JP2009015579A - Information processing apparatus and window display method - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to enable a user to easily grasp the contents of a selected window even when the window selected by the user is hidden by another window.
A window selection unit that selects a window displayed on a display screen according to a user operation, and a determination unit that determines whether the window selected by the window selection unit is hidden by another window. A sub-window generating unit that generates a sub-window related to the contents of the window selected by the window selecting unit when the determining unit determines that the window selected by the window selecting unit is hidden by another window; The problem is solved by having output means for outputting the sub-window generated by the means to the display screen.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a window display method.

  Many window systems are configured so that a window can be displayed in the foreground by being activated, and a user can confirm the display content of the window. Further, as a method for recognizing the back window among the overlapping windows, there is a method of making the front window translucent (see, for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).

JP-A-8-292758 JP 2000-293288 A

  In the method of presenting the content displayed in the overlapping window by activating the window as in the window system, when many applications are activated, it is troublesome for the user to select. In addition, the window system changes the hierarchical order of the windows by activating the selected window. As a result, the layout of the window on the display screen may be difficult to understand.

  Further, in the method of displaying the front window in a semi-transparent and overlapping manner, it is difficult to discriminate when the characters overlap, and the visibility may be lost if there are a plurality of overlapping windows.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and enables the user to easily grasp the contents of the selected window even when the window selected by the user is hidden by another window. Objective.

  Therefore, the information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a window selection unit that selects a window displayed on the display screen according to a user operation, and whether the window selected by the window selection unit is hidden by another window. And a sub-window related to the contents of the window selected by the window selection means when the determination means determines that the window selected by the window selection means is hidden by another window. Sub-window generating means for generating the sub-window, and output means for outputting the sub-window generated by the sub-window generating means to the display screen.

  The present invention is also a window display method in the information processing apparatus, in which a window selection step for selecting a window displayed on a display screen in response to a user operation, and a window selected in the window selection step A determination step for determining whether or not the window is hidden by another window, and a selection in the window selection step when it is determined in the determination step that the window selected in the window selection step is hidden in another window And a sub-window generating step for generating a sub-window related to the contents of the generated window, and an output step for outputting the sub-window generated in the sub-window generating step to the display screen.

  The present invention may be a program and a storage medium.

  According to the present invention, even when a window selected by the user is hidden by another window, the user can easily understand the contents of the selected window.

<Embodiment 1>
DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an example of a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus (computer). As illustrated in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus includes a CPU 101, a ROM 102, a RAM 103, an input device 104, and a display device 105 as hardware configurations. Note that these hardware components 101 to 105 are communicably connected via the system bus 106.

  The CPU 101 controls the entire information processing apparatus. The ROM 102 stores programs and various parameters that do not need to be changed. The RAM 103 temporarily stores programs and data supplied from an external device or the like.

  The CPU 101 executes a program stored in the ROM 102 or the RAM 103, thereby realizing a functional configuration of an information processing apparatus to be described later and processing related to a flowchart to be described later.

  The input device 104 receives input from a pointing device, a keyboard, etc., and inputs the signal to the CPU 101. The display device 105 displays the result output from the CPU 101 and the supplied data.

  Note that a hard disk, a memory card, or the like may be fixed and installed in the information processing apparatus as necessary. Further, the information processing apparatus uses an external storage device including an optical disk such as a flexible disk (FD) and a Compact Disk (CD) that can be attached to and detached from the information processing apparatus, a magnetic or optical card, an IC card, a memory card, and the like. There may be. The information processing apparatus may have a network interface for connecting to a network line such as the Internet.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining an example of a functional configuration of the information processing apparatus. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the information processing apparatus includes a window selection unit 201, a window selection state management unit 202, a window information acquisition unit 203, an application information storage unit 204, and an application information acquisition unit 205 as functional configurations. And including. The information processing apparatus further includes a sub window generation unit 206, a sub window arrangement unit 207, a sub window output control unit 208, and a sub window output unit 209 as functional configurations.

  The window selection unit 201 selects a window output to the display device 105 in accordance with an operation (user operation) of the input device 104 by the user. The window selection state management unit 202 manages the window selection state. The window information acquisition unit 203 acquires information regarding the window output to the display device 105.

