JP2000214979A - Display device using three-dimensional gui - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily access desired information among many bookmarks even when the resolution of a screen is small by displaying connection destinations from this size in the decreasing order of priority. SOLUTION: A display unit 10 has the 'contents' of a bookmark arranged on a circular table 60. The table 60 is divided into 8 genres of 'weather' 68, 'news' 69, 'travel' 70, etc. Then contents are displayed as icons behind the icons of the genres. For example, the icon 63 of 'homepage 1' is displayed in pattern representing its feature. This arrangement order is determined according to the degree of user's 'preference'. Namely, the icon on the most front side has the largest degree of 'preference', which decreases toward rearer ones. Here, a three-dimensional display accompanied by a perspective converting process is made.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information terminal for accessing the Internet, and more particularly to an information terminal using a graphical user interface (GUI) to facilitate menu selection.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a first prior art, as a terminal for displaying information on the Internet, for example, a Nikkei Byte "W
Indows CE 2.0 Japanese version announced Han with portability damaged
dheld PC ", April 1998, p. 22. These have built-in software for accessing the Internet, and frequently access the Internet URL (Uniform R).
resource locator). The bookmark is selected from a list displayed as a character string.

[0003] As a second prior art, the menu is set to three.
An example of displaying using three-dimensional graphics is disclosed in JP-A-9-971.
53, JP-A-9-97154 and JP-A-9-97162.

As a third prior art, a remote control for controlling the apparatus, which is provided with a tablet, is disclosed in JP-A-8-98280 and JP-A-9-152924.

[0005]

According to the first prior art, when viewing the contents of a bookmark, a selection is made from a list of characters, so that there is a problem that the operation is troublesome in a device having a small screen.

Further, the second prior art discloses that a three-dimensional graphic enables easy-to-view display, but discloses a menu for a video server and a means corresponding to an Internet bookmark. It has not been.

The third prior art discloses a function of converting a handwritten character written on a tablet built in a remote controller into a character code and transferring the character code to the device.
No function of controlling the dimensional display is disclosed.

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an Internet terminal which can easily access desired information from a large number of bookmarks even if the screen resolution is small.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a remote control device for improving the operability of an Internet terminal.

[0010]

In order to achieve the first object, according to the present invention, means for associating bookmark contents with texture data for displaying three-dimensional graphics, and automatically creating the texture data It is characterized by comprising means.

Further, for the second object, a remote control for controlling the equipment is provided with a tablet having a display function.

[0012]

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration to which the present invention is applied. The Internet terminal 20 is equipped with communication software for accessing the Internet, browser software for browsing information, software for exchanging electronic mail, and the like. Here, a mobile phone 30 is connected as a communication device assuming an in-vehicle system. However, when used at home, a modem may be connected instead of the mobile phone. The information on the Internet is displayed on the display 10. As the display 10, an in-vehicle television or a home television can be used. The Internet terminal 20 is operated by the remote controller 40.

In browser software, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a frequently accessed website is:
It can be stored as a bookmark. When connecting to the URL of a registered bookmark, a method of displaying the contents of the bookmark in a list and selecting a cursor at a desired location is generally adopted. This method is not a problem for a device with a large screen resolution (approximately 1024 pixels × 768 pixels) such as a personal computer. And the selection operation becomes cumbersome.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which a three-dimensional graphics display is used to make it easy to see the contents of a bookmark.
Shown in In this figure, a circular table 6 is displayed on the display 10.
“Content” which is the content of the bookmark is arranged above “0”. The table 60 is divided into eight categories such as "weather" 68, "news" 69, and "travel" 70. These genres are represented by icons, making them recognizable at first glance. These genre icons are always displayed so as to face the front. The reason is that it is possible to always show the user what kind of genre there is. Behind the icons of each genre, contents are displayed by icons. For example, the icon 63 of “homepage 1” is displayed as an icon with a pattern representing the feature of “homepage 1”.
Behind "Homepage 1" 63, "Homepage 2" 62 is arranged, and behind it, "Homepage 3" 61 is arranged. This arrangement order is determined by the degree of “favorite” of the user. In other words, the item at the foreground has the highest degree of “favorite”, and the degree of “favorite” decreases as going backward. Here, by performing the three-dimensional display accompanied by the perspective transformation processing, the figure at the foreground is displayed larger and becomes smaller as it goes later. This is convenient for improving the visibility when the content that the user wants to select is placed in front.

