JP2014021882A - Operation device, control method thereof, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily recognize the number of contents stored in holders displayed in a list by a touch.SOLUTION: A display (105) displays folders storing one or more contents in a list. By using a touch panel (106a), a user can designate one of folders displayed in the list on the display (105) with a touch operation. A CPU (101) detects the number of contents stored in a designated folder when any folder is designated on the touch panel (106a), and generates a touch corresponding to the number of contents in a touch generation part 113.

Description

  The present invention relates to an operating device using a touch panel, a control method and program thereof, and a recording medium.

  In recent years, an operation device in which a touch panel is stacked on a display unit and an operation target or operation content can be freely changed by changing display content has been put into practical use. In such an operation device, various functions can be instructed by touching buttons or folders on the display screen. Further, by changing the display content, the operation content can be changed according to the situation.

  In portable devices, since the main body itself must be made smaller, the display panel equipped on the main body is also becoming smaller. Since the number of items that can be displayed simultaneously is limited by the display screen size, for example, a plurality of icons or thumbnails are accommodated in a folder and grouped. At that time, a technique is known in which thumbnail images in a group are displayed in a superimposed manner or visually changed so that each thumbnail can be identified (Patent Document 1).

JP 2000-276474 A

  When the technique described in Patent Document 1 is applied to a touch panel, a finger for operation resides on the screen, and it is difficult to visually recognize individual icons or the visual changes thereof. In order to enable visual recognition, it is necessary to increase the display size of icons and the like to some extent, but this is limited by the size of the display panel.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an operation device, a control method and a program, and a recording medium that can recognize a plurality of icons collected in a folder or the like or a state change thereof without visual recognition. .

  An operation device according to the present invention includes a display unit that displays a list of a plurality of elements each containing one or more contents, a touch panel that is arranged on the display screen of the display unit, and a tactile sensation applied to the touch panel. A tactile sensation generating means, and a control means for causing the tactile sensation generating means to generate a tactile sensation corresponding to the number of contents accommodated in the element corresponding to the touch in response to a touch on the touch panel with respect to any of the elements. It is characterized by having.

  According to the present invention, the present invention can notify the user of the number of contents included in the group displayed on the display unit with a tactile sensation according to the number of contents.

It is a schematic block diagram of one Example of this invention. It is an example of a display screen of a display. It is a correspondence table of the number of contents and tactile strength to be fed back. It is a flowchart of a tactile sensation feedback process. It is an example of a display screen of a search result on a display. It is a correspondence table | surface of the number of contents with respect to a search result, and the tactile strength to feed back. It is a flowchart of the tactile sensation feedback process with respect to a search result. It is an example of a strength setting screen for tactile feedback. It is a correspondence table after changing the number of contents and the tactile strength to be fed back. It is the correspondence table after the change of the number of contents with respect to a search result and the tactile strength to feed back.

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

  FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. The portable information processing apparatus 100 can be used as a smartphone, an electronic dictionary, an electronic book reader, a PDA (Personal digital Assistant), or the like, and can be realized by the same components as a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as a PC). .

  CPU 101, memory 102, nonvolatile memory 103, image processing unit 104, display (display unit) 105, operation unit 106, recording medium I / F 107, external I / F 109, and communication I / F 110 are connected to internal bus 150. Each unit connected to the internal bus 150 can exchange data with each other via the internal bus 150.

  The memory 102 is composed of, for example, a RAM (a volatile memory using a semiconductor element). The CPU 101 controls each unit of the portable information processing apparatus 100 using the memory 102 as a work memory, for example, according to a program stored in the nonvolatile memory 103. The nonvolatile memory 103 stores image data, audio data, other data, various programs for operating the CPU 101, and the like. The nonvolatile memory 103 is composed of, for example, a hard disk (HD), a flash memory, or a ROM.

  The image processing unit 104 includes an A / D conversion unit, a D / A conversion unit, a compression / decompression processing unit, an enlargement / reduction processing (resizing) unit, a noise reduction processing unit, a color conversion processing unit, and the like, and is based on the control of the CPU 101. Image processing is performed on the image data. The processing target is, for example, image data stored in the non-volatile memory 103 or the recording medium 108, image data of a video signal acquired through the external I / F 109, image data acquired through the communication I / F 110, and the like. is there. Part or all of the functions of the image processing unit 104 may be dedicated hardware that performs corresponding processing. Further, some or all of the functions of the image processing unit 104 may be realized by a program operating on the CPU 101.

