JP2010128755A - Information processor, display control method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily access an application corresponding to content. <P>SOLUTION: An information processor 100 includes a display control part 152 for displaying a list picture on which the list of the thumb nails of a plurality of content is displayable and a selection part 154 for selecting the thumb nails of one content from the thumb nails of a plurality of contents displayed on the list picture by a user operation. The display control part 152 displays the start picture of an application corresponding to the content selected by the selection part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing device, a display control method, and a program, and more particularly, to an information processing device, a display control method, and a program capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents.

  In recent years, as the storage capacity of information processing apparatuses such as PCs (Personal Computers) used by general users has increased dramatically, a large amount of content in various categories such as photographs, videos, and music has been managed by users. It is coming. The user activates an application suitable for each content to display or process a photo, or to play back video or music.

  For example, the application described in Non-Patent Document 1 below provides a user with a screen interface that can classify software according to content categories and easily select software for content playback and editing. ing. In the screen interface, first, the user selects one of content categories such as photos, videos, and music. Thereafter, the software corresponding to the selected category and a description of the software are displayed. The user selects software suitable for the purpose by reading and examining the software description. Then, the selected software is activated.

"Sony Product Information | VAIO | Software | VAIO Navi", [online], [Search October 14, 2008], Internet <URL: http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/Solution/ VAIOnavi / ＞

However, when using the application described in Non-Patent Document 1, a content category must first be selected. Further, when there are many applications corresponding to the category, there is a problem that the target software cannot be activated unless the explanation display of each application is read one by one.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved information processing apparatus capable of easily accessing an application corresponding to content, A display control method and program are provided.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to an aspect of the present invention, a display control unit that displays a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents, and a plurality of contents displayed on the list screen by a user operation A selection unit that selects a thumbnail of one content from the thumbnails, and the display control unit is provided with an information processing apparatus that displays a startup screen of an application corresponding to the content selected by the selection unit.

  The display control unit may switch from the list screen to a navigation screen that guides activation of an application corresponding to the content when a thumbnail of the content is selected by the selection unit.

  According to such a configuration, a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents is displayed, a thumbnail of one content is selected from the list screen by a user operation, and an application startup screen corresponding to the selected content A navigation screen can be displayed.

  As a result, the user can display a navigation screen for starting an application corresponding to the content only by placing the cursor on the thumbnail of the content. Therefore, it is possible to easily select and start an application that suits the user's purpose without reading the explanation display of the application one by one.

  In addition, the application startup screen is a navigation screen that guides the startup of the application, and the navigation screen corresponds to the function with a list of categories to which a plurality of contents belong as a higher rank and a function list based on the category as a middle rank. It is also possible to include a hierarchical display screen with the application list to be displayed as a lower level.

  The application list is a list of a plurality of operators for guiding activation of one or more applications, and the display control unit focuses on the operators of the application corresponding to the content selected by the selection unit. You may make it display.

  Further, the display control unit is an information processing apparatus that changes a focus display of a plurality of operators included in the navigation screen in response to selection of a thumbnail of content by the selection unit.

  The display control unit sequentially displays the functions based on the plurality of content categories together with the plurality of contents, and the selection unit selects one category from the functions based on the plurality of content categories sequentially displayed according to the user operation. And the display control unit may focus-display an application operator corresponding to the function based on the category selected by the selection unit.

  In order to solve the above problems, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a step of displaying a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents, and a plurality of contents displayed on the list screen by a user operation. There is provided a display control method including a step of selecting a thumbnail of one content from thumbnails, and a step of displaying an activation screen of an application corresponding to the selected content.

  In order to solve the above problem, according to another aspect of the present invention, a computer displays a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents and a list screen by a user operation. A selection unit that selects a thumbnail of one content from a plurality of displayed thumbnails, and the display control unit displays an activation screen of an application corresponding to the content selected by the selection unit A program for functioning as a server is provided.

  As described above, according to the present invention, an application corresponding to content can be easily accessed.

  Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, in this specification and drawing, about the component which has the substantially same function structure, duplication description is abbreviate | omitted by attaching | subjecting the same code | symbol.

