Computer interface device

Abstract

A computer terminal device includes a flat screen display element and a touch-sensitive element. Simulated keyboards can be displayed on the display element and, in response to the touching of the simulated keys, generate appropriate control signals. The same flat screen display can also be used to display computer output, either the result of calculations or the result of information retrieval requests. The slim silhouette of this terminal makes it ideal for hostile environments such as the factory floor or the hospital room.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to computers and computer terminals, and more particularly, to small, compact and light-weight terminal devices for computers and computer systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Flat display electroluminescent and plasma display devices are well-known and have long been incorporated into computer terminal devices, particularly for portable terminals and for portable computers. Such portable computers are sometimes called "smart" terminals or personal computers or work stations. While such flat screen devices substantially reduce the size of computer terminals, the standard keyboard, key pads, "mice," and other input devices have required that even "portable" terminals be relatively bulky despite the thin screen display.

It is also well-known to provide a touch-sensitive display screen for computer terminals. By touching the screen at or near indicia displayed on the screen, the user can select actions or graphic display portions for further consideration or action. Thus, in response to a touch, a command can be selected from a menu for execution, a graphical element can be selected for enlargement, movement or replication, or a data file can be selected for processing. Such touch-responsive selections have the disadvantage, however, of being totally dependent on the specific application for which they were designed. General purpose input devices, such as typewriter-type keyboards, were therefore also necessary for generalized inputting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, a light, portable, compact computer terminal is provided by combining a flat screen display device with a touch-sensitive overlayer. All or a portion of the display surface is used to simulate a standard input device such as a standard "q-

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring more particularly to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 are plan and elevation views, respectively, of a portable computer terminal in accordance with the illustrative embodiment of the present invention. As can be seen in FIG. 1, the terminal 10 has two planar surfaces 11 and 13 at an angle to each other. Planar surface 11 includes an opening 12 which provides visual access to a flat screen display labelled labeled with labels appropriate to the particular use of the simulated keyboard. For a typewriter keyboard, the labels shown in FIG. 4 would be appropriate. Of course, for other keyboards, i.e., the telephone key pad of FIG. 5, other labelling labeling arrangements would be used. At box 34, the circuits of terminal 10 simply wait until the touch-sensitive screen 16 of terminal 10 detects the fact that the surface of the screen has been touched. When the screen is touched, box 34 translates the touch-responsive signals from layer 16 into x-y coordinates on the display surface. In decision box 35, the x-y coordinates of the touched point are compared to the predefined x-y coordinates associated with the displayed keys. If the touched point lies outside of all of such predefined key areas, then box 34 is reentered to await another touch-responsive signal.

If the coordinates of the touched point on the screen correspond to a predefined key area, then box 36 is entered to determine the particular character or numeral which that key is intended to generate. In decision box 37, it is determined whether that character corresponds to one of the shift keys on the typewriter display. If so, box 38 is entered to erase the current labels on the keys (as shown in FIG. 4) and replace these labels with labels corresponding to the shifted values of these keys, e.g. capital letter rather than lower case letters. Thus, unlike standard keyboards, it is possible to relabel the keys in a transient manner as key stroking takes place.

Once keys are relabeled in box 38, box 34 is re-entered to await the next touch on the screen surface. If the key touched is not a shift key, then decision box 39 is entered to determine whether or not the continue key 31, shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, was touched. This continue key is utilized in all keyboard displays to permit a return to the immediately preceeding preceding display. Thus, if the continue key was touched, box 40 is entered which deletes the typewriter display and restores the previous display which was saved in box 31. If the continue key was not touched, then box 41 is entered, and the ASCII value of the key that was touched is transmitted to the connected computer or transmission link. Thereafter, box 34 is again re-entered to await the next touch on the touch-sensitive screen.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 8, there is shown a block diagram of the internal circuitry of the terminal 10. The internal circuitry of terminal 10 comprises, among other things, the flat display 15 and the touch-sensitive screen 16. A decoder circuit 50 is responsive to the touch screen 16 and translates the output from touch-sensitive screen 16 (which may well be analog electrical signals) into x-y coordinates. The touch screen decoder circuit, in turn, communicates with the video controller 51 which maintains the keyboard display on display device 15 and compares the x-y coordinates of the touched point to the predefined x-y coordinates of the displayed screen. In response to matches, controller 51 produces ASCII characters which are delivered to a central processor in computer 52.

Video controller 51 and computer 52 may, as illustrated in FIG. 8, be part of the hand-held terminal 10. In the alternative, controller 51 and computer 52 may be remotely located, and a flexible and retractile cord used to connect the portable elements 15, 16 and 50 to the balance of the circuitry. In the alternative, this connection can be had using wireless technology such as sonic, radio or infrared communication links. Indeed, computer 52 might well comprise an entry point to a vast computer network including large amounts of extremely complex computation capability or access to large databases, the contents of which may prove useful in the particular application in which terminal 10 is being used. Thus, terminal 10, although small and simple in itself, can be used as an access mechanism to much larger and much more complex data processing or data retrieval capabilities.

