Patent Application
20130050267
The present invention relates to an information processing terminal capable of displaying article contents that are supplied as print on paper and provided electronically as well.
In recent years, information processing terminals capable of displaying electronic articles and other similar contents on a screen have been gaining popularity. Patent Document No. 1, for example, discloses a cellular phone that can display on a display unit a body text of one of a plurality of electronic articles. This cellular phone has a button for displaying electronic articles preceding and following the currently displayed article and displays the dates of the preceding and following electronic articles in the vicinity of the button. Pressing the button displays the preceding and following articles that are in the same category as that of the currently displayed article.
Patent Document No. 2 discloses displaying a plurality of pieces of information including category information on a terminal's screen so that a user can easily find a desired article from among distributed news articles. The user can specify a desired category to have the terminal display articles in the specified category.
Patent Document No. 3 discloses a display device capable of displaying, instead of electronic articles, a program listing sorted by time, channel, and category. A user can select a desired category from a plurality of categories to have the display device display a program listing in the selected category. This allows a user to search for objective program information intuitively.
Patent Documents No. 4 to No. 9 disclose devices capable of displaying news article contents on a screen. Those devices can display not only the details of each article but also a newspaper page image.
Conventional information processing terminals are supposed to display only one of a screen for displaying a newspaper page image and a screen for displaying a list of articles that are considered important by the publisher of the newspaper. The conventional terminals therefore cannot deal with the case where the preferred screen display mode varies from one user to another and the case where the same user wishes to switch to a different screen display mode that suits the situation. This problem is not limited to newspaper display but is common to the case where the displayed contents are magazines, general books, and the like.
The present invention has been made in view of the problem described above, and provides an information processing terminal capable of readily switching between a screen for displaying a list of articles that are considered to be important by the creator of contents and a screen for displaying contents in the same layout as that of print on paper.
An information processing terminal according to the present invention displays contents that are supplied as print on paper and provided electronically as well. The information processing terminal includes a display, a touch sensor that detects an input from a user on the display, and a control unit that displays the contents on the display. The control unit switches between a first display mode for displaying list information of the contents on the display and a second display mode for displaying the contents on the display in the same layout as a layout of the print on paper in accordance with an instruction from the user.
In an embodiment, in the information processing terminal according to claim 1, the contents are newspaper articles.
In an embodiment, the control unit selects a portion of the contents displayed in the second display mode and displays the portion in the first display mode as well on the display.
In an embodiment, the portion of the contents is an image that represents a headline of an article or a photograph.
In an embodiment, the control unit displays a first button for switching to the second display mode on the display in the first display mode, displays a second button for switching to the first display mode on the display in the second display mode and, when the user taps the first button or the second button, switches between the first display mode and the second display mode.
In an embodiment, in the first display mode, the contents are sorted by date information and category information, and, when the user specifies a particular article displayed on the display in the second display mode, the control unit switches to the first display mode to display list information of a date and a category to which the particular article belongs on the display.
In an embodiment, when the user specifies a particular article in the first display mode, the control unit switches to a third display mode for displaying details information of the particular article on the display.
In an embodiment, when the user specifies a particular article displayed on the display in the second display mode, the control unit switches to a third display mode for displaying details information of the particular article on the display.
In an embodiment, in the third display mode, the control unit displays a third button for switching to the second display mode on the display and, when the user taps the third button, switches to the second display mode.
In an embodiment, when the user performs pinching in the second display mode, the control unit increases or reduces display magnification.
In an embodiment, when the user performs dragging in the second display mode, the control unit scrolls display.
In an embodiment, in the first display mode, the contents are sorted by date information and category information, and, in the first display mode, the control unit displays on the display the date information including a plurality of dates, the category information including a plurality of categories, and list information about a list of contents belonging to a date and a category that are selected by the user from among the plurality of dates of the date information and the plurality of categories of the category information.
In an embodiment, when a date different from a date of currently displayed contents is selected in the first display mode, the control unit displays, on the display, list information about a list of contents of the selected date that belong to the same category as a category of the currently displayed contents or a category similar to the category of the currently displayed contents.
