JPS606994A - Computer terminal display method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to techniques and apparatus for displaying and processing information on a computer terminal.

In particular, it relates to a device for managing larger data files than can be displayed at one time on a terminal screen.

There is more space in computer memory than can be displayed on the computer display screen at one time.
- The most common technique for computer users to manage data files is to scroll through the data file by continuously displaying portions of it on its screen. This capability is provided as standard in word processors, data management, graphical displays, and other types of applied computer programs.

When a small display screen is utilized, such as in small battery powered computers, several lines and/or portions of lines of a memory data file are displayed simultaneously. without having to scroll through the document.

It is particularly desirable under such circumstances to provide a computer user with a device for monitoring more portions of a document than can be displayed at one time.

It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for doing so.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The objects and effects of the various features of the invention are achieved by enabling the display of a non-readable representation of multiple portions of a document being displayed in readable form on a computer terminal. .When the document contains alphanumeric characters and related symbols.

Such an indication is most simply related to the length of the text line and indicates the presence of unreadable real lines with very small heights.

It would be desirable to combine this display with the ability to indicate by means of a display cursor a portion of the readable miniature display that is currently or previously displayed in fully readable form. An even more desirable feature is a cursor on a non-readable display.

When guided by the user by providing a signal to do this, it provides a fully readable display of these document lines as the cursor changes position on the non-readable display.

Additional objects of various aspects of this invention.

Features and advantages will be described with reference to the drawings. It will become clear from the following description of preferred embodiments.

[Description of preferred embodiment]

The invention will be described generally with respect to the high-end portable computer embodiment shown in FIG.

Although the various features of the invention are extremely useful in computer terminal configurations, they are particularly useful in portable systems having display screens. Referring to Figure 1, the case 11 has a conventional keyboard 1-13 along its front edge which is covered by a cover 15 when the device is operated 11J. The cover 5 is shown in the raised position in FIG. 1 and has a display screen 17 of a suitable type.

The preferred type of display screen 17 is a liquid crystal display (H, CD) due to its low power consumption.

The display is of the pixel type and is capable of displaying multiple, eg, eight or more lines of single spaced alphanumeric information or similarly sized graphics.

Immediately adjacent to the keyboard 13 is a touch pad 19 that is divided into various areas. Largest area 21ba9
It is connected to control the movement of a cursor 23 on the display screen 17 in response to a user's touch moving across the surface.

When touched by a computer user.

A plurality of separate touch key areas adjoin the large area 21 for performing other functions.

Referring to FIG. 2, a system block diagram generally illustrates the various components of the computer of FIG. 1 plus five electrical interconnections. A common system bus 25 is connected to the central processing unit (C
PU) 27 and Lee I' only memory (ROM) 29
．． Random Access Memory (RAM) 31. Disk drive circuit 33 and keyboard 13. touchpad 19
and various input/output devices 35 such as various external peripheral devices connected to the computer 11. The bitmap memory 37 also serves as a display drive circuit 39.
via a bus for temporarily storing information to be displayed on the display 17. The computer system is powered by a rechargeable battery (not shown).

In FIG. 3A, a small circumferential area of a typical display 17 is shown on an enlarged scale.

A two-dimensional array of discrete excitable pixels, the display pixels shown as 41, constitutes the display. Each of the LCD pixels is controlled by a signal from the bitmap memory 37, i.e. the display pixel 4
either its off, transparent state, as shown by pixel 43, or its on, opaque state, as shown by pixel 43. More typically such displays are driven to constitute various letters, numbers and symbols, each five pixels (dots) wide and seven pixels high, as shown in the display of FIG. 3A. As shown in the section. Of course, the particular configuration relationship in the formation of such characters and the spaces between them lies in the control of the electronics driving the display 17, which can be varied according to specific different applications.

As a particular example of a computer of the type shown in FIG. 1, its miniature display screen 17 includes an array 400 pixels wide and 64 pixels high. This forms approximately 65 characters in a line along the width of display 17.

Remainder 8 (hard force, line force, 2 width 4 (hard, height 71
When using a fixed pixel character formant, one is formed below the other.

Each character or symbol to be displayed as a standard one is recorded in the RAM 31, and a specific hide code is assigned to each character or symbol.

