JP2001249746A - Information reading device and medium with information reading program stored thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information reading device capable of arbitrarily switching and reading the whole part or a single part of electronic information to read the information and a medium for storing an information reading program by using a display whose display capabilities are smaller than those of the virtual screen of electronic information. SOLUTION: The information of the position and size of an area to be read among electronic information is obtained by an operation signal waiting part 32 and a display are table 33 of a display area selecting part 30 on the basis of information from control levers 11-14 and a lever selector 20 for detecting the operation of the control levers, and a reduction rate for enlarging/reducing the size of the area to be read into the size which can be displayed on a display screen is calculated by a reduction rate calculating part 34, and the electronic information corresponding to the area to be read is segmented from the electronic information corresponding to a whole virtual screen in an information data base 40 by a picture generating part 35, and enlarged/reduced according to the enlargement/reduction rate.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to electronic information in which unit information including character information or character information and related image information such as photographs is arranged on a predetermined virtual screen.
The present invention relates to an information browsing apparatus for displaying and browsing on a display screen and a medium storing an information browsing program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional information browsing apparatus of this type, when the number of dots (size) of the entire virtual screen of electronic information exceeds the number of dots (size) that can be displayed on a display, the information can be seen in an Internet browser. Scrolling the display screen, or performing page breaks using a metaphor such as a book, and displaying it, and providing it to the user.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional information browsing apparatus, in the case of electronic information such as a newspaper in which a large number of unit information are arranged on one virtual screen, the virtual screen of the electronic information is used. If the whole size is larger than the size of the display, there is a drawback that all unit information cannot be grasped simultaneously.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to enable a plurality of unit information items arranged on one virtual screen to be simultaneously grasped even when the size of a display is smaller than the size of the entire virtual screen of electronic information, thereby simplifying the process. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information browsing apparatus and a medium storing an information browsing program which can browse only necessary unit information by simple operations.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and related image information such as a photograph are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen. In the information browsing device for displaying and browsing the electronic information on the display screen,
Means for inputting information on the position and size of the area to be viewed in the entire virtual screen of the electronic information, and a scaling ratio for scaling the size of the input area to a size that can be displayed on the display screen. When displaying the entire electronic information, the calculation unit and the electronic information corresponding to the input region are cut out from the electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen, and the unit is enlarged and reduced according to the enlargement / reduction ratio. Is able to recognize the heading characters etc. of each unit information,
The same thing as finding information by opening the newspaper can be realized, and the details of unit information can be viewed in the same way as folding a newspaper printed on paper by enlarging and displaying only that part, It is possible to achieve a case where it is desired to grasp the entire information and a case where it is desired to grasp individual unit information.

In the second invention, electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related to the character information are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen is displayed on a display screen. Means for storing, for each unit information, the position and size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including unit information on a virtual screen of electronic information in an information browsing device for displaying and browsing, and disposing the unit on the virtual screen of electronic information Means for selecting unit information to be viewed from the plurality of unit information selected, and scaling for scaling the size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including the selected unit information to a size displayable on a display screen. Means for calculating a ratio, and cutting out electronic information corresponding to a rectangle circumscribing a region including the selected unit information from the electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen, and according to the scaling ratio. By and means for large reduction, in addition to the effects of the first invention, when selecting the unit information to be browsed, any without adding operation, you can view all of the unit information.

In the third invention, electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related to the character information are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen is displayed on a display screen. In an information browsing device for displaying and browsing, the size of line-based character information constituting the unit information on the virtual screen of the electronic information or the size of the line-based character information and the related image information such as a photograph are included. A unit for storing the size for each unit information, a unit for selecting unit information to be browsed among a plurality of unit information arranged on the virtual screen of the electronic information, and a unit for each row constituting the selected unit information. Calculate the sum of the size of text information or the size of text information per line and the size of related image information such as photos, and the size of the area similar to the display screen that can display all of them Means for determining, and character information in units of lines or character information in units of lines constituting the selected unit information and image information such as a photograph related to the selected unit information are displayed in a similar order to the obtained display screen in ascending order of size. Means for rearranging the area on the display screen, means for calculating a scaling factor for scaling the size of the area similar to the obtained display screen to a size displayable on the display screen, In addition to the effect of the first aspect, the electronic apparatus includes means for enlarging or reducing electronic information composed of character information in units or character information in units of lines and image information such as a photograph related thereto in accordance with the enlargement / reduction ratio. When the unit information to be browsed is selected, the user can browse all the unit information as much as possible without any additional operation.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows an example of electronic information which is an object of the present invention. In this case, a character string of a heading using large characters and the like, information of a text using small characters, photographs, figures,
It shows an example of newspaper-type electronic information in which an advertisement or the like is laid out on one surface.