Further, the “best mode for carrying out the invention” will be described in the following order.
[1] Purpose of this embodiment [2] Hardware configuration of information processing apparatus [3] Functional configuration of information processing apparatus [4] Flow of display control processing

[1] Object of this embodiment First, the object of the embodiment of the present invention will be described. In recent years, as the storage capacity of information processing apparatuses such as PCs (Personal Computers) used by general users has increased dramatically, a large amount of content in various categories such as photographs, videos, and music has been managed by users. It is coming. The user activates an application suitable for each content to display or process a photo, or to play back video or music.

  For example, there are applications that classify software according to content categories and provide a user with a screen interface that can easily select software for playing or editing content. In the screen interface, first, the user selects one of content categories such as photos, videos, and music. Thereafter, the software corresponding to the selected category and a description of the software are displayed. The user selects software suitable for the purpose by reading and examining the software description. Then, the selected software is activated.

  However, when there are a large number of categories, it is necessary to know to which category the content that the user intends to use belongs. Further, when there are many applications corresponding to the category, there is a problem that the target software cannot be activated unless the explanation display of each application is read one by one.

  Accordingly, the information processing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention has been created with the above circumstances as a focus. According to the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, an application corresponding to content can be easily accessed. Specifically, when a thumbnail of one content is selected from among the thumbnails of the content displayed as a list on the display screen, an application startup screen corresponding to the selected content can be displayed.

  In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus 100 capable of displaying a list of content thumbnails is configured as an apparatus integrated with a display apparatus such as an LCD, but is not limited to such an example. For example, the information processing apparatus may be configured as a separate apparatus from the display apparatus. The information processing apparatus 100 may be a general-purpose computer such as a PC or a workstation, but is not limited to such an example. The information processing apparatus 100 may be, for example, a home appliance such as a video / music player or a television receiver, or a portable device such as a mobile phone terminal or a digital camera.

[2] Hardware Configuration of Information Processing Device Next, the hardware configuration of the information processing device 100 according to the present embodiment will be described based on FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus 100 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 102, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 103, a host bus 104, a bridge 105, An external bus 106, an interface 107, an input device 108, an output device 109, a storage device (HDD) 110, a drive 111, and a communication device 112 are provided.

  The CPU 101 functions as an arithmetic processing device and a control device, and controls the overall operation in the information processing device 100 according to various programs. Further, the CPU 101 may be a microprocessor. The ROM 102 stores programs and calculation parameters used by the CPU 101. The RAM 103 primarily stores programs used in the execution of the CPU 101, parameters that change as appropriate during the execution, and the like. These are connected to each other by a host bus 104 including a CPU bus.

  The host bus 104 is connected via a bridge 105 to an external bus 106 such as a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect / Interface) bus. Note that the host bus 104, the bridge 105, and the external bus 106 are not necessarily configured separately, and these functions may be mounted on one bus.

  The input device 108 is, for example, an input means for a user to input information, such as a mouse, keyboard, touch panel, button, microphone, switch, and lever, and an input that generates an input signal based on the input by the user and outputs it to the CPU 101 It consists of a control circuit. A user of the information processing apparatus 100 can input various data or instruct a processing operation to the information processing apparatus 100 by operating the input device 108.

  The output device 109 includes, for example, a display device such as a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display device, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Display) device and a lamp, and an audio output device such as a speaker and headphones. The The output device 109 outputs the reproduced content, for example. Specifically, the display device displays various information such as reproduced video data as text or images. On the other hand, the audio output device converts reproduced audio data or the like into audio and outputs it.

  The storage apparatus 110 is a data storage apparatus configured as an example of a storage unit of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. The storage device 110 may include a storage medium, a recording device that records data on the storage medium, a reading device that reads data from the storage medium, a deletion device that deletes data recorded on the storage medium, and the like. The storage device 110 is composed of, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive). The storage device 110 drives a hard disk and stores programs executed by the CPU 101 and various data. In addition, content data, metadata, device data, and the like are recorded in the storage device 110.

