JPH0127428B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cursor control method, and particularly to a cursor control method that utilizes a tablet to control cursor movement on a display device.

In general, a tablet input device arranges a large number of characters to be input on an input panel, and inputs character information by specifying a desired character using an input pen. By the way, when inputting characters using such a device, it may be necessary to confirm whether or not the characters indicated by the pen have been input correctly, or to correct or delete characters input incorrectly. For this reason, a CRT display device, for example, is used as a monitor for input signals, and input information is sequentially displayed as text on this display surface. Input information on this CRT display device is generally corrected by moving a cursor on the display surface and specifying a corresponding character.

On the other hand, the traditional cursor movement methods are "left",
This is performed by operating cursor control keys such as "right", "up", and "down". In such cursor control keys, the direction of cursor movement is uniformly quantized during the operation stage, so in many cases it is not possible to complete cursor movement with a single key operation. Keystrokes had to be repeated many times before the desired character was specified. In addition, the curved movement of the cursor does not suit the operator's sense of operation, and it takes a lot of time to judge the operating procedure to reach the target position, resulting in low work efficiency and poor operability. There was an inconvenience.

As an attempt to improve this inconvenience, a method has been proposed in which a second tablet made of a group of transparent conductor wires is installed on the display surface of a cathode ray tube, and an input pen is used to indicate an arbitrary position on the display surface. (Special Publication No. 52-17693). However, in this method, in addition to the tablet for inputting characters, it is necessary to separately install a tablet for specifying character positions on the display surface, which complicates the configuration and increases the failure rate, making it economically unsuitable. There is an essential drawback that the second tablet may be scratched and the data display becomes difficult to see.

Also, when moving the cursor with a joy stick or a light pen,
The disadvantage is that the structure is large-scale, the circuit structure is complicated, and mechanical parts are prone to failure, especially in the joystick.

The present invention has been made in view of the drawbacks of the prior art, and provides a method for tracking and moving a cursor on a display screen according to the movement of an input pen using an operation similar to character input by an operator using a tablet. With this, we have developed a cursor control method that allows you to move the cursor in a way that best suits the human operating sense with a simple operation, and therefore improves work efficiency and operability with a simple configuration. Its purpose is to provide.

In the present invention, a cursor segment is provided on the tablet, and input mode switching means is provided in which the cursor mode is switched to by touching the cursor segment or by external operation, and the cursor mode is canceled by external operation, In the cursor mode state, the difference between the coordinate data of successive contact points of the coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit for each pen touch is outputted to the display device as cursor movement information, thereby achieving the above purpose. This is what we are trying to achieve.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a tablet input device with a CRT display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a tablet input device 1
The input device main body 2 is composed of an input device main body 2, a CRT display device 3 installed at the rear of the input device main body 2, and legs 4, 4 for supporting the input device main body 2. The input device main body 2 has a plurality of X, Y conductor groups (not shown) on the upper surface thereof, and predetermined characters are arranged and displayed for each segment 5, 5, etc. at the intersection of each conductor group. A tablet 6 as a character input section, an input pen 7 for inputting data by bringing its tip into contact with the tablet 6, and a keyboard 8 for setting programs and the like are provided. The CRT display device 3 displays characters inputted by the input pen 7 at 3A on the display surface.
(See FIG. 5), and also has a function of displaying a cursor indicating the position of the next input character on the display screen 3A designated by the display device or operator.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the center of the tablet 6, a cursor segment 5A is provided at a position corresponding to, for example, X, Y coordinates 30, 30, and the input pen 7 comes into contact with this cursor segment 5A. When this happens, the input mode switches to cursor mode, as will be described later. Also,
The keyboard 8 is provided with a cursor release key 8A for canceling the aforementioned cursor mode and setting the input mode to character mode.

As shown in FIG. 2, sequential scanning signals SX and SY are inputted to the X and Y conductor groups of the tablet 6 from the tablet control circuit 10. The input pen 7 is also equipped with a pen switch 7A that closes when pressed onto the tablet 6 (see pen down d. in Figure 4), and when the pen switch 7A is closed, a pen on signal (pen switch signal) is generated. A high level signal "1" is sent to the tablet control circuit 10. The tablet control circuit 10 is activated immediately upon input of the pen-on signal and starts the above-described scanning. Subsequently, when a scanning signal is applied to the segment indicated by the input pen 7 (the input pen 7 touches), this scanning signal is detected and sent to the tablet control circuit 10. This tablet control circuit 10 immediately sequentially changes the output state based on the detection signal sent from the input pen 7, and sends X, Y coordinate data related to the contact area of the input pen 7 to the processing device 9, etc. It's getting old. In addition, the tablet control circuit 1
0 controls switching of the T _STB signal when a predetermined time T ₁ has passed since the pen-on signal is input from the input pen 7 (assuming that detection of both the X and Y coordinates has been completed during this time T ₁ ). It has a function to send to the section 11.