The present invention is directed to a case where electronic information is displayed such that the number of dots (size) of the entire virtual screen on which information is laid out is larger than that of a display screen of a device (terminal) for a user to browse information. Is effective in
In this paper, an example in which newspaper-type electronic information (hereinafter, referred to as electronic newspaper) as shown in FIG. 1 is displayed will be described.

FIG. 2 shows a first embodiment of the information browsing apparatus according to the present invention.
Up, down, left, and right operating levers 11, 12, 13, and 14 that perform the function of a user interface;
4, a lever selector 20 for detecting which lever has been operated, and a display area selector 3 for selecting an area to be displayed in the electronic newspaper based on information from the lever selector 20.
0, an information database 40 for storing the electronic newspaper, and a display 50 for displaying the electronic newspaper.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the appearance of the information browsing apparatus according to the present invention. Position control levers 11 to 14 are provided at the top, bottom, left and right of the apparatus main body, just around four sides of the display 50. For example, the levers 11 to 14 may be hinged at the connection point with the apparatus main body, and may be configured to be folded to the rear side, or each of the position operation levers 11 to 14 may operate as a button. In some cases, as shown in FIG. 4, an operation button 15 such as an arrow key
May be arranged, and buttons in each direction may be provided with roles of levers arranged in four directions.

In the present invention, the most important display area selection unit 30 includes a power supply check unit 31 connected to a power switch for controlling the operation of the system, and a lever selector 20 for notifying that the user has operated the operation lever. A receiving operation signal receiving unit 32, a display area table 33 for storing which area of the virtual screen is to be displayed in accordance with the position of the lever, and a display area size and display obtained from the display area table 33 A reduction ratio calculator 34 for calculating a reduction ratio or an enlargement ratio for reducing or enlarging the article information from the size value of 50, and a display from the reduction ratio or the enlargement ratio and the width and height values of the display area. And an image generation unit 35 that generates a display image to be displayed on the display 50.

FIG. 5 shows a flow of processing in this embodiment.

When the power is turned on, the display area selection unit 30 sets a value indicating the display area of the electronic newspaper displayed on the display 50 to "0" as initialization processing (step s1). For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the value indicating the display area is a numerical value for each area, such as “0” for the entire display and “5” for the upper right display for the area of the virtual screen to be displayed. Are allocated in advance.

After the completion of the initial setting, the power check unit 31 of the display area selecting unit 30 determines whether or not the power is turned on. If the power is not turned on, the process ends (step s2). If the power is on, the operation signal waiting section 32 of the display area control section 30 waits for an operation of operating the operation levers 11 to 14 by the user (step s3).

When the user operates the operation levers 11 to 14, information corresponding to the operated lever is generated in the lever selector 20 by the operation of each lever (step s).
4). The lever selector 20 is provided with a switch for each of the levers 11 to 14. When the lever is operated and comes to a bent position, for example, if the upper operation lever is tilted for each lever, "1" Select the display area by adding the signal of "2" when the lower operating lever is tilted, "4" when the right operating lever is tilted, and "8" when the left operating lever is tilted. Sent to the unit 30. As a result,
As shown in FIG. 6, corresponding to each position, a number indicating the position is passed to the display area selection unit 30 and stored in the display area table 33.

The display area selecting section 30 receives an information database 40 based on a signal sent from the lever selector 20.
The information of the position is obtained from (step s5). For example, when information for one virtual screen of an electronic newspaper is stored as a still image in the information database 40, the display area table 3 shown in FIG.
3. The value of the display area corresponding to the value sent from the lever selector 20 and stored in 3 is acquired.

Next, the vertical and horizontal sizes of the display area are compared with the vertical and horizontal sizes of the display 50, and the reduction ratio for display is calculated by the reduction ratio calculator 34 (step s6).
For example, if the display area of the display 50 is 1024 dots vertically and 768 dots horizontally, and the entire size of the electronic newspaper to be displayed is 3072 dots vertically and 2304 dots horizontally, for example, in the initial state where the lever is not operated, ,
Since the entire virtual screen needs to be displayed in the display area of the display 50, the reduction ratio is 0.33 in height and 0.33 in width.

