Patent Application
20130246964
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-060420, filed Mar. 16, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a portable electronic apparatus, a control method of a portable electronic apparatus, a control program thereof, and a medium storing that control program.
Various portable electronic apparatuses have begun to prevail. In a portable electronic apparatus, a display normally serves as a touch operation input unit. A portable electronic apparatus can be used while being switched to various use applications. The use applications of the portable electronic apparatus include, for example, a mobile phone, a remote controller for a television receiver, that for a recorder/player, a terminal used to access the Internet, a digital camera, and so forth. For this purpose, the portable electronic apparatus is switched to various images, so that the screen of its display serves as an operation unit suited to a given use application. As the number of use applications increases, the number of tabs required to obtain desired operation panels increases. When the number of tabs is large, if all of a large number of tabs are displayed on the display, each tab has a small size. For this reason, it becomes difficult for the user to search for a desired tab, and to select the desired tab. A technique which automatically adjusts a scroll amount by arraying a plurality of tabs in a bar pattern so as to allow the user to confirm many tabs by a single operation has been developed.
As the number of tabs increases, a tab check period and desired tab search period are prolonged. As a result, a hiding period of a selected main operation panel is prolonged, and the user may often miss an important change on the selected main operation panel. Also, it takes much time to return to an image display state of the selected main operation panel.
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.
Various embodiments will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompany drawings.
In general, according to one embodiment, there are provided an electronic apparatus, a control method of an electronic apparatus, a control program thereof, and a medium storing that control program. They allow the user to facilitate checking of a plurality of tabs and a tab search while maintaining a display state of a main panel.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic apparatus includes a display which also serves as a touch operation input unit, and a display controller which outputs images to be displayed on the display. The display controller includes a standby state output unit and a scroll controller. The standby state output unit displays, on the display, at least one of the images as a first image, and a second image as an array of a plurality of tabs on an area different from a display area of the first image. If the user swipes the display area of the second image, the scroll controller controls to scroll the plurality of tabs while maintaining the first image as a frontmost image.
An embodiment will further be described with reference to the drawings.
Reference number 100 denotes an electronic apparatus. A display 111 can display an image, and is also used as a touch operation input unit. The display 111 can include a first display area 111A and second display area 111B to be described later. An upper view of
The operation panel 211 is displayed on the first display area 111A. An image displayed on this first display area 111A will be referred to as a first image hereinafter.
Furthermore, on the display 111, the second display area 111B which displays a plurality of tabs (also called icons) as a second image is assured in addition to the display area of the first image (operation panel 211). The second image (tab array panel 212) of this second display area 111B is displayed in an exposed state on a partially notched portion of the first image or a window of a first two-dimensional image. That is, on a display area of the display, the second image is displayed on an area different from the first image. The first and second images can be viewable as a relationship of a foreground image (bright image) and background image (dark image).
In the example of
A state in which the first display area 111A and second display area 111B are stably displayed on the display 111, as described above, will be referred to as a standby state hereinafter. However, this embodiment is not limited to this nominal designation, and various other designations may be used.
The second image displayed on the second display area 111B displays a plurality of tabs selectable by the user.
In the example of
When the user makes a tap operation, that is, he or she touches a desired tab, a panel related to that tab can be displayed on the first display area 111A as the first image.
When the number of tabs increases, as described above, it is impossible to display all tabs within the second display area 111B. When tabs are displayed as much as possible, each tab size is reduced, and a spacing between neighboring tabs is also reduced, resulting in inconvenience for operations to cause operation errors.
Hence, in this embodiment, each individual tab size is not changed, and a spacing between neighboring tabs is maintained to be a size that can be easily operated by the user. Then, when the user swipes the tab array panel 212 (second image), the plurality of tabs can be scrolled while maintaining the operation panel 211 (first image) as a frontmost image.
As described above, when the user wants to search for a tab of interest, he or she can conduct the search while maintaining to display the first image (in this case, the TV operation panel). As a matter of course, the tab image size and spacing between neighboring tabs can be set to be easily operable sizes.
