Patent Publication Number: US-2003233652-A1

Title: Method and apparatus for intuitionally moving the focus within a window

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0002] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for intuitionally moving the focus within a window, more particularly, performing such movements on an information apparatus field such as set top box (STB).  
       [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art  
       [0004] The conventional STB is connected to a television. A user can surf on the Internet via a network interface provided by the STB and watch TV programs via a TV tuner. The user can choose to watch TV or to surf on the Internet. The STB provides network connectivity, enabling the user to surf on the Internet without the need of a personal computer. The STB serves as a multi-function work platform, which is a great improvement for information devices.  
       [0005] The web page is designed as a window that may also be divided to a plurality of sub-windows. The window or sub-window usually has a plurality of links. The user can view other web pages by selecting a proper link. For example, the web page for providing news contains many links according to the news type, such as a sport news link, or a weather news link.  
       [0006] When the prior art STB is serving as an Internet module and a user wants to select a link, the user may move the cursor to the target link, or press the “Tab” function key to control the focus to move to the target link. Since the standard input device for most STB does not provide a convenient method to control the cursor, therefore, the user usually uses the “Tab” function key to control the focus to move to the target link. Please note that the focus is usually invisible, but the user can know focus location because the link or the function button will be “highlighted” when the focus moves there. However, when the user wants to move the focus to the target link where the location is in a different sub-window from that of the current focus, the user has to move the focus from the current link through to the last link of the current sub-window. Not only that, if the target link is not the first link of the target sub-window, the user has to move the focus from the first link to the target link of the target sub-window. Therefore, it is far from convenient.  
       [0007] Therefore, there is a need to develop a more convenient method to move the focus within a window.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008] The object of the present invention is to provide an easy-to-use operating interface for a user. The user can use directional buttons (e.g. the left key, the right key, the up key the down key) to intuitionally move the focus within the window/sub-window so as to simplify the procedure of website surfing.  
       [0009] With regard to this objective, a method of using input device directional buttons to move the focus within the window is disclosed according to the one embodiment of the present invention. Wherein, the window comprises a plurality of sub-windows, and at least one sub-window comprises a plurality of links. The method according to the present invention comprises the following steps:  
       [0010] step A: receiving an up button, down button, left button or right directional button signal pressed by the user;  
       [0011] step B: determining if there is a link along the directional button path pressed by the user, if yes, then move the focus to the link, if no, then proceed to step C;  
       [0012] step C: determining if there is any content along the directional button path pressed by the user, if yes, then scroll the active sub-window along the directional button path, if no, then proceed to step D; and  
       [0013] step D: determining if there is a sub-window along the directional button path pressed by the user, if yes, then move the focus to the sub-window.  
       [0014] The present invention further provides a set top box for receiving networking signals to link to a website and outputting an image signal to a television, and a user may view the content of the website via the television.  
       [0015] The set top box provides an input device for the user to control the focus movement within the window. The characteristic of the present invention is that the set top box provides an input device so that the user can intuitionally move the focus within a window, wherein the input device comprises four directional buttons: an up button, a down button, a left button and a right button, wherein the window comprises a plurality of sub-windows, and at least one sub-window comprises a plurality of links.  
       [0016] Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0017]FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of the environment according to the present invention.  
     [0018]FIG. 2 is the hardware structure of a set top box.  
     [0019]FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention.  
     [0020]FIG. 4 is a first drawing of a series of screen displays on a television of the embodiment according to the present invention.  
     [0021]FIG. 5 is a second drawing of a series of screen displays on a television of the embodiment according to the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
     [0022] Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of the environment according to the present invention. A set top box (STB)  10  is connected to a television  30  and able to receive a network signal  51  and a television signal  52 . A user can watch TV programs and surf on the Internet via the television  30 . An input device  18  with an infrared transmitter  183  is used for providing control instructions to the STB  10  infrared receiver  15 . Generally, the input device  18  is a remote control  181  or a keyboard. As shown in FIG. 1, the remote control  181  includes a cursor directional button  182  and the infrared transmitter  183 . The STB  10  infrared receiver  15  receives the infrared light sent by the infrared transmitter  183 .  
     [0023] Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 illustrates the set top box hardware structure. Many STB  10  components are similar to those found in a typical computer. The STB  10  comprises a processor  11 , a system bus  111 , a memory device  12  (such as DRAM, a hard disk, a memory card), a sound processing unit  13 , an image processing unit  14 , the infrared receiver  15 , a network interface  16 , a tuner  17  and the input device  18 . Networking signals  51  (such as from Internet) are received by the network interface  16 , and the tuner  17  receives TV tuner signals  52 . However, in some cases, both the network signals  51  and the TV signals  52  are sent to the STB  10  via an identical cable. Since the characteristics of the present invention are not concerned with the particular hardware characteristics of the STB  10 , there will be no further description of the hardware and associated functionality of the STB  10 .  
