US Patent 9274619 Input apparatus, input method, and input program

An operation detecting unit detects an operation input direction to an operation input unit attached to a steering wheel, and when an operation input direction recognizing unit recognizes that a vehicle is running, the operation input direction detected by the operation detecting unit is recognized to be a direction corresponding to an arrangement of element images constituting a part of an image to be displayed on an image display unit. Moreover, an operation input direction control unit uses the direction recognized by the operation input direction recognizing unit as the operation input direction related to at least any one of the element images.