JP2016004469A - Information device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reliably display important information for a user in a case of displaying a plurality of items of popup information in response to display request from a plurality of applications.SOLUTION: A control unit 10 controls screen display of a display device 12. At normal time, the display device 12 displays a map screen by a navigation ECU 16, and opens a window on the map screen that is being displayed to carry out popup display for displaying, for example, operation information or alarm information if an application outputs a display request to display the operation information, the alarm information or the like. If display requests to display a plurality of items of popup information are output from a plurality of applications, a priority determination unit 10a determines priorities of the respective popup information and a display control unit 10b controls the display device 12 to display the respective popup information in accordance with the priorities.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information device including a display device and a controller that controls display on the display device.

  An information device such as an in-vehicle display unit is configured to display a map screen by navigation, various messages, and the like on a screen of a display device provided in an instrument panel portion. For example, in Patent Documents 1 and 2, a warning message for a dangerous act such as a sudden start or a sudden stop during traveling may be displayed on the screen of the display device of the navigation device that the destination facility is not open at the arrival date and time. It is disclosed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-325922 JP 2011-195675 A

  Incidentally, in recent years, in-vehicle display units have been provided with a hybrid OS structure (system) capable of operating two OSes, for example, Linux (registered trademark) and Android (registered trademark). In this system, in addition to a built-in application such as a navigation application installed in advance, a plurality of applications such as various external applications acquired from an external device can be coexisted and executed. At this time, when a display request for operation information, alarm information, or the like is received from an external application, for example, the display control controller opens a window on the currently displayed map screen to display the information. Perform pop-up display.

  However, in this system, since each application outputs a display request independently, it may be possible to output a display request so that a plurality of applications overlap at the same time. Therefore, if the controller receives another display request during the pop-up display, the controller switches the pop-up display to the next one, and there is a possibility that important (necessary) information important for the user cannot be displayed sufficiently. there were.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to display pop-up information in response to display requests from a plurality of applications, and to provide an information device capable of reliably displaying information important to the user. In offer.

  The information device of the present invention includes a display device (12) and a controller (10) that controls display of the display device (12), and can execute a plurality of applications by a hybrid OS structure. The controller (10) has an operating environment, and the controller (10) displays the popup information on the screen of the display device (12) based on receiving the popup information display request output from each application. A priority determination unit (10a) for determining a priority of the popup information when a request for displaying a plurality of popup information is output from each application; and the priority determination unit ( The pop-up information for the display device (12) according to the priority determined in 10a) Where a display control unit for controlling the shown (10b) having features (the invention of claim 1).

  According to this, by providing an operating environment in which a plurality of applications can be executed by the hybrid OS structure, the controller (10) can display the pop-up information output from each application on the basis of the display device. The pop-up information is displayed on the screen of (12). At this time, when a plurality of pop-up information display requests are output at the same time, the priority of the pop-up information is determined by the priority determination means (10a). And according to the priority, the display control means (10b) controls the display of the pop-up information on the display device ().

  Therefore, even if there is a situation in which a display request is output so that multiple applications overlap at the same time, display control according to priority is performed, so pop-up information with high priority is not displayed (after display) Switching to another pop-up display with a low priority immediately) is prevented. As a result, in the case where pop-up information is displayed in response to display requests from a plurality of applications, it is possible to obtain an excellent effect that information important to the user can be reliably displayed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The 1st Example of this invention is shown, and the figure which shows schematically the electrical structure of vehicle information equipment Diagram showing the software configuration of the control unit The figure which shows the example of a display of the screen of a display apparatus The flowchart which shows the process sequence of the screen display control which a control part performs FIG. 4 equivalent view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

(1) First Example Hereinafter, a first example in which the present invention is applied to an in-vehicle information device (display unit) will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 schematically shows an electrical configuration of an in-vehicle information device 1 and a system configuration including the in-vehicle information device 1 according to the present embodiment. The in-vehicle information device 1 according to the present embodiment is configured to be able to connect to a mobile terminal 2 such as a smartphone possessed by a user (car driver) by Bluetooth (registered trademark) wireless communication. These linked operations are possible.

