JP3003662B2 - Hypertext terminal - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hypertext terminal which is suitably used, for example, when browsing a homepage on the Internet in an ordinary household or company.
In particular, the present invention relates to a hypertext terminal that can easily specify a link destination even if the input / output device is limited, such as an Internet TV or a set-top box.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a hypertext document such as a homepage provided on the Internet includes link information for accessing related data.
By following links, it is configured so that data of interest can be reached. Conventionally, a hypertext terminal has been realized, for example, by executing browser software on a personal computer.A user can use a high-resolution display or a dedicated input / output device such as a keyboard or a mouse to execute the hypertext. Reading documents comfortably.

[0003] Specifically, personal computers are:
A hypertext document and a pointer whose display position can be changed by a pointing device such as a mouse are displayed on a high-resolution display. When the pointer enters an area corresponding to the link information on the display screen of the hypertext document, the pointer informs the user, for example, by changing its shape. When the user presses the click button in this state, the hypertext document at the link indicated by the pointer is read as a new hypertext document.

[0004] With the rapid spread of the Internet in recent years, there is an increasing demand for ordinary households to browse home pages on the Internet. However, the personal computer is
Requires expensive and dedicated installation space. Therefore, as a home hypertext terminal, a network computer (set-top box) connected to a home TV or a TV (Internet TV) having a function of connecting to the Internet is expected to spread.

[0005]

However, since the home hypertext terminal has a limited input / output device, the operability tends to decrease, and the time and effort required for designating a link destination are reduced. Is increased.

[0006] Specifically, the above-mentioned home-use television is mainly intended to view moving images at a place away from the display screen. The resolution is set wide and low. Also, from an unspecified wide area,
For example, a remote controller using infrared rays or the like is used to instruct a television to select a channel or adjust a volume.

[0007] Therefore, the home hypertext terminal is usually operated at a place away from the display screen using a remote controller in many cases. It is also conceivable to connect a keyboard, mouse, etc. to the TV and operate it from the vicinity of the TV. However, as described above, it is difficult to browse a hypertext document comfortably in terms of the display area and resolution. difficult.

Here, the remote controller is usually shared with a television remote controller.
For example, it is formed by adding a pointing device such as a trackball or a cross key to a button for television such as a button for channel selection or a button for volume adjustment. As a result, the size of the remote controller increases, and the operability decreases. In addition, the operability of keys is often significantly lower than that of a dedicated pointing device such as a mouse. Therefore, when the link is designated by guiding the pointer to a correct position, a troublesome operation is required before reaching the link.

Also, since the resolution of the television is relatively low,
Pointers displayed on the screen tend to be blurry. Furthermore, since it is operated by a remote controller,
The user can relatively freely determine the distance from the television. As a result, it is difficult to display the pointer so that the user can clearly identify it from all possible positions, and the user may operate from a position where it is difficult to distinguish the pointer.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a hypertext capable of specifying a link destination by a simple operation even when input / output devices are restricted. The realization of a terminal.

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hypertext terminal capable of displaying a hypertext document including link information for accessing related data. In the hypertext terminal, the following measures are taken. That is, extracting means for extracting the link information from the hypertext document, allocating means for assigning different specific inputs to the extracted link information, and displaying the link information and the specific inputs in association with each other. comprising a display unit, if the input matches one of the specific input and a specific input means for determining a link destination indicated by the link information is specified corresponding to the specific input, the upper
The assignment means is used to display the hypertext document.
Each time it is determined, each link information included in the display part
Are assigned different specific inputs .

[0012] In the above configuration, the assigning means prepares a specific input which can be input by a specific input means such as a remote controller and can be used when designating a link destination. Specific inputs different from each other are assigned to each piece of link information. The specific input to be assigned may be, for example, one input or a combination of a plurality of inputs.

Further, when displaying the link corresponding to each piece of link information, the display means displays the link in association with each other, for example, by adding a number indicating a specific input to the display of the link. Thereby, the correspondence between each link information and each specific input is notified to the user. When specifying the link destination, the user identifies and inputs a specific input corresponding to the link based on the display of the link. On the other hand, when the input matches one of the specific inputs, the specific input means determines that the link destination indicated by the link information corresponding to the specific input has been specified. Thereby, the hypertext terminal can access the data at the link destination.

