JP2008090496A - Information processor, method therefor and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide information showing relation between deletion schedule and free capacity of a data file. <P>SOLUTION: A size holding part 105 holds data amount information of the data file stored by a file storage part 101. A deletion schedule management part 102 and a deletion schedule holding part 106 manage a deletion scheduled data of the data file stored by the file storage part 101. A list information generation part 111 acquires the deletion scheduled date and the data amount information about all or a part of the data file stored by the file storage part 101, and makes a free capacity calculation part 109 predict future free capacity of the file storage part 101. A display processing part 112 generates screen information showing relation between the deletion scheduled date and the predicted free capacity. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to information processing in devices and services that store data files.

  With the widespread use of digital cameras and digital recorders, file storage equipment and services for storing data files in various scenes have been expanded. For example, there are hard disk recorders that store moving image files in home appliances, and services that store image and document files are provided on the Internet. These file storage devices and services have an upper limit of data capacity that can be stored. File storage devices and services not only present free space for effective use of data storage, but also a function that allows the user to easily select a data file to be deleted, set the scheduled deletion date and time, and automatically The function to delete.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a technology that sorts contents in order of recording date and time while presenting the free capacity, and changes the display of the free capacity accordingly when the user selects content to be deleted.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a method of using a calendar, a method of displaying a trash bin having a time series hierarchy, and a method of displaying a trash bin for each group as methods for presenting a data file to be deleted.

However, these file storage devices and systems cannot meet the demands of the next user.
・ I want to know the future change in free space and build a new storage plan.
・ I want to leave a specific data file for a while if there is enough free space.

  In order to satisfy these requirements, information indicating when the data file is deleted and information indicating how the free space changes due to the deletion of the data file are required. In order to acquire such information from the file storage device or system, the user needs to perform the following work.

  First, the user searches for a data file to be deleted (1) and creates a time-sorted list. And to find out the remaining capacity at a certain time in the future, (2) search for the data file that has been deleted at that time, and subtract the total amount of those data from the maximum capacity of the data storage . Further, in order to know how the free space changes, the above operation (2) is performed at a plurality of time points, and a graph is displayed in accordance with the list created in the above (1).

  Such work is very time-consuming and inconvenient for users of file storage devices and systems.

  The invention of Patent Document 1 described above discloses that contents are sorted in chronological order in the order of recording date and displayed in a graph. Further, the invention of Patent Document 2 discloses displaying a data file deletion schedule in a calendar manner.

  However, since Patent Document 1 or 2 above does not clearly indicate how much free space is generated when content is deleted, it is difficult for the user to understand, efficiently managing content, and planning free space There is a problem that cannot be secured.

JP2003-281864 JP2003-316619

  An object of this invention is to provide the information which shows the relationship between the deletion schedule of a data file, and free space.

  The present invention has the following configuration as one means for achieving the above object.

  An information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a storage unit that stores a data file, a holding unit that stores data amount information of the data file stored by the storage unit, and a scheduled deletion date and time of the data file stored by the storage unit. The management means for managing, and the deletion scheduled date and time managed by the management means and the data amount information held by the holding means for all or some of the data files stored by the storage means, and after the scheduled deletion date and time Prediction means for predicting the free capacity of the storage means, generation means for generating screen information indicating the relationship between the scheduled deletion date and time acquired by the prediction means and the free capacity predicted by the prediction means. Features.

  An information processing method according to the present invention holds data amount information of a data file stored by a storage unit that stores the data file, manages a scheduled deletion date and time of the data file stored by the storage unit, and the storage unit stores the data file Obtaining the scheduled deletion date and time and the data amount information for all or a part of the data files, predicting the free capacity of the storage means after the scheduled deletion date and time, and acquiring the estimated deletion date and time and the prediction The screen information indicating the relationship of the free space is generated.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide information indicating the relationship between the data file deletion schedule and the free space, and the user can efficiently manage the data file and systematically secure the free space.

  Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

[Device configuration]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a file storage device 100 according to the first embodiment.

  The file storage unit 101 is an area for storing assigned data files such as a hard disk. The deletion schedule management unit 102 manages the scheduled deletion date and time of the data file stored in the file storage unit 101, and deletes the data file that has reached the scheduled deletion date and time from the file storage unit 101. The scheduled deletion date / time may be specified by the user of the data file by operating the client device 200 when the deletion schedule management unit 102 automatically sets the file attribute (for example, the date / time registered in the file storage unit 101). .