     [0024] The characteristic of the present invention is to let the user intuitionally move the focus within a window via an input device  18 . The input device  18  comprises four directional buttons  182 : an up button, a down button, a left button and a right button. Please refer to FIG. 4. According to the embodiment, the window area  20  is divided into three sub-windows  41 , 42 , 43 , and each sub-window comprises a plurality of links, such as links  411 ˜ 413 , links  421 ˜ 423  and links  431 ˜ 432 . Two banners  22 , 23  can also be arranged and displayed on the television  30  screen for advertisement purpose. When a user presses the directional button  182 , the focus will accommodate the direction of the directional button pressed, then move to the link, move to the sub-window, or scroll the web page. For example, if the focus moves to the link, then the link will be highlighted so that a user can press the “Enter key” to connect to the web page to which the link directs. The web page shown on FIG. 4 according to the embodiment, is written by “Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)”, and therefore each set of tag &lt;A&gt;&lt;/A&gt; introduces a link, and each set of tag &lt;frame&gt;&lt;/frame&gt; introduces a sub-window.  
     [0025] Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention. First, the STB  10  receives an up button, down button, left button or right directional button  182  signal pressed by the user (Step  11 ). The signal is sent to the STB  10  infrared receiver  15  via the infrared transmitter  183 , and is then processed by the STB  10 . In the embodiment, the infrared transmitter  183  utilizes the Information Data Association (IDA) transmission standard and a PS 2  interface to connect to the STB  10 . The processor  11  converts a scan code transmitted from the infrared transmitter  183  to a key code, and the STB  10  controls focus movement on the screen according to the directional button  182  as manipulated by the user. The present invention need not, however, be limited to the above-mentioned input device.  
     [0026] After the directional button  182  is pressed, the set top box (STB)  10  determines if there is a link along the directional button path pressed by the user (Step  12 ). Please also refer to FIG. 4. For example, the focus is on the link  411  and the user press the “down” directional button  182 . Therefore the STB  10  receives the “down” directional button  182  signal. Because the link  412  is below the link  411 , the STB  10  moves the focus to the link  412  (Step  13 ). If the STB  10  receives the “down” directional button  182  signal again, the STB  10  will move the focus to the link  413 .  
     [0027] However, when the focus is on the link  413 , and the user presses the “down” directional button  182  again, since there is no link below the link  413 , then the set top box (STB)  10  determines if there is any content along the direction of the directional button pressed by the user (Step  14 ). As shown in FIG. 4, since there is no content below the link  413 , then the set top box (STB)  10  determines if there is a sub-window along the directional button path pressed by the user. Finally, since there is no sub-window below the link  413 , the focus does not move and will stay at the link  413  (Step  18 ).  
     [0028] Please also refer to FIG. 5. If the user presses the “right” directional button  182  when the focus is on the link  413 , the set top box (STB)  10  will determine, as mentioned as above, if there is a link, content, or sub-window along the directional button path pressed by the user. Because there is no link right next to the link  413  but there is content  415 , the sub-window  41  will be scrolled rightward (Step  15 ) as shown in FIG. 5. In the present embodiment, the predetermined scroll distance for the display is half a page. However, the predetermined scroll distance could vary.  
     [0029] Suppose the “right” directional button  182  is pressed again, since there is no content on the sub-window&#39;s  41  right side, then the set top box (STB)  10  will determine if there is a sub-window right next to the current position of the focus (Step  16 ). As shown in FIG. 5, the closest sub-window right next to the link  413  is the sub-window  43 , so the focus moves to the link  431  of the sub-window  43  (Step  17 ).  
     [0030] Please note that, according to the embodiment discussed above, the focus will move to the closest link of the current position of the focus when the focus moves to other sub-windows, so the focus moves to the link  431  of the sub-window  43 . However, the next position of the focus could be pre-determined in a different way, such as the focus moves to the top most left link of the sub-window, or moves to the middle of the sub-window.  
     [0031] Please refer to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 again for more examples explained as follows:  
     [0032] When the focus is on the link  412  and the “right” directional button  182  is pressed, the sub-window  41  will be scrolled rightward to show the content  415 . Once the “right” directional button  182  is pressed again, the focus will move to the sub-window  42  and stay at the link  423  that is the closed link of the sub-window  42  next to the link  412 .  
     [0033] Suppose the focus is on the link  411  and the “right” directional button  182  is pressed, the sub-window  41  will also be scrolled rightward to show the content  415 . Once the “right” directional button  182  is pressed again, the focus will move to the sub-window  42  and stay at the link  421  that is the closed link of the sub-window  42  next to the link  411 .  
     [0034] Suppose the focus is on the link  432  and the “up” directional button  182  is pressed, the focus will move to the link  431 . Once the “up” directional button  182  is pressed again, the focus will move to the sub-window  42  and stay at the link  423  which is the closed link of the sub-window  42  next to the link  431 .  
     [0035] The invention has been described using exemplary preferred embodiments. However, for those skilled in this field the preferred embodiments can be easily adapted and modified to suit additional applications without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. Thus, it is to be understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements based upon the same operating principle. The scope of the claims, therefore, should be accorded the broadest interpretations so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.