DISPLAY CONTROL APPARATUS, STORAGE MEDIUM, DISPLAY CONTROL SYSTEM, AND DISPLAY METHOD

An example display control apparatus includes: a first display controller that displays a portion of content in a predetermined area in a display area; a position detector that detects a position of the portion of content being displayed in the predetermined area; and a second display controller that, if the display area includes a blank area in which the portion of content is not being displayed, displays a scroll indicator indicative of the detected position in the blank area, and if the display area does not include the blank area, prevents display of the scroll indicator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF NON-LIMITING EXAMPLE EMBODIMENT

1. Summary of the Exemplified Embodiment

A feature of the present technology relates to display control for displaying an indicator when content such as a web page is displayed. “Indicator” as used herein refers to an image that indicates the position of the portion of content that is being displayed when the content is partially displayed in a display area. The indicator has an appearance similar to objects called a scrollbar and a scroll indicator, for example. By viewing the indicator, a user can find out which position in the content corresponds to the content being partially displayed in the display area.

Another feature of the present technology is that when a second area, which is an area different from a first area in which content is displayed, is included in the display area, the indicator is displayed in the second area. Here, the second area corresponds to a background or blank space from the viewpoint of the first area. In other words, the second area can also be said to be a sub area relative to the main first area. According to the present technology, by displaying the indicator in the second area and not in the first area, it is possible to prevent the indicator from hindering the view of the content due to being displayed superimposed on the content.

The display of such an object is realized by the following configuration, for example.

FIG. 1is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of display control apparatus10according to the present embodiment. Display control apparatus10is built into an information processing apparatus that has input device20and display unit30, or is configured separately from input device20and display unit30. Input device20is a unit for inputting user operations to display control apparatus10. Display unit30is a unit for displaying images in a display area. Also, display control apparatus10includes display controller11, position detector12, operation detector13, and modification unit14.

Display controller11is a unit for displaying images on display unit30. Display controller11displays content and the indicator in the display area of display unit30. Display controller11changes the display of the content and the indicator in accordance with user operations and the like.

Position detector12is a unit for detecting the displayed position of content. Here, the displayed position of content refers to the position of the portion of content that is currently being displayed in the display area. Note that sometimes the entirety of the content is displayed in the display area, and sometimes only a portion of the content is displayed in the display area.

Also, position detector12may detect a content displayed position in a first direction and a displayed position in a second direction that intersects with the first direction. Here, assuming that a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system is defined in the display area, the first direction refers to the direction of one of the axes, and the second direction refers to the direction of the other axis in the orthogonal coordinate system. Typically, if the display area of display unit30is rectangular, the first direction and the second direction respectively correspond to the short-side direction and the long-side direction.

Operation detector13is a unit for detecting user operations. Operation detector13detects user operations based on input from input device20. Operation detector13detects at least an operation for scrolling content (referred to hereinafter as a “scroll operation”). Operation detector13can also detect an operation for modifying the size of the first area (referred to hereinafter as a “size modification operation”).

Modification unit14is a unit for modifying the size of the first area. Modification unit14performs control so as to cause display controller11to modify the size of the first area in accordance with a predetermined operation detected by operation detector13. Modification unit14can also increase and decrease the size of the first area, and can also modify the size of the first area in only either the first direction or the second direction. Note that the modification performed by modification unit14may accompany a modification of the size of the content displayed in the first area, and a configuration is possible in which the modification does not accompany a modification of the size of the content. In other words, modification unit14may modify only the size of the first area, without modifying the size of the content displayed in the first area.

According to a configuration such as this, display control apparatus10controls display unit30so as to display the content in the first area, and also receives operations from a user. Display control apparatus10can modify the size of the first area in accordance with a user operation. Display control apparatus10then displays the indicator in an area (the second area) other than the first area if that area exists in the display area due to, for example, the user performing an operation for reducing the size of the first area. Display control apparatus10can therefore display the indicator so as to not hinder the view of the content.

