JP2007156712A - Information processor and control method therefor, program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technology for easily designing the user interface of information equipment having various configurations. <P>SOLUTION: This information processor for editing design information relating to the user interface of a device is provided with: a reading means for reading device information showing characteristics relating to input/output equipment installed in the device; an edit means for presenting the interface for editing the design information, and for editing the design information based on an instruction inputted from the user; and a constraining means for constraining the edit so that it can be fit to the characteristics shown by the device information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a user interface design technique, and more particularly to a user interface design technique for various information devices.

  Various types of information devices such as mobile phones, car navigation systems, and information appliances have been diversified, and their hardware performance has been improved. At the same time, the user interface of the information device has been realized as a graphic user interface (GUI) that was once unique to the PC, and has been advanced. Recently, technologies such as speech recognition and speech synthesis have been developed and have been incorporated into various devices, and a UI (User Interface) based on speech is becoming widely used. The functions of the device itself are also becoming more multifunctional, and the user interface tends to be extremely complicated. Along with this, advanced technology is required for the development of the user interface itself, and the development cost of the user interface has become a big problem.

Currently, the development of user interfaces such as GUIs that are realized mainly based on software control is done not only by programming by programmers but also by using various development tools such as design tools for designing screens. Is common. Techniques related to GUI design are disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2. Products such as “Protobuilder” from Gaio Technology Co., Ltd. and “RapidPLUS” from Nippon Systemware Co., Ltd. are also known. These relate to a development tool that provides a development environment in which a user interface and GUI such as hardware of a device, a display, and a physical key can be designed by GUI operation. Thus, a development tool for providing a GUI for designing a device user interface and reducing manual programming as much as possible is known.
JP 2000-137599 A JP 2002-244848 A

  However, depending on the conventional technology, designing a user interface of an information device having various forms has been complicated.

  Most of user operations on the PC are performed by a keyboard and a mouse. For this reason, the PC GUI may be designed to correspond to a predetermined type of event such as a keyboard or mouse event as an input event. Further, since the display of the PC has a size larger than a certain size, the window size and the arrangement of GUI parts can be designed relatively freely.

  On the other hand, information devices other than PCs have various hardware input / output devices such as displays, physical keys, and jog dials depending on their forms. For this reason, the event processing related to the operation of these input / output devices is more complicated than the event processing related to the operation of the input / output devices of the PC. For example, information devices other than PCs often have not only general-purpose physical keys such as a numeric keypad but also device-specific physical keys. For this reason, in the development of the GUI of the device, the behavior for the event based on the operation of the physical key unique to the device is programmed. In this case, a GUI programmer (developer) has to read a specification regarding the physical key event of the device and perform programming according to the specification.

  In addition, the display size becomes smaller as the device becomes smaller. This greatly affects the adjustment of the window size and the arrangement of GUI parts in GUI development. For this reason, programmers and screen designers have to check the display size from the device specifications and design the GUI screen in consideration of this. As described above, the design of the GUI is affected by various attributes of the hardware of the input / output device provided in the information device.

  However, the conventional GUI design tool cannot reflect such device attributes in the GUI design work. That is, the attribute of the device was written in a document called a specification, and there was no cooperation with the GUI design tool. This puts a heavy burden on developers such as programmers and screen designers. Further, when developing a new model GUI, there are cases where the contents of the GUI of the conventional model are reused as much as possible to improve the development efficiency. In this case, since the display size of the new model is changed or the physical key is changed, the work of modifying the GUI part of the conventional model related to them has been a heavy burden.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of easily designing a user interface of an information device having various forms.

In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is,
An information processing apparatus for editing design information related to a user interface of a device,
Reading means for reading device information indicating characteristics of the input / output device included in the device;
An editing means for presenting an interface for editing the design information, and editing the design information based on an instruction input from a user;
Constraining means for constraining the editing so as to conform to the characteristics indicated in the device information.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the technique which makes it possible to design easily the user interface of the information equipment which has various forms can be provided.

  Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the constituent elements described in this embodiment are merely examples, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to them.

<< First Embodiment >>
The information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment provides an editing interface for editing a UI description document related to a user interface of a device based on an instruction input from a user. However, the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment reads device information indicating characteristics related to input / output devices included in the device, and allows editing by the user within a range of constraint conditions that match the characteristics indicated in the device information. . Therefore, the device designer can efficiently design the user interface that matches the characteristics of the device without checking the specifications of the input / output devices provided in the device. For this reason, the designer can easily design user interfaces of information devices having various forms.

  Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, for convenience of explanation, an example in the case of developing a user interface of a digital camera for giving an audio annotation to a photographic image captured by the digital camera will be described.

(System configuration)
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a computer system in which an information processing apparatus according to this embodiment is incorporated. As shown in FIG. 1, the computer system includes a server computer 101, an editing computer 102, and a network 103 to which they are connected.

  The server computer 101 stores device information indicating device characteristics (device description document, attribute information, device information document) for each type of device that is a UI design target, and device information in response to a request from an external apparatus. Is an information processing apparatus that distributes. The server computer 101 is realized by, for example, a personal computer (PC) or a workstation (WS).

  The editing computer 102 is an information processing apparatus that edits a description of a user interface by an operation of a user interface developer (designer). The editing computer 102 acquires device information related to a device for which a user interface is designed from the server computer 101 as needed, and controls editing of the user interface description based on the device information. However, the device information held by the editing computer 102 may be used. The editing computer 102 is also realized by, for example, a PC or WS.

  The network 103 is typically the Internet, but it may be any line that can transmit and receive data, such as a public line (analog line, ISDN, etc.), LAN, WAN, or wireless LAN, regardless of wired / wireless. It may be a simple configuration. As a communication protocol using a network, for example, TCP / IP or the like can be adopted.

(Functional configuration)
Next, the functional configuration of the server computer 101 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the server computer 101 in the present embodiment.

  A device information holding unit 201 holds device information (device description document) for each device type. A device information request receiving unit 202 receives device information request information received via a communication unit 204 described later. Reference numeral 203 denotes a device information transmitting unit, and in response to the device information request receiving unit 202 receiving device information request information, the requested device information is transmitted to the requesting external device via the communication unit 204 described later. Send. A communication unit 204 functions as an interface that controls communication between the external apparatus and the server computer 101.

  Each functional block shown in FIG. 2 is realized by a CPU 401 having a hardware configuration described later with reference to FIG. 4 executing a program loaded in the RAM 402 and cooperating with each hardware shown in FIG. The Of course, some or all of the functional blocks may be realized by dedicated hardware.

  Next, the functional configuration of the editing computer 102 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the editing computer 102 in the present embodiment.

  An editing unit 301 edits a UI description document, which will be described later, based on an instruction input by a developer of the user interface, and controls editing of the UI description document based on device information. Details of processing related to editing of the UI description document will be described later. A UI description document holding unit 302 holds a UI description document that describes design information of a user interface related to development. A device information request transmission unit 303 transmits information for requesting device information to the server computer 101 that stores the device information via a communication unit 305 described later. A device information receiving unit 304 receives device information from the server computer 101 via a communication unit 305 described later. A communication unit 305 functions as an interface that controls communication between the external apparatus and the editing computer 102.

  Each functional block shown in FIG. 3 executes an editing program (user interface editing software) loaded on the RAM 502 by the CPU 501 of the apparatus described later with reference to FIG. 5, and cooperates with each hardware shown in FIG. Realized by working. Of course, some or all of the functional blocks may be realized by dedicated hardware. Details of the operation of the user interface editing software (editing software) will be described later.

(Hardware configuration)
Next, the hardware configuration of the server computer 101 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the server computer 101 in this embodiment.

  In FIG. 4, reference numeral 401 denotes a CPU, which operates according to a program describing the operation procedure of the server computer 101. For example, the CPU 401 executes an application program, an operating system, a control program, and the like stored in the HDD 405 described later, and performs control to temporarily store information, files, and the like necessary for executing the program in the RAM 402.

  Reference numeral 402 denotes a RAM, which provides a storage area necessary for the operation of the program. That is, various data are temporarily stored and function as a main memory, work area, and the like of the CPU 401. Reference numeral 403 denotes a ROM which holds programs such as basic I / O programs and various data used in basic processing.

  Reference numeral 404 denotes an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) as a display device, which displays a command input from an instruction input device (not shown), a response output of the server computer 101 to the command, and the like. The LCD 404 only needs to function as a display device, and may be realized by, for example, a CRT display, an organic EL panel, a surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), or the like.

  Reference numeral 405 denotes an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) as an external storage device, which holds device information. The HDD 405 only needs to function as an external storage device, and may be configured by, for example, a medium as a recording medium and an external storage drive for realizing access to the medium. Such media include, for example, a flexible disk (FD), CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, PC card, DVD, IC memory card, MO, memory stick, and the like.

