JPH02132558A - Portable information retrieving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a personal portable information processing terminal by unifying a data storing/retrieving function, input/output function and a communication function together with a control function and a communication function secured by a memory card into one body in the same housing. CONSTITUTION:An all-in-one type portable terminal is obtained by unifying an input display monolithic device 1, a magneto-optical disk drive 3, an extension bus connector 6, a card slot 12, a power supply, etc., into one body in the same housing. The device 1 includes a transparent tablet and a liquid crystal display unified into one body. The input tablet detects the contact positions of an exclusive input pen 2 from the horizontal and vertical current distributions formed with the current supplied from the pen 2. While a magneto-optical disk 4 uses a rewritable memory medium. As a result, the shortage of the storage capacity is eliminated for the portable terminal together with improvement of the operability, the portability, the retrieval/presentment ability of information, and the extension properties of a portable information retrieving device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical field to which the invention pertains) The present invention uses a rewritable optical file, a memory card, and an input/display integrated device. The present invention relates to an information retrieval device that is small and highly portable.

(Prior art) Recently, with the digitization of information processing, large amounts of information are carried around on storage media such as floppy disks and optical disks. There is a need to present reference materials, process data on the spot if necessary, and transfer results to a host computer. For this reason, there is a demand for information storage and retrieval terminals that are small and highly portable.

As for the media here, it is easier for humans to understand information using multimedia, which is an efficient mix of characters, explanatory diagrams, moving images, still images, etc., than single media containing each character. For example, after 80 hours, the survival rate of information memorized by humans is about 10% when acquired only by hearing and about 20% when acquired only visually, but more than 60% when acquired by hearing and visual sense. It is said that the information can be reached by making full use of multimedia, and presenting information using multimedia is extremely effective in presentations and the like.

Furthermore, by constructing and using a single hypermedia networked with key data in various media, it becomes an extremely powerful means for organizing one's own data and presenting it to others.

With the emergence of such needs, the increase in the capacity of semiconductor memory, and the progress in using LSI for CPUs and their peripheral circuits,
Various types of handy information terminals are becoming popular. For example, there are electronic notebook-like devices, portable word processors, personal computers, etc., which are card calculators with semiconductor memory added, phone book functions, schedule management functions, etc.

However, among these, ordinary portable terminals that use semiconductor memory as a storage medium have a limited storage capacity, and are currently limited to character and numeric data, and are unable to store large amounts of data such as audio and images. . Furthermore, because of its compact size, the keyboard is small and has poor operability, and data input requires a lot of effort.

On the other hand, current small personal computers and word processors are called laptop-type devices, and in reality they are still too large and heavy to carry around, so although they are portable, they cannot be called handy devices. Furthermore, floppy disks are the main storage medium, and their capacity is insufficient to handle multimedia. Optical file systems are available as large-capacity storage media, but they are usually desk-side systems, are not portable, and are primarily write-once formats, making them unsuitable for individual editing.

As described above, conventional portable information terminals have disadvantages in storage capacity and operability. In particular, the low memory capacity is a fatal drawback in realizing a portable information storage and retrieval function that makes full use of multimedia.

(Objective of the Invention) The purpose of the invention is to solve the lack of storage capacity of conventional portable terminals, improve operability, and provide a portable terminal with excellent portability, ability to search and present information, and expandability of the device. An object of the present invention is to provide an information retrieval device.

(Structure of the Invention) (Characteristics of the Invention and Differences from the Prior Art) The present invention employs a rewritable optical disk as a storage medium. The most important features are the realization of multimedia, improved operability, and scalability for various applications by adopting an integrated input/display device and a memory card to control the terminal. The conventional technology is large enough to handle large amounts of data such as images and audio, and an integrated input/display device allows for free menu screen presentation and easy-to-use point-touch job/task selection. The points are different.

(Embodiment) Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of an external appearance of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. A magnetic disk, 5 a memory card, 6 an expansion bus connector, 7 a power switch, and 12 a card slot.