  The application information storage unit 204 stores information related to the application displayed in the window in a storage area such as the RAM 103. The application information acquisition unit 205 acquires application information from the storage area. The sub window generation unit 206 generates a sub window based on the application information acquired by the application information acquisition unit 205.

  The sub window placement unit 207 determines where to output the sub window on the display device 105 based on the window information acquired by the window information acquisition unit 203 and the application information acquired by the application information acquisition unit 205.

  The sub window output control unit 208 controls the output of the sub window based on the window selection state managed by the window selection state management unit 202. The sub window output unit 209 outputs the sub window at the arrangement position determined by the sub window arrangement unit 207 according to the control of the sub window output control unit 208.

  Although description is omitted in FIG. 2, naturally, the functional configuration of the information processing apparatus includes a window generation unit, a window output unit, a window output control unit, a window arrangement unit, and the like.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of sub-window display processing according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the display device. Hereinafter, description will be made with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

  On the display screen 400 of FIG. 4A, a window 401 is displayed so as to overlap the window 402. The user operates the input device 104 to move the mouse pointer 403 to select a window for which display contents are to be confirmed.

  Note that no window is selected in the state of FIG. In addition, it is assumed that the window information acquisition unit 203 acquires the image information (image) of the application displayed in the window 401 and the window 402 displayed on the display screen 400. Also, it is assumed that the acquired image information is stored (stored) in the storage area by the application information storage unit 204.

  As described above, the user operates the input device 104 to move the mouse pointer 403 and select a window for which the display content is to be confirmed. Then, the window selection unit 201 acquires information on the window selected by the user (for example, identification information for identifying the window) (S301).

  In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the user selects a window by moving the mouse over a window to be confirmed using a pointing device such as a mouse which is an example of the input device 104. However, the information processing apparatus only needs to be able to identify the window selected by the user. That is, the user may select a window with a touch panel, a keyboard hardware key, or the like.

  Next, the window information acquisition unit 203 acquires information about each window displayed on the display screen (S302). More specifically, the window information acquisition unit 203 acquires the width w1 and height h1 of the window 401 and the coordinates (x1, y1) of the upper left point p1 as information about the window. In addition, the window information acquisition unit 203 acquires the width w2 and height h2 of the window 402, the coordinates (x2, y2) of the upper left point p2, and the hierarchical order of the window 401 and the window 402 as information about the window. Here, FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining information about the window. Note that in FIG. 5, the position of the window 402 is shown as being shifted from FIG. 4 for the sake of explanation.

  Subsequently, the window selection state management unit 202 determines whether or not a part of the selected window is hidden by another window based on the window information acquired in S302 (S303). More specifically, the window selection state management unit 202 performs the determination based on the conditional expressions x1−w2 ≦ x2 ≦ x1 + w1 and y1−h2 ≦ y2 ≦ y1 + h1 and the hierarchical order of the windows. If the window selection state management unit 202 determines that part of the selected window is hidden by another window, the window selection state management unit 202 advances the process to S304. On the other hand, if the window selection state management unit 202 determines that part of the selected window is not hidden by another window, the window selection state management unit 202 ends the process illustrated in FIG.

  In step S304, the application information acquisition unit 205 acquires application information (more specifically, image information) of the application displayed in the selected window from the storage area based on the identification information of the selected window. To do. In the present embodiment, image information will be described as an example of application information stored in a storage area. However, the application information may include metadata such as an application name, application type information, title information, and application version information.

  Subsequently, the sub window generation unit 206 generates a thumbnail image (reduced image) as a sub window based on the image information acquired in S304 (S305). Hereinafter, an example of a thumbnail image generation method will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of a thumbnail image generation method. FIG. 6 shows a mechanism for generating a 128 × 96 thumbnail image 602 from a 640 × 480 image 601.

  The sub-window generation unit 206 divides the image 601 into 5 × 5 blocks 603, determines the value of the pixel 604 of the thumbnail image 602 from the average value of 25 pixels constituting the block 603, and generates a thumbnail image.

  Subsequently, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 arranges the thumbnail images so that the upper left coordinates of the generated thumbnail images coincide with the position of the mouse pointer (S306). Subsequently, the sub-window output control unit 208 performs output control so that the sub-window (thumbnail image) is at the top of the window hierarchy order, and the sub-window output unit 209 performs the sub-window on the display screen based on this output control. It outputs (S307).

