Hierarchical Navigation Interface for Distant TV Viewing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Digital electrical household appliances, such as those playing back electronic content, face usability issues due to small buttons and limited display areas on control panels, making it difficult for multiple users to operate them effectively, especially when texts or small pointers are displayed on a television screen from a distance.
Innovation Solution
A multimedia playback system with a unified user interface that hierarchizes navigation, provides content-related information, and allows easy switching between content playback and related information displays, using a controller with limited input options and a television screen for improved visibility and simplicity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a television screen is used for displaying operation details from a distant position, then visibility is improved, but small texts and small pointers become difficult to see clearly
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation interface is segmented into multiple hierarchical levels (first layer, second layer, third layer). Each layer displays only the most essential information appropriate for its level, with the first layer showing large, easily visible content categories and thumbnails, while detailed information is reserved for deeper layers that are accessed only when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from traditional two-dimensional PC-style navigation to a hierarchical multi-layer display system. Each layer represents a different dimension of information abstraction, allowing the interface to accommodate both distant viewing requirements (large elements on outer layers) and detailed information needs (smaller elements accessible on inner layers).
2Loss of information
If PC-style navigation with small fonts and small pointers is used on a television screen, then information density is improved, but ease of operation from a distance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation system divides information into discrete hierarchical layers, with each layer optimized for its specific function. The first layer presents coarse-grained navigation options with large visual elements suitable for distant operation, while subsequent layers provide progressively more detailed information, ensuring that information density increases only when the user is ready to engage with more specific content.
Solution Approach 2:
The interface dynamically adapts its information presentation based on the current navigation layer. As users move through the hierarchical layers, the system dynamically adjusts the level of detail displayed, transitioning from large, easily operable elements at the first layer to more detailed information at deeper layers, thereby maintaining both operability and information density at appropriate levels.
Data Source
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AI summary
A home screen display unit displays a global navigation screen 12 that is located on an upper layer with respect to a screen transition and that is used for selecting a category of content to be processed. The home screen display unit displays a content zone screen 18 that is located on a lower layer with respect to a screen transition and that is used for selecting a piece of content to be processed from among a plurality of pieces of content corresponding to the category selected in the global navigation screen 12. If a specific piece of content is selected in the content zone screen 18, a game screen display unit displays a screen of the selected content. The home screen display unit displays, in the global navigation screen 12, an image of at least a portion of the content zone screen 18 with image quality lower than that in the case where the image is displayed in the content zone screen 18.