FIG. 3 shows a remote controller for operating this screen. A button 401 for controlling power on / off, a menu button 402 for displaying a list of bookmarks shown in FIG.
The screen includes buttons 403 to 407 for controlling the screen, numeric keys, and the like. In the display state of FIG.
Press once to rotate the table 60 to the left,
The icon 68 is displayed so as to face the front. When the left arrow button 403 is pressed once in the display state of FIG.
Is rotated rightward, and the "travel" icon 70 is displayed so as to be in front.

Also, in the display state of FIG.
When "04" is pressed, a "news" icon 69 as shown in FIG.
The icon behind is displayed enlarged. When the selection button 407 is pressed in such a state, connection to the Internet linked to the “homepage 1” 63 is established. To select “Homepage 2” 62 from the display state of FIG. 4, the user presses the up arrow button 404 again to display “Homepage 2” 62 in front, and then presses the selection button 407 in that state.

FIG. 5 shows the software configuration of the Internet terminal 20. The OS 500 manages the entire operation of the Internet terminal 20 and performs task management. The device driver includes driver software for performing data communication with the mobile phone 30, driver software for receiving an instruction from a remote controller, driver software for controlling the screen of the display 10, and the like. The Internet browser software 502 is software for displaying Internet information. The three-dimensional display software 504 is
Based on information received from the Internet browser software 502, a three-dimensional display such as a menu is performed. Here, in order to display the menu in three dimensions, a process of pasting a texture to a quadrilateral polygon is performed. Link table 5
Reference numeral 05 denotes a database for performing the display shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 shows the contents of the link table 505. 505 for "weather" for each genre
1, 5052 for "News", 5053 for "Travel"
and so on. Each table has a number, a URL of a link destination, and an icon number. The number indicates the degree of favorite, and the number 0 is the highest, and for example, in the “news” genre, it corresponds to “homepage 1” 63 on the screen of FIG. When registering the contents in this table, the user designates a registration number by indicating the degree of favorite, and selects an icon number by selecting a picture most suitable for the homepage from icons registered in advance. You can also add a new icon yourself. In that case, the display screen image of the homepage is reduced to an icon.

FIG. 7 shows not the contents of the bookmark,
This is a display example in which a portion with a URL link is automatically detected from WWW display information, and the link can be listed. The right half of the display 10 has a normal display format, and displays the contents of WWW as it is. The left half extracts only the linked parts on the right screen and displays them by three-dimensional graphics. If the full screen of the home page cannot be displayed on the right screen, it is necessary to control the display by scrolling. Therefore, in such a case, it is not possible to grasp all the states of the links shown on the page at once. On the left screen, operability is improved because the link destination can be listed. In such a display, favorites cannot be registered. Therefore, the order of registration in the tables 5051 to 5053 shown in FIG. In addition, it is necessary to automatically specify an icon. For the icons, a picture is created using the character portion to which the link is attached, and the correspondence with the link information is registered by the icon number.

FIG. 8 shows an optimum remote controller for transmitting a mail. The remote controller 40 has only a general button on the front surface, but has a tablet on the back surface integrated with a liquid crystal display. When a character is written on the tablet with the pen 41, the character is recognized in the remote controller 40, the character is converted into a character code, and the character code is transmitted to the Internet terminal 20. FIG. 8 shows a state in which, when the character “Toku” is written on the tablet, the character is sent to the terminal 20 in a character code, and as a result, the character is displayed on the display 10.

The screen shown in FIG. 2 can be controlled using the tablet. Specifically, when the pen 41 is moved leftward on the tablet, the weather icon 68 in FIG. 2 is centered. When the pen 41 is moved rightward, the travel icon 70 comes to the center. Pen 4
When the tablet 1 is moved upward, the display shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. In this state, if the tablet is hit once with the pen 41, it leads to “homepage 1”. FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the remote controller 40 in which the surface on which the buttons are present has a lid structure, and the tablet appears when the lid is opened.

FIG. 10 shows a still another embodiment in which the back of the lid for covering the surface on which the buttons are present is a tablet.