When the upper operation lever and the right operation lever are operated, the information of the upper right is used as the coordinate position when the upper left of the virtual screen is set to the origin 0.
Since 0 to 767 dots are to be displayed on the entire display, the reduction rate is 1.0.

Based on the coordinates and size of the display area and the reduction ratio, the electronic newspaper is cut out, reduced, and an image of the electronic newspaper for display is generated by the image generation unit 35 (step s7) and displayed on the display 50 (step s7). s8). When the lever is not operated, the entire electronic newspaper is regarded as one image. Therefore, the clipping is not performed in the clipping process, and the reduction is performed with the reduction ratio set to 0.33.

[Embodiment 2] In the information browsing apparatus according to the first embodiment, in order to divide an article for each area,
Information may be split in the middle of one article (unit information). Therefore, in the second embodiment, the selected article is displayed by displaying the circumscribed rectangular (square) area of each article having the headline character information in the area selected as the display target so as to fit within the screen of the display. When browsing information, it is possible to browse without requiring any further operation.

The configuration of the device according to the second embodiment is as follows.
This is the same as the first embodiment, and can be easily inferred, so that the description is omitted. The present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in the data structure in the display area table 33 and the information database 40 and the calculation processing of the reduction ratio calculation unit 34.

FIG. 8 shows the flow of processing in this embodiment.

When the power is turned on, the display area selection unit 30 sets a value indicating the display area of the electronic newspaper displayed on the display 50 to "0" as initialization processing (step s11). For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the value indicating the display area is set to “0” for the entire display and “5” for the upper right display with respect to the area of the virtual screen to be displayed. Numerical values are assigned in advance.

After the completion of the initial setting, the power check unit 31 of the display area selection unit 30 determines whether or not the power is turned on. If the power is not turned on, the process ends (step s12). If the power is on, the operation signal waiting unit 32 of the display area control unit 30 waits for an operation of operating the operation levers 11 to 14 by the user (step s13).

When the user operates the operation levers 11 to 14, information corresponding to the operated lever is generated in the lever selector 20 by the operation of each lever (step s).
14). The lever selector 20 is provided with a switch for each of the levers 11 to 14. When the lever is operated and comes to a bent position, for example, if the upper operation lever is tilted for each lever, "1" Select the display area by adding the signal of "2" when the lower operating lever is tilted, "4" when the right operating lever is tilted, and "8" when the left operating lever is tilted. Sent to the unit 30.

The display area selecting section 30 receives information from the information selector 40 based on the signal sent from the lever selector 20.
To obtain the information of the position. For example, when information for one virtual screen of an electronic newspaper is stored as a still image in the information database 40, the display area storage unit 30
Of the display area stored in the display area table 33 and corresponding to the value sent from the lever selector 20, and the display area value and the heading character information of each article in the information database 40 are obtained. Compared to the area containing
The article number to be displayed is determined (step s15), and the value of the circumscribed rectangular area on the virtual screen of the article is acquired from the display area table 33 shown in FIG. 9 (step s16).

Next, the value of the size of the circumscribed rectangle area of the article with the article number is compared with the vertical and horizontal sizes of the display 50, and the reduction ratio for display is calculated by the reduction ratio calculator 34 (step s17). ). For example, the display area of the display 50 is 1024 dots vertically and 768 dots horizontally, and the entire size of the electronic newspaper to be displayed is 3072 dots vertically,
Assuming that the width is 2304 dots, for example, in the initial state where the lever is not operated, the entire virtual screen is displayed on the display 50.
Are required to be displayed in the display area of, so that the reduction ratio is 0.33 in height and 0.33 in width.

When the upper operation lever and the right operation lever are operated, the article number 1 is selected as the upper right information in the case shown in FIG. 8, and the circumscribed rectangular area of the article has the origin 0 at the upper left of the virtual screen. 768 to 23 as horizontal coordinate position
Since 2300 dots are to be displayed on the entire display from 00 dots and 0 dots in the vertical direction, the reduction ratio is 0.1 mm in the horizontal direction.
5, vertical 0.44.

Based on the coordinates and size of the display area and the reduction rate, the electronic newspaper is cut out, reduced and an image of the electronic newspaper for display is generated by the image generator 35 (step s18), and displayed on the display 50 (step s18). s19). In addition,
In a state where the lever is not operated, the entire electronic newspaper is regarded as one image. Therefore, the cutout processing is not cut out and the reduction ratio is reduced to 0.33.

