JP2014153747A - Program, information equipment and method for controlling character display on basis of image complexity - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a program capable of controlling the display position and appearance of a character displayed on the screen of equipment in accordance with the image displayed on the screen and the type of the equipment.SOLUTION: A character display control program functions as: equipment information acquisition means for acquiring information of an equipment type as the type of information equipment; screen analysis means for setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying characters in a screen, and for calculating image complexity for each candidate area on the basis of an image displayed in each candidate area; and character position determination means for determining a character display position as a candidate area for displaying the character on the basis of the image complexity of the candidate area from among the set candidate areas. In this case, it is desired that the character display control program further functions as character appearance determination means for determining the appearance type of the character to be displayed at the determined character display position on the basis of the acquired equipment type information.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for providing information by displaying a character on a screen of an apparatus.

  In recent years, voice interactive interfaces operating on portable terminals such as Siri (registered trademark) of Apple Inc. and “Talking Concierge” of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. have been commercialized. In line with these trends, information is now provided that not only conducts dialogue but also displays an anthropomorphic agent character and presents the voice and actions of this character at appropriate timing according to the information. A richer expression for is pursued.

  Regarding the display of this character, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for changing the appearance of a character displayed on the screen of a mobile terminal according to parameter information related to the location of the mobile terminal. Patent Document 2 discloses a technique that can determine the character type displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal by shuffling at the time of outgoing / incoming call. Both of these Patent Documents 1 and 2 change the character when an event occurs in the terminal and provide visual information to the user.

  Furthermore, for example, Patent Document 3 discloses a technique for moving a character to, for example, a randomly selected position so that display information to be referred to by the user is not covered by the character for a long time. ing.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-87857 JP 2001-119453 A JP 2008-193515 A

  However, in the prior art as shown in Patent Documents 1 to 3, the display of characters on the screen of an information device such as a portable terminal is represented by the state of the image displayed on the screen (the complexity of the displayed image). It is very difficult to control appropriately depending on the state.

  For example, in the technique of Patent Document 1, the character's appearance is changed according to the parameter information related to the terminal location, but for example, the character's appearance is changed according to the state of the image displayed on the screen. I can't. Further, it is not assumed that the character display position is adjusted according to the state of the image displayed on the screen, for example.

  Further, in Patent Document 2, it is possible to determine the character type by shuffling at the time of outgoing / incoming calls, however, it is difficult to control according to the state of the image displayed on the screen of the information device. Furthermore, in Patent Document 3, the character is moved to a randomly selected position, but the character cannot be displayed at an appropriate position according to the state of the image displayed on the screen, for example.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a program, an information device, and a character display control method capable of controlling the display of a character on the screen of the device according to the state of the image displayed on the screen.

Here, first, terms used are defined.
(A) “Apparatus type”: a type of screen size, image resolution, etc. in the information apparatus.
(B) “Image state”: a state represented by the complexity of the displayed image (for example, depending on the content).
(C) “Application type”: Software having a specific function installed in the terminal, for example, software types such as alarm, telephone, calendar, web, photo browsing, and video playback.
(D) “Character appearance type”: for example, second life (two heads) / low quality, second life / medium quality, second life / high quality, eighth life (eight heads) / low quality, eighth life / medium quality, and This refers to the type of appearance of the displayed character, such as eighth person, high quality, etc. Here, second life or eighth life can be controlled, for example, by changing the length of each bone in the character. On the other hand, low quality, medium quality or high quality can be controlled, for example, by changing the number of polygons constituting the surface of the character.
(E) “Display type”: a type of display format related to the display position of the character, including “independent display”, “superimposed display”, or “full screen display”.
(F) “Independent display”: a format in which the character is displayed in an area different from the image area related to the application.
(G) “Superimposed display”: a format in which a character is displayed superimposed on an image related to an application.

According to the present invention, there is provided a character display control program for causing a computer mounted on an information device to display a character on a screen.
Device information acquisition means for acquiring information of the device type (screen size, image resolution, etc.) that is the type of information device;
Screen analysis means for setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying characters in the screen and calculating image complexity for each candidate area based on images displayed in each candidate area;
Provided is a character display control program for causing a computer to function as character position determining means for determining a character display position which is a candidate area for displaying a character based on the image complexity of the candidate area from among the set candidate areas. .

  Here, the character display control program preferably further causes the computer to function as a character appearance determination unit that determines the appearance type of the character displayed at the determined character display position based on the acquired device type information. .

