JP2005085110A - Terminal device and terminal program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a terminal capable of assisting selection for easily selecting a desired terminal device in a network in which a plurality terminal devices connected by short-range communication are provided and the configuration of the terminal devices is dynamically changed. <P>SOLUTION: A portable telephone 1 being one terminal device in a PAN 7 in which a plurality terminal devices 1 to 6 connected by short-range communication are provided and the configuration of the terminal devices 1 to 6 is dynamically changed is provided with; a search function of searching a terminal device capable of executing prescribed processing on the basis of an execution request for this prescribed processing from the portable telephone, out of the terminal devices 2 to 6; a terminal information acquisition function of acquiring terminal information showing features of the searched terminal device; and an output function of outputting the acquired terminal information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a terminal device of any of the plurality of terminal devices in a network having a plurality of terminal devices connected by short-range communication, and the configuration of the plurality of terminal devices dynamically changes.

  In recent years, various techniques using a PAN (Personal Area Network) have been proposed. The PAN is a network that includes terminal devices such as mobile phones, computers, and home appliances, and is configured such that each terminal device can perform near field communication in an ad hoc manner using a wireless communication function such as Bluetooth. For example, when a user having a mobile phone having a wireless communication function such as Bluetooth enters the PAN communication area, the PAN is added as one of the components of the PAN. This is a network in which the configuration of the terminal device changes dynamically.

  Conventionally, as a service using this PAN, for example, image data stored in a memory of a mobile phone is transferred to another terminal device having a display in the PAN, and an image based on the image data is transferred to the other terminal device. A service has been proposed to display on the display.

  In this service, first, the mobile phone from which image data is transferred searches for a terminal device capable of performing the service from among a plurality of terminal devices in the PAN, and specifies an ID for specifying the searched terminal device. Display as a list on the mobile phone display. When the user of the mobile phone selects one from the list displayed on the display, the mobile phone transfers the image data to the terminal device corresponding to the selected ID. Thereby, an image is displayed on the terminal device selected by the user.

  Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose techniques related to a network in which a terminal device such as a plurality of input / output devices and AV devices and a computer are connected.

JP 2000-244836 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-1554077

  In the conventional service described above, only the IDs of the terminal devices that can perform the service among the terminal devices that form the PAN are displayed as a list on the display of the mobile phone. It is difficult to select a terminal device as desired. This is because when the network configuration changes dynamically like PAN, the contents of the list always change, and it is virtually impossible to remember the correspondence between the ID and the terminal device. is there.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has a plurality of terminal devices connected by short-range communication, and a plurality of terminals in a network in which the configuration of the plurality of terminal devices dynamically changes. It is an object of the present invention to provide a terminal device capable of performing selection assistance for easily selecting a desired terminal device from the devices.

  The terminal device of the present invention is a terminal device of any of the plurality of terminal devices in a network having a plurality of terminal devices connected by short-range communication, and the configuration of the plurality of terminal devices dynamically changes. Any one of the terminal devices is a host terminal, and any terminal device other than the one of the terminal devices is a client terminal, and the predetermined process is performed based on a request to execute the predetermined process from the host terminal. Search means for searching for a client terminal capable of executing the terminal, terminal information acquisition means for acquiring terminal information indicating characteristics of the searched client terminal, and output means for outputting the terminal information.

  With this configuration, since it is possible to output feature information indicating the characteristics of the terminal device searched by the search means, the user of the terminal device can instantly determine which terminal device in the network is the searched terminal device. I can grasp it. Therefore, the user of the terminal device can easily select a desired terminal device based on the terminal information that is output.

  In the terminal device according to the present invention, the output means outputs the terminal information to at least one of the searched client terminals.

  In the terminal device of the present invention, the output means selects at least one of client terminals having a display unit for performing display based on the terminal information as the output destination of the terminal information using the terminal information. To do.

  With this configuration, information based on the terminal information can be displayed on the display unit of the terminal device other than the own device. For example, when the display capability of the display unit of the own device is low, display of other terminal devices The service that makes the most of the characteristics of the network can be realized.

  Advantageous Effects of Invention According to the present invention, a desired terminal device can be easily selected from among a plurality of terminal devices in a network having a plurality of terminal devices connected by short-range communication and the configuration of the plurality of terminal devices dynamically changing. It is possible to provide a terminal device capable of performing selection assistance for selection.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a terminal cooperation system for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention.
The terminal cooperation system 100 includes a plurality of terminals such as a mobile phone 1, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) 2, a television 3, a television 4, an audio player 5, and a personal computer 6 (hereinafter referred to as a PC) to which a display is connected. Equipment. Each terminal device has a Bluetooth wireless communication function, and the PAN 7 is formed by the function, and short-range wireless communication can be performed ad hoc with each other. In the terminal cooperation system 100, for example, when the mobile phone 1 goes out of the communication area of the PAN 7, the mobile phone 1 is removed from the constituent elements, and the constituent elements dynamically change. Note that the wireless communication function is not limited to Bluetooth, and an interface capable of near field communication can be used.

Hereinafter, a common configuration of each terminal apparatus will be described.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the system configuration of each terminal device of the terminal cooperation system for explaining the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, the mobile phone 1 will be described as an example of the terminal device.
As shown in FIG. 2, the mobile phone 1 has a hierarchical structure including an application program (hereinafter referred to as “AP”) 11, middleware 12, and an operating system (hereinafter referred to as “OS”) 13. The lower layer of the OS 13 includes a Bluetooth interface 14, an I / O controller 15, and an input device 16 and an output device 17 connected to the I / O controller 15. All the components are managed by the OS 13. The mobile phone 1 operates by executing an AP 11, middleware 12, and OS 13 by an arithmetic processing unit (CPU) (not shown) or the like.

  The AP 11 is a program for the mobile phone 1 to execute a service using the PAN 7. Services include an image display service for displaying an image based on image data transferred from another terminal device on a display of the own device, and a sound based on audio data transferred from another terminal device. There is an audio output service for outputting from a speaker of the machine. The contents of these services differ depending on the output device 17 of each terminal device, but in this embodiment, the cellular phone 1, the PDA 2, the televisions 3 and 4, and the PC 6 can provide an image display service. The audio player 5 can provide an audio output service.

  The input device 16 includes operation means such as key buttons for the user of each terminal device to perform various operations. The output device 17 includes a display (display unit), a speaker, an LED (Light Emitting Diode), a vibrator, and the like. The I / O controller 15 controls the input device 16 and the output device 17.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing functional blocks of the middleware shown in FIG.
The middleware 12 includes a terminal cooperation middleware 121 that manages cooperation with other terminal devices, and a terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 that assists selection of the terminal device.

  The terminal cooperation middleware 121 includes a search function 121a, a service request function 121b, an ID reply function 121c, and a service execution control function 121d.

  When the user of the mobile phone 1 performs an operation for using an arbitrary service, the search function 121a searches for terminal devices that can execute the service (predetermined processing) from all terminal devices in the PAN 7. This is a function for notifying the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 of the search result. Specifically, whether or not an arbitrary service can be executed is inquired to each terminal device via the OS 13 and the Bluetooth interface 14, and is returned from the terminal device that can execute the service. Information (hereinafter referred to as ID) is notified to the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122. Examples of the ID include an IP address, a MAC address, and an address defined by the middleware 12.

  The service request function 121b accesses the terminal device selected by the user of the mobile phone 1 from the searched terminal devices via the OS 13 and the Bluetooth interface 14, and transfers image data, audio data, etc. This is a function that requests execution of.

  The ID reply function 121c is a function that returns an ID (for example, a telephone number) of the mobile phone 1 to the inquiry source terminal device when an arbitrary service can be executed in response to the inquiry from another terminal device. It is.

  The service execution control function 121d is a function for performing control to execute the service by transferring the data to the AP 11 when image data or audio data is transferred from another terminal device and there is a service execution request.

  The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 includes a terminal information acquisition function 122a, a map information generation function 122b, an output function 122c, an output content change function 122d, a terminal information generation function 122e, and a terminal information transmission function 122f.

