JPH036531B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a position input device, and in particular to a position input device that enables remote selection of a desired position within a display surface using light or sound beams, or input of displacement of a person or object. The present invention relates to a position input device for remote sensing with a simple configuration.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, a light pen input device as shown in FIG. 7 is a device that can select a desired position within a display surface through the display surface. In Figure 7
When the tip 5a of the light pen 5 is placed on the screen 3 of the CRT display 1, the position 3a is determined and a predetermined mode displayed there is selected or a dot is displayed there.

Such a light pen input device utilizes the fact that light is emitted from the fluorescent screen of the screen 2 when the electron beam scans the field of the screen 3 at a predetermined timing on the CRT display 1, and uses the fact that the reference time t0
Elapsed time T from (for example, the start point of the field period) to the time t1 when light enters the light pen 5
By measuring (t0 to t1), the scanning position of position 3a, that is, the position within the screen is determined.

Conventionally, methods for remotely sensing the rotation and movement of people and objects, such as robots, include methods that image the object to be detected with a two-dimensional image sensor or camera and process the image, and methods that use electromagnetic or magnetic fields. It has been known.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the light pen input device uses the screen 3 of the CRT display 1 as an input board, so it has the advantage of a simple device configuration and easy operation. If the user or operator
There is a restriction that input operations must be performed while in front of the screen of the CRT display 1, so it is not suitable for, for example, remotely controlling a video game at home or remotely controlling slides at a conference.

Furthermore, the conventional remote sensing method as described above has a complicated device configuration and is expensive.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is possible to remotely select a desired position within a display surface using light or sound beams, or to displace a person or object using a simple and inexpensive structure. The purpose of this invention is to provide a position input device for remote sensing.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The configuration of the present invention that achieves the above object includes at least three wave beam radiating means that time-divisionally radiate wave beams in different directions around a predetermined indicating axis. a remote control unit; a receiving unit having sensor means disposed on or near a display surface irradiated with the wave beam and sequentially outputting electric signals representing the intensity of the wave beam when the wave beam is received; The device is characterized by comprising: a calculation unit that calculates the position of the pointing axis within the display surface based on the electrical signal from the reception unit;

(Function) When the remote control unit is oriented so that the indication axis hits a position within the display surface, and wave beams are emitted around the indication axis in a time-division manner, the sensor means of the reception unit sequentially receives the wave beams. and sends electrical signals representing the respective intensities to the calculation section.

Since the intensity of the wave beams received by the sensor means relatively represents the distance between the position of the optical axis of the wave beam within the display plane and the sensor means, the light intensities are combined and determined by an appropriate equation. The position of the axis can be calculated.

The arithmetic unit then performs arithmetic processing based on the electrical signals representing the light intensity and determines the position of the pointing axis. In accordance with the position data obtained as a result, the next display process on the display, such as transition to the selected mode, display of dots at the determined position, etc., is performed.

(Embodiment) A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

In FIG. 1, the pointing pen 10 is the remote control unit of this embodiment, and uses four sets of light sources and optical lenses provided inside to direct four light beams LBa to LBd around the central axis or the pointing axis LC. Emit in different directions in a time-division manner. In this example, each light beam
The light intensity of LBa to LBd decreases linearly as it moves away from the optical axis in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis.

FIG. 2 shows the internal structure of the indicator pen 10, and the second
Figure a is a partially cutaway side view, and Figure 2b is a front view. As clearly shown in Figure 2b, the indicator pen 10
Inside, four light sources, such as lamps or light emitting diodes 12a to 12d, are arranged at 90° intervals,
Optical lenses 14a to 14d are arranged in front of them. These light sources 12a to 12d emit light with the same intensity in this order at constant time intervals _T0 , and emit the respective light beams LBa to LBd in a time-division manner. However, in this embodiment, the light emission times Tb to Td of the three light sources 12b to 12d are equal, and the light emission time Ta of the light source 12a is set to be longer. To cause the light sources 12a to 12d to emit light in sequence, a sequencer means such as a ring counter is used, and to make the light emission time Ta of the light source 12a relatively long, a time limit circuit such as a multivibrator is used. It will be done.

