JP2001166860A - Information processor, cursor display method, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To relieve the burden on a user who is watching a cursor and change information carefully by enabling the cursor to express information to change constantly. SOLUTION: A sound recognizing part 11 detects the volume of received sound, a cursor shape control part 12 decides the shape of the cursor according to the detected volume of the sound and stores it in a cursor shape storage part 13. A cursor display control part 14 reads the shape of the cursor stored in the cursor shape storage part 13 and a display part 16 displays the cursor with the read shape on a character position where a character is inputted by a character input device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a cursor display method, and a storage medium, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus, an input display apparatus, and an output display apparatus. The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for displaying an information position where an input operation is to be performed by a cursor, a cursor display method applied to the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium storing a program for executing the cursor display method.

This information processing apparatus may be a computer system including a character input device including a voice recognition device and a character display device, and generating a document from an input voice by the voice recognition device.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a general computer system is provided with an output display device. Of information output and displayed on the output display device, a user attempts to perform an input operation using an input device. The cursor is displayed at the position of the information.

[0004] For example, a cursor used in a word processor is displayed at a character position where a user intends to edit such as addition or correction among all the documents being created and displayed on an output display device. When a user inputs a character from the input device, the input character is inserted or overwritten at that position.

[0005] In many cases, the cursor is the object to be watched by the user. For this reason, there are examples in which functions realized when an input operation is performed are displayed using a cursor. For example, in a word processor, there are a mode in which a character is inserted at the cursor position by character input, and a mode in which a character already existing at the cursor position is overwritten. There is something devised as shown by. In some cases, the size of the cursor is changed in accordance with the size of the set character font. With these ideas, the user can easily know the functions realized when performing the input operation only by paying attention to the cursor.

On the other hand, some computer systems that process such character information use a speech recognition device as an input device. In this system, the voice uttered by the user is converted into characters by a voice recognition device,
The character is inserted or overwritten at the cursor position.

[0007] In a speech recognition apparatus, a user interface called a level meter for indicating whether or not the utterance volume is sufficient for the speech recognition apparatus to recognize is usually displayed on an output display device. The level meter has been devised so that the user can intuitively understand the magnitude of the voice input to the voice recognition device, thereby enabling the user to speak at an appropriate volume.

[0008]

However, in a conventional computer system provided with the above-mentioned speech recognition device,
On the output display device, the level meter is displayed at a position different from the cursor position. For this reason,
In order to confirm that the correct character input is being performed as desired while confirming that the speaker is uttering at an appropriate volume, the level meter position and the cursor position must be constantly monitored. Overload. As a result, the user's attention may be distracted and work efficiency may be degraded.

Since the utterance volume indicated by the level meter constantly changes, it has not been possible to simply provide the level meter at the cursor position.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and enables a cursor to represent constantly changing information, thereby reducing the burden on a user who watches the cursor and the change information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a reduced information processing device, a reduced cursor display method, and a storage medium.

[0011]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character input device including a voice recognition device and a character display device, and a character display device is provided. In a data processing device in which, among characters, a character position at which a character input is to be performed by the character input device is displayed by a cursor, a detection unit that detects a volume of a voice received by the voice recognition device; Determining means for determining a cursor shape in accordance with the determined volume, and display means for displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the determining means at a character position where character input is to be performed by the character input device. Features.

According to the present invention, an input device and an output display device are provided, and among information displayed on the output display device, an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device is displayed by a cursor. Detecting means for detecting an amount that constantly changes,
Determining means for determining a cursor shape according to the constantly changing amount detected by the detecting means; and a display for displaying a cursor having the shape determined by the determining means at an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device. Means.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character input device including a voice recognition device and a character display device,
In a cursor display method applied to an information processing apparatus in which, among characters displayed on the character display device, a character position at which a character is to be input by the character input device is displayed by a cursor, the character recognition device receives the character position. A detecting step of detecting the volume of the voice, a determining step of determining a cursor shape according to the volume detected by the detecting step, and a character position at which a character input is to be performed by the character input device, determined by the determining step. And a display step of displaying a cursor having a predetermined shape.

According to the present invention, an input device and an output display device are provided, and among information displayed on the output display device, an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device is displayed by a cursor. A cursor display method applied to an information processing apparatus of a system that performs a detection step of detecting a constantly changing amount; a determining step of determining a cursor shape according to the constantly changing amount detected by the detection step; A display step of displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the determination step at an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the device.

