KR20050098468A - Three dimensional user interface having cubic shape - Google Patents

Abstract

A user interface for effectively displaying a menu is provided. The user interface is a three-dimensional user interface consisting of a hexahedron, each side of the hexahedron is assigned a group containing at least one menu, the movement between groups is carried out by pressing the direction button, within the group The selection of the menu is made by pressing the numeric buttons. In the conventional tree type user interface, if there are six upper menus, an average of three or more keystrokes is required between menu movements, but the user interface according to the present invention achieves an average of two keystrokes. In addition, the user interface according to the present invention facilitates menu selection by displaying a menu to a user more effectively than a conventional tree type user interface.

Description

3D user interface consisting of cubes {THREE DIMENSIONAL USER INTERFACE HAVING CUBIC SHAPE}

The present invention relates to a user interface for effectively displaying a menu, and more particularly to a three-dimensional user interface having a cube shape.

A television (hereinafter referred to as "digital television") having a predetermined set-top box capable of receiving digital television or digital broadcasting includes an application component 11 and a graphic element 12 as shown in FIG. The application 1 for interactive digital television (iTV) is transmitted as a digital broadcast signal in the form of a packet stream, under the control of the headend server 2, and the transmitted digital broadcast signal is usually a digital television. Is delivered to the set top box (3).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a set-top box 3 of a conventional digital television. As shown in FIG. 2, the tuner 31 of the digital television is transmitted in the form of a bit stream in a packet unit. The broadcast signal of the channel selected by the viewer among the received and received signals is tuned, and the demultiplexer 32 separates the tuned broadcast signal into an audio / video signal and a data signal, and the audio / video decoder 33 And the data decoder 34 decodes the separated broadcast signal, and the graphic processor 35 synthesizes and processes the audio / video data and the data according to the decoded format and then transfers the synthesized data to the display device. . Application developers create the structure of the application to implement various applications, and perform proper navigation and graphic operations to apply them to the screen. The user (or viewer) moves between menus displayed on the screen based on the remote control. You get various information from the implemented application.

3 is a screen illustrating an arrangement of a conventional tree type user interface. As can be seen in FIG. 3, a conventional tree-type user interface groups menus in a predetermined unit and displays them on a screen in parallel at the bottom of a normal screen. Therefore, when the user wishes to move from the “SHOP” menu bar 41 to the “FOOD” menu 44, the “→” button (202 in FIG. 7) of the direction buttons (20 in FIG. 7) of the remote control (two of two 7). Press three times to move. However, such a tree-type user interface not only takes a long time to move between the menus, but also has a disadvantage of not displaying the menus efficiently (not shown in FIG. 3, reference numerals 411 to 419 denote the "SHOP" menu bar 41. Sub menus, reference numerals 41 to 46 are upper menu bars, 420 is a menu description window, and 430 is a screen of a channel currently being viewed by the viewer.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a user interface capable of performing systematic navigation while having a simple configuration.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a user interface capable of minimizing key input when moving between menus and efficiently displaying menus to facilitate menu selection (or movement) by a user.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a three-dimensional user interface consisting of a hexahedron, wherein each side of the hexahedron is assigned one group comprising at least one menu, and the movement between groups is pressing a direction button. The menu selection in a given group is made by pressing a numeric button.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user interface for displaying a menu of a menu belonging to a group currently being navigated by a user in parallel with a group name which can be moved by pressing a direction button.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the display of a group name that can be moved by pressing a direction button and a display of a menu belonging to a group currently being navigated by the user, the movable group name is displayed by an exploded view of the cube. A user interface is provided.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in more detail the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating the concept of a user interface for an interactive digital television according to the present invention. As shown in Figure 4, the user interface according to the present invention is a three-dimensional user interface consisting of a cube. Each side 101 to 106 of the cube is assigned one group (or upper menu) including at least one menu (or lower menu). For example, the front side 101 of the cube is assigned a "SHOP" group for displaying a menu relating to shopping, and the left side 102 of the cube is a "NEWS" group for displaying a menu for providing news information. On the right side 103 is a "GAME" group for displaying various games and menus, the upper surface 104 of the cube is a "FOOD" group for displaying food-related menus, the lower surface 105 of the cube is movie-related Assume that the "MOVIE" group displaying a menu is assigned to the "SPORT" group displaying various sports-related menus on the back side 106 of the cube. At this time, the movement between each group is performed by the direction button (20 in Fig. 7) of the remote control (2 in Fig. 7). That is, when the user wants to move from the "SHOP" group of the front side 101 to the "NEWS" group assigned to the left side 102, he presses the left moving button (201 of FIG. 7) of the remote control (2 of FIG. 7). To move to the " GAME " group of the right side 103, the right button (202 of FIG. 7) of the remote controller (2 of FIG. 7), and the " FOOD " In order to move to the "MOVIE" group of the plane 105, the up and down movement buttons (203 of FIG. 7) and the down movement button (204 of FIG. 7) of the remote controller (2 of FIG. 7) are pressed to move. At this time, the "SPORT" group of the back side 106 may press any one of the four moving buttons (201 to 204 of FIG. 7) twice. Therefore, when moving from one group to another, the movement between groups is made by pressing a button within two times. If necessary, one of the buttons of the remote control (2) can be set to the rear movement function or additionally installed the rear movement button. In this case, the movement between groups (upper menu) is achieved by one button press. In FIG. 4, reference numerals 200 and 300 denote screens of a menu and a channel currently viewed by the viewer, respectively.