FIG. 2is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of information processing apparatus100according to an embodiment of the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, information processing apparatus100is a handheld gaming device, that is to say, a gaming device small enough to be operated while held in the user's hands. Information processing apparatus100includes control unit110, memory120, communication unit130, touch screen140, and input unit150.

Control unit110is a unit for controlling operations of the units of information processing apparatus100. Control unit110includes a memory and an arithmetic processing unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and performs control by executing a predetermined program. Memory120is a unit for storing data. Memory120includes a recording medium such as a hard disk or a flash memory, and stores data used by control unit110. Memory120stores a program (application program) for realizing functions that correspond to a so-called web browser. Communication unit130is a unit for transmitting and receiving data. Communication unit130connects to other information processing apparatuses and a network such as the Internet or a LAN (Local Area Network), and exchanges data with connection destinations.

Touch screen140is a unit for displaying images and receiving user operations. Touch screen140includes display unit141and sensor unit142. Display unit141includes a display area (display panel) configured by a liquid crystal device or an organic EL (electroluminescence) device and drive circuitry thereof, and displays images that correspond to display data supplied by control unit110. Sensor unit142includes sensors provided in correspondence with the display area of display unit141, and supplies control unit110with coordinate data that corresponds to operations with respect to the display area. This coordinate data is data that indicates a position in the display area that was instructed by the user, and indicates that position with coordinates in a predetermined coordinate system (e.g., a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system). Note that although the user operations referred to here are operations performed by touching the display area (referred to hereinafter as “touch operations”), the user operations may be operations performed by merely approaching the display area without touching it. Also, the user operations may be performed with a body part such as a finger, or may be performed with an instrument such as a stylus (touch pen). Note that the display area of display unit141is shaped as a horizontally-long rectangle in the present embodiment.

Input unit150is a unit for receiving user operations. Input unit150includes keys (also referred to as buttons) such as direction keys (arrow keys), and supplies control unit110with key data that corresponds to user operations. This key data is data that indicates the pressed state of keys (whether they are being pressed), for example.

Note that information processing apparatus100may be configured including only either sensor unit142or input unit150. Also, the coordinate data and the key data are collectively referred to as “operation data” in the following description. This operation data is data that expresses user operations.

Information processing apparatus100of the present embodiment has a configuration including above-described display control apparatus10, input device20, and display unit30. Here, control unit110corresponds to an example of display control apparatus10that has display controller11, position detector12, operation detector13, and modification unit14. Also, input unit150corresponds to an example of input device20, and touch screen140corresponds to an example of input device20and display unit30.

Information processing apparatus100has the following configuration. According to this configuration, information processing apparatus100displays images in accordance with user operations. In the present embodiment, information processing apparatus100has a function for displaying web pages, that is to say, a web browser function. Here, a web page corresponds to one example of content of the present embodiment.

FIGS. 3 and 4are diagrams showing an example of a method for displaying web page P1.FIG. 3is a diagram showing a display method in which web page P1is displayed in the entirety of display area141a (referred to hereinafter as “entire screen display”). On the other hand,FIG. 4is a diagram showing a display method in which web page P1is displayed in part of display area141a.In the present embodiment, the user can enlarge and reduce the size of the web page P1display area (referred to hereinafter as the “page area”). The width of the page area changes according to the display scale factor of web page P1. Specifically, the width of the page area grows longer as the display scale factor of web page P1increases, and grows shorter as the display scale factor of web page P1decreases. Note that the page area corresponds to an example of the first area of the present embodiment.

Note that the web page can include vertically-long content in the present embodiment. Accordingly, there are cases where the entirety of a web page cannot be displayed in the page area in terms of the vertical direction, and only part of the web page is displayed. Note that since the vertical length of a web page can differ from page to page, the web page may of course be a web page whose entirety can be displayed in the page area at a single time.

