JP2002055756A - Pointer display control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pointer display control method capable of displaying a pointer highly visually when the pointer is positioned at the edge part of a display screen, and a part of the pointer is hidden. SOLUTION: The present position of a pointer 8 is detected, and whether the present position of the pointer 8 is a screen edge 7 is judged. When the present position of the pointer 8 is the screen edge 7, the display configuration of the pointer 8 is changed just like a pointer 9 so that the visibility of the pointer 8 at the present position can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a user interface technology for performing input processing and the like on an information processing apparatus by pointing and operating various objects existing on a display screen with a pointer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, computers, word processors, CAs,
D In other information processing apparatuses, a pointing device such as a mouse, a touch pad, and a trackball is used as an input device in addition to a keyboard. By using a pointing device, a pointer (also called a mouse cursor) displayed on a display screen can be freely moved, the pointer is moved to a desired object position, an object is selected, and a click operation is performed. Performing specific processing,
Operations such as cancellation can be easily performed. In a so-called window system in which a plurality of windows can be displayed on one display screen, a desired window can be activated or dragged by operating a mouse. However, when the pointer is at the edge of the screen, a part of it is hidden and visibility is reduced, making it difficult to perform operations such as pointing to an object and even making it difficult to grasp the position of the pointer. is there. To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-30175
According to the prior art disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3 (1999), a virtual screen having an area larger than the display screen is provided, and when the pointer enters an area where a part of the screen is hidden, such as an edge of the screen, the virtual screen is switched as the display screen. Thereby, the visibility of the pointer is improved.

[0003]

However, in the technology described in the above publication, the display screen is switched to the virtual screen, so that a part of the image to be displayed is hidden from the screen. Occurs. The problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, that is, when the pointer is located at the end of the display screen and a part thereof is hidden, An object of the present invention is to provide a pointer display control method capable of displaying a pointer with good visibility without causing a problem that an image to be displayed is hidden by a virtual screen or the like.

[0004]

According to an aspect of the present invention, a pointer for pointing an arbitrary position on a display screen is displayed on a display screen, and the display of the pointer is performed. In a pointer display control method for changing a position in accordance with an operation of a pointing device, a step of detecting a current position of the pointer, and a step of determining whether or not the current position of the pointer is an end of the screen, And changing the display mode of the pointer so that the visibility of the pointer at the current position is higher when the current position of the pointer is at an end of the screen. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the pointer display control method according to the first aspect, an effective end for enabling the change of the display mode of the pointer is arbitrarily selected from an upper end, a lower end, a right end, and a left end of the screen. And can be selected and set. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the pointer display control method according to any one of the first and second aspects, the way of changing the display mode of the pointer is determined by each of an upper end, a lower end, a right end and a left end of the screen It is characterized in that it can be set for each end. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the pointer display control method according to any one of the first, second, and third aspects, an effective range in which the change of the display mode of the pointer is effective is set at an upper end and a lower end of the screen. , And can be set for each of the right end and the left end.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. [Embodiment Corresponding to Claim 1] FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a system configuration for implementing a method of the present invention. In the drawing, 1 is a pointing device such as a mouse, 2 is a detection unit that detects the current position of the pointer on the display screen, 3 is a pointer position determination unit that determines whether the current position of the pointer is at the edge of the screen, Reference numeral 4 denotes a pointer display control unit for selecting one pointer image from a plurality of pointer images stored in the pointer image storage unit 5 and displaying the selected pointer image on the display screen of the display device 6. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the system shown in FIG. A signal including the position information from the pointing device 1 is sent to the pointer position detecting unit 2, where the current position of the pointer is detected (S1).
The position information detected by the pointer position detector 2 is given to the pointer position determiner 3. Pointer position determination unit 3
Determines whether the current position of the pointer is at the end of the screen based on the position information from the pointer position detection unit 2 (S2). When the current position of the pointer is at the edge of the screen (Yes in S2), the pointer display control unit 4 determines the highest visibility among the plurality of pointer images stored in the pointer type storage unit 5 at the current position. A pointer having a high pointer is selected, and the image of the pointer displayed on the display device 6 is changed (S3). If the current position of the pointer is not at the end of the screen (No in S2), the display mode of the pointer is not changed, and the pointer of the currently displayed display mode is displayed on the display device 6 as it is.

FIGS. 3A to 3C show how the display form of the pointer is changed depending on the position on the display screen. In the figure, reference numeral 7 denotes a virtual line (hereinafter, referred to as a screen edge) representing an edge of the display screen (an outer edge of the display area). The area outside the screen edge 7 is an undisplayable area or an area that cannot be seen because it is hidden behind a frame of the display device 6. In FIG. 3A, the pointer (diagonally left-upward arrow image) 8 is not at the screen edge 7 but the entire pointer is displayed. When the pointer 8 is shifted to the right from the position shown in FIG. 3A, a part of the pointer 8 (the right part in this example) protrudes from the screen edge 7 as shown in FIG. (Only the left end in this example) is displayed. In such a case, the pointer image with the highest visibility at the screen edge 7 and its vicinity is selected by the pointer display control unit 4, and the pointer with the high visibility as shown in FIG. A change process to (9) is performed.