  Furthermore, it is preferable that the character position determining means determines a candidate area having an image complexity that is minimum or less than a predetermined threshold as the character display position.

As one embodiment of the screen analysis in the character display control program of the present invention, the screen analysis means includes:
The screen is divided into a plurality of basic areas, and for each basic area, the score is a function of the number of edges and the number of faces in the image, and the smaller the number of edges, the smaller the number of faces. If a basic area is selected as a candidate area, the image complexity is calculated based on the corresponding score. If a predetermined combination of basic areas is selected as a candidate area, the corresponding score is combined to create an image complexity. It is also preferable to calculate the degree.

As one embodiment of character position determination in the character display control program of the present invention, the character position determination means includes:
Based on the type of application to be activated in the information device and the acquired device type information, (a) independent display for displaying the character in an area different from the image area related to the application, and (b) the character related to the application Select one of the display types including the superimposed display to be superimposed on the image,
When the superimposed display is selected, it is also preferable to determine a character display position, which is a candidate area for displaying characters, from the set candidate areas based on the image complexity of the candidate areas.

Further, in the above-described character position determination embodiment, the character position determination means includes:
When the type of application to be activated is an application having a function of browsing images, when the acquired device type information corresponds to an information device having a smaller screen, the character is displayed in an independent display, and a larger screen is displayed. When it corresponds to the information apparatus which has, it is also preferable to display a character by a superimposed display.

Further, as one embodiment of character appearance determination in the character display control program of the present invention,
The character can be transformed into at least one of (a) a simple or low-quality appearance type, and (b) a detailed or high-quality appearance type,
The character appearance determination means determines the character appearance to be a simple or low quality appearance type when the acquired device type information corresponds to an information device having a smaller screen, and has a larger screen. When dealing with information equipment, it is also preferable to determine the appearance of the character as (a) a detailed or high-quality appearance type.

As another embodiment of character appearance determination in the character display control program of the present invention,
The character display control program causes the computer to further function as user information acquisition means for acquiring user information related to user attributes,
The character appearance determination means preferably determines the character appearance type based on the acquired user information and the acquired device type information.

Furthermore, in the embodiment of the character appearance determination described above,
The character can be transformed into at least a simple or low quality appearance type, and a detailed or high quality appearance type,
The character appearance determination means determines at least (a) a simple or low-quality appearance type and (b) a detailed or high-quality appearance type based on the user's age as the acquired user information. It is also preferable to determine either of them.

  As another embodiment of the character appearance determination in the character display control program of the present invention, the character appearance determination means determines the character appearance type based on the determined character display position and the acquired device type. It is also preferable to do.

  Furthermore, as one embodiment of the character display control program of the present invention, the character has a head and a body, and the bone between the joints is expanded and contracted in the skeleton of the body. It is also preferable that the number of life (head and body number) can be changed.

According to the present invention, the information device further displays the character on the screen,
Device information acquisition means for acquiring information of the device type (screen size, image resolution, etc.) that is the type of information device;
Screen analysis means for setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying characters in the screen and calculating image complexity for each candidate area based on images displayed in each candidate area;
An information device is provided having character position determining means for determining a character display position, which is a candidate area for displaying a character, based on the image complexity of the candidate area from among the set candidate areas.

According to the present invention, there is further provided a character display control method in an information device for displaying a character on a screen,
A first step of acquiring information on a device type (screen size, image resolution, etc.) that is a type of information device;
A second step of setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying a character in the screen and calculating an image complexity for each candidate area based on an image displayed in each candidate area;
A character display control method comprising: a third step of determining a character display position which is a candidate area for displaying a character based on the image complexity of the candidate area from among the set candidate areas.

  According to the character display control program, information device, and method of the present invention, the display of the character on the screen of the device can be controlled according to the state of the image displayed on the screen.

It is the front view and schematic of an apparatus which show the aspect of the character displayed on the screen of the information apparatus by this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the information terminal as one Embodiment of the information equipment by this invention. It is the front view and table of a terminal screen which show one Embodiment of the setting method of the candidate area and image complexity which concern on this invention. It is a table figure which shows a character display classification table and a character appearance table. It is a flowchart which shows one Embodiment of the character display control method by this invention.

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

[Character display by information terminal 1]
FIG. 1 is a front view and schematic diagram of an apparatus showing an aspect of a character displayed on a screen of an information apparatus according to the present invention.

  According to FIGS. 1A to 1C, the information terminal 1 displays an image relating to the activated application and a character (character 20 or 21) on the screen of the display / input unit 101. , Information devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, and notebook computers. Here, the character is an agent responsible for an anthropomorphic user interface (to a woman in the present embodiment) that enables rich expression.

