JP2003345494A - Method of intuitive focal shift in window and apparatus thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of intuitive focal shift in a window and apparatus thereof. <P>SOLUTION: The method is applied to an environment where a television is connected with a set-top box, and used such that a user controls a frame of a home page window and the focal shift in a link by an input device equipped with a cursor key of top and bottom and right and left. When a direction key is depressed, the set-top box determines the presence of an adjacent link in the direction that is pointed by the depressed cursor key. If the link is present, the focal point is moved to the adjacent link. If not, the presence of home page contents is determined in the direction pointed by the cursor key. If the contents are present, they are scrolled. If not, the presence of an adjacent frame is determined in the direction pointed by the cursor key. If the frame is present, the focal point is moved to the adjacent frame. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for intuitive focus movement in a window, and its application range includes an application to an information appliance (IA) area such as a set-top box.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Traditional, well-known set-top boxes are commonly used in combination with a television receiver. The user receives the network signal through the network interface of the set-top box and connects with the television signal at the tuner. This allows the user to switch between television program viewing and network mode online as needed. The set-top box has an online function, so that the user can go online directly through the set-top box to the Internet without using a computer, and the set-top box integrates the functions of a TV and a computer. It is a multi-function service workstation and has a remarkable effect on the spread of information home appliances.

[0003] The contents of a homepage currently displayed generally are usually divided into a plurality of frames, and the frames usually include link information. For example, online newspapers can be linked to news of each type listed in the menu, and the user can click and browse as needed.

However, when a well-known set-top box is switched to an online mode, and a user connects to a specific homepage through a link, the user first moves the cursor to a location where the link is located (for example, a text superlink or an image). If you go to the (super link part) and click on the link, you can not connect to the specific homepage. Alternatively, use the tab key to switch links, but if there are two adjacent frames on one home page, and if you want to switch links to the next frame, all links in the current frame must be selected and completed. You cannot jump into another frame. Alternatively, when the user wants to execute the scroll function of the homepage window, similarly, first move the cursor to the window scroll axis portion, and then click the control key of the remote controller to control the window scroll axis and move up and down or left and right. Otherwise, the window contents cannot be moved. The disadvantages of the known set-top boxes described above all have created considerable operational inconvenience for the user. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for intuitive focus movement in a window, whereby an intuitive focus movement is provided by an up / down / left / right cursor key of an input device. (Focus) is moved in the frame of the window to simplify the operation process and to provide the user with browsing the homepage.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention of claim 1 provides a method of intuitive focus movement in a window, wherein the method comprises:
Focus movement is controlled in one window by an input device having up, down, left, and right cursor keys.
There are a plurality of frames in the window, and there are a plurality of links in at least one of the frames, and the method includes the following steps: Step A: One of the up, down, left, and right cursor keys is pressed. Receiving a signal, Step B: Determine whether there is an adjacent link in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key, move the focus to the adjacent link if present, and then execute Step C if not present Step C: Determine whether the contents exist in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key, execute scrolling if present, and execute Step D if not, Step D: Pressed cursor Judge whether there is an adjacent frame in the direction indicated by the key, and if so, move the focus to the adjacent frame. To have a method of intuition type focus movement in the window. The invention of claim 2 is the invention of claim 1
In step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is moved to one of the adjacent frames. It is a method of intuitive focus movement in a window, characterized by moving to one link. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the method of intuitive focus shifting in a window according to the first aspect, in step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, And moving the focus to the upper left link of the adjacent frame. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of intuitive focus movement in a window according to the first aspect,
In step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is moved to a recent link of the adjacent frame. The focus is shifted. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the method for intuitive focus shifting in a window according to the first aspect, in step D, if there is no frame adjacent in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key, the focus is shifted. It is a method of intuitive focus movement in a window, characterized in that it is immovable. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a network signal is received, a connection with an online station is executed, an image signal is transmitted to a television receiver, and a user watches the contents of the network station brought online by the television receiver. In a set-top box, the user can control the focus movement in one window by an input device equipped with up, down, left, and right cursor keys of the set-top box. Frames, and at least one of the frames has a plurality of links,
Achieve the following mechanism: Step A: Receive a signal that one of the up, down, left, and right cursor keys is depressed. Step B: There are links adjacent in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key. Then, if there is, the focus is moved to the adjacent link, and if not, step C is subsequently executed. Step C: It is determined whether or not the content exists in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key. If there is, scroll is executed; if not, step D is executed. Step D: It is determined whether there is an adjacent frame in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key, and if so, the focus is adjacent. A set-top box that moves in a frame and is characterized by the above.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the set-top box according to the sixth aspect, in step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is shifted to the adjacent frame. A set-top box, characterized by moving to one of the links. According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the set-top box according to the sixth aspect, in step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is shifted to the adjacent frame. The set top box is characterized by being moved to the link at the upper left corner of the set top box. The invention according to claim 9 is the set-top box according to claim 6, wherein
In step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is moved to the latest link of the adjacent frame, and the set-top box is provided. . According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the set top box according to the sixth aspect, in step D, if there is no frame adjacent in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key,
The set-top box is characterized by a fixed focus.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the method of intuitive focus movement in a window according to the present invention, a user controls the focus movement in one window by an input device having up, down, left, and right cursor keys. There are a plurality of frames therein, and there are a plurality of links in at least one of the frames, and the method of the present invention includes the following steps: (Step A) One of the up, down, left, right cursor keys is Receiving the pressed signal (Step B) Judge whether there is an adjacent link in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key, move the focus to the adjacent link if present, and continue if not To execute Step C, (Step C) to determine whether or not the content exists in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key. Is executed, if there if Step D
(Step D) It is determined whether there is an adjacent frame in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key, and if there is, the focus is moved to the adjacent frame. In step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is any link in the adjacent frame, the focus is moved to one of the links in the adjacent frame.

