JP2006301801A - Device and method for supporting problem solving - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means for enabling a user of electronic equipment to easily search and select a desired function in a short time. <P>SOLUTION: The device for supporting problem solving 100 comprises a function identification name storage part 120, an icon storage part 130, an icon selection control part 140, a character string collation part 150 and a priority control part 170. The function identification name storage part 120 stores function identification character strings and relevant character strings thereto. The icon storage part 130 stores icons, relevant character strings thereto and preferential character strings therefor. The character string collation part 150 performs, based on a relevant character string related to a selected icon, collation with relevant character strings stored in the function identification name storage part 120, and extracts function identification character strings with relevant character strings matched thereto in order. The priority control part 170 raises the output priority order of function identification character string when the function identification character string extracted by the collation part 150 has the preferential character string. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a problem solving support apparatus and a problem solving support method.

Conventionally, in an electronic device such as a mobile phone, an icon associated with the function of the electronic device is displayed on the display screen of the electronic device, and an explanation of the corresponding function can be obtained by selecting the icon. . Furthermore, when the functions possessed by the electronic device increase, each function is classified hierarchically. First, icons corresponding to the upper layers of each function are displayed on the first screen. When one of the displayed icons is selected by the user, the lower-level function of the icon is displayed on the screen as an icon or a character string (see, for example, Patent Document 1). For example, in a mobile phone, a rough function of the mobile phone is displayed on the icon corresponding to the upper layer. For example, functions such as “telephone”, “mail”, “camera”, “i-mode”, and “folder” are displayed on the screen. Next, when the “Mail” icon is selected, functions belonging to the lower layers of the mail, such as “Receive Mail”, “Send Mail”, “Create New Mail”, “Mail History”, “Mail Settings”, etc. are icons or character strings. Is displayed. When the user selects an icon or a character string for displaying “Create new mail” on this screen, a new mail creation program is activated, and the user starts creating mail on the displayed new mail creation screen.
JP 2003-298715 A

  However, this is not a problem when the functions of the electronic device are small, but in recent years, the number of functions of electronic devices such as mobile phones and digital television receivers has increased, and the format and name of icons that differ for each electronic device have become electronic. Various settings are set by device manufacturers. For this reason, it has become difficult for the user to find a desired function without understanding the hierarchy set by the manufacturer. In addition, depending on the function to be searched, it is not known which icon can be selected to obtain a desired function, and a lot of time is spent.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide means by which a user of an electronic device can easily find and select a desired function in a short time.

  The present invention relates to a problem solving support apparatus that supports a search for a function of an electronic device when the user uses the electronic device, and includes a function identification character string for identifying a function of the electronic device, and a function identification An icon storage unit for storing a function identification name storage unit that stores a related character string associated with a character string, an icon, a related character string associated with the icon, and a priority character string associated with the icon An icon display control unit that displays an icon stored in the icon storage unit, an icon selection control unit that selects an icon displayed by the icon display control unit, and an icon selected by the icon selection control unit A function identification character that matches the related character string by matching the related character string with the related character string stored in the function identifier storage unit Whether or not to include a priority character string associated with the selected icon, and a priority order for displaying the function identification character string extracted by the character string matching unit. And a display control unit that displays a function identification character string in accordance with the priority order determined by the priority order control unit.

  According to this configuration, the function related to the icon selected by the icon selection control unit is extracted by the character string collation unit collating from the function identification name storage unit. It is possible to find a desired function without understanding the meaning. In addition, since the priority order for displaying the extracted functions is determined by the priority control unit, the user can easily find a desired function in a short time.

  In this case, the priority level of the priority character string is stored in the icon storage unit, and the priority order control unit displays the function identification character string based on the priority level of the priority character string included in the function identification character string. It is preferable to determine the priority order.

  According to this configuration, the priority order control unit determines the priority for displaying the function identification character string based on the priority of the priority character string included in the function identification character string. Even when a plurality of function identification character strings including such a priority character string are extracted, the priority order to be displayed can be determined.

  In this case, the function identification character string extracted by the character string matching unit is provided with a grouping control unit that groups the function identification character strings having similar functions, and the display control unit is grouped by the grouping control unit. It is preferable to display a function identification character string for each group.

