Touch panel input control method

An object placed on a transparent touch panel horizontally arranged on a CRT is detected as an undesired material if a touch state longer than a normal key-in input time is detected. Removal of the undesired material is requested by the CRT display or an audio unit so that repetitive malfunction is prevented. A second longer time may be set to call a service man.

CROSS REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATIONS 
The present invention relates to Patent Application Ser. No. 55,547 
entitled "Touch Panel Input Device" and filed by H. Shimauchi on May 29, 
1987, and Patent Application Ser. No. 120,880 entitled "Touch Panel Input 
Device" and filed by M. Oka on Nov. 16, 1987. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to an input control system in a touch panel 
device which detects input information that is entered by touching a 
finger to a panel, and more particularly to an input control system 
suitable for application to a touch panel input device which has no 
restriction to a user. 
In a prior art device shown in JP-A-60-140420, a touch position on a touch 
panel is fed back to an operator by voice. In a device shown in 
JP-A-60-124724, a display color in a screen of a key-entered area is 
changed. In those devices, validity of touch is checked after the touch to 
the touch panel. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide an input control method 
in which an operator is informed, either before or after start of an 
entry, that an input to the panel is being made by an undesired material. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method which 
permits normal entry even in the case of contact by an undesired material, 
by preventing the operator from being puzzled where an average input 
portion is taken from a plurality of touch positions. 
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by an input control 
system in a device having a touch panel, in which contact which causes an 
invalid input in the touch panel is detected by continuous contact to the 
touch panel and it is informed to the operator. 
In the present invention, based on the fact that entry by the operator by 
his/her contacting to the touch panel is instantaneous and momentary while 
contact by undesired material is continuous, a continuous contact time 
from the beginning of contact is measured. If the continuous contact time 
exceeds a predetermined value, the contact by the undesired material is 
detected so that invalidity is predicted and detected and the operator is 
notified to remove the undesired material. 
As a result, invalid input is prevented and malfunction is prevented.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
In FIG. 3, numeral 8 denotes a key-shaped illustration to which an operator 
contacts his/her finger so that input data is determined based on a 
coordinate of the key 8. The operator may input using a corner of a card 
or a head of a pen, instead of using the finger. While an entire area, of 
a touch panel 2 is an input area from a viewpoint of the operator, only 
the illustrations 8 appear as the input area. Accordingly, the operator 
may sometimes put his/her belonging (for example, hand bag) on an area 9 
other than the area of the illustrations 8. In this case, even if the 
operator contacts to a desired position, a different position is entered 
and the input is invalidated. The operator cannot understand the reason 
and repeats the same operation. 
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of the console apparatus of 
the present invention. On a CRT 3 of the console apparatus 1 of the 
present embodiment, there are provided a transparent touch panel 2 and a 
panel detector 5 which detects a finger or the like contacting to the 
touch panel 2. An input request command to the operator is supplied to a 
CRT control unit 6 from a control unit 7 and displayed on the CRT 3. 
The key-shaped illustrations 8 are arranged on the transparent touch panel 
2. When the operator contacts his/her finger or like to the one of the 
illustrations 8, the input data is determined based on the coordinate of 
the illustration, as described above. 
A normal operation of the present embodiment is described below. 
The operator contacts his/her finger or the like to the touch panel 2 
corresponding to the input display position of the CRT 3 in accordance 
with the display on the CRT 3. The panel detector 5 detects the input 
command and the control unit 7 receives an indication of the input 
selected. The control unit 7 determines whether the input is valid or 
invalid and drives a speaker. After the input process, the control unit 7 
commands to the CRT control unit 6 a display for the next input, and 
displays it on the CRT 3. Then, the above operation is repeated. 
A characteristic operation of the present embodiment is explained with 
reference to FIG. 1, which shows a process flow chart of prediction and 
detection of invalid input and notification thereof to the operator by the 
control unit 7. 
When the control unit 7 detects the contact in a decision step (step 10) to 
monitor the contact by the operator to the touch panel 2, it determines 
whether the input corresponds to the position of the illustration 8 of the 
key displayed on the screen (step 11). If the decision is valid, the 
process is executed (step 18), and if it is invalid, a timer is set (step 
12), and the continuous contact time is measured in steps 13 and 14. 
If a timeover, a time exceeding a certain threshold, is detected (step 14), 
the contact is identified as a contact by an undesired material and the 
operator is notified by the speaker 4 and the CRT 3 to remove the 
undesired material (steps 15 and 16). Then, if non-contact of undesired 
material is detected (step 17), the process returns to the initial state 
(step 10). 
In accordance with the present embodiment, the notification to remove the 
undesired mateial is issued before the device has been placed into a 
condition which confuses the operator. 
In the present embodiment, the control unit 7 measures the continued time 
of the output from the panel detector 5, and if a predetermined time has 
elapsed, the control unit 7 determines it as the contact by the undesired 
material and notifies the user by the speaker 4 and CRT 3 to remove the 
undesired material. The length of the predetermined time may be set 
arbitrarily. 
FIG. 4 shows another embodiment. The like blocks to those shown in the flow 
chart of FIG. 1 are designated by the like numerals. In steps 10-14, after 
the undesired material on the touch panel is detected, a message to 
request the removal of the undesired material is displayed and preferably 
the position of the undesired material is recognized by X-Y coordinates 
and an arrow to indicate the position is displayed (step 21). In the next 
step 22, a time necessary for the operator to detect the undesired 
material on the touch panel, for example, 30 seconds, is set to a timer 
(not shown). In the next step 23, a message to request the removal of the 
undesired material is sent to the speaker 4 (step 23). In many cases, the 
undesired material is removed in several seconds by the display and/or 
voice notice (step 24) so that no undesired material is detected in a step 
17 and the process returns to the initial step 10 of FIG. 4. If the 
presence of the undesired material is still detected, the display given in 
the step 21 is kept on the screen and steps 23 and 24 are repeatedly 
executed every 10 seconds using the decision step 27. If the repetitive 
process continues for the predetermined time (step 25), a service man who 
maintains the touch panel input device is called (step 26). In this 
manner, the undesired material is removed. Then, touch entry is carried 
out to normal input areas in steps 10 and 11, and then a normal process of 
a step 18 is executed.