JPH0962441A - Character / graphic data input device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) 【Abstract】 PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a character / graphics data input device capable of freely drawing characters and / or graphics as a campus on a display device. SOLUTION: An input device 1 is configured by arranging a plurality of pressure sensors 7 in a line and providing a position sensor 8 for outputting a two-dimensional coordinate position.
The position of the input device 1 is measured by the position measuring means 9 based on a signal from the position sensor 8 when the input device 1 is moved.
Of the pressure received by each pressure sensor 7 of the pressure measuring means 1
Measure with 1. The pressure gradation converting means 12 is the pressure measuring means 1
The pressure value measured in 1 is converted into a designated gradation, and the display means 10 displays the position of the input device 1 measured by the position measuring means 9 on the display device 1 with a cursor and the pressure gradation conversion means 2 The gradation around the cursor is displayed with the gradation converted by.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character / graphics data input device for inputting characters and / or graphics using a computer and displaying them on a display device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, when a character or figure is input while drawing it in a computer and is displayed on a display device, the outline of the character or figure to be drawn is input using an input device such as a mouse, digitizer, or pen. I am trying to do it. In this case, the input position (XY coordinate value) of the data from the input device
Is calculated in the computer and is associated with the cursor position on a display device such as a liquid crystal display or a CRT display. Then, the line is displayed on the display device according to the locus of movement of the input device.

FIG. 9 (a) shows such a character / graphics data input device, in which the mouse is used as the input device 1 to input the character / graphics data to the computer 2 and the display device 3 is used.
In the figure, an input character graphic is displayed on the CRT display. C which is the display device 3
On the RT display, a cursor 4 indicating the input position of the character / graphic data is displayed, and the locus 5 of the cursor is displayed as a character / graphic.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9B, when a landscape is displayed on the display device 3 by using computer graphics (CG) and the color of an arbitrary portion is desired to be changed, the screen is changed. While looking at the range, the mouse 1 is used to specify the closed loop 6.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional character / graphics data input device, for example, when a character is input, a pen is used as the input device 1 and its locus 5 is used.
Although it is possible to input to the computer 2, it is difficult to input to the computer 2 information such as a line having an arbitrary width and faintness like drawing a character with a brush. That is, it has been difficult to input the individual character or figure of the person into the computer and display it on the display device 3 by inputting the trajectory of the brush into the computer.

An object of the present invention is to provide a character / graphics data input device capable of freely drawing characters and / or graphics as if it were a campus on a display device.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there are provided an input device having a plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a line and a position sensor for outputting a two-dimensional coordinate signal, and an input device. Position measuring means for measuring the position of the input device based on the signal from the position sensor when moved,
Pressure measuring means for measuring the pressure received by each pressure sensor of the input device, pressure gradation converting means for converting the pressure value measured by the pressure measuring means into a specified gradation, and the input device measured by the position measuring means. And a display means for displaying the position of the cursor on the display device and displaying the light and shade on the dots around the cursor with the gradation converted by the pressure gradation converting means,
Characters and figures can be freely drawn and displayed on the display device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, a pressure display color conversion means for converting the display color in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor of the input device is additionally provided to input characters or characters. The color of the figure is changed.

The invention of claim 3 relates to claim 1 or claim 2.
In the invention, the display range changing means for changing the number of display dots around the cursor is additionally provided in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor of the input device so that the lines of characters and figures have a width. It was done.

[0010] The invention of claim 4 is the invention of claims 1 to 3.
In the invention of 1, the input device has a ball that sinks to the pressure sensor side or a ball that deforms due to its flexibility when pressed on the operation table mat, and the amount of depression or deformation of the ball The number of operating pressure sensors is changed.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. The first embodiment is an example in which a mouse is used as a coordinate input device (hereinafter, simply referred to as an input device), and FIG. 1A is a block configuration diagram showing the first embodiment of the present invention. Is. The input device 1 for inputting characters, figures, etc. is configured such that a plurality of pressure sensors 7 are arranged in a line behind the ball B and a two-dimensional movement of the ball B is detected by a position sensor 8. . The two-dimensional coordinate position signal from the position sensor 8 of the input device 1 is input to the position measuring means 9 and displayed on the display device 3 by the cursor by the display means 10 of the computer 2. That is, the position measuring means 9 measures the position of the input device 1 based on the coordinate position signal from the position sensor 8 based on the rotation of the ball B when the input device 1 is moved, and the position of the position sensor 8 of the input device 1 is measured. The (center position) is displayed as a cursor on the display device 3. Here, as the display device 3, a liquid crystal, a CRT display, or the like is used.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1B, the pressure received by each of the plurality of pressure sensors 7 provided behind the ball B of the input device 1 is measured by the pressure measuring means 11.
The pressure sensor 7 is provided with pressure sensors 711 to 71n and pressure sensors 721 to 72m on the left and right sides of the paper of FIG. When the mouse 1 is strongly pushed down on the mat M, the ball B slightly sinks into the mouse 1 (the rotation center position is deviated from 0 to 0'in FIG. 1 (a)). Depending on the central pressure sensor 70, 711 and 721 or 71 are symmetrical.
1, 721, 712, 722, ... Output from each pressure sensor 7, and the pressure measuring means 11 measures the pressure.