As shown inFIG. 4, if the width (length in the horizontal direction) of the page area is shorter than the width of display area141aitself, an area other than the page area appears in display area141a. Although an image does not need to be displayed in this area, an image other than web page P1displayed in the page area may be displayed. Note that this area is referred to as a “blank area” in the following description for the sake of convenience. In other words, “blank” as used herein does not refers to only the state in which the color is white or nothing is rendered, but rather refers to the state in which web page P1is not displayed.

InFIG. 4, reference sign S1denotes a scroll indicator. Scroll indicator S1is an image for indicating the displayed position of web page P1being displayed in display area141a,if the height (length in the vertical direction) of web page P1is longer than the height of display area141a. Also, scroll indicator S1is displayed at a predetermined position with respect to the horizontal direction. In the present embodiment, this predetermined position in the right edge of display area141a. Displaying scroll indicator S1at a constant position allows the user to always check it in the same place. Note that as shown inFIG. 3, scroll indicator S1is not displayed when the blank area is not present.

Also, in the present embodiment, scroll indicator S1is displayed such that its position in the vertical direction changes according to the actual displayed position of web page P1. If the displayed position of web page P1is the top portion of the web page, scroll indicator S1is displayed in the top portion of the display area, and if the displayed position of web page P1is the bottom portion of the web page, scroll indicator S1is displayed in the bottom portion of the display area. Also, the position of scroll indicator S1in the vertical direction changes in accordance with a scroll operation performed by the user on web page P1.

FIG. 5is a diagram for describing the relationship between the displayed position of web page P1and the position of scroll indicator S1. As shown inFIG. 5, the position of scroll indicator S1is controlled such that the ratio of D1 to D2 to D3 is the same as the ratio of d1 to d2 to d3 (i.e., such that D1:D2:D3=d1:d2:d3 is satisfied). Note that inFIG. 5, the portion of web page. P1indicated with broken lines is the portion that is not actually displayed in display area141a.

FIGS. 6 and 7are flowcharts showing the above-described display control.FIG. 6shows basic processing performed when a web page is to be displayed. On the other hand,FIG. 7shows interrupt processing whose execution is triggered by a user operation performed after a web page is displayed. This processing is processing for rewriting the web page displayed in the page area (or the page area itself), and is referred to as “rewrite processing” in the following description. Note that although various operations can be envisioned as user operations, only a scroll operation and a size modification operation will be described here as user operations for the sake of convenience. Also, the size modification operation can specifically be an “enlargement operation” for enlarging the size of the display of the web page or a “reduction operation” for reducing the size of the display of the web page.

At this time, control unit110determines whether the entirety of the web page is being displayed in the page area (step Sa2). If the entirety of the web page is being displayed in the page area, control unit110skips subsequent processing and ends this procedure since there is no need to display the scroll indicator. On the other hand, if the entirety of the web page is not being displayed in the page area, control unit110determines whether a blank area is included in the display area (step Sa3).

If a blank area is included in the display area, control unit110executes processing for displaying the scroll indicator (referred to hereinafter as “indicator display processing”) (step Sa4). Specifically, the indicator display processing is processing for specifying the displayed position of the web page and displaying the scroll indicator at a position that corresponds to the specified displayed position (FIG. 5). Also, if a blank area is not included in the display area, control unit110skips (omits) the indicator display processing and ends this procedure.

Note that in order to specify the displayed position of the web page, control unit110needs to detect it through calculation or the like. Control unit110may detect the displayed position of the web page each time the indicator display processing is executed. Also, in a multitasking environment, a configuration is possible in which control unit110always executes processing in the background for detecting the displayed position of the web page while the web page is being displayed, and specifies the displayed position of the web page by reading out the result of this processing.

After the web page is displayed in this way, the rewrite processing shown inFIG. 7is executed if the user performs an operation (scroll operation or size modification operation) on the web page. The scroll operation may be, for example, an operation in which the user directly touches and drags the page area, or may be an operation in which the user presses an arrow key or the like. The size modification operation may also be a touch operation or an operation in which a predetermined key is pressed.

