JPH0322164A - Electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an electronic device having multiple functions, such as a so-called electronic memo.

(Prior Art) In recent years, electronic devices such as calculators and electronic memos have not only single functions such as calculating or recording information in place of memos, but also have schedule management functions, telephone directory functions, dictionary functions, etc. Many of them have many functions. In such electronic devices that have multiple functions, when switching from a mode in which one function is executed to a mode in which another function is executed, the mode must be switched to the mode in which the other function is executed by key operation. .

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) Since the space for providing a key in small electronic devices, especially portable ones, is limited, in order to reduce the number of cows, the mode switching described above is This is often done by key operation.

The aspect of this mode switching will be explained by taking as an example an electronic memo having a memo function, a schedule management function, a calculator function, and a telephone directory function. If the current mode of the electronic memo is the memo function mode (hereinafter referred to as MEMO mode),
When the mode switching key is pressed once, the mode is switched to the schedule management function mode (hereinafter referred to as SCHD mode). Similarly, each time the mode switching key is pressed, the mode is sequentially switched from SCHD mode to calculator mode (hereinafter referred to as CAL mode) and from CAL mode to telephone directory mode (hereinafter referred to as TEL mode). Furthermore, when the mode switching key is pressed, the TEL mode returns to the MEMO mode, and the same mode switching is repeated cyclically in a predetermined order.

When switching from MEMO mode to CAL mode, I had to press the mode switch key twice, but I accidentally pressed the mode switch key twice.
If you press it twice, it will switch to TEL mode.

In such a case, the mode switching key must be pressed three more times to switch to CAL mode. Also, when switching to the previous mode in the switching order, for example, SCHD
When switching from mode to MEMO mode, the mode switching key must be pressed three times. In reality, since the electronic memo has more functions, the number of times the mode switching key is pressed to select a mode or the number of times the mode switching key is pressed to correct an erroneous operation is increased.

As described above, conventional electronic devices have a problem in that mode switching is troublesome.

The present invention has been made in view of the current situation, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device that can reduce the number of key operations required for mode switching.

(Means for Solving the Problems) An electronic device of the present invention is an electronic device having a plurality of functions and in which a plurality of modes for executing each of the plurality of functions are sequentially switched, wherein the plurality of modes A first switching means for cyclically switching between the modes in a predetermined order, and a second switching means for switching between the plurality of modes in a reverse order, thereby achieving the above object. achieved.

(Example) The invention will now be described with reference to examples.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. This example is
Although the electronic memo can have many functions, in order to simplify the explanation, it will be described below as having only three functions: a schedule function, a telephone directory function, and a calculator function.

Each part of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be explained. The CPUI is a part that controls the entire system, and controls the entire system according to the contents of the processing programmed in the program ROM 2. The work RAM 3 is a RAM used as a work area when the CPUI performs processing. C. G. ROM4 is a ROM that stores character patterns for display.

The display section 5 is constituted by an LCD, and is a section for displaying characters and symbols. In this embodiment, the display section 5 has a number of displayed characters of 12 digits x 2 columns. In the upper row of display section 5, each character is 5x
The dot part 5a is composed of 7 dots, and the lower row is 7 dots.
This is a segment portion 5b having a segment configuration (see FIG. 8, etc.). The LCD driver 6 is a part that converts the character pattern in the display RAM 7 into an electrical signal for driving the display section 5 and provides the electrical signal to the display section 5 . Each l of display RAM 7
Each bit corresponds to one pixel of the display section 5,
When a display pattern signal is set in the display RAM 7 by the CPU 1, the signal is converted into an LCD drive signal by the LCD driver 6 and sent to the display section 5, causing the LCD of the display section 5 to light up.

The communication section 8 is a section that transmits and receives data to and from other devices. The key part 9 is provided with a large number of keys, and is a part that detects the presence or absence of human keystrokes and transmits the result and the type of key operated to the CPUI. The types of keys in this key portion 9 will be described later. The data RAMIO is a part that mainly stores data registered by the user, and includes a user data storage section 10c1 that stores user data, and a user data storage section 10c that stores data input by the user.
an input/output buffer 10a that temporarily stores data called from the user data storage section 10c; and a data management module 10b that manages data stored in the user data storage section 10c.
have.

FIG. 2 shows details of the data RAMIO. In this embodiment, the user can register two types of data: telephone directory data (hereinafter sometimes referred to as TEL data) and schedule data (hereinafter sometimes referred to as SCHD data). The TEL data consists of three parts: a name part, a company name part, and a number part. S.C.
The HD data consists of six parts: a business part, a year part, a month part, a date part, an hour part, and a division part. The area from the year part to the part part is indicated by reference numeral 105 in FIG. The input/output buffer 10a temporarily stores the contents of each part, including a name part 10l1 a company name part 102.
, number section 103, message section 104, and year/month/day/time/
It has each area of the segment 105. Data management engineer rear 1
The used byte number/remaining byte number section 106 of 0b is the number of bytes of the area already used by the user in the user data storage section 10c (that is, the number of bytes of the TEL data section 109 and the number of bytes of the SCHD data section 110, which will be described later). ), and the number of bytes of the free area 1i0, which will be described later. The TEL data number/SCHD data number section 107 is
Stores the number of data registered as TEL data or SCHD data. Reference numeral 10g indicates an area for other data necessary for managing the memory.