The processing in the reduction operation section 34 will be described in more detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the size of the display area of the display 50, for example, 1024 vertical dots and 768 horizontal dots,
The size of the number of dots is obtained (step s21). Next, it is determined whether or not the value of the area obtained from the operation signal waiting unit 32 is 0 (step s22). If it is “0”, the entire size of the electronic newspaper is obtained from the display area table 33 to display the entire virtual screen (step s23).

Next, the number of vertical and horizontal dots of the display obtained in step s21 is divided by the vertical and horizontal sizes of the electronic newspaper to calculate a reduction ratio (step s24). For example,
Assuming that the size of the electronic newspaper is 3072 dots in height and 2304 dots in width, the reduction ratio is 0.33 in each of height and width. By reducing the information of the electronic newspaper in the information database 40 to 0.33 vertically and horizontally, image information of the electronic newspaper to be displayed on the display 50 can be generated (step s2).
5).

In step s22, when the value is other than "0", the display area table 33 is displayed on the basis of the value of the operated lever obtained from the operation signal waiting section 32.
Then, the article to be displayed is determined by retrieving the position number (step s26).

The coordinate position and size of the circumscribed rectangle of the article are obtained from the display area table 33 (step s2).
7). For example, when the position number is “5”, an area from 0 vertical pixels and 768 horizontal dots to a width of 1536 and a height of 2300 dots is a circumscribed rectangle. The reduction ratio is calculated by dividing the number of vertical and horizontal dots of the display area of the display 50 by the values of the width and height (step s28).

From the image information of the electronic newspaper in the information report database 40, a region of width 1536 and height 2300 dots is cut out from 0 vertically and 768 dots horizontally (step s29),
Image information to be output to the display 50 is generated by reducing the cut-out image at the reduction ratio calculated in step s28 (step s30).

[Third Embodiment] In the information browsing apparatus according to the second embodiment, when trying to browse detailed information, one article is displayed in order to enlarge and display an article area as an image for each article. If the graphic shape of is not similar to the display screen, the information of another article is included in the detailed information, and the use efficiency of the information display area of the display deteriorates. Therefore, in the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, each article having the heading character information in the selected area is divided into line units of the article, and when displaying the detailed information, the display screen is used. By arranging article information for each line in an area similar to the above, and enlarging and reducing the information on the display screen, it is possible to browse only the article of interest without wasting the screen.

FIG. 12 shows the structure of the device according to the third embodiment, which is basically the same as the first embodiment, except that the display area table 33 is different from the first embodiment.
And a display area selection unit 30a to which a layout construction unit 36 for arranging the data of each line of the article in an area similar to the shape of the display screen using the article data of each line in the information database 40 is provided. And the data structure in the display area table 33 and the information database 40 and the calculation processing of the reduction ratio calculation unit 34 are different.

FIG. 13 shows the flow of processing in this embodiment.

When the power is turned on, the display area selecting section 30a sets a value indicating the display area of the electronic newspaper displayed on the display 50 to "0" as initialization processing (step s41). The value indicating the display area is, for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (1), numerical values are assigned in advance to the respective regions, such as “0” for the entire display and “5” for the upper right display for the region of the virtual screen to be displayed.

After the completion of the initial setting, the power check unit 31 of the display area selecting unit 30a determines whether or not the power is turned on. If the power is not turned on, the process ends (step s42). When the power is on, the operation signal waiting unit 32 of the display area control unit 30a waits for an operation of operating the operation levers 11 to 14 by the user (step s43).

When the user operates the operation levers 11 to 14, information corresponding to the operated lever is generated in the lever selector 20 by the operation of each lever (step s).
44). The lever selector 20 is provided with a switch for each of the levers 11 to 14. When the lever is operated and comes to a bent position, for example, if the upper operation lever is tilted for each lever, "1" Select the display area by adding the signal of "2" when the lower operating lever is tilted, "4" when the right operating lever is tilted, and "8" when the left operating lever is tilted. Sent to the unit 30a.

