JP2000172400A - Display image controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To change physical images very smoothly, efficiently and also with high accuracy. SOLUTION: When an operator operates a 1st input device 10 with the left hand, the device 10 outputs a signal related to a two-dimensional position, and a physical image display means 14 shows a part of an area of a logical image corresponding to the signal on the screen of a display device 4. Meanwhile, when the operator operates a 2nd input device 12 with the right hand, the device 12 outputs a signal related to a two-dimensional position based on the operation, and an absolute position calculating means 16 generates information corresponding to a position on the logical image according to this signal and the signal outputted by the device 10. Then, it is possible to change the physical image with the left hand if necessary while performing an operation related to, e.g. any application by the device 12 with the right hand.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display screen control device for retaining image information of a logical screen and displaying a part of the logical screen on a display device screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a personal computer (also referred to as a personal computer), a part of a logical screen is displayed on a screen of a display device while holding image information of a logical screen larger than a screen (physical screen) of the display device. Technology is used,
The operator can select an arbitrary image area on the logical screen by operating a mouse or the like and display it on the screen of the display device.

A display screen control method for efficiently selecting such a display image region is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-032527. In this prior art, a display device that supports a logical screen size larger than a physical screen size is designed to be able to display a position that the user actually wants to view by one-touch operation of an operator. That is,
A first rectangular frame similar to the logical screen size and a second rectangular frame similar to an area (window area) cut out and displayed on the physical screen in the logical screen are displayed on the physical screen. Moves the second rectangular frame to an arbitrary position in the first rectangular frame, and redisplays the image in the second rectangular frame on the physical screen.

[0004]

However, this prior art has the following problems. First, actually, the display area cannot be designated by one-touch operation, but at least three steps of “display the first rectangular frame” → “move the second rectangular frame” → “redisplay the physical screen” Must be performed by the operator and the application (and the device), and it may take time to display a desired area. This problem stems from the fact that the second rectangular frame must be operated.

[0005] Second, if the operator operates an application on a personal computer and performs an operation related to the application, and it is necessary to display another area of the logical screen, the above-mentioned conventional technique is used. In this case, the operation of the application is temporarily interrupted to perform the image display operation. The operator often feels stress due to such interruption of the work.

[0006] In some applications, it is necessary to move (drag operation) while grasping graphic information with a pointing device (such as a mouse). In this case, when moving graphic information etc. out of the physical screen, in order to display the outer logical screen on the physical screen, temporarily stop the drag operation and perform the screen control operation using the pointing device to obtain the necessary area. Is displayed on the screen of the display device, and the drag operation needs to be performed again.

Third, in the conventional method, it is difficult to specify a display position accurately. That is, since the second rectangular frame is a figure similar to the first rectangular frame, the larger the logical screen is compared to the physical screen, the smaller the second rectangular frame is displayed. As a result, The area of the second rectangular frame is represented by a small number of pixels, and the position error increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display screen control apparatus capable of changing a physical screen very smoothly, efficiently and with high accuracy. Is to provide.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a display screen control device for holding a part of a logical screen on a screen of a display device while retaining image information of the logical screen. A first input device for outputting a signal related to a two-dimensional position based on a manual operation, a second input device for outputting a signal related to a two-dimensional position based on a manual operation, and the first input device Physical screen display means for displaying a partial area on a logical screen on the screen of the display device in response to a signal output by the first and second input devices; An absolute position calculating means for generating information corresponding to the upper position.

In the display screen control device according to the present invention, when the operator operates the first input device with, for example, the left hand, the first input device outputs a signal relating to a two-dimensional position based on the operation. And the physical screen display means,
A partial area on the logical screen is displayed on the screen of the display device according to the signal output from the first input device. Therefore, the operator can display a desired image area on the logical screen on the screen of the display device by operating the first input device.

On the other hand, when the operator operates the second input device with, for example, the right hand, the second input device outputs a signal relating to a two-dimensional position based on the operation. Then, the absolute position calculating means generates information corresponding to the position on the logical screen based on the signals output from the first and second input devices. Therefore, based on this position information, for example, the application can grasp the position on the logical screen corresponding to the position specified by the operator on the screen and perform the necessary operation.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a display screen control device according to the present invention, FIGS. 2A to 2E are flowcharts showing the operation of the display screen control device of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a display screen control of FIG. It is a perspective view showing the appearance of an apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, the display screen control device 2 of the present embodiment holds a part of the logical screen and displays a part of the logical screen on the screen of the display device 4 (for example, a liquid crystal display device). In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, it is constituted by a personal computer 6 as an example.

The display screen control device 2 includes a first input device 10 as an input device 8 for outputting a signal relating to a two-dimensional position based on a manual operation, and a two-dimensional position based on the manual operation. A second input device 12 as an input device 8 for outputting related signals, and furthermore, a partial area on the logical screen corresponding to the signal output from the first input device 10 is displayed on the screen of the display device 4. The display device includes a physical screen display unit for displaying, and an absolute position calculation unit for generating information corresponding to a position on a logical screen based on a signal output from the second input device.

The physical screen display means 14 is described in detail
A first input device control unit for generating position information from a signal output from the first input device; and a logical address storage unit for storing the position information generated by the first input device control unit. Also, it includes a logical screen storage unit 22 that stores the image information of the logical screen, and a physical screen storage unit 23 that stores the image information to be displayed on the screen of the display device 4. Further, the physical screen display unit 14 displays image information of a partial area on the logical screen corresponding to the position information stored in the logical address storage unit 20 in the logical screen storage unit 22.
A physical screen determination unit 24 that reads out and writes the data to the physical screen storage unit 23, and an output device 5 that generates a video signal from the storage content of the physical screen storage unit 23, supplies the video signal to the display device 4, and displays the video. .

Further, the display screen control device 2 includes a third input device 30 as the input device 8 for outputting a signal indicating an on / off operation. The absolute position calculation means 16
More specifically, a second input device control unit 26 that generates position information corresponding to a position on the screen of the display device 4 based on a signal output by the second input device 12, and a second input device control unit 26 And a physical address storage unit 28 for storing the generated position information. The physical address storage unit 28 further stores a physical address on the logical screen corresponding to the position on the screen represented by the position information stored in the physical address storage unit 28. The storage unit 28 includes an absolute position calculation unit 32 that is generated based on the position information stored in the logical address storage unit 20.

The logical address storage unit 20, the physical address storage unit 28, the logical screen storage unit 22, and the physical screen storage unit 23 are provided in a storage unit 34. Further, the first and second input device control units 18 and 26, the physical screen determination unit 24, and the absolute position calculation unit 32
Is composed. Note that, as shown in FIG. 3, the first input device 10 is a trackball as an example in the present embodiment, and the second input device 12 is a mouse or a joystick. Further, it is assumed that the third input device 30 is a mouse button provided on a mouse. Also, as shown in FIG. 3, in the present embodiment, the trackball is arranged on the left side of the display device 4 of the personal computer 6, and the mouse and the joystick are arranged on the right side.

Next, the operation of the display screen control device 2 configured as described above will be described. When the personal computer 6 is started, the operating system 46 (OS) incorporated in the personal computer 6 executes steps A1 to A4 in FIG.
As shown in (1), the storage contents of the logical address storage unit 20, the physical address storage unit 28, the logical screen storage unit 22, and the physical screen storage unit 23 are sequentially initialized. In particular,
The logical screen storage unit 22 stores predetermined image information constituting the physical screen, and stores the physical screen storage unit 23.
Stores image information of a rectangular area corresponding to the size of the screen of the display device 4, for example, at the center of the logical screen. The logical address storage unit 20 stores the rectangular area
For example, X and Y coordinate values of the upper left corner of the rectangular area are stored as information representing the position on the logical screen. On the other hand, the physical address storage unit 28 stores, for example, X and Y coordinate values indicating the center position of the screen of the display device 4. At this time, the OS 46 sets the position of the X and Y coordinate values stored in the physical address storage unit 28 on the screen of the display device 4 as the position indicated by the second input device 12, and displays the figure of the mouse pointer. indicate.

Here, when the operator operates the first input device 10 with, for example, the left hand to change the physical screen, the first
The input device 10 outputs a signal related to a two-dimensional position based on the manual operation, and an interrupt signal is generated at this time (step B1 in FIG. 2B). As a result, the first input device control unit 18 obtains the movement amounts in the X direction and the Y direction from the signal output from the first input device 10 (step B2). The position of the new rectangular area is calculated by adding to the coordinate value of the rectangular area stored in the storage unit 20.

