CN112148157B

CN112148157B - Focus moving method and focus moving apparatus for graphic user interface

Info

Publication number: CN112148157B
Application number: CN201910572046.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孙自刚
Original assignee: Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-06-28
Filing date: 2019-06-28
Publication date: 2022-07-01
Anticipated expiration: 2039-06-28
Also published as: CN112148157A

Abstract

The invention provides a focus moving method for a graphical user interface and a focus moving device for the graphical user interface. Based on the invention, the directional search area for realizing the candidate control search is expanded and extended from the control where the focus is located at present by a preset angle, but not limited in the rectangular search area with the row and column standard size, and the selection of the searched candidate control introduces the constraint condition of the shortest moving distance instead of selecting the candidate control according to the position adjacent relation in the row and column, so that the focus moving scheme based on the angle expansion and the distance judgment can be widely applied to the graphical user interface with the control size diversity and the control layout diversity.

Description

Focus moving method and focus moving apparatus for graphic user interface

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of interface control, and in particular, to a focus moving method and a focus moving apparatus for a graphical user interface.

Background

As the functions of electronic devices such as NVR (Network Video Recorder) continue to expand, the design of graphical user interfaces of embedded devices becomes more and more diversified.

The diversification of the graphical user interface is mainly reflected in the size diversity and layout diversity of the controls, which leads to a complication in the design of the focus movement rules in the graphical user interface.

Therefore, how to provide a focus moving scheme generally applicable to diversified graphical user interfaces becomes a technical problem to be solved in the prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, embodiments of the present invention respectively provide a focus moving method for a graphical user interface, a focus moving apparatus for a graphical user interface, and an electronic device.

In one embodiment, there is provided a focus movement method for a graphical user interface, comprising:

responding to an input focus moving instruction, and acquiring the central position of a control where a focus is currently located;

taking the central position of the control where the focus is currently located as a starting point, and creating a directional search area along the indication direction of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search area expands and extends from the control where the focus is currently located by a preset angle and is constrained by taking an interface boundary as a boundary;

detecting whether the expansion side boundary of the directional search area is intersected with the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located at one side of the indication direction, wherein when the expansion side boundary focus of the directional search area is intersected with the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located at one side of the indication direction, the directional search area is supplemented at a gap between the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located at one side of the indication direction and the expansion side boundary of the directional search area, so that the directional search area further covers the gap;

searching for a candidate control within a directional search area;

when the candidate control is searched in the directional search area, the focus is moved to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition, wherein the moving distance is the distance between the center position of the control where the focus is currently located and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control.

Optionally, after creating the directional search area along the indicated direction of the focus movement instruction, further comprising: establishing an expanded search area along the orthogonal direction of the indication direction, wherein the expanded search area is constrained by taking the boundary of the control where the focus is located at the indication direction, the expansion side boundary of the directional search area and the interface boundary as boundaries; after searching the candidate control in the directional search area, the method further comprises: when the candidate control is not searched in the directional search area, the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, and when the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, the focus is moved to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition.

Optionally, searching the candidate control in the expanded search area further comprises: when no candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, a response is generated that the focus movement failed.

Optionally, moving the focus to the searched one candidate control with the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition includes: when a candidate control is searched, moving the focus to the candidate control; when a plurality of candidate controls are searched, the center position of the control where the focus is located is obtained, the midpoint position of the side edge, closest to the control where the focus is located, of each candidate control is detected, the moving distance between the center position of the control where the focus is located and the midpoint position of the side edge, adjacent to the control where the focus is located, of each candidate control is detected, and the focus is moved to the candidate control with the minimum moving distance among the candidate controls.

Optionally, moving the focus to the candidate control with the smallest moving distance includes: when the candidate control with the minimum moving distance is detected to be unique, moving the focus to the candidate control; when the moving distances of at least two candidate controls are detected to be equal and minimum, the positions of the candidate controls with the equal and minimum moving distances in the orthogonal direction of the indication direction are detected; moving the focus to a candidate control located closest to the control placement priority side.

In another embodiment, there is provided a focus moving apparatus for a graphic user interface, including:

the searching area creating module is used for responding to an input focus moving instruction and acquiring the central position of a control where a focus is located currently; taking the central position of the control where the focus is currently located as a starting point, and creating a directional search area along the indication direction of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search area expands and extends from the control where the focus is currently located by a preset angle and is constrained by taking an interface boundary as a boundary; detecting whether the expansion side boundary of the directional search area is intersected with the boundary of the control at which the focus is located at one side of the indication direction or not, wherein when the expansion side boundary focus of the directional search area is intersected with the boundary of the control at which the focus is located at one side of the indication direction, the directional search area is supplemented at a gap between the boundary of the control at which the focus is located at one side of the indication direction and the expansion side boundary of the directional search area, so that the directional search area further covers the gap;

the candidate control searching module is used for searching candidate controls in the directional searching area;

and the focus moving triggering module is used for moving the focus to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition when the candidate control is searched in the directional search area, wherein the moving distance is the distance between the center position of the control where the focus is located currently and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control.