The display area selecting section 30a, based on the signal sent from the lever selector 20, uses the information database 4
The information of the position is acquired from 0. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, in a case where electronic newspaper information is stored as a still image in the information database 40, each part such as a headline character on the virtual screen, a text line of each article, a photograph, and an advertisement is stored as a still image. Obtains the value of the display area corresponding to the value sent from the lever selector 20 stored in the display area table 33 in the display area storage unit 30a, and obtains the value of the display area and the value in the information database 40. The article number to be displayed is determined by comparing the area including the heading character of each article (step s45), the sum of the sizes (the number of dots) of all parts of the article of the article number is calculated, and The size (the number of dots) of the area similar to the shape is determined (step s46).

The height required to display the article is calculated by dividing the sum of the article sizes (the number of dots) by the aspect ratio of the display. Newspaper articles are generally composed of blocks in rows called columns, so the vertical height is divided by the height of one article, rounded up, the required number of columns is calculated, and the required number of columns is calculated. By multiplying the number of dots by the aspect ratio,
The number of vertical and horizontal dots in an area similar to the shape of the display screen for displaying the article is calculated (step s).
47).

For example, if the number of dots in the horizontal direction of the display is 2304 dots and the number of dots in the vertical direction is 3072 dots, the ratio of the horizontal to vertical is 0.75 to 0.75. 1.0. Assuming that the area of an article to be displayed is 3,600,000 pixels in dots, the number of dots in the vertical direction is 3,600,00
By dividing 0 by 0.75 and taking the square root, the vertical length becomes 2109 dots.

Step 58. Then, the number of dots in the vertical direction is divided by the height of one dot of the electronic newspaper image, that is, 600 dots, and one or less small points are rounded up to determine the number of dots. For example, if the number of dots in the vertical direction is 2109 dots, it is 2400 dots in four rows of 600 dots. To determine the number of rows in the horizontal direction, 600 dots * 4 rows are multiplied by 0.75 times the aspect ratio,
This is 1800 dots.

Next, in the layout construction unit 36, the articles are laid out by arranging them from the upper right in the article in descending order of the size of the parts of the article stored in the information database 40. Step s4
8). For example, as shown in FIG. 15, the heading having the largest area is arranged from the upper right, and the area occupied by the arrangement is managed in the position storage buffer shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 16, in the position storage buffer, the area occupied by each stage is managed by the number of dots. For example, in an article part that uses two columns, such as a photo, if it is arranged from the upper right, for example,
Assuming that the width of the photograph is, for example, 600 dots in the width of the photograph, 600 is added for each value.

In the case where there is only one column, as in the case of the main article, if the width is 40 dots in order from the first column, 40 dots are added to the column. For example, when an attempt is made to add an article in the first row, if it exceeds 1800 dots in the layout area, 40 dots are added to the buffer in the second row, and article parts are sequentially laid out.

The reduction rate for displaying the laid out article information on the display is calculated by the reduction rate calculator 34 (step s49). For example, if the display area of the display 50 is 1024 dots vertically and 768 dots horizontally and the size of a laid-out newspaper article image to be displayed is 2400 dots vertically and 1800 dots horizontally, the reduction ratio is 0.42. .

The laid-out electronic newspaper image is reduced according to the coordinates and size of the display area and the reduction ratio, and an electronic newspaper image for display is generated by the image generating section 35 (step s5).
0), display on the display 50 (step s51)
I do.

In the layout example shown in FIG. 15, the figure is arranged immediately beside the heading character, and is arranged differently from the layout on a normal newspaper. Therefore, as another embodiment, in step s48, a photograph is first obtained according to the type of article part shown in FIG. 14, and the photograph is laid out from the left end of the first row, and the position of the return of the position storage buffer is determined. , Subtract the amount of photo data. For example, if the size of the photo is 600 dots vertically and horizontally, after laying out the photo, 600 is subtracted from the value of the first fold, and as shown in FIG.
It is 0 dot. Thereafter, by performing the same processing as in step s48 for the headline and the text, a layout similar to a normal newspaper page as shown in FIG. 18 can be automatically created.

The processing in the layout construction section 36 will be described in more detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the number of vertical and horizontal dots in the display area of the display 50 is obtained, and the ratio is calculated (step s).
61). For example, if the number of dots in the horizontal direction of the display is 76
If the number of dots in the vertical direction is 8 dots and the number of dots in the vertical direction is 1024, the horizontal to vertical ratio is 0.75 to 1.0.

Next, the sum of the sizes of all parts of the article of the article number selected by the lever is calculated, and the size of an area similar to the shape of the display is determined (step s6).
2). For example, in FIG. 14, if the article number 1 is selected, the total is obtained by multiplying the width and height of each part.

