The present invention relates to the technical field of graphical user interface, and in particular to information display implemented via high level touch display.
At present, various thermostats have been widely used in many situations, such as private houses, hospitals and home appliances. As is known in the prior art, the thermostats are triggered to work only when the temperature does not reach a predetermined value. Under the control of the thermostats, the temperature can be made substantially constant and electric energy can be saved, which brings significant economical effectiveness to consumers.
Taking the use of a thermostat in a private house as an example, in the use of the thermostat in the prior art, a person may input a predetermined temperature such as 75 degree Fahrenheit (75°) via a plurality of physical buttons on the thermostat, and the predetermined temperature may be stored in the memory of the thermostat. If a detection component detects that the indoor temperature is below 75°, the thermostat will be triggered to initiate a heating process, i.e., it triggers a heater to work to provide heat energy until the indoor temperature reaches 75°. If the a detection component detects that the indoor temperature reaches or exceeds 75°, the thermostat will be triggered to cease the heating process, i.e., it triggers the heater to cease providing heat energy until the indoor temperature is below 75°. In the above process, the indoor temperature can be displayed on the screen of the thermostat. Such a process is repeated, so as to make the indoor temperature substantially constant.
It can be seen from the above that the consumer can set the predetermined temperature only via the plurality of buttons on the thermostat.
In addition, the display of the thermostat in the prior art generally has simple functions, such as display of only temperature, and does not display other information such as humidity.
There is a need to provide a display which can display a large amount of expected information in an intuitive manner and can receive instructions from users conveniently.
An embodiment of the present invention provides a machine implemented method for displaying indoor environment condition information, including: receiving a request from a user; and displaying, in response to the request, in a first window a graphical user interface which is adapted to present action areas and display areas; wherein the action areas are adapted to set control conditions of the indoor environment condition information in response to a command from the user, and the display areas are adapted to display the indoor environment condition information corresponding to the control conditions.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a computer readable storage medium containing executable instructions which when executed by a system cause the system to perform a method for displaying indoor environment condition information, the method comprising: displaying, upon a request from a user, in a first window a graphical user interface which is adapted to present action areas and display areas, wherein the action areas are adapted to set control conditions of the indoor environment condition information in response to a command from the user, and the display areas are adapted to display the indoor environment condition information corresponding to the control conditions.
A further embodiment of the present invention provides a device for displaying indoor environment condition information, including: a receiver adapted to receive a request from a user; and a touch display adapted to display, in response to the request, in a first window a graphical user interface which is adapted to present action areas and display areas; wherein the action areas are adapted to set control conditions of the indoor environment condition information in response to a command from the user, and the display areas are adapted to display the indoor environment condition information corresponding to the control conditions.
By displaying different user interfaces on the touch display according to the present invention, the user can perform convenient operations on the touch display to control the temperature and humidity, thus improving the experience of the user and bringing an intuitive effect. In addition, the temperature and humidity can be controlled and displayed in terms of the different predetermined periods of time in each day of week, and thus accurate control of temperature and humidity can be achieved.
The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.
a shows an example of a graphical user interface which displays in a fifth window a plurality of sub-action areas of the option of MENU in response to a touch selection from the user;
b shows an example of a graphical user interface which displays in a sixth window a plurality of sub-action areas of the option of MENU subsequent to
c shows an example of a graphical user interface which displays in a seventh window a plurality of sub-action areas of the option of MENU subsequent to
The forgoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers represent like parts of the present invention.
The present invention is preferably realized as a graphical user interface (GUI) or dialog object integrated into a function or application program on a computer or computer-based system. The computer-based system is preferably provided with an operating system which provides common GUI functions, such as pointer location and movement detection, event handling based on areas on the touch display in which the pointer is located, and event handling of pointer selection such as mouse clicks. As such, the present invention can be realized on personal computers, palm-top computers and personal digital assistants, as well as other devices incorporating graphical user displays such as cell phones and wireless web browsers.
In this embodiment, a touch display is utilized to display the indoor environment condition information. As illustrated in
In step 01, the touch display receives a request from a user.
Specifically, the user may transmit the request to the touch display by supplying power to the touch display or by starting the touch display.
In step 02, in response to the request from the user, the touch display provides a first window in which a graphical user interface is displayed, which is adapted to present a plurality of action areas and a plurality of display areas. After the touch display is powered on or started, the touch display displays the graphical user interface on which there may be provided the plurality of action areas and the plurality of display areas. The action areas and display areas provide an initial graphical user interface (also referred to as home page) on which texts and icons are presented. If the user needs to change the current indoor environment condition information, the user may transmit a command by touching on one of the action areas to the touch display, to set control conditions of the indoor environment condition information. Then, in response to the control conditions, the touch display triggers a corresponding action, such as a heating process, and thus a corresponding one of the display areas changes its initial presentation to another one indicating the heating process. In this case, the touch display can provide an intuitive interface to the user.