  The portable terminal 2 is communicably connected to a plurality of servers 4, 5, and 6 (only three are shown here for convenience) via the Internet 3, for example. Among them, the server 4 provides the smartphone 2 (in-vehicle information device 1) with information and search services related to, for example, POI (Point Of interest). The server 5 delivers, for example, an external application to the smartphone 2 (in-vehicle information device 1). The server 6 provides, for example, a service corresponding to a specific application to the smartphone 2 (in-vehicle information device 1). The configuration of the server shown in FIG. 1 is an example, and the number, the type of service to be provided, and the like are not limited to this.

  The in-vehicle information device 1 includes a control unit 10, a storage unit 11, a display device 12, an operation unit 13, a communication unit 14, an external interface 15, and the like. The in-vehicle information device 1 includes a navigation ECU 16 (Electronic Control Unit) for providing a navigation function and an audio ECU 17 for providing an audio function. A speaker 18 and a microphone 19 are connected to the audio ECU 17. This in-vehicle information device 1 functions as a so-called navigation device. The in-vehicle information device 1 may have a configuration in which the navigation function and the audio function are realized by the control unit 10, or may have a configuration without the navigation function and the audio function.

  Although not shown in detail, the control unit 10 is mainly configured by a computer having a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like. The control unit 10 has a function as a controller that controls the display of the display device 12. As will be described in detail later, this control unit 10 is provided with a priority determination unit 10a as a priority determination unit and a display control unit 10b as a display control unit mainly by its software configuration.

  At this time, in this embodiment, the control unit 10 (vehicle-mounted information device 1) has an operating environment in which a plurality of applications can be executed by the hybrid OS structure. In other words, a Linux (registered trademark) as an OS capable of executing a built-in (Native) application, which has a structure in which two OSs can operate in parallel (coordinated) on one CPU. ), And an operating environment of Android (registered trademark) as an OS capable of executing an external application downloaded from the external server 5 or the like via the communication unit 14, for example.

  FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a software configuration included in the control unit 10. Here, the hardware is managed by, for example, a Linux OS (kernel), and middleware (built-in application operating environment) including, for example, a Linux driver for executing (controlling) a built-in application is provided on this OS, and Android Drivers (external application operating environment) are provided. In addition, a graphic driver used in common is provided. Android executes (controls) the external application downloaded via the client.

  Examples of the built-in application include an application for displaying on the display device 12, an application for receiving an operation from the operation unit 13, an application for communicating with the navigation ECU 16 and the audio ECU 17, an application for outputting sound to the speaker 18, The voice input from the microphone 19 includes an application for performing voice recognition, for example. In addition, for example, applications for monitoring the remaining amount of fuel, managing the ETC on-board device, and various monitoring / warning relating to vehicle travel are included. In FIG. 2, the built-in applications are denoted by A1 and A2, and the external applications are denoted by B1 and B2. The numbers and types of built-in applications and external applications are not limited to those illustrated in FIG.

  The control unit 10 functions as a controller for controlling the screen display of the display device 12. For example, in normal times, the control unit 10 displays a map screen (current position of the vehicle and its surrounding map, and further for route guidance) by the navigation ECU 16. (Refer to FIG. 3A). At this time, when the respective applications are simultaneously executed in parallel and there is a display request for, for example, operation information or alarm information from the applications to the control unit 10, the control unit 10 displays the information shown in FIG. ) And (c), pop-up displays P1 and P2 are displayed on the map screen being displayed on the display device 12 to open windows and display the information.

  Here, since each application outputs a display request independently, it is conceivable that a display request is output so that a plurality of applications overlap at the same time. Therefore, in the present embodiment, as described in the following description of operation (flowchart description), when a plurality of popup information display requests are output from each application, the priority determination unit 10a determines the priority of the popup information. Determine. In this case, the priority is represented by, for example, a numerical value in a plurality of stages, and the higher the numerical value, the higher the priority. Then, according to the priority determined by the priority determination unit 10a, the display control unit 10b controls the display of the pop-up information on the display device 12.

