JP3179303B2 - Display control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display control device and, more particularly, to a display control device for displaying a character on a display screen and displaying a line of the displayed character as a character. In recent years, a system has been established in which a plurality of personal computers are connected to the same server via a personal computer communication network, and communication is measured via the same virtual world formed in the connected servers.

[0003] However, in communication using a computer, simultaneous processing of multimedia information such as moving images and voices makes it easy to communicate each other's intentions. Cannot send or receive data. For this reason, in the above system, a simple character appears as an incarnation of the computer operator in the virtual world on the screen to establish a more human-like interface by transmitting and receiving the minimum necessary data, By operating a character as if the computer operator himself is acting in the world, communication with a remote party is facilitated.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 14 shows the configuration of a personal computer communication service system. Terminal devices 51-1 to 5 such as personal computers
1-n are connected to a telephone line 53 via modems 52-1 to 52-n, respectively. The telephone line 53 is connected to a personal computer communication dedicated line 55 at predetermined access points 54-1 to 54-n. A server 56 is connected to the personal computer communication line 55, and the server 56 is connected to the terminal device 51-1 via the personal computer communication line 55 and the telephone line 53.
To 51-n.

As a service supplied from the server 56 to the terminal device, there is a service for enjoying a game while sharing a virtual world formed in the side server 56 with a plurality of terminal devices 51-1 to 51n. In such a service, a virtual world is graphically displayed on a screen displayed on the terminal devices 51-1 to 51-n, and a character as a self-self is displayed on the graphic-displayed screen. You can enjoy shopping and casinos in the virtual world and enjoy talking with other characters by manipulating the game.

FIG. 15 shows an example of a conventional screen displayed by such a service. A graphic screen 61 for displaying a virtual world as a graphic as shown in FIG.
And a character screen 63 for displaying the words of the character 62 on the graphic screen 61, a menu screen 64 for selecting various menus, and the like.

[0006]

However, in the conventional display control device, the screen is divided into a graphic screen for displaying a character in a virtual world and a character screen for displaying the words of the character displayed on the graphic screen. Since the display was performed, the character and the line of the character are displayed separately, and it is difficult to understand the correspondence between the character and the line.In addition, since only the lines of each character are listed on the character screen, the response is There has been a problem that, for example, when a response is delayed, it is not possible to determine which dialogue the user responded to.

Further, since the character screen displays all the lines of the characters appearing on the graphic screen,
When the number of appearing characters increases, the number of dialogues displayed on the character screen increases and the screen becomes difficult to read. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display control device capable of displaying a character and a corresponding character in an easily recognizable manner.

[0008]

FIG. 1 shows the principle of the present invention. The display means 1 displays a character and a character string corresponding to the character on the screen. The character string display control means 2
The position of the center of gravity of the character displayed on the screen of the display means 1
To your control the display position of the character string corresponding to the more character.

The character string display control means 2 superimposes and displays the character strings in the input order. Further, the character string display control means 2 displays the character string in a display area of a predetermined size for each character string. The arrow display control means 3 displays arrows indicating the mutual connection between character strings of different characters.

The character string erasing means 4 erases a character string displayed after a predetermined time has elapsed.

[0011]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a key displayed on a screen is provided.
The sentence corresponding to the character according to the position of the center of gravity of the character
Controls the display position of the character string and the character string corresponding to the character
Is displayed, it is easy to recognize the correspondence between the character and the character string. According to the second aspect, by superimposing and displaying the character strings in the input order, the input order of the character strings can be easily recognized.

According to the third aspect, the three-dimensional position of the character
Character according to the display position in the screen depth direction
Calibration by changing the display form of the character string corresponding to
Recognition of lacta and each character string is easy. According to the fourth aspect, by displaying arrows indicating the mutual connection between the character strings of different characters, correspondence of the character strings between different characters can be taken, and communication between the characters can be achieved.
Application can be easily recognized.

According to the fifth aspect, the character string displayed after a predetermined time has elapsed is erased, so that the character string does not fill the screen, and an appropriate amount of character string can always be displayed. , Making it easier to see the screen.