Further, according to the seventeenth aspect of the present invention,
A character input device including a voice recognition device and a character display device, wherein, among characters displayed on the character display device, a character position at which character input is to be performed by the character input device is displayed by a cursor. In a computer-readable storage medium storing a cursor display method to be applied as a program, the cursor display method is detected by a detection step of detecting a volume of a voice received by the voice recognition device, and the detection is performed by the detection step. And a display step of displaying a cursor having the shape determined by the determining step at a character position where character input is to be performed by the character input device. And

According to the present invention, an input device and an output display device are provided, and among information displayed on the output display device, an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device is displayed by a cursor. In a computer-readable storage medium storing a cursor display method applied to an information processing apparatus of the following method as a program, the cursor display method detects a constantly changing amount; And a display step of displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the determination step at an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device. It is characterized by.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment. The information processing apparatus is in the form of a processor including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an input / output device, and the like. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a document creation function and a cursor display function realized by such a processor. . The document creation function includes voice recognition and character conversion functions. Arrows in the figure indicate the flow of information.

In the figure, a voice recognition unit 11 includes a microphone and an existing voice recognition device, performs voice recognition based on the input user voice, converts the voice into characters, and controls character information as recognized character information. Output to the unit 15. The recognized character information may be a character uttered from a voice uttered by the user, or may include control information for performing a specific character control such as “line feed”. The voice recognition unit 11 outputs the volume information of the input user voice to the cursor shape control unit 12. The speech recognition unit 11 can be configured by using existing technology as it is, and the detailed processing content is not the main focus of the present invention, and thus the description is omitted.

The character information control unit 15 obtains recognition character information from the speech recognition unit 11. The recognized character information is generated in response to a user's character editing request, and character information is controlled based on the recognized character information. That is, the character information control unit 15 displays the character information to be displayed to the user on the display unit 16, and sets the cursor on the position of the character information to be edited by the user among the character information displayed on the display unit 16. The position is stored in the character information control unit 15. The character information control unit 15 can be configured by using the character information control unit of a device that processes character information such as an existing word processor as it is, and the detailed processing content is not the main subject of the present invention. Is omitted.

The display section 16 is constituted by using an image display device such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display capable of changing display contents. The display unit 16 displays the character display information from the character information control unit 15 and the cursor display control unit 14 as described later.
, The cursor display information is received in a format required by the display unit 16. As a result, the existing display device can be used for the display unit 16 of the present invention without any change, and the detailed processing content is not the main subject of the present invention, and therefore the description is omitted.

The cursor shape control unit 12
A plurality of cursor-shaped data (correspondence table) corresponding to each volume of the user voice is incorporated.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a correspondence table built in the cursor shape control unit 12. That is, a specific portion is provided inside a cursor frame corresponding to a display area for one character, and a plurality of cursor shapes are provided so that the area of the specific portion differs according to each volume of the user voice. Specifically, the area of the specific portion is set to increase as the volume of the user voice increases.

The cursor shape control unit 12 includes the voice recognition unit 1
When the volume information of the user's voice is acquired from No. 1, the cursor shape corresponding to the volume information is read out from the correspondence table in FIG. 2, sent to the cursor shape storage unit 13, and stored therein.

The cursor display control unit 14 reads out the cursor shape stored in the cursor shape storage unit 13 every predetermined time, as described later with reference to FIG.
In addition, the cursor position stored in the character information control unit 15 is read, and the read cursor position of the display unit 16 is displayed.
Display the cursor of the read shape. Since the cursor shape is stored in the cursor shape storage unit 13 and the cursor display control unit 14 reads the cursor shape,
The cursor display control unit 14 can flexibly respond to a change in the cursor shape.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the cursor display control unit 14.

That is, when the system is started, in step S51, the elapse of a predetermined time is counted and a timer for determining the cursor display timing is started. Step S5
In step 2, the process waits for a notification from the timer started in step S51 to notify that a predetermined time has elapsed. When the notification is received from the timer, the cursor shape stored in the cursor shape storage unit 13 at that time is obtained in step S53. Next, in step S54, the cursor position stored in the display information control unit 15 is obtained. When the cursor position is changed, the cursor position may be notified from the display information control unit 15 to the cursor display control unit 14 and stored in the cursor display control unit 14. In this case, ,
Step S54 is unnecessary.

After obtaining the cursor shape and the cursor position in this way, in step S55, the display unit 16 displays a cursor having the obtained shape at the obtained cursor position.

Upon completion of the process in the step S55, the process returns to the step S52 to wait for a timer notification for notifying the arrival of a new cursor display timing.

In this manner, the cursor display is updated at regular intervals, and a cursor indicating the volume of the user's voice can be constantly displayed. In a conventional cursor, a process of blinking the cursor at regular intervals is generally performed, so that it is easy to construct a process of displaying the cursor at regular intervals.