Optionally, the search area creating module is further configured to create an expanded search area along an orthogonal direction of the indication direction, where the expanded search area is constrained by using a boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located on one side of the indication direction, an expansion side boundary of the directional search area, and an interface boundary; the candidate control searching module is further used for searching candidate controls in the expanded searching area when the candidate controls are not searched in the directional searching area; and the focus moving triggering module is further used for moving the focus to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition when the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area.

Optionally, further comprising: and the search failure response module is used for generating a response of failure in focus movement when the candidate control is not searched in the expanded search area.

Optionally, the focus movement triggering module is further configured to, when a plurality of candidate controls are searched, obtain a center position of a control where the focus is currently located, detect a midpoint position of an adjacent side edge of the control where each candidate control is closest to the focus, and detect a movement distance between the center position of the control where the focus is currently located and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of each candidate control.

Optionally, the focus movement triggering module is further configured to, when it is detected that the movement distances of at least two candidate controls are the same and the smallest, detect the positions of the candidate controls, the movement distances of which are the same and the smallest, in the direction orthogonal to the indication direction, and move the focus to one candidate control, the position of which is the closest to the control arrangement priority side.

In another embodiment, an electronic device is provided comprising a processor for performing the steps in the focus moving method as described above.

In another embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium is provided that stores instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps in the focus movement method as described above.

Based on the above embodiment, the directional search area for realizing the candidate control search is expanded and extended from the control where the focus is currently located by a preset angle, and is not limited to the rectangular search area with the standard row and column size, and the candidate control selected by the method introduces the constraint condition of the shortest moving distance instead of selecting the candidate control according to the position adjacent relation in the row and column, so that the focus moving scheme based on the angle expansion and the distance judgment can be widely applied to the graphical user interface with the diversity of the control sizes and the diversity of the control layouts.

In addition, the above embodiment may make up for the directional search area if necessary to avoid missing candidate controls in the positioning search area, and may also perform additional search by using the extended search area when the search in the positioning search area fails to compensate the search range of the positioning search area, thereby improving the adaptability to the size diversity and the layout diversity of the controls.

Drawings

The following drawings are only schematic illustrations and explanations of the present invention, and do not limit the scope of the present invention:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary flow diagram of a method for focus movement for a graphical user interface in one embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an extended flow of the focus shifting method introduced into the region extension mechanism shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a first example of a focus shifting method suitable for use as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the distribution of search areas in the first example shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a second example of a focus shifting method suitable for use as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a distribution of search regions in the second example shown in FIG. 5;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a third example of a focus shifting method suitable for use as shown in fig. 2;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a distribution of search regions in the third example shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a fourth example of a focus shifting method suitable for use as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a distribution of search regions in the fourth example shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 11 is an expanded flow chart of the method for moving the focus point to introduce the region filling mechanism shown in FIG. 1;

fig. 12 is an expanded flow diagram of the focus moving method introduced with the area filling mechanism and the area continuation mechanism shown in fig. 1;

fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a fifth example of a focus moving method suitable for use as shown in fig. 12;

fig. 14 is a schematic view showing a distribution of search regions in the fifth example shown in fig. 13;

fig. 15 is a schematic view of a sixth example of a focus moving method suitable for use as shown in fig. 12;

fig. 16 is a schematic view showing a distribution of search regions in the sixth example shown in fig. 15;

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary structure of a focus shifting apparatus for a GUI in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device in another embodiment.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary flow diagram of a method for focus movement for a graphical user interface in one embodiment. Referring to fig. 1, in one embodiment, a focus moving method for a graphical user interface includes:

s110: and in response to the input focus moving instruction, creating a directional search area along the indication direction of the focus moving instruction, wherein the directional search area expands and extends from the control where the focus is located at present at a preset angle and is constrained by taking the interface boundary as a boundary.

The focus moving instruction responded in this step may be input by a remote control device in a wireless signal manner, may be input by a hardware key of the device in a local electric signal manner, and may be input by a sliding touch signal manner through a touch screen. And, whatever the manner in which the focus movement instruction is input, it will typically represent a pointing direction, such pointing direction may correspond to a horizontal direction or a vertical direction in the graphical user interface.

In addition, in this step, the center position of the control where the focus is currently located may be obtained first, and then a directional search area that is expanded by a preset angle and extends to the boundary of the interface is created along the indication direction with the center position of the control where the focus is currently located as a starting point. That is, the directional search area may expand and extend from the center position of the control where the focus is currently located at a preset angle.

S120: the candidate controls are searched within the directed search area.

The search in this step may regard the control whose center position is located in the directional search area as a candidate control, that is, the candidate control searched in this step may include a control whose center position is hit in the directional search area. It may be understood that the search in this step may also regard the control having an intersection with the directional search area as a candidate control, that is, the candidate control searched in this step may also include a control whose control area overlaps with the directional search area. The determination criteria for hit status based on center position and the determination criteria for overlap status based on area may be enabled alternatively or simultaneously.

S130: when the candidate control is searched in the directional search area, the focus is moved to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition.

