JP2000222296A - File download method, information device and computer readable recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for automatically selecting and downloading the information of high possibility to be required for portable information equip ment from among a lot of information and information equipment to be used for the same method. SOLUTION: Concerning the method for downloading a file from a desktop PC 0101 to portable information equipment 0102, this method has a step for calculating the priority for each file through a prescribed procedure on the basis of operation history information for each file of the portable information equipment 0102 and a step for downloading the file of priority higher than a prescribed value. Thus, since the file frequently operated by second information equipment is preferentially downloaded, the file of high possibility to be frequently used by a user can be downloaded without trouble.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a file download method for downloading a file in an information device to another information device, and an information device used for the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of portable information devices, an environment in which work can be performed outside an office is being prepared. In the office, work is performed using a high-performance desktop personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “desktop PC”). Outside the office, work is performed using highly portable mobile information devices. Is coming. The problem here is how to utilize the information stored in the office desktop PC necessary for work outside the office.

[0003] As a method, whenever information is needed,
Office desktop P via a communication device such as a modem
C to obtain desired information. However, this method has a problem in that communication costs (specifically, telephone charges) are required, and when the communication speed is low, it cannot be used comfortably.

[0004] Therefore, a method is conceivable in which information predicted to be necessary is copied to a portable information device before going out, and work is performed outside the office using the copy of the information. However, since the portable information device has a smaller storage capacity than the desktop PC, it is often not possible to download all of the files of the desktop PC to the portable information device. Even if the file can be downloaded, a considerable amount of time is required for the download. .

Therefore, it is conceivable to selectively download a file of the desktop PC. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-52116 discloses a technology for selectively downloading information from a large amount of information to a portable information device and carrying only necessary information.
No. 6,009,045. In this publication, a station unit provided with a large-capacity storage device such as a CD-ROM and a main unit detachable from the station unit are provided. Only information necessary for the main unit is downloaded from the station unit.
There is disclosed a technique of carrying a main body part separated from a station part and carrying it.

[0006]

However, when downloading necessary information, a desktop PC is required.
After examining which information is necessary from among the above many information, an operation of selecting a file to be downloaded is required. This is very troublesome when the number of pieces of information on the desktop PC is large, and operation errors easily occur.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a method of automatically selecting information that is likely to be required by a portable information device from a large amount of information and downloading the information, and an information device used for the method. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file download method for downloading a file from a first information device to a second information device. The method includes a step of calculating the priority of each file based on the operation history information in a predetermined procedure, and a step of downloading a file whose priority is higher than a predetermined value.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file download method according to the first aspect, further comprising the step of transmitting the operation history information from a second information device to the first information device, The step of calculating the priority of the first information device in a predetermined procedure is performed by the first information device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file download method according to the first aspect, further comprising the step of determining whether transmission is possible for each file, and sequentially downloading the files having the higher priority. It is characterized by.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the file download method according to the first aspect, a step of displaying a list of files arranged in descending order of priority, and selecting a file from the displayed list. And a step of downloading the selected file.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the file download method according to the first aspect, the operation history information is an operation frequency for each file.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information device, comprising: receiving means for receiving operation history information for each file in another information device; and calculating a priority for each file in a predetermined procedure based on the operation history information. It is characterized by having priority calculating means and transmitting means for transmitting a file whose priority is higher than a predetermined value.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information device, a receiving unit for receiving a file addressed to the information device, a storage unit for storing operation history information for each file in the information device, and transmitting the operation history information. And transmitting means.

The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 8 is a computer-readable recording medium in which a program for downloading a file from a first information device to a second information device is recorded. A program having a step of calculating a priority of each file in a predetermined procedure based on operation history information of each file in the information device and a step of downloading a file whose priority is higher than a predetermined value is recorded. It is characterized by the following.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows the appearance of an information processing system for executing download.
In FIG. 1, 0101 is a desktop PC,
Reference numeral 0102 denotes a portable information device which is smaller and lighter than the desktop PC 0101 and is portable. 0103 denotes a communication cable for connecting the desktop PC 0101 and the portable information device 0102, and both perform data communication via the communication cable. Desktop PC0101 is an OS
(Operating System) or CPU (Ce
Regardless of the type of the central processing unit, a computer called a workstation may be used. The portable information device 0102 may be a notebook PC as shown in FIG. 1 or a PDA (Person).
al Digital Assistant). In the following description, communication cable 0
The case of communication by the connection of 103 will be described, but instead, communication using infrared communication may be used. In this case, the attachment and detachment of the connector becomes unnecessary, and the labor for connection can be saved, so that the usability is further improved.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the information processing system of FIG. In FIG. 2, 0203,0212
Is an input unit operated by the user to input various operations and instructions, and 0204 and 0213 are display units for displaying the progress of the processing and the results. Also, 0205
Is a data storage unit that stores files created or collected by the user, and 0208 is a priority calculation unit that calculates the priority of a file to be downloaded based on operation history information for each file on the portable information device. Yes, 020
Reference numeral 7 denotes a download control unit that manages a process of downloading a file stored in the data storage unit 0205 based on priority. Reference numerals 0206 and 0210 denote data communication units for transmitting and receiving data to and from the desktop PC 0101 and the portable information device 0102.
Downloading of the file stored in the storage unit 05 and uploading of the operation history information stored in the operation history storage unit 0215 or the file stored in the data storage unit 0211 are executed.