In an embodiment, when a category different from a category of currently displayed contents is selected in the first display mode, the control unit displays, on the display, list information about a list of contents of the selected category that belong to the same date as a date of the currently displayed contents.
Another information processing terminal according to the present invention includes a display, a touch sensor that detects an input from a user on the display, a memory, a processor, and a program stored in the memory. The program controls the processor to execute the steps of: displaying list information of the contents on the display; displaying the contents on the display in the same layout as a layout of the print on paper; and switching between a first display mode for displaying the list information of the contents on the display and a second display mode for displaying the contents on the display in the same layout as the layout of the print on paper in accordance with an instruction from the user.
A display control method according to the present invention is for use in an information processing terminal for displaying contents that are supplied as print on paper and provided electronically as well. The display control method includes the steps of: displaying list information of the contents on a display of the information processing terminal; displaying the contents on the display in the same layout as a layout of the print on paper; and switching between a first display mode for displaying the list information of the contents on the display and a second display mode for displaying the contents on the display in the same layout as the layout of the print on paper in accordance with an instruction from a user.
A display control program according to the present invention is for use in an information processing terminal for displaying contents that are supplied as print on paper and provided electronically as well. The display control program controls a computer to execute the steps of: displaying list information of the contents on a display of the information processing terminal; displaying the contents on the display in the same layout as a layout of the print on paper; and switching between a first display mode for displaying the list information of the contents on the display and a second display mode for displaying the contents on the display in the same layout as the layout of the print on paper in accordance with an instruction from a user.
According to the present invention, it is possible to readily switch between the screen for displaying the list of articles that are considered to be important by the creator of contents and the screen for displaying contents in the same layout as that of print on paper, and user's convenience is thus improved.
An information processing terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention is capable of displaying newspapers, magazines, general books, and other contents that are supplied as print on paper and provided electronically as well. In particular, the information processing terminal according to the embodiment of the present invention can switch between a mode for displaying list information of contents and a mode for displaying the contents in the same contents layout as that of print on paper, and can thus improve users' convenience.
The embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The information processing terminal 100 includes a touch screen 110, which has a display for displaying contents and a touch sensor that detects an input from a user, and operation buttons 120, which make common operation of the information processing terminal 100 possible. The information processing terminal 100 may also include a power switch, an external IF, a camera, a speaker, a microphone, and others that are not particularly necessary for the understanding of the present invention and are therefore omitted from the description. The operation buttons 120 may be buttons that recognize an input by detecting the approach of a finger or the like with a touch sensor, or buttons that detect an input when actually pressed by the user.
The touch screen 110 includes, as described above, the touch sensor which is denoted by 112 and detects an input from the user, and the display which is denoted by 114 and displays information. The touch screen 110 can be implemented by any known method as long as the method allows an input from the user and an output to the display.
The operation buttons 120 may be, as described above, buttons that detect an input with a touch sensor or buttons that detect an input when actually pressed by the user. The operation buttons 120 may include a button for calling up an initial screen (home screen) of the information processing terminal 100, a button for returning to the preceding screen display, a button for calling up a screen on which various settings of the terminal are made, and the like.
The processor 140 may be configured from, for example, a combination of an integrated circuit that includes a known central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) with various programs, or from dedicated hardware. The processor 140 controls what is displayed on the display 114 based on inputs from the operation buttons 120, the touch sensor 112, the communication circuit 160, the acceleration sensor 180, and others, and also controls communication to/from the distribution server 500.
The memory 150 is a known semiconductor memory such as a DRAM, an SRAM, or a flash memory. The memory 150 stores input data from the operation buttons 120, the touch sensor 112, the communication circuit 160, the acceleration sensor 180, and others, and various types of temporary data that are generated in processing of the processor 140. The memory 150 also stores various programs executed by the processor 140.
The communication circuit 160 is a known communication circuit for transmitting an article data request signal to the distribution server 500, which is provided on a site remote from the terminal, upon instruction from the processor 140, and for receiving distributed article data. The communication circuit 160 performs wireless communication in conformity to, for example, the IEEE 802.11 standards, and can connect to the Internet via a telephone line, an optical fiber network, a cellular phone network, or the like.
The acceleration sensor 180 is a sensor that detects the tilt of the information processing terminal 100. The processor 140 performs control for rotating what is displayed on the display 114 depending on the tilt detected by the acceleration sensor 180. Instead of the acceleration sensor 180, other types of sensors such as a gyroscope may be used to detect the tilt of the information processing terminal 100.
Examples of screen configurations used to display newspaper articles on the information processing terminal 100 are described below.
a) illustrates an example of the widget-based display screen. For example, the widget-based display screen may be displayed after the terminal is booted up based on settings customized in advance by the user. The widget-based display screen displays the headlines and photographs of main articles of the day by switching from, for example, page to page of a newspaper at regular time intervals. This allows the user to know summaries of newspaper articles of the day without activating a dedicated application. Though not shown in
b) and 3(c) illustrate examples of the dedicated application-based display screen. When an application activating icon displayed on the initial screen of the information processing terminal 100 is selected (tapped), or when one of article compartments displayed by the widget described above is tapped, a dedicated application is activated and one of the screens illustrated as examples in
b) illustrates an example of a screen that is displayed when the application activating icon is selected. This screen is for displaying a list of contents sorted by date information 310 and category information 320. This screen is prepared for each category, and takes the form of headlines or photographs, or a combination of headlines and photographs. The screen of
The date information 310 is information for specifying the date of an article to be displayed. The date information 310 in the illustrated example is a week's worth of dates displayed side by side at the top of the screen. It is preferred to display the date information 310 in this manner, where a given number of days (e.g., seven days) counted back from the latest date among already obtained pieces of newspaper article data are displayed at the same time.
The category information 320 is information for specifying the category of an article to be displayed. The category information 320 in the illustrated example is categories displayed on top of one another on the left-hand side of the screen. The categories correspond to pages of a newspaper on a one-on-one basis. For example, the front page of a newspaper corresponds to a “first thing in the morning” category, and the first page of the sports section corresponds to a “sports 1” category. The terminal in this embodiment is set to display list information of the “first thing in the morning” category immediately after the application is activated. The category information 320 allows the user to specify a desired category from among a plurality of categories with ease. When the user specifies a category, the terminal displays articles belonging to the specified category that have the same date as that of the currently displayed article. In the case where there are too many categories to contain the entire category information 320 in one screen, the screen may be scrolled vertically to display out-of-view categories.
An example of information displayed as the category information 320 is described.
The processor 140 thus displays the article list screen in which the display 114 displays, along with the date information 310 including a plurality of dates and the category information 320 including a plurality of categories, list information of a list of contents that belong to a date and category specified by the user from among the dates of the date information and the categories of the category information. When a date different from the date of the currently displayed contents is selected, the display 114 displays list information about a list of contents of the selected date that belong to the same category as that of the currently displayed contents or a similar category. When a category different from the category of the currently displayed contents is selected, on the other hand, the display 114 displays list information about a list of contents belonging to the selected category that have the same date as that of the currently displayed contents. The user can have the thus configured terminal display list information about a list of articles of a desired date and category.
c) illustrates an example of a screen that is displayed when one of articles displayed by the widget is selected or one of articles displayed in the article list screen is selected. This screen displays details of the selected article, and is called herein as “individual article screen”. The individual article screen, too, displays the date information 310 and the category information 320 so that an article of a date and category selected by the user is displayed. In the case where an article is not contained in one screen, the individual article screen can be scrolled by dragging the screen up and down. In the case where a displayed category has a plurality of articles, the individual article screen can display preceding and following articles that belong to the same date and the same category by dragging the screen to the left and the right. In the individual article screen, an enlarged photograph may be displayed by tapping a part of a photograph that is put alongside the article.
The processor 140 displays the individual article screen in which the display 114 displays, along with the date information 310 including a plurality of dates and the category information 320 including a plurality of categories, details information of contents that belong to a date and category specified by the user from among the dates of the date information and the categories of the category information. When a date different from the date of the currently displayed contents is selected, the display 114 displays list information about a list of contents of the selected date that belong to the same category as that of the currently displayed contents or a similar category. When a category different from the category of the currently displayed contents is selected, the display 114 displays list information about a list of contents belonging to the selected category that have the same date as that of the currently displayed contents. The user can have the thus configured terminal display list information about a list of articles of a desired date and category. When the date or the category is changed in the individual article screen, the display 114 may display the individual article screen of the changed date or category instead of displaying list information that has the changed date or category.