In the rewrite processing, control unit110determines which operation was performed by the user, and executes processing that corresponds to the determination result. First, control unit110determines whether the user operation is the scroll operation or the size modification operation (step Sb1).

If the user operation is the scroll operation, control unit110scrolls the web page by moving the displayed position of the web page by an amount that corresponds to the user operation (scroll amount) (step Sb2). At this time, control unit110scrolls the web page by moving it in the upward direction or the downward direction. Also, control unit110determines whether the scroll indicator is being displayed at this time (step Sb3). Note that control unit110may determine whether a blank area is present, in place of the processing of step Sb3.

If the scroll indicator is being displayed, control unit110executes indicator display processing and moves the scroll indicator in the upward direction or the downward direction in accordance with the web page scroll amount (step Sb4). On the other hand, if the scroll indicator is not being displayed, control unit110skips the indicator display processing.

Next, if the user operation is the size modification operation, control unit110determines whether the size modification operation is the reduction operation or the enlargement operation (step Sb5), and executes processing that corresponds to the determination result.

If the user operation is the reduction operation, control unit110displays the web page at a reduced size (step Sb6). At this time, control unit110also modifies the size (width) of the page area itself in conformity with the web page size modification. If the web page is displayed at a reduced size, there is a rise in the ratio of the portion of the web page that is included in the page area, and therefore the amount of information in the page area rises. Accordingly, if the reduction operation is performed, there is the possibility that whereas the entirety of the web page had not been displayed in the page area, the entirety of the web page will be displayed in the page area.

In view of this, control unit110determines whether the entirety of the web page will be displayed in the page area after the reduction (step Sb7), and if the entirety of the web page will not be displayed even after the reduction, control unit110determines whether a blank area will be included in the display area (step Sb8). If the blank area will be included in the display area, control unit110executes the indicator display processing and displays the scroll indicator in the blank area (step Sb9).

On the other hand, if the entirety of the web page will be displayed in the page area after the reduction, control unit110hides the scroll indicator that had been displayed up until then (step Sb10). The reason for this is that if the entirety of the web page is displayed in the page area, it can be said that the scroll indicator is no longer necessary. Similarly, control unit110hides the scroll indicator if it is determined in step Sb8that a blank area will not be included in the display area.

Next, if the user operation is the enlargement operation, control unit110displays the web page at an enlarged size (step Sb11). At this time, control unit110also modifies the size (width) of the page area itself in conformity with the web page size modification. Since the user operation is the enlargement operation, the width of the page area will be longer in this case than it was before the enlargement.

At this time, control unit110determines whether a blank area is included in the display area (step Sb12). If the blank area is included in the display area, control unit110executes the indicator display processing and displays the scroll indicator in the blank area (step Sb13). On the other hand, if a blank area disappears from the display area as a result of the enlargement operation, control unit110hides the scroll indicator (step Sb14).

As described above, according to information processing apparatus100, a configuration is possible in which if a blank area is included in the display area, the scroll indicator is displayed in the blank area, and if a blank area is not included in the display area and the web page is being displayed in the entirety of the display area, the scroll indicator is hidden. This makes it possible to display the scroll indicator without being superimposed on the web page so as to prevent it from hindering the view of the web page.

In the present embodiment, the scroll indicator is not displayed when the web page is displayed at a certain display scale factor, and the scroll indicator is displayed when the web page is displayed at a display scale factor that is lower than the certain display scale factor. In general, the case of displaying a web page at a reduced size includes cases such as the case of getting an overview of the information in the web page. Also, the amount that the page is scrolled when the user performs the scroll operation increases if the web page is displayed at a reduced size (i.e., when the page is scrolled the same distance, the actual movement amount is higher if the page is displayed at a reduced size), and this is advantageous in cases such as when there is a desire to quickly find a desired place out of the entirety of a long web page. In the present embodiment, a blank area that appears when a web page is displayed at a size smaller than its size in entire screen display is utilized, and the scroll indicator is displayed in that blank area. According to this configuration, the scroll indicator can be prevented from hindering the view of the web page, while achieving the original function of the scroll indicator.