  The file information holding unit 103 holds attribute information of a data file stored in the file storage unit 101 with at least the following configuration. The group information holding unit 104 holds group information of data files. The size holding unit 105 holds the size (data capacity) of the data file. The deletion schedule holding unit 106 stores the scheduled deletion date and time of the data file.

  The group management unit 107 manages storage group information (user group information and object group information) instructed from the client device 200, and updates the group information held by the group information holding unit 104.

  The capacity acquisition unit 108 acquires the total capacity, the current usage amount, and the free capacity for the storage area of the file storage unit 101. In the following description, the total capacity, the current usage, and the free capacity are the total capacity, the current usage, and the free capacity of the file storage unit 101 unless otherwise specified. Based on the group information managed by the group management unit 107, the capacity acquisition unit 108 can acquire the total capacity, the current usage amount, and the free capacity in units of storage groups. The free capacity calculation unit 109 calculates the free capacity of the file storage unit 101 based on information obtained from the capacity acquisition unit 108 and the size holding unit 105. The free space calculation unit 109 also calculates a predicted free space described later.

  The display condition holding unit 110 holds display conditions for list information instructed from the client device 200. The list information generation unit 111 generates list information indicating a deletion schedule of the data file stored in the file storage unit 101 and a change in free space. The list information is generated according to the display conditions held by the display condition holding unit 110 based on the scheduled deletion date and time held by the deletion schedule holding unit 106 and the free space predicted by the free space calculation unit 109. The display processing unit 112 performs display processing of the list information generated by the list information generation unit 111 and transmits display data to the client device 200.

  The client device 200 is a general-purpose personal computer or the like. The client device 200 and the file storage device 100 are connected via a general-purpose interface (for example, a serial bus such as USB or IEEE1394) or a network. FIG. 1 shows an example in which one client device 200 is provided, but a plurality of client devices 200 can be connected to the file storage device 100 via a network, for example.

[processing]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing list information generation processing by the list information generation unit 111.

  Upon receiving a schedule list display request from the user (S201), the list information generation unit 111 acquires display conditions from the display condition holding unit 110 (S202), and creates a list L of data files to be deleted according to the acquired display conditions. Obtain (S203).

  Next, the list information generation unit 111 acquires the scheduled deletion date and time of the data file scheduled to be deleted that is each element of the list L, and the predicted free space after the data file calculated by the free space calculation unit 109 is deleted The capacity is acquired (S204). Then, in accordance with the acquired display conditions, list information in which the icon of the data file scheduled to be deleted and the change in the predicted free space are arranged on the time axis is generated from the acquired scheduled deletion date and predicted free space (S205). The generated list information is subjected to display processing by the display processing unit 112.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing detailed processing of acquiring the scheduled deletion date and time of the data file and the estimated free space (S204).

  First, the elements (for example, data file names and identification numbers) of the list L of the scheduled deletion file are sorted in ascending order of the scheduled deletion date and time (S301), and the number N of elements of the list L is acquired (S302). Then, 1 is initially set in the variable i (S303), and the free capacity acquired from the capacity acquisition unit 108 is set in the matrix element C [0] (S304).

  Next, the to-be-deleted file name F [i] that is the i-th element of the sorted list L is acquired (S305). Then, the scheduled deletion date / time of F [i] is acquired from the deletion schedule holding unit 106 and set in the matrix element T [i] (S306). Then, the size of F [i] is acquired from the size holding unit 105 and set to the matrix element S [i] (S307). Then, the estimated free space at time T [i] is acquired from the free space calculation unit 109 and set in the matrix element C [i] (S308). The free space calculation unit 109 predicts a free space corresponding to C [i] by calculating C [i−1] + S [i].

  Next, the variable i is incremented (S309), the variable i is compared with the number of elements N (S310), and if i ≦ N, the process returns to step S305, and if i> N, the process of step S204 is terminated. To do.

[Display condition settings]
FIG. 4A shows an example of a display condition designation screen (user interface), which is displayed by the client device 200.

  The user sets a deadline on a daily basis, a weekly basis, or a monthly basis, such as one day, one week, or one month, using a list box of display date and time. FIG. 4A shows an example in which the display target date and time is up to the scheduled deletion date of “1 month ahead”. Further, the user selects a file display format from “icon”, “icon details”, and “thumbnail” by using a radio button in the file display format column.

  The user can set the deadline of the display target date and time with a specific date and time. In that case, it is sufficient to select “specify date and time” from the list box. Further, the user can select “no time limit” from the list box. In this case, all data files stored in the file storage unit 101 are targeted.

  When the user presses the OK button, the condition designated on the display condition designation screen is sent to the display condition holding unit 110 and held there.

  FIG. 4B is a diagram showing an example of data held by the display condition holding unit 110.

