Method and apparatus for navigating content on screen using pointing device

A content navigation apparatus using a pointing device, the apparatus comprising:

• a display unit configured to partially displaying a content that is larger than a screen;
• a position detector configured to acquire, when a pointing position is changed on the screen, a current pointing position by tracking the change of the pointing position;
• a comparer configured to compare an X axis displacement and a Y axis displacement from an initial pointing position as a starting position to the current pointing position with a predefined X axis threshold value and Y axis threshold value, respectively;
• a direction determiner configured to determine a movement direction as one of an X axis, a Y axis, and an XY (diagonal) axis directions based on the comparison result;
• a display controller configured to scroll the content in the movement direction to display an off-screen part of the content;
• a control unit configured to:
• determine whether the current pointing position stays without movement over a predefined time period,
• store a setting value indicating that the starting point is to be reset when the current pointing position is determined to stay without movement over the predefined time period, and
• determine to reset the starting point when the stored setting value indicates that the starting point is to be reset;
• and
• a starting point reset module configured to reset the starting point to be the current pointing position when the determination is made to reset the starting point.