JPH02235095A - Con display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display many icons on one line by displaying only the icons which are at marker positions large and markers which are not at the marker positions small by using a keyboard, a computer, an image memory, a CRT, etc. CONSTITUTION:The entire system consists of a mouse 1, the computer 3, the keyboard 2, the image memory 4, and the CRT 5. Then the movement of a marker is indicated with the mouse and inputted to the computer 3, which displays the marker on the CRT 5 through the image memory 4. The computer 3, on the other hand, displays an image and icons according to an indication made on the keyboard 2. Further, the computer 3 calculates the display position of an icon array from a marker indication position and makes an icon display according to the position. Consequently, only the icon at the marker position is displayed large and markers which are not at the marker position are displayed small, so that may icons can be displayed on one line.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an icon display method, and particularly to an icon display method suitable for selecting one from a plurality of icons. [Prior Art] An icon is a component of a menu, and is an operation command itself consisting of a string of characters, a picture, etc. A conventional display example of such an icon is shown in FIG. A plurality of icons 40 (20 to 24) are displayed at the bottom of the CRT display screen 41. The size of the outer frame of each icon is a fixed size. Fixed may mean that all horizontal sizes are the same (for example, Qo), or may be determined in advance depending on the type of icon, even if they are not equal.

Select (specify) one of icons 20 to 24
In this case, for example, if the icon 21 is selected, the icon content is "r head", and this means that a certain type of operation processing for the head has been specified.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional method of displaying icons, if there are many icons to display, the following method is used. (b) When it cannot be displayed in one line. For example, as shown in Figure 5, the icons are displayed over two lines (example of icons 40 and 40^). (mouth) When displaying on the screen in page units, each icon row is divided into several pages and displayed (the icon 40 is on the first page, the icon 41 is on the second page, etc.). The above method (a) has the disadvantage that the icon display area may become large and that it becomes difficult to see images other than the icon displayed at the same time as the icon. The above method has disadvantages in that the operator cannot identify what icons are present just by looking at one page, and it is cumbersome to update the page. An object of the present invention is to provide an icon display method that allows many icons to be displayed in one line.

[Means for solving the 'Ws problem]

According to the present invention, the icon at the position of the marker for indicating the icon is displayed larger than other icons.

[For production]

According to the present invention, a large number of icons can be displayed in one line by being able to display large icons only at the marker position and conversely displaying small marks at positions other than the marker position.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 shows a processing flow diagram, and FIG. 2 shows a specific icon display processing diagram. In Figure 2, the original horizontal length of each icon is all uniform, and that length is defined as L.
Therefore, if you try to display the icons while keeping their original length, if the horizontal length of the icon display area is mL, then only m icons can be displayed in one line. In this embodiment, instead of all the icons being allocated with the original horizontal length L, only the icon indicated by the marker is displayed with the horizontal length L, and the other icons are displayed with the horizontal length L. We are trying to display the length Q of the size L. FIG. 2 shows an example in which a marker 20 is displayed, and this marker indicates an icon called "abdomen". Therefore, the lateral size of the "abdomen" is L.

On the other hand, for the "head" and "r feet" icons, the horizontal length Q
It is. The icon display row obtained in this way is designated by symbol 40B.
It was shown as. Comparing the icon 40 in FIG. 4 with the icon 40B in FIG. 2, it can be seen that a large number of icons can be displayed in the example of FIG. 2 of this embodiment within the same horizontal length. Become.
The icons 21 to 24 displayed above the icon 40B in FIG. 2 are for explaining the process of obtaining the icon row 40B, and will be described later.

Now, the processing procedure for obtaining the icon row 40B shown in FIG. 2 will be explained with reference to FIG. In step 1 of Fig. 1, a marker is displayed at the target position using a mouse (input device; trackballs are also available in addition to the mouse), and a horizontal length L is displayed at the position that overlaps with the second marker position. display the icon (initial state). This state is shown in Figure 6(a). In step 2, read the coordinates of the marker position. The marker position is assumed to be viewed only in the lateral direction, for example, at position 11xo as shown in Figure 2. In step 3, first, a parameter nQ for determining the top coordinates of the icon at a location overlapping the coordinates XQ of the marker 20 is calculated. Parameter n6 is
If the division result of o/Q is an integer, that integer value is taken as nQ, and if a decimal point is added, the remaining integer part after the decimal point is discarded is taken as n6.

