JP2006195675A - Browsing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a browsing system that properly displays large-sized contents while linking up with a plurality of terminals by considering the performance of the terminals. <P>SOLUTION: The browsing system 100 is composed of a server 101 and client 102. (a) A server 101 comprises a user management part 111, event management part 112, and a content segmentation part 114. (b) A client 102 comprises a page controller 122 for generating contents for use in browsing screen display on the basis of object data belonging to partial contents and layout data associated with allocation of the object data, and a browsing screen processing part 123 for constituting a browsing screen and displaying contents on the basis of the contents for use in the browsing screen display. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a browsing system for browsing content in cooperation between a plurality of devices.

  In recent years, with the development of communication technology and computer technology, mobile terminals such as mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) have become familiar. A user can access content on the Internet anytime and anywhere using a mobile terminal. As a technology for browsing a large-sized content such as a web page for a desktop PC using a mobile terminal, many technologies that provide an overview of the content using an overview have been proposed so far.

  For example, Power Browser is a technology that provides a summary of Web pages for desktop PCs on a text basis (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 2). The user can browse the details by selecting the part he wants to browse from the summary.

  Further, as a technique for providing an image-based overview, there is a Smart View (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 3 and Non-Patent Document 4). In these technologies, an overview obtained by reducing a page image displayed by a WWW (World Wide Web) browser for a desktop PC is displayed on the PDA. The user can enlarge the part he / she wants to view from the overview.

Moreover, there are Let's Browse, GDA, ConnecTables, and the like as techniques for performing cooperative work between nearby users (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 5, Non-Patent Document 6, and Non-Patent Document 7). In Let's Browse, in a web browsing by a multi-user using a normal desktop PC, a page that most closely matches the profiles of all users is presented among pages linked from the currently viewed page. In GDA, the display area of the workspace used for collaborative work can be expanded by combining the screens of a plurality of PDAs. In ConneTables, work areas on a display can be combined by combining portable displays.
O. Buyukkokten, H. Garcia-Molina, A. Paepcke, and T. Winograd, "Power browser: Efficient web browsing for PDAs," Proc. Human-Computer Interaction Conference 2000 (CHI 2000), vol. 2, issue 1, pp. 430--437, Apr. 2000. O. Buyukkokten, H. Garcia-Molina, and A. Paepcke, "Seeing the whole in parts: Text summarization for web browsing on handheld devices," Proc. World Wide Web Conference (WWW'01), pp. 652--662 , May 2001. Y. Chen, W. Ma, and H. Zhang, "Detecting web page structure for adaptive viewing on small form factor devices," Proc. World Wide Web Conference (WWW'03), pp. 225--233, May 2003. N. Milic-Frayling and R. Sommerer, "SmartView: Flexible viewing of web page contents," Proc. World Wide Web Conference (WWW'02), May 2002. H. Lieberman, NWV Dyke, and AS Vivacqua, "Let's browse: A collaborative web browsing agent," Proc. International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI'99), Jan. 1999. Takahiro Noda, Takashi Yoshino, Jun Munemori, "GDA: Screen Connection Sharing System with Multiple PDAs," IPSJ Journal, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 2478--2489, Oct. 2003. P. Tandler, T. Prante, C. Muller-Tomfelde, N. Streitz, and R. Steinmetz, "ConnecTables: Dynamic computing of displays for the flexible creation of shared workspaces," Proc. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology ( UIST'01), vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 11--20, Nov. 2001.

  However, the conventional technology still has a problem that it is difficult to comfortably browse a large size content because the mobile terminal is still limited in display size and calculation capacity.

  For example, when browsing using a terminal with a smaller screen such as a mobile phone is considered, the reduction rate of the overview becomes large, and it is difficult for the user to grasp the content.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a browsing system that appropriately displays large-sized content in cooperation with a plurality of terminals in consideration of terminal performance and the like. And

  In order to achieve the above object, a browsing system according to the present invention includes: (a) a client device that displays a plurality of object data constituting a content; and a server device that divides the content according to the function of the client device. (B) the user management means for managing the specific information about the client device; and (b2) the event management for managing the operation information received from the client device. And (b3) content dividing means for dividing the content into partial contents based on the unique information, (c) the client device is (c1) object data belonging to the partial content, and the object Rays related to data allocation Page management means for generating browsing screen display content based on out data, and (c2) a browsing screen is configured and displayed based on the browsing screen display content and is operated by the user via the displayed browsing screen. Browsing screen processing means for receiving the message, and (c3) event management means for managing operation information related to the operation received from the user.

  As a result, a client device such as a mobile terminal can browse a page with a large amount of information that cannot be browsed by only one mobile terminal in units of partial pages optimized for the client device. In addition, the user assigns the divided partial pages to a plurality of users close to each other, and displays the Web page generated for a normal desktop PC by displaying the pages in cooperation with other client devices. You can browse using. Then, while looking at the partial pages displayed on each client device, it is possible to consult and search and browse the target information.

  Furthermore, (a) the server device includes metadata generation means for generating the tree-structured metadata indicating the relationship between the plurality of object data constituting the content and the layout data, and (b) the content division The means may divide the content into the partial contents by converting the metadata of the tree structure into a complete graph and dividing the complete graph.

  Thus, the server device can automatically generate the tree-structured metadata by recursively segmenting the HTML-format Web page. Furthermore, by dividing the tree based on the unique information, the Web page can be divided into partial pages optimized for a client device such as a mobile terminal.

  Further, the content dividing means may allocate the content so as not to exceed the maximum capacity of the client device.

  Further, the content dividing means may determine the content distribution ratio according to the performance ratio of the client device.

  Further, the content dividing means may preferentially assign content that requires a special function for execution to a client device having that function.

  Furthermore, when the keyword group indicating the user's preference is included in the unique information for the user, the content dividing unit allocates a plurality of objects divided from the content based on the keyword group. Also good.

  Note that the present invention may be realized not only as a browsing system but also as a method for controlling the browsing system (hereinafter referred to as a browsing method).

  In addition, a server device constituting the browsing system, a method for controlling the server device (hereinafter referred to as server control method), a program for causing the computer system or the like to execute the server control method (hereinafter referred to as server program), and a server program are recorded. It may be realized as a recording medium or the like.

  In addition, a client device constituting a browsing system, a method for controlling the client device (hereinafter referred to as a client control method), a program for causing a computer system or the like to execute the client control method (hereinafter referred to as a client program), and a client program are recorded. It may be realized as a recording medium or the like.

  As described above, according to the browsing system of the present invention, the server device can automatically generate the tree-structured metadata by recursively segmenting the HTML-format Web page. Further, by dividing the tree based on the user information, the Web page can be divided into partial pages optimized for a client device such as a mobile terminal. In addition, the client device can browse a page with a large amount of information that cannot be browsed by only one mobile terminal in units of partial pages optimized for the client device. In addition, the user assigns the divided partial pages to a plurality of users close to each other, and displays the Web page generated for a normal desktop PC by displaying the pages in cooperation with other client devices. You can browse using. Then, while looking at the partial pages displayed on each client device, it is possible to consult and search and browse the target information.

  In addition, it is possible to grasp the rough page structure before the division using the overview screen. Furthermore, by synchronizing the back and forward operations of the respective browsers, users can view the same page without confusion.

  In addition, the client device can configure and display an image-based overview using the screen shot image for each object generated by the server device.

  The overview used in the browsing system displays the name of the object as a summary and displays the object in the layout of the page before division. Therefore, the user can easily imagine the original page structure. Further, by browsing the browsing screens of other client devices side by side, the contents of the object can be easily grasped. Furthermore, if the page summary is displayed as a character string, the user can grasp the contents of the page even on a small screen.

(Embodiment 1)
Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  In the mobile computing environment, the browsing system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention divides content that cannot be browsed by only one powerless mobile terminal, for example, content having a large size of one page into a plurality of partial pages. To mobile devices. Specifically, metadata described in a content description method for collaborative browsing is automatically generated from a normal HTML (HyperText Markup Language) Web page, and based on the generated metadata, the normal HTML format is used. Is divided into a plurality of partial pages. Then, the plurality of partial pages are distributed to each mobile terminal and displayed to the user via the browser of the mobile terminal. That is, the present invention is characterized in that a Web page that a user wants to browse is analyzed, and a metadata tree and layout data are generated in real time.

