JPH02226191A - Data input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operability of data input by controlling the moving directions, moving speed and movement stop position of the cursor on a display device according to the order and time difference of depression between two cursor movement keys which are not mutually opposite in direction among four cursor movement keys and their continuous depression times. CONSTITUTION:Make data that a keyboard 4 outputs when one of keys for four up, down, right and left directions and break data which is outputted when the key is released are stored in a controller 1 and when two keys which are not mutually contradictive among those four cursor movement keys 8 are pressed, the moving direction is determined according to the order and time difference of depression of the cursor movement keys 8, the shape of the cursor indicating the direction is displayed on a display device, and the quantity of movement is made variable with the time of the continuous depression of the keys 8 in the state, thus controlling the cursor 3 on the display device 2. Consequently, the operability of the data input is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention is utilized for controlling cursor movement of a data input device. The present invention relates to a device for controlling cursor movement, and more particularly to a cursor movement control device for a data input device such as a word processor.

〔overview〕

The present invention provides a data input device equipped with a controller including a display device, a keyboard, application software, and other control means, in which a cursor is moved when two of four cursor movement keys that do not contradict each other are pressed. Data input is possible by determining the direction of movement based on the order of key presses and the time difference, displaying the shape of the cursor indicating that direction, and controlling the cursor by varying the amount of movement depending on how long the key is held down in that state. This is designed to improve operability.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, keyboards for data input devices to which this type of cursor movement control method is applied include a hard sense type keyboard in which key input is detected by hardware and a soft sense type keyboard in which key input is detected by software.

In the cursor movement control method of hard sense keyboards, the cursor movement keys are processed only within the keyboard, so even if the keys are pressed almost simultaneously, only the key code of the key pressed as soon as possible is output.

For this reason, detailed control such as cursor movement was impossible.

In addition, with soft-sensing keyboards, by alternating the sensing order of the cursor movement keys, if two cursor movement keys are continuously pressed at the same time, each key code is picked up in order, and the cursor movement keys are sensed in four directions: In addition, it has diagonal directions and can move the cursor in eight directions, but there is no complicated control of cursor movement other than the eight directions, and no control is performed not only on the direction but also on the amount of movement.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The conventional cursor movement control method described above has limitations in controlling cursor movement, so in data input devices where man-machine interface is important, such as Japanese word processors, it is difficult to move the cursor in any direction.
This method has the disadvantage that it cannot provide fine-grained operability such as positioning a cursor at a desired point on the display device.

Mouse is currently attracting attention as a pointing device, but with data input devices such as Japanese word processors that rely mainly on keyboard input, it is difficult to perform blind touches when you take your hands off the keyboard, making it difficult to operate the mouse in the same way. It has the disadvantage of causing a decline in sexuality.

In addition, in the conventional cursor movement method, the cursor movement key is output alternately in one direction, making it difficult to know the direction. If this continues, the cursor will start moving continuously after a certain period of time, but the speed of the cursor movement will not change after that, so there is a drawback that the cursor movement will gradually feel slower.

The present invention aims to eliminate such drawbacks and to provide a device that can improve the operability of data input.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention includes a display device that displays a cursor on a screen, a keyboard that includes keys for inputting data and operation signals, a display device control section that controls the display device, a keyboard control section that controls the keyboard, and a timer. A data input device comprising a timer control unit for controlling a timer and a controller including an application program. and outputting break data when a key is released; the controller stores key code information based on the output data from the keys on the keyboard; The cursor is characterized by comprising means for controlling the moving direction, moving speed, and moving stop position of the cursor on the display device based on the pressing order and time difference of two cursor moving keys that are not in opposite directions, and the continuous pressing time. do.

