JP2003099464A - Object selection method, device, program, and recording medium on which the program is recorded - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] When selecting an object from a tree structure object, the tree structure object is displayed so that the intuitive structure can be easily grasped even with a small display area, and the convenience is improved. Provide an object selection method. SOLUTION: When displaying a tree-structured object D1 in a virtual space 2, a structure conversion and display processing unit 1 displays an object included in the tree-structured object D1 as a parent object, the parent object as a road, and the parent object. Since the tree-structured object is displayed by displaying the object belonging to the object as a child object and displaying the child object as a path branching in the right or left direction from the path of the parent object, the structure of the tree-structured object is reduced. However, it can be grasped intuitively, and complicated operations such as deployment are not required. In addition, the avatar operation processing unit 3 generates an avatar in the virtual space 2 and, when the avatar moves to an object displayed in the virtual space 2 by a user operation, selects the destination object.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention can display a tree-structured object even when the object is selected from among tree-structured objects so that the structure can be intuitively grasped even with a small display area. The present invention relates to an object selecting method, an apparatus therefor, a program therefor, and a recording medium having the program recorded therein, which are also intended to improve

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a tree-structured object of this kind has been known as a hierarchical document file group, a vocabulary group systematically classified, and the like, and is often managed by a computer.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional tree structure object display method. The display processing logic shown in FIG. 6 is, for example, a file operating system that manages a hierarchical document file group, a software program that analyzes and displays a tree-structured object, and causes the display device to display the parent object. , Child objects belonging to a parent object are displayed on only one side relative to the parent object. In particular, in the file operating system, the child object is displayed only when the user performs an expanding operation such as a mouse click so that the whole file can be contained in a small display area.

[0004]

As described above, the conventional tree-structured object display method requires a large display area because the child object is displayed on only one side of the parent object. Further, when the display area is limited, it is inevitable that the child objects are not displayed, which makes it difficult to intuitively grasp the tree structure. In addition, the unfolding operation is necessary to display the child objects that are not displayed, and many operations must be performed to display the terminal objects.
In addition, the display mode of the object is uniform,
This is the reason why intuitive structure recognition is difficult.

Further, in a practical application, it may be necessary to select an object from the tree-structured objects because it is used by another application program. In this case, a method of displaying the names of the objects in a list and allowing the user to select them is adopted. However, this method cannot intuitively grasp the structure,
The convenience in selecting an object is not always good, and its improvement is required.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to intuitively grasp the structure of a tree-structured object with a small display area when selecting an object. An object of the present invention is to provide an object selection method, an apparatus therefor, a program therefor, and a recording medium in which the program is recorded, in which the tree-structured object can be displayed and the convenience at the time of selection is improved.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention according to claim 1 displays a tree-structured object in an electrically constructed virtual space, and selects from among the tree-structured objects. An object selection method for selecting an object, wherein an object included in the tree structure object is displayed as a parent object and the parent object is displayed as a road, and an object belonging to the parent object is a child object and the child object is the parent. The tree-structured object is displayed by displaying it as a road branching in either the left or right direction from the object path, and further, an avatar is generated in the virtual space, and the avatar is displayed in the virtual space by a user operation. When you move to the moved object, And solutions with an object selection method and selects the-objects.

According to the present invention of claim 2, when the avatar sequentially moves to a plurality of objects, all the objects are selected, and the object selecting method according to claim 1 is used as a solving means. .

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the object selecting method according to the first or second aspect is characterized in that the avatar is deleted when the destination is the end object.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an object selection device for displaying a tree structure object in an electrically constructed virtual space and selecting an object from the tree structure object. By displaying the included object as a parent object and the parent object as a road, and displaying the child object as an object belonging to the parent object as a road that branches from the road of the parent object in either left or right direction. Displaying the tree-structured object, further generating an avatar in the virtual space, and selecting the destination object when the avatar moves to the object displayed in the virtual space by a user operation. Object selection device characterized by Have in the resolution means.

The present invention of claim 5 provides an object selecting program for executing the object selecting method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 as a solving means.

A sixth aspect of the present invention provides a solving means by a recording medium having an object selection program for executing the object selecting method according to any one of the first to third aspects recorded therein.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a computer according to an embodiment of the present invention. Computer 1
When the tree structure object D1 which is digital data is input, the structure conversion / display processing unit 1 provided in 0 performs a process of displaying the tree structure object D1 in the electrically configured virtual space 2. That is, the object included in the tree structure object D1 is displayed as the parent object, the parent object is displayed as the road, and the object belonging to the parent object is used as the child object, and the child object is branched from the road of the parent object in either the left or right direction. Display as a road to do. The virtual space is an electrically configured space such as a display screen of a graphic display device. The computer 10 corresponds to an object selection device.