  Furthermore, in order to divide one page into a plurality of partial pages, an overview of the original page is displayed so that the user can easily grasp the original page structure.

  “Collaborative browsing” means that one rich content is divided into a plurality of partial contents, a plurality of partial contents are distributed to a plurality of terminals, and a rich content is collaborated using the partial contents distributed to each terminal. Means browsing.

  Based on the above points, the browsing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

First, the configuration of the browsing system in the first embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 1, a browsing system 100 includes a server 101 and a client 102 such as a mobile phone and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) that are connected to each other via a wireless communication network such as a wireless LAN network and a mobile phone network. Etc. When the client 102 receives the partial page of the Web page divided into a plurality of partial pages by the server 101, the user can (a) details of the partial page received by the client 102 via the browser function provided in the client 102. And (b) an overview of the web page before being divided. Also, in all clients 102 that perform cooperative browsing, the processing of each client 102 is synchronized with user operations such as browser back, forward, and link selection. For example, when a certain user performs a back operation, processing by the back operation is also performed in synchronization with other terminals.

  The content for cooperative browsing is composed of tree-structured metadata described by the content description method, objects corresponding to the leaf nodes of the tree structure, and layout data for designating the layout of the objects. The object is described in HTML which is a general description language of HTML content. The browser displays the received object on the screen according to the layout data. The server divides content using a content division method.

  The user can search for target information while browsing and consulting the partial pages displayed on the respective terminals. At this time, since the partial page displayed on one mobile terminal has a small amount of information, the user can search for target information and links in a short time.

  The server 101 includes a user management unit 111, an event management unit 112, a metadata generation unit 113, a content division unit 114, and the like.

  The user management unit 111 manages user information for collaborative browsing (hereinafter referred to as user information).

  When the user starts collaborative browsing, (a) the name of the user, (b) the screen size of the mobile terminal used by the user, and (c) the functions available on the mobile terminal, the user information Is registered in the user management unit 111. Thereby, collaborative browsing can be performed between the users who performed user registration.

  Here, “functions that can be used in the terminal” refers to a certain type of image display function, sound reproduction function, and the like. For example, a display function of a GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) image.

  When the user management unit 111 receives user information from a client used by the user, the user management unit 111 manages the received user information and passes it to the event management unit 112.

  The event management unit 112 manages information related to an operation performed by the user (hereinafter referred to as operation information) in a client used by the user.

  For example, when a user performs browser back, forward, link selection, or the like, operation information related to the user's operation is notified to other users via the event management unit.

  In addition, when the user selects a link, the event management unit 112 outputs a link page split request to the metadata generation unit 113 using the user information received from the user management unit 111.

  The metadata generation unit 113 analyzes the Web page in response to the division request output from the event management unit 112, and based on the content description method, has a tree structure metadata (hereinafter referred to as a metadata tree). Is generated.

  The content division unit 114 divides the metadata tree generated by the metadata generation unit 113. Then, the division result (hereinafter referred to as division result) and layout data are transmitted to the client.

  The division result includes information indicating which object is assigned to which terminal, and a set of objects (HTML content) assigned to the own device.

  The client 102 includes an event management unit 121, a page management unit 122, a browsing screen processing unit 123, an overview screen processing unit 124, and the like.

  The event management unit 121 manages an event by a user. Specifically, the user information received with the user registration is transmitted to the user management unit 111. Further, operation information related to the user operation is transmitted to the event management unit 112. Also, operation information related to the operations of other users is received from the event management unit 112 and reflected on the browsing screen. For example, when operation information related to a back operation performed by another user is received, the page management unit 122 is requested to display the back destination content.

  The page management unit 122 generates browsing screen display content and overview screen display content from the object (HTML content) and layout data received from the content division unit 114. Then, the browsing screen display content is passed to the browsing screen processing unit 123, and the overview screen display content is passed to the overview screen processing unit 124. Furthermore, a page is generated based on the operation information passed from the event management unit 121, and is output to the browsing screen.

  The browsing screen processing unit 123 configures and displays a browsing screen based on the browsing screen display content passed from the page management unit 122. In addition, a user operation is accepted via the browsing screen, and operation information related to the accepted operation is passed to the event management unit 121.

  The overview screen processing unit 124 configures and displays an overview screen based on the overview screen display content passed from the page management unit 122. Also, a user operation is accepted via the overview screen, and operation information related to the accepted operation is passed to the event management unit 121.

Subsequently, user information in the first embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 2, the user information (R130) managed by the user management unit 111 is information registered in advance by the client, and includes the user name (F131) and the maximum byte size of content that can be allocated to the terminal. (F132), the screen size of the terminal (F133), the format of the image that can be displayed by the terminal (F134), and the keyword group (F135) reflecting the user's preferences.

  For example, according to the user information (R130a), the content of the size up to “1MB” and within the range of “240 × 320” can be allocated to the terminal of the user “nao”. An image in the “GIF” format can be assigned. Furthermore, it is indicated that content relating to “travel, movie”, etc. is assigned with priority. Furthermore, the ratio of the amount of content to be allocated can be determined according to the ratio of the client screen size. Specifically, when there is a client whose screen size is “240 × 320” and a client whose area is twice that of the client, the ratio of allocated content sizes is determined to be 1: 2. Thus, the browsing system 100 uses the size of the screen when determining the ratio of content sizes to be allocated. Furthermore, when the byte size of content that can be displayed by the client is limited, the amount of content to be allocated can be determined so as not to exceed that size.

  Next, a content description method and a content division method for cooperative browsing will be described. Details will be described in the appendix at the end of the book.

  In the content description method, metadata necessary for dividing content is described in a tree structure in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format. Further, it is considered that the relevance is higher as the path distance between the object nodes is smaller.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 3, in the tree structure 140, the distance between the node A and the node B that are children of the node G1 is 2. The distance between the node A and the node D is 4. From these, regarding node A, node B is considered more relevant than node D.

  An “object node” is a leaf node that represents an object or a set of objects, which is a minimum unit constituting content.

  A “classification node” is a node other than a leaf node that hierarchically groups related object nodes. Used when dividing content.

  Furthermore, in the content description method, (a) the name of an object, (b) the ID of the object, (c) the size of the object, (d) the terminal function required for execution, (e) the locator, etc. Can be added.

“Object name” refers to the name of the content represented by the object.
“Object ID” refers to an identifier of an object in the metadata tree.

  The “object size” refers to an index of the size of the object or the object set, such as the data size of the actual object or the object set. This value is associated with the weight of the object node itself.

  The “terminal function necessary for execution” refers to a function required by a terminal to execute an object or a set of objects.

  “Locator” refers to a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of content indicated by an object.

  In the content division method, the metadata tree described in the content description method is converted into a complete graph, and the graph is divided into subgraphs of the number of terminals.

  Note that the graph includes only object nodes of the metadata tree, and is converted so that the distance between the nodes corresponds to the distance between the nodes in the tree. Then, the content is divided based on the following conditions (1) to (4).

(1) Size of contents that can be allocated to terminals Content is allocated so as not to exceed the maximum size that can be displayed by the browser of each terminal. This is because the available memory and storage capacity are limited depending on the terminal. For example, in a mobile phone, the maximum size of a Web page that can be displayed is limited.

(2) Terminal Performance When content is distributed to a plurality of terminals, the content distribution ratio is determined according to the performance ratio of each terminal. This is because the screen size and communication speed are limited depending on the terminal.

(3) Terminal functions Content or objects that require special functions for execution are preferentially assigned to terminals having those functions. This is because even if it is assigned to a terminal having no such function, it cannot be executed. For example, even if a GIF format image is assigned to a terminal that cannot display a GIF format image, it cannot be displayed.