FIG. 11 shows an internal block diagram of the Internet terminal 20. The CPU 204 is a processor that controls the entire terminal 20. Although not particularly limited, here, 3
Peripheral control functions such as a communication function, a liquid crystal display controller, an A / D converter, a D / A converter, and parallel input / output are integrated in a chip with a 2 bit RISC processor as a core.
A so-called single-chip microcomputer is assumed. As a microcomputer suitable for this, for example, HD manufactured by Hitachi, Ltd.
6417707 and the like. For details on HD6417707, refer to `` SH7707
Hardware Manual ". EPROM2
Reference numeral 07 denotes a read-only memory that can be erased by ultraviolet rays, and is a memory for storing a boot program of the CPU 204. The DRAM 208 is a dynamic RAM, and is used as a main memory of the CPU 204. The flash memory 209 is a memory for storing the program shown in FIG. 5 and data which cannot be erased even when the power is turned off, such as the table and icon data shown in FIG. Memory. The graphics processor 211 causes the display device 10 to display an image. The functions of the graphics processor 211 include a drawing function of drawing a graphic in the graphics memory 213 in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 204, and an image drawn by the drawing function is periodically read out and displayed on the display device 10. It has a display function for displaying images. In order to perform the display as shown in FIG. 2, all the icon data to be displayed is copied from the flash memory 209 to the graphics memory 213. These icon data become texture data. After that, the texture to be displayed on the screen from among the textures is drawn in the display area of the graphics memory 213 by using the drawing function.

The NTSC encoder converts RGB image data output by the display function into an NTSC signal. The NTSC signal is an analog television signal used in Japan and the United States. USB
(Universal Serial Bus) controller is the terminal 2
0 and a device having a USB interface. USB is an interface used in a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as a personal computer). Therefore, peripheral devices such as a mouse for a personal computer and a CCD camera can be connected to the terminal 20. The modem controller 215 is connected to the telephone line 112 and the terminal 20.
Is required to connect to the Internet. Also, the D / A converter 216
Converts the digital data sent from the CPU 204 into analog data and sends it to the analog amplifier 217. Using these, audio data is generated. Mode setting S
W203 specifies the operation mode of the terminal 20. For example, the normal operation mode and the program upgrade mode are switched. In the upgrade mode, after the flash memory 209 is erased in a lump, a new program is downloaded from another device on the Internet via the telephone line 112 and written into the flash memory 209. By doing this,
The program of the terminal 20 can be easily updated anywhere. Further, the CPU 204 has a plurality of built-in communication ports. By providing the light receiving element 205 in one of them, a signal can be received from the remote controller 40. Further, an RS-232C driver 206 is provided, and the RS-232C driver 206 is provided.
Enable 2C communication. RS-232C communication is a standard interface that has been used in the past, and can be connected to a personal computer or the like. The PCMCIA card slot 210 is a function expansion interface of the terminal 20. PCMCIA is an interface developed for notebook-type personal computers, and is suitable for expanding the functions of small devices. The slot 210 includes an expansion memory and a hard disk.

FIG. 12 shows a mouse 5 instead of the remote controller 40.
An example of an Internet terminal using 0 is shown. Mouse 50
And the terminal 20 are connected by an RS-232C connection cable 201. The mouse 50 has a push button switch 51.
have. In addition, the display unit 10 is moved in
A cursor 11 is displayed on the screen. A mouse 50 and a push button switch 51 of the mouse are used for display control of the screen.
Done by This is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 13, the screen area is set to 5 (a) to (e).
An example is shown in which the screen is controlled by dividing the cursor into which area the cursor is in. When the cursor is on the left side of the screen as in (1), the cursor is displayed with a mark pointing left. When the push button switch 51 is pressed once in this state, the display is changed so that the genre icon on the left side is located at the center. Press twice to display the next genre icon. When the cursor is on the right side as in (2), the display of the cursor is replaced with a mark pointing to the right,
When the push button switch is pressed in this state, the display is changed so that the genre icon on the right side is at the center. When the cursor is on the upper side as in (3), the display of the cursor means that the genre in the center is selected instead of the mark pointing up. When the push button switch 51 is pressed in this state, the display changes to a display as shown in FIG. If the cursor is moved to the center in this state, the user is notified that the mode is the homepage selection mode instead of the mark shown in (5). Pressing the push button switch 51 in this state connects to the Internet. When the cursor is moved downward, the cursor changes to a mark pointing downward. When the push button switch is pressed in this state, a display that returns to the front is displayed.

