Varying icons to improve operability
AssigneeSony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
InventorsMasaaki Takayasu, Shinya Taniguchi, Hiroyuki Goto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an image displayed on a display under a normal condition, the locations where items to choose from are located are indicated by icons. When a user touches a contact point, icons located within a predetermined range from the contact point are detected from among the icons. Then the locations of the detected icons are varied such that they are located on a circle, with the circle's center at the contact point, at equal spaces between the detected icons. A pointer graphic that indicates the original position of each icon in the original image is added to each icon.
Claims2
A method for varying icons on an information processing device, the method comprising:
- displaying, on a display of the information processing device, a plurality of icons in a display image at initial positions,
- wherein each icon is assigned a decision region surrounding the icon,
- wherein a size of a decision region of a first icon is larger than a size of a decision region of a second icon, and
- wherein each decision region is a circle centered at a corresponding icon;
- acquiring, by an operation information acquiring circuit, a touch point inputted by a user on the display;
- determining a subset of the plurality of icons to vary by determining if the decision region of each icon intersects with the touch point;
- moving all icons in the subset of the plurality of icons from their initial positions to selection positions on a selection circle centered at the touch point, wherein the subset of the plurality of icons are positioned at equal intervals around the selection circle;
- acquiring, by the operation information acquiring circuit, a subsequent touch point on the display from the user for selecting an icon from the subset of the plurality of icons,
- wherein the decision region of each icon of the subset is not used to determine when an icon is selected;
- causing an action associated with the selected icon to be performed in response to the subsequent touch point;
- and
- repeatedly increasing a size of the decision region of each of the subset of the plurality of icons based on:
- an importance level, and
- an increase in a selection frequency of each of the plurality of icons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.