[Effect]

The make data that is output when the keys in the four directions (up, down, left, and right) are pressed and the break data that is output when the keys are lifted off the keyboard are stored in the controller, and based on this,
When two of the cursor movement keys that do not conflict with each other are pressed, the movement direction is determined based on the order in which the cursor movement keys are pressed and the time difference, and the shape of the cursor indicating that direction is displayed on the display device. The amount of movement is made variable depending on how long the key is held down in this state, and the cursor on the display device is controlled. Thereby, the operability of data input can be improved.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

The embodiment of the present invention includes a display device 2 that displays character strings, figures, images, and a cursor 3, a keyboard 4 that includes keys for inputting data and operation signals, a display device control section 5 that controls the display device 2, and a keyboard. A controller 1 including a keyboard control section 6 for controlling a timer, a timer control section 7 for controlling a timer, and an application program 9,
The keyboard 4 has a cursor movement key 8 that can specify four directions, up, down, left, and right, and includes means for outputting make data when the key is pressed and outputting break data when the key is released. , stores key code information based on output data from the keys on the keyboard 4, and determines the pressing order and time difference of two cursor movement keys 8 that are not in opposite directions among the four cursor movement keys 8, and continuous presses. It includes means for controlling the moving direction, moving speed, and movement stop position of the cursor on the display device 2 based on time.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the arrangement of the cursor movement keys 8 of the keyboard 4 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows that when the keyboard 40 cursor movement key 8 of the embodiment of the present invention is pressed, the controller 1
2 is a timing chart of data output to. That is, make data is output when a key is pressed, and break data is output when a key is released.

FIG. 4 shows the code assignment of the cursor movement key 8 among the data output from the keyboard 4 of the embodiment of the present invention. A unique code is assigned to the cursor movement key 8 as well as other keys. Make data or break data is distinguished by the most significant bit (MSB) of the 8 bits of data. The specific generated code is shown in FIG.

As shown in Figure 6, if the elapsed time t from when a certain key is pressed to when the key is taken off exceeds a preset standard time T, that is, the user presses that key beyond the standard time T. When continuing, the keyboard control unit 6 generates information that distinguishes it from a case where the key is pressed briefly and notifies the application program 9.

Also, a certain unit time t. is determined, and for the cursor movement direction pressed from the elapsed time exceeding the reference time T,
Movement amount (m=a (t-T)/T0.

a is the number of threads) and passes the information to the application program 9.

As shown in Figure 7, when two cursor movement keys that are not in opposite directions are pressed in succession, the elapsed time t from the first press to the next press, and the reference time τ for determining the movement direction. The direction of movement of the cursor is determined based on the time ratio between the two times and the information is sent to the application program. For example, in (a), w), and (c) of Fig. 7,
The ratio of the moving directions of the directions is t:τ, which means that each direction approaches the -Y direction from the X direction. At this time, cursor shape information is also notified to the application program 9 in accordance with the direction.

As shown in FIG. 8, the application program 9
It receives the cursor movement return status (shape of the cursor, amount of movement in the X direction or Y direction) from the keyboard control section 5, and passes a cursor display command to the display device control section 5. FIG. 9 shows how the screen looks here. The behavior of the application program 9 at this time is shown in FIG. The application program 9 normally edits various data and issues input commands to the keyboard control section 5 when necessary. When the user performs some key operation in response to command 1, it is checked in judgment 1 whether it is a valid key input, and if it is a valid key input, in this case, it is further checked in judgment 2 to see if it is a cursor movement key. If it is a cursor movement key, find the new cursor position in process 1,
Command 2 specifies the shape of the cursor and the new position of the cursor in the display device control section 5.

The control for command 1 in FIG. 10 will be explained using FIG. 11(a). The keyboard control section 5 is roughly divided into two parts. That is, a main routine and an interrupt routine. The main routine of the keyboard control unit 5 is (1)
Starting from interrupt, (2) Starting by command, (3
) Activation due to timeout, activated when the above three conditions occur. This judgment is divided into judgment 1. The interrupt routine of the keyboard 4 starts to be activated when a key on the keyboard 4 is pressed, as shown in FIG. First, the key code input with command 1 is read and checked with check vfr2 to see if it is the above-mentioned make data.

If it is make data, it is stored in the FIF○ area in process 1, the main routine is started in process 2, and this routine ends.