When the system ends, the processing of the cursor display control unit 14 also ends.

Thus, the volume information of the user's voice is displayed at the cursor position in a form that is easy to understand visually, and the burden on the user of watching the cursor and the volume information is reduced.

Note that, apart from the cursor shape in the above embodiment, for example, a numerical value representing the volume may be displayed on the cursor, or the display color of the cursor may be changed according to the volume. However, when a numerical value is displayed, the user must read the numerical value, and when changing the display color, the user must remember which color corresponds to which volume. On the other hand, if the magnitude of the volume is represented by the size of a specific portion of the cursor frame, the user can intuitively recognize the magnitude of the volume.

It is desirable that the size of the cursor frame be within the size of one character to be displayed at the cursor position. If the cursor frame is too large, other characters will be covered, making it difficult to see, and inconvenience will occur when the cursor is at the end of the line. Conventionally, a cursor used for character input is generally designed to occupy a display area for one character. Therefore, by setting the size of the cursor so as not to exceed the display area for one character,
The possibility of giving an unnatural impression to the user is reduced.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment will be described.

Since the configuration of the second embodiment is basically the same as the configuration of the first embodiment, the configuration of the first embodiment will be used in the description of the second embodiment.

In the first embodiment, the cursor shape according to the volume of the user's voice is determined by referring to the correspondence table. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, the cursor shape control unit is used. 12 determines the cursor profile each time according to a predetermined calculation procedure based on the volume.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a method of determining the cursor profile based on the sound volume. FIG.
(B) shows a vertical increase / decrease bar type, and (C) shows an elliptical bar type. In FIG. 4, when the size of one character is N horizontal dots and M vertical dots, and the maximum value of the volume of the user voice is F, the cursor shape when a volume of the value V is received Is shown.

The (A) horizontal increase / decrease bar type cursor is a cursor whose specific portion increases or decreases in the horizontal direction in accordance with the volume. The specific portion always has M dots in the vertical direction.
The horizontal direction forms a rectangle of (N × V) / F dots. The cursor of the vertical increase / decrease bar type in (B)
The cursor is a cursor whose specific portion increases or decreases in the vertical direction according to the volume, and the specific portion forms a rectangle of N dots in the horizontal direction and (M × V) / F dots in the vertical direction. The cursor of the elliptical bar type shown in (C) is a cursor in which the size of the ellipse changes according to the volume, the radius in the horizontal direction is (N × V) / 2F dots, and the radius in the vertical direction is (M × V) An ellipse of 2F dots is formed.

Thus, the cursor shape control unit 12
Receives the volume information from the voice recognition unit 11, determines the cursor shape corresponding to the volume, and stores it in the cursor shape storage unit 13.

The other operations are the same as in the first embodiment.

(Third Embodiment) Next, a third embodiment will be described.

In the third embodiment, when displaying volume information at the cursor position, the size of the cursor can be changed according to the size of the character to be displayed at the cursor position.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the third embodiment. Since the configuration of the third embodiment is basically the same as the configuration of the first embodiment, the same components are denoted by the same reference characters and description thereof is omitted.

In the third embodiment, processing for acquiring the size of the display area of the character to be displayed at the cursor position is required. That is, the cursor shape control unit 22 acquires the size information of the character display area from the character information control unit 25 when the size of the character at the cursor position changes and when the volume is acquired. Then, compression / expansion processing is performed on the predetermined cursor shape according to the size of the display area of the acquired character. That is, a cursor frame having a size that fits within the display area of the obtained character and that is proportional to the volume is created, and the specific portion is also made to have a size proportional to the volume.

This makes it possible to change the size of the cursor for displaying the volume information in accordance with the size of the character to be displayed at the cursor position.

When the cursor shape control unit 22 is used on a system in which the size of a character to be displayed is fixed without being changed during document creation, the size of the character to be displayed is Need only be obtained once.
Furthermore, in this case, instead of acquiring the size of one character from the character information control unit 25, the size of one character may be set in the cursor shape control unit 22 from the beginning.

(Fourth Embodiment) Next, a fourth embodiment will be described.

In the first embodiment, the cursor is displayed every time a predetermined time elapses.
In the embodiment, when the cursor shape changes, the cursor is displayed.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment. Since the configuration of the fourth embodiment is basically the same as the configuration of the first embodiment, the same components are denoted by the same reference characters and description thereof is omitted.

