JP2003316342A - Information display device and information display method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information display device which can be made additionally thinner in thickness, is excellently portable and is user friendly. <P>SOLUTION: The information display device has a longitudinal display mode for displaying character information or image information by using a display section of a rectangular shape capable of displaying the character information or image information longitudinally and a long sideways display mode for displaying the character information or image information by using the display section long from side to side. Either of the longitudinal display mode or the long sideways display mode is automatically set according to the contents of the character information or image information displayed on the display section. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information display device and an information display method suitable for application to so-called electronic book players and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, for example, a so-called electronic book in which a large amount of character information or image information such as a dictionary is digitized and recorded in a small optical disk such as a CD-ROM is commercially available, and it is used for reproducing this optical disk. It is prized for its simplicity and portability.

In a conventional electronic book player, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, a keyboard 2 is arranged above a rectangular casing base 1B, and a disk drive (not shown) is provided under the keyboard 2. Is stored. And
A rectangular liquid crystal display unit 3 is provided inside the lid 1C that engages with the housing base 1B.

When a large number of keys on the keyboard 2 are operated to input search data, the retrieved (reproduced) character information or image information is displayed on the screen of the liquid crystal display section 3. The character information or image information shown on the screen of the liquid crystal display unit 3 can be sent back and forth in line units or page units by operating the scroll key or page key.

[0005]

By the way, in a conventional information display device such as an electronic book player, when characters are displayed on a rectangular screen of a liquid crystal display unit, only one of the portrait orientation and the landscape orientation is used. I couldn't. Therefore, depending on the contents of the character information or the image information, the screen display may be difficult to see, and there is a problem that the usability is poor.

In view of the above points, the present invention has an object of providing an information display device which is easy to use.

[0007]

In order to solve the above problems, an information display device according to the present invention is an information display device having a rectangular display part capable of displaying character information or image information, wherein the display part is vertically long. Vertical display mode for displaying the character information or image information using, and a horizontal display mode for displaying the character information or image information by using the display unit in the horizontal direction, the character information displayed on the display unit In addition, one of the portrait display mode and the landscape display mode is automatically set according to the content of the image information.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of an information display device and an information display method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

The mechanical structure of the information display device of the embodiment is shown in FIG. 1, and the electrical structure is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 generally indicates an information reproducing / displaying device (electronic book player) as an example of the information displaying device. In this information reproducing / displaying device 10, a rectangular liquid crystal display element 12 is arranged on an upper surface 11t of a rectangular housing 11 so as to occupy most of its area.

In this embodiment, the transparent touch panel 13 is superimposed on the surface of the display element 12 and is shown by a chain line.
Is provided. At the time of data search, a keyboard is displayed by software on the screen of the display element 12, and data can be input from the touch panel 13 using the pen P, for example. Therefore, a keyboard as hardware is not required, and it is possible to make the device thinner.

Further, in the vicinity of one short side of the display element 12, four keys 14a, 14b, 14c for controlling the screen,
14d and the power switch 15 are arranged side by side.
Of the four control keys 14a to 14d, the power switch 1
Two keys 14a, 14b closer to 5 are engraved with arrows that are parallel to the long side 12a of the display element 12 and opposite to each other, and the two keys 14 farther from the power switch 15
c and 14d are parallel to the short side 12b of the display element 12,
Arrows in opposite directions are engraved.

A slot 1 is provided on the side surface 11a of the housing 11.
6, an eject button 17 and an opening 18 for a speaker are provided, and an optical disc (CD-RO
M) D is designed to be loaded into a disk drive (not shown) through the slot 16.

On the side surface facing the side surface 11a, I
Slot for loading C card Cm (not shown)
Is provided. When the IC card Cm is a RAM card, it is used, for example, for storing search data,
When the IC card Cm is a ROM card, a data search program is loaded.

As shown in FIG. 2, this embodiment comprises a microcomputer (CPU) 20, to which a program ROM 21 and a work area RAM 22 are connected via a bus 20b. .

Further, the CD-ROM data interface 23, the CD-R corresponding to the above peripheral devices.
OM drive interface 24, liquid crystal display interface 25, touch panel interface 26, screen control key interface 27, IC card interface 2
8. An audio interface 29 is provided. The microcomputer 20 and peripheral devices are connected via these interfaces 23 to 29 and the bus 20b.

Next, the operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the screen of the liquid crystal display element 12 is displayed separately in a portrait display mode in which the screen is used vertically and in a landscape display mode in which the screen is used horizontally. However, the use of the portrait display mode and the landscape display mode is based on the following reasons.

In the case of the portrait display, the number of lines that can be displayed is large, which is convenient for a list of retrieved information. On the other hand, 1
The number of characters that can be displayed on the line is reduced. Especially in English,
When the number of characters in one line is reduced, the word wrap process that sends the word at the end of the line to the next line causes noticeable misalignment at the end of the line,
The evaluation as a product will decrease.

Further, when the keyboard is displayed as in this embodiment, the space between the individual character keys becomes narrow. Furthermore, it is difficult to store image information with a large horizontal length on the screen.

On the other hand, in the horizontally long display mode, the number of characters that can be displayed in one line is large, so that even if the word wrap processing is performed in English, the irregularities at the end of the lines are not noticeable, and the evaluation as a product is enhanced. Further, when the keyboard is displayed as in this embodiment, the interval between the individual character keys is widened, and data input can be smoothly performed. In addition, the storage of image information having a large horizontal length is improved.

As described above, in this embodiment, the portrait display mode and the landscape display mode are selectively used according to the display contents, so that the portability of the device is not impaired and
It does not change the product image.

In this embodiment, in the portrait display mode, the control keys 14a to 14d include the key 14a, the up scroll (return one line) key 14b, the down scroll (reverse one line) key 14c, the page return key 14d. Such a first combination of screen control functions is assigned.

Further, in the landscape display mode, each of the keys 14a to 14d has a second key such as a key 14a, a page return key 14b, a page feed key 14c, a downward scroll (one line feed) key 14d, an up scroll (one line return), The screen control function of each combination is assigned.

By switching the control functions as described above, as can be easily understood from FIGS. 3 and 4, the key 1 can be used in any of the portrait display mode and the landscape display mode.
The arrows 4a to 14d and the screen feed direction correspond to each other without any discomfort, so that the user is not confused.

The switching of the screen control functions of the control keys 14a to 14d as described above is performed by software as shown in FIG. When the power is turned on, the portrait display mode and the landscape display mode are set based on the display control information of the loaded optical disk (or of the software unit mounted on this disk) (step S1), and either mode is set. The initial screen is displayed with (step S2).

In the next step S3, it is determined whether the portrait display mode or the landscape display mode is set. When the portrait display mode is set, the above-described first combination screen control function corresponding to this mode is assigned to the keys 14a to 14d (step S4).

When the landscape display mode is set, the screen control function of the second combination has the keys 14a-14.
It is assigned to d (step S5).

In the next steps S6 and S7, it is judged whether or not there is a control key input or a touch panel input, and if any of them is input, for example, scrolling or data search corresponding to each input. Including the above, various operations are performed until the end of the software (step S
8, S9).

Then, in step S10, when the power is turned off, the end processing as the system (step S
After 11) the operation of the device is finished.

In the above embodiment, the portrait display mode and the landscape display mode are automatically set by software, but may be manually set by a special key operation.

In the above embodiment, the case of displaying in English has been described. However, for example, in Persian,
The same software or hardware can be used to support right-to-left reading languages.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, a user-friendly information display device can be obtained as a portable device having a rectangular liquid crystal display section.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a mechanical configuration of an embodiment of an information display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a conventional information display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference numeral 10 ... Optical disk reproduction display device (electronic book player), 12 ... Liquid crystal display element, 13 ... Touch panel, 1
4 ... Screen control key, 20 ... Microcomputer, D ...
Optical disc (CD-ROM)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An information display device having a rectangular display section capable of displaying character information or image information, wherein the display section is used in portrait orientation to display the character information or image information in portrait orientation, and the display section. Has a landscape display mode for displaying the character information or image information by using the landscape orientation, depending on the content of the character information or image information displayed on the display unit, the portrait display mode and the landscape display mode. An information display device characterized in that any one of them is automatically set. 2. An information display method of a display device for displaying character information or image information on a rectangular display part, wherein the display device uses the display part vertically to display the character information or image information in a portrait display. Mode and a landscape display mode for displaying the character information or image information by using the display unit in landscape orientation, and the portrait display mode according to the content of the character information or image information displayed on the display unit. And a mode setting step of automatically setting one of the horizontal display modes, and a display step of displaying the character information or image information in the vertical display mode or the horizontal display mode set in the mode setting step, An information display method for an information display device, comprising: