JP2016139165A - Interface program for icon selection - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a user interface that allows an effective icon selection by a slide operation to be executed in portable terminals.SOLUTION: An interface program for icon selection of the present invention is configured to: when detecting a contact of an object accompanied by a slide operation, determine an amount of operation in accordance with an angle to be formed with a position vector of a slide start point and a position vector of a slide ending point; move a plurality of icons arranged on a display unit according to the amount of operation on a virtual arc at a time; select one icon of the icons on the basis of a reference position on the display unit; and cause a portable terminal to serve as a control unit executing a function associated with the selected icon.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to an interface program for selecting icons arranged on a touch display in consideration of usability.

  Conventional portable terminals, particularly smartphones, typically include a touch display. The touch display includes a detection unit (touch panel) and a display unit (display), and the user can operate the screen by touching an icon through an object such as a fingertip or a stylus.

  In recent years, smartphones have become more and more multifunctional, and data displayed on a display has been diversified, and accordingly, user operations have become complicated. For example, a desired application such as a game application is started from the screen after the smartphone is started, and a desired operation is performed, or a desired setting is performed on the smartphone via a predetermined menu screen from the screen after the startup. The user operation is complicated. In the prior art, in consideration of user operability, it is common to provide a user interface for guiding a user's touch operation by, for example, fixing icons in a line on a display and displaying them in an aligned manner.

JP2013-74499A

  However, the icon display of the prior art is merely for automatically or manually arranging and displaying the icons, and it is difficult to say that sufficient operability is provided to the user. This is because the user is troublesome that the icon must be identified by touching the finger with a pin point to the icon position.

  Especially when the user needs to perform a touch operation with his / her fingertip while holding with one hand in a moving means such as a train or bus, or when the user needs to perform a continuous touch operation in a game on a smartphone It is not preferable from the viewpoint of usability to simply request an accurate user operation for the icons arranged and displayed. In particular, in a game on a smartphone, it is necessary to effectively provide the user with operability associated with various types of switching such as switching of player actions, mode switching, and screen display switching.

  An object of the present invention is to improve usability of a mobile terminal, and when a user performs icon selection using the mobile terminal, the user does not need to touch the finger with a pinpoint to a predetermined icon position, and slides It is to provide a user interface that enables effective icon selection by operation.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention is a first interface program,
An interface program for selecting an icon arranged on a display unit of a portable terminal that can be held with one hand, and detecting a user's contact with a slide operation with a detection unit,
Determining an operation amount of the slide operation detected by the detection unit;
In accordance with the operation amount, a plurality of icons arranged to be movable on the virtual arc on the display unit are simultaneously moved in a predetermined direction; between a reference position which is a fixed position on the virtual arc and each position of the icon Selecting one of the icons based on a distance; executing a function associated with the selected icon; causing the portable terminal to function as a control unit;
An interface program is obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, the second interface program is the interface program described in the first aspect,
The control unit has an angle formed by a position vector of the start point of the slide operation and a position vector of the end point of the slide operation when the origin is the center of a virtual circle that includes the virtual arc as a part. Based on this, an interface program for determining the operation amount is obtained.

According to the present invention, as the third interface program, the interface program according to the first or second aspect,
Further functioning the mobile terminal as a handed hand selection unit that accepts selection of whether the user of the mobile terminal is right-handed or left-handed;
When the right-handed is selected, the control unit sets the virtual arc to the left of the starting point of the slide operation,
When the left-handed is selected, the control unit sets the virtual arc on the right side of the starting point of the slide operation.
An interface program is obtained.

  A user interface that enables effective icon selection by a slide operation on a portable terminal by realizing a computer program, a portable terminal, and a computer-implemented method for selecting an icon according to the present invention Can be provided. In particular, according to the present invention, since icons are displayed around the user's finger, icon selection can be realized efficiently. In addition, since a plurality of icons are moved in conjunction with the movement of the finger during the slide operation, it is possible to provide a sensual operability for the user.

It is an exemplary block diagram which shows the basic composition of the portable terminal by embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic which showed the operation example which selects one of several icons by slide operation by embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic which showed the other operation example which selects one of several icons by slide operation by embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the game screen by embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a dominant hand selection screen. It is a figure which shows the moving direction of the finger | toe on a touch display.

  A computer program, a portable terminal, and a computer-implemented method for icon selection according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In the figure, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  First, a basic configuration of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing only basic components of a mobile terminal. The portable terminal 10 can be a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a game console, a notebook PC, or the like that can communicate with a server or other terminals, but is not limited thereto. As illustrated, the mobile terminal 10 includes a touch display 20, a control unit 60, and a storage unit 80 as a basic configuration. The control unit 60 is electrically coupled to the touch display 20 and the storage unit 80 through each bus.

