JP2008017056A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and accurately execute a UI and the function of equipment through channel selection not via a dedicated menu. <P>SOLUTION: It is decided whether external equipment is connected and a channel is allocated to the external equipment. Then information showing that the channel is allocated to television broadcasting or the connected external equipment, or allocated to neither of them is stored, the external equipment corresponding to the selected channel is informed that the channel has been selected, and the channel is allocated to the equipment. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to a technique suitable for use in assigning channels to connected external devices or functions of external devices.

  Many of the devices have connection terminals with external devices. For example, a television receiver has a video input terminal, and a PC has a connection terminal such as a USB terminal. In the case of a conventional television receiver, a device is connected to a video input terminal, and whether or not data is actually received from the device is set by checking the channel as a video input. There is also a television receiver that displays whether data is being sent to a video input terminal at a specific position on a cathode ray tube when the power is turned on. In recent years, various types of devices such as DVD players, printers, and digital cameras have been connected to television receivers. Dedicated menus are often prepared for UI calls for operating these connected devices, and are often performed via these menus (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP-A-5-83653

  Currently, a dedicated menu is provided for UI calls for operating devices connected to a television receiver, and the user has to learn how to use the menu separately from channel operations for television broadcasting. .

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to easily and accurately execute device UI and device functions by channel selection without going through a dedicated menu.

The information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus that includes display switching means for switching display according to a channel and channel selection means for selecting the channel, and is connectable to an external device, and whether the external device is connected. A connection determining means for determining whether the channel is assigned to the external device, and a channel assigning means for assigning a channel to the external device, the channel assigning means assigns the channel to a television broadcast, or is assigned to a connected external device, or Channel storage means for storing information as to whether it is not assigned to any one of the above, and selection notification means for notifying an external device corresponding to the channel selected by the channel selection means of selection. And assigning the channel to a device. And butterflies.
Another feature of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus that includes a display switching unit that switches display according to a channel and a channel selection unit that selects the channel, and is connectable to an external device. Connection determining means for determining whether or not the external device is connected, channel assigning means for assigning a channel to the function of the external device, and whether the channel is assigned to the television broadcast by the channel assigning means. Channel storage means for storing information about whether or not assigned to the function of the external device, and for the external device corresponding to the channel selected by the channel selection means, A selection notification means for notifying the selected function; And allocating the channel to the function of the device.

  According to the present invention, by assigning a channel to a device connected to a connection terminal or a function of the device, it is possible to easily and accurately execute the UI of the device and the function of the device by channel selection without going through a dedicated menu. Can be done.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, a television receiver will be described as an example of the information processing apparatus.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an outline of a television receiver according to the present embodiment.
In FIG. 1, in this embodiment, the monochrome printer 102 and the digital camera 103 can be connected to the first connection terminal or the second connection terminal of the television receiver 101. The configuration shown in FIG. 1 shows a part of the embedded device according to the present embodiment. Depending on the device, a color printer, a scanner, a video, a video camera, and the like are added to the configuration of the device. There is a case.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the television receiver 101 according to the present embodiment.
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 205 denotes a connection determination unit that determines whether or not a device is connected to the first connection terminal 206 and the second connection terminal 207. Reference numeral 208 denotes a channel assignment unit, and reference numeral 209 denotes a channel storage unit.

  210 is a device information receiving unit, and 211 is a device information storage unit. Reference numeral 212 denotes an assignment information display request receiving unit, and reference numeral 213 denotes an assignment information display unit. Reference numeral 214 denotes a channel information receiving unit, and reference numeral 215 denotes a channel selection unit. Reference numeral 216 denotes a channel display control unit that performs display control on the CRT 201, and reference numeral 217 denotes a selection notification unit. Detailed processing of each part will be described later in the description of the flowcharts of FIGS.

  FIG. 6 shows data included in the channel storage unit 209. The data is in a tabular format and stores television broadcasts and device assignments for each channel number. FIG. 7 shows device information sent from the digital camera 103. In the XML (Extensible Markup Language) format character string, the root element of the device namespace (http://www.canon.co.jp/device) is a root element of device information. The contents of the name element in the device name space are model names, and a character string “digital camera B” is described therein.

  FIG. 11 shows device information sent from the digital camera 103 when a selection notification is made. The thumbnail element of the device name space includes a thumbnail as the value of the src attribute, and the contents of the description element of the device name space are descriptions of the device information, and the character string “explained” is described.