  According to this configuration, the function identification character string extracted by the grouping control unit is grouped for each function identification character string having similar functions, and the display control unit displays the function identification character string for each group. The user can find out a desired function more easily and in a short time.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a problem solving support method for supporting a search for a function of an electronic device when the user uses the electronic device, and a function identification character for specifying the function of the electronic device. A step of preparing a function identification name storage unit storing a column and a related character string associated with the function identification character string, and an icon display control unit displaying an icon associated with the related character string and the priority character string And the step of selecting an icon by the icon selection control unit, and the character string collating unit collates the related character string associated with the selected icon with the related character string stored in the function identification name storage unit. The step of extracting the function identification character string associated with the matched related character string, and the priority control unit determines the priority order for displaying the extracted function identification character string. Determining based on whether or not the performance identification character string includes a priority character string associated with the selected icon, and displaying the function identification character string in accordance with the determined priority, The user can find a desired function easily and in a short time.

  In this case, the icon display control unit displays an icon associated with a priority character string having a priority level, and the priority order control unit functions based on the priority level of the priority character string included in the function identification character string. It is preferable to determine the priority order for displaying the identification character string, and the priority order can be determined even when a plurality of function identification character strings are extracted.

  In this case, the grouping control unit includes a step of grouping the extracted function identification character strings for each function identification character string having similar functions, and the display control unit is grouped by the grouping control unit. It is preferable to display a function identification character string for each group, and the user can find a desired function more easily and in a short time.

  According to the problem solving support apparatus and the problem solving support method of the present invention, a user of an electronic device can easily search for and select a desired function in a short time.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described through embodiments of the invention. However, the following embodiments do not limit the claimed invention, and all combinations of features described in the embodiments are included. It is not necessarily essential for the solution of the invention.

  The problem solving support apparatus according to the present embodiment is incorporated in an electronic device such as a mobile phone, and searches for how to use the device when using the electronic device. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a mobile phone which is an embodiment of a problem solving support apparatus. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, the problem solving support apparatus supports search of the function of the mobile phone based on the user input when the user uses the mobile phone 10. Note that the problem solving support apparatus may be incorporated in a remote control apparatus that operates an information home appliance such as a digital television receiver.

  The problem solving support apparatus includes a screen 20 and an input unit 30. The screen 20 displays an icon that is an image having an appearance conceptually associated with a function of the mobile phone 10 for searching for the function. The screen 20 displays a cursor surrounding any one of the displayed icons. Further, the screen 20 displays one or more icons selected by the user. The input unit 30 includes function keys such as a cursor movement key and a confirmation key, in addition to keys for the user to input characters. With these keys, the input unit 30 receives input from the user. The screen 20 may be configured by a touch screen and may accept input from the user instead of the input unit 30.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the problem solving support apparatus according to the present embodiment. This problem solving support apparatus 100 is physically a microcomputer system in which a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM), etc. are connected through a CPU bus. It is configured as. The problem solving support apparatus 100 includes an icon display control unit 110, a function identification name storage unit 120, an icon storage unit 130, an icon selection control unit 140, a character string matching unit 150, a program execution control unit 160, and a priority. A rank control unit 170 and a display control unit 180 are provided.

  The icon display control unit 110 displays on the screen 20 at least some of a plurality of icons that are candidates for accepting an external selection. When the desired icon does not exist in the icons displayed on the screen 20 of the mobile phone 10, the user changes the display to another icon. The icon display control unit 110 controls scroll display.