  The display 105 displays an image and a GUI screen configuring a GUI (Graphical User Interface) based on the control of the CPU 101. The CPU 101 generates a display control signal according to a program, and controls each unit of the portable information processing apparatus 100 so as to generate a video signal to be displayed on the display 105 and output it to the display 105. The display 105 displays an image based on the input video signal.

  The operation unit 106 is an input device for accepting user operations. The operation unit 106 includes a character information input device such as a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, a button, a dial, a joystick, a touch sensor, and a touch pad. The operation unit 106 also includes a touch panel 106 a that is arranged on the display screen of the display 105 and outputs a two-dimensional coordinate value corresponding to the touch position of the user.

  A recording medium 108 such as a memory card, CD, or DVD can be connected to the storage medium I / F 107. The CPU 101 can read / write data from / to the recording medium 108 via the recording medium I / F 107. The external I / F 109 is an interface that is connected to an external device via a wired cable or wirelessly and inputs / outputs a video signal or an audio signal. The communication I / F 110 is an interface that communicates with an external device or the Internet 111 to transmit / receive various data such as files and commands.

  The system timer 112 is a time measuring unit that measures the current time, and the CPU 101 measures elapsed time and the like using the output time information.

  Here, touching the touch panel 106a with a finger or a stylus pen (hereinafter abbreviated as “finger”) is referred to as “touchdown”. A state where the touch panel 106a is touched with a finger is referred to as “touch-on”. Moving while touching the touch panel 106a with a finger is referred to as "move". The operation of releasing the finger touching the touch panel 106a from the touch panel 106a is referred to as “touch-up”. A state in which nothing touches the touch panel 106a is referred to as “touch-off”. An operation in which touch-on is performed at two locations on the touch panel 106a at the same time and the two touched points are brought close to each other is referred to as “pinch-in”. An operation in which touch-on is performed at two locations on the touch panel 106a at the same time and the two touched points are moved away from each other is referred to as “pinch out”.

  Further, performing touchdown at a plurality of points is referred to as multitouchdown, and performing touchup at a plurality of points is referred to as multitouchup. A touch operation at a plurality of points is referred to as multi-touch, and a touch-on at a plurality of points is referred to as multi-touch on.

  These operations on the touch panel 106a and the position coordinates on which the finger touches the touch panel 106a are notified to the CPU 101 via the internal bus 150, and the CPU 101 indicates the operation and state on the touch panel 106a based on the notified information. judge. That is, the CPU 101 can individually detect and identify the above operations and states on the touch panel 106a by the user.

  Regarding the move, the CPU 101 can also determine the moving direction of the finger moving on the touch panel 106a for each vertical component / horizontal component on the touch panel 106a based on the change of the position coordinates.

  It is assumed that a stroke is drawn when touch-up is performed on the touch panel 106a through a certain move from touch-down. The operation of drawing a stroke quickly is called a flick. A flick is an operation of quickly moving a certain distance while touching a finger on the touch panel and then releasing it, in other words, an operation of quickly tracing a finger on the touch panel. If it is detected that a move has been performed at a predetermined speed or more over a predetermined distance and a touch-up is detected as it is, it can be determined that a flick has been performed. In addition, when it is detected that the movement is performed at a predetermined distance or more at a speed lower than the predetermined speed, it is determined that the drag is performed.

  As the touch panel 106a, any one of various touch panels such as a resistive film method, a capacitance method, a surface acoustic wave method, an infrared method, an electromagnetic induction method, an image recognition method, or an optical sensor method is used. Also good.

  The tactile sensation generating unit 113 is a device that generates a tactile sensation for giving a tactile sensation to a user's finger touching the touch panel 106a. As a tactile sensation generating method, a vibration tactile sensation generating method and an electric tactile sensation generating method are known, and the tactile sensation generating unit 113 may be of any method, or a combination of both methods.

