JP2000358283A - Control terminal with display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently display many more information sets on one display area configuring a calendar metaphor. SOLUTION: A control terminal with a display device 1 that has a display device 13 and can remotely control operations of a plurality of consumer appliances connected to itself is connected to a reception terminal that can receive program information including at least date and time information from a broadcast program, is provided with a storage section that registers the program information outputted from the reception terminal in cross-reference with the date and time information. A display section of the display device 13 is divided into a plurality of areas. The control terminal with display device 1 has a procedure A where a date is assigned to each area and displayed, a procedure B where a display ratio of a selected display area to other display areas is changed to increase the display ratio of the selected display area, and a procedure C where the program information registered in the storage section in cross-reference with the date of the selected display area is displayed in the display area with magnification.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control terminal device with a display device capable of controlling various household appliances mainly used at home and having a display device capable of displaying various information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent development of electronics,
The digitization of home appliances in each household is rapidly progressing.

Conventionally, control of each of these home appliances is mainly performed by using an individual remote controller corresponding to each of the home appliances, and when there are a plurality of these devices, these remote controllers are also used. It is difficult and difficult for the user to use because it exists and the operation method is different.

In recent years, various types of information terminals such as personal computers have become widespread as home electric appliances, and the functions of home electric appliances have become more sophisticated. A control terminal device equipped with a "pull interface" capable of acquiring, displaying, and providing information from sophisticated home appliances, for example, the operation status of the device and information received from the outside, to a user has been studied. Is coming.

[0005] For this reason, as a method of eliminating the above-mentioned user's complexity and realizing the "pull interface", a method of exchanging data with each of these home electric appliances is as follows.
For example, each home appliance is connected via a digital set-top box that is standardized as in the IEEE 1394 protocol or the like and capable of transmitting and receiving data based on this protocol, and a control terminal device connected to the digital set-top box, Control data is output to each home appliance so that control can be performed centrally, and information on each home appliance, for example, program information received by a receiving terminal device by digital broadcasting in recent years, is transmitted to the control terminal device. There has been proposed a device for displaying on a display device.

[0006]

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, the display of the control terminal device on the display device is easy to manage such received program information and the like, and it is easy to intuitively recognize past, present and future information. It is effective to use calendar metaphors based on the common time axis, year, month, and day. However, when these calendar metaphors are used, although the information is easily listed, each metaphor is composed. There is a problem in that the size of one display area is limited, and it is difficult to display a large amount of information in the display area.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems. In the case of performing display using a calendar metaphor as described above, more information is stored in one display area constituting each metaphor. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control terminal device with a display device that can display efficiently.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a control terminal device with a display device according to the present invention has a display device and is connected to a plurality of home appliances and at least each of the connected home appliances. A control terminal device with a display device capable of remotely controlling the operation of each home appliance by transmitting predetermined control data to the control terminal, the control terminal being capable of receiving program information including at least date and time information of a broadcasted program Connected to a receiving terminal, has a storage unit in which the program information output from the receiving terminal is registered in association with the date and time information, the display unit of the display device is divided into a plurality of areas, The procedure A in which a date is assigned to each of a plurality of areas and the display is performed, and the display ratio between the selected display area and another display area that is not selected is set to be larger than the display ratio of the selected display area. And procedures B to display changed to be,
And C. displaying the program information registered in the storage unit in the enlarged display area in correspondence with the date corresponding to the selected display area. According to this feature, without impairing the advantages such as listing at the time of using the calendar metaphor,
By changing the display so that the display ratio of the selected display area is larger than that of other non-selected display areas, more program information can be efficiently displayed in the enlarged display area. Become.

[0010] The control terminal device with a display device of the present invention comprises a clock means capable of outputting current date and time information, and a video output means for outputting a video received by the receiving terminal or a video output means for outputting the received video. Connected to at least one of the recording means for recording on a predetermined recording medium, and in the procedure C, at least a listening reservation or recording reservation icon is displayed in association with each program information to be displayed; It is preferable that registration of a listening reservation or a recording reservation is made in the storage unit by selection, and at least one of video output control and recording control of the reserved program is performed based on the registration and the output of the clock means. With this configuration, the operator can easily set the listening reservation or the recording reservation of the program desired to be listened or recorded by selecting each of the icons with reference to the program information displayed in the enlarged display area. It can be implemented and the reserved program can be automatically listened or recorded.

