In-vehicle display apparatus and controlling program

A method for controlling a control object device of a plurality of control object devices that include an in-vehicle device and a portable terminal that is brought into a vehicle and displaying a control of the control object device with an in-vehicle display apparatus of the vehicle, the in-vehicle display apparatus having a display unit and a plurality of switches, the method comprising:

• designating at least one of the in-vehicle device that is installed in the vehicle or the portable terminal that is brought into the vehicle as the control object device;
• executing an application feature of the control object device in response to the application feature being selected from a plurality of application features, which are assigned to one or more of the control object devices;
• instructing the in-vehicle display apparatus to display output contents of the in-execution application feature in a main display area of the display unit together with vehicle information;
• executing the in-execution application feature as a background (BG) application feature in response to (i) no operation being performed to control the in-execution application feature for a predetermined period of time, or (ii) another application feature being selected;
• instructing the in-vehicle display apparatus to display in a sub-display area of the display unit a background (BG) icon and a guidance associated with the BG application feature;
• in response to the other application being selected, assigning one or more operations of the other application feature to one or more of the plurality of switches;
• determining whether a vacant switch from among the plurality of switches exists after the other application feature is selected and after assigning the one or more operations to the one or more of the plurality of switches;
• in response to determining that the vacant switch exists, reading a priority of operation contents associated with the BG application feature, and assigning a highest priority operation content to the vacant switch, and
• in response to determining that the vacant switch does not exist, not assigning operation contents of the BG application feature to any of the switches of the plurality of switches.

An in-vehicle network system for controlling a control object device of a plurality of control object devices, the plurality of control object devices including an in-vehicle device and a portable terminal brought into a vehicle, the in-vehicle network system comprising:

• an electronic control unit (ECU) of a plurality of electronic control units of the vehicle configured to execute an application for controlling the control object device;
• a display having a main display area and a sub-display area, the main display area configured to display vehicle information and output contents of the application;
• and
• a plurality of switches configured to provide a control signal to a microcomputer for controlling the in-vehicle device, wherein
• in response to the application being initially executed, the microcomputer runs the application as a foreground application and displays the output contents of the foreground application in the main display area concurrently with the vehicle information, and wherein
• in response to no control signal input being received by the ECU for a predetermined period of time, the microcomputer transitions the foreground application to a background application, and assigns one or more operations of another foreground application to one or more of the plurality of switches;
• in response to the foreground application transitioning to the background application, and to there being a vacant switch among the plurality of switches, the microcomputer determines a priority of the background application, designates the vacant switch as a background application switch to provide a control signal input to the background application based on the priority of the background application, removes the output contents of the foreground application from the main display area, displays an icon indicative of the background application in the sub-display area, and displays a guidance near the icon indicating which of the plurality of switches is the background application switch, and wherein
• in response to the foreground application transitioning to the background application, and to there being no vacant switch among the plurality of switches, none of the plurality of switches are designated by the microcomputer as the background application switch.