Patent Application
20140189596
Embodiments described herein relate generally to an information processing apparatus, screen control program, and screen control method.
In a launcher program executed in a device such as a tablet, smart phone, or the like, a start screen is displayed when the device is booted, and the start screen includes icons to launch various applications. The various applications are, for example, mailer, browser application, and music player application, and the like. When an icon is selected in the screen, an application corresponding to the icon is launched. In such a launcher, when the number of the installed applications or the number of icons of the applications arranged by a user is increased, the increased icons do not remain in a single screen and the overflowing icons will be arranged on the other screen changeable from the single screen.
Here, when the application information is updated, for example, when the mailer receives a mail, the update should preferably be informed to the user in an easily understandable manner.
A general architecture that implements the various features of the embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate the embodiments and not to limit the scope of the invention.
Hereinafter, the present embodiment is described with reference to the drawings.
In general, according to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a first display controller and a second display controller. The information processing apparatus is configured to output a screen on a display module. The first display controller is configured to output a first screen including an icon to be selected based on whether a program corresponding to the icon is updated, the first display controller being configured to output the first screen when the information processing apparatus is reactivated from a standby mode, the first screen including first and second icons which correspond to first and second programs and include images related to the update. The second display controller is configured to output a second screen including the first icon and changeable from the first screen and to output a third screen including the second icon and changeable from the second screen. The first icon in the first screen and the first icon in the second screen are indicative of an identical update. The second icon in the first screen and the second icon in the third screen are indicative of an identical update.
The PC 100 includes a CPU 101, system controller 102, memory 103, graphics controller (GPU) 104, display 105, solid state drive (SSD) 106, BIOS-ROM 107, embedded controller/keyboard controller (EC/KBC) 108, touch sensor 109, keyboard 110, WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network) controller 111, WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) controller 112, and the like.
The CPU 101 is a processor which controls the operations of the respective components in the PC 100. The CPU 101 executes programs loaded from the SSD 106 into the memory 103, for example, an operating system (OS), UI control program 300, and various applications 350. Here, the various applications include, for example, a mail application, weather forecast application, photograph display application, net shop site display application, map display application, browser application, music player application, calendar application, game application, coupon acquisition application, phone application, SNS viewer application, and the like.
Furthermore, the CPU 101 executes BIOS (Basic Input Output System) stored in BIOS-ROM 107 which is a nonvolatile memory. The BIOS is a system program for controlling hardware.
The system controller 102 is a bridge device connecting between the CPU 101 and each component. The system controller 102 includes a serial ATA controller which controls the SSD 106. The system controller 102 has a function to execute the communication with the GPU 104 via a serial bus of PCI EXPRESS standard and the like.
The GPU 104 is a display controller for controlling the display 105 used as a display monitor of the PC 100. The GPU 104 generates a display signal to be supplied to the display 105 based on display data stored in a video memory which is not shown. A part of the memory 103 may be used as the aforementioned video memory.
The EC/KBC 108 is a single chip microcomputer in which an embedded controller (power management controller) which manages the power of the PC 100, a touch sensor controller which controls the touch sensor 109, and a key board controller which controls the keyboard 110 are integrated.
The touch sensor 109 is, for example, a touch panel provided in the display 105 or a touch pad provided in a palm rest of the PC 100, and detects a touch operation by a user on the touch panel/touch pad. In the present embodiment, the operation detection by the touch panel, which detects a touch operation on the display 105, is mainly described but a mouse or the like may be used as an input device.
The WWAN controller 111 is a communication module which controls, for example, mobile communication, and communicates with a mobile communication base station via an antenna which is not shown. The WLAN controller 112 communicates with a WLAN base station via an antenna which is not shown.
Operation information is input in the operation receiver 301 from the EC/KBC 108. Here, the operation information is, for example, coordinate information of the touch operation detected by the touch sensor 109 and the like. The operation receiver 301 outputs the input operation information to the login controller 302 or launcher controller 303.
The login controller 302 controls a user login to the predetermined account of the operating system. When the PC 100 has returned from the standby mode to the active mode, specifically, for example, when the state of the PC 100 changes from the Connected Standby state to the S0 state of the ACPI standard, the login controller 302 displays a login screen for authenticating the user login. The Connected Standby stands for a display system in which the display 105 and the graphics controller 104 are in an off-state while the CPU 101, communications modules (the WWAN controller 111 and the WLAN controller 112, etc.) and the like are in operation. However, in a smart phone, this state may be referred to as a “standby mode” instead of the Connected Standby.
If valid authentication information such as a password and the predetermined gesture is input while the login screen is displayed, the login controller 302 permits login to the predetermined account. The login controller 302 may display a lock screen before displaying the login screen, and may display the login screen if the predetermined operation is input for the lock screen. Moreover, the login controller 302 may allow a user login without displaying the login screen if the predetermined operation is input for the lock screen.
The launcher controller 303 has a function of generating a start screen on which icons respectively corresponding to the various applications 350 are arranged and displaying the screen on the display 105. The launcher controller 303 includes the update controller 304 which executes a process related to an update notification icon for notifying update of the applications 350. The update controller 304 obtains update information related to the update of the application status of each application 350. Based on the update information, the update controller 304 selects an updated application, and generates an update notification screen including an update notification icon corresponding to the selected application. Thus, when generating the update notification screen, the update controller 304 does not select an application which has not been updated and does not arrange an icon corresponding to the unselected application on the update notification screen.