  The terminal information acquisition function 122a accesses the terminal device specified by the ID notified from the search function 121a via the OS 13 and the Bluetooh interface 14, and acquires terminal information from the terminal device. The terminal information is information indicating the characteristics of the terminal device, and includes information such as the name of the terminal device and the current position.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of terminal information acquired from a terminal device capable of executing an image display service.
As shown in the figure, the terminal information of each terminal device includes “name”, “owner”, “fee”, “position”, “direction”, “display presence / absence”, “movable”, “screen” Items such as “size” and “performance” are included.

  “Fee” is a service usage fee that is incurred to the user of the terminal device that requested the service when the image display service is executed. “Position” indicates the current position of the terminal device, and is represented by latitude, longitude, height, or the like. “Direction” indicates the direction in which the display surface of the display faces. “Presence / absence of display” indicates whether or not the terminal device has a display. “Moveable” indicates whether the terminal device is movable. “Screen size” indicates the display screen size of the display of the terminal device. “Performance” indicates the image processing capability of the terminal device.

  In the present embodiment, the terminal information is directly acquired from the terminal device specified by the ID. However, when there is a server that manages the PAN 7, the terminal information may be acquired from the server. In this case, every time the configuration of the PAN 7 changes, the server needs to acquire terminal information from all terminal devices. This can be achieved by a known technique. When the mobile phone 1 is added to the configuration of the PAN 7, the terminal information acquisition function 122a acquires the terminal information of all the terminal devices from the server and stores it in the internal memory in the mobile phone 1. You may make it acquire the terminal information of the terminal device specified by said ID from an internal memory.

  The map information generation function 122b uses relative positional relationship information (hereinafter referred to as map information) indicating the relative positional relationship between the mobile phone 1 and the terminal device searched by the search function 121a as the positional information of the mobile phone 1 and the terminal. This function is generated based on the position information of each terminal device included in the information. Note that the location information of the mobile phone 1 is acquired by the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 by a GPS receiver or the like (not shown) built in the mobile phone 1 and stored in the internal memory. If there is a server that manages the PAN 7, the location information of the mobile phone 1 is acquired from the server and stored in the internal memory. The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 acquires the location information of the mobile phone 1 when an operation for executing an arbitrary service is performed by the user.

  Further, the map information generated by the map information generation function 122b can be map information divided into a plurality of pieces. For example, when there are a large number of terminal devices capable of executing services, it is difficult to confirm all the terminal devices on one map. Therefore, by setting the map information as a plurality of pieces of information, it is possible to display not only the entire map but also a map in which a part of the area on the map is enlarged on the display. It can be avoided.

  The output function 122c is a function for outputting the terminal information of each terminal device acquired by the terminal information acquisition function 122a or the map information to the output device 17 of the mobile phone 1 and other terminal devices. The output function 122c does not need to output all items included in the terminal information. For example, the output function 122c outputs information that lists only the “name” of each terminal device, and outputs “name” and “screen size”. The list information may be output.

  Further, the output function 122c may combine the terminal information and the map information and output them to the output device 17 of the mobile phone 1 and other terminal devices. For example, an icon indicating each of the mobile phone 1 and the searched terminal device is displayed as a map on the display according to the relative positional relationship, and the name of each terminal device is displayed together with the icon. Output information that can be

  Further, when outputting the terminal information to another terminal device, the output function 122c uses at least one of the terminal devices searched by the search function 121a as the output destination using the terminal information of FIG. select. There are several variations of this choice, which are described below.

Variation 1: When an arbitrary service specified by the user of the mobile phone 1 is an audio output service, at least one of the terminal devices having a display that performs display based on the terminal information among the terminal devices searched by the search function 121a. Select one. If an arbitrary service designated by the user of the mobile phone 1 is an image display service, the retrieved terminal device has a display, and therefore at least one of the retrieved terminal devices is selected.
Variation 2: In any of the above cases, the terminal device having the largest display screen size is selected from the terminal devices having the display.
Variation 3: In any of the above cases, the terminal device closest to the mobile phone 1 itself is selected from the terminal devices having a display.
Variation 4: In any of the above cases, a terminal device having a display is selected with the display facing the mobile phone 1 side.
For variations 3 and 4, the above selection is made by comparing the location information of the mobile phone 1 held in the internal memory with the location information of the terminal information shown in FIG.