Furthermore, the scanning of the tablet 6 is performed when the input pen 7 separates from the tablet 6 (when the input pen 7 is removed from the tablet 6 in FIG. 4).
When the pen switch 7A is opened, the pen switch 7A is stopped.

The switching control section 11 is connected to the tablet control circuit 1.
This is to allow coordinate data that is an output of 0 to be selectively selected as character coordinate data and cursor coordinate data. Specifically, the switching control section 11
A comparator circuit 12 receives the X and Y coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit 10, and an R-coordinate circuit receives the output of the comparator circuit 12 from the S terminal.
an S flip-flop 13, an AND circuit 14 to which the Q terminal output of the R·S flip-flop 13 and the T _STB signal are input, and an AND circuit 15 to which the Q terminal output of the R·S flip-flop 13 and the T _STB signal are input. It is made up of. Also,
The output signal of the cursor release key 8A mentioned above is input to the R terminal of the R.S flip-flop 13. The comparison circuit 12 uses the T _STB signal sent from the tablet control circuit 10 as a comparison timing signal to determine whether the X, Y coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit 10 matches the coordinates 30, 30 related to the cursor segment 5A. (when the cursor segment 5A is designated by the input pen 7), it is configured to output a high level signal "1" as a coincidence pulse. And the R.S flip-flop 1
3 is set immediately upon input of the matching pulse from the comparison circuit 12, and outputs a high level signal "1" as a cursor mode signal from the Q terminal. On the other hand, the cursor release key 8A has a function of outputting a high level signal "1" as a cursor release signal only when pressed. Therefore, the R.S flip-flop 13
is reset immediately when a cursor release signal is input from the cursor release key 8A, and outputs a high level signal "1" as a character mode signal from the terminal. The AND circuit 14 is
With the cursor mode signal input from the R/S flip-flop 13, the tablet control circuit 10
When a T _STB signal is input from the tablet control circuit 10, a cursor STB signal instructing to read the coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit 10 as cursor coordinate data is sent to the cursor information generating section 16, which will be described later. are doing.

Therefore, when the input pen 7 comes into contact with the tablet 6 in the cursor mode, the cursor STB signal is output. Here, since the cursor STB signal is also output when the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the cursor segment 5A and switched to the cursor mode (see FIG. 4), the output of the tablet control circuit 10 is Coordinates 30, 30 which are data
is also input to the cursor information generation section 16 as cursor coordinate data.

On the other hand, when the AND circuit 15 inputs the T _STB signal from the tablet control circuit 10 while inputting the character mode signal from the R/S flip-flop 13, the AND circuit 15 converts the coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit 10 into a character mode signal. It has a function of sending a character STB signal to the processing device 9 instructing it to be read as coordinate data. This processing device 9 is
When the character STB signal is input, the coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit 10 at that time is input (read) as character coordinate data (character information), and necessary data processing is performed.
Send this character information to the CRT display device 3,
As a result, the CRT display device 3 displays the characters in an array on the display surface 3A.

Further, the cursor information generating section 16 sequentially inputs the cursor coordinate data selected by the switching control section 11, and uses the difference between the coordinate data of successive contact parts as a cursor movement information source to the processing device 9. This is for outputting to. Specifically, in the cursor information generating section 16, for example,
As shown in FIG. 3, the information generating section 16A includes a first register 18A into which the coordinate data X is input via a gate circuit 17A, and a first register 18A.
It consists of a second register 20A into which 8A of data is input via a gate circuit 19A, and an arithmetic circuit 21A connected to the output sides of these first and second registers 18A and 20A.

Of these, the gate circuit 17A opens the gate when the cursor STB signal is input from the switching control section 11, and at that time, the X coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit 10 is used as the first X coordinate data for the cursor. It has a function to set in the register 18A. On the other hand, gate circuit 19A
has the function of opening the gate when a gate signal is input from the arithmetic control section 22, which will be described later, and transferring the data set in the first register 18A at that time to the second register 20A. Further, the arithmetic circuit 21A has a function of subtracting the numerical value set in the second register 20A from the numerical value set in the first register 18A at this timing when the arithmetic signal is input from the arithmetic control section 22. are doing. The cursor Y information generating section 16B is also configured in exactly the same manner as the cursor X information generating section 16A described above.

The arithmetic control unit 22 includes a monostable multivibrator 2 that operates at the falling edge of the pen switch 7A.
3, an AND circuit 24 connected to the output side of this monostable multivibrator 23, an R/S flip-flop 25 into which the output of the monostable multivibrator 23 is input from the S terminal, and this R/S flip-flop 25. It is constituted by the Q terminal output of this R.S flip-flop 25 and an AND circuit 27 inputted via the tablet control circuit 26. The monostable multivibrator 2
3 has a function of outputting a pulse as a pen-off signal when the input pen 7 is detached from the tablet 6 and the output of the pen switch 7A changes from "high" to "low". Further, the Q terminal output of the R/S flip-flop 13 of the switching control section 11 described above is input to the AND circuit 24, and the output of the AND circuit 24 is sent to the gate circuit 19A. It's becoming like that. Therefore, when the AND circuit 24 receives the pen-off signal from the monostable multivibrator 23 while receiving the cursor mode signal from the switching control section 11, it sends this pen-off signal as a gate signal to the gate circuit 19A. Therefore, when the input pen 7 comes into contact with an arbitrary segment 5 in the cursor mode, the cursor X coordinate data related to the segment 5 is first generated by the cursor X information generator 16A.
When the input pen 7 is subsequently removed from the tablet 6, the first
The data in register 18A of
It will be moved to 0A.