  Specifically, the priority determination unit 10a sets the priority of the pop-up information requested for display from the built-in application to be higher than the priority of the pop-up information requested for display from the external application. In addition, regarding the priority among a plurality of pop-up information requested to be displayed from the built-in application, the higher the urgency information (importance for the user) evaluated from the safety aspect of driving the vehicle, the higher the priority. . Similarly, with regard to the priority between a plurality of pop-up information requested to be displayed from an external application, the higher the urgency (importance for the user), the higher the priority.

  At this time, in the present embodiment, the display control unit 10b displays the pop-up information with a higher priority while displaying the pop-up information with a lower priority while the display device 12 is displaying the pop-up information with a lower priority. The display of the device 12 is switched to the display of the high-priority pop-up information, and after the display of the high-priority pop-up information is completed, the low-priority pop-up information is displayed again.

  In this embodiment, the display control unit 10b, when displaying the pop-up information with high priority on the display device 12, if there is a request for displaying pop-up information with a lower priority, displays the high-priority information. After the pop-up information is displayed, the low-priority pop-up information is displayed.

  Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. The flowchart of FIG. 4 is a processing procedure related to display control of pop-up information of the control device 12 that is executed by the control unit 10 (priority determination unit 10a and display control unit 10b) when a pop-up information display request is issued from an application. Is shown. Here, the priority of the popup information requested to be displayed is b, and the priority of the currently displayed popup information is a.

  When there is a request for displaying pop-up information from the application, first, in step S1, it is determined whether another pop-up information is being displayed on the screen of the display device 12. If another pop-up information is not being displayed (No in step S1), the process proceeds to step S7. In step S7, a display timer relating to the pop-up display is started, and in step S8, pop-up display is started. With this, the pop-up display response state is entered and the illustration is omitted. Thereafter, except when the display switching process is performed, the pop-up display is continued until the display timer is completed, and the display timer is completed (time up). ) Ends the pop-up display.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of pop-up displays P 1 and P 2 on the screen of the display device 12. In FIG. 3A, a map screen is displayed on the display device 12. In FIG. 3B, on the displayed map screen, a window is opened to display “downloading” information (notification that data etc. are being downloaded from external servers 4, 5, 6). A state where the pop-up display P1 is performed is shown. Further, in FIG. 3C, a pop-up display P2 is displayed on the map screen to open a window and display information of “card error” (warning that a card is not set in the ETC on-vehicle device). It shows a state. Note that the “card error” popup information has a higher priority than the “downloading” popup information.

  On the other hand, if another pop-up information is being displayed in step S1 (Yes in step S1), it is determined in step S2 whether the display timer for the currently displayed pop-up information has been completed. Is done. When the display timer is completed (Yes in step S2), the process proceeds to step S6. In step S6, a display switching process is performed to switch the currently displayed pop-up display to the newly requested pop-up display, and the process proceeds to step S7. On the other hand, when the display timer is not completed (No in step S2), in the next step S3, the priority a of the currently displayed popup information and the priority of the popup information requested to be displayed The degree b is acquired.

  In step S4, the priority a of the currently displayed pop-up information is compared with the priority b of the pop-up information requested to be displayed. In the next step S5, it is determined whether or not the priority b of the pop-up information requested to be displayed is higher (the priority is higher) than the priority a of the currently displayed pop-up information. When the priority b of the popup information requested to be displayed is higher than the priority a of the currently displayed popup information (Yes in step S5), the process proceeds to step S6, and the currently displayed popup display is updated. The display switching process is performed to switch to the pop-up display requested.

  If the priority b of the pop-up information requested to be displayed is not higher than the priority a of the currently displayed pop-up information (No in step S5), the process proceeds to step S9, and a timer for waiting for a redisplay request is displayed. Be started. As a result, the screen waits for a redisplay request and is not shown. However, when the redisplay request wait timer is completed (time up), a redisplay request for the pop-up information is made, and the process returns to step S1.

