This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-102606, filed on May 14, 2013; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a drawing apparatus and a drawing system.
In a mobile terminal such as a tablet, there is known a technology in which when an operation is performed by directly touching a screen with a finger or a touch pen, adequate vibration is given to develop a tactile sense of drawing in a pseudo manner. For example, there is known a technology in which when a user moves his or her finger along a screen surface, adequate vibration is added on a screen in a horizontal direction so that a user experiences a tactile feeling approximated to that of a concavo-convex shape. Also, there is promoted a method in which a tactile sense is utilized to provide a feedback to an action of operating a button on a screen or to present an end or a specific area on a screen.
According to an embodiment, a drawing apparatus includes a drive unit, a distance acquisition unit, and a drive controller. The drive unit vibrates the drawing apparatus. The distance acquisition unit acquires a distance between the drawing apparatus and a device. The drive controller drives the drive unit at a first amplitude when: the drawing apparatus is in a drawing mode, the drawing apparatus and the device are determined to be within a first distance based on the acquired distance, and the drawing apparatus is determined to be moving. The drive controller drives the drive unit at a second amplitude greater than the first amplitude when: the drawing apparatus is in the drawing mode, the drawing apparatus and the device are determined to be in contact with each other based on the acquired distance, and the drawing apparatus is determined to be moving.
In general, letters or figures are drawn by bringing a pen in contact with a glass surface such as a tablet (hereinafter, simply referred to as drawing), but a pen is likely to slip on a glass surface, resulting in an uncomfortable writing feeling. As a countermeasure to this, for example, an elastomer (such as vulcanized rubber), felt, or the like is used as a material of a pen tip; or a resistance sense-enhancing film is applied on a glass surface such as a tablet.
Furthermore, there exists a technology enabling a user to experience a friction sense when moving a finger along a screen. Thus, a friction sense during an action of moving a finger along a screen is realized. Similarly, in a case of a pen tablet type interface, a technology is known in which surface elastic waves by ultrasonic waves are generated on a screen side to provide resistance in a pen moving direction. Accordingly, roughness is realized. In this case, when vibrating a screen by surface elastic waves in a moving direction of a touch pen and in an opposite direction to the moving direction of a touch pen, easiness and difficulty of movement with respect to a touch pen movement alternately appear. This is sensed as friction. Besides, there are known a method of realizing an adequate friction sense by changing screen vibration strength according to an area of a touch pen being in contact with a screen, as well as a method of calculating vibration behaviors caused by friction between a paper sheet and a touch pen by a simulation and transmitting a similar vibration to a touch pen by vibration of a screen. Moreover, there is disclosed a stylus in which a rotating vibrator or a linear vibrator is vibrated in response to vibration control information from external sources, and the vibration is modulated according to a moving speed of a pointer.
However, when drawing is performed on a glass screen of a tablet, a pen is likely to slip. Accordingly, a soft touch perceived with a writing brush, a painting pencil, or the like is difficult to be achieved. For example, there exists a system enabling a writing brush or a painting brush to be visually displayed on a screen. For example, in an existing product such as Artist Hardware Sensu Brush (registered trademark), a conductive material is used for bristles of a pen so that a screen reacts to an electrostatic touch. Although a state of drawing letters and figures on a glass surface with bristles can be realized, realization of a sense of drawing on an actual paper sheet has not been achieved. A technology of imparting to a user a drawing sense similar to a case of actual description with a writing brush or the like has not been achieved. Therefore, in embodiments described herein, a drawing apparatus capable of achieving a soft drawing tactile feeling like a brush or a painting brush will be described.
A drawing apparatus according to an embodiment described herein will be described below with reference to drawings.
The distance sensing unit 5 acquires a distance between a screen and a pen tip, and includes a pen core 5b in the touch pen 1, a conductive rubber 5a mounted to an end of the pen core 5b, and an ultrasonic sensor 5c. The ultrasonic sensor 5c is a three dimensional ultrasonic position sensor in the embodiment described herein. As another method of detecting a distance, an electrostatic capacitance sensor, a PSD (Position Sensing Device), or the like can be used. In a case of an ultrasonic sensor, ultrasonic waves emitted from an ultrasonic oscillator near a pen tip are measured by at least three or more ultrasonic receivers 6 disposed on a screen to calculate a relative three dimensional positional relationship with the screen. These ultrasonic receivers 6 can also be used for detecting a movement of a pen tip on a screen. The power source 3 supplies power to the drive unit 2, the calculation unit 4, the distance sensing unit 5, or the like. The calculation unit 4 controls vibration of the drive unit 2 disposed to the touch pen 1. Furthermore, the calculation unit 4 performs: determination on a drawing mode of the touch pen 1; determination based on information acquired by the movement sensing unit 11, the distance sensing unit 5, and the like; control of output of noise sound; and the like.