Activation by interrupt and activation by command in FIG. 11 will be explained using FIG. 12. In the case of an interrupt, it is checked in judgment 1 whether the command is being executed, and if it is not being executed, the process ends in this case. If it is being executed, the type of interrupt is determined in judgment 2. If it is make data, the data is read in process 1 from the FIFO set by the interrupt routine shown in FIG.

Determine whether this is a function code or data code 3
If it is data in process 2, the data is buffered in an area prepared by the application program 9. In judgment 4, it is checked whether this data has reached the specified data length, and if it has not, the process ends. If it is determined that it is a function code in judgment 3,
Further, in judgment 5, it is determined whether it is a cursor movement key, and if it is not a cursor movement key, the process ends. In the case of a cursor movement key, in judgment 6 it is determined whether there is already a cursor movement key in the meter, and if so, in judgment 7 it is checked whether there is a contradictory combination. If there is no contradiction, the elapsed time is stored in process 4, and the command is terminated in process 5.

If it is determined in judgment 6 that there is no cursor movement key in the meter, in process 6 the first cursor movement code is stored. If it is determined in Judgment 1 shown in FIG. 11 that the activation is by command, the part of activation by command is executed in FIG. That is, in this case, the FIFO area is read in process 7, and it is checked in judgment 8 whether input data has accumulated. If not, it will just end. If there is, processing 1 and subsequent steps from the interrupt routine are executed as is.

FIG. 13 shows the processing when it is determined in FIG. 11 that the startup is due to timeout. Judgment 1 determines whether the command is being executed, and if it is not, it ends immediately. If the command is being executed, use judgment 2 to determine if it is waiting for a break.
If it is not waiting for a break, it will end. In the case of waiting for a break, it is determined in judgment 3 whether the elapsed time t exceeds the reference time T, and if so, the process ends. Judgment 4 if it does not exceed
It is determined whether it is a cursor movement key, and if it is not a cursor movement key, the process ends. If it is a cursor movement key, the cursor movement direction is determined in process 1. Further, in process 2, the cursor movement keys [Effect of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, when two of the four cursor movement keys that do not contradict each other are pressed, the order in which the cursor movement keys are pressed is By determining the direction of movement based on the time difference between , which has the effect of improving operability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the arrangement of cursor movement keys in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a timing chart of output data of the keyboard according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the code allocation of make data and break data in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing output codes of a meter data code and a break data code according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state when the elapsed time from key press to takeoff exceeds the reference time in the embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 7(a), 7(a), and 7(c) are diagrams showing the time relationship when two cursor movement keys that are not in opposite directions are pressed in succession according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing information transmission within the controller according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the amount of cursor movement according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation flow of the application program according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 11(a) and 11(b) are flowcharts showing the flow of keyboard control according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of the keyboard subroutine according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of the keyboard subroutine according to the embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Controller, 2... Display device, 3... Cursor, 4... Keyboard, 5-... Display device control section, 6... Keyboard control section, 7... Timer control section,
8...Cursor movement key 9...Application program. The output code for the first successful make-up "-7 and 7L--7", Y
l 5 Diagram cursor movement key Ogi Tora development example Cursor press down Gin viewing relation W37 8 Ij + Furinoko - Sono L/Move 1
1 irises 9 Figure keyboard s + 1 s 2 J + routine (b) irises

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display device that displays a cursor on a screen, a keyboard that includes keys for inputting data and operation signals, a display device control section that controls the display device, and a keyboard control that controls the keyboard. A data input device comprising a controller, a timer control unit that controls a timer, and a controller that includes an application program, wherein the keyboard has a cursor movement key that can specify four directions (up, down, left, and right), and when the key is pressed, The controller includes means for outputting make data and outputting break data when a key is lifted off, the controller stores key code information based on the output data from the keys on the keyboard, and the four cursor movement keys further comprising means for controlling the moving direction, moving speed, and movement stop position of the cursor on the display device based on the pressing order and time difference of two cursor moving keys that are not in opposite directions, and the continuous pressing time. A data input device characterized by: