DISPLAY CONTROL DEVICE, DISPLAY CONTROL METHOD, AND DISPLAY CONTROL PROGRAM

• US 20140298276A1
• Filed: 11/06/2012
• Published: 10/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yokoyama, Ryo, Oka, Toshio
• Granted Patent: US 9,823,837 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/863
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0686 with two or more screen areas displaying information with different brightness or colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/10 Intensity circuits
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

This display control device can effectively reduce power consumption while assuring visibility of a display area. A display control device (400) carries out display control for a display panel with an integrated touch panel and has: a touch operation information acquisition unit (410) that acquires touch operation information from the touch panel; a user operation information estimation unit (420) that estimates a region of interest, which is a region that a user is giving attention to, from the display region on the display panel on the basis of the touch operation information that is acquired; and a display control indication unit (440) that sets the brightness level for regions of non-interest, which is a region other than the region of interest estimated within the display region, lower than the set brightness level.

Claims

1-17. -17. (canceled)

18. A display control apparatus that performs display control on a touch-panel-incorporated display panel, the display control apparatus comprising:

a touch operation information acquiring section that acquires touch operation information from the touch panel;

a user operation information estimation section that determines whether or not a user is performing a pinch-out operation based on the acquired touch operation information, and that estimates, upon determining that the user is performing a pinch-out operation, a region between a plurality of finger touch regions where the user is performing the pinch-out operation in a display region of the display panel, as a target region which is a region of interest of the user; and

a display control instruction section that sets a brightness level of a non-target region to be lower than a set brightness level, the non-target region being a region other than the target region estimated in the display region, wherein

the user operation information estimation section determines that the user is performing the pinch-out operation on condition that a distance between a first touch region and a second touch region is less than a predetermined threshold, and estimates a region between the first touch region and the second touch region as the target region, the first touch region a region having a largest area in the touch regions indicated by the touch operation information, the second touch region being a region having a second largest area in the touch regions.

19. The display control apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the set brightness level is any one of a brightness level set beforehand by the user, a brightness level set as a default value in the display control instruction section and a brightness level of the target region.

20. The display control apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising a layout information storage section that stores layout information indicating a layout of divided regions resulting from division of the display region, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates the target region in units of the divided regions with reference to the layout information.

21. The display control apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the user operation information estimation section estimates, upon determining that the user is performing a pinch-out operation, a region between the plurality of finger touch regions in the divided region where the user is performing the pinch-out operation, as the target region.

22. The display control apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising a user information storage section that stores user information indicating information relating to a finger position during operation by the user, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates a hidden region using the user information and estimates the estimated hidden region as the non-target region, the hidden region being a region hidden by a finger of the user.

25. The display control apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising a user information storage section that stores user information indicating whether the user is right-handed or left-handed, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates, when the user is right-handed, the touch region and a region away from a right end point of the touch region in a rightward direction by a predetermined distance or more as a hidden region that is a region hidden by a finger of the user, or estimates, when the user is left-handed, the touch region and a region away from a left end point of the touch region in a leftward direction by a predetermined distance or more as the hidden region, and estimates the estimated hidden region as the non-target region.

23. A display control method for performing display control on a touch-panel-incorporated display panel, the display control method comprising:

acquiring touch operation information from the touch panel;

determining whether or not a user is performing a pinch-out operation based on the acquired touch operation information, and estimating, upon determining that the user is performing a pinch-out operation, a region between a plurality of finger touch regions where the user is performing the pinch-out operation in a display region of the display panel, as a target region which is a region of interest of the user; and

setting a brightness level of a non-target region to be lower than a set brightness level, the non-target region being a region other than the target region estimated in the display region, wherein

the estimation of the target region includes determining that the user is performing the pinch-out operation on condition that a distance between a first touch region and a second touch region is less than a predetermined threshold, and estimating a region between the first touch region and the second touch region as the target region, the first touch region a region having a largest area in the touch regions indicated by the touch operation information, the second touch region being a region having a second largest area in the touch regions.