The movement sensing unit 11 detects a position of a touch pen by sensing a time change of a pen tip position on a screen of the drawn apparatus 10. A position of the touch pen 1 on a screen is always transmitted to the host PC 20. Usually, a position of a pen tip is measured by the movement sensing unit 11 in a sampling cycle of approximately from tens to 100 Hz. Therefore, a movement of the touch pen 1 is detected by checking changes of pen tip position information transmitted to the host PC 20. In this case, an absolute position of the touch pen 1 on a screen is not necessary, and similarly to a mouse, only a relative movement may be required to be obtained. Movement of the touch pen 1 can also be detected by a compact camera, a PSD (Position Sensing Device), an acceleration sensor, and a gyro sensor each mounted to a pen tip.
The drive unit 2 is hardware for vibrating the touch pen 1. As the drive unit, a motor and a piezoelectric element can be used. In a case of a motor, vibration can be generated by a method of decentering a weight to generate whirl vibration or by alternately switching a forward rotation and a reverse rotation. The drive unit 2 is provided for imparting an adequate friction sense to the touch pen 1. When the drive unit 2 is a motor, a rotation in one direction (forward rotation) and a rotation in a direction opposite to the forward rotation (reverse rotation) may be switched alternately and quickly to generate vibration. Vibration can also be generated by using a decentered weight. However, in such a case, the touch pen 1 entirely vibrates. When the touch pen 1 entirely vibrates with large amplitude, a writing feeling can become uncomfortable. With this vibration, the drive unit 2 enables a user holding the touch pen 1 to experience a sense of performing drawing with a writing brush. A generation method of a writing brush-like sense will be described below.
In a case of a writing brush, when a tip of a brush touches a paper sheet, a letter starts to be written. When a pen tip is a soft body like a writing brush, a force occurring between a paper sheet and a brush tip is minimal. Therefore, a degree of contact is difficult to be detected. Although there is also a method of determining a contact area between brush and glass using an optical or electromagnetic device, a delicate distance from brush becomes difficult to be detected.
Furthermore, in a case of drawing with a writing brush, a friction sense and a brush movement sense experienced by a user differ depending on states as illustrated in
Thus, since a brush movement sense depends on a contact area between a pen tip and a screen, that is a distance between a pen tip and a screen, a user controls a writing pressure while visually and haptically knowing the states in a usual drawing with a writing brush. Therefore, the calculation unit 4 performs control in view of this point when driving the drive unit 2. Specifically, a distance between a pen tip, or the brush part 7 mounted to a pen tip, and a screen is acquired by the distance sensing unit 5. Based on the acquired distance, a driving aspect of the drive unit 2 is controlled.
When the touch pen 1 is determined to be in a drawing mode (step S101: Yes), the calculation unit 4 checks output of the distance sensing unit 5 and the movement sensing unit 11 transmitted to the host PC 20, and determines whether or not a pen tip is within a predetermined distance from a screen (step S102), and whether or not the touch pen 1 is moving near a screen (step S103).
When the calculation unit 4 determines that a pen tip is within a predetermined distance from a screen (step S102: Yes), and the touch pen 1 is moving near a screen (step S103: Yes), the calculation unit 4 determines whether or not a vibration flag of the touch pen 1 is OFF (step S104). The vibration flag is a setting information for determining whether or not to vibrate the touch pen 1. When a vibration flag of the touch pen 1 is determined to be OFF (step S104: Yes), a vibration flag is changed to an ON state. Then, the processing returns to step S101 again while moving to step S105 (step S110). Thereafter, the calculation unit 4 generates a predetermined vibration pattern signal (step S105), and transmits the vibration pattern signal to the drive unit 2 for activation (step S106). On the other hand, when vibration is determined not to be in an OFF state (step S104: No), the processing returns to step S101.
