JP2007065909A - Operation controller - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly reach a picture including an item desired by a user from among a plurality of items without imposing any time and labor in an operation controller for displaying a picture including a plurality of items belonging to the same hierarchy such as the respective setting items of a setting picture in a navigation device, and for executing functions or processing corresponding to the content of the item selected by the user among the displayed items. <P>SOLUTION: A setting picture in a navigation device is provided with icons 21, 22 and 23 for dividing a picture. Then, the picture is divided into the number of division corresponding to the icons selected by the user among those icons 21, 22 and 23. Afterwards, the picture selected by the user among the divided pictures is displayed with the original normal size. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an operation control device that executes functions and processes according to the settings, such as various settings in a navigation device.

  For example, when the items constituting the setting menu in the conventional navigation device cannot be displayed on one screen, a scroll bar 300 is provided on the screen as shown in FIG. 10, for example. When there is no item that the user desires to set on the screen, the user sequentially switches the screen by touching the scroll bar 300 to display a screen including the item desired by the user.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram in which a map is displayed on the screen of the navigation device, and a setting area 400 is provided in which various setting buttons are displayed at the bottom of the screen. For example, when the user wants to enlarge the map to be displayed, the user may touch the enlarge button provided in the setting area 400. Furthermore, when the item displayed in the setting area 400 is to be changed, the switch 401 that moves back or the switch 402 that moves forward may be touched.

  However, it is troublesome for the user to search for a screen including an item desired by the user by switching the screen in order as in the prior art, and setting or the like cannot be performed quickly. In order to solve this, for example, the setting area 400 shown in FIG. 11 may be enlarged and many items may be displayed on one screen. However, if the setting area 400 is enlarged, an area for displaying a map becomes small. The map becomes difficult to see. That is, certain restrictions are imposed on items that can be displayed on one screen.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. For example, a screen including a plurality of items belonging to the same hierarchy is displayed and displayed, such as each setting item of a setting screen in a navigation device. In an operation control device that executes a function or process according to the content of an item selected by the user among the items, quickly reach a screen including the item desired by the user from among the plurality of items without trouble. It is an object of the present invention to provide an operation control device that can handle the above.

  In order to solve the above problem, the operation control apparatus according to claim 1 includes a display unit, a display control unit that displays an item display screen for displaying a plurality of items that can be selected by a user, and the item. An operation control device comprising: an execution unit that executes a function or a process according to the content of an item selected by a user among a plurality of items displayed on the display screen, wherein the operation unit is displayed on the display unit When the item display screen does not include all of the items to be displayed as a plurality of items that can be selected by the user, the display unit includes an instruction receiving unit that receives a split display instruction by the user, and the display control unit includes the item display unit The number of item display screens displayed on the display means by reducing the size of the item display screen displayed on the display means when split display of the screen is instructed Wherein the increase.

  As a result, the item display screen that has been switched and displayed by scroll operation or the like is reduced and displayed on a single screen, so that the user can easily grasp which screen has the desired item. Can do.

  The operation control apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising setting means for setting the increase number when the display control means increases the number of item display screens displayed on the display means by a user operation. .

  If the number of item display screens is increased, more items are displayed on one screen, but the visibility of each item display screen is reduced instead. Therefore, it is expected that it will be difficult to grasp where an item desired by the user is displayed on the screen. On the other hand, if the increase in the number of item display screens is reduced, the visibility of each item display screen does not drop that much, but it is also expected that the item display screen including the item desired by the user will not be displayed. Therefore, in claim 2, the user can set the increase number of the item display screen.

  In the operation control device according to claim 3, when the display control unit increases the item display screen displayed on the display unit, the display control unit switches the item display screen displayed on the display unit with the increased number thereafter. Features.

  For example, even if the item display screen is increased and displayed when the number of items is large, it is assumed that the item display screen including the item desired by the user is not displayed. In such a case, if the number of item display screens that are displayed on the screen is increased excessively, each item display screen displayed on the screen becomes smaller, and the item display screen that the user desires is displayed instead. It becomes difficult to grasp what is in the. In view of the above, when the number of item display screens to be displayed on the screen is increased, the screen is switched by the increased number thereafter. Thereby, an item display screen including items desired by the user can be quickly found. As a method of switching the screen, a method of switching by providing a scroll bar as shown in FIG. 10 or a screen switching button as shown in FIG.

  The operation control device according to claim 4, wherein the display control means displays the display means so that all of the plurality of items are displayed on the display means when the division display of the item display screen is instructed. The number of item display screens to be increased is increased. Thereby, an item display screen including an item desired by the user can be found immediately, and the operation burden on the user can be reduced.