For example, suppose that the amount of movement by the first input device 10 is 2 in the X direction and 5 in the Y direction, and (X1, Y1) is stored in the logical address storage unit 20 as the coordinate value of the upper left corner. , The position of the new rectangular area is (X
1 + 2, Y1 + 5). Then, when the rectangular area is arranged at this new position, it is determined whether or not the rectangular area fits within the logical screen (step B3).
In the case of es, the position information indicating the position of the new rectangular area is stored in the logical address storage unit 20 (step B).
4). At this time, the physical screen determination unit 24 reads the image information in the new rectangular area from the logical screen storage unit 22 and stores it in the physical screen storage unit 23 (step B5). An image is displayed on the screen based on the image information stored in 23. For more information,
When the output device 5 generates an interrupt signal (step E)
1) The contents of the physical screen storage unit 23 are not shown in the video RA
M (step E2), the output device 5 generates a video signal based on the image information transferred to the video RAM, and supplies the video signal to the display device 4 to display a video (step E3).

Here, the size of the physical screen is "(0, 0)
− (639, 399) ”, the physical screen determination unit 24
Is "(X1 + 2 + 0, Y1 + 5 + 0)-(X1 + 2 + 6
39, Y1 + 5 + 399) is stored in the physical screen storage unit 23, and the image in this area is displayed. However, the notation of (0,0)-(639,399) indicates that the coordinates of the upper left corner of the rectangular area are (0,0) and the coordinates of the lower right corner are (639,399). When the determination result is No in step B3, the first input device control unit 18 does not update the storage content of the logical address storage unit 20, and therefore, the image displayed on the display device 4 is not updated. Will remain.

On the other hand, when the operator operates the second input device 12 with, for example, the right hand to specify a specific position on the physical screen, the second input device 12 is moved to a two-dimensional position based on the manual operation. A related signal is output, and at this time, an interrupt signal is generated (step C1 in FIG. 2C) and supplied to the second input device control unit 26. As a result, the second input device control unit 26 The movement amount in the X direction and the Y direction is obtained from the signal output from the second input device 12 (step C2), and this movement amount is added to the coordinate value stored in the physical address storage unit 28 to obtain a new value. Calculate the coordinate value of the position.

For example, if the amount of movement by the second input device 12 is 10 in the X direction and -2 in the Y direction, and (X2, Y2) are stored in the physical address storage unit 28 as coordinate values, a new Coordinate values are (X2 + 10, Y
2-2). Then, the second input device control unit 2
6 determines whether or not the new position is included in the screen of the display device 4 (step C3), and the determination result is Ye
In the case of s, the coordinate value of the new position is stored in the physical address storage unit 28 (step C4).
In the case of o, the storage content of the physical address storage unit 28 is not updated. When the content of the physical address storage unit 28 is updated, the OS 46 displays a mouse pointer at a new position on the screen based on the storage content of the physical address storage unit 28.

Accordingly, the operator can operate the second input device 12 to move the mouse pointer on the screen, and position the mouse pointer at a desired position. When the position of the mouse pointer is determined, the operator operates the third input device 30 with the right hand. Specifically, the mouse button is pressed. As a result, an interrupt signal is generated (step D1). As a result, the absolute position calculation unit 32 reads a new coordinate value from the physical address storage unit 28, and also displays on the display device 4 which area of the logical screen is displayed. Information about the position, that is, the coordinate values stored in the logical address storage unit 20 is read out, and the coordinate value of the position corresponding to the position of the mouse pointer on the logical screen is calculated and supplied to the OS 46. Therefore, at this time,
Assuming that some application is operating under the management of S46, the application can receive the coordinate values calculated by the absolute position calculation unit 32 through the OS 46, and the application determines the position on the logical screen designated by the operator. It is possible to grasp and perform necessary operations.

As described above, in the display screen control device 2 of the present embodiment, when changing the physical screen, the operator operates the first input device 10 with the left hand, and If the position is specified, the second input device 12
The third input device 30 may be operated with the right hand. Therefore, the operator can change the physical screen without interrupting the operation related to the application (the operation by the second and third input devices 12 and 30), and can eliminate the stress caused by interrupting the operation. .
Further, even when the graphic information is moved to the outside of the physical screen by the drag operation, the change of the physical screen can be performed by the first input device 10 with the left hand, so that it is not necessary to interrupt the drag operation. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, it is not necessary to display a rectangular frame representing a display area on the screen unlike the related art, so that the position of the physical screen can be set with high accuracy. Further, an operation of moving the rectangular frame as in the related art is not required. As a result, in the display screen control device 2 of the present embodiment, the physical screen can be changed very smoothly, efficiently, and with high accuracy by effectively using both hands.

In the present embodiment, the first input device 10 is arranged on the left side and the second input device 12 is arranged on the right side. However, for convenience of left-handed workers,
Of course, it is possible to arrange the first input device 10 on the right side and the second input device 12 on the left side.

[0026]

As described above, in the display screen control device of the present invention, when the operator operates the first input device with, for example, the left hand, the first input device is moved to the two-dimensional position based on the operation. Output a signal related to. And
The physical screen display means displays a partial area on the logical screen on the screen of the display device according to a signal output from the first input device. Therefore, the operator can display a desired image area on the logical screen on the screen of the display device by operating the first input device. On the other hand, when the operator operates the second input device with, for example, the right hand, the second input device outputs a signal related to a two-dimensional position based on the operation. Then, the absolute position calculating means generates information corresponding to the position on the logical screen based on the signals output from the first and second input devices. Therefore,
Based on this position information, for example, the application can grasp the position on the logical screen corresponding to the position specified by the operator on the screen and perform necessary operations.

That is, in the display screen control device of the present invention,
The operator can operate the second input device with one hand to perform an operation related to some application, and change the physical screen with the other hand as necessary. Therefore, in the present invention, the operator can change the physical screen without interrupting the operation related to the application, and can eliminate the stress caused by interrupting the operation. Further, even when the graphic information is moved to the outside of the physical screen by the drag operation, the physical screen can be performed by, for example, the left hand by the first input device, so that it is not necessary to interrupt the drag operation. Further, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to display a rectangular frame representing a display area on the screen unlike the related art, so that the position of the physical screen can be set with high accuracy. Further, an operation of moving the rectangular frame as in the related art is not required. As a result, in the display screen control device of the present invention, the physical screen can be changed very smoothly, efficiently, and with high accuracy by effectively using both hands.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a display screen control device according to the present invention.

FIGS. 2A to 2E are flowcharts showing the operation of the display screen control device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an appearance of the display screen control device of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... display screen control device, 4 ... display device, 6 ... personal computer, 8 ... input device, 10 ... first input device,
12 second input device, 14 physical screen display means, 16 absolute position calculation means, 18 first input device control unit, 20 logical address storage unit, 22
Logical screen storage unit, 23 physical screen storage unit, 24 physical screen determination unit, 26 second input device control unit, 2
8 physical address storage unit, 30 third input device, 32 absolute position calculation unit, 34 storage device, 36
... Control device, 46 ... Operating system.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A display screen control device for retaining image information of a logical screen and displaying a part of the logical screen on a screen of a display device, and outputs a signal relating to a two-dimensional position based on a manual operation. A first input device, a second input device for outputting a signal relating to a two-dimensional position based on a manual operation, and a partial area on a logical screen according to a signal output by the first input device Physical screen display means for displaying on the screen of the display device, and absolute position calculation means for generating information corresponding to a position on the logical screen based on signals output by the first and second input devices. A display screen control device comprising: 2. The physical screen display unit includes: a first input device control unit that generates position information from a signal output by the first input device; and the position generated by the first input device control unit. A logical address storage unit that stores information, a logical screen storage unit that stores image information of the logical screen, a physical screen storage unit that stores image information to be displayed on the screen of the display device, and the logical address storage unit. A physical screen determination unit that reads image information of a partial area on a logical screen corresponding to the stored position information from the logical screen storage unit and writes the read image information to the physical screen storage unit; 2. The display screen control device according to claim 1, further comprising: an output device that generates a video signal based on the image information being output and outputs the video signal to the display device. A third input device that outputs a signal indicating an on / off operation, wherein the absolute position calculating unit is configured to display a signal on the screen of the display device based on a signal output by the second input device. A second input device control unit that generates position information corresponding to the position; a physical address storage unit that stores the position information generated by the second input device control unit; An absolute position calculator that generates a position on the logical screen corresponding to the position on the screen represented by the position information that is present based on the position information stored in the physical address storage unit and the logical address storage unit. 3. The display screen control device according to claim 2, wherein: 4. The display screen control device according to claim 1, wherein said first input device is a trackball. 5. The display screen control device according to claim 1, wherein the second input device is a mouse or a joystick. 6. The display screen control device according to claim 3, wherein the third input device is a mouse button provided on a mouse.