On the other hand, when the touch pen 1 is determined not to be in a drawing mode (step S101: No), when a pen tip is determined not to be within a predetermined distance from a screen (step S102: No), and when a pen tip is determined not to be moving (step S103: No), the calculation unit 4 determines whether or not a vibration flag of the touch pen 1 is in an ON state (step S107). When a vibration flag of the touch pen 1 is determined to be in an ON state (step S107: Yes), the calculation unit 4 changes a vibration flag to an OFF state. Then, the processing returns to step S101 again while moving to step S108 (step S111). Thereafter, the calculation unit 4 generates a stop signal (step S108), and transmits a vibration OFF signal to the drive unit 2 for terminating action of the drive unit 2 (step S109). Thus, only when a pen tip is in contact with a screen and moving on the screen, a brush stroke is actually drawn on the screen, and vibration associated with drawing is transmitted to a fingertip. Then, due to the vibration, a user can experience a skin sensation in a fingertip and a motion sense in a hand moving the touch pen 1, and can feel roughness of a screen in contact with the touch pen 1. On the other hand, when a vibration flag of the touch pen 1 is determined not to be in an ON state (step S107: No), the processing returns to step S101.
When a determination on whether or not the touch pen 1 is in a drawing mode (step S101), a determination on whether or not a pen tip is moving (step S103), and a determination on whether or not a pen tip is within a predetermined distance from a screen (step S102) are made on the host PC 20 side, the host PC 20 may generate a vibration pattern of the touch pen 1 in step S105 and step S108, and transmit the generated vibration pattern to the calculation unit 4 of the touch pen 1 via wireless or wired lines. Then, the touch pen 1 having received a vibration pattern performs processing of execution or termination of vibration action of the drive unit 2.
On the other hand, when at least either of a determination on whether or not a pen tip is moving (step S103) and a determination on whether or not a pen tip is within a predetermined distance from a screen (step S102) is made on the touch pen 1 side, a determination on whether or not the touch pen 1 is in a drawing mode (step S101) and a determination on whether or not a vibration flag of the touch pen 1 is in an ON state or in an OFF state (step S104 and step S107) are made on the host PC 20 side. Then, determination results are transmitted to the calculation unit 4 of the touch pen 1.
Therefore, the calculation unit 4 in the touch pen 1 generates an actual vibration pattern or a vibration termination pattern according to a vibration situation of ON or OFF at that time, that is the information acquired from the host PC 20 (steps S105 and S108), to have the drive unit 2 activated/stopped (steps S106 and S109). Notably, when both a determination on whether or not a pen tip is moving (step S103) and a determination on whether or not a pen tip is within a predetermined distance from a screen (step S102) are made on the touch pen 1 side, information to be transmitted from the host PC 20 to the calculation unit 4 in the touch pen 1 is only on whether or not the touch pen 1 is in a drawing mode. That is, only when a mode is to be changed, the mode may be transmitted. At this time, the calculation unit 4 in the touch pen 1 also determines action of the drive unit 2. Notably, in this case, if an ultra-compact camera judging a distance with a screen, or an acceleration or gyro sensor sensing motion of a pen tip is used as the distance sensing unit 5, for example, the host PC 20 needs to transmit only information on whether or not the touch pen 1 is in a drawing mode, and vibration control itself can be performed by the calculation unit 4 in a pen.
When the brush part 7 is mounted as an attachment as described above, a determination on where a brush stroke starts on a screen is difficult to make. As a countermeasure to this, a marker indicating a position of a pen tip is displayed on a screen so that the position of a pen tip can be recognizable. As a method of displaying a marker, as illustrated in
Alternatively, as illustrated in
When a pen tip contacts with a screen while vibrating, a pen comes to be in contact with a body of which the mass is much larger than that of a pen. For example, in a case of a 7-inch tablet, the tablet has a weight of approximately 300 to 400 g, while a pen has a weight of around 10 g. Therefore, amplitude which can be experienced may become smaller after contact of the touch pen 1 with a screen, compared to before the contact.