This step is directed to the search result of searching the candidate control in the directional search area, and such search result may actually further include the case of searching one candidate control and the case of searching multiple candidate controls. When a candidate control is searched, the candidate control is the candidate control with the shortest moving distance, and at the moment, the focus can be moved to the candidate control; when a plurality of candidate controls are searched, the moving distance between the control where the focus is currently located and each candidate control needs to be calculated, and a candidate control with the minimum moving distance needs to be selected from the candidate controls and the focus needs to be moved to the selected candidate control.

For the detection of the movement distance, the center position of the control where the focus is currently located may be obtained, the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the control where each candidate control is closest to the focus is currently located may be detected, and then the movement distance between the center position of the control where the focus is currently located and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of each candidate control may be detected. That is, the movement distance may be a distance between a center position of the control where the focus is currently located and a midpoint position of an adjacent side edge of the candidate control.

Based on the above process, the directional search area for realizing the candidate control search is expanded and extended from the control where the focus is currently located by a preset angle, but is not limited to the rectangular search area with the standard row and column size, and the candidate control selected by the selection of the searched candidate control introduces the constraint condition of the shortest moving distance instead of selecting the candidate control according to the position adjacent relation in the row and column, so that the focus moving scheme based on the angle expansion and the distance judgment can be widely applied to the graphical user interface with the diversity of the control sizes and the diversity of the control layouts.

In practical application, the expansion degree of the directional search area depends on the value of the preset angle, if the value of the preset angle is too small, the expansion capability is limited, and if the value of the preset angle is too large, the directional effect is weakened. In general, the preset angle may be set to 40 ° to 50 °, and preferably to 45 °.

In order to improve the expansion capability of the search under the premise of taking the directional effect of the directional search area into consideration, in the embodiment, an extended search area may be further introduced, so that when the search in the positioning search area fails, additional search is performed to further compensate the search range of the positioning search area, and thus the adaptability to the size diversity of the controls and the layout diversity of the controls is improved.

Fig. 2 is an expanded flow diagram of the focus moving method introduced with the region continuation mechanism shown in fig. 1. Referring to fig. 2, the focus moving method shown in fig. 1 may be further expanded to include the following steps:

s210: and in response to the input focus moving instruction, creating a directional search area along the indication direction of the focus moving instruction, wherein the directional search area expands and extends from the control where the focus is located at present at a preset angle and is constrained by taking the interface boundary as a boundary.

S220: and creating an expanded search area along the direction orthogonal to the indication direction, wherein the expanded search area is constrained by taking the boundary of the control where the focus is located at the current position at one side of the indication direction, the expansion side boundary of the directional search area and the interface boundary as boundary.

S230: the candidate controls are searched within the directed search area. When the candidate control is searched in the directional search area, the user can directly jump to S250; when no candidate control is searched in the directional search area, then it may jump to S240.

The search in this step may regard the control whose center position is located in the directional search area as a candidate control, that is, the candidate control searched in this step may include a control whose center position is hit in the directional search area. It is to be understood that the search in this step may also regard the control intersecting with the directional search area as a candidate control, that is, the candidate control searched in this step may also include a control whose control area overlaps with the directional search area. The determination criteria for hit status based on center position and the determination criteria for overlap status based on area may be enabled alternatively or simultaneously.

S240: the candidate controls are searched within the expanded search area. When the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, jumping to S250; when the candidate control is not searched in the expanded search area, the process jumps to S260.

The search in this step may regard the control whose center position is located in the expanded search area as a candidate control, that is, the candidate control searched in this step may include a control whose center position is hit in the expanded search area. It is to be understood that the search in this step may also regard the control intersecting with the expanded search area as a candidate control, that is, the candidate control searched in this step may also include a control whose control area overlaps with the expanded search area. The determination criterion based on the hit state of the center position and the determination criterion based on the area overlap state may be enabled alternatively or simultaneously and be kept consistent with S230.

S250: and moving the focus to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition.

This step is directed to the search result of searching for the candidate control in the directional search area or the extended search area, and such search result may actually further include the case of searching for one candidate control and the case of searching for multiple candidate controls. When a candidate control is searched in the directional search area or the expanded search area, the candidate control is the candidate control with the shortest moving distance, and at the moment, the focus can be moved to the candidate control; when a plurality of candidate controls are searched in the directional search area or the extended search area, the moving distance between the control where the focus is currently located and each candidate control needs to be calculated, and a candidate control with the shortest moving distance needs to be selected from the candidate controls and the focus needs to be moved to the selected candidate control.

S260: a response is generated that the focus movement failed.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a first example of a focus shifting method suitable for use as shown in fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the distribution of search areas in the first example shown in fig. 2.

Referring to fig. 3, the top of the gui 30 has a primary panel area 31, and the primary panel area 31 has a primary control set 310 arranged in a horizontal direction; the left side of the graphical user interface 30 has a secondary panel area 32 located below the primary panel area 31, the secondary panel area 32 is activated by selecting a corresponding control 311 in the primary control set 310, and the secondary panel area 32 is arranged with a longitudinally arranged secondary control set 320; the graphical user interface 30 also has a tertiary panel area 33 located below the primary panel area 31 and to the right of the secondary panel area 32, and the tertiary panel area 33 has disposed therein a tertiary control set 340 arranged longitudinally on a side close to the secondary panel area 32 and a tertiary control set 350 arranged longitudinally on the other side remote from the secondary panel area 32. Moreover, the control distributions in primary control set 310 and secondary control set 320 are staggered from and not aligned with the control distributions in tertiary control sets 340 and 350.

