JPH067390Y2 - Coordinate input device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coordinate input device, and more particularly to a coordinate input device that inputs a coordinate by rotating a ball provided therein.

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a graphic display device or the like, a coordinate input device for moving a graphic or a cursor on a screen of a display device (hereinafter referred to as CRT) is known. As a coordinate input device, various structures have been proposed, and one of them has recently been a so-called "trackball" coordinate input device.

This coordinate input device is roughly rotatably attached to the main body of the device, and has a rotated spherical body (hereinafter referred to as a ball body) configured so that an upper part thereof is exposed to the outside, and is contacted from two directions orthogonal to the ball body. It is composed of a pair of rotating members that are brought into contact with each other and rotate separately in accordance with the rotating direction of the ball body, a rotation detecting unit that detects the rotation of each of the pair of rotating members, and the like. Then, by operating the exposed ball body by hand, the ball body is rotated, and in response to this, CR is performed.
It is configured to move a cursor or the like on the T screen.

This type of conventional coordinate input device has been applied to a relatively large device such as a game device placed in a game center or the like, and a ball body having a large diameter of 2 inches or more is used. Was used. Further, as the support structure for the boil body, the rotating member for detecting the rotating direction of the ball body also supports the ball body.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In recent years, it has been started to incorporate the trackball into a keyboard and use it instead of a cursor position key. In this configuration, since the thickness dimension of the keyboard is limited, a large-diameter ball body cannot be used, and a small-diameter ball body of about 1 inch diameter must be used.

When a ball body having a small diameter and a light weight is supported by the same structure as the conventional one, the ball body does not rotate smoothly. This is for the following reason. That is, a large inertial force acts on a ball with a large diameter and a large weight as in the conventional case by rotating it.
Even if a load is applied between the ball and the rotating member, the load is small relative to the magnitude of this inertial force, so the ball can rotate smoothly, but a ball with a small diameter and light weight has a small inertial force. Becomes Therefore, the load between the ball body and the rotating member greatly affects the rotation of the ball body, and even if the ball body is rotated, the rotation of the ball body stops immediately.

In a trackball, it is operationally desirable that the ball body be freely rotated with a light operating force (it is desirable that the ball body keeps rotating by only lightly operating it). Therefore, the conventional configuration has a good operability. There was a problem that the ball could not be realized.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a coordinate input device having improved operability by being configured so that even a small-diameter ball body (rotated body) can smoothly rotate. The purpose is to provide.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, a coordinate input device that detects a rotation direction of a rotated object to be rotated and performs coordinate input corresponding to the rotation direction of the rotated object. In the lower part of the rotating body, the supporting mechanism for rotatably supporting the rotating body and the two directions perpendicular to the rotating body without applying the own weight of the rotating body. A pair of rotation detecting members configured to be attached to each other is provided, and rotation detecting means for detecting the rotation direction of the rotated body by separately detecting the rotation of the pair of rotation detecting members is provided. It is a feature.

In the coordinate input device having the above-described structure, the rotating mechanism (ball body) is supported by the supporting mechanism, and the rotation detecting means has only the function of detecting only the rotating direction of the ball body. Can reduce the load applied to the body,
It is possible to smoothly rotate even a small-diameter ball body.

Embodiment Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Second
The figure shows a personal computer 2 incorporating a coordinate input device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the coordinate input device 1 is attached to a keyboard 3, and a ball body 4 partially exposed on the keyboard 3 is rotated in the directions of arrows X ₁ , X ₂ , Y ₁ , and Y ₂ in the figure. By doing so, it is used to move the cursor 6 shown on the display device 5 in the direction corresponding to the rotation direction of the ball body 4.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a coordinate input device 1 which is an embodiment of the present invention. The coordinate input device 1 is roughly composed of a support mechanism 6 for supporting the ball body 4, and a rotation detection means 7 for detecting the rotation direction of the ball body 4. Both the support mechanism 6 and the rotation detecting means 7 are arranged on a base 9 fixed to a printed circuit board 8 provided inside the keyboard 3. Each configuration will be described below.

The ball body 4 is a resin ball having a diameter of 1 inch and a specific gravity of 1.
It is a small and lightweight ball that weighs 8g and weighs 15g. The ball body 4 is rotatably supported by a support mechanism 6 disposed below the ball body 4.

The support mechanism 6 is composed of three rollers 10 to 12 rotatably attached to the base 9. This roller 10
Reference numerals 12 to 12 denote brass support shafts 10a to 12a having a small diameter, and resin rollers 10b to 12b having a diameter larger than the support shafts.
And is rotatably supported by a bearing portion 13 formed integrally with the base 9 as shown in FIG. The bearing portion 13 is composed of a pair of arm portions 13a and 13b which are flexible and have a tapered portion formed on the upper portion thereof. The rollers 10 to 12 are simply attached by pressing the rollers 10 to 12 from the upper portion of the bearing portion 13. The installation work is facilitated simply by doing the following. In addition, each roller 10-12
Are arranged at equal intervals of 120 degrees, and the material of the resin is selected as a material having high lubricity.

The ball body 4 is supported only by the support mechanism 6 having the above configuration. In order to surely support the ball body 4, the larger the number of rollers, the better. However, as described above, the ball body 4 is lightweight and is applied when the ball body 4 is rotated by increasing the number of rollers. The load will increase. Therefore,
In this embodiment, three rollers 10 to 12 are used as the minimum number of rollers that can reliably support the ball body 4. Further, since the support mechanism 6 is disposed below the ball body 4, the support mechanism 6 supports the ball body 4 under the weight of the ball body 4, so that stable support can be performed.