  FIG. 4B shows a state where the window 402 is selected. In FIG. 4B, since a part of the window 402 is overlapped by the window 401, a thumbnail image (subwindow) 404 is displayed on the display screen.

Hereinafter, a method for arranging the generated thumbnail images will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a method of arranging the generated thumbnail images.
As shown in FIG. 7, when the sub-window output unit 209 tries to display the generated thumbnail image 703 at the upper left position of the coordinate position (operation position) of the mouse pointer 702, the thumbnail image 703 is displayed on the display screen 701. It may stick out.

Here, the width of the display screen is W, the height is H, the width of the generated thumbnail image is w, the height is h, and the coordinates of the mouse pointer are (x, y).
At this time, the sub-window arrangement unit 207
“When 0 ≦ x ≦ W-w and 0 ≦ y ≦ Hh, the upper left of the thumbnail image”,
“When 0 ≦ x ≦ W-w and Hh <y ≦ W, the lower left of the thumbnail image”,
“When Ww <x ≦ W and 0 ≦ y ≦ Hh, the upper right corner of the thumbnail image”,
“When W−w <x ≦ W and H−h <y ≦ H, the lower right of the thumbnail image”,
Sub-windows (thumbnail images) are arranged so as to be arranged in accordance with the coordinates (x, y) of the mouse pointer. Thereby, a thumbnail image can be displayed on the display screen.

  In the present embodiment, the thumbnail image is displayed in accordance with the position of the mouse pointer. However, the information processing apparatus may set the display position of the thumbnail image as a fixed position in the display screen.

  The information processing apparatus may stop outputting thumbnail images when the mouse pointer moves outside the area of the selected window or when the selected window becomes active.

<Embodiment 2>
Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the sub-window display process according to the second embodiment.

The processing from S801 to S803 is the same as the processing from S301 to S303 in FIG.
In step S804, the application information acquisition unit 205 acquires the application information of the application displayed in the selected window from the storage area based on the identification information of the selected window. More specifically, the application information acquisition unit 205 acquires application image information, an application name (application name), and metadata as application information.

  Subsequently, the sub window arrangement unit 207 detects a blank area in the window on the display screen. Here, when a window (or contents in the window) is displayed based on the structured document, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 can identify (detect) a blank area by interpreting the structured document. it can.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an HTML document representing the contents of a window. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which content based on the structured document in FIG. 9 is displayed in a window 1002 in the display screen 1001. Hereinafter, a method in which the sub-window arrangement unit 207 detects the blank area of the window by analyzing the structured document will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

  The sub-window arrangement unit 207 reads each element name, attribute name, and attribute value of the structured document, and acquires the width and height attribute values such as 901 and 902 indicating the object area at that time. In the example of FIG. 9, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 obtains the width attribute value 240 of the img element, the height attribute value 180, the width attribute value 200 of the table element, and the height attribute value 200. Then, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 calculates the upper left coordinates (0, 0), the width 240, and the height 380 of the minimum rectangle that includes the img element object and the table element object.

  If the coordinates of the point P corresponding to the upper left of the window 1002 in FIG. 10 are (x, y), the width of the window 1002 is W, the height is H, and the width of the tool bar is Wt. The display content of the window 1002 is shown in the structured document shown in FIG. 9, and an area 1003 is an object area indicated by the img element, and an area 1004 is an object area indicated by the table element. The upper left coordinates of the blank area 1005 are (x + 240, y + Wt), the width is W−240, and the height is 180 + 200. The upper left coordinates of the blank area 1006 are (x, y + Wt + 200 + 180), the width is W, and the height is H−Wt− (200 + 180).

  As another detection method of the blank area, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 performs edge detection processing on the rendering result in the window in the x-axis and y-axis directions, respectively, and the blank area is determined according to the degree of congestion of the detected edge portions. May be determined.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 8 again, in S806, the sub window generation unit 206 generates a thumbnail image from the display image of the application based on the application name acquired in S804, or an icon for identifying the application from the metadata of the application. Alternatively, it is determined whether to generate character string information (S806).

