JP2006018338A - Information display program and information display system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information display program that is convenient for information browsing. <P>SOLUTION: The information display program comprises a request means 34 for sending a download request to the Internet 11, an acquisition means 36 for capturing content transferred from the Internet 11 in response to the download request, and a telop display means 40 for displaying a telop of the captured content on the foreground of a display screen of a display means 22. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information display program and an information display system for displaying information on a user terminal.

  The information display program is, for example, a WWW browser (World Wide Web browser) that acquires current news, stock prices, weather forecasts, and other information from a network (for example, the Internet, LAN) and displays the acquired information on a user terminal.

  This information display program is implemented in the user terminal, transmits an information acquisition request to the information distribution server via the network, and displays the information transmitted from the network in response to the request on the display screen of the user terminal. To do. By using such an information display program as needed or at rest, it is possible to browse information of high interest of the user or information that the user should know on the user terminal (for example, patents) Reference 1).

JP 2003-281188 A

  By the way, the user terminal is generally mounted with a work program (for example, a spreadsheet program) in addition to the information display program. Therefore, in Patent Literature 1 and the like, if information is displayed when the work area of the work program is displayed, the displayed information may be hidden in the work area, which is inconvenient for the user.

  In addition, reflecting the social situation, there is a strong need to browse information simultaneously while working in the work area of the display screen. It needs to be interrupted and is inconvenient for the user. For example, if the information such as stock prices is not up-to-date, the utility value will be reduced, so you may have to browse the updated information even during other work, but it is necessary to interrupt the work each time, and it is inconvenient There is a problem.

  An object of the present invention is to realize an information display program that is convenient for browsing information.

  In order to solve the above problems, an information display program according to the present invention includes a means for transmitting an information acquisition request to a network, a means for acquiring information transferred from the network in response to the request, and the acquired information on the display screen. A means for displaying a telop on the front is provided.

  According to this, since the information captured from the network is sequentially displayed while moving within a narrow area of the display screen of the user terminal, a work area is secured on the display screen of the user terminal even when browsing the information. Can do. As a result, information can be browsed even during work, which is convenient for the user.

  In this case, it is possible to provide setting means suitable for further improving the user-friendliness. For example, the setting means includes means for specifying a destination address of the information acquisition request, means for setting a time interval for automatically transmitting the information acquisition request, means for setting a display range in a display list extracted from the acquired information, It is preferable that at least one means for changing the display speed of the telop display is provided.

  According to this, information can be automatically acquired from the information distribution server designated in advance by the destination address designation means and the time interval setting means. In addition, the display range setting means can automatically extract and display information of high interest of the user and information that the user should know from the acquired information. As described above, when the information is browsed, there is almost no manual operation by the user, so that the usability is further improved. Further, since the scroll speed of the telop display can be changed by means of changing the display speed, it is convenient because it can be adjusted to a scroll speed that is easy for the user to browse.

  Further, according to the display range setting means, the display range can be appropriately set as necessary in the display list extracted from the acquired information (for example, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file). Regardless of the format of information stored in the information distribution server (for example, an arrangement for displaying information of an HTML file), the information can be easily browsed. That is, even when information is acquired from an arbitrarily specified information distribution server among various information distribution servers, it is not necessary to change the setting of the information distribution server, so that the usability is further improved.

  It is also possible to make the user easily recognize the update of information. For example, the information acquisition request is automatically transmitted at a predetermined time interval, the information acquired in response to the transmitted information acquisition request is checked against the previously acquired information, the update information is detected, and the detected update information is It is possible to display on the display screen by changing the display mode (for example, blinking or changing the display color). Thereby, since the visibility of update information improves, a user can be made to recognize update information exactly.

  An information display system can be constructed by mounting such an information display program on a user terminal and connecting the user terminal to an information distribution server via a network (for example, the Internet or a LAN).

  According to the present invention, an information display program convenient for browsing information can be realized.

  An embodiment of an information display program and an information display system to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a form of an information display system to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the information display system includes a user terminal 10 in which a WWW browser is installed as an information program, and a plurality (for example, four) of user terminals 10 connected to the user terminal 10 via a network (for example, the Internet 11). An information distribution server (hereinafter referred to as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) servers 12 to 18) is configured. The HTTP servers 12 to 18 are arranged in a distributed manner at site A to site D, respectively.

  FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the user terminal 10 of FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the user terminal 10 has network interface means (hereinafter referred to as NI means 20) that communicates with the Internet 11, and information (for example, content) output from the NI means 20 on the display means 22. An information display program 26 to be displayed on the display screen; a storage means 28 such as a memory for storing a setting file 27 read into the information display program 26; a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU 30) for outputting a control command to each means; It has. The NI unit 20, the display unit 22, the information display program 26, the storage unit 28, and the CPU 30 exchange commands or data with each other via the shared bus 24.

  An operation console 32 is connected to the user terminal 10. The console 32 has an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and commands input to the input device are output to, for example, the CPU 30 via the shared bus 24.