As illustrated in
Referring to
The display areas may display values and/or icons in response to the control conditions of the indoor environment condition information. Again referring to
Specifically, if the user selects to touch the option of SYSTEM as illustrated in
If the user selects to touch one of the above sub-action areas such as the option of HEAT, the touch display is triggered to initiate a heating process, i.e., the touch display triggers a heater to provide heat energy. At this time, if the user operates to turn to the user interface of
Specifically, if the user selects to touch the option of FAN as illustrated in
For example, if the user selects to touch one of the above sub-action areas such as the option of CIRC, the touch display is triggered to initiate a circulation process, i.e., the touch display triggers the fan to perform ventilation. At this time, if the user operates to turn to the user interface of
Specifically, if the user selects to touch the option of PROG as illustrated in
The graphical user interface displays the indoor environment condition information in terms of predetermined periods of time in each day of week. The division of the predetermined periods of time in a certain day of week may be the same or different from another day. In a traditional thermostat, the predetermined periods of time from Monday to Friday are the same as each other, which are different from those of weekend (Saturday and Sunday), i.e., 5+2 mode. It should be noted that the length of day of week here may not be strictly defined to be natural 24 hours from 00:00 to 24:00, but may be defined to be less 24 hours or more than 24 hours, e.g., from 24:00-07:00, if only a majority of the day of week falls in a range of natural hours from 00:00-24:00 of the day of week and each week includes 7*24 hours. For example, the period of time from 24:00 Sunday to 07:00 Tuesday is defined as Monday. For example, a certain day of week can be divided, as illustrated in
The user may touch “CHECK” to select any one of the seven days of week to view the corresponding content of the PROG.
a shows an example of a graphical user interface which displays in a fifth window a plurality of sub-action areas of the option of MENU in response to a touch selection from the user.
Specifically, if the user selects to touch the option of MENU as illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Of course, all of the sub-action areas of the option of MENU can be displayed in one window (one page) if the screen of the touch display is large enough.
After the user has set the information on SYSTEM, FAN, PROG and MENU, a memory of the touch display stores the information. For example, if the outdoor temperature is below the cool temperature set to, the touch display drives the heater to operate. Similarly, if the outdoor temperature is above the heat temperature set to, the touch display initiates the heating process.
In addition, the information that the user has set can be protected in the memory of the touch display if the power supply of the touch display is interrupted.
It should be noted that the mode in which the touch display operates as illustrated in
The mode of Holiday is configured for the user's outdoor traveling. If the touch display operates in the mode of Run as schedule and a predetermined period of time that the user has set arrives, the touch display goes into the mode of Holiday automatically. After the predetermined period of time that the user expires, the touch display goes back to the mode of Run as schedule automatically.
The mode of Permanent Override has a highest priority among the modes. In this case, the touch display can not automatically go into another mode from the mode of Permanent Override even if a predetermined period of time in the mode of Holiday that the user has set for example arrives, unless the user manually modify the mode of Permanent Override.
In the mode of Run as schedule, the touch display may go into a mode of Temporary if the user touches the option of SYSTEM or FAN to set corresponding information. In the mode of Temporary, the user can temporarily set the temperature and humidity under the condition that the information has been set in the mode of Run as schedule.
Compared with
As illustrated in
Operations of respective components of the device (80) as illustrated in
Compared with
Operations of the device (80) as illustrated in
All the action areas and sub-action areas are configured to display as virtual buttons for clarity and operability.
In the above drawings, “HOME” refers to going back to the home page, i.e., the user interface as illustrated in
As can be appreciated by an ordinary skilled in the art, the method of the present invention can be implemented in hardware or software. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a computer readable storage medium containing executable instructions which when executed by a system cause the system to perform a method for displaying indoor environment condition information, the method comprising: displaying, upon a request from a user, in a first window a graphical user interface which is adapted to present action areas and display areas, wherein the action areas are adapted to set control conditions of the indoor environment condition information in response to a command from the user, and the display areas are adapted to display the indoor environment condition information corresponding to the control conditions.
By displaying different user interfaces on the touch display according to the present invention, the user can perform convenient operations on the touch display to control the temperature and humidity, thus improving the experience of the user and bringing an intuitive effect. In addition, the temperature and humidity can be controlled and displayed in terms of the different predetermined periods of time in each day of week, and thus accurate control of temperature and humidity can be achieved.
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described clearly and completely below with reference to the attached drawings. Evidently, the described embodiments are merely a part but not all of the embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention here, any other embodiments which will occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art without any inventive effort shall fall into the claimed scope of the present invention.
The foregoing descriptions are merely illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and it shall be pointed out that those ordinarily skilled in the art can further make several adaptations and variations without departing from the spirit of the present invention and that these adaptations and variations shall also be construed as falling into the claimed scope of the present invention.