JP2012093839A - Information equipment and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information equipment and the program for achieving a menu/command select GUI excellent in operability on a terminal with limited pixel size.SOLUTION: A pull down menu type graphical user interface command set belonging to the menu item is divided into two or more subgroups. While the menu item is selected, a list of commands is displayed in pulldown for every subgroup, and it is controlled to switch a subgroup to be shown for every predetermined time.

Description

    The present invention relates to control of a graphical user interface in an information device equipped with a touch panel display. The present invention is particularly useful in portable information devices.

  Graphical user interfaces (hereinafter GUIs) have evolved with the development of computer OSs and user terminals. The recent development of mobile terminals and so-called smartphones, or the miniaturization and enhancement of digital cameras, seems to require a more sophisticated GUI.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-321896 is an invention that displays hierarchical menu items in a manner that is easier to understand for the user. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-217640 provides an item selection device based on a tree menu display that allows a target item to be easily selected from a large number of items. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-163948, simply moving the position of the protruding scroll bar and moving it within the screen makes it impossible to select information hidden under the moved scroll bar, and the listability is poor. Therefore, a pop-up menu is displayed on the screen together with a scroll button for scrolling, and it is determined whether or not the pop-up menu can fit within the screen. A method is described in which the scroll button is moved in a direction opposite to the protruding direction or in a direction orthogonal to the protruding direction.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2004-246718, 2009-301282, and 2010-102662 describe a process in which a long-pressed peripheral portion is enlarged and displayed when the display cursor is pressed for a long time. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-248551 and 2004-5279 are inventions in which icons change depending on the time of touching a display with a touch panel. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-318393, when touch input is continued for a predetermined time or longer after touch-on, when touch input is made outside an area instructed at the start of touch before touch-off, or when touch is started before touch-off. If there is a touch input outside the predetermined distance range from the determined position, the process associated with the area designated at the start of the touch is not executed.

JP 2005-321896 A JP 2008-217640 A JP 2006-163948 A JP 2006-113715 A (paragraph “0015” to paragraph “0016”, FIG. 4) JP 2003-248551 A JP 2010-102662 A

    The current display size of mobile terminals is mainly 320 × 480 pixels or about 480 × 850 pixels. When many menus are displayed on a mobile display having a small display size as compared with a display provided in a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC), the application execution screen is often filled with menus. As a result, the graphical user interface such as buttons became smaller, and an operation error occurred in which the adjacent button was pressed even though the target button was pressed.

    On the other hand, if the menu is hierarchical, in order to reach the target menu, if the menu hierarchy system, that is, the tree structure hierarchy, the tree system must be grasped, an intuitive user In some cases, it was difficult to say an interface.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to realize a menu / command selection GUI having a good operability on a terminal having a smaller pixel size than a PC. It is to provide equipment and computer programs.

  The present invention solves the above problems by an information device having the following configuration. That is, a control unit that interprets and executes a computer program, a display unit, and an interactive input unit are provided. When a menu title displayed on the display unit is selected, a list of commands belonging to the menu item is displayed in a pull-down manner. An information device that provides a pull-down menu type graphical user interface that prompts the user to select a command, and that displays a menu title and a command list on the display unit as selectable objects by operating the interactive input unit. Means for detecting that one menu item has been selected by the interactive input unit, means for pulling down a list of command sets belonging to the menu item when one menu item is selected, and setting a command list switching time Means, command list displayed in pull-down Means for detecting selection of command in command, means for calling a module for executing the selected command, and detecting that the elapsed time of the selected state after the menu item is selected by the dialog input device has passed the command list switching time. The gist of the present invention is that the information device comprises the means for replacing the command set list with a different command set list when the command list switching time elapses.

  Each of the above-described means is actually realized by a computer program being interpreted and executed by a central processing circuit (CPU) of the information device to appropriately drive and control the hardware of the information device. Details thereof will be described in the description of an embodiment described later.

  According to the information device having such a configuration, since the list of command sets belonging to one menu item is switched and displayed at predetermined time intervals, even when there are many commands belonging to one menu item, they are displayed as a plurality of commands. It can be divided into subgroups and displayed separately for each command list of commands belonging to each subgroup. Therefore, it is possible to provide a GUI based on a pull-down menu without impairing operability visibility even on a screen with a narrow display pixel number range. Since the command list is automatically switched by continuing to select menu items, it can be said that it is more intuitive and easier to operate than the conventional technology that employs a GUI with a hierarchical menu structure or tree menu display.

  The information device according to the present invention further comprises storage means for recording and summarizing history information of commands selected by the user. When pulling down a list of command sets, refer to the recorded contents of the storage means. It is more preferable to provide a means for pulling down a frequently used command at a higher rank than a less frequently used command. In an information device having such a configuration, a command that is used more frequently is displayed at the top of the list. Therefore, when selecting a command, the distance to move the user's finger can be minimized, and the operability is good.

  A second invention of the present application is a computer program that causes an information device including a control unit that interprets and executes a computer program, a display unit, and an interactive input unit to operate as the information device according to the present invention.

    According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to provide operability that does not cause inconvenience due to the small display size even on the display of the portable information device.