  The function identification name storage unit 120 stores a function identification character string for specifying a function of the mobile phone 10 and a plurality of related character strings related to the function indicated by the function identification character string. The function identification name storage unit 120 stores a program identifier for executing a program related to the function identification character string. In this way, the function identification name storage unit 120 subdivides and stores the functions of the mobile phone 10 to present to the user when the user does not know how to use the mobile phone 10 when using the mobile phone 10. . Here, the function of the mobile phone 10 includes an operation and a target for realizing the function. The mobile phone 10 may use a target that operates in a certain function as a target that performs another operation in another function. For example, in the functions of “accumulated call charge display” and “call history deletion”, the target is the same “history”, but the operations are “display” and “delete”. Is different. Therefore, these two function identification character strings are considered to belong to a common concept of “history”.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the data format of the function identification name storage unit 120. The function identification name storage unit 120 stores a plurality of related character strings representing the concept to which the function identification character string belongs in association with the function identification character string. For example, the function identification name storage unit 120 stores “sound”, “volume”, “erase”, “setting”, and the like as related character strings in association with the function identification character string “Manner mode”. Further, in the present embodiment, the function identification character string of “Manner mode” stores an identifier for executing the execution program of “Manner mode”. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the identifier of the execution program is indicated by a character string “Manner mode”, but may be indicated by a program number for executing the manner mode.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the icon storage unit 130 associates the function identification character string specifying the function of the mobile phone 10 with at least a part of the function identification character string and the related character string specifying the function identification character string. A plurality of icons that are images having a conceptually associated appearance are stored. The icon storage unit 130 stores a related character string that associates these icons with the function identification character string in association with the function identification character string. For example, in the functions of “accumulated call charge display” and “deletion of outgoing / incoming call history”, assuming that the “history” icon is selected, the associated character string “history” is associated.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the data format of the icon storage unit 130. The icon storage unit 130 stores a plurality of icons and related character strings that associate these icons with function identification character strings. For example, the icon storage unit 130 associates the icon “phone book” with the related character strings “phone book”, “register”, “correct”, “phone number”, “mail address”, “photo”. , “View”, “search”, and the like are stored. In the present embodiment, for example, the “phone book” icon execution program stores an identifier for directly executing “phone book search”. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the identifier of the execution program is indicated by the character string “phone book search”, but may be indicated by the program number for executing the phone book search. Furthermore, in the example illustrated in FIG. 4, the icon storage unit 130 stores an icon image. Instead of this, an icon correspondence storage unit associated with an icon image and an icon identification number for identifying the icon may be provided separately, and the icon storage unit 130 may store an icon identification number for identifying the icon. In addition, in the example shown in FIG. 4, when there are many function identification character strings related to icons, a priority character string for determining a priority order for displaying the function identification character string is also stored. For example, the “sound / volume” icon stores three priority character strings of “volume”, “ring tone”, and “alarm”.

  As described above, the function identification name storage unit 120 and the icon storage unit 130 display a function identification character string obtained by subdividing the functions of the mobile phone 10 and an icon conceptually associated with the function identification character string. Tie through.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the icon selection control unit 140 changes the form of the selected icon and displays it on the screen. The icon selection control unit 140 according to the present embodiment displays the selected icon separately in a region different from the region where the icon that is a candidate for accepting selection is displayed on the screen 20. Thereby, the user can confirm the selected icon. In this case, depending on the combination with the icon to be selected next, since there is no common related character string, there is no function identification character string that can be extracted, and there is an icon that substantially eliminates the combination. Therefore, the icon selection control unit 140 clearly indicates to the user an icon for which these combinations do not exist. The icon selection control unit 140 of the present embodiment displays selectable icons in color, but displays icons that have no combination in gray.

  The character string collation unit 150 collates with a related character string stored in the function identification name storage unit 120 based on a related character string associated with the selected icon each time an icon is selected. The function identification character strings matching the related character strings are extracted in order. When there are a plurality of selected icons, a function identification character string having a related character string common to the plurality of icons is extracted.

  The program execution control unit 160 executes a program based on an identifier that identifies a program corresponding to the icon selected by the icon selection control unit 140 or a program corresponding to a function identification character string extracted by the display control unit 180 described later. Execute. The identifier that identifies the program is stored in advance in the icon storage unit 130 in association with the function of the electronic device.

  The priority control unit 170 outputs the function identification character string when the function identification character string extracted by the character string collation unit 150 has a priority character string to be stored in the icon storage unit 130 of the selected plurality of icons. Increase the priority that is given.

  The display control unit 180 displays the function identification character string extracted by the character string matching unit 150 based on the related character string associated with the selected icon. If the extracted character string cannot be displayed entirely on the screen of the electronic device, display switching such as scrolling is performed. When the number of extractions is grouped, display switching such as displaying a lower hierarchy is performed. The display control unit 180 groups the function identification character strings having similar functions when the extracted function identification character strings are equal to or larger than a certain number. In this embodiment, the display control unit 180 includes means for performing grouping control. However, a grouping control unit may be provided separately from the display control unit.