Referring to fig. 4 in conjunction with fig. 3, assuming that the focus is currently located at the uppermost one of the controls 321 in the secondary control set 320, in response to the focus movement instruction input at this time, a directional search region 51 is created in the indicated direction to the right of the horizontal direction of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search region 51 is expanded and extended from the center position of the control 321 where the focus is currently located at a preset angle and bounded by the boundary of the interface, and an expanded search region 53 is also created in the orthogonal direction (the upward and downward longitudinal directions) to the indicated direction, wherein the expanded search region 53 is bounded by the boundary of the control 321 where the focus is currently located at the right of the indicated direction, the expanded side boundary of the directional search region 51, and the boundary of the interface of the graphical user interface 30.

In fig. 4, the primary control set 310 and the tertiary control set 350 all hit in the directional search area 51, and a part of the tertiary control set 340 also hits in the directional search area 51, at this time, there is no need to continue searching in the extended search area 53, but one candidate control is selected from the candidate controls hit in the directional search area 51 with the shortest moving distance as a constraint, that is, the focus is moved to one searched candidate control 341 with the shortest moving distance as a constraint. Wherein, the moving distance is determined by the distance between the center position of the control 321 where the focus is currently located and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control, so that although the center position of the candidate control 311 in the primary control set 310 is closer to the control 321 where the focus is currently located, the distance D11 between the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control 341 and the control 321 is smaller than the distance D12 between the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control 311 and the control 321, and therefore, the focus moves to the candidate control 341 with the smallest moving distance searched in the directional search area 51.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a second example of a focus shifting method suitable for use as shown in fig. 2. Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating the distribution of search regions in the second example shown in fig. 5. In the second example shown in fig. 5 the same graphical user interface 30 as in the first example shown in fig. 3 is used.

Referring to fig. 6 in conjunction with fig. 5, assuming that the focus is currently located at the lowermost one of the controls 348 in the three-level control set 340, in response to the focus movement instruction input at this time, a directional search region 61 is created along the indicated direction to the right of the horizontal of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search region 61 expands and extends from the center position of the control 348 where the focus is currently located by a preset angle and is bounded by the interface boundary of the graphical user interface 30, and an extended search region 63 is also created along the orthogonal direction (the upward and downward longitudinal directions) to the indicated direction, wherein the extended search region 63 is bounded by the right boundary of the control 348 where the focus is currently located in the indicated direction, the expanded side boundary of the directional search region 61, and the interface boundary of the graphical user interface 30.

In fig. 6, no center position of the control is located in the directional search area 61, and thus no control hits in the directional search area 61, at which point an additional search in the extended search area 63 is enabled and all controls of the tertiary set of controls 350, as well as some controls of the set of controls 310, are hit in the extended search area 63. Since the movement distance D13 between the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control 354 located lowermost in the three-level control set 350 and the control 348 is the smallest, the focus is moved to the candidate control 354 having the smallest movement distance additionally searched in the expanded search area 63.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a third example of a focus shifting method suitable for use as shown in fig. 2. Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a distribution of search regions in the third example shown in fig. 7. In the third example shown in fig. 7 the same graphical user interface 30 as in the first example shown in fig. 3 is used.

Referring to fig. 8 in conjunction with fig. 7, assuming that the focus is currently located at the uppermost one of the controls 341 in the three-level control set 340, in response to the focus movement instruction input at this time, a directional search region 71 is created in the indication direction to the left of the horizontal of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search region 71 is expanded and extended from the center position of the control 341 where the focus is currently located at a preset angle and bound by the boundary of the interface of the graphical user interface 30, and an extended search region 73 is also created in the orthogonal direction (the upward and downward longitudinal directions) to the indication direction, wherein the extended search region 73 is bound by the boundary of the control 341 where the focus is currently located at the left side of the indication direction, the expanded side boundary of the directional search region 71, and the boundary of the interface of the graphical user interface 30.

In fig. 8, all the controls in the secondary control set 320 are hit in the directional search area 71, and in this case, one candidate control is selected from the candidate controls hit in the directional search area 71 under the constraint of the shortest moving distance without additionally searching in the extended search area 73. Unlike the first example in which only the candidate control whose movement distance is detected to be the smallest is detected, when the movement distances D14 and D15 of the two candidate controls 321 and 322 are detected to be the equally smallest in the third example, it is necessary to detect the positions of the respective candidate controls 321 and 322 whose movement distances are equally smallest in the orthogonal directions (upward and downward longitudinal directions) to the pointing direction, and move the focus to the one candidate control 321 whose position is closest to the arrangement side of the primary control set 310. The upper side of the arrangement side of the primary control set 310 may be regarded as a default arrangement side of the superior control, and the default arrangement side of the superior control may also be regarded as a control arrangement priority side.