The user data storage unit 10c includes a TEL data unit 109 for storing data registered as TEL data, and an S for storing data registered as CHD data.
It has a CHD data section 110. Further, the vacant area 111 is an unused area. TEL data and S
Since CHD data is data of undefined length, the number of occupied bytes per 1 data is not determined. Therefore, TEL
Both the data section 109 and the SCHD data section 110 are dynamically allocated and expand and contract as new data is registered and deleted. In those data sections, there is no space between data, and the data is always stored in a left-justified format. Furthermore, regarding the order of registered data, TEL data is in alphabetical order of name part.
SC}ID data is stored in ascending order of year, month, day, hour and minute.

Some of the keys provided on the key part 9 are shown in FIG. The functions of these keys will be briefly explained.

The function key 31 functions as a so-called r2nd FUNCTIONJ key that gives a second function to other keys, and is a key that is pressed before operating each key as necessary. M
The ODE key 32 selects a desired mode from among three modes: TEL mode, SCHD mode, and CAL mode for executing the telephone directory function, schedule function, and calculator function, which are the main functions of this embodiment. This is the key for The ON/C key 33 functions as a normal power switch when the power is off, and as a switch for returning the display state to the initial state when the power is already on. The OFF key 34 is a key for turning off the power of the device. The registration key 35 is a key for registering data input by the user in the user data storage section 10C.

The call key 36 is a key for calling up data registered in the user data storage section 10c and displaying it on the display section 5. The communication key 37 is a key used when communicating with other sets. The memory check key 38 is a key used when it is desired to display the memory usage status. The delete key 39 is a key used to delete input characters, input data memory, and the like.

The character input keys 40 are a group of keys for manually inputting numbers (0 to 9), katakana, alphabets (A-Z), and symbols (+, 1st, etc.), and are used when inputting characters. The name/company name key 42 is used when calling by company name in TEL mode. That is, in the TEL mode, this embodiment has a function to call up data with a matching name and a function to call up data with a matching company name, but the name/company name key 42 is a key used to activate the latter function. It is. The RESET key 4l is a key for forcibly setting the entire system to a certain state (temporarily referred to as a reset state). This key 41, unlike other keys, is directly connected to the hardware of the CPUI, and can operate the CPUI by an interrupt no matter what state the CPUI is in. In other words, the other keys are CPU
No signals can be given to the CPUI except when the CPU requests input.

The flowchart of the outline of the processing in this example is shown in the fourth section.
As shown in the figure. First, in this system, when the user does nothing, A P O (Auto P
(Ower Off) Waits for the user's key power while counting. If no key is pressed for a predetermined period of time, the power will be automatically shut off to save power. The APO count is a time count for this purpose. When any key is pressed, the key part 9 sends a signal indicating that a key is pressed and a code indicating the type of key pressed. The flow proceeds to key division (step S2), where a process to be performed is selected according to the code of the pressed key. Then, processing of the pressed key is performed in step S3.

In the various key processing routines in step S3, the CPU
1, the work RA is set according to the contents of the program ROM2.
Processing is performed using M3, communication unit 8, data RAM 10, etc., and then the process proceeds to the display routine (Ste knob S4)
.

In the display routine, in order to display the digits instructed by the various key processing routines, the character pattern of the character to be displayed is taken out from the CGROM 4 and set in the display RAM 7 at the position of the digit to be displayed. The character pattern set in the display RAM 7 is converted by the LCD driver 6 into an electrical signal for driving the LCD, and displayed on the display section 5.

When the display process in step S4 is completed, the flow returns to step S1 to wait for the next key. ON/C key 3 when the power is off
If 3 is pressed, the flow is forced to step S5
It is now easier to start. Here, the TEL mode is selected as the main function, and the process proceeds to step S6, the C key process (FIG. 5).

FIG. 6 shows the flow of C key processing. Here, an initial state is set for the currently selected mode, and then a display routine corresponding to the selected mode is selected and control is transferred thereto. The initial state of each mode is shown in FIG.

When the RESET key 41 is pressed, control is transferred to step S7 (FIG. 4) regardless of which state the flow is processing. Here, as shown in FIG. 7, all current states are abandoned and a reset state is set. And step S4
The process moves to the middle RESET display routine. FIG. 8 shows the reset display. The state in FIG. 8 is data RAMI O
data management area 10b and user data storage unit 10
In this state, the user is asked to select whether or not to initialize by erasing all the user data stored in c.

Here, when a predetermined key representing rYESJ (registration key 35 in this embodiment) is pressed, all user data is erased. If a key other than the predetermined key is pressed, the erasure and initialization processing is not performed and the process moves to the C key processing (step 36).

Next, the processing of each key will be explained.

FIG. 10 shows the processing of the OFF key 34. OFF key 3
If 4 is pressed, the display on the display section 5 is erased and the system is turned off. This electronic memo will now stop working.

