JPH09128143A - Input device for electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [PROBLEMS] To improve the operation efficiency when performing an operation such as desktop publishing by easily inputting numbers and the like with good operability. SOLUTION: Five buttons 11 to 15 of a thumb operation button 11, a forefinger operation button 12, a middle finger operation button 13, a ring finger operation button 14, and a little finger operation button 15 are attached to a main body 10 with one hand of 5 buttons. The mouse 1 which is provided corresponding to the arrangement of the fingers of the book and serves as the input device of the present invention is configured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an input device for electronic equipment, and more particularly to an input device for electronic equipment suitable as a data input device for computers and word processors.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional input device of this type, there is a pointer device called a mouse. The mouse detects movement in a two-dimensional plane of the mouse body by a mechanical method or an optical method, and moves a pointer (indicator sign) such as an arrow displayed on the screen of a TV monitor or the like in association with the mouse body. It is an auxiliary input device that can be used, and has become widely used for data input of computers and word processors due to the development of semiconductor technology and software technology. By utilizing this mouse, "desktop publishing" technology has become commonly used, which makes it easy to import figures and tables on paper and change the layout of sentences and figures.

A conventional mouse has one to three operating buttons 51 as shown in FIG. 10 (a) and, for example, as shown in FIG. 10 (b), a lower surface side of a main body 50. A trackball 52 is fitted in the above. Also, by a cable such as the connection cable 53, or in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the electric signal from the main body 50 is transferred to the main body of the computer or the word processor, or these keyboards by a radio such as the infrared ray emitting section 54 for signal transmission provided in the main body 50.

[0004]

According to the conventional mouse, the command prepared by the program or the operating system and displayed on the screen can be designated by operating one to three buttons. Easy control of. However, there is a drawback that complicated operations such as inputting characters and numbers cannot be performed.

For example, a mouse equipped with three buttons
How to press one button, that is, ON (0N) -OFF (OFF)
), The number of instructions possible is 2 ³ −1.
Since there are only = 7 ways, it is not suitable for entering letters and numbers. Even if the mouse is equipped with 4 buttons, ON-OF
Even if the combination of F enables 15 different numbers of commands, the combination of pressing the buttons becomes complicated and it becomes difficult to use them properly. Therefore, conventionally, when performing an operation such as desktop publishing, it is necessary to frequently switch between typing of the keyboard and movement of the pointer by the mouse, resulting in inefficient operation. .

At present, numeric keys 0 to 9 and +,
-Although a mouse that incorporates numerical operation keys such as-has also been developed, it is necessary to change the holding of the mouse, so it is not possible to improve the operation efficiency when performing operations such as desktop publishing. Not in. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to input numbers and the like with good operability and easily, thereby improving the operation efficiency when performing operations such as desktop publishing. It is intended to provide an input device for equipment.

[0007]

In an input device for electronic equipment according to the present invention, a main body has five buttons, a thumb operating button, an index finger operating button, a middle finger operating button, a ring finger operating button, and a little finger operating button. The above-mentioned problem is solved by providing the button of (1) corresponding to the arrangement of the five fingers of one hand.

A person can count and express numbers from 1 to 10 by a combination of bending and extending five fingers of a thumb, an index finger, a middle finger, a ring finger, and a little finger. When a person counts the numbers from 1 to 10 using five fingers, there are mainly three patterns of the order of changing the fingers. The first pattern is a pattern in which all the five fingers are bent and the fingers are extended in the order of the index finger, the middle finger, the ring finger, the little finger, and the thumb, and the second pattern is five.
This is a pattern in which the fingers are bent in the order of thumb, forefinger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger after all fingers of the book are extended. The third pattern is a pattern in which the fingers are extended in the order of the little finger, the ring finger, the middle finger, the index finger, and the thumb from the state where all five fingers are bent. It can be said that people are accustomed to associating finger movements with numbers mainly according to these three patterns.

In the present invention, since the main body is provided with five buttons corresponding to the arrangement of the five fingers of one hand, the combination of the pressing methods of the five buttons is determined according to the above three patterns. This makes it possible to define the input of numbers. Therefore, it becomes easy to input numbers. Further, since each button corresponds to the arrangement of the five fingers of one hand, it is not necessary to change the holding body when operating the button. Also, because it has 5 buttons, it is ON
(Click) -OFF combination only 2 ⁵ -1 = 3
There is how to combine the push button of 1 kinds, further double-click - When using a combination of clicks -OFF, a combination of you press the button 3 ⁵ -1 = 242 kinds. Therefore, since various symbols can be defined, it is possible to input symbols other than numbers.

It should be noted that, usually, a single click of a button is called a click, and a two consecutive button press is called a double click. Hereinafter, in the present specification, these operations will be referred to as clicking and double clicking.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of an input device for an electronic device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, an example in which the present invention is applied to a mouse which is an input device of a computer or a word processor will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, in which (a) is a plan view and (b) is a back view. This mouse 1 is for the right hand operation, and includes a main body 10, a button 11 for operating the thumb, a button 12 for operating the index finger, a button 13 for operating the middle finger, a button 14 for operating the third finger, and a little finger provided on the main body 10. The operation button 15 includes five buttons 11 to 15.

