Patent Application
20110310004
Embodiments of the invention relate to an apparatus and method of control thereof.
Referring to
The front panel 100 comprises a standby/on switch 101, an RF output 102 in the form of a 50Ω N-type socket, an external Q input or external frequency modulation input 103 and an I input or external amplitude modulation input 104. The front panel 100 also comprises a touch-sensitive display 106 and a keyboard 108.
A function is initially selected using the touch-sensitive display 106 either on a function label or by selecting a parameter value of interest. It is possible to select functions using their corresponding keys on the keyboard 108, the numeric keypad 206 or the rotary control 215.
The numeric keys are used to set parameters to specific values, which can be varied in steps of any size using the “×10” 214 and “÷10” 216 keys and/or the rotary control 215. The “×10” 214 and “÷10” 216 keys are used to adjust the rotary control sensitivity or resolution.
A development of the man-machine interface of digital RF signal generators sought to simplify its physical characteristics. The simplification provided a larger touch-sensitive screen and displayed keyboards, rotary controls and the like on the touch-sensitive screen instead of providing physical keys and rotatable knobs.
For example, the 6413A UMTS (3G) Base Station Test System also available from Aeroflex International Limited comprises a front panel 300 that has a large touch-sensitive screen 302 as can be appreciated from
However, it has been found that it can be difficult to enter certain categories of parameters using rotary controls, in particular using software realised rotary controls.
In particular, without a physical rotary control present, it is difficult to move one's finger in a circle using a touch screen as there is no physical wheel to guide your finger. Furthermore, it is very difficult to move one's finger quickly to modify a value by large amounts quickly for the same reason. Still further, there is very little feedback regarding how much a finger needs to be moved to effect a desired modification to the parameter or value of interest.
It is an object of embodiments of the invention to at least mitigate one or more problems of the prior art.
Accordingly, embodiments of the invention provide an apparatus as claimed in claim 1.
Advantageously, embodiments of the invention support making adjustments to numerical values. Particular embodiments support making such adjustments to such numerical values having a certain category of dynamic range such as, for example, a large dynamic range. Still further, such adjustments can be realised preferably without requiring a user to enter the entire numerical value using a numeric keypad.
Embodiments of the present invention advantageously allow a finger, stylus or other integer to move in a substantially straight line, which means that it is much easier to control the apparatus, that is, to vary the parameter. Furthermore, while there is an absence of feedback in the case of a rotary control, the indicia on one or more of the sliders provide an indication of the current value of the numerical value or parameter, which, in turn, allows one to appreciate by how much the parameter has changed or has to change before a target or desired value is reached.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Images or graphical outputs/representations (not shown) depicted on the display 410 are generated by the graphics controller such as, for example, an AGP Intel 740 or some other display controller resident in the AGP.
The software is arranged to present a pair of sliders 500, which, as can be seen in
It can be appreciated that the first slider 502 comprises a number of ticks such as, for example, the first tick 506 from the left. The ticks have associated values and units. The units can represent units of measurement or units of control. For example, the first tick 506 has an associated value of “7” 508 and an associated unit of milliseconds 510. The same applies to the other ticks shown on the first slider 502. It can be appreciated that the first slider 502 depicts a portion of a current dynamic range of the numerical value or parameter to be controlled starting with a displayed lower bound and finishing with a displayed upper bound. The slider depicts a small portion of the overall dynamic range of the numerical value or parameter. It will be appreciated, however, that the bounds of the slider are not the same as the upper and lower bounds of the parameter in general. However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the displayed upper and lower bounds are merely illustrative and do not represent the full dynamic range over which the numerical value or parameter can be controlled or varied.
Similarly, the second slider 504 comprises a number of ticks or graduations representing the decimal or fractional part of the numerical value or parameter being controlled, varied or set.
In the illustrated embodiment, the slider depicts a numerical value of exactly 9 ms as can be appreciated from the central indicator bar 512.
In the case of a touch-sensitive display, if a finger or stylus is moved left or right on an area of the overlay 413′ corresponding to one of the sliders 502 or 504, the graphical depiction of the numerical value moves correspondingly. Therefore, for example, moving the first slider 502 left will increase the numerical value or parameter. Moving the first slider 502 right will reduce the numerical value or parameter.
