Patent ID: 8681108

Claim:
An input apparatus, comprising: a display unit for displaying a screen composed of a plurality of layers including a first layer for displaying at least one input area and a second layer for displaying at least one input area, wherein the second layer is different from the first layer; a touch panel arranged in association with the display unit and for detecting an input to the input area displayed on the display unit; an input mode determination unit for determining whether an input mode to the touch panel is a first input mode or a second input mode, in response to a detected sliding direction on the touch panel, wherein a first predetermined sliding direction corresponds to the first input mode and is different from a second predetermined sliding direction corresponding to the second input mode; a superimposed area input detection unit for detecting an input to a superimposed area where the input area displayed on the first layer and the input area displayed on the second layer are superimposed; and an input control unit for processing, in a case where the superimposed area input detection unit detects an input to the superimposed area, the input as an input to the input area displayed on the first layer when the input mode is determined as the first input mode by the input mode determination unit, and the input as an input to the input area displayed on the second layer when the input mode is determined as the second input mode by the input mode determination unit.