  If the application name is, for example, a music playback application, the sub window generation unit 206 determines not to generate a thumbnail image, and proceeds to step S808. On the other hand, if the application name is an application other than the music playback application, for example, the sub-window generation unit 206 determines to generate a thumbnail image and advances the process to step S807.

  In step S807, the sub window generation unit 206 generates a thumbnail image as a sub window based on the image information acquired in step S804. On the other hand, in step S808, the sub-window generation unit 206 generates a sub-window including the contents (for example, information related to music) displayed in the selected window.

  In step S809, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 determines the arrangement position of the generated sub-window according to the blank area of each window detected in step S805 and the window non-display area in the display screen.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a blank area of each window and a window non-display area in the display screen. The window non-display areas on the display screen 1100 are 1101, 1102, 1103, 1106, 1107. The blank areas of the windows are 1104 and 1105, respectively. Further, the table (list) on the right side of FIG. 11 shows the area information of the blank area and the window non-display area detected by the sub-window arrangement unit 207. Note that the sub-window placement unit 207 detects a window non-display area based on the window-related information acquired by the window information acquisition unit 203 and the like.

  Hereinafter, a method for determining the arrangement position of the sub-window will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. In the present embodiment, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 also considers an area that spans at least two of a blank area of each window and a window non-display area in the display screen as an outputable area of the sub-window.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the sub-window arrangement position determination process. Note that the upper left coordinate of the display screen is the origin, the right direction is the x axis, and the lower direction is the y axis.
In S1201, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 sets 0 to the variables X and Y, respectively. Subsequently, in S1202, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 determines whether there is a blank area satisfying y = Y and X ≦ x based on the list of FIG.

  If it is determined that there is no corresponding blank area, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 advances the process to S1203, sets Y = Y + 1, X = 0, and returns the process to S1202. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is a corresponding blank area, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 advances the processing to S1204 and substitutes the X coordinate X1 of the left end of the corresponding blank area for the variable X.

  Here, assuming that the width of the generated subwindow is Ws, the subwindow arrangement unit 207 determines whether y = Y and X ≦ x ≦ X + Ws is included in the blank area (S1205).

  If it is determined that it is not included in the blank area, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 advances the process to S1206, sets X = X + Ws, and returns the process to S1202. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is included in the blank area, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 advances the processing to S1207, and substitutes the value of the variable X for the variable Xb and the value of the variable Y for the variable Yb.

  Subsequently, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 sets Y = Y + 1 (S1208). Subsequently, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 determines whether y = Y and X ≦ x ≦ X + Ws is included in the blank area (S1209).

  If it is determined that it is not included in the blank area, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 advances the processing to S1210, sets X = Xb + 1, Y = Yb, and returns the processing to S1205. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is included in the blank area, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 advances the processing to S1211. In S1211, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 determines whether or not Hs ≦ Y−Yb is satisfied, where Hs is the height of the generated sub-window.

  If it is determined that the condition is not satisfied, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 returns the process to S1208. On the other hand, if it is determined that the condition is satisfied, the sub-window arrangement unit 207 advances the processing to S1212, determines the upper left coordinates (Xb, Yb) of the sub-window as the display position of the sub-window, and ends the processing illustrated in FIG.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 8 again, in S810, the sub-window output unit 209 outputs the sub-window to the sub-window arrangement position determined by the sub-window arrangement unit 207. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen when the arrangement position is determined and the subwindow is output.

  A window 1301 is displayed on the display screen 1300 so as to overlap the window 1302, and the window 1302 whose display content is to be confirmed is selected by the mouse pointer 1303. Since the selected window 1302 is overlapped by the window 1301, a thumbnail image 1304 is generated and output so as to span the window 1301, the blank area of the window 1302, and the window non-display area 1305.

<Other embodiments>
The object of the present invention is achieved by the following. That is, a recording medium (or storage medium) that records a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus. Then, the central processing means (CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus reads and executes the program code stored in the recording medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the recording medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the recording medium on which the program code is recorded constitutes the present invention.

  In addition, by executing the program code read by the central processing means of the system or apparatus, an operating system (OS) or the like operating on the system or apparatus performs actual processing based on the instruction of the program code. Do some or all. The case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing is also included.

