Terminal device, information display method, and program for said information display method

• US 6,995,776 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2002
• Issued: 02/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Tomita, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Bella, Matthew C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): RAHMJOO, MANUCHEHR
• Application Number:
  US10/293,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20030090495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• Field of Search: 345/619, 345/659, 345/629, 345/660, 345/672, 345/652, 345/655
• US Class Current: 345/619
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/027 Arrangements and methods specific for the display of internet documents
• 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 terminal device detects the inclination of the terminal device per se in a predetermined direction, and, based on the detected inclination, changes the display format of an element object on a display screen or enlarges/regenerates an element object on a display screen.

Claims

1. A terminal device comprising:

element object detection means for detecting element objects contained in input display information;

display format determination means for determining the display format of the element objects based on the type of the element objects detected by the element object detection means;

display position registration means for registering the display position of the element objects, detected by the element object detection means, on a screen;

element object display means for displaying the element objects on the screen based on the display format determination means and the display position registration means;

inclination detection means for detecting the inclination of the terminal device;

element object enlargement/regeneration means for enlarging/regenerating the displayed element object based on the predetermined inclination detected by the inclination detection means; and

display returning means for returning the display to a size before enlargement/regeneration, when the inclination detection means detects an inclination of the terminal device in another direction.

2. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein, upon the detection of inclination in a direction opposite to the predetermined direction, the display returning means returns the enlarged/regenerated element object to the display before the enlargement/regeneration.

3. An information display method comprising the steps of:

detecting element objects contained in input display information (element object detection step);

determining the display format of the element objects based on the type of the element objects detected by the element object detection step (display format determination step);

registering the display position of the element objects, detected by the element object detection step, on a screen (display position registration step);

displaying the element objects on the screen based on the display format determination step and the display position registration step (element object display step);

detecting the inclination of a terminal device (inclination detection step);

enlarging/regenerating the displayed element object based on the predetermined inclination detected by the inclination detection step; and

display returning step for returning the display to a size before enlargement/regeneration, when the inclination detection step has detected an inclination of the terminal device in another direction.

4. The information display method according to claim 3, wherein, upon the detection of inclination of the terminal device in a direction opposite to the predetermined direction, the display returning step returns the enlarged/regenerated element object to the display before the enlargement/regeneration.