Image processing apparatus, image displaying method, and image displaying program

• US 8,373,788 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ozawa, Hiroyuki, Furue, Nobuki, Akagawa, Satoshi, Iwase, Ayako
• Primary Examiner(s): Daniels, Anthony J
• Application Number:
  US12/559,163
• Publication Number:
  US 20100110228A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,247 Days
• Field of Search: 348/333.02, 348/333.05, 345/156
• US Class Current: 348/333.05
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes: an image display device; an instruction position detecting unit to accept, via an operating screen having multiple operating areas provided to a display screen of the image display device, instructions from a user and detect and output the position of the instruction operation on the operating face; a storage unit to store and hold image data; and a display control unit to control display of an image according to the image data stored and held in at least the storage unit on the image display device; wherein, if the user performs a tracing operation on the operating face, the display control unit controls the display of the image on the display screen of the image display device so as to change, according to the operated operating area and direction of operation that is distinguished based on the detecting output from the instruction position detecting unit.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an image display device;

means for accepting via an operating screen having a plurality of operating areas provided as to a display screen of said image display device, an instruction operation from a user and for detecting and outputting an instruction position of said instruction operation as to an operating face;

means for storing, holding, and managing image data by date and by event; and

means for controlling so as to display an image according to said image data stored and held in at least said means for storing on said image display device;

wherein

when a tracing operation to trace said operating face is performed by the user, said means for controlling controls the display of the image to be displayed on said display screen of said image display device so as to be changed, according to the operated operating area and direction of operation that is distinguished based on the detecting output from means for accepting,

a first of the plurality of operating areas displays a date of image data currently being displayed in a second of the plurality of operating areas, the first operating area being arranged directly above the second operating area in a vertical direction and the date being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in a position,

the second operating area displays a plurality of thumbnails of the image data in a horizontal row, the plurality of thumbnails being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in the same position, and

a third of the plurality of operating areas displays an event corresponding to the image data currently displayed and aligned with an edge of one of the plurality of thumbnails, the third operating area being arranged directly beneath the second operating area in the vertical direction and the event being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in the same position.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when a tracing operation is performed as to the first operating area of information relating to said dates, said means for controlling displays an image having information relating to a different date from the time of operation, according to the operating direction.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the tracing operation is a tracing in the horizontal direction.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when a tracing operation is performed as to the third operating area of information relating to said events, said means for controlling displays an image having information relating to a different event from the time of operation, according to the operating direction.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2 or claim 4, wherein, when a tracing operation is performed as to the second operating area of the image data, said means for controlling controls so as to display a different image, according to the operating direction.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when an instruction operation is performed as to one within said plurality of operating areas while a tracing operation is performed as to another one within said plurality of operating areas, said means for controlling controls an image so as to display having information that matches the information correlated to the operating area in which the instruction operation is performed at the point-in-time of the instruction operation, while having information different from the information correlated to the operating area in which the tracing operating is performed at the point-in-time of the tracing operation, according to the direction of the tracing operation.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when an instruction operation is performed as to said second operating area regarding the image data, while a tracing operation is performed as to one other within said plurality of operating areas, said means for controlling controls an image so as to display, having information that is similar to the relevant image, and that differs from the information that is correlated to the operating area in which a tracing operation is performed at the point-in-time of the tracing operation, according to the direction of the tracing operation, based on analysis results of the image displayed on a display screen of said image display device at the position wherein the instruction operation is performed in the point-in-time of the instruction operation.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when an instruction operation is performed as to a plurality of the operating areas within said operating areas while a tracing operation is performed as to another one within said plurality of operating areas, said means for controlling controls an image so as to display having information that matches the information correlated to each of the plurality of operating areas in which the instruction operation is performed at the point-in-time of the instruction operation, while having information different from the information correlated to the operating area in which the tracing operating is performed at the point-in-time of the tracing operation, according to the direction of the tracing operation.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when an instruction operation is performed as to a plurality of the operating areas within said operating areas while a tracing operation is performed as to another one within said plurality of operating areas, said means for controlling controls an image so as to display having information that matches one of the information correlated to each of the plurality of operating areas in which the instruction operation is performed at the point-in-time of the instruction operation, while having information different from the information correlated to the operating area in which the tracing operating is performed at the point-in-time of the tracing operation, according to the direction of the tracing operation.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

means for controlling an information display wherein, when an instruction operation is performed as to one within said plurality of operating areas, or when an instruction operation is performed and that information corresponding to the operating area is displayed, the display is displayed so as to be conspicuous, and wherein when information corresponding to the operating area is not displayed, to display information corresponding to the operating area.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said means for controlling controls an image to be displayed on said display screen of said image display device so as to change, with consideration for one or both of the distance and speed of the tracing operation that is recognized based on detecting output from said means for accepting.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a tracing operation is performed with respect to the date displayed in the first of the plurality of operating areas, the date is highlighted or inverted.