It is preferably represented in standard ASCII format 1-.

When a display frame consists of a number of such characters formed in RAM 31, the A,5 CII code is converted into a reference table, preferably in software, and stored in bitmap memory 3 for a single display frame.
Multiple bi-Is of different formants recorded in 7.
will occur. The contents of a portion of that memory 37 are shown in FIG. 3B corresponding to the characters displayed in FIG. 3A. As seen in Figure 3B, the bytes of information stored in memory 37 can be considered to be horizontally oriented adjacent to each other to form a pattern of displayed characters or symbols. The capacity of memory 37 is preferably made large enough to drive a larger display, such as a standard CRT screen, connected externally to computer 11.

To illustrate the zoom display features of the present invention, RAM 31 and/or disk 33
For example, write down all the ASCII I codes for characters and symbols in a particular document containing more lines than can be shown at one time by display 17. a. As shown in Figure 4, it is a full display with several lines in the center of the document. As shown in FIG. 5, a greatly reduced scale representation of the document is simultaneously formed on the screen. A zoomed image 51 of the document is formed on the display in the area where the display is erased.

Instead, the screen is eliminated and only the zoomed image 51 is displayed, allowing the user to refer to the current or most recently displayed version of the document, according to the format shown in Figure 5. form a thing.

As is apparent from FIG. 5, each line of the document is shown in the image 51 as a solid and non-readout line that is one pixel in height and has a length proportional to the length of the line. The cursor 53 has a rectangular shape,
Surrounds the line of information currently displayed in readable form. This gives the computer user an overall view of the document, with only a few lines being displayed in readable form. It is desirable for the display 51 to show approximately the same number of lines before or after the document is fully displayed, but may of course be varied to suit certain other purposes. . of course,
When the user is viewing the first document or the last document, the video 51 displays more document lines either behind or in front of the viewed portion, respectively.

The cursor 53 is the X-Y cursor control touch pad 21.
Cursor 53' is moved upwardly or downwardly within display portion 51 by the user during control of keys or other standard devices that contribute to cursor movement functions and techniques used to immobilize the cursor across the computer display screen. FIG. 6A shows the display 51 when the cursor 53 is moved downward toward the bottom of the two document section from what is shown in FIG.
shows. When a user believes he or she has placed a part of a document that he or she wishes to be viewed.

As shown in FIG. 7, it was displayed in a fully readable form. A new cursor 5 as shown in Figure 6A.
Keyboard 1 to bring up the part of the document in 3.
3 or the touch pad 21 to the computer system. When the display of FIG. 7 is present, the operator again enters the "Pazoom" mode by providing appropriate manual commands via keyboard 13 or touch pad 19 and the process is repeated again.

Referring to FIG. 6B, an expanded representation of portion 51 of display 17 is provided. Each of the display lines of the document is represented by a line of successively excited vixels, each of which is formed perpendicularly and immediately adjacent to II3 without any blank pixels between them. Of course, if the document itself has spaces or blank lines, there will be a blank line of pixels in the display device 51 corresponding to that blank line in a document.

1 display document display 51 as described in detail
Although a specific pixel display arrangement may be desirable for economy in document space and symmetric representation.

It is clear from this description that other specific non-read representations exist and are satisfactory.

For example, 2 each character in a document to be displayed could simply be represented by a single pixel or dot, although this technique has the advantage of being simple in creating a reduced display 51. , but does not have that advantage in the particular case described above.

Possible variations in particular techniques are illustrated, including representing multiple characters by a single dot or representing more than one character by a single column. Furthermore, although the solid line (line) is shown in the zoomed image, the gap is given.

This is especially true if the text to be displayed is arranged in columns.

Referring to FIG. 8, the operational processing of the computer system of FIGS. 1-3 to produce the results illustrated in FIGS. 4-7 will now be described in more detail. Although the control processing of data forming a computer or other memory data file is accomplished by electronic circuitry with dedicated hard circuitry, it is desirable to have a general purpose system with computer software control. FIG. 8 illustrates a process for processing stored data and controlling various computer components particularly suitable for software control devices.

