Information displaying method, information displaying device, and computer program

• US 20050060665A1
• Filed: 06/10/2004
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Rekimoto, Junichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,263,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

In order to display all information to be displayed on a computer screen in a manner which is easy to understand in hierarchical window displaying, an entire screen is taken as a root window, and display objects of windows and icons corresponding to child windows of the root window are arranged on the root window. Lower order windows and icons are also present within the child windows. The sizes of the windows are user-programmable, and each window has its own independent scale. The scales are decided in such a manner that a proportion occupied by the total surface area of the display objects within a window is fixed or does not exceed a fixed value with respect to the surface area of the window.

Claims

1. A method for displaying objects in an information space on a screen, the screen having a total area, the method comprising:

arranging an operating window on the screen, the operating window containing an initial number of display objects;

accepting user operations at the screen;

processing at least one of the operating window and the display objects within the operating window according to the user operations, the processing of the operating window resulting in the operating window having an area occupying a percentage of the total area of the screen, and the processing of the display objects resulting in the display objects having a total area occupying a percentage of the area of the operating window; and

controlling the display of the operating window and the display objects on the screen, the display of the operating window being based on the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating window and the display of the display objects being based on the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects.

2. The displaying method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display objects are selected from the group consisting of icons and thumbnails symbolizing files and directories of file sets.

3. The displaying method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a hierarchical directory structure in which a directory is correlated with lower order files and directories; and

allotting the total area of the screen to a root directory, wherein the operating window corresponds to a closest upper order directory and contains display objects of the lower order files and directories.

4. The displaying method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of processing the operating window includes at least one of adding an operating window to the screen, deleting an operating window from the screen, and changing a size of the operating window, and the step of processing the display objects includes at least one of adding display objects to an operating window, deleting display objects from an operating window, and moving display objects between operating windows.

5. The displaying method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display control step includes recalculating the total area of the display objects within the operating window in response to an increase or a decrease in the number of display objects contained within the operating window, and adjusting a size of each display object within the operating window so that the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects is a fixed value or less.

6. The displaying method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the step of processing the display objects includes adding a display object to the operating window, and, when the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects exceeds the fixed value, the display control step includes reducing the size of each display object within the operating window so that the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects is a predetermined value or less.

7. The displaying method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the display control step includes adjusting the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects so that a scale of the display objects does not exceed a range of one.

8. The displaying method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the step of processing the display objects includes changing a size of a selected one of the display objects according to a change in importance of the selected display object, a user operation, or another event;

and

the display control step includes recalculating the total area of the display objects within the operating window according to the change in size of the selected display object, and adjusting a size of each display object so that the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects is a fixed value or less.

9. The displaying method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the display control step further comprises setting at least one of an upper limit value and a lower limit value for the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects.

10. The displaying method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the display control step further comprises setting at least one of an upper limit value and a lower limit value for a size of each display object.

11. The displaying method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display control step further comprises causing a repulsion force to act between the display objects so that, when a new display object is added to an operating window, the display objects move to respective display positions in which each display object does not overlap with another display object.

12. The displaying method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display control step includes recalculating a total area of the operating windows on the screen according to an increase or a reduction in a number of operating windows on the screen, and adjusting a size of each operating window so that the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating windows is a fixed value or less.

13. The displaying method as claimed in claim 12, wherein, when a new operating window is added to the screen or the size of an operating window is enlarged so that the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating windows exceeds the fixed value, the display control step includes reducing the size of the operating windows so that the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating windows is a predetermined value or less.

14. The displaying method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the display control step includes adjusting the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating window so that a scale of the operating window does not exceed a range of one.

15. The displaying method as claimed in claim 12, wherein

the step of processing the operating window includes changing a size of a specific operating window according to a change in importance of the specific operating window, a user operation, or another event;

and

the display control step includes recalculating the total area of the operating windows on the screen according to the change in size of the specific operating window on the screen, and adjusting the size of other operating windows so that the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating windows is a fixed value or less.

16. The displaying method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the display control step further comprises setting at least one of an upper limit value and a lower limit value for the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating windows.

17. The displaying method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the display control step further comprises setting at least one of an upper limit value and a lower limit value for a size of each operating window.

18. The displaying method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the display control step further comprises causing a repulsion force to act between the operating windows so that, when a new operating window is added to the screen, the operating windows move to respective display positions in which each operating window does not overlap with another operating window.

