Recent years have seen many touchscreens having a display unit with added input functions, incorporated in information processing terminals. An information processing terminal that incorporates a touchscreen displays buttons that describe names of items on the screen. When the user touches a button with a finger, a command representing the name of item that corresponds to the touched button is entered into the information processing terminal.
When the user selects a button displayed on the screen, the finger of the user may hide the name of item displayed on the button. Even if the name of item is hidden, no significant problem is posed when the user is entering commands in succession or when the user has sufficiently confirmed the name of item before selecting the item. However, when the user is not experienced enough to operate the touchscreen or has taken its eyes off the display unit immediately before operating the touchscreen, if the user's finger has hidden the name of item, then the user may feel anxious because the user may not be sure what it has selected. The user may make an attempt to stop himself/herself from feeling anxious by wastefully redoing the action on the touchscreen, e.g., canceling the item that the user has selected. Alternatively, the user may let the uncertainly selected item be executed, possibly performing a function that he/she did not intend.
One method of alleviating the above shortcoming or allowing the user to take reliable actions may be to increase display areas to be touched and reduce areas that are hidden by the finger for better visibility. However, since the screen of information processing terminals is limited in size, increased display areas (areas to be touched) are disadvantageous in that they tend to reduce the amount of information which can be displayed on the screen.
More and more mobile phones have been using touchscreens, as typified by smartphones. Of the mobile phones, those other than smartphones are required at all times to have a smaller casing and are more limited in screen size than the smartphones. The mobile phones tend to incorporate an increased number of functions, and the number of items that can be selected on the mobile phones also tends to increase accordingly.
The increased number of selectable options due to the increased number of functions may be resolved by displaying more selectable options on the screen. However, displaying many selectable options on a screen of limited size requires that the selectable options have smaller display areas, which results in a disadvantage in that they are likely to be hidden by the finger.
An example of display method for solving the above problem is disclosed in Patent document 1. Patent document 1 reveals that of a plurality of image keys displayed on a touch screen, the name of item of the image key to which the user's finger has moved most closely is displayed in a speech balloon near the image key. Even if the name of item of the image key is hidden by the user's finger, the user is able to recognize to which image key the user's finger is closest.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds