JP3969557B2 - Intelligent partition - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an intelligent partition that can autonomously know where a partition is located in a room in an office.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In offices, many computers and printers are connected via a network such as a LAN. When OA devices such as printers are placed in offices, it is possible to manage what devices are located at which locations. very difficult. Therefore, even if you want to output to a printer near a personal computer or input an image using a nearby scanner, it becomes difficult to know which scanner or printer on the network is nearby. ing.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, as seen in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-107621, with the change in the office layout using partitions, it is not necessary to move and install communication cables and power cables, and to facilitate wiring work. A system in which a power cable and a communication cable are laid inside the partition has been proposed.
[0004]
As a result, the partitions are easily connected, and network connection is also possible. Here, if it is assumed that the partitions are always connected at a predetermined angle (such as 90 degrees) via a contact point, the position of each partition can be almost assumed based on the partition at a certain base point. it can.
[0005]
In an office using the above-mentioned OA partition, office equipment (printer, personal computer, etc.) may be connected to a network via an information outlet in the nearest partition.
[0006]
From this fact, if it is possible to know which partition is connected to the information outlet in which partition, the location of the office device can be almost specified.
[0007]
The present invention has been made based on the above consideration,
An object of the present invention is to provide an intelligent partition capable of managing the location of office equipment in an office.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In the present invention, the distance and direction from the base column to each column are stored in the storage device in the column. Hubs and information outlets embedded in partitions use the distance and direction obtained from the nearest pillar as their location information. When an office device such as a personal computer is connected to the hub and the network monitoring software requests to send information on the device connected to the hub, the device information and position information are returned to the network monitoring software.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0010]
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. 1, 2, 3, 4 are partitions that can be connected to a network, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are pillars (or columns), 9, 10 are hubs or communication outlets, 11 is a personal computer, and 12 is a printer.
[0011]
As the partitions 1, 2, 3, and 4 that can be connected to the network, for example, the partitions described in the above publication are used. Of the pillars 5 to 8, for example, the pillar 6 is a base pillar. The device connected to the hub is not limited to the above example, and may be another device such as a scanner.
[0012]
The network connectable partition 1 is connected to the network through the base pillar 6. All the pillars 5, 7, and 8 including the base pillar 6 are assumed to be rectangular parallelepipeds. Then, there are always four contacts on the pillar, and up to four contacts that can be connected to the network.
[0013]
Assuming that one of the directions toward the base pillar 6 is 0 degree and the rest is 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees, the positional relationship between the base pillar 6 and any partition is the connection direction of the intermediate pillars. It can be determined only by the width of the passing partition.
[0014]
Based on these information, a function that can store the distance between the pillars in the pillar is prepared, and this is obtained by acquiring information from the network using a network monitoring protocol (for example, SNMP, Simple Network Monitoring Protocol). You can recognize where the pillar is.
[0015]
Next, the information outlets (or hubs) 9 and 10 embedded in the partition obtain the position information of the nearest pillar and use it as their own position information. When requesting to send information (for example, models) of the devices 11 and 12 connected to the device, position information is returned in addition to the information.
[0016]
FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart for calculating the relative position from the basic pillar to an arbitrary pillar. The column 6 shown in FIG. 1 is a base column, and the top is a 0 ° direction, the left is a 90 ° direction, the bottom is a 180 ° direction, and the right is a 270 ° direction.
[0017]
The partition 3 is attached to the right of the pillar 6 (step 101). The pillar 6 recognizes that the partition is mounted on the right side among the four contacts of the pillar 6 and records it in a storage device (not shown) of the pillar 6. In addition, the width information of the partition included in the storage device (not shown) inside the partition is notified from the contact point with the pillar 6 and is similarly recorded in the storage device of the pillar 6 (step 102).
[0018]
Next, the pillar 7 is attached to the right of the partition 3 (step 103). The pillar 7 recognizes that the partition 3 is attached to one of the four contacts. Subsequently, the partition 3 is connected to the column 6 via the data transfer path inside the partition 3 between the columns 6-7, and the direction is 270 ° when viewed from the column 6, and the width of the partition between them. Is notified to the pillar 7. As a result, the fact that the column 6 is in the direction of 90 ° and the distance to the column 6 are recorded in the storage device of the column 7. Also, it is recorded in the storage device of the pillar 6 that the pillar 7 is connected in the direction of 270 ° via the partition 3 (step 104).
[0019]
When the new partition 4 and the column 8 are connected in the direction of 180 ° from the column 7, first, when the partition 4 is connected to the column 7 in the same manner as the above steps 101 to 104, the storage device of the column 7 The partition connection direction (180 °) and its width are recorded.
[0020]
Next, when the column 8 is connected, the column 8 is in the direction of 0 ° through the partition 4 between the columns 7-8 (this is because the column 8 is in the direction of 180 ° from the column 7). This direction and the distance to the column 7 (that is, the width of the partition between the columns 7-8) are recorded in the storage device.
[0021]
The relative position from the column 8 to the base column 6 is obtained (step 105). The column 8 first determines the distance between the columns 6-7 and the direction of the column 6 viewed from the column 7 with respect to the column 7. Next, the distance between the columns 8-7 and the direction of the column 7 viewed from the column 8 are obtained from the storage device, and two orthogonal vectors (that is, the 0 ° direction, the 180 ° direction, the 90 ° direction, and the 270 ° direction) are obtained. The distance is accumulated every time (the reverse direction is subtracted), and the square root of the sum of squares of these two values becomes the distance from the base pillar 6 to the pillar 8. Alternatively, when the city block distance is used as this distance, a simple sum may be obtained.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, since the connection direction to the pillar and the partition width information are managed, the location of the office device connected to the information outlet in the own partition is returned to the network monitoring software. be able to.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart for calculating a relative position from a basic pillar to an arbitrary pillar.
[Explanation of symbols]
1, 2, 3, 4 Partition 5, 6, 7, 8 Pillar 9, 10 Hub 11 Personal computer 12 Laser printer

Claims (1)

Each room of the office is configured by a plurality of partitions having signal lines for communication and a plurality of pillars that connect the partitions to each other and can also connect the signal lines, and each partition recognizes a position in the office. An intelligent partition having a function , wherein each column stores a distance and a direction from a base column, and each partition recognizes a position based on a distance and a direction acquired from the nearest column. An intelligent partition characterized by that.

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