Referring again to FIG. 1, when the pointing pen 10 is directed toward the screen 18 of the CRT display 16 as shown, and the pointing axis LC hits the position _Q0 , the optical axes of the light beams LBa to LBd will move around the position _Q0 . Position Qa
~Qd respectively. Display screen 18
An optical sensor 20 is provided at the central position.
This optical sensor 20 is a receiving section of this embodiment, and when receiving the light beams LBa to LBd, the light intensity Pa to
It consists of a photodiode or phototransistor that passes a photocurrent proportional to Pd, and a circuit that converts the photocurrent into voltage.

FIG. 3a shows the timing of the light beams LBa to LBd detected by the optical sensor 20 and their respective light intensities Pa to Pd. These light beams LBa~LBd
is received in a constant time interval T ₀ and the light beam LBa
The reception time Ta of the light beams LBb to LBd is longer than the reception time Tb to Td of the other light beams LBb to LBd. In the figure, the light intensity Pa~Pd is Pd<Pc<Pa<Pb,
This is the position of the optical sensor 20 and the position of the light beams LBa to LBd within the display screen 18.
The distance interval Da to Dd from Qa to Qd is Dd＞Dc＞Da＞
This is because it is designated as Db. The optical sensor 20 sequentially outputs analog voltage signals Sa to Sd at levels corresponding to the light intensities Pa to Pd at constant time intervals _T0 .

FIG. 4 shows the circuit configuration of the receiving section and the calculating section of this embodiment. In this figure, an analog voltage signal is sequentially output from the optical sensor 20 of the receiving section 22.
Sa to Sd are supplied to the discrimination circuit 26 of the calculation unit 24,
There, the timing of the signal Sa is detected. That is, the discrimination circuit 26 detects the timing of the signal Sa based on the fact that the duration of the signal Sa (the reception time Ta of the light beam LBa) is longer than the durations (Tb to Td) of the other signals Sb to Sd, A timing signal ST as shown in FIG. 3b is generated. In response to this timing signal ST, the sampling circuit 28 operates to sequentially capture the levels of the signals Sa to Sd.
Analog-digital (A/D) converter 3 in the latter stage
0, these analog voltage signals Sa to Sd are successively converted to digital signals SA to SD. These digital signals SA to SD are then sent to a central processing unit (CPU) 34 through an input interface 32.
is supplied to The CPU 34 determines the light intensity Pa of the light beams LBa to LBd detected by the optical sensor 20.
Based on the digital signals SA to SD representing ~Pd, arithmetic processing as described later is performed to determine the position Q ₀ (x, y) of the central axis of the pointing pen 10, that is, the pointing axis LC in the screen. This position data (x, y) is sent to another processing section to perform the next display process on the screen 18, for example, displaying a dot at the position Q ₀ (x, y). Note that the calculation unit 24 is provided on a board inside the CRT display 16.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. In this figure, the indicator axis LC of the indicator pen 10
points to the position Q ₀ on the screen 18, and at this time, the optical axes of the light beams LBa to LBd are at the position on the screen 18.
It hits Qa~Qb. The distance interval Da-Dd between these positions Qa-Qb and the optical sensor 20 is Da>Db>
Since Dc>Dd, each light intensity Pa~Pd
becomes Da<Db<Dc<Dd. Here, if the XY coordinates are taken as indicated by the arrows X and Y in FIG. 5, the general formula for determining the position Q ₀ (x, y) of the indicating axis LC is expressed as follows.

x=(Pc+Pd)・Wx/Pa+Pb+Pc+Pd (1) y=(Pb+Pd)・Wy/Pa+Pb+Pc+Pd (2) Here, Wx and Wy are the lengths of the screen 18 in the X and Y directions.