As described above, by changing the display pattern of the cursor according to the display position of the cursor, the user can understand at a glance how the screen is controlled when the push button switch 51 is pressed. . In addition, the above five types of cursor positioning can be operated more smoothly by providing a range.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, by displaying the contents of bookmarks by using three-dimensional graphics, even on an Internet terminal with a small screen, many contents of bookmarks are displayed while maintaining the hierarchical structure. And operability can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of an Internet terminal.

FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional display example of a bookmark.

FIG. 3 is an example of a remote controller.

FIG. 4 is a display example when an icon is selected.

FIG. 5 is a software configuration example of an Internet terminal.

FIG. 6 is an example of a link table.

FIG. 7 is an example of a three-dimensional menu display of link information.

FIG. 8 is an example 1 of a remote controller with a tablet.

FIG. 9 is an example 2 of a remote controller with a tablet.

FIG. 10 is a third example of a remote controller with a tablet.

FIG. 11 is an internal block diagram of an Internet terminal.

FIG. 12 is an Internet terminal using a mouse instead of a remote control.

FIG. 13 shows an example of changing a cursor display pattern at a cursor display position.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Display, 20 ... Internet terminal, 30 ... Mobile phone, 40 ... Remote control, 50 ... Mouse, 60 ... Circular table for carrying icons arranged in three-dimensional space, 61-70 ... Icon, 204 ... CPU , 208 ...
DRAM, 209 flash memory, 211 graphics processor, 213 graphics memory,
500 OS, 501 device driver, 502 internet browser software, 504 three-dimensional display software, 505 link table.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kimikichi Machii 7-1-1, Omikacho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Inside the Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Shin Yoshitaka Omikamachi, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture 1-1, Hitachi, Ltd.Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor, Takeshi Hoshino 280-1, Higashi-Koigakubo, Kokubunji-shi, Tokyo, Japan In-house Design Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. 280 Hitachi Design Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Nobufumi Nakagaki 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd.Video and Media Division (72) Inventor Soshiro Katsunuki Hitachi, Ibaraki 7-1-1, Omika-cho Hitachi Ltd. Hitachi Research Laboratory F-term (reference 5E501 AA13 AB03 AB15 AB16 BA05 CA02 CB06 CB09 CB11 CC02 CC04 EA05 EA11 EB05 FA04 FA23 FA27 FB02 FB22

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A display device for displaying information of the Internet, wherein a bookmark means for storing a plurality of Internet connection destinations and associating texture data with each of the connection destinations; Means for assigning importance, and display control means for arranging and displaying the texture data in a three-dimensional space, wherein the plurality of connection destinations are displayed from the near side in descending order of the importance. A display device using a three-dimensional GUI. 2. The three-dimensional GUI according to claim 1, wherein the degree of importance indicates a degree of user's liking, and is specified by the user when registering a connection destination in the bookmark means. A display device using. 3. The display control means according to claim 1, wherein the content of the bookmark is classified by type, and the content indicating the content of the link destination behind a genre icon for indicating the meaning of the type. A display device using a three-dimensional GUI, wherein an icon is displayed, and when the genre icon is displayed, the display is directed to the front of the screen even when the screen display is changed. 4. A display device for displaying information on the Internet, comprising: extracting means for extracting a portion to which link information is added from information to be displayed; and extracting information based on the information extracted by the extracting means. Texture generating means for generating texture data and associating the link information with the link information; and display control means for arranging and displaying the texture data in a three-dimensional space. A display device using a three-dimensional GUI, wherein the display is performed on a three-dimensional space by a texture created by a generation unit. 5. A display device using a three-dimensional GUI, wherein the display device according to claim 4 simultaneously displays information on the Internet and display in the three-dimensional space. 6. An Internet terminal capable of three-dimensional display with a remote controller, wherein the remote controller has a tablet integrated with a display device, and a pen for inputting to the tablet, and the pen on the tablet. Corresponding to the movement of
3D G, characterized by controlling the state of 3D display
Display device using UI. 7. An Internet terminal with a mouse, wherein a cursor on a display screen is moved in accordance with the movement of the mouse, a display pattern of the cursor is changed according to a display position of the cursor, and the mouse is attached to the mouse. A display device using a three-dimensional GUI, wherein an instruction to press a switch performs display control in accordance with a display position of the cursor.