  When the output function 122c receives terminal information and map information output from the output function 122c of a terminal device other than the mobile phone 1, the output function 122c sends the received terminal information and map information to the output device 17 of the mobile phone 1 itself. It also has a function to output.

  The output content change function 122d is a function for changing the content of the terminal information output by the output function 122c in accordance with the output destination of the terminal information. For example, when the output function 122c selects a terminal device having the largest screen size, all items of the terminal information shown in FIG. 4 are output as terminal information, or conversely, the screen size of the selected terminal device is displayed. If “” is small, only “name” is output as terminal information.

  When the mobile phone 1 enters the PAN 7, the terminal information generation function 122 e has fixed information such as “name” and “charge” stored in the mobile phone 1 and variation information such as location information of the mobile phone 1. And the function of generating the terminal information shown in FIG.

  The terminal information transmission function 122f is a function for transmitting the terminal information generated by the terminal information generation function 122e to the requesting terminal device via the OS 13 and the Bluetooth interface 14 in response to a request from another terminal device. .

Next, the operation of the mobile phone 1 when the user of the mobile phone 1 uses the image display service will be described.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an operation flow of the terminal cooperation middleware 121 and the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 executed by the mobile phone 1 of the terminal cooperation system for explaining the first embodiment of the present invention.

  When the user of the mobile phone 1 performs an operation for starting the image display service, the terminal cooperation middleware 121 starts searching for a terminal device that can execute the image display service (S501), and sets the ID of the searched terminal device. The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 is notified (S502). The ID notified here is the ID of each of the PDA 2, the television 3, the television 4, and the PC 6 that can execute the image display service.

  The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 accesses the terminal device identified by the notified ID, acquires each terminal information (S503), and based on the acquired terminal information and the location information of the mobile phone 1, Map information is generated (S504). Then, at least one of the name information of each terminal device and the map information included in the terminal information is output to a display which is an output device of the mobile phone 1 (S505). As a result, a screen as shown in FIG. 6 or 7 is displayed on the display of the mobile phone 1. The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 can change the content of information displayed on the display according to the display capability of the display of the mobile phone 1.

  On the other hand, when the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 selects a terminal device other than the mobile phone 1 according to the above variations 1 to 4 and outputs at least one of terminal information and map information to the selected terminal device, FIG. And a screen as shown in FIG. 7 is displayed on the display of the selected terminal device. Here, when a terminal device having a large display such as the television 4 is selected, the characteristics of the terminal device capable of executing the image display service can be displayed in detail as shown in FIG. Further, when the selected terminal device is far from the mobile phone 1, the characteristics of the terminal device capable of executing the image display service can be displayed in large characters.

  The user selects, for example, the PDA 2 with reference to information displayed on the display of the mobile phone 1 or the display of another terminal device. As a selection method, one is selected from a list as shown in FIG. 6 displayed on the display of the mobile phone 1, or one icon is selected from a map as shown in FIG.

  When the PDA2 is selected by the user, the ID of the PDA2 is notified to the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122, and from here to the terminal cooperation middleware 121 (S506). The terminal cooperation middleware 121 accesses the PDA 2 based on the notified ID (S507), transfers the image data designated by the user, and requests execution of the service (S508). As a result, the service is executed by the PDA 2 and an image based on the image data transferred from the mobile phone 1 is displayed on the display of the PDA 2. By using this service, for example, when the mobile phone 1 has a videophone function, it is possible to enjoy a call while displaying the other party's face image on a display of a terminal device other than the mobile phone 1.

  In the above description, information indicating the characteristics of the terminal device capable of executing the service is displayed on the display of the mobile phone 1 or the display of another terminal device, or the relative positional relationship between the terminal device and the mobile phone 1 is indicated. Although the map is displayed, the ID of each terminal device may be displayed together with the information. In this case, what is necessary is just to output including ID as terminal information.