However, since the data RAMIO is operated by a separate power source, the user data registered in the data RAMIO will not be lost. Also, after powering off the system, set the program counter in the CPU to POVER-0.
Set it to the address for N processing. This is then ON
This is because when the /C key 33 is pressed, the process starts from the POVER-ON process.

FIG. 11 shows the processing of the function key 31. When the function key 31 is pressed, the function symbol 13 on the left side of the display section 5 is reversed, as shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows the processing of the character input keys 40, and FIG. 14 shows an example of character input using the character input keys O. In this embodiment, approximately 100 types of katakana, alphabets, numbers, and symbols can be input, and for this purpose, 17 keys are provided as character input keys 40. When any of the character input keys 40 is pressed (step 821), a content code corresponding to the pressed key is generated. Then, the pointer indicating the current cursor position (that is, the position where a character is input) in the work RAMa is taken out, and
Write the above internal code at the position indicated by the pointer in 0a. The pointer used here to indicate the cursor position is initialized when the initial state of the mode is set, and is incremented each time a character is input. Then step S
22, the character code of the input/output buffer lOa is changed to C.22, similar to the display routine (step S4). G. The program moves to a routine in which the character pattern is developed using the ROM 4 and written into the display RAM 7. FIG. 14 shows an example of inputting characters from the initial state of the TEL mode, and the IBN on the right side of the figure indicates the character string input in the name field in the human output buffer 110a. FIG. 14(a) is the initial display, and at this time I
BM does not contain anything, that is, it is NULL. If the character "A" is input using the character input key 40, "A" is entered in the IBN, and the display becomes as shown in FIG. 14(b). Here, the under par "1" on the right side of the "A" display indicates the cursor position (ie, the position where the next character will be input). If "force" is further input, "force" is added to the IBN, and the display becomes as shown in FIG. 14(c).

FIG. 15 shows the processing when the MODE key 32 is pressed. When the MODE key 32 is pressed, it is first checked whether the function symbol 13 (FIG. 13) is lit (step S31). If the function symbol 13 is not lit, the type of function mode to be set next differs depending on the type of the current function mode (step S32).

That is, if the current function mode is TEL mode, SC
The HD mode is set (step S33), and if the current functional mode is the SCHD mode, the CAL mode is set (step S34), and if the current functional mode is the CAL mode, the TEL mode is set (step S34). S
35). Therefore, each time the MODE key 32 is pressed, the mode changes from TEL mode to S as shown by arrow A in FIG.
The mode is cyclically switched in the order of CHD mode→CAL mode→TEL mode (this order is referred to as forward direction).

If the function symbol 13 is lit, step S3
Proceed to step 6 and if the current function mode is TEL mode,
If the CAL mode is set (step S37) and the current functional mode is the SCHD mode, the TEL mode is set (step S38) and the current functional mode is the CAL mode.
If the MODE key 32 is pressed, the mode changes from TEL mode to CAL mode to S CHD mode as shown by arrow B in FIG. →The modes are switched cyclically and sequentially in the order of the TEL mode (this order is referred to as the reverse direction).

In this way, the MODE key 32 can be pressed without pressing the function key 31.
When operated, the mode is sequentially switched to forward direction A. On the other hand, when the function key 31 is pressed and the MODE key 32 is operated, the mode is sequentially switched in the reverse direction B. Therefore, T.E.
When switching from L mode to CAL mode, SC
You can switch to CAL mode without going through HD mode. In this case, the MODE key 32 only needs to be pressed once.

(Effects of the Invention) In the electronic device of the present invention, mode switching can be performed freely in either the forward or reverse direction, so the number of key operations for mode switching can be reduced. . Therefore, even in an electronic device having many functional modes, the mode switching operation can be performed quickly without being troublesome.

4. of. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic memo that is an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of the data RAM of the embodiment, and Fig. 3 shows various keys. 4 is a flowchart of the key processing of the embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart of key processing of the embodiment.
A diagram showing the flow of WER-ON processing, FIG. 6 is a flowchart of C key processing, FIG. 7 is a flowchart of reset processing, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing reset display, and FIG. 9 is an explanation showing mode switching mode. Figure 10 is a diagram showing the flow of function key processing, Figure 11 is a flowchart of OFF key processing, Figure 12 is a flowchart of character input key processing, Figure 13 is a diagram showing function symbols, and Figure 14. is TE
Figure 15 shows an example of character input in L mode.
It is a flowchart of DE key processing.

No. 1 figure Ize L's ma Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 3 35 Eku 836 41 mol →42 Figure 5 Figure 6 POWER-ON processing Central processing Go to TEIJ711full display Go to SCHD display Go to CAL display Figure 7 ! Figure 8 RESET Grudge RESET&Show 11 figures Figure 10 POWER - or wa escape 1 Figure 12 key holder Ivy 9 Figure 13

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first electronic device having a plurality of functions and in which a plurality of modes for executing each of the plurality of functions are sequentially switched, the plurality of modes being switched cyclically in a predetermined order. An electronic device comprising a switching means and a second switching means for switching between the plurality of modes in a reverse order.