  The operation control device according to claim 5, when the display control means increases the item display screen displayed on the display means, the selection means for selecting one of the item display screens displayed on the display means. The display control means is characterized in that when the selection means selects any item display screen, the item display screen is returned to its original size and displayed on the display means. Thereby, the item display screen including the item desired by the user can be quickly reached. That is, since it is not necessary to switch the screens in order as in the prior art, it is possible to reduce the operation burden on the user and perform various settings quickly.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the operation control device according to the present invention is applied as a navigation device will be described. In the present embodiment, in the menu screen for various settings relating to the navigation function, when each setting item cannot be displayed on one screen, the user can easily reach the screen including the setting item desired by the user. The screen of the display device is divided into a plurality of screens, and a plurality of display screens originally displayed on one screen are displayed. Then, by selecting a screen including setting items desired by the user, the screen is displayed in the original size. Hereinafter, it demonstrates in detail based on drawing.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the navigation device 100 of the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the navigation device 100 is connected to the position detector 1, the map data input device 6, the operation switch group 7, the external memory 9, the display device 10, the audio output device 11, the remote control sensor 12, the remote control 13, and these. The control circuit 8 is configured. Each component will be described below.

  The position detector 1 includes a known geomagnetic sensor 2, a gyroscope 3, a distance sensor 4, and a GPS receiver 5 for GPS (Global Positioning System) that detects the position of the vehicle based on radio waves from a satellite. Have. Since these have errors of different properties, they are configured to be used while being complemented by a plurality of sensors. Depending on the accuracy of each sensor, the position detector 1 may be constituted by a part of the above-described parts, and a steering rotation sensor (not shown), a vehicle speed sensor for each rolling wheel, or the like may be used. The current position of the vehicle is detected by the position detector 1, and the control circuit 8 to be described later can recognize, for example, where the vehicle is traveling on the searched route when performing route guidance. It can be determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling along the route.

  The map data input device 6 displays road map data indicating the connection structure of roads, background data for displaying backgrounds related to topography and facilities, and place names when displaying road maps using the road map data. For this purpose, various types of map data such as character data are input to the control circuit 8. The map data input device 6 includes a storage medium for storing the above-described map data. As the storage medium, a DVD-ROM or a hard disk is generally used because of the amount of data, but other memory cards or the like are used. A storage medium may be used.

  By combining the road map data with the background data and the character data, a map including the road can be displayed on the display device 10 described later. In addition to displaying a map, the road map data is used to give the shape of a road when performing map matching processing, and is used to search for a guide route to a destination.

  As the operation switch group 7, for example, a touch switch or a mechanical switch integrated with the display device 10 to be described later is used. For example, the operation switch group 7 is used to set a starting point and a destination when searching for a route.

  The external memory 9 includes a storage medium such as a memory card or a hard disk. The external memory 9 stores various data such as text data, image data, and audio data stored by the user.

  The display device 10 is configured by, for example, a liquid crystal display, and is usually generated on the screen of the display device 10 by the own vehicle position mark corresponding to the current position of the vehicle and the map data input from the map data input device 6. A road map around the subject vehicle is displayed. In addition, various screens such as a menu screen and a setting screen are displayed on the display device 10 by operating the operation switch group 7. Further, in the present embodiment, the screen of the display device 10 and the touch panel are integrated, and for example, when performing various settings related to navigation, the user may touch a corresponding button displayed on the screen.

  The voice output device 11 is composed of a speaker, an audio amplifier, and the like, and is used when voice guidance such as route guidance is performed.

  In addition, the navigation device 100 of this embodiment includes a remote control terminal (hereinafter referred to as a remote controller) 13 and a remote control sensor 12, and this remote controller 13 also has various types of operations similar to the operation switch group 7 described above. Navigation operations can be performed.

  The control circuit 8 is configured as a normal computer, and includes a well-known CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O, and a bus line for connecting these configurations. In the ROM, a program to be executed by the control circuit 8 is written, and according to this program, the CPU performs various arithmetic processes using the respective units. For example, if the user has set the starting point and destination, the map data is used to search for a plurality of candidate routes from the starting point to the destination, and the driver guides one of those routes to the guide route. Is set, the vehicle is guided and guided along the guidance route. Even if the route is not set, the current position of the vehicle is detected based on the signal from the position detector 1, and the matching process is performed so that it is located on the road of the map data.