24. A display control program for causing a computer that performs display control on a touch-panel-incorporated display panel to function as:

a touch operation information acquiring section that acquires touch operation information from the touch panel;

a user operation information estimation section that determines whether or not a user is performing a pinch-out operation based on the acquired touch operation information, and that estimates, upon determining that the user is performing a pinch-out operation, a region between a plurality of finger touch regions where the user is performing the pinch-out operation in a display region of the display panel, as a target region which is a region of interest of the user; and

a display control instruction section that sets a brightness level of a non-target region to be lower than a set brightness level, the non-target region being a region other than the target region estimated in the display region, wherein

the user operation information estimation section determines that the user is performing the pinch-out operation on condition that a distance between a first touch region and a second touch region is less than a predetermined threshold, and estimates a region between the first touch region and the second touch region as the target region, the first touch region a region having a largest area in the touch regions indicated by the touch operation information, the second touch region being a region having a second largest area in the touch regions.

26. A display control apparatus that performs display control on a touch-panel-incorporated display panel, the display control apparatus comprising:

a touch operation information acquiring section that acquires touch operation information from the touch panel;

a user operation information estimation section that estimates a target region based on the acquired touch operation information, the target region being a region of interest of a user; and

a display control instruction section that sets a brightness level of a non-target region to be lower than a set brightness level, the non-target region being a region other than the target region estimated in the display region, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates a region between a first touch region and a second touch region as the target region based on a distance between the first touch region and the second touch region, the first touch region being a region having a largest area in the touch regions indicated by the touch operation information, the second touch region being a region having a second largest area in the touch regions.

27. The display control apparatus according to claim 26, wherein the set brightness level is any one of a brightness level set beforehand by the user, a brightness level set in the display control instruction section as a default value and a brightness level of the target region.

28. The display control apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising a layout information storage section that stores layout information indicating a layout of divided regions resulting from division of the display region, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates the target region in units of the divided regions with reference to the layout information.

29. The display control apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the user operation information estimation section estimates a region between a plurality of the finger touch regions in the divided region based on the distance as the target region.

30. The display control apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising a user information storage section that stores user information indicating information relating to a finger position during operation by the user, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates a hidden region using the user information and estimates the estimated hidden region as the non-target region, the hidden region being a region hidden by a finger of the user.

33. The display control apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising a user information storage section that stores user information indicating whether the user is right-handed or left-handed, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates, when the user is right-handed, the touch region and a region away from a right end point of the touch region in a rightward direction by a predetermined distance or more as a hidden region that is a region hidden by a finger of the user, or estimates, when the user is left-handed, the touch region and a region away from a left end point of the touch region in a leftward direction by a predetermined distance or more as the hidden region, and estimates the estimated hidden region as the non-target region.

31. A display control method for performing display control on a touch-panel-incorporated display panel, the display control method comprising:

acquiring touch operation information from the touch panel;

estimating a target region based on the acquired touch operation information, the target region being a region of interest of a user; and

setting a brightness level of a non-target region to be lower than a set brightness level, the non-target region being a region other than the target region estimated in the display region, wherein

the estimation of the target region includes estimating a region between a first touch region and a second touch region as the target region based on a distance between the first touch region and the second touch region, the first touch region being a region having a largest area in the touch regions indicated by the touch operation information, the second touch region being a region having a second largest area in the touch regions.

32. A display control program for causing a computer that performs display control on a touch-panel-incorporated display panel to function as:

a touch operation information acquiring section that acquires touch operation information from the touch panel;

a user operation information estimation section that estimates a target region based on the acquired touch operation information, the target region being a region of interest of a user; and

a display control instruction section that sets a brightness level of a non-target region to be lower than a set brightness level, the non-target region being a region other than the target region estimated in the display region, wherein

the user operation information estimation section estimates a region between a first touch region and a second touch region as the target region based on a distance between the first touch region and the second touch region, the first touch region being a region having a largest area in the touch regions indicated by the touch operation information, the second touch region being a region having a second largest area in the touch regions.