Hereinafter, the operation in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 3, 4, and 5.
In FIG. 3, the connection determination unit 205 determines whether or not a device is connected to the first connection terminal 206 or the second connection terminal 207 (step S301). As a result of this determination, if connected, the process proceeds to step S302, and if not connected, the process ends.

  When the device is connected, the channel assignment unit 208 assigns a channel. First, the channel number is set to “0” which is the minimum value of the channel number (step S302). Then, it is checked whether or not the 0th channel of the channel storage unit 209 is vacant (step S303). If it is vacant, the process proceeds to step S304, and if not vacant, the process proceeds to step S308.

  If it is determined in step S303 that the channel number is not empty, the channel number is incremented (step S308), and it is checked whether the channel number is 255 or less (step S309). If the result of this check is 255 or less, the process returns to step S303, and if it exceeds 255, the process is terminated.

  On the other hand, if the result of determination in step S <b> 303 is that the 0th channel is empty, information for accessing the second connection terminal 207 is recorded in the item of the device of the 0th channel in the channel storage unit 209. Then, the 0th channel is assigned to the digital camera 103 (step S304). Then, the process ends.

  Next, in FIG. 4, when the user makes a request for displaying the allocation information to the television receiver 101, the allocation information display request receiving unit 212 receives the allocation information display request (step S401). This corresponds to allocation information display request receiving means. Next, the allocation information display unit 213 first sets the channel number to 0, and checks the channel storage unit 209 to determine whether or not the channel is free (step S403).

  If the result of this determination is that it is not available, the process proceeds to step S404, and if it is not available, the process proceeds to step S406. In step S406, it is determined whether the channel is assigned to a television broadcast. If the result of this determination is television broadcast, the process proceeds to step S407; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S411.

  In step S407, a channel number and a television broadcast thumbnail are generated and displayed on the cathode ray tube 201, and the process proceeds to step S404. On the other hand, in step S411, device information is requested from the device to which the channel is assigned using PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol). In step S412, the device information receiving unit 210 determines whether device information is sent from the device. If it is determined that it has been sent, the process proceeds to step S409. If it has not been sent, the process proceeds to step S413.

  In step S409, device information is received and recorded in the device information storage unit 211. This corresponds to a device information receiving unit. Next, in step S410, the channel number and device information are displayed on the cathode ray tube 201, and the process proceeds to step S404. On the other hand, in step S413, it is displayed that the channel number and the device are connected to the cathode ray tube 201, and the process proceeds to step S404.

  In the present embodiment, when the 0th channel is assigned to a device, the device information as shown in FIG. 7 is received and the display as shown in FIG. 8 is performed. For example, when the first channel is assigned to the television broadcast, the display as shown in FIG. 9 is performed. Although the ninth channel is assigned to the device, since the device information is not transmitted, the display as shown in FIG. 10 is performed.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 4, in step S404, the channel number is incremented and it is checked whether it is 255 or less (step S405). If the result of this check is 255 or less, the process returns to step S403 again, and if it exceeds 255, the process is terminated.

  Next, in FIG. 5, when a channel is selected by the user, the channel number selected by the channel information receiving unit 214 is received (step S501). Next, in step S502, the channel storage unit 209 is checked to check whether the channel is open. As a result of this check, if the channel is free, the process proceeds to step S503, and if a television broadcast or device is assigned, the process proceeds to step S504. In the present embodiment, for example, when the user selects the third channel, the process proceeds to step S503. Next, in step S503, it is displayed on the CRT 201 that no channel is assigned, and the process is terminated (step S503).

  On the other hand, in step S504, it is determined whether or not the channel is assigned to the television broadcast. If the result of this determination is television broadcast, the process proceeds to step S505, and if not, the process proceeds to step S506. In the present embodiment, for example, when the first channel is selected, the process proceeds to step 505. In step S505, the television broadcast is displayed on the cathode ray tube 201, and the process ends.

  On the other hand, in step 506, the selection is notified to the connected device through the selection notification means 217 via PTP. Then, the device information receiving unit 210 determines whether device information is being sent from the device (step S507). If it is determined that it has been sent, the process proceeds to step 508. If it has not been sent, the process ends.

  As a result of the determination in step S507, if it is sent, it is received and recorded in the device information storage unit 211 (step 508), the device information is displayed on the cathode ray tube 201 (step S509), and the process is terminated. In the present embodiment, for example, when the 0th channel is assigned to the digital camera 103, the digital camera 103 is notified of selection.

