JPH0561632A - Icon display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily observe icons to be frequently selected and to improve operability by changing the display size of each icon in accordance with the selecting frequency of a menu item. CONSTITUTION:This icon display means 1o is provided with a frequency managing table for managing the selecting frequency of menu items to be displayed as icons, and at the time of displaying a selected menu candidate as an icon, the icon of each menu item is displayed based upon the determined size of the icon of the menu item while referring the selecting frequency of the table. For instance, icons can be expansively or contractively displayed in accordance with the selecting frequency such as a high frequency icon 51, a medium frequency icon 52 and a low frequency icon 53. Since a mouse cursor can easily be touched with the high selecting frequency icon, the operability can be improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an icon.
The present invention relates to an icon display device for displaying.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A user interface (user interface)
e) is the human interface
It is also called a general function to make the program body easier to use for human users. Since the visual display is easier for the user to understand than the text character, various graphic functions have been used for the user interface. As one of them, by pointing a visual symbol called an icon with a pointing device, the operation target is instructed, and then the operation content is instructed by a keyboard or a menu on the screen. An icon is a visualization of an object to be operated with a picture or a symbol, and the user selects the icon instead of the character string. The icon is designed so that the user can associate the work content at a glance. As a friendly user interface program, there are many menu-type programs that allow the user to select from the menus presented by the program. The menu program includes a plurality of cases, and has a menu of commands for each scene. The user advances the work while moving the scene.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a menu screen using the above icon. When a menu screen display is instructed as shown in this figure, a plurality of icons 11 representing the contents of each item by a picture or the like and an item title 12 are displayed on the display screen 10 in the same manner.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional icon display device, since the size of the icons displayed on the display screen is the same and all items are treated flat, There is a difference in that there is no difference between those that are frequently selected and those that are rarely selected, and the icon that is frequently selected is inconspicuous. Then, it is obvious that the usability for the user is improved by changing the state of the displayed icon according to the possibility of selection. An object of the present invention is to improve the operability by changing the state of the displayed icon according to the possibility of selection.

[0004]

The means of the present invention are as follows. The selection frequency management storage unit 1 (see the functional block diagram of FIG. 1, the same applies hereinafter) manages the selection frequency of each menu item for each menu item displayed as an icon.
It is configured to include a RAM that stores the number of times a menu item is selected in the form of a frequency management table, an external storage device, and the like. The icon size determination means 2 is the selection frequency management means 1
The size of the icon of each menu item is determined by referring to the selection frequency of, and is executed by the CPU, for example.
In this case, icons of menu items that are frequently selected may have a larger size. The display means 3 displays the icon of each menu item at a predetermined position on the display screen in the size determined by the icon size determination means 2, and is, for example, a CRT, LCD, plasma display or the like.

[0005]

The operation of the means of the present invention is as follows. When a menu of selection candidates is displayed as an icon, the icon size determination unit 2 refers to the selection frequency of the selection frequency management unit 1 to determine the size of the icon of each menu item, and the size of the icon according to the determined size is determined. The icon of each menu item is displayed on the display means 3. Therefore, it is possible to display an icon corresponding to the selection frequency, which is easy to see and easy to instruct, and the operation is improved.

[0006]

EXAMPLES Examples will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5 are views showing an embodiment of the icon display device. First, the configuration will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the icon display device 10. In this figure, 21 is a CP that controls the entire apparatus and performs menu processing described later.
U, the CPU 21 controls various operations of the icon display device in accordance with a micro program stored in a ROM 22 described later. The CPU 21 has a ROM for storing fixed data such as a predetermined program and character patterns.
22, a RAM 23 for temporarily storing data used for calculation and calculation results, and a video RAM (V-RAM) 2 for storing image data displayed on a CRT 25 (described later).
4. CRT control unit 26 that controls CRT 25 that displays input image data on screen, keyboard control unit 28 that controls keyboard 27, mouse control unit 30 that controls mouse 29, menu data, menu start information, and individual menus Fixed disk 3 for storing selection frequency information, etc.
1. An external storage control unit 32 that controls writing / reading of data to / from the fixed disk 31 and a printer control unit 34 that controls a printer 33 that prints out a document are respectively connected.

The ROM 22 is an OS for starting up the system.
(Oprating System) IPL program, CRT
25, keyboard 27, mouse 29, fixed disk 31
IOCS (Input Output Co
This is a fixed memory that stores programs and character font data. Further, the storage area of the RAM 23 is divided and used for each predetermined application (for example, program area, table area, menu data area, work area, character data area). Keyboard 27
Is an operation panel provided with keys for inputting alphanumeric characters, hiragana, etc., and function keys such as a cursor movement key, an execution key, and a stop key. The mouse 29 is a pointing device for pointing an icon or the like displayed on the screen. When any key on the keyboard 27 is operated, the keyboard control unit 28 converts the key code into a predetermined key code corresponding to the key and outputs the key code to the CPU 21.
The printer 33 is for printing out the menu data and the document stored in the RAM 23 according to the format information preset by the creator.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a frequency management table 41 for managing the selection frequency of menu items stored in the menu data area of the hard disk 31. In the figure, in the frequency management table 31, the menu titles “menu 1”, “menu 2”, “menu 3”, ..., The menu information corresponding to the menu title, and the frequency of selecting a menu item (for example, the menu 1 is frequency “3”, the frequency “50” is stored in the menu 2, and the frequency “2” is stored in the menu 3. Here, the menu information stores the name of the icon file and the like, and the icon file stores the image of the icon to be displayed.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a program for menu processing,
This flow is executed by operating a predetermined start key. In the figure, reference numeral Sn (n = 1, 2, ...) Shows each step of the flow.