Further, the total size of the articles is divided by the aspect ratio of the display, the square root is calculated, and the height required to display the articles is calculated (step s63). For example, the size of an article to be displayed is 3,600,00 in terms of the number of dots.
If there are 0 pixels, the number of dots in the vertical direction is 3,60.
By dividing 000 by 0.75 and taking the square root, the vertical length becomes 2109 dots.

Since the newspaper article is generally composed of blocks in units of rows called columns, the vertical height is divided by the height of the single article and rounded up to calculate the required number of columns (step s64). For example, if the height is 2109 dots, the number of dots in the vertical direction is divided by the height of one step of the electronic newspaper image, and the decimal part is rounded up to determine the number of steps.

Next, the required number of steps is raised to the height of one step to calculate the number of dots of the height (step s65). For example, if there are four levels and the height of one level is 600 dots, the height is 2400 dots. By multiplying by the aspect ratio, the number of vertical and horizontal dots in an area similar to the shape of the display for displaying the article is calculated (step s66). 2
400 dots is 0.75 times the aspect ratio and the width is 180
It becomes 0 dots.

The layout structuring unit 36 lays out the articles by arranging them from the upper right in the article in the order of the article components stored in the information database 40 in descending order of size.

In order to set the stage to be laid out to the upper right, the pointer to the stage of the position storage buffer in FIG. 16 is set to the first stage, and the largest part in the information database 40 is set as the article part to be laid out. Select (step s67).

For the layout, as shown in FIG. 15, the heading having the largest area is arranged from the upper right, and the area occupied by the arrangement is shown in FIG.
6 is managed in the position storage buffer. As shown in FIG. 16, in the position storage buffer, the occupied area is managed by the number of dots for each stage.

For example, in an article component using two columns such as a photograph, if the parts are arranged from the upper right, for example, the value of the first column and the second column of the buffer is, for example, the horizontal width of the photo is 600 dots. If so, they are added by 600. In the case where there is only one line as in the line of the text article, assuming that the width is 40 dots in order from the first line, 40 lines are added to the line.
Dots are added. For example, when an attempt is made to add an article in the first row, if it exceeds 1800 dots in the layout area, 40 dots are added to the buffer in the second row, and article parts are sequentially laid out.

Here, when the width of the selected article part is added to the value of the occupied position of the current column, it is determined whether or not the width exceeds the return position (step s68). If it does not exceed the value, the layout can be laid out in the corresponding stage, so that it is added to the value of the occupied position and laid out (step s69).

It is determined whether there is an article part to be laid out (step s70), and if there is, the largest part among the remaining parts is selected (step s71). In the case of components having the same size, the components are sequentially selected in ascending order of image number.

If it is determined in step s68 that the return position is exceeded, the pointer to the stage to be laid out is advanced by one, and layout is performed in the next stage (step s72). If it is determined in step s71 that all parts have been laid out, the layout processing ends, and only the article selected by the lever is laid out in an area similar to the display.

The present invention relates to a well-known CPU, memory,
A software (program) having the functions shown in the configuration diagrams of FIGS. 2 and 12 or a software (program) having the procedures shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 5, 8, 10, 13, and 19 together with hardware such as an external storage device. ) Can also be realized by a medium on which is recorded.