  As shown in FIG. 1D, the character has a common head and a body as one embodiment, and a bone (bone) between joints in the skeleton of the body. ) Can be expanded and contracted to change the number of people.

  For example, in FIG. 1D, a character 21 that is an eighth person (a character 20 that is a second life) is generated by increasing (shortening) the length of each bone in the character 20 (21). Of course, by adjusting the length of the bone, it is possible to make the number of persons other than the second and eighth bodies. Furthermore, the character 21 (20) may be improved in quality (lower quality) by increasing (decreasing) the number of polygons that form the surface of the character 20 (21). In any case, the displayed characters (characters 20 and 21) can be one-source data. Further, these characters may be still images or animated moving images.

  Furthermore, as the display types of the characters (characters 20 and 21), “independent display” is shown in FIG. 1A, “superimposed display” is shown in FIG. 1B, and “full screen display” is shown in FIG. Show. Among these, “independent display” is a display position format in which the character is displayed in a region different from the image region related to the activated application. In the embodiment of FIG. 1A, a calendar display / schedule management application is activated, and an image related to this application is displayed in the upper two-third area of the screen of the display / input unit 101. On the other hand, the character 20 is displayed in the remaining lower third region.

  “Superimposed display” is a display position format in which a character is displayed superimposed on an image related to an application. In the embodiment of FIG. 1B, an image file browsing application for displaying an image taken by the user on the screen is activated, and the character is superimposed on an image (landscape photograph in the figure) related to this application. 20 is displayed.

  At this time, the character 20 is displayed at the position of the image area where the “image complexity” indicating the degree of complexity of the image is the lowest or below a predetermined threshold in the image related to the application. Thereby, the character can be displayed without obscuring the visual information presented to the user through the image related to the application as much as possible.

  Furthermore, “full screen display” is a display position format in which a character is displayed in an area of the entire screen. In the embodiment of FIG. 1C, the character-specific fashion / coordinate application for coordinating the fashion of the character 21 is activated, and the character 21 is displayed on the screen so that the user can easily perform an operation for coordination. Displayed throughout.

In the present invention, the character display type, display position, and character appearance type can be controlled in accordance with the image displayed on the screen of the device and the type of the device. Here, the type of device is, for example,
(A) Due to differences in screen sizes such as smartphones, tablet computers (hereinafter abbreviated as tablets), personal computers (hereinafter abbreviated as PCs), and home appliance televisions (hereinafter abbreviated as TVs) (generally the screens increase in this order). ) Device type, or (b) Type depending on differences in device characteristics such as resolution of displayed image, type of installed CPU, installed memory capacity, and the like.

In order to achieve the control of the display position of the character described above, the information device (information terminal 1) of the present invention
(A) Obtain information of “device type” that is the type of information device,
(B) setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying characters on the screen, calculating “image complexity” for each candidate area based on images displayed in each candidate area;
(C) Based on the “image complexity” of the candidate area, the character display position that is the candidate area for displaying the character is determined from the set candidate areas.

Furthermore, in order to achieve the control of the appearance type of the character described above, the information device (information terminal 1)
(D) It is also preferable to determine the appearance type of the character displayed at the determined character display position based on the acquired “device type” information.

In determining the character display position (c),
(C1) One of display types including “independent display” and “superimposed display” may be selected based on the “application type” activated in the information device and the acquired “device type” information. preferable. Also,
(C2) When “superimposed display” is selected, it is also preferable to determine a character display position that is a candidate area for displaying characters based on the “image complexity” of the candidate area from among the set candidate areas. .

Furthermore, in the determination of the appearance type of the character (d),
(D1) When the acquired “device type” information corresponds to an information device having a smaller screen, the appearance of the character is determined as (a) “simple or low quality appearance type”, and a larger screen is selected. In the case of corresponding to the information device, it is preferable to determine the appearance of the character as (a) “detailed or high-quality appearance type”. further,
(D2) It is also preferable to determine the appearance type of the character based on the “user information” related to the acquired user attribute and the acquired “device type” information. Furthermore,
(D3) It is also preferable to determine the character appearance type based on the determined “character display position” and the acquired “device type” information.

[Functional configuration of information terminal 1]
FIG. 2 is a functional configuration diagram of the information terminal 1 as an embodiment of the information device according to the present invention.

