JP2003263332A - Program management method, execution system for the same, and processing program for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique that can effectively use resources of a computer by realizing efficient management of a program and data. <P>SOLUTION: A program management method has steps of: downloading a program and data required by the program to a mobile computer and adding to a program management table a program name of the downloaded program, state information indicative of an initial state of the program, and an effective condition indicative of an effective range of the program; determining whether the current position of the mobile computer is in the effective range indicated by the effective condition and changing the state information on the corresponding program in the program management table; and starting or stopping the program or deleting the program and the data according to the state information in the program management table. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program management system for deleting or invalidating a program or data downloaded to a mobile computer, and more particularly to a program management system for deleting or invalidating a program or data according to the position of the mobile computer. It relates to technology that is effective when applied.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a program or data downloaded or installed in a computer has been explicitly deleted by the user or deleted by the system according to a preset time, date, or number of times of use.

For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-007401 discloses an information management device that deletes unnecessary information without burdening the user and prevents the storage capacity from being exceeded. Is described when the specified storage period is exceeded.

[0004]

On the other hand, it is conceivable that a user carries a small computer and uses the computer while moving. In this case, it is possible to use data or programs that can be used only at certain specific points, such as map information or specific area information, but with the conventional method, it is not possible to switch between valid and invalid programs depending on the location. , All the programs and data that may be used must be installed in advance, and when the use is completed, the user must explicitly delete them, or the user must switch the data and programs between valid and invalid as necessary. There is a problem that the operation is troublesome. Further, when the data or program becomes invalid, the unusable data or program is retained in the secondary storage device or the memory as it is, so that the resources of the computer cannot be effectively used.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, to realize efficient management of programs and data, and to provide a technique capable of effectively using the resources of a computer.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a program management system for managing a program or data downloaded to a mobile computer manages the program and its data according to the current position of the mobile computer.

In the program management system of the present invention, the mobile computer is provided with a position information acquisition device for electronically acquiring position information. This is for example GPS (G
It may be a device such as lobalPositioning System) that can directly obtain the coordinates, or PHS (Personal Handy-phone Syste
As in (m), the method of detecting which antenna the communication terminal is in the communication area on the side of the base station and sending this to the terminal may be used, and the position is determined by whether or not a specific radio wave can be received. But good.

According to the present invention, a program and data required by the program are downloaded from a server to a mobile computer via a network, and the program name of the downloaded program and status information indicating that the program is in an initial state. An effective condition indicating the effective range of the program is added to the program management table.

Next, the position information acquisition device acquires position information to determine whether the current position of the mobile computer is within the valid range indicated by the valid condition, and the current position of the mobile computer is valid. If it is within the range, the status information in the program management table is changed to "valid" and the program is validated.

When a program activation request is input from the user of the mobile computer, the program management table is referenced, and if the status information of the program is "valid", the program is activated and the Change the status information to "Running".

Next, it is checked whether or not the current position of the mobile computer is out of the valid range indicated by the valid condition for the program whose status information in the program management table is "valid" or "running". , Disable programs that are outside the valid range. Then, the line element of the program management table of the invalidated program, the program and its data are deleted.

As described above, according to the present invention, the data and programs necessary for receiving the service to the mobile computer are downloaded using the Internet or short-distance wireless communication, and the program and data are transferred to a valid location. It is possible to determine whether or not an entry has been made based on the position information of the mobile computer, and to operate the downloaded program and data only within the position of its effective range.
Further, when the position of the mobile computer is out of the effective range of the program or data, the program or data can be invalidated or deleted automatically.

As described above, in the present invention, the position information is used to enable the program when necessary and delete or invalidate it when it is no longer necessary, thereby efficiently managing the program data. And the resources of the computer can be effectively used.

As described above, according to the program management system of the present invention, since the program and its data are managed according to the current position of the mobile computer, efficient management of the program and data is realized, and the resources of the computer are realized. Can be effectively used.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A program management system of one embodiment for managing a program or data downloaded to a mobile computer will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a program management system of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile computer of this embodiment has a program / data installation unit 103, a program execution management unit 106, and a program effective range management unit 107.

Program / data installation unit 103
Indicates a program and the data required by the program, downloaded to the mobile computer via the network 102, and indicates the program name of the downloaded program, status information indicating that the program is in the initial state, and the effective range of the program. It is a processing unit that adds a valid condition to the program management table 105.

The program execution management unit 106 is a processing unit for starting or stopping the program and deleting the program and its data according to the status information in the program management table 105. Program effective range management unit 107
Is a processing unit that determines whether the current position of the mobile computer is within the valid range indicated by the valid condition and changes the status information of the corresponding program in the program management table 105.

A program for causing the mobile computer to function as the program / data installation unit 103, the program execution management unit 106, and the program effective range management unit 107 is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM and executed. The recording medium for recording the program may be a recording medium other than the ROM. The program may be installed in the information processing apparatus from the recording medium and used, or the recording medium may be accessed through the network to use the program.

The program / data installation unit 103 of FIG. 1 has a function of downloading a program to be validated according to region and data required by the program from the server 101 via the network 102 and installing the program. An example of this program is a program that displays a map of a certain area and tourist information. The program / data installation unit 103 stores the downloaded program and data in the secondary storage device 104.
The information related to the downloaded and stored program is added to the program management table 105.

The program execution management unit 106 has a function of loading the program from the secondary storage device 104 to put it in the running state, stopping or deleting the program, and rewriting the program management table 105 as necessary. I do.

The program effective range management unit 107 acquires position information from the position information acquisition device 108, validates the program by referring to the program management table 105, and instructs the program execution management unit 106 to specify a specific location. It has a function to delete the program.

The position information acquisition device 108 is a device for acquiring the position of the mobile computer, which directly acquires coordinates by radio waves from satellites such as GPS, and antenna of which base station by radio waves from PHS base stations. There is a method for detecting whether the vehicle is in the communication area, or a method for determining whether or not the apparatus is present in the vicinity depending on whether or not the apparatus can generate the electric wave that specifies the effective range.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the program management table 105 used for managing the program of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the program management table 105
Stores information about programs installed on the mobile computer.

The program name 201 in FIG. 2 is a name that can uniquely identify the installed program. The state 202 is state information indicating the state of the program, and is “initial state” after installation and before entering the valid range, “valid” indicating that the mobile computer is within the valid range, and the program is activated. There are "running" states that indicate that they are being executed. Effective condition 20
Reference numeral 3 indicates a valid condition indicating a valid range in which the program is valid, and an expression or a program for determining validity / invalidity by inputting position information can be considered. The row element 204 of each table corresponds to each installed program and is added at the time of installation.

As a method of acquiring the program name 201 and the valid condition 203, a method of downloading together as data necessary for the program at the time of downloading, the server 1
A method of downloading the program from 01 separately from the program, and a method of having the program / data installation unit 103 in advance before downloading the program are considered.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a flowchart for installing a program in the program management system of the present embodiment, and the processing flow will be described below.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a processing procedure at the time of installation of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, the program / data installation unit 103 of the mobile computer.
Downloads the program and the data required by the program to the mobile computer via the network 102, and displays the program name 201 of the downloaded program, the state 202 indicating that the program is in the initial state, and the effective range of the program. Effective condition 2
03 is added to the program management table 105. Further, the program effective range management unit 107 determines whether the current position of the mobile computer is within the effective range indicated by the effective condition 203, and determines whether the program management table 1
The state 202 in 05 is changed from the initial state to valid.

In step 301, the program / data installation unit 103 sends the program and the data required by the program to the server 10 via the network 102.
Download from 1.

In step 302, the downloaded program and data are stored in the secondary storage device 104. In step 303, the program name 201 downloaded to the program management table 105 and its valid condition 20
3 information is added and the state 202 is set to the initial state.

In step 304, the program effective range management unit 107 acquires the current position information from the position information acquisition device 108. In step 305, the valid condition 203 corresponding to the installed program name is fetched from the program management table 105, and step 304
The current position information acquired in step 2 is the valid condition 2 extracted above.
It is determined whether the program is valid or invalid by determining whether it is within the valid range indicated by 03. When it is determined that the program is valid, the process proceeds to step 307, and otherwise proceeds to step 306.

In step 306, the position information acquisition device 1
The current position information is acquired from 08 and compared with the past position. If the position has changed, the process proceeds to step 305, and if it has not changed, the same process of step 306 is repeated.

In step 307, the state 202 of the program management table 105 corresponding to the program judged to be valid is rewritten to "valid" to validate the installed program.

As described above, in this embodiment, the program and data, the program name 201, and the valid condition 203 are set.
Both are downloaded from the server 101 and enabled when the mobile computer enters the effective range. However, before downloading the program name 201 and the valid condition 203 separately from the program, or before downloading the program. When the mobile computer is provided in advance, the activated program may be downloaded when the mobile computer enters the effective range. In this way, by downloading the program when it is activated, the download is performed only when necessary, so that the resources of the computer can be used more effectively.

After the program installation process is performed as described above, when a program activation request is received from the user, the program execution management unit 10 of the mobile computer is received.
6 retrieves the state 202 corresponding to the program name from the program management table 105, starts the program when the retrieved state 202 is "valid", and then changes the state 202 to "running". .

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart for deleting a program in the program management system of this embodiment, and the processing flow will be described below.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a processing procedure at the time of deleting the program of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, the program effective range management unit 107 of the mobile computer is
For a program whose status 202 is "valid" or "running", if the current position of the mobile computer is out of the valid range indicated by the valid condition 203, processing for invalidating the program is performed. Further, the program execution management unit 106 performs a process of deleting the line element of the program management table 105 of the invalidated program, the program and its data.

In step 401, the program effective range management unit 107 acquires the current position information from the position information acquisition device 108. In step 402, the acquired current position information is compared with the past position, and if the position has changed, the process proceeds to step 403, and if it has not changed, the process returns to step 401 to perform the process again. .

In step 403, referring to the program management table 105, the valid conditions 203 of the program whose status 202 is "valid" or "running" are sequentially fetched, and the current position information obtained in step 401 is fetched as described above. It is determined whether the program is valid or invalid by determining whether it is within the valid range indicated by the valid condition 203. As a result, if there is a program determined to be invalid, the process proceeds to step 404, and if not, the process proceeds to step 401.

In step 404, the program effective range management unit 107 instructs the program execution management unit 106 to delete the program judged to be invalid,
Upon receiving the instruction, the program execution management unit 106 checks the status 202 of the program management table 105 corresponding to the program that is determined to be invalid, and if the status 202 of the program is "execution", step 40
5, and otherwise proceeds to step 406.

In step 405, the program execution management unit 1
No. 06 is judged to be invalid, and after the execution of the program whose status 202 is “RUNNING” is stopped, the routine proceeds to step 406.

In step 406, the line element corresponding to the program judged to be invalid is deleted from the program management table 105. In step 407, the program and its necessary data stored in the secondary storage device 104 when the program determined to be invalid is installed are deleted.

As described above, in this embodiment, when a program is invalidated, the line element of the program management table 105 of the invalidated program, the program and its data are transferred from the secondary storage device 104. Although the deletion process is being performed, the state 202 of the program is changed to "invalid" when the mobile computer goes out of the valid range, and a predetermined time has passed since the state 202 was changed to "invalid". The row element of the program management table 105, its program and data may be deleted at the stage. In this way, by deleting the program after the invalidation state continues for a predetermined time, it is possible to reduce the overhead required for program management when the effective range frequently enters and leaves.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by using the position information of the mobile computer, the program and data are validated when necessary, and invalidated and deleted when they are no longer needed. It enables efficient management of programs and data and effective use of computer resources.

As described above, according to the program management system of the present embodiment, the program and its data are managed according to the current position of the mobile computer, so that efficient management of the program and data is realized, and the computer is realized. It is possible to effectively use the resources of.

[0046]

According to the present invention, the program and its data are managed according to the current position of the mobile computer, so that efficient management of the program and data can be realized and the resources of the computer can be effectively used. It is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a program management system of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of a program management table 105 used for managing programs according to this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure at the time of installation of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when deleting a program according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Server, 102 ... Network, 104 ... Secondary storage device, 105 ... Program management table, 108 ...
Position information acquisition device, 103 ... Program / data installation section, 106 ... Program execution management section, 107 ... Program effective range management section, 201 ... Program name, 20
2 ... State, 203 ... Effective condition, 204 ... Row element.

Continued front page    (72) Inventor Motoaki Satoyama             1099 Ozenji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture             Ceremony company Hitachi Systems Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Yasuko Yokoyama             1099 Ozenji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture             Ceremony company Hitachi Systems Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Jun Maeoka             1099 Ozenji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture             Ceremony company Hitachi Systems Development Laboratory F term (reference) 5B076 AB10 AB17 AB20 BA05 BB04                       BB06 BB16 EB09                 5B082 CA14

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A program management method for managing a program or data downloaded to a mobile computer, wherein a program and data required by the program are downloaded to the mobile computer, the program name of the downloaded program and the initial state of the program. State information indicating that the program is valid and valid conditions indicating the valid range of the program are added to the program management table, and it is determined whether the current position of the mobile computer is within the valid range indicated by the valid conditions. And changing the status information of the corresponding program in the program management table, and starting or stopping the program or deleting the program and its data according to the status information in the program management table. Features Program management method. 2. Regarding a program showing that the status information is valid or being executed, if the current position of the mobile computer is outside the valid range indicated by the valid condition, the program is invalidated. The program management method according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The program management method according to claim 2, wherein a line element of the program management table of the invalidated program, the program and its data are deleted. 4. A program management system for managing a program or data downloaded to a mobile computer, wherein the program and the data required by the program are downloaded to the mobile computer, and the program name of the downloaded program and the initial state of the program. The state information indicating that the program is valid and the valid condition indicating the valid range of the program are added to the program management table, and the current position of the mobile computer is within the valid range indicated by the valid condition. A program effective range management unit for determining whether or not the status information of the corresponding program in the program management table is changed, and starting or stopping the program or the program and its data according to the status information in the program management table. And a program execution management unit that deletes the program. 5. A program for causing a computer to function as a program management system for managing a program or data downloaded to a mobile computer, wherein the program and data required by the program are downloaded to the mobile computer, and the downloaded program The program / data installation unit that adds the program name, status information indicating that the program is in the initial state, and valid conditions indicating the valid range of the program to the program management table, and the current position of the mobile computer is the valid condition. And a program effective range management unit that changes the state information of the corresponding program in the program management table by determining whether it is within the effective range indicated by, and a program according to the state information in the program management table. A program that causes a computer to function as a program execution management unit that starts or stops a program and deletes a program and its data.