JP2815928B2 - Shared screen control method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a shared screen control method in a computer system for a plurality of users to cooperate, and in particular, to display a pointer held by each user on a display device of all users. The present invention relates to a screen control method for smoothly performing cooperative work by groups such as office work, design work, software development, and the like by superimposing and displaying the information.

(Prior art)

In a conventional word processor or personal computer, each user has his or her own computer (CPU), memory, and display device (screen), and uses it to process personal tasks such as document creation and spreadsheets.

In a distributed computer system, these computers are connected to a local area network (LA).
N), by connecting via a communication network such as a wide area network, it is possible to exchange information with other users using the e-mail function, share information with other users using the file server function, etc. ( Akihiro Uetani "J Star Workstation", Maruzen Co., Ltd., 1986).

In addition, there is a means for enabling a conference between users distributed in remote places by real-time communication of voice and image, such as a video conference system.

It is possible to disperse to a remote location and to have a meeting while looking at each other's faces and presented documents by multimedia communication of voice and images.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, with the conventional electronic mail function and file server function, it is impossible for a plurality of users to share the same information in real time and perform an instruction operation on the information in real time with a storage-type communication function.

Further, in the means for enabling a conference between users distributed in remote places by real-time voice and image communication as in the conventional video conference system, an instruction operation on a document presented by the other party, for example, "I understand well here. There is a problem in that it is not possible to indicate the location with a pointer such as a cursor so that the other party can see it.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems.

An object of the present invention is to provide a shared screen control method in which a plurality of users can simultaneously perform an instruction operation.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention are as follows.
It will become apparent from the description of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Means for solving the problem]

To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in a shared screen control method in a computer system in which a plurality of users work together, a user i (i = 1, 2,...,
n) a plurality of pointer generators for generating pointing information for each user in response to the request of n), and pointing information for each user generated by each pointer generator;
A plurality of pointer transmission units for transmitting identification information of each user; a pointer display information registration unit for storing the size, shape, and coordinate position of the pointer for each user; A pointer synthesizing unit that updates the coordinate position of the pointer for each user stored in the pointer display information registration unit with the pointing information transmitted from the plurality of pointer transmission units, based on the user identification information, A superimposed image signal generating unit that generates an image signal obtained by superimposing the image signal and the n pointers generated by the pointer synthesizing unit; and an image signal generated by the superimposed image signal generating unit for each user. The most main feature is that it comprises an image signal distributor for distributing, and a plurality of display devices for displaying image signals distributed by the image signal distributor to each user. That.

[Action]

According to the above-described means, a plurality of users each have a pointer that can be visually distinguished, display them simultaneously on one screen, and further display the image information (such as an output screen of a computer or a television) input from the outside. By superimposing the output signal on the display device of each user while superimposing it on the display device of each user, it becomes possible to simultaneously display the pointers of each user that can be visually distinguished.

That is, the instruction operation of the user i (i = 1, 2,..., N) is generated as pointing information for each user in a pointer generation unit provided for each user.

The pointer display information registration unit stores how each user's pointer is displayed, that is, the size, shape, and coordinate position of each user's pointer. The coordinate position of each user stored in the pointer display information registration unit is updated with the pointing information of each user transmitted via each pointer transmission unit based on the user identification information transmitted from .

In the superimposed image signal generation unit, the image signal input from the outside and the pointer for each user synthesized by the pointer synthesis unit are synthesized by overlapping, and the synthesis result is obtained for each user by the image signal distributor. It is distributed and displayed on the display device of each user.

In this way, it is possible to simultaneously display the visually distinguishable pointers of the respective users.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a screen sharing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which two pointers of a user A and a user B are simultaneously displayed.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes an A-pointer generator, and reference numeral 12 denotes an A-pointer.
-A pointer transmission unit, 13 is a B-pointer generation unit, 14 is a B-
Pointer transmission unit, 15 is a pointer synthesis unit, 16 is a pointer display information registration unit, 17 is a superimposed image signal generation unit, 18 is an image signal distribution unit, 19 is a computer, 20 is a display device of user A,
Reference numeral 21 denotes a display device of the user B.

The A-pointer generator 11 detects a change in the designated position between the time t-1 and the time t based on the operation of the user A, and obtains a coordinate value (XA, Y) representing the change in the position on the screen.
A).

The A-pointer transmitting unit 12 encodes the coordinate values (XA, YA) and further adds the id of the user A to the pointer synthesizing unit.
Send to 15.

Similarly, the operation by the user B is performed by the B-pointer generation unit.
Coordinate value (XB, YB) representing the change in position on the screen at 13
, And sent to the pointer synthesizing unit 15 via the B-pointer transmitting unit 14.