  A basic operation of the user terminal 10 configured as described above will be described. First, when the user inputs a command to the console 32, the information display program 26 is activated in accordance with the input command. The activated information display program transmits an information acquisition request (hereinafter referred to as a download request) to the Internet 11 via the NI means 20. When the transmitted download request is received by, for example, the HTTP server 12, an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file is transferred from the HTTP server 12 to the user terminal 10. The transferred HTML file is acquired as content by the information display program 26. The acquired content is displayed on the display means 22 in accordance with a predetermined rule.

  Here, the information display program 26 of the present invention will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 2, the information display program 26 includes a request unit 34 as a unit for transmitting a download request to the Internet 11 via the NI unit 20, and an NI unit that transmits the content transferred from the Internet 11 in response to the download request. Acquisition means 36 as means for taking in via 20, extraction means 38 for extracting a display list from the fetched content, and telop display means 40 for causing the display means 22 to telop-display content corresponding to the display range set in the display list. And setting means 42 for setting or changing various parameters described in the setting file 27.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information display program 26. As shown in FIG. 3, the information display program 26 is activated in response to a command from the CPU 30 (S100). The setting file 27 of the storage means 28 is read by the activated information display program 26 (S102). It is determined whether or not the read setting file 27 is in an initial state (default value) (S104). When it is determined that the setting file 27 is in the initial state, a message prompting the initial setting is displayed in a telop (S106). For example, a message “Please right-click on the task tray icon to set” is displayed. Note that the content of the message may be changed as appropriate.

  Next, various parameters are set via the setting means 42 (S108). FIG. 4 shows an example of the display window of the setting means 42. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the setting unit 42 is displayed as a GUI window (graphical user interface window), and the transmission destination address of the download request (for example, the IP address or URL of the HTTP server 12) is displayed. Server specifying means 44 for specifying, time setting means 46 for setting a time interval for automatically transmitting a download request, display range setting means 48 for setting a display range in a display list 47, and display for changing the display speed of the telop display A speed variable means 50 is provided. Each parameter is interactively set through such setting means 42, and each set parameter is overwritten in the setting file 27. If it is determined in the process of S104 that each parameter is set in the setting file 27, the process of S110 is performed. Further, when the user inputs a setting screen start command to the console 32, the process of S108 is forcibly interrupted.

  Next, an HTML file is acquired from the designated information distribution server (for example, HTTP server 12) (S110). For example, a download request is transmitted to the HTTP server 12 via the Internet 11 by the request unit 34. In response to the transmitted download request, the HTML file is transferred from the HTTP server 12 to the user terminal 10. The transferred HTML file is acquired by the acquisition means 36.

  Next, a display list is extracted from the acquired HTML file (S112). For example, the HTML file acquired by the acquisition unit 36 is raw data including image data. Therefore, content suitable for telop display (for example, a character character) is extracted from the HTML file as the display list 47 by the extraction unit 38. More specifically, when the tag information of the HTML file is identified and it is determined that the identified tag indicates a character character, a character character string corresponding to the tag is extracted, and a number is assigned to each extracted character character string. The display list 47 is constructed by assigning.

  Next, a display range is set in the extracted display list (S114). For example, referring to the display list 47 extracted from the HTML file, as shown in FIG. 4, the display range setting means 48 sets a range including information of high interest of the user and information that the user should know. Is done.

  Then, the content corresponding to the set display range is displayed as a telop (S116). FIG. 5 shows a display example of the telop display. As shown in FIG. 5, the content (for example, “XXX is XXX (22:30)”) is displayed in the direction indicated by the arrow X in the display window 60 set in the display unit 22 by the telop display unit 40. Is displayed by scrolling horizontally. Note that the size of the display window 60 is changed as appropriate in accordance with the change in the size of the characters of the content displayed in the telop display. In short, it is only necessary to display a single line of content. Further, the position of the display window 60 is changed by designating an arbitrary position on the display screen using a mouse of the console 32 or the like. Moreover, you may set so that it may scroll not only horizontally but vertically.

  The content displayed in this way is updated at set time intervals (S118). For example, the processing of S110 to S116 is repeated for each time interval set by the time setting means 46. Thus, even when the content of the HTTP server 12 is updated to new content, the updated content is automatically displayed in telop. Note that the process of S116 is repeated until the update time is reached.

  According to the present embodiment, the content captured from the Internet 11 is sequentially displayed while moving within a narrow area of the display screen of the display unit 22 as shown in FIG. A relatively large work area 62 can be secured on the screen. Thus, even when the work area 62 is being used, for example, during work by a spreadsheet program, content can be browsed, which is convenient for the user.

  Further, the provision of the setting means 42 shown in FIG. 4 further improves usability. For example, the contents stored in the HTTP server 12 specified in advance can be automatically acquired by the server specifying means 44 and the time setting means 46. In addition, the display range setting means 48 can select in advance a content of high interest of the user from the content of the HTML file or a content that the user should know to automatically display a telop. As described above, when the content is browsed, there is almost no manual operation by the user, so that the usability is further improved.

  Further, since the scroll speed of the telop display can be changed by the display speed variable means 50, it is convenient because it can be appropriately adjusted to a speed that can be easily viewed by the user.

  Furthermore, the extraction unit 38 can extract the display list from the HTML file regardless of the format of the HTML file stored in the HTTP server 12 (for example, the arrangement of contents when displaying the HTML file). Thereby, for example, even if the HTML file formats of the HTTP servers 12 to 18 are different from each other, it is possible to browse the contents of the arbitrarily designated HTTP server. That is, since the contents of the HTTP servers 12 to 18 can be browsed without changing the settings on the HTTP servers 12 to 18, the usability is good.

  Although the present invention has been described based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the information display program 26 of FIG. 1 may be provided with a detecting means for detecting update information by collating an HTML file acquired by the acquiring means 36 or a display list extracted by the extracting means 38 with a previously acquired display list. . The update information detected by the detection means can be displayed on the display screen by changing the display mode (for example, blinking or changing the display color) by the telop display means 40. Thereby, since the visibility of update information improves, a user can be made to recognize update information exactly.

  In this case, the setting means 42 of FIG. 4 includes an update information notification check box 76. When the notification check box 76 is on, the display mode of the update information is changed. When the notification check box 76 is off, the display mode is not changed. Update information can be displayed.

  Various setting functions can be added to the setting means 42. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a character code selection means 64 for designating a character code (for example, Shift-JIS, ISO-2022-JP, EUC-JP) for display list 47 or telop display may be provided. Instead of this, the character code of the HTTP server may be automatically recognized and automatically converted to match the character code of the display means 22. Further, a button 66 for updating the display list 47, a button 68 for changing the background color of the display window 60, a means 70 for specifying the font of the display content, and a means 72 for changing the character size of the display content are provided. Good. Also, a display check box 74 is provided, and when the display check box 74 is on, the telop is preferentially displayed on the forefront of the display screen, and when it is off, the priority display function can be disabled.

  Further, a character means 78 for designating a character that divides a series of contents displayed in telop for each character string may be provided. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the character “*” is designated by the character means 78. The designated character “*” is replaced with a line feed code in the display list 47. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, the character “*” is inserted for each content corresponding to one line of the display list 47, so that the content can be easily viewed.

  In addition, by designating a plurality of HTTP servers and setting a display range for each HTTP server, contents corresponding to the set display ranges can be connected in order and displayed in a telop. Simultaneously with the activation of the setting means 42, a home page corresponding to the designated URL may be displayed side by side with the window of the setting means 42. Thereby, the display range can be set while comparing the setting window of the setting means 42 and the homepage, so that the usability is improved.

  The information display program of this embodiment can be applied to various uses such as a current news display system, a stock price display system, a weather forecast notification system, and an electronic bulletin board.

  Further, instead of the form of FIG. 1, a terminal in which the information display program 26 is installed may be connected to an information distribution server via a LAN (Local Area Network) to construct, for example, an in-house LAN. According to this, since important information such as an internal report, a sales report, or an emergency meeting call can be forcibly displayed on the user terminal 10 as a telop, it is possible to reliably notify the user of the important information. Become. In this case, the administrator of the information distribution server may set the setting file 27 in advance, distribute the setting file 27 to each employee, and install it on each user terminal 10. Needless to say, the present invention can also be applied to a WAN (Wide Area Network) or a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) instead of the LAN.

  Further, the information processing program of the present embodiment has been described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 2 for convenience of explanation, but can be realized by software. In that case, it may be stored in a storage area such as the storage means 28 or other memory so as to be activated in response to a command. In addition to a general-purpose OS of a personal computer, various OSs such as a workstation and an office computer can be supported. The HTTP server may be of any form as long as it is an information processing apparatus that is started by an HTTP PD (Hyper Text Transfer Daemon: web server).

It is a figure which shows the form of the information display system to which this invention is applied. It is a block diagram of the user terminal 10 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the information display program 26 to which this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the setting means 42 of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of telop display.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 User terminal 11 Internet 12-18 HTTP server 22 Display means 26 Information display program 34 Request means 36 Acquisition means 38 Extraction means 40 Telop display means 42 Setting means 44 Server designation means 46 Time setting means 47 Display list 48 Display range setting means 50 Display speed variable means

Claims (4)

  An information display program comprising: means for transmitting an information acquisition request to a network; means for capturing information transferred from the network in response to the request; and means for displaying the captured information on the forefront of a display screen.   Means for designating a destination address of the information acquisition request; means for setting a time interval for automatically transmitting the information acquisition request; means for setting a display range in a display list extracted from the captured information; The information display program according to claim 1, further comprising means for changing a display speed of display.   The transmission means automatically transmits the information acquisition request at a predetermined time interval, and the acquisition means detects update information by comparing information acquired in response to the information acquisition request with previously acquired information. The information display program according to claim 1, wherein the telop display unit displays the update information on the display screen while changing a display mode. An information display system comprising: a user terminal in which the information display program according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is installed; and an information distribution server connected to the user terminal via a network.

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