19. A method for displaying objects in an information space on a screen, the screen having a total area, the method comprising:

arranging an initial number of operating windows on the screen, each operating window having a size and containing an initial number of display objects, each display object having a size;

accepting user operations at the screen;

processing at least one of the operating windows and the display objects within the operating windows according to the user operations, the processing of the operating windows resulting in the display of more or less operating windows on the screen than the initial number of operating windows, and the processing of the display objects resulting in the display of more or less display objects in at least one of the operating windows than the initial number of display objects; and

controlling the display of the operating windows and the display objects on the screen, the display of the operating windows including recalculating the sizes of the operating windows on the screen when the processing of the operating windows results in the addition of at least one operating window to the screen or the deletion of at least one operating window from the screen, and the display of the display objects including recalculating the sizes of the display objects in at least one of the operating windows when the processing of the display objects results in the addition of display objects to the at least one operating window or the deletion of display objects from the at least one operating window.

20. The displaying method as claimed in claim 19, wherein the display control step includes controlling a percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating windows to be within a fixed size range and controlling a percentage of an area of the operating window occupied by the display objects to be within a fixed size range.

21. A device for displaying objects in an information space on a screen, the screen having a total area, the device comprising:

an operating window on the screen, the operating window containing an initial number of display objects;

a user input unit operable to accept user operations at the screen;

a processing unit operable to process at least one of the operating window and the display objects within the operating window according to the user operations, the processing of the operating window resulting in the operating window having an area occupying a percentage of the total area of the screen, and the processing of the display objects resulting in the display objects having a total area occupying a percentage of the area of the operating window; and

a display control unit operable to control the display of at least one of the operating window and the display objects on the screen, the display of the operating window being based on the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating window and the display of the display objects being based on the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects.

22. A device for displaying objects in an information space on a screen, the screen having a total area, the device comprising:

an initial number of operating windows arranged on the screen, each operating window having a size and containing an initial number of display objects, each display object having a size;

a user input unit operable to accept user operations at the screen;

a processing unit operable to process at least one of the operating windows and the display objects within the operating windows according to the user operations, the processing of the operating windows resulting in the display of more or less operating windows on the screen than the initial number of operating windows, and the processing of the display objects resulting in the display of more or less display objects in at least one of the operating windows than the initial number of display objects; and

a display control unit for controlling the display of the operating windows and the display objects on the screen, the display of the operating windows including recalculating the sizes of the operating windows on the screen when the processing of the operating windows results in the addition of at least one operating window to the screen or the deletion of at least one operating window from the screen, and the display of the display objects including recalculating the sizes of the display objects in at least one of the operating windows when the processing of the display objects results in the addition of display objects to the at least one operating window or the deletion of display objects from the at least one operating window.

23. A recording medium recorded with a computer program for executing a process for displaying objects in an information space on a screen, the screen having a total area, the process comprising:

arranging an operating window on the screen, the operating window containing an initial number of display objects;

accepting user operations at the screen;

processing at least one of the operating window and the display objects within the operating window according to the user operations, the processing of the operating window resulting in the operating window having an area occupying a percentage of the total area of the screen, and the processing of the display objects resulting in the display objects having a total area occupying a percentage of the area of the operating window; and

controlling the display of the operating window and the display objects on the screen, the display of the operating window being based on the percentage of the total area of the screen occupied by the operating window and the display of the display objects being based on the percentage of the area of the operating window occupied by the display objects.

24. A recording medium recorded with a computer program for executing a process for displaying objects in an information space on a screen, the screen having a total area, the process comprising:

arranging an initial number of operating windows on the screen, each operating window having a size and containing an initial number of display objects, each display object having a size;

accepting user operations at the screen;

processing at least one of the operating windows and the display objects within the operating windows according to the user operations, the processing of the operating windows resulting in the display of more or less operating windows on the screen than the initial number of operating windows, and the processing of the display objects resulting in the display of more or less display objects in at least one of the operating windows than the initial number of display objects; and

controlling the display of the operating windows and the display objects on the screen, the display of the operating windows including recalculating the sizes of the operating windows on the screen when the processing of the operating windows results in the addition of at least one operating window to the screen or the deletion of at least one operating window from the screen, and the display of the display objects including recalculating the sizes of the display objects in at least one of the operating windows when the processing of the display objects results in the addition of display objects to the at least one operating window or the deletion of display objects from the at least one operating window.