JPH09128451A - Electronic catalog device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Correction) [Problem] It is possible to easily select a desired product even in a complicated screen display. SOLUTION: A selection device 60 selects a product submitted from a plurality of product information displayed on a screen of a display device 40 or a product group including a plurality of products. Further, the selected product group is displayed, and a desired product is selected from the displayed product group.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic catalog device for displaying and selecting products on the screen of a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a catalog for ordering a product is a photograph of the product, a sentence explaining the product, product information such as a product name, price, size, etc. printed on paper. In order to bring out the image of the product used in the catalog in order to evoke an image of when the product was used, various measures have been taken such as combining multiple products, preparing backgrounds and accessories, and copying the product along with them. The consumer decides which product to order by comparing the photos in the catalog with the product information, and specifies the product either verbally over the phone or by writing an order slip and sending it by mail or facsimile. It was done by.

The product catalog of such a paper medium has the following disadvantages. First, when the number of products increases, the catalog becomes very thick, mailing costs increase, and consumers may not be able to easily reach the desired product. In addition, due to space limitations, it may not be possible to post sufficient product information. Furthermore, in order to post a photograph, it is necessary to manufacture products for many product variations in advance. In addition, since catalogs are often recreated for each season, even standard products need to be newly printed each time, and product information is not stored.

[0004] In recent years, due to the improvement of personal computer performance and the development of personal computer communication represented by the Internet, instead of the above-mentioned paper medium product catalog, a product is selected on the screen of the personal computer and a communication line is established. Electronic catalog devices that use the products to order products are becoming widespread. This electronic catalog device displays a photograph of a product or the like on a screen of a personal computer, similarly to a catalog of a paper medium, and an operator can directly specify the screen and select the product. By using a personal computer, a large amount of product information can be stored, and the operator can easily reach the target product from the huge amount of information. Further, it is also possible to store data such as materials and shapes, synthesize images, and display them without synthesizing all the products to be displayed in advance. It is not necessary to separately order products, and if the displayed screen itself is directly specified, it can be automatically ordered through the communication line.

[0005]

However, when selecting a product on a screen of a personal computer or the like using such an electronic catalog device, a great feature is that the displayed product itself can be directly specified on the screen. However, especially when displaying a combination of multiple products for the purpose of evoking the image of the product, the result is that the displayed images are complicated, such as the multiple products being displayed on the screen. Therefore, it is difficult for the operator to select a desired product, and it is difficult for the electronic catalog device to determine which product has been selected.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic catalog device capable of easily selecting a desired product even in a complicated screen display. To do.

[0007]

In order to achieve this object, an electronic catalog device according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a storage means for storing product information indicating a product such as a product image and a product name, and a storage means. Display means for displaying the product information displayed,
A selection unit for selecting a desired product from the displayed product information is provided, and the product information of a plurality of product candidates displayed on the display unit is selectable as the product information of one product group by the selection unit. .

According to this, when a plurality of products are combined and displayed within a certain range to form a group of products, the accuracy of the individual products in the product group is correct. It is possible to select a product group including a desired product as a whole in the first step of the operation without designating such a display position by the selection means.

Further, the electronic catalog device according to claim 2 displays both the product information of the product group and the product information of each product candidate included in the product group on the display means in advance,
Both the product information of the displayed product group and the product information of each product candidate are directly selectable by the selection means.

According to this, when the screen display is complicated and it is difficult to specify the displayed individual products, it is possible to collectively select the products as a product group, and it is possible to select them once. When the operator can determine the individual product, the product can be directly specified without going through the selection of the product group, so that a selection method suitable for the operator is provided.

Further, the electronic catalog device according to the third aspect displays the product information of a plurality of product candidates included in the selected product group on the display means when the product information of the product group is selected. A desired product is selected by the selecting means from the displayed product information of the plurality of product candidates.

According to this, when the product group is selected in the first step, the individual product information contained in the product group is then displayed in a form that is easy for the operator to specify, and the operator can You can easily select the desired product from the list.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in an electronic catalog device for selecting products such as clothes will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an electrical block diagram of the electronic catalog device of this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic catalog device 10
In the above, the CPU 20 that controls the entire apparatus is
An M30, a display device 40 as a display unit, an external storage device 70 as a storage unit, a RAM 50, and a selection device 60 as a selection unit are connected. ROM30
Stores an operation program such as a bootstrap program that operates immediately after the power switch is turned on. The display device 40 such as a CRT displays a product image, product information such as product name and price, operation buttons and the like on the screen. The external storage device 70 stores product images such as product images and product names and prices to be displayed on the display device 40. RAM50 is a product image and product name
Product information such as price is fetched from the external storage device 70 and developed. The selection device 60 is a device such as a mouse or a touch panel for designating a desired product on the screen of the display device 40.

The RAM 50 includes an electronic catalog control program RAM area 51 and an electronic catalog data RAM.
Area 52, product information data RAM area 53, product candidate information data RAM area 54, and display RAM area 55
And divided into

Further, the external storage device 70 is a RAM 50.
Corresponding to the electronic catalog control program area 71,
Electronic catalog data area 72 and product information data area 7
3 and a product candidate information data area 74.

Electronic catalog control program RAM area 5
1, a program for controlling the entire electronic catalog device 10 stored in the electronic catalog control program area 71 is developed. The electronic catalog data RAM area 52 is
The catalog image data stored in the electronic catalog data area 72 is expanded. The catalog image data is image data of one screen which is displayed on the display device 40 and corresponds to one page of a product catalog of a paper medium. This includes all the image data of the product photograph, the background landscape, the small items used for the production, and the like.