Based on the third example, for S130 in the flow shown in fig. 1 and S250 in the flow shown in fig. 2, when the candidate control with the smallest moving distance is detected, the focus may be moved to the candidate control; when it is detected that the moving distances of at least two candidate controls are the same and minimum, the positions of the candidate controls with the same and minimum moving distances in the direction orthogonal to the indication direction may be detected, and the focus may be moved to the candidate control with the position closest to the control arrangement priority side.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a fourth example of a focus moving method suitable for use as shown in fig. 2. Fig. 10 is a diagram illustrating a distribution of search regions in the fourth example shown in fig. 7. In the fourth example shown in fig. 9 the same graphical user interface 30 as in the first example shown in fig. 3 is used. Also, unlike the first example, control 351 of tertiary control set 350 in the fourth example is in a switch state that blanks controls 352 and 353.

Referring to fig. 10 in conjunction with fig. 9, assuming that the focus is currently located in one control 342 arranged at the second position from top to bottom in the three-level control set 340, in response to the focus movement instruction input at this time, a directional search region 81 is created along the indicated direction to the right of the horizontal of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search region 81 is expanded and extended from the center position of the control 342 where the focus is currently located at a preset angle and is bounded by the interface boundary of the graphical user interface 30, and an expanded search region 83 is also created along the orthogonal direction (the upward and downward longitudinal directions) to the indicated direction, wherein the expanded search region 83 is bounded by the right side boundary of the control 342 where the focus is currently located at the indicated direction, the expanded side boundary of the directional search region 81, and the interface boundary of the graphical user interface 30.

In fig. 10, some of the controls in the primary set of controls 310 and all of the controls in the tertiary set of controls 350 are hit in the directional search region 81, but because the

controls

352 and 353 of the tertiary set of controls 350 are in a blanked state closed by the control 351, the search results in the directional search region 81 should filter out the blanked

controls

352 and 353. That is, some of the controls in the primary set of controls 310 are actually hit in the directed search area 81, as well as the remaining controls in the tertiary set of controls 350, except for

controls

352 and 353. At this time, no additional search in the extended search region 83 is required, and the movement distance D16 between the control 342 and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the uppermost candidate control 351 in the tertiary control set 350 is the smallest, so that the focus can be moved to the candidate control 351 having the smallest movement distance searched in the directional search region 81.

As can be seen from the fourth example, for S120 in the flow shown in fig. 1 and S230 and S240 in the flow shown in fig. 2, filtering out candidate controls in a blank state from among the searched candidate controls may be further included.

In the first to fourth examples, the directional search area may completely cover the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located on one side of the indication direction, that is, the directional search area 51 in the first example completely covers the right boundary of the control 321 at which the focus is currently located, the directional search area 61 in the second example completely covers the right boundary of the control 348 at which the focus is currently located, the directional search area 71 in the third example completely covers the left boundary of the control 341 at which the focus is currently located, and the directional search area 81 in the fourth example completely covers the right boundary of the control 342 at which the focus is currently located. However, there is a possibility that the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located on the side of the indication direction is beyond the coverage of the directional search area, which may cause a gap to exist between the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located on the side of the indication direction and the boundary of the expansion side of the directional search area, and the existence of the gap may cause the directional search area to miss the candidate control closest to the control at which the focus is currently located. To avoid this defect, a region filling mechanism may be introduced.

Fig. 11 is an expanded flow diagram illustrating the introduction of the region filling mechanism in the focus moving method shown in fig. 1. Referring to fig. 11, the focus moving method shown in fig. 1 may be further expanded to include the following steps:

s1110: and in response to the input focus moving instruction, creating a directional search area along the indication direction of the focus moving instruction, wherein the directional search area expands and extends from the control where the focus is located at present at a preset angle and is constrained by taking the interface boundary as a boundary.

This step can be considered as basically the same as the principle of S110 in fig. 1.

S1120: and detecting whether the boundary of the expansion side of the directional search area intersects with the boundary of the control at which the focus is located at one side of the indication direction. And when the boundary focus of the expansion side of the directional search area intersects with the boundary of the control at the current position at one side of the indication direction, jumping to S1130, otherwise, jumping to S1140.

S1130: and filling up the directional search area at the gap between the boundary of the control where the focus is located at the indicated direction side and the expansion side boundary of the directional search area.

S1140: the candidate controls are searched within the directed search area.

This step can be considered to be basically the same as the principle of S120 in fig. 1.

S1150: when the candidate control is searched in the directional search area, the focus is moved to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition.

This step can be considered to be basically the same as the principle of S130 in fig. 1.

The above-mentioned procedure is based on the focus movement scheme of angle expansion and distance judgment, not only can be generally and properly used in the graphical user interface of control size diversity and control layout diversity, but also can make up for the directional search area if necessary, in order to avoid missing the candidate control in the positioning search area.

It will be appreciated that the region filling mechanism does not conflict with the extended search region, and therefore, both may coexist.

Fig. 12 is an expanded flow diagram of the focus moving method introduced with the area filling mechanism and the area continuation mechanism shown in fig. 1.

