INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20100141680A1
• Filed: 09/09/2009
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hara, Kazuhiro, NASHIDA, Tatsushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,384,744 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/642
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

There is provided an information processing apparatus including: a display panel for displaying a plurality of objects; an area region detection unit for detecting an operation body positioned on the display panel, and detecting an area region of the display panel corresponding to the operation body; a contacting object detection unit for detecting one or a plurality of objects contacting the area region detected by the area region detection unit; and an object selection unit for setting part of or all of the objects detected by the contacting object detection unit to a selected state.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a display panel for displaying a plurality of objects;

an area region detection unit for detecting an operation body positioned on the display panel, and detecting an area region of the display panel corresponding to the operation body;

a contacting object detection unit for detecting one or a plurality of objects contacting the area region detected by the area region detection unit; and

an object selection unit for setting part of or all of the objects detected by the contacting object detection unit to a selected state.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an object movement unit for moving the object set to the selected state by the object selection unit in accordance with movement of the area region corresponding to the operation body when the operation body is moved.

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

the contacting object detection unit detects the object contacting the area region during the movement of the operation body, and

the object selection unit sets the object detected by the contacting object detection unit during the movement of the operation body to the selected state.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the object selection unit sets only an object having the same attribute as the object detected first by the contacting object detection unit of the objects detected by the contacting object detection unit to the selected state.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an object alignment unit for, when an attribute indicating a predetermined order is given to the object, aligning the objects selected by the object selection unit according to the order indicated by the attribute.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the area region detection unit represents the area region with a coordinate of one point when a size of the area region corresponding to the operation body is smaller than a predetermined value.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the area region detection unit detects a plurality of operation bodies positioned on the display panel, and detects one or a plurality of area regions corresponding to the plurality of operation bodies.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the object movement unit moves, when a shape of the area region is changed during the movement of the operation body, the object such that a contacting state of the object is maintained in the area region after the change.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an object alignment unit for aligning the objects selected by the object selection unit according to an order selected by the object selection unit.

10. An information processing method comprising the steps of:

displaying a plurality of objects on a display panel;

detecting an operation body positioned on the display panel and an area region of the display panel corresponding to the operation body;

detecting one or a plurality of objects contacting the area region detected in the area region detection step; and

setting part of or all of the objects detected in the contact object detection step to a selected state.