  The drive 111 is a storage medium reader / writer, and is built in or externally attached to the information processing apparatus 100. The drive 111 reads information recorded on a removable storage medium 120 such as a mounted magnetic disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, or semiconductor memory, and outputs the information to the RAM 103.

  The communication device 113 is a communication interface configured with, for example, a communication device for connecting to the communication network 121. The communication device 113 may be a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) compatible communication device, a wireless USB compatible communication device, or a wire communication device that performs wired communication. The communication device 112 transmits and receives various data such as content data to and from an external device via the communication network 121.

[3] Functional Configuration of Information Processing Apparatus The hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment has been described above with reference to FIG. Next, functions of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment includes a display control unit 152, a selection unit 154, a data storage unit 156, a content storage unit 158, and the like.

  The content storage unit 158 includes a storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or a semiconductor memory, and stores content data of various categories such as photographs, music, and videos. Here, the category represents the type of each content. The content data stored in the content storage unit 158 may be registered in a metadata storage unit (not shown) in file units or folder units including a plurality of files. Thereby, for example, the metadata of each content can be held in the metadata storage unit, and the metadata can be generated by analyzing the content data.

  The display control unit 152 has a function of displaying a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents. Specifically, in order to give the user an overview of the contents of various categories of content stored in the content storage unit 158, a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of each content is displayed via the display screen 160. To display.

  For example, when the screen size of the list screen displayed on the screen of the display device is limited, content useful for the user is preferentially displayed among a large amount of content stored in the content storage unit 158. It may be. That is, the content display number for each category may be determined based on the display upper limit number corresponding to the screen size of the list screen displayed to the user and the display ratio for each content category. Then, the content for which thumbnails should be displayed on the list screen may be selected according to the number of content displays and the content metadata.

  Here, a list screen displayed to the user via the display screen 160 by the display control unit 152 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a list screen displayed by the display control unit 152. As shown in FIG. 3, the list screen 402 includes a thumbnail display area 403 and a text information display area 407.

  In the present embodiment, the thumbnail display area 403 can display a total of 40 thumbnails of 5 vertical × 8 horizontal, but is not limited to this example. The thumbnails included in the list screen 402 include, for example, a video content thumbnail 404, a photo content thumbnail 405, a music content thumbnail 406, and the like.

  In the text information display area 407, a message for instructing or guiding a user input or selection is displayed. For example, a message instructing to click a thumbnail of any content from the list screen 403 may be displayed. Further, when the cursor is placed on a thumbnail of any content, the category of the content may be displayed.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the description of the function of the display control unit 152 will be continued. The display control unit 152 has a function of displaying an application activation screen corresponding to content selected by the selection unit 154 described later. When the thumbnail of the content is selected by the selection unit 154, the display control unit 152 may switch from the list screen to a navigation screen that guides activation of the application corresponding to the content.

  The selection unit 154 has a function of selecting a thumbnail of one content from a plurality of thumbnails displayed on the display screen 160 by a user operation. When the contents of the text display area 407 change sequentially, the contents of the text display area 407 may be selected at the same time as the thumbnail of the contents is selected by the user. Further, the display control unit 152 may switch to a display screen corresponding to the content of the text display area 407 selected by the selection unit 154.

  Here, with reference to FIG. 4, the navigation screen switched by the display control part 152 is demonstrated. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a screen example of the navigation screen. As shown in FIG. 4, the navigation screen 450 has a hierarchy in which a list 452 of categories to which a plurality of contents belong has a higher level, a function list 454 based on the category has a middle level, and an application list 456 corresponding to the function has a lower level. It is a screen including a display screen. When the user selects the application list 456 displayed at the lower level, the selected application is activated. That is, the application list 456 is a list of a plurality of operators for starting up the application.

  Here, the hierarchical structure of the display data displayed on the navigation screen 450 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the hierarchical structure of display data displayed on the navigation screen 450. As shown in FIG. 5, the first hierarchy 502 displayed in the category list 452 belongs to contents such as TV (Tv), photo (Photo), video (Video), music (Music), and the Internet (Internet). It consists of categories.

  The second layer 504 displayed in the category-