  In the vibration tactile sensation generation method, an eccentric motor or a piezoelectric element serving as a tactile sensation generation unit 113 is disposed at the upper, lower, left, right, and center portions of the back surface of the display 105 disposed on the back surface of the touch panel 106a. By applying a current to the eccentric motor or applying a voltage to the piezoelectric element, the display 105, and thus the touch panel 106a, physically vibrates. By controlling the applied current of the eccentric motor or the applied voltage of the piezoelectric element by the CPU 101, various vibrations can be generated for each part, and various tactile sensations can be given to the finger touching the touch panel 106a.

  The tactile sensation generating unit 113 by the electric tactile sensation generating method includes an insulator panel and a conductive layer panel that are superposed on each other, and electrically charges the finger on the insulator panel by charging the conductive layer with a positive charge. Give. The insulator panel and the conductive layer panel constituting the tactile sensation generating unit 113 are arranged to overlap the display 105 in the same manner as the touch panel 106a. When the user touches the insulator panel, an electrical stimulus can be given by the positive charge charged in the conductive layer panel. Moreover, it is possible to give a feeling that the skin is pulled by the Coulomb force. A positive charge can be selected for each position on the conductive layer panel. By controlling the position where the positive charge of the conductive layer panel is charged by the CPU 101, it is possible to give a finger touching the touch panel 106 a “gritty feeling”, “gritty feeling (a rougher feeling than rough feeling)”, and the like. In addition, by charging a positive charge for each position on the conductive layer panel, it is possible to give a tactile sensation locally instead of the entire touched part, or change the position where the tactile sensation is given within one contact surface. Various tactile sensations can be given to the user.

  An operation in which the portable information processing device 100 feeds back a tactile sensation in response to a user operation on a certain setting screen will be described. FIG. 2 is an example of a display screen on the display 105.

  As shown in FIG. 2, when the user touches any folder while the folder is displayed, the CPU 101 touches the user with a tactile sensation according to the number of contents stored in the folder. Return to your finger. FIG. 3 shows an example of the correspondence between the number of contents and the feedback intensity. In the example shown in FIG. 3, when there is no content in the folder, the feedback level is set to the same strength 1 as when a button on another screen is touched. When a folder whose content is 10 or less is touched, the strength is 2, and the strength is 3 for a folder whose content is 11 or more. As a result, the user can roughly grasp the number of contents of the touched folder from the tactile sensation fed back.

  FIG. 4 shows an operational flowchart of tactile feedback according to this embodiment. When the tactile sensation process is started (S401), the CPU 101 determines whether there is a screen touch based on the output of the touch panel 106a (S402). If no touch is detected, the CPU 101 ends the tactile sensation process (S408). When a touch is detected (S402), the CPU 101 determines whether the touch position is an area to react (S403). In the example shown in FIG. 2, the reaction area corresponds to a left / right button for changing display contents, a folder on the screen, and a current position display on a bar indicating the current screen position in all folders.

  If the touch is detected outside the reaction area (S403), the CPU 101 ends the process (S408). If it is within the reaction area (S403), the CPU 101 determines whether or not the folder is touched (S404). If the touch is not on the folder (S404), the CPU 101 performs feedback of the normal intensity when the normal button or the like is touched (S407), and the process ends (S408). If the touch is on a folder (S404), the CPU 101 detects the number of contents included in the folder (S405), and controls the tactile sensation generating unit 113 to feed back a tactile sensation corresponding to the number of contents (step S405). S406). After step S406, the CPU 101 ends the tactile feedback process (S408).

  On the search result screen, the tactile strength setting is changed as described below. FIG. 5 shows an example of a search result display screen on the display 105. In FIG. 5, there is an operation unit for selecting a search condition at the top of the screen, and currently mom (face) is selected as the search condition. A list of folders matching the search condition “Mama” is displayed on the screen.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the correspondence table between the number of contents and the feedback intensity for the search result screen shown in FIG. The feedback strength is set to 2 for a folder in which the content of the face of the person set as “Mama” is 10 or less, and when it exceeds 10, the feedback strength is set to 3.

  FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of tactile feedback processing for the screen shown in FIG. The operations in steps S701 to S704 and 707 are the same as those in steps S401 to S404 and S407 in the flow shown in FIG. 4, and the operations in steps S705 and S706 are different from those in steps S405 and S406.

  Differences will be described. In step S705, the CPU 101 detects the number of contents that match the currently set search condition for the touched folder. In step S <b> 706, the CPU 101 controls the tactile sensation generating unit 113 to feed back a tactile sensation with a strength corresponding to the detected number of contents.