[0011] In the control terminal device with a display device of the present invention, in the display stage of the procedure A, when there is a listening reservation or a recording reservation registered corresponding to the assigned date, a predetermined icon is displayed. It is preferable to include a procedure D for displaying in the display area. In this way, in the display stage before the enlarged display in the procedure A, the presence or absence of the registered reservation can be recognized for each date of each display area.

In the control terminal device with a display device according to the present invention, it is preferable that a touch panel capable of designating a position on the display device is provided so as to overlap the display device. With this configuration, it is possible to directly select the display area and input characters and the like on the display panel, thereby significantly improving the operability of the apparatus by the user.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (Embodiment) An embodiment of a control terminal device with a display device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a connection status between a display controller 1 which is a control terminal device with a display device of the present embodiment and each home electric appliance. FIG. 2 shows a display controller of the present embodiment and the display. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital set-top box 4 to which a controller 1 and each household appliance are connected.

Display controller 1 of the present embodiment
As shown in FIG. 1, a CS tuner (CS) as a receiving terminal capable of receiving a CS satellite broadcast, which is each home appliance,
-T) 5, a television (TV) 6 as a video output unit,
Video (VIDEO) 7 as a recording means capable of recording an image on a video tape as a recording medium, a digital signal unit (DSU) 8 for performing high-speed communication connection with the Internet via an ISDN line, and photographing Digital camera (Degi-CAME) 9 capable of storing and outputting the obtained image data as digital data, reproduction of compact disc (CD), mini disc (MD), etc.
A digital set-top box 4 that is a switching hub that supports a communication method based on the IEEE 1394 protocol and controls data transmission and reception between connected devices by switching together with audio (AUDIO) 10 capable of recording and the like. The display controller 1 is provided with a keyboard 3 operated when a user performs input of characters and numerals, and a position designation and input of the display controller 1 on a display device. And an input pen 2 for performing an electromagnetic induction method, and the CS-T 5 and the television 6 and the video 7
It is appropriately connected to the output terminal of the video received at -T5.

Each of the home electric appliances connected to the digital set-top box 4 of the present embodiment has communication means capable of performing communication based on the IEEE 1394 protocol therein. These communication means output their own operation information and acquisition information, and their operation is controlled based on control information from the display controller 1 received by the communication means.

The appearance and configuration of the display controller 1 used in these embodiments are as shown in FIGS. 3 and 2, and the front of the display controller 1 has the time of year, month and day. A liquid crystal panel 13 on which various kinds of information related to the various home appliances and the year, month, and day are displayed together with information; an LCD driver 14 for controlling a display operation of the liquid crystal panel 13; A transparent touch panel 23 disposed on the liquid crystal panel 13 to detect the designated coordinates by the input pen 2 by electromagnetic induction, a control driver 22 for detecting the position of the transparent touch panel 23 and controlling the operation thereof,
The main switch 15, an input unit 28 including an input button group corresponding to each function, a search button 29 uniquely provided corresponding to a search function, and each connected home appliance via the digital set-top box 4. And an infrared receiving unit 18 for receiving input data from the keyboard 3 in a non-contact manner by infrared.
And a real-time clock (R) which is clock means capable of outputting calendar information such as date and day of the week and time information.
TC) 19, a microphone 16 for taking in the voice of the user when recording a memo to be described later, a speaker 27 for outputting a voice generated by the memo recording, and converting the voice from the microphone 16 into digital data and registering it. A / D-D / A conversion unit 17 for converting digital audio data into analog data, and a nonvolatile storage in which information from each connected device is registered in association with time information of each year, month, and day as appropriate. Part 20
And a micro-processing unit (MPU) 11 which is a control unit for controlling these units. Reference numeral 21 in FIG. 2 denotes a control program in which control contents executed by the MPU 11 are described. RO that memorizes
M.

As described above, in this embodiment, the use of the transparent touch panel 23 enables direct position designation and character input on the liquid crystal panel 13 by the input pen 2. The input device for performing the position designation and the like is not limited, and may be another type, for example, a controller such as a joystick in a mouse or a game machine.

The structure of the digital set-top box 4 mainly includes a plurality of connection ports 26 to which each home appliance and the display controller 1 are connected, as shown in FIG. 2, and each of these connection ports. 26, a switching unit 24 that enables communication of each connected device by switching based on a protocol for each data input / output from each port and this switching unit 24
And a controller 25 for controlling the operation of the digital set top box 4 as a whole.