On the other hand, a pen-off signal from the monostable multivibrator 23 is input to the S terminal of the R.S flip-flop 25. Also,
The Q terminal output of the R/S flip-flop 13 in the switching control section ₁₁ is input to the reset priority terminal Rp of the R/S flip-flop 25. And reset priority terminal R _p
When a low level signal “0” is input to the R・S
Flip-flop 25 is reset preferentially. Therefore, when the cursor mode signal is input from the switching control section 11, the R/S flip-flop 25 also receives the S flip-flop in addition to the cursor mode signal.
When a pen-off signal is input to the terminal, it is set and
A high level signal "1" is output from the Q terminal. Further, the delay circuit 26 has a function of delaying the T _STB signal by a time T ₂ (during which time T ₂ data is set in the first register 18A). The output signal of the delay circuit 26 is sent from the AND circuit 27 to the arithmetic circuit 21A as an arithmetic signal when the output of the R.S flip-flop 25 is at a high level. When this calculation circuit 21A receives the calculation signal, it performs the calculation described above and outputs the result to the processing device 9 as cursor movement information KX.

On the other hand, the cursor Y information generating section 16B in the cursor information generating section 16 also operates in exactly the same manner as the cursor X information generating section 16A described above, and has a function of outputting cursor movement information KY to the processing device 9. . This processing device 9 includes a cursor information generating section 16
If you input the cursor movement information KX, KY from
Necessary information processing is performed and this cursor movement information is sent to the CRT display device 3, whereby the CRT display device 3 moves the cursor on the display surface 3A in the X direction (KX) and in the Y direction (KY).
to display the specified character position.

Next, the overall operation of the above embodiment will be explained based on FIGS. 4 to 6. Here, it is assumed that the display surface 3A of the CRT display device 3 has already displayed up to the 13th character "kai" in the 8th row. At this time, the cursor is at the 14th character in the 8th line, which is the display position of the next character to be input (see FIG. 5A). First, when the operator inputs the characters "kai" followed by the characters "sha" (see Figure 4), if the input mode is set to cursor mode, cursor release key 8A
Press to set the input mode to character mode (see KF in Figure 4). When the cursor release key 8A is pressed, the R/S flip-flop 13 in the switching control section 11 is reset and a character mode signal is output from the terminal. In this state, when the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the segment 5 related to the coordinates 7 and 8 where the character "sha" is displayed on the tablet 6 (see Fig. 6A),
The pen-on signal is sent to the tablet control circuit 10, and scanning of the tablet 6 is started immediately upon receiving this pen-on signal. When a scanning signal is applied to the segment 5 in contact with the input pen 7, this scanning signal is detected by the input pen 7 and then sent to the tablet control circuit 10.
Based on this detection signal, the tablet control circuit 10
changes the output state of the X coordinate and Y coordinate sequentially,
The X-coordinate and Y-coordinate data 7, 8 related to the contact area of the input pen 7 are output to the processing device 9 or the like. Subsequently, after a time T ₁ has passed since the pen-on signal was input,
Tablet control circuit 10 sends the T _STB signal to switching control section 11 . The AND circuit 15 in the switching control section 11 which receives the T _STB signal receives a high level signal representing the character mode from the R/S flip-flop 13.
When inputting the T _STB signal, it outputs a character STB signal to the processing device 9 based on this T _STB . Therefore, the processing device 9 inputs the coordinate data 7 and 8 at the timing when the character STB signal is input as character coordinate data (character information) representing the character "sha", and performs data processing. This character information is further sent to the CRT display device 3,
As a result, "sha" is displayed on the display surface 3A of the CRT display device 3 at the 14th character in the 8th row, and at the same time, the cursor moves to the 15th character in the 8th row (the 5th character).
(See B in the diagram). Here, the above-mentioned in the switching control section 11
The AND circuit 14 has an R/S flip-flop 13.
Since the low level signal "0" is input from the tablet control circuit 10, the cursor _STB signal is not output even if the T STB signal is input from the tablet control circuit 10.

