JPH01227550A - Document communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow a user to easily designate the sequence of communication between document components, and simultaneously, to switch data mutually between different systems by composing a document of the document components and a communicating procedure describing part, transmitting and receiving the communicating procedure describing part between terminals first, and transmitting/receiving the document components between the terminals according to the communicating order. CONSTITUTION:The whole document is not sent collectively, but it is communicated in document component units, namely, in the forms of document contents and the communication procedure describing part prepared by single medium information. At such a time, even the communication procedure is made into one document component, the communication procedure describing part is added to a document construction, the communication procedure describing part is switched at the beginning of a document communication, and thereafter, the communication is executed according to the described contents. Thus, the designations of response speed and a display order different at every communication service can be released to the user as the description of the communication procedure, and since the communication procedure describing part is character information, preparation and maintenance can be executed by using the input and edit systems of the character information, and further, by standardizing the description format, the data can be switched even between the different systems.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is useful for multimedia document communication, especially conversational communication services such as database searches and conference services. The present invention relates to a method for communicating multimedia documents composed of information.

(Prior Art) Many document structures including still images, graphics, audio, text, etc. have been proposed and standardization is progressing. As shown in FIG. 3, these document structures are defined as a model in which areas consisting of a plurality of media information are superimposed, and four documents are rectangular areas 31a and 31b called blocks in a page 30.

It is constructed by combining 31c and 31d. Each block stores a single piece of media information. Audio information is also held in the same format but is output in the form of audio 32.

In order to communicate documents with this type of structure between terminals or hosts connected to a network, there is a method of defining a standard document model structure as a communication protocol and collectively communicating information encoded according to the document structure. is used. On the other hand, when communicating non-coded information with a large amount of information such as image information and audio information, a method has been proposed in which the communication service directly controls the communication (computer,
10.1985, pages 82-92), this is a method in which a communication service determines the document transmission procedure to send text, image, and audio in that order, and transmits and receives encoded data in that order. This method makes it possible to communicate multimedia documents using existing communication protocols that can only send text information.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the method of communicating documents encoded all at once, one document is communicated as a whole, so
Communication delay time depends on the content of the document, and the response time will be slower for documents that contain large amounts of data such as audio information and image information, making it difficult to achieve high-speed responses in conversational communication services such as database searches and conference services. The drawback was that it was difficult to implement. Furthermore, the method in which the communication service directly determines the communication order has the disadvantage that it is difficult to exchange information between different systems because the document structure depends on the communication service.

An object of the present invention is to provide a document communication method that achieves high-speed response in document communication, allows users to easily specify the order of communication between document components, and allows exchange between different systems. be.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The document communication method of the present invention is a method for communicating document information between a plurality of terminals connected to a network, and includes a document component consisting of a plurality of media information and the document structure. A document is configured from a communication procedure description part that describes the communication order of the elements, and during communication, the communication procedure description part is first sent and received between terminals, and both terminals interpret the communication procedure description part,
The method is characterized in that the document components are sequentially transmitted and received between the terminals according to the communication order.

(effect) The document communication method of the present invention will be explained.

Even if you use data compression technology, audio information and image information have a relatively large amount of information compared to text and data information. Therefore, in multimedia documents that include audio information and image information in addition to text and data information, If documents are encoded and sent in batches, the total amount of information to be transmitted will increase, and the transmission delay time will increase.Although it is possible to support non-conversational services such as e-mail, it is difficult to use for database searches and conference systems. For services that require conversational responses, it is difficult to send and receive documents containing audio and images with a fast response time.

Therefore, in the method of the present invention, instead of sending all documents at once, the communication service communicates in document component units.For example, text information is first sent and displayed on the screen, then audio is sent, and text information is By sending image information while explaining the content using audio output, response time can be speeded up by processing communication and display or communication and storage in a pipeline in conversational services. It becomes possible. Here, the document component unit refers to a document content or communication procedure description section made up of single media information.

However, if the communication procedures are decided by the service side, it is difficult to exchange information between different systems.

Therefore, the communication procedure is added to the document structure as a communication procedure description part as a document component, and the communication procedure description part is exchanged at the beginning of document communication, and thereafter communication is performed according to the written contents.

Therefore, in the method of the present invention, it is possible to allow the user to specify response speeds and display orders that differ for each communication service as a communication procedure description.

Therefore, the document communication method of the present invention has the flexibility to construct an optimal communication procedure on the service side.

Furthermore, since the communication procedure description section is text information, it can be created and maintained using a text information input and editing system. Furthermore, by standardizing the description format, data can be exchanged between different systems.

Furthermore, if the communication procedure description part is not necessary for existing non-conversational services, there will be no problem if the content is ignored and communicated as one of the text information.

In the following description of document communication, only the communication procedure will be described.6 It is assumed that actual communication of individual media information is communicated using a protocol compatible with the network.