  The display condition holding unit 110 adds the display condition ID and holds the condition display designated on the display condition designation screen as one record. The record field includes a display target date and time, a file display format, a user ID indicating a user who has set display conditions, and the like.

[File information]
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of file information held by the file information holding unit 103.

  The file information holding unit 103 holds file information (record) in which a file ID is added to each data file stored in the file storage unit 101. The file information field includes a size held by the size holding unit 105, a scheduled deletion date and time held by the deletion scheduled holding unit 106, a user ID indicating the attribution of the data file held by the group information holding unit 104, and the like. In other words, the user ID identifies a user that the file storage device 100 recognizes as the owner of the data file.

  6A is a diagram showing a result (corresponding to the sorted list L) in which the file information is extracted from the file information shown in FIG. 5 according to the display condition of ID = 1 in FIG. 4B and sorted in ascending order of the scheduled deletion date and time. is there. Assuming that the current date and time is August 1, 2005, file information is extracted from the scheduled date and time of August 1, 2005 to September 1, 2005 that satisfies the display condition "Up to one month ahead of the scheduled deletion date" And sorted.

  FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating a result of obtaining the predicted free space when the data file is deleted at the scheduled deletion date and time. The estimated free space at the scheduled deletion date and time of each file information is listed.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a deletion schedule list screen generated by the display processing unit 112 based on the list L in FIG. 6B. The data of the deletion schedule list screen is provided to the client device 200.

  FIG. 7 shows an example in which the data file names and the scheduled deletion date and time are displayed in the scheduled deletion order from the top to the bottom with the vertical axis as the time axis. The file display format is displayed in an icon format according to the display condition of ID = 1 in FIG. 4B. On the other hand, the horizontal axis shows the free space, and displays how the free space increases in conjunction with the deletion of the data file.

  If the display condition is a relatively long period such as “up to 1 month ahead scheduled for deletion”, for example, the display processing unit 112 sets the scale on the vertical axis (time axis) as a week unit and the auxiliary scale as a day unit. Create a deletion schedule list screen as shown in Fig. 7. However, when a shorter period is specified, a scale with a shorter interval and an auxiliary scale are adopted. If the period is about one or two weeks, for example, the scale may be one day and the auxiliary scale may be half a day. Further, if the period is about one or two days, for example, the scale may be set for 4 hours and the auxiliary scale may be set for one hour. Needless to say, the setting of these scales and auxiliary scales can be changed by the user as needed.

  As described above, the deletion schedule list screen allows the user to confirm which data file is deleted when. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the problem that the data file is deleted without the user's knowledge. Further, the user can grasp how the free space changes due to the deletion of the data file. Therefore, it is possible to provide useful information when the user plans how to delete and store the data file.

  The information processing according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described below. Note that the same reference numerals in the second embodiment denote the same parts as in the first embodiment, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  Hereinafter, an example in which a deletion schedule list screen is displayed for each user will be described as a second embodiment. The same applies to group units instead of user units. Note that user groups and object groups (for example, albums, seasons, places, individuals, groups, special events, etc.) can be considered as groups.

[Display condition settings]
FIG. 8A shows an example of a display condition designation screen (user interface), which is displayed by the client device 200.

  The user sets date and time by entering date and time information in a text box for display date and time. FIG. 8A shows an example in which the display target date and time is up to the scheduled deletion date of “2005/10/31”. In addition, the file display format is selected from “icon”, “icon details”, and “thumbnail” by a radio button in the file display format column. Further, the user display format is selected from “collective display” and “display separately for each user” by a radio button in the user display format column. Further, the display user is selected from “all user display” and “designate by user ID” by a radio button in the display user column. If “Specify by user ID” is selected, enter the user ID in the text box. Further, “display all together” and “display separately for each user” are selected by a radio button in the display format column of the free space.

  When the user presses the OK button, the condition designated on the display condition designation screen is sent to the display condition holding unit 110 and held there.

  FIG. 8B is a diagram showing an example of data held by the display condition holding unit 110.

  The display condition holding unit 110 adds the display condition ID and holds the condition display designated on the display condition designation screen as one record. The record field includes a display target date and time, a file display format, a user display format, a display user ID, a free space display format, and a user ID indicating a user who has set display conditions. Note that the display user ID field and the free capacity display format field are null when the user display formats are combined.

[processing]
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a list information generation process by the list information generation unit 111 according to the second embodiment. The same processes as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The list information generating unit 111 determines whether the user display format of the display condition acquired in step S202 is “collectively” or “by user” (S801). In the case of “collectively”, the processing is the same as that in FIG.