Information displayed in the article list screen and the individual article screen can be enlarged or reduced by the user's action in which the user stretches or shrinks a display area with two fingers (pinching on the touch screen).
The layout of the date information 310 and the category information 320 may differ from the one in the examples of
The examples of
a) to 5(c) are diagrams illustrating an example of a method of transition between these screens. Tapping inside the compartment of a specific article that is displayed by the widget of
The operation of displaying a details screen of a specific article by tapping inside the compartment of the article in the widget-based screen and the article list screen is implemented by, for example, the following mechanism. The information processing terminal 100 keeps “article area information” indicating which area of the touch screen 110 is associated with which article in, for example, the memory 150. The processor 140 recognizes which point on the touch screen 110 has been tapped by the user, identifies an article that is associated with the tapped point by referring to the article area information, and displays the details screen of the identified article.
An operation of displaying a newspaper image is described next. The information processing terminal 100 in this embodiment is capable of displaying articles in exactly the same layout as that of an actual newspaper, aside from the article list screen and individual article screen described above. A screen displayed in the same layout as that of an actual newspaper may herein be called as “newspaper page image”.
a) to 6(c) are diagrams illustrating an example of the operation of displaying a newspaper page image. The article list screen of
In this embodiment, where categories and newspaper pages correspond to each other on a one-to-one basis, the newspaper page image of a page corresponding to a category that has just been displayed is displayed. The user can freely scroll and enlarge/reduce the newspaper page image screen as is the case for the individual article screen and other screens. Tapping page switching buttons 810 and 820 of
A converse transition from a newspaper page image to the article list screen is also possible. For example, the newspaper page image screen of
The transition between the article list screen and the individual article screen is executed by the screen switching method described above with reference to
a) to 7(c) are diagrams illustrating another example of the operation of displaying a newspaper page image. In the example of
In the example of
In the example of
The terminal in the example described above can shift to a newspaper page image from the article list screen and from the individual article screen both. However, it is sufficient if the terminal is capable of at least screen transition between the article list screen and the newspaper page image.
A newspaper page image has exactly the same information as that of a page of a newspaper delivered to home or sold in stores. The individual article screen may not hold all pieces of information of a newspaper due to the configuration of the screen. The article list screen is useful in that the user can quickly grasp list information about a list of articles that are considered important by the publisher of the newspaper. However some user may want to search for information he/she wishes to read from an actual newspaper. In such cases, the user can read all pieces of information and search for desired information by referring to a newspaper page image.
Conventional information processing terminals that display newspaper articles are supposed to display only one of a screen for displaying a newspaper page image and a screen for displaying a list or articles that are considered important by the publisher of the newspaper. The conventional terminals therefore cannot deal with the case where the preferred screen display mode varies from one user to another and the case where the same user wishes to switch to a different screen display mode that suits the situation.
In other words, some users prefer one of the two types of screens described above, but a conventional device that provides only one of the screens cannot fulfill this need. For the newspaper industry where the number of users is large, the advantage of letting a user select a preferred screen as in this embodiment is great.
In addition, the same user may want to absorb a page on the newspaper page image screen by analyzing the intention of the publisher before reading detailed articles in the case where the user has time or the like, and want to read only main articles on the article list screen in the case where the user has little time. Conventional devices cannot switch between the newspaper page image screen and the screen for displaying a list of articles that are considered important by the publisher with a simple operation, and significantly impair the convenience of users.
Those problems are not limited to the newspaper industry and are also observed in the book industry which publishes magazines and general articles. This embodiment solves those problems and thus improves users' convenience markedly.
An example of a method of constructing the article list screen is described next.
The layout of the article list screen is determined by, for example, the publisher of the newspaper articles with the use of a dedicated tool (called “authoring tool”). An authoring tool is a program for automatically generating candidate layouts of the article list screen based on newspaper article data that is prepared in a predetermined format. After all articles have been created, the publisher of the newspaper articles inputs article data to the authoring tool to obtain candidate layouts of the article list screen. The publisher can choose one optimum layout from the plurality of automatically generated candidates. The publisher may also modify the layout himself/herself.