  When the digital camera 103 receives the selection notification, the digital camera 103 performs shooting, base 64 encodes the thumbnail of the shot image, and sets it to the value of the src attribute of the thumbnail element in the device name space of the device information. Then, the device information is transmitted to the television receiver 101. The television receiver 101 receives device information as shown in FIG. 11 and performs display as shown in FIG. 12 based on the device information.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, by assigning a channel to a device connected to a connection terminal or a function of the device, execution of the device UI or the device function can be performed by channel selection without going through a dedicated menu. Can be performed easily and accurately.

(Other embodiments according to the present invention)
Each means constituting the information processing apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention and each step of the control method can be realized by operating a program stored in a RAM or ROM of a computer. This program and a computer-readable recording medium recording the program are included in the present invention.

  Further, the present invention can be implemented as, for example, a system, apparatus, method, program, or recording medium. Specifically, the present invention may be applied to a system including a plurality of devices. The present invention may be applied to an apparatus composed of a single device.

  In the present invention, a software program (in the embodiment, a program corresponding to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 to 5) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is directly or remotely supplied to the system or apparatus. This includes the case where the system or the computer of the apparatus is also achieved by reading and executing the supplied program code.

  Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. In other words, the present invention includes a computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.

  In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, it may be in the form of object code, a program executed by an interpreter, script data supplied to the OS, or the like.

  Examples of the recording medium for supplying the program include a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, and a magneto-optical disk. Further, there are MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R) and the like.

  As another program supply method, there is a method of connecting to a homepage on the Internet using a browser of a client computer. The computer program itself of the present invention or a compressed file including an automatic installation function can be downloaded from the homepage by downloading it to a recording medium such as a hard disk.

  It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the present invention.

  As another method, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and encrypted from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. Download the key information to be solved. It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.

  Further, the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the computer executing the read program. Furthermore, based on the instructions of the program, an OS or the like running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments can be realized by the processing.

  As another method, the program read from the recording medium is first written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. Then, based on the instructions of the program, the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are also realized by the processing.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the structure of the system containing the television receiver in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structural example of the television receiver in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of the television receiver in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of the television receiver in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of the television receiver in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the channel information in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the apparatus information in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the channel allocation information display in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the channel allocation information display in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the channel allocation information display in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the apparatus information in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the display of the apparatus information in embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Television receiver 102 Monochrome printer 103 Digital camera 201 CRT 205 Connection discrimination | determination part 206 1st connection terminal 207 2nd connection terminal 208 Channel allocation part 209 Channel memory | storage part 210 Apparatus information reception part 211 Apparatus information storage part 212 Request for allocation information display Reception unit 213 Allocation information display unit 214 Channel information reception unit 215 Channel selection unit 216 Channel display control unit 217 Selection notification unit

Claims (6)

An information processing apparatus comprising display switching means for switching display according to a channel and channel selection means for selecting the channel, and capable of being connected to an external device,
Connection determination means for determining whether or not the external device is connected;
Channel assigning means for assigning a channel to the external device;
Channel storage means for storing, by the channel assignment means, information about whether the channel is assigned to a television broadcast, assigned to a connected external device, or assigned to neither;
Selection notification means for notifying that the external device corresponding to the channel selected by the channel selection means is selected;
An information processing apparatus that assigns the channel to a device.   The channel assigning means scans the channel storage means in ascending order using channels as keys, and assigns a channel not assigned to any of the newly connected external devices. Information processing device. A channel correspondence designating unit for designating correspondence between a specific external device and a specific channel;
2. When an external device is connected, an inquiry as to which channel is allocated by the channel allocation unit is displayed, and the channel allocation unit allocates the channel according to the channel correspondence designation unit. The information processing apparatus described. A display request receiving means for receiving a display request for channel assignment information from a user;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the channel assignment information is displayed. Device information receiving means for receiving device information sent from the connected external device;
Device information storage means for storing the device information;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the channel assignment information is displayed together with the device information when displayed. An information processing apparatus comprising display switching means for switching display according to a channel and channel selection means for selecting the channel, and capable of being connected to an external device,
Connection determination means for determining whether or not the external device is connected;
Channel assigning means for assigning a channel to the function of the external device;
Channel storage means for storing information about whether the channel is assigned to a television broadcast, assigned to a function of a connected external device, or not assigned to any of the channels by the channel assignment means;
Selection notification means for notifying an external device corresponding to the channel selected by the channel selection means of the selected function;
An information processing apparatus that assigns the channel to a function of a device.

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