This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. ยง119 from an application entitled Method for Controlling Position of Indicator earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Oct. 15 1998, and there duly assigned Ser. No. 98-43162 by that Office.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interface apparatus and process using menus, and more particularly, to an apparatus and process for controlling the position of an indicator on the screen of a video display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Different circuits and processes enabling a user to interface with an appliance by using menus has been widely used for information processing devices such as computers and television receivers. In these interface methods, the requirement of a user is received through menus displayed on a screen, and a desired item is selected by moving an indicator such as a pointer. The indicator is usually a typical pointer, and a work or task bar which is inverted or highlighted. The pointer is operated by a trackball or a joy stick installed on a remote controller, and the bar is operated by a channel up and down key or a volume up and down key installed on a controller or a panel.
For instance, in a television receiver having a small number of selectable channels, a particular channel is selected via one of ten keys or a channel up and down button of the remote controller, but in a digital television receiver having substantially more selection channels, programs of various channels are obtained through a program guide screen, and a specific channel for a particular program is selected through a pointer. Adjustment of display, time setting, and control of volume as well as channel selection can be interfaced through a menu.
In the interface method using menus, when a selected menu item has sub menus or adjustment items, corresponding sub menus are displayed on the screen. For instance, for the control of volume, sub menus for selecting left/right/center/surround speakers are displayed. When the left speaker is selected, a slide-bar displays an adjustment screen for adjusting the volume of the left speaker.
A user selects a desired sub menu item from the displayed sub menus or moves a pointer for changing the adjustment state.
However, in the conventional interface method, the sub menus are displayed but the pointer is located in a position in which main menu items are selected so that the pointer must be moved to an area where the sub menus are displayed. When the sub menus are displayed in a position far from the main menu, an excessive amount of time is wasted in moving the pointer, which causes inconvenience in interfacing with a user.
Also, in the conventional interface method, even if the position and the scale of the menu are changed, the position of the pointer is not changed so that the pointer must be moved by a user to an area where the changed menu is displayed. In the case of using a cursor controller such as trackball or a remote controller to operate a pointer, when the response is very slow, the amount of time taken to move the pointer is increased so that the interface method using menus may be regarded as being difficult.
An exemplar of the contemporary, Choi (U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,781, Method and Apparatus for Remotely Controlling Electrical Appliances Using a Trackball and Display, Jul. 15, 1997) discloses a remote control method and apparatus. The remote control for electrical appliances has a trackball used to select functions using control menus. The movement for the pointer is fully dependent upon a user's movement of the trackball. The initial location of the pointer is not limited to the menu area. The pointer can be anywhere on the display screen. When a user goes to a submenu and then reverts back to the main menu, the pointer does not follow the menu area. A user has to make extra steps in having to move the trackball to find the previous menu area.
Morito (U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,240, Remote Control Input Device, Sep. 5, 1995) discloses an input device comprised of a rotatable cylinder shape. The device is limited to a direction on one axis at a time. Free movement in all directions of a pointer device is not allowed.
Kayashina et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,427, Television System Including Television Set, and Accessory Devices Controlled by a Single Remote Control Device, Jan. 30, 1996) discloses a television system having method and apparatus for selecting preset or use determined devices. A remote control device is shown to have buttons to display and select an on screen menu. Menu items are selecting by selecting the corresponding buttons on the remote control. The item selected is shown on the display. A problem with Kayashima et al. '427 is that it requires too many buttons for rapidly and conveniently controlling a television.
Yamamoto (U.S. Pat. 5,457,446, Control Bus System with Plural Controllable Devices, Oct. 10, 1995) discloses a control bus system for a home entertainment system. The control bus further includes a display means for displaying the features to be executed by the control bus. A cursor is moved to display item to be selected. Yamamoto '446, requires extra movement to locate the area to be selected.
Buchner et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,753, Remote-Controlled On-Screen Audio/Video Receiver Control Apparatus, Jul. 2, 1996) discloses a remote controlled device that displays its options on a display screen. The pointer is controlled by apparatus like a trackball, joy stick or touch panel. The pointer is freely moving with the control screen. Buchner et al. '753 does not store the area location of a previous menu so when a user reverts to an old menu, the pointer is not situated in same area.
I have found that in devices such as a digital television having many selection and adjustment items which cannot be smoothly operated by direct operation of a key, the interface using menus is very important for marketing the devices, so that ensuring of quick response for selecting menus is very important.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling the position of an indicator in an interface using a menu in which an indicator follows to the menu in accordance with the generation and change of the menu, to thereby ensure quick response for selecting the menu.