  According to FIG. 2, an information terminal 1 as an information device according to the present invention includes a communication interface 100, a display / input unit 101, a user attribute storage unit 102, a device specification storage unit 103, a character storage unit 104, A speaker 105, a microphone 106, and a functional configuration unit as a processor memory are provided. Here, the function configuration unit (processor memory) realizes the function by executing a program that causes the computer mounted on the information terminal 1 to function.

  The functional configuration unit (processor / memory) includes a device / user information acquisition unit 110, a screen analysis unit 111, a character position determination unit 112, a character appearance determination unit 113, an application processing unit 114, and a character setting unit 115. And a display / output control unit 116 and a communication unit 120.

  The display / input unit 101 is, for example, a display and a keyboard (or a mouse) or a touch panel display, and displays an image and a character related to the activated application on the screen. Further, the user accepts an operation such as an instruction input to the activated application or a designation input of setting information for the character to be displayed, and the input operation information is output to the display / output control unit 116.

  The speaker 105 outputs voice (sound) information related to the activated application and the character. The microphone 106 accepts voice input by the user and outputs voice input information to the display / output control unit 116. For example, a question issued by a character reaches the user from the speaker 105 as audio output information, and an answer issued by the user is output from the microphone 106 to the display / output control unit 116 as audio input information.

  The device / user information acquisition unit 110 acquires user information related to the user attribute from the user attribute storage unit 102. Also, information on the device type that is the type of the information device (information terminal 1) is acquired. Here, the acquired user information may be set to a predetermined type, for example, the age of the user. The acquired device type information may also be set as information about the types of devices having different screen sizes, such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, and televisions.

  The user attribute storage unit 102 stores user information related to user attributes of the user who owns the information terminal 1, such as age (date of birth), sex, hobbies (for example, hobbies related to IT such as games). Remember. The information to be stored may be acquired by, for example, reporting by the user via the display / input unit 101. When a login screen is set on the information terminal 1 and the user currently using the terminal can be identified by the input user ID, the user information stored in the user attribute storage unit 102 is associated with the user ID. It is also preferable to manage them. In this case, user information corresponding to the user who is using the device can be called based on the input user ID.

  The device specification storage unit 103 stores information on the device type of the information device (information terminal 1), for example, the type of device having a different screen size (such as a smartphone, tablet, PC, or television), the screen resolution, and the CPU being used. Type, memory capacity, etc. are stored. Such device type information related to the device type (model) can be acquired using, for example, a user agent.

  The screen analysis unit 111 sets a plurality of candidate areas for displaying characters on the screen, and calculates image complexity for each candidate area based on images displayed in each candidate area. The setting of the candidate area and the image complexity will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

  The character position determination unit 112 determines a character display position, which is a candidate area for displaying a character, from the candidate areas set by the screen analysis unit 111 based on the image complexity of the candidate area. At this time, it is also preferable to determine a candidate area having an image complexity that is minimum or less than a predetermined threshold as the character display position.

  Further, the character position determination unit 112 selects one of display types including independent display and superimposed display based on the type of application to be activated in the information device and the acquired device type information, and displays the superimposed display. It is also preferable to determine a character display position, which is a candidate area for displaying a character, from the set candidate areas based on the image complexity of the candidate area. The determination of the character display position will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

The character appearance determination unit 113 determines the appearance type of the character displayed at the determined character display position based on the acquired device type information. On this occasion,
(A) based on the acquired user information and the acquired device type information, or (b) based on the determined character display position and the acquired device type information,
It is also preferable to determine the character appearance type. The determination of the appearance type of the character will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

  The application processing unit 114 activates various applications such as alarms, telephone calls, calendars, web page / photo browsing, video playback, fashion coordination, and the like, which are installed in the information terminal 1. Specifically, an image related to the application is displayed on the display / input unit 101 or the sound (sound) related to the application is output to the speaker 105 via the display / output control unit 116. Also, input information (touch operation, voice, etc.) by the user is input from the display / input unit 101 or the microphone 106 via the display / output control unit 116, and processing of application operations based on this information is executed.

  Further, the application processing unit 114 outputs the application type information to the character position determining unit 112 as a reference when selecting the display type.

  For example, the character setting unit 115 inputs character selection operation information by the user from the display / input unit 101 via the display / output control unit 116. Next, the character selected by the user is called from the character storage unit 104 in which various characters are stored, and is displayed on the screen and set as a character to be used. Further, the set character is output to the character position determination unit 112 and the character appearance determination unit 113. Here, it is preferable that the character is one-source data and can be transformed into at least a simple or low-quality appearance type and a detailed or high-quality appearance type.