The “20110704” directory includes directories “01” to “20” which respectively correspond to pages (categories) of the newspaper. Specifically, the “01” directory stores data relevant to the front page and the “20” directory stores data relevant to the twentieth page (the last page). The directories “01” to “20” each include “paper.jpg” which is image data of the entire page, “photo1.jpg”, “photo2.jpg” . . . which are pieces of image data of individual articles, and “data.csv” which is data describing details information of articles of that page. The data “data.csv” of each page which describes details information of articles of the page has, for each article included in that category, information such as an article number, a morning edition/evening edition flag, a category name, a headline, the body text, and an associated image file name. Image files in the illustrated example are Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) files but other image file formats may be used. Similarly, data describing details information of articles of each page is not limited to a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file and other file formats may be used.
The authoring tool reads data whose exemplary structure is illustrated in
The authoring tool has a graphical user interface to enable the publisher of the newspaper to modify a selected layout. The publisher of the newspaper can thus edit the article list screen in a manner that makes the screen more impactful. For example, the publisher may change an article to be displayed large in the article list screen or may change the sizes of the compartments of the respective articles. The publisher may also edit the article list screen so that a partial headline, partial photograph, or the like of one article in a newspaper page image is displayed in the article list screen by cut and paste as illustrated in
When the publisher of the newspaper performs processing of completing the article list screen layout creation, the authoring tool outputs data to be distributed to each user (distributed data). The distributed data is distributed to the information processing terminal 100 of each user via a telecommunication line. Details of the distributed data are described later with reference to
Other functions of the information processing terminal 100 of this embodiment are described next. The information processing terminal 100 may include, in addition to the operations described above, the following functions.
a) to 11(c) are diagrams illustrating an example of screen transition that takes place when the user changes the date while the article list screen or the individual article screen is displayed. First, as illustrated in
Thus, when a date different from the date of the currently displayed article is specified, the article list screen of the same category for the specified date is displayed. There may be cases where articles of the same category do not have the specified date. For instance, the currently displayed “sports 2” category may include no articles of the specified date. In such cases, when a category similar to “sports 2” includes articles of the specified date, the article list screen of this category is displayed. For example, when the “sports 2” category includes no articles of the specified date, the article list screen of “sports” is displayed instead. Similar categories are, for example, “sports” and “sports 2”, and “general 1” and “general 2”. When there is no category similar to the category of the currently displayed article, the initial screen which is set in advance (for example, the front page) is displayed.
How the presence or absence of articles of a similar category is determined is described next. For example, the information processing terminal 100 can determine as a similar category a category that is found through a prefix search to have a name partially overlapping with the current category name. Alternatively, the terminal may determine similarity based on a table that defines preset similar categories as the one illustrated in
As described, when a date different from the date of the currently displayed contents is selected, the information processing terminal 100 of this embodiment displays contents of the same category as that of the currently referred contents or a similar category. According to this embodiment, when the date is changed, contents highly related to those that have just been viewed can be viewed successively without needing to shift to the initial screen, and users' convenience is thus improved compared to conventional information processing terminals.
a) and 13(b) are diagrams illustrating a function of switching between a horizontal writing display mode and a vertical writing display mode. As illustrated in the drawings, the information processing terminal 100 may have a function of switching the display mode of the individual article screen between horizontal writing display and vertical writing display. A newspaper in Japanese is usually written vertically, and a need for vertically written Japanese articles to read on the information processing terminal 100 is expected. Display switching buttons 900 for switching between horizontal writing and vertical writing may therefore be provided in the individual article screen as illustrated in
a) and 14(b) are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation of displaying an alert about the fact that the individual article screen cannot be scrolled further. The individual article screen cannot be scrolled further after the end of an article is reached. At that point, the information processing terminal 100 displays a red line (alert display) 1000 in order to inform the user of the fact that the end of the article has been reached. This function calls the user's attention to an unintended scrolling action due to a slip of a finger that occurs when, for example, the user is trying to display an enlarged view of a photograph in the article by tapping the photograph. The alert display which is a red line in this embodiment can be any display form as long as the user's attention can be drawn.
