Alternative presentation of occluded high-presence material within an ecommerce environment

1. A browsing device comprising:

at least one memory configured to store computer program code; and

at least one processor configured to access said computer program code and operate as instructed by the computer program code, the computer program code including:

web-page display code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to cause a display to display a web-page containing one or more product images and a higher-precedence material; and

pop-up image-area control code configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to:

in response to an occurrence of an event for a product image of the one or more product images displayed on the web-page, cause the display to display a pop-up image-area containing a larger version of the product image in a manner superimposed on the web-page, wherein the product image has a first size, and the larger version of the product image has a second size, which is larger than the first size, and

when the pop-up image-area moves from not being over the higher-precedence material to being over the higher-precedence material such that the higher-precedence material is hidden by the pop-up image-area, identify a location for an alternative version of the higher-precedence material within the pop-up image-area such that the alternative version of the higher-precedence material does not overlap with the larger version of the product image in the pop-up image-area, and display the alternative version of the higher-precedence material at the identified location within the pop-up image-area, wherein the alternative version of the higher-precedence material is displayed completely within the pop-up image-area.

2. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to:

accept an operation to the web-page or to the displayed pop-up image-area; and

execute a process associated with the higher-precedence material when the accepted operation to the web-page or to the displayed pop-up image-area is an operation on the alternative version of the higher-precedence material.

3. The browsing device according to claim 2 , wherein the process associated with the higher-precedence material is a process of starting a placement of an order to purchase an object corresponding to the product image.

4. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein an appearance of the alternative version of the higher-precedence material that is displayed on the display is associated in advance with an appearance of the higher-precedence material displayed on the display.

5. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to moves the pop-up image area based on receiving a user instruction associated with a location within a screen of the display.

6. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein:

the higher-precedence material includes a plurality of pieces of higher-precedence materials; and

the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to cause the display to dispose, within the pop-up image-area, a plurality of alternative versions that respectively correspond to the plurality of pieces of higher-precedence materials when all of the plurality of pieces of higher-precedence materials of the web-page are hidden by the pop-up image-area.

7. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein:

the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to, identify whether a pointer or a cursor clicks on the product image, and cause the display to display the pop-up image-area including the alternative version of the higher-precedence material in the pop-up image-area based on identifying that the pointer or the cursor clicks on the product image.

8. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to:

determine, based on a pixel value associated with each pixel constructing the pop-up image-area, an area formed by a predetermined number or more of adjacent pixels that are each associated with a pixel value representing a background color or background colors of the pop-up image-area, and

cause the display to dispose the alternative version of the higher-precedence material within the determined area.

9. The browsing device according to claim 8 , wherein the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to cause the display to expand the pop-up image-area, and dispose the alternative version of the higher-precedence material within the expanded pop-up image area when there is no area formed by the predetermined number or more of adjacent pixels that are each associated with the pixel value representing the background color or background colors of the pop-up image-area.

10. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to add the alternative version of the higher-precedence material within the pop-up image-area when the higher-precedence material of the web-page is hidden due to a scrolling of the displayed web-page after the display displays the pop-up image-area without the alternative version of the higher-precedence material.

11. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to cause the display to delete the alternative version of the higher-precedence material from the pop-up image-area when the higher-precedence material of the web-page is no longer hidden due to a scrolling of the displayed web-page after the display displays the pop-up image-area containing the alternative version of the higher-precedence material.

12. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the displayed one or more product images include one or more thumbnail images, the displayed one or more thumbnail images include the product image having the first size; and

the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to, in response to a user selecting or clicking on the thumbnail product image: cause the display to display the pop-up image-area including the larger version of the thumbnail product image in a manner such that the larger image is superimposed on the web-page, and when the higher-precedence material of the web-page is hidden by the pop-up image-area, the alternative version of the thumbnail product image and the alternative version of the higher-precedence material are displayed completely within the pop-up image-area.

13. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to, identify whether a pointer or a cursor moves over the product image, and cause the display to display the pop-up image-area including the alternative version of the higher-precedence material in the pop-up image-area based on identifying that the pointer or the cursor moves over the product image.

14. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein

the identifying of the location for the version of the higher-precedence material includes: obtaining a pixel value of each pixel that constructs image data corresponding to the alternative version of the product image displayed within the pop-up image-area, the pixel value being expressed by a combination of an illuminance value of red (R), an illuminance value of green (G), and an illuminance value of blue (B), and determining a blank area where equal to or greater than a reference number of pixels representing background or a white color are disposed adjacent to one another, and

the pop-up image-area control code is further configured to cause at least one of said at least one processor to display the alternative version of the higher-precedence material within the determined blank area, when the pop-up image-area moves over the higher-precedence material of the web-page such that the higher-precedence material of the web-page is hidden by the pop-up image-area.

15. The browsing device according to claim 1 , wherein the alternative version of the higher-precedence material includes an order-placing button used for placing an order for a product displayed as the product image.

16. A display controlling method comprising:

causing a display to display a web-page containing one or more product images and a higher-precedence material;

in response to an occurrence of an event for a product image of the one or more product images displayed on the web-page, causing the display to display a pop-up image-area containing a larger version of the product image in a manner superimposed on the web-page, wherein the product image has a first size, and the larger version of the product image has a second size, which is larger than the first size; and

when the pop-up image-area moves from not being over the higher-precedence material to being over the higher-precedence material such that the higher-precedence material is hidden by the pop-up image-area, identifying a location for an alternative version of the higher-precedence material within the pop-up image-area such that the alternative version of the higher-precedence material does not overlap with the alternative version of the product image in the pop-up window, and causing the display to display the alternative version of the higher-precedence material at the identified location within the pop-up image-area, wherein the alternative version of the higher-precedence material is displayed completely within the pop-up image-area.

17. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having stored therein computer-executable code that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to:

cause a display to display a web-page containing one or more product images and a higher-precedence material;

in response to an occurrence of an event for a product image of the one or more product images displayed on the web-page, cause the display to display a pop-up image-area containing a larger version of the product image in a manner superimposed on the web-page, wherein the product image has a first size, and the larger version of the product image has a second size, which is larger than the first size; and

when the pop-up image-area moves from not being over the higher-precedence material to being over the higher-precedence material such that the higher-precedence material is hidden by the pop-up image-area, identify a location for an alternative version of the higher-precedence material within the pop-up image-area such that the alternative version of the higher-precedence material does not overlap with the larger version of the product image in the pop-up image-area, and display the alternative version of the higher-precedence material at the identified location within the pop-up image-area, wherein the alternative version of the higher-precedence material is displayed completely within the pop-up image-area.