According to an embodiment of the method for controlling the position of an indicator of the present invention, to achieve the above object, when a menu having items selected and adjusted by the indicator is displayed, and an item having sub-items capable of being selected and adjusted is selected, the sub-items are displayed and the indicator is located in the area where the sub-items are displayed.
According to another embodiment of the method for controlling the position of an indicator of the present invention, to achieve the above object, when a menu having items selected and adjusted by an indicator is displayed, and the position and a size of the menu are changed, the indicator follows the changed menu.
The above object and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail a preferred embodiment thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
Referring to
In the television receiver 200, a main menu is displayed on the screen or erased in response to pressing the menu key 26. That is, the menu key 26 operates as a toggle key. When the menu is displayed on the screen, the pointer for selecting the menu also is displayed.
In the television receiver 200, the position of the pointer displayed on the screen is controlled in response to operation of the trackball 22, and operation allocated to the menu item on which the pointer is located is performed in response to the selection key 24. If the selected menu item includes sub menus, the sub menus are displayed.
In the television receiver 200, the size of a menu is enlarged or reduced in response to the enlargement and reduction key 28. In order to reduce the size of the menu, a screen is divided into two parts. A program image is displayed in one part, and a menu is displayed in the other part. In order to enlarge the size of the menu, the enlarged menu is displayed on the screen.
The remote controller 100 periodically detects the position of the trackball 22 to control the position of the pointer, and transmits changes in position corresponding to the detected position. That is, the remote controller 100 reads the direction to which the pointer is to be moved, through the trackball 22, and transmits a signal that moves the pointer in the same direction as the trackball 22. For instance, when a user moves the trackball 22 to the left for three seconds, the signal for periodically moving the pointer to the left is transmitted to the television receiver 200 for three seconds.
In the television receiver 200, the position of the pointer is changed in response to the signal transmitted from the remote controller 100. When the pointer is located on the item which is to be selected by the pointer, the user presses the selection key 24 of the remote controller 100, and the television receiver 200 performs the command corresponding to the selected item.
3B is a screen after a menu item corresponding to a sub menu has been selected from the main menu 34 of
In the bar of
As shown in
Referring to
In
As shown in
Also, only the enlarged menu 44 is displayed on the screen.
As shown in
In
In
In
In a method for controlling the position of an indicator according to the present invention, in order to display a menu or a program list, the indicator is located in a menu area or a program list area, so that it is unnecessary to move the pointer to the menu area or the program list area.
In a method shown in
The pointer 32 is located in the sub menu area (S605). When the sub menu 36 is displayed, the pointer 32 is located on the sub menu area, so that the sub menu item can be easily selected.
Then, the position of the pointer 32 is controlled in response to the trackball 22 of the remote controller 100 (S610).
The remote controller 100 periodically transmits the amount of change in the x and y-directions in accordance with operation of the trackball 22, in order to move the pointer 32. In the television receiver 200, a new coordinate value is calculated by adding the amount of change transmitted by the remote controller 100 to the coordinate value where the pointer 32 is located, and the pointer is displayed on the calculated coordinate value.
Then, the sub menu allocated to the sub menu item where the pointer 32 is located is performed in response to the selection key 24 of the remote controller 10 (S620).
By the method of
The position where the pointer 32 is located may be the first sub menu item.
As shown in
Referring to
Referring also to
The position where the pointer 42 is located may be the first menu item.
Comparing the interface method of
Also, comparing the interface method of
The position of the pointer 42 is controlled in response to the trackball 22 of the remote controller 100 (S810).
The television receiver 200 performs a command allocated to the menu item where the pointer 42 is located in response to the selection key 24 of the remote controller 100 (S820). When the selected menu item includes the sub menu, the sub menu and the pointer are displayed according to the method of
The method of
In the method of
Only the enlarged program list 54 is displayed on the screen.
The pointer 52 is located in a program list area (S1005). When the program guide image is displayed, the pointer 52 is located in the program list area so that a desired program can be easily selected.
An item where the pointer 52 is located may be the first channel.
Comparing the interface method of
Comparing the interface method of
The position of the pointer 52 is controlled in response to the trackball 22 of the remote controller 100 (S1010).
The television receiver 200 performs a command allocated to the item where the pointer 52 is located in response to the selection key 24 of the remote controller 100 (S1020). When a channel is selected, detailed information on the channel is displayed, and when a program is selected, detailed information on the selected program is displayed.
Referring to
The identifier 120 indicates the name of the menu item. The area information 122 indicates coordinate information of areas where the corresponding menu item is displayed, and has coordinate information of two points of a diagonal line of a general tetragon. When the selection key 24 is pressed, the television receiver 200 determines to which area information the coordinate value where the pointer is located belongs and identifies the selected menu item.
