Multi-layer focusing method and apparatus therefor
A method of and an apparatus for efficiently navigating a plurality of contents which are reproduced in a device for reproducing interactive contents, such as a computer, a DVD player, a PDA, or a cellular phone, by using a device having a limited number of input keys. Focusing layer values are allotted to contents elements to form focusing layers and the contents elements included in any one focusing layer are provided to a user. The focusing is moved when a command to move the focusing is input from the user. Accordingly, any kind of media storing interactive contents formed by using markup language is navigable using the device having the limited number of input keys, such as a television remote controller.
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This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/385,464, filed Mar. 12, 2003 in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, now pending and under appeal, which claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-14275, filed Mar. 16, 2002 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for efficiently performing a navigation process by using a user input device having a limited number of input keys when reproducing interactive contents formed by a markup language in a reproducing device, such as, for example, a computer, a DVD player, a PDA, or a cellular phone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since specific elements in a markup language document include operations to be performed, which are formed as tags, the elements should be selected by a user in order to perform the corresponding operations. Here, the selected state is referred to as a focus-on state. In the focus-on state, the element receives commands from the user.
Examples of a focusing method, which corresponds to the selection of specific elements, to perform the operations allotted to the elements, are as follows.
First, the elements are set to the focus-on state using a pointing device, such as a mouse or a joystick, based on location information. In other words, the user places a pointer on the element to be focused on and clicks a selection button, on a screen.
Second, a predetermined selection order is allotted to each element and the elements are successively focused on corresponding to the values input from an input device, such as a keyboard. In order to determine the focusing order of the elements when navigating the document using the keyboard, a document producer may determine a tabbing order. Accordingly, the selected element may be activated using a tab key. Here, the tabbing order of the elements is determinable by inputting numbers between 0 and 32767 into a tab index included in an attribution definition of a markup language. The markup elements which support the tab index attribution include “A”, “AREA”, “BUTTON”, “INPUT”, “OBJECT”, “SELECT”, and “TEXTAREA”.
Third, access key values are allotted to each element to directly activate or focus the element. Here, the key value is received from the user input device and the corresponding element is directly accessed and focused on.
According to an access key attribution scheme in the attribution definition of the markup language, the access key values are allotted to the elements. Here, each of the access key values is denoted by a corresponding character in a character set, thereby a document producer should consider the keys of the user input device when allotting the access key values to the elements. The markup elements which support the access key attribution include “A”, “AREA”, “BUTTON”, “INPUT”, “LEGEND”, and “TEXTAREA”.
However, the focusing method of the conventional interactive contents formed by the markup language has the following problems. First, the elements included in an embedded object are not controllable. Second, the keys or buttons of the user input unit have only one function each.
In order to solve the first problem, a method of focusing on elements using a pointing device, such as a mouse, as well as the keyboard, and clicking a mouse button, is used. In other words, even when video or audio, which is embedded into WINDOWS® MEDIA PLAYER or REAL PLAYER®, is reproduced, desired operations may be performed by focusing and clicking a play icon, a stop icon, or a pause icon using the mouse. Here, WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER or REAL PLAYER is a different medium from a viewer, which controls the markup using the “OBJECT” element.
In order to solve the second problem, the range to which the keys or the buttons having the predetermined functions are applied is provided to the user using a multi-window. In other words, a media player window is activated on the markup language document in order to prevent the user from being confused even when the keys or the buttons of the input device have various functions.
When it is assumed that moving the focusing among the links is performed using the navigation keys, a predetermined operation, such as reproduction, is performed by focusing the DVD reproduction image and pressing an ENTER key. Here, if reproduction is simultaneously performed with the loading of the markup language document, the DVD-video requires only the focusing operation.