  The display / output control unit 116 outputs image information related to the application to the screen analysis unit 111 and calculates the image complexity for each set candidate area. Also, character display position information and character appearance type information are input from the character position determination unit 112 and the character appearance determination unit 113, respectively, and a character based on these information is displayed on the display / input unit 101.

  The communication unit 120 uses the communication interface 100 to transmit / receive information directly processed by or related to an application via, for example, a carrier communication network and the Internet. For example, communication related to e-mail, web (Web) page, voice call, etc. is performed. Further, the information acquired by communication is output to the display / output control unit 116. Furthermore, information on a communication instruction operation by the user is input via the display / input unit 101 and the display / output control unit 116 to perform communication. Alternatively, a communication request from the application processing unit 114 is input via the display / output control unit 116 to perform communication.

[Candidate area and image complexity settings]
FIG. 3 is a front view and a table diagram of a terminal screen showing an embodiment of a method for setting candidate areas and image complexity according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of setting candidate areas and image complexity executed by the screen analysis unit 111 (FIG. 2) will be described.
(Step 1) The screen is divided into a plurality of basic areas. FIG. 4A shows an example in which the screen of the information terminal 1 is divided into four basic areas 1 to 4. The basic areas 1 to 4 are four rectangles that are equal to each other, but the number of divisions and the area ratio of the areas are not limited to this. For example, depending on the type of device (screen size) And can be arbitrarily set as appropriate.

を用いて算出される。式（１）において、ｎ_edge（ｉ）は、基本区域ｉ内に表示された画像におけるエッジの数であり、ｎ_face（ｉ）は、基本区域ｉ内に表示された画像における顔の数である。また、α（０≦α≦１）は、エッジ数及び顔の数の間の重みパラメータである。スコアscore（ｉ）は、基本区域ｉにおけるエッジ数ｎ_edge（ｉ）が大きいほど小さくなり、顔の数ｎ_face（ｉ）が大きいほど小さくなる。 (Step 2) For each set basic area, a score that is a function of “number of edges” and “number of faces” in the image displayed in the basic area is calculated. The score is, for example,

Is calculated using In equation (1), n _edge (i) is the number of edges in the image displayed in the basic area i, and n _face (i) is the number of faces in the image displayed in the basic area i. is there. Α (0 ≦ α ≦ 1) is a weight parameter between the number of edges and the number of faces. The score score (i) decreases as the number of edges n _edge (i) in the basic area i increases, and decreases as the number of faces n _face (i) increases.

  Here, the edge in the image refers to a portion where the brightness changes steeply (discontinuously) in the image. For this edge detection, for example, the Canny method (John Canny, “A Computational Approach To Edge Detection” IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Volume 8, Issue 6, page 679, 1986) can be used.

  Further, the number of faces can be calculated by, for example, narrowing down a portion that applies to this feature from the entire (photo) image using a black and white graphic that simplifies the feature of the face. For example, Henry Schneiderman and Takeo Kanade, "A Statistical Method for 3D Object Detection Applied to Faces and Cars" Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Volume 1, 1746, 2000, A technique for detection is disclosed.

(Step 3) The candidate area and the image complexity in the candidate area are set and calculated. here,
(A) When the set basic area is used as a candidate area as it is, the image complexity is calculated based on the score score (i) of the basic area i,
(B) When a predetermined combination of set basic areas is set as a candidate area, the score score (i) of these basic areas i is combined to calculate the image complexity of the candidate area.
As one embodiment, candidate areas can be set as shown in FIG.

According to FIG. 3B, eight candidate areas 1 to 8 are configured using four basic areas. Candidate areas 1 to 4 are basic areas 1 to 4, respectively, and the image complexity of candidate areas 1 to 4 is a value obtained by subtracting scores (1) to score (4) of basic areas 1 to 4 from 1, respectively. Become. For example, the image complexity of candidate area 1 is
(Image complexity) = 1-score (1)
Is calculated as

Candidate areas 5 to 8 are additions of two basic areas. The image complexity of these candidate areas 5 to 8 is a value obtained by subtracting from 1 a value proportional to the sum of the scores of the added basic areas. For example, the image complexity of the candidate area 5 is
(Image complexity) = 1−0.5 · β · (score (1) + score (2))
Is calculated as Here, β (0 <β ≦ 1) is a weighting coefficient. The image complexity calculated in this way takes a value closer to 0 as the image is simpler, and takes a value closer to 1 as the image is complex.

