Education and demonstration – Occupation – Keyboard operation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-30
2003-10-21
Cheng, Joe H. (Department: 3714)
Education and demonstration
Occupation
Keyboard operation
C434S350000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06634886
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an amusement system having a typing practice function and a typing practice system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a system of this type, there is known a system of scrolling input elements such as characters, words numeric values in a predetermined direction, and then, requesting a user to input these elements in accordance with a tempo according to the scroll (for example, refer to Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 56-134058 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3-69113). In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3-69113, there is disclosed a system of scrolling the words of a song as input elements in accordance with a melody corresponding thereto. According to these systems, a scroll display is adopted, whereby a plurality of input elements are displayed one after another, and thus, typing practice can be continued rhythmically. Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-15589, there is disclosed a system in which information such as characters and marks is displayed in a dynamic image for a predetermined period of time, during which an input corresponding to such information is requested, thereby imparting tension to a user (hereinafter, referred to as a typist); and a game feeling is imparted to an inputting practice.
However, these typing practice systems fail to provide a user with information concerning which finger is used to type each character, and the user cannot master a manner of using fingers for typing.
In contrast, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-15588, there is disclosed a system in which a region corresponding to each finger by one-to-one is provided on a picture for instructing an input operation to the user, and the input elements such as characters and marks to be inputted by each finger are displayed on a region that corresponds to each finger.
The typing practice system in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-15588 displays a character as an input element in any one of a plurality of regions corresponding to each finger. This system performs an alternative and intermittent display that, when such element is inputted, a next input element is displayed. Therefore, the user is not notified a next character to be inputted unless one character has been inputted. Thus, it is relatively difficult to require a continuously key operation of the user. That is, the user in a conventional typing practice system can master which key should be operated by which finger, but cannot practice well that a plurality of characters are continuously inputted by a correct typing position. In such a situation, the user cannot master typing efficiently. In addition, a monotonous instruction is likely to lack amusement and make the user bored.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the aforementioned circumstance, it is an object of the present invention to provide an amusement system and a typing practice system capable of efficiently mastering typing, and further, enhancing amusement concerning typing practice.
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described. For a better understanding of the present invention, reference numerals of the accompanying drawings are designated with parentheses, which does not mean that the present invention is limited to the illustrative embodiments.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an amusement system comprising: an input device (
5
) having a plurality of operating portions (
50
. . .
50
) to be operated for typing, the input device being capable of outputting a signal that corresponds to the operation state of each operating portion; a display device (
11
) capable of displaying an image that corresponds to an inputted video signal; and a control device (
2
) capable of instructing an operation of the input device through the display device, wherein the control device comprises: a device for displaying on a screen of the display device an operation instructing portion (
111
) at which a plurality of regions associated with each finger of a user who operates the input device are provided in a visually identifiable mode; a device for displaying in the respective regions an instructive mark (
130
) for specifying the operating portion to be operated by a finger associated with each of the regions; and a device for relatively scrolling the instructive mark and a predetermined reference mark (
123
) in a predetermined direction, and then, instructing an operation time of the operating portion specified by each instructive mark based on a positional relationship between the instructive mark and the reference mark.
According to this amusement system, since a region for instructing an operation for each finger is provided in a visually identifiable mode, the user can easily grasp which finger is to be used to operate for each operating portion through a relationship between the instructive mark and a region. Since the instructive mark and reference mark are relatively scrolled to indicate an operation time, it is possible to cause the user to grasp a situation in which the operation time is gradually close according to such scroll, thereby allowing the user to perform a practice in conformance with actual input environment in which the user can continue typing while grasping a future input content in advance. A plurality of instructive marks are sequentially displayed while the time is shifted relevant to each region, whereby the user can be requested to sequentially operate each operating portion with a finger that corresponds to respective regions. Therefore, there can be provided an environment in which the user can practice typing efficiently. Difficulty in operation can be changed within a relatively wide range according to disposition of instructive marks or appearance frequency thereof, and the degree of freedom concerning an instruction for operation is high, making it easy to enhance amusement concerning such instruction for operation.
In the above described amusement system, each region may be visually identified by partitioning lines (
121
. . .
121
) displayed on the screen, for example or may be identified by switching colors or patterns for each region. The instructive mark may be expressed in various modes such as characters or marks. The reference mark may be a reference line perpendicular to the scroll direction. The reference line may be represented to extend over a plurality of regions.
In the amusement system of the present invention, the plurality of regions may extend in parallel to each other in the predetermined direction on the screen of the display device, and the scroll may be performed in the along the predetermined direction. In such an embodiment, the plurality of regions is arranged neatly in one direction on the screen of the display device, so that the user can grasp easily an instruction for operation relevant to each finger. The predetermined direction may be a vertical direction. In the case of scrolling in the vertical direction, each region is arranged in a transverse direction, and the arrangement direction of the user's fingers placed on the input device is coincident with the region arrangement direction. Therefore, it is possible to give the user a clearer instruction for each finger.
The plurality of regions may extend in parallel to each other in a vertical direction of the screen of the display device and a display position of the reference mark may be fixed to a lower end of the operation instructing portion, so that the instructive mark may be scrolled from the top to the bottom toward the reference mark.
In general, an input device such as a personal computer is placed below the display device. Thus, if it is determined that an operating portion corresponding to such instructive mark has to be performed at a timing when the instructive mark to be scrolled from the top to the bottom of the screen reaches the reference mark at the lower end of the operation instructio
Obana Isato
Oyama Sakumi
Cheng Joe H.
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
Konami Corporation
Sotomayor John
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