The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-208196 filed on Aug. 12, 2008, including specification, claims, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
One aspect of the invention relates to an electronic apparatus configured to execute a plurality of application programs and configured to display windows that respectively relate to the application programs, on the same screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electronic apparatus such as a mobile phone, recently, a high-performance CPU or graphic chip is mounted and the processing power is remarkably improved, so that the electronic apparatus generally has a multitasking function which enables a plurality of applications to be simultaneously activated and operated. As typified by wide Video Graphics Array (VGA) and Wide Quarter VGA (QVGA), the resolution of a display device becomes higher. A mobile phone on which a two-screen displaying function (a function configured to simultaneously display two applications on one screen) that enables the multitasking function to be effectively used is mounted is developed.
For example, JP-A-2006-115213 discloses a mobile apparatus in which a plurality of applications are activated and simultaneously displayed The mobile apparatus is configured in the following manner. The case where a receiving process of receiving data based on a certain application program, and an application program executing process of processing the data received in the receiving process by an activated application program to be displayed are to be executed in the mobile apparatus will be considered. In a state where two kinds of application programs, i.e., first and second application programs are simultaneously activated as an application program executing process, when specific data are received based on the second application program, the display due to execution of the first application program, and that due to execution of the second application program are set to a certain display mode.
In a mobile phone having the two-screen displaying function, two or more applications can be simultaneously executed, but the number of application programs which can be simultaneously displayed is restricted to two, and the user is allowed to operate at a time only one of the displayed applications Therefore, there is a problem in that, in order to operate one application (for example, application B) in a state where another application (for example, application A) is operated, an operation subject must be switched from application A to application B.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a controller configured to execute a first application program and a second application program; a display module including a screen configured to simultaneously display a first window for the first application program and a second window for the second application program; an extraction module configured to extract information related to the first application program when the first and second windows are displayed on the screen and the first window is inactive; and a reference module configured to refer to the information in the second application program when the first and second windows are displayed on the screen and the second window is active.
Embodiment may be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
In
A first embodiment of the electronic apparatus of the invention will be described with reference to
As shown in
A display 13 for displaying display information which includes characters, images, and the like, and a speaker 14 for outputting sounds received from the communication counterpart are disposed in the inner face (the face opposed to the lower casing 11) of the upper casing 10. In the state where the mobile phone 1 is closed, the display 13 and the speaker 14 are covered by the lower casing 11 so as not to be exposed to the outside, but, when the upper casing 10 is swung with respect to the lower casing 11 to be transformed to the opened state, they are exposed to the outside.
Operation keys 15 configured by, for example, a power source key for switching over the ON/OFF states of the power source, a call key for performing a calling process, ten keys for inputting numerals and characters, and shortcut keys for activating a mailing function, a Web function, a television function, a radio function, and the like are disposed in the inner face (the face opposed to the upper casing 10) of the lower casing 11. Also, a microphone 16 for picking up sounds is disposed in the lower casing 11. In the state where the mobilephone 1 is closed, the operation keys 15 and the microphone 16 are covered by the upper casing 10 so as not to be exposed to the outside, but, when the upper casing 10 is swung with respect to the lower casing 11 to be transformed to the opened state, they are exposed to the outside.
Next, the function of the mobile phone 1 will be described with reference to the functional block diagram shown in
The main controller 20 includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU), generally controls the mobile phone 1, and performs, for example, an information delivering process which will be described later, processes of executing application programs such as the mailing function, the Web function, and a game function, and other various calculating or controlling processes. The power source circuit portion 21 includes a power supply source (a battery or the like), switches over the ON/OFF states of the power source of the mobile phone 1 based on an input through the operation keys 15, and, when the power source is in the ON state, supplies an electric power from the power supply source to the various portions to enable the mobile phone 1 to operate.
The operation input controller 22 includes an input interface for the operation keys 15, and, when it is detected that one of the operation keys 15 is pressed, produces a signal indicative of the pressed operation keys 15. The signal is transmitted to the main controller 20. The display controller 23 includes a display interface for the display 13, and, based on the control of the main controller 20, displays document data, image data, and the like on the display 13.
Based on the control of the main controller 20, the sound controller 24 produces an analog sound signal from the sound picked up by the microphone 16, and converts the analog sound signal to a digital sound signal. When the sound controller 24 receives a digital sound signal, the sound controller converts the digital sound signal to an analog sound signal based on the control of the main controller 20, and outputs the sound signal as sound from the speaker 14.
Based on the control of the main controller 20, the communication controller 25 performs a spectrum despreading process on a reception signal received from a base station via an antenna 25a, to restore data. In accordance with instructions from the main controller 20, the data are transmitted to the sound controller 24 to be output from the speaker 14, transmitted to the display controller 23 to be displayed on the display 13, or recorded into the memory 26. When the communication controller 25 obtains sound data picked up by the microphone 16, data input through the operation keys 15, or data stored in the memory 26, the communication controller performs a spectrum spreading process on the data based on the control of the main controller 20, and transmits the resulting data to the base station via the antenna 25a.
The memory 26 is configured by: a Read Only Memory (ROM) a hard disk, and a nonvolatile memory which store programs for the process to be performed by the main controller 20, data required in the process, and the like; a database; a Random Access Memory (RAM) which temporarily stores data that are necessary in the process performed by the main controller 20; etc. It is assumed that various application programs to be executed by the main controller 20, and a program for the information delivering process which will be described later are stored in, for example, the ROM.
The television receiver 27 includes a television antenna 27a, and receives a television broadcast wave such as a terrestrial digital one-segment broadcast wave, a terrestrial digital broadcast wave, and a terrestrial 3-segment radio broadcast wave via the television antenna 27a. Then, the television receiver 27 performs a television viewing process in which the reception data of the received television broadcast wave are separated into a sound signal and an image signal, the image signal is displayed on the display 13 by the display controller 23, the sound signal is output from the speaker 14 by the sound controller 24.
As shown in
In the mobile phone 1, when the double-window displaying function is performed, windows for a plurality of application programs can be simultaneously displayed, but the user is enabled to operate at a time only one of the displayed application programs. That is, only one of the windows is active at a time. Therefore, in order to operate one of the application programs (for example, application B) when the other application program (for example, application A) is executed, an operation subject has to be switched from application A to application B, that is, the active window has to be switched from a window for the application A to a window for the application B.
Assuming that a mail creating function is executed as application A and a Web browsing function is executed as application B, for example, when information of application B which is in a non-operation state is to be cited in application A which is in the state of the operation subject, for example, the following procedure is to be executed: (1) an application program which is in the operation subject state is switched over (from application A to application B); (2) displayed information is copied to a clip board; (3) the application program which is in the operation subject state is switched over (returned from application B to application A); and (4) the information is pasted from the clipboard. Therefore, the operation is complicated and bothersome. In the mobile phone 1, unlike a Personal Computer (PC) and the like, the screen display capability, an input device, and the like are limited, and hence the problem may be more prominent.
As shown in
As described above, when two application programs are simultaneously executed and windows for the respective application programs are displayed on the same screen the mobile phone 1 performs the information delivering process of delivering information related to the application program that is in a non-operation state, in the application program which is one of the application programs, and which is in the operation subject state. The procedure which is performed by the mobile phone 1 in the information delivering process will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in
It is assumed that, in the mobile phone 1, the mail creating function is activated as application A which is in the operation subject state, and the Web browsing function is activated as application B which is in the non-operation state. At this time, as shown in (A) of
First, the main controller 20 determines whether the application program which is in a non-operation state has display information or not (S101) When application B which is in a non-operation state has URL information that is display information which can be delivered to application A that is in the operation subject state, for example, it is determined that the application program has display information. If the application program does not have display information (No in S101), the main controller 20 waits without performing any further processing.
If the application program which is in the non-operation state has display information (Yes in S101), the main controller 20 analyzes the display information of the application program which is in the non-operation state, based on analysis conditions (S103).
The main controller 20 delivers a result of the analysis in step S103 to the application program which is in the operation subject state (S105). In the case where a Web page corresponding to URL information of “http://www.hogehoge.co.jp/index.html” is browsed by the Web browsing function of application B, for example, the URL information is delivered to the mail creating function of application A.
The main controller 20 determines whether a character is input in the application program which is in the operation subject state or not (S107). At this time, in the case where an editor for character input is activated in the application program which is in the operation subject state and the user inputs a character by using the operation keys 15, for example, the main controller 20 determines that a character is input. If a character is not input (No in S107), the process returns to step S101 where the main controller 20 determines whether the application program which is in the non-operation state has display information or not.
If a character is input (Yes in S107), the main controller 20 determines whether the analysis result is included in input candidates for the input character or not (S109). As shown in (B) of
In the inputting through the operation keys 15, for example, pressing the key “4” one time corresponds to the letter “g” of the alphabet, pressing the key “4” two times corresponds to the letter “h” of the alphabet. When the analysis result is URL information of “http://www.hogehoge.co.jp/index.html”, when the key “4” is pressed one time, namely, the analysis result is not included in the input candidates, and, when the key “4” is pressed two times, the analysis result is included in the input candidates. The analysis result is not restricted to one set of information, but may be configured by plural sets of information.
If the analysis result is not included in the input candidates for the input character (No in S109), the main controller 20 displays usual input candidates (input candidates which do not include the analysis result) in the input candidate selection section 34 (S111). As shown in (B) of
If the analysis result is included in the input candidates for the input character (Yes in S109), the main controller 20 displays the input candidates which include the analysis result in the input candidate selection section 34 (S113). As shown in (C) of
At this time, when the user selects the URL information from the input candidate selection section 34 through the operation keys 15, the URL information is input into the body input section 33 as shown in (D) of
The main controller 20 determines whether the character inputting operation is ended or not (S115). At this time, for example, the main controller 20 determines that the character inputting operation is ended, based on that the editor function for character input is ended. If the character inputting operation is not ended (No in S115), the process returns to step S107, and the main controller again performs the processes of steps S107 to S115. If the character inputting operation is ended (Yes in S115), the process returns to step S101, and the main controller 20 again determines whether the application program which is in a non-operation state has display information or not.
As described above, when a plurality of application programs are executed and windows for the application programs are simultaneously displayed on the same screen, when the user performs character input in application A which is in the operation subject state, the mobile phone 1 obtains information related to application B which is an application program that is in a non-operation state, and presents the information to the user as a input candidate.
The mobile apparatus of the first embodiment can simultaneously execute a plurality of application programs, has the double-window displaying function of simultaneously displaying display screens for the application programs on the same screen, and can directly refer information related to an application program that is not the operation subject, as the input candidate in character input in an application program which is the operation subject, without switching an application program which is to be the operation subject. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the complexity, cumbrance, and bother of the user operation of referring information related to an application program which is in the non-operation state, in the application program which is the operation subject.
In the analysis condition information 40 shown in
A second embodiment of the electronic apparatus of the invention will be described with reference to
The mobile phone 1 of the first embodiment has the function of directly referring to display information of an application program which is in the non-operation state, in the input assistance function for character inputting of an application program which is the operation subject, without switching an application program which is to be the operation subject. In contrast, the mobile phone 1 of the second embodiment has a function of directly referring to meta-information of an application program which is in the non-operation state, in an application program which is the operation subject, without switching an application program which is to be the operation subject.
As shown in
In the mobile phone 1, when the double-window displaying function is performed, windows for a plurality of application programs can be simultaneously displayed, but the user is enabled to operate at a time only one of the displayed application programs. In order to switch to the operation of one of the application programs (for example, application B) in a state where the other application program (for example, application A) is operated, therefore, the operation subject must be switched from application A to application B.
In the case where a mail creating function is executed as application A and a Web browsing function is executed as application B, when meta-information of application B which is in the non-operation state is to be cited in application A which is in the operation subject state, for example, the following procedure must be executed: (1) an application program which is in the operation subject state is switched over (from application A to application B); (2) the meta-information of application B is copied to a clipboard; (3) the application program which is in the operation subject state is switched over (returned from application B to application A); and (4) the information is pasted from the clipboard. Therefore, the operation is complicated and bothersome.