As described above, the image complexity of the candidate area is determined by the score score (i), that is, the number of edges n _edge (i) and the number of faces n _face (i), and the number of edges n _edge (i) is large. The higher the number n _face (i), the higher the number of faces. Here, the amount of information to be presented to the user in a certain image is generally estimated to increase as the number of edges n _edge (i) of the image increases and as the number of faces n _face (i) of the image increases. Is done. From this, it is understood that the image complexity becomes higher (closer to 1) in the candidate area where the amount of information to be presented to the user is large. Therefore, by displaying the character in the candidate area with the minimum image complexity or below the predetermined threshold, it is possible to avoid as much as possible the situation where the character covers and hides information to be presented to the user.

  In the present embodiment, since the basic area i and the score score (i) are set in advance, it is possible to appropriately generate an appropriate candidate area according to the situation.

  Note that the image complexity is not limited to that described in this embodiment. For example, the number of edges or edge number density (value obtained by normalizing) in a candidate area (basic area) can be used as the image complexity. Furthermore, the image complexity can be adopted as long as it is a parameter related to an image that takes a smaller value as the image becomes simpler and takes a larger value as the image becomes more complex (a standardized amount). It is.

[Determination of character display position and appearance]
FIG. 4 is a table showing the character display type table 112t and the character appearance table 113t.

  FIG. 4A shows a character display type table 112 t held by the character position determination unit 112. The character display type table 112t records character display types in association with each application type and device type. Here, the character display types are independent display, superimposed display, superimposed display / no display, and full screen display in the present embodiment. Of these, “superimposed display / no display” is to switch whether the character is superimposed or not by a user's designation operation.

In the character display type table 112t in FIG. 4A, for example, when the application type is an application having a function of browsing an image such as a web page or a photo,
(A) In an information device having a smaller screen (a smartphone in FIG. 4A), a character is displayed in an independent display,
(B) In an information device having a larger screen (tablet, PC, and television in FIG. 4A), the character is set to be displayed in a superimposed display. When the screen of the information device is small, the image related to the application is also small as a whole. Therefore, when the character is superimposed, the ratio of the image information portion that is obscured increases. Therefore, in this case (in the case of (a) above), the character is displayed independently and displayed without covering up the entire image related to the application. The size of the screen can of course be represented by the length (inches) of the diagonal line of the screen, but it is also possible to compare the sizes according to the number of pixels on the screen, for example.

  If the application is of a type that operates on the character itself such as fashion coordinates, the character is displayed in full screen display.

  Of course, the form in which the character display type and display position are determined based on the device type information is not limited to that shown in FIG. For example, for information equipment (such as a television) having a larger screen, it is possible to select independent display to take advantage of the fact that even if the image related to the application is somewhat reduced, the viewability is hardly affected. is there.

  Furthermore, one of the display types can be selected based on the device type information and the size of the character. For example, if the ratio of the screen size and the character size (for example, height) as the acquired device type information is less than a predetermined threshold, the superimposed display is selected as the image related to the application is not largely obscured. In other cases, an independent display or a full screen display may be selected.

  By controlling the display type and display position of the character in this way, it is possible to realize user-friendly character display corresponding to the application characteristics and the device type (screen size, image resolution, etc.).

  Next, FIG. 4B shows a character appearance table 113t held by the character appearance determination unit 113. The character appearance table 113t records character appearance types in association with each user information and each device type. Here, in this embodiment, the user information is the age (age) of the user, and is classified into either less than 30 years old or 30 years old or more. In the present embodiment, the character appearance table 113t further records a character appearance type in association with each character display type (full screen display, independent display / superimposed display) when the age is 30 years or older. .

  The character appearance types are second life / low quality, second life / medium quality, second life / high quality, eighth life / low quality, eighth life / medium quality, and eighth life / high quality in this embodiment. . Here, the second life or the eighth life can be controlled, for example, by changing the length of each bone in the character as shown in FIG. On the other hand, low quality, medium quality or high quality can be controlled, for example, by changing the number of polygons constituting the surface of the character.

  For controlling character quality, see, for example, Hugues Hoppe, "Progressive meshes" In Proceedings of the 23rd annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques (SIGGRAPH '96), ACM, New York, NY, USA, pages 99-108, The technique disclosed in 1996 can be used.

In the character appearance table 113t of FIG. 4B, for example, when the age as the user information is 30 years old or more, and the display type is full screen display,
(A) For an information device having a smaller screen (smartphone in FIG. 4B), as the character appearance type, select eight-body and low quality,
(B) In an information device having a larger screen (PC and television in FIG. 4B), the eighth appearance / high quality is selected as the character appearance type,
(C) In the information device having other intermediate sizes (tablet in FIG. 4B), the eighth appearance / medium quality is selected as the character appearance type.