Next, the operator
To move the cursor on the display screen 3A and change the characters by specifying the 11th character "Autumn" on the 5th line (see Figure 4), first move the input pen to the cursor segment 5A on the tablet 6. 7 (see Figure 6B). Then, as described above, the tablet control circuit 10 changes its output state and outputs the coordinate data 30, 30 to the cursor information generating section 16, etc. Next, from the tablet control circuit 10, T _STB
When the signal is sent to the switching control section 11, the comparison circuit 12 which receives this T _STB signal outputs a coincidence pulse to the R.S flip-flop 13. Therefore, the R.S flip-flop 13 is set and Q
Outputs the cursor mode signal from the terminal. This cursor mode signal is sent to the AND circuit 14 and also to the AND circuit 2 in the arithmetic control section 22.
4 and the R.S. flip-flop 25, and the reset priority state of the R.S. flip-flop 25 is canceled. When the cursor mode signal is input, the AND circuit 14 immediately converts the T _STB signal sent from the tablet control circuit 10 to the cursor mode signal.
The STB signal is sent to gate circuits 17A and 17B in the cursor information generating section 16. When this cursor STB signal is input, the gate circuit 17
A, 17B open and the first register 18A, 1
8B, cursor X coordinate data 30 and cursor Y coordinate data 30 are set respectively.

On the other hand, the T _STB signal, which is the output of the tablet control circuit 10, is further sent to the AND circuit 27 via the delay circuit 26 in the arithmetic control section 22.
At this time, since the output of the R.S flip-flop 25 is still at low level, the AND circuit 27
does not output a calculated signal.

Subsequently, when the input pen 7 is detached from the tablet 6, a pen-off signal is sent from the monostable multivibrator 23 in the arithmetic control section 22 to the AND circuit 24.
and is sent to the S terminal of the R.S flip-flop 25. Therefore, since the cursor mode signal is input to the AND circuit 24 at this time, the corresponding
The gate signal is sent from the AND circuit 24 to the gate circuit 1.
Sent to 9A and 19B. Therefore, the data 30, 30 in the first registers 18A, 18B
are moved to second registers 20A and 20B, respectively. Further, the R/S flip-flop 25 is
Since the reset priority state has been canceled by the cursor mode signal, the pen-off signal is immediately set and a high level signal "1" is output from the Q terminal.

Next, when the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the segment 5 related to the coordinates 26, 27 (see C in FIG. 6), the tablet control circuit 10 outputs the coordinate data 26, 27 and , sends a T _STB signal to the switching control section 11 and the calculation control section 22. The switching control section 11 that receives this T _STB signal inputs the
The cursor STB signal is sent to the cursor information generating section 16 in exactly the same manner as described above, and therefore the first
X for cursor in registers 18A and 18B of
Coordinate data 26 and cursor Y coordinate data 27
is set. On the other hand, the T _STB signal sent to the arithmetic control section 22 is transmitted through the delay circuit 26.
It is sent to the AND circuit 27. This AND circuit 27 receives a high level signal "1" from the R/S flip-flop 25, and therefore
The circuit 27 sends an arithmetic signal delayed by T ₂ from the cursor STB signal to the arithmetic circuits 21A and 21B. Therefore, for example, the arithmetic circuit 21A subtracts the data in the second register 20A from the data in the first register 18A at the timing when the arithmetic signal is input, and uses the result as the cursor movement information KX.
(=-4) and sends it to the processing device 9. On the other hand, the arithmetic circuit 21B also processes cursor movement information in exactly the same way.
Send KY (=-3) to the processing device 9. This processing device 9 then processes the cursor movement information (-4, -3)
is input, necessary data processing is performed, and the cursor movement information (-4, -3) is sent to the CRT display device 3. In this CRT display device 3, the cursor on the display surface 3A is moved in the X direction by -4,
It is moved by -3 in the Y direction and the 11th character in the 5th row specifies ``autumn'' (see Figure 5C). This allows the operator to modify the character "autumn".

Subsequently, when the input pen 7 is removed from the tablet 6, a gate signal is sent from the calculation control section 22 to the gate circuits 19A and 19B in the same manner as described above.
As a result, the data 26 and 27 in the first registers 18A and 18B are transferred to the second register 20, respectively.
A, 20B. Thereafter, the cursor on the display screen can be moved to any character position by the same operation as described above.

According to this embodiment, the tablet as a character input section can also be used as a cursor input section,
Furthermore, the cursor on the display surface can be moved relative to the movement of the input pen in the same manner as when inputting characters, and therefore the cursor can be moved in a way that suits the operator's operating sense.

In addition, switching to the cursor mode is possible by simply touching the cursor segment with the pen, so there is no need to change the input pen, and the first cursor coordinate data is input at the same time as the cursor mode is switched, reducing the number of operations. Can be done. Furthermore, since the cursor position on the display surface when changing the cursor mode always corresponds to the cursor segment position on the tablet, operation is facilitated.

In the first embodiment described above, switching to the cursor mode is performed by an externally provided switch means, and at the same time as switching to the cursor mode, the coordinate data related to the cursor segment is set as the first cursor coordinate data. It may also be configured to set it in the first register. In this case, the cursor segment can be used as a character segment.