As shown in
When two application programs are executed and screens for the application programs are displayed on the same screen, the mobile phone 1 of the second embodiment performs the information delivering process of delivering meta-information of the application program that is in a non-operation state based on the meta-information correspondence information 51, in the application program which is one of the application programs, and which is in the operation subject state. The procedure which is performed by the mobile phone 1 in the information delivering process will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in
It is assumed that, in the mobile phone 1, the mail creating function is executed as application A which is in the operation subject state, and the Web browsing function is executed as application B which is in the non-operation state. As shown in (A) of
First, the main controller 20 determines whether the end of the double-window display is instructed or not (S201). At this time, when the main controller 20 is instructed by, for example, user instructions through the operation keys 15 to terminate the execution of one or both of the application programs, the main controller determines that the end of the double-window display is instructed. If the end of the double-window display is instructed (Yes in S201), the main controller 20 terminates the one or both of the application programs to end the double-window display.
If the end of the double-window display is not instructed (No in S201), the main controller 20 determines whether an event of the application program which is in the non-operation state is updated or not (S203). In this case, the event means an event in which meta-information of the application program is changed, for example, the displayed Web page is changed, or the last update date/time of the displayed Web page is changed. If the event of the application program which is in the non-operation state is not updated (No in S203), the process returns to step S201 where the main controller 20 again determines whether the end of the double-window display is instructed or not.
If the event of the application program which is in the non-operation state is updated (Yes in S203), the main controller 20 produces meta-information of the application program in which the even has been updated (S205). At this time, as shown in
The main controller 20 determines whether the display of the meta-information of the application program which is in the non-operation state is instructed in the application program which is in the operation subject state or not (S207). Based on user instructions through the operation keys 15, for example, the main controller 20 displays a sub-menu display section 35 on the display screen 30. As shown in (B) of
If the display of the meta-information of the application program which is in the non-operation state is not instructed (No in S207), the process returns to step S201 where the main controller 20 again determines whether the end of the double-window display is instructed or not.
If the display of the meta-information of the application program which is in the non-operation state is instructed (Yes in S207), the main controller 20 delivers the meta-information of the application program which is in the non-operation state, i.e., the meta-information which is produced in step S205, to the application program which is in the operation subject state (S209). At this time, the main controller 20 displays a sub-menu display section 36 in which the meta-information of application B that is an application program in the non-operation state is selectably displayed. As shown in (C) of
When one of the links is selected in response to user instructions through the operation keys 15, the main controller 20 determines that the display of the meta-information corresponding to the selected link, and displays the meta-information corresponding to the selected link 36a in the operation subject state application display section 32. In the case where the link of “page URL” is selected, for example, the main controller 20 displays “http://www.toshiba.co.jp” which is the URL of the Webpage that is displayed in application B, in the operation subject state application display section 32 as shown in (D) of
Then, the process returns to step S201, and the main controller 20 again performs the processes of steps S201 to S209. As described above, when a plurality of application programs are simultaneously executed and screens for the application programs are simultaneously displayed on the same screen, the main controller 20 produces/updates as needed the meta-information of application B that is an application program in the non-operation state, whereby, in the case where the user wishes to refer to meta-information of application B in application A which is an application program in the operation subject state, application A is enabled to obtain the meta-information of application B, and the meta-information of application B is presented to the user as apart of the process of application A.
Even when it is determined in step S203 that an event of the application program which is in the non-operation state is not updated, when meta-information of the application program is not produced, the process proceeds to step S205, and the main controller 20 produces meta-information.
As the second embodiment, the example where meta-information of an application program in the non-operation state is presented to the user has been described. However, the invention is not restricted to this. Alternatively, meta-information may be used in a form where the user is not conscious of the reference to the meta-information. For example, meta-information may be used in an operation of selecting a conversion/input candidate in an input assistance function.
The second embodiment can simultaneously execute a plurality of application programs, has the double-window displaying function of simultaneously displaying windows for the application programs on the same screen, and can directly refer meta-information of an application program that is not the operation subject, in an application program which is the operation subject, without switching the application program which is to be the operation subject.
A case where any intention of the user is reflected to each of sets of information handled in a plurality of application programs which are simultaneously displayed by the double-window displaying function of the mobile phone 1 may be possible. Therefore, data cooperation which is conscious of relationships of the sets of information is enabled in a form where the respective sets of information are referred.
Although the invention has been described with reference to the mobile phone 1, the invention is not restricted to this, and may be any electronic apparatus which executes an application program, such as a Personal Handy phone System (PHS), a Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), a portable music player, a portable video camera, and a portable video game machine.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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P2008-208196 | Aug 2008 | JP | national |