The reason for this integer is that the icons are arranged to the left of the icon to which the mouse 20 belongs, with the horizontal length Q. Next, in step 3, the display position of the icon to be displayed on the left side is determined using the parameter nQ. Now, change the display position of the icon counting from the left edge by H E A D (
n), H E A D (n) is calculated using the following formula. In equation (1), the condition n≦n6 means that the icon is located to the left of the icon to which the marker belongs, as seen in Figure 2. This means that it is an icon located on the right side. In steps 4 to 7, regarding the icon display position HEAD(n) generalized by n in equation (1), n = 0, 1, 2.
...Update pnllaX and n, calculate the actual icon display position using equation (1), and display the icon at the calculated position. An example of this display is shown in Figure 6(b).
The display example of E A D (o) in FIG. 6 (C) is shown as a state diagram when the entire icon display is completed. This sixth
The display result in Figure (c) becomes the icon row 40B in Figure 4. In step 8, an icon is selected. That is, when a mouse button is pressed, the computer recognizes that the icon 40a to which the mouse button belongs has been selected. That is. H
Select E A D (no). Then, the process moves to step 9, and the process corresponding to this selection icon 40a is performed. This corresponding processing is determined by the contents of the icon, and according to the example in Fig. 2, it is processing related to "abdomen".
For example, this process displays an image of the abdomen on the screen. Next, the problem is how to embed actual icon contents in the icon row 40B in FIG. 2. The reason is that the icon contents in the computer's memory are "head", "feet", and "abdomen".
While characters and figures such as "chest" are stored as they are, in the icon row 40B in Figure 2, "head" is displayed as "r head" and "foot" is displayed as "feet", and some Characters, etc. have been removed.

Therefore, this removal process, conversely speaking, requires a process to select and display only one of the two characters within the width Ω. This character selection process can be realized by overwriting. This is explained in Figure 2. In Figure 2, first, icon 21
The [head] of is read from memory.

This "head" is first displayed at the position of HEAD (2).Next, the "feet" of the icon 22 is read from the memory and displayed at the position of HEAD (3). As a result, "feet" is overwritten on "r part" of "head", "part" is deleted, and only "feet" is displayed.
The next H E A D (no) is the icon of the mouse position, and the "abdomen" is displayed as it is within the width L. For the next "chest", "chest" It is the same as above that only the following is displayed. This overwriting process is solved by processing on the image memory (display memory). In other words, instead of overwriting the image memory, at the time of overwriting, the stored contents of the part corresponding to the overwriting up to that point are cleared, effectively overwriting, or only the changed part is written without performing a full reset. You can use one of the following methods: 1) to perform a complete reset and store the data by inserting the data into the data. FIG. 3 shows an example of moving the marker. Figure 3(b)
is a diagram corresponding to Figure 2, and the marker 20 is the abdominal icon 23
Instruct. In contrast, assume that the icon 22 is pointed to by moving the marker. This marker 20A is a "foot" icon, and as a result, in FIG. 3(b), "
Whereas only the "abdomen" was enlarged as is, in FIG. 3(a), the "feet" is displayed as is.

Conversely, "abdomen" in FIG. 3(b) is displayed as only "abdomen".

From FIG. 3, by moving the marker, only the icon to which the marker's position belongs will be displayed in its entirety. Therefore, by visually following only the markers, only the icons to be operated are displayed in their entirety, eliminating the need for unnecessary icon display. However, even if there are other icons, a portion of them remains and is displayed (so-called cueing display), so operations such as updating the page as in the conventional example are no longer necessary. FIG. 7 shows 6 markers 2 which is another example of the icon arrangement.
Here is an example where the width direction is proportionally reduced (linear, quadratic, etc.) as it gets further away from the 0 position as a reference. That is, L>Qz>Q3>Q+. The icon position calculation at this time is automatically done according to the proportional formula. Figure 8 shows another example of the icon arrangement. This is an example in which the icon structure text is also made smaller to match the distance from the icon to the marker position. In both the embodiments shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, only the icon with the marker is displayed in an enlarged manner, making it easier to notice.

FIG. 9 shows the entire system. A whole system is established from a mouse 1, a computer 3, a keyboard 2, an image memory 4, and a C:RT5. An instruction to move the marker is given with the mouse, and the computer 3 captures this and displays the marker on the CRTS via the image memory 4. On the other hand, the computer 3 uses the keyboard 2
Images and icons are displayed according to instructions. Further calculator 3
calculates the display position of the icon row from the indicated position and displays the icons according to the position. Furthermore,
It also instructs and executes certain processing for the mouse selection icon.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, a large number of icons can be displayed in one line, and only the icon indicated by the marker can be enlarged, making it easier to select an icon.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is an example of the processing flow of the present invention, Figure 2 is an example of icon display, Figure 3 is an example of marker movement, Figures 4 and 5 are explanatory diagrams of the conventional example, and Figure 6 is FIGS. 7 and 8 are diagrams showing the icon display procedure of the present invention, FIGS. 7 and 8 are diagrams of other embodiments of the icon display arrangement, and FIG. 9 is a diagram of the entire system of the present invention. 1...Mouse, 2...Keyboard. 3... Computer, 4... Image memory, 5... CRT, 21, 22
, 23, 24... icon. Patent applicant Hitachi Medical Co., Ltd. Patent attorney
Masami Akimoto (1 other person) Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 2OA Figure Figure (a) (b)

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an icon display method for displaying a plurality of icons on a screen, an icon display position is specified using an input device, and the arrangement position of the icons along the arrangement direction is determined based on the specified position by the icon at the specified position. An icon display method in which a plurality of icons are sequentially arranged and displayed at the calculated arrangement positions by calculating so that icons at other positions are smaller than the above.