MOBILE INFORMATION DEVICE AND CONTENT DISPLAY METHOD

• US 20130132876A1
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: TAKAHASHI, Masaki, YAMAMOTO, Toru, KOBAYASHI, Ikuo, HIRAMATSU, Shuji
• Granted Patent: US 9,342,234 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A user screen display control unit displays not only a content selected by the user but also places a plurality of icons, with which to select a content to be displayed, adjacent to each other and displays the plurality of icons. When a drag operation over the plurality of icons is detected by an operation detector, the user screen display control unit displays the caption for a selected icon in a forefront manner and switches the caption for each icon sequentially selected by a drag operation and sequentially displays the caption. When a predetermined operation is detected on an icon located in a position where the drag operation ends, the user screen display control unit switches the content displayed on the display device to a content associated with the icon located in the position where the drag operation ends.

Claims

1. A mobile information device comprising:

a first display control unit configured to display data of a content item, selected by a user, in a first region of a screen;

a second display control unit configured to adjacently arrange a plurality of icons through which the user selects the content item displayed in the first region, and configured to display the plurality of icons in a second region of the screen;

an operation detector configured to detect a selection operation, performed by the user, for an icon displayed in the second region; and

a pop-up display control unit configured to display, in a forefront manner, information on the selected icon in a third region of the screen when the selection operation is detected,

wherein the operation detector detects, as the selection operation, a drag operation by the user over the plurality of icons displayed in the second region,

wherein the pop-up display control unit sequentially switches among information on the plurality of icons selected sequentially by the drag operation so as to be displayed sequentially in the third region, and

wherein, when a predetermined operation is detected for an icon located in a position where the drag operation ends, the first display control unit switches the content item displayed in the first region to a content item associated with the icon located in the position where the drag operation ends.

2. A mobile information device according to claim 1, wherein the size of the first region is larger than the size of the second region, and

wherein the pop-up display control unit displays information on the icon selected by the drag operation such that the information is superposed on the content item in the first region.

3. A mobile information device according to claim 1, wherein the pop-up display control unit switches display of the information on the plurality of icons selected sequentially by the drag operation in such a manner that the respective information is sequentially moved into the third region.

4. A mobile information device according to claim 3, wherein, when the selection of a first icon is switched to the selection of a second icon during the drag operation, the information on the second icon is moved from a current display position toward the display position of the first icon.

5. A mobile information device according to claim 1, wherein, when a predetermined operation is detected for an icon located in the position where the drag operation ends, after a predetermined length of time the pop-up display controls hides the information on the icon located in the position where the drag operation ends.

6. A mobile information device according to claim 1, wherein the second display control unit displays information on a content item of the first region on the second region,

wherein, while the information on each icon is sequentially switched and displayed in the third region by the drag operation, the switching of the information on the content item displayed in the second region is withheld, and

wherein, when the predetermined operation is detected for the icon located in the position where the drag operation ends, the information on the content item currently displayed in the second region is switched to the information for the content item associated with the icon located in the position where the drag operation ends.

7. A mobile information device according to claim 1, wherein, when the content item displayed in the first region is to be switched from a content item associated with a first icon to a content item associated with a second icon different from the first icon, the first display control unit slides the content item associated with the second icon toward the display position of the first icon from a display position of the second icon.

8. A mobile information device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined operation for the icon located in the position where the drag operation ends is a release operation from the screen.

9. A content display method employed by a mobile information device, the method comprising:

displaying a content item to be selected by a user on a screen, adjacently arranging a plurality of icons through which the user selects the content item to be displayed, and displaying the plurality of icons on the screen;

switching among information on the plurality of icons selected sequentially by a drag operation so as to display the information sequentially on a predetermined region of the screen when the drag operation is detected over the plurality of icons; and

switching the content item displayed on the screen to a content item associated with an icon located in a position where the drag operation ends when a predetermined operation is detected on said icon located in the position where the drag operation ends.

10. A computer program embedded in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program comprising:

a display control module operative to display on a screen a content item to be selected by a user, to adjacently arrange a plurality of icons through which the user selects the content item to be displayed, and to display the plurality of icons on the screen;

a first switching module operative to switch among information on the plurality of icons selected sequentially by a drag operation so as to display the information sequentially on a predetermined region of the screen when the drag operation is detected over the plurality of icons; and

a second switching module operative to switch the content item displayed on the screen to a content item associated with an icon located in a position where the drag operation ends when a predetermined operation is detected on said icon located in the position where the drag operation ends.