Telegraphy – Systems – Position coordinate determination for writing
Patent
1995-06-22
1998-02-10
Kuntz, Curtis
Telegraphy
Systems
Position coordinate determination for writing
178 18, 345158, 345176, 345179, 382187, G08C 2100, G09G 302, G06K 900
Patent
active
057171688
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the capturing and processing of graphical information representative of a trace made on a support by means of a tip of an instrument.
A particular field of application of the invention is that of the applied graphic arts, so as to offer the possibility of digitizing a trace made manually by a designer, with a view to the instantaneous displaying of this drawing and/or its storage for subsequent exploitation by computer means.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
Various methods are known for digitizing a trace by registering successive positions of the instrument used to make this trace.
Some of these methods use special supports, or digitizing tablets, which allow the registering of the position of a tip of the instrument by propagating an electrical current or vibrations from the tip through the material of the support up to detectors arranged on the periphery of the support, or by electromagnetic coupling between the instrument and a network of conductors associated with the tablet. Such special supports are generally expensive and often offer only a working area of small dimensions. Additionally, these methods often suffer from low accuracy and low definition when reproducing the trace. This stands out all the more when tracing is done manually with a high tracing speed, this being the case with graphic art designers.
To avoid the use of special supports and to offer larger working areas, it has been proposed to register the position of the instrument by measuring the time of propagation of an ultrasound wave between an emitter carried by the instrument and several receivers occupying determined positions with respect to the support. Methods of this type, permitting the registering of position in a plane or in space, by using at least two or three receivers, are described in the documents FR-A-2,054,633 and FR-A-2,551,542.
The document FR-A-2,423,000 describes a device in which the instrument carries two ultrasound emitters aligned with the tip of the instrument so as to determine accurately the coordinates of this tip on a plane surface based on the registering of the positions of the two emitters.
It is necessary to synchronize the emission of an ultrasound wave by the emitter carried by the instrument and the start of the measurement of the propagation time by a measurement circuit connected to the receivers. Synchronization can be performed through a wire link with the instrument or, as described in particular in the document EP 0,312,481, by transmitting an infrared wave. In this latter case, the method offers the additional advantage of allowing execution of the trace by means of a wireless instrument, the latter then being provided with a self-contained power supply.
These methods using the transmission of ultrasound waves are suitable for the particular application envisaged, namely the digitizing of drawings made freehand. Moreover, by emitting ultrasound waves in pulse form, that is to say by emitting ultrasound pulses, higher accuracy and higher definition in the digitization of the trace can be achieved by choosing a sufficiently high frequency of the pulses.
However, these methods have a limitation in that they offer the sole possibility of digitizing a trace in the form of lines of dots. Now, in certain sectors of the applied graphic arts, designers, in particular stylists, habitually work with felt-tips or other writing implements, for example the pencil, making it possible to produce traces with a variable stroke width, in the colours of their choice.
A device allowing the simulation of such work, together with display by back-projection of the trace produced, is described in essence by the document FRA2,676,568 published after the priority date claimed for the present application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aim of the invention is to provide a method which allows fast and accurate capture of graphical information comprising a position cue for an instrument and a stroke width cue in a real or simulated fashion by means of an instrument
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A. Appel and A.J. Stein, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 24, No. 4, Sep. 1981, pp. 2013 and 2016.
DeBuisser Thomas
Gilliard Laurent
Lerisson Jean-Pierre
Kuntz Curtis
Lectra Systemes
Shankar Vijay
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