  When the user display format of the display condition is “by user”, the list information generating unit 111 generates a user list GL from the display user ID of the display condition (S802). Then, the number of elements GN of the user list GL is acquired (S803), and the variable j is initialized to 1 (S804).

  Next, the list information generation unit 111 acquires the user ID of the jth user G [j] in the user list GL (S805), and the data scheduled to be deleted belonging to the user G [j] according to the display target date and time of the display condition The file list FL [j] is acquired (S806). Information indicating the attribution (owner) of the data file is held in the group information holding unit 104.

  Next, the list information generating unit 111 acquires the scheduled deletion date and time of the data file scheduled to be deleted that is each element of the list FL [j], and acquires the estimated free space after the data file is deleted (S807). ). Note that the process of step S807 is the same as the process of step S204, and details thereof are as described in the flowchart of FIG. However, in step S807, the capacity acquisition unit 108 uses the group management unit to calculate the total storage area capacity, the current usage amount, and the free capacity allocated to the corresponding user in order to calculate the free capacity for each user in step S304. Get from 107.

  Next, the list information generating unit 111 increments the variable j (S808), compares the variable j with the number of elements GN (S809), and returns the process to step S805 if j ≦ GN, Get information required to generate list information about users. If j> GN, the process proceeds to step S810.

  Next, the list information generating unit 111 determines whether the free capacity display format of the display condition is “collectively” or “by user” (S810). In the case of “collectively”, the process proceeds to step S205.

  When the free capacity display format of the display condition is “by user”, the list information generating unit 111 generates list information by merging the relationship between the scheduled deletion date and the free capacity acquired for each user (S811), and the processing step Proceed to S205.

  10A to 10C are diagrams showing an example of the list information created in step S807. 10A shows list information of user A (user ID = A), FIG. 10B shows list information of user B (user ID = B), and FIG. 10C shows list information of user C (user ID = C).

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a deletion schedule list screen generated by the display processing unit 112 based on the list information after merging in step S811. The data of the deletion schedule list screen is provided to the client device 200.

  FIG. 11 shows an example in which frames (shown by alternate long and short dash lines) for users A, B, and C are prepared, and data file names are displayed in the order of deletion from the top to the bottom with the vertical axis as the time axis. On the other hand, the horizontal axis indicates the free space, and displays how the free space of each user increases in conjunction with the deletion of the data file. The dotted line indicates the free capacity of user A, the broken line indicates the free capacity of user B, and the solid line indicates the free capacity of user C.

  In this way, it is possible to confirm which data file is deleted when and for each user by the deletion schedule list screen. In addition, it is possible to compare changes in free space between users, and to provide information that is effective when users plan how to delete and store data files. If the user is replaced with a group in the above processing, the data file deletion schedule for each group and the change in the free capacity between groups can be known.

  Hereinafter, information processing according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described. Note that the same reference numerals in the third embodiment denote the same parts as in the first and second embodiments, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  In the following, as a third embodiment, display of a deletion schedule list screen when hierarchically managing data files will be described. In the third embodiment, it is assumed that the data file is managed by the user attribute and the album attribute, and the album attribute is described in the user attribute information. Accordingly, the upper level of the album attribute becomes the user attribute. Note that user attributes and album attributes may be referred to as group attributes.

[Display condition settings]
FIG. 12 shows an example of a display condition designation screen (user interface), which is displayed by the client device 200.

  In the display condition designation screen shown in FIG. 12, in addition to the setting contents of the display condition designation screen shown in FIG. 8A, the album display format and display album can be set in the same manner as the user display format and display user. That is, the user selects the album display format from “collectively display” and “display separately for each album” by using the radio button in the album display format column. Further, the display album is selected from “display all albums” and “designate by album ID” by using a radio button in the display album column. When selecting “Specify by album ID” is selected, the album ID is entered in the text box.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a deletion schedule list screen generated by the display processing unit 112 based on setting of display conditions on the display condition specifying screen of FIG. The data of the deletion schedule list screen is provided to the client device 200.

  Fig. 13 shows an example in which the frames for albums X, Y, and Z (shown by alternate long and short dash lines) are prepared and the thumbnail icons of the data files are displayed in the order of deletion from the top to the bottom with the vertical axis as the time axis. Show. On the other hand, the horizontal axis shows the free space, and displays how the free space increases in conjunction with the deletion of the data file. The predicted free space is displayed in units of user attributes in the upper hierarchy.

  In this way, it is possible to confirm which data file is deleted when and for each attribute (album in the above example) of the user attribute on the deletion schedule list screen. In addition, it is possible to compare the change in the free capacity between the attributes of the hierarchy, and it is possible to provide effective information when the user plans how to delete and store the data file.