In the fourth embodiment, the cursor shape control unit 62 determines a new cursor shape and changes the cursor shape storage unit 13 when the volume obtained from the voice recognition unit 11 changes and the cursor shape changes. And notifies the cursor display control unit 64 of a cursor shape update notification. The cursor display control unit 64 displays a cursor as shown in FIG. 7 only when receiving the cursor shape update notification.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the processing performed by the cursor display control section 64. When the system is started, the processing of the cursor display control unit 64 is started.

In step S61, the cursor shape control unit 6
Wait for the cursor shape change notification sent from 2. When the cursor shape change notification is received, the cursor shape corresponding to the sound volume is read from the cursor shape storage unit 13 in step S62. Next, in step S63, a cursor position where the cursor should be displayed is acquired. This method of acquiring the cursor position is based on Step S5 in FIG. 3 in the first embodiment.
Same as 4. After acquiring the cursor shape and the cursor position in this manner, in step S64, the display unit 1
For 6, the cursor having the acquired shape is displayed at the acquired cursor position. As a result, a cursor corresponding to the volume is displayed on the display unit 16.

Upon completion of the process in the step S64, the process returns to the step S61 to wait for a new cursor shape change notification.
When the system is terminated, the cursor display control unit 6
The processing of 4 is also completed.

In this way, when the sound volume changes, a cursor corresponding to the sound volume can be displayed. Note that a cursor without volume information (for example, only a cursor frame) is always displayed while the audio volume does not change.

When the sound volume changes, information indicating that the sound volume has changed can be received, so that the time lag between the change in the sound volume and the display of the cursor shape corresponding to the changed sound volume is extremely reduced. be able to.

In each of the above embodiments, the processor provided with the document creation function and the cursor display function has the following features.
Although the volume of the constantly changing user's voice is displayed on the cursor, the present invention is generally applicable to a system for displaying a cursor on an output display device when a constantly changing amount is displayed on the cursor. is there.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a system including a plurality of devices, or may be applied to a device including a single device (for example, a dedicated word processor).

A storage medium storing program codes of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or the apparatus stores the storage medium in the storage medium. It goes without saying that the present invention is also achieved by reading and executing the program code thus set.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS or the like running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It is needless to say that the present invention includes a case where a part or all of the actual processing is performed and the function of each embodiment described above is realized by the processing.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, It is needless to say that the present invention includes a case where the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments. .

[0064]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the volume of the voice received by the voice recognition device is detected, the shape of the cursor is determined according to the detected volume, and the character input device performs character input. The cursor having the determined shape is displayed at the character position where the operation is to be performed.

As a result, it is possible to cause the cursor to display information about the utterance volume.
As long as the user focuses on the cursor position, the user can easily understand at the same time whether or not the user is uttering the appropriate amount of voice required for the speech recognition device and the position where the character should be input. Therefore, it is not necessary to move the line of sight between the cursor position and the level meter position, and the burden on the user is reduced.

The cursor shape determined according to the sound volume is temporarily stored, and is read out to display the cursor. This makes it possible to flexibly respond to changes in the cursor shape.

Further, since it is not necessary to separately display the level meter, when the speech recognition device is used in a portable computer system having a small display screen,
A small display screen can be used effectively.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a correspondence table built in a cursor shape control unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a cursor display control unit.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams showing a method of determining a cursor profile based on a sound volume, wherein FIG. 4A shows a horizontal increase / decrease bar type, FIG. 4B shows a vertical increase / decrease bar type, and FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing device according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a process performed by a cursor display control unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Speech recognition part (detection means) 12 Cursor shape control part (decision means) 13 Cursor shape storage part 14 Cursor display control part 15 Character information control part 16 Display part (display means) 22 Cursor shape control part 25 Character information control part 62 Cursor shape control unit 64 Cursor display control unit

Claims (24)

