JP2006285471A - Information display device, information display method and information display program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem of being difficult to rapidly search a number of images or documents for desired images or documents. <P>SOLUTION: To display a predetermined display object in a display device, display object data is obtained for display from a storage medium storing display object data showing the display object. Corresponding information associated with the display object is obtained and displayed in association with a scroll bar that indicates the relationship between all display objects serving as display candidates and the display object being displayed. An instruction to change the display object is obtained. Based on the instruction, the display of the display object is switched to the display of the scroll bar or vice versa. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information display device, an information display method, and an information display program.

When images, documents, etc. handled by a computer are displayed on a display device, there are cases in which a large amount of images, documents, etc. exist and cannot be displayed on one screen on the display device. In this case, the scroll bar indicates that there are images or documents that cannot be displayed on the screen (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP-A-6-242919

In conventional image display, it has been difficult to retrieve a desired image or document from a large number of images or documents at high speed.
That is, in the above prior art, the amount of all information to be displayed is indicated by the length of the scroll bar, a graphic indicating the amount of the displayed information is displayed, and a memory indicating the unit information amount is displayed. Yes. In such a conventional technique, it is only possible to visually recognize the ratio of the displayed information to the whole or to perform a relative comparison between the displayed information and the unit information amount.

However, in order to search for a desired image or document from a large number of images or documents, it is not possible to perform an intuitive search simply by performing a relative comparison between the displayed image and the entire image. And documents cannot be searched. For example, when arranging certain images in chronological order, a large amount of images photographed at a certain date and time and a small amount of images photographed at another date and time occur. Therefore, even if a relative comparison between the displayed image and the entire image is performed, it is impossible to intuitively know in which order the desired image is located. As a result, it becomes extremely difficult to find a desired image from a large number of images.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information display device, an information display method, and an information display program capable of quickly searching for a desired image from a large number of images.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, correspondence information associated with a display target is acquired, and the correspondence information is displayed in association with a scroll bar. Therefore, a user who searches for a desired display target from a plurality of display targets while switching the display target based on the present invention can search for the desired display target based on the display target correspondence information. Further, in the present invention, since the relative relationship between the entire display object and the display object being displayed can be recognized by the scroll bar, the correlation is grasped at the same time as the correspondence information, and a desired relationship is determined based on both. It is possible to estimate the switching instruction operation necessary for displaying the display target.

  That is, the user who performs the search recognizes or estimates in advance the correspondence information associated with the search target. Since the correspondence information of each display target is displayed in association with the scroll bar, the user performs scrolling in the scroll bar so as to display the display target having the desired correspondence information while performing the switching instruction. Here, in the present invention, since the display can be switched based on the switching instruction, it is not necessary to accurately specify the correspondence information of the search target, and it is only necessary that the search target can be finally displayed by repeating the switching. Accordingly, the display target can be searched based on the intuition of guessing the correspondence information in the search target. At this time, since the search is performed using the correspondence information, it is possible to prevent the operation of repeatedly switching without knowing the switching instruction necessary for the search. As a result, a high-speed search is possible.

  Here, the display device is only required to display an image, and various display devices can be employed. For example, various display devices such as a display in a device in which a storage medium for storing image data and an image viewer are integrated, a display incorporated in a printer, a display connected to a computer, a television, etc. can be adopted. It is.

  The display target data storage means only needs to be able to store display target data indicating the display target, and various storage elements can be employed. Further, by storing a plurality of display target data in the display target data storage means, it is possible to define all display targets that are display candidates in the scroll bar. Here, all the display target data stored in the display target data storage means may be set as display candidates. Of course, a part of the stored display target data is set as a display candidate. A configuration or the like may be adopted.

  Moreover, as long as it can display on the said display apparatus, all correspond to the said display object. For example, a document including an image such as a picture, a photograph, or a graphic, a character, a graphic, or the like can be displayed. In addition, when a file on a computer is a search target, an image of an icon indicating the file may be a display target, or information indicating the existence of a file such as a folder in which the search target file is stored is a display target. Also good. Of course, any of these may be displayed, or a combination of these may be displayed.

  The correspondence information acquisition unit only needs to be able to acquire the correspondence information associated with the display target. The correspondence information may be any information that contributes to an intuitive search for a display target, and various types of information can be employed. For example, time series information associated with a display target can be employed. In other words, when the display target is searched, the display target is displayed side by side, and if the display target is arranged based on the time series information associated with the display target, the order can be easily grasped. Can be easily guessed.