Here, the input/display integrated device 1 is a transparent input tablet 9 as shown in the functional block diagram of the search processing section in FIG.
and a liquid crystal display 10 are integrated. For example, a display with a display resolution of 640 x 400 dots and a tablet with an input resolution of 640 x 400 dots are matched dot by dot, and when in handwriting input mode, input and display are performed simultaneously, realizing an operational feeling as if you were writing on paper. It is something to do.

The above-mentioned transparent input tablet 9 is, for example,
As shown in No. 54, a uniform film of a transparent resistor (ITO film) is formed on a glass substrate, and current distribution in horizontal and vertical directions is generated by current injection from a dedicated input pen 2 coupled with DC. This detects the contact position of the pen.

The magneto-optical disk 4 is a rewritable storage medium, for example, a magnetic film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (GdFeC
:o, TbFe, etc.) to form recording pits by different directions of magnetization (optical magnetization), and a 3.5-inch disk has a capacity of IOOM to several hundred Mbytes.

The device of this embodiment shown in FIG.
It is an all-in-one portable terminal that integrates , card slot 12, electronics 113, etc. into the same housing, making it possible to carry large amounts of data and realize an excellent man-machine interface.

An example of a small magneto-optical disk player is a portable music CD player, although its purpose and configuration are different, but it is technically similar to a portable music CD player. It is possible to make it as compact as a CD player.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the search processing section of the present invention, in which 8 on the main body is a control circuit, 9 is an input tablet. 10
is a liquid crystal display. 11 is an audio input/output unit, 12 is a card slot, 13 is a power supply, 14 is an expansion bus, 15 is a line interface, and 16 is an external I/O interface.

The control circuit 8 is composed of a CPU 8A and its peripheral circuits, and has the same configuration as a normal microcomputer device. The audio input/output section 11 is for recording and reproducing audio data, and is for A/
The data is digitally stored and reproduced by the D, D/A conversion processing 8B. The card slot l2 reads a control program stored in the memory card 5 and controls the operation of the main body. Note that the memory card 5 includes a ROM 5-1 that stores control programs, and an EE that stores update information, etc.
It consists of PROM5-2 and I/05-3 which is an input/output interface with the main body.

The power source 13 is a battery or an AC adapter, and can be operated with either a battery or a commercial 100V power source. The expansion bus 14 is an interface that opens the CPU bus of the control circuit 8 for external equipment, and is connected to the line interface 15 and external I/O.
Each communication device, various I/O via O interface 16 etc.
It can be connected to O devices, computers, etc. In particular, the line interface 15 is connected to, for example, a modem, a network control unit (N
CU) or digital service unit (DSU)
), and application software loaded from the magneto-optical disk 4 or memory card 5 emulates this device into a facsimile, personal computer, data terminal, etc.

While the storage capacity of ordinary portable information terminals is several tens of kilobytes to several megabytes for semiconductor memory types and several hundred kilobytes to several megabytes for floppy disk types, this device has a storage capacity of several hundred megabytes.
It is a byte large-capacity storage device with advanced search and display input functions, and it is capable of storing large amounts of data, and it records digitally on the storage medium regardless of the type of media.

Therefore, like the CD-T, it is possible to mix and process various media.

Note that in CD-I, due to sequential access,
While the seek time is 0.5 to 1 second, this device uses random access, so the seek time is only about 100 mg, and high-speed access is possible.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of software implemented in the device of this embodiment. The boot program is stored in the main body ROM 17, and starts automatically when the power supply 13 is turned on or when the memory card 5 is inserted.The boot program uploads the OS (operating software) from the memory card 5 to the main body RAM 18 as a control program, and executes the application program. Automatically start l1 (AP) and start desired processing.

The AP exists on either the magneto-optical disk 4 or the memory card 5, and after the OS starts, it automatically searches for the AP and selects the AP.
Start. In the example shown in Figure 3, the control program in the memory card 5 is transferred to the main body RAM+8, but if an address dedicated to the memory card is assigned in the main body's memory map, the memory card 5 can be treated as a part of the main body. However, in this case, the memory card cannot be inserted or removed while the device is operating.

The processing functions of this device are similar to those of a conventional personal computer (PC), and most PC AP software can be ported, such as database software, spreadsheet software, software, and communication software. , schedule management software, diagramming software, etc. can be applied. However, since this device is equivalent to a device with a large-capacity fixed disk, by integrating its AP software with a database function and making full use of the integrated display/input device 1, it is possible to It is possible to realize advanced information search functions with a better man-machine interface than a PC.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the operation flow of the apparatus of this embodiment.

In FIG. 1 (1), as described above, after turning on the power [3] or inserting the memory card 5, the OS is automatically started, and then the application software is automatically started to start processing.

In (2) of the same figure, after starting the application software, search conditions are set to hit desired information in the magneto-optical disk 4, and information matching the conditions is displayed on the display 10.
to be displayed. Note that if the information hit at this time is expressed in multiple media, the data is restored for each media and then each media is displayed in a composite manner. For example, a still image (
Overlay gradation image)/explanatory text (text)/handwritten memo (dot image). Note that each medium is set in a frame memory FRAM8C within the control circuit 8. Furthermore, if audio is present, the audio is played back by the audio input/output unit 11 at the same time as the image is displayed.

(3) in the same figure shows information acquired from the outside via the expansion bus l4 or text/text input from the input tablet 9.
This is the flow when handwritten information, etc. is edited and then saved on the magneto-optical disk 4. First, after assigning a search key,
Attribute data (media type, encoding method, etc.) is determined for each medium and saved on the magneto-optical disk 4.

Figure (4) shows the task selection flow in various phases within the AP software. First, a list of candidates for the next task to be processed is displayed on the display 1o, and according to the instructions, the desired task is selected using the input pen 2. Perform pen touch input (point touch).

FIG. 5 shows an example of both sides of the task selection menu controlled by the AP software, in which 19 is a function key, 20 is a scroll key, 21 is a display of various modes, 22 is a data display section, and 23 is a keyboard display section.

Each of these keys is a soft switch, and selection contents are input by point touching with the input pen 2.

In this example, "Search", "Data Transfer", "Data Edit"
The "previous menu" is displayed, but if you want to select "data editing" for example, you only need to touch the area where the words "data editing" are displayed with the pen. This will start the data editing task and proceed to the next The selection menu is displayed and the task execution begins.

Since input and display are integrated in this way, only the minimum necessary keys are displayed each time an input operation is performed, making key operations easier and the man-machine interface significantly improved compared to conventional keyboard operations. Also, if you are used to traditional keyboards and want to operate using a keyboard,
A dedicated keyboard (not shown) may be connected via the expansion bus 14.

Note that when handwriting input is specified as the task content, the data display section 22 has a full handwriting input surface, which allows handwritten input similar to telewriting and can be used as a handwritten note. ，
You can add handwritten notes, etc. on top of still images, drawings, etc.).

FIG. 6 is an example of the data format (logical structure) of information stored on the magneto-optical disk 4. Content data is now variable length data of tit-media, because even if the display size and audio playback time are constant, the amount of data changes depending on the information density of the content due to encoding.

A preamble and a postampule are added to each content to clarify data divisions and provide attributes (media type, encoding format, index, etc.). In addition, there is connection data in the preamble, which is used to clarify the connection relationship with other related media data when expressing specific information in multimedia using a series of data streams consisting of multiple contents. This is the data needed for

In this way, each medium is expressed as digital data, handled uniformly, and mixedly stored in the magneto-optical disk 4. This makes it easy to construct hypermedia with a semantic network formed by adding network information of related content to the abbreviation program and data attributes. For example, in a product catalog, simply by point-touching a predetermined area on both sides of the display, explanations of technical terms, demonstration videos, related products, etc. can be efficiently presented on the spot.