This problem is more serious in the case where the interactive contents are controlled using an input device having a limited number of keys, such as a remote controller.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a multi-layer focusing method and an apparatus therefor.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multi-layer focusing method for focusing contents provided in a multi-layer structure. The method comprises allotting predetermined focusing layer values to contents elements linked to contents to be provided to a user, to form focusing layers; providing list information on the contents elements included in a predetermined focusing layer and focusing on any one contents element of the contents elements provided to the user; receiving a predetermined command from the user; and moving the focusing when the command is to move the focusing. Here, the moving of the focusing comprises determining whether an upper focusing layer of a present focusing layer exists in the case where the command is to change the present focusing layer to the upper focusing layer, and when the upper focusing layer exists, providing the list information on contents elements included in the upper focusing layer to the user and focusing on any one of the contents element included in the upper focusing layer. Alternatively, the moving of the focusing comprises determining whether a lower focusing layer is linked to the focused on contents element in the case where the command is to change the focusing layer to the lower focusing layer, and when the lower focusing layer is linked to the focused on contents element, providing the list information on contents elements included in the lower focusing layer to the user and focusing on any one contents element included in the lower focusing layer. Alternatively, the moving of the focusing comprises moving the focusing to a next contents element based on a predetermined order in the case where the command is to move the focusing within the same focusing layer.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for managing multi-layer focusing comprises a contents providing unit which provides contents which are linked to contents elements and are to be provided to a user; a focusing layer information management unit which allots predetermined focusing layer values to the contents elements which are linked to the contents to be provided to the user, to form focusing layers; an input unit which receives commands from the user to move the focusing; an output unit which provides the contents to the user, provides predetermined contents elements, and represents focused on contents elements linked to the contents; and a focusing management unit which provides the list information on the contents elements included in a specific focusing layer and the focusing information for focusing any one of the contents elements provided to the user to the output unit and moving the focusing in the case where the command is to move the focusing.
Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe above and/or other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing the present invention in detail with reference to the attached drawings in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.
A recording medium 303 stores the contents, which will be provided to the user, and provides the contents to the user through the display device 302 based on the commands from the user. The contents may be provided to the user through a communications network 304.
A browser 305 manages focusing information based on which contents in the contents list information are focused and manages the moving of the focusing based on the commands from the user.
In the case of the markup language document, the elements of a lower focusing layer do not have to be the markup language elements. In other words, the elements of the lower focusing layer may be a control menu for controlling the media embedded in the markup language document or the contents input to an input form by the user.
Rectangles shown with dashed lines in an element 5 denote that the element 5 includes lower focusing layers to be navigated. Here, an example of the embedded element 5 includes an “OBJECT” element of the markup language.
An element 1 (501) is shown focused in
Meanwhile, the focused elements are represented using different colors according to the focusing layer in order to prevent the user from being confused when performing the navigation using the focusing layers.
When the multi-layered focusing method is applied to the DVD, the user may navigate the elements included in the top-focusing layer using the navigation keys of the user input device, on the DVD-video embedded screen, i.e., a screen in the markup language document.
In addition, since the DVD-video embedded in the markup language document is the “OBJECT” element of the markup language elements, the embedded DVD-video may be focused using the navigation keys of the user input device. In other words, the embedded DVD-video is focused on as the “OBJECT” element of the markup language elements.
Reference numeral 701 denotes a first focused element of the markup language document, and reference numeral 702 denotes a second focused element due to the input of the navigation key, such as a tab key or a direction key, by the user.
Referring to
When the DVD-video as the “OBJECT” element is embedded in the markup language document as the top-focusing layer, the layer where the navigation keys of the user input device operate is changed from the markup language document to the DVD-video by inputting the focusing layer change key value signaling change to the lower focusing layer, for example, the ENTER key. Here, since the DVD-video includes the lower focusing layer to be navigated, the layer may be changed from the markup language document to the DVD-video.
When the user inputs the focusing layer change key signaling change to the lower focusing layer, for example, the ENTER key, using the user input device, the focusing moves from the markup language document as the top-focusing layer to the DVD-video as the lower focusing layer. Accordingly, the navigation keys of the user input device operate as in the case of the focusing method of the conventional interactive contents. In order to move the focusing from the DVD-video as the lower focusing layer to the markup language document as the top-focusing layer, the user inputs a focusing layer change key signaling change to the upper focusing layer, for example, an ESC key, of the user input device. Accordingly, the focusing moves from the DVD-video as the lower focusing layer to the markup language document as the top-focusing layer. Therefore, the embedded “OBJECT” element is focused on so that the embedded “OBJECT” element is highlighted.
The input unit 1201 receives a command to move the focusing within the same focusing layer or to change the focusing layer, from the user.
The contents providing unit 1202 stores the contents which will be provided to the user. Here, when the contents are provided to the user over a communication network, such as the Internet, the contents providing unit 1202 includes the communication network.
The focusing layer information management unit 1203 manages the contents, which will be provided to the user, and the focusing layer information, which is allotted to each of the elements. Here, the focusing layer information of the elements, which may be included in the attribution information on the elements, may include the focusing layer information on the corresponding element, the focusing layer information on the upper focusing layer, and the focusing layer information on the element linked to the corresponding element.
The focusing management unit 1204 represents the elements linked to the contents which will be provided to the user, receives the command about focusing from the user via the input unit 1201, and receives the information on the focusing layer of the elements from the focusing layer information management unit 1203 in order to move the focusing. In addition, when the command to play specific contents is input by the user, the focusing management unit 1204 receives the contents from the contents providing unit 1202 and provides the contents to the user through the output unit 1205.
The focusing layer information, which is allotted to the contents and the elements linked to the contents, may be formed in the structure shown in Table 1.
The present invention may be realized as a program which is executable on a computer, and may be performed by the computer using a recording medium which is readable by the computer.
Here, the recording medium may be any kind of recording device in which data are recorded, for example, a magnetic recording medium such as ROM, a floppy disk, or a hard disk, an optical medium such as CD-ROM or a DVD. The present invention may also be realized as a data signal embodied in a carrier wave and comprising a program readable by a computer and transmittable over the internet.
According to the present invention, any kind of media having interactive contents formed by using markup language is navigable using a device having a limited number of input keys, such as a television remote controller.
Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A method of focusing contents provided in a multi-layer structure, the method comprising:
- allotting predetermined focusing layer values to contents elements linked to contents to be provided to a user so as to form focusing layers of a markup language document that are linked to each other via predetermined elements in each of the focusing layers;
- providing the contents elements included in a predetermined focusing layer and focusing on any one contents element of the contents elements provided to the user;
- receiving a predetermined command from the user; and
- moving the focusing based on the focusing layer values when the received command is to move the focusing to a linked predetermined element.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the moving of the focusing comprises:
- determining whether an upper focusing layer of a present focusing layer exists in the case where the command is to change the present focusing layer to the upper focusing layer; and
- if the upper focusing layer exists, providing contents elements included in the upper focusing layer to the user and focusing on any one contents element included in the upper focusing layer.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the moving of the focusing comprises:
- determining whether a lower focusing layer is linked to the focused on contents element in the case where the command is to change the focusing layer to the lower focusing layer; and
- if the lower focusing layer is linked to the focused on contents element, providing contents elements included in the lower focusing layer to the user and focusing on any one contents element included in the lower focusing layer.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the moving of the focusing comprises moving the focusing to a next contents element based on a predetermined order in the case where the command is to move the focusing within the same focusing layer.
5. A method of focusing contents provided in a multi-layer structure, the method comprising:
- forming a plurality of focusing layers of contents elements linked to contents to be provided to a user, of which one is currently focused on, the focusing layers ordered in a higher to lower fashion and including at least a top focusing layer and a bottom focusing layer, each contents element having a plurality of assigned focusing layer values;
- determining whether an inputted command is a first command to move the focusing within the current focusing layer or a second command to move the focusing to a target focusing layer;
- moving the focusing to another contents element within the same focusing layer, if the input command is the first command; and
- checking whether the target focusing layer is available and moving the focusing to the target layer, if the input command is the second command.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the moving of the focusing to another contents element in the current focusing layer is in accordance with a predetermined order.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 30, 2007
Publication Date: Jul 26, 2007
Applicant: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Suwon-si)
Inventors: Kil-soo Jung (Gyeonggi-do), Jung-wan Ko (Gyeonggi-do)
Application Number: 11/730,295
International Classification: H04N 5/445 (20060101); G06F 3/048 (20060101);