One particular application of terminal 10 is shown in FIG. 9. In FIG. 9, the terminal 10 is used as a bedside terminal in a hospital patient's room. Thus, a terminal similar to terminal 10 is available for each patient's bed in the hospital and is used much like the clipboard currently maintained manually for each patient's records. The bedside terminals 10 for each of the wards 70 are connected to medium-sized computers, each one servicing one of the wards in the hospital. These mini-computers, in turn, are connected, via communication path 74, to larger computers 71 and 72 which include financial and medical records for each of the patients (in computer 71) or hospital inventory and diagnostic tools available in another computer 72. A plurality of clinics 73 also associated with the hospital are likewise connected to backbone communication path 74, and communicate with standard computer terminals 75 to enter outpatient data into mini-computers servicing each of the clinics 73. Standard computer terminals 76 serve as input and output devices for computer 71 to permit patient registration, billing and other financial and administrative functions. Other hospital sub-systems, such as laboratories, pharmaceutical dispensories, visitors desks, and so forth, may be connected to the same computer system. The bedside terminals 10 therefore have access to all of the data generated and stored in these other sub-systems, as well as the computing power of the large mainframe computers 71 and 72.

The system illustrated in FIG. 9 might well also comprise a factory in which terminals 10 are used at the various workstations while the other sub-systems encompass functions such as inventory, new orders for output, purchasing, and so forth. The small size and rugged design of terminals 10 would serve extremely well in such an environment as well as the hospital room.

Claims

1. A terminal comprising:

a touch-sensitive electroluminescent display surface for simultaneously displaying information and for accepting input information through a touch-responsive area in said display surface, and

means for coupling said surface to a digital computer for controlling said displaying and for storing and processing said input information, and including means for defining in said touch responsive area an essentially arbitrary pattern A of primary information subareas of said touch-responsive area for providing information, with each defined subarea developing a preselected signal for said computer when touched, a first subarea B for recalling a previously displayed pattern of primary information subareas, and second subareas C for calling up for display preselected other patterns of primary information subareas.

2. The terminal of claim 1 wherein said first subarea B and said second subareas C direct said computer to carry out the respective functions when touched.

3. A method of simulating a typewriting keyboard on a touch-sensitive display surface comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying a typewriter keyboard arrangement on said display surface,

(b) responding to the touching of any of the key areas of said keyboard display by generating the electric code corresponding to the character assigned to the touched key area, and

(c) altering the labels on the key areas in response to the touching of a special key area corresponding to a shift or control key to assign different electric codes to these key areas corresponding to the altered labels.

4. A terminal comprising:

a touch-sensitive plasma display surface for simultaneously displaying information and for accepting input information through a touch-responsive area in said display surface, and

means for coupling said surface to a digital computer for controlling said displaying and for storing and processing said input information, and including means for defining in said touch responsive area (a) an essentially arbitrary pattern of primary information subareas of said touch-responsive area for providing information, with each defined subarea developing a preselected signal for said computer when touched, (b) a subarea for recalling a previously displayed pattern of primary information subareas, and (c) subareas for calling up for display preselected other patterns of primary information subareas.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of displaying includes correlating of the key areas of the display corresponding to specific keyboard labels with electric signals generated by said areas.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said specific keyboard labels include alphabetic labels.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprises the following steps:

responsive to the touching of a first special key area, deleting said alphabetic keyboard on said display surface; and

responsive to the touching of a second special key area, displaying a numeric keyboard on said display surface.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein at least one label is the same on each of said numeric and alphabetic keyboards.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprises the following steps:

responsive to the touching of a first special key area, deleting said alphabetic keyboard on said display surface; and

responsive to the touching of a second special key area, displaying a telephone keypad on said display surface.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the specific keyboard labels comprise capital letters.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said electric signals comprise ASCII codes.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said ASCII codes are transmitted to a computer.

13. The method of claim 5 wherein the specific keyboard labels comprise lower case letters.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said electric signals comprise ASCII codes.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said ASCII codes are transmitted to a computer.

16. The method of claim 5 wherein said electric signals comprise ASCII codes.

17. The method of claim 3 wherein the typewriter keyboard arrangement is a standard "q-w-e-r-t-y" typewriter keyboard.

18. The method of claim 3 wherein the altering step includes erasing current labels on the keys and replacing the current labels corresponding to the altered labels of said keys.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the current labels are lower case letters and altered labels are capital letters.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the altering step is effected in response to the touching of the special key area corresponding to a shift key.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of displaying is carried out on said display surface comprising a flat display and a touch-sensitive screen.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein an output is produced in response to the touching of the touch-sensitive screen, wherein the key areas of said keyboard including the special key area have associated x-y coordinates, and wherein the responding step includes:

translating the output from the touch-sensitive screen into touched x-y coordinates;

comparing the touched x-y coordinates to the x-y coordinates associated with the special key area;

producing an electric code associated with the special key if the touched x-y coordinates match the x-y coordinates of the special key area; and

delivering said electric code to a central processor.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the delivering step is carried out inside a hand-held terminal.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the delivering step is carried out using a cord.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the cord is flexible and retractible.

26. The method of claim 22 wherein the delivering step is carried out using wireless technology.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the delivering step is carried out using sonic communications links.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the delivering step is carried out using radio communication links.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein the delivering step is carried out using infrared communication links.

30. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of responding includes:

determining whether the touched key area is a special key area or an alphanumeric key area.