FIG. 2A is a diagram showing the tree structure object D1. FIG. 2B is a diagram showing the street definition D2. The tree structure object D1 includes data indicating the structure of the object and data indicating the contents of each object. The street definition D2 is for a range of the number of objects (not only child objects but also child objects of this object and later) that belong to the object to be displayed, and the type of road to be displayed (avenue, alley, Back roads, etc.). For each type, the road display mode (width, length, shape, color, pattern or a combination thereof) is preset in the memory.

In many cases, the objects of the tree-structured object have a one-to-many parent-child relationship, and the parent-child relationship has a multi-tiered structure, that is, parent, child, grandchild, and great-grandchild. Specifically, a file / folder group, an ontology, a web page, an organization, etc. are examples of objects.

The computer 10 is further provided with an avatar operation processing section 3 for selecting an object from the tree-structured object D1. Avatar operation processing unit 3
At this time, when an avatar is generated in the virtual space 2 and the avatar moves to the object displayed in the virtual space 2 by the operation of the user, the destination object is selected from the tree structure object D1. To do. The avatar is a display element that imitates the form of a person, and is also called a symbol or the like. In addition, when moving, the avatar is designed to pass over the road displayed in the virtual space 2, which has the effect of making the user visually interested.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, the structure conversion and display processing unit 1 will be described. Figure 3
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an operation of a structure conversion / display processing unit 1. First, in the tree structure object D1, objects A, B and C belong to a root object that does not belong to any object, objects A1, A2 and A3 belong to object A, and object B
Objects B1 and B2 belong to
Object C1 belongs to. Now, when the tree structure object D1 is input, the structure conversion and display processing unit 1 first displays the road corresponding to the root object in the center of the virtual space 2.

Thereafter, for each of the objects A, B, and C belonging to the root object, based on the data indicating the structure of the object in the tree structure object D1, the partial tree structure object having this object as the root object is set. Display processing is performed as a display target. Further, in this display processing, if a further partial tree-structured object exists in the display target, the same display processing is performed for that. That is, the processing is performed recursively. It should be noted that an object having no child object (terminal object) is displayed as an icon so as to be adjacent to the road corresponding to the parent object to which the object belongs.

Therefore, in this example, first, the parent object A and the child objects A1, A2, A belonging to the parent object A are first described.
3 and the end objects belonging to this are displayed,
Next, the parent object B, the objects B1 and B2 belonging to it, and the end objects belonging to this are displayed, and finally, the object C, the object C1 belonging to this, and the end objects belonging to this are displayed. Will be displayed.

In displaying each road, first, a road type is selectively selected from among predetermined ones based on the attribute of the object to be displayed. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, selection is performed based on the street definition D2, the contents of the object in the tree structure object D1, and the like. Then, as shown in FIG. 1, the display target object is additionally displayed in the virtual space 2 as a road that branches in either the left or right direction with respect to the road of the parent object. Therefore, an effect that the display area for displaying the tree structure object D1 can be reduced can be obtained. Further, since the type of the road is the selected one, the display mode of the road can be set according to the attribute of the object. Therefore, if the attribute is different, the type of road is also different, and as a result, the difference in attribute can be easily determined. If you unify the types of roads in advance,
The tree-structured object can be displayed in a simplified manner.

Further, the end object which is an object having no child object is displayed as an icon adjacent to the road corresponding to the parent object to which the object belongs. Moreover, the structure conversion / display processing unit 1 makes this icon a display mode according to the attribute of the end object. Therefore, the display mode of the end object can be adapted to the attribute of the object. More specifically, when the attribute of the end object is a person, a person-shaped icon can be displayed, and when the attribute is a building, a building-shaped icon can be displayed. Further, when the attribute is represented by a value, the size of the icon can be made to correspond to the size of the value.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the names of objects (roo) to be displayed are displayed at the positions where roads and icons are displayed.
By displaying (t, A, B, etc.), it becomes easier to visually and intuitively grasp. Also, the structure conversion and display processing unit 1
Can enlarge or reduce the display of the object displayed in the virtual space 2 according to a user's operation, or select and extract a lump of the object to display. The structure conversion / display processing unit 1 can move, copy, or delete the selected object when an operation for moving, copying, or deleting is performed when the object is selected by the user's operation. it can.

Therefore, the structure of the tree-structured object can be intuitively grasped even with a small display area, and complicated operations such as expansion are unnecessary.

Next, the avatar operation processing section 3 will be described.
It is assumed that the structure conversion and the display in the virtual space 2 by the display processing unit 1 have been completed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the operation of the avatar operation processing unit 3. The avatar operation processing unit 3 first determines the virtual space 2
Generate an avatar and wait. The avatar can be moved in the virtual space 2 by a user using the computer 10 operating the virtual space 2 with a mouse or the like. When the avatar operation processing unit 3 detects that the avatar has started moving, thereafter, it continuously detects the end of the moving. Here, when the end of the movement is detected, the destination object is obtained. The detection of the movement end can be performed when there is no movement for a preset time or when a preset mouse operation (for example, double click) is performed.