5 shows a preferred embodiment of a user interface for an interactive digital television according to the present invention. The user is currently navigating the "SHOP" group 101. At this time, the focus shift or selection to any one of the menus 111 to 119 belonging to the "SHOP" group is achieved by pressing the number buttons (30 in FIG. 7) of the remote controller (2 in FIG. 7). . As shown in FIG. 5, when the menu description window 200 for the menu is displayed, the focus shifting by pressing the number buttons 30 in FIG. 7 of the remote controller 2 in FIG. It is preferable to finally move by pressing the button (40 of FIG. 7), and if the explanation window 200 is unnecessary, it is preferable to move directly to the menu selected by pressing the number button (30 of FIG. 7). . At this time, the number of menus included in one group is not particularly limited. For example, suppose a group contains 15 menus. At this time, the focus shift or selection to the 14th menu among the 15 menus is performed by successively pressing the "1" button and the "4" button of the number buttons 30. Then, to move to the eighth menu, press the number "0" button and the number "8" button consecutively. As an alternative, if the additional number button 30 is not pressed for a predetermined time (for example, 0.5 seconds) after pressing the number "8" button, it can be set to be recognized as the selection of the eighth menu. Preferably, the number of menus included in one group is 12 or less, and they are arranged in a 3x4 matrix. In this arrangement, the number buttons 30 of the remote controller 2 correspond one-to-one with the arrangement (in this case, the "#" button and the "*" button are also used for menu selection), and enable easy menu selection by the user. If the number of menus included in one group is 9 or less, they are arranged in a 3x3 matrix. When one group includes nine menus, the total number of menus that can be implemented by the user interface according to the present invention is 54. All 54 menus can be selected by pressing two or three button presses. If necessary, sub-menus belonging to them may be provided in one sub-menu to provide a sub-menu to the user in the form of a user interface according to the present invention. For example, when selecting the “SHOP 05” menu 115 of FIG. 5, submenus belonging to the “SHOP 05” menu 15 may be set as a hexahedral user interface.

The present invention displays a group name which can be moved by pressing a direction button together with a display of a menu belonging to a group currently being navigated by a user. In the screen of FIG. 5, the user moves to the "NEWS" group by pressing the left move button 201 of the direction button 20, the "GAME" group by pressing the right move button 202, and the upper move button ( Intuitively, it is possible to move to the "FOOD" group by pressing 203, to the "MOVIE" group by pressing the lower movement button 204, and to the "SPORT" group by pressing the direction button 20 twice. Get to know.