[Claims] 1. A character input device including a voice recognition device and a character display device, wherein, among characters displayed on the character display device, a character position where character input is to be performed by the character input device is displayed by a cursor. Detecting means for detecting the volume of voice received by the voice recognition device; determining means for determining a cursor shape according to the volume detected by the detecting means; and inputting characters by the character input device. A display unit for displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the determination unit at a character position where the determination is to be performed. 2. A storage device for storing a cursor shape determined by the determination device, wherein the display device reads the cursor shape stored in the storage device and performs the display. The information processing device according to claim 1. 3. A storage unit for storing a correspondence table between a plurality of different sound volumes and a plurality of different cursor shapes respectively corresponding to the plurality of sound volumes, wherein the determination unit refers to the correspondence table. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a cursor shape according to a volume detected by said detection means is determined. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determining means determines a cursor shape according to a volume detected by said detecting means in accordance with a predetermined calculation procedure. 5. The cursor according to claim 1, wherein the cursor determines the shape of the cursor in accordance with a volume detected by the detector, and further determines the cursor in accordance with a size of a character to be input by the character input device. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shape is changed. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit performs the display every time a predetermined time elapses. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit performs the display when a shape of a cursor to be displayed changes. 8. An information processing apparatus comprising an input device and an output display device, wherein, among information displayed on the output display device, an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device is displayed by a cursor. Detecting means for detecting a constantly changing amount; determining means for determining a cursor shape in accordance with the constantly changing amount detected by the detecting means; and determining means at an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device. Display means for displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the information processing apparatus. 9. A character input device including a voice recognition device and a character display device, wherein a character position at which a character is to be input by the character input device among characters displayed on the character display device is displayed by a cursor. In a cursor display method applied to an information processing device, a detecting step of detecting a volume of a voice received by the voice recognition device, a determining step of determining a cursor shape according to the volume detected by the detecting step, A display step of displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the determination step at a character position where character input is to be performed by the character input device. 10. The information processing apparatus includes a storage unit that stores a cursor shape determined in the determining step, and the display step reads the cursor shape stored in the storage unit and performs the display. 10. The cursor display method according to claim 9, wherein: 11. The information processing apparatus includes a holding unit that holds a correspondence table between a plurality of different sound volumes and a plurality of different cursor shapes respectively corresponding to the plurality of sound volumes, wherein the determining step includes: And determining a cursor shape according to the sound volume detected in the detection step with reference to FIG.
The cursor display method described. 12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the determining step determines a cursor shape according to a volume detected by the detecting step according to a predetermined calculation procedure.
Or the cursor display method according to claim 10. 13. The determining step determines a cursor shape according to a volume detected by the detecting step, and further determines the determined cursor according to a size of a character to be input by the character input device. 13. The cursor display method according to claim 9, wherein a shape is changed. 14. The cursor display method according to claim 9, wherein in said displaying step, said display is performed every time a predetermined time elapses. 15. The cursor display method according to claim 9, wherein the display step performs the display when there is a change in the shape of a cursor to be displayed. 16. An information processing apparatus comprising an input device and an output display device, wherein information of an information position on the output display device where an input operation is to be performed by the input device is displayed by a cursor. A detecting step of detecting a constantly changing amount; a determining step of determining a cursor shape according to the constantly changing amount detected by the detecting step; and an input operation to be performed by the input device. Displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the determining step at an information position. 17. A character input device including a voice recognition device and a character display device, wherein, among characters displayed on the character display device, a character position where character input is to be performed by the character input device is displayed by a cursor. A computer-readable storage medium storing a cursor display method applied to an information processing device as a program, wherein the cursor display method detects a volume of a sound received by the speech recognition device; A determining step of determining a cursor shape according to the volume detected by the detecting step; and a displaying step of displaying a cursor having the shape determined by the determining step at a character position where character input is to be performed by the character input device. A storage medium characterized by having: 18. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit configured to store a cursor shape determined in the determination step, wherein the display step reads the cursor shape stored in the storage unit and performs the display. 18. The storage medium according to claim 17, wherein: 19. The information processing apparatus further includes a holding unit that holds a correspondence table between a plurality of different sound volumes and a plurality of different cursor shapes respectively corresponding to the plurality of sound volumes, wherein the determining step includes: 18. A cursor shape according to the sound volume detected in the detecting step is determined with reference to FIG.
8. The storage medium according to 8. 20. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining step determines a cursor shape according to a volume detected by the detecting step according to a predetermined calculation procedure.
The storage medium according to claim 7 or claim 18. 21. The determining step determines a cursor shape according to a volume detected by the detecting step, and further determines the determined cursor according to a size of a character to be input by the character input device. The storage medium according to any one of claims 17 to 20, wherein a shape of the storage medium is changed. 22. The storage medium according to claim 17, wherein said display step performs said display every time a predetermined time elapses. 23. The storage medium according to claim 17, wherein the display step performs the display when a cursor shape to be displayed changes. 24. An information processing apparatus comprising an input device and an output display device, wherein information among information displayed on the output display device at which an input operation is to be performed by the input device is displayed by a cursor. A computer-readable storage medium storing a cursor display method to be executed as a program, wherein the cursor display method detects a constantly changing amount; and a detecting step according to the constantly changing amount detected by the detecting step. A storage medium, comprising: a determination step of determining a cursor shape; and a display step of displaying a cursor having a shape determined by the determination step at an information position where an input operation is to be performed by the input device.