(4) Relevance of the divided contents In the graph, the graph is divided so that nodes having close branch distances become the same partial graph. This is because each object set constituting the divided content is easier to use if it is composed of related objects.

  For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the metadata generation unit 113 extracts an object by segmenting the content 151a, and generates a tree 152c having the extracted object as a leaf node.

  Specifically, the content 151a (hereinafter referred to as object A) is associated with the root node A. Then, the object A is divided into the object B and the object C, the object B is made to correspond to the node B, the object C is made to correspond to the node C, and the node B and the node C are set as child nodes of the root node A.

  Further, the object B is divided into the object D and the object E, the object D is made to correspond to the node D, the object E is made to correspond to the node E, and the node D and the node E are set as child nodes of the node B. Further, the object C is divided into the object F and the object G, the object F is made to correspond to the node F, the object G is made to correspond to the node G, and the node F and the node G are set as child nodes of the node C. Then, a tree structure 152c is generated.

  At this time, the content dividing unit 114 treats the object E as an object arranged closer to the object D than the object F. This is because the path distance between the node D and the node E is 2, and the path distance between the node D and the node F is 4.

  As described above, by generating a metadata tree by segmenting pages, objects laid out nearby on the page are arranged at positions where the path distance is short in the metadata tree. Then, by dividing the generated metadata tree based on the content division method, highly related objects can be assigned to the same client.

  Then, the content dividing unit 114 divides the content using the metadata tree generated as described above based on the content dividing method.

  There are various other methods for segmenting Web pages. Here, segmentation is performed by a simple method generally used as described above. However, some limitations need to be considered in the segmentation scheme for collaborative browsing. For example, if there are a terminal that can display only a GIF image and a terminal that can display only a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) image, those terminals cannot execute an object including both the GIF image and the PNG image. Also, the terminal cannot execute an object having a size exceeding the capacity.

Next, content targeted by the browsing system will be described.
The content targeted by the browsing system includes tree-structured metadata described in the content description method, objects corresponding to leaf nodes of the tree structure (HTML content), and layout data that specifies the layout of the objects constituting the content. Consists of

  For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, the content 160 includes objects A to F that individually correspond to the object nodes A to F of the metadata tree 140 (see FIG. 3). Each of the objects A to F is an individual content in HTML format, and is arranged by the layout data 170.

  The layout data 170 is described in a format in which a “node-content” tag is embedded in an HTML file. The “node-content” tag indicates a position where an object having the “id” is embedded. For example, on a terminal to which only an object with id = “A” is assigned, a browsing screen display content generated by embedding only the HTML content indicated by the object node with id = “A” in the layout data is displayed.

  The size of the object node in the metadata tree is described as the sum of the size of the HTML content indicated by the object and the size of the image included in the object.

Next, the operation of the browsing system in the first embodiment will be described.
First, the content distribution sequence in Embodiment 1 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the user management unit 111 receives user information transmitted from the event management unit 121 in advance and manages the received user information (S101).

  When the event management unit 112 receives the user name, the user list, and the URL transmitted from the client 102 (event management unit 121) (S102), the user management unit 111 displays the received user name and user list. (S103) and the received URL is passed to the metadata generation unit 113 (S104).

  The user management unit 111 receives the user name and the user list passed from the event management unit 112, identifies the user information of the distribution target user based on the received user name and the user list, and specifies The user information of the distribution target user is passed to the event management unit 112 (S105).

  The event management unit 112 receives the user information of the distribution target user passed from the user management unit 111, and passes the received user information of the distribution target user to the content division unit 114 (S106).

  The metadata generation unit 113 receives the URL passed from the event management unit 112, and acquires the Web page specified by the received URL (S107, S108). Then, a metadata tree and layout data are generated from the acquired Web page, and the acquired Web page and the generated metadata tree and layout data are passed to the content dividing unit 114 (S109).

  The content division unit 114 receives the user information passed from the event management unit 112 and receives the Web page, metadata tree, and layout data passed from the metadata generation unit 113. Further, the received metadata tree is divided based on the received user information. At this time, it divides | segments so that the content size proportional to a display size may be allocated to each terminal. Further, when an object includes an image, sound, or the like, the object is divided so as to be assigned to an executable terminal. Then, the divided result (hereinafter referred to as a divided result) is transmitted to the page management unit 124 of each client. At this time, an ID common to all terminals is set for the page division result, and the set ID is transmitted together with the division result (S110 [ac]).

Next, the metadata generation process in Embodiment 1 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 8, the metadata generation unit 113 first sets the entire Web page as the root node of the tree, and sets the current node as the root node (S111). Thereafter, the object corresponding to the current node is divided into a plurality of objects (S112), and the following processing is executed for each object (S113).

  The divided object is set as a child node of the current node (S114). Further, if the child node object can be divided (S115: Yes), the current node is set as a child node (S116), and the object corresponding to the current node is divided into a plurality of objects (S112). This process is recursively repeated as long as the object corresponding to the current node can be divided.

  Specifically, it is determined whether or not the object corresponding to the current node can be divided using a specific HTML tag. As a result of the determination, if the object corresponding to the current node can be divided by a specific HTML tag, the size of the object corresponding to the current node is determined. If the size is greater than or equal to the threshold, the object is divided using a specific HTML tag. On the other hand, if the size is smaller than the threshold, it is determined whether the current node is consistent with the content division method restrictions. If there is a conflict, the current node is divided until the conflict is resolved.

  Here, a half value of the capacity of the terminal having the smallest capacity among the plurality of terminals is used as the threshold value. As specific HTML tags, tags such as <p>, <ol>, <ul>, <hr>, continuous <br>, and <table> are used.

  These tags are tags that are generally used when performing page segmentation. If a plurality of <p> exists in the object, the part enclosed by <p> is set as a child node. If <ol> or <ul> exists, set each item in the list as a child node. If <hr> or consecutive <br> exists, the parts before and after those tags are set as child nodes, respectively. Furthermore, when <table> exists, each cell of the table is set as a child node.

  After creating the tree structure from the Web page through the above procedure, the metadata such as (a) the node name, (b) the size of the node, and (c) the function necessary for execution is stored in the leaf node (object node). Add to generate a metadata tree.

  “Node name” refers to a character string other than a tag that appears at the beginning of a node (object), or the value of the alt attribute of <img>.

  “Node size” refers to the byte size of the HTML partial text corresponding to each node. When the partial text includes <img>, the byte size of the corresponding image is also added to the node size.

  “Function required for execution” refers to a function required when processing an element included in an object node. For example, when the object node includes an element <img>, it means a function for displaying the image format of the element <img>.

Next, the browsing screen display process in the first embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 9, the browsing screen processing unit 123 generates browsing screen display content from the layout data and the division result, and displays the generated browsing screen display content (S125). At this time, the following processes (S122) to (S124) are executed for each object (S121).

  In the case of an object assigned to the own device (S122: Yes), the browsing screen processing unit 123 replaces the “node-content” tag of the layout data with the corresponding object (S123). On the other hand, in the case of an object assigned to another device (S122: No), the user name to which the object is assigned or the object name or the like is replaced with information on the object to be displayed (S124).

  If the page generated from the layout data and the division result is not suitable for display on a display with a small width, the “table” tag of the layout data is ignored on the browsing screen, and the object is displayed serially. Also good.

  In the client browsing screen, the “table” tag is removed from the layout data, and the HTML content represented by the object is embedded in the layout data. In general, web browsing using a mobile phone often removes all the “table” tags on a web page, so a completely different page from the original page is displayed. Since only this is removed, there is an advantage that the object of the original page can be displayed as it is.

Next, the overview screen display process in the first embodiment will be described.
As illustrated in FIG. 10, the overview screen processing unit 124 generates an overview of the Web page before the division from the layout data and the division result, and displays the generated overview (S138). At this time, the following processes (S132) to (S137) are executed for each object (S131).

