Pointing apparatus

• US 4,987,411 A
• Filed: 07/01/1988
• Issued: 01/22/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Ishigami, Hidetoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Oberley, Alvin E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SARAS, STEVEN J
• Application Number:
  US07/214,257
• Time in Patent Office: 935 Days
• Field of Search: 340/706, 340/709, 340/710, 340/711
• US Class Current: 345/159
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence

Abstract

A pointing apparatus includes a direction determination circuit for determining a moving direction of a cursor in accordance with cursor current position information and cursor moving information input from a mouth, and a cursor jump circuit for recognizing the presence/absence of an icon to be designated by the cursor near a position along the moving direction determined by the direction determination circuit, and for jumping the cursor to the position of the icon.

Claims

1. A pointing apparatus for immediately moving a cursor from a current position to a position of one of a plurality of objects displayed on a display in response to displacement of an input device, comprising:

means for generating a two-dimensional displacement signal corresponding to the displacement of said input device;

means for determining a cursor move direction in accordance with said two-dimensional displacement signal and said current position of said cursor, and for determining said position of the one of said plurality of objects which is displayed most nearly along said cursor move direction; and

means for moving said cursor to said position of said one of said plurality of objects displayed on said display in response to said determining means.

2. A pointing apparatus for immediately moving a cursor from a current position to a position of one of a plurality of objects displayed on a display in response to displacement of an input device, comprising:

input means for generating a two-dimensional displacement signal corresponding to the displacement of said input device;

cursor move direction means for determining a cursor move direction in accordance with said two-dimensional displacement signal;

cursor memory means for storing said current position of said cursor and for providing a current position signal to said display to display said cursor;

object memory means for storing the positions of said plurality of objects displayed on said display;

object position means for reading one of said positions of said plurality of objects displayed on said display which is displaced most nearly along said cursor move direction, and for refreshing the contents of said cursor memory means to store said object position read by said object position means; and

means for selectively activating said cursor move direction means.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said cursor move direction means comprises cursor control means responsive to said two-dimensional displacement signal for refreshing the current position of said cursor and for providing a refreshed current position signal, and means for determining the cursor move direction in accordance with said current position signal provided by said cursor memory means and said refreshed current position signal provided by said cursor control means.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said cursor control means comprises CPU means for calculating the displacement direction of said input means from said two-dimensional displacement signal.

5. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said object position memory means comprises storing means for storing an icon registration table formatted with identification and icon data corresponding to said object displayed on said display.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said storing means reads out said icon data sequentially.