S1210: and in response to the input focus moving instruction, creating a directional search area along the indication direction of the focus moving instruction, wherein the directional search area expands and extends from the control where the focus is located at present by a preset angle and is constrained by taking the interface boundary as a boundary.

This step can be considered to be basically the same as the principle of S110 in fig. 1.

S1220: and detecting whether the boundary of the expansion side of the directional search area intersects with the boundary of the control at which the focus is located at one side of the indication direction. And when the boundary focus of the expansion side of the directional search area intersects with the boundary of the control at the current position at one side of the indication direction, jumping to S1230, otherwise, jumping to S1240.

S1230: and filling up the directional search area at a gap between the boundary of the control at which the focus is located at one side of the indication direction and the expansion side boundary of the directional search area.

S1240: and creating an expanded search area along the direction orthogonal to the indication direction, wherein the expanded search area is constrained by taking the boundary of the control where the focus is located at the current position at one side of the indication direction, the expansion side boundary of the directional search area and the interface boundary as boundary.

S1250: the candidate controls are searched within the directed search area. When the candidate control is searched in the directional search area, the user can directly jump to S1270; when no candidate control is searched in the directional search area, then it may jump to S1260.

This step can be considered to be basically the same as the principle of S230 as shown in fig. 2.

S1260: the candidate controls are searched within the expanded search area. When the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, jumping to S1270; and when the candidate control is not searched in the expanded search area, jumping to S1280.

This step can be considered to be basically the same principle as S240 as shown in fig. 2.

S1270: and moving the focus to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition.

This step can be considered to be basically the same as the principle of S250 as shown in fig. 2.

S1280: a response is generated that the focus movement failed.

This step can be considered to be basically the same as the principle of S260 as shown in fig. 2.

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a fifth example of a focus moving method suitable for use as shown in fig. 12. Fig. 14 is a diagram showing a distribution of search regions in the fifth example shown in fig. 13.

Referring first to fig. 13, the top of the gui 90 has a primary panel area 91, and the primary panel area 91 is disposed with a primary control set 910 arranged in a horizontal direction; the graphical user interface 90 has a secondary panel area 92 below a primary panel area 91, the secondary panel area 92 is activated by selecting a corresponding control 911 in a primary control set 910, and two discretely distributed

controls

921 and 922 and a secondary control set 920 arranged laterally below the

controls

921 and 922 are arranged in the secondary panel area 92; the graphical user interface 90 also has a tertiary panel area 93 located below the secondary panel area 92, the tertiary panel area 93 being activated by selecting a corresponding control of the secondary control set 920, and the tertiary panel area 93 having a window control 930, controls 931-933 located below the window control 930, and a control 934 located to the right of the window control 930.

Referring to fig. 14 in conjunction with fig. 13, assuming that the focus is currently located at the leftmost one of the controls 911 in the primary control set 910, in response to a focus movement instruction input at this time, a directional search area 1011 is created along a vertically downward pointing direction of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search area 1011 extends from the center position of the control 911 where the focus is currently located by an expansion angle by a preset angle and is bounded by an interface boundary of the graphical user interface 90, and since the expansion-side boundary of the directional search area 1011 intersects a boundary (lower boundary) of the control 911 where the focus is currently located at one side of the pointing direction, the directional search area 1021 is made up at a gap 1021 between the boundary of the control 911 where the focus is currently located at one side of the pointing direction and the expansion-side boundary of the directional search area 1011, and thereafter, an expanded search area 1031 is created along an orthogonal direction (lateral directions to the left and the right) of the pointing direction, the expanded search area 1031 is bound by a lower boundary of the control 911 where the focus is currently located in the indication direction, expanded side boundaries of the supplemented directional search areas 1011 and 1021, and an interface boundary of the graphical user interface 90.

In fig. 14, a control 921 in the secondary panel area 92, a part of controls in the secondary control set 920, and controls 931 to 933 in the tertiary panel area 93 hit in the initially created directional search area 1011, and a control 922 in the secondary panel area 92 hits in a position of a complement 1021 in the directional search area 1011, at this time, it is not necessary to continue searching in the extended search area 1031, but a candidate control is selected from candidate controls hitting in the

directional search areas

1011 and 1021 with the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition, that is, the focus is moved to a searched candidate control 921 with the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition. Wherein, the moving distance is determined by the distance between the center position of the control 911 where the focus is currently located and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control, that is, the distance D21 between the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of the candidate control 921 and the control 911 is the smallest, so that the focus moves to the candidate control 921 with the smallest moving distance searched at the complement 1021 position of the directional search area 1011.

In addition, as can be seen from fig. 14, the window control 930 belongs to a non-focus position control, and therefore, based on the fifth example, for S1140 in the flow shown in fig. 11 and S1250 and S1260 in the flow shown in fig. 12, filtering out candidate controls belonging to a non-focus position attribute in the searched candidate controls may be further included.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram of a sixth example of a focus moving method suitable for use as shown in fig. 12. Fig. 16 is a diagram illustrating distribution of search areas in the sixth example shown in fig. 15. In the sixth example shown in fig. 15, the same graphical user interface 90 as in the fifth example shown in fig. 13 is used.