As described above, since the device of the present invention uses a rewritable optical disk, it is possible to store and process large amounts of data, and it is possible to create multimedia.

In addition, since the input and display are integrated, it is possible to select tasks efficiently by touching both sides of the display. The benefits include improved information presentation capabilities and improved man-machine interface compared to conventional devices of this type. Furthermore, since the control program can be changed simply by replacing the memory card 5, the terminal is flexible and expandable for version upgrades.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention provides a large-capacity data storage and search function using a rewritable optical disk, an advanced input/output function using a device that integrates input and display, and a control function using a memory card. It has an all-in-one configuration that integrates communication functions via an expansion bus interface into the same housing, and it also has processing functions similar to those of a personal computer using various application programs, making it a personal and portable device. It has the advantage of being usable as an information processing terminal.

In other words, it is capable of storing and retrieving multimedia containing large amounts of data, and has excellent information presentation capabilities. Moreover, since the optical disc of this device is rewritable, information can be updated freely, and information can be edited according to individual interests without being restricted by the type of media, making it easy to condense information. .

In addition, since the input and display are integrated, tasks can be selected efficiently by touching the side of the display, making it possible to greatly improve the man-machine interface by optimizing the design of the menu screen and touch surface. In addition, handwritten input is possible, and handwritten notes can be added and saved on existing text screens.

Furthermore, communication adapter equipment connected to the expansion bus interface of this device and communication software (AP) that emulates various communication terminals can be used to connect facsimile terminals, data entry terminals, telewriting terminals, videotex terminals, teletext terminals, It can function as various communication terminals such as still image/video video telephone terminals.

Application fields of the device of the present invention include advanced electronic notebooks, CA
It can be applied to I terminals, replacements for various existing communication terminals, and terminals for integrated digital communications networks (ISND). When used as an advanced electronic notebook, you can edit large amounts of information according to your personal interests without worrying about the type of media, and you can easily add notes etc. by hand, making it a great personal data organization tool. In addition to being useful, by accumulating data such as manuals, maps, product catalogs, dictionaries, etc., it has the advantage that it can be used as a presentation tool for customers and as an alternative to manuals in business such as sales. As a CAI terminal, for example, it can be stored in advance as a multimedia database of textbooks, and notes can be written in accordance with the instructor's explanation, allowing it to be used both as a textbook and a notebook.Moreover, if a communication function is added, it can be used as a correspondence education device. There is an advantage that it can be used as a

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective external view of a device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a search processing section in the device of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of software implemented in the device of this embodiment. 4 shows the operation flow of the device of this embodiment, FIG. 5 shows an example of the task selection menu screen controlled by the AP software, and FIG. 6 shows the data format (
FIG. 1... Input display integrated device, 2... Dedicated input pen, 3...Magneto-optical disk drive,
4...Magneto-optical disk, 5...Memory card,
6...Expansion bus connector, 7...Power switch, 8...Control circuit, 8A...CPU,
8B...A/D-D/A conversion processing unit, 8C.
... Frame memory FRAM, 9 ... Input tablet, 10 ... Liquid crystal display, 11 ... Audio input/output section, 12 ... Card slot, 13 ... Power supply, 14 ... Expansion bus, 15 ...Line interface, 16...External I/O interface, l9...
・Function key 20...Scroll key 2
]...Various mode display, 22...Data display section, 2
3...Keyboard display section. Patent applicant: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (1 nit of content data)

Claims (1)

[Claims] An input/display integrated device with a handwritten image input function that integrates a thin flat display and a transparent input tablet, a rewritable optical disk drive, a memory card reader, and a device that reads the memory card after power is turned on or the memory card is read. After inserting a memory card into the unit, the control program in the memory card is automatically started, and the processing content is selected by pointing and touching a predetermined part of the device according to the processing menu displayed on the input display integrated device. death,
a search processing unit that searches or processes desired information;
A portable information retrieval device characterized in that an expansion bus connector for exchanging information with an external device is provided in the same housing.