  A LAN board 406 performs data communication with an external device. Reference numeral 407 denotes a bus that controls the flow of data in the server computer 101.

  In addition, it can also be comprised as an alternative of a hardware apparatus with the software which implement | achieves a function equivalent to the above each apparatus.

  In this embodiment, every time the program according to this embodiment is operated, a case is assumed in which the program is loaded from the HDD 405 in which the program is already installed into the RAM 402 and executed. However, the embodiment according to the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the program and related data according to the present embodiment may be loaded directly from the medium (not shown) into the RAM 402 and executed. Alternatively, the program according to the present embodiment may be recorded in the ROM 403, configured to form part of the memory map, and directly executed by the CPU 401.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the editing computer 102 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the editing computer 102 in the present embodiment.

  In FIG. 5, reference numeral 501 denotes a CPU, which operates according to a program describing an operation procedure of the editing computer 102 described later. For example, the CPU 501 executes an application program, an operating system, a control program, and the like stored in an HDD 505 described later, and performs control to temporarily store information, files, and the like necessary for executing the program in the RAM 502.

  Reference numeral 502 denotes a RAM which provides a storage area necessary for the operation of the program. That is, various data are temporarily stored and function as a main memory, work area, and the like of the CPU 501. Reference numeral 503 denotes a ROM which holds programs such as basic I / O programs and various data used in basic processing.

  Reference numeral 504 denotes an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) as a display device, which displays a command input from an instruction input device (not shown), a response output of the editing computer 102 to the command, and the like. Note that the LCD 504 only needs to function as a display device, and is not limited to this as with the LCD 404.

  Reference numeral 505 denotes an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) as an external storage device, which holds a UI description document to be edited and device information. Similar to the HD 405, the HDD 505 only needs to function as an external storage device. For example, the HDD 505 may be configured by a medium as a recording medium and an external storage drive for realizing access to the medium. .

  Reference numeral 506 denotes a LAN card which performs data communication with an external device. Reference numeral 507 denotes a bus that controls the flow of data in the editing computer 102.

  Reference numeral 507 denotes an instruction input device, which corresponds to a keyboard, a pointing device (such as a mouse), a touch panel, or the like. Using the instruction input device 507, the developer of the user interface instructs the editing computer 102 to input a command or the like for controlling the device.

  In addition, it can also be comprised as an alternative of a hardware apparatus with the software which implement | achieves a function equivalent to the above each apparatus.

  In this embodiment, every time the program according to this embodiment is operated, a case is assumed in which the program is loaded from the HDD 505 in which the program is already installed to the RAM 502 and executed. However, the embodiment according to the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the program and related data according to the present embodiment may be loaded directly from the medium (not shown) into the RAM 502 and executed. Alternatively, the program according to the present embodiment may be recorded in the ROM 503, configured so as to form a part of the memory map, and directly executed by the CPU 501.

  In this embodiment, for convenience of explanation, a configuration in which resources are distributed between the server computer 101 and the editing computer 102 will be described. However, the functions of the server computer 101 and the editing computer 102 are realized by one information processing apparatus. May be. Or you may implement | achieve by the structure which distributed the resource to three or more apparatuses. For example, storage and calculation resources may be distributed in a plurality of devices. Alternatively, resources may be distributed for each component virtually realized on the information processing apparatus, and parallel processing may be performed.

(User interface editing process)
Next, the flow of user interface editing processing provided by the editing computer 102 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of the user interface editing process. As described above, in the present embodiment, the processing according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 is executed by the CPU 501 of the editing computer controlling the apparatus based on editing software.

  In the present embodiment, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that a developer of a user interface using the editing computer 102 intends to design a user interface of the digital camera A using user interface editing software (editing software). To do. The user interface to be designed is assumed to be a multimodal user interface including a GUI and voice input / output. Further, it is assumed that the device information of the digital camera A is stored in the server computer 101, and the editing computer 102 downloads the device information of the digital camera A from the server computer 101 and uses it.

  When the editing software is activated by the developer, the editing computer 102 displays an editing screen 1000 on the LCD 504 in step S600. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an editing screen. As shown in FIG. 10, the editing screen 1000 includes a GUI editing tab 1001 and a voice input / output editing tab 1002.