Next, the second embodiment of the present invention will be explained in FIGS. 7 to 1.
This will be explained based on FIG. In this second embodiment, in addition to the cursor information generating section 16, a second cursor information generating section 31 consisting of continuous information generating sections 31A and 31B is provided. The continuous information generating units 31A and 31B are capable of generating data from each segment even when the input pen 7 is sequentially slid to another adjacent segment 5 while in contact with the tablet 6 when the input mode is the cursor mode. 5
This is for sequentially inputting cursor coordinate data X, Y related to cursor coordinate data, and outputting the difference (i.e., ±1) between successive cursor coordinate data as cursor movement information K _x , K _y to the processing device 9A. . First, the operation of the tablet control circuit 10 will be described in detail.

When the input pen 7 comes into contact with the tablet 6, scanning of the tablet 6 is started by the action of the tablet control circuit 10, as described above. When a scanning signal is applied to the segment 5 corresponding to the contact area of the input pen 7, this scanning signal is detected and sent to the tablet control circuit 10, and the input pen 7
The coordinate data of segment 5 specified by is output. Next, insert the input pen 7 into the tablet 6.
If you slide the tablet 6 to the adjacent segment 5 while keeping it in contact with the input pen (see S in Figure 10), since the tablet 6 continues to be scanned, the scanning signal will also be applied to the segment 5 after the slide, and the input pen will 7 detects this scanning signal. Therefore,
The output state of the tablet control circuit 10 changes, and new coordinate data regarding the segment 5 after sliding is output. However, the T _STB signal is output only once, after the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the tablet 6 and before it is slid.

As shown in FIG. 9, the continuous information generating section 31A includes a continuous change detecting circuit 32A that inputs LSB (Least Significant Bit) data of the X coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit 10, and a continuous change detecting circuit 32A that receives LSB (Least Significant Bit) data from the S terminal. The R/S flip-flop 33A inputs the T _STB signal and receives the pen-off signal which is the output of the monostable multivibrator 23 (see FIG. 8) from the R terminal, and the output of the continuous change detection circuit 32A and the R/S flip-flop 33A. Input the Q terminal output of flip-flop 33A and the cursor mode signal.
AND circuit 34A, and a latch circuit 3 that inputs the X coordinate data as cursor X coordinate data.
5A, an adder 36A and a subtracter 37A connected in parallel to the output side of this latch circuit, and a comparison circuit connected to the output sides of these adder 36A and subtracter 37A via latch circuits 38A and 39A, respectively. 40A and 41A. The comparison circuits 40A and 41A are further configured to receive cursor X coordinate data from the latch circuit 35A. Further, each of the latch circuits 35A, 38A, 39A is supplied with a continuous change signal which is the output of the AND circuit 34A via an OR circuit 42A.
The STB signal and the cursor STB signal which is the output of the switching control section 11 are inputted, while the comparison circuits 40A and 41A are
A continuously changing STB signal, which is the output of the AND circuit 34A, is input.

The continuous change detection circuit 32A detects that the LSB data of the X coordinate data expressed in binary code is "1".
→ "0" or "0" → "1", it has a function of outputting a high level signal "1" having a predetermined pulse width as a detection signal. Here, if the X coordinate changes by "+1" or "-1", the LSB of the coordinate data expressed in binary code
always changes from "1" to "0" or from "0" to "1", so the input pen 7 is slid from one segment 5 to the adjacent segment 5 and the X coordinate changes to ±
If it changes by 1, this sliding change will be detected. Further, the pulse width of the detection signal is such that the signal output ends before _T1 time elapses after the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the tablet 6 and the pen-on signal is output.

On the other hand, the R/S flip-flop 33A is set when the T _STB signal is input from the tablet control circuit 10 and outputs a high level signal "1" from the Q terminal, and when the pen-off signal is input from the monostable multivibrator 23. It has a function of being reset and outputting a low level signal "0" from the Q terminal. Therefore, the AND circuit 34A is connected to the R/S flip-flop 13 of the switching control section 11.
Only when the cursor mode signal is input from the R/S flip-flop 33A and the output of the R.S. Therefore, in the character mode, the output state of the tablet control circuit 10 changes, and therefore, even if the continuous change detection circuit 32A outputs a detection signal, the AND circuit 34A does not output the continuous change STB signal. Even in the cursor mode (including the case where the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the cursor segment 5A), when the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the tablet 6, the T _STB signal is input and the R/S flip-flop is input. Since the detection signal output ends before 33A is set, the same
The continuously changing STB signal is not output from the AND circuit 34A.