On the other hand, when the age as user information is 30 years old or more, if the display type is independent display or superimposed display,
(D) In an information device having a smaller screen (smartphone and tablet in FIG. 4B), the second appearance (low quality or medium quality) is selected as the character appearance type,
(E) In an information device having a larger screen (PC and television in FIG. 4B), the eighth appearance (high quality) is selected as the character appearance type.

  By controlling the appearance type of the character in this way, a user-friendly character display corresponding to the user attribute (age, etc.), the character display type, and the type of information device (screen size, image resolution, etc.) can be displayed. It becomes feasible.

  Note that the determination methods of the character display type and the character appearance type shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B are only preferable embodiments, and these determination methods are limited to these embodiments. It is not a thing. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 4B, the character appearance type is determined by adopting the user information of less than 30 years old and 30 years old or more, and the higher the age, the more likely it is to have a detailed or high quality appearance type. However, for example, it is possible to set a simple or low-quality appearance type that is easy to see for an elderly person (65 years or older).

Furthermore, when determining the appearance of the character, based on the acquired user information, the character appearance is not limited to (a) a simple or low-quality appearance type, and (b) a detailed or high-quality appearance type. ,
(C) Appearance type (a) and appearance type (b) It is also possible to determine any one of appearance types including an appearance type having an intermediate level of detail or quality.

  Furthermore, in addition to the user's age, the appearance type of the character can be determined using a user attribute such as, for example, a hobby is a game or a favorite is a character (collection). . For example, if the hobby is a game or a favorite thing is a character, the character appearance type can be determined to be high quality. Also, the device type information for determining the character display type and the character appearance type is not necessarily limited to the information classified based on the screen size. For example, the screen resolution, CPU type, or memory capacity may be used as a reference.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a character display control method according to the present invention.

(S500) A character is set. This character has a head and a body part, and it is also preferable that the number of persons can be changed by expanding and contracting the bone between the joints in the skeleton of the body part.
(S501) "Device type information" that is information on the type of information device and "user information" related to user attributes are acquired.

(S502) The screen is divided into a plurality of basic areas.
(S503) Score score (i) is calculated for each set basic zone i.
(S504) A candidate area is set using at least one of the basic areas for which score score (i) is set.
(S505) The “image complexity” of each candidate area is calculated from the score score (i) of the basic area i constituting the candidate area.

(S506) The “display type” is selected based on the “device type” and the “application type”. This selection can be performed using, for example, the character display type table 112t (FIG. 4A).
(S507a) When full screen display is selected in step S506, the “character display position” is the entire screen.

(S507b) When superimposition display is selected in step S506, a candidate area to be a “character display position” is determined based on the “image complexity” of the candidate area. here,
(A) a candidate area with the smallest “image complexity”;
(B) a candidate area having an “image complexity” that is a minimum and not greater than a predetermined threshold (eg, 0.3);
(C) one of randomly selected candidate areas having “image complexity” of a predetermined threshold value (eg, 0.3) or less, or (d) “image complexity of a predetermined threshold value (eg, 0.3) or less. It is also preferable that one of the candidate areas having “degree” selected under a predetermined rule (for example, select the lower right side as much as possible) is determined as the “character display position”.

(S507c) Further, when independent display is selected in step S506, the “character display position” is a predetermined screen portion (for example, the lower third of the screen).
(S508) “Character appearance type” is determined based on “device type information”, “user information” and / or “character display position”. This determination can be performed using, for example, the character appearance table 113t (FIG. 4B).
(S509) The character having the determined “character appearance type” is displayed at the determined “character display position”.

  As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the display position of the character displayed on the screen of the information device is represented by the state of the image displayed on the screen (the complexity of the displayed image). It can be controlled according to the state. Furthermore, as one embodiment, it is possible to control the display position and appearance type of the character according to the image displayed on the screen and the type of the device.

  In particular, by controlling the display type and display position of the character as in the embodiment described above, it is possible to display a user-friendly character corresponding to the characteristics of the application and the type of information device (screen size, etc.) Is also feasible.

  Furthermore, by controlling the appearance type of the character as in the embodiment described above, it is user-friendly corresponding to the user attribute (age, etc.), character display type, and information device type (screen size, etc.) It is also possible to display a simple character.