The operation of the display controller 1 according to the present embodiment will be described below based on the display contents of the liquid crystal panel 13.

First, when the display controller 1 of this embodiment is started by pressing the power switch 15, as shown in FIG. 3, card icons corresponding to each month are displayed vertically in a line. The arranged year viewer screen is displayed.

At this time, a memo function is selected as a function automatically selected by default, and a memo application for executing the memo function is operated.
The fact that the memo application is operating indicates that the icon corresponding to the memo application is displayed in the background substantially at the center of the screen, so that the operator recognizes the function of the currently operating application. The switching of these applications can be performed by the input unit 28 provided on the outer peripheral portion of the liquid crystal panel 13.
In this embodiment, the Internet function, the album function, the schedule function, the EPG (electronic program guide) function, and the memo are selected by selecting the function buttons above. The search function to which the function is assigned and which performs the search for the content corresponding to the desired search content is different from the function button group of the input unit 28 as the search button 29 which is a unique function button as described above. Is provided at the position.

The icon group displayed at the bottom of the display screen in FIG. 3 is a HAVI icon 30, which is used to control the status and control of each home appliance connected via the digital set-top box 4. A control panel corresponding to the selected home appliance, for example, when the selected device is an AUDIO-CD, a control panel corresponding to the AUDIO-CD is displayed as shown in FIG. The operation status of the connected CD player is displayed, and each display portion of the control panel corresponding to the desired control content is selected with the input pen 2 so that the selected input position is changed to the transparent position. Touch panel 23 and control driver 22
And a control instruction corresponding to the display corresponding to the selected input position is sent by the MPU 11 to the communication unit 12.
Is output through

In the year viewer screen shown in FIG.
When the operator selects and inputs a card-like display icon corresponding to a desired month to be displayed using the input pen 2 or the keyboard 3, a display other than the selected card-like display icon is displayed. The icon disappears, the selected card-like display icon moves to the center of the display screen, and the card expands and rotates to perform a series of display processing in which the calendar metaphor on the front is displayed. Then, the screen shifts to a monthly viewer screen shown in FIG.

The calendar metaphor of the month viewer screen shown in FIG. 4 has a predetermined divided display area in which each date has the same size as a predetermined number of divided display screens (7 × 5 in this embodiment). These calendar metaphors are formed based on the date information output from the RTC 19 and the current date and time information. The date corresponding to the current day is displayed in black and white inverted, and the operator Has been made aware of today.

The transition of these display screens is performed by selecting the card-like display icons corresponding to each month in the year viewer screen as described above, and is always displayed at the upper position of the display screen. "YEAR"-"MONT"
H "-" DAY "navigation button icon is also selectable. The transition from the month viewer screen to the year viewer screen, and further from the day viewer screen to the month viewer screen, which will be described later, can be performed. The operation is performed by appropriately selecting the navigation button icon.

On the month viewer screen, a desired date,
For example, when today is selected and input by the input pen 2, as shown in FIG. 5, a day viewer screen in which the display area of the selected date is displayed larger than the display areas of other unselected dates. And the enlarged display area shows the memo application selected by default.
If there is memo information registered in the storage unit 20 in association with the date (today) based on the memo, the memo content is displayed, or if there is a recorded message, Is the air displayed at the lower right of the display area.
By selecting and inputting the display area of the play button in the Ginto icon, a voice message registered in advance for recording is read out from the storage unit 20, and the A / D-
It is converted to analog voice by the D / A converter 17 and
The information is reproduced by being output from the camera 27.

When registering these memos and voice messages, a desired date, for example, today, is selected on the month viewer screen to make the day viewer screen. Next, when registering a memo, the memo is written in the enlarged display area of the present day with the input pen 2, and the written character is registered as a memo. To register a voice message, the user selects and inputs a recording button in an agent icon displayed at the lower right of the enlarged display area to start recording. Based on the input, a voice message issued by the operator is converted into digital data by the A / D / D / A converter 17 through the microphone 16 and displayed by the operator instead of the record button. By inputting the stop button, the storage unit 2 is associated with the corresponding date data.
0 is registered.

When a memo or a voice message is registered in this way, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the registered date is displayed on the display area of the registered date on the day viewer screen and the month viewer screen. An icon indicating that a registered memo or voice message is present is displayed, and the operator can easily indicate the date on which the memo or voice message exists on the day viewer screen and the month viewer screen. You can check it.