  When the overview screen processing unit 124 is an object displayed on the browsing screen before switching to the overview screen (S132), the overview screen processing unit 124 sets an eye icon (S133). If the object includes a large image (S134), a square icon is set (S135). A frame in which object information is displayed is color-coded for each user to whom the object is assigned (S136). Then, object information is set according to the level of detail (S137).

Next, the operation of the system when a link selection operation is performed will be described.
As shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, the client 102 (kazu), when the user (kazu) selects link selection on the browsing screen (S11), “whether the user to whom the link destination content is distributed is all users, A dialog for allowing the user (kazu) to select “is it only the designated user” is displayed (S12). Then, when the user (kazu) selects “only the designated user” in the dialog (S13), the user ({nao, taku}) to which the link destination is distributed is received from the users performing the collaborative browsing (S14). , S15), the name of the user who performed the link selection operation (kazu), the list of users to whom the link destination content is distributed ({nao, taku}), and the URL (URL-A) of the link destination content to the server 101. Transmit (S16).

  The server 101 receives the user name (kazu), user list ({nao, taku}), and URL (URL-A) transmitted from the client 102 (kazu), and receives the received URL (URL-A). Web page is acquired from. An ID common to all terminals is set for the result (division result) obtained by dividing the acquired Web page, and the set ID and division result are transmitted to the client of the user who is the target of the link selection operation (S19 [a -C]).

  When the client 102 receives the division result and ID (1224) transmitted from the server 101, the client 102 displays the received division result (S20).

  When the other client 102 receives the division result and ID transmitted from the server 101, the user ({nao, taku}) determines whether the received division result is to be displayed on the browsing screen now or later. ) Is displayed. When the user (taku) selects “display now” in the dialog (S21b), the division result is displayed on another client 102 (taku). On the other hand, when the user (nao) selects “display later” in the dialog (S22c), the division result is not displayed until the user (nao) displays it at any time.

  Further, when the user selects link selection on the browsing screen (S31), the client 102 displays a dialog for allowing the user to select “whether all users to whom the link destination content is distributed or only the specified user”. (S32). When the user selects “all users” in the dialog (S33), the name of the user who performed the link selection operation, the list of users to whom the link destination content is distributed, and the URL of the link destination content are transmitted to the server 101. (S34).

  The server 101 receives the user name, the user list, and the URL transmitted from the client 102, and acquires a Web page from the received URL (S35, S36). An ID common to all terminals is set for the result (division result) obtained by dividing the acquired Web page, and the set ID and division result are transmitted to the client of the user who is the target of the link selection operation (S37 [ b, c, d]).

  Upon receiving the division result and ID transmitted from the server 101, the client 102 displays the received division result (S38).

  When the other client 102 receives the division result and ID transmitted from the server 101, the user ({taku, nao, tomo}) is displayed (S39 [bd]). When the user ({taku, nao}) selects “display now” in the dialog (S40 [b, c]), the division result is displayed on the other client 102 ({taku, nao). On the other hand, when the user (tomo) selects “display later” in the dialog (S40d), the division result is not displayed until the user (tomo) displays it at any time.

  In the browsing system 100, since the user can select a user to which the linked content is distributed, for example, when there is no way to know which link destination the target information is in the middle of browsing, there are six people. The user may be divided into three persons and three persons to search different link destinations.

Next, the operation of the system when the back operation is performed will be described.
As shown in FIG. 13, when the user 102 (kazu) selects a back on the browsing screen (S51), the client 102 (kazu) “whether to synchronize with all terminals holding the back destination content in the cache or not. A dialog for allowing the user (kazu) to select “ka” is displayed (S52). When the user (kazu) selects “Do not synchronize” in the dialog (S53), the back destination content (1225) is displayed only for the own device (S54).

  When the user (kazu) selects the back on the browsing screen (S55), the client 102 (kazu) determines whether or not to synchronize the back-destination page with all terminals held in the cache. A dialog to be selected is displayed (S56). When the user (kazu) selects “synchronize” in the dialog (S57), the name (kazu) of the user who performed the back operation and the ID (1224) of the back destination page are transmitted to the server 101 (S58). ). Also, the back destination content is displayed (S59).

  The server 101 receives the user name (kazu) and the back destination content ID (1224) transmitted from the client 102 (kazu), and the received back destination content ID (1224) is the target of the back operation. It transmits to a user ({nao, taku}) (S60 [a, b]).

  When the other client 102 ({nao, taku}) receives the ID (1224) of the back-destination page transmitted from the server 101, it displays the division result corresponding to the received back-destination content ID (1224) as “browsing”. A dialog for allowing the user ({nao, taku}) to select “display now or later on the screen” is displayed together with the name (kazu) of the user who performed the back operation (S61 [a, b]). When the user (taku) selects “display later” in the dialog (S62a), the back destination content is not displayed until the user (taku) displays it at any time. On the other hand, when the user (nao) selects “display now” in the dialog (S62b), the back destination content is displayed on another client 102 (nao) (S63b).

The browser forward operation is performed in the same manner as the back operation.
As described above, since the ID is set for each division result in the realized system, the back and forward operations can be performed synchronously even when other users are browsing different pages. Here, in the browsing system, there may be caches with the same URL but different division results, so an identifier (ID) is assigned to the division result instead of the URL.

  Next, the browsing screen processing unit will be described with reference to a browsing screen display example in the first embodiment. Here, a case where cooperative browsing is performed with two PDAs and one mobile phone will be described as an example.

  As shown in FIG. 14, in the browsing screen example 180, the boundaries between objects are clarified by surrounding each object with a rectangular area. Furthermore, in the case of an object assigned to the own device, the object name is shown at the top of the rectangle, and in the case of an object assigned to another device, the object name and the user name to which the object is assigned. Is shown in a rectangular area. Each object and the rectangle surrounding the object information are color-coded for each user to whom the object is assigned.

  For example, as shown in the browsing screen 181a displayed on the PDA of the user “nao”, the browsing screen 181b displayed on the PDA of the user “kazu” has the object “assigned to the user“ nao ”” A rectangle indicating “Categories” is displayed, and objects “travel” and “Tools” assigned to the own device are displayed below the rectangle. When the user “kazu” wants to view the object “Categories”, the browsing “screen” 181b indicates that the object “Categories” is assigned to the user “nao”. It will be good if you have it. In this way, it is possible to easily specify to whom the object assigned other than the own device is assigned. Note that a rectangle indicating the object “Categories” assigned to the user “nao” is also displayed on the browsing screen 181c displayed on the PDA of the user “taku”.

In addition, operations that the user can perform on the browsing screen are the following operations (1) to (6).
(1) Link selection When a link on the content displayed on the browsing screen is selected, the linked content is distributed to each terminal. At this time, the user who distributes the linked content can be selected.

(2) Back Displays the content that was browsed immediately before. It is possible to select whether to perform the same operation in synchronization with other terminals.

(3) After performing the forward back operation, the content browsed before the back operation is displayed. It is possible to select whether to perform the same operation in synchronization with other terminals.

(4) Overview display Displays an overview of the content to which the currently displayed browsing screen display content belongs.

(5) Event display A history list of operation information managed by the event management unit 121 of the client 102 is displayed (see FIG. 15A). At this time, for example, as shown in the browsing screen 185, the user can arbitrarily execute the event by selecting the event from the list. For an unexecuted event, `! 'Is added. Further, when the event is re-executed, the user selects whether to execute the same event on another device. When the user selects this event, the content corresponding to the browsing screen is displayed.

(6) Image division display An image is divided according to the display size and arrangement of each terminal (see FIG. 15B). A mobile terminal cannot display a large image on a page in a large size due to display size limitations. However, as a result, for example, like the terminals 186 and 187, the screens of a plurality of terminals can be gathered together to form a virtually large display and display a large image. Specifically, a pattern closest to the shape of the image to be displayed is selected from all the patterns of the virtual screen generated by combining the screens of the terminals. At this time, taking terminals arranged on the left and right as an example, the user preselects a pattern in which the screen arrangement when the terminals are combined matches the terminal arrangement.

