INFORMATION DISPLAYING APPARATUS, METHOD OF DISPLAYING INFORMATION, INFORMATION DISPLAYING SYSTEM, AND SERVER APPARATUS AND TERMINAL DEVICE

• US 20140210759A1
• Filed: 01/30/2014
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: TORIYAMA, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 9,990,354 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries

Abstract

An information displaying apparatus having a touch-panel display unit is provided. An information obtaining unit obtains explanation information of a direction word specified by user, and displays the obtained explanation information of the direction word on the touch-panel displaying unit. When the user touches on the touch-panel display unit, a multi-touch detecting unit detects touch positions on the touch-panel display unit. A shift judging unit judges whether a distance between the detected touch positions has increased or decreased, when the user shifts the touch positions on the touch-panel display unit. A display-information controlling unit displays detailed explanation information of the direction word, when the shift judging unit determines that the distance between the touch positions has increased, and displays simplified explanation information of the direction word, when the shift judging unit determines that the distance between the touch positions has decreased.

Claims

1. An information displaying apparatus comprising:

a display unit which includes a touch-panel;

an obtaining unit which obtains explanation information of a direction word specified by user'"'"'s operations;

an explanation display controlling unit which displays the explanation information obtained by the obtaining unit on the touch-panel displaying unit;

a multi-touch detecting unit which detects touch positions on the touch-panel display unit touched by user'"'"'s operations;

a shift judging unit which judges whether a distance between the touch positions detected by the multi-touch detecting unit is increased or decreased when the touch positions are shifted on the touch-panel display unit; and

a display-information controlling unit which displays on the touch-panel display unit detailed explanation information of the direction word obtained by the obtaining unit, when the shift judging unit judges that the distance between the touch positions is increased, and displays simplified explanation information of the direction word, when the shift judging unit judges that the distance between the touch positions is decreased.

2. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the obtaining unit obtains the explanation information of the direction word, the explanation information including plural lines of word meanings;

the explanation display controlling unit displays the explanation information including plural lines of word meanings on the display unit;

the shift judging unit has an along-line shift judging unit which judges whether the distance between the touch positions detected by the multi-touch detecting unit is increased or decreased when the touch positions is shifted along one of the lines of the word meanings displayed on the display unit; and

the display-information controlling unit has a word-meaning display controlling unit which displays on the display unit detailed explanation information or simplified explanation information of the line of the word meaning shifted along depending on the judgment judged by the along-line shift judging unit.

3. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the shift judging unit has an across-line shift judging unit which judges whether the distance between the touch positions detected by the multi-touch detecting unit is increased or decreased when the touch positions is shifted across lines of the word meanings displayed on the display unit;

and

the display-information controlling unit has a word-meaning information display controlling unit which displays on the display unit additional lines of the word meanings or deletes the lines of the word meanings depending on the judgment judged by the across-line shift judging unit.

4. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a marker attaching unit which attaches a marker to a character string contained in the explanation information displayed on the display unit by a user'"'"'s operation, wherein

the display-information controlling unit, when displays the simplified explanation information of the explanation information, displays the character string attached by the marker attaching unit on a priority basis.

5. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a hold judging unit which judges whether a user holds the touch positions on the display unit detected by the multi-touch detecting unit for a predetermined time, and wherein

the display-information controlling unit has

a first display-information controlling unit which displays detailed explanation information or simplified explanation information of the explanation information depending on the judgment judged by the shift judging unit, after the hold judging unit judges that a user holds the touch positions for a predetermined time; and

a second display-information controlling unit which displays the explanation information as enlarged information or as reduced-size information on the display unit depending on the judgment made by the touch-position shift judging unit, after the hold judging unit judges that the user does not hold the touch positions for a predetermined time.

6. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the shift judging unit has a diagonal shift judging unit which judges whether the distance between the touch positions detected by the multi-touch detecting unit is increased or decreased when the touch positions is shifted diagonally to lines of the word meanings displayed on the display unit;

and further comprising;

an enlargement-reduction display controlling unit which displays the explanation information as enlarged information or as reduced-size information on the display unit depending on the judgment made by the diagonal shift judging unit.

7. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a dictionary storage which stores direction words and corresponding explanation information, and wherein

the obtaining unit obtains the explanation information of the direction word from the dictionary storage.

8. A method of displaying information in an information displaying apparatus provided with a computer and a display unit having a touch-panel, the method for controlling the computer, comprising:

obtaining explanation information of a direction word specified by user'"'"'s operations;

displaying the obtained explanation information of the direction word on the touch-panel displaying unit;

detecting touch positions on the touch-panel display unit touched by user'"'"'s operations;

judging whether a distance between the detected touch positions has increased or decreased when the touch positions are shifted on the touch-panel displaying unit; and

controlling the touch-panel display unit so as to display detailed explanation information of the direction word, when the distance between the detected touch positions has increased and to display simplified explanation information of the direction word obtained explanation information, when the distance between the detected touch positions has decreased.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with a information displaying program stored thereon, wherein a computer is mounted on an electronic apparatus having a touch-panel display unit for displaying data and the program instructs the computer to function as a unit comprising:

an obtaining unit which obtains explanation information of a direction word specified by user'"'"'s operations;

an explanation display controlling unit which displays the explanation information obtained by the obtaining unit on the touch-panel displaying unit;

a multi-touch detecting unit which detects touch positions on the touch-panel display unit touched by user'"'"'s operations;

a shift judging unit which judges whether a distance between the touch positions detected by the multi-touch detecting unit is increased or decreased when the touch positions are shifted on the touch-panel display unit; and

a display-information controlling unit which displays on the touch-panel display unit detailed explanation information of the direction word obtained by the obtaining unit, when the shift judging unit judges that the distance between the touch positions is increased, and displays simplified explanation information of the direction word, when the shift judging unit judges that the distance between the touch positions is decreased.

10. An information displaying system comprising a server apparatus having a communication function through a network, and a terminal device, wherein

the server apparatus comprises:

a dictionary storing unit which stores dictionary data containing direction words and explanation information associated with the direction words;

a retrieval-word receiving unit which receives from the terminal device a retrieval word entered in response to user'"'"'s operation;

an explanation-information sending unit which reads from the dictionary data a direction word corresponding to the retrieval word received by the retrieval-word receiving unit and explanation information of the direction word, and sends the terminal device the direction word and the explanation information of the direction word;

a touch-position receiving unit which receives detected touch positions where a user operates on a touch-panel displaying unit of the terminal device;

a multi-touch detecting unit which detects multi-touch operation by the user based on the touch-positions received by the touch-position receiving unit;

a shift judging unit which judges whether touch positions of the multi-touch operation of the user detected by the multi-touch detecting unit is increased or decreased when the touch positions are shifted on the touch-panel display unit; and

a sending-information controlling unit which sends the terminal device the explanation information as detailed information or as simplified information, depending on the judgment made by the shift judging unit, wherein said explanation information is read from the dictionary data by the explanation-information sending unit, and

the terminal device comprises;

a touch-panel display unit which displays data;

a retrieval-word sending unit which sends a retrieval word entered in response to user'"'"'s operation to the server apparatus;

an explanation-information display controlling unit which receives the direction word and the explanation information of the direction word sent from the explanation-information sending unit of the server apparatus in response to sending of the retrieval word by the retrieval-word sending unit and displays the received direction word and explanation information of the direction word on the touch-panel display unit;

a touch-position sending unit which sends the server apparatus detected touch positions on the touch-panel display unit where the user operates; and

a display-information controlling unit which receives the detailed or simplified explanation information sent from the sending-information controlling unit of the server apparatus in response to sending of the touch positions by the touch-position sending unit, and displays the explanation information displayed on the touch-panel display unit by the explanation-information display controlling unit as detailed information or simplified information.

11. The server apparatus in the dictionary-information displaying system according to claim 10.

12. The terminal device in the dictionary-information displaying system according to claim 10.