  With the above configuration, the problem solving support apparatus 100 efficiently searches for a function for solving a problem when the user uses the mobile phone 10 based on the selection of the icon by the user, and identifies the program corresponding to the icon The program can be executed based on

  Subsequently, an operation of the problem solving support apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described, and a problem solving support method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. 5, 6 and 7 are flowcharts showing an example of the operation of the problem solving support apparatus. FIGS. 8A to 8C show screen transitions during the icon selection process when searching for the “i-shot transmission” function. Below, the flowchart of FIG.5, 6 and 7 is demonstrated to the example of the transition of the screen shown to Fig.8 (a)-(c).

  The icon display control unit 110 displays the icon stored in the icon storage unit 130 in the icon display area 240 on the screen (S102). The icon display control unit 110 displays a cursor on the screen, and the cursor is displayed so as to surround the icon to be selected. Further, the icon display control unit 110 displays a selected icon display frame 250 as an area for displaying a selected icon at the bottom of the screen. Further, the icon display control unit 110 displays the number of function identification character strings corresponding to the selected icon on the right side of the selected icon display frame 250. The icon display control unit 110 also selects a “select” key 210 for selecting an icon, an “execute” key 220 for executing an execution program for the selected icon, and a “return” key 230 for canceling the selected icon. Is displayed.

  The icon display control unit 110 displays the first screen of the icon stored in the icon storage unit 130, then moves the cursor to the input unit 30, the confirmation key, the selection key 210 on the screen 20, the execution key 220, and the return key 230. Wait for input (S104).

  When the cursor movement key is input, the icon display control unit 110 presents an explanation of the icon indicated by the cursor to the user in the explanation display area 260 (S110, S112). The display of this explanation starts immediately after the cursor movement key is pressed and the cursor is moved, and disappears after a predetermined time (S106, S108). Thus, when providing a specific area | region, the identifier of the execution program of the icon which a cursor shows after a fixed time is displayed. The description of the icon may be displayed with a balloon display at the cursor.

  The icon display control unit 110 determines whether or not the icon selection key 210 is input (S114). If the icon selection key 210 is input, the icon display control unit 110 displays the selected icon in the selection icon area (S116). For example, when a user selects a “mail” icon when selecting a function corresponding to “send an image captured by mail” by combining icons, in this embodiment, a selection icon display frame below the icon display area 240 is selected. A “mail” icon 270 is displayed at 250 (FIG. 8A). When the “Send” icon 280 is selected after the “Mail” icon 270, the “Send” icon 280 is displayed next to the already selected “Mail” icon 270 (FIG. 8B).

  The icon selection control unit 140 acquires a related character string of the icon displayed in the icon selection area from the icon storage unit 130 via the character string matching unit 150. The acquired related character strings are sequentially matched with related character strings stored in the function identification name storage unit 120 in the character string matching unit 150, and a function identification character string having a matching related character string is extracted. (S118). For example, when the “mail” icon is selected, four related character strings “mail”, “read”, “history”, and “send” are acquired from the icon storage unit 130. These four related character strings are sequentially matched with the related character strings stored in the function identification name storage unit 120 in the character string matching unit 150, and a function identification character string having four related character strings is extracted. . For example, if the function identification character string of FIG. 3 is stored in the function identification name storage unit 120, “receive email”, “send email”, “create new email”, “set email” ”Is extracted.

  The icon selection control unit 140 determines whether the number of extracted function identification character strings is equal to or less than a certain number. For example, if the area for displaying the function identification character string is 8 lines, if the number is 8 or less, the function identification character string is displayed on the screen without selecting the next icon (S120, S142).

  The icon display control unit 110 displays the number of extracted function identification character strings (S122). FIG. 8A shows that a total of 28 function identification character strings exist after the “mail” icon is selected. FIG. 8B shows a state in which the “mail” icon and the “send” icon are selected. In this state, there are 16 function identification character strings. FIG. 8C shows a display screen displayed by the display control unit 180. In the embodiment, when the “camera” icon is selected after “mail” + “send”, one “i-shot transmission” function indicating the function of transmitting an image by mail is extracted, and the number is less than a certain number. An example in which it is determined and displayed is shown.

