Character information display device and character information display method

A character information display device, comprising:

• a display format deciding unit for deciding that, based on a length of a character string to be displayed, a display format of the character string to be displayed is telop display or full text simultaneous display,
• a character attribute determining unit for determining attributes of characters making up the character string to be displayed,
• a reading difficulty judging unit for judging whether the character string to be displayed is a character string easy to read, or a character string difficult to read based on the attributes of the characters determined by the character attribute determining unit, a scroll speed setting unit for, when decision is made by the display format deciding unit that the display format of the character string is telop display, setting a scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a reference speed in a case where the character string to be displayed is judged as a character string easy to read by the reading difficulty judging unit, and setting the scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a slower speed than the reference speed in a case where the character string to be displayed is judged as a character string difficult to read by the reading difficulty judging unit, and
• a character string display unit for, when decision is made by the display format deciding unit that the display format of the character string is telop display, telop-displaying the character string to be displayed at the scroll speed set by the scroll speed setting unit, and when decision is made by the display format deciding unit that the display format of the character string is full text simultaneous display, simultaneously displaying all the characters making up the character string to be displayed on a screen,
• and further comprising:
• a visual range detecting unit for, when the character string is displayed on screens of a plurality of indicators, detecting a user's visual range with respect to the indicators,
• wherein when the display format of the character string is decided as telop display by the display format deciding unit, the character string display unit telop-displays the character string to be displayed on each of the screens of the plurality of indicators in a case where the user's visual range detected by the visual range detecting unit is shorter than a reference distance, and with the screens of the plurality of indicators as one large screen, telop-displays the character string to be displayed on the large screen in a case where the user's visual range detected by the visual range detecting unit is longer than the reference distance.

A character information display method, comprising:

• a display format decision processing step in which decision is made by a display format deciding unit that a display format of a character string to be displayed is telop display or full text simultaneous display based on a length of the character string to be displayed;
• a character attribute determination processing step in which a character attribute determining unit determines attributes of characters making up the character string to be displayed;
• a reading difficulty judgment processing step in which a reading difficulty judging unit judges whether the character string to be displayed is a character string easy to read or a character string difficult to read based on the attributes of the characters determined in the character attribute determination processing step,
• a scroll speed setting processing step in which, when decision is made in the display format decision processing step that the display format of the character string is telop display, a scroll speed setting unit sets the scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a reference speed in a case where the character string to be displayed is judged as a character string easy to read in the reading difficulty judgment processing step, and sets the scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a slower speed than the reference speed in a case where the character string to be displayed is judged as a character string difficult to read in the reading difficulty judgment processing step, and
• a character string display processing step in which a character string display unit telop-displays the character string to be displayed at the scroll speed set in the scroll speed setting processing step when decision is made in the display format decision processing step that the display format of the character string is telop display, and simultaneously displays all the characters making up the character string to be displayed on a screen when decision is made in the display format decision processing step that the display format of the character string is full text simultaneous display,
• wherein when the characters making up the character string to be displayed are ideographic characters, the character attribute determining step identifies a difficulty indicative of the degree of difficulty in pronunciation of the character string as the attribute of the characters, and
• the reading difficulty judging step judges the character string to be displayed as a character string easy to read in a case where the difficulty identified by the character attribute determining unit is lower than a prescribed difficulty, and judges the character string to be displayed as a character string difficult to read in a case where the difficulty identified by the character attribute determining unit is higher than the prescribed difficulty.

A character information display method, comprising:

• a display format decision processing step in which decision is made that a display format of a character string to be displayed is telop display or full text simultaneous display based on a length of the character string to be displayed;
• a character attribute determination processing step of determining attributes of characters making up the character string to be displayed;
• a reading difficulty judgment processing step of judging whether the character string to be displayed is a character string easy to read or a character string difficult to read based on the attributes of the characters determined in the character attribute determination processing step,
• a scroll speed setting processing step of, when decision is made in the display format decision processing step that the display format of the character string is telop display, setting the scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a reference speed in a case where the character string to be displayed is judged as a character string easy to read in the reading difficulty judgment processing step, and setting the scroll speed of the character string to be displayed at a slower speed than the reference speed in a case where the character string to be displayed is judged as a character string difficult to read in the reading difficulty judgment processing step, and
• a character string display processing step of telop-displaying the character string to be displayed at the scroll speed set in the scroll speed setting processing step when decision is made in the display format decision processing step that the display format of the character string is telop display, and simultaneously displaying all the characters making up the character string to be displayed on a screen when decision is made in the display format decision processing step that the display format of the character string is full text simultaneous display,
• and further comprising:
• a visual range detecting step of, when the character string is displayed on screens of a plurality of indicators, detecting a user's visual range with respect to the indicators,
• wherein when decision is made that the display format of the character string is telop display by the display format deciding step, the character string display step telop-displays the character string to be displayed on each of the screens of the plurality of indicators in a case where the user's visual range detected by the visual range detecting step is shorter than a reference distance, and with the screens of the plurality of indicators as one large screen, telop-displays the character string to be displayed on the large screen in a case where the user's visual range detected by the visual range detecting step is longer than the reference distance.