Display apparatus, portable information processing apparatus, information recording medium, and electronic apparatus

• US 6,522,347 B1
• Filed: 01/18/2000
• Issued: 02/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Sakai, Hiroaki, Tsuji, Keisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Cabeca, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai, Cuong T.
• Application Number:
  US09/484,187
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• Field of Search: 345/784, 345/781, 345/844, 345/835, 345/848, 345/850, 345/855, 345/419, 345/427, 345/779, 345/775, 345/836, 345/839, 345/440
• US Class Current: 715/848
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T

Abstract

A display apparatus, a portable information processing apparatus, an information recording medium, and an electronic apparatus that can be easily applied to an apparatus of which the size of a display screen is smaller and by which plural types of information can be visually grasped without unnecessary operations to be performed and functions corresponding to icons can be easily understood. The display apparatus of the present invention comprises a display to combine a time axis with a background screen to be three-dimensionally displayed and to display the combined screen on a display screen, a width of the time axis changing to be wider as it approaches a past time and changing to be narrower as it approaches the future. The display apparatus also comprises a storage section to store background screen data used to display the background screen and time-axis display data used to display the time axis. The display apparatus further comprises a controlling section to display-control so as to combine the time axis with the background screen in accordance with the background screen data and the time-axis display data.

Claims

1. A display apparatus comprising:

displaying means to combine a time axis with a background screen to be three-dimensionally displayed and to display the combined screen on a display screen, a width of said time axis changing to be wider as it approaches a past time and changing to be narrower as it approaches to the future;

storing means to store background screen data used to display said background screen and time-axis display data used to display said time axis, said storing means having plural types of information of which attributes are different from each other, plural types of attribute information used for identification of types of said plural types of information, plural items of time information related to said plural types of information, and icon information which corresponds to each of said plural types of information and is at least arranged along with said time axis and displayed three-dimensionally; and

controlling means to display-control so as to combine said time axis with said background screen in accordance with said background screen data and said time-axis display data, said controlling means being effective for performing selection of said icon information corresponding to the attribute of each of said plural types of information in accordance with said attribute information, and performing control in accordance with said time information related to plural types of information so that said selected icon information is arrayed to each corresponding time of said time axis;

wherein said plural types of information includes file-size information regarding file sizes, and said controlling means performs display-control in accordance with said file-size information so that a length of said icon information changes in the direction perpendicular to said time axis.

2. A display apparatus according to claim 1, comprising clock means to allow said controlling means to display said time axis with changing time in accordance with the current time measured by said clock means.

3. A display apparatus according to claim 1, in which said controlling means performs display-control so that a time width of said time axis becomes wider as time approaches the current time.

4. A display apparatus according to claim 1, in which said controlling means performs display-control by changing the size of said icon information so that it is wider at a past time and it becomes narrower as it approaches future time.

5. A display apparatus according to claim 1, comprising operating means to perform operation-inputting of information of said time axis and said icon information that are displayed on said display screen, and in which said controlling means performs display-control so that a screen image is displayed showing an aerial view on which the time width on said time axis is reduce-displayed along the direction of the said time axis and the size of said icon information is reduced linking with the reduce-displaying in accordance with an operation-input from said operation-inputting means.

6. A display apparatus according to claim 1, comprising operating means to perform operation-inputting of information of said time axis and said icon information that are displayed on said display screen, and in which said controlling means performs display-control so that the time width of said time axis is enlarge-displayed along the direction of said time axis and the size of said icon information is reduced linking with the enlarge-displaying in accordance with an operation-input from said operation-inputting means.

7. A display apparatus according to claim 1, comprising operating means to perform operation-inputting of information of said time axis and said icon information that are displayed on said display screen, in which said plural types of information comprises input information to be operation-input and information regarding time of inputting said input information, and controlling means displays said icon information in accordance with the input-time information.

8. A display apparatus according to claim 7, in which said input information comprises user-specified specification-time information, and said controlling means displays said icon information on said display screen.

9. A display apparatus according to claim 7, in which said controlling means performs display-control to form said icon information within a width-wise region of said time axis so that it is represented to be wider at past time and is represented to become narrower as it approaches future time.

10. A display apparatus according to claim 7, in which said input information comprises first schedule information, second schedule information having contents different from those of said first schedule information, and identification information to identify said first schedule information and said second schedule information;

and said controlling means displays said icon information on said display screen in accordance with said identification information.

11. A display apparatus according to claim 7, in which said icon information comprises icon-switching information to perform switching between two-dimensional display and three-dimensional display, and controlling means perform display-switching between the two-dimensional display and the three-dimensional display in accordance with said operation-input to said icon-switching information from said operating means.

12. A display apparatus according to claim 11, in which said icon information displays scrolling scroll-icon information used to perform scrolling along said time axis and said controlling means performs control so that said display screen is scrolled in accordance with an operation-input to said scrolling icon information from said operating means.

23. A portable information processing apparatus,comprising a display apparatus according to one of claims 1, 2, 3 to 9 and 13 to 19.

24. A portable information processing apparatus according to claim 23, which is connected to said display apparatus and comprises a wrist-wearing section to be put on the wrist of the user.