When the cursor STB signal or the continuously changing STB signal is input through the OR circuit 42A, the latch circuit 35A latches the input data as cursor X coordinate data at the rising timing of these signals, and outputs the input data to the adder 36A and the subtracter. 37A and comparison circuits 40A and 41A. Moreover, this adder 36A and subtracter 37A
have the function of adding and subtracting 1 to input data, respectively, and the results of these operations are sent to the latch circuits 38A and 39A. And these latch circuits 38A and 39A
When the cursor STB signal or the continuously changing STB signal is inputted through the OR circuit 42A, the input data is latched at the falling timing of these signals and sent to the comparison circuits 40A and 41A, respectively. Among these, the comparison circuit 40A has a function of detecting whether or not the data has changed by ±1 when the input pen 7 is slid to the adjacent segment 5 and the cursor X coordinate data changes. There is. That is, the comparator circuit 40A receives input from the latch circuit 38A of the cursor X coordinate data before the change by +1, and the comparator circuit 40A receives the cursor X coordinate data after the change sent from the latch circuit 35A. The cursor movement information _K Processing device 9 for matching pulses as
It is designed to be output to A. On the other hand, on the contrary, the comparison circuit 41A has a function of detecting whether or not the data has changed by -1 when a change occurs in the cursor X coordinate data.
In exactly the same way as 0A, when the cursor X coordinate data after the change matches the data before the change sent from the latch circuit 39A minus 1,
Processing device 9A as cursor movement information K _x (-1)
Output to. The processing device 9A processes cursor movement information
When K _x (+1) or K _x (-1) is input, necessary data processing is performed and this cursor movement information is sent to the CRT display device 3. 3
Move the cursor of A by +1 or -1 in the X direction.

Further, the continuously changing STB signal which is the output of the AND circuit 34A is combined with the cursor STB signal.
The signal is input as a gate signal to the gate circuit 17A in the cursor X information generating section 16A via the OR circuit 43A.

On the other hand, the continuous information generating section 31B is configured in exactly the same way as the continuous change generating section 31A, and therefore, when the input pen 7 is slid to the adjacent segment 5, the cursor Y coordinate is When the data changes by ±1, this is detected and the cursor movement information K _y (+1) or K _y
(-1) to the processing device 9A.

The other constituent parts are constructed exactly the same as in the first embodiment.

Next, the overall operation of the second embodiment configured as described above will be explained based on FIGS. 10 to 12.

First, the input mode is character mode (R.S flip-flop 13 is reset).
It is assumed that the output state of the tablet control circuit 10 is coordinate data 6 and 7. In addition, CRT display device 3
It is assumed that up to the 13th character in the 8th line is already displayed on the display surface 3A (see FIG. 5A). Now, the character “sha”
When inputting (see FIG. 10), the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the segment 5 corresponding to the coordinates 7 and 8 on the tablet 6 (see A in FIG. 6). Then, as described above, the tablet control circuit changes the output state to coordinate data 7 and 8. At this time, the output state of the tablet control circuit 10 increases by 1 for both the X and Y coordinate data, so the continuous change detection circuits 32A and 32B (one of which is not shown and the same applies below)
However, as described above, since the low level signal "0" as a character mode signal is input to the AND circuits 34A and 34B, the continuous change STB signal output is blocked. Subsequently, the T _STB signal is sent from the tablet control circuit 10 to the comparator circuit 12, but at this time the comparator circuit 12 does not output a coincidence pulse.

Therefore, the R.S flip-flop 13 remains reset, so that the AND circuit 1
When T _STB is input to 5, the AND circuit 15 inputs the character
The STB signal is output to the processing device 9A. Thereafter, as in the first embodiment, data processing is performed by the processing device 9A, and the characters "sha" are displayed on the CRT display device 3.

Next, a case in which the operator moves the cursor using the tablet 6 will be described (see FIG. 10). First, the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the cursor segment 5A of the tablet 6.
(See FIG. 6B) Then, the tablet control circuit 10 changes its output state and outputs the coordinate data 30, 30 in exactly the same manner as described above. At this time, the X coordinate data changes from (7) to (30) by an odd number, so the continuous change detection circuit 32A outputs a detection signal. However, as mentioned above, AND circuit 3
Before the cursor mode signal is input to 4A,
Since the detection signal output ends, the AND circuit 34A does not output the continuously changing STB signal.

Subsequently, when the T _STB signal is output from the tablet control circuit 10 to the switching control section 11, the switching control section 11 operates in exactly the same manner as in the first embodiment described above.
Therefore, at the same time as sending the cursor mode signal to the AND circuits 34A and 34B, the cursor
Cursor STB to information generating units 16A and 16B respectively
Output a signal. Therefore, the first register 18 in the cursor X (Y) information generating section 16A, 16B
Cursor X coordinate data 30 [cursor Y coordinate data 30] is set in A and 18B. Further, the cursor STB signal is input to the latch circuits 35A, 38A, and 39A via, for example, an OR circuit 42A of the continuous information generating section 31A.
Therefore, the latch circuit 35A is connected to the cursor STB.
The input data is latched as cursor X coordinate data 30 at the rising timing of the signal, and the adder 36
A, subtractor 37A, and comparison circuits 40A, 41
Send to A. Therefore, the adder 36A and the subtracter 37A apply +1 and -1 to the input data, and send the data 31 and 29 to the latch circuits 38A and 39, respectively.
Output to A. And these latch circuits 38
A and 39A latch input data at the falling timing of the cursor STB signal and send it to the comparison circuits 40A and 41A, respectively. By the way, at this time, the continuously changing STB signal is not outputted to the comparison circuits 40A, 41A as described above, and therefore, the comparison circuits 40A, 41A do not perform the comparison operation.
On the other hand, the R.S flip-flop 33A is set when the T _STB signal is input from the tablet control circuit 10. The above is exactly the same for the continuous information generating section 31B.

