Patent Publication Number: US-2006017702-A1

Title: Touch control type character input method and control module thereof

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention is related to a touch control type character input method and control module thereof and particularly to a touch control type character input method and control module thereof with which moving locus combination defined with an initial position and moving directions for being available for character input.  
      2. Brief Description of Related Art  
      The current touch pad can be classified into capacitance type, resistance type, electromagnetic type, pressure type,. Inductance type, surface sound wave type, supersonic type and optical type based on the physical principle of detecting touch control point. Ordinarily, the resistance type and capacitance type touch pads are frequently seen at the present time and they are primarily used in consumed electronic products such as notebook computers, flat computers, personal digital assistants and etc. A stylus or a finger is utilized to move on the touch pad for inputting characters by way of hand writing or simulating click function of a mouse.  
      As for the input method of a touch pad, a relative coordinate mode, which utilizes a distance between relative locations to control cursor movement of the mouse or a absolute coordinate mode, which provides plotting and hand writing functions for the user, are used. For recognition of the hand writing input function, taking U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,975 as an example, the prior art discloses a coordinate difference between a hand writing character point and a reference character point is calculated for recognizing the character. The main idea thereof is to figure out measured value of the distance between point and point and the way to find out the difference is to calculate the relative displacement of coordinates corresponding to moving locus of hand writing. However, it is very complicated to operate measured value of distance between a point and another point.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      An object of the present invention is to provide a touch control type character input method, which can define a moving locus by way of an initial position and moving directions easily, to overcome the deficiency of the prior art, which has to treat extremely complicated calculation.  
      Hence, a touch control type character input method according to the present invention has a control module to identify loci created by an object moving on a hand writing board and to generate a control signal corresponding to a combination of different ones of the moving loci for being used by a host unit performing subsequent input and the method includes following steps: combining moving vectors in different directions and a parameter data collection available for comparison being defined in the control module; detecting a position, which is touched by the object at the first time on the hand writing board, and assigning the position as an initial position; determining if a moving locus created on the hand writing board is effective and disassembling the effective moving locus as at least one of the moving vectors and removing ineffective moving locus; combining the obtained moving vectors and after the object detaches the hand writing board a period of time duration, analyzing the obtained and combined moving vectors, comparing the combined moving vectors with the parameter data collection defined in the control module and outputting a compared result in case of the combined moving vectors being in accordance with the parameter data collection.  
      A control module according to the present invention is electrically connected to the hand writing board and a host unit for identifying a plurality of different moving loci created by an object moving on the hand writing board and to generate a control signal corresponding to a combination of different ones of the moving loci for being used by the host unit performing subsequent input. Wherein, a coordinate treating unit is electrically connected to the hand writing board for receiving the moving loci on the hand writing board and transforming the moving loci to a plurality of corresponding coordinate parameters; a memory unit is preset with an internal parameter data collection for being available for comparison; an operation unit is electrically connected to the coordinate treating unit and the memory unit, assigns a position being first touched on the hand writing board as an initial position, takes the initial position and the moving loci in the different directions as judging criterion, disassembles the coordinate parameters received with the coordinate treating unit into moving vectors and combining the moving vectors, compares the moving vectors with parameters saved in the parameter data collection and outputs a control signal corresponding the character; a transmission interface is electrically connected to the host unit and the operation unit and transmits the control signal generated by the operation. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The detail structure, the applied principle, the function and the effectiveness of the present invention can be more fully understood with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of a touch control type character input method according to the present invention illustrating a first touching position of a finger being looked upon as the initial position P 1  and a movement being determined as effective controlled movement in case of the finger moving in a certain angular range;  
       FIG. 2  is a plan view illustrating the displacement S′ being determined as an ineffective controlled movement due to value of the displacement S′ being too small to reach a preset distance and the subsequent displacement S being determined as an effective controlled movement due to value of the displacement S exceeding the preset distance;  
       FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating vectors moving along different directions defining a parameter information collection for comparison;  
       FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating combination states meeting various moving vectors while characters “ 1 ”, “ 2 ”, “A” and “B” are taken as examples and written down;  
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram of circuit illustrating control module of the present invention; and  
       FIG. 6  is a flow chart illustrating executed steps of the touch control type character input method. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , a preferred embodiment of touch control type character input method according to the present invention is illustrated. A position on a writing board (not shown) being touched by a finger  2  or object at the first time is assigned as the initial position P 1 . As long as the finger  2  or object touches the surface of the writing board at the first time, the touched position is looked upon as the initial position. Further, a control signal can be output continuously during the finger  2  or object moving on the writing board exceeding preset time duration in the system and the signal output stops in case of the finger  2  or object being apart from the writing board.  
      It is noted that there is no restriction to what location of the initial position P 1  has to be on the writing board and a movement starting from the initial position P 1  toward any one of the longitudinal direction, transverse direction and an inclining direction within an angular range between 15° and 60° can be looked upon as an effective controlled movement. Further, the displacement S done by the finger or object on the writing board is detected and if the displacement S exceeds a preset distance, the movement is determined as the effective controlled movement.  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , if the displacement S′, which is also done by the finger or object on the writing board, is too small to reach to the preset distance, the movement is determined as an ineffective controlled movement. Nevertheless, the displacement S, which follows the displacement S′, exceeds the preset distance and an effective controlled movement can be determined and the system performs subsequent recognition and treatment.  