  The icon display control unit 110 does not have an associated character string in common with the selected icon, that is, there is no function identification character string that can be displayed even when combined with the selected icon. An icon is extracted (S124). Icons that do not have this combination are extracted by a matrix table stored in the icon display control unit 110. For example, assuming that up to three icons are selected, the number of icons is represented by a three-dimensional matrix of the number of icons × the number of icons × the number of icons. Therefore, when the icon is selected, the numerical value stored at the intersection of the three-dimensional matrix is determined as “1” or “0”.

  The icon display control unit 110 indicates that the icon whose intersection in the matrix table is “0” indicates that there is no combination with the selected icon (there is no function identification character string that can be extracted even if combined), and the displayed icon Is changed (S126). For example, an icon having no combination is displayed in gray to notify the user.

  When a key other than the icon selection key 210 is input, the icon display control unit 110 determines the key input in order (S128, S130, S136). If the input key is determined to be the confirm key, a list of function identification character strings having the related character strings of the icons selected until the confirm key is input is displayed (S142, S144, S146).

  The extracted function identification character strings are ordered by the character string collating unit 150 by reading related character strings and function identification character strings. However, when the number of hits increases, the related functions are not output at a collective position. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the priority is displayed according to the degree related to the selected icon. FIG. 9 shows an output example illustrating an embodiment when the “sound / volume” icon and the “change” icon are selected.

  The priority order control unit 170 increases the priority order to be output when the function identification character string extracted by the character string matching unit 150 includes the priority character string stored in the selected icon (S142). For example, the priority character string shown in FIG. 4 is stored in the icon storage unit 130. For example, as described above, the “sound / volume” icon stores three priority character strings of “volume”, “ring tone”, and “alarm”. When the function identification character strings are extracted in the order shown in FIG. 9, the priority character string of the “Sound / Volume” icon selected first is extracted and compared with the function identification character string in order. The priority of the function identification character string having the priority character string is expressed by a score. For example, “volume”: 16 points, “ring tone”: 8 points, and “alarm”: 4 points are added in the order of storage. The function identification character string “change the volume of the alarm” has 20 points because “volume” and “alarm” match. Subsequently, the priority character string of the second selected “change” icon is extracted, and the priority points (“change”: 16, “switch”: 8 points, “select”: 4 points) are similarly added. (S142).

  FIG. 9 shows the corresponding priority character string and the number of priority points in the case of “sound / volume” + “change” icon. After the addition of the priority points, the function identification character string deeply related to the selected icon is output to the upper rank by sorting in descending order of the priority points. FIG. 10 shows the output order of the function identification character strings after sorting by the number of priority points.

  When the number of extracted function identification character strings is equal to or greater than a certain number, the display control unit 180 groups function identification character strings having similar functions (S144). The grouping is classified into major classification, middle classification, and minor classification according to the number of function identification character strings to be grouped. FIG. 11 shows an example of the data format of the group table stored in the display control unit 180. As shown in FIG. 11, for example, “use mail” indicates a large classification, “view mail”, “send mail”, “receive mail”, and “set mail” indicate a medium classification. Small classification classifies functions that have the same function but different targets. For example, when one “mail” icon is selected, many are classified as mail functions, so in the large classification, the group is too large, so the middle classification is applied. When a plurality of icons are selected, if the total number of large classifications is equal to or greater than a certain number, the number to be output is reduced by performing middle classification.

  The group table stores group names (major classification and medium classification) and function identification character strings related to the groups when grouped. In the present embodiment, a related character string for searching for a function identification character string to be stored is stored. A function identification character string belonging to each group is extracted by collating this related character string with a related character string stored in the function identification name storage unit 120 in advance in the character string collation unit 160. In this embodiment, an identification number is assigned to the function identification character string and stored.

  FIG. 12 shows an example in which the function identification character strings of FIG. 10 are grouped. A “+” sign added to the group name indicates that a lower hierarchy exists. FIG. 13 shows an example in which FIG. 12 is displayed on the screen.