Releasing a currently actuated slider, that is, lifting the finger or stylus, will cause the tick of the slider that is nearest to the indicator bar 512 to snap to that indicator bar thereby aligning the tick with the indicator bar 512.
Embodiments can be realised in which the slider movement progressively slows down following release before snapping into alignment with the indicator bar.
It will be appreciated that the numerical values represented by the ticks of the second slider 504 are arranged to wrap around and span upper and lower bounds, that is, have a dynamic range, dictated by the units of the first slider 502. In general, moving the slider 504 left will increase the numerical value or parameter and moving the slider 502 right will decrease the numerical value or parameter.
A further embodiment of the invention can be realised in which increment and decrement functions are associated with one or more of the sliders. Referring to
The increment and decrement buttons and associated functions serve the purpose of allowing the units to be changed. In a preferred embodiment, the increment and decrement buttons vary the scale of their associated sliders. For example, the increment button 904 will increase the scale of the first slider 902 by a predetermined amount or in a predetermined manner. Embodiments can be realised in which the increase in scale corresponds to a factor of 10 increase. However, embodiments are not limited to such a multiplicative factor or, indeed, to multiplicative increases. Embodiment can be realised in which some other factor or increase in scale is used. Similarly, the decrement button 906 will decrease the scale of the first slider 902 by a predetermined amount or in a predetermined manner. Embodiments can be realised in which the decrease in scale corresponds to a factor of 10 decrease. However, embodiments are not limited to such a multiplicative factor. Embodiments can be realised in which some other factor or decrease in scale is used.
It will be appreciated that the dynamic ranges of the sliders might be varying according to intended capabilities of the apparatus such as, for example, maximum signal amplitude, current etc. Therefore, embodiments can be realised in which the ticks shown on the sliders are only depicted for values that fall within the dynamic range of the numerical value, parameter or signal characteristic being controlled.
At step 1402, graphical depictions of the sliders are initialised and displayed. The initialisation process comprises accessing data governing the initial settings of the sliders such as, for example, the units and resolution of the scales, the upper and lower bounds of the scale and the initial parameter value. The sliders are realised as respective windows and are displayed when a numerical value is selected, which will be described in greater detail with reference to
The apparatus enters a loop in which repeated determinations are made regarding whether or not an input has been detected. Alternatively, embodiments can be realised that are interrupt driven such that actuating the touch-sensitive screen raises an interrupt that is serviced by steps 1404 onwards of the flowchart 1400.
A determination is made, at step 1404, regarding whether or not an input has been detected. If the determination is negative, control returns to step 1404. If the determination is positive control passes to step 1406.
Step 1406 determines if the input relates to a slider or an increment/decrement button. If the determination is that the input relates to a slider, processing continues at step 1408, otherwise the input is assumed to relate to an increment or decrement button of one of the sliders, whereupon processing moves to step 1410.
If it is established, at step 1406, that the input relates to a slider, an assessment is made, at step 1408, regarding whether or not the input relates to the first slider. If the assessment at step 1408 is positive, a first portion, such as, for example, the integer part, of the numerical value or parameter is adjusted according to the degree and direction of movement of the slider, that is, according to slider actuation, at step 1412.
If the assessment, at step 1408, is negative, it is assumed that the input relates to the second slider and processing continues at step 1414 where a second portion, such as, for example, the fractional or decimal part, of the numerical value or parameter is adjusted according to the degree and direction of slider actuation. Processing then resumes at step 1404.
Returning to step 1410, an assessment is undertaken to determine if the increment button associated with the first slider has been actuated. If that assessment is positive, the scale of the first slider is varied, that is, increased in a predetermined manner at step 1416 and processing then resumes at step 1404.
If the assessment at step 1410 is negative, a determination is made, at step 1418, regarding whether or not the input related to actuation of the first slider decrement button. If that determination is positive, the scale of the first slider is decreased in a predetermined manner at step 1420. Thereafter processing resumes at step 1404.
If the determination at step 1418 is negative, an assessment is made regarding whether or not the input is associated with the increment button of the second slider at step 1422. If the assessment at step 1422 is positive, the scale of the second slider is increased in a predetermined manner at step 1424 and processing thereafter resumes at step 1404.
If the assessment at step 1422 is negative, it is assumed that the input relates to the decrement button of the second slider and the scale of the second slider is varied accordingly at step 1426. Thereafter processing resumes at step 1404.
Referring to
The current centre frequency of the power spectrum to be determined is displayed in a corresponding field or window 1526 with an adjacent “Adjust” button 1528. Invoking the “Adjust” button 1528 displays a pair of sliders according to embodiments of the present invention that can be used to adjust the centre frequency of the power spectrum of interest. One slider adjusts the integer portion of the centre frequency while the other slider adjusts the decimal portion of the frequency. Similarly, a trigger power level is displayed in a corresponding field or window 1530 that also has a corresponding “Adjust” button 1532, which is used to adjust the power level at which the apparatus triggers. The triggering mode is displayed and selectable in a toggling manner by actuating a triggering button 1534. The sampling is started and stopped using a start/stop button 1536.
The display also shows three further buttons. The first of the three further buttons is a window movement button 1538, which, when actuated, is used to move a respective window in a drag and drop manner. The second button 1540 of the three is a used to minimise or maximise the window and the final button 1542 is used to close the window.
Referring to
The above embodiments have been described with reference to using a finger or stylus to control the movement of the slider and hence control the underlying numerical value or parameter represented by the slider. However, embodiments are not limited thereto. Embodiments can be realised in which some other input device is used to control the slider such as, for example, a mouse, which would be connected via the I/O subsystem 414.
Although the above embodiments have been described with reference to the units of measurement or physical entity being time and, more particularly, milliseconds, embodiments are not limited thereto. Embodiments can equally well be realised that use some other units of time or some other physical quantity such as, for example, units of frequency, units of voltage, units of current, modulation index, time such as Capture time or Capture length, measurement span, sample rate, graphical marker position in frequency or time. However, one skilled in the art appreciates that embodiments of the invention can be used to set or control any parameter.
The above embodiments have been described with reference to a digital signal generator. However, embodiments are not limited thereto. Embodiments can be realised using other apparatuses in which there is a desire to control a parameter. For example, embodiments can be used in relation to an oscilloscope, a spectrum analyser, Radio Test set, Radio test system or measurement system of any type, Vector signal Analysis, Vector Signal Generator and the like.
Embodiments have been described with reference to the numerical value or parameter representing or being associate with a corresponding physical characteristic of a signal. However, embodiments are not limited to such arrangements. Embodiments can be realised in which the numerical value or parameter controls a process. For example, if the parameter represents time, the sliders might be used to control the sampling period or frequency of an ND converter. Embodiments can be realised in the context of graphical scaling where the number entered affects a current scale of a graph. Furthermore, embodiments can be realised in the context of marker movement, where the number entered affects the location of a marker and, therefore, the displayed value of the marker.
The above embodiments have described with reference to the sliders using ticks. However, embodiments are not limited thereto. Embodiments can be realised in which some other indicia are used.
Although two sliders have been used in the above embodiments of the invention, embodiments can be realised in which some other number, that is, one or more, of sliders can be used in embodiments of the invention such as specifying coordinates in terms of X, Y and Z values simultaneously, or three levels of precision, such as a slider for the integer part of the value, a slider specifying up to 5 decimal places, and a slider specifying more than 5 decimal places. One skilled in the art appreciates that the flow chart shown in and described with reference to
It will be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention can be realised in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software. Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like a ROM, whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, RAM, memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a CD, DVD, magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are embodiments of machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a program or programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement embodiments of the present invention. Accordingly, embodiments provide a program comprising code for implementing a system or method as claimed in any preceding claim and a machine readable storage storing such a program. Still further, such programs may be conveyed electronically via any medium such as a communication signal carried over a wired or wireless connection and embodiments suitably encompass the same.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0820585.8 | Nov 2008 | GB | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/GB09/51511 | 11/11/2009 | WO | 00 | 9/12/2011 |