Here, the specific input can be directly discriminated from the display, unlike the case where a pointer is operated using a pointing device. As a result, operability at the time of specifying a link destination can be improved as compared with the related art which is operated by a pointing device.

Further, the combination of the specific input and the link information is determined by the allocating means provided in the hypertext terminal. As a result, a specific input can be assigned without changing the distributed hypertext document. In addition, the hypertext terminal can determine the combination according to its own specific input means, regardless of the input / output device of another hypertext terminal.
Therefore, the number of times of input can be reduced as compared with the case where a combination of link information and input is described in the hypertext document.

By the way, the allocation means, to each link information included in the overall hypertext document, may be assigned a different specific input from each other, the number of link information included in the hypertext document is increased, the number of specific inputs May be insufficient, or the number of times of inputting a specific input may increase.

[0017] In contrast, according to the above configuration, the upper Symbol assignment means, every time the display portion of the hypertext document is determined, to each link information included in the display portion,
Assign a different specific input from each other.

[0018] Thus, to each link information which the allocation means included in the display portion, different specific input is <br/> assignment temple Runode, throughout hypertext document, the individual specific input The number of specific inputs can be reduced as compared with the case of assigning. As a result, the number of times of inputting each specific input can be reduced, and the operability can be further improved.

The number of times of inputting each specific input may be fixed, but may be determined according to the number of link information included in the entire hypertext document or the number of link information included in the display portion. If this is the case, the link destination can be specified with a minimum number of inputs, and the operability can be further improved.

Further, a hyperte according to the invention of claim 2 is provided.
In the configuration of the invention described in claim 1, the text terminal is
The display device of the hypertext terminal is a television,
The specific input means is a remote control that is also used as the television.
It is a roller. Here, in a configuration in which the display device of the hypertext terminal is a television and operated using a remote controller that also serves as the television, the resolution of the television, the size of the remote controller, and the like are limited. When a link destination is specified by operating a pointing device provided on the controller, the operability of the hypertext terminal is significantly reduced. However, if the link destination is specified by the specific input, the link destination can be easily specified even with the above configuration. In this case, for example, the same button can be used for both operation of the television such as channel selection and designation of a link destination. As a result, in the hypertext terminal having the configuration, the operability can be dramatically improved without increasing the number of buttons of the remote controller, which is particularly preferable.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present embodiment, a terminal capable of displaying an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document widely used on the Internet will be described as an example of a hypertext terminal with reference to FIGS. I do.

That is, on the Internet, the above-described HTML document and other types of documents such as image data are stored in any of the devices constituting the Internet, and the storage location of each document is usually a URL. (U
niform Resource Locator). The above devices can read a document from a desired URL by communicating with each other via the Internet.

The HTML document is a text document and includes a text indicating the contents of the document and a tag indicating information to be added to the text, such as character modification and a link to related data. In. Specifically, the tag indicating the link is "<AHREF =" link destination URL ">
When displaying the HTML document, the link is displayed by giving the display character string a predetermined modification such as underlining. Also,
When the link is specified, the hypertext terminal reads the document from the link destination URL. As described above, in the HTML document, the link to the related data is represented by the link tag in the above format.

As shown in FIG. 1, a hypertext terminal 1 according to the present embodiment includes a home television 2 on which an HTML document is displayed, and a set capable of reading a document from the Internet and connected to the television 2. Top box 3 and remote controller (specific input means) for transmitting user instructions to set top box 3 and television 2
4 is provided.

The remote controller 4 controls the television 2
The operation is commonly used for both the operation of the HTML document and the operation for browsing the HTML document. For example, in order to select a channel, numeric buttons corresponding to channels 1 to 12 are provided. In addition, it has buttons for increasing and decreasing the volume.

On the other hand, in the set-top box 3,
It has a modem for connecting to an Internet connection company through a communication line such as a telephone line, and has an HTTP (Hyper
A communication unit 31 capable of reading a document from a desired URL on the Internet by a predetermined procedure such as a TextTransfer Protocol);
Analysis unit (extraction means) that analyzes the HTML document acquired by
32, a display unit (display means) 33 that creates a signal that can be identified by the television 2 such as an NTSC signal based on the analysis result and outputs the signal to the television 2, and an infrared sensor, for example. An input unit (specific input means) 34 for receiving an instruction from the remote controller 4 is provided. When the display unit 33 displays an HTML document,
If the HTML document does not fit in the display area of the television 2, a part of the HTML document is displayed. The display portion of the HTML document is changed according to, for example, an instruction from the remote controller 4. Thereby, the display unit 33
Can display the entire HTML document.

Further, the set-top box 3 according to the present embodiment has an input allocating unit (allocating means) 35 for allocating a button input of the remote controller 4 to each link tag extracted by the analyzing unit 32 from the HTML document.
And a storage unit 36 for storing a correspondence relationship between the link tag and the button input. When displaying the link indicated by each link tag, the display unit 33 displays, for example, a number corresponding to the button input on the link tag. Each link can be displayed such that the button input assigned to the link tag can be identified by, for example, displaying it following the display character string designated by the above.
The input unit 34 can refer to the storage unit 36 and determine that the link has been designated when one of the inputs assigned to the link tag is received.

The units 31 to 35 are, for example, a CPU (Cent) provided in the set-top box 3.
ral Processing Unit) and memory (neither shown)
Are functional blocks realized by executing a predetermined program. Also, a hypertext terminal can be configured by creating browser software that performs the same operation as each of the units 31 to 35 and causing a personal computer or the like to execute the browser software.

The operation of the hypertext terminal 1 having the above configuration will be described below with reference to FIG. That is, in step 1 (hereinafter abbreviated as S1), the communication unit 31 acquires the HTML document, and in S2, when the display portion of the HTML document is determined, in S3, the analysis unit 32 , The HTML document is analyzed to extract link tags included in the display portion of the HTML document. Further, in S4, the input allocating unit 35 allocates one of the predetermined inputs to each of the extracted link tags, and stores the correspondence between the two in the storage unit 36.

For example, a case where twelve channel selection buttons of the remote controller 4 are determined as assignable inputs will be described.
Assigns a channel selection button of 1ch to the first link tag, and allocates a channel selection button of 2ch to the next link tag. Further, each time a link tag appears, a channel selection button is sequentially assigned. If there are no more inputs that can be assigned, the input assigning unit 35 does not assign any inputs to subsequent link tags.

In step S5, the display unit 32 displays the HTML document according to the analysis result of the analysis unit 32.
Here, when displaying the link tag to which the input is assigned, the display unit 32 displays the assigned input so that the user can identify it while referring to the storage unit 36. As an example of the display, the link tag to which the channel selection button of 1ch is assigned is displayed by adding ““ 1 ”” indicating the channel number to the end of the display character string specified by the link tag. As a result, when specifying the link indicated by the link tag, the user is notified that the channel selection button for channel 1 should be pressed.

After displaying the HTML document, the hypertext terminal waits for a user input (S6 and S6).
7). The user operates the HT by using the remote controller 4.
When changing the display part of the ML document is instructed (YE in S6)
In the case of S), the processing after S2 is repeated. Thus, an input is assigned to each link tag included in the new display portion of the HTML document.

On the other hand, if the input received by the input unit 34 from the remote controller 4 is one of the inputs assigned in S4 (YES in S7), the input unit 34 It is determined that the corresponding link has been designated, and the communication unit 31 is instructed to read the document from the link destination URL of the link tag (S8). afterwards,
If the read document is an HTML document, the processes after S1 are repeated.

Thus, the user can jump to the link destination by a simple operation of only pressing the button, and can browse the HTML document while following the link. As a result, the time and effort required to specify a link is significantly reduced as compared with the related art in which a pointing device is used to correctly move and specify a pointer to a link display position. Also,
Since the link destination can be specified without providing a pointing device such as a trackball on the remote controller 4, the remote controller 4 can be configured with a simple and lightweight configuration including only a few buttons including numeric buttons.

In the above description, the input assignment unit 3
Although an example has been described in which the input assigned to each link tag by 5 is one of the buttons of the remote controller 4, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the input assignment unit 35 may assign a combination of a plurality of buttons sequentially or simultaneously pressed to each link tag. Accordingly, even when the entire HTML document or the display portion of the HTML document includes more link tags than the number of buttons that can be assigned to the designation of the link destination,
The input allocating unit 35 can allocate an individual input to each link tag.

In this case, the number of buttons constituting one combination may be predetermined, but can be assigned to a link tag included in the entire HTML document or the display portion of the HTML document and a link destination designation. It may be changed based on the number of buttons. In this case, when the number of link tags is small, a link can be specified with a small number of inputs, and inputs can be reliably assigned even when the number of link tags is large.

In the above description, when the display unit 33 displays each link tag in association with the input, for example, "
The description has been made by taking as an example the case where a number is attached such as a display character string "1"". However, the display method is not limited to this. Further, when the display is difficult to see when numbers are listed, such as when the number of times of input is large, the display area of the television 2 is divided into upper and lower parts.
Depending on whether the link tag display is located in the upper area or the lower area,
The length of the displayed numbers can be reduced. For example, if the input “1” is assigned to the upper area and the input “2” is assigned to the lower area, the combination of “1” and “8” is displayed to the user by displaying “8” in the upper area. I can inform you.

Various methods can be considered for storing the correspondence between the input and the link tag. As an example, when the HTML document itself is stored, a method of rewriting and storing the link tag can be considered. . In this case, the correspondence can be displayed on the display unit 33 that operates in the same manner as in the related art, so that it is possible to reduce the labor required to create the display unit 33.

Here, as another method (comparative example) of specifying a link destination by button input, a method of extending the standard of an HTML document and describing the correspondence between a link and an input button as a link tag is described. is there. For example, when the channel selection button of 1ch corresponds, as a link tag, "<A HRE
F = "Link destination URL" KEY = "1ch"> Display string </A>"
Describe as follows. On the other hand, the hypertext terminal 1
An input button corresponding to the link is identified from the link tag of the HTML document, and when the input button is pressed, it is determined that the link is specified. Also in this method, the link can be specified by the button as in the case of the present embodiment, so that the trouble in specifying the link can be reduced.

However, in this method, the correspondence between the link and the input button needs to be described in the HTML document in advance, and the link cannot be specified by the button in the HTML document in which the correspondence is not described. Therefore, in order to specify a link by button input, H
It requires time and effort to rewrite the TML document.

Further, since the number of buttons and the like are different between the hypertext terminals 1, if the number of buttons on the hypertext terminal 1 is small, HTML is used.
You may not be able to enter the buttons described in the document. Conversely, even if the hypertext terminal 1 is provided with many buttons, if it is not described in the HTML document, the link cannot be specified using the buttons, and the operation becomes complicated. There is a risk of becoming. Specifically, for example, if the HTML document includes 20 link tags and is described so as to specify each link with two buttons of 10 types, the hypertext terminal 1
Has 20 types of buttons, and if all buttons are assigned, two inputs are required even if each link can be designated by one input. The remaining ten buttons are not used.

On the other hand, in the hypertext terminal 1 according to the present embodiment, since the hypertext terminal 1 associates the link with the input, the input can be designated by the button without rewriting the HTML document. In addition, since inputs can be assigned in accordance with the number of buttons that can be assigned for link designation, there is no excess or shortage of buttons as described above, and a link can always be designated with the minimum number of inputs.

The correspondence between the link tag and the input is
Although the determination may be made for each HTML document, it is better to change the correspondence according to the display portion of the HTML document as in the present embodiment. This makes it possible to reduce the number of times of input when designating a link, as compared with the case where the correspondence is fixed for each HTML document.

For example, if the entire HTML document includes 30 link tags, and if the correspondence is fixed, 30 types of inputs are required to specify each link. Therefore, in order to realize this input by using ten buttons, two button inputs are required even when the display portion of the HTML document includes only ten or less link tags. On the other hand, when the correspondence is changed according to the display portion, if only 10 links are displayed on the current display portion, the link can be designated by one button input, and the number of times of input can be reduced.

Here, when the resolution of the display device is relatively low, such as when using the television 2, too much information cannot be displayed in one screen. Therefore, the number of link tags included in the currently displayed portion is limited to a relatively small number, and in many cases, each link tag can be specified with a single button input. As a result, the operability of the hypertext terminal 1 can be dramatically improved.

Although the hypertext terminal 1 according to the present embodiment reads an HTML document from the Internet, it may read it from its own storage device, for example. Further, the present invention is not limited to an HTML document, and may be a hypertext document in another format. Link information for accessing related data is included in the hypertext document, and when a link is specified, if the hypertext terminal accesses the data indicated by the link information, the same as in the present embodiment. The effect is obtained.

In this embodiment, the case where the television 2 and the set-top box 3 are separated has been described as an example. However, the two are integrated to constitute a television (Internet television) that can be connected to the Internet. You can also. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where a television is not used as the display device of the hypertext terminal 1. According to the present invention, since a link can be specified using an input device capable of notifying on / off, such as a button, for example, even when hand movement is restricted or a hand cannot be used,
A hypertext terminal that can easily specify a link can be realized.

However, when a television is used, designation of a link using a pointer tends to be complicated due to restrictions on input / output devices. In addition, since many buttons are provided in advance for operating the television, these buttons can be shared as buttons for link designation. Therefore, the present invention is particularly suitable when a television is used as a display device.

[0049]

As described above, the hypertext terminal according to the first aspect of the present invention assigns different specific inputs to each of the extracted link information and the extracting means for extracting the link information from the hypertext document. An assigning means, a display means for displaying each of the link information and each of the specific inputs in association with each other, and when the input matches one of the specific inputs, a link destination indicated by the link information corresponding to the specific input is designated. Specific input means for determining that the
The assigning means includes a display portion of the hypertext document.
Each time is determined, each link information included in the display part
In this configuration, different specific inputs are assigned to the information.

According to the above configuration, a link destination can be designated by a specific input which can be directly discriminated from the display. Also, the specific input determines the display part of the hypertext document.
Each time it is assigned on the hypertext terminal side. I
Thus, individual hypertext
Enter a specific input compared to assigning a specific input.
The number of times of inputting at the time of can be reduced. As a result, it is possible to improve the operability when specifying the link destination without changing the distributed hypertext document.

As described above, in the hypertext terminal according to the second aspect of the present invention, in the configuration of the first aspect, the display device of the hypertext terminal is a television.
And the specific input means is a remote control which is also used as the television.
The configuration is a controller .

Here, the TV resolution and the remote control
Because the size of the trawler is limited, remote
Operate the pointing device provided on the controller
To specify the link destination,
Operability is significantly reduced. However, depending on the specific input
If you specify the link destination, you can easily specify the link destination.
In this case, for example, the operation of the TV such as tuning
And the same button can be used for both
You. As a result, the hypertext terminal
To increase the number of buttons on the remote control
In addition, the operability can be dramatically improved .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention, and is a block diagram illustrating a main configuration of a hypertext terminal.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation when a link destination is specified in the hypertext terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hypertext terminal 4 Remote controller (specific input means) 32 Analysis part (extraction means) 33 Display part (display means) 34 Input part (specific input means) 35 Input allocating part (allocating means)

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/00 651 G06F 3/00 652 G06F 3/02 370 H04N 5/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A hypertext terminal capable of displaying a hypertext document containing link information for accessing related data, comprising: extracting means for extracting the link information from the hypertext document; Assigning means for assigning different specific inputs to the link information; display means for displaying each of the link information and each specific input in association with each other; and when the input matches one of the specific inputs, Specific input means for determining that the link destination indicated by the corresponding link information has been designated , wherein the allocating means comprises a display portion of the hypertext document.
Each time is determined, each link information included in the display part
A hypertext terminal , wherein different specific inputs are assigned to the information . 2. The hypertext terminal according to claim 1, wherein said hypertext terminal has a display device.
And the specific input means is a remote controller that also serves as the television.
2. The hyper according to claim 1, wherein the hyper is a trawler.
-Text terminal.