On the other hand, the case of displaying a web page at an enlarged size mainly includes cases such as when there is a desire to perform a detailed check of characters or the like included in a web page. Since focus is often placed on details in the page in such cases, attention is often not given to other portions. For this reason, it can be said that there is no significant disadvantage even if the scroll indicator is not displayed in such cases. Reasons for this include the fact that the scroll indicator is for indicating which portion of the web page corresponds to the position of the portion of the web page that is actually being displayed, and the fact that the scroll indicator is often unnecessary when checking details of information such as this.

The above-described embodiment is one aspect of the present embodiment. The present embodiment is not limited to this embodiment, and can be carried out according to aspects such as those described in the following variations. Note that the following variations can also be applied in various combinations as necessary.

The content of the present embodiment is not limited to a web page. The content of the present embodiment is not limited to being acquired from an external device and then displayed, but rather can be a so-called local file that is internally stored in the apparatus, for example.

Also, the content of the present embodiment may be scrolled in the horizontal direction instead of being scrolled in the vertical direction as in the above-described embodiment, and may be able to be scrolled in both the vertical direction and the horizontal direction.

FIG. 8is a diagram showing an example of display when content can be scrolled in both the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. In this case, information processing apparatus100displays scroll indicator S1and scroll indicator S2in a blank area. Scroll indicator S1is an image representing the displayed position of web page P1in the vertical direction, and scroll indicator S2is an image representing the displayed position of web page P1in the horizontal direction.

In the above-described embodiment, when size of the page area is enlarged or reduced, the display scale factor of the web page in the page area is accordingly enlarged or reduced. However, information processing apparatus100may modify only the size of the page area, without modifying the display scale factor of the web page. In this case, control unit110functions as a unit for modifying the width (or height) of the page area, instead of functioning as a unit for modifying the display scale factor of the web page. For example, in the case of receiving an operation for scrolling the web page in the horizontal direction, control unit110may modify the width of the page area in accordance with the movement of the web page.

Also, in the present embodiment, the display size of the content in the display area may be determined in advance. For example, in the case of a web page, the window size can be designated using HTML (HyperText Markup Language) data or a script. In a case such as this, a configuration is possible in which the information processing apparatus100compares the size of the display area and the size of the web page, displays the scroll indicator in a blank area if the size of the display area is larger than the size of the web page and a blank area appears, and does not display the scroll indicator if a blank area does not appear. More specifically, if the width of the web page is shorter than the width of the display area, for example, information processing apparatus100displays the scroll indicator, and if the width of the web page is longer than the width of the display area, information processing apparatus100displays the web page in the entirety of the display area by setting the width of the page area so as to match the width of the display area.

The display control for realizing the present embodiment may be a method that employs layers as described below.

FIG. 9is a diagram showing an example of a layer structure. InFIG. 9, layer L1is the top layer that is allocated to the web page. Also, layer L2is the layer that is allocated to the scroll indicator, and layer L3is the bottom layer that is allocated to the blank area. Here, the higher the layer is, the more toward the foreground it is displayed, and an image in a lower layer that is overlapped with an image in a higher layer is not displayed due to being overwritten.

In this example, information processing apparatus100always executes rendering for each layer. In other words, regardless of whether the web page P1is to be displayed in the entirety of the display area, information processing apparatus100continues to execute processing for rendering scroll indicator S1and the blank area. Information processing apparatus100then displays scroll indicator S1if web page P1is not present in front of scroll indicator S1, and prevents the display of display scroll indicator S1if web page P1is present in front of scroll indicator S1.