Then, when the input pen 7 is removed from the tablet 6, the data 30 [30] in the first registers 18A and 18B are transferred to the second registers 20A and 20B, respectively, and the R. S flip-flop 33A, 33
A pen-off signal is input to the R/S flip-flops 33A and 33B.

Next, when the input pen 7 is brought into contact with the segment 5 associated with the coordinates 24 and 26 (see FIGS. 10 and 12), the tablet control circuit 1
0 changes the output state and outputs coordinate data 24 and 26. At this time, the X and Y coordinate data are each 30 → 24
→, 30 → 26, and therefore the continuous change detection circuits 32A and 32B do not output a detection signal. Next, from the tablet control circuit 10
When the T _STB signal is output, a cursor _STB signal is output from the switching control section 11 to which the T STB signal is input to the cursor X(Y) information generation sections 16A and 16B. Therefore, the first registers 18A, 18
Cursor X (Y) coordinate data 24 [26] in B
is set. Next, the arithmetic control section 22 that has received the T _STB signal transfers the arithmetic signal to the arithmetic circuit 21.
Send to A, 21B. Therefore, the arithmetic circuit 21
A and 21B perform predetermined calculations and send the results to the processing device 9A as cursor movement information KX (=-6) [KY (=-4)]. And this processing device 9A
enters the cursor movement information (-6, -4),
While performing data processing, the cursor movement information (-6, -4) is sent to the CRT display device 3,
In this CRT display device 3, the display surface 3A
The cursor is moved -6 in the X direction and -4 in the Y direction to specify and display the 9th character "KI" in the 4th row (see A in FIG. 11).

Also in this case, since the cursor STB signal is sent to the continuous information generating sections 31A and 31B, the cursor X (Y) coordinate data 24 [26] is latched by the latch circuits 35A and 35B, and , adders 36A, 36B, arithmetic unit 37
A, 37B, latch circuits 38A, 38B, and latch circuits 39A, 39B operate in the same manner as described above, and at the same time data 25 [27] is sent to comparison circuits 40A, 40B, data 23 [25] is sent to comparison circuits 41A, 41B. will be sent. Further, the R.S flip-flops 33A and 33B are set again by inputting the T _STB signal.

Here, if the operator wants to further move the cursor displayed on the display surface 3A and specify another character position, for example, the 10th character "node" on the 4th line, the input pen 7 should be kept in contact with the tablet 6 and the coordinates 24,
Slide from segment 5 of 26 to segment 7 of 25 and 26 (see FIGS. 10 and 12). Then, the output state of the tablet control circuit 10 changes to coordinate data 25, 26, and the X coordinate data increases by 1. Then, the continuous change detection circuit 32A detects the slide of the input pen 7 and sends a detection signal to the AND circuit 34A. This AND circuit 34A receives a high level signal "1" representing the cursor mode from the switching control section 11, and an R.S.
Since the high level signal "1" is input from the flip-flop 33A, the corresponding AND circuit 34A
outputs a continuously changing STB signal based on the detection signal. This continuously changing STB signal is the OR circuit 4
2A to the latch circuits 35A, 38A, 3
9A, and the comparison circuits 40A,
41A. Therefore, first, due to the action of the latch circuit 35A, the post-slide X coordinate data 25 for the cursor is latched at the rising edge timing of the continuously changing STB signal, and this data is transferred to the adder 36.
A is output to the subtracter 37A and comparison circuits 40A and 41A. Subsequently, this comparison circuit 40A, 41
A is data 25, 23 obtained by adding ±1 to the pre-slide cursor X coordinate data 24, which are the output data of the latch circuits 38A, 39A, while the continuously changing STB signal is being input. ,
The output data 25 of the latch circuit 35A is compared with the output data 25 of the latch circuit 35A. Then, since the two match, the comparison circuit 40A outputs a matching pulse as cursor shift information K _x (+1) to the processing device 9A. When the processing device 9A receives the cursor movement information K _x (+1), it performs necessary data processing and sends this cursor movement information to the CRT display device 3.
Therefore, the CRT display device 3 has a display surface 3.
Move the cursor at A by +1 in the X direction to specify the character "clause" (see B in Figure 11). continue,
At the falling timing of the continuously changing STB signal,
+1 to X coordinate data 25 for cursor after sliding
The data 26 and 24 which have been decremented by -1 are latched by the latch circuits 38A and 39A, respectively, and are sent to the comparison circuits 40A and 4 as the next data to be compared.
Send to 1A.

On the other hand, the continuously changing STB signal is
A is input to the gate circuit 17A as a gate signal. Therefore, the first register 18
The cursor X coordinate data 25 is set in A.