The menu item has sub menus so that the menu has a tree structure as shown in
Menu items of
When the menu screen is displayed, the pointer is located in the first item of the menu screen. In
The television receiver 200 includes a receiver 252, a menu display unit 254, a menu information storage unit 256, a pointer display unit 258, a menu performer 256 and a screen generator 262.
When the menu key 152 of the remote controller 100 is pressed, the data generator 160 generates a menu display command.
The menu display unit 254 obtains information of the main menu from the menu information storage unit 256 in response to the menu display command received through the receiver 252, and displays the main menu corresponding thereto.
At this time, the pointer display unit 258 displays the pointer on a center point with reference to the area information of the item where the pointer is to be located.
When the trackball 156 is moved to select the corresponding menu item from the menus displayed on the screen, the trackball movement sensor 158 senses the movement of the trackball 156 in the x and y-directions. The data generator 160 periodically generates a pointer movement command which includes the amount of change in position sensed by the trackball movement sensor 158. The pointer movement command of the data generator 160 is transmitted by the transmitter 164.
The receiver 252 receives a pointer movement signal generated by the transmitter 164 of the remote controller 100. The pointer display unit 258 controls the position of the pointer in response to the received pointer movement signal.
When the selection key 154 of the remote controller 100 is pressed, the menu performer 260 performs a command of the menu item where the pointer is located in response to the menu item selected by the selection key 154.
When the selected menu item includes sub menu items, the menu performer 260 controls the menu display unit 254 to thereby display the sub menu. The menu display unit 254 obtains information on the sub menu from the menu information storage unit 256 and displays the sub menu corresponding to the information.
The pointer display unit 258 displays a pointer in the center point of the item where the pointer is to be located, with reference to the area information.
The screen generator 262 overlaps the menu image signal generated by the menu display unit 254 with an image signal and supplies the overlapped signal to a display unit (not shown).
In
In
When the enlargement and reduction key 166 of the remote controller 100 is pressed, the data generator 160 generates enlargement and reduction commands. When the enlargement and reduction key 166, a toggle key, is pressed once, the enlargement command is generated, and when the key is pressed once more, the reduction command is generated.
The menu display unit 254 obtains information on the main menu screen from the menu information storage unit 256 in response to the enlargement and reduction commands received through the receiver 252, and displays the corresponding menu.
At this time, the pointer display unit 258 displays the pointer in the center point of the item where the pointer is to be located, with reference to the area information.
The screen divider 264 synthesizes program image signal and menu image signal generated by the menu display unit 254 or displays each signal on the screen, and supplies the signals to a cathode ray tube (CRT, not shown).
Portions of
The program guide information generator 264 obtains program guide information from the program guide information storage 266 in response to the program guide command received through the receiver 252, and generates a corresponding program guide image signal.
At this time, the pointer display unit 258 displays the pointer on the item with reference to the area information of the program item where the pointer is to be located.
When the enlargement and reduction key 166 of the remote controller 100 is pressed, the data generator 160 generates enlargement and reduction commands. When the enlargement and reduction key which is a toggle key is once pressed, the enlargement command is generated, and when the key is pressed once more, the reduction command is generated.
The program guide information generator 254 obtains program guide information from the program guide information storage 266 in response to the enlargement and reduction command received through the receiver 252, and displays corresponding enlargement and reduction program list.
At this time, the pointer display unit 258 displays the pointer in the center point with reference to the area information of the item where the pointer is to be located.
The receiver 252 receives a pointer movement signal generated by the transmitter 164 of the remote controller 100. The pointer display unit 258 controls the position of the pointer in response to the received pointer movement signal.
When the selection key of the remote controller 100 is pressed, corresponding command is performed. For instance, in order to select a program, the program guide performer 268 obtains a channel number of the program where the pointer is located and supplies the obtained channel number to the tuner.
When the reduced program list is displayed, the screen divider 262 synthesizes program image signals and program guide image signals generated by the menu display unit 254 or each signal is displayed, and supplies the signal to a display unit (not shown).
The present invention in which a selection item is commanded by a pointer has been described, can be adopted to the case of changing colors of the selected item, i.e., highlighting or inverting colors of the selection item.
According to the interface method of the present invention, an indicator is located in one of the selection items when the selection items are displayed so that only a small amount of movement is required by the indicator, which enables easy interfacing with users.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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98-43162 | Oct 1998 | KR | national |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20020122027 A1 | Sep 2002 | US |