Menu selection with menu stem and submenu size enlargement

• US 5,956,035 A
• Filed: 05/15/1997
• Issued: 09/21/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sciammarella, Eduardo, Herndon, Kenneth, Proehl, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene, John E.
• Application Number:
  US08/857,181
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• Field of Search: 345/326-358, 345/145-146, 345/439
• US Class Current: 715/815
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

Multiple items forming a menu are displayed on a screen in a computer system. As the user refers to a menu item via an input device, that particular item is displayed in increased size. As soon as the user moves to another menu item, this newly referenced item becomes larger than the other menu items, while the previously referenced item is reduced to its original size. If the user-referenced item has a sub-menu associated with it, then the size of that sub-menu increases--while the menu size is decreased--as the user moves from the menu to the sub-menu.

Claims

1. A method for displaying on a screen in a computer system a plurality of items forming a menu, wherein a user refers to each of said menu items via an input device and each of said menu items represents an operation to be performed by said computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

obtaining a menu item from said menu items in response to said user referring to said menu item via said input device;

increasing a respective size of said menu item to a predetermined size which is larger than any respective size of those other menu items displayed on said screen; and

displaying another plurality of items which pertain only to said menu item and which form a sub-menu on said screen when said user refers to said menu item on said screen, wherein a size of said sub-menu is larger than a size of said menu on said screen.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the size of said menu is reduced to another predetermined size while said sub-menu is displayed as yet another preselected size on said screen.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said sub-menu becomes substantially the same size as the size of said menu prior to its reduction.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising obtaining a sub-menu item from said displayed sub-menu items in response to said user referring to said sub-menu item via said input device, and increasing a respective size of said obtained sub-menu item to still another size which is larger than any respective sizes of those other sub-menu items displayed on said screen.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising reducing the size of said sub-menu to said reduced another predetermined size of said menu and increasing the size of said menu to substantially the same as the size of the sub-menu prior to its reduction if said user no longer refers to any of said sub-menu items.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising removing said sub-menu from display on said screen if said user no longer refers to said menu item to which said sub-menu pertains.

7. A method for displaying objects on a screen in a computer system including an input device, comprising:

displaying a plurality of items forming a menu, each of said menu items being referred to via said input device and each of said menu items representing an operation to be performed by said computer system;

displaying another plurality of items associated with a preselected menu item in said first-mentioned plurality of items, said second-mentioned plurality of items forming a sub-menu on said screen when referring to said preselected menu item on said screen via said input device; and

increasing said sub-menu to a predetermined size such that the size of said sub-menu is larger than a respective size of said menu on said screen.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising decreasing the size of said menu to another predetermined size on said screen.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising obtaining a sub-menu item from said second-mentioned plurality of items in said sub-menu when referring to said sub-menu item via said input device, and increasing a respective size of said sub-menu item which is larger than any respective size of those other menu items or sub-menu items displayed on said screen.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising reducing the respective size of said sub-menu item when no longer referring to said sub-menu item on said screen, the respective size of said sub-menu item becoming substantially the same as the respective sizes of those other sub-menu items.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising reducing the increased size of said sub-menu to the size of said menu and increasing the size of said menu to substantially the same as the increased size of said sub-menu prior to its reduction when no longer referring to any of said sub-menu items in said sub-menu.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising removing said sub-menu and sub-menu items from display on said screen when no longer referring to said preselected menu item associated with said sub-menu.