  As described above, according to the system of the present embodiment, a list of names of terminal devices that can execute the service specified by the user of the mobile phone 1 on the display of the mobile phone 1 or the display of another terminal device (see FIG. 6) can be displayed. For this reason, the user of the cellular phone 1 can easily grasp from the list which terminal device can execute the service specified by the user, and when the terminal device to be selected is determined in advance. The desired terminal device can be selected instantaneously from the name.

  Further, according to the system of this embodiment, the relative relationship between the mobile phone 1 and the terminal device that can execute the service specified by the user of the mobile phone 1 on the display of the mobile phone 1 or the display of another terminal device. A map (see FIG. 7) showing the positional relationship can be displayed. For this reason, the user of the mobile phone 1 can intuitively grasp where the terminal device that can execute the service is located by the map, and can easily select the terminal device that the user wants to execute the service. .

  When the number of terminal devices capable of executing services becomes enormous, in order to check the list or map on a terminal device having a small display such as the mobile phone 1, the screen is scrolled or characters are reduced. It is necessary and the confirmation is troublesome. On the other hand, in the present system, since the list and map can be displayed using a display of an external terminal device other than the mobile phone 1, for example, the list or map is displayed on a television having a large screen display. The above confirmation can be facilitated by displaying.

  Further, according to the system of the present embodiment, the list or map can be displayed on the display of the terminal device whose display surface is facing the mobile phone 1. For this reason, the user of the mobile phone 1 does not have to search for the display of which terminal device the list or map is displayed. As a result, the user of the mobile phone 1 can quickly and easily select the terminal device that the user wants to execute the service.

  Further, according to the system of the present embodiment, the list or map can be displayed on the display of the terminal device located closest to the mobile phone 1. For this reason, the user of the mobile phone 1 can check the list and map in the immediate vicinity, and can easily and quickly select the terminal device that he / she wants to execute the service.

  Further, according to the system of the present embodiment, the contents of the list or map can be changed according to the characteristics of the terminal device that displays the list or map. For example, information other than the name of the terminal device can be added to the list on the large screen display (see FIG. 8). Thereby, the user of the mobile phone 1 can be informed in detail of the characteristics of the terminal device that can execute the service. Therefore, the user of the mobile phone 1 can more accurately select a terminal device that can execute the service.

(Second embodiment)
The terminal cooperation system for describing the second embodiment of the present invention is different in the function of the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 122 in each terminal device of the terminal cooperation system described in the first embodiment. For this reason, in this embodiment, the function of the terminal selection auxiliary middleware of each terminal device will be described.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of middleware of each terminal device of the terminal cooperation system for explaining the second embodiment of the present invention. The same functions as those in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals.
The middleware 22 includes a terminal cooperation middleware 121 and a terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222.
The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 includes a terminal information acquisition function 122a, an output control information generation function 222a, a narrowing function 222b, a transmission control function 222c, an output control function 222d, a trigger output function 222e, an output function 222f, A position designation information input function 222g and an ID acquisition function 222h are provided.

  The output control information generation function 222a is a function of generating output control information for causing a terminal device capable of executing a service to perform an output indicating that the service specified by the user of the mobile phone 1 is executable. .

  The narrow-down function 222b is a function for narrowing down the terminal devices searched by the search function 121a using the terminal information acquired by the terminal information acquisition function 122a. This narrowing condition can be set by the user of the mobile phone 1. For example, if “service usage fee is not more than a predetermined fee” among the terminal devices that can execute the service is set as a narrowing condition, it is possible to narrow down to terminal devices that meet the condition. Also, if you want to transfer important image data or audio data to other terminal devices, you can minimize data leakage by narrowing down to those terminal devices with high security functions to prevent leakage of the image data and audio data. It becomes possible to suppress to. In addition to this, it may be possible to narrow down by the position of the terminal device (direction, distance, etc. with respect to the mobile phone 1).