  5, 6, and 7, when the input key is determined to be the execution key 220 (S <b> 130), the icon selection control unit 140 determines whether the icon indicated by the cursor position has an execution function. . It is determined whether the identifier of the execution program is stored in the icon storage unit 130 corresponding to the icon (S132). If the identifier of the execution program corresponding to the selected icon is not set, the execution request is canceled after an alarm is sounded.

  When the identifier of the execution program is stored in the icon storage unit 130 corresponding to the selected icon, the identifier of the execution program of the selected icon is extracted (S132) and executed based on the identifier of the execution program The program is executed (S134). For example, in the example shown in FIG. 4, when the execution key 220 is input in a state where the “phone book” icon is selected, the execution program is executed and a “phone book search” screen is displayed. With the “camera” icon, the execution program is executed and “camera shooting” is ready.

  If it is determined that the input key is the return key 230 (S136), the icon selection control unit 140 determines whether there is an already selected icon (S138), and if the selected icon does not exist, Return to the initial screen. If there is a selected icon, the last selected icon is canceled (S140). If the selected icon remains, the function identification character string corresponding to the selected icon after cancellation is extracted again (S118).

  The display control unit 180 displays a list of the extracted function identification character strings when the number of function identification character strings extracted by the character string matching unit 150 is less than a predetermined number or when the selected icon is confirmed by the confirmation key. (S142, S144, S146). After the list display is finished, it waits for input. When a cursor key is input, it is determined whether scrolling occurs. If scrolling occurs, the display of the function identification character string is changed (S150). For example, if the display area of the function identification character string is 8 lines, scrolling occurs when the downward cursor key is pressed 8 times. In this case, whether the scroll amount is one line or eight lines is variable depending on the scroll amount stored in the display control unit 180. When the left / right key is input, the screen is scrolled.

  When it is determined that the input key is the selection key 210 (S152), the display control unit 180 determines whether or not a lower layer group name exists in the function identification character string indicated by the cursor, and the lower layer layer name is determined. If the group name exists, the lower layer group name is displayed (S154, S156). In addition, also when displaying a group name, as mentioned above, it can display in the display order based on a priority character string and a priority score. For example, the group names of the groups to which many function identification character strings including the priority character strings belong can be displayed first. If no lower layer group name exists, the function description of the selected function identification character string is displayed (S158).

  If it is determined that the input key is the return key 230 (S160), the display control unit 180 determines whether a group name exists in the upper hierarchy. If there is a group name in the upper hierarchy, the display control section 180 Is displayed (S162, S164).

  When it is determined that the input key is the execution key 220 (S166), the display control unit 180 extracts the selected function identification character string and execution program identifier stored in the function identification name storage unit 120 ( S132).

  As described above, the problem solving support apparatus 100 allows the function identification character string extracted by the character string matching based on the plurality of character strings associated with the icon when the user selects the icon associated with the function of the mobile phone 10. It is possible to preferentially output a function identification character string that is closely related to an icon for selecting. Furthermore, when there are many corresponding numbers, selection can be made easily by grouping function identification character strings having similar functions.

  Conventionally, in an electronic device such as a mobile phone, icons associated with each function and icons corresponding to a higher hierarchy of each function are displayed on the screen. In this case, the icon corresponding to the upper layer of the desired function is first displayed on the screen. However, these levels are set in advance by the manufacturer and model of the electronic device. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to find a desired function without understanding the hierarchy set by the manufacturer.

  On the other hand, according to the problem solving support apparatus of this embodiment, even if the user does not grasp the hierarchy set by the manufacturer, the user can easily search for a desired function in a short time by selecting an icon that seems to be related. You can search.

  In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 13, the problem solving support apparatus 100 is stored in a mobile phone 10 as an example of an electronic device, and the mobile phone 10 includes a screen 20 and an input unit 30. However, the input unit 30 is not limited to the electronic device. As another example, the icon display control unit 110, the function identification name storage unit 120, the icon storage unit 130, the icon selection control unit 140, the character string collation unit 150, the program execution control unit 160, and the priority order control of the problem solving support apparatus 100. Each of the functions of the unit 170 and the function identification character string selection control unit 180 is stored in the electronic device, and the icon that the user selects or cursors from among a plurality of icons displayed by the icon display control unit 110 The function of the input unit 30 that receives a user's input to input a command for executing an execution program corresponding to and outputs the command to the function identification character string display unit 170 is stored in a user input device separate from the electronic device. Also good. For example, the electronic device may be an information home appliance such as a television receiver, and the user input device may be a remote control device that operates the information home appliance.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated using embodiment, the technical scope of this invention is not limited to the range as described in the said embodiment. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications or improvements can be added to the above embodiment. It is apparent from the scope of the claims that the embodiments added with such changes or improvements can be included in the technical scope of the present invention.