The pointer display information registration unit 16 stores the display information of each user's pointer, that is, the size, shape, color, and the like of the pointer.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the pointer display information registration section 16.

In FIG. 2, the pointer display method for each user and the coordinates of the pointer on the screen at the previous time are stored.

The pointer synthesizing unit 15 changes the coordinates (XA, Y
Upon receiving (A), the following processing is performed by checking the contents of the pointer display information registration unit 16.

The transmission source user, that is, user A is specified by collating with the user id, and the pointer display method is determined.

The pointer of the user A displayed at the coordinate position of the previous time, that is, the position of (100, 26) on the screen is deleted from the screen.

The coordinates at the current time are calculated by adding the position change (XA, YA) to the coordinates (100, 26) at the previous time. The pointer of the user A is displayed at the calculated coordinate position (100 + XA, 26 + YA), and the coordinate value (100, 26) of the pointer display information registration unit 16 at the previous time is replaced with the calculation result (100 + XA, 26 + YA) and updated. I do.

These processes are similarly performed on the signal transmitted from the user B.

The superimposed image signal generation unit 17 synthesizes the output image signal from the computer 19 by superimposing the pointer image of each user generated by the pointer synthesis unit 15. As a result, for example, an image as shown in FIG. 3 is generated.

The image signal distribution unit 18 distributes the composite image signal generated by the superimposed image signal generation unit 17 to each user. As a result, the user A and the user B can see the image synthesized by the respective display devices 20 and 21.

As can be understood from the above description, according to the present embodiment, a plurality of pointers can be superimposed and displayed on an output image of a computer, and a plurality of users can simultaneously perform an instruction operation and display the results on the screen. It is possible to see in.

In this embodiment, an example of two persons is shown, but in general, n persons (n =
Needless to say, 3, 4, 5,... N) is also possible.

In the present embodiment, the pointer display method in the pointer display information registration unit 16 is shown by a diagram, but the application is arbitrary as long as the display method of each user's pointer can be determined.

Further, in the present embodiment, an output signal from a computer has been described as an example of an image signal provided to the superimposed image signal generation unit 17, but for example, a signal from a television camera, etc.
The application is arbitrary as long as it is an image signal. FIG. 4 shows a configuration example in which a signal from a television camera is input, and FIG. 5 shows an image of the image at this time. In FIG. 4,
31 is a television camera, 32 is a pointer synthesis unit, 33 is a superimposed image signal generation unit, and 34 is an image signal distribution unit.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the pointer synthesizing unit 32 and the pointer transmitting unit of each user are explicitly coupled, but signals are exchanged between the two via a communication network. May be.

Similarly, the exchange of signals between the image signal distribution unit 34 and the display device of each user may be performed via a communication network.

As mentioned above, although the present invention was explained concretely based on an example, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned example.
It goes without saying that various changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, any information (output from a computer or output from a TV camera) that can be displayed on a screen can be displayed by superimposing a pointer of each user on a screen. The user can perform an instruction operation at the same time.

In addition, since the display method of the pointer can be defined for each user, it is possible to uniquely and immediately determine which pointer is which pointer on the screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a screen sharing system as one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing one embodiment of a pointer display information registration unit of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen in which a computer screen and pointers of users A and B are combined in this embodiment. FIG. 4 shows a configuration example when a signal from a television camera is used as an external image signal. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen on which an image signal from a television camera and pointers of users A and B are combined. In the figure, 11... A-pointer generator, 12... A-pointer transmitter, 13... B-pointer generator, 14... B-pointer transmitter, 15, 32. ... Pointer display information registration unit, 17,33 ... Superimposed image signal generation unit, 18,34
…… Image signal distribution unit, 19 …… Computer, 20,21 ……
Display device, 31 ... TV camera.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-63-30928 (JP, A) JP-A-1-276892 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G09G 5/00-5/40 G06F 3/14-3/153

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A shared screen control method in a computer system in which a plurality of users cooperate, wherein a plurality of pointing information for each user is generated in response to a request from a user i (i = 1, 2,..., N). A pointer generation unit; a plurality of pointer transmission units that transmit the pointing information for each user generated by the pointer generation units and identification information of each user; and the size, shape, and coordinates of the pointer for each user. A pointer display information registration unit that stores a position, and based on the user identification information transmitted from the plurality of pointer transmission units, the pointer display information registration unit based on pointing information transmitted from the plurality of pointer transmission units. A pointer synthesizing unit that updates the coordinate position of the pointer for each user stored in the user interface; A superimposed image signal generating unit that generates an image signal in which the generated n pointers are superimposed; an image signal distributor that distributes the image signal generated by the superimposed image signal generating unit to each user; A shared screen control system, comprising: a plurality of display devices for displaying image signals distributed by the image signal distributor to each user.