  Further, the control circuit 8 divides the screen of the display device 10 into a plurality of processes, i.e., various setting screens, which are features of the present invention, and displays a plurality of display screens originally displayed on one screen. A process of displaying the screen selected by the user among the displayed screens in the original size is performed. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing at that time. Hereafter, it demonstrates in order using this flowchart.

  First, in step S10, it is determined whether or not the screen of the display device 10 is in a state where it can be divided. Specifically, for example, it is determined whether or not a screen for setting each item related to the navigation function as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed. As shown in FIG. 3, when a screen for setting each item related to the navigation function is displayed, in addition to the scroll bar 301 for scrolling the screen on the screen, the division setting for dividing the screen. Region 20 is provided. Then, icons 21, 22, and 23 corresponding to the number of divisions when the screen is divided are displayed in the division setting area 20. The icon 21 is an icon indicating that the number of divisions is 1, that is, the screen is not divided, the icon 22 is an icon indicating that the screen is divided into two, and the icon 23 is that the screen is divided into four. It is an icon to show.

  Here, when the screen is not in a state that can be divided, for example, when a map around the current location is simply displayed, this step is negatively determined, and the subsequent processing is not performed. On the other hand, if the screen is in a state where it can be divided, this step is affirmed and the process proceeds to step S11.

  In step S12, it is determined whether or not any of the icons 21, 22, and 23 for dividing the screen has been touched by the user. Here, when none of the icons 21, 22, and 23 is touched, this step is determined to be negative, and the subsequent processing is not performed. In this case, it is considered that the user is scrolling the screen by operating the scroll bar 301 as usual. On the other hand, if any of the icons 21, 22, and 23 is touched by the user, this step is affirmed and the process proceeds to step S12. In step S12, the screen is divided and displayed according to the number of divisions corresponding to the touch-operated icon among the icons 21, 22, and 23. For example, when the icon 23 is touched, the screen is divided into four as shown in FIG. 4, and the four screens when scrolled are displayed on each of the divided screens 31 to 34, respectively. Thus, the user can grasp which screen of the divided screens the desired setting item is on.

  Next, in step S13, it is determined whether or not any of the divided screens has been selected by the user. This selection is made, for example, by directly touching the screen desired by the user. Here, this step is looped until one of the divided screens is selected by the user. When any of the divided screens is selected by the user, this step is affirmed and the process proceeds to step S14. In step S14, the divided screen is canceled and the selected screen is displayed on one screen. For example, in the divided screen shown in FIG. 3, when the screen 34 is selected by the user, the screen 34 is displayed in a normal size, that is, one screen as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the user sets desired items.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when performing various settings of the navigation device 100, the setting screen is divided into the number selected by the user and displayed. Thereafter, the screen selected by the user among the divided screens is returned to the normal size and displayed. Thus, even when the number of setting items is large, it is not necessary to switch the screen a plurality of times by scroll display or the like and search for a setting item desired by the user. That is, the operation burden on the user can be reduced, and the user can quickly perform the setting operation.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to this embodiment, Based on the meaning of this invention, it can implement with a various form. For example, the number of screen divisions may be arbitrarily set. In this case, the user can display a desired screen faster as the number of screen divisions is set larger.

  For example, if the screen is divided into multiple screens even though the number of items is small, each of the divided screens becomes small, and it is expected that the user will hardly grasp where the desired screen is. Therefore, the number of screen divisions may be automatically determined according to the number of items. In this process, step S11 in the flowchart of FIG. 2 may be replaced with the step of performing the process of calculating the number of screen divisions. As a result, the above problems can be solved, and the user does not need to set the number of screen divisions, so that the operation burden on the user can be reduced.

  In addition, when the number of items is large, there may be a situation where the screen desired by the user is not displayed on the screen even if the screen is divided. In such a case, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, a scroll bar 40 for scrolling the screen in a split screen state is provided, or in the split screen state as shown in FIG. Changeover switches 51 and 52 for switching are provided. In the examples shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, since the screen is divided into four, the screen is switched in the state of four divisions thereafter. In addition, the icons used for setting the number of screen divisions such as the icons 21, 22, and 23 shown in FIG. 4 are first operated again, and thereafter the screen is switched by the number of divisions corresponding to the operated icon. It may be. Thereby, even when the number of items is large, it is possible to quickly reach a screen including items desired by the user.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, the process which divides | segments a screen was performed for the setting screen regarding a navigation function as shown in FIG. This is because the setting items related to the navigation function are items belonging to the same hierarchy, and the number of items is considered to be large enough to be displayed on one screen. For this purpose, in addition to the setting screen related to the navigation function, there may be a plurality of items belonging to the same hierarchy, and the screens may be so large that the items cannot be displayed on one screen. For example, each icon (such as an icon for changing the map scale) displayed on the screen on which the map is displayed is an item belonging to the same hierarchy. Therefore, when the icons cannot be displayed on one screen and the user wants to operate any of these icons, the screen on which the map is displayed is displayed as a multi-screen as shown in FIG. In this case, the same map is displayed on each divided screen. As a result, the user can quickly operate a desired icon without imposing a burden.