  In addition, this makes the position and appearance of the displayed character appropriate or comfortable for the user. For example, the functions of various applications can be activated by exchanging conversations with the character, or desired information can be displayed. When performing input / output, it is possible to provide a user with a user-friendly or comfortable operation / use feeling.

  Various changes, modifications, and omissions of the various embodiments of the present invention described above within the scope of the technical idea and the viewpoint of the present invention can be easily made by those skilled in the art. The above description is merely an example and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto.

1 Information terminal (information equipment)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Communication interface 101 Display / input part 102 User attribute memory | storage part 103 Equipment specification memory | storage part 104 Character storage part 105 Speaker 106 Microphone 110 Equipment / user information acquisition part 111 Screen analysis part 112 Character position determination part 112t Character display classification table 113 Character appearance Determination unit 113t Character appearance table 114 Application processing unit 115 Character setting unit 116 Display / output control unit 120 Communication unit 20, 21 character

Claims (13)

A character display control program for causing a computer mounted on an information device to display a character on a screen,
Device information acquisition means for acquiring device type information which is the type of information device;
Screen analysis means for setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying the character in the screen, and calculating image complexity for each candidate area based on an image displayed in each candidate area;
A computer is caused to function as character position determining means for determining a character display position, which is a candidate area for displaying the character, based on the image complexity of the candidate area from among the set candidate areas. Character display control program. The character display control program is:
The computer further functions as character appearance determination means for determining the appearance type of the character displayed at the determined character display position based on the acquired device type information. Display control program.   The character display control program according to claim 1, wherein the character position determination unit determines a candidate area having an image complexity that is minimum or less than a predetermined threshold as the character display position. The screen analysis means includes
The screen is divided into a plurality of basic areas, and for each basic area, a score that is a function of the number of edges and the number of faces in the image, the smaller the number of edges, the smaller the number of faces. When a larger score is calculated and the basic area is set as the candidate area, the image complexity is calculated based on the corresponding score, and a predetermined combination of the basic areas is set as the candidate area 4. The character display control program according to claim 1, wherein the image complexity is calculated by combining the corresponding scores. 5. The character position determining means
Based on the type of application to be activated in the information device and the acquired device type information, an independent display for displaying the character in a region different from the image region for the application, and an image for the character for the application Select one of the display types including the superimposed display to be superimposed on
The character display position that is a candidate area for displaying the character is determined based on the image complexity of the candidate area from the set candidate areas when the superimposed display is selected. Item 5. The character display control program according to any one of Items 1 to 4.   6. The character display control program according to claim 5, wherein the character position determination unit selects one of the display types based on the acquired device type information and the size of the character. . The character can be transformed into at least a simple or low quality appearance type and a detailed or high quality appearance type,
The character appearance determining means determines the appearance of the character as the simple or low quality appearance type when the acquired device type information corresponds to an information device having a smaller screen, and displays a larger screen. The character display control program according to claim 2, wherein, when the information device is compatible, the appearance of the character is determined as the detailed or high-quality appearance type. The character display control program further causes the computer to function as user information acquisition means for acquiring user information related to user attributes,
The character display according to claim 2 or 7, wherein the character appearance determining means determines the appearance type of the character based on the acquired user information and the acquired device type information. Control program. The character can be transformed into at least a simple or low quality appearance type and a detailed or high quality appearance type,
The character appearance determining means, based on the user's age as the acquired user information, at least the simple or low quality appearance type and the detailed or high quality appearance type of the character. The character display control program according to claim 8, wherein the character display control program is determined.   The character appearance determining means determines the appearance type of the character based on the determined character display position and the acquired device type information. The character display control program described in 1.   The character has a head and a body part, and the number of persons can be changed by expanding and contracting a bone between joints in the skeleton of the body part. The character display control program according to any one of claims 1 to 10. An information device that displays a character on a screen,
Device information acquisition means for acquiring device type information which is the type of information device;
Screen analysis means for setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying the character in the screen, and calculating image complexity for each candidate area based on an image displayed in each candidate area;
Character position determining means for determining a character display position, which is a candidate area for displaying the character, based on the image complexity of the candidate area from the set candidate areas. . A character display control method in an information device for displaying a character on a screen,
A first step of acquiring information on a device type that is a type of the information device;
A second step of setting a plurality of candidate areas for displaying the character in the screen and calculating an image complexity for each candidate area based on an image displayed in each candidate area;
A character display comprising: a third step of determining a character display position, which is a candidate area for displaying the character, based on the image complexity of the candidate area from among the set candidate areas. Control method.

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