JPH0540589A - Multi-window display method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operability of a multiwindow by reporting the window of an operated system with a sound. CONSTITUTION:When a cursor 23 enters a window 25 in the case of moving the cursor 23 displayed on a screen 22 from the area of a window 26 to the area of a window 24, the audio signal of a specified musical interval is generated and outputted to the window 25 while referring to a window corresponding sound data table. Further, when the cursor 23 arrives at the area of the window 24, the audio signal of a specified musical interval is generated and outputted to the window 24 as well while referring to the window correspondent sound data table.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-window display method and apparatus thereof, and more particularly to a multi-window display method and apparatus thereof having a voice generation function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional multi-window display device, when a cursor on a display screen is moved by a mouse operation to change a window to be operated, the window is an operation object for an operator other than the movement of the cursor. No notification of window changes was done. In other words, the cursor movement was the only notification means of the change of the operation target window.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since it is necessary to always visually confirm the change of the operation target window by moving the cursor, when performing an input operation using the cursor near the boundary of the window, There is a problem that it is difficult to confirm whether the window you want to input from the mouse is the operation target. For example, since a vertical scroll bar or a horizontal scroll bar for scrolling the display contents in the normal window is provided near the boundary of the window, the operator often makes the mouse cursor enter the scroll bar. There was a case where it was not possible to operate it properly without visually confirming, and it was not possible to instruct it well.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-window display method and apparatus capable of notifying a change of an operation target window other than the cursor display.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the multi-window display method of the present invention comprises the following steps. That is, in a multi-window display method capable of generating sound, the step of detecting the position of the cursor displayed on the screen, the step of identifying the window in which the cursor detected in the step is located, the cursor Detecting that the cursor has entered a window different from the window in accordance with the movement of the window, and notifying as a sound that the window has entered the another window. ..

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multi-window display device having a voice output means, wherein display means for displaying a plurality of windows on a screen and cursor for any one of the plurality of windows. An instruction means for giving an operation instruction by moving the cursor, a detection means for detecting the position of the cursor on the screen, an identification means for identifying a window including the position of the cursor from the plurality of windows, and the cursor A control means for detecting that the position of the cursor has entered a window different from the window in accordance with the movement of the position, and controlling to notify as a sound that the window has entered the other window. It has a characteristic multi-window display device.

[0007]

With the above configuration, the present invention detects that the cursor has moved from one of a plurality of windows displayed on the screen to another window,
It operates to notify that effect by sound.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Outline of Device Configuration (FIGS. 1 and 2)] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multi-window display device which is a typical embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a CPU, which controls the entire apparatus. A display interface 2 outputs a video signal according to a control signal from the CPU 1. A CRT 3 displays an image according to a video signal. 4 is a speaker interface CP
An audio signal is output to the speaker 5 according to the control signal from U1. A speaker 5 converts a voice signal into sound. Reference numeral 7 is a mouse, and an input signal from the mouse 7 is transmitted to the CPU 1 through the mouse interface 6. A keyboard 9 is used to input character information. Character information input from the keyboard 9 is transmitted to the CPU 1 through the keyboard interface 8. 11 is a hard disk,
Stores large amounts of data and programs. Reference numeral 10 denotes an external storage device interface, which inputs and outputs data and programs to and from the hard disk 11 in response to a command from the CPU 1. 13 is a ROM, 14 is a RAM, and 15 is a VR
AM.

FIG. 2 shows the memory layout of various programs stored in the RAM 14 of FIG. In FIG.
16 is an operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS)
Therefore, basic input / output operation control and window / cursor display control are executed, and movement information of the mouse cursor and window is sent to the window change determination program 17. The window change determination program 17 operates so as to transfer control to the audio output program 18 when the window to be operated by the mouse input is changed. The voice output program 18 is a window-compatible sound data table 1
9, the speaker 5 outputs the sound of the pitch corresponding to the newly operated window. The window-corresponding sound data table 19 is composed of a data set in which sound data of different pitches are associated with each other for a plurality of windows displayed on the CRT 3, and are stored in the RAM 14.
The storage area is secured. Reference numeral 20 is an application program executed in the window. 21 is 16
It is a work area used by each of the programs.

[Voice Generation and Notification Processing (FIGS. 3-5)]
The following is a description of the voice generation and notification processing associated with the change of the operation target window executed by the device having the above configuration,
This will be described with reference to the display screen example shown in FIG. 3, the audio signal generation time chart shown in FIG. 4, and the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of the multi-window display device of this embodiment. In FIG. 3, 2
Reference numeral 2 is a display screen frame, and 23 is a mouse cursor, which moves within the screen as the mouse 7 moves. 24-26 are windows. In this embodiment, the mouse cursor 23 has an arrow shape as shown in FIG. 3, and the operation target is identified by the coordinate value of the tip of the arrow. 3A shows a state in which the mouse cursor 23 is in the window 26 and the operation target of the mouse 7 is in the window 26, while FIG. 3B shows the state shown in FIG. 3A. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state of the screen after the mouse cursor 23 moves to the window 24 through the window 25.