[0007] [Embodiment corresponding to claim 2] In the present invention, whether the change to the pointer 9 with high visibility when the pointer 8 is located at the screen edge 7 is validated (valid / invalid) Information) can be arbitrarily set for each of the upper end, the lower end, the right end, and the left end. The set data is stored in the memory as a table as shown in FIG. The pointer position determining unit 3 determines whether or not the current position of the pointer 8 is at the end where the change is valid, based on the valid / invalid information in this table. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the system in this case. The signal including the position information from the pointing device 1 is sent to the pointer position detector 2, where the current position of the pointer 8 is detected (S11). The position information detected by the pointer position detector 2 is given to the pointer position determiner 3. The pointer position determination unit 3 determines whether or not the current position of the pointer 8 is at the end of the screen based on the position information from the pointer position detection unit 2, and determines whether or not the end makes the change effective. It is determined whether it is a copy (effective end) (S12). If the current position of the pointer 8 is at the end of the screen and at the effective end (Yes in S12), the pointer display control unit 4 determines whether or not a plurality of pointer images are stored in the pointer type storage unit 5. Then, the image of the pointer 9 having the highest visibility at the current position is selected, and the pointer image displayed on the display device 6 is changed (S13). If the current position of the pointer 8 is not the end of the screen or the end where the change is valid (No in S12),
The display mode of the pointer 8 is not changed, and the pointer 8 of the currently displayed display mode is displayed on the display device 6 as it is.

According to the present invention, a method of changing the pointer 8 to a highly visible pointer 9 when the pointer 8 is positioned at the screen edge 7, that is, to which display mode the pointer 9 is, Information (pointer type information) as to whether or not to change can be set for each of the upper end, lower end, right end, and left end. The set data is stored in the memory as a table as shown in FIG. In the block diagram shown in FIG. 1, the pointer type discriminating unit 3 sends pointer type information to the pointer display control unit 4, and the pointer display control unit 4 selects a pointer from the pointer type storage unit 5 and corresponds to the display device 6. A pointer 9 to be displayed is displayed.

According to the present invention, an effective range in which the change of the display mode of the pointer 8 is made effective is set for each of the upper end, lower end, right end and left end of the display screen. Can be set. The set data is stored in the memory as a table as shown in FIG. The size of the effective range can be changed, for example, in dot units. In the block diagram shown in FIG. 1, the pointer position determination unit 3 compares the current position of the pointer 8 with the effective range. If the effective position is within the effective range, a pointer display change control process is performed. FIG. 8 shows a setting example of the effective range. In the figure, 10 is a virtual line representing the boundary of the effective range at the lower end of the screen, and 12 is a virtual line representing the boundary of the effective range at the right end of the screen. The range between the virtual lines 10 and 12 and the screen edge 7 is the effective range. At the lower end of the screen, when the pointer (diagonally left-upward arrow image, see FIG. 3) 8 crosses the boundary 10 and enters the effective range, the pointer 8 is changed to a highly visible pointer (diagonally left-downward arrow image) 11. Similarly, when the pointer 8 enters the boundary at the right end of the screen, the pointer 8 is changed to a highly visible pointer (oblique rightward upward arrow image) 13. It should be noted that the pointer display control method of the present invention is not limited to the illustrated example described above, and it is needless to say that various changes can be made.

[0010]

As can be seen from the above description, the present invention has the following excellent effects. According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the pointer is located at the end of the display screen and a part of the pointer is hidden, the pointer is automatically changed to a pointer with high visibility. The performance is improved. As a result, input processing by the pointing device can be performed efficiently. According to the second aspect of the present invention, each end (upper end, lower end, right end, left end) on the screen determines whether to enable or disable the change control to the pointer with high visibility in the first aspect.
Since the setting can be arbitrarily set for each end, by performing setting for each end according to the convenience of the operator, the use environment, and the like, input processing by the pointing device can be performed more efficiently. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the manner of changing the display form of the pointer with high visibility can be set for each end (upper end, lower end, right end, left end) on the screen. Therefore, it is possible to make settings in accordance with the usability of the operator, the usage environment, the shape of the pointer, and the like, and it is possible to more efficiently perform input processing using the pointing device. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first, second, and third aspects, the effective range for enabling the change of the display mode to the pointer with high visibility is set at each end (upper end, lower end, right end, left end) on the screen. ), The setting can be made according to the usability of the operator, the use environment, the pointer shape, the size, and the like, and the input processing by the pointing device can be performed more efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a system configuration for implementing a method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the system shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3A to 3C are explanatory diagrams showing how a display mode of a pointer is changed depending on a position on a display screen.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in which whether or not control for changing the display mode of a pointer is enabled;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing another operation example of the system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in which whether or not change control of a display mode of a pointer is enabled and a type (display mode) of a pointer are set;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a table in which whether or not control for changing the display mode of a pointer is enabled, a type (display mode) of the pointer, and an effective range are set;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of setting an effective range of pointer display change control.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 pointing device, 2 pointer position detecting section, 3 pointer position determining section, 4 pointer display controlling section, 5 pointer image storing section, 5 pointer type storing section, 6 display device, 7 screen end, 8 pointer (pointer before change) , 9 pointers (pointers with high visibility,
Pointer after change), 10 Virtual line representing the boundary of effective range

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A pointer display control method for displaying a pointer for indicating an arbitrary position on a display screen on a display screen and changing a display position of the pointer according to an operation of a pointing device, comprising: Detecting a current position; determining whether the current position of the pointer is at an edge of the screen; and determining whether the current position of the pointer is at an edge of the screen.
Changing the display mode of the pointer so that the visibility of the pointer at the current position is higher. A pointer display control method, comprising: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein an effective end for enabling the change of the display mode of the pointer can be arbitrarily selected and set from an upper end, a lower end, a right end and a left end of the screen. 2. The pointer display control method according to 1. 3. The method of changing the display mode of the pointer can be set for each of an upper end, a lower end, a right end, and a left end of the screen.
The pointer display control method according to any one of the above. 4. An effective range in which the change of the display mode of the pointer is made effective can be set for each of an upper end, a lower end, a right end and a left end of the screen. The pointer display control method according to any one of items 2 and 3.