  In this configuration, this time-series information is displayed together with the scroll bar. Therefore, it is possible to estimate how much time-series information is associated with a desired display target by switching to what degree. It is possible to easily grasp whether an instruction is necessary. Note that the time-series information may be any information that can be compared with each other according to the flow of time, and any one or combination of year, month, day, and time can be adopted.

  In addition, since the time series information only needs to be associated with the display target, various information such as the date and time when the display target data is created and the date and time when the display target data is corrected can be employed. Further, in the image, information indicating the date and time of photographing by the digital camera may be described in the header of the image data. If the data has such a format, the data described in the header is It can be adopted as sequence information.

  That is, a user who creates a display target such as an image, for example, a user who has taken a picture, stores the contents of the image, the action at the time of photographing, and an outline of the amount of photographing. Therefore, by associating the time series information with the scroll bar, it is possible to intuitively search for an image by performing switching so that the image of the time series information stored above is set as a display target. More specifically, among the time-series information, the shooting date is associated with the scroll bar, the outline of the date when the search target image was shot is recalled, and the target display is displayed one after another until the image associated with the date is displayed. Switching by means is performed. If an image that roughly matches the memory is displayed, it is possible to perform a high-speed search by verifying in detail whether the search target image is included in the image.

  Of course, the correspondence information is not necessarily time-series information. For example, the classification of the display target is determined in advance, the classification information indicating the classification is associated with the display target, and the classification information is defined as the correspondence information. It is also possible to do. The classification only needs to be defined so that the display target is divided into groups based on the correspondence information. In this configuration, an intuitive search can be performed by displaying the display targets side by side for each classification.

  That is, since information indicating this classification is displayed together with the scroll bar, it is easy to determine how much switching instruction is required by estimating what classification the desired display target is. Can be grasped. As this classification, various classifications can be adopted, and a configuration for performing classification based on the contents of the display target can be adopted. For example, it is possible to adopt a configuration in which an image of an event is taken as a display target, an image is classified for each event, a document divided into chapters is a display target, and a document is classified for each chapter.

  In addition, various methods can be employed for dividing the group. For example, it is possible to accept an instruction input for instructing a group for each display target, and to divide the group according to the instruction, or to automatically extract data included in the display target data (data indicating time series information or chapters) and automatically Grouping may be performed.

  The target display unit only needs to be able to display the display target stored in the display target data storage unit. Of course, at this time, it is preferable to display a plurality of display objects in an orderly manner, and it is preferable to employ a configuration in which the display objects are displayed side by side in one or more directions based on the correspondence information.

  For example, if an order is given to display objects based on the correspondence information and a plurality of display objects are sorted according to this order, the display objects can be arranged in this order. As this order, you may comprise so that it may become an order of 2 or more. In this case, display objects may be arranged in the first direction according to a certain order, and display objects may be arranged in the second direction according to another order. For example, time series information is adopted as correspondence information, sorted by time series information (for example, year, month, day) and arranged in a first direction, display objects having a common time series (for example, a common time) It is possible to adopt a configuration in which display objects are displayed side by side in a second direction different from the first direction. As a result, it is possible to perform display in which a display target can be easily searched.

  The scroll bar display means only needs to display a scroll bar and display the correspondence information in association with the scroll bar. In other words, the scroll bar shows the relative relationship between all the display targets that are display candidates and the display target that is displayed on the target display means, so the correspondence information is associated with the scroll bar. Thus, it is possible to grasp the relative relationship between the correspondence information of each display target and the entire display candidate. Furthermore, it is possible to grasp the relative relationship between the display target being displayed on the target display means and the correspondence information, and it is possible to perform a search at high speed.

  In order to associate the correspondence information with the scroll bar, it is only necessary to be able to grasp the relationship between the display content on the scroll bar and the correspondence information. That is, the scroll bar is configured so that information indicating the display target being displayed is a slider bar, and the slider bar can be moved while showing correlation with information indicating all display targets that are display candidates. At this time, the movement destination of the slider bar corresponds to the display target displayed after the movement of the slider bar. Therefore, the association may be performed so that the correspondence information of the display target displayed after the movement can be grasped.