The operation contents of the memo application have been described above. However, when it is desired to obtain information on a function other than the memo function, the operator can operate the memo application regardless of the state of the display screen. By selecting the function button, the application can be changed. A predetermined icon corresponding to the selected application is displayed in a duplicated manner on the background of the display screen, and the operator is currently operating. It tells you what the application is.

The operation status of each application selected as described above will be described below by taking the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) function as an example.

FIG. 7 shows a month viewer screen in the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) function.
By selecting the PG function button, the icon corresponding to the EPG function is displayed in duplicate on the back of the display screen, and if there is a registered listening reservation,
Icons corresponding to the listening reservation and the recording reservation are displayed in the display area of the reserved date.

Next, when the operator selects a desired date to view program information, the display area of the selected date is enlarged and displayed as shown in FIG. Introductory images and program information such as program contents, channel numbers, broadcast date and time, etc. registered in advance in the area on that date are displayed. Further, in the present embodiment, a listening icon and a recording icon are displayed in correspondence with each of the displayed programs, and the listening icon and / or the recording icon are selectively inputted by selecting and inputting the listening icon and / or the recording icon. The listening or recording reservation of the program is registered in the storage unit 20. Based on the reservation registration and the current date and time information output from the RTC 19, the MPU 11 determines that the reservation content is a listening reservation during the broadcast time of the program. In some cases, the CS-T 5 and the television 6 are activated, and control is performed to set a channel in the CS-T 5 to a reserved program. If the reservation content is a recording reservation, the CS-T 5 and the video 7 and sets the channel in CS-T5 to a reserved program, and sets the program received by CS-T5. Recording By carrying out control to instruct the video 7, it is automatically adapted receiving or recording of the reserved program is implemented.

As described above, when a new listening reservation or a recording reservation is newly performed, as shown in FIG. 9, the eye shape is displayed on the display area of the reserved date on the day viewer screen and the month viewer screen. And a recording icon imitating the shape of a video tape are displayed, so that the operator can easily confirm the date on which the reservation exists.

The registration of the above-mentioned program information is performed as follows in this embodiment. That is, the CS-T5 connected via the digital set-top box 4 receives the program information transmitted from the broadcasting satellite as digital data, and transmits the received program information to the digital set-top box. 4 to the display controller 1 of this embodiment. In the display controller 1, the communication unit 1
The program information received in step 2 is registered in the storage unit 20 for each corresponding date and time information by the MPU 11, and the past program information is appropriately deleted and updated in the update process at a predetermined update time. It has become so.

Next, the operation status of the search function in the display controller 1 of the present embodiment will be described. These search functions are used to search for the corresponding registered data using a keyword. These search functions are operable for each of the above-mentioned applications. Will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11.

First, a search function button icon is selected,
Upon input, a keyword input screen as shown in FIG. 16 is displayed, and icons of applications to be searched are displayed in the upper left corner.

In the keyword input screen, the operator inputs a keyword, for example, “design” by handwriting using the input pen 2 or inputs using the keyboard 3, and then displays a start button displayed at the bottom of the display screen. Select and enter an icon.

Thus, the MPU 11 extracts, from the program information data registered in the storage unit 20, the date when the program information corresponding to the keyword “design” is registered, and extracts the corresponding date. Is changed to a highlighted display. Next, the user selects and inputs the display area of the highlighted date to display the program information corresponding to the searched “design” in the same manner as the display of the program information in the EPG function of FIG. It is supposed to be.

As described above, the operation status of each function of the display controller 1 of the present embodiment has been described based on the display screen. The configuration of each layer of the display screen of each function is as shown in FIG. .

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the drawings, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and changes and additions may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Needless to say, it is included in the invention. For example, the present invention is not limited to the shapes and display positions of the icons used in the above embodiments, and the shapes and display positions of these icons are appropriately determined from the viewpoint of the operator's recognizability and operability. Just choose.

In the above embodiment, the connected home electric appliances are the CS tuner 5, the television 6, the video 7, the digital signal unit 8, the digital camera 9, and the audio 10, but the present invention is not limited to this. However, the devices to be connected are arbitrary.

In the above embodiment, the receiving terminal is the CS tuner 5, but the present invention is not limited to this, and these receiving terminals may be the television 6, the video 7, or the like.