[0068]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related thereto is arranged on a predetermined virtual screen. Means for inputting information on the position and size of an area to be viewed in the entire virtual screen of electronic information in an information browsing apparatus for displaying and browsing electronic information on a display screen, and the size of the input area Means for calculating a scaling ratio for scaling the image to a size that can be displayed on the display screen, and cutting out electronic information corresponding to the input area from the electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen, and according to the scaling ratio. With the means for enlarging and reducing, when displaying the entire electronic information, it is possible to recognize the heading character etc. of each unit information, and open the newspaper to find the information The same can be realized, and the details of the unit information can be viewed in the same way as folding a newspaper printed on paper by enlarging and displaying only the relevant part, and if you want to grasp the entire electronic information, And the case where one wants to grasp individual unit information.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and related image information such as photographs are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen is displayed. Means for storing, for each unit information, a position and a size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including unit information on a virtual screen of electronic information in an information browsing apparatus for displaying and browsing on a screen; Means for selecting unit information to be viewed from among a plurality of unit information arranged above, and for enlarging or reducing the size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including the selected unit information to a size that can be displayed on a display screen. Means for calculating the enlargement / reduction ratio of the image, and electronic information corresponding to a rectangle circumscribing an area including the unit information selected from the electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen, By and means for scaling Therefore, in addition to the effect of the first invention, when selecting the unit information to be browsed, without any adding operation, you can view all of the unit information.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and related image information such as a photograph are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen is displayed. In an information browsing apparatus for displaying and browsing on a screen, the size of line-based character information constituting the unit information on the virtual screen of the electronic information or the size of the line-based character information and the related photograph Means for storing the size of the image information for each unit information, means for selecting unit information to be viewed from among a plurality of unit information arranged on a virtual screen of electronic information, and configuring the selected unit information The size of the line-based character information or the sum of the size of the line-based character information and the size of the related image information such as photographs, and an area similar to a display screen capable of displaying all of them Means for determining a size, and a display for determining the character information in units of lines or the character information in units of lines and image information such as photographs related to the unit information constituting the selected unit information in ascending order of size. Means for rearranging in a region similar to the screen, means for calculating a scaling ratio for scaling the size of the region similar to the obtained display screen to a size displayable on the display screen, Means for enlarging or reducing the arranged line-by-line character information or electronic information consisting of line-by-line character information and image information such as a photograph related thereto in accordance with the enlargement / reduction ratio. In addition to,
When the unit information to be viewed is selected, the user can view the entire unit information as large as possible without performing any additional operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of electronic information targeted by the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of the information browsing device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the appearance of an information browsing device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of the appearance of the information browsing device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating processing according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a correspondence relationship between position information issued from a lever selector and a position on a virtual screen when an operation lever of the information browsing device according to the first embodiment is operated.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of data of a display area table according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating processing according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of data of a display area table according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart of a process for generating an electronic newspaper image for displaying a selected article on a display according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of article parts stored in an information database according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram showing a third embodiment of the information browsing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating processing according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of data indicating article parts in an information database according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic newspaper image after layout.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of data in a position storage buffer of the layout builder.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing another example of the data in the position storage buffer of the layout construction unit.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating another example of an image of an electronic newspaper after layout.

FIG. 19 is a detailed flowchart of a process of laying out a selected article in an area similar to a display according to the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 to 14: operation lever, 15: operation button, 20:
Lever selector, 30, 30a: display area selector, 3
1: power supply check unit, 32: operation signal waiting unit, 3
3: display area table, 34: reduction ratio calculation unit, 35: image generation unit, 36: layout construction unit, 40: information database, 50: display.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G09G 5/36 G09G 5/36 520E 520P (72) Inventor Masaru Miyamoto 2-3-3 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo No. 1 Within Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Nobuhiko Masui Inventor No. 2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo F-term within Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (Reference) 5B075 ND07 PQ02 PQ46 PQ48 PQ49 PQ62 5C082 BA02 BA20 BA27 CA33 CA34 CA51 CA54 CB01 CB06 DA87 MM09 MM10 5E501 AA12 AC37 BA03 CA03 CB02 EA02 EB05 FA06 FA13 FA14 FA44 FA47 FB04 FB32 FB34