Therefore, in the voice generation and notification processing which will be described later with reference to FIG.
It is assumed that the state shown in FIG. 3A (the state in the window 26) moves to the state shown in FIG. 3B (the state in the window 24). Then, the time when the mouse cursor 23 starts moving from the state of FIG.
0, the time when the operation target of the mouse cursor 23 is changed from the window 26 to the window 25 is T = t ₁ ,
Further, the time when the mouse cursor 23 moves and the operation target moves from the window 25 to the window 24 is set to T = t ₂ , and the mouse cursor 23 is moved at the timing shown in FIG.
It is assumed that an audio signal is generated with the movement of the. Figure 4
In, the horizontal axis is time and the vertical axis is voltage.

As shown in FIG. 4, during the same time interval (Δt), voice signals having the same amplitude but different signal frequencies are generated at T = t ₁ and T = t ₂ . This indicates that each voice has the same loudness but different tones. Each pitch is T = t ₁
The sound generated in step 2 is determined by referring to the window-corresponding sound data table 19 corresponding to the window 25. Similarly, the sound generated at T = t ₂ is the window-corresponding sound data table 1 corresponding to the window 24.
9 is referred to. In this way, the pitch of the generated sound is determined by referring to the window corresponding sound data table 19 of the window to be newly operated. In the present embodiment, the pitch is determined according to the order in which the windows are opened, the low tone is assigned to the window opened first, and the high tone is assigned to the window opened later. Next, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5, the voice generation and notification processing associated with the window change will be described.

First, in step S1, it is checked whether or not the mouse cursor 23 in the area of the window 26 has started to move. Here, if it is determined that the mouse cursor 23 has not moved, the process ends, and if it is determined that the mouse cursor 23 has started moving, the process proceeds to step S2. In step S2, the mouse cursor 23
Check the coordinates of to find out which window area the position of the mouse cursor belongs to. That is, check the window that is the target of the mouse cursor operation.

In step S3, the window to be operated by the mouse cursor before movement is compared with the window checked in step S2. If it is determined that both windows are the same, the process ends. That is, if the cursor positions before and after moving the mouse cursor are still within the area of the window 26, the process ends. Therefore, the mouse cursor 23 is in a different window area (here, the window 25 or window 24 area).
The processes of steps S1 to S3 are repeated until the process enters.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the compared windows are different from each other, it is considered that the mouse cursor 23 has entered another window area (here, the window 25 or window 24 area). Then, the process proceeds to step S4. In step S4, the data of the pitch corresponding to the window which is the operation target of the mouse cursor is newly searched from the window corresponding sound data table 19, the sound output program is instructed to output the sound, and the process is ended. That is, at the timing of T = t ₁ , the audio signal of the predetermined frequency assigned to the window 25 shown in FIG. 4 is output.

Here, since it is considered that the mouse cursor 23 continues to move and reaches the area of the window 24, the processing of steps S1 to S4 is repeated again, and at the timing of T = t ₂ , the timing shown in FIG. An audio signal of a predetermined frequency assigned to the window 24 is output.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, when the mouse cursor 23 moves to enter another window area from one window area, the window corresponding sound data table 1
9, a voice signal of a specific pitch corresponding to the window is generated and the voice is output from the speaker 5,
The user of the device can easily recognize that the mouse cursor 23 has entered another window.

Although the mouse is used as the pointing device in this embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, tablets and trucks
The ball can be used as a pointing device. Further, in order to represent the difference in the generated sound depending on the target window, a difference in tone color, the number of generated sounds, or the like can be used in addition to the difference in pitch.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, may be applied to an apparatus composed of one device, or may be achieved by supplying a program to the system or the device. It goes without saying that it can also be applied to cases.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to know by sound that the cursor has moved from one window having a plurality of windows displayed on the screen to another window, and the cursor can be visually confirmed. Since the window to be operated can be correctly identified without performing the above, there is an effect that the multi-window operability can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multi-window display device that is a typical embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a memory layout of various programs stored in a RAM 14.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a multi-window display screen.

FIG. 4 is a time chart of a generated audio signal.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a notification process by window change sound.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 Display Interface 3 CRT 4 Speaker Interface 5 Speaker 6 Mouse Interface 7 Mouse 8 Keyboard Interface 9 Keyboard 10 External Storage Interface 11 Hard Disk 13 ROM 14 RAM 15 VRAM 16 OS 17 Window Change Judgment Program 18 Voice Output Program 19 Window sound table 20 Application program 21 Work area 22 Display screen frame 23 Cursor 24-26 windows

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A multi-window display method capable of audio generation, comprising: detecting a position of a cursor displayed on a screen; and identifying a window in which the cursor detected by the process is located. A step of detecting that the cursor has entered a window different from the window along with the movement of the cursor and notifying that the window has entered the another window as a sound. Method. 2. A multi-window display device having audio output means, comprising: a display means for displaying a plurality of windows on the screen; and an operation by moving a cursor to any one of the plurality of windows. Instruction means for giving an instruction, detection means for detecting the position of the cursor on the screen, identification means for identifying a window including the position of the cursor from the plurality of windows, and movement of the position of the cursor A multi-window display comprising: a control means for detecting that the position of the cursor has entered a window different from the window and for notifying as a sound that the window has entered the other window. apparatus. 3. The multi-window display device according to claim 2, wherein the control unit has a sound generation unit that controls the plurality of windows to generate sounds having different pitches.