It is a perspective view which shows the structure of the mobile telephone which is one Embodiment of the problem-solving assistance apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the problem-solving assistance apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format of a function identification name storage part. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format of an icon storage part. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of a problem-solving assistance apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of a problem-solving assistance apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of a problem-solving assistance apparatus. (A)-(c) is a figure which shows the transition of the screen in the selection process of the icon in the case of searching for a function. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format explaining the operation | movement of a priority control part. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format explaining the operation | movement of a priority control part. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format of the group table of a display control part. It is a figure which shows the example which grouped the function identification character string. It is a figure which shows an example of a display of the screen of a mobile telephone.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Mobile phone, 20 ... Screen, 30 ... Input part, 100 ... Problem solving support apparatus, 110 ... Icon display control part, 120 ... Function identification name storage part, 130 ... Icon storage part, 140 ... Icon selection control part, 150 ... Character string matching unit, 160 ... Program execution control unit, 170 ... Priority order control unit, 180 ... Display control unit, 210 ... Selection key, 220 ... Execution key, 230 ... Return key, 240 ... Icon display area, 250 ... Icon Display frame, 260 ... description display area, 270 ... mail icon, 280 ... send icon.

Claims (6)

A problem-solving support device that supports searching for a function of an electronic device when the user uses the electronic device,
A function identification name storage unit for storing a function identification character string for specifying a function of the electronic device, and a related character string associated with the function identification character string;
An icon storage unit for storing an icon, a related character string associated with the icon, and a priority character string associated with the icon;
An icon display control unit for displaying an icon stored in the icon storage unit;
An icon selection control unit for selecting an icon displayed by the icon display control unit;
A function identification character associated with a matching related character string by collating the related character string associated with the icon selected by the icon selection control unit with the related character string stored in the function identification name storage unit A string matching unit that extracts columns;
A priority order for determining the priority order for displaying the function identification character string extracted by the character string collating unit based on whether or not the function identification character string includes a priority character string associated with the selected icon. A control unit;
A display control unit for displaying a function identification character string in accordance with the priority order determined by the priority order control unit;
A problem-solving support apparatus comprising: In the icon storage unit, the priority level of the priority character string is stored,
2. The problem solving method according to claim 1, wherein the priority order control unit determines a priority order in which the function identification character string is displayed based on a priority level of the priority character string included in the function identification character string. Support device.   A grouping control unit for grouping the function identification character strings extracted by the character string matching unit for each function identification character string having similar functions; and the display control unit is grouped by the grouping control unit 3. The problem solving support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a function identification character string is displayed for each group. A problem solving support method for supporting a search for a function of an electronic device when the user uses the electronic device,
Providing a function identification name storage unit that stores a function identification character string for specifying a function of the electronic device and a related character string associated with the function identification character string;
An icon display control unit displaying an icon associated with a related character string and a priority character string;
An icon selection control unit selecting the icon;
A function identification character in which the character string matching unit collates the related character string associated with the selected icon and the related character string stored in the function identification name storage unit, and the matched related character string is associated Extracting a column;
A step of determining a priority order of displaying the extracted function identification character string based on whether the function identification character string includes a priority character string associated with the selected icon; When,
A display control unit displaying a function identification character string according to the determined priority;
A problem solving support method characterized by comprising: The icon display control unit displays an icon associated with a priority character string having a priority level,
5. The problem solving method according to claim 4, wherein the priority order control unit determines a priority order for displaying the function identification character string based on a priority level of the priority character string included in the function identification character string. Support method. The grouping control unit includes a step of grouping the extracted function identification character strings for each function identification character string having similar functions;
6. The problem solving support method according to claim 4, wherein the display control unit displays a function identification character string for each group grouped by the grouping control unit.

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