Most preferably, in the display of the group name that can be moved by pressing a direction button together with the display of the menu of the group currently being navigated ("SHOP" group), the group name that can be moved is displayed in an exploded view of the cube. Is provided to the user. 6 is a layout view showing a preferred embodiment of the user interface according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the user interface according to the present invention displays a group name display window 502 on which a user can move by pressing a menu display window 501 and a direction button 20 which are currently being navigated. . In addition, the group name display window 502 which can be moved by pressing the direction button 20 is formed in an exploded view of the cube, and the center of the exploded view of the cube is highlighted with a "SHOP menu" 101 currently being navigated by the user. And the left 102, right 103, upper 104 and lower 105 of the center 101, respectively, the "NEWS" group, the "GAME" group, the "FOOD" group and the "MOVIE". The group name of the group is provided, and finally, the "SPORT" group is placed on the remaining side 106 of the exploded view. The user performs navigation on the lower menu while looking at the menu display window 501, and performs navigation on a group (upper menu) while looking at the group name display window 502. For example, when the user wants to move to the "NEWS" group 102, the user moves by pressing the left move button (201 of FIG. 7) of the remote controller (2 of FIG. 7) and moves to the "GAME" group 103. In order to move the right button (202 in FIG. 7) of the remote control (2 in FIG. 7) and the up button (203 in FIG. 7) to move to the "FOOD" group 104, the "MOVIE" When the user wants to move to the group 105, the user moves by pressing the down button (204 of FIG. 7). In order to move to the "SPORT" group 106, one of the direction buttons 201 to 204 is sequentially pressed twice. The arrangement according to FIG. 6 has the advantage that the user can clearly show the submenu currently being navigated and the group (upper menu) which can be moved by the manipulation of the direction button.

The existing tree-type user interface must move through the parent menu to move from the submenu item to the menu item in the other group. However, the user interface according to the present invention can overcome the difficulty of menu selection, which is a disadvantage of a tree type, by moving between groups by pressing a direction button and selecting a menu belonging to a group by pressing a number button. Specifically, the present invention can easily implement 54 menus when six menus and nine menus are assigned to each group, and can move between menus by pressing an average of two buttons or less. In contrast, a tree-type user interface supporting the same amount of menus takes an average of three times to move between groups and an average of four to five times to move between submenus belonging to a group. Compared with the existing tree type user interface, the user interface according to the present invention can reduce button presses by 1/3 or more. Furthermore, when configuring a menu belonging to a specific group, the user can easily select the menu by making the same arrangement of the number buttons of the remote controller, which further reduces the time required for menu selection. The user interface according to the present invention can be applied not only to interactive digital television, but also to various electronic terminals (for example, electronic notebooks, mobile phones, etc.).

1 is a block diagram showing the basic structure of a broadcasting system.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a set-top box of a traditional digital television.

3 is a screen illustrating an arrangement of a conventional tree type user interface.

4 is a diagram illustrating a concept of a user interface according to the present invention.

5 shows a preferred embodiment of a user interface for an interactive digital television according to the present invention.

6 is a layout view showing a preferred embodiment of the user interface according to the present invention.

7 shows a remote control used in an interactive digital television.

Claims (8)

In the user interface for effectively displaying a menu, the user interface is a three-dimensional user interface consisting of a hexahedron, each side of the hexahedron is assigned a group containing at least one menu, the movement between groups A three-dimensional user interface consisting of a hexahedron, wherein the selection is made by pressing a button, and the menu selection within the group is performed by pressing a numeric button. The user interface according to claim 1, wherein the user's interface is displayed in parallel with a display of a menu belonging to a group currently being navigated, and a group name which can be moved by pressing a direction button. The method according to claim 2, wherein the user interface displays the group name which can be moved by pressing a direction button and a menu belonging to the group currently being navigated by the user, and the group name which is movable is displayed by an exploded view of the cube. User interface. The user interface according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein up to twelve menus are included in one group, and the menus are displayed in the form of a 3x4 matrix. The user interface according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein up to nine menus are included in one group, and the menus are displayed in the form of a 3x3 matrix. According to any one of claims 1 to 5, If the user wants to move to the group assigned to the left side of the group currently being navigated by pressing the left button on the remote control, to move to the right group User interface that moves by pressing right button of remote controller, up button of remote controller to move to upper group, down button of remote controller to move to lower group. 7. The user interface as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the group assigned to the back of the group currently being navigated by the user is moved by pressing any one of the four direction buttons twice. 7. A user interface as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein a button is assigned separately to move to a group assigned to the back of the group the user is currently navigating.