  In the scroll bar, it is only necessary to indicate the correlation between all the display targets that are display candidates and the displayed display target, and various configurations can be adopted. For example, the scroll bar can be formed based on the amount of display target (for example, the number of images). In other words, the relative relationship between the total amount of display targets that are display candidates in the target display means and the amount of display targets that are being displayed (display targets displayed on the display device) depends on the length. If it shows, it is possible to search while grasping the correlation between the total amount of display objects and the display object being displayed.

  In this configuration, since the correspondence information is associated with the scroll bar, the correlation between the total amount of the display objects and the display object being displayed and the correspondence information of each display object can be grasped based on the display content. . Accordingly, it is possible to infer a switching instruction necessary for displaying a display target having desired correspondence information. As a result, an intuitive search operation becomes possible.

  The display of the scroll bar is not limited to the configuration that performs display based on the amount of the display target, and various other configurations can be employed. For example, it is possible to form a scroll bar based on the number of values of correspondence information (corresponding to different values extracted and totaled). That is, the values of the correspondence information are extracted for all display targets that are display candidates in the target display means, and the number of the values is made to correspond to the total length of the scroll bar. Further, the value of the correspondence information is extracted for the display target being displayed, and the value is displayed by a slider bar or the like so that the number of values can be compared with the total length.

  According to this configuration, it is possible to perform a search while grasping the correlation between the number of values of correspondence information in all display targets and the number of values of correspondence information in the display target being displayed. In addition, since the correspondence information is displayed in association with the scroll bar, the correlation between the total number of the display target values and the number of display target values being displayed and the correspondence of each display target based on the display content. Information can be grasped. Accordingly, it is possible to infer a switching instruction necessary for displaying a display target having desired correspondence information. As a result, an intuitive search operation becomes possible.

  Furthermore, when the correspondence information includes a plurality of elements, the display may be performed by associating each element with a scroll bar. For example, when time series information is adopted as correspondence information, a plurality of elements such as year, month, day, and time may be included. Therefore, the total length of the scroll bar corresponding to the amount of the display object is defined based on the date associated with the display object, and further, the length indicating the amount of the display object associated with the same month is defined. If displayed, it is possible to easily grasp the correlation between the whole and the display target being displayed for a plurality of elements.

  Of course, in this case, the length of the scroll bar may be defined based on the number of values of the correspondence information as well as the amount of the display target. Further, the information corresponding to the total length of the scroll bar is not limited to a day, and various other time series information can be adopted. Furthermore, display indicating the amount of the display target may be performed together with the number of values of the correspondence information. For example, when the length of the scroll bar is defined corresponding to the number of values of the correspondence information, the amount of the display target that is the correspondence information is displayed by color, character, figure, or the like. According to this configuration, since the amount of display objects can be grasped together with the number of values of correspondence information, it is possible to more easily search for display objects intuitively.

  The display switching unit only needs to be able to switch the display target displayed by acquiring the switching instruction, and various configurations can be employed. The configuration for acquiring the switching instruction is not particularly limited, and various instructions such as an instruction with a mouse, an instruction with a button, and an instruction with a dial can be acquired as a switching instruction.

  By the way, the information display apparatus described above may be implemented alone, or may be implemented together with other methods in a state of being incorporated in a certain device, and includes various aspects as the idea of the invention. However, it can be changed as appropriate. It can also be said that the invention exists in the procedure for displaying the scroll bar. Therefore, the present invention can also be applied as a method, and the same effect is achieved in the invention according to claim 10. When trying to implement the present invention, a computer may execute a predetermined program. Therefore, the present invention can also be applied as the program, and the same effect is achieved in the invention according to claim 11.

  Of course, it is also possible to make the structure described in claims 2 to 9 correspond to the above method and program. Any storage medium can be used to provide the program. For example, a magnetic recording medium or a magneto-optical recording medium may be used, and any recording medium that will be developed in the future can be considered in the same manner. In addition, even when a part is software and a part is realized by hardware, the idea of the present invention is not completely different, and a part is recorded on a recording medium and is appropriately changed as necessary. It includes a reading form. Furthermore, the same is true for the replication stage such as the primary replica and the secondary replica.