  Although not shown in FIG. 4, although it was being displayed until just before, the pop-up information with low priority (interrupted) switched to display of pop-up information with high priority by the processing of step S5 and step S6. Display pop-up display), the display timer can be paused, and after the display of the high-priority pop-up information has been completed, the remaining time can be displayed again. Alternatively, the suspended pop-up display may be configured to wait for a redisplay request in the same manner as in step S9.

  In the example of FIG. 3, the map screen is displayed on the display device 12 at the normal time by the display control of the control unit 10 as described above, as shown in FIG. In this state, if there is a request to display pop-up information independently from one application, a “downloading” pop-up display P1 as shown in FIG. 3B or a “card” as shown in FIG. A pop-up display P2 of “error” is made. The pop-up displays P1 and P2 are continuously displayed for a predetermined time based on the display timer, and then ended (return to the map screen).

  On the other hand, for example, as shown in FIG. 3B, when a “downloading” pop-up display P1 is made on the display device 12, there is a request for a “card error” pop-up display P2. Since the priority b of the pop-up information requested to be displayed is higher (higher) than the priority a of the currently displayed pop-up information, as shown in FIG. The display is switched to the pop-up display P2 of “Card error”. After the “card error” pop-up display P2, the “downloading” pop-up display P1 is displayed again.

  Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 3C, when the pop-up display P2 of “card error” is made on the display device 12, when the pop-up display P1 of “downloading” is requested, Since the priority b of the popup information requested to be displayed is smaller (lower) than the priority a of the currently displayed popup information, the screen of the display device 12 remains as the popup display P2 shown in FIG. Become. After the “card error” pop-up display P2 is completed, the pop-up display P1 of “downloading” is switched based on the re-display request. Although detailed description is omitted, even when there are three or more display requests at the same time, the display can be controlled in the same manner according to their priorities.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the control unit 10 is provided with an operating environment in which a plurality of applications can be executed by the hybrid OS structure, so that the control unit 10 receives a display request for pop-up information output from each application. Thus, the pop-up information can be displayed on the screen of the display device 12. At this time, even when a plurality of pop-up information display requests are output at the same time, the priority determination unit 10a determines the priority of the pop-up information, and the display control unit 10b displays the display device according to the priority. 12 can control the display of pop-up information.

  Therefore, even if there is a situation in which a display request is output so that multiple applications overlap at the same time, display control according to priority is performed, so pop-up information with high priority is not displayed (after display) Switching to another pop-up display with a low priority immediately) is prevented. As a result, according to the present embodiment, in displaying pop-up information in response to display requests from a plurality of applications, it is possible to obtain an excellent effect that information important to the user can be reliably displayed.

  In particular, in this embodiment, the priority of the pop-up information requested for display from the built-in application originally installed in the device is configured to be higher than the priority of the pop-up information requested for display from the external application. The priority of pop-up information that is expected to be more important to the user can be increased.

  Further, in the present embodiment, when there is a request for displaying pop-up information with a higher priority while displaying pop-up information with a lower priority on the display device 12, the display on the display device 12 is displayed with a higher priority. After the display of the high-priority pop-up information is completed, the low-priority pop-up information is displayed again. Can be redisplayed.

  When a display request for pop-up information with a lower priority is made during the display of pop-up information with a high priority on the display device 12, the display of the high-priority pop-up information is completed. Since the priority pop-up information is displayed, the low-priority pop-up information can also be displayed.

(2) Second Embodiment and Other Embodiments FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, and the differences from the first embodiment (FIG. 4) will be described below. In the second embodiment, as in the first embodiment, the display control unit 10b displays pop-up information having a lower priority while displaying pop-up information having a higher priority on the display device 12. When there is a display request, the low-priority pop-up information is displayed after the display of the high-priority pop-up information is completed. At this time, in the present embodiment, if the display of the pop-up information with a higher priority is not completed even after a certain time has elapsed after the request for displaying the pop-up information with a lower priority is received, The priority pop-up information display is canceled.

  That is, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, when the priority b of the popup information requested to be displayed is not higher than the priority a of the currently displayed popup information (No in step S5). ), Go to step S11. In step S11, it is determined whether or not the count value indicating the number of redisplay requests exceeds the upper limit value. If the count value of the redisplay request does not exceed the upper limit value (No in step S11), the process proceeds to step S12. In this step S12, the count value of the redisplay request is incremented by 1, and in the next step S9, a timer for waiting for a redisplay request is started, and a wait for a redisplay request is entered.