(Embodiment) FIGS. 1(a), (b), (c), and (d) are diagrams illustrating an embodiment of the multimedia document communication method of the present invention. FIG. 1(a) is a diagram showing the data structure of a multimedia document handled by the method of this embodiment, in which 1 is a communication procedure description section that describes the communication order, 2a and 2b are character information, 3 is graphics information, 4 is audio information, 5 is image information, 6a
, 6b, 6c, 6d, and 6e are identifiers for uniquely identifying each piece of media information. It is assumed that each piece of media information is encoded using a respective method and stored on the terminal.

FIG. 1(b) shows a specific example of the communication procedure description section 1. As shown in FIG. Terminal symbols 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d.

The identifiers 6a, 6b separated by 7e.

6c, 6d, 6e and an end of file symbol (EOF) 8. The order of each of the identifiers becomes the communication order.

FIGS. 1(c) and 1(d) are diagrams for explaining the communication procedure of the multimedia document expressed in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b). The following explanation assumes that the connection between the terminals has already been completed.

The sending terminal sends the data using the following steps.

(1) Send the communication procedure description part 1 to the receiving terminal together with a document transmission request (100).

(ii) Next, the communication procedure description part 1 is interpreted up to the file end code 8, and it is determined that the transmission has been completed (ioi).

(2) If the transmission has not yet been completed, the communication procedure description section 1 is scanned, and up to the next file end symbol are used as the identifier of the document component to be sent next (102).

■ Send the information of the document component of the identifier to the receiving terminal, ■
Return to (103).

(2) When all the contents indicated by the communication procedure description part 1 have been transmitted, the communication is completed (104).

On the other hand, the receiving terminal receives the information using the following procedure.

(2) Transmit the communication procedure description section 1 from the transmitting terminal in response to a document transmission request (20G>).

■Next, it is determined whether the communication procedure description part 1 has been interpreted up to the file end code 8 and reception has ended (201).
.

(2) If reception has not yet been completed, the next terminal symbol is used as the identifier of the document component to be sent next (202).

■Receive the information of the document component of the identifier from the sending terminal,
Return to ■ (203).

(2) When all the contents indicated by the communication procedure description section 1 have been received, the communication is completed (204).

FIG. 2 is a time chart specifically explaining the communication procedure of the document communication method in this embodiment. This time chart shows a communication sequence when a multimedia document having the structure shown in FIGS. 1(a) and (b) is communicated using the method shown in FIGS. 1(c) and (d).

■The document transmission request and the communication procedure description part 1 are sent from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal (11), L■When the receiving terminal receives the document transmission request and the communication procedure description part 1, it responds (
ACK): Send it back to the terminal (12).

(2) According to the contents of the communication procedure description section 1, the data of the document component with the identifier "Character 1" is sent from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal (13).

(2) The receiving terminal returns a response (ACK) indicating completion of reception of the data of "Character 1" to the transmitting terminal (14).

■After that, similarly, according to the contents of the communication procedure description section 1,
Document component data with identifiers ``Graphics 1'', ``Audio 1'', ``Still Image 1'', and ``Character 2'''' are sequentially sent from the sending terminal to the receiving terminal (15.17.19
．． 21).

■On the receiving terminal, "Graphics 1", "Audio 1", "
A response (ACK) is sent back to the sending terminal each time the reception of data for still image 1" and "character 2" is completed (16.18.2
0.22).

■When all the contents of the communication procedure description part 1 have been transmitted,
Complete communication.

Only the communication procedure has been described here. Specifically, as described above, audio information is transmitted while graphics information is being drawn, and after the drawing is complete, still image information is received while text information and graphics information are being explained with audio. becomes possible. However, the implementation of these operations is left up to the users who create the respective services and documents.

(Effects of the Invention) By using the multimedia document communication method of the present invention, it is possible to set the communication order in a multimedia document containing a mixture of character information, data information, audio information, and image information in accordance with the requests of users and services. , it is possible to achieve high-speed response for conversational services.

Furthermore, by standardizing the format of the call description section, it is possible to simultaneously realize service-independent document communication.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1(a), (b), (C), and (d) are diagrams explaining an embodiment of the document communication method of the present invention, in which FIG. 1(a) shows the document structure, and FIG. 1(b) shows the document structure. is a diagram explaining the specific contents of the communication procedure description section, FIG. FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the communication procedure of the document communication method of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a multimedia document model used in the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a communication procedure description part, 2a, 2b are character information, 3 is graphics information, 4 is audio information, 5 is image information, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d are identifiers, 7a, 7b, 7
c, 7d, and 7e are terminal symbols, and 8 is a file terminal symbol.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a method for communicating document information between a plurality of terminals connected to a network, a document is configured from a document component consisting of a plurality of media information and a communication procedure description part that describes the communication order of the document component, and In this case, the communication procedure description section is first transmitted and received between the terminals, the communication procedure description section is interpreted by both terminals, and the document components are sequentially transmitted and received between the terminals according to the communication order. Document communication method.