  In this embodiment, the user can change the correspondence between the number of contents and the tactile strength to be fed back. FIG. 8 shows an example of a setting screen for tactile feedback intensity. The user can arbitrarily set the level set to the strength “medium”. The feedback becomes “strong” when more content than the setting of strength “medium” is detected.

  As shown in FIG. 8, it is assumed that “Fordback strength” is less than 15 contents and “medium”. At this time, the tactile sensation intensity table shown in FIG. 5 is changed as shown in FIG. 9, and the tactile sensation intensity table shown in FIG. 6 is changed as shown in FIG.

  Although the embodiment in which the tactile sensation intensity is changed according to the contents has been described, the contents may be notified to the user by a tactile frequency, a tactile pattern, or a combination thereof. The tactile sensation pattern changes the tactile intensity or frequency in the time direction. That is, the type of tactile sensation is distinguished by at least one of strength, time length, position, and frequency.

  According to the present embodiment, the number of contents in each folder can be grasped by tactile sensation without depending on visual effects.

  In some cases, the number of additional information items stored in association with individual data included in the group includes at least one type of additional information items. In this case, the type of tactile sensation may be changed according to the number of searches. For this purpose, the CPU 101 detects not only the number of contents included in the group but also where and how many contents satisfy the search condition.

  By enabling the user to set the relationship between the number of data included in the group and the type of tactile sensation by the tactile sensation changing means, it is possible to feed back the tactile sensation according to the amount of content sucked by the user or the amount of data. Thereby, a user's search efficiency improves.

  When searching for additional information stored in association with individual data included in a group, the user can set the relationship between the number of searches and the type of tactile sensation. The tactile response can be fed back. Thereby, a user's search efficiency improves.

  The above-described control of the CPU 101 may be performed by a single piece of hardware, or the entire apparatus may be controlled by a plurality of pieces of hardware sharing the processing.

  Although the present invention has been described in detail based on preferred embodiments thereof, the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments, and various forms within the scope of the present invention are also included in the present invention. . Further, the above-described embodiment is merely an example for explaining the present invention.

  In the above-described embodiments, the case where the present invention is applied to a portable information processing apparatus has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this example. The present invention is generally applicable to an apparatus having an operation apparatus that displays some grouped information as a GUI element such as an icon or a thumbnail, and designates any of them using a touch panel. Needless to say, the present invention is also applicable to a stationary information processing apparatus.

  That is, the present invention can be applied to a personal computer, a PDA, a mobile phone terminal, a portable image viewer, a printer device including a display, a digital photo frame, a music player, a game machine, an electronic book reader, and the like.

  The present invention is also realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (control program) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus receives a program code. It is a process to read and execute. In this case, the program and a computer-readable recording medium storing the program constitute the present invention.

Claims (6)

Display means for displaying a list of a plurality of elements each containing one or more contents;
A touch panel arranged over the display screen of the display means;
Tactile sensation generating means for generating a tactile sensation applied to the touch panel;
Control means for causing the tactile sensation generating means to generate a tactile sensation corresponding to the number of contents accommodated in the element corresponding to the touch in response to a touch on the touch panel with respect to any of the elements. Operating device.   The operation device according to claim 1, further comprising a search unit according to a search condition for the content to be accommodated in the element to be displayed as a list on the display unit.   The operation device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit changes one or more of the strength, time length, position, and number of times of the tactile sensation according to the number of contents. Display means for displaying a list of a plurality of elements each containing one or more contents;
A touch panel arranged over the display screen of the display means;
A method for controlling an operating device having tactile sensation generating means for generating a tactile sensation applied to the touch panel,
An operation device comprising: generating a tactile sensation corresponding to the number of contents accommodated in the element corresponding to the touch in response to a touch on the touch panel with respect to any of the elements. Control method. Display means for displaying a list of a plurality of elements each containing one or more contents;
A touch panel arranged over the display screen of the display means;
A control program for controlling an operating device having a tactile sensation generating means for generating a tactile sensation applied to the touch panel, the control means of the operating device,
An operation that realizes a function of causing the tactile sensation generating means to generate a tactile sensation according to the number of contents accommodated in the element corresponding to the touch in response to a touch on the touch panel with respect to any of the elements. Device control program.   A computer-readable recording medium storing the control program according to claim 5.

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