13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information corresponding to the date of the image data currently being displayed in the second of the plurality of operating areas is superimposed over the image data being displayed in the second of the plurality of operating areas.

14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first of the plurality of operating areas and the third the plurality of operating areas each having a size greater than the second of the plurality of operating areas.

15. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an image display device;

an instruction position detecting unit configured to accept, by way of an operating screen having a plurality of operating areas provided as to a display screen of said image display device, art instruction operation from a user and detect and output the instruction position of said instruction operation as to said operating face;

a storage unit configured to store, hold, and manage image data by date and by event; and

a display control unit configured to control so as to display an image according to said image data stored and held in at least said storage unit on said image display device;

wherein

when a tracing operation to trace said operating face is performed by the user, said display control unit controls the display of the image to be displayed on said display screen of said image display device so as to be changed, according to the operated operating area and direction of operation that is distinguished based on the detecting output from said instruction position detecting unit,

a first of the plurality of operating areas displays a date of image data currently being displayed in a second of the plurality of operating areas, the first operating area being arranged directly above the second operating area in a vertical direction and the date being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in a position,

the second operating area displays a plurality of thumbnails of the image data in a horizontal row, the plurality of thumbnails being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in the same position, and

a third of the plurality of operating areas displays an event corresponding to the image data currently displayed and aligned with an edge of one of the plurality of thumbnails, the third operating area being arranged directly beneath the second operating area in the vertical direction and the event being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in the same position.

16. An image processing method, implemented on an image processing apparatus, comprising:

accepting operating input from a user via an instruction position detecting unit that has an operating screen having a plurality of operating areas provided as to a display screen of an image display device, to accept an instruction operation from the user, and detect and output the instruction position of said instruction operation as to an operating face; and

display controlling, wherein, in the case of having received a tracing operation of said operating screen by the user in said accepting, a display control unit that controls an image according to image data stored, held, and managed in a storage unit by date and by event so as to display on said image display device, distinguishes the operating area and operating direction of the operation based on the detecting results from said instruction position detection unit, and controls the image to be displayed on said display screen of said image display device according to said distinguishing results, so as to change,

a first of the plurality of operating areas displays a date of image data currently being displayed in a second of the plurality of operating areas, the first operating area being arranged directly above the second operating area in a vertical direction and the date being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in a position,

the second operating area displays a plurality of thumbnails of the image data in a horizontal row, the plurality of thumbnails being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in the same position, and

a third of the plurality of operating areas displays an event corresponding to the image data currently displayed and aligned with an edge of one of the plurality of thumbnails, the third operating area being arranged directly beneath the second operating area in the vertical direction and the event being displayed upright, when the image processing apparatus is oriented in the same position.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein an image display program to cause a computer of an image processing device to execute a method comprising:

accepting operating input from a user via an instruction position detecting unit that has an operating screen having a plurality of operating areas provided as to a display screen of an image display device, to accept an instruction operation from the user, and detect and output the instruction position of said instruction operation as to an operating face; and

display controlling, wherein, in the case of having received a tracing operation of said operating screen by the user in said accepting, a display control unit that controls the image according to image data stored, held, and managed in a storage unit by date and by event so as to display on said image display device, distinguishes the operating area and operating direction of the operation based on the detecting results from said instruction position detection unit, and controls the image to be displayed on said display screen of said image display device according to said distinguishing results, so as to change,

a first of the plurality of operating areas displays a date of image data currently being displayed in a second of the plurality of operating areas, the first operating area being arranged directly above the second operating area in a vertical direction and the date being displayed upright, when the image processing device is oriented in a position,

the second operating area displays a plurality of thumbnails of the image data in a horizontal row, the plurality of thumbnails being displayed upright, when the image processing device is oriented in the same position, and

a third of the plurality of operating areas displays an event corresponding to the image data currently displayed and aligned with an edge of one of the plurality of thumbnails, the third operating area being arranged directly beneath the second operating area in the vertical direction and the event being displayed upright, when the image processing device is oriented in the same position.