In the present embodiment, there may be only two page area sizes, namely a first size (entire screen display) and a second size (a size smaller than entire screen display), or there may be more page area sizes. Also, information processing apparatus100may be configured such that the size of the page area can be smoothly modified by a pinch operation, which is a type of touch operation. The pinch operation referred to here is an operation in which two points in the display area are touched and then moved closer together or farther from each other without separation from the display area. In this case, information processing apparatus100makes the page area smaller in accordance with an operation for moving the two points closer together (pinch-in operation), and makes the page area larger in accordance with an operation for moving the two points farther from each other (pinch-out operation).

The indicator of the present embodiment may be an indicator whose displayed position can be modified. In other words, there may be multiple positions at which the indicator of the present embodiment can be displayed. For example, information processing apparatus100may be configured such that the scroll indicator can be displayed at either the right edge or the left edge of the display area, and the user can set one of the edges in advance. Also, information processing apparatus100may determine the position at which the blank area appears in the display area, and display the scroll indicator so as to overlap with the blank area. For example, information processing apparatus100can also determine the displayed position of the scroll indicator according to the content display state, such as displaying the scroll indicator at the right edge if the blank area is at the right edge of the display area, and displaying the scroll indicator at the left edge if the blank area is at the left edge of the display area.

The indicator of the present embodiment is not limited to being a scroll indicator, and may be a scrollbar. Also, the indicator of the present embodiment is not limited to indicating the displayed position of the content using a bar-shaped graphic, and may indicate the displayed position of the content using a character or a color. For example, if the content is a document made up of multiple pages, the indicator may be an image that indicates the page number of the page that is being displayed at the time.

The information processing apparatus of the present embodiment is not limited to above-described information processing apparatus100. The information processing apparatus of the present embodiment does not need to be a handheld gaming device, and may be, for example, a stationary gaming device or a device other than a gaming device, such as a smartphone, a tablet terminal, or a portable music player. Also, the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment does not necessarily need a communication unit.

Note that with the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment, the input unit does not need to be included in the information processing apparatus itself. For example, in place of the input unit, the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment may be configured including a unit for acquiring operation data from an input apparatus such as a remote controller. Also, the input unit is not limited to above-described sensor unit142and input unit150, and may be configured such that, for example, scroll operations are performed with an infrared sensor or a motion sensor (e.g., a gyroscope or an accelerometer).

Also, the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment does not need to include the display unit. Specifically, if a display apparatus that has a display unit is provided separately, the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment may be configured as a display control apparatus for controlling the display performed by the display apparatus.

The present embodiment is not limited to the modes of a display control apparatus or an information processing apparatus that includes a display control apparatus, and can also be carried out in the mode of a display control system that includes multiple apparatuses among which configurations corresponding to the display control apparatus are distributed. For example, the display control system of the present embodiment may be configured including a display apparatus provided with a display unit, and a control apparatus that can access the display apparatus via a network such as the Internet, and the functions of the display control apparatus or the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment may be realized through cooperation of the display apparatus and the control apparatus. Alternatively, the display control system of the present embodiment may be realized by cooperation between a first apparatus that corresponds to a master device, and a second apparatus that corresponds to a slave device and is connected to the first apparatus via a wired or wireless connection. The first apparatus referred to here may be a personal computer or a home gaming device, and the second apparatus may be a remote controller or tablet terminal that can perform communication with the first apparatus.

Also, the present embodiment is not limited to modes such as the information processing apparatus or the display control system, and can also be implemented in modes such as the mode of a display method for displaying the indicator only if the second area is present, and the mode of an information processing program for realizing this display method. Furthermore, the information processing program of the present embodiment can be provided in the mode of being recorded on a recording medium such as an optical disc or a semiconductor memory, or may be provided in the mode of being downloaded to the information processing apparatus via a network such as the Internet.

The foregoing description of the embodiments is provided for the purposes of illustration and description. Obviously, a large number of possible modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the technology and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the technology in various embodiments, and with the various modifications as suited to a particular use that may be contemplated.