The main body 10 has a substantially rectangular shape in a plan view, and the above-mentioned five buttons 11 to 15 are provided corresponding to the arrangement of the five fingers of the right hand. That is, the button 11 is provided on the left side surface with respect to the paper surface of the main body 10, and the buttons 12 to 12 are provided from the left side to the right side on one side of the upper surface of the main body 10 that is substantially orthogonal to the left and right sides. 15 are provided in order. A ball 16 is provided on the back surface side of the main body 10, and a detection means for detecting the moving direction and the moving amount of the two-dimensional plane of the main body 10 in the main body 10 by the rolling of the ball 16 due to friction on a desk or the like ( (Not shown) is provided.

A connection cable 17 for transferring an electric signal to the main body of a computer or a word processor or their keyboard is connected to the main body 10. Then, the mouse 1 can move a pointer such as an arrow displayed on a display screen of a computer or a word processor in association with the main body 10 by detecting the moving direction and the moving amount of the two-dimensional plane of the main body 10 by the detecting means. It is like this.

FIG. 2 shows a first modification of the above embodiment,
An example is shown in which electric signals are transferred wirelessly instead of by wire. For example, in this mouse 1, the main body 10 is provided with an infrared emitting section 18 for signal transmission instead of the connection cable 17.

FIG. 3 shows a second modification of the above embodiment,
1 shows an example of a mouse 1 for operating a left hand. This mouse 1 is formed in line symmetry with respect to a center line that divides the mouse 1 shown in FIG.
Is provided with a button 11 for operating the thumb on the side surface on the right side with respect to the sheet of FIG. 1, and for operating the index finger from the right side to the left side on one side of the top surface of the main body 10 that is substantially orthogonal to the left and right sides. The button 12, the button 13 for operating the middle finger, the button 14 for operating the ring finger, and the button 15 for operating the little finger are sequentially provided.

FIG. 4 shows a third modification of the above embodiment,
4 illustrates an example in which an infrared ray emitting portion 18 for signal transmission is provided instead of the connection cable 17 provided in the mouse 1 shown in FIG. 3.

Next, a method of inputting numbers and the like with the mouse 1 according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. In addition, in FIG. 5 to FIG. 7, the numbers in parentheses [] indicate input numbers and symbols for numerical operation. FIG. 5 shows button operations of a conventional mouse, which are similar to the buttons 13 and 1 in the mouse 1.
The figure showing a method of inputting numbers 0 to 9 in the first pattern of counting numbers described above so as not to overlap with button operation in a normal mouse when performed by either 4 or 15. Is.

That is, to input the numeral 1, the button 12 is clicked once, for inputting the numeral 2, buttons 12 and 13 are simultaneously clicked once, and for inputting the numeral 3, buttons 12 to 14 are simultaneously clicked once, and the numeral 4 is input. Is defined by clicking the buttons 12 to 15 at the same time once, and inputting the number 5 is defined by clicking only the button 11 once. In addition, as for the input after the number 5, the button to be clicked at the same time as the button 11 is changed from the button 12 to the button 15 every time the number is increased to the input of the number 9.
To increase in order. For example, to input the numeral 8, the buttons 11 to 14 are simultaneously clicked once. To input the number 0, double-click the button 11. With this definition, the numbers can be input by operating the buttons 11 to 15 according to the movement of the finger when a person counts the numbers, without overlapping with the button operation of a normal mouse.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the method of inputting the numerical operation symbols when the numbers 0 to 9 are input by the method of FIG. For example, to enter the symbol, button 11 and button 13
Click and once at the same time, and press the button 11 to enter the symbol +
And button 14 can be defined as being clicked once at the same time, and the symbol-input can be defined as clicking button 11 and button 15 at the same time. For example, as in this example, the input of a numerical calculation symbol is a button 1 for operating the thumb.
By associating with 1, it is possible to easily input the numerical calculation symbol.

FIG. 7 shows the button operation of a conventional mouse.
When using any of the buttons 12, 13, and 14 of the mouse 1, do not overlap with the button operation of a normal mouse, and use the second and third patterns for counting the numbers described above, from 0 to 9 It is the figure which showed the method of inputting a number.

In this example, to input the number 1, press button 11
Click once to enter the number 2 and click once on the buttons 11 and 12 at the same time. It is defined as increasing in order. For example, to enter the number 5, press buttons 11-15
Is defined by clicking once at the same time. Also, to input the number 6 clicks only the button 15 once, and to input the number 7 clicks both the buttons 15 and 14 at the same time.
It is defined that each time the number up to the numeral 9 increases, the number of buttons to be clicked simultaneously with the button 15 increases from the button 14 to the button 12. To input the number 0, double-click the button 11. With such a definition, the number can be input by operating the buttons 11 to 15 according to the movement of the finger when the person counts the number.

As described above, according to the mouse 1 of the present embodiment, the mouse 10 corresponding to the arrangement of the five fingers of one hand is provided on the main body 10.
Since the buttons 11 to 15 are provided, as described above, by deciding the combination of how to press the five buttons 11 to 15 according to the movement pattern of the finger when the person counts the numbers, Input can be defined. Therefore, it is possible to easily input numbers. Also, since the five buttons 11 to 15 are provided, it is possible to combine a large number of buttons 11 to 15,
Various kinds of symbols can be defined, and as described above, symbols other than numbers such as symbols for numerical operation can be input.

Further, since the buttons 11 to 15 can be operated according to the definition without changing the holding of the main body 10, it becomes possible to input numbers and the like with good operability. Therefore, according to the mouse 1 of the present embodiment,
When performing operations such as desktop publishing, the frequency of switching between the mouse 1 and the keyboard can be significantly reduced, so operation efficiency can be improved and the efficiency of creating sentences and figures in desktop publishing can be improved. can do.

In this embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a mouse has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can be applied to input devices of various electronic devices that do not include a detection unit that detects the moving direction and the moving amount of the main body.

In the present embodiment, the case where only five buttons are provided on the main body has been described, but it goes without saying that the main body may be provided with one or two or more auxiliary buttons. In this case, it is preferable to provide an auxiliary button at a position where the main body can be operated without having to change hands.
For right hand operation, for example, as shown in FIG.
An auxiliary button 19 can be provided on the left side surface of the body adjacent to the thumb operation button 11, or the main body 1
It can also be provided on the right side surface of 0. By installing the auxiliary button 19 in this manner, it is possible to input more various symbols. For example, this auxiliary button 19
When a function for switching between numeric input and symbol input for numerical calculation is provided in, it becomes possible to input the symbol for numerical calculation according to the definition of numerical input shown in FIGS. 5 and 7.

Further, in the present invention, the main body 10 has a substantially rectangular shape in a plan view, but needless to say, it is not limited to this shape. For example, it can be formed into a shape that can be wrapped with one hand. Further, the five buttons may be provided on the main body so as to correspond to the arrangement of the five fingers of one hand. For example, in the case of the right hand operation, the little finger operation button 15 is provided on the main body 10 as shown in FIG. It may be provided on the right side surface of the.

Further, in the present embodiment, the one provided with the means for detecting the moving direction and the moving amount of the mouse main body by the rolling of the ball provided in the main body has been described, but other means such as an optical method may be used instead. A means for detecting the moving direction and the moving amount of the mouse body by the method may be used.
Further, although the method of inputting with one mouse has been described in the present embodiment, it is also possible to perform input with, for example, each function using two mice.

[0028]

As described above, according to the input device of the electronic device of the present invention, five buttons are provided corresponding to the arrangement of the five fingers of one hand. Since the number input can be defined according to the pattern of finger movement when counting, the number input can be performed easily. Further, since it is provided with five buttons, it is possible to combine the pressing methods of a large number of buttons, and it is possible to input symbols other than numbers, such as symbols for numerical operation. Furthermore, since buttons can be operated according to the definition without changing the body, it is possible to input numbers and the like with good operability. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the operation efficiency at the time of performing an operation such as desktop publishing, and it is possible to improve the creation efficiency of sentences and diagrams.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B are explanatory views showing an embodiment of an input device of an electronic device according to the invention, in which FIG. 1A is a plan view and FIG. 1B is a back view.

2A and 2B are explanatory views showing a first modification of the mouse according to the embodiment, where FIG. 2A is a plan view and FIG. 2B is a back view.

3A and 3B are explanatory views showing a second modification of the mouse according to the embodiment, where FIG. 3A is a plan view and FIG. 3B is a back view.

4A and 4B are explanatory views showing a third modified example of the mouse in the embodiment, FIG. 4A being a plan view and FIG. 4B being a rear view.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of correspondence between button operations and input numbers.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of correspondence between button operations and input numerical calculation symbols.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of correspondence between button operations and input numbers.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a fourth modification of the mouse according to the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing a fifth modification of the mouse according to the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a conventional device, (a)
Is a plan view and (b) is a back view.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the conventional device,
(A) is a plan view and (b) is a rear view.

[Explanation of symbols] 1 mouse 10 main body 11 button for thumb operation 12 button for index finger operation 13 button for middle finger operation 14 button for ring finger operation 15 button for little finger operation

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An input device for electronic equipment, comprising: a main body, and five buttons provided on the main body: a thumb operation button, an index finger operation button, a middle finger operation button, a ring finger operation button, and a little finger operation button. The input device for an electronic device, wherein the five buttons are provided on the main body in correspondence with the arrangement of the five fingers of one hand. 2. The input device for an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the main body is provided with a detection unit that detects a moving direction and a moving amount of the main body.