When the update notification screen including a plurality of update notification icons is generated, the update controller 304 may arrange update notification icons in accordance with, for example, the priority order for each application set by the user and the latest updated time for each application, etc. Further, the alignment of each icon on a start screen described below may be reflected. An icon located on the left side on the start screen may be arranged so as to be further left, and an icon located on the upper side may be arranged so as to be further up.
When the launcher controller 303 receives an operation for the icon on the displayed screen, the launcher controller 303 notifies the application corresponding to the icon of start via the OS. The update controller 304 may be an application program which is independent from the UI control program 300. In this case, the update controller 304 is resident at the time of operating the system, and operates to generate and display the update notification screen when the PC 100 is reactivated.
Each of the applications 350 generates a display screen itself and displays the screen on the display 105 when each application is started. When the PC 100 is in the active mode or in the Connected Standby state, the applications 350 operate in the background and update the application status.
The update of the application status is explained with examples. For example, a mailer communicates with a network server using a communication module. When the mailer receives a mail, the application status of the mailer is updated. As for a telephone application, when the telephone application receives a call, the application status of the telephone application is updated. As for an SNS browse application, when another user who was registered as a friend updates SNS information and then the SNS browse application receives the notification of the update, the application status of the SNS browse application is updated. As for a coupon acquisition application, when the coupon acquisition application receives coupon information of a store near the current location of the PC 100, the application status of the coupon acquisition application is updated. As for a calendar application, even if the calendar application receives no information from the outside, the application status of the calendar application is updated in order to execute an alert when the time or date of the set schedule has arrived or is approaching.
Each of the update notice icons P512 to P515 is an icon corresponding to the application whose status is updated. Each icon includes an image (text) indicating an application name and an image (text) indicating an updated content (notice information). That is, the icon P512 includes the application name “Mail” and the notice information of “10 mails have been received”. The icon P513 includes the application name “SNS” and the notice information of “Your friends have updated SNS”. The icon P514 includes the application name “Phone” and the notice information of “Two voice messages have been recorded”. The icon P515 includes the application name “Coupon” and the notice information of “New coupon has arrived”. The update notice icon has, for example, the shape of a rectangular tile. When a plurality of icons are arranged, these icons are arranged at regular intervals. If there is an input operation to one of the icons, an application corresponding to the operated icon is started, and transition to the screen of the application is performed.
The button P516 is a software button to close the update notice screen. If an operation input to the button P516 is received, the display screen is changed to a default start screen shown in
In an update notice screen P520 of
That is, in the example of
The icons such as P613 to P615 and P621 to P625 are images to activate applications, and if an application status is updated, an image indicative of the contents of the update is displayed therein. That is, the icon P512 shown in
Here, when the update controller 304 works as an independent application, an icon P631 which corresponds to the application of the update controller 304 may be displayed as shown in
In that case, the PC 100 displays the update notification screen as shown in
When an application screen is displayed by selecting an icon on the update notification screen shown in
First, while the PC 100 is in the Connected Standby condition (standby mode) (S701), the update controller 304 inquires whether there is any update in each application status by polling each of the various applications 350. Then, if there is an update of the application status of any one of the various applications 350 (Yes of S702), the update controller 304 determines where an icon corresponding to the updated application is arranged on the update notification screen (S703).
If there are a plurality of updated applications, the update controller 304 determines the positions of the icons of the updated applications based on the priority order and latest update time of each application as mentioned above. The update controller 304 repeats polling while the PC 100 is in the standby mode and determines the position of the icon in each time of application status update.
Then, when the PC 100 receives an operation to reactivate the PC 100 (Yes in S704), the display 105 displays a lock screen shown in
When the login screen is displayed and a valid authentication code is input, the display 105 displays the update notification screen shown in
When the touch sensor 109 receives an operation input to set the application non-display/inactive or an operation input to terminate the application while the screen of the application is displayed (“Application non-display operation” in S710), the update controller 304 determines whether an icon which has not been selected by a user is in the update notification icon in the update notification screen (S711). In other words, the update controller 304 determines whether there is an application whose update has not been confirmed by the user. The operation to set the application non-display is, for example, a swipe operation from the periphery of the upper end of the display screen to the lower end thereof, or an operation on a return button.
If there is an application whose update has not been confirmed (Yes in S711), the update controller 304 again displays the update notification screen (S707). The update controller 304 displays the update notification screen from which the icon corresponding to the application whose update has already been confirmed is excluded.
On the other hand, when an operation input to an initial screen button for displaying a predetermined screen is received in S710 (“Initial screen button” in S710), or when there is no update unconfirmed application in S711 (No in S711), the display 105 displays the start screen shown in
The PC 100 displays a screen including the update notification screen within the start screen shown in
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-285459 | Dec 2012 | JP | national |
This application is a Continuation Application of PCT Application No. PCT/JP2013/058495, filed Mar. 25, 2013 and based upon and claiming the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-285459, filed Dec. 27, 2012, the entire contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/JP2013/058495 | Mar 2013 | US |
| Child | 14013831 | US |