  In step S <b> 601, the editing software loads the default device information into the work area of the RAM 502. The default device information is stored in advance in a storage device such as the HDD 505 of the editing computer 102.

  Next, in step S602, it is determined whether or not the developer has requested to load another device information instead of the default device information. When the device information is requested by the developer (YES in step S602), the process proceeds to step S603. When the device information is not requested (NO in step S602), the process proceeds to step S604.

  In step S603, the device information requested by the developer is loaded into the work area of the RAM 502. However, if the requested device information exists in the external device, the device information is downloaded via the network 103.

  In order to allow a developer to request device information, the editing computer 102 provides a user interface for entering the location of the device information to be loaded. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a user interface for a developer to input a location of device information. In FIG. 11, reference numeral 1101 denotes an input interface for the developer to input the location of the device information. Reference numerals 1102 and 1104 denote check boxes, and 1102 is selected when device information is loaded from a local file, and 1104 is selected when device information is downloaded from an external apparatus (network computer). Reference numeral 1103 denotes a reference button for opening an interface for referring to a local file in response to pressing (selection) by the developer when downloading device information from the local file. As an interface for referring to the local file, for example, an interface provided by the operating system of the information processing apparatus can be used. Reference numeral 1105 denotes an input area for inputting URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) of the external apparatus when device information is downloaded from the external apparatus. The editing computer 102 accesses the specified device information in response to the device information being specified by the developer via the input interface 1101.

For example, the URI of the device information of the digital camera A stored in the server computer 101
http://A-company.co.jp/Camera1.dev
An example of the case of designating will be described. In this case, the developer selects 1104 as shown in FIG. 11 and inputs this URI in 1105. In response to the URI input to the input area 1105 by the developer, the editing computer 101 accesses information specified by the input URI. In this case, since it is necessary to access the server computer 101, the device information request transmission unit 303 requests the device information “Camera1.dev” of the digital camera A from the server computer 101. In response to this request, the server computer 101 transmits device information “Camera1.dev” of the digital camera A to the editing computer 102. In this way, the editing computer 102 can download device information. Note that the process of acquiring device information with reference to a local file is performed by a normal operating system, and thus the description thereof is omitted. After the above processing, the process proceeds to step S604.

  In step S604, a UI description document describing design information of a user interface related to development is loaded into the work area of the RAM 502. In this process, when a UI description document is newly created, a UI description document that is not edited in the work area of the RAM 502 is generated. The UI description document edited in advance is stored in a storage device such as the HDD 505 functioning as the UI description document holding unit 302. When further editing, the UI description document is read from the HDD 505 or the like and stored in the work area of the RAM 502. Load it. When loading a pre-edited UI description document, a file reference interface provided by the operating system can be used.

  Next, in step S605, based on the UI description document to be edited and the device information loaded in the work area of the RAM 502, the UI description document conforms to the constraints related to the device described in the device information. It is determined whether or not. If the UI description document conforms to the device information (YES in step S605), the process proceeds to step S607. If the UI description document does not conform (NO in step S605), the process proceeds to step S606. In step S606, information for notifying the developer that the UI description document does not conform to the device information, that is, is inconsistent is displayed on the LCD 504, and the process proceeds to step S607. Details of the process related to the suitability determination in step S605 and the process of displaying the presence of contradiction in step S606 will be described later.

  In step S607, an instruction input from the developer via the instruction input device 508 is received. If the instruction input from the developer relates to the display of the editing interface (YES in step S608), the process proceeds to step S609.

  The editing software controls the GUI screen design of the device including the arrangement of GUI parts such as buttons on the GUI editing tab 1001 in FIG. In addition, on the voice editing tab 1002 in FIG. Further, an event, such as an action when a device button is pressed, is controlled so that an event and an action for the event can be edited.

  In order to enable such a design, the editing software provides an editing interface that allows editing of UI description documents within a range of constraints that conform to the characteristics of the device input / output devices indicated in the device information. To do. Then, by controlling the editing interface so that the developer can easily switch, the burden on the developer's design is reduced. For example, when a pointer is set on a button displayed on the GUI edit tab 1001, when a right-click of the pointing device is input, a display color of the button, a process performed when the button is pressed, etc. Controls display of the editing interface. The process proceeds to step S609 when an instruction input relating to the display of such an editing interface is made by the developer.

  In step S609, an editing interface corresponding to the instruction input is displayed. As will be described later, this editing interface is an interface for editing a UI description document related to a user interface, and allows editing within a range of constraints that conform to the characteristics indicated in the device information. Also, the editing interface presents operation options related to editing of the UI description document that is allowed within the range of constraints that conform to the characteristics indicated in the device information, and is based on the options selected by instructions from the developer. Perform the editing. For this reason, the user can perform a design suitable for the device information by editing the UI description document using the editing interface. An example of such an editing interface and its operation will be described later. After step S609, the process returns to step S607.

  If the instruction input from the developer received in step S607 is an editing operation related to the UI of the device (YES in step S610), the process proceeds to step S611. In step S611, it is determined whether each editing operation of the input UI is compatible with the characteristics relating to the input / output device of the device indicated in the device information. If the editing operation matches the characteristics related to the input / output device of the device (YES in step S611), the UI description document is updated according to the editing operation (step S612), and the process returns to step S607. If it does not match (NO in step S611), the editing operation is not accepted and nothing is done, and the process returns to step S607.

  Hereinafter, the process according to step S611 will be described in detail. Device information will be described. FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing the digital camera A taken up as an example of a UI development target device in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 9, the digital camera A includes a display screen 902, a shutter button 903, a menu button 904, a SET button 905, and a help button 906.

The device information of the digital camera A can be expressed as an XML document 701 as shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating device information. Device information is described in a <DeviceProperty> element 702. Each element in the <DeviceProperty> element 702 has the following meaning. That is,
A <DisplaySize> element 703 is an element describing the size of the display screen. FIG. 7 shows an example in which the size of the display screen is 640 × 400.
A <Colors> element 704 is an element describing a list of colors that can be displayed by the device. In the case of FIG. 7, the displayable colors are eight colors.
A <Microphone> element 705 is an element that describes whether or not the device includes a microphone. If the value of the <Microphone> element 705 is “yes”, it means that a microphone is provided, and if it is “no”, it means that it is not provided. Therefore, the example of FIG. 7 includes a microphone.
A <Speaker> element 706 is an element that describes whether or not the device includes a speaker. When the value of the <Speaker> element 706 is “yes”, the speaker is provided, and when the value is “no”, it indicates that the speaker is not provided. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 7, an <EventList> element 707 including a speaker is an element that describes a list of events generated internally by this device. Each event type name is described in the <EventType> element 708 of the child element. “OnPress.XXXX” is an event that a physical button XXXX is pressed by the user of the device, and “OnSystemEvent.YYYY” is an event inside the system called YYYY. For example, “OnSystemEvent.MemoryCardFull” is an event “a memory card is full”.

  In addition, said element is illustrated for the convenience of description and is not restricted to this. In this embodiment, the case where the device document is described as an XML document is taken as an example. However, it is apparent that the device document may be described in another format that can be processed by the information processing apparatus.

  The editing software can acquire the display screen size from the content of the <DisplaySize> element 703 included in the device information. On the GUI editing tab, a frame indicating the display screen size is displayed as shown at 1203 in FIG. indicate. The editing software constrains the developer so that the GUI window 1204 and other GUI components do not stick out of this frame. That is, if the GUI component fits in the display screen size, it is determined that it matches the device information (YES in S611), and the UI description document is updated according to the editing operation (step S612). If the UI component does not fit in the display screen size, it is determined that the UI component does not match the device information (NO in S611), and the UI description document is not updated, and the state transitions to a state waiting for instruction input (step S607).

  The editing software can obtain the displayable colors of the digital camera A from the <Colors> element 704 of the device information. For this reason, when the developer tries to specify the background color of a certain GUI component, for example, the editing interface related to the background color is displayed according to the developer's instruction input (YES in step S608) (step S609). Reference numeral 1301 in FIG. 13 exemplifies a background color setting panel as an editing interface related to the background color. The editing software controls the developer to select a desired color from the displayable colors presented on the background color setting panel. In this way, it is possible to restrict the selection of colors that cannot be displayed.

  Also, the editing software can obtain a list of generated events from the <EventList> element 707 of the device information. For this reason, when the developer tries to edit the action for the event, for example, in response to the developer's instruction input (YES in step S608), the editing interface related to the event setting is displayed (step S609). Reference numeral 1401 in FIG. 14 illustrates an event setting panel as an editing interface related to event setting. The editing software controls the developer so that a desired event type can be selected from among the event types presented in the form of a pull-down menu 1402 on the event setting panel. With this configuration, the event type selected by the developer can be restricted to those included in the event list obtained from the <EventList> element 707. The editing software presents options related to a preset event common to all devices, and edits the UI description document related to event handling based on the options selected by an instruction from the developer. It can also be configured as follows.

  In addition, the editing software uses the <Microphone> element 705 and the <Speaker> element 706 of device information to determine whether or not the device includes an input / output device (such as a microphone and a speaker) that inputs and outputs audio. Can be obtained. For this reason, the editing software provides an editing interface that allows editing of a UI design document related to voice input / output when the input / output device is provided with voice input / output as described above. be able to.

The user interface designed by the editing operation as described above is described as a UI description document such as 1601 in FIG. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UI description document. FIG. 16 illustrates a case where the UI description is described using XHTML (http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/) which is the W3C specification. 1602 is a description of an operation for an event, and illustrates a case where it is described using XML Events (http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-events/) which is a W3C specification. Reference numeral 1602 describes an “OnPress.Help” event, that is, an operation when the help button 906 is pressed.
<Cmm: start component = "HelpMessage"/>
Means that a UI component having an ID of “HelpMessage” is executed. The UI component having the ID “HelpMessage” is a <cmm: prompt> element 1604. This is an audio output component, and when the operation of <cmm: start> in 1602 is executed, the audio is output as "Operation guide ...". Reference numeral 1603 denotes a description of a GUI part.

  The above UI description document is illustrated for convenience of explanation, and is not limited thereto. In this embodiment, the case where the UI description document is described as an XML document is taken as an example. However, it is obvious that the UI description document may be described in another format that can be processed by the information processing apparatus.

  If the instruction input from the developer received in step S607 is to save the UI description document (YES in step S613), the process proceeds to step S615. In step S615, the UI description document stored in the HDD 505 functioning as the UI description document holding unit 302 is updated with the UI description document being edited loaded into the RAM 502. Then, the process returns to step S607.

  If the instruction input from the developer received in step S607 is the end of UI editing (YES in step S613), the process ends.

  Next, the process relating to the suitability determination in step S605 and the process of displaying the presence of contradiction in step S606 will be described. For convenience of explanation, it is assumed here that the developer diverts the user interface designed as the digital camera A when designing the user interface of the digital camera B of another model as shown in FIG. FIG. 17 is a diagram schematically showing the digital camera B.

  Based on the instruction input from the developer, the editing computer 102 downloads the device information of the digital camera B from the server computer 101 in the same manner as described above. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing device information of the digital camera B. 801 in FIG. 8 indicates device information of the digital camera B.

  In this case, in step S605 in FIG. 6, the editing computer 102 checks the contradiction between the UI description document 1601 and the device information 801. As described above, 1602 describes the operation for the “OnPress.Help” event. However, the device information 801 does not include an “OnPress.Help” event in the <EventList> element 802. This is because the digital camera B has no help button. Accordingly, inconsistency is detected in the description of 1602, and the editing software displays a warning message such as “There is no“ OnPress.Help ”event” in step S606. Further, the value of the <Speaker> element 803 is “no” 801. That is, the digital camera B cannot output sound. However, the UI description document 1601 includes a description of an audio output component as 1604. This is also detected as a contradiction, and a warning message such as “This device cannot output audio. Please delete the audio output component” is displayed.

  Note that FIG. 6 shows the case where the process related to the compatibility determination between the UI description document and the device information is performed when the UI description document is loaded. You may comprise so that it may be performed with an opportunity. For example, it can be configured to be triggered by an editing operation (YES in step S610) or a UI editing process storage (step S615).

  As described above, the editing computer 102 according to the present embodiment provides an editing interface for editing the UI description document related to the user interface of the device based on an instruction input from the user. However, the editing computer 102 reads device information indicating characteristics related to the input / output devices included in the device, and allows editing by the user within a range of constraint conditions that match the characteristics indicated in the device information. Therefore, the device designer can efficiently design the user interface that matches the characteristics of the device without checking the specifications of the input / output devices provided in the device. For this reason, the designer can easily design user interfaces of information devices having various forms.

<< Second Embodiment >>
The user interface editing software in the first embodiment is composed of a GUI editing tab and a voice editing tab as shown in FIG. However, if the device information is 801 and it is found that the device does not include a microphone or a speaker, the audio editing tab may not be displayed as shown in FIG.