Here, embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order.
(1) Configuration of information display device:
(2) Scroll bar information file creation process:
(3) Information display processing:
(4) Other embodiments:

(1) Configuration of information display device:
FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an image viewer device 10 including an information display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image viewer device 10 in the figure can store a plurality of image data and can display each image on a display panel incorporated in the housing. In addition, in order to search a display target from a plurality of images, it is possible to perform a search while displaying images. In order to realize these functions, the image viewer device 10 includes a CPU 11, a display controller 12, a display panel 12 a, a memory 13, a card I / F 14, a hard disk drive (HDD) 15, and operation buttons 16.

  The CPU 11 controls the entire image viewer apparatus 10 via the system bus. The HDD 15 can store a program for controlling each unit and image data, and these programs are transferred to the memory 13 by the CPU 11 at the time of execution. The CPU 11 executes various programs while appropriately accessing the memory 13 as a temporary work area.

  In FIG. 1, the main functions of the image search program executed by the CPU 11 are shown as a scroll bar information file creation unit 11a, a display control unit 11b, and a switching instruction reception unit 11c. The card I / F 14 can be connected to a memory card that stores image data indicating an image taken by a digital camera. The CPU 11 can transfer the image data recorded on the memory card to the HDD 15. It is. The image data transferred to the HDD 15 is stored as an image file (image file 15b).

  Of course, the format of the memory card connected to the card I / F 14 is not particularly limited, and various types of image data can be adopted as long as image data can be stored. In the present embodiment, the HDD 15 constitutes the display target data storage means.

  In the present embodiment, when the image file 15b is stored, the scroll bar information file creation unit 11a creates data for displaying the time series information associated with the scroll bar and the image in association with the scroll bar. Then, it is recorded in the HDD 15 as a scroll bar information file 15a. In the present embodiment, the process of creating the scroll bar information file 15a in the scroll bar information file creating unit 11a corresponds to the process in the correspondence information acquisition unit. Details of this file will be described later. In the present embodiment, a configuration in which information for displaying an image at high speed is described in accordance with the scroll bar information file 15a is adopted, and the scroll bar information file creating unit 11a also performs this process.

  The display controller 12 is a controller that controls the display panel 12a to display an image based on the image data stored in the memory 13, and the display control unit 11b includes image data indicating an image to be displayed, the scroll bar, and the time. The display controller 12 is instructed to display the series information, and the information is displayed on the display panel 12a. Accordingly, in the present embodiment, the display control unit 11b corresponds to the target display unit and the scroll bar display unit.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example on the display panel 12a. In the example shown in the figure, the image I is indicated by a rectangle, and the images are arranged in the horizontal direction based on the date on which the images were taken. Thus, by arranging the images based on the shooting date, the user can grasp the time-series arrangement of the images. In the present embodiment, a scroll bar S is displayed on the display panel 12a. The scroll bar S indicates that there is an image that could not be displayed in the horizontal direction of the screen due to the arrows at both ends thereof.

  Further, the number of all image files 15b recorded on the HDD 15 is indicated by the length of the scroll bar S, and the number of images displayed on the display panel 12a by the hatch H on the scroll bar S is correlated with the whole. Is shown. That is, it is possible to grasp the relative relationship between the number of all images recorded on the HDD 15 and the number of displayed images from the relative relationship between the length of the scroll bar S and the length of the portion indicated by the hatch H. It is. In the scroll bar S, the correlation of the order when the images are arranged based on the time series information as described above is also shown. That is, when it is assumed that the time advances from the left to the right, the right side of the part where the scroll bar S is located indicates that an image having future time-series information exists from that part.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, the time series information is shown in association with the scroll bar S, and a line is added in the vertical direction of the scroll bar S to indicate a month separator, and the month is indicated by a character between the lines. This makes it possible to grasp the ratio of the image of the same shooting month to the whole. The above display mode is only an example, and it is possible to display either the date, the date, or the time. In addition to displaying time-series information with lines and characters, various display methods such as displaying with graphics and colors can be used. It can be adopted.

  The time series information such as the shooting month is information associated with each image of the image file 15b, and the month separator attached to the scroll bar S is indicated by the scroll bar S. It shows that the months of the images on the left and right are different in the order of the images. Furthermore, the characters displayed along with the scroll bar S indicate the month of the image in each part in the order of the images shown on the scroll bar S. Therefore, it can be said that the month separator and the character indicating the month are information associated with the scroll bar S.

