the counter 7, and is decremented by 1 every unit time, for example, 1 msec.

When the counter reaches 0, 1 is added or subtracted from the cursor position information stored in the registers 4 and 4', and the cursor position moves by one unit length accordingly. Since a positive number is set in the counter, this addition/subtraction control is performed based on the contents of a separately provided sign bit. In this embodiment, the time interval of cursor movement is controlled by the method described above. As explained above, in the method of the present invention, the cursor moves one unit length at a time, as shown in FIG. 6. If the lever is slightly tilted, the cursor moves by one unit length as shown in FIG.

The number of times the cursor moves inward is small, and if you tilt the lever a lot, it will turn to T as shown in Figure b. This means that the number of internal displacements is large. If the count period is set to 1 msec as in the example above, the display screen size will be 1024 dots x 102
With 4 dots, the maximum speed from edge to edge of the screen is approximately 1
It will move in seconds, but since it is a continuous movement, the speed is sufficiently controllable for experienced operators.

The provision of an immovable region near the lever neutral position of the joystick is achieved by suppressing the function of the counter.

That is, if the digitized potentiometer output is -1, 0, or 1 in Table 2, the counter value is not set. In this way, the contents of the counter will never become O, so 1 will not be added to or subtracted from the cursor position information, and the cursor position will not change. Further, addition or subtraction of 1 is controlled by path 8 in FIG. 5, and this is done based on the sign bits + and -. The movement speed distribution with respect to the inclination of the lever can be adjusted by setting numerical values on the table as in the known technology, so the speed can be set according to the level of skill of the operator, but in the method of the present invention, the movement of the cursor is continuous. Therefore, both experts and beginners can move the cursor to a desired position more quickly than in the conventional method. Comparing the device for implementing the method of the present invention with the prior art, we find that although an extra counter is required, the contents of the register are simply incremented or decremented by 1, whereas in the prior art, an unspecified numerical value is required. A calculation function is required to increase or decrease the value.

Therefore, great effects can be obtained even if the entire device is slightly larger than the known technology. The present invention is based on CRT
It can be used not only for display devices, but also for display devices that electronically control the cursor position, such as plasma discharge type display devices, dot matrix type LEDs, and liquid crystal display devices.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are diagrams showing the known technique, FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the relationship between the lever inclination angle and the cursor movement speed, and FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating how the cursor moves according to the known technique. 5 is a diagram showing the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing how the cursor moves according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a joystick, 2 and 21 are A/D converters, and 3 and 31 are is a table, 4 is a register that holds the X component value at the cursor position, 4' is a register that holds the same Y component, 5 is a display control unit, 6 is a CRT display device, 7 and 7' are counters, 8 and 8' is a path that controls the increase/decrease of cursor position data.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a speed control method of a joystick device in which the moving direction and speed of a specific pattern displayed on a display screen is commanded by the tilt direction and angle of a lever, the moving speed of the specific pattern is The speed control method for a joystick device is characterized in that the speed control method for a joystick device is controlled by changing the time required for the specific pattern to move a unit length from short to long in accordance with a large/small inclination angle of the lever. . 2. When the inclination of the lever of the joystick device is small, a large numerical value is set on the counter, and when the inclination of the lever is large, a small numerical value is set in the counter, and by subtracting at predetermined time intervals, The speed of the joystick device according to claim 1, wherein the content of the register holding the position information of the specific pattern is changed by an amount corresponding to one unit length when the numerical value has been counted. control method.