<< Other Embodiments >>
The object of the present invention can also be achieved as follows. That is, a storage medium in which a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded is supplied to the system or apparatus. Then, the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus reads and executes the program code stored in the storage medium. It goes without saying that the purpose is achieved even in this way.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

  Further, the embodiments according to the present invention are not limited to the case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by executing the program code read by the computer. For example, an OS (operating system) running on a computer performs part or all of actual processing based on an instruction of the program code, and the functions of the above-described embodiments may be realized by the processing. Needless to say, it is included.

  Furthermore, the functions of the embodiment according to the present invention are also realized as follows. That is, the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. Then, based on the instruction of the program code, the CPU provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing. It goes without saying that the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by this processing.

It is a block diagram of a computer system incorporating an information processing apparatus. It is the block diagram which showed the function structure of the server computer. It is the block diagram which showed the function structure of the editing computer. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of a server computer. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of an edit computer. It is the flowchart which showed the flow of the user interface edit process. It is the figure which illustrated device information. 4 is a diagram showing device information of a digital camera B. FIG. It is the figure which showed digital camera A typically. It is the figure which illustrated the edit screen. It is the figure which illustrated the user interface for a developer to input the location of device information. It is a figure which shows a mode that the frame which shows a display screen size was displayed on the GUI edit tab. It is the figure which illustrated the background color setting panel. It is the figure which illustrated the event setting panel. It is the figure which showed the edit screen which does not contain an audio | voice edit tab. It is a figure which illustrates UI description document. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a digital camera B. FIG.

Claims (12)

An information processing apparatus for editing design information related to a user interface of a device,
Reading means for reading device information indicating characteristics of the input / output device included in the device;
An editing means for presenting an interface for editing the design information, and editing the design information based on an instruction input from a user;
An information processing apparatus comprising: restriction means for restricting the editing so as to conform to the characteristics indicated in the device information. The device information includes a display size of a display device included in the device,
The constraint means is
2. The editing unit according to claim 1, wherein when the design information related to the window to be displayed on the display device is edited, the editing is restricted so that the size of the window does not become larger than the display size. The information processing apparatus described in 1. The restriction means causes the editing means to present an interface including options for operations related to the editing in a range that matches the characteristics,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the editing unit performs the editing based on the option selected by a user. The editing includes editing related to event handling that describes an operation according to an event that occurs in the operation of the input / output device,
The restriction means causes the editing means to present an interface including preset event options,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the editing unit performs editing related to the event handling based on the option selected by a user. The device information includes a list of events that occur internally in response to the operation of the input / output device,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the restriction unit causes the editing unit to present an interface including an option of an event included in the list information. The device information includes color information indicating a displayable color of a display device included in the device,
The restriction means causes the editing means to present an interface including options of the displayable colors indicated in the color information in editing related to colors displayed on the display device,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the editing unit performs editing related to the color based on the option selected by a user. The device information includes presence / absence information on whether or not the device includes a voice input / output device,
The restriction means performs the editing restriction so as to permit editing of the design information related to voice input / output only when the voice input / output device is provided. The information processing apparatus according to any one of 6. A communication means for communicating with an external device;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reading unit reads the device information acquired from the external apparatus via the communication unit. An information processing apparatus for editing design information related to a user interface of a device,
Reading means for reading device information indicating characteristics of the input / output device included in the device;
Determination means for determining whether the design information conforms to the characteristics indicated in the device information;
In the determination means, if it is determined that it does not fit, a notification means for notifying the user to that effect,
An information processing apparatus comprising: an editing unit that presents an interface for editing the design information and edits the design information based on an instruction input from a user. A control method of an information processing apparatus for editing design information related to a user interface of a device,
A reading step of reading device information indicating characteristics of the input / output device included in the device;
Presenting an interface for editing the design information, and editing step for editing the design information based on an instruction input from a user,
A control method for an information processing apparatus, which restricts the editing in the editing step so as to conform to the characteristics indicated in the device information. A control method of an information processing apparatus for editing design information related to a user interface of a device,
A reading step of reading device information indicating characteristics of the input / output device included in the device;
A determination step of determining whether or not the design information conforms to the characteristics indicated in the device information;
In the determination step, if it is determined that it does not fit, a notification step of notifying the user to that effect,
An information processing apparatus control method comprising: an editing step of presenting an interface for editing the design information and editing the design information based on an instruction input from a user.   A program for causing a computer to function as the information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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