APPARATUS, METHOD, AND PROGRAM FOR DISPLAY CONTROL

• US 20080178124A1
• Filed: 12/18/2007
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kondo, Hirohito, Akagawa, Satoshi, Tsuyuhara, Tomohiro, Hoshi, Akari, Jin, Zhezhu
• Granted Patent: US 8,726,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/856
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04892 Arrangements for controlling cursor position based on codes indicative of cursor displacements from one discrete location to another, e.g. using cursor control keys associated to different directions or using the tab key arrangements for controlling cursor position based on coordinate signals G06F3/038
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV

Abstract

A display control apparatus includes the following elements. An accepting unit accepts selection of one of objects displayed in a window in either a cursor mode, in which a cursor is moved to select an object, or a pointer mode, in which a pointer is moved to select an object, one of the modes being selected by a user. When an instruction to switch the pointer mode to the cursor mode is given, a display control unit erases the pointer and displays the cursor such that the cursor selects an object closest to a position where the pointer was displayed just before being erased.

Claims

1. A display control apparatus comprising:

accepting means for accepting selection of one of objects displayed in a window in either a cursor mode in which a cursor is moved to select an object or a pointer mode in which a pointer is moved to select an object, one of the modes being selected by a user; and

display control means for, when an instruction to switch the pointer mode to the cursor mode is given, erasing the pointer and displaying the cursor such that the cursor selects an object closest to a position where the pointer was displayed just before being erased.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control means moves the cursor or the pointer in response to an operation on an arrow key disposed on a remote control.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the objects displayed in the window are characters or images linked to other data sets, and

when a predetermined object is selected by the cursor or the pointer and an operation of determining the selected object is performed, the display control means displays a window related to a data set linked to the object selected by the cursor or the pointer.

4. A method for display control, comprising the steps of:

accepting selection of one of objects displayed in a window in either a cursor mode in which a cursor is moved to select an object or a pointer mode in which a pointer is moved to select an object, one of the modes being selected by a user; and

when an instruction to switch the pointer mode to the cursor mode is given, erasing the pointer and displaying the cursor such that the cursor selects an object closest to a position where the pointer was displayed just before being erased.

5. A program that allows a computer to execute a process comprising the steps of:

accepting selection of one of objects displayed in a window in either a cursor mode in which a cursor is moved to select an object or a pointer mode in which a pointer is moved to select an object, one of the modes being selected by a user; and

when an instruction to switch the pointer mode to the cursor mode is given, erasing the pointer and displaying the cursor such that the cursor selects an object closest to a position where the pointer was displayed just before being erased.

6. A display control apparatus comprising:

an accepting unit that accepts selection of one of objects displayed in a window in either a cursor mode in which a cursor is moved to select an object or a pointer mode in which a pointer is moved to select an object, one of the modes being selected by a user; and

a display control unit that, when an instruction to switch the pointer mode to the cursor mode is given, erases the pointer and displays the cursor such that the cursor selects an object closest to a position where the pointer was displayed just before being erased.