[0014]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. The terminal device 11 is connected to a server 16 via a modem 12, a telephone line 13, an access point unit 14, and a dedicated line 15.
Connected to the server 16, inputting and outputting data to and from the server 16, and performing communication via a virtual world formed by the server 16.

The terminal device 11 includes a communication processing unit 17 for performing data communication processing, an input device 18 for inputting data,
An input processing unit 19 that generates data in accordance with an operation of the input device 18, a communication processing unit 17, a data processing unit 20 that processes data supplied from the input processing unit 19, a display device 21 that performs display, and a data processing unit 20 And a display control unit 22 that controls the display device 21 based on the data processed in step (1).

The communication processing unit 17 executes a communication process for establishing a connection with the server 16. The input device 18 includes a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, is operated by an operator,
Operations such as input of dialogue, movement of the position of the character, and the like are performed. The input processing unit 19 is connected to the input device 18 and generates input data in accordance with the operation of the input device 18,
The data is supplied to the data processing unit 20.

The data processing unit 20 is connected to the communication processing unit 17, the input processing unit 19, and the display control unit 22, and receives the character position and character data from the server 16 supplied from the communication processing unit 17, and the input processing unit. Input device 1 from 19
As described later, the character position and character data supplied in response to the operation of Step 8 are processed so that the words are displayed close to the character and displayed in a legible manner, and supplied to the display control unit 22. In order to supply the character position and the character data to the server 16, the communication processing unit 1
7

The display control unit 22 controls the display device 21 to control the virtual display device 21 in accordance with the image data supplied from the data processing unit 20, and displays the virtual world formed on the server 16 on the display device. Display. The display device 21 is C
The display 16 is driven and controlled by a display control device 21 such as an RT display, and displays a virtual world formed on the server 16.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration diagram of data used in the processing of one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3A shows a serif structure belonging to each character, FIG. 3B shows character information, and FIG. 3C shows character information, and each piece of information is stored in a storage area set for each character. The serif structure belonging to the character corresponds to the geometric information including the time T at which the serif occurred, the position of the center of gravity (x, y), the width W, and the height H, and the serif structure as shown in FIG. storage of the pointer P _1, the pointer P ₂ indicating the position where the string is stored to form the words, other corresponding to reference should be serif structure into character information indicating a position where the storage position of the character information is stored Pointer P ₃ where the position is stored, pointer P where the storage position of the structure corresponding to the next line is stored
Consists of _four .

As shown in FIG. 3B, the character information includes three-dimensional positions (x, y, z) of the center of gravity of the character, and information such as the shape and color of the character. The data processing in the data processing unit 20 is executed by sequentially processing the serif structure, the character information, and the character string information shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation of accessing the serif structure in the data processing unit 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The pointer first accesses the head serif structure in the serif structure list, and displays characters, characters, etc., as described later, based on information in the serif structure. The dialogue structure have the pointer P ₄ is provided to the next dialogue structure, the data processing unit 20 is accessed by the pointer P ₄ to the next dialogue structure. Thus, access to sequentially serif structure according pointer P ₄ of the data processing unit 20 in the speech structure, in order to display the words on the screen.

At this time, a new line is displayed above, as described later. Therefore, the latest data is added at the end as a final serif structure. Therefore, the dialog input times T ₁ and T ₂ satisfy T ₁ <T ₂ . FIG. 5 shows an operation flowchart of the dialog display processing of the data processing unit 20 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Here, the operation when displaying a line for one character will be described.

First, the number of words that the character currently has is set to N (step S1-1). Next, the data processing unit 20 sets a point to the first pointer of the serif structure list in which the serifs of the characters are stored in the input order (step S1-2). Next, the data processing unit 20 looks at the set pointer and determines whether or not the set pointer exists (step S1-3).

Here, if the set pointer does not exist, the processing is terminated to indicate that there is no dialogue. If the set pointer exists, 'N + 1' is set to N
(Step S1-4). Then, set access the serif structure pointer has to access the character information by the pointer P ₁ to the character information of the speech structure is accessed, the centroid position Cg of the character based on the position and shape information of the character (Cx, cy)
Is calculated, and the calculated center of gravity position Cg (cx, cx,
cy), the gravity center position Sg of the dialog box is described later.
(Sx, sy) is determined (step S1-5).