  The operation button 16 includes a plurality of buttons arranged on the outer surface of the image viewer apparatus 10. Data indicating the operation content of each button is acquired by the CPU 11, and control or program execution according to the operation content is performed. Made. In the present embodiment, as one of these operations, an operation at the time of image search can be performed, and the content of this operation is acquired by the switching instruction receiving unit 11c.

  When the switching instruction receiving unit 11c receives this operation content, it instructs the display control unit 11b, and the display control unit 11b switches the image displayed on the display panel 12a. That is, images are arranged on the display panel 12a, but since the display area of the display panel 12a is limited, an image that cannot be displayed on one screen by switching the images to be displayed in the order described above. Is displayed. In the present embodiment, the process of the switching instruction receiving unit 11c corresponds to the process in the display switching unit. With the above configuration, in the present embodiment, the image to be displayed can be switched by operating the operation button 16, and the user can search for a desired image while viewing the display panel 12a.

(2) Scroll bar information file creation process:
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the process of creating the scroll bar information file. When the user records the image file 15b from the memory card on the HDD 15 via the card I / F 14 in the image viewer device 10, the scroll bar information file creation unit 11a determines whether or not the acquired image file 15b is a new file. It discriminate | determines (step S100). If it is not determined in step S100 that a new file has been acquired, the other processes are skipped and the process is terminated.

  When it is determined in step S100 that a new file has been acquired, shooting date / time information included in the image file is acquired (step S110). FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the image file 15b. The entire file is indicated by a large rectangle, and data included in the image file is indicated by characters. As shown in the figure, the image file 15b includes a header, thumbnail data, and image data. The header includes date information as shown in FIG. 4, and in the present embodiment, this information is photographing date information. In addition, shooting time information (not shown) is also included in the header.

  The image data is data in which gradation values of a plurality of color components are designated for each of a plurality of pixels, and the color of each pixel is specified by this data to form an image. Thumbnail data is data representing an image with a smaller number of pixels than the image data, and is created, for example, by thinning out pixels of the image data. As such a file, for example, an Exif file (Exif is a registered trademark) can be adopted. Of course, various files can be used as long as the time-series information associated with the image data can be acquired. The image displayed on the display panel 12a may be either an image indicated by image data or an image indicated by thumbnail data.

  When the shooting date information included in the image file 15b is acquired, the scroll bar information file creation unit 11a configures image information for displaying images of the date according to the shooting date information. The scroll bar information file 15a is updated (step S120). Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the scroll bar information file 15a forms image information by defining data indicating the image shooting date and the corresponding image file, and is the same as the shooting date of the new file. Update these image information for the image.

  That is, the image shooting date is the shooting date described above, and images having the same shooting date are collectively defined as image information. The corresponding image file indicates the name of the image file having the same shooting date. Therefore, the existing image information having the date information common to the date information of the new file is extracted from the scroll bar information file 15a, and the file name of the new file is added to the corresponding image file in the image information.

  When there is no existing image information having date information common to the date information of the new file, image information of the date information is newly created and added to the scroll bar information file 15a. In the corresponding image file, the file names are defined in the order of the image shooting times, and the image to be displayed and its order are specified by referring to the image information when displaying the image. In FIG. 5, the character described after () is the substance of the data, and () is a label indicating the contents of each data.

  Further, in the present embodiment, information for configuring the scroll bar S is configured (step S130). That is, the scroll bar information file 15a includes scroll bar information as shown in FIG. 5, calculates the number of images with the same shooting year and the number of images with the same shooting month, and uses the scroll bar information file as scroll bar information. Described in 15a. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the scroll bar S is configured based on the shooting month, and if the display based on the shooting year is not performed, the shooting year information can be configured in the scroll bar information of FIG. Not required. Further, if the scroll bar S is configured based on the shooting date and the shooting time, information relating to these may be configured.

  According to this information, a scroll bar S having a total length corresponding to the total number of images is formed, and the position of a line indicating a shooting month delimiter to be attached when images are arranged in accordance with the shooting month order and characters indicating the shooting month Can be grasped. Therefore, using these pieces of information, it is possible to create image data for displaying the scroll bar S. In this embodiment, this image data is created and stored in the HDD 15 (scroll bar image data 15c). . As described above, the scroll bar information is created in advance and the image data is created, so that the information display process described later can be performed at high speed.