Referring to fig. 16 in conjunction with fig. 15, assuming that the focus is currently located at the control 921, in response to a focus movement instruction input at this time, a directional search region 1012 is created in an indication direction vertically upward of the focus movement instruction, wherein the directional search region 1012 is expanded and extended at a preset angle from a center position of the control 921 where the focus is currently located, and is bounded by an interface boundary of the graphical user interface 90, and since an expanded side boundary of the directional search region 1012 intersects a boundary (upper boundary) of the control 921 where the focus is currently located at one side of the indication direction, the directional search region 1022 is also made at a gap between a boundary where the control 921 where the focus is currently located at one side of the indication direction and an expanded side boundary of the directional search region 1012, and thereafter, an expanded search region 1032 is created in an orthogonal direction (lateral directions to the left and right) to the indication direction, the expanded search area 1032 is bounded by the upper boundary where the control 921 where the focus is currently located is in the indicated direction, the expanded side boundary of the directed search area 1012, and the interface boundary of the graphical user interface 90.

In fig. 16, the

controls

911 and 912 in the primary control set 910 are hit in the directed search area 1012, and in this case, one candidate control is selected from the candidate controls hit in the directed search area 1012 without additionally searching in the extended search area 1032 under the constraint of the shortest moving distance. Unlike the fifth example in which only the candidate control whose movement distance is detected to be the smallest is detected, when the movement distances D22 and D23 of the two candidate controls 911 and 912 are detected to be the same as the smallest in the sixth example, at this time, it is necessary to detect the positions of the respective candidate controls 911 and 912 whose movement distances are the same as the smallest in the orthogonal directions (lateral directions to the left and right) of the pointing direction, and move the focus to the one candidate control 911 whose position is closest to the arrangement start side of the primary control set 910. The left side where the arrangement starting side of the primary control set 910 is located may be regarded as the control arrangement starting side of the same-level control, and the control arrangement starting side of the same-level control may also be regarded as an expression of the control arrangement priority side.

Based on the sixth example, for S1150 in the flow shown in fig. 11 and S1270 in the flow shown in fig. 12, when the candidate control with the smallest moving distance is detected, the focus may be moved to the candidate control; when it is detected that the moving distances of at least two candidate controls are the same and minimum, the positions of the candidate controls with the same and minimum moving distances in the direction orthogonal to the indication direction may be detected, and the focus may be moved to the candidate control with the position closest to the control arrangement priority side.

Fig. 17 is an exemplary structural diagram of a focus moving apparatus for a graphical user interface in another embodiment. Referring to fig. 17, in another embodiment, a focus shifting apparatus for a graphical user interface may include:

a search area creating module 1710, configured to create, in response to an input focus moving instruction, a directional search area along an indication direction of the focus moving instruction, where the directional search area extends from the control where the focus is currently located by expanding at a preset angle (the preset angle may be set to 40 ° -50 °, and is preferably 45 °) and is constrained by taking an interface boundary as a boundary.

For example, the focus movement instruction responded by the search area creation module 1710 may be input by a wireless signal through a remote control device, may be input by a local electric signal through a hardware key of the apparatus, or may be input by a sliding touch signal through a touch screen. And, whatever the manner in which the focus movement instruction is input, it will typically represent a pointing direction, such pointing direction may correspond to a horizontal direction or a vertical direction in the graphical user interface. And the search area creating module 1710 may be further configured to obtain a center position of the control in which the focus is currently located in response to the input focus moving instruction, and create, using the center position of the control in which the focus is currently located as a starting point, a directional search area that is expanded by a preset angle and extends to the boundary of the interface along the indication direction. That is, the directional search area may expand and extend from the center position of the control where the focus is currently located at a preset angle.

A candidate control search module 1720 for searching for candidate controls within the targeted search area.

For example, a search performed by the candidate control search module 1720 may consider a control whose center position is located in the targeted search area to be a candidate control, i.e., a candidate control searched by the candidate control search module 1720 may include a control whose center position hits in the targeted search area. It is to be understood that the search in this step may also regard the control intersecting with the directional search area as a candidate control, that is, the candidate control searched in this step may also include a control whose control area overlaps with the directional search area. The determination criteria for hit status based on center position and the determination criteria for overlap status based on area may be enabled alternatively or simultaneously.

The focus moving triggering module 1730 is configured to, when a candidate control is searched in the directional search area, move the focus to the searched candidate control with the shortest moving distance as a constraint.

The focus movement triggering module 1730 may be directed to a search result of searching for a candidate control in the directional search area, and such a search result may actually further include a case of searching for one candidate control and a case of searching for multiple candidate controls. When a candidate control is searched, the candidate control is the candidate control with the shortest moving distance, and at the moment, the focus can be moved to the candidate control; when a plurality of candidate controls are searched, the moving distance between the control where the focus is currently located and each candidate control needs to be calculated, and a candidate control with the shortest moving distance needs to be selected from the candidate controls and the focus needs to be moved to the selected candidate control.

For example, the focus movement triggering module 1730 may obtain a center position of a control where the focus is currently located and detect a midpoint position of each candidate control closest to an adjacent side edge of the control where the focus is currently located when the candidate control searching module 1720 searches for a plurality of candidate controls, detect a movement distance between the center position of the control where the focus is currently located and the midpoint position of the adjacent side edge of each candidate control, and move the focus to a candidate control with a smallest movement distance among the plurality of candidate controls. And when detecting that the moving distances of at least two candidate controls are the same and minimum, detecting the positions of the candidate controls with the same and minimum moving distances in the direction orthogonal to the indication direction, and moving the focus to one candidate control with the position closest to the control arrangement priority side (for example, the upper-level control arrangement side or the control arrangement starting side of the same-level control).

Based on the device, the directional search area for realizing the candidate control search is expanded and extended from the control where the focus is located at present by a preset angle instead of being limited in a rectangular search area with a row-column standard size, and the candidate control is selected by introducing a constraint condition of the shortest moving distance instead of selecting the candidate control according to the position adjacent relation in a row-column, so that the focus moving scheme based on the angle expansion and the distance judgment can be widely applied to graphical user interfaces with control size diversity and control layout diversity.

In practical applications, there is a possibility that the size of the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located on the side of the indication direction exceeds the coverage range of the directional search area, which may result in a gap between the boundary of the control at which the focus is currently located on the side of the indication direction and the expanded side boundary of the directional search area, and the existence of the gap may result in the directional search area omitting the candidate control closest to the control at which the focus is currently located. In order to avoid the defect, the search area creating module 1710 may be further configured to detect whether an expansion side boundary focus of the directional search area intersects a boundary of the current control on the side of the indication direction, and when the expansion side boundary focus of the directional search area intersects a boundary of the current control on the side of the indication direction, the directional search area is supplemented at a gap between the boundary of the current control on the side of the indication direction and the expansion side boundary of the directional search area.

In order to improve the search expansion capability on the premise of considering the directional effect of the directional search area, the search area creating module 1710 may be further configured to create an expanded search area in the orthogonal direction of the indication direction, where the expanded search area is constrained by using, as a boundary, a boundary where the control where the focus is currently located is located on one side of the indication direction, an expanded side boundary of the directional search area, and an interface boundary; accordingly, the candidate control search module 1720 may be further configured to search for a candidate control within the expanded search area when no candidate control is searched in the directed search area, and the focus movement trigger module 1730 may be further configured to move the focus to the searched one candidate control with the shortest movement distance as a constraint when the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area.

In addition, the focus moving apparatus may further include a search failure response module, not shown in fig. 17, configured to generate a response that the focus movement fails when the candidate control is not searched in the expanded search area.

Fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device in another embodiment. Referring to fig. 18, in another embodiment, an electronic device may include a display screen 1800, a first non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 1810, a second non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 1820, and a processor 1830, wherein:

the first non-transitory computer readable storage medium 1810 stores interface templates for a graphical user interface, and accordingly, the processor 1810 is configured to load the interface templates from the first non-transitory computer readable storage medium 1810 and present them on the display screen 1800;

the second non-transitory computer readable storage medium 1820 stores instructions that, when executed by the processor 1830, cause the processor 1830 to perform the steps in the focus movement method as described herein.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A focus movement method for a graphical user interface, comprising:

searching for a candidate control within a directional search area;

2. The focus shifting method according to claim 1,

after creating the directional search area along the indicated direction of the focus movement instruction, further comprising: establishing an expanded search area along the orthogonal direction of the indication direction, wherein the expanded search area is constrained by taking the boundary of the control where the focus is located at the indication direction, the expansion side boundary of the directional search area and the interface boundary as boundaries;

after searching the candidate control in the directional search area, the method further comprises: when the candidate control is not searched in the directional search area, the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, and when the candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, the focus is moved to the searched candidate control by taking the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition.

3. The focus movement method of claim 2, wherein searching for candidate controls within the expanded search area further comprises:

when no candidate control is searched in the expanded search area, a response is generated that the focus movement failed.

4. The focus moving method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein moving the focus to the searched one candidate control with the shortest moving distance as a constraint condition comprises:

when a candidate control is searched, moving the focus to the candidate control;

when a plurality of candidate controls are searched, the center position of the control where the focus is located is obtained, the midpoint position of the side edge, closest to the control where the focus is located, of each candidate control is detected, the moving distance between the center position of the control where the focus is located and the midpoint position of the side edge, adjacent to the control where the focus is located, of each candidate control is detected, and the focus is moved to the candidate control with the minimum moving distance among the candidate controls.

5. The focus moving method according to claim 4, wherein moving the focus to the one of the plurality of candidate controls that has moved the smallest distance comprises:

when the candidate control with the minimum moving distance is detected to be unique, moving the focus to the candidate control;

when the moving distances of at least two candidate controls are detected to be equal and minimum, the positions of the candidate controls with the equal and minimum moving distances in the orthogonal direction of the indication direction are detected;

moving the focus to a candidate control located closest to the control placement priority side.

6. A focus shifting apparatus for a graphical user interface, comprising:

7. An electronic device, comprising a processor configured to perform the steps of the focus moving method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps in the focus movement method of any of claims 1-5.