  In addition, when there are items displayed on the screen in addition to the items such as the map, only the items (icons) may be divided and displayed as shown in FIG. As a result, the display objects other than the items are not divided and displayed, and the visibility of the display objects does not deteriorate.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, the screen which the user selected among the divided | segmented screens is returned to the original magnitude | size, and setting operation is performed after that (refer step S14). However, the setting operation may be performed in the state of the divided screen. As a result, the user's operation burden can be further reduced, and the user can quickly perform the setting operation. In this case, needless to say, the visibility of the screen is deteriorated as compared with the case where the screen is returned to the original size.

  In the above-described embodiment, the navigation apparatus is targeted. However, the present invention may be applied to an apparatus having a plurality of items belonging to the same hierarchy and having a screen that cannot display the items on one screen. . For example, when the AV device has a display device, it is applied to various setting screens of the AV device. In addition, since items for instructing execution of processing such as playback and stop of music CDs and DVDs are items belonging to the same layer, even when items for instructing execution of such processing cannot be displayed on one screen. You may apply.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the navigation apparatus 100 of this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process which divides | segments a screen and displays a multiscreen as one screen, when the item which belongs to the same hierarchy cannot be displayed on one screen. It is a figure which shows the setting screen regarding the navigation containing the icons 21, 22, and 23 for dividing | segmenting a screen. It is the figure which divided | segmented the setting screen regarding navigation into the multi-screen (4 screens). It is the figure which displayed the screen which a user desires by a normal magnitude | size after dividing | segmenting a screen. It is the figure which provided in the divided screen the scroll bar 40 for scrolling a screen in the state which divided | segmented the screen. It is the figure which provided the changeover switches 51 and 52 which switch a screen back and forth in the state which divided | segmented the screen in the divided | segmented screen. It is the figure which divided the screen on which the map is displayed into multiple screens (4 screens). It is the figure which divided | segmented the display area of the item (icon), and divided and displayed only the item (icon). It is the figure which showed a mode that a screen switched by operation of the scroll bar 300 in the setting screen regarding navigation. In the screen on which the map is displayed, a plurality of icons indicating execution of processing such as changing the scale of the map are arranged, and switches 401 and 402 for switching icons to be displayed are provided.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus 1 Position detector 2 Geomagnetic sensor 3 Gyroscope 4 Distance sensor 5 GPS receiver 6 Map data input device 7 Operation switch group 8 Control circuit 9 External memory 10 Display apparatus 11 Voice output device 12 Remote control 13 Remote control sensor

Claims (5)

Display means;
Display control means for displaying on the display means an item display screen for displaying a plurality of items selectable by the user;
Among the plurality of items displayed on the item display screen, an operation control device including an execution unit that executes a function or a process according to the content of the item selected by the user,
When the item display screen displayed on the display means does not include all of the items to be displayed as a plurality of items that can be selected by the user, an instruction receiving means for receiving a split display instruction by the user is provided,
The display control means reduces the size of the item display screen displayed on the display means when the division display of the item display screen is instructed, and sets the number of item display screens to be displayed on the display means. An operation control device characterized by being increased.   2. The operation control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting unit configured to set the increase number when the display control unit increases the number of item display screens displayed on the display unit by a user operation. .   3. The display control unit according to claim 1, wherein when the item display screen to be displayed on the display unit is increased, the display control unit switches the item display screen to be displayed on the display unit with the increased number thereafter. The operation control device described.   The display control means increases the item display screen displayed on the display means so that all of the plurality of items are displayed on the display means when division display of the item display screen is instructed. The display device according to claim 1. When the display control unit increases the item display screen displayed on the display unit, the display control unit includes a selection unit that selects any of the item display screens displayed on the display unit,
5. The display control unit according to claim 1, wherein when the selection unit selects any item display screen, the display unit returns the item display screen to its original size and displays the item display screen on the display unit. The operation control apparatus in any one.

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