On the other hand, when drawing is actually performed with a brush, resistance to brush movement does not rapidly increase even when a brush touches a screen, due to a buffering action caused by bristles of a brush. Therefore, in order to reduce a rapid change of amplitude between before and after contact of an electronic pen with a screen, vibration amplitude of the drive unit 2 to be applied when a pen comes in contact with a screen is desirably greater than before the contact. Specifically, a plurality of frequencies for vibrating the drive unit 2 is previously stored. When a distance between a screen and a pen tip acquired by the distance sensing unit 5 reaches 0, the calculation unit 4 may perform control to change a frequency for driving the drive unit 2 from small to large. Furthermore, a sensor for measuring a writing pressure may be provided to increase a vibration frequency of the drive unit 2 according to a writing pressure measured by the calculation unit 4.
As described above, in the touch pen 1 of embodiments described herein, vibration is imparted to the touch pen 1 not at a timing when the touch pen 1 contacts with a screen but at a timing when the touch pen 1 is located in a range within a predetermined distance from a screen. As a result, vibration is imparted to the touch pen 1 before actually coming in contact with a screen. Then, when the touch pen 1 touches a screen, amplitude of the vibration is suppressed and reduced by the contact with a screen. Thus, vibration approximated to a friction sense perceived during drawing with a brush can be generated.
Next, a vibration signal of the drive unit 2 will be described in detail. In
Meanwhile,
Here, as a touch pen, there is an application of virtually changing a touch pen into one of various types of touch pens such as a pencil, a ball-point pen, and a magic pen. For example, when a user selects a pencil, a tactile sensation of a pencil can be obtained. Also, when a user selects a ball-point pen, a tactile sensation of a ball-point pen can be obtained. For example,
Alternatively, as illustrated in
Furthermore, the touch pen 1 may include a sound output unit. The sound output unit is controlled by a sound control unit further provided to the calculation unit 4. For example, in addition to the above-described vibration, random noise sound may be output according to a position of the touch pen 1 in motion, so that a sense of reality can be further increased.
When a noise having large power on a low band side, such as pink noise, red noise, and brown noise, is used as random noise, a sense close to an actual sound of a touch pen is experienced. By changing this sound according to a touch pen type in a similar manner to vibration, more types of touch pens can be expressed. In order to change a pen type, for example, the touch pen 1 or a tablet screen may be provided with a pen selection button. Each time the button is pressed, a pencil mode, a ball point pen mode, a marker pen mode, a magic pen mode, and the like may be sequentially switched. The method of controlling vibration described herein can also be realized through an attachment to an existing electronic touch pen.
Calculation Unit 4
When provided to the drawn apparatus 10 or the host PC, the calculation unit 4 includes a control unit 1002 such as a CPU, a storage unit 1004 such as a ROM and a RAM, an external storage unit 1006 such as a HDD, an output unit 1008 outputting information for controlling the drive unit 2 or the sound output unit, and an acquisition unit 1010 acquiring information regarding a moving distance, trace, or the like of the touch pen 1, and configured utilizing a conventional computer. Furthermore, the calculation unit 4 may have an information processing apparatus performing, for example, acquisition of information regarding a moving distance, trace, or the like from the touch pen 1. Especially, when performed via wireless lines or the like, a wireless communication unit 1012 may be provided to the touch pen 1, the drawn apparatus 10, the host PC, and the like.
Processing to be executed in the calculation unit 4 according to the embodiments above may be stored as a program. A program to be interested is provided in a recording medium readable by a computer such as a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a memory card, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), and a flexible disk (FD) as a file of an installable or executable format.
Also, a program to be executed in the calculation unit according to the embodiments above may be provided by storing the program on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and allowing a user to download the program via the network. Also, a program to be executed in the wireless communication unit according to the every above embodiments and every variations may be provided or distributed via a network such as the Internet. Moreover, a program to be executed in the wireless communication unit according to the every above embodiments and every variations may be provided by incorporating previously into a ROM or the like.
A program to be executed in the calculation unit according to the above embodiments has a module structure for realizing the above-described units on a computer. As actual hardware, a CPU retrieves a program from a HDD onto a RAM, and executes the retrieved program to realize the above-described units on a computer.
Here, the above embodiments are not limited by themselves, and can be practiced by modifying the components in a range without departing from the gist in an implementation stage. Also, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of components disclosed in the above embodiments. For example, some components may be deleted from all of the components described in the embodiments. Furthermore, components of different embodiments may be appropriately combined.
For example, the each steps in the flow chart of the embodiments above may be changed in execution order, may be plurally executed in a simultaneous manner, or may be executed in a different order for every implementation, unless such changes or execution are contrary to the nature of the steps.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2013-102606 | May 2013 | JP | national |