An example of data distribution to the information processing terminal 100 and distributed data is described next.
The “20110704” directory includes a “category” directory, a “paper” directory, a “widget” directory, and a “metadata.xml” file. The “category” directory stores data of contents displayed in the article list screen and the individual article screen. The “paper” directory stores image data displayed in the newspaper page image screen. The “widget” directory stores image data displayed in the widget-based screen. The “category” directory, the “paper” directory, and the “widget” directory each include directories “01” to “20”, which correspond to respective pages (categories) of the newspaper. Specifically, the “01” directory stores data relevant to the front page and the “20” directory stores data relevant to the 20th page (the last page). The file “metadata.xml” is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file that describes metadata such as date.
The “category” directory includes “categorys.txt” which describes a list of category names. The information processing terminal 100 refers to this data to display category information in the article list screen and the individual article screen. The directories “01” to “20” that are included in the “category” directory each include a “news.xml” file and a plurality of Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) files. The “news.xml” file is an XML file that describes text data of every article belonging to the category in question, paths to image data (the JPEG files described above), and article layout information. The processor 140 refers to this XML file to display respective articles on the display 114.
For each page of a newspaper, data of a newspaper page image is broken into 16 pieces, which are stored in the “paper” directory. The directories “01” to “20” each store 16 JPEG files. These JPEG files are obtained by breaking newspaper paper image into 16 images, which together constitute one page of newspaper image. The processor 140 receives from the user a request to display a newspaper page image, and then uses these JPEG files to display the newspaper page image screen.
The “widget” directory stores data for defining the compartments of images displayed in the widget-based screen and the article list screen. The directories “01” to “20” each store 16 Portable Network Graphics (PNG) files and a “template.text” file. The “template.text” file describes compartment information for defining the compartments of respective articles in the widget-based screen and the article list screen. The compartment information is used as the “article area information” described above. Files “news0.png” to “news15.png” are pieces of data obtained by dividing an image that is displayed in the widget-based screen and the article list screen into 16 images by category. The compartment information indicates which part of the screen divided equally into 16 parts and represented by these pieces of data is associated with which article. The “article area information” is not limited to this example, and may be information indicating which coordinates on the screen are associated with which article. For instance, in the case where a point on the screen is expressed by rectangle coordinates, the “widget” directory may record a file defining which coordinates are associated with which article, instead of the above-mentioned compartment information. In addition to the data described above, the “widget” directory may store advertisement image data and the like.
The distributed data described above allows the information processing terminal 100 to display latest article data. The information processing terminal 100 receives every morning distributed data whose exemplary data structure is illustrated in
As described above, the information processing terminal 100 of this embodiment displays contents based on newspaper article data which is distributed from the distribution server 500 of a newspaper publishing company. However, the present invention is not limited to this mode. For example, the displayed contents are not limited to newspaper articles, but may be magazine and general book contents as long as the contents are data supplied as print on paper and provided electronically as well. Contents data may be recorded in the information processing terminal 100 via a recording medium instead of a telecommunication line.
Programs that define the above-mentioned processing procedures which are executed by the processor 140 in this embodiment can be distributed independently of the information processing terminal 100. These programs can be recorded in the information processing terminal 100 via, for example, a telecommunication line or via a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a magnetic tape, or a memory card.
The operating system (OS) of the information processing terminal 100 in this embodiment is not limited to a particular OS and may be, for example, one of Android (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), and Windows (registered trademark), or other OSs. The information processing terminal 100 may be a tablet terminal or may be a so-called smart phone. A terminal that does not have the functions of this embodiment can function as the information processing terminal 100 of this embodiment if programs (applications) that define the processing procedures of this embodiment are downloaded from, for example, a site selling programs and installed in the terminal.
In the embodiment described above, contents displayed in the article list screen and the individual article screen are sorted by the date information 310 and the category information 320 as illustrated in
The present invention is applicable to uses where contents supplied as print on paper and provided electronically as well are displayed. For example, the present invention is useful for devices that display electronically provided articles of newspapers, magazines, and general books.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2011/004883 | Aug 2011 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2011/005514 | 9/29/2011 | WO | 00 | 5/15/2012 |