  Of course, seasons, places, individuals, groups, events, etc. can be considered as group attributes other than album attributes as subordinate attributes of user attributes. It is also possible to display a deletion schedule list screen for each of these lower group attributes.

[Modification]
In the above embodiment, the file storage device that stores data files has been described as an example. However, the present invention can be applied to any device or service that can store a data file and set a scheduled date and time for deleting the data file. For example, the present invention can be applied to a hard disk recorder, which is a home appliance, or a data file storage service on the Internet.

  In the above description, an example has been described in which a user of a device or service uses a deletion schedule list screen to manage a data file storage area assigned to the user. However, the deletion schedule list screen can also be used when the system administrator manages the storage status of the user, the total capacity of the file storage unit 101, the current usage, and the free capacity.

[Other embodiments]
Note that the present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, and a printer), and a device (for example, a copying machine and a facsimile device) including a single device. You may apply to.

  Another object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (recording medium) that records software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and a computer (CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus executes the software. Is also achieved. In this case, the software itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the software constitutes the present invention.

  In addition, the above functions are not only realized by the execution of the software, but an operating system (OS) running on a computer performs part or all of the actual processing according to instructions of the software, and thereby the above functions This includes the case where is realized.

  In addition, the software is written in a function expansion card or unit memory connected to the computer, and the CPU of the card or unit performs part or all of the actual processing according to instructions of the software, thereby This includes the case where is realized.

  When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores software corresponding to the flowchart described above.

Block diagram showing a configuration example of a file storage device of Example 1, The flowchart which shows the production | generation process of the list information by a list information generation part, Flow chart showing the detailed processing of obtaining the data file's scheduled deletion date and estimated free space, The figure which shows an example of a display condition designation screen (user interface), The figure which shows the example of data which a display condition holding part hold | maintains, The figure which shows an example of the file information which a file information holding part hold | maintains, The figure which shows the result of extracting the file information according to the display condition from the file information shown in FIG. Figure showing the result of obtaining the estimated free space when the data file is deleted at the scheduled deletion date and time, The figure which shows an example of the deletion schedule list screen which a display processing part generates based on the list of Drawing 6B. The figure which shows an example of a display condition designation screen (user interface), The figure which shows the example of data which a display condition holding part hold | maintains, Flowchart showing a list information generation process by the list information generation unit of Example 2, Figure showing an example of list information, Figure showing an example of list information, Figure showing an example of list information, The figure which shows an example of the deletion schedule list screen which a display process part produces | generates based on the list information after merging, The figure which shows an example of the display condition designation screen (user interface) of Example 3, FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a deletion schedule list screen generated by a display processing unit based on setting of display conditions on the display condition specifying screen of FIG.

Claims (7)

A storage means for storing data files;
Holding means for holding data amount information of a data file stored by the storage means;
Management means for managing the scheduled date and time of deletion of the data file stored by the storage means;
For all or some data files stored by the storage unit, the scheduled deletion date and time managed by the management unit and the data amount information held by the storage unit are acquired, and the storage unit is free after the scheduled deletion date A means of predicting capacity,
An information processing apparatus comprising: a generation unit that generates screen information indicating a relationship between the scheduled deletion date and time acquired by the prediction unit and a free space predicted by the prediction unit.   2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the prediction unit further includes an input unit that inputs a condition for limiting the data file for acquiring the scheduled deletion date and data amount information.   3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the condition includes any one of an expiration date of the scheduled date and time of deletion, owner information of the data file, and a group attribute of the data file.   When the owner information is input as the condition, the predicting means obtains a scheduled deletion date and data amount information of a data file corresponding to the owner information to predict the free space, and the generating means 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein screen information indicating a relationship between the scheduled deletion date and the free space is generated for each owner information.   When the group attribute is input as the condition, the predicting means obtains a scheduled deletion date and data amount information of a data file corresponding to the group attribute to predict the free space, and the generating means 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein screen information indicating a relationship between the scheduled deletion date and the free space is generated for each group attribute. The storage means for storing the data file holds the data amount information of the data file stored,
Managing the scheduled deletion date and time of the data file stored by the storage means;
For all or some of the data files stored by the storage unit, obtain the scheduled deletion date and the data amount information, and predict the free space of the storage unit after the scheduled deletion date and time,
An information processing method, comprising: generating screen information indicating a relationship between the acquired scheduled deletion date and the estimated free space.   7. A computer program for controlling an information processing apparatus to realize the information processing described in claim 6.

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