  The touch display 20 includes a display unit (display) 30 for displaying various data stored in the storage unit 80, and a detection unit (touch panel) 40 for detecting contact of an object such as a human finger or stylus. The touch panel 30 is disposed on the upper layer of the display 20 such as a liquid crystal panel, an organic EL, a plasma display or the like because of the structure of the touch display. The touch display 10 can employ a pressure detection method, a resistance film method, a capacitance method, an electromagnetic induction method, and the like. When an input is received by touching an object such as a finger or a stylus on the touch panel 40, a change in pressure, electrical resistance, capacitance, elastic wave energy, etc. is detected at that position, and the corresponding touch on the display 20 is detected. Coordinates are specified.

  The storage unit 80 is a storage medium such as a memory or a hard disk, and reads / writes data from / to the storage medium. The storage unit 80 stores a plurality of pieces of icon information to be displayed on the display unit 30. A plurality of icons may have a hierarchical structure and may be classified and stored for each hierarchy. In this case, at least one icon corresponding to the hierarchy is displayed on the display. The icon information is an icon type indicating the type of the icon such as “folder” / “file” format, position coordinate information on the display when displayed on the display 20, and executed when an icon is selected. Various information such as related application program information is included. Folders, files, and application programs are also stored in the storage unit 80. In particular, in the storage unit 80, functions such as “folder expansion”, “file open”, “program execution”, “display switching”, and “candidate selection” are associated with icons and stored (for example, as part of icon information). The The information stored in the storage unit 80 may be configured to be stored in, for example, a server and temporarily downloaded to the mobile terminal 10 through a network, in addition to being stored in the mobile terminal 10.

  The control unit 60 is configured to include a processing device, and performs processing for determining contact coordinates on the display 30 that are touched by an object and detected by the touch panel 40. Further, an icon selection process essential to the implementation of the present invention and a function associated with the selected icon are executed (described later).

  Next, with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, an operation example of selecting one of a plurality of displayed icons through a slide operation on the touch display will be described. 2 and 3, it is assumed that the user operates the touch display with the thumb with the portable terminal fixed in the vertical direction (as shown in FIG. 6) (that is, the portable terminal is held vertically). . As shown in the figure, three icons (icons IC01 to IC03) are displayed on the display, and in the initial state (FIG. 2), the icon IC03 is located within the reference position STD. In the following description, it is assumed that the right-handed user selects the icon IC01 by arbitrarily performing a slide operation from the slide start point P1 to the slide end point P2.

  In FIG. 2, in the touch display 20 (not shown), a substantially arc-shaped menu area MA is formed on the left side of the slide start point P1, and a plurality of icons IC01 to IC03 located in the MA are displayed. It arrange | positions so that it may become a space | interval. The menu area MA is movable within the range of the virtual arc ARC. In other words, the icons IC01 to IC03 rotate clockwise or counterclockwise CCW while maintaining the interval within the range of the virtual arc ARC. It is movable. The virtual arc ARC is provided with a quadrangular region at a fixed position as the reference position STD. In the present embodiment, the setting position of the virtual arc ARC is set so as to be located on the left side of the slide start point. This prevents the menu area MA from being hidden by the user's finger or the like when a slide operation is performed.

  The size of the menu area may be changed according to the number of icons, and the virtual arc ARC may be displayed according to game characteristics.

  In FIG. 2, when the user places his / her finger on P1 on the touch display 20, first, a virtual arc ARC is set with the position as the slide start point P1, and the menu area MA, icons IC01 to IC03, and reference position STD are set. Is placed. Next, the user starts slide movement (X direction) from the slide start point P1 on the touch panel. When slide movement due to finger contact is detected on the touch panel, the operation amount of the slide operation is determined. Then, according to the determination result, the menu area MA is moved along the virtual arc ARC.

  Specifically, the above-described operation amount is obtained by using the position vector vP1 of the slide operation start point P1 and the slide operation end point P2 when the origin is the center O of the virtual circle VC partially including the virtual arc ARC. It is determined based on the angle θ constituted by the position vector vP2. In the present embodiment, when the angle formed by the position vector vP1 and the position vector vP2 is + θ, the menu area MA moves counterclockwise CCW. On the other hand, when the angle between the position vector vP1 and the position vector vP3 is −θ as in the case where the slide operation is performed from the slide operation start point P1 toward the slide end point P3 (X ′ direction), the menu area MA Moves clockwise CW.

  In the present invention, since the icons IC01 to IC03 are moved according to the operation amount of the slide operation as described above, the movement of the finger to be slid and the movement of the icon can be interlocked. Operability can be provided.

  As shown in FIG. 4, when the user slides his / her finger to the slide end point P <b> 2 in the right direction, at the end of the slide operation when the finger is released from the touch panel, the user moves to the region of the reference position STD on the virtual arc ARC. The icon IC01 is overlapped. In this case, the icon IC01 is selected and the associated function is executed.

  When a part of IC01 overlaps the area of the reference position STD at the end of the slide operation when the finger is released from the touch panel, that is, the icon IC01 is located closest to the reference position STD. The icon IC01 is also selected when it is. Thus, when the finger is released from the touch panel, one icon is selected according to the distance from the reference position STD to each icon. In this case, each position of the menu area is automatically adjusted by rotating it clockwise along the virtual arc ARC so that the icon IC01 is accommodated in the region of the reference position STD. Thereby, it can be shown to the user that the icon IC has been selected.

  By configuring the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to provide sensory operability to the user, and when the user selects an icon using the mobile terminal, the user can select a predetermined icon position. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the necessity of touching the finger with a pinpoint and efficiently perform icon selection by the user.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 6, due to the structure of the hand, it is easier to move in the CC ′ direction than to move the thumb in the DD ′ direction. In the present invention, since the operation amount is determined by the angle between the position vector of the start point of the slide operation and the position vector of the end point of the slide operation, the menu area Can be linked.

  The computer program, the portable terminal, and the computer-implemented method for icon selection according to the embodiment of the present invention can be applied to all scenes in which one icon accompanied by a slide operation on the terminal by the user is selected.

  For example, user menu selection operation and program execution in basic software of a mobile terminal or a predetermined application, game progress operation during game play on a smartphone (especially user menu selection, player mode switching, screen display switching, etc.) It can be assumed that it can be applied to operations related to message input candidate selection in a message application and folder expansion in a predetermined folder or image file opening in a photo management application. In this case or even when a complicated continuous operation is required, the terminal operation can be performed smoothly.

  As an example, FIG. 4 shows an example of a game progress operation during game play on a smartphone. The game shown in FIG. 4 is an example of an online competitive game in which a character can move in a three-dimensional game space by a user operation and confronts an enemy character encountered during the movement. The user can display the menu area, the icon, and the reference position STD by touching an arbitrary position on the touch display in a scene where the character attacks the enemy character.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example of a right-handed user interface has been described. For example, for a left-handed user, the menu area is hidden by his / her finger or hand. Therefore, a dominant hand selection function as shown in FIG. 5 may be further provided. In this case, when left-handed is selected, the processing described in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be performed symmetrically. That is, when the virtual arc ARC is set to be positioned on the right side of the slide start point P1, and the angle formed by the position vector vP1 and the position vector vP2 is + θ, the menu area MA is moved clockwise CW, When the angle formed by the position vector vP1 and the position vector vP3 is −θ as in the case where the slide operation is performed from the slide operation start point P1 toward the slide end point P3, the menu area MA moves counterclockwise CCW. You can make it.

  The computer program for selecting an icon, the portable terminal, and the computer mounting method according to the embodiment of the present invention have been described above. The above-described embodiments are merely examples for facilitating understanding of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Further, the present invention can be changed and improved without departing from the gist thereof, and needless to say, the present invention includes equivalents thereof.

10 mobile terminal 20 touch display 30 display unit / display 40 detection unit / touch panel 60 control unit 80 storage MA menu area IC01-IC03 icon STD reference position

Claims (3)

An interface program for selecting an icon arranged on a display unit of a portable terminal that can be held with one hand, and detecting a user's contact with a slide operation with a detection unit,
Determining an operation amount of the slide operation detected by the detection unit;
In accordance with the operation amount, a plurality of icons arranged to be movable on the virtual arc on the display unit are simultaneously moved in a predetermined direction; between a reference position which is a fixed position on the virtual arc and each position of the icon Selecting one of the icons based on a distance; executing a function associated with the selected icon; causing the portable terminal to function as a control unit;
Interface program. The interface program according to claim 1,
The control unit has an angle formed by a position vector of the start point of the slide operation and a position vector of the end point of the slide operation when the origin is the center of a virtual circle that includes the virtual arc as a part. An interface program for determining the operation amount based on the program. The interface program according to claim 1 or 2,
Further functioning the mobile terminal as a handed hand selection unit that accepts selection of whether the user of the mobile terminal is right-handed or left-handed;
When the right-handed is selected, the control unit sets the virtual arc to the left of the starting point of the slide operation,
When the left-handed is selected, the control unit sets the virtual arc on the right side of the starting point of the slide operation.
Interface program.