WO2010143500A1 - Document browsing device, document display method, and document display program - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided are a document browsing device, a document display method, and a document display program whereby a user can easily understand which parts attention should be paid to and how a screen has moved. Scroll position management data is prepared in a memory (SV2); said scroll position management data manages a display scope and attention region for each scroll stop position in content to be displayed. Then, for each scroll stop position, the attention region is displayed so as to be distinguishable from other regions, on the basis of the scroll position management data (SV16). For example, if a scroll instruction is received from a user (SV10), the document is scrolled to the display scope for the next scroll stop position, while keeping the attention region for the current scroll stop position distinguishable from other regions (SV32–SV36).

Description

Document browsing apparatus, document display method, and document display program

The present invention relates to a document browsing apparatus, a document display method, and a document display program, and more particularly to a document browsing apparatus, a document display method, and a document display program that allow a user to browse a document by moving a screen (scrolling).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-219507 (Patent Document 1) has an attention part movement instruction operator for moving an attention part in a character string, and display control means for displaying the attention part in a manner different from other parts. A string display system has been proposed. Specifically, it is disclosed that the character color, the character background color, or the font style is changed immediately before the attention portion, the attention portion, and immediately after the attention portion.

JP-A-7-219507

As in Patent Document 1, if the display of the attention part is changed or the display of the front and rear parts is changed, the difficulty in understanding the part to be noticed can be reduced. However, this technique has a problem that can only be used for characters. In addition, when the front and rear displays are changed, at least three types of displays are mixed, and there is a problem that it is difficult to understand what display means what.

Moreover, when displaying a formatted magazine, newspaper, etc. on a small display device in a state where the entire page cannot be displayed in an enlarged manner and displayed by screen movement (scrolling) in units of paragraphs or lines, If you try to read a paragraph / line that was displayed on the screen and a newly displayed paragraph / line, you may not know how far you have read. For example, when reading a paper newspaper, only the line of sight is moved by the user's intention without moving the paper, so that the paragraph / line read immediately before is not lost. Even when a small part of the paper is displayed on the small display device, the user can specify the scroll direction and scroll amount even when the user operates the scroll bar to scroll, so the paragraph / line read immediately before can be specified. There is little to lose sight of. However, since the scroll direction and scroll amount must be specified one by one, there is a problem that the operation is complicated. A method of automatically calculating the scroll direction and scroll amount to eliminate the complexity of the operation is also conceivable, but since the user cannot predict the scroll direction and scroll amount, it becomes easy to lose sight of the paragraph / line that was read immediately before Problems come out. In addition, since the user cannot predict how many paragraphs / lines in the currently displayed range overlap at the next scroll position, there is a problem that it is not possible to know how far to read the current scroll position before proceeding to the next scroll position. is there.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to enable the user to easily grasp the part to be noticed and how the screen has moved. It is to provide a document browsing apparatus, a document display method, and a document display program that can be grasped.

A document browsing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is a document browsing apparatus that enables a user to browse a document by scrolling, and includes a display unit, a display target content, and a display range for each scroll stop position. , And a storage unit for storing management information for managing at least one attention area included in each display range, and the attention area is displayed so as to be distinguishable from each other at each scroll stop position based on the management information. The display control unit scrolls the document to the display range at the next scroll stop position while making the attention area at the current scroll stop position distinguishable from others.

Preferably, the display control unit displays an area other than the attention area in one type.
Preferably, the display control unit displays the attention area in a distinguishable manner by highlighting the attention area.

Preferably, the display control unit determines whether to scroll the document at a predetermined time or at a predetermined speed according to the distance between the scroll positions.

Preferably, the display control unit scrolls the document over a predetermined time.
Preferably, the display control unit scrolls the document at a predetermined speed.

Preferably, the information processing apparatus further includes a determination unit for generating management information by determining a display range and an attention area for each scroll stop position based on layout information of display target content.

Preferably, the determination unit determines the attention area in units of lines when the component of the document is a character string.

Preferably, the determination unit determines the attention area in units of characters for the constituent elements of the heading text.

Preferably, the determination unit further determines the enlargement / reduction ratio of the component so that the length in the row direction of the component of the region of interest is within a predetermined length for each scroll stop position.

Preferably, the display control unit further displays a position mark indicating the position of the current display range with respect to the entire document during scrolling of the document, immediately before the start of scrolling and immediately after scrolling.

A document display method according to another aspect of the present invention is a document display method executed by a document browsing apparatus that enables a user to browse a document by scrolling, and the display target content and the display target content have a scroll stop position. A display area for each and a management information for managing at least one attention area included in each display range in a memory, and a different attention area for each scroll stop position based on the management information A step of displaying the document in an identifiable manner, and a step of scrolling the document to the display range at the next scroll stop position while making the attention area at the current scroll stop position identifiable.

A document display program according to still another aspect of the present invention is a document display program that is executed by a document browsing device that enables a user to browse a document by scrolling, and stops scrolling the display target content and the display target content. A step of preparing in memory a display range for each position and management information for managing at least one attention area included in each display range, and a different attention area for each scroll stop position based on the management information. And the step of scrolling the document to the display range at the next scroll stop position while making the attention area at the current scroll stop position distinguishable from the others.

According to the present invention, since the region of interest is displayed so as to be distinguishable from others, the user can easily grasp where the portion to be noted is at the scroll stop position. In addition, since the document is scrolled to the display range at the next scroll stop position while the display mode of the attention area at the previous scroll stop position can be distinguished from the other, the user can see how the screen has moved. Can be easily grasped.

It is a figure which shows the example of an external appearance of the document browsing apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the document browsing apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram which shows the function structural example of the document browsing apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the horizontal writing document of browsing object in embodiment of this invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an order of scroll stop positions of the document in FIG. 4. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the position of the rectangle (1) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the middle of a movement from the position of the rectangle (1) of FIG. 5 to the position of the rectangle (2). It is a figure which shows the example of a display immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (2) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (2) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the middle of a movement from the position of the rectangle (2) of FIG. 5 to the position of the rectangle (3). It is a figure which shows the example of a display immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (3) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (3) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (6) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example in which the position mark was displayed in the middle of the movement from the rectangle (6) of FIG. 5 to the position of the rectangle (7). It is a figure which shows the example in which the position mark was displayed immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (7) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (7) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display which has distinguished the display color of the non-attention area | region by the read part and the unread part. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when a attention area is enclosed with a dotted-line frame. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a process for determining a scroll stop position and a region of interest in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a data structure example of layout information of the horizontally written document illustrated in FIG. 4. It is a figure which shows the data structural example of the block management data corresponding to the layout information of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of each block specified by block ID of the block management data shown in FIG. FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a data structure example of row management data corresponding to the layout information of FIG. 22. It is a figure which shows the example of each line specified by data ID of the line management data shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the scroll position management data in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the text attention area determination process in step S24 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the new determination process in step S122 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the headline attention area determination process in step S28 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process by the side of a viewer in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the vertical writing document of browsing object in the modification of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the order of the scroll stop position of the document of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the position of the rectangle (1) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the middle of a movement from the position of the rectangle (1) of FIG. 33 to the position of the rectangle (2). It is a figure which shows the example of a display immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (2) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (2) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the middle of a movement from the position of the rectangle (2) of FIG. 33 to the position of the rectangle (3). It is a figure which shows the example of a display immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (3) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (3) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (6) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example in which the position mark was displayed in the middle of a movement from the rectangle (6) of FIG. 33 to the position of a rectangle (7). It is a figure which shows the example in which the position mark was displayed immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (7) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the state stopped at the position of the rectangle (7) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display which has distinguished the display color of the non-attention area | region by the read part and the unread part. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when a attention area is enclosed with a dotted-line frame. FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating a data structure example of layout information of the vertically written document illustrated in FIG. 32. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the block management data corresponding to the layout information of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of each block specified by block ID of the block management data shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of line management data corresponding to the layout information of FIG. FIG. 53 is a diagram showing an example of each row specified by the data ID of the row management data shown in FIG. 52. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the scroll position management data in the modification of embodiment of this invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same or corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will not be repeated.

[Embodiment 1]
<Configuration example of document browsing device>
With reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, an example of a hardware configuration of the document browsing apparatus 100 in the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the appearance of a document browsing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the document browsing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The document browsing apparatus 100 is typically assumed to be a mobile terminal having a small display device (display 107), such as a mobile phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance). However, the present invention is not limited to a portable terminal and may be realized by a general personal computer.

Referring to FIG. 2, document browsing apparatus 100 includes communication device 101 that transmits and receives communication signals, CPU (Central Processing Unit) 106, display 107 for displaying a document, main storage medium 103, and CPU 106. A speaker 109 that outputs sound based on the sound data of the user, a sensor unit 111, a tablet 112 that accepts a movement command for the pointer via the electronic pen 110 or a finger, and the like. And a keyboard 114 for receiving instructions from the user. Each device is connected to each other via an internal bus 102. Further, the document browsing apparatus 100 may be detachable from an external storage medium 104 such as an SD card.

The communication device 101 includes the antenna 108 shown in FIG. Communication device 101 converts communication data from CPU 106 into a communication signal, and transmits the communication signal to network 10 via antenna 108. Communication device 101 converts a communication signal received from network 10 via an antenna into communication data, and inputs the communication data to CPU 106.

The display 107 is composed of a liquid crystal panel, a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), or an EL (Electro-Luminescence) display, and displays text and images based on data output by the CPU 106. The display 107 may be a touch panel type.

The sensor unit 111 includes, for example, at least one of a triaxial tilt sensor, a rotation sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an infrared sensor. For example, the screen is switched between portrait / landscape holding by detecting the switching between portrait / landscape holding of the document browsing apparatus 100 with a rotation sensor. Alternatively, the content can be advanced forward and backward by detecting that the user tilts or shakes the document browsing apparatus 100 with an inclination sensor or the like.

The main storage medium 103 stores various types of information. For example, a RAM (Random Access Memory) that temporarily stores data necessary for execution of a program by the CPU 106 and a non-volatile storage that stores a control program ROM (Read Only Memory). The main storage medium 103 may be a flash memory or a hard disk.

The external storage medium 104 stores, for example, content data to be displayed on the display 107, a program for enabling document browsing, and the like. The CPU 106 reads data from the external storage medium 104 via the input interface. The external storage medium 104 is realized by an SD card, a USB memory, or the like.

The CPU 106 controls each element of the document browsing apparatus 100 and performs various calculations.

Next, the functional configuration of the document browsing apparatus 100 will be described.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the document browsing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

3, the document browsing apparatus 100 includes an acquisition unit 202, a position determination unit 204, an attention area determination unit 206, and a display control unit 208. These functions are realized by the CPU 106 executing software stored in the main storage medium 103, for example. Note that at least one of these may be realized by hardware.

The acquisition unit 202 acquires layout information L1 of a document (display target content 230) to be displayed (viewed). Also, block management data 222 and row management data 224 are generated based on the acquired layout information L1. The block management data 222 manages character strings and diagrams for each unit. If it is a character string, one paragraph is managed as one block. The line management data 224 manages character strings for each line. In the present embodiment, the “document” includes not only text but also figures. In addition, it is assumed that the document handled in this embodiment cannot display the entire document (at a predetermined magnification or higher) on the small display 107 at a time. The predetermined magnification here represents a minimum magnification that the user can read or can easily read when characters or the like in the document are displayed. For example, Japanese fonts with a large number of strokes generally have a reading limit of around 12 dots, and around 24 dots seems to be the limit to make complex characters readable and easy to read. Of course, the physical display size changes depending on the DPI (Dot Per Inch) of the display, so the readability also changes. For the alphabet with a small number of strokes, the reading limit is around 8 dots. If the printed material is scanned instead of drawing using font data, an additional number of dots is required.

The position determination unit 204 determines the scroll stop position. In the present embodiment, the “scroll stop position” represents a position where scrolling is stopped, that is, a position where a part of a document is displayed in a stopped state. Hereinafter, the scroll stop position is referred to as a “scroll position”.

The attention area determination unit 206 determines the attention area for each scroll position.
The position determination unit 204 and the attention area determination unit 206 use the block management data 222 and the row management data 224. In addition, the position determination unit 204 and the attention area determination unit 206 generate scroll position management data 226 based on the determined scroll position and attention area information. The scroll position management data 226 manages the display range for each scroll position and at least one region of interest included in the display range for the display target content 230. In the present embodiment, each of the display range and the attention area is composed of one rectangle. Note that the shape of the attention area is not limited to a rectangle, and may be a polygon or any other shape.

The block management data 222, the row management data 224, and the scroll position management data 226 are stored in the main storage medium 103, for example. Examples of these data structures will be described later.

The display control unit 208 displays the entire document over time by sequentially scrolling the document according to the display target content 230 based on the scroll position management data 226. At that time, for each scroll stop position, the attention area is displayed so as to be distinguishable from other areas (non-attention areas). That is, the display mode of the attention area and the non-attention area is changed. In the present embodiment, only the region of interest is highlighted so that both can be identified. Note that “highlighted” means that the display is more conspicuous and easier to read than others. For example, characters in the target area are highlighted or compared to the non-target area. This means that the brightness of the background color is increased or changed to a bright color (for example, yellow). Alternatively, it may be difficult to read by applying a filter such as a halftone dot to a non-target area, or increasing the brightness of the foreground color (for example, black of the character color = set the brightness 0 to gray).

Also, when a scroll instruction is received from the user, the document is scrolled to the display range at the next scroll stop position while maintaining the display mode of the attention area at the current scroll stop position. The user can instruct scrolling by operating the tablet 112 with the electronic pen 110 or operating the keyboard 114. In addition, it is not limited to what starts a scroll according to the instruction | indication from a user, You may start a scroll automatically (for example, whenever predetermined time passes).

<Screen transition example>
First, a screen transition example of a horizontally written document will be described with reference to FIGS. The screen transition is controlled by the display control unit 208.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document to be browsed.
Assume that the document in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display 107 in the order shown by the rectangles (1) to (12) in FIG. Each rectangle (1) to (12) corresponds to the scroll position (scroll stop position) determined by the position determination unit 204. In this example, each of the rectangles (1) to (12) is a horizontally long rectangle having the same size, and has a portion overlapping with another rectangle.

(About highlight switching)
First, the timing of highlight display switching will be described.

FIG. 6 shows a display example at the position of the rectangle (1) in FIG.
Referring to FIG. 6, the screen highlights the headline character strings “Large Fall for the First Time in 20 Years” and “Close Price Yen Yen”, which are the attention areas at the position of rectangle (1) in FIG. It is displayed. In this example, the other character strings are not highlighted because the left and right of the paragraph (line) are not within the display range. Thereby, the user can grasp | ascertain easily the location which should be read on the present screen.

The right and bottom scroll bars on the left and right screens of the display range indicate where the current display range is located in the entire page. When scrolling through a large area of content on a small screen, there is a problem that it is difficult to understand where it is currently displayed, but the scroll bar alleviates this problem.

FIG. 7 shows a display example in the middle of movement from the position of the rectangle (1) in FIG. 5 to the position of the rectangle (2). FIG. 8 shows a display example immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG.

Even during and immediately after movement, the highlight range (character string to be highlighted) remains in the state of the rectangle (1) in FIG. 5, that is, the highlight range (region of interest) on the screen in FIG. . That is, the display area is scrolled to the display range at the scroll position of the rectangle (2) in FIG. 5 while maintaining the display mode of the attention area at the scroll position of the rectangle (1) in FIG. If the region of interest at the scroll position of the rectangle (1) in FIG. 5 remains distinguishable from others during and immediately after the movement, the display mode when stopped and the display mode during movement are somewhat May be different. Further, the display mode is not limited to the time from the start of scrolling to the end of scrolling. For example, an operation such as just after the start of scrolling may be performed, but it is preferable to maintain the display mode from the start to the end of scrolling.

Note that during the movement between the stop positions in FIGS. 6 to 8, the document is actually displayed while scrolling smoothly. The travel time from FIG. 6 to FIG. 8 is preferably about 1 second. If it is too fast, your eyes may not catch up, or the drawing may not be in time, and if it is too late, you may feel stress. Therefore, it is desirable that the movement time be within 0.5 to 2 seconds. While moving, the scroll bar is also updated.

FIG. 9 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG.
When the scrolling is completely stopped, the highlight range in FIG. 8 is quickly switched to the highlight range in FIG. Although a method of switching gradually by a dissolve display or the like is conceivable, it may be switched instantaneously. This is because if you take too much time, you will not be able to read comfortably and you may feel stressed.

Suppose that there is no highlight display in FIG. Then, if you read to the end of paragraph P1 and scroll to the next position, or if you read until “stock prices are down in Europe and America and Asia” in the middle of the next paragraph P2, then scroll to the next position It ’s hard to tell if it ’s good. In Fig. 9, it happens to be displayed up to the line that "stock prices in Europe and America and Asia are falling," but in some cases, if you read to the end of paragraph P1 and scroll to the next position, The stock price is falling, and the line “is not scrolled out and displayed, and the problem is that the text cannot be read continuously.

However, in this embodiment, since there is a highlight display, it is clear how far to read and scroll to the next position, and this problem can be solved.

In addition, the heading portion H1 indicates that the white character is gray and is not an object of highlight display. The part below the heading part H1 may be either highlighted or non-highlighted because there is no information (character string, figure, etc.). Here, it is regarded as belonging to the row of the heading portion H1, and is not highlighted.

FIG. 10 shows a display example in the middle of movement from the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG. 5 to the position of the rectangle (3). FIG. 11 shows a display example immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (3) in FIG. Also in this case, the highlight range during and immediately after the movement remains in the state of the rectangle (2) in FIG. 5, that is, the highlight range on the screen in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (3) in FIG.
Also in this case, when the scrolling is completely stopped, the highlight range in FIG. 11 is switched to the highlight range in FIG.

(About specifying the position of the display range)
As described above, a rough position with respect to the entire document can be indicated by the scroll bar, but a mark for clarifying the position of the current display range may be further displayed during the movement.

FIG. 13 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (6) in FIG. FIG. 14 shows a display example in the middle of movement from the rectangle (6) to the rectangle (7) in FIG. 5, and a position mark is shown on the screen. FIG. 15 shows a display example immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (7) in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 14 and FIG. 15, position marks M11 and M12 indicating approximate positions of the entire paper surface and the display range are displayed at the lower left of the screen. That is, the position marks M11 and M12 indicate the position of the current display range with respect to the entire document.

Each position mark M11, M12 is composed of two rectangles having different sizes. In order to prevent the rectangular line from being embedded in the background paper image, for example, it is preferable to apply a white line border or the like. In addition, for example, the background paper image in the position marks M11 and M12 may be displayed in a translucent manner. Alternatively, although two simple rectangles are used here, an actual reduced paper image may be used, or a highlight display may be attached.

The highlight range in FIG. 15 remains in the state of the rectangle (6) in FIG. 5, that is, the highlight range on the screen in FIG. The position mark M12 in FIG. 15 is updated with the position of the rectangle indicating the display range (smaller rectangle) slightly shifted to the right than the position mark M11 in FIG.

Such position marks M11 and M12 are obstructive to read if they are always displayed. In addition, when the display of the position marks M11 and M12 is dynamically turned ON / OFF, attention is drawn and it is less likely to be buried in the background paper image. Therefore, it is preferable that the position marks M11 and M12 are displayed only during movement (during document scrolling). Further, in place of / in addition to the movement, such position marks M11 and M12 may be displayed immediately before the start of scrolling or immediately after scrolling.

FIG. 16 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (7) in FIG. As shown in FIG. 16, when the scrolling is completely stopped, the highlight range in FIG. 15 is quickly switched to the highlight range in FIG. Also, the position mark M12 disappears.

(Comparative example)
As a comparative example of the present embodiment, FIGS. 17 and 18 show display examples when highlight display of the attention area is stopped.

FIG. 17 is a diagram in which highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG. FIG. 18 is a diagram in which highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG.

For example, FIG. 9 (state stopped at the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG. 5) → FIG. 12 (state stopped at the position of the rectangle (3) in FIG. 5) and FIG. 9 → FIG. Compare the order of 11 → FIG. If it moves in an instant as shown in FIG. 9 to FIG. 12, it will not be understood where it has moved. The user does not know in advance which direction to move next. Therefore, as soon as it is moved in an instant, it becomes difficult to know the connection with the current position or the position viewed last time. Of course, it is possible to compensate to some extent with information such as a scroll bar, but it is easier to understand that there is a display in the middle of the movement as shown in FIG. 9 → FIG. 10 → FIG. 11 → FIG.

Further, FIG. 9 → FIG. 10 (with highlight display) → FIG. 11 (with highlight display) → FIG. 12 and FIG. 9 → FIG. 17 (without highlight display) → FIG. 18 (without highlight display) → FIG. Compare the 12 order. Then, it can be seen that the direction in which the highlight is being moved is easier to understand in which direction it is moving. It is difficult to follow the movement of small characters with the eyes, but the change and movement of the highlight display is easy to follow with the eyes because the overall color and large shape will change and move.

(About modification of display mode)
In the examples shown in FIGS. 6 to 16, the non-attention area is set as one kind of color. However, the display mode (for example, the background color) of the non-highlight portion may be changed between the read portion and the unread portion.

FIG. 19 shows a display example in which the display color of the non-attention area is distinguished from the read part and the unread part. In FIG. 19, the read portion is set to one type of color. However, there may be two types of the read portion, that is, a portion read immediately before and a portion before that. Similarly, in FIG. 19, the unread portion is represented by one type of color. However, the unread portion may be further divided into two types: a portion to be read next and a portion to be read ahead.

Thus, when the display mode is changed between the read part and the unread part, there is an advantage that it is possible to indicate to the user how far it has been read and where it will be read next. However, if you try to use it without reading the device manual, it may be difficult to understand at a glance what the difference in color of the non-highlighted part means, which may confuse users.

On the other hand, according to the above-described embodiment, the non-highlight display of the unread portion is switched from FIG. 11 (the state immediately after the movement) to FIG. You can know the difference between the read part and the unread part. Therefore, from the viewpoint of easy understanding of the attention area, it is desirable to use only one type of display form for the non-highlight display portion. This reduces the risk of confusion for the user and the risk of confusing the screen. In order to increase the types of non-highlight display portions, a plurality of background color densities are prepared. In that case, there is a possibility that one of them is too bright or too dark, but there is no such problem as long as there is one type of non-highlight display.

In the above description, for example, the attention area is highlighted by changing the background color of the attention area to a bright color. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to such a display form.

FIG. 20 shows a display example when the attention area is surrounded by a dotted frame as an example other than the highlight display. FIG. 20 corresponds to the display range of FIG.

When enclosing the region of interest with a dotted frame, it is desirable to make the dotted line a conspicuous color such as red or blink.

Alternatively, as another example of highlight display, the background color on the non-attention area side may be changed to a dark color (for example, gray), or the background colors of both the attention area and the non-attention area may be changed.

Or, it is possible to change both the character color and the foreground color of the attention area. However, when changing the text color and foreground color, there is also a problem that it is difficult / intelligible to handle figures and photos. Note that the “foreground” refers to an object having contents such as text with respect to the background. Therefore, when the object is a character, the foreground color is synonymous with the character color, and when the object is a figure or the like, the foreground color corresponds to a line segment color or the like.

<Operation and data structure example>
Next, a specific operation of the document browsing apparatus 100 in the present embodiment will be described. In addition to the description of the operation, an example of the data structure of the layout information L1, the block management data 222, the row management data 224, and the scroll position management data 226 shown in FIG. 3 will also be described.

(Scroll position and attention area determination processing)
FIG. 21 is a flowchart for explaining a scroll position and attention area determination process (hereinafter abbreviated as “determination process”) in the embodiment of the present invention. The processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 21 is stored in advance in the main storage medium 103 as a program, and the CPU 106 reads out and executes this program, thereby realizing the function of determination processing. Such determination processing may be started by an instruction from the user, or may be automatically started when the display target content is stored in the main storage medium 103, for example.

Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 21, the acquisition unit 202 first acquires the layout information L1 of the display target content (step S2).

If the content to be displayed is edited using typesetting software (such as TeX or Adobe InDesign (registered trademark)), these pieces of information are retained internally. Therefore, if the layout information L1 indicating the position of each character string or each figure in the display target content is stored in the content data, it can be acquired from the content data. In addition to the case of having character string data (+ layout position) as display data, the content data may have image data obtained by imaging a character string as display data. Image data alone is sufficient for display only. However, if layout information is required as in the present embodiment, each character string or figure is displayed together with image data (although not directly displayed). What is necessary is just to have the layout information which shows a position.

Alternatively, the layout data may be dynamically generated from the content data by the method described in FIG. 18 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-267449.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating a data structure example of the layout information L1.
Referring to FIG. 22, layout information L1 is described in XML format, for example. Here, the XML format is used for easy understanding, but binary data or a database having a certain structure may be used. The block ID (block tag id attribute) of the layout information L1 is information for identifying a group of paragraphs and the like. For example, the block ID is identified by a numerical value according to the reading order of blocks (components) such as paragraphs, headings, and drawings. Is done. The movement of the attention part (attention area) follows the order of the block IDs. Note that the block ID does not necessarily have to be in the reading order, and may have a form separately having correspondence information between the reading order of the block and the block ID, but here, for ease of explanation, the numerical value of the block ID is used. It is assumed that the size of corresponds to the reading order. The article ID is the same, and the movement to the preceding and following articles follows the order of the article ID (id attribute of the article tag). For example, open source TeX source code can be used as a reference for how the typesetting software implements the editing function using these pieces of information, but it is omitted because it is not the purpose of this embodiment.

The acquisition unit 202 generates block management data 222 and row management data 224 based on the acquired layout information L1.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary data structure of the block management data 222.
In the block management data 222, one line of data uniquely determined by the article ID and the block ID is referred to as “block data”. Although FIG. 23 is expressed in the form of a table, it may be implemented in any manner as an actual data format such as a database form or an array form. The same applies to FIG. 25 described later.

“Left position”, “Up position”, “Width”, and “Height” indicate the coordinate position and size of the circumscribed rectangle in the range where the corresponding block data is displayed. The origin is the upper left of the page.

The “use state” column of the block management data 222 is data used in this processing, and is not generated from the typesetting software. In the present embodiment, “unused” is entered when the block type is a headline or a sentence, and “not applicable” is entered when the block type is a figure or a photo. In the “type” column, there are also photographs and the like. However, the processing method in the present embodiment is the same as that in the figure, and may be summarized as a figure. A block whose type is “Heading” usually has one or two lines in a large font. They are also often decorated.

Also, whether the serialized name of the serialized article is used as a heading or a figure depends on the setting of whether or not the serialized name is put in the attention area. Otherwise, the “use state” is “not applicable”. “Row direction” is information indicating in which direction the line is extended when displaying character string data. Western text is usually horizontal, but Japanese and Chinese can be vertical. Even in the horizontal direction, a line may extend from right to left as in Arabic, so that the value may be distinguished. If the line direction is fixed, this information is not necessary. If the data in the line direction is known, it is possible to know which part of the character string rectangle is the start character position. For example, in the horizontal direction from left to right, the upper left is the start character position. Right-to-left horizontal direction is upper right, upper-lower vertical direction is upper right, etc. (To be precise, information on the direction in which the number of lines increases is also necessary, but it is omitted here) ). Instead of the line direction, information on the start character position, for example, “upper left” may be used.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of each block specified by the block ID of the block management data 222. Reference numerals 20 to 27 in FIG. 24 correspond to the block IDs in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 24, there is a blank area that is not included in any block. However, here, only the minimum block necessary for processing is shown, and the blank area may be divided into several areas in FIG. For example, a blank area is divided by a line segment that extends the border of an existing block, and if the content is horizontally written, the blank areas on the left and right of the existing block (up and down if vertically written base) are included in the highlight display of the existing block. And so on. When a block in the blank area is sandwiched between a plurality of existing blocks, it may be divided near the middle.

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating a data structure example of the row management data 224.
Referring to FIG. 25, data for one row uniquely determined by a block ID and a data ID is referred to as “row data”. Each line data includes a block ID, a data ID, a left position, an upper position, a width, a height, a character string, and a usage state. The data ID is information for identifying each row. Rows with the same block ID indicate that they belong to the same block.

Here, “left position”, “upper position”, “width”, and “height” represent the coordinate position and size of the circumscribed rectangle in the range in which the corresponding line data is displayed. The origin is the upper left of the page.

Here, in order to simplify the subsequent processing, it is assumed that the data of each line is arranged in the order of the connection of sentences. The use state is as described above. In addition, not only sentences but also headlines are included. This is because the heading may be composed of a plurality of lines. When the headline is composed of a plurality of lines, only a part of the headline can be included in the attention area.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example of each row specified by the data ID of the row management data 224. Rows 33 to 38 in FIG. 26 correspond to the data IDs in FIG.

Lines 33 to 38 represent a detailed layout in the block 24 shown in FIG. That is, the block 24 is composed of six rows 33-38. In this way, the text format block 24 is further divided and managed in units of lines as shown in lines 33 to 38.

In this embodiment, management is performed in units of lines, but may be managed in units of characters. However, here, since the attention area is allocated in units of rows, it is sufficient to have layout information up to the units of rows.

Referring to FIG. 21 again, the acquisition unit 202 acquires the size of the display range (displayable range) on the display 107 (step S4). Specifically, the width and height of the display range are obtained. This indicates the range in which the content can actually be displayed. Therefore, menus, status bars, scroll bars, etc. are not included. In this example, it is assumed that the width is 55 dots and the height is 80 dots. The width and height of the display range used when obtaining the scroll position information must match the width and height of the display range when displayed.

Next, the position determining unit 204 sets the scroll position number to “1” (step S6). For example, the smooth change of the display position from FIG. 6 to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 is expressed as scrolling here. In this flowchart, the position in the middle of scrolling as shown in FIG. 7 is not obtained. The position in the state of FIG. 6 or FIG. In order to distinguish the position of this stationary state, a scroll position number is introduced. This number corresponds to the rectangle (1) to the rectangle (12) shown in FIG. The scroll position information is recorded in the main storage medium 103 as scroll position management data 226. The scroll position management data 226 is expressed, for example, in a form as shown in FIG.

Subsequently, the position determination unit 204 acquires the article ID and block ID of the first block data whose usage status item is “unused” or “in use” from the block management data 222 shown in FIG. That is, the unused block (the block whose usage item is “unused”) or the busy block (the block whose usage item is “in use”) with the earliest reading order is identified. In this embodiment, the block management data 222 is always searched from the top. Figures and photos are not selected here, so they are not selected here.

Next, it is determined whether there are any unused blocks or in-use blocks (step S10). Here, it is determined whether a new unused block or in-use block has been obtained in step S8 or step S30 described later. If it is determined that there is an unused block or a used block (YES in step S10), the process proceeds to step S12. On the other hand, when it is determined that neither an unused block nor a used block exists (NO in step S10), this determination process is terminated.

In step S12, the position determination unit 204 determines whether or not the scroll position has been determined for the identified block (also referred to as “current block”). If not determined (NO in step S12), the process proceeds to step S14. If determined (YES in step S12), the process proceeds to step S16.

In step S14, a scroll position is set such that the upper left of the current block is positioned at the upper left of the display range. For example, if the current block is block 20, the upper left coordinate of block 20 is (2.0, 32.0), and the scroll position at scroll number “1” is (2.0, 32.0). . When the row direction is the vertical direction, the upper right position of each of the block and the display range is matched. Since the upper right of the block is the start character position, a value obtained by subtracting the display range width from the right position needs to be the X-direction position of the scroll position. Also, if the rightmost block on the page is the current block and margins can be displayed on the right side when combined at the upper left, the scroll position should be set so that the right end of the block is positioned at the upper right of the display range. Good. The same applies to the Y direction at the lower end.

Next, the position determination unit 204 determines whether there is an unused block or a used block (step S16). If it is determined that there is an unused block or a used block (YES in step S16), the process proceeds to step S20. On the other hand, if neither an unused block nor a used block exists (NO in step S16), the process proceeds to step S18.

In step S18, the scroll position number is incremented by 1, and the process returns to step S8.
In step S20, it is determined whether or not the current block is included in the display range of the scroll position determined in step S14. Here, when only a part of the block is included, it may be determined whether or not the block is included in units of rows. If the entire range of some unused rows in the block is included in the display range, it may be determined that the block (a part thereof) is included in the display range. Which row has been used can be known from the information in the “used state” column of the row management data 224 in FIG.

If it is determined that the block is included in the display range (YES in step S20), the process proceeds to step S22. On the other hand, when it is determined that the block is not included in the display range (NO in step S20), the process proceeds to step S30.

In step S22, the attention area determination unit 206 determines whether or not the current block is a sentence. The determination of whether or not the document is a text can be made by looking at the item “type” in the block management data 222 shown in FIG.

If it is determined as a sentence (YES in step S22), the attention area determination unit 206 determines an attention area in the sentence (step S24). This process will be described in detail later as a sentence attention area determination process.

If it is determined that it is not a sentence (NO in step S22), the attention area determination unit 206 determines whether or not the current block is a headline (step S26). When the headline is determined (YES in step S26), the attention area determination unit 206 determines the attention area in the heading (step S28). This process will be described in detail later as a headline attention area determination process.

If the heading is not determined in step S26 (NO in step S24), the process proceeds to step S30. Further, when the process of determining the attention area in the heading or the sentence ends (steps S24 and S28), the process proceeds to step S30.

In step S30, the block management data 222 shown in FIG. 23 is searched to acquire the block IDs of unused blocks or used blocks after the current block. If the current block has been used, the next unused block is searched after the current block. As the block changes, the article ID is also updated. If the current block is in use, the block ID of the current block is acquired.

When the process of step S30 ends, the process returns to step S16. That is, if an unused block or a used block is specified in step S30, the above-described processing is repeated again. If it is determined that neither an unused block nor a used block exists, the determination process is terminated.

FIG. 27 shows an example of the data structure of the scroll position management data 226 generated as a result of the determination process as described above.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating a data structure example of the scroll position management data 226.
Referring to FIG. 27, scroll position management data 226 includes a plurality of scroll position data. Each scroll position data is specified by a scroll position number. The scroll position data manages data for specifying a display range (hereinafter “display range data”) and data for specifying a region of interest (hereinafter “region of interest data”). The display range data includes an enlargement / reduction ratio, a left position, and an upper position. The attention area data includes the block ID of each attention area and information on the position determined as the attention area.

The attention area data may actually be an array shape. There is no logical upper limit on the number of regions of interest used at one scroll position, but usually only a few. The block ID indicates a block including each attention area.

(Text attention area determination processing)
The sentence attention area determination process in step S24 of FIG. 21 will be described.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing a sentence attention area determination process.
First, the attention area determination unit 206 checks whether or not characters of a current block (hereinafter also referred to as “text block”) determined to be a text are displayed in a readable size at the current enlargement / reduction ratio (step S <b> 5). S102). For example, a standard may be determined such that the standard character size can be read up to 12 dots. In the case of layout data that guarantees no problem with the existing enlargement / reduction ratio (FIG. 23), this processing is unnecessary. If the enlargement / reduction ratio is determined to be OK (YES in step S102), the process proceeds to step S104. On the other hand, if the enlargement / reduction ratio is not OK (NO in step S102), this process ends.

It should be noted that it is possible to use such that it is sufficient to read characters such as headings even if standard characters cannot be read. For example, the page can be reduced and displayed on a small display, and used in an interface for selecting articles. In this case, since the detailed article is not read, there is not much effect on the connection between the blocks, but there is an effect of roughly knowing where the article is on the page. This is because the direction in which the attention area remains during scrolling is easier to understand in which direction the scroll is being performed. At that time, displaying the headlines of a plurality of articles as a text list in another area and highlighting the text in accordance with the change of the articles in the attention area has an effect of facilitating article selection.

In step S104, the attention area determination unit 206 determines whether or not the block is in use. This determination can be made in the “usage state” column of the block management data 222. If it is in use (YES in step S104), the process proceeds to step S106. If not in use (NO in step S104), the attention area of the new block is determined (step S122). This process will be described later as a new determination process.

In step S106, the attention area determination unit 206 sets the same value as the previous attention area at the left end and the right end of the attention area. Specifically, referring to the scroll position management data 226 in FIG. 27, the attention area having the same block ID as the currently used block (current block) in the attention area at the previous scroll position (here, “previous attention”). Area)). Then, the left position and width of the previous attention area may be set as the left end and width of the new attention area.

Similarly, the lower end of the previous attention area is set as the upper end of the new attention area (step S108). A position obtained by subtracting the maximum attention area height from the upper end is set as the lower end (step S110). The “maximum attention area height” may be the same as the size of the height of the displayable range obtained in step S4 of FIG. When it is desired to leave a margin slightly beyond the displayable range so that the non-attention area is displayed to some extent, the margin may be made smaller than the display range size.

Next, the attention area determination unit 206 determines whether or not the set lower end protrudes from the block (step S112). If it is determined that the lower end protrudes from the block (YES in step S112), the lower end of the block is set as the lower end of the region of interest (step S114). On the other hand, when it is determined that the lower end does not protrude from the block (YES in step S112), the lower end is set in line units (step S116).

In step S116, since the lower end divides the middle of the block, the lower end is set to the position of the line unit. It is checked whether or not unused data (row) of the current block enters the current attention area (it fits at the lower end of the attention area), and the line immediately before the time when a line that does not enter appears is specified. Then, the lower end of the identified row is set as the lower end of the new attention area. Note that, as shown in FIG. 26, this assumes that the rows are arranged in order from the top when the rows are written horizontally.

When the process of step S114 or step S116 is completed, the attention area determination unit 206 updates the block ID and data ID of the attention area during use or during use (step S118). If it is determined in step S112 that the lower end of the block protrudes, all the blocks have been used, and the data of the block is made used. Specifically, the usage state of the corresponding block ID in FIGS. 23 and 25 is updated. If it is determined in step S112 that the lower end does not protrude from the block, the entire block has not been used yet, so nothing is done (it remains in use).

Next, information on the attention area set this time is recorded in the scroll position management data 226, and the information is switched to a new attention area (step S120). More specifically, various data (block ID and data indicating a range) are added to a vacant region of interest column in the row of the current scroll position number in the scroll position management data 226. Thereafter, a new attention area is obtained. When this process ends, the process returns to the main routine.

Here, the new determination process in step S122 of FIG. 28 will be described in detail.
FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing a new determination process in the embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 29, first, the enlargement / reduction ratio is determined so that the display width of the current block is within the maximum attention area width (step S202). The “maximum attention area width” may be the same as the size of the width of the displayable range obtained in step S4 of FIG. If a margin is desired to be kept slightly smaller than the size of the displayable range, the margin may be set smaller than the size of the displayable range.

The obtained enlargement / reduction ratio is recorded in the item of enlargement / reduction ratio in the line of the current scroll position number in the scroll position management data 226. In the example of FIG. 27, the same magnification is recorded as 1.0, but the format is not particularly limited. For example, “%” may be recorded, or the size of the display range on the entire image shown in FIG. 4 may be recorded. Each position and range in FIG. 27 may record a value on the coordinate system in FIG. 5, or may record a value obtained by multiplying or dividing the enlargement / reduction ratio. Note that the positions and ranges used in this flowchart all take into account the enlargement / reduction ratio. Here, in order to simplify the explanation, only an example of an equal magnification is shown, but in actuality, it is necessary to multiply or divide the enlargement / reduction ratio.

As described above, when it is known that the sentence block can be accommodated at the same magnification (or a predetermined magnification), this processing may be omitted.

Next, the left and right ends of the current block are set as the left and right ends of the attention area (step S204). This is because the entire block is within the display range because it is enlarged and reduced.

Also, the upper end of the current block is set as the upper end of the next area (step S206). The position obtained by subtracting the maximum attention area height from the upper end is set as the lower end (step S208). Then, it is determined whether or not the lower end protrudes from the block (step S210). When it is determined that the lower end protrudes from the block (YES in step S210), the lower end of the block is set as the lower end of the region of interest (step S212). On the other hand, when it is determined that the lower end does not protrude from the block (NO in step S210), the lower end is set in line units (step S214).

When the process of step S212 or step S214 is completed, the block ID and data ID of the attention area are updated during use or in use (step S216). Also, information on the attention area set this time is recorded in the scroll position management data 226, and the information is switched to a new attention area (step S218). Since the processing in steps S206 to S218 is the same as the processing in steps S108 to S1120 in FIG. 28, detailed description will not be repeated.

(Heading area determination process)
Next, the headline attention area determination process in step S28 of FIG. 21 will be described.

In this embodiment, the heading block may be cut off in the row direction and displayed. This is because the headline may be very large, and if the headline is within the display range, the characters in the text block may be too small to be seen. If the headline is also within the display range, an enlargement / reduction ratio that fits the headline may be set as in the text block.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart showing the headline attention area determination process.
Referring to FIG. 30, first, it is determined whether or not the current block is in use (step S302). If it is determined that it is in use (YES in step S302), the upper end and the lower end of the attention area are the same as the previous attention area (step S304). Further, the left end of the previous attention area is set as the right end of the next attention area (step S306). When this process ends, the process proceeds to step S312.

If it is determined in step S302 that the current block is not in use (NO in step S302), the upper and lower ends of the block are set as the upper and lower ends of the region of interest (step S308). Further, the right end of the block is set as the right end of the next area (step S310). When this process ends, the process proceeds to step S312.

In step S312, a position obtained by subtracting the maximum attention area width from the right end is set as the left end (step S312). Then, it is determined whether the left end protrudes from the block (step S314). If it is determined that the left end protrudes from the block (YES in step S314), the left end of the block is set as the left end of the region of interest (step S316). On the other hand, when it is determined that the left end does not protrude from the block (NO in step S314), the left end is set in character units (step S318). Note that this processing is not necessary if the characters may be cut off and displayed. In order to determine the character unit, the data obtained by further subdividing the lines 33 to 38 shown in FIG. 26 into the character unit positions are prepared, or the position of each character on the line is dynamically calculated at the time of processing. Good. It is possible to calculate if the size of each character and the setting between characters are known. Each character position can be obtained by referring to the source code of open source typesetting software such as TeX. Since the calculation method of the character position is not the essence of the present embodiment, the detailed description is omitted.

After the process of step S316 or step S318 is completed, the block ID and data ID of the attention area are updated after being used or being used (step S320). Then, the information on the attention area set this time is recorded in the scroll position management data 226, and the information is switched to a new attention area (step S322). When this process ends, the process returns to the main routine.

(About scroll control)
FIG. 31 is a flowchart showing an example of processing on the viewer side in the embodiment of the present invention. The processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 31 is stored in advance in the main storage medium 103 as a program, and the function of this processing is realized by the CPU 106 reading and executing this program.

3 and 31, the display control unit 208 reads the scroll position management data 226 as shown in FIG. 27, and acquires the scroll position and the attention area (step SV2). That is, display range data and attention area data for each scroll position managed by the scroll position management data 226 are prepared in the internal memory. Then, the current scroll position number is set to “1” (step SV4).

Subsequently, the display control unit 208 acquires the display source data at the current scroll position in the display target content 230 (step SV6). 3 shows only one display target content 230, the main storage medium 103 may store a plurality of contents. In this case, it is assumed that scroll position management data 226 exists for each content, and a plurality of contents are stored in association with a plurality of corresponding scroll position management data 226, respectively.

Next, the display control unit 208 draws the attention area and the non-attention area at the current scroll position (step SV8). As a method of displaying the attention area and the non-attention area, for example, FIG. Alternatively, these displays may be changed with time. For example, the attention area may blink, an effect such as a resolve may be applied, the color may be changed, or an animation may be displayed so that the border line of the previous attention area moves to a new attention area. Moreover, you may combine these.

When displaying the content at the current scroll position, the content data may be an image base obtained by converting text into an image or a text base as it is. The means for displaying the display range of the scroll position from the content data is not the gist of the present embodiment, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted (for example, see the source code of the open source web browser “Firefox (registered trademark)”). do it).

When the display is changed over time, it is only necessary to determine whether or not the change process is being performed in the timer event processing after YES in step SV28 described later, and display according to the elapsed time. In addition, a method of temporarily or continuously changing the character attribute such as changing the color of the character, increasing the character size, or making it bold is also conceivable. Any other method that draws the user's attention can be a method for displaying the attention area. It may be combined with sound or vibration.

When drawing is finished, the so-called event waiting loop is entered. When the user inputs an instruction using the keys of the electronic pen 110 or the keyboard 114, a pen event, a key event, or the like occurs inside the device. In addition, there are timer events that notify that a predetermined time has elapsed and events that notify the end of asynchronous processing such as communication and decoding. If nothing happens, an Idle event may be generated. Such events are stacked in the event queue and processed in order by event acquisition processing.

In step SV10, it is determined whether or not a key event of a key assigned to the previous / next movement (such as a display image) has occurred. The key event is an example of a specification and is not particularly limited as long as it is an event associated with a specification that suggests movement. For example, it may be moved back and forth by touching a specific area on the screen (pen event), or the device may be tilted (tilt sensor event). The detection of the scroll instruction by the electronic pen 110 and the detection of the scroll instruction by the sensor unit 111 are realized by a known technique.

If it is determined that a front / rear key event has occurred (YES in step SV10), it is determined whether the vehicle is moving or is being repeated (key repeat). To determine whether the current movement process is in progress, a moving mode flag may be prepared. The movement process refers to a process for displaying automatically moving in small increments between the scroll positions. For example, the states shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 are shown. Whether or not repeat is being performed is determined, for example, based on whether or not the front and rear keys assigned to the keyboard 114 are being held down. To skip the moving display and display the next scroll position immediately even during the movement process, press and hold the front and rear keys to move to step SV14 (exit moving mode). Also good. This corresponds to a so-called fast feed or fast return display in which the scroll display is skipped.

If the forward / backward key event is in progress or if a repeat instruction is given (YES in step SV12), the moving mode is exited (step SV14). When the moving mode is exited, the attention area and the non-attention area at the next scroll position are drawn (step SV16).

There are several ways to highlight an image. As the simplest method, two types of highlight and non-highlight are prepared in advance on the content side. However, since this method has a problem that the content data size becomes large, a non-highlight image may be created dynamically at the time of drawing.

Other than this, there is a method in which image data for making the brightness of each image of the image data, for example, 50%, is dynamically generated separately and the image data is displayed. In the case of such a method, processing time and memory are consumed, but the problem of content data size can be solved. Alternatively, there is a method of drawing while referring to each pixel without creating image data. Note that luminance conversion may be performed in a non-linear manner such as a gamma curve instead of being uniform with 50% or the like. In addition, when the brightness can be specified by a drawing device or a device driver, there is a method of using it. In particular, when processing is performed on the image device side, processing may be performed at a very high speed because processing is performed by hardware. In general, the highlight display may be an original image, but a method of using a non-highlight display as an original image and a highlight image as a processed image is also conceivable. For example, a method of increasing the brightness is also conceivable.

When the drawing is completed, the display control unit 208 increases or decreases the current scroll position number by 1 (step SV18). When this process ends, the process returns to step SV10.

If it is determined in step SV12 that the movement is not in progress, or if it is determined that the operation is not a repeat operation (NO in step SV12), the processing mode is set to the movement mode (step SV20). Then, the next scroll position is acquired (step SV22). Specifically, in the scroll position management data 226 as shown in FIG. 27, display range data and attention area data of the scroll position corresponding to the current scroll position number are acquired.

Subsequently, the CPU obtains the number of times of moving drawing up to the next scroll position (step SV24). There are several ways to determine the number of movements. For example, the total of one movement time is set as a fixed time, and the number is divided by the time interval of the display processing time during movement. For example, if the total is 1 second and the time interval is 100 msec, the number is 10 times. Since the time interval between the scroll positions is fixed, there is an advantage that it can be read lightly and easily regardless of the content. However, if the distance between moving positions is too long or too short, there is a possibility that the speed will be too fast and you will feel drunk, or you will feel stress because it is too slow. Of course, it is possible not only to switch instantaneously but also to switch gradually.

Therefore, the total sum may not be fixed, but the distance between moving positions obtained in step SV32 described later may be fixed, and the distance between scroll positions may be divided by a fixed value. For example, if the linear distance between scroll positions is 200 dots, and the distance between moving positions is 20 dots (at 100 msec), the distance is 10 times. Since speed is constant, there are no speed sickness or stress problems. However, if the distance between the scroll positions is long, the total time becomes long, which may cause stress.

Alternatively, in these eclectic types, when the distance between the scroll positions is short, the speed is fixed, and when the distance between the scroll positions is long, the total time is fixed. That is, the speed may be fixed if the distance between the scroll positions is less than a predetermined value, and the total time may be fixed if the distance between the scroll positions is greater than or equal to the predetermined value.

Also, it may be possible to specify these on the content side. For example, the total time may be designated or the speed may be designated. The designation information may be recorded in the scroll position management data 226 in FIG. One method (total time or speed) may be designated for each content, or any method may be designated for each scroll position.

When the number of times is obtained, a timer is set for the time until the next moving position is drawn (step SV26). For example, if the time interval is 100 msec, if the drawing process takes 50 msec, the next timer event should be 50 msec later. The drawing process may be measured in advance or may always be measured dynamically. As a result, there is an advantage that a certain display can be realized by absorbing the difference in processing capability of each display device.

If it is determined in step SV10 that there is no front / rear key event (NO in step SV10), it is determined whether a timer event has occurred (step SV28). If it is determined that a timer event has occurred (YES in step SV28), display control unit 208 compares whether or not the current moving position is the same as the next scroll position (step SV30). If determined to be the same (YES in step SV30), the process proceeds to step SV16. When it is determined that the position is not the same as the next scroll position (NO in step SV10), a next moving intermediate position is obtained (step SV32). Specifically, the next mid-movement position is obtained according to the algorithm determined when obtaining the number of times in step SV24 described above.

When the midway movement position is obtained, display source data of the next midway movement position is acquired (step SV34). In the present embodiment, display data necessary for the display range is prepared. Specifically, text data or image data laid out within the display range is used. If data acquisition or data conversion takes time, asynchronous processing may be used. For example, this is the case where data is acquired via a communication line or image data is decoded. In that case, for example, when there is no asynchronous process remaining between steps SV30 and SV32, or when a process end notification event for the remaining asynchronous process is received, the process proceeds to step SV32. In other cases, a process of returning to step SV10 may be added.

The image data may be a single large image, but when a part of the image data is displayed while moving, for example, the image may be divided into a plurality of images or provided with a hierarchical structure. As a result, only a part can be decoded, so that there are advantages in that the decoding time is short and the amount of memory used is small.

It should be noted that the timer event may be automatically called repeatedly, but if it is necessary to set a timer every time, the same processing as step SV26 (timer setting) may be performed after step SV34.

When the display source data is acquired, the undrawn range at the next moving position is drawn as a non-attention area (step SV36). Here, the drawing is performed using the attention area data of the current scroll position number. When this process ends, the process returns to step SV10.

If it is determined in step SV28 that a timer event has not occurred (NO in step SV28), it is determined whether an end event has occurred (step SV38). The occurrence of the end event is, for example, when the end key is pressed. If the end event has not occurred (NO in step SV38), the process returns to step SV10. If it is determined that an end event has occurred (YES in step SV38), the series of content display processing ends.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the screen is moved, it is not moved instantaneously, but is moved at a predetermined time (for example, 1 second) or at a predetermined speed. Thereby, since the display is scrolled gradually, it is difficult for the user to lose sight of the part being read.

In addition, since the attention portion (region of interest) is highlighted, the user can easily understand how far to read next. (If you know how far to read, you don't need to know where the next point of interest is.)
Moreover, since the highlight display of the old attention part remains while the screen is moved, it is possible to grasp where the read part is located at the new display position, and it is easy to read back.

The distinction between the attention area and the non-attention area can be made with only two types of highlight display ON / OFF. Therefore, the user can easily grasp the meaning of the difference in display mode without looking at the instruction manual.

In the embodiment, the description is centered on the process when moving to the next scroll position. However, the same process is performed when moving to the previous scroll position. be able to.

[Modification of Embodiment]
In the above-described embodiment, a horizontally written document has been described as an example, but the same processing can be performed for a vertically written document.

Hereinafter, processing performed by the document browsing apparatus 100 in the case of a vertically written document will be described.
<Screen transition example>
First, an example of screen transition of a vertically written document will be described with reference to FIGS. The screen transition is controlled by the display control unit 208.

32 to 48 correspond to FIGS. 4 to 20 used in the example of screen transition in the case of vertical writing, respectively. Therefore, here, each drawing will be simply described.

FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document to be browsed.
32 is assumed to be displayed on the display 107 in the order shown by the rectangles (1) to (12) in FIG. Each rectangle (1) to (12) corresponds to the scroll position determined by the position determination unit 204. Also in this example, the rectangles (1) to (12) are horizontally long rectangles having the same size, and there are portions overlapping with other rectangles.

(About highlight switching)
First, the timing of highlight display switching will be described.

FIG. 34 shows a display example at the position of the rectangle (1) in FIG.
Referring to FIG. 34, the character string of the heading, “a major crash for the first time in 20 years” and “closing price of 8,000 yen” are highlighted on the screen. Other character strings are not highlighted because the top and bottom of the paragraph (line) are not within the display range. Thereby, the user can grasp | ascertain easily the location which should be read on the present screen.

FIG. 35 shows a display example in the middle of movement from the position of rectangle (1) to the position of rectangle (2) in FIG. FIG. 36 shows a display example immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG.

Thus, even during and immediately after movement, the highlight range (character string to be highlighted) remains in the state of the rectangle (1) in FIG. 34, that is, the highlight range on the screen in FIG. .

FIG. 37 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG.
When the scrolling is completely stopped, the highlight range in FIG. 36 is quickly switched to the highlight range in FIG.

38 shows a display example in the middle of movement from the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG. 33 to the position of the rectangle (3). FIG. 39 shows a display example immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (3) in FIG. Also in this case, the highlight range during and immediately after the movement remains in the state of the rectangle (2) in FIG. 33, that is, the highlight range on the screen in FIG.

FIG. 40 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (3) in FIG.
Also in this case, when the scrolling is completely stopped, the highlight range in FIG. 39 is quickly switched to the highlight range in FIG.

(About specifying the position of the display range)
FIG. 41 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (6) in FIG. FIG. 42 shows a display example in the middle of movement from the rectangle (6) to the rectangle (7) in FIG. 33, and a position mark is shown on the screen. FIG. 43 shows a display example immediately after moving to the position of the rectangle (7) in FIG.

42 and 43, position marks M11 # and M12 # indicating the approximate positions of the entire sheet and the display range are displayed at the lower left of the screen. Since position marks M11 # and M12 # are as described in the above embodiment, description thereof will not be repeated here.

43. The highlight range in FIG. 43 remains in the state of the rectangle (6) in FIG. 33, that is, the highlight range on the screen in FIG. The position mark M12 # in FIG. 43 is updated with the position of the rectangle indicating the display range (smaller rectangle) slightly shifted downward from the position mark M11 # in FIG.

FIG. 44 shows a display example in a state of stopping at the position of the rectangle (7) in FIG. As shown in FIG. 44, when the scrolling is completely stopped, the highlight range in FIG. 43 is quickly switched to the highlight range in FIG. The position mark M12 # also disappears.

(Comparative example)
FIG. 45 is a diagram in which highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG. FIG. 46 is a diagram in which highlight display is stopped in the display range of FIG.

For example, FIG. 37 (state stopped at the position of the rectangle (2) in FIG. 33) → FIG. 40 (state stopped at the position of the rectangle (3) in FIG. 33) and FIG. 37 → FIG. Compare the order of 39 → FIG. Also in this case, if it moves in an instant as shown in FIG. 37 → FIG. 40, it will not be understood where it has moved. The user does not know in advance which direction to move next. Therefore, as soon as it is moved in an instant, it becomes difficult to know the connection with the current position or the position viewed last time. Of course, it is possible to compensate to some extent with information such as a scroll bar, but FIG. 37 → FIG. 38 → FIG. 39 → FIG.

Further, FIG. 37 → FIG. 38 (with highlight display) → FIG. 39 (with highlight display) → FIG. 40 and FIG. 37 → FIG. 45 (without highlight display) → FIG. 46 (without highlight display) → FIG. Compare the 40 order. Then, it can be seen that the direction in which the highlight is being moved is easier to understand in which direction it is moving. It is difficult to follow the movement of small characters with the eyes, but the change and movement of the highlight display is easy to follow with the eyes because the overall color and large shape will change and move.

(About modification of display mode)
FIG. 47 shows a display example in which the display color of the non-attention area is distinguished between the read part and the unread part.

FIG. 48 shows a display example when the region of interest is surrounded by a dotted line frame. FIG. 48 corresponds to the display range of FIG.

<About data structure example>
An example of the data structure of layout information L1, block management data 222, line management data 224, and scroll position management data 226 in the case of a vertically written document will be described.

49 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the layout information L1 # of the vertically written document shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 49, layout information L1 # is different from layout information L1 of a horizontally written document only in numerical values of left position (left), top position (top), width (width), and height (height). It is.

FIG. 50 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the block management data 222 # of a vertically written document.
The block management data 222 # also differs from the block management data 222 of the horizontally written document only in the numerical values of the left position, the upper position, the width and the height, and the line direction type.

FIG. 51 is a diagram showing an example of each block specified by the block ID of the block management data 222 # of the vertically written document. Numerical values other than “#” in reference numerals 20 to 27 # in FIG. 51 correspond to the block IDs in FIG.

FIG. 52 shows an example of the data structure of line management data 224 # of a vertically written document.
Also in the line management data 224 # of FIG. 52, the only difference from the line management data 224 of the horizontally written document is that the numerical values of the left position, the upper position, the width, and the height are different.

FIG. 53 is a diagram showing an example of each row specified by the data ID of the row management data 224 # of the vertically written document. Numerical values other than “#” in reference numerals 33 to 38 # in FIG. 53 correspond to the data ID in FIG.

Lines 33 to 38 # represent a detailed layout in the block 24 # shown in FIG. That is, the block 24 # is composed of six rows 33 # to 38 #. In this way, the text format block 24 # is further divided and managed in a line unit such as line 33 # to line 38 #.

FIG. 54 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the scroll position management data 226 # of a vertically written document.

54, scroll position management data 226 # also differs only in the numerical values of left position, upper position, width, and height of scroll position management data 226 for horizontally written documents.

<About operation>
The determination processing (scroll position and attention area determination processing) in the modification of the present embodiment is basically the same as the determination processing in the case of a horizontally written document shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 21 and 28 to 30. . In the vertical document determination process, “left”, “right”, “top”, “bottom”, “width”, and “height” in the horizontal document determination process are respectively set to “bottom”, “top”, “ What is necessary is just to read as "right", "left", "height", and "width". This will be specifically described below.

In FIG. 21, “upper left of block” and “upper left of display range” in step S14 are both replaced with “upper right of block” and “upper right of display range”.

In FIG. 28 (document attention area determination processing), “left end and right end” in step S106 are replaced with “upper end and lower end”. The “upper end” in steps S108 and S110 is replaced with “right end”, and the “lower end” in steps S108, S110, S112, S114, and S116 is replaced with “left end”. Further, “maximum attention area height” in step S110 is replaced with “maximum attention area width”.

In FIG. 29 (new determination process), “display width” and “maximum attention area width” in step S202 are replaced with “display height” and “maximum attention area height”, respectively. In step S204, “left and right ends” are replaced with “upper and lower ends”. “Upper end” in steps S206 and S208 is replaced with “right end”, and “lower end” in steps S208, S210, S212 and S214 is replaced with “left end”. Further, “maximum attention area height” in step S208 is replaced with “maximum attention area width”.

In FIG. 30 (headline attention area determination processing), “upper end and lower end” in step S304 are replaced with “left end and right end”. “Left end” in steps S306, S314, S316, and S318 is replaced with “lower end”, and “right end” in steps S310 and S312 is replaced with “upper end”. In addition, “upper and lower ends” in step S308 are replaced with “left and right ends”. In step S312, “maximum attention area width” is replaced with “maximum attention area height”.

The processing on the viewer side in the modification of the present embodiment may be the same as the determination processing in the case of a horizontally written document shown in the flowchart of FIG. Therefore, description of processing performed by display control unit 208 in the case of a vertically written document will not be repeated.

As described above, even if the content to be displayed is a vertically written document, the same effect as described in the horizontally written document can be obtained.

It should be noted that the present embodiment can be applied even to a document in which horizontal writing and vertical writing are mixed as seen in, for example, a Japanese newspaper or magazine. In that case, when the scroll position is determined in step S14 in FIG. 21, it may be determined whether the target line is a vertical line or a horizontal line, and a process corresponding to the determination result may be performed. In FIG. 28, after YES in step S104, it is determined whether the block in use is vertical or horizontal, and attention area determination processing (steps S106 to S116) in the sentence is performed according to the determination result. Good. Also in FIG. 29, it may be first determined whether the target new block is vertical or horizontal, and attention area determination processing (steps S202 to S214) may be performed according to the determination result. Also in FIG. 30, it may be first determined whether the line is vertical or horizontal, and the attention area determination process (steps S302 to S318) may be performed according to the determination result.

Also, in the above-described embodiment and its modifications, for the sake of simplicity of explanation, the drawings and photographs other than the character strings have been described as being out of the target area. However, figures and photographs can also be targeted for attention areas by the same processing as for headline text.

Also, the scroll position and attention area determination method and the document display method performed by the document browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention and the modification thereof can be provided as a program (application program). Such a program can be recorded on an optical medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-ROM) or a computer-readable recording medium such as a memory card and provided as a program product. A program can also be provided by downloading via a network.

Note that the program according to the present invention is a program module that is provided as a part of a computer operating system (OS) and calls necessary modules in a predetermined arrangement at a predetermined timing to execute processing. Also good. In that case, the program itself does not include the module, and the process is executed in cooperation with the OS. A program that does not include such a module can also be included in the program according to the present invention.

The program according to the present invention may be provided by being incorporated in a part of another program. Even in this case, the program itself does not include the module included in the other program, and the process is executed in cooperation with the other program. Such a program incorporated in another program can also be included in the program according to the present invention.

The provided program product is installed in a program storage unit such as a hard disk and executed. Note that the program product includes the program itself and a storage medium in which the program is stored.

The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

10 network, 100 document browsing device, 101 communication device, 102 internal bus, 103 main storage medium, 104 external storage medium, 106 CPU, 107 display, 108 antenna, 109 speaker, 110 electronic pen, 111 sensor, 112 tablet, 113 microphone , 114 keyboard, 202 acquisition unit, 204 position determination unit, 206 attention area determination unit, 208 display control unit, 222, 222 # block management data, 224, 224 # line management data, 226, 226 # scroll position management data, 230 Display target content, L1, L1 # layout information.

Claims (13)

1. A document browsing device (100) that enables browsing of a document by scrolling,
   A display unit (107);
   A storage unit (103) for storing a display target content, a display range for each scroll stop position, and management information for managing at least one region of interest included in each display range for the display target content; ,
   A display control unit (208) for displaying the region of interest on the display unit so as to be distinguishable from others for each scroll stop position based on the management information;
   The document browsing apparatus, wherein the display control unit scrolls the document to the display range at the next scroll stop position while making the attention area at the current scroll stop position distinguishable from the other.
2. The document browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit causes the display unit to display an area other than the attention area in one type.
3. 2. The document browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit causes the display unit to display the attention region in a distinguishable manner by highlighting the attention region on the display unit.
4. The document browsing according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit determines whether to scroll the document at a predetermined time or at a predetermined speed according to a distance between scroll positions. apparatus.
5. The document browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit scrolls the document over a predetermined time.
6. The document browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit scrolls the document at a predetermined speed.
7. The range according to claim 1, further comprising a determination unit (206) for generating the management information by determining a display range and an attention area for each scroll stop position based on layout information of the display target content. Document browsing device described in 1.
8. The document browsing device according to claim 7, wherein the determination unit determines a region of interest in units of lines when the constituent element of the document is a character string.
9. The document browsing device according to claim 8, wherein the determining unit determines a region of interest for each component of the headline text in character units.
10. The determining unit further determines an enlargement / reduction ratio of the component so that the length in the row direction of the component of the region of interest is within a predetermined length for each scroll stop position. Item 8. The document browsing device according to item 7.
11. The display control unit according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit further displays a position mark indicating a position of the current display range with respect to the entire document at least one of scrolling, immediately before the start of scrolling, and immediately after scrolling. The document browsing device described.
12. A document display method executed by a document browsing apparatus that enables a user to browse a document by scrolling,
    (SV2) preparing a display target content, management information for managing at least one attention area included in each display range, and a display range for each scroll stop position for the display target content (SV2); ,
    Based on the management information, for each scroll stop position, displaying the region of interest so as to be distinguishable from others (SV16);
    And a step (SV32 to SV36) of scrolling the document to the display range at the next scroll stop position while making the region of interest at the current scroll stop position distinguishable from the others.
13. A document display program executed by a document browsing apparatus that enables a user to browse a document by scrolling,
    (SV2) preparing a display target content, management information for managing at least one attention area included in each display range, and a display range for each scroll stop position for the display target content (SV2); ,
    Based on the management information, for each scroll stop position, displaying the region of interest so as to be distinguishable from others (SV16);
    A document display program including a step (SV32 to SV36) of scrolling the document to the display range at the next scroll stop position while making the region of interest at the current scroll stop position distinguishable from others.

Images