Computer system having digitizing tablet

• US 6,018,336 A
• Filed: 02/13/1997
• Issued: 01/25/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Akiyama, Kazuhiro, Sebori, Ryoichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Xiao
• Assistant Examiner(s): Laneau, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US08/800,030
• Time in Patent Office: 1,076 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/174, 345/356, 345/145, 345/146, 345/352, 345/353, 345/354, 345/902, 395/358
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0414 using force sensing means to determine a position

Abstract

When a pressure sensitive tablet is tapped with a touch pen, input coordinate values x and y, corresponding to the position tapped with the pen, are sent to a tablet driver from a tablet controller. Event data is added to the coordinate values x and y sent to the tablet driver by a pointing management portion to be sent to an operating system. If the coordinate values x and y sent from the tablet driver are included in an area showing a switch of a mode displayed on a screen, the coordinate values x and y are sent to a tablet mode switching tool by a pen service portion of the operating system.

Claims

1. A mouse function emulation method applied to a computer system having a tablet for executing an operating system, comprising the steps of:

detecting a tap on a predetermined area of said tablet performed by a pen, wherein an object indicating at least one of a plurality of mouse functions is displayed in said predetermined area, and said plurality of mouse functions include a function of merely moving a cursor to a position of said detected tap without drag operation;

determining presence of a mode selection by detecting the tap of the predetermined area on the tablet, each mode indicating at least one of said plurality of mouse functions;

continuously adding, when said mode selection is present, event data, indicating one of the plurality of mouse functions and corresponding to the selected mode, to position data of a tap detected after said detected tap; and

executing a process in response to the position data using said operating system in accordance with said event data to emulate the mouse function, wherein said process is executed until another mode is determined.

2. The emulation method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a function of clicking a right-side mouse button.

3. The emulation method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a short-cut function.

4. The emulation method according to claim 1, wherein said event data adding step includes a sub-step of clearing the mode selection after adding event data, corresponding to said selected mode, to position data of the tap detected.

5. A computer system comprising:

a tablet;

a controller for detecting a tap on a predetermined area of said tablet performed by a pen to generate position data corresponding to the detected tap, wherein an object indicating at least one of a plurality of mouse functions is displayed in said predetermined area, and said plurality of mouse functions include a function of merely moving a cursor to a position of said detected tap without drag operation;

a driver for adding, when a mode selection is present, event data, indicating one of the plurality of mouse functions, to the generated position data, each mode indicating at least one of the plurality of mouse functions; and

an operating system running in said computer system, and having a first interface for executing a process corresponding to input position data in accordance with said event data and a second interface for interfacing with an application executed in said computer system, wherein said first interface determines presence of the mode selection by detecting a tap of the predetermined area on the tablet, and said driver changes event data to be added continuously to position data corresponding to a tap detected after said detected tap, wherein said process is executed until another mode is selected.

6. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a drag function.

7. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a drag function and a function of clicking a right-side mouse button.

8. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a drag function and a short-cut function.

9. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein said driver adds data, showing a click of a left-side mouse button as default event data, and event data different from said default, and clears said event data.

10. A computer system comprising:

a display;

a tablet provided on the display;

a tablet controller for detecting a tap on a predetermined area of the tablet performed by a pen to generate position data corresponding to the detected tap;

a display controller for displaying an object indicating at least one of a plurality of mouse functions, wherein said plurality of mouse functions include a function of merely moving a cursor to a position of said detected tap without drag operation; and

a control section for receiving the position data and executing said plurality of mouse functions, based on the position data, if the displayed object is tapped, wherein said executing continues until another displayed object is tapped.

11. The computer system according to claim 10, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a function of clicking a right-side mouse button.

12. The computer system according to claim 10, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a function of resetting a function executed by the control section.

13. A mouse function emulation method applied to a computer system having a display and a tablet provided on the display, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a tap on a predetermined area of the tablet performed by a pen to generate position data corresponding to the detected tap;

displaying an object indicating at least one of a plurality of mouse functions, wherein said plurality of mouse functions include a function of merely moving a cursor to a position of said detected tap without drag operation; and

receiving the position data and executing one of said plurality of mouse functions, based on the position data, if the displayed object is tapped, wherein said executing continues until another displayed object is tapped.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a function of clicking a right-side mouse button.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein said plurality of mouse functions further include a function of resetting a function executed in the receiving step.