Here, when the input pen 7 is slid while in contact with the tablet 6, the pen switch 7A
remains on, and therefore the T _STB signal is not sent out even though the output state of the tablet control circuit 10 changes as described above. Therefore, the switching control section 11 does not output the cursor STB signal, and the calculation control section 22 does not output the calculation signal. The input pen 7 is further adjacent to the segment 5.
In the case of sequentially sliding the _cursor to , the cursor movement information _K The cursor is displayed moving, drawing the same trajectory.

Apart from this, the coordinates 25, 26 of tablet 6
When the input pen 7 is removed from the tablet 6 after sliding to the tablet 6 (see FIG. 10), the gate circuit 19A,
A gate signal is sent to 19B, so that data 25, 26 in first registers 18A, 18B are transferred to second registers 20A, 20B, respectively. Furthermore, the R.S. flip-flop 33A,
A pen-off signal is input to 33B, and the R/S flip-flops 33A and 33B are reset. Thereafter, the cursor on the display surface 3A can be moved to any character position by the same operation as described above.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, in addition to achieving the same effects as the first embodiment, it is possible to continuously move the cursor on the display screen while the input pen is in contact with the tablet. Therefore, character positions on the display surface can be specified or changed more quickly.

In the second embodiment described above, switching to the cursor mode is performed by an externally provided switch means, and at the same time as switching to the cursor mode, the coordinate data related to the cursor segment is set as the first cursor coordinate data. The first register may be set, and the cursor mode may be canceled at the same time as pen-up after switching to the cursor mode. In this case, the cursor segment can be used as a character segment, and the cursor on the display screen can be moved rapidly by moving the pen down to any segment after switching the cursor mode, and the input pen can be brought into contact with the tablet. If you slide the cursor while holding it down to display the cursor at a predetermined character position and then lift up the pen, the cursor mode will be automatically canceled.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, the cursor segment 5A was provided only on one coordinate area, but
It may be provided on a plurality of adjacent coordinate areas as shown in FIG. In this case, the operator can clearly identify the cursor segment 5B as different from other character segments, and it is also easier to touch the cursor segment 5B. Furthermore, when the cursor movement information is large and a location outside the display screen is specified, the cursor may be fixedly displayed at the edge of the display screen or may be displayed in a leap to the opposite side of the display screen.

As described above, according to the present invention, by using a tablet, the cursor position on the display screen when switching the cursor mode can be made to correspond to a specific segment on the tablet, and the movement of the input pen can be controlled by an operation similar to character input by an operator. The cursor on the display screen can be tracked and moved according to the user's needs, making it possible to move the cursor in a way that best suits the human operating sense with a simple operation, thus improving work efficiency with a simple configuration. - A cursor control method that can improve operability can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a tablet input device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the specific configuration of FIG. 1, and FIG.
4 to 6 are operation explanatory diagrams of FIG. 2, FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the specific configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. Detailed block diagram showing part F8 of the figure, No. 9
The figure is a detailed block diagram showing the F9 part of FIG. 7, FIGS. 10 to 12 are explanatory diagrams of the operation of FIG. 7, and FIG. 13 is a partially omitted plan view showing another embodiment of the tablet. . 3...CRT display device, 6,6A...
Tablet, 7... Input pen, 10... Tablet control circuit, 11, 60... Switching control section forming the main part of input mode switching means, 16, 31... Cursor information generating section, 32A, 32B... Slide detection Continuous change detection circuit as means, 40A, 40
B, 41A, 41B... Comparison circuits forming the main part of the cursor information generating section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A tablet in which a plurality of conductor groups are arranged in a grid pattern, an input pen that is brought into contact with the tablet to indicate a desired region, and coordinate data relating to the contact region of the input pen. A tablet control circuit that outputs,
A display device having a cursor display function, and an input that switches the input mode to cursor mode by touching the input pen against the cursor segment on the tablet or by external operation, and cancels the cursor mode by the external operation. mode switching means, in the cursor mode state, each time the input pen contacts the tablet, the difference between the coordinate data of successive contact points is determined with respect to the coordinate data output from the tablet control circuit. , a cursor control method characterized in that the cursor is moved by the amount of the difference. 2. A tablet in which a plurality of conductor groups are arranged in a grid pattern, an input pen that is brought into contact with the tablet to indicate a desired part, and a tablet control circuit that outputs coordinate data related to the part that is brought into contact with the input pen. ,
A display device having a cursor display function, and an input that switches the input mode to the cursor mode by touching the input pen against the cursor segment on the tablet or by an external operation, and cancels the cursor mode by the external operation. mode switching means, and slide detection means for detecting a positional change due to the sliding of the input pen on the tablet, and in the cursor mode state, each time the input pen comes into contact with the tablet, the tablet control circuit detects a change in position of the input pen. Regarding the coordinate data to be output or the coordinate data output from the control circuit of the tablet when a change in position due to the slide of the input pen is detected, the difference between these successive coordinate data is determined, and the cursor is moved by the amount of the difference. A cursor control method characterized by: