JP2000276278A - Electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to easily discriminate which part of information to be displayed a currently displayed part corresponds to by providing a final part notifying means which allows the user to discriminate the border between the final part and start part of the information to be displayed. SOLUTION: For example, when four lines can be displayed on the display screen of an LCD 6, the four lines are possibly not enough for information to be displayed like an information message. For the purpose, the contents on the display screen are scrolled on a wrap-around basis by rotating a jog dial 11. Then a line (separator) of marker display indicating a border is displayed as a line between menu items to be displayed and between the final line and start line of message information. Consequently, it is made easy to know that one round of lines of menu items and lines of a message has been done and where current display contents are positioned on the menu item or message lines.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having a small display such as a pager.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The size of a display screen of a display section of a pager for displaying a received message or an operation menu is relatively small because the pager is small, and usually, about 2 to 4 lines can be displayed. Display screen. For this reason, when the received message spans a long sentence or when there are many menu items, all of them cannot be displayed on the display screen at once.

[0003] Therefore, in a pager, usually,
By operating the up / down key etc. by the user,
Scroll the contents of the display screen line by line, or
Switching can be performed for each screen, and all message contents and all menu items are divided and displayed.

[0004]

When the number of lines that must be displayed on the display screen of the pager increases, the scrolling method of the screen and the switching method for each screen include the last line of the information to be displayed, Rather than a method in which scrolling or switching is stopped on the screen, a ring-shaped scrolling method is used, in which the first line is displayed continuously without interruption even when the last line or the last screen is reached (hereinafter referred to as a wrap-around method). In some cases, a screen switching method is more convenient.

[0005] However, in the case of the wrap-around type scroll, if the number of lines to be displayed increases, the message displayed on the display screen does not reach the last line or the last screen without notice. It was difficult to identify which part of the operation menu or which item of the operation menu was located. For this reason, in the conventional pager, the user often performs useless operations.

In view of the above, the present invention considers that even if a wraparound scroll display or a ring-like screen switching method is used, the currently displayed portion is
It is intended to provide an electronic device such as a pager that allows a user to easily identify which of information to be displayed, such as a display message and many menu items. is there.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an electronic apparatus according to the present invention has a feature that when information to be displayed does not fit in one display screen of the display unit, According to the operation of the user operation means, the information to be displayed is scrolled or screen-switched in a ring shape, and a part of the information to be displayed is displayed on the display screen of the display unit. The electronic device is characterized in that a final part notifying unit is provided for the user to identify a boundary between the last part of the information to be displayed and the first part of the information to be displayed.

In the electronic device according to the first aspect of the present invention, the user is notified by the final partial notification means that the wraparound scroll display or the screen switching has been completed. Therefore, the user can easily identify which part of the information to be displayed, such as a display message or a large number of menu items, is present, and the user can easily use the electronic part. Equipment can be realized.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which an electronic apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a pager will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a pager according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, a pager according to this embodiment comprises an antenna 1, an RF block 2, a decoder 3
, A key operation unit 4, an LCD (liquid crystal display) driver 5, an LCD 6, a speaker 7, a RAM 8,
EPROM 9, control unit 10, jog dial 11
And a jog dial decoder 12.

The antenna 1 is for wirelessly receiving data from a pager base station. The RF block 2 amplifies the data received by the antenna 1 and supplies the data to the decoder 3. The decoder 3 demodulates the received data received by the RF block 2 and controls the RF block. And the decoder 3
Sends the demodulated data to the control unit 10.

The key operation section is a section for performing various key inputs. The LCD driver 5 is a processing unit for displaying the display information from the control unit 10 on the LCD 6 under the control of the control unit 10. The speaker 7 is a part that sounds a buzzer for notifying the reception data such as a message when the data is received from the pager base station. RAM
Reference numeral 8 denotes a memory for storing received messages and the like. E
The EPROM 9 is a memory for storing address information unique to each device of the pager.

