Input data processing program and input data processing apparatus

• US 20070018950A1
• Filed: 06/07/2006
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Ohta, Keizo
• Granted Patent: US 7,833,098 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1068 being specially adapted to detect the point of contact of the player on a surface, e.g. floor mat, touch pad
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

An information processing apparatus stores a series of input positions which are continuously detected by an input device in a memory thereof in order of the detection. An input position (B1) initially stored in the memory is stored as a reference point position in the memory. When each of the series of input positions is stored in the memory, an operation vector (vector v′1) connecting between an input position having been most recently stored in the memory and the reference point position in the memory is calculated. The information processing apparatus performs a predetermined processing using a magnitude and a direction of the operation vector. The reference point position stored in the memory is updated to a position obtained when the reference point position is moved toward a predetermined target position (point A) when each of the series of input positions is stored in the memory.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon an input data processing program which causes a computer, having a detecting device that detects input positions on an input surface at intervals of a predetermined time period, to execute:

storing, as a reference point position, an initially detected input position among a series of input positions which are continuously detected, in a memory of the computer;

calculating, when each of the series of input positions is detected, an operation vector connecting between an input position having been most recently detected and the reference point position stored in the memory; and

performing a predetermined process using a magnitude and a direction of the operation vector.

2. The storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the input data processing program causes the computer to further execute updating the reference point position to a position other than the initially detected input position.

3. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein the updating step gradually moves the reference point position from the initially detected input position toward a predetermined target position.

4. The storage medium according to claim 3, wherein the updating step updates the reference point position when each of the series of input positions is detected.

5. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein

the updating step includes:

calculating a motion vector ending at the input position having been most recently detected and starting at an input position immediately preceding the input position having been most recently detected;

calculating a moving distance of the reference point position using at least one of a magnitude and a direction of the motion vector; and

moving the reference point position stored in the memory to a position obtained when the reference point position is moved toward a predetermined target position over the moving distance.

6. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein the moving distance calculating step calculates the moving distance so that the larger magnitude the motion vector has, the longer the moving distance is.

7. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein the moving distance calculating step calculates the moving distance so that the closer a direction of the motion vector is to a direction of a straight line connecting between the reference point position and the target position, the longer the moving distance is.

8. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein the moving distance calculating step calculates the moving distance so that the larger component the motion vector has in a direction of a straight line connecting between the reference point position and the target position, the longer the moving distance is.

9. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein

the updating step further includes adjusting, when the moving distance having been calculated is longer than a distance from the reference point position to the target position, the moving distance to the distance from the reference point position to the target position, and

the moving step moves, when the moving distance having been calculated is longer than the distance from the reference point position to the target position, the reference point position stored in the memory using the moving distance having been adjusted.

10. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein

the updating step includes

calculating a motion vector ending at the input position having been most recently detected and starting at an input position immediately preceding the input position having been most recently detected;

determining whether or not a magnitude of the motion vector has a value larger than a predetermined value; and

moving the reference point position stored in the memory only when the determination step determines that the magnitude of the motion vector has a value larger than the predetermined value.

11. The storage medium according to claim 3, wherein the target position represents a center of the input surface.

12. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein the reference point position storing step stores, when the initially detected input position is within a predetermined area including the target position, the initially detected input position as the reference point position in the memory, and stores, when the initially detected input position is outside the predetermined area, the target position as the reference point position in the memory.

13. An input data processing apparatus comprising a detecting device that detects input positions on an input surface at intervals of a predetermined time period, the input data processing apparatus comprising:

a storage device which stores, as a reference point position, an initially detected input position among a series of input positions which are continuously detected;

a processing device which calculates, when each of the series of input positions is detected, an operation vector connecting between an input position having been most recently detected and the reference point position stored in the storage device and performs a predetermined process using a magnitude and a direction of the operation vector.

14. An input device connectable to an input data processing apparatus for executing a predetermined data processing in accordance with input data, the input device comprising:

a detecting device which detects input positions on an input surface at intervals of a predetermined time period;

a storage device which stores, as a reference point position, an initially detected input position among a series of input positions which are continuously detected;

a processing device which calculates, when each of the series of input positions is detected, an operation vector connecting between an input position having been most recently detected and the reference point position stored in the storage device; and

a transmitting device which transmits the operation vector having been calculated to the input data processing apparatus as the input data.