Reference numeral 0214 denotes a data reference editing unit that allows a user to refer to and edit a file downloaded from the desktop PC 0101 and stored in the data storage unit 0211. Note that the editing function is unnecessary if only the data content of the file is referred to on the portable information device and the data content is not changed. Input unit 0
Each operation information performed by the data reference editing unit 0214 by the operation of the 212 is transmitted to the operation history recording unit 0215 of the data storage unit 0215, and the operation history recording unit 0215 stores the data
Each operation such as referencing or changing the file stored in the storage 11 is recorded as operation history information.

FIG. 3 shows a hardware configuration of the information processing system of FIG. In the desktop PC 0101 shown in FIG. 3, reference numeral 0303 denotes a CPU which controls the entire desktop PC 0101 and serves as a download control unit 0207 and a priority calculation unit 0208. A reference numeral 0304 is used as a work memory for temporarily storing various data. Reference numeral 0305 denotes a keyboard as an input unit 0203 including a mouse or the like; 0306, a hard disk as a data storage unit 0205 which operates under the control of a hard disk controller (HDC) 0307; Control device (CRTC) 03
09, a video RAM (VRAM) 0310
A CRT as a display unit 0204 for displaying data with an image to be displayed stored in the CRT. A communication unit as a data communication unit 0206 such as a serial communication device or an infrared communication device for performing data communication with the portable information device 0102. Devices, which are connected by a bus 0312.

In the portable information device 0102 of FIG.
A CPU 353 controls the entire portable information device 0102 and also functions as a data reference editing unit 0214.
Numeral 54 denotes a RAM used as a work memory for temporarily storing various data. Numeral 0355 denotes a keyboard as an input unit 0212 including a mouse and the like.
Reference numeral 6 denotes a data storage unit 0211 and an operation history recording unit 021
Reference numeral 0358 denotes a flash memory as a display unit 0213 which displays data with an image to be displayed stored in a video RAM (VRAM) 0360 under the control of a liquid crystal display control device (CRTC) 0359. A display (LCD) 0361 is a communication device as a data communication unit 0210 such as a serial communication device or an infrared communication device that performs data communication with the desktop PC 0101, and these are connected by a bus 0362.

Next, the operation of the present system will be described with reference to FIGS. First, a portable information device is connected to a desktop PC.
(S0401). Next, the download process is started. This process may be automatically started by the system recognizing that the portable information device and the desktop PC are connected, or the user may press a predetermined button. It may be started by a user operation such as pressing. Next, it is determined whether it is the first download (S0
402), the process branches. Whether the download is the first time may be determined at the time of communication, for example, by setting a flag indicating the presence or absence of reference history information. If it is the first download, the process of download 1 is executed (S0403).

The processing of download 1 will be described with reference to FIG. First, all files stored in a predetermined location on the desktop PC are transmitted to the portable information device (S05).
01). Here, the predetermined location is a specific folder previously stored as a file expected to be transmitted.
Next, an operation history table for recording the operation history of the file transmitted to the portable information device on the portable information device is prepared (S0502).

FIG. 6 schematically shows this state. In FIG. 6, the data storage unit 02 on the desktop PC
05, File1, File2, File
The files of File 3, File 4, and File 5 are transmitted and stored in the data storage unit 0211 of the portable information device. At this time, an operation history table 0615 is created. Operation history table 0
In line 615, the line 0671 records the number of times that the operation of reading each file on the portable information device (hereinafter referred to as Read) is performed, and the line 0672 records the operation of writing each file on the portable information device (hereinafter Write). ) Is recorded. Immediately after downloading, the operation history table 06
The value of any of the 15 entries is set to zero. In addition,
In the present embodiment, the operation history information is described in the form of a table. Here, the operation history information is a frequency history indicating how much each operation such as opening and reading a file or writing to a file has been performed on the portable information device.

