Patent ID: 8400401

Claim:
An operating device for controlling an apparatus as an object of control, in accordance with an instruction by a user, comprising: a panel having a main surface; a hardware component provided on said main surface; a display device provided on said main surface or on said hardware component, in relation to said hardware component, allowing rewriting of displayed contents; a language switching device allowing an user to switch languages; a character sequence changing device coupled to said display device and said language switching device for changing, in response to switching of language by said language switching device, a character sequence displayed on said display device to a character sequence of the switched language; and a function switching device coupled to said hardware component and said character sequence changing device, for switching, in response to changing of a character sequence displayed on said display device by said character sequence changing device, a function allocated to the hardware component provided in relation to the display device of which character sequence has been changed, to a function corresponding to said character sequence.