Here, when the avatar moves onto one object, the object is obtained, but when the avatar moves onto a plurality of objects, the plurality of objects are obtained. The avatar operation processing unit 3 internally designates the position of the moving destination. As shown in FIG. 5, for example, the coordinates of the moving destination or the street of the moving destination (here, a lump of objects) is designated. Further, the direction and amount (distance) of movement may be designated as a relative designation with respect to the current position.

In any case, the avatar operation processing unit 3 that has obtained one or more objects to be the destination of movement selects the object of the obtained destination of movement from the objects included in the tree-structured object D1. Specifically, the selection is performed by associating a selection target object with a flag indicating that the object is selected. Then, after selection, the avatar operation processing unit 3, as described above,
Returning to the detection processing of the movement start and end of the avatar, upon detection, the object of the movement destination is obtained and the object is selected from the tree-structured objects D1. Therefore, when the avatar sequentially moves to a plurality of objects, the avatar operation processing unit 3 selects all of the objects.

When the destination is the end object, the avatar operation processing unit 3 deletes the avatar from the virtual space 2 and finishes the process. At the time of this deletion,
The avatar may enter the building icon. Further, in the virtual space 2, the selected object may be displayed in a display form indicating that effect (for example, different colors or the like from other objects).

FIG. 1 shows that the operation of the avatar operation processing unit 3 selects four objects in the tree-structured object D1, that is, the root object, the object A, the object A2, and the end object belonging to the object A2. ing.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, when selecting an object from the tree structure objects,
The structure conversion and display processing unit 1 of the computer 10 executes the process of displaying the tree structure object in the electrically configured virtual space 2. Specifically, an object included in the tree-structured object is displayed as a parent object, the parent object is displayed as a road, and an object belonging to the parent object is displayed as a child object, and the child object is displayed on either side of the road of the parent object. The tree-structured object is displayed by displaying it as a road branching to.

Further, when the avatar operation processing unit 3 generates an avatar in the virtual space 2 and the avatar moves to the object displayed in the virtual space 2 by the operation of the user, the object to be moved is selected. To do.

Therefore, when selecting an object from among the tree-structured objects, the tree-structured object can be displayed so that the structure can be intuitively grasped with a small display area.
Moreover, it is possible to improve the convenience of selection.

The computer program that causes a computer to execute the processing described in the above embodiments corresponds to the object selection program of the present invention, and is a semiconductor memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic tape, or the like. It can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium or transmitted via a communication network such as the Internet, and widely distributed.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When selecting objects in the tree structure object,
Even with a small display area, the tree-structured object can be displayed so that the structure can be intuitively grasped easily, and the convenience at the time of selection can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is a diagram showing a tree structure object D1. FIG. 2B is a diagram showing the street definition D2.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation of a structure conversion / display processing unit 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation of an avatar operation processing unit 3.

5 is a diagram showing an internal destination designation method in the avatar operation processing unit 3. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional tree-structured object display method.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Structure conversion and display processing unit 2 virtual space 3 Avatar operation processing unit 10 computers D1 tree structure object D2 street definition

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Toru Ariga             1-9-1, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo             IT Comware Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Ikuo Yoda             1-9-1, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo             IT Comware Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5B075 ND35 PQ02 PQ13 PQ32

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An object selection method for displaying a tree-structured object in an electrically configured virtual space and selecting an object from the tree-structured object, wherein an object included in the tree-structured object is selected. By displaying the parent object as a road as a parent object and displaying an object belonging to the parent object as a child object and displaying the child object as a road branching in either left or right direction from the road of the parent object, the tree structure object Further, it is characterized in that an avatar is generated in the virtual space, and when the avatar moves to an object displayed in the virtual space by a user's operation, the destination object is selected. Object selection method. 2. The object selecting method according to claim 1, wherein when the avatar sequentially moves to a plurality of objects, all of the objects are selected. 3. The object selection method according to claim 1, wherein the avatar is deleted when the destination is the end object. 4. An object selecting device for displaying a tree-structured object in an electrically constructed virtual space and selecting an object from the tree-structured object, wherein an object included in the tree-structured object is a parent object. The parent object as a road and the object belonging to the parent object as a child object, and the child object is displayed as a road branching in either the left or right direction from the road of the parent object to display the tree structure object. Further, object selection characterized by generating an avatar in the virtual space and selecting the destination object when the avatar moves to an object displayed in the virtual space by a user operation. apparatus. 5. An object selection program for executing the object selection method according to any one of claims 1 to 3. 6. A recording medium in which an object selection program for executing the object selection method according to claim 1 is recorded.