(3) Information display processing:
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the information display process. When the user of the image viewer device 10 operates the operation button 16 that instructs to search for an image, the switching instruction receiving unit 11c executes the process shown in FIG. When searching, first, the display control unit 11b displays an image of a predetermined shooting date (which may be determined by default or the same date as the previous search) as a display target. Then, the scroll bar S indicated by the scroll bar image data 15c, the shooting month breaks, and the characters indicating the shooting month are displayed to constitute an initial screen (step S200).

  Of course, the hatch H corresponding to the date of the image to be displayed is displayed on the scroll bar S at this time. As a result of the above processing, the display as shown in FIG. 2 is made on the display panel 12a. In this state, the switching instruction accepting unit 11c accepts a switching instruction (scroll instruction) using the operation buttons (step S205). Here, an instruction to advance or delay the display target date is accepted, but if the display target date is advanced or delayed, the display target image moves in the horizontal direction. It will be accepted.

  If it is not determined in step S205 that a scroll instruction has been accepted, steps S210 to S225 are skipped. When it is determined in step S205 that a scroll instruction has been received, the display control unit 11b refers to the scroll bar information file 15a and scrolls the display target after scrolling based on the time-series information indicated in the scroll bar information file. A power image is determined (step S210).

  When the image information of the image to be displayed is acquired, the display control unit 11b displays the image to be displayed (Step S220). Further, the display control unit 11b updates the display of the scroll bar so as to display the hatch H corresponding to the image to be displayed on the scroll bar S (step S225). As a result of the above processing, it is possible to perform scrolling according to instructions of the operation buttons 16 while displaying an image as shown in FIG. Therefore, a desired image can be searched according to the user's operation. In addition, since information indicating the shooting month is displayed on the scroll bar S, a plurality of images arranged in order can be obtained by estimating the shooting date of a desired image and selecting an image to be displayed based on the estimation. A desired image can be easily retrieved from the images.

  In the present embodiment, an image to be searched can be extracted and displayed, and it is determined whether or not a specific image has been selected by the operation button 16 (step S230). That is, the display control unit 11b displays a screen so that a desired image can be designated by a pointer that moves in conjunction with the operation button 16, and when the image is designated by the pointer, the image is displayed. It is determined that a power selection has been made.

  If it is not determined in step S230 that a specific image has been selected, step S205 and subsequent steps are repeated. That is, the image search process is continued. When it is determined in step S230 that a specific image has been selected, the display control unit 11b reads out the image data of the instructed image and displays the image on the entire screen of the display panel 12a (step S235). Through the above processing, image search and search result display are performed.

(4) Other embodiments:
The above embodiment is an example constituting the present invention, and various configurations can be adopted as long as a desired image can be searched from a large number of images based on correspondence information associated with a scroll bar at high speed. It is. In addition, when the screen display is a part of the entire display candidate, the present invention provides a scroll bar that has a function that sensuously indicates the position that the display target being displayed occupies in the entire display candidate. By displaying the above, the overall configuration other than the display portion is intuitively displayed as summary information. Therefore, the information associated with the scroll bar may indicate the number and size of each type of still image file, moving image file, document file, etc. in addition to time-series information such as date and time and classification information.

  Further, the scroll bar may be configured based on the number of values of the correspondence information associated with the display object, instead of associating the entire length of the scroll bar with the amount of the display object as in the above embodiment. Further, the display mode of the image on the display panel is not limited to the above-described mode. FIG. 7 shows an example in which an image is displayed two-dimensionally and the scroll bar S is configured based on the number of values of time-series information associated with each image. This example can be implemented with a configuration substantially similar to the configuration shown in FIG. 1 above, but configures information for displaying an image sequence when the scroll bar information file 15a is configured. That is, in FIG. 7, images are two-dimensionally arranged and displayed, images are arranged based on the shooting dates associated with the images, and images having a common shooting date are arranged in order of shooting time. They are arranged vertically.

  As a result, an image row R in which images having a common shooting date are arranged in the vertical direction is formed, and the image row R is displayed in the horizontal direction. In order to display such an image sequence, the scroll bar information file defines information indicating the image file of the same shooting date. At this time, in order to display an image at high speed, it is preferable to create image data for displaying the image sequence R and define the file name in association with the image sequence R.