The pressure value measured by the pressure measuring means 11 is converted into a specified gradation by the pressure gradation converting means 12 of the computer 3. Then, the display means 10 displays the gradation converted by the pressure gradation conversion means 12 in the shade around the dots around the cursor 4. Therefore, the position of the input device 1 measured by the position measuring means 9 is displayed on the display device 3 by the cursor on the display device 3, and the locus 5 of the cursor 4 is displayed by the gradation converted by the pressure gradation converting means 12. Will be displayed.

Now, assume that the input device 1 is configured as shown in FIG. It is assumed that there are five pressure sensors 7 and the position sensor 8 is placed at the center thereof. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the first pressure sensor 7a to the fifth pressure sensor 7e are made to correspond to the movement of the cursor 4 of the display device 3 and ten dots on the display device 3 in the direction at right angles. To do. That is, one pressure sensor 7 has 2 dots.

A gradation Pi is added to each dot in proportion to the pressure value. For example, assuming that the maximum value of the pressure sensor 7 is Pmax, the minimum value is 0, the output value of each pressure sensor 7 is Pi, and the number of gradations is X, as shown by the following formula (1), Gradation can be assigned.

Pi = (Pi / Pmax) * X (1) In order to display each dot of the display device 3 with light and shade, for example, when displaying with 16 light and shade, four-bit data It is sufficient to prepare a format and set the gradation part in Pi for this data format.

As a result, when the input device 1 is moved,
Around the orbit (10-dot portion), a shaded locus is drawn as shown in FIG. Areas with high pressure are dark and areas with low pressure are light.

As described above, in the first embodiment of the present invention, an input device having a plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a line and a position sensor for outputting a two-dimensional coordinate signal, and an input device Position measuring means 9 for measuring the position when the device 1 is moved, pressure measuring means 11 for measuring the pressure received by each pressure sensor 7, and the position of the position sensor 8 of the input device 1 are read and a cursor is displayed on the display device 3. In addition, it has a display means 10 for displaying the pressure value from each pressure sensor 7 of the input device 1 in a designated gradation (shade), whereby the range of shading is provided in the input trajectory of the input device 3. To have.

According to the first embodiment, since the input device 1 has the pressure sensor 7 and the position sensor 8, the position of the input device 1 is determined by the position sensor 8 and the display device 3.
The pressure sensor 7 detects the shade indicated by the position of the cursor 4 and drawn with a brush. Therefore, it is possible to perform a grayscale display at the position of the cursor 4 such as drawing a brush and drawing with black ink.

In the first embodiment, the pressure sensors 70, 711, 721, ... Are operated according to the deviation amount of the rotation center position "0" of the ball B. The ball B itself may be made flexible without displacing the position "0", and pressure sensors other than the central pressure sensor 70 may be operated according to the degree of deformation of the ball B. .

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in that the pressure display color conversion means 13 for converting the display color in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor 7 of the input device 1 is provided. It is an additional one.

That is, the input device 1 for inputting a character graphic
Is configured by arranging a plurality of pressure sensors 7 in a line and placing a position sensor 8 at an arbitrary position. The position signal from the position sensor 8 of the input device 1 is input to the position measuring means 9, and the cursor is displayed on the display device 3 by the display means 10 of the computer 2. That is, the position measuring unit 9 measures the position of the input device based on the position signal from the position sensor 8 when the input device 1 is moved, and displays the position (center position) of the position sensor 8 of the input device 1 on the display device 3. It will be displayed as a cursor above. Here, as the display device 3, a liquid crystal, a CRT display, or the like is used.

On the other hand, each pressure sensor 7 of the input device 1
The pressure received by the pressure measuring means 11 is measured. The pressure value measured by the pressure measuring means 11 is converted into a specified gradation by the pressure gradation converting means 12 of the computer 3. Further, the pressure display color conversion means 13 converts the display color. Then, the display unit 10 displays the dots around the cursor 4 in shades of color with the display color converted by the pressure display color conversion unit 13 and the gradation converted by the pressure gradation conversion unit 12. Therefore, on the display device 3, the position of the input device 1 measured by the position measuring means 9 is displayed on the display device 3 with a cursor, and the gradation converted by the pressure gradation converting means 12 and the pressure display color converting means 13 is displayed. And cursor 4 in display color
The locus 5 of is displayed.

In the second embodiment, the display device 3 displays a color specified in advance according to the pressure level detected by the pressure display color converting means 13. That is, the pressure display color conversion means 13 sets a color designated in advance according to the pressure level. An example of a data format for displaying each dot of the display device 3 in a shaded color (2
FIG. 6 shows the case where 56 colors and 16 gradations are used. In the case of this example, the color portion has 8 bits, the gradation portion has 4 bits, and the gradation portion 4 bits and the lower 4 bits of the color portion are changed in proportion to the pressure. Therefore, the color changes stepwise according to the pressure, and if the gradation part is also changed, the gradation changes while changing the color. When it is desired to change all the display colors according to the pressure, set X in Expression (1) as 256 as the color part, set the color part Pi for each color part, and set X for the gradation part as X.
Set Pi to 16 and set Pi.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the third embodiment of the present invention. The third embodiment is shown in FIG.
In addition to the second embodiment shown in FIG. 7, a display range changing means 14 for changing the number of display dots around the cursor 4 is added in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor 7 of the input device 1. It is a thing.

