Information processing apparatus

• US 6,938,220 B1
• Filed: 02/24/1998
• Issued: 08/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Yutaka, Nagasawa, Hiroyuki, Kurata, Masaaki, Nakao, Hiroshi, Nakajima, Yasuhiro, Shigematsu, Hiroyuki, Sakamoto, Munenori
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Ba
• Application Number:
  US09/028,480
• Time in Patent Office: 2,744 Days
• Field of Search: 345/358, 345/173, 345/174, 345/177, 345/178, 345/179, 715/863, 715/864, 715/865, 382/187, 382/188, 382/189
• US Class Current: 715/863
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32

Abstract

An information processing apparatus obtains a distance that an input pen is moved in terms of the number of dots covered on a display screen, and from that number, judges whether a pen stroke is a gesture entry or a pointing entry. When the input pen is moved over more than a predetermined number of dots, e.g., eight dots, gesture recognition processing is performed. If the input pen is moved less than that number of dots, a pointing instruction is recognized, and pointing processing is performed. If a gesture is recognized, a recognized gesture editing command and a feature point of the gesture command are stored in RAM. Since an input by the input pen is judged a gesture entry or a pointing entry according to the number of dots over which the input pen is moved, a switch is not required to change data/instruction entry modes which reduces cost and improves handling.

Claims

1. A method of using an information processing apparatus having a screen, an input pen, and a data processor, comprising:

storing a plurality of reference strokes;

detecting coordinates of a position on the screen pointed by the input pen;

specifying one or more edit instructions corresponding to respective ones of the reference strokes as enabled or one or more edit instructions corresponding to respective ones of the reference strokes as disabled;

storing in memory the specified edit instructions along with an indication selected by a user of whether a specified edit instruction is enabled or disabled including at least one edit instruction with an enabled indicator, at least one edit instruction with a disabled indicator, or at least one edit instruction with a partially effective indicator;

comparing a stroke formed by detected coordinates of successive pen pointing positions on the screen with certain ones of the reference strokes;

recognizing an edit instruction which is a closest match to the enabled stroke;

outputting the recognized edit instruction when the recognized edit instruction is specified in the memory as being enabled; and

editing information displayed on the screen according to the output edit instruction.

2. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the specifying step includes specifying a plurality of edit instructions as enabled or disabled in accordance with the indicators.