The jog dial 11 constitutes a key operation unit having a plurality of roles such as a role as an up / down key and a role as a decision key. In the case of this example, the jog dial 11 is constituted by a rotatable circular dial knob as shown in the external view of the pager in FIG.

The rotation of the dial knob causes the jog dial 11 to function as an up / down key as described later. Also, jog dial 1
1 also has a function as a non-locking push button when pressed in the radial direction. The function of this push button serves as a decision key.

As shown in FIG. 2, an escape key 13 is provided on a part of the jog dial 11.
Pressing the escape key 13 has the opposite effect of pressing the jog dial 11 as a push button in the radial direction. That is, the escape key 13 constitutes an input button key that plays a role of returning to the screen before the determination.

The operation input of the jog dial 11 including the operation of the escape key 13 is input to the jog dial decoder 12.
The operation input is detected by turning the dial knob,
The information indicating whether the dial knob is pressed or the escape key 13 is pressed is indicated by the jog dial decoder 12.
Is sent to the control unit 10.

The control unit 10 analyzes the data received from the decoder 3 and receives key operation input information and operation input information from the jog dial decoder 12, analyzes the received data, and performs processing in accordance with the analysis. Control unit 1
0 performs necessary information storage processing in the RAM 8 and sends information for displaying a predetermined display image to the LCD driver 5 on the display screen 6D of the LCD 6 (see FIG. 2). That is, the control unit 10 controls the entire pager, and the control unit 10 is realized by a microcomputer.

The pager of this embodiment has two message folders for storing received messages, one for personal messages and one for information messages. These pieces of information are stored in the RAM 8.

A personal message is a message exchanged between individuals. The information message is information sent from the pager base station, such as news and weather forecast information. The RAM 8 can store, for example, 15 information messages.

In this embodiment, four lines can be displayed on the display screen 6D of the LCD 6. Like the above information message, information to be displayed is often not enough for four lines. For this reason,
In this example, by rotating the jog dial 11, the contents of the display screen 6D can be scroll-displayed in a wrap-around manner.

As described below, in this embodiment, the line between the last line and the first line of the menu item or message information to be displayed is the line of the sign display indicating the boundary. (Hereinafter, referred to as a separator). The separator constitutes a means for informing a final part of information to be displayed by wraparound scroll display.

Next, the flow of processing for display, which is executed by the control unit of the pager, will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 to 5 and the explanatory views of the display contents in each state of the display screen 6D. This will be described with reference to FIG. In this example, as described above, the rotation operation of the jog dial 11 is an up / down operation, and pressing down is a determination operation.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the jog dial 11 is pressed as a push button in the standby display state (step S1), a main menu is displayed on the display screen 6D (step S2). Next, escape key 1
It is determined whether or not 3 has been pressed (step S3). When it is determined that the escape key 13 has been pressed, the screen returns to the previous screen, that is, the standby display state (step S4). Then, the process returns to step S1.

In step S3, escape key 1
When it is determined that No. 3 has not been pressed, it is determined whether or not the jog dial 11 has been rotated, that is, whether or not the up / down operation has been performed (step S5).

When it is determined that the jog dial 11 has been rotated, the reverse display line is changed (step S6). Here, the inverted display line indicates the line that is currently selected, and is displayed to the user by being inverted. As shown in the screen display to be described later, the selection target items are displayed in units of one line, so that the highlighted display line indicates the selection target item being selected. When the jog dial 11 is rotated, the highlighted line is changed.

Next, it is determined whether or not the jog dial 11 has been pressed (step S7). Step S
If it is determined in step 5 that the jog dial 11 has not been rotated, the process also jumps to step S7.

If it is determined in step S7 that the jog dial 11 has not been pressed, the flow returns to step S3, and the line selection step in the main menu display state is repeated. If it is determined in step S7 that the jog dial has been pressed, the display screen 6D is changed to the screen display state of the selected menu item in the lower layer of the menu screen.