Optical sensor 2 representing each of the above light intensities Pa to Pd
The output signals Sa to Sd of 0 are sent to the CPU 34 as digital signals SA to SD as described above, and the CPU 34 calculates (x, y) from the above formula based on the digital signals SA to SD, and the result is Based on the obtained position data (x, y), the position Q ₀
A dot will be displayed. Therefore, when the pointing pen 10 is moved and its pointing axis LC is moved along the line L in FIG. However, a line L is drawn on the screen 18.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the four light sources 12a to 12d are arranged at equal intervals on the remote control unit to emit four light beams LBa to LBd in four symmetrical directions around the indication axis LC. For example, light source 1
Three light sources 12a to 12c are arranged at equal intervals except for 2d, and the three light beams LBa to LBc are set as the instruction axis.
The detected intensities Pa~Pc of the light beams LBa~LBc are emitted in three symmetrical directions around the LC.
Based on the position Q ₀ (x,
y) can also be calculated.

In addition, the above general formulas (1) and (2) represent each light beam LBa to LBd.
This is an example used when the intensity of the light beams decreases linearly as it moves away from the optical axis, and appropriate correction may be added depending on the intensity distribution of the light beam.

Further, although a light beam is used as the wave beam in the above embodiment, it is also possible to use other suitable wave beams such as a sound wave beam. Furthermore, it is applicable not only to CRT displays but also to various display devices such as liquid crystal displays and video projectors.

Further, although the above embodiment is an example in which a desired position within the screen 18 of the display 16 is selected using the pointing pen 10, there is also an application example in which the position of the pointing pen 10 is detected conversely. That is, the indicator pen 10 is attached to an appropriate location on the object to be detected, such as a person or an object, and the light beam LB is directed to the optical sensor 20 on the display screen 18.
When the object is set to be irradiated, the displacement of the object to be detected is detected as a change in the direction of the pointing pen 10, and the displacement is drawn on the display screen 18. Examples of such applications include remote sensing for robots in factory automation (FA), and the device configuration is simpler and cheaper than conventional remote sensing devices.

Further, in the above embodiment, the light source (light beam emitting means 12a to 12d) is provided in the remote control section and the light beam is emitted from there toward the display surface 18.However, as shown in FIG. 1
2a to 12d are arranged around the optical sensor 20, and a light beam LBa' to
In addition, a retroreflector 62 having a characteristic of reflecting incident light directly in the direction of the light source is provided on the front surface of the remote control unit 60 to emit light beam LBa from the light sources 12a to 12d. ′～
LBd' may be reflected toward the display surface 18 to obtain the emitted light beams LBa to LBd to the optical sensor 20. In this way, the degree of freedom in the configuration and shape of the remote control unit increases, and the applicability to the above-mentioned remote sensing device is further expanded.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the present invention has the same advantages as a light pen input device because a desired position within the screen can be arbitrarily selected through the display surface. It is very easy to use and allows for highly interesting input operations for slides in meetings, etc. It is also possible to remotely sense the displacement of people and objects, and the device configuration is simple and the price is kept low. It will be done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a position input device that can select any desired position on the screen of a CRT display, and FIG. 2 shows the internal structure of the pointing pen 10 in the above embodiment. , second
Figure a is a partially cutaway side view, Figure 2 b is a front view, and Figure 3 is a front view.
The figure shows a light beam detected by a light sensor 20.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the receiving section and calculation section of the above embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the operation of the above embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the operation of the above embodiment. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing another embodiment (modified example), and FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a conventional light pen input device. 10...Instruction pen (remote control unit), 12a-12
d...Light source, 14a-14d...Optical lens, 16...
CRT display, 18... Screen, 20... Optical sensor, 22... Receiving section, 24... Arithmetic section, 34... Central processing unit (CPU), 60... Remote control section, 62... Retroreflective material.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A remote control unit that time-divisionally emits at least three wave beams in different directions around a predetermined indicating axis; , a receiving section having a sensor means that sequentially outputs electrical signals representing the intensity of the wave beams when the wave beams are received; and a position of the pointing axis within the display surface based on the electrical signals from the receiving section. A position input device comprising: an arithmetic unit for calculating; 2. The position input device according to claim 1, wherein wave beam emitting means for emitting each of the wave beams is provided in the remote control section. 3. Wave beam emitting means for emitting each of the wave beams is fixedly arranged in proximity to the sensor means, and the remote control unit is a retroreflector for reflecting the wave beams from the wave beam emitting means toward the display surface. Claim 1 having material
The position input device described in section.