  Further, it is assumed that the program code read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the system or apparatus or a function expansion unit connected thereto. After that, based on the instruction of the program code, the CPU of the function expansion card or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing. It is.

  When the present invention is applied to the recording medium, the recording medium stores program codes corresponding to the flowcharts described above.

  As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, even when the window selected by the user is hidden by another window, the user can easily understand the contents of the selected window.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims.・ Change is possible.

It is a block diagram for demonstrating an example of the hardware constitutions of information processing apparatus (computer). It is a block diagram for demonstrating an example of a function structure of information processing apparatus. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a sub-window display process according to the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the display screen currently displayed on the display apparatus. It is a figure for demonstrating the information regarding a window. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the production | generation method of a thumbnail image. It is a figure for demonstrating the arrangement | positioning method of the produced | generated thumbnail image. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the subwindow display process in this Embodiment 2. It is a figure which shows an example of the HTML document showing the content of the window. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a state in which content based on the structured document in FIG. 9 is displayed in a window 1002 in the display screen 1001. It is a figure which shows an example of the blank area | region of each window, and the window non-display area | region in a display screen. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the arrangement position determination process of a subwindow. It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen when an arrangement position is determined and a subwindow is output.

Explanation of symbols

101 CPU
102 ROM
103 RAM
104 Input device 105 Display device 106 System bus

Claims (12)

Window selection means for selecting a window displayed on the display screen in response to a user operation;
Determining means for determining whether the window selected by the window selecting means is hidden by another window;
A sub-window generating unit that generates a sub-window related to the contents of the window selected by the window selecting unit when the determining unit determines that the window selected by the window selecting unit is hidden by another window;
Output means for outputting the subwindow generated by the subwindow generation means to the display screen;
An information processing apparatus comprising: Application information acquisition means for acquiring application information related to the application displayed in the window selected by the window selection means;
2. The sub-window generation unit generates a sub-window related to an application displayed in a window selected by the window selection unit based on the application information acquired by the application information acquisition unit. The information processing apparatus described in 1.   3. The information according to claim 2, wherein the sub-window generation unit generates a reduced image of the application image displayed in the window selected by the window selection unit as a sub-window based on the application information. Processing equipment. It further has application information storage means for storing in the storage area information relating to the application displayed in the window,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the application information acquisition unit acquires application information related to an application displayed in the window selected by the window selection unit from the storage area.   The sub-window arrangement means for determining the arrangement position of the sub-window on the display screen according to the coordinates related to the sub-window and the operation position related to the user operation. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. A window display method in an information processing apparatus,
A window selection step for selecting a window displayed on the display screen in accordance with a user operation;
A determination step of determining whether the window selected in the window selection step is hidden by another window;
A sub-window generation step for generating a sub-window related to the contents of the window selected in the window selection step when it is determined in the determination step that the window selected in the window selection step is hidden by another window;
An output step of outputting the subwindow generated in the subwindow generation step to the display screen;
A window display method characterized by comprising: An application information acquisition step of acquiring application information related to the application displayed in the window selected in the window selection step;
The sub-window generation step generates a sub-window related to the application displayed in the window selected in the window selection step based on the application information acquired in the application information acquisition step. Window display method described in 1.   8. The window according to claim 7, wherein the sub-window generation step generates a reduced image of the application image displayed in the window selected in the window selection step as a sub-window based on the application information. Display method. An application information storage step of storing in the storage area information related to the application displayed in the window;
9. The window display method according to claim 7, wherein the application information acquisition step acquires application information related to the application displayed in the window selected in the window selection step from the storage area.   The sub-window arrangement step for determining the arrangement position of the sub-window on the display screen according to the coordinates relating to the sub-window and the operation position relating to the user operation. The window display method according to claim 1. On the computer,
A window selection step for selecting a window displayed on the display screen in accordance with a user operation;
A determination step of determining whether the window selected in the window selection step is hidden by another window;
A sub-window generation step for generating a sub-window related to the contents of the window selected in the window selection step when it is determined in the determination step that the window selected in the window selection step is hidden by another window;
An output step of outputting the subwindow generated in the subwindow generation step to the display screen;
A program characterized by having executed.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 11.

Images