13. A display apparatus, comprising:

displaying means to combine a time axis with a background screen to be three-dimensionally displayed and to display the combined screen on a display screen, a width of said time axis changing to be wider as it approaches a past time and changing to be narrower as it approaches to the future;

storing means to store background screen data used to display said background screen and time-axis display data used to display said time axis, said storing means having plural types of information of which attributes are different from each other, plural types of attribute information used for identification of types of said plural types of information, plural items of time information related to said plural types of information, and icon information which corresponds to each of said plural types of information and is at least arranged along with said time axis and displayed three-dimensionally; and

controlling means to display-control so as to combine said time axis with said background screen in accordance with said background screen data and said time-axis display data, said controlling means being effective for performing selection of said icon information corresponding to the attribute of each of said plural types of information in accordance with said attribute information, and performing control in accordance with said time information related to plural types of information so that said selected icon information is arrayed to each corresponding time of said time axis;

wherein said icon information comprises plural items of first icon information which are formed of characters different from each other depending upon the attribute of said plural types of information, and said control means selectively displays one shape of an icon of said plural items of said first icon information.

14. A display apparatus according to claim 13, in which said plural items of first icon information are formed of characters different in shape.

15. A display apparatus according to claim 13, in which said plural items of first icon information are formed of characters different in color.

16. A display apparatus according to claim 13, in which said plural items of first icon information are formed of characters different in size.

17. A display apparatus, comprising:

displaying means to combine a time axis with a background screen to be three-dimensionally displayed and to display the combined screen on a display screen, a width of said time axis changing to be wider as it approaches a past time and changing to be narrower as it approaches to the future;

storing means to store background screen data used to display said background screen and time-axis display data used to display said time axis, said storing means having plural types of information of which attributes are different from each other, plural types of attribute information used for identification of types of said plural types of information, plural items of time information related to said plural types of information, and icon information which corresponds to each of said plural types of information and is at least arranged along with said time axis and displayed three-dimensionally;

controlling means to display-control so as to combine said time axis with said background screen in accordance with said background screen data and said time-axis display data, said controlling means being effective for performing selection of said icon information corresponding to the attribute of each of said plural types of information in accordance with said attribute information, and performing control in accordance with said time information related to plural types of information so that said selected icon information is arrayed to each corresponding time of said time axis; and

operating means to perform operation-inputting of information of said time axis and said icon information that are displayed on said display screen, in which, said plural types of information comprises input information to be operation-input and information regarding time of inputting said input information, and controlling means displays said icon information in accordance with the input-time information;

wherein said icon information comprises database icon information formed in a past region on said time axis and used to display contents of said database regarding said plural types of information, and said controlling means performs display-control of contents of said database in accordance with an operation-input to said database icon information from said operating means.

18. A display apparatus according to claim 17, in which said operating means comprises a pen-input operation member to operate said icon information, and said controlling means performs character-recognition and display-control in accordance with an input from said pen-input operation member.

19. A display apparatus according to claim 18, in which said operating section comprises a key-input section formed of a plurality of concaved parts.

20. A display apparatus, comprising:

displaying means to combine a time axis with a background screen to be three-dimensionally displayed and to display the combined screen on a display screen, a width of said time axis changing to be wider as it approaches a past time and changing to be narrower as it approaches to the future;

storing means to store background screen data used to display said background screen and time-axis display data used to display said time axis, said storing means having plural types of information of which attributes are different from each other, plural types of attribute information used for identification of types of said plural types of information, plural items of time information related to said plural types of information, and icon information which corresponds to each of said plural types of information and is at least arranged along with said time axis and displayed three-dimensionally;

controlling means to display-control so as to combine said time axis with said background screen in accordance with said background screen data and said time-axis display data, said controlling means being effective for performing selection of said icon information corresponding to the attribute of each of said plural types of information in accordance with said attribute information, and performing control in accordance with said time information related to plural types of information so that said selected icon information is arrayed to each corresponding time of said time axis; and

operating means to perform operation-inputting of information of said time axis and said icon information that are displayed on said display screen, in which said plural types of information comprises input information to be operation-input and information regarding time of inputting said input information, and controlling means displays said icon information in accordance with the input-time information;

wherein said icon information comprises a read-E-mail icon formed in a future region on the said time axis and used to read-display contents of contents of said E-mail, and said controlling means performs display-control of contents of said E-mail in accordance with an operation-input to said read-E-mail icon information from said operating means.

21. A display apparatus according to claim 20, in which said controlling means performs control so that items of said read-E-mail icon information are sort-displayed for each of mail to be sent, received, opened, unopened.

22. A display apparatus according to claim 20, in which said controlling means performs control-display so that the amount of E-mail information is displayed for each of mail to be sent, received, opened, unopened.

25. An information recording medium that stores at least information used to generate a display screen, said information comprising:

background screen data to display a three-dimensional background screen;

time-axis display, data used to display a time axis that changes in shape so that it is wider at a past time and it becomes narrower as it approaches a future time on said background screen;

information used to perform display-control in accordance with said background screen data and said time-axis display data so that said time axis is combined with said background screen; and

file-size information regarding file sizes;

wherein said information used to perform display-control is augmented by said file-size information such that said display-control is performed in accordance with said file-size information so that a length-of-icon information for controlling display of an icon changes in a direction perpendicular to said time axis in accordance with said file-size.

26. An information recording medium according to claim 25, comprising:

plural items of attribute information used to identify plural types of information having a different attribute from each other,

icon information three-dimensionally displayed corresponding to each of said plural types of information and which is arrayed at least along with said time axis, and

information used to perform control so that said icon information corresponding to each attribute of said plural types of information is selected in accordance with said attribute information and each item of said icon information selected therein is arrayed to a corresponding time on said time axis in accordance with said time information regarding said plural types of information.

27. An electronic apparatus comprising a information recording medium according to one of claims 25 and 26.