Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-18
2003-12-09
Cabeca, John (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06661438
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus and a portable information processing apparatus incorporating the display apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
The present invention relates to a display apparatus and a portable information processing apparatus incorporating the display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Use of icons (pictorial writings or illustrations) as one form of GUI (Graphical User Interface) is rapidly spreading. Such icons are most typically used for the purpose of starting up programs.
Methods have been proposed and used for displaying icons corresponding to functions of various programs on a menu screen. One of such known methods displays a plurality of icons in the form of a matrix consisting of m lines and n columns on a menu screen, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 5-28157.
According to this known method, a user can select a desired program function by discriminating the desired icon information based on the pattern and function name of each piece of icon information from among many pieces of icon information which are on display. A skilled person who has knowledge about the functions corresponding to many pieces of icon information and positions thereof can quickly locate and select the desired icon information without difficulty, even when such pieces of icon information are arranged in a matrix form.
For a beginner, however, it takes a considerably long time to understand the functions of different pieces of icon information. In addition, it is not easy to remember the locations of icons of concern. Consequently, beginners tend to select wrong icon.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2-222033 discloses a method by making access to data by way of icons. According to this method, visual image of a workshop having animated icons which can freely be opened and closed is displayed in a first window opened on the display screen. The user points a desired animated icon in the first window by means of a pointing device such as a mouse, so that a second window is automatically opened on the display screen, whereby various data which have been stored are displayed in the second screen.
This method, however, has drawbacks in that the user cannot easily understand what kind of function is started by selecting each icon and in that each icon cannot easily be pointed because it is small in size, due to the use of the multi-window display.
Apparatuses relying upon display of icons of the kind described often involves a function to enable pasting of icon information on a menu screen by an operation performed through an operating device. When a large number of pieces of icon information are pasted on the menu screen, the menu screen is crowded with icons. A further increase of icons causes the menu screen to fail to display these icons. A multi-window display might be used in order to solve this problem. Such a multi-window display, however, requires a complicated hierarchical structure. In addition, the user cannot inspect all the icons at a time, because the menu screen is hidden under the window which is newly opened. The complicated hierarchical structure requires a greater number of pointing operations such as clicking, requiring a longer time of operation.
Icons of the kind described have functions to enable visual discrimination of programs such as a document forming software, table/calculation software and a graphical writing software. In order to obtain data such as the sizes of saved files, dates and time of formation of these files and so forth in each of the software, the user is obliged to numerically check data by opening an exclusive utility software containing such data or by looking into a file table which is displayed after the software is started.
Indication of data by means of characters and numerals is not friendly to beginners because such indication does not allow easy comparison of data size and requires considerable time to grasp the meaning of the data, particularly when there are many files. In addition, visual recognition of data by means of characters and numerals is not easy when the size of the display screen is small.
FIG. 57
shows, by way of example, a known menu screen in which meaningful icons are displayed against a background image on the menu screen. More specifically, pieces of meaningful icon information
2002
are displayed as three-dimensional images on the menu screen
2000
, so as to facilitate understanding of the functions represented by the icons. This known menu screen is still unsatisfactory because it needs character information which helps the user to understand the meaning. In addition, this type of menu display is not suitable for devices having small screen areas, because of difficulty in visual recognition.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to eliminate or solve the above-described problems by providing a display apparatus, as well as a portable information processing apparatus, which can implement a plurality of icons of different colors and configurations without increasing memory size and which enables the user to easily grasp the functions corresponding to such icons.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To this end, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display apparatus, comprising: communicating means which performs at least receiving of a plurality of pieces of display data; first storage means for storing received plurality of pieces of display data; second storage means for storing at least one piece of first icon information corresponding to at least one of the pieces of display data and at least one piece of second icon information of a display form different from that of the first icon information; displaying means for displaying, on a menu screen, at least one of the first icon information and the second icon information; and controlling means for selecting the first icon information or the second icon information based on the number of pieces of display data newly registered in the first storage means and for controlling the displaying means so that the selected icon information is displayed on the menu screen.
With these features, the display apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention permits easy visual recognition of icon information, e.g., a file, corresponding to the display data, because the number of pieces of icon information increases in accordance with the state of input of the display data.
In particular, when a plurality of pieces of display data are received and newly registered, the first icon information is displayed if the total number of the pieces of newly registered display data including those newly registered does not exceed a predetermined value, whereas, when this predetermined number is exceeded, the second icon information is displayed. Therefore, when the number of pieces of received data has grown large, the display mode for displaying the first icon information piece by piece is switched to another mode in which the second icon information of a form different from the first icon information is displayed on the menu screen, so as to reduce the area on the menu screen occupied by the icon information, so that the remaining area can be used for various purposes.
The display apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention may be arranged such that, when the number of pieces of the first icon information is such that the sum of display areas of the pieces of first icon information falls within a predetermined region of the menu screen, the pieces of first icon information are displayed in accordance with the number of the pieces of display data, whereas, when the number of pieces of the first icon information is such that the sum of the display areas does no fall within the predetermined region of the menu screen, the second icon information is displayed commonly for the plurality of pieces of display data. The controlling means performs selection between the first icon information an
Nakashima Roy
Shiraishi Atsushi
Tsuji Keisuke
Cabeca John
Seiko Epson Corporation
Thai Chuong T.
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