Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Touch panel
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-05
2002-02-12
Hjerpe, Richard (Department: 2774)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Touch panel
C345S215000, C708S146000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06346935
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pointing devices and, more specifically, to a touch-sensitive tablet used as a pointing device of a computer and other information processors.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, a touch-sensitive tablet comes into wide use as a pointing device in a personal computer, especially in a notebook-type portable personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “notebook personal computer”). The touch-sensitive tablet is operated such that a user touches the surface thereof.
Referring to
FIGS. 11 and 12
, the configuration of a conventional touch-sensitive tablet is described. First, as shown in
FIG. 11
, a conventional touch-sensitive tablet TSPc mainly includes a circuit board
101
having a coordinate sensor (not shown in the drawing) on one surface thereof, and a front sheet
102
. The touch-sensitive tablet TSPc is formed such that the front sheet
102
is overlaid on the one surface of the circuit board
101
having the coordinate sensor.
As shown in
FIG. 12
, the touch-sensitive tablet TSPc further includes a frame
105
provided around the perimeter of the front sheet
102
. The inside of the front sheet
102
surrounded by the frame
105
is defined as a touch surface which a user touches to enter his/her instruction thereto. The touch-sensitive tablet TSPc in the above-described configuration is generally mounted on the front side of a notebook personal computer (not shown).
With a touch of a user's finger on the surface of the front sheet
102
, i.e., the touch tablet
104
, the coordinate sensor incorporated therein is pressed. Then, the circuit board
101
detects coordinates indicative of the pressed position. To move a cursor on a display screen of the notebook personal computer by utilizing the touch-sensitive tablet, the user touches on the touch surface
104
and move the finger along it in a desired direction. At that time, the circuit board
101
outputs coordinates of the first touched position on the coordinate sensor. The circuit board
101
then sequentially detects coordinates of positions in response to the finger movement, and sends a signal to a CPU of the notebook personal computer. Based on the signal, the CPU moves the cursor on the display of the notebook personal computer according to the finger movement.
The touch-sensitive tablet TSPc further has the function of designating absolute coordinates on the touch surface
104
in addition to the function of moving the cursor on the display screen. Recently developed is a touch-sensitive tablet utilizing the feature of designating absolute coordinates and capable of assigning various functions to absolute coordinate designating regions on the touch surface
104
(hereinafter referred to as “function assignable touch-sensitive tablet”). In the function assignable touch-sensitive tablet, a user can select or freely set specific functions from among a plurality of functions, and can assign the specific functions to arbitrary positions on the touch surface
104
. The positions assigned the specific functions on the touch surface
104
are referred to below as “function regions”.
In
FIG. 12
, a first function region
106
and a second function region
107
are shown by dotted lines. With a touch of a finger on the first function region
106
in the upper left corner, the circuit board
101
detects absolute coordinates of the touched point, and sends a coordinate signal to the CPU of the notebook personal computer. The CPU judges whether the received coordinate signal is an instruction for moving the cursor or an instruction for executing the assigned function. When judging as an instruction for executing the assigned function, the CPU executes the function previously assigned to the absolute coordinates, and displays the result on the display of the notebook personal computer. If the function assigned to the first function region
106
is a function for ENTER key entry, for example, the touch of the finger on the first function region
106
enables execution of the same instruction as a press of an ENTER key on a keyboard. More specifically, when required to press the ENTER key while manipulating the touch-sensitive tablet, the user has only to move the finger along the touch surface
104
of the touch-sensitive tablet to conveniently cause the same operation result as in the case of pressing the ENTER key. Similarly, for example, with an up/down scroll function being assigned to one of the second function regions
107
in advance, the user can easily realize up/down scrolling by touching the second function region
107
with the finger and gliding the finger in the upward/downward directions.
Although the function regions are shown by dotted lines in
FIG. 12
for better recognition, the function regions are not explicitly indicated on the touch surface
104
of the actual touch-sensitive tablet TSPc. This causes the following inconveniences when the user utilizes the provided functions:
(1) Not knowing the accurate positions of the function regions, the user has difficulty in correctly touching the function region for a desired function. In some cases, the user touches the periphery of the desired function region by mistake. Resultantly, the touch-sensitive tablet TSPc judges that the user instructs on cursor movement, for example, thereby not allowing execution of the desired function.
(2) As the function regions increase in number, the user further tends to touch undesired function regions. To avoid such misoperation, the positions of the function regions are limited to the four corners of the touch surface
104
at most.
(3) It is not clear for the user which function is assigned to each function region.
(4) The whole surface of the front sheet
102
should be primarily used as the touch surface
104
. However, the outer area of the front sheet
102
is hidden by the frame
105
, reducing the area of the touch surface
104
. Since a notebook personal computer must be compact and lightweight, a component attached thereto is also required to slim down its volume and effective area. To the contrary, the touch-sensitive tablet TSPc thus has waste of unusable volume and area.
(5) In the case where the user touches the touch surface
104
with a finger F as shown in
FIG. 13
, the frame
105
prevents the finger F from touching the edge of the touch surface
104
. That is, the user can not touch the whole surface of the touch surface
104
. Specifically, as shown in
FIG. 14
, the user can touch only a touchable area AOe of the touch surface
104
separated from the inner periphery of the frame
105
by a distance G. An area between the touchable area AOe and the inner periphery of the frame
105
is an untouchable area AOn even though provided with sensors. The untouchable area AOn results in waste of the area and volume of the notebook personal computer and reduction of an effective operational area of the touch-sensitive tablet TSPc as well.
(6) The touch-sensitive tablet TSPc is made compact to be incorporated in the notebook personal computer. The touch surface
104
of the touch-sensitive tablet TSPc is made much smaller in area. On the other hand, the touch surface
104
must be able to distinguish coordinates at high resolution conforming to the high resolution of the display of the notebook personal computer. In spite of the above, the touch surface
104
basically has a small area as described above, and moreover, the effective operational area thereof is further reduced for the above-described reasons in (4) and (5). As a result, it is more difficult for the user to correctly touch the touch surface
104
to make an entry. The problem herein is more serious than the above-mentioned problems in (2) and (3).
The present invention solves the above-described problems, and has a first object to provide a touch-sensitive tablet capable of starting a function by designating absolute coordinates and facilitating more correct, intuitive understanding of the operation thereof and more accurate input
Ano Tadashi
Asahi Hiroyuki
Hidaka Noriyuki
Nakajima Naoki
Eisen Alexander
Hjerpe Richard
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