  Next, the overview screen processing unit will be described with reference to an overview screen display example in the first embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 16, the overview screen processing unit 124 configures and displays an overview screen of the page before the division from the layout data and the division result. In the overview screen, as shown in an overview screen example 190, the user can arbitrarily switch the detail level of the overview in four stages.

  In FIG. 16A, only the outline layout of the page is displayed as shown in the overview screen 191a. Objects constituting the page are represented by a color-coded frame for each user to whom the object is assigned. Also, object information is shown in the frame.

  Furthermore, a square icon in the frame indicates that the object includes an image larger than a predetermined size, and an eye icon indicates an object displayed on the browsing screen before switching to the overview screen.

  In addition, the symbols “+” and “−” in the frame indicate an object assigned to the own device and an object assigned to another device, respectively. In addition, these symbols are linked to the object.

  For example, when the symbol “+” is selected, the overview screen processing unit 124 switches from the overview screen to the browsing screen. On the other hand, when the symbol “-” is selected, a dialog for selecting “whether or not to display the corresponding object now” is displayed on the screen of the other device. Further, when “display” is selected, the other device switches to a normal browsing screen. Then, the browsing screen processing unit 123 scrolls and displays the corresponding object.

  Further, when the degree of detail is increased, the object name is displayed as shown in the overview screen 191b in FIG. 16B, and as shown in the overview screen 191c in FIG. 16C, The user name to which the object is assigned is also displayed. In FIG. 16D, as shown in the overview screen 191d, after the object information, the information of the object related to the object and assigned to the other device is displayed. Here, the related objects are sibling object nodes having the same parent in the metadata tree.

  Then, the user can display a specific object on the screen using the functions as described above, and browse while comparing the objects displayed on each terminal.

  On the overview screen, an object that is not assigned to the own device may be received and displayed. However, it cannot be displayed on a terminal that does not have a function necessary for executing the object.

Next, an example of using cooperative browsing will be described for each content characteristic.
(1) Content composed of unrelated object sets When browsing content composed of objects that are not related to each other, such as news and search forms, such as the top content of a portal site, each user The target information is searched in parallel from the objects serially displayed on the browsing screen. However, when the number of objects assigned to one terminal is large, it may be faster to search for target information from the object names on the overview screen. In addition, while browsing the browsing screen, it may be found that the target object is assigned to another terminal. In this case, it is verbally communicated to the assigned user and displayed on the browsing screen of the assigned user using the overview.

(2) Content that consists of a set of objects whose browsing order is determined Browsing content that consists of objects whose browsing order is determined, such as paragraphs of sentences and illustrations in sentences, such as news site and diary contents In this case, it is effective to always display the overview screen of one terminal and scroll the contents only by the overview. For example, the user displaying the overview selects a link indicating the object to be browsed first. Then, the object is displayed on the screen of the user to whom the object is assigned. When the browsing of the object is finished, the user displaying the overview selects the object to be browsed next in the same manner. By repeating this procedure, content with a browsing order is browsed.

(3) Content that consists of related object sets, such as stock price information content of a company or content of introduction of a restaurant When browsing content configured from the above, the browsing method differs depending on the purpose of browsing. When searching for only one piece of information from the content, browsing is performed in the same manner as the top of the portal site. When one restaurant is selected from all the information of the contents, each user browses through the browsing screen displayed on his / her device, and then consults and decides while viewing each other's screen.

  As described above, according to the browsing system in the first embodiment, the server can automatically generate tree-structured metadata by recursively segmenting HTML-format Web pages. Further, by dividing the tree based on the user information, the Web page can be divided into HTML contents (partial pages) optimized for a client such as a mobile terminal. In addition, the client can browse a Web page with a large amount of information that cannot be browsed by only one mobile terminal in units of partial pages optimized for the client. In addition, the user assigns the divided partial pages to a plurality of users close to each other, and displays the Web page generated for a normal desktop PC by using a plurality of clients by displaying in cooperation with other clients. Can be viewed. Then, while looking at the partial pages displayed on each client, it is possible to search and browse the target information by consulting.

  In addition, it is possible to grasp the rough structure before the division using the overview screen. Furthermore, by synchronizing the back and forward operations of the respective browsers, users can view the same page without confusion.

  The overview used in the browsing system displays the name of the object as a summary and displays the object in the layout of the page before division. Thus, the user can easily imagine the original structure. Also, by browsing the browsing screens of other clients side by side, the contents of the object can be easily grasped. Furthermore, if the summary of the Web page is displayed as a character string, the user can grasp the content of the Web page even on a small screen.

  In addition, since it is possible to select whether to synchronize the back operation and whether to display the back destination content, by using the communication between users together, when performing collaborative browsing in two hands It can support user cooperation. For example, assume that another group performs a back operation without finding the target information. If your group is unlikely to find the information you want, you can go back to the group at the same time and start a new search in cooperation with each other. Conversely, if you want to find the desired information a little more, you can return to the back destination later. The same applies to the forward operation.

(Embodiment 2)
Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described.

  The browsing system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention is characterized in that an image-based overview screen is configured and displayed using a screenshot image for each object.

  Based on the above points, the browsing system in the second embodiment will be described. In addition, about the component same as the component in Embodiment 1, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and description is abbreviate | omitted.

First, the browsing system in the second embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 17, the browsing system 200 is different from the browsing system 100 in that a server 201 and a client 202 are provided instead of the server 101 and the client 102.

The server 201 differs from the server 101 in the following points (1) and (2).
(1) Instead of the content dividing unit 114, a content dividing unit 214 is provided.

  The content dividing unit 214 transmits the screenshot image, the division result, and the layout data generated by the screen shot image generating unit 215 to the client based on the division result.

(2) A screen shot generation unit 215 is newly provided.
The screen shot generation unit 215 generates a screen shot image for each object based on the division result passed from the content division unit 214, and passes the generated screen shot image to the content division unit 214.

  The client 202 differs from the client 102 in that an overview screen processing unit 224 is provided instead of the overview screen processing unit 124.

  The overview screen processing unit 224 configures and displays an overview screen of the content before division from the layout data, the screen shot image, and the division result.

Next, the operation of the browsing system in the second embodiment will be described.
Note that the same operation procedures as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

First, the content distribution sequence in the second embodiment will be described.
As illustrated in FIG. 18, the content dividing unit 214 passes the division result to the screen shot generating unit 215 (S201).

  The screen shot generation unit 215 receives the division result passed from the content division unit 214, and generates a screen shot image for each object based on the received division result. Then, the generated screen shot image is transferred to the content dividing unit 214 (S202).

  The content division unit 214 receives the screen shot image passed from the screen shot generation unit 215, and transmits the received screen shot image and the division result to the page management unit 124 of each client. At this time, an ID common to all terminals is set for the division result of the Web page, and the set ID is transmitted together with the division result (S203 [ac]).

Next, the overview screen display process in the second embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 19, the overview screen processing unit 214 sets a screenshot image corresponding to an object (S231), and color-codes a frame in which object information is displayed for each user to whom the object is assigned. (S136). Then, object information is set according to the level of detail (S137).

  Next, the overview screen processing unit will be described with reference to an overview screen display example in the second embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 20, the overview screen processing unit 224 configures and displays an overview screen of content before division from layout data, a screen shot image, and a division result. In the overview screen example 290, the user can arbitrarily switch the detail level of the overview in three stages.

  In FIG. 20A, as shown in the overview screen 291a, only the screenshot image of each object is displayed in a color-coded frame for each user. In FIG. 20B, the object name is displayed below the screenshot image as shown in the overview screen 291b. In FIG. 20C, the object is displayed as shown in the overview screen 291c. The assigned user name is also displayed. A screenshot image representing an object is linked to the object.

  Further, when the screen shot image is selected, the overview screen processing unit 224 selects the normal browsing screen from the overview screen when the selected screen shot image is for an object assigned to the own device. Switch to. On the other hand, if the selected screenshot image is for an object assigned to another device, a dialog for selecting whether or not to display the corresponding object immediately is displayed on the screen of the other device. Let Further, when “display” is selected, the other device switches to a normal browsing screen. Then, the browsing screen processing unit 123 scrolls and displays the corresponding object.