It is a hardware block diagram of the portable information device in embodiment of this invention. It is a software hierarchy figure of the portable information device in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the vocabulary used by this invention. It is a figure explaining the subgroup of a command set. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of the menu operation function 401. FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a portable information device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 10 denotes a processor unit that controls the portable information device 1. This is an integrated circuit in which a central processing circuit that reads and interprets a control program, a RAM (random access memory) that holds temporary data, a sound processing circuit that connects a speaker 70, a microphone 71, and the like are integrated. Reference numeral 20 denotes a ROM (read only memory). The program code of the OS of the portable information device is stored. Reference numeral 30 denotes a display unit. It is a small liquid crystal display device. Reference numeral 31 denotes a touch panel unit. A contact detection element (not shown) on the two-dimensional array is mounted integrally with the display unit, for example, by being inserted into the surface portion of the display unit 30. Reference numeral 32 denotes a display control unit. It includes a video RAM that temporarily stores display data to be displayed on the display unit 30, receives a control signal and display data through the bus 60, and controls the display unit 30 by displaying an image. Further, the display control unit 32 scans the contact detection element to detect the contact of the finger on the display unit 30 of the operator and notifies the processor unit 10 that the input event has occurred together with the contact position information. Reference numeral 40 denotes a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory. Stores application programs and the like. Reference numeral 50 denotes a communication function unit. Provide voice communication and packet communication with a base station by CDMA2000 or W-CDMA. Since the communication function unit 50 is not directly related to the subject of the present invention, it will not be discussed further in the following description. The processor unit 10, the ROM 20, the display control unit 32, the nonvolatile memory 40, and the communication function unit 50 are connected by a bus 60.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a hierarchy of software installed in the portable information device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The lowest layer 100 is not software but hardware such as a display control unit 32 and connection circuits of various IO devices. Further, 200 is a hierarchy of program modules that control the connection circuit of the display control unit 32 and various IO devices. The top 300 is the OS hierarchy. The OS plays a role such as creation and disappearance of processes, assignment management when assigning the hardware resources of the portable information device 1 to each execution process, and mediating the hardware operations of the user process and the actual IO device. The top 400 is an application layer. User programs such as mailers and game software run. FIG. 2 shows a case where the menu operation function of the present invention described in detail below is implemented as one of the library modules (menu operation function 401) that can be called and used by each user program.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for defining terms used in the description of the present invention. The menu display is
Consider a menu item and a set of commands (command set) belonging to one menu item. For example, in FIG. 3, “next page”, “previous page”, “top page”, “last page”, “to table of contents screen”, “to magazine list screen”, “color setting”, “page turning setting”, “ “Memo Settings” is a command set belonging to the menu item “View”. As shown in FIG. 3, the actual display of the menu item defined in this manner indicates the presence of the menu item, a menu title 500 for securing an area on the screen for selecting the menu item, and a menu. It is displayed in the form of a list display 510 of commands belonging to the command set (one subgroup thereof) belonging to the item. However, the command list 510 is displayed (pull-down displayed) only when the menu item is selected by touching down the menu title 500 (touching and maintaining the finger on the screen).

As described in detail below in the present invention, the command set can be further divided into two or more subsets (subgroups). FIG. 4 shows the command set of FIG.
The first sub-group consisting of ["Next Page", "Previous Page", "Top Page", "Last Page"]
A second subgroup consisting of ["To table of contents screen", "To page list screen"]
A third sub-group consisting of ["Color settings", "Page turning settings", "Memo settings"]
It is a figure explaining the operation | movement at the time of dividing | segmenting into three subgroups.

  The user application program calls the menu operation function 401 by passing a menu title and a list of command names belonging to each subgroup and designation of attributes necessary for menu display (display position, display size, display color, etc.) as arguments. be able to. Then, the menu operation function 401 generates a menu object 520 (not shown) for displaying the menu title 500, and the menu object 520 displays only the menu title 500 portion on the screen. Thereafter, when the OS notifies that the menu title 500 has been selected, the menu object 520 displays commands for the first subgroup [“next page”, “previous page”, “top page”, “last page”]. Display a list. If the command desired by the user is not in this list, the user continues to select the menu title 500 over a predetermined time T1 (as an example, 500 milliseconds) << more precisely, the menu title 500 and the command list 510 are linked. Keep the finger in contact with the area on the screen-this state may be expressed as "menu item selected (state)" or "menu item selected (state)" Become. Then, when T1 is reached, the display of the command list is switched to the list of the second sub-group [[to contents page], [to page list screen]]. If there is a command desired by the user, the user can execute the command by releasing the finger at the desired command position after selecting the menu item. If the command desired by the user is not in this list, the user will continue to select the menu item again for a predetermined time T2 (500 milliseconds). Then, when T2 is reached, the display of the command list is switched to a list of subgroups ["color setting", "page turning setting", "memo setting"] defined in the third.

  In this way, a menu consisting of a large number of command sets can be displayed on a narrow display screen. Next, how the menu operation function 401 described in FIG. 4 is actually realized will be described below.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the menu operation function 401. The menu operation function 401 is called when the menu title display area on the touch panel of the menu is touched with a finger or the like (this is expressed as touchdown).

  First, the variable Sub representing the number of the subgroup of the command set corresponding to the menu is set to “0” and initialized (S10). Next, a command list of commands belonging to the subgroup specified by Sub is displayed (S20). If Sub = 0, a list of commands belonging to the first subgroup is displayed. Next, a timer is initialized and a set time (switching time) until the command list is switched is set (S30).

  Next, it is determined whether the finger is separated from the touch panel (touched up) (S40). At this time, if the touch-up is performed, the command list is erased depending on the position where the finger is removed and the process ends (S50), or the execution module of the selected command is called (S54) and the process ends. If the finger is touched up at the time of determination in S40, the command list is displayed when the touch-up position is outside the command list display area displayed in a pull-down manner (that is, the menu title display area or the screen area other than the menu). Is stopped (S50) and the process returns. If the touch-up position is within the command list display area, the execution module of the corresponding command is called (S54) and the process returns.

  When the touch-up is not performed in S40, the timer is checked to check whether or not the next switching time has elapsed (S60). If the time has not elapsed until the elapsed time, the process directly returns to S40. When the elapsed time is reached, the variable Sub representing the designation of the subgroup is incremented to display the menu list of the command set of the next subgroup (S64). Note that Sub is counted by modm when m subgroups are defined. That is, when the number is further incremented after the state of 0 → 1 →... → (m−1) → 0 and m−1, the value returns to 0. When a new Sub is set, the process returns to S20 to display a list of new command sets. In this way, the operation described in FIG. 4 is realized.

  In a more preferred embodiment of the present invention, when a command list of commands belonging to a subgroup is displayed in step S20, commands that are frequently used are displayed higher in the list. For this purpose, a counter for counting the number of times the command is called is provided on the nonvolatile memory 40 for each command belonging to the menu item, and an instruction to increment the counter of the command every time a command is selected in S54. When the command list of commands belonging to the subgroup specified by Sub is displayed in step S20, the command list belonging to the subgroup is referred to, and the command list is ranked higher in order of count value. A menu list may be created and presented as shown. At this time, the degree of influence of the latest command selection tendency on the display order of the command list can be adjusted by appropriately adjusting the time interval for resetting the counter for counting the number of times the command is called.

In order to inform the user that the time elapsed since the command list was newly displayed on the information device side while continuing to select the menu item, for example, an interval of 500 milliseconds for switching the command list. The display color of the menu title 500 may be displayed in five different colors every 1/5.
For this purpose, a step of initializing the second timer for switching the display color of the menu title 500 in S30 in FIG. 5 and further checking the elapsed time of the second timer during the loop of S40 → S60 → S40 is provided. When the display color change timing is reached, the menu operation function 401 is instructed to change the display color of the menu title 500 (one property of the menu object 120) and reset the second timer again. Should be added. By telling the user that the time elapsed since the command list was newly displayed on the information device side can be indicated to the user, it can be suggested in advance that the command list of the next subgroup will be switched, so smoother Interactive operation is possible.

  As described above in detail, for the pull-down menu type GUI, the command set belonging to the menu item is divided into two or more subgroups, and a list of commands is displayed in a pulldown manner for each subgroup while the menu item is selected. Since the display is controlled by switching the subgroups every predetermined time, even on a display with a remarkably small screen dot area compared to a PC, the pull-down menu can be displayed so that it does not protrude from the screen. A good menu / command selection GUI can be provided.

1 Mobile Information Device 10 Processor 20 ROM
30 Display Unit 31 Touch Panel Unit 32 Display Control Unit 40 Non-Volatile Memory 60 Communication Function Unit 60 Bus 100 Hardware Layer 200 Program Module Hierarchy Controlling IO Device Connection Circuit 300 OS
400 Application layer 401 Menu operation function 500 Menu title 510 Command list

Claims (3)

A control unit that interprets and executes a computer program, a display unit, and an interactive input unit. When a menu title displayed on the display unit is selected, a list of commands belonging to the menu item is displayed in a pull-down manner. An information device that provides a pull-down menu type graphical user interface that prompts the user to select a command,
Means for displaying a menu title and a command list on the display unit as an object selectable by operation of the interactive input unit;
Means for detecting that one menu item has been selected by the interactive input unit;
Means for pulling down a list of command sets belonging to the menu item when one menu item is selected;
Means for setting command list switching time Means for detecting selection of command in command list displayed in pull-down,
Means to call a module that executes the selected command,
Means for detecting that the elapsed time of the selected state after the menu item is selected by the dialog input device has passed the command list switching time;
An information device comprising means for replacing a command set list with a different command set list when the command list switching time elapses. The information device according to claim 1, further comprising storage means for recording and summarizing history information of a command selected by a user,
An information device comprising means for pulling down a frequently used command to a higher rank than a less frequently used command by referring to the recorded contents of the storage means when pulling down a list of command sets. A computer program that causes an information device including a control unit that interprets and executes a computer program, a display unit, and an interactive input unit to operate as the information device according to claim 1.

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