  The transmission control function 222c is a function for controlling the output control information generated by the output control information generation function 222a to be transmitted to the terminal device searched by the search function 121a or the terminal device narrowed by the narrowing function 222b. is there.

  The output control function 222d receives the output control information transmitted from a terminal device other than the mobile phone 1, and outputs the output to the output device 17 of the mobile phone 1 based on the received output control information. It is a function to be performed. As an output method by the output device 17, for example, there is a method of displaying characters indicating that the service can be executed on a display, vibrating a vibrator, or outputting sound from a speaker.

  The trigger output function 222e is a trigger for requesting a terminal device in an arbitrary range among the terminal devices that have received the output control information from the mobile phone 1 and performed the output, to return the ID of the terminal device. It is a function to output. In the present embodiment, visible light output from a visible light output device that is one of the output devices 17 is used as the trigger. That is, the illumination range of visible light output from the visible light output device is the above arbitrary range. The user of the mobile phone 1 applies visible light to a range in which a terminal device that the service is desired to be executed out of the plurality of terminal devices that perform the output, so that the ID from the terminal device that has detected the visible light Has come to reply. As a result, even when a large number of terminal devices perform the output, it is possible to narrow down the terminal devices with visible light. In the present embodiment, each terminal device has a detection function for detecting visible light, and the ID reply function 121c of the terminal cooperation middleware 121 returns an ID in response to visible light.

  The output function 222f is a function that receives the ID returned in response to the trigger and outputs information that lists the received ID to the display of the output device 17. On the display of the mobile phone 1, a list of IDs is displayed based on this information.

  The position designation information input function 222g is a function for inputting position designation information indicating an arbitrary position on the PAN 7 designated by the user of the mobile phone 1.

The ID acquisition function 222h uses the position designation information input by the position designation information input function 222g to designate the terminal apparatus searched by the search function 121a or the terminal apparatus narrowed down by the narrowing function 222b by using the position designation information. This is a function for acquiring the ID of a terminal device that is closest to an arbitrary position on the PAN7.
The ID acquisition function 222h compares terminal information of the terminal device searched by the search function 121a or the terminal device narrowed down by the narrowing function 222b with the position designation information, and the position closest to the position designated by the position designation information The terminal device in is determined. Then, the determined terminal device is accessed via the OS 13 and the Bluetooth interface 14, and the ID of the terminal device is acquired.

Next, the operation of the mobile phone 1 when the user of the mobile phone 1 uses the image display service will be described.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an operation flow of the terminal cooperation middleware 121 and the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 executed by the mobile phone 1 of the terminal cooperation system for explaining the second embodiment of the present invention.

  When the user of the mobile phone 1 performs an operation for starting the image display service, the terminal cooperation middleware 121 starts searching for a terminal device that can execute the image display service (S1001), and sets the ID of the searched terminal device. The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 is notified (S1002). The ID notified here is the ID of each of the PDA 2, the television 3, the television 4, and the PC 6 that can execute the image display service.

  The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 accesses the terminal device identified by the notified ID, acquires each terminal information (S1003), and generates output control information (S1004). After that, the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 determines whether or not the narrowing condition of the terminal device is set by the user of the mobile phone 1, and if it is not set (S1005: NO), the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 is identified by the notified ID. The output control information is transmitted to the terminal device to be operated (S1006). Each of the PDA 2, the television 3, the television 4, and the PC 6 that has received the output control information displays, for example, a large “◯” image as shown in FIG. 11 on each display.

  On the other hand, when the narrowing condition of the terminal device is set by the user of the mobile phone 1 (S1005: YES), the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 confirms the narrowing condition. If this narrowing condition is, for example, “service usage fee is 100 yen or less”, the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 refers to the terminal information acquired by the terminal information acquisition function 122a, and the service usage fee is 100 yen or less. The terminal device is specified. Here, the PDA 2, the television 3, and the PC 6 are specified. Then, the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 transmits output control information to each of the identified PDA 2, television 3, and PC 6 (S1007). Each of the PDA 2, the television 3, and the PC 6 that has received the output control information displays a large “◯” image as shown in FIG. 11, for example, on each display.