First, in step S1, menu information is read from the fixed disk 31, and in step S2, the icon size displayed on the menu is determined with reference to the frequency management table 41 shown in FIG. 3 (step S3). Here, the display size of the icon is determined according to the frequency of selecting the menu item. For example, the frequency management table 41 of FIG.
When the frequency stored in is 0 to 10, the "standard" size,
When it is 11 to 50, it is “medium” size, and when it is 51 to “large” size, and “standard” size is 64 × 64, for example.
Dot icon size, "Medium" size is 96x96 dot icon size, "Large" size is 128x128
Use the dot icon size.

Next, the icon whose size has been determined in step S4 is displayed on the menu screen, and the icon displayed in step S5 is selected with the mouse 29 or the like to wait until the menu item is selected. In step S6, it is determined whether or not the end of the menu display is selected, and if it is completed, the process is ended as it is, and if it is not completed, the menu item is selected. The execution frequency is updated by adding "1" to the number of times of execution, the processing of the menu item selected in step S8 is executed, and if the selected menu item has a lower menu with a tree structure, move to the lower menu. Then, the process returns to step S1 and the above-described processing is repeated. here,
The frequency of execution shall be managed for each menu hierarchy,
The display size of the icon can be similarly changed in each menu layer.

In this way, the menu is displayed according to the menu information read from the external storage device (fixed disk 31). FIG. 6 shows the menu screen display in the initial state. When the user selects the menu, the execution count is incremented by "1" for the selected menu item in the menu information, and the process is executed.

When the selected process ends or the process returns to the lower menu and returns to the above menu, the size of the icon is determined by the execution frequency of each menu item, and the menu is re-displayed. indicate.

By repeating the above, as shown in FIG. 5, the menu icon 51 that is frequently executed is displayed large, the icon 52 of medium frequency is displayed in medium size, and the icon 53 of low frequency is displayed small.

Therefore, the size of the icon is determined by the execution history, and when the same process is repeatedly executed, the menu item is displayed in a large size.
Conspicuous and easy to select menu items with the mouse and keys, greatly improves usability.

By the way, in the present embodiment, the size of the icon is determined and displayed at the timing of redisplay, but in a multi-window environment, the selected process is often executed by opening a window. There may be no timing to redisplay. In this case, the menu may be displayed again immediately after the selection, which has an advantage that the number of executions is sequentially reflected.

Further, in this embodiment, since the icon size of each menu item is changed according to the selection frequency, it is conceivable that the icon size of all menu items will gradually increase as the process is repeated. When such a mode is not preferable, for example, reduce the frequency of selection of other menu items that have not been selected, or
Instead of simply counting up the number of executions of the corresponding menu item, the selection frequencies of the entire menu may be averaged and the number of executions may be counted up in the averaged state.

As described above, the icon display device 10 of the present embodiment is provided with the frequency management table 41 for managing the selection frequency of the menu items displayed as icons, and when displaying the selection candidate menus as icons, Since the icon size of each menu item is determined by referring to the selection frequency of the selection frequency management table 41 and the icon of each menu item is displayed in the determined size, the icon is enlarged or reduced depending on the selection frequency. The menu icons that have been displayed in the same size in the past are displayed in accordance with the possibility of being selected, and the cursor of the mouse 29 hits the icon that is frequently selected. As it is easier, the operability is improved. Further, the size of the icon is automatically changed without any special designation, so that the user's hand is not bothered.

In this embodiment, the icon sizes of three levels of "standard", "medium", and "large" can be displayed according to the selection frequency, but the present invention is not limited to this and, for example, more icons can be displayed. The size of the step may be set, or the size may be changed in dot units without providing such a step. Further, it goes without saying that the menu item whose selection frequency is extremely low may be reduced and displayed.

[0020]

According to the present invention, since the size of the icon display is changed according to the selection frequency of the menu item, it is possible to make the icon that is frequently selected easy to see and improve the operability. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of an icon display device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of a frequency management table of an icon display device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a menu process of the icon display device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a menu display screen of the icon display device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a menu display screen of a conventional icon display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 display screen 12 item title 20 icon display device 21 CPU 22 ROM 23 RAM 24 V-RAM 25 CRT 26 CRT control unit 27 keyboard 28 keyboard control unit 29 mouse 30 mouse control unit 31 fixed disk 32 external storage control unit 33 printer 34 printer Control unit 41 Frequency management table 51 Frequent icon 52 Frequent medium icon 53 Frequent icon

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A selection frequency managing means for managing a selection frequency of a menu item displayed as an icon, and an icon size determining means for determining an icon size of each menu item with reference to a selection frequency of the selection frequency managing means. An icon display device for displaying an icon of each menu item in a size determined by the icon size determining means.