The present invention separately provides a kind of set-top box, which receives a network signal to execute a connection with an online station, transmits an image signal to a television receiver, and allows a user to receive the television signal. To be able to view the contents of the network station that has been online by the machine. The feature of this set-top box is that the user can control the focus movement in one window by an input device equipped with up, down, left, and right cursor keys of the set-top box, among which there are a plurality of frames in the window, and There are multiple links in at least one frame.

[0009] The structure of the present invention is novel, provides industrial use, and reliably enhances functionality, and is convenient for user operation.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an environment for implementing the present invention. The set-top box 10 is connected to the television receiver 30 and receives the network signal 51 and the television signal 52 so that the user can watch the television using the television receiver 30 and also receive the television signal. The content of the network station connected by the device 30 can be viewed. Normally, the user inputs a control command to the set-top box 10 having the infrared receiver 15 by using the input device 18 having the infrared emitter 183. Generally, the input device 18 is the remote controller 1
81 or a keyboard (not shown), shown in FIG. 1 is a remote controller 181 having cursor keys 182, and the remote controller 181 has an infrared emitter 183, and the emitted infrared signal is set-top. It is received by the infrared receiver 15 of the box 10.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the hardware structure of the set-top box 10 according to the present invention. In many respects, the set-top box 10 resembles the basic structure of a general computer. Generally, the set-top box 10
Processor 11, system bus 111, storage device 12
Unlike a computer (for example, a memory, a hard disk, or a memory card), an audio processing unit 13, an image processing unit 14, and a computer, the computer includes an infrared receiver 15, a network interface 16, a tuner 17, and an input device 18. A network signal 51 (for example, a signal transmitted from the Internet) enters from the network interface 16 and a television signal 52 is input to the tuner 1.
7, the network signal 51 and the television signal 52 currently share one cable. The point of the present invention is not to improve the hardware portion of the set-top box 10, and the hardware and basic functions of the set-top box 10 are well-known, and therefore, the description is omitted here.

A feature of the set-top box 10 of the present invention is that the user can control the movement of the focal point in one window 20 by the input device 18 having the up, down, left, and right cursor keys 182 of the set-top box 10. Please refer to FIG. The window 20 of the present embodiment is divided into three frames 41, 42, and 43, each of which includes a plurality of links. When the user clicks the cursor key 182 of the remote controller 181, the focus is on the user. Move to an adjacent link or frame or execute scrolling based on the signal in the clicked direction. When the focus moves to the link, the link frame is highlighted (hi).
(glight), at which time the user can connect to the homepage to which the user is directed by clicking the link at the focus. Taking a home page written in HTML as an example, each set of tags <A><//A> is one link, and each set of tags <frame><// fra
me> is one frame.

