JP2000092217A - Picture display controlling method in electronic conference system, electronic conference system and recording medium recording picture display control program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make the parts before and after material presented by a speaker and another material to be seen in an electronic conference system and also to prevent load for state management from affecting a network. SOLUTION: A conference participant of an electronic conference system ignores page information received from a speaker and operates a terminal to go and see other material other than material presented by the speaker when its own display mode is an independent mode (steps 19 and 20). And, when a display mode is switched to a shared mode, the participant inquires of the speaker the current page information, receives the page information and shows the page (steps 21 to 23).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer in which a plurality of computers are connected via a network, and the same content displayed on the display of one of the computers is synchronized with all the other computers. Related to an electronic conference system to be displayed

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Using electronic materials created by a word processor or the like, one computer is installed for all participants in a conference,
When the presenter makes a presentation based on the material displayed on the computer screen, the other participants ask and answer the presentation while viewing the same material as the presenter on the computer screen where it was installed. Electronic conferencing systems have been put to practical use.

[0003] The electronic conference system includes a system in which the screens of the presenter and the conference participant are made the same by a hardware switch, and a desktop in which the same screen is shared by using a LAN to share the same software. There are systems such as conference systems.

[0004]

In these systems, a conference participant can see only the same screen as the presenter and cannot freely see another part of the material or a different material by himself. There is a problem. This means that only the presenter can perform operations such as switching pages of materials, and other conference participants can display the screen operated by the presenter on the same screen on their own computer by the function realized by hardware and software. Because they are just getting

[0005] In order to enable the presenter to force all conference participants to see the same place of the material, other conference participants themselves can freely view the material. It is sufficient to prepare two states and switch between them. In other words, "the state where you are looking at the same place on the same material as the presenter" and "the other state"
It is. In order to be able to see the same place as the presenter's material, it is necessary to properly communicate the position of the presenter's material and the position of the pointer to the participants' computers, but conference participants other than the presenter Is always in one of two states, so we need to know and manage the current state of the conference participants. However, since this state is expected to change frequently during a conference, if centralized management is performed at a single location, the load on the computer to be managed will increase with the increase in the number of conference participants, and synchronization of the materials will be increased. Is slowed down, and the function as an electronic conference system is deteriorated. Further, when a computer to be managed has a failure, computers of all conference participants may be out of control and the entire conference may be interrupted. Therefore, it is necessary to decentralize state management so that processing can be performed quickly even when the number of participants increases.

[0006] It is an object of the present invention to allow a conference participant not only to see the same screen as the presenter, but also to freely view the part before and after the material that the presenter is presenting and materials other than the presenting material. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic conferencing system and a screen display control method in which a load for state management does not affect a network even when the number of conference participants increases.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, the state of a conference participant (whether it is presenting or looking at the same place, etc.)
Are distributed and managed on each computer to control the display of the display of the conference participants.

The state of all conference participants in the conference is a presentation mode (a state where the presenter is present), a shared mode (a state where the same material as the presenter is viewed at the same position as the presenter except for the presenter), and an independent mode (presentation). Other than the presenter, a different place (material, position) from the presenter is provided. Each conference participant always belongs to one of these three states, and the state of each participant is managed by each computer.

[0009] The conference material is distributed in advance (downloading: copying from the computer managing the material to the computer of the participant) or can be immediately downloaded even if it is not distributed. During the meeting, information about which page the presenter is explaining is notified to all meeting participants.

[0010] During the conference, the computer of the conference participant
According to its own state, it can send information about the material (which material is which position in the material) (presentation mode),
Reception processing is performed (immediately reflected on the screen display of the user (shared mode), and the received content is ignored (independent mode).

[0011] The environment setting and the state management of the participant by the participant's computer allow the participant to freely view the material without reducing the efficiency of the conference.

According to the present invention, the following functions can be realized by effectively switching the state of browsing the materials of conference participants.

1. Function to enable meeting participants to view free materials 2. Function to return to the page of the material being presented by the presenter from free browsing The presenter can return to the presenting screen at any time when the meeting participants are freely viewing the meeting material.

With this function, even when the conference participant freely views the material, the conference participant can immediately catch up with the presentation by the presenter.

3. Ability to show another conference participant the page of the material you are currently viewing You may ask and answer specific materials during a meeting. At this time, the conference participant who wants to ask the presenter a question can display the contents of the material to all the conference participants in the presentation mode.

[0016]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a screen display control method in the electronic conference system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Here, the computer of each electronic conference system client has a presentation mode setting switch for setting itself as a presenter, a sharing mode for receiving and displaying page information from the presenter, and a page mode from the presenter. A display mode switch is provided for setting the display mode to any of the independent modes for ignoring the presenter and viewing materials other than the material currently being presented.

First, it is determined whether or not the present mode is set, that is, whether or not the user is a presenter (step 11). If the presenter, the page is switched, and the information of the switched page is notified to all participants until the presentation right is abandoned (steps 12 to 14). If you are not the presenter, it is determined whether your display mode is the sharing mode (step 15). In the shared mode, the page information switched from the presenter is received, and the page obtained from the received page information is displayed until the presenter becomes the presenter or the own display mode becomes the independent mode. (Step 16 ~
18). If the display mode of the presenter is the independent mode, the page information switched from the presenter is received, but this is ignored, and the presenter freely views the material other than the presenter's presently announced from his own terminal ( Steps 19 and 20). That is,
Participants see what they want to see on the local disk, if available, and access the computer if it is somewhere else on the network. At this time, it is determined whether the mode has been switched from the independent mode to the shared mode (step 21). If the mode has been switched to the shared mode, the presenter is queried for the current page information, and the page obtained from the received page information is displayed. (Step 2
2, 23). When the user is switched to the presenter, the current page information is notified to all participants (step 24,
25).

FIGS. 2 and 3 are schematic diagrams of an example of the electronic conference system. FIG. 2 shows the flow of processing in the case of normal processing. FIG. 3 shows that the terminals of conference participants have been changed from the independent mode to the shared mode. The flow of processing in the case is shown.

In the case of normal processing (FIG. 2), page information of the presenter (in this case, the electronic conference client 33) is transmitted to the other electronic conference system clients 31, 32, 34 to 36 through the electronic conference system server 30. . The electronic conference system clients 31, 32, 34 to 36 display the meeting materials corresponding to the received presenter's page information on the display when they are in the shared mode, but ignore the received page information in the independent mode. .

When the electronic conference system client, for example, the electronic conference system client 36 changes from the independent mode to the shared mode (FIG. 3), the electronic conference system client 36 sets the page information of the present presenter (electronic conference system client 33). To the electronic conference system server 30. The electronic conference system server 30 inquires of the presenter about the page information of the presenter, and the electronic conference system client 36 inquired about the result.
Send to The electronic conference system client 36 displays a page obtained from the received page information.

The processing shown in FIG. 1 is recorded as a screen display control program on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, or a magneto-optical disk, and can be executed by a computer of each electronic conference system client.

[0024]

As described above, in the present invention, since the conference participants can freely browse the materials, it is possible to understand the contents of the presentation as compared with the conventional case where the materials can be shown unilaterally. It becomes possible to deepen. Furthermore, since state management is performed by individual computers, when the number of conference participants increases, traffic for communication increases, but the load for state management does not affect the network. For this reason, it is possible to construct an effective electronic conference system in a conference with a large number of people such as more than 50 people.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a screen display control method in an electronic conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an electronic conference system, illustrating a flow of information in a normal process.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a flow of information when a display mode of one electronic conference system client changes from an independent mode to a shared mode in the electronic conference system of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 11-25 Step 30 Electronic conference system server 31-36 Electronic conference system client

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masatoshi Yokomori 3-19-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo F-term (reference) in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation 5C064 AA02 AC11 AC13 AC14 AC22 AD07 5K015 AA00 AB00 AB01 JA00 5K030 JT06 LA15 LD08

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An electronic conference system in which a plurality of computers are connected via a network, and the same content displayed on a display of one of the computers is displayed in synchronism with all other computers. A screen display control method, comprising: an independent conference mode in which, when the own computer is not the presenter, any information other than the information displayed on the display by the presenter is displayed on the display of the own computer. Screen display control method. 2. An electronic conference system in which a plurality of computers are connected via a network, and the same contents displayed on a display of one of the computers are displayed in synchronism with all other computers. When the presenter receives the same information as the presenter is displaying on the display when the presenter's computer is not the presenter and the presenter displays the same display mode on the display of the presenter's computer, Display mode setting means for setting an independent mode for displaying arbitrary information other than the information displayed on the display of the own computer; and when the own computer is not a presenter, referencing the display mode, If so, the information that the presenter is showing on the display It has a control means for receiving the same information, displaying it on the display of its own computer, and displaying any information other than the information that the presenter is displaying on the display in the independent mode on the display of its own computer. Electronic conferencing system. 3. When the display mode is switched to the shared mode when the own computer is switched to the independent mode, the control means inquires of a presenter's computer about information displayed on a display, and 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the information is displayed on a display of the computer, and when the computer becomes a presenter, the computer notifies all other computers of the information currently displayed on the display. 4. An electronic conference system in which a plurality of computers are connected via a network, and the same content displayed on a display of one of the computers is displayed in synchronism with all other computers. A screen display control program provided in each computer, a first procedure for determining whether or not the own computer is a presenter, and performing page switching when the own computer is a presenter, and switching the switched page information to another A second procedure of repeating the notification to all the computers until the own computer gives up the presentation right; a third procedure of determining the display mode of the own computer when the own computer is not the presenter; and a display of the own computer. When the presenter switches pages when the mode is shared mode A fourth procedure of receiving the switched page information from the host computer and displaying the page information on the display of the host computer until the host computer becomes the presenter or the display mode of the host computer becomes the independent mode; A recording medium which records a screen display control program for causing a computer to execute a fifth procedure for ignoring switched page information received from a presenter's computer when the display mode of the own computer is an independent mode. 5. When the display mode of the own computer is an independent mode, it is determined whether or not the mode has been switched to a shared mode.
When the mode is switched to the sharing mode, the current page information of the presenter's computer is inquired, the relevant page is received and displayed on the display of the own computer, and when the display mode of the own computer is the independent mode, the own computer announces. 5. The recording medium according to claim 4, further comprising a sixth procedure of notifying the page information currently displayed on the display of the own computer to all the other computers when the user is switched.