      Referring to  FIG. 3 , the touch control type character input method according to the present invention in company with the moving vectors  401 ˜ 408  from different moving directions such as a longitudinal, a transverse and an inclining directions can be combined and defined a parameter data collection. The moving vectors are defined as moving vector  401  being along the left direction, moving vector  402  being along right direction, moving vector  403  being along upward direction, moving vector  404  being along downward direction, moving vector  405  along northwest direction, moving vector  406  being along northeast direction, moving vector  407  being along southwest direction and moving vector  408  being along southeast direction. It is noted that the moving vectors can be desirably defined as other suitable angles and directions without being limited with the preceding eight directions.  
      Referring to  FIG. 4  in company with  FIG. 3  again, taking writing a digit “ 1 ” as an example, when the system has analyzed a moving locus  501  during moving and the moving locus  501  is in accordance with the moving vector  404  stored in the parameter data collection, the digit “ 1 ” is read and output. Taking writing digit “ 2 ” as another example, when the system has analyzed and disassembled loci  502 ˜ 504  during moving and the loci  502 ˜ 504  are in accordance with the combination of the moving vectors  402 ,  407  and  402 , the combination of the moving vectors  402 ,  407  and  402  is read and output Taking writing an alphabet “A” as example, when the system has analyzed and disassembled loci  520 ˜ 522  during moving and the loci  520 ˜ 522  are in accordance with a combination of the moving vectors  407 ,  408  and  402  stored in the parameter data collection, the combination of the moving vectors  407 ,  408  and  402  is read and the letter “A” is output. Taking writing an alphabet “B” as an example, when the system has analyzed and disassembled loci  523 ˜ 525  during moving and the loci  523 ˜ 525  are in accordance with a combination of the moving vectors  401 ,  402 ,  407  and  408  stored in the parameter data collection, the combination of the moving vectors  401 ,  402 ,  407 ,  408  is read and the letter “B” is output. As for other characters or symbols can be recognized with the preceding way.  
      Referring to  FIG. 5 , a control module  6  of the present invention is illustrated. The control module  6  is electrically connected to a coordinate treating unit  61  of the hand writing board  3 , a memory unit  62  with internal preset parameter data collection for comparison, an operation unit  63  being disposed between and electrically to the coordinate treating unit  61  and the memory unit  62  and a transmission interface  64  is disposed between and electrically connected to the operation unit  63  and a host unit  4 .  
      Wherein, the hand writing board  3  can be an ordinary capacitance type, resistance type, electromagnetic type, pressure type, inductance type, surface sound wave type, supersonic type or an optical touch device. The host unit  4  can be an electronic device installed with character input software such as a computer, a cell phone or a personal digital assistant. The coordinate treating unit  61  is used for receiving loci of the finger  2  or object during moving and transforming the loci to corresponding coordinate parameters  501 . The operation unit  63  is used for assigning position of the hand writing board  3  being touched at the first time as the initial position P 1 , transforming the coordinate parameter received from the coordinate treating unit to moving vectors, filtering out ineffective moving loci, taking the initial position P 1  together with effective moving vectors as judging criterion and comparing combinations of moving vectors of the parameter data collection stored in the memory unit  62  in advance and outputting control signal  601  corresponding to the gesture. The transmission interface  64  transforms the control signal  601  generated by the operation unit  63  to that can be recognized and used by the host unit  4 .  
      Referring to  FIG. 6 , the executing process of the touch control type input method according to the present invention is illustrated. Step  701  is to detect a locus of an object moving on the hand writing board and assign a position of the hand writing board being touched at the first time as the initial position. Then, step  702  is to count time duration and check if the time duration exceeds a preset time T 1  and step  703  is executed if the time duration is within the preset time T 1 . Step  703  is to filter out ineffective locus moved by the object on the hand writing board and if the time duration exceeds the preset time T 1  and step  704  is executed to detect and make sure time duration of the object not touching the hand writing board exceeding T 2  and it is affirmed that input of a character has been done. Step  705  is then executed to disassemble the locus into different vectors and step  706  is to arrange the vectors as different combinations. Step  708  is to compare with character parameter in the parameter data collection stored in advance. Step  709  is to determine if the character parameter in the parameter data collection stored in advance is in accordance with the combination vectors. In case of it is in accordance with each other, step  710  is executed to output the corresponding character and in case of it is not in accordance with each other, step  711  is executed to determine the input being incorrect and another input has to be performed. If next character input is input, steps  701 ˜ 711  are repeated.  
      It is appreciated that the touch control type character input method according to the present invention is mainly performed by the control module  6  to assign the position of the first touch to the hand writing board  3  as the initial position P 1 , to transform the received coordinate parameter to moving vectors, to filter out ineffective moved locus, to take the initial position P 1  and the effective moving vectors as judging criterion, to compare with character parameter of the parameter data collector saved in the memory unit  62  in advance and finally to output control signal  601  corresponding to the gesture. Hence, comparing to conventional way, which is to figure out coordinate difference between character points and reference point, the touch control type character input method of the present invention, which defines moved locus by way of the initial position and moving direction, is treated more easily and more conveniently and problems of complicated operation during the conventional input method being treated can be solved completely.  
      While the invention has been described with referencing to preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that modifications or variations may be easily made without departing from the spirit of this invention, which is defined by the appended claims.