For a method of achieving focus movement in the window 20 by the set-top box 10, see the flowchart of the embodiment of the present invention in FIG.
First, the set-top box 10 has the cursor key 182
Is received (step S11), that is, the user presses the cursor key 1 of the remote controller 181.
At 82, the direction (up, down, left, right) to move the focal point is selected, the information is transmitted through the infrared emitter 183 and sent to the infrared receiver 15 of the set top box 10, and the processing of the set top box 10 is further performed. Controls the focus operation. The infrared emitter 183 of this embodiment is IrDA (In
formation Data Associate
n) is connected to the set-top box 10 using the transmission principle and using the PS2 interface, and further converts the scan code emitted by the infrared emitter 183 into a key code or a mouse event code by the processor 11; The box 10 controls the focus movement on the window 20 by the cursor key 182 selected by the user. Naturally, the device is not limited to the above-described device in actual application.

After the cursor key 182 is depressed, the set-top box 10 immediately determines whether there is a link adjacent in the direction indicated by the cursor key 182 (step S12). In this embodiment, also refer to FIG. 4, the start of the focus is located on the link 411 of the frame 41, and if the user presses the down key of the cursor key 182, the set-top box 10 When receiving the downward information, the link 412 is below the link 411, and the set-top box 10 moves the focus to the link 412 (step S13). Similarly, if the set-top box 10 receives the information of the downward movement again, that is, the focus is moved to the link 413.

If the focus is located on the link 413, and the user further presses the down key of the cursor key 182, then there is no other link below the link 413, and thus the set-top box 10 Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the content exists in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key 182 (that is, below the link 413) (step S14), and as shown, the link 413 is determined.
Since there is no other homepage content below the set, the set-top box 10 further determines whether there is a frame adjacent to the frame 41 below the link 413 (step S16). Finally, the link 41 is placed below the link 413.
3. It is found that there is no link, content, or frame adjacent to the lower side, and thus the focus is fixed (step S1).
8), still position on link 413;

At this time, when the right (right) key of the cursor key 182 is pressed, the set-top box 10 determines whether there is a link, a content, or a frame adjacent to the right of the link 413 one by one based on the above steps. to decide. In the frame 41, there is no link adjacent to the right of the link 413, but the homepage content 415
Therefore, scrolling is performed on the frame 41 (step S15), the home page shown in FIG. 5 is formed, and the window scroll axis 24 moves rightward. Among them, the scroll size provided in the set-top box 10 of this embodiment is about half a page, but can be set to a different scroll size as needed.

When the right key is further pressed, all the homepage contents 415 located to the right of the link 413 in the frame 41 have already been displayed, so that there is a frame adjacent to the link 413 to the right. A determination is made (step S16), and as shown in FIG.
13 is the frame 43 whose distance in the right direction is the latest, the set-top box 10 moves the focus to the link 431 in the frame 43 (step S1).
7).

It should be noted that the set-top box 10 of the present embodiment is set so that when the focus needs to be moved to an adjacent frame, the focus moves to the nearest link in the adjacent frame. Accordingly, the focus located at the link 413 moves to the link 431. Naturally, the focus is set to move to the upper left link in the adjacent frame, or the focus is set to the center, right, or right in the adjacent frame. It can also be set to move to the link in the direction, down and other parts.

Thus, based on the method of the present invention, FIG.
See also FIG. When the focus is on the link 412 and the light key of the cursor key 182 is depressed, the frame 41 is scrolled to display the home page contents 415, and once the light key is depressed, the focus is on the frame 42. The link 412 moves to the link 42 whose distance is the most recent. Focus is link 411
, And when the light key of the cursor key 182 is pressed, the frame 41 is scrolled to display the home page contents 415, and once the light key is pressed, the focus is similarly set on the link in the frame 42. 411 and the distance move to the link 421 which is recent. When the focus is on link 432 and the up key of cursor key 182 is depressed, the focus moves to link 431, and if the up key is depressed once more, the focus moves to link 423 in frame 42. I do. Others are also inferred by this.