  Further, the eye icon indicates an object displayed on the browsing screen before switching to the overview screen.

  Then, the user can display a specific object on the screen using the functions as described above, and browse while comparing the objects displayed on each terminal.

  As described above, according to the browsing system in the second embodiment, the client can configure and display an image-based overview using the screen shot image for each object generated by the server.

(Other)
The size of the object is the sum of the byte size of the partial HTML text corresponding to the object and the byte size of the image included in the object, and the object is displayed in the browser instead of being segmented so as not to exceed the size. The web page may be segmented based on the size of the range.

Note that a metadata tree having a plurality of contents as one tree may be generated.
Instead of dividing one Web page having one tree as metadata and assigning it to a plurality of portable terminals, a tree including the link destination of the content may be generated, and the tree may be divided. Thereby, the user can find the information of a link destination early.

  Also, depending on the content size of the link source and link destination, if inconvenience occurs in browsing on a mobile terminal, not all the link destination content is included in the tree, but only the important part of the link destination content is stored in the tree. May be included. This is because contents other than the link destination where the target information exists are also distributed to the terminals.

  Note that the size of the object is the sum of the byte size of the partial page corresponding to that object and the byte size of the image included in the object. The web page may be segmented based on the size. Thereby, for example, since an object including only a long sentence has a larger range displayed on the browser than an object including only an image, the problem that it takes a long time to browse and scroll can be solved.

  The layout data is described by embedding a unique tag in the HTML file. In the system, the layout data can be described in XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) style sheet in order to exchange the result of content division in XML format. In order to generate an overview with, a style sheet for each screen may be prepared.

  One device may play back one content in cooperation with another device. For example, a mobile phone may play back one audio / video content in cooperation with a digital television.

  Specifically, out of the audio / video content transmitted to the mobile phone used by the user “taku”, the audio may be played back on the mobile phone, and the video may be played back on the nearest digital television.

  Here, each of the mobile phone and the digital television is equipped with a Bluetooth function, and when a predetermined distance is approached, a device is detected and data communication is possible.

  At this time, the mobile phone acquires the unique information of the digital television, and registers the acquired unique information in the server of the browsing system. Further, instead of the mobile phone acquiring the unique information of the digital television, the digital television may acquire the unique information of the mobile phone and register the acquired unique information in the server of the browsing system. Then, the server distributes the sound to the mobile phone and distributes the video to the digital TV so that the plurality of devices display in cooperation with each other, and the mobile phone and the digital TV cooperate to reproduce one content.

  In addition to this, it is also possible to notify the server of the cooperating device by adding information of the cooperating device and logging in to the server. For example, by inputting unique information (for example, URL) of a digital TV on a mobile phone and logging in to the server, the server may be notified of cooperation with the digital TV. As a result, even if a special function such as Bluetooth is not required, a mobile phone having an Internet access function can cooperate with other devices.

The content may be divided according to the transmission speed.
Note that one content may be divided into partial contents optimized for one device, and displayed on the device alone while referring to the overview screen.

  The server includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), an HD (Hard Disk), and the like. Further, an OS (Operating System) and an application program that is executed while the OS is running are installed in the HD. By executing the application program, each function as a server in the browsing system is realized.

  The client has a CPU, RAM, ROM, and the like. Furthermore, the ROM is installed with an OS and an application program that is executed under the operation of the OS. Each function as a client in the browsing system 100 is realized by executing the application program.

  In addition, when an application program that is executed in the server and implements each function as a server in the browsing system is a server program, and an application program that is executed in the client and implements each function as a client in the browsing system is a client program Each of the server program and the client program can be read by a hardware system such as a computer system, an embedded system, etc., and an optical recording medium (for example, a CD-ROM), a magnetic recording medium (for example, Hard disk etc.), magneto-optical recording medium (eg MO etc.), semiconductor memory (eg memory card etc.) etc. It may be. Then, it may be executed in another hardware system via these recording media.

  Alternatively, the recording / reproducing apparatus control program may be held in a hardware system on a network and executed on another hardware system that has downloaded the recording / reproducing apparatus control program via the network.

(Appendix)
Details of the content description method and content division method used in the browsing system will be described below.

  In the browsing system, in order to realize flexible content division in cooperative browsing, a content description method and a division method are used. In the content description method, content metadata is described in a tree structure. Specifically, an object, which is the minimum unit constituting the content, is a leaf node (object node) of a tree structure, and related object nodes are hierarchically classified by nodes other than leaf nodes (classification nodes). Further, attributes such as the data size of the object represented by the leaf node and the function of the mobile terminal necessary for executing the object are added to the leaf node. In the content division method, the metadata tree described in the description method is converted into a complete graph, thereby reducing the graph division problem (for example, see Reference 1 and Reference 2), and conditions such as the number of terminals and performance Divide content according to

[Reference 1]
BW Kernighan and S. Lin,
"An efficient heuristic procedure for partitioning graphs,"
Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 291--307, Feb. 1970.
[Reference 2]
CM Fiduccia and RM Mattheyes,
"A linear time heuristic for improving network partitioning,"
Proc. Design Automation Conference, pp. 175--181, June 1982.
First, a description method of content for realizing cooperative browsing will be described.

  In the content description method, content metadata is described in a tree structure in XML format. In this content structure, a leaf node (hereinafter referred to as an object node) represents an object or an object set which is a minimum unit constituting the content. Nodes other than leaf nodes (hereinafter referred to as classification nodes) group object nodes hierarchically and are used for content division.

  For example, the object node may be a single image file or a set of objects such as images and character strings that are related to each other.

  In the content description method, in order to realize grouping of related objects, a weight is given to each branch of the content structure, and the smaller the weight of a path connecting two object nodes is, the larger the relatedness is. It is defined as For example, in the case of the content structure in FIG. 3, the distance between the paths of the nodes D and E is 2, and the distance between the paths of the nodes D and G is 4. large. However, since this method alone handles all sibling nodes equally, it is not possible to define the relevance according to the order of sibling node arrangement.

  For example, when the arrangement of sibling nodes is not considered, the path distances between the object nodes are all 2, and the arrangement of sibling nodes cannot be considered. Therefore, considering the arrangement of sibling nodes, the distance between nodes D and E and nodes E and F is 2, whereas the distance between nodes D and F is the distance between nodes D and E and the distance between nodes E and F. It is defined as 4 which is the sum of. In this way, the relationship between sibling nodes is defined by calculating the distance between sibling nodes as the sum of the distances between adjacent nodes.

  In the content description method, the following attributes (1) to (4) are added to the object node.

(1) Amount of object This represents an index of the amount of the object (set) such as the data size of the actual object (set). This value is associated with the weight of the object node itself.

(2) Terminal functions necessary for execution Represents functions necessary for a terminal to execute an object (set).

(3) Object distribution method Indicates whether an object (set) is distributed to only one terminal or all terminals.

(4) Object properties Specially describe the properties of objects (sets). This property can be defined differently for each application.

  For example, the division condition unique to cooperative browsing is used to specify personalization information that an object has.

  The attribute of the object node is necessary for content division. However, as a content description method for collaborative browsing, a function for designating synchronization of presentation between object nodes is also required.

  Therefore, in the content description method, a method of synchronizing objects is defined in order to realize an interaction with content assigned to another user's terminal. Specifically, an object node that is synchronized and a synchronization relationship with the object node are described as attributes of the object node. This synchronization relationship is caused by the event of the object node, which affects the synchronized object node (active), and the event of the synchronized object node is caused by the event of the object node. There is an influencing relationship (passive) or a relationship in which those nodes affect each other (mutual). By setting this relationship, even when those object nodes are distributed to different mobile terminals, it is possible to present content with interaction while maintaining the relationship.

  Functions necessary for cooperative browsing include control of execution order (presentation) in addition to content synchronization.

  Therefore, in the content description method, the execution time and execution period of an object are defined in order to realize an application that considers the execution order of objects (sets) assigned to each mobile terminal.