  If the redisplay request is repeated and the count value of the redisplay request exceeds the upper limit value (Yes in step S11), the pop-up information is in a state of waiting for the redisplay request. Is canceled (no re-display request is made). Referring to the example of FIG. 3, as shown in FIG. 3C, when the high priority “card error” pop-up display P <b> 2 is made on the display device 12, the low priority “downloading” is displayed. When there is a request for the pop-up display P1, the screen of the display device 12 remains the pop-up display P2 shown in FIG.

  After that, a request for redisplaying the low-priority “downloading” pop-up display P1 is made, but a certain amount of time is required for the “card error” pop-up display P2 (and other high-priority pop-up information display). Therefore, when the redisplay request is repeated several times and the count value of the redisplay request exceeds the upper limit value, the low-priority “downloading” pop-up display P1 is not performed. When the count value of the redisplay request is within the upper limit value, the pop-up display P1 of “downloading” is made based on the display redisplay request after the display of the high priority pop-up information.

  Also according to the second embodiment, similar to the first embodiment, the pop-up information is displayed in response to display requests from a plurality of applications, so that it is possible to reliably display information important to the user. An excellent effect can be obtained. Then, when there is a request to display pop-up information with a priority lower than that while displaying pop-up information with a high priority on the display device 12, a certain period of time after a request to display pop-up information with a lower priority is received. After the elapse, low-priority pop-up information is not displayed, so that pop-up information with a reduced freshness is not displayed dare to be reasonable.

  In the above embodiments, the priority of each pop-up information is determined (determined) by the control unit 10 depending on the degree of urgency for the user or whether the built-in application is an external application. You may make it provide the setting operation means for a user to set a degree. According to this, it becomes possible to give the priority which considered a user's liking, and can improve the convenience. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, the present invention can be applied not only to an on-vehicle device but also to all information devices including a display device. Various modifications can be made to the software configuration, etc., and the present invention can be implemented with appropriate modifications without departing from the spirit of the invention.

  In the drawings, 1 is an in-vehicle information device (information device), 10 is a control unit (controller), 10a is a priority determination unit (priority determination unit), 10b is a display control unit (display control unit), and 12 is a display device. Indicates.

Claims (6)

An information device (including a display device (12)) and a controller (10) for controlling the display of the display device (12) and having an operating environment capable of executing a plurality of applications by a hybrid OS structure ( 1)
The controller (10) is configured to display the pop-up information on the screen of the display device (12) based on receiving a pop-up information display request output from each application,
Priority determination means (10a) for determining the priority of popup information when a plurality of popup information display requests are output from the respective applications;
An information device comprising: display control means (10b) for controlling display of the pop-up information on the display device (12) according to the priority determined by the priority determination means. The plurality of applications include a built-in application preinstalled in the device (1) and an external application acquired from the outside,
The priority determination means (10a) sets the priority of pop-up information requested for display from the built-in application to be higher than the priority of pop-up information requested for display from the external application. Item 1. The information device according to item 1.   When the display control means (10b) is requested to display pop-up information with a higher priority while displaying pop-up information with a lower priority on the display device (12), the display control means (10b) 12. The display of (12) is switched to display of high-priority pop-up information, and after the display of the high-priority pop-up information is completed, the low-priority pop-up information is displayed again. Information equipment described.   When the display control means (10b) is requested to display pop-up information having a lower priority during the display of the pop-up information having a higher priority on the display device (12), the display control means (10b) 4. The information device according to claim 1, wherein the low-priority pop-up information is displayed after the display of the pop-up information is completed. 5.   If the display control means (10b) does not complete the display of the pop-up information having a higher priority than the display control means (10b) after the request for displaying the pop-up information having a low priority has elapsed, 5. The information device according to claim 4, wherein display of low priority pop-up information is stopped.   The information device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising setting operation means for a user to set priority of pop-up information output from each application.

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