[0020]

The method of intuitive focus shift in a window according to the present invention escapes the idea of a frame in a homepage,
The focus is moved through the cursor keys of the set-top box 10 to switch to an adjacent frame, or to an adjacent link portion, or a scroll function is executed. The design of the present invention is simple, greatly simplifies the operation process, and enhances the convenience of browsing the homepage of the user, which is a major advance of information home appliances.

Overall, the present invention has features different from those of the well-known technology in all of its objects, means, and functions, and is an invention having extremely practical value. It should be noted that the above embodiments are for describing the present invention, and do not limit the scope of the present invention. Modifications or alterations of details that can be made based on the present invention are all within the scope of the claims of the present invention. Shall belong.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a display diagram of an implementation environment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a hardware structure diagram of a set-top box.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a continuous operation diagram of a window according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a continuous operation diagram of a window according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Set-top box 11 Processor 111 System bus 12 Storage device 13 Sound processing unit 14 Image processing unit 15 Infrared receiver 16 Network interface 17 Tuner 18 Input device 181 Remote controller 182 Cursor key 183 Infrared emitter 20 Window 21 Tool bar 22, 23 Advertising 24 Window scroll axis 30 Television receivers 41, 42, 43 Frames 411, 412, 413, 421, 422, 423, 4
31, 432 link 415 content 51 network signal 52 television signal

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] May 30, 2002 (2005.3.
0)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Drawing

[Correction target item name] Figure 3

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

FIG. 3

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A method of intuitive focus movement in a window, wherein a user controls the focus movement in one window by an input device having up, down, left, and right cursor keys, wherein a plurality of frames are in the window. And there are a plurality of links in at least one of the frames, the method comprises the following steps: Step A: receiving a signal that one of the up, down, left and right cursor keys is depressed; Step B : It is determined whether there is an adjacent link in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key, and if so, the focus is moved to the adjacent link, and if not, step C is subsequently executed. To determine if the content exists in the direction indicated by the cursor key, and execute scrolling if present, and step if not. Performing step D; determining whether there is an adjacent frame in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key, and moving the focus to the adjacent frame, if any, Intuitive focus shift method in a window. 2. The method of intuitive focus shifting in a window according to claim 1, wherein, in step D, when the focus is shifted to an adjacent frame, if a link exists in the adjacent frame, the focus is adjusted. Moving in a window to one of the links in an adjacent frame. 3. The method of intuitive focus movement in a window according to claim 1, wherein, in step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is adjusted. Moving the image to the upper left link of the adjacent frame. 4. The method of intuitive focus movement in a window according to claim 1, wherein in step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if a link exists in the adjacent frame, the focus is adjusted. Moving to a recent link in an adjacent frame. 5. The method for intuitive focus movement in a window according to claim 1, wherein in step D, if there is no frame adjacent in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key, the focus is fixed. Intuitive focus movement in a window, characterized in that: 6. Receiving a network signal to execute a connection with an online station, transmitting an image signal to a television receiver, and allowing a user to view the contents of the network station online with the television receiver. In a set-top box, the user can control the focus movement in one window by an input device equipped with up, down, left and right cursor keys of the set-top box, among which a plurality of frames in a window And there are a plurality of links in at least one of the frames, and achieves the following mechanism: Step A: receiving a signal that one of the up, down, left, and right cursor keys is pressed, B: Lin adjacent to the direction of the pressed cursor key Judge whether there is a lock, and if so, move the focus to the adjacent link, and if not, continue with step C. Step C: Whether the content exists in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key , If there is, execute scrolling, if not, execute step D. Step D: Judge whether there is an adjacent frame in the direction indicated by the pressed cursor key, and if so, focus Moving into adjacent frames, a set top box. 7. The set-top box according to claim 6, wherein, in step D, when the focal point is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focal point of the adjacent frame is changed. A set-top box, characterized by moving to one of the links. 8. The set-top box according to claim 6, wherein, in step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is moved to the most adjacent frame. A set-top box, which is moved to a link at the upper left. 9. The set-top box according to claim 6, wherein, in step D, when the focus is moved to an adjacent frame, if there is a link in the adjacent frame, the focus is moved to the nearest frame. A set-top box, characterized by being moved to a link. 10. The set-top box according to claim 6, wherein in step D, if there is no frame adjacent in the direction indicated by the depressed cursor key,
A set-top box characterized by a fixed focus.