Here, returning to FIG. 4, the description will be continued. The portable information device is disconnected from the desktop PC by the user (S0405), and the downloaded file is used by the user on the portable information device (S0406). File is referenced or modified, ie Read or Wr
Each time it is performed, it is recorded in the operation history table.

FIG. 7 schematically shows this state. The user accesses the downloaded file by the function of the data reference editing unit 0214 via the input unit 0212 and the output unit 0213. Data reference editing unit 02
14 operates with a program such as a viewer for displaying data or a program for editing data such as word processing software. The operation on the downloaded file by the data reference editing unit 0214 is recorded in the operation history table 0615. In the operation history table 0615, File1 is R three times.
Indicates that the file has been read and has been written 0 times.
e2 indicates that the file has been read once and has been written twice, and File3 has been read twice and has been written 0 times.
File4 is read once, and 0
Write5 times, File5 is 0 times Rea
d indicates that it has been written 0 times. In general,
In Write and Read, Write is considered to be a more important operation for the user, so it is desirable to record these two separately. However, in order to simplify the processing, it is necessary to record the two without distinction. Is also good. Also, Read and W
It is described that the number of write operations is recorded as operation history information. However, in addition to the number of operations, the time and the amount of scrolling for each file are digitized and recorded as operation history information, and priority calculation described later is performed. May be used as data at the time.

Returning to FIG. 4, the description will be continued. The user connects the portable information device to the desktop PC again (S0
407), when the connection is recognized, the upload process in S0408 is started. This situation will be described with reference to FIG. At the time of upload, the downloaded File1, File2, File3, Fi
The le4, File5, and operation history table are transmitted from the portable information device to the desktop PC, and stored in the data storage unit 0205 on the desktop PC.

Next, the second and subsequent downloads will be described. In the second and subsequent downloads, S0 in FIG.
The process of download 2 in 404 is executed. The process of download 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. In the flowchart of FIG. 9, first, the priority is calculated from the operation history table uploaded to the desktop PC (S0).
901). As described above, the number of times each file has been read and the number of times each file has been written on the portable information device are recorded in the operation history table. The priority of the file to be downloaded is calculated from these two times. The sum of these two values may be simply used as the priority. However, since Write is considered to be a more important operation for the user, Write is weighted more than Read to calculate the priority. Here, the weight is doubled, and the following equation (priority) = (read count) + (write count) ×
Calculate with 2. For example, once Read is performed, Wri
If the number of times te is 2, the priority is set to 5. FIG.
0 indicates the priority calculated for each file in the priority table 1
081.

In calculating the priority, it is highly likely that a more preferable priority is obtained for the user, taking into account the file size or the time elapsed since the last operation with the portable information device. For example, (Priority) = (Number of Reads) + (Number of Writes) ×
When the priority is calculated according to an expression such as 2- (number of days since last operation / 10 days)-(number of bytes of file size / 1,000,000), a file which has not been referenced for a long time has a priority. Becomes lower. Since a file that has not been referenced for a long period of time is unlikely to be referenced in the future, it is preferable for the user to reduce the priority. Also, a large file has a low priority. Since large files weigh on the small storage capacity of the portable information device, it is also preferable for the user that these priorities be low. If it is desired to simplify the process of calculating the priority, the number of operations on the portable information device may be used as it is as the priority.

The calculation of the priority is preferably performed by a desktop PC having high processing performance, but may be performed by a portable information device. In this case, the process of uploading the operation history information from the portable information device to the desktop PC becomes unnecessary, but the process of uploading the calculation result of the priority becomes necessary.

Returning to FIG. 9, the description will be continued. Select files to download according to priority (S090
2). As a method of selection, files may be sorted in descending order of priority, and a predetermined number of files may be selected from those having a higher priority, or a file having a higher priority than a predetermined value may be selected. Next, copy the selected file to the desktop PC
Is transmitted to the portable information device (S0903). An operation history table is prepared (S0904), and the preparation of the operation history table is the same as the processing of download 1.

As described above, the file which is frequently referred to or edited by the portable information device at the time of the next download is preferentially downloaded using the previous operation history. This is because, in general, files that are frequently referred to or edited are limited, and files that have been frequently operated up to now are considered to be likely to be operated in the future. Further, in the present embodiment, a file composed of data corresponding to a file name is targeted for download, but a file can be similarly downloaded for a program.

(Second Embodiment) This embodiment is the same as the first embodiment except that the download 2 process is partially different. The operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As in the first embodiment, the priority is calculated (S1102), and a list in which the files are sorted in descending order of priority is generated (S1103). It is determined whether a file is included in the sorted list (S110).
4) If not included, prepare an operation history table (S11)
08), the download 2 process ends. The process of preparing the operation history table is the same as in the first embodiment. If the file is included in the list, it is determined whether the file can be transmitted (S1105). If the file cannot be transmitted, an operation history table is prepared (S1108).
The process of download 2 ends. The case where the file cannot be transmitted is, for example, a case where the storage capacity of the portable information device has been exhausted. If the file can be transmitted, the file with the highest priority is selected from the sorted list and transmitted to the portable information device (S110).
6). Next, the transmitted file is removed from the sorted list (S1107). As described above, the files are downloaded in descending order of priority.

(Third Embodiment) This embodiment is the same as the first embodiment except that the download 2 process is partially different. The operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Similar to the first embodiment, the priority is calculated (S1202), and a list is displayed in descending order of priority (S1203). Specifically, a dialog window as shown in FIG. 13 is displayed on the display unit 0204 or 0213. In FIG. 13, reference numeral 1301 denotes a dialog window in which files are sorted and displayed in a list according to priority, 1302 is a file name, 1303 is a check box to be checked when the user selects it,
The user makes a selection using a pointing device such as a mouse or a stylus. Such a dialog is a GU
An OS (Operating System) having an I (Graphic User Interface) function can be easily realized. In FIG.
A check box 1203 indicates that a file in black is selected by the user.

Returning to FIG. 12, the description will be continued. The user selects a file to be downloaded via the dialog window (S1204). The file selected by the user is transmitted from the desktop PC to the portable information device (S1205). Preparation of the last operation history table (S12)
06) is the same as in the first embodiment.

The processing in each information device described above is executed by a program, and the whole or a part of the program is transferred to a computer-readable recording medium such as a floppy disk or a hard disk directly or via a communication line. It may be stored in a recording medium in advance, and installed and used as needed.

[0036]

According to the present invention, a file frequently operated by the second information device is preferentially downloaded, so that a file that is frequently used by a user can be downloaded without trouble.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an information processing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of the entire system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a download process.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory diagram showing an initial download process.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an operation of recording an operation history of a file downloaded to a portable information device.

FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory diagram of a process of uploading information on a portable information device.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a process of downloading a file selected according to priority.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a process of downloading a file selected according to priority.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a process for downloading files in descending order of priority according to another embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a process for downloading a file by allowing a user to select a file from a list in which files are sorted in descending order of priority according to yet another embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a display screen example of a dialog window of a list in which files are sorted in descending order of priority.

[Explanation of symbols]

 0101 Desktop PC 0102 Portable information device 0103 Communication cable

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A method for downloading a file from a first information device to a second information device, wherein a priority of each file is determined based on operation history information of each file in the second information device. A file download method, comprising: calculating by a procedure; and downloading a file whose priority is higher than a predetermined value. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting the operation history information from the second information device to the first information device, wherein the step of calculating the priority for each file in a predetermined procedure is performed by the first information device. 2. The file download method according to claim 1, wherein the file download method is executed. 3. The file download method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of determining whether or not transmission is possible for each file, and sequentially downloading the files having higher priority. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: displaying a list of files arranged in descending order of priority; selecting a file from the displayed list; and downloading the selected file. 2. The file download method according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The file download method according to claim 1, wherein the operation history information is an operation frequency for each file. 6. A receiving means for receiving operation history information for each file in another information device, a priority calculation means for calculating a priority for each file in a predetermined procedure based on the operation history information, An information device, comprising: transmission means for transmitting a file whose priority is higher than a predetermined value. 7. A receiving unit for receiving a file addressed to the information device, a storage unit for storing operation history information for each file in the information device, and a transmission unit for transmitting the operation history information Information equipment characterized by the following. 8. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for downloading a file from a first information device to a second information device is recorded, wherein the operation history information for each file in the second information device is A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program having a step of calculating a priority of each file based on a predetermined procedure based on a predetermined procedure, and a step of downloading a file whose priority is higher than a predetermined value. .