On the other hand, the diameter of the support shafts 10a to 12a of the rollers 10 to 12 is selected to be considerably smaller than the diameter of the resin rollers 10b to 12b in consideration of the frictional force generated between the support shafts 10a to 12a and the bearing portion 13. It was done. Support shafts 10a-1
The smaller the diameter of 2a is, the smaller the area of sliding contact with the bearing portion 13 becomes, and the load applied to the ball body 4 can be reduced.
The diameters of the support shafts 10a to 12a are, of course, selected such that the weight of the ball body 4 can be sufficiently supported. Further, resin rollers 10b that directly contact the ball body 4
Since 12b is made of a resin having high lubricity, the ball 4
Even when is rotated in a direction different from the rotating direction of the rollers 10 to 12, the ball body 4 can be smoothly rotated.

Next, the rotation detecting means 7 will be described. Rotation detecting means 7
Is roughly two directions orthogonal to the ball body 4 (corresponding to the X ₁ and X ₂ directions and the Y ₁ and Y ₂ directions shown in FIG. ₂ ).
A pair of rotation detecting members 14a and 14b that are more closely attached,
The rotation detecting members 14a and 14b are constituted by the evacuating members 15a and 15b and the photo interrupters 16a and 16b.

The rotation detecting members 14a and 14b are shafts 17a and 17b.
Rollers 18a, 18b, rotary encoder 19a,
19b is provided. Shaft 17a,
Numeral 17b is rotatably supported on the upper portions of lever members 15a and 15b which are bifurcated. In addition, the roller 18a,
Reference numeral 18b denotes a roller that comes into contact with the ball body 4 and rotates in response to the rotation of the ball body 4, and is, for example, a rubber roller so that the rotation of the ball body 4 can be accurately detected. The rotary encoders 19a and 19b are provided with slits (not shown) having a predetermined pitch, and the photo interrupter 16
It is configured to be located in the slits provided in a and 16b.

The lever members 15a and 15b support the shafts 17a and 17b in the upper portion as described above, and the lower end portion is rotatably attached to the base 9 by the support shafts 20a and 20b as shown in FIG. . Therefore, the lever members 15a and 15b can swing around the support shafts 20a and 20b.

Further, coil springs 21a and 21b are arranged at positions facing the lever members 15a and 15b, and the lever members 15a and 21b are provided by the coil springs 21a and 21b.
The a and 15b are urged toward the ball body 4. As a result, the rollers 18a, 1 of the rotation detecting members 14a, 14b are
8b is urged by the elastic force of the coil springs 21a and 21b via the lever members 15a and 15b, and abuts on the ball body 4 with a predetermined pressing force.

Further, the abutting positions of the rollers 18a and 18b on the ball body 4 are arranged to be substantially the same as the outer peripheral line of the horizontal section passing through the center of the ball body 4 (the one-dot chain line shown by the arrow A in FIG. 4). ing. The photo interrupters 16a and 16b have a well-known structure, and the rotary encoders 19a and 1b
The pulse signal corresponding to the rotation speed of 9b is generated.

The rotation detecting means 7 configured as described above is characterized in that the weight of the ball body 4 is not applied to the rotation detecting members 14a and 14b at all. That is, the rotation detecting members 14a and 14b are only in contact with the outer peripheral line A of the ball body 4, and the biasing force of the coil springs 21a and 21b is the roller 18.
a and 18b are selected to have a small force sufficient to accurately transmit the rotation of the ball body 4, and therefore the rotation detecting member 14
The smooth rotation of the ball body 4 is not impaired by the a and 14b being in contact with each other. Therefore, the ball body 4 having a small diameter and light weight can be smoothly rotated, and the coordinate input device 1 can be incorporated into a device such as the keyboard 3 which is required to be thin.

In the above embodiment, the ball body 4 having a diameter of 1 inch has been described as an example, but it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to ball bodies having other diameters.

Further, the support mechanism 6 does not necessarily need to use a roller, and as long as the ball body 4 can be rotatably supported,
Other mechanisms may be used.

Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, the rotating body (ball body) is rotatably supported by the supporting mechanism, and the rotation detecting member does not receive the weight of the ball body. It is possible to reduce the value of the load applied to the ball body when performing the operation, so that the ball body can be smoothly rotated, and the operability of the coordinate input device is improved especially when a small-diameter and lightweight ball body is used. It has features such as being able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a plan view, a right side view and a front view of a coordinate input device which is an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a personal computer incorporating the coordinate input device shown in FIG.
The figure is a figure for explaining the mounting structure of the roller of the support mechanism,
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the attachment structure of the lever member. 1 ... Coordinate input device, 3 ... Keyboard, 4 ... Ball body, 6 ... Support mechanism, 7 ... Rotation detecting means, 10-12
...... Roller, 10a to 12a …… Spindle, 10b to 12b
... Resin rollers, 14a, 14b ... Rotation detecting member, 1
5a, 15b ... Lever member, 21a, 21b ... Coil spring.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A coordinate input device for detecting a rotation direction of a rotated object to be rotated and inputting coordinates corresponding to the rotation direction of the rotated object, the coordinate input device being disposed below the rotated object. A rotation mechanism that rotatably supports the rotated body, and a pair of rotation detectors configured to be attached in two directions orthogonal to the rotated body without being applied with its own weight. A coordinate input device comprising a member, and rotation detecting means for detecting the rotation direction of the rotated body by separately detecting the rotation of the pair of rotation detecting members.