Next, it is determined whether or not the number of menu items and messages to be displayed in a list, that is, the number of display lines, fits on one screen (step S8). If the number of display lines can be accommodated in one screen, the process proceeds to step S10, and all the display lines are displayed on the display screen 6D.

Then, on the display screen, necessary selection operations and the like are performed as follows. That is, from step S10, the process proceeds to step S21 in FIG.
It is determined whether the escape key 13 has been pressed. When the escape key 13 is pressed, the display returns to the display state of the main menu in step S2 in FIG.

If it is determined in step S21 that the escape key 13 has not been pressed, it is determined whether or not the jog dial 11 has been rotated (step S22).

If it is determined in step S22 that the jog dial 11 has not been rotated, the process jumps to step S24. When it is determined that the jog dial 11 has been rotated, the inverted display line indicating the selected line among the displayed lines is changed (step S2).
3). Then, the process proceeds to a step S24, where it is determined whether or not the jog dial 11 is pressed.

If it is determined in step S24 that the jog dial 11 has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S2.
Return to 1. Also, in step S24, the jog dial 11
When it is determined that is pressed, the process proceeds to step S25, where the display screen 6D is changed to the lower layer display content of the selected row, and the same display function as that described above on the lower layer display screen is executed.

In step S26, it is determined whether or not the escape key 13 has been pressed. If the escape key 13 has been pressed, it is determined in step S10 in FIG.
Returns to the display state of the layer one level above. If it is determined in step S26 that the escape key 13 has not been pressed, the process returns to step S25, and the display function of that layer is continued.

Next, in step S8 of FIG. 3, when it is determined that the number of lines to be displayed on the display screen 6D does not fit in one screen, the process proceeds to step S9, and the selected line as shown in FIG. 6D is selected. An initial screen containing the first line of the function is displayed.

Next, the process proceeds to step S11 in FIG. 4, and it is determined whether or not the escape key 13 has been pressed. When it is determined that the escape key 13 has been pressed,
Returns to step S2, and returns to the display state of the main menu described above.

If it is determined in step S11 that the escape key 13 has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S1.
Proceeding to 2, it is determined whether or not the jog dial 11 has been rotated. When it is determined that the jog dial 11 has been rotated, the position of the currently selected line is changed by the rotation operation. However, it is determined whether or not it is necessary to change the displayed line by scrolling to include a line that is not currently being displayed. (Step S13).

If it is determined in step S13 that there is no need to change the display line by scrolling, the flow advances to step S17 to change the reverse display line, and in the next step S18, it is determined whether or not the jog dial 11 has been pressed. You. Then, when it is determined that the jog dial 11 has been pressed, the process proceeds to step S25 in FIG. 5 to shift to a lower display function screen. Also, jog dial 1
When it is determined that 1 has not been pressed, the process returns to step S11.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S13 that the line to be displayed on the display screen 6D needs to be changed by scrolling to include a line that is not currently being displayed, the flow advances to step S14 to display the screen on the screen 6D. Line
It is determined whether or not a boundary between the last line and the first line of the information to be displayed is included.

If it is determined in step S14 that the line includes the boundary between the last line and the first line, the process proceeds to step S15. In this example, since three lines are display lines to be scrolled, the display screen 6D is displayed. Displays three lines including the last line, the line on which the separator is displayed, and the first line.

If it is determined in step S14 that the boundary between the last line and the first line is not included, the process proceeds to step S14.
Proceeding to 16, the normal three lines not including the separator are displayed.

Then, the portion of the line being selected on each screen is highlighted (step S17). The process proceeds to step S18 to determine whether or not the jog dial 11 has been pressed, that is, whether or not the highlighted line has been selected and whether or not to display the lower layer display content corresponding to the selected line has been determined. Is determined.

In step S12, the jog dial 1
Since the jog dial 11 may be depressed without rotating the dial 1 (for example, when the first row is selected as it is), in this case, the steps S12 to S12 are performed.
Fly to 18.

If it is determined in step S18 that the jog dial 11 has not been pressed, the flow advances to step S11 to perform the above-described selection item selection processing in the message list display state. Step S18
When it is determined that the jog dial 11 has been pressed,
The screen shifts to a screen for displaying the lower layer display contents of the item corresponding to the selected row (step S25).

The state of the change of the display content of the display screen 6D corresponding to the above display processing will be described with reference to FIGS. This example shows a change in the display content of the display screen 6D when a function menu is selected from the main menu and scrolling is performed to search for a specific function from the function menu.

In the case of this example, the separator SEP is prepared in advance between the function menu item on the last line and the function menu item on the first line as if it is one of the menu items.

That is, in this example, there are ten function menu items (thus, for ten lines), but for the display items of the function menu, one separator SEP is also prepared in advance as one item (for one line), and the total number of items is one. 11 rows.

FIG. 6A shows a display screen in a standby state. At this time, only the time is displayed on the display screen 6D. When the jog dial 11 is pressed in this state, a main menu is displayed as shown in FIG.

In this example, the main menu includes a personal message, an information message,
Since three menu items including the function menu are displayed, all menu items can be displayed on one screen. Then, as shown in FIG. 6B, on the first screen, the personal message in the first line is displayed in reverse video (shown by hatching in the figure; the same applies hereinafter).

In this state, when the jog dial 11 is rotated, the highlighted line changes. FIG.
(C) shows a state in which the jog dial 11 is rotated in the down direction and the function menu two rows below is selected. When the jog dial 11 is pressed in the state shown in FIG.
The content of the display screen 6D changes to the initial screen of the function menu list screen as shown in (D).

Next, when the jog dial 11 is rotated, the highlighted line changes. FIG. 6E shows a state in which the jog dial 11 is rotated in the down direction and [MEMO] two rows below is selected.

From this state, the jog dial 11 is further moved.
Is rotated in the down direction, as shown in FIG. 7A, [AL] next to the function item [MEMO] is displayed.
The content of the display screen is changed by scrolling so that the line [ERM CLOCK] is displayed on the display screen 6D. Hereinafter, with the rotation operation of the jog dial 11 in the down direction, the contents of the display screen 6D are sequentially changed by scrolling the function items as shown in FIGS. 7 (G), (H) and (I).

In this example, what is displayed on the fourth line in FIG. 7I is the last line [FO] of the function item.
LDER NAME]. From this state, when the jog dial 11 is further rotated in the down direction,
The scrolling is performed to move two lines, and FIG.
As shown in (J), the display screen 6D displays [FOLDER NAME] on the last line of the function menu item.
, A separator SEP, and three lines of [POWER OFF] of the first line of the function menu item are displayed. At this time, the inverted line is set to [POWER OFF] of the first line of the function menu item.

The separator SEP in this example is a horizontal bar indicated by a dotted line. As described above, the separator SEP is prepared in advance as display data of one line of the scroll display of the function menu list.
When the display is required as a boundary line between the last line and the first line, the separator SEP may be generated by software and displayed.

As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 described later, a line number for identifying each line is not displayed at the head of each line on the screen 6D in this embodiment. This is to ensure the number of characters that can be displayed on one line as menu items and messages as much as possible. As described above, when the line number is not displayed, when scrolling by the wrap round method is performed, it becomes more difficult to determine where the current display line is, or whether the current display line has been completed, or the like.

However, in this embodiment, a separator is displayed at the boundary between the last line and the first line, so that the display line (item to be displayed) has made one round, and I have an idea of what is displayed.

FIGS. 8F to 8J show the separator SEP.
FIG. 7 shows changes in the contents of the display screen 6D when there is no
(F) to (J). FIGS. 7 and 8 are exactly the same except that the display screens of FIGS. 7J and 8J are different. That is, in FIG. 8 (J), since the separator SEP is not displayed, it is difficult to identify the boundary between the last line and the first line or that the circuit has completed one round by wrap-around scrolling.

As described above, in the pager according to the present embodiment, when there are more menu items and message lines than can be displayed on one screen, the jog dial 11 is rotated to perform the wrap-around scrolling. And sequentially display all menu item lines and message lines. When a boundary between the last line and the first line of the line to be displayed is displayed, a separator that notifies the user of the boundary is displayed. Since the SEP is displayed on the display screen 6D, it is possible to determine whether the menu item line or the message line has completed one cycle, or the current display content to which of a plurality of menu items, or which of the message lines. It will be easier.

[Modification] In the above example, the separator SEP is a horizontal bar indicated by a dotted line.
The display as is not limited to such display, and various forms of display such as displaying a specific icon can be used.

In the above description, the separator SEP
Is displayed on the screen to notify the user of the boundary between the last part and the first part, but other various notifying means can also be used.

For example, the user may be notified by turning on an LED or a lamp at the timing when the boundary between the last part and the first part is displayed on the screen.
Moreover, you may make it use LED and a lamp and a separator together.

Further, sound or vibration can be used instead of the lamp display. That is, at the timing when the boundary between the last part and the first part is displayed on the screen, it is possible to notify by a buzzer sound or to notify by vibration.
Also in this case, the notification can be performed by combining the sound and the separator and the vibration and the separator.

In the above embodiment, the up / down instruction is performed by using the jog dial 11 and the determination instruction is also performed by using the jog dial 11. However, keys such as a select key and an enter key, and furthermore, an up / down key The same operation and effect can be obtained even if the method is provided.

Although the above example has been described with reference to the case of scrolling in the vertical direction, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to the case where scrolling in the horizontal direction is required. That is, in such a case, a notification means indicating the boundary is provided between the end and the beginning of one line.

In the above-described example, the wrap-around scroll is performed by scrolling one line at a time. However, the display contents are switched by one screen at a time in accordance with a user operation to form a ring. The present invention can be applied to the case where the display is repeated indefinitely.

Although the above embodiment has been described by taking a pager as an example, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to a pager, but can be applied to all electronic devices which need to scroll the display contents for a small display screen. No.

[0067]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the display screen of the display unit is small and not all information can be displayed at once, when the display is changed by scrolling or screen switching, The boundary between the last part of the information to be displayed and the first part of the information to be displayed can be identified to the user by the last part notifying means. Therefore, the user can easily know the ring-shaped scroll or one cycle of the screen switching, which is very convenient.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a pager of an electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of a pager according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a part of a flow of a display process of a pager according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a part of a flow of a display process of a pager according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a part of a flow of a display process of the pager according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display flow on a display screen of the pager of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display flow on a display screen of the pager of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display flow of a comparative example with the pager of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... antenna, 2 ... RF block, 3 ... decoder, 4 ...
Key operation unit, 5 LCD driver, 6 LCD, 7 speaker, 8 RAM, 9 EEPROM, 10 control unit, 11 jog dial, 12 jog dial decoder, 13 escape key

Claims (7)

[Claims] An information to be displayed is displayed on a display screen of a display unit.
If the information does not fit on the screen, the information to be displayed is scrolled or switched in a ring shape in accordance with the operation of the user operation means, and a part of the information to be displayed is partially changed. In an electronic device to be displayed on a display screen of a display unit, a final part notifying means for allowing a user to identify a boundary between the last part of the information to be displayed and the first part of the information to be displayed is provided. Electronic equipment characterized by the following. 2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein said last part notifying means is a display of a break between said last part and said first part. 3. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the information to be displayed is a plurality of items, and the display of the break is one of the plurality of items. And electronic equipment. 4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the last partial notification means is a visual notification means such as lighting of a lamp. 5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the final partial notification unit is a notification unit by voice. 6. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the last partial notification unit is a notification unit that identifies the user by vibration. 7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a pager.