The first step, represented by block 61 in FIG. 8, is to begin the process, which is done by the operator via the keyboard 13 or touchpad 19, and provides information such as that shown in FIG. The screen is rendered fully and readably. The next step 63 is to determine the portions of one document and other disk files stored in RAM 31 or disk 33, representative and non-readable images of which are displayed in small image 51. Although it is desirable to specify the same number of lines immediately preceding or following the displayed portion, any other configuration may be alternately selected depending on the particular application. Since only one pixel of display screen 17 is utilized for each line of document information on display 51, 40 to 60 lines of two documents are available for the particular size screen described in this particular example. It can be displayed on the second display. The number of lines in the document can be identified in memory for future processing, whatever that specific number was chosen as part of the system design.

The next step 65 is to determine the widest part of the document part. In other words, the length of the longest line is determined. Step 67 then determines the height of that portion of the document.

Obviously the document does not have the same number of lines as displayed in the zoomed image 51 or the document has a large number of blank spaces at one end of the part to be displayed so that one display 51 is not the same as the full size This is no longer necessary and can be made smaller. The next step 59 clears display 17 of sufficient area to receive the zoomed image that is being formed from display 17. That is, a portion of the text material displayed within the screen is displayed on the screen, and this portion is erased, so that the image 51 is displayed in that position.

The next major step is to form and display the image 51. Step 71 determines the length of the top line of the portion of the document previously identified for the display. The length of the line is multiplied by 5/7 in step 73 to make the display symmetrical.

- in the particular example described above, the display 51 is appropriately proportioned by multiplying the length of each line in the number of characters in memory by this factor, given that each character is 7 pixels high and 5 pixels wide; form. Of course, other character-related sizes will require different multiplication factors, and step 73 can be omitted if necessary. Whatever length of line is displayed as part of the zoomed image 51, that length is written to the bitmap memory 37 by step 75. It is determined in step 77 whether the line just written will be the last line in that a portion of the document has been previously identified for display. If it is not, step 71-
The process 75 is repeated for each line until the last line is drawn by the image 51.

After all the lines of the document have been represented in the image 51, step 79 represents which of these lines is currently or most recently in a fully readable form. That portion of the zoomed image is stored in memory as shown at step 81. cursor box 5
3 then around that part of the image, Ste Knob 83
written as shown by. Due to the miniaturized nature of the image 51, the horizontal lines on the top and bottom of the box 53 are affected by the pixels in these lines, I! / It is necessary to erase the lines of the document previously formed on it. This is basically because that portion of the ZOOJ2ized image is stored in memory according to step 81 before drawing the Curturbo-Nox. Once the cursor box has been formed, the image 51 is completely formed as shown in FIG.

In step 85 of FIG. 8, the software looks for control signals from the computer user.

Move the cursor box 53 to a different position on the video signal 51. If no such signal is received in one cycle of the software, then processing proceeds to step 87 to inquire whether an execution signal has been received from the user of the computer. Each of these signals typically communicates signals through the touchpad 21 or through the keyboard 13.

They are generated in external equipment.

If it is determined at step 85 that the user does not wish to move the cursor, the process proceeds to 89 and restores the line of zoomed image 51 drawn by the horizontal line of the cursor as described above. This is the video stored in step 81. The next step 91 is to calculate a new Kurt Nox position in response to the received and received signals from the user. Then the process is
Returning to knob 81, the cursor box is drawn to save that portion of the zoomed image to be drawn and the cursor box is drawn as such by repeating step 83. and do these things.

Once the operator gives the execution signal, the Stesos 87
If so, the cursor no longer moves and step 93 calculates that portion of the text data file in memory that the cursor encompasses. This is followed by erasing the previous display by step 95.

Then, write that part of the document data file onto the display 17 (step 97). This provides a full and readable display of the other eight portions of the document as shown in FIG. The zoom process is then terminated and re-initialized by the operator if the new portion of the display of zero documents is not what is desired.