As described above, the plurality of tabs of the tab array panel can be scrolled while maintaining to display the first image. For this reason, the user can be prevented from missing an important display of the first image at a high possibility. For example, the user can scroll tabs while he or she is walking in a display state of a navigation map as the first image. For example, the user can search for a tab of a guide screen that offers favorite restaurants while displaying the navigation map.
When the user wants to return to an original panel, he or she need not select a tab again. Thus, usability can be improved.
Also, this embodiment allows the user to make a setting operation to enlarge or reduce the second display area that displays the second image. Also, the user can adjust the spacing between neighboring tabs.
Assume that from the state shown in
As described above, with this apparatus, when the user touches a tab of a panel which is currently displayed on the frontmost surface with the finger, and swipes the tab array panel, panel screens corresponding to tabs can be opened in turn one by one at an appropriate moving speed of the finger.
That is, using a touch operation on a tab of the first image as a starting point, the touch state is sequentially moved on the plurality of tabs on a second two-dimensional screen, a screen which appears on the frontmost surface is sequentially switched to screens related to the touched tabs. For this reason, the user can confirm images related to the plurality of tabs in turn.
The data processor 1102 supplies control signals to blocks of respective units in accordance with the operation input, so as to reflect the operation contents to the apparatus operation. The data processor 1102 can control a display controller 1103, transmission/reception unit 1104, camera function unit 1105, mail/telephone function unit 1106, and memories 1107 and 1108.
The display controller 1103 includes a standby state output unit 1211 required to obtain the aforementioned standby state, scroll controller 1212, and image switching controller 1213. Upon detection of the aforementioned swipe operation input, the scroll controller 1212 controls to scroll the tab array panel 212 as the second image. Upon detection of a tap operation with respect to a given tab, the image switching controller 1213 can open a panel related to the selected tab as the first image. Also, upon detection of the sliding operation described using
The memory 1107 is used as a temporary expanding area of an application to be used and/or a temporary saving area of data upon execution of document input processing. The memory 1108 is used as, for example, an area for pre-storing a plurality of applications and an area for saving image data of various operation panels and the like. The memory 1108 may be exchangeable. Reference number 1109 denotes a rechargeable battery.
The aforementioned controller 1100 may also be called a computer, processor, or control device. The controller 1100 can execute desired operations in response to instructions, and can display desired images on the display. A program having the instructions is read from, for example, the memory 1108, and is used in the controller 1100.
This apparatus is not limited to the aforementioned embodiment.
When the user selects a desired tab, an operation panel related to the selected tab is displayed as the first image. As the user uses desired operation panels, some operation panels have high frequencies of use, but some others have low frequencies of use. This apparatus has a function of changing an array order of tabs displayed on the tab array panel 212 in accordance with the frequencies of use.
For example, the display controller 1103 organizes information of the panels with high frequencies of use, and modifies the tab array.
The functions of this apparatus are not limited to those of the above embodiment.
The scope of the present invention includes a control program of the portable electronic apparatus. That is, the control program is a computer program required to read image data from a memory which stores image data of a plurality of images, and to control an image to be displayed on a display unit which is also used as a touch operation input unit.
An instruction included in the program can display, on the display, an arbitrary image of the plurality of images as a first image, and a tab array panel in which a plurality of tabs are arrayed as a second image in a state in which the tab array panel appears from a partial area of the first image. Also, an instruction can scroll the plurality of tabs while maintaining the first image as a frontmost image when a display area of the second image is swiped. Furthermore, an instruction can switch and display, as the frontmost image, a third image corresponding to an arbitrary tab in the display area of the plurality of tabs, which tab is selected by a tap input.
The scope of the present invention also covers a storage medium storing the aforementioned computer program.
The technical terms used above in relation to the embodiments and the names or technical terms described in the drawings are in no way restrictive. For example, the processor may be replaced with processing means, a processing unit, a block or a processing module. Likewise, the controller may be replaced with control means, a control unit, a control block or a control module. The unit may be replaced with means, a block or a module. The storage unit may be replaced with storage means, a storage, a storage block or a storage module.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-060420 | Mar 2012 | JP | national |