Product image of each product, its product name,
Product information such as price is stored in the product information data area 73, and is read from here and expanded in the product information data RAM area 53 according to the specification of the product. further,
If the product group that includes multiple products is specified in the catalog image data, after specifying the product group, a list of multiple product candidates included in the product group is displayed, and Let me select a product. The image data of the list display is stored in the product candidate information data area 74 and expanded in the product candidate information data RAM area 54. The display RAM area 55 transfers an image to a display device.

The electronic catalog device 10 having the above configuration
The operation will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the electronic catalog device 10 is turned on, the control program stored in the electronic catalog control program area 71 in the external storage device 70 is stored in the RAM 5
0 is transferred to the electronic catalog control program RAM area 51 and activated. By this control program, the catalog image data stored in the electronic catalog data area 72 is transferred to the electronic catalog data RAM area 52. Furthermore, this catalog image data is the RA for display.
When expanded in the M area 55, a screen as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the display device 40. At this point, the operator waits for input (step 1. Hereinafter, step is abbreviated as S).

The operator can select a product by designating a specific area on the screen using the selection device 60. In the screen shown in FIG. 3, in order to assist the input, an area that can be designated by the operator is surrounded by a dotted line. When the mouse is clicked in the area, or when the display device 40 has a touch panel, the area enclosed by the dotted line can be directly pressed with a finger or the like to specify the product or product group included in the area. .

If the desired product is not found on the displayed screen, another screen can be displayed by pressing the next page or previous page button arranged on the right side of the screen. In this case, another catalog image data is transferred from the electronic catalog data area 72 to the electronic catalog data R.
The data is transferred to the AM area 52, and a new screen is displayed on the display device 40 via the display RAM area 55.

Next, it is judged whether or not the operator has designated the area (S2). If it is determined that the operator has designated the area, the designated area is further divided into a plurality of products. It is determined whether the product group is included (S
3).

In the case of a product group, in order to further designate one product from the product group, the process proceeds to a process of displaying a list of image data of individual products included in the product group (S).
4). If not, one product has already been specified, so in order to allow the operator to confirm the product, detailed information such as the product name, price, and material of the specified product is acquired from the product information data 73. The data is read into the RAM area 53 and a screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed (S6).

In S4, image data for displaying a list of product candidates included in the specified product group is read from the product candidate information data area 74 into the product candidate information data RAM area 54, and the list display as shown in FIG. The product candidate selection screen is displayed by and the operator waits for input (S
4).

The operator can select a desired product from the product candidates displayed in the list. It is determined whether or not the product is selected (S5), and when the product is selected,
Similar to the case where one product is directly selected, the product name, price, and
Detailed information such as materials is read from the product information data 73 into the product information data RAM area 53, and, for example, a screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed (S6).

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, in the above-mentioned electronic catalog device, in order to specify the products included in the product group, the product group is always specified once, and then the list of products included in the product group is displayed, and one of the products is displayed. I configured it to follow the two steps of choosing a product,
There are two methods: a button for directly specifying individual products included in a product group on the screen and performing two steps from the product group and a method for directly specifying the product without selecting the product group. You may prepare as an option. If you specify directly with the button, you can shorten the time to select products,
It is possible to provide options that match the needs of the operator.

[0029]

As is apparent from the above description,
According to the electronic catalog device according to claim 1 of the present invention,
The product information of the plurality of product candidates displayed on the display means can be selected by the selection means as the product information of one product group, so that a plurality of products are combined within a certain range to form a group of product groups. If it seems to be forming,
Even if the exact display position of each individual product in the product group is not designated by the selection means, first, the product group including the desired product can be selected as a whole.

Further, according to the electronic catalog device of the second aspect, since both the product information of the displayed product group and the product information of each product candidate can be directly selected by the selection means, the screen display can be performed. When it is difficult to identify the individual products that are complicated and displayed, it is possible to collectively select as a product group, and when the operator can distinguish the individual products for some reason such as having selected once. Since the product can be directly specified without selecting the product group, it is possible to provide a selection method suitable for the operator.

Further, according to the electronic catalog device of the third aspect, when the product information of the product group is selected, the product information of a plurality of product candidates included in the selected product group is displayed on the display means. Since the desired product is selected by the selecting means from the displayed product information of the plurality of product candidates, when the product group is selected in the first step, it is included in the product group next. Individual product information is displayed in a form that is easy for the operator to specify, and the operator can easily select a desired product from among them.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of an electronic catalog device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of a processing flow of the electronic catalog device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a display device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of a product candidate selection screen of the electronic catalog device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a product information display screen of the electronic catalog device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a product information display screen of the electronic catalog device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 electronic catalog device 40 display device 60 selection device 70 external storage device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing product information indicating a product such as a product image and a product name, a display unit for displaying the stored product information, and a selection unit for selecting a desired product from the displayed product information. In the electronic catalog device, the electronic catalog device is configured such that product information of a plurality of product candidates displayed on the display unit can be selected by the selection unit as product information of one product group. 2. Both the product information of the product group and the product information of each product candidate included in the product group are displayed in advance on the display means, and the product information of the displayed product group and the product information of each product candidate are displayed. The electronic catalog device according to claim 1, wherein either of the above is configured to be directly selectable by the selecting means. 3. When the product information of the product group is selected, the product information of a plurality of product candidates included in the selected product group is displayed on the display means, and the product of the displayed plurality of product candidates is displayed. The electronic catalog device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a desired product is selected from the information by the selection means.