  For example, in an application for browsing content executed along a time axis such as a slide show, the time and period for executing an object on a portable terminal are set as attributes of the object node. In addition, when objects having overlapping execution periods are assigned to one portable terminal, the priority of execution is set as an attribute of the object node in order to execute important objects with priority.

  As shown in FIG. 21, in the content description method, content metadata is described in XML format. Here, description will be given for each tag used in the description, taking the description of the metadata of the content having the structure shown in FIG. 3 as an example.

[Node tag]
A hierarchical content structure is expressed by representing a node of the content structure and nesting it. In addition, the following attributes (1) to (7) can be set.

(1) type
Sets whether the node is a classification node (“grouping”) or an object node (“object”).

(2) name
Set the name of the node.

(3) weight
When the node is an object node (type = “object”), the object amount is set. When there is no setting, it becomes ｀ 1 ′.

(4) edge_weight
Set the weight of the branch connecting the node and its parent node. If there is no setting, ｀ 1 '
It becomes.

(5) child_location
If the node is a classification node (type = “grouping”), the positional relationship between the child nodes of the node is set. When this value is “true”, the positional relationships of the child nodes are set in the order in which they are described, but when “false”, the positional relationships of the child nodes are all equal. If there is no setting, “false” is set.

(6) id
Specify the node identifier. The identifier is used when the computer needs to identify the object.

(7) priority
If the node is an object node (type = “object”), the priority in executing the object is set.

[Locator tag]
When the node is an object node (type = “object”), it is defined in the node tag. Describes the file name of the object represented by the node tag and which part of the file it is.

[Function tag]
When the node is an object node (type = “object”), it is defined in the node tag. Describe the functions required to execute the object as numbers. When there is no setting, it becomes ｀ 0 '. Thereby, the object represented by the node tag is distributed only to terminals having the function.

[Broadcast tag]
When the node is an object node (type = “object”), it is defined in the node tag.
The object represented by the node tag is distributed to all devices having the function.

[Class tag]
When the node is an object node (type = “object”), it is defined in the node tag. Special mention is made of the nature of the object represented by the node. The property is used when the computer needs to know a simple classification of the object, and the definition method can be changed for each application. In addition, the following attribute (1) can be specified.

(1) name
Set the property name of the node.

[Syncro tag]
When the node is an object node (type = “object”), it is defined in the node tag. Set the relationship with the node that is synchronized with the node. The following attribute (1) can be specified.

(1) relation
The relationship with the synchronized object is selected from active (“active”), passive (“passive”), or mutual (“mutual”).

[Schedule tag]
When the node is an object node (type = “object”), it is defined in the node tag. The execution schedule of the object represented by the node tag is set. In addition, the following attributes (1) and (2) can be specified.

(1) start
Set the execution start time of the object represented by the node.

(2) length
Set the execution period of the object represented by the node.

  In the content division method, the content tree is realized by converting the metadata tree into a complete graph and dividing the graph. Here, the problem of graph division is often used in fields such as VLSI design and program segmentation, and is known as an NP-complete problem. Known heuristic algorithms for solving the graph partitioning problem include the KL algorithm by Kernighan et al. (See Reference 1) and the FM algorithm for solving the network partitioning problem by Fiduccia et al. Based on the KL algorithm (references). 2). Also, these heuristic algorithms can be easily extended to algorithms that cluster graphs into more groups, as well as graph bisection problems. For example, there are a network 4-partition algorithm based on the FM algorithm by Suaris et al. (See References 3 and 4) and a multi-partition algorithm based on the FM algorithm by Sanchis (see References 5 and 6).

Here, the content division method is an extension of the FM algorithm.
[Reference 3]
PR Suaris, and G. Kedem,
"Quadrisection: A new approach to standard cell layout,"
Proc. International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 474--477 (1987).
[Reference 4]
PR Suaris, and G. Kedem,
"Standard cell placement by quadrisection,"
Proc. International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 612--615 (1987).
[Reference 5]
LA Sanchis,
"Multiple-way network partitioning,"
IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 62--81 (1989).
[Reference 6]
LA Sanchis,
"Multiple-way network partitioning with different cost functions,"
IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 42, no. 12, pp. 1500--1504 (1993).
Content division is performed on a complete graph created based on a metadata tree. The nodes of the complete graph are composed of only metadata object nodes, and the weight of the branch between the nodes corresponds to the path distance between the nodes in the metadata tree structure. With this transformation, the weights of the branches between all nodes in the complete graph represent the relevance of each node.

  In the content division method, a branch to be cut is selected from branches of a complete graph so that connected object nodes form a group, and content is divided.

Here, in the content division method, since the conditions for cooperative browsing are considered, the purpose of the division is different from the general graph division problem. Therefore, a new index for evaluating graph partitioning is required. Therefore, an evaluation function for evaluating the effectiveness of the division result is introduced. The evaluation function f is expressed by the following mathematical formula (1), and the smaller the evaluation value, the more the division satisfies the condition. However, c ₂ , c ₃ and c ₄ are coefficients for determining the weights of f ₂ , f ₃ and f ₄ , respectively, and the importance of each function can be adjusted by this value.

(1) f = f ₁ · (c ₂ f ₂ + c ₃ f ₃ + c ₄ f ₄ )
Here, f ₁ is a function that indicates the degree to which the distributed content cannot be executed on the terminal, and f ₂ is a function that indicates how far the distributed content amount is from the specified ratio. F ₃ is a function indicating how much the user's content allocation request is not responded, and f ₄ is a function indicating low relevance between object nodes grouped in the same divided content. .

Here, the evaluation function f ₁ indicates the degree to which the distributed content cannot be executed on the terminal. Therefore, the smaller the f ₁ , the larger the amount of content that can be viewed by the user. It is reasonable that the evaluation function f representing the goodness of division is proportional to the amount of content that can be browsed by the user, and has a product relationship with other functions. Moreover, the evaluation function f ₂ indicating how much farther the percentage distribution content amount is specified, the evaluation function f ₃ indicate not respond much to the user of the content allocation request, and are grouped into the same content segment Since the evaluation function f ₄ indicating the low relevance between the object nodes is an independent evaluation function, the form for obtaining the sum thereof is appropriate.

  As shown in FIG. 22, in the partitioning method, first, after the metadata tree is converted into a complete graph, the complete graph is adjusted so as to satisfy various conditions, and initial graph partitioning is performed. After that, the object node is moved between the divided groups by using the FM algorithm extended to a plurality of divisions. The main points are described below.

[Coordinate Graph]
Adjustment of the graph is performed according to the following procedures (1) to (3).

  (1) If there is no terminal having a function for executing an object node, the object node is deleted from the graph.

  (2) If there is an object node having a broadcast tag, the node is assigned to all terminals in advance and deleted from the graph.

  (3) When there is a request for assigning two or more object nodes to one terminal, the weight of a branch between these object nodes is set to zero. This makes it easier for the requested object node to be assigned to the same group.

[Create Initial k-way Partitioning]
The initial graph division (number of divisions k) is performed according to the following procedures (1) to (3).

(1) Find the minimum spanning tree from the adjusted graph.
(2) The nodes are divided into k groups by cutting k-1 branches from the minimum spanning tree by the following method.

  First, in a terminal having one or more allocation requests and one or more non-allocation requests, a non-binding request is set between all allocation request nodes and non-allocation request nodes. The non-binding request is to prevent the nodes set with the request in the initial division from being assigned to the same group. Of all the minimum spanning tree branches, select a branch with a higher weight on the path between nodes with more non-join requests, and satisfy all non-join requests. Or until k-1 branches are cut.

  If all the non-joining conditions are satisfied before the cut is performed k-1 times, a branch having a higher weight among the uncut branches is cut and repeated until a total of k-1 times. The k groups obtained by the above procedure are set as the initial division.

  Next, a combination having the smallest evaluation value f is obtained from all possible combinations when the divided k group contents are allocated to the terminal, and this is assigned as the initial division.

(3) Output a set group _{i of} object nodes assigned to the terminal i (0 ≦ i ≦ k−1).