  Further, in the scroll bar S shown in FIG. 7, the number of different shooting dates in the image file serving as a display candidate is counted, and the number of shooting dates for all of the display candidate images and the displayed images are displayed. A scroll bar S is constructed from the number of shooting days for. For example, as shown in the upper part of FIG. 5 above, even if there are a plurality of images whose shooting date is January 6, 2002, the number of shooting dates is one, but the shooting date 2002 1 If there are a plurality of images on the 21st of the month, the 6th January 2002 and the 21st January 2002 are counted as 2 in total.

  This count result is described in the scroll bar information file 15a as scroll bar information. When configuring the scroll bar, the scroll bar information file 15a is referred to, and the total length of the scroll bar S is made to correspond to the count number of the shooting date. When the hatch H indicating the image displayed on the display panel 12a has a length corresponding to the count number of the shooting date in the displayed image, and assuming that the images are arranged in order of shooting date, The image is displayed at a position corresponding to the order of the images being displayed. As a result, it is possible to grasp the relative relationship between the display candidate image and the displayed image with respect to the number of values of the shooting date.

  Further, in the example shown in FIG. 7, information indicating the shooting month and shooting date is displayed in association with the scroll bar S. That is, at the bottom of each image row R, characters indicating the shooting date are displayed. In addition, a bar B having a length corresponding to the number of values for each shooting date is displayed at the bottom of the scroll bar S, and is separated by a vertical line for each shooting month. In addition, the shooting month is indicated by characters for the image corresponding to each interval. In this example, it can be said that a plurality of elements of the shooting month and shooting date are displayed in association with the scroll bar S.

  As a result, the number of shooting dates can be grasped by the total length of the scroll bar S, and the number of image sequences having different photographing dates in each photographing month can be grasped. Therefore, if the user imagines an image to be searched and there are many shooting opportunities in the month in which the image was shot, the shooting month including a number of shooting date images is set as the display target. An image switching instruction is issued. As a result, a high-speed search can be performed intuitively.

  In the example shown in FIG. 7, a bar B having a length corresponding to the number of values for each shooting date is displayed at the bottom of the scroll bar S, and the shooting month is displayed in each bar separated by vertical lines. The information indicating the number of images corresponding to is shown. That is, hatching is given to each bar B, and the approximate number of images is indicated by the thickness and pattern of the lines constituting the hatch.

  For example, a hatch line is composed of a dotted line, a thin line, a middle line (thickness between the thin line and the thick line), and a thick line. The dotted line is less than 10 sheets, the thin line is 10 sheets or more and less than 100 sheets, the middle line If there is, a rule such as 100 or more and less than 1000, or 1000 or more if a thick line is determined. As a result, by using the bar B shown in FIG. 7, not only the number of different shooting days in a certain shooting month but also the relative number of images in that shooting month can be compared. Therefore, it is possible to perform a search based on whether or not many images are taken before and after the time when the image to be searched is taken.

  In the above example, the scroll bar S is configured based on the number of shooting days and is displayed in association with the shooting month. However, the scroll bar S is configured based on any of the shooting date and time. Alternatively, any of the shooting date and time may be displayed in association with each other, and various display modes may be employed.

  Furthermore, the display object in the present invention is not limited to an image, and all objects that can be displayed on the screen can be displayed. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of displaying a document on the screen. In this document, the document is described for each chapter, and in FIG. 8, the classification for each chapter is displayed in association with the scroll bar. That is, data indicating a chapter is associated with data indicating a document, and data indicating the chapter is extracted and displayed in association with a scroll bar.

  As a result, the scroll bar S indicates the length of the entire document, and the hatch H indicates the relative relationship between the document being displayed and the entire document (relative relationship between the total amount of documents and the document being displayed and the order of the entire document. Relative position indicating the position occupied by the document in the document) and information for each chapter. Therefore, a user who searches for a desired position in a document can estimate the position of the desired document based on a chapter associated with the document, and can perform a search at a high speed based on an intuitive operation.

  In addition to this, for example, a folder in which a display target is stored may be set as the display target. That is, in recent OSs, data such as images is managed by a tree structure, and each tree is called a folder or the like for simple management. Therefore, if the folder is set as a display target and the correspondence information associated with each folder is displayed in association with the scroll bar, an intuitive folder search is possible. As the correspondence information associated with the folder, various information such as the creation date of the folder and time series information such as images stored in the folder can be adopted.

  Furthermore, various other modes can be adopted as the display mode of the display target. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 7, images associated with the same shooting date may be classified and displayed in different groups. That is, a plurality of images included in a certain image sequence are classified into a plurality of groups in advance, and the image sequence is configured for each classification. Various indexes can be used as the index for performing the classification. For example, when the shooting time is more than a predetermined time, a configuration in which both are classified into different groups can be used, Classification may be instructed. As described above, if the images with the same shooting date are classified into a plurality of groups, the images can be classified for each event in which the images are captured, and the images can be displayed more easily.

  Furthermore, the application target of the present invention is not limited to the above-described image viewer device, but may be applied to a printer, a multifunction device in which a printer and a scanner are integrated, or the present invention is applied to image viewer software in a computer. You may do it. That is, the present invention can be applied to all apparatuses that can display images.

It is a figure which shows schematic structure of an image viewer apparatus. It is a figure which shows the example of a display on a display panel. It is a flowchart of the process which produces a scroll bar information file. It is a figure which shows the structural example of an image file. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a scroll bar information file. It is a flowchart which shows an information display process. It is a figure which shows the example at the time of displaying based on the number of the values of time series information. It is a figure which shows the example which displays a document on a screen.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Image viewer apparatus, 11a ... Scroll bar information file preparation part, 11b ... Display control part, 11c ... Switching instruction | indication reception part, 12 ... Display controller, 12a ... Display panel, 13 ... Memory, 14 ... Card I / F, 15 ... HDD, 15a ... scroll bar information file, 15b ... image file, 15c ... scroll bar image data, 16 ... operation buttons

Claims (11)

An information display device for displaying a predetermined display target on a display device,
Display target data storage means for storing display target data indicating the display target;
Correspondence information obtaining means for obtaining correspondence information associated with the display object;
Target display means for acquiring and displaying the stored display target data;
A scroll that displays the correspondence information in association with a scroll bar that indicates the relative relationship between all display targets that are display candidates in the target display means and the display targets that are displayed on the target display means. Bar display means;
An information display apparatus comprising: a display switching unit that acquires the display target switching instruction and switches between the display target display and the scroll bar display based on the switching instruction.   The information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display target is any one or a combination of an image, a document, and information indicating the existence of a file.   3. The information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the correspondence information is time series information.   4. The information display device according to claim 1, wherein the correspondence information is predetermined display target classification information. The information display device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the target display means displays the display targets side by side in one or more directions based on the correspondence information.   The scroll bar display means displays a scroll bar that indicates the relative relationship between the total amount of display targets that are display candidates in the target display means and the amount of the display target that is being displayed, by length. The information display device according to claim 1, wherein the information display device is a display device.   The scroll bar display means includes the number of correspondence information values associated with display targets that are candidates for display in the target display means, and the number of correspondence information values associated with display targets being displayed. The information display device according to claim 1, wherein a scroll bar indicating a relative relationship with the length is displayed.   8. The information display device according to claim 1, wherein the correspondence information includes a plurality of elements, and the scroll bar display means displays the plurality of elements in association with the scroll bar. .   The said scroll bar display means displays the information which shows the number of the value of the corresponding | compatible information matched with the display object, and the quantity of the display object which has the corresponding | compatible information, The said claim 7 or Claim 8 characterized by the above-mentioned. The information display apparatus in any one of. An information display method for displaying a predetermined display target on a display device,
A target display step of acquiring and displaying the display target data from the storage medium storing the display target data indicating the display target;
A correspondence information acquisition step of acquiring correspondence information associated with the display target;
A scroll that displays the correspondence information in association with a scroll bar that indicates the relative relationship between all display targets that are display candidates in the target display step and the display target that is being displayed in the target display step. A bar display process;
An information display method, comprising: a display switching step of acquiring the display target switching instruction and switching between the display target display and the scroll bar display based on the switching instruction. An information display program for displaying a predetermined display target on a display device,
A target display function for acquiring and displaying display target data from a storage medium storing display target data indicating the display target;
A correspondence information acquisition function for acquiring correspondence information associated with the display target;
Scroll that displays the correspondence information in association with a scroll bar that indicates the relative relationship between all display targets that are display candidates in the target display function and the display target that is displayed in the target display function. Bar display function,
An information display program for acquiring a display target switching instruction and causing a computer to realize a display switching function for switching between the display target display and the scroll bar display based on the switching instruction.

Images