That is, the input device 1 for inputting a character graphic
Is configured by arranging a plurality of pressure sensors 7 in a line and placing a position sensor 8 at an arbitrary position. The position signal from the position sensor 8 of the input device 1 is input to the position measuring means 9, and the cursor is displayed on the display device 3 by the display means 10 of the computer 2. That is, the position measuring unit 9 measures the position of the input device based on the position signal from the position sensor 8 when the input device 1 is moved, and displays the position (center position) of the position sensor 8 of the input device 1 on the display device 3. It will be displayed as a cursor above. Here, as the display device 3, a liquid crystal, a CRT display, or the like is used.

On the other hand, each pressure sensor 7 of the input device 1
The pressure received by the pressure measuring means 11 is measured. The pressure value measured by the pressure measuring means 11 is converted into a specified gradation by the pressure gradation converting means 12 of the computer 3. Further, the pressure display color conversion means 13 converts the display color. On the other hand, the display range changing means 14 in the computer 2 changes the width of the input trajectory 5 by allocating the number of dots around the cursor 4 position in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor 7. If pressure is applied to each sensor 7, for example, as shown in FIG. 8A, the number of allocated dots of the third pressure sensor 7c having the highest pressure among the sensors 7 is increased (10), The number of dots assigned to the first pressure sensor 7a and the fifth pressure sensor 7e is reduced (3, 5). FIG. 8B is a graph showing the number of dots in that case.

The display means 10 displays the display color converted by the pressure display color converting means 13 and the pressure gradation converting means 1.
With the gradation converted by 2, the dots around the cursor 4 are displayed in shades in color, and the number of dots around the cursor position is allocated and displayed in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor 7. Naturally, the shade and shade at that time will be proportional to the pressure of each pressure sensor 7.

Therefore, the position of the input device 1 measured by the position measuring means 9 is displayed on the display device 3 with the cursor on the display device 3, and is converted by the pressure gradation converting means 12 and the pressure display color converting means 13. The locus 5 of the cursor 4 is displayed in different gradations and display colors, and the number of dots around the cursor position is allocated and displayed in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor 7.

As described above, in the third embodiment,
Since the display range changing means 14 allocates the number of dots around the cursor position in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor 7,
The number of dots is large in the place where the pressure is strong, and more precise display is possible.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Character or graphic data can be input as if drawing a picture with a brush, and a character / graphic data input device suitable for graphic work can be obtained.

According to the first embodiment, the writing pressure appears as a density pattern. In other words, it is possible to display light and shade such as drawing a brush at the cursor position and drawing with black ink. Then, according to the second embodiment, the writing pressure can be expressed in not only the shade but also the color.

According to the third embodiment, the thickness of the input line can be variably expressed according to the writing pressure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an input device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of functions of the input device according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a display example of character / graphic data according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conversion data format in the pressure display color conversion means of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view when the display dots are changed by the display range changing means of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 Input device 2 Computer 3 Display device 4 Cursor 5 Cursor locus 6 Cursor specified range 7 Pressure sensor 8 Position sensor 9 Position measuring means 10 Display means 11 Pressure measuring means 12 Pressure gradation converting means 13 Pressure display Color converting means 14 Display range changing means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A character / graphics data input device for inputting characters and / or graphics into a computer while drawing them with an input device, and displaying the input character / graphics on a display device, wherein a plurality of pressure sensors are arranged in a line. And an input device provided with a position sensor for outputting a two-dimensional coordinate signal, and position measuring means for measuring the position of the input device based on a signal from the position sensor when the input device is moved, The pressure measuring means for measuring the pressure received by each of the pressure sensors of the input device, the pressure gradation converting means for converting the pressure value measured by the pressure measuring means into a specified gradation, and the position measuring means. The measured position of the input device is displayed on the display device as a cursor, and the gradations converted by the pressure gradation converting means are displayed on the dots around the cursor in a gray scale. A character / graphics data input device, comprising: 2. The pressure display color conversion means for converting the display color in proportion to the output of each pressure sensor of the input device is additionally provided to change the color of an input character or figure. The character / graphics data input device according to claim 1. 3. A display range changing means for changing the number of display dots around the cursor is additionally provided in proportion to the output of the pressure sensor of each of the input devices, and the width of a line of a character or a figure is changed. The character / graphic data input device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the character / graphic data input device is provided. 4. The input device has a ball that sinks to the pressure sensor side or a ball that deforms due to its flexibility when pressed on an operation table mat, and the amount of sinking or deformation of the ball. The character / graphic data input device according to claim 1, wherein the number of operating the plurality of pressure sensors is changed according to the amount.