Next, the depth D is obtained from the three-dimensional position of the character from the character information (step S1-6). Let the depth D of the character obtained in step S1-6 be d ₁ <
compared with d ₂ <d ₃ becomes constant d ₁ to d _3, determines the size and display of speech and speech frame. First, when D ≦ d ₁ , that is, when the character is located in front of the screen, the dialogue and the dialogue frame shape are set to the maximum previously set (steps S1-7, S1-8).

When d ₁ <D ≦ d ₂ , that is, when the character is located slightly behind the screen, it is assumed that the serif and the serif frame shape are set slightly smaller in advance than those of the maximum shape (step S1-9, S1-
10). When d ₂ <D ≦ d ₃ , that is, when the character is located further in front of the screen, it is assumed that the dialogue and the dialogue frame shape are set smaller in advance than those set in step S1-10 ( Step S
1-11, S1-12).

When d ₃ <D, that is, when the character is located from the front of the screen to the back of the position of d ₃ , the line and the line frame shape are not displayed, and the process is terminated (step S1-13). Next, the serif and the serif frame are arranged such that the center of gravity of the serif and the serif frame set in steps S1-7 to S1-13 coincide with the center of gravity Sg determined in step S1-5 ( Step S1-14).

Next, it is determined whether or not an instruction to set a link in another dialogue display area is set (step S1).
-15). If an instruction to link is set in step S1-15, a link arrow is displayed in a preset dialog display frame as described later (step S1-1).
6).

Next, the pointer is set to the next pointer of the serif structure, and the process returns to step S1-3 (step S1-
17). FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a method of determining the line gravity center position Sg. FIG. 6A shows an example of the shape of the character.
FIG. 6B shows an example of a configuration of a dialogue display area, and FIG. 6C shows a correlation between a character and a dialogue display area.
(D) shows a display example when a plurality of dialogue display areas are displayed.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the height of the character is Ch, the width of the character is Cw, and the center of gravity of the character is Cg (cx, cy) (coordinates on the screen). As shown in FIG. 6B, the dialogue display area has a height S.
h, width Sw, and the center of gravity position Sg is (sx, s
y) (coordinates on the screen). The center of gravity position Sg ₀ (sx ₀ , sy ₀ ) of the display area where the latest dialogue is displayed is determined by sx ₀ = cx sy ₀ = Sh / 2 + cy + Ch / 2 + Δh as shown in FIG. At this time, Δh is an offset value, which is set in advance in the data processing unit 20 and indicates a value for setting an interval between the character and the dialogue display area.

When the N-th line is input within a predetermined time, the barycentric position Sg _N (sx _N , sy _N ) of the display area where the N-th line is displayed is as shown in FIG. Sx _N = cx + Δx × N sy _N = Sh / 2 + cy + Ch / 2 + Δh + Δy × N At this time, Δx and Δy are values set in the data processing unit 20 in advance, and are values for setting the amount of deviation from the previous dialogue display area.

As described above, by providing the dialogue display area near the character by positioning the character from the center of gravity Cg of the character, it is easy to associate the character with the dialogue. Also, since the new dialogue display area is set to slightly overlap the old dialogue display area,
You can grasp the time sequence of dialogue at a glance.

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining the operation of the dialogue display area when the character moves according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7A shows a case where the character is facing forward, and FIG. 7B shows a case where the character is facing slightly right. In this embodiment, since the center of gravity Sg of the serif display area is determined from the center of gravity Cg of the character, the character is slightly turned to the right as shown in FIG. In the case where the user is facing the user, the user is faced slightly backward, etc., the dialogue display area is displayed with the user facing the front, so that the characters of the dialogue etc. are not inclined and the dialogue can be displayed easily.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the configuration of a dialogue display screen according to one embodiment of the present invention. According to this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
Since the words 2-1 to 32-3 are displayed in the vicinity of the character with the new words slightly overlapping the old words, it is possible to easily recognize which character the displayed words belong to. It is easy to recognize the order in which the lines were issued.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the operation of determining the dialog shape in the dialog display area. FIGS. 9A and 9B both show the relationship between the position of the character and the shape of the dialogue display area. When the three-dimensional position of the character Pg (x, y, z) Z value (D) has a zero surface position of the screen, it is smaller than d _1, that is, when the character is located at a relatively front side of the screen Type I of standard size with height Sh ₁ and width Sw ₁
Is displayed at the position set in FIG. 5, and the words are displayed therein.

The position of the character in the Z direction is d ₁ <
When D ≦ d ₂ , a type II serif display area having a height Sh ₂ and a width Sw ₂ slightly smaller than the type I serif display area is selected and displayed at the position selected in FIG. Is displayed in a reduced size. Further, when the position of the character in the Z direction is d ₂ <D ≦ d ₃ , the height S in which the width of the type II dialogue display area is reduced.
A type III serif display area having a size h ₂ and a width Sw ₃ (<Sw ₂ ) is selected and displayed at the position set in FIG. At this time, it is determined that the character is not within the communication distance, and the words are not displayed inside the words display area.

The position of the character in the Z direction is d ₃ <
In the case of D, it is determined that the character is located far away and does not exist at a position where conversation or the like can be performed, and the words and the words display area are not displayed. FIGS. 10 and 11 are explanatory diagrams of the setting operation of the connecting arrow between the dialog display areas of different characters.

FIG. 10A is a diagram showing a positional relationship between dialogue display areas of different characters, FIG. 10B is a diagram showing divisions for determining a drawing position of a combination arrow according to the positional relationship, and FIG. FIG. 11C is a diagram showing how to determine the positions of the start point and the end point of the connection arrow, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a specific connection arrow determination operation. First, as shown in FIG. 10A, the dialogue display area of the other character is A, the dialogue display area of the own character is B, the height of the dialogue display area A is Sha, and the width is S.
wa, the barycentric position coordinates are Sga (ax, ay), the height of the dialog display area B is Shb, the width is Swb, and the barycentric position coordinates are Sgb (bx, by).

Here, when responding to the serif in the serif display area A with the serif in the serif display area B,
Consider a case where a connection arrow is drawn from the serif display area B to the serif display area A. In such a case, the position of the center of gravity Sgb of the serif display area B as shown in FIG. 10 (B) is located in any of the sections P1 to P10 divided into 10 around the center of gravity Sga of the serif display area A. Figure 1
0 starting L ₀ and the end point L ₁ bond arrows most recognizable position by formula as shown in (C) is set.

At this time, the position S of the center of gravity of the dialog display area B
When gb is in the area P5 indicating the inside of the dialogue display area A, the dialogue display areas A and B overlap, and it is difficult to see the dialogue arrow when the linking arrow is attached, so that the linking arrow is not displayed.
The area P10 in which the position of the center of gravity Sgb of the serif display area B is at a position separated from the serif display area A by a predetermined distance or more.
Also, the display of the connection arrow is not performed because the length of the connection arrow is abnormally long and the screen is difficult to see.

Next, a specific setting operation of the connection arrow will be described with reference to FIG. Here, a case where the center of gravity position Sgb (bx, by) of the dialogue display area B exists in the section P3 will be described. Center of gravity position Sgb of dialog display area B
Is present in the section P3, the starting point L is obtained from FIG.
The position coordinates (x _L0 , y _L0 ) of ₀ are (bx, by + Shb /
2), it is the central portion of the left side of the serif display area B facing the serif display area A. Further, the position coordinates (x _L1 , y _L1 ) of the end point L ₁ are (ax + Swa /
2, ay), which is the central portion of the right side of the serif display area A facing the serif display area B.

An arrow connecting the start point L ₀ and the end point L ₁ with a straight line is drawn as a connection arrow. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a graphic screen having a connection arrow according to one embodiment of the present invention. According to this embodiment, lines of the corresponding words by setting the speech display area A ₁ and B ₁ serif in response relationship to each other by click operation of a mouse or the like on the graphic screen 30 as shown in FIG. 12 Display area A ₁
→ for binding arrow 41 between B ₁ is displayed, the character 31a is a character 31 delayed binding character 31b
Even when the next line is input without waiting for the response from the character 31b, the character 31a and the character 31b are displayed by indicating to which of the lines of the character 31a the line input by the character 31b has responded. It is possible to carry out a smooth conversation without intermittent conversation with the user.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the operation of the dialogue erasing process of the data processing unit according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the data processing unit 20, the serif erasing process is performed on the serif structure formed inside. First, the current time is set to T (step S2-1). Next, the first pointer of the serif structure list is set as the pointer (step S2).
-2).

Next, it is determined whether or not data exists at the set pointer (step S2-3). here,
If there is no data in the corresponding pointer, there is no line, and the process ends. If data exists in the pointer, the serif structure indicated by the pointer is accessed, and the time Ts at which the serif was input from the serif structure is read (step S2-4).

Next, the current time is subtracted from the time Ts at which the dialogue was input, and compared with a predetermined constant ΔT. If T−Ts> Δt, then Δt or more has elapsed since the dialogue was input. Therefore, the serif structure that is determined to be unnecessary and accessed is deleted from the serif structure list (step S2-6). Next, the pointer is advanced to the next pointer in the serif structure list, and the same processing is performed on the next serif structure (step S2-).
7).

As described above, when a predetermined time Δt elapses after the words are input and displayed, the words are deleted. For this reason, the same dialogue will not be displayed longer than necessary, the old dialogue will continue to be displayed forever, and other displays on the screen will not be disturbed, so that an easy-to-view screen can be realized.

[0047]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the character is determined by the position of the center of gravity of the character displayed on the screen.
Control the display position of the character string corresponding to the
By displaying a character string corresponding to a character string, it is easy to recognize the correspondence between a character and a character string.

According to the second aspect, the character strings can be easily recognized in the input order by superimposing and displaying the character strings. According to claim 3, the character
According to the position in the screen depth direction of the three-dimensional position of the
By changing the display mode of the character string corresponding to the character, the character and each character string can be easily recognized. According to the fourth aspect, the character strings of different characters can be associated with each other by displaying arrows indicating the mutual coupling between the character strings of different characters, and communication between the characters can be easily recognized. Features such as

According to the fifth aspect, since the character string displayed after a predetermined time has elapsed is erased, the character string is not buried on the screen, and the screen can be easily viewed. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a data structure used in processing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an access operation to a serif structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of a dialog display process of a data processing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a dialog display area positioning operation according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a dialogue display area when a character moves according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a dialogue display screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of determining a serif shape according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of setting a connection arrow between dialogue display areas of different characters according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of setting a connection arrow between dialogue display areas of different characters according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a combined arrow display screen according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is an operation flowchart of a dialogue erasing process of the data processing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a system configuration diagram of a personal computer communication service.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conventional display screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Display means 2 Character string display means 3 Arrow display means 4 Character string deletion means 11 Terminal device 12 Modem 13 Telephone line 14 Access point 15 Dedicated line 16 Server 17 Communication processing unit 18 Input device 19 Input processing unit 20 Data processing unit 21 Display Device 22 Display control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06T 1/00 G06T 11/60-17/50 G06F 3/00-3/153 G09G 1/00-5 / 42 G06F 13/00 H04M 11/00-11/10 A63F 9/24 A63F 13/00-13/12

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A display control device for displaying on a display means a character set in advance and a character string corresponding to the character, wherein the position of the center of gravity of the character displayed on the screen of the display means is
The display position of the character string corresponding to the more the character
Display control device characterized by having a braking Gosuru character string display control means. 2. The display control device according to claim 1, wherein said character string display control means superimposes and displays the character strings in the input order. 3. The character string display control means includes :
According to the display position in the screen depth direction among the three-dimensional positions of the
To change the display format of the character string corresponding to the character.
The display control device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: 4. The display control device according to claim 1, further comprising arrow display control means for displaying arrows indicating a mutual connection between character strings of different characters. 5. The display control device according to claim 1, further comprising a character string erasing means for erasing a character string displayed after a predetermined time has elapsed. .