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. Information for displaying and browsing electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related to the character information are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen on a display screen. A browsing device, a means for inputting information on a position and a size of an area to be viewed in the entire virtual screen of electronic information, and a device for enlarging or reducing the size of the input area to a size that can be displayed on a display screen. Information browsing, comprising: means for calculating a scaling factor; and means for cutting out electronic information corresponding to an input area from electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen and scaling it in accordance with the scaling factor. apparatus. 2. The position and size of a plurality of regions on the virtual screen, which are obtained by dividing the entire virtual screen of electronic information,
A means for storing a position number in association with a position number specifying each area; and a means for generating a position number in response to an operation, wherein information on the position and size of the area corresponding to the position number generated in accordance with the operation is stored. 2. The information browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information is input as information on a position and a size of an area to be browsed. 3. Information for displaying and browsing electronic information obtained by arranging a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as photographs on a predetermined virtual screen on a display screen. Means for storing, for each unit information, a position and a size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including unit information on the virtual screen of electronic information, a plurality of unit information arranged on the virtual screen of electronic information; Means for selecting unit information to be browsed, and means for calculating a scaling ratio for scaling a size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including the selected unit information to a size displayable on a display screen. Means for cutting out electronic information corresponding to a rectangle circumscribing an area including the selected unit information from the electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen, and scaling up and down according to the scaling ratio; Information browsing apparatus characterized by comprising. 4. A unit information in which heading character information of character information is included in one of a plurality of regions formed by dividing an entire virtual screen of electronic information, and a position number specifying each region is associated with the unit information. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising means for storing, and means for generating a position number according to the operation, wherein unit information corresponding to the position number generated according to the operation is selected as unit information to be viewed. Information browsing device described. 5. Information for displaying and browsing electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related to the character information are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen on a display screen. In the browsing device, the size of the line-based character information constituting the unit information on the virtual screen of the electronic information or the size of the line-based character information and the size of the image information such as a photograph related to the size of each unit information are determined by the Means for storing each unit information, means for selecting unit information to be viewed from among a plurality of unit information arranged on a virtual screen of electronic information, size of line-based character information constituting the selected unit information or Means for calculating the sum of the size of character information in line units and the size of image information such as photographs related thereto, and obtaining the size of an area similar to a display screen capable of displaying all of them; The line-by-line character information or the line-by-line character information and the image information such as photographs related to the line information constituting the obtained unit information are re-arranged in an area similar to the display screen obtained in ascending order of size. Means for calculating a scaling ratio for scaling the size of the area similar to the obtained display screen to a size that can be displayed on the display screen; and the rearranged line-based character information or Means for enlarging / reducing electronic information composed of line-by-line character information and image information such as photographs related thereto in accordance with the enlargement / reduction ratio. 6. Unit information in which heading character information of character information is included in one of a plurality of regions formed by dividing the entire virtual screen of electronic information, with a position number specifying each region. 6. The apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising means for storing, and means for generating a position number according to the operation, wherein unit information corresponding to the position number generated according to the operation is selected as unit information to be viewed. Information browsing device described. 7. When rearranging character information in units of lines or character information in units of lines and image information such as a photograph related thereto, the largest heading character information of the character information is set to first, and thereafter, 7. The information browsing device according to claim 5, wherein the information is rearranged in ascending order of size. 8. When rearranging line-based character information or line-based character information and related image information such as a photograph, the image information such as a photograph is rearranged at a specific position. The information browsing device according to claim 5. 9. Information for displaying and browsing electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related to the character information are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen on a display screen. A medium storing a browsing program, wherein when the program is read by a computer, inputting information of a position and a size of an area to be viewed in the entire virtual screen of the electronic information to the computer, Calculating an enlargement / reduction ratio for enlarging / reducing the size of the region to a size that can be displayed on the display screen, and extracting electronic information corresponding to the input region from electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen, And a step of enlarging / reducing according to the enlargement / reduction ratio. 10. Information for displaying and browsing electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related to the character information are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen on a display screen. A medium storing a browsing program, wherein when the program is read by a computer, the computer informs the computer of the position and size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including unit information on a virtual screen of electronic information for each unit information. And selecting the unit information to be viewed from a plurality of unit information arranged on the virtual screen of the electronic information; and displaying the size of a rectangle circumscribing an area including the selected unit information on the display screen. Calculating a scaling ratio for scaling to a size that can be displayed on a virtual screen; and a unit selected from electronic information corresponding to the entire virtual screen. Cut out electronic information corresponding to the rectangle circumscribing the area including the distribution, medium storing information browsing program, characterized in that and a step of scaling according to the scaling factor. 11. Information for displaying and browsing electronic information in which a plurality of unit information including character information or character information and image information such as a photograph related to the character information are arranged on a predetermined virtual screen on a display screen. A medium storing a browsing program, wherein when the program is read by a computer, the computer gives the computer the size of line-based character information constituting the unit information on the virtual screen of the electronic information or the character information in line units Storing, for each unit information, the size of the image information such as the photograph and the size of the image information related thereto, and selecting the unit information to be viewed from a plurality of unit information arranged on the virtual screen of the electronic information Step and the size of the line-based character information constituting the selected unit information or the size of the line-based character information and the size of the image information such as a photograph related thereto. Determining the size of an area similar to the display screen capable of displaying all of them, and the line-by-line character information or the line-by-line character information constituting the selected unit information and the related information. Rearranging image information such as a photograph in an area similar to the obtained display screen in order from the largest one, and displaying the size of the obtained area similar to the display screen on the display screen. Calculating an enlargement / reduction ratio for enlarging / reducing to the size, the electronic information comprising the rearranged line-by-line character information or line-by-line character information and image information such as a photograph related thereto, And a step of enlarging / reducing according to a reduction ratio.