  As described above, in the state where the image of ○ is displayed on the display of each terminal device, the user of the mobile phone 1 can carry the device to a terminal device within an arbitrary range among the terminal devices displayed with the image of ○ on the display. When the telephone 1 is operated to apply visible light, the terminal device to which the visible light is applied returns its own ID. Here, it is assumed that visible light is applied to the television 3 and the television 4 among the PDA 2, the television 3, the television 4, and the PC 6. The terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 acquires IDs returned from the television 3 and the television 4 (S1008), and displays a list of the IDs on the display of the mobile phone 1 (S1009). Instead of the ID list, a list of names based on the terminal information of the television 3 and the television 4 may be displayed.

  The user of the mobile phone 1 selects, for example, the television 3 with reference to the list displayed on the display of the mobile phone 1. When the television 3 is selected by the user, the ID of the television 3 is notified to the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222, and from here, the terminal cooperation middleware 121 is notified (S1010). The terminal cooperation middleware 121 accesses the television 3 based on the notified ID (S1011), transfers the image data designated by the user, and requests execution of the service (S1012). Thus, the service is executed on the television 3 and an image based on the image data transferred from the mobile phone 1 is displayed on the display of the television 3.

  Further, when the user of the mobile phone 1 designates an arbitrary position on the PAN 7 in a state where the image of the circle is displayed on the display of each terminal device as described above, the terminal selection auxiliary middleware 222 displays the position designation information. (S1013), the ID of the television 3 closest to the arbitrary position is acquired using the input position designation information (S1014), and the acquired ID is notified to the terminal cooperation middleware 121 (S1010). , The process proceeds to S1011.

  As described above, according to the system of the present embodiment, the terminal device that can execute the service can be made to output that the service can be executed. It is possible to instantly grasp whether the terminal device can execute the service. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the time required for selecting the terminal device.

  Further, according to the system of the present embodiment, output indicating that the service can be executed is performed only among the terminal devices that can execute the service, to the terminal devices that are narrowed down using the terminal information of those terminal devices. Therefore, even if the number of terminal devices capable of executing services is enormous, the number of terminal devices to be selected by the user of the mobile phone 1 can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the time required for selecting the terminal device.

  Further, according to the system of the present embodiment, the narrowed-down terminal devices can be further narrowed down by applying visible light. For this reason, even when there are many terminal devices narrowed down by the narrowing-down function, the number of terminal devices to be selected by the user of the mobile phone 1 can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the time required for selecting the terminal device.

  Also, according to the system of the present embodiment, one terminal device can be determined from the narrowed-down terminal devices by operating the mobile phone 1 and inputting the position designation information. For this reason, even when there are many terminal devices narrowed down by the narrowing-down function, the number of terminal devices to be selected by the user of the mobile phone 1 can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the time required for selecting the terminal device.

  In the above description, the terminal device that has received the output control information performs an output indicating that the service can be executed, but it is also possible to determine the timing of this output. In this case, the output control information generation function 222a generates the output control information in which the timing is determined using the terminal information of the terminal device searched by the search function 121a or the terminal device narrowed down by the narrowing function 222b.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of output control information generated by the output control information generation function 222a.
As shown in FIG. 12, the output control information defines the output order of each terminal device. “ID” is the ID of the terminal device that is the transmission destination of the output control information. “Order” is information defining when the terminal device specified by the ID performs output. The “interval” is a time interval from when one terminal device performs output until the next terminal device performs output.

  The output function 222f of the PDA 2 that has received the output control information shown in FIG. 12 confirms the “order” and “interval” defined for the ID of the own device, and the television 3 performs output based on this. After 5 seconds, it controls itself to output for 5 seconds. By using the terminal information, the order defined here is, for example, counterclockwise from the PC 6 closest to the mobile phone 1 or in an order away from the one close to the mobile phone 1. One user can immediately confirm the terminal device closest to him / her.

  The “order” may be set by the user of the mobile phone 1. For example, the terminal device whose display surface is facing the mobile phone 1 is set to be output first, the service usage fee is set to be output in ascending order, or the image display capability is output in descending order. It is possible to set as follows.

The figure which shows schematic structure of the terminal cooperation system for describing 1st embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the outline of the system configuration | structure of each terminal device of the terminal cooperation system for demonstrating 1st embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the detailed structure of the middleware shown in FIG. The figure which shows the specific example of the terminal information acquired from the terminal device which can perform an image display service The figure which shows the operation | movement flow of the terminal cooperation middleware and terminal selection auxiliary middleware which are performed with the mobile telephone of the terminal cooperation system for describing 1st embodiment of this invention Screen display example of information indicating the characteristics of terminal devices that can execute services Screen display example of information indicating the characteristics of terminal devices that can execute services Screen display example of information indicating the characteristics of terminal devices that can execute services The figure which shows the detailed structure of the middleware of each terminal device of the terminal cooperation system for describing 2nd embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the operation | movement flow of the terminal cooperation middleware and terminal selection auxiliary middleware which are performed with the mobile telephone of the terminal cooperation system for describing 2nd embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the example of a screen display when the terminal device which can perform service performs the output which shows that service can be performed on a display The figure which shows the specific example of output control information

Explanation of symbols

1 Mobile phone 2 PDA
3, 4 Television 5 Audio player 6 PC
7 PAN

Claims (11)

A plurality of terminal devices connected by near field communication, the terminal device of any of the plurality of terminal devices in a network in which the configuration of the plurality of terminal devices dynamically changes,
Any one of the terminal devices is a host terminal, and any other terminal device is a client terminal,
Search means for searching for a client terminal capable of executing the predetermined process based on an execution request for the predetermined process from the host terminal, from among the client terminals;
Terminal information acquisition means for acquiring terminal information indicating the characteristics of the searched client terminal;
A terminal device comprising output means for outputting the terminal information. The terminal device according to claim 1,
The output means is a terminal device that outputs the terminal information to at least one of the searched client terminals. The terminal device according to claim 2,
The output unit is a terminal device that selects, using the terminal information, at least one of client terminals having a display unit that performs display based on the terminal information as an output destination of the terminal information. The terminal device according to claim 2 or 3,
The output unit is a terminal device that selects, using the terminal information, a client terminal closest to the host terminal as an output destination of the terminal information. The terminal device according to claim 3,
The said output means is a terminal device which selects the client terminal with the largest said display part among the at least one of the client terminals which have the said display part as an output destination of the said terminal information using the said terminal information. The terminal device according to claim 3,
The output means uses, as the output destination of the terminal information, a client terminal having a display surface of the display unit facing the host terminal among at least one of the client terminals having the display unit, using the terminal information. The terminal device that is to be selected. The terminal device according to any one of claims 2 to 6,
A terminal device comprising terminal information changing means for changing the contents of the terminal information to be output according to the output destination of the terminal information. The terminal device according to claim 1,
Relative positional relationship information for generating relative positional relationship information indicating a relative positional relationship between the host terminal and the searched client terminal based on positional information of the searched client terminal included in the terminal information A generating means,
The output means is a terminal device that outputs at least one of the terminal information and the relative positional relationship information. A plurality of terminal devices connected by near field communication, the terminal device of any of the plurality of terminal devices in a network in which the configuration of the plurality of terminal devices dynamically changes,
One of the plurality of terminal devices excluding any of the terminal devices is a host terminal, a terminal device other than the host terminal including any of the terminal devices is a client terminal,
A receiving means for receiving, from the host terminal, terminal information of a client terminal capable of executing the predetermined process based on an execution request of the predetermined process from the host terminal among the client terminals;
A terminal device comprising output means for outputting the terminal information. The terminal device according to claim 9,
The receiving means receives relative positional relationship information indicating a relative positional relationship between the host terminal and the searched client terminal together with the terminal information,
The output means is a terminal device that outputs at least one of the terminal information and the relative positional relationship information.   The terminal program for functioning a computer as each means of the terminal device in any one of Claims 1-10.

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