Although 2 specific embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, 1. the present invention should not be limited only to these specific examples, and 2. various modifications can be made without departing from the technical scope of the present invention. Of course the word is.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a portable computer that achieves specific effects due to various features of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a general block diagram of the computer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG.
Figure A is a diagram showing the formation of characters on the display of the computer system of Figures 1 and 2, Figure 3B is a diagram showing a bitmap memory pattern for generating a portion of the display of Figure 3A, and Figure 4. is an example of alphanumeric information represented on the computer display of FIGS. 1 and 2. 5 is an illustration of the display of FIG. 4 with the non-readable outline of a large portion of the displayed document superimposed thereon, and FIG. 6A is an illustration of the highlighted non-readable document display of FIG. 5. 6B shows an enlarged portion of the display of the pattern of FIG. 6A, and FIG. 7 shows the cursor as moved by the cursor shown in FIG. 6A. Representative Display Illustrations of Other Portions of a Selected Document, FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the major operational steps performed by the computer to create the displays of FIGS. 4-7. 11...Case, 13...Keyboard, 17.
...Display screen. 27...CPU, 29...ROM. 31 ・ ・ ・RAM, 37 ・ ・ ・B,ノ)
Mar;/Pmemory, 39...display play U
1 circuit 5 51...Zoom image, 53...Cursor. I'm looking forward to talking to you again 'n''-'')'/)'
λ-91-:r: Written Amendment of Shinchen Procedures July 18, 1980 Manabu Shiga, Commissioner of the Patent Office 1, Indication of Case 1980 Patent Application No. 6927
No. 0 No. 3, Relationship with the case of the person making the amendment Patent applicant 4, Agent 5, Date of amendment order Voluntary action 6, Number of inventions increased by amendment None 7, Subject of amendment Drawings (no change in content) ) 8. Contents of amendment as attached.

Claims (7)

[Claims] (1) An apparatus that allows a user to manage documents larger than those displayed in readable form on a display. means responsive to electronic computer code for indicating information contained on a document and displaying a compressed version thereof that is not readable by the user but is indicative of the form and appearance of the information in said document; and; by moving the cursor to the compressed display version and marking that point, the user's first
and means for selecting in response to an input signal. means responsive to a second input signal from a user for displaying the portion of the document in a readable form; A computer terminal display device consisting of (2) memory means for electronically storing characters and symbols in lines to form a memory data file; a display screen normally capable of displaying the maximum values of a predetermined small number of said data file lines in readable form; and responsive to said memory means and operatively coupled to said display for displaying on said screen substantially more lines of data file than said few lines normally displayed. Means wherein said display indicates the presence of lines and their positional relationships in said data file without forming characters and symbols in readable form on a display. and means for displaying and moving a cursor across the display display of the data file to mark a selected few of those lines in response to a control signal. and means for displaying said selected line on said screen in a normally readable form in response to a control signal. A computer terminal display device consisting of (3) Said display display means is further characterized by a display comprising a number of data file lines, typically a small number of lines with readable characters and symbols when said display display means is activated. The few lines displayed are marked with a cursor. 3. A computer terminal display apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a plurality of data file lines occurring immediately before and after said small number of normally displayed lines. 4. A computer terminal display device according to claim 3, wherein said cursor moving means is characterized by forming a rectangular cursor surrounding a marked portion of a two-display display. (5) said display having a plurality of identical annular dots individually driven by display signals to produce the desired display and read out in response to each character and symbol signal stored in said memory means; It has a two-dimensional array of many such dots forming possible letters and symbols. The display means has only one top 1 in the height direction.
- display means for displaying one row of characters and symbols by means of a display line having a number of dots in the longitudinal direction in proportion to the length of the line; A computer terminal display device according to claim 2. (6) Means for displaying alphanumeric characters of multiple lines in readable form while enabling a user to monitor a document having multiple lines stored in memory and responsive to information stored in said memory. It is used to include 2
A computer terminal display device capable of simultaneously displaying a number of lines of said screen in readable and compressed non-readable representations of a number of lines of a document comprising a predetermined number of lines to be displayed. (7) Record electronic signals in the memory of the computer device1.
Measure a segment of the data file. A method for producing a full scale display on the small display screen of this device, which consists of the following steps: The scaled video signal is generated from the memory signal. Displaying a reduced scale image in response to the reduced scale image signal. moving a cursor on the display screen to mark a segment of reduced scale information that is desired to be displayed at full scale, and to form a reduced scale video segment marked by the cursor on the display screen; Identify the electronic signals stored in memory that act as A computer terminal display method that consists of displaying its data file segments at full scale on a second display screen.