In the above embodiment, the touch panel using the input pen 2 and the keyboard 3 capable of non-contact communication by infrared rays are used as the input means, but the present invention is not limited to this. The input means may be any one of the above, or other input means may be used.

Further, in the above embodiment, the liquid crystal panel 13 is used as a display device, but the present invention is not limited to this, and any display device can be used.

[0046]

The present invention has the following effects.

(A) According to the first aspect of the present invention, the display ratio of the selected display area can be changed to the other unselected display areas without deteriorating the advantages such as listing at the time of using the calendar metaphor. By changing the display so as to be larger than the above, more program information can be efficiently displayed in the enlarged display area.

(B) According to the invention of claim 2, the operator makes a reservation for listening or recording of a program desired to be listened or recorded by referring to the program information displayed in the enlarged display area. By selecting each icon, the operation can be easily performed, and the reserved program is automatically listened or recorded.

(C) According to the third aspect of the present invention, at the display stage before the enlarged display of the procedure A is performed, the presence or absence of the registered reservation can be recognized for each date of each display area.

(D) According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to directly select the display area and input characters and the like on the display panel, thereby greatly improving the operability of the apparatus by the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a connection state between a display controller 1 which is a control terminal device with a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention and each home electric appliance.

FIG. 2 shows a display controller according to an embodiment of the present invention, the display controller 1, and a digital set-top box 4 to which each home appliance is connected.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a year viewer screen on the display controller of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a month viewer screen in a memo function of the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a date viewer screen in the memo function of the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a month viewer screen in a memo function of the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a month viewer screen in an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) function of the display controller of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a day viewer screen in an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) function of the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a month viewer screen in an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) function of the display controller of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an input screen in a search function of the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a search result display screen in a search function of the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display screen of a control panel corresponding to AUDIO-CD of the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a layer configuration of a display screen in the display controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 display controller 2 input pen 3 keyboard 4 digital set-top box 5 CS tuner (CS-T; receiving terminal) 6 television (TV; video output means) 7 video (VIDEO; recording means) 8 digital signal unit (DSU) 9 digital Camera (Digi-CAM)
E) 10 AUDIO 11 Micro Processing Unit (M
PU) 12 communication unit 13 liquid crystal panel 14 LCD driver 15 main switch 16 microphone 17 A / D-D / A conversion unit 18 infrared receiving unit 19 real-time clock (RTC; clock means) 20 storage unit 21 ROM 22 control driver 23 transparent touch panel 24 Switching Unit 25 Controller 26 Connection Port 27 Speaker 28 Input Part 29 Search Button 30 HAVI Icon

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5C025 CA09 CB06 CB08 CB09 DA04 DA05 5E501 AA13 AA19 CB05 CC02 DA15 FA04 FA06 FA26 FB04 5K048 BA02 BA04 EB02 EB11 FB08 FB10 FB15 HA04

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A display device having a display device connected to a plurality of home appliances and transmitting predetermined control data to at least each of the connected home appliances so that the operation of each home appliance can be remotely controlled. A control terminal device, wherein the control terminal is connected to a receiving terminal capable of receiving program information including at least date and time information of a broadcasted program, and the program information output from the receiving terminal is included in the date and time information. A storage unit registered in association with the display unit, the display unit of the display device is divided into a plurality of areas, a date is assigned to each of the plurality of areas and displayed, and a selected display area is selected. Not display ratio with other display areas,
Step B of changing the display so that the display ratio of the selected display area is increased, and displaying the program information registered in the storage unit corresponding to the date corresponding to the selected display area in an enlarged manner. C to display in the displayed display area
And a control terminal device with a display device. 2. A video output means for outputting a video received by the receiving terminal or a video recording means for recording the received video on a predetermined recording medium, comprising a clock means capable of outputting current date and time information. And at least one of a listening reservation and a recording reservation icon is displayed in association with each program information to be displayed in the procedure C, and the listening reservation or the recording reservation is registered by selecting the listening reservation or the recording reservation icon. 2. The control terminal device with a display device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs at least one of video output control and recording control of the reserved program based on the registration and the output of the clock unit. 3. 3. In a display step of the procedure A, when there is a listening reservation or a recording reservation registered corresponding to the assigned date, a procedure D of displaying a predetermined icon in the display area is performed. The control terminal device with a display device according to claim 2. 4. The display device according to claim 1, wherein a touch panel capable of specifying a position on the display device is provided on the display device.
4. The control terminal device with a display device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.