[K-way FM Algorithm]
The node is moved between the groups obtained by the initial division, and further appropriate division is obtained.

First, the evaluation value f in all cases where the node n has moved to a group group _m other than the group to which the node n belongs is obtained for all unmarked nodes. Among them, the movement of the node that gives the smallest f is selected, the movement is executed, and the node is further marked. Repeat this procedure until all nodes are marked. In this repetition, the grouping given the minimum evaluation value is set as the provisional optimum grouping. Next, after all the nodes are unmarked, the optimization of division is repeated by moving the node between groups after the grouping. This repetition ends when the minimum evaluation value is no longer updated.

  The present invention can be used as a browsing system or the like, particularly as a browsing system or the like for browsing content in cooperation between a plurality of terminals.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the browsing system in Embodiment 1. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of user information according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a content structure in Embodiment 1. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of content segmentation in Embodiment 1. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of content in Embodiment 1. [FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of layout data in the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a content distribution sequence in the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating metadata generation processing in Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing browsing screen display processing in the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an overview screen display process in the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is a first diagram illustrating a cooperative browsing sequence during a link selection operation in the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is a second diagram illustrating a cooperative browsing sequence during a link selection operation in the first embodiment. 6 is a diagram illustrating a cooperative browsing sequence during a back operation in Embodiment 1. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a browsing screen in Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating (a) an event list display example and (b) an image division display example in the first embodiment. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of an overview screen in the first embodiment. FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the browsing system in Embodiment 2. FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a content distribution sequence in the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an overview screen display process in the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of an overview screen in the second embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of description of metadata. It is a figure which shows the example of a content division | segmentation algorithm.

Explanation of symbols

100, 200 Browsing system 101, 201 Server 102, 202 Client 111 User management unit 112 Event management unit 113 Metadata generation unit 114 Content division unit 121 Event management unit 122 Page management unit 123 Browsing screen processing unit 124 Overview screen processing unit 215 Screenshot generator 224 Overview screen processor

Claims (20)

A browsing system comprising a client device that displays a plurality of object data constituting content, and a server device that divides the content according to the function of the client device,
The server device
User management means for managing unique information about the client device;
Event management means for managing operation information received from the client device;
Content dividing means for dividing the content into partial content based on the unique information,
The client device is
Page management means for generating browsing screen display content based on object data belonging to the partial content and layout data relating to the allocation of the object data;
Based on the browsing screen display content, a browsing screen processing means for configuring and displaying a browsing screen and receiving an operation from the user via the displayed browsing screen;
A browsing system comprising: event management means for managing operation information related to an operation received from a user. The server device
Metadata generating means for generating the tree-structured metadata indicating the relationship between the plurality of object data constituting the content and the layout data;
The content dividing means includes
The browsing system according to claim 1, wherein the content is divided into the partial contents by converting the metadata of the tree structure into a complete graph and dividing the complete graph. The metadata generation means generates metadata every time content is acquired,
The browsing system according to claim 2, wherein the content dividing unit divides the metadata every time content is acquired. When the content dividing unit converts the metadata of the tree structure into a complete graph, the complete graph is composed of only object nodes in the tree structure, and the distance between the branches between the nodes is the distance between the nodes in the tree. The browsing system according to claim 2, wherein conversion is performed so as to correspond. The browsing system according to claim 2, wherein the content dividing unit divides the complete graph so that nodes having close branch distances in the complete graph become the same partial graph. The event management means in the client device is:
When a link selection operation is received from the user, the operation information including the name of the user who performed the link selection operation, the list of users to which the link destination content is distributed, and the URL of the link destination is transmitted to the server device.
The event management means in the server device is
The content is acquired from the URL of the link destination, the content is divided into partial contents, identification information common to all client devices is set for the partial content, and the identification information and the partial content are selected as a link. The browsing system according to claim 1, wherein the browsing system is transmitted to a client device of a user to be operated. The event management means in the client device is:
When accepting a back operation from the user, select whether or not to synchronize with other client devices, and if the result of the selection is not to synchronize, display the back destination content only for the own device and synchronize Transmits operation information including identification information set in the back destination content to the server device,
The event management means in the server device is
Sending operation information including the identification information to the other client device;
The event management means in the other client device is:
2. The back destination content is displayed only when the user selects whether or not to display the partial content corresponding to the identification information immediately, and as a result of the selection, the back destination content is displayed only now. The browsing system described. The event management means in the client device is:
When a forward operation is accepted from the user,
Select whether to synchronize with other client devices,
As a result of the selection, when not synchronizing, the forward destination content is displayed only for the own device, and when synchronizing, operation information including identification information set to the forward destination content is transmitted to the server device,
The event management means in the server device is
Sending operation information including the identification information to the other client device;
The event management means in the other client device is:
The forward destination content is displayed only when the user selects whether or not to immediately display the partial content corresponding to the identification information, and as a result of the selection, the forward destination content is displayed. The browsing system described. The event management means in the client device is:
The browsing system according to claim 1, wherein when an overview display operation is received from a user, an overview of the content to which the currently displayed browsing screen display content belongs is displayed. The event management means in the client device is:
The browsing system according to claim 1, wherein when an event display operation is received from a user, a history list of managed operation information is displayed. The event management means in the client device is:
2. The browsing system according to claim 1, wherein when a screen division display operation is received from a user, an image divided according to the display size and arrangement of each client device is displayed. The client device is
Based on the overview screen display content indicating the outline of the content before the division from the layout data and the partial content, the overview screen is configured and displayed, and the user can perform an operation through the displayed overview screen. The browsing system according to claim 1, further comprising an overview screen processing unit that receives the browsing screen. The server device
Comprising a screenshot image generating means for generating a screenshot image in units of the partial contents;
The overview screen processing unit
The browsing system according to claim 12, wherein an overview screen of content before division is configured and displayed from the layout data, the screen shot image, and the partial content. A server device that divides content according to the function of a client device,
User management means for managing unique information about the client device;
Event management means for managing operation information received from the client device;
A server apparatus comprising: content dividing means for dividing the content into partial contents based on the unique information. A client device that displays a plurality of object data constituting content,
Page management means for generating browsing screen display content based on the object data and layout data relating to the allocation of the object data;
Based on the browsing screen display content, a browsing screen processing means for configuring and displaying a browsing screen and receiving an operation from the user via the displayed browsing screen;
An event management means for managing operation information related to an operation received from a user. A browsing method for controlling a system configured by a client device that displays a plurality of object data constituting content and a server device that divides the content according to the function of the client device,
In the server device,
Managing specific information about the client device;
Manage the operation information received from the client device;
Based on the unique information, the content is divided into partial content,
In the client device,
Based on the object data belonging to the partial content and layout data related to the allocation of the object data, the browsing screen display content is generated,
Based on the browsing screen display content, the browsing screen is configured and displayed, and an operation is accepted from the user through the displayed browsing screen.
A browsing method characterized by managing operation information related to an operation received from a user. A server control method for controlling a device that divides content according to the function of a client device,
Managing specific information about the client device;
Managing the operation information received from the client device;
The server control method, wherein the content is divided into partial content based on the unique information. A client control method for controlling a device that displays a plurality of object data constituting a content,
Based on the object data and layout data relating to the allocation of the object data, a browsing screen display content is generated,
Based on the browsing screen display content, configure and display a browsing screen, accepting an operation from the user via the displayed browsing screen,
A client control method characterized by managing operation information related to an operation received from a user. A server program executed in a computer system that divides content in accordance with the function of a client device,
Managing specific information about the client device;
Managing the operation information received from the client device;
A server program that causes a computer system to execute the division of the content into partial content based on the unique information. A client program executed in a computer system for displaying a plurality of object data constituting content,
Based on the object data and layout data relating to the allocation of the object data, a browsing screen display content is generated,
Based on the browsing screen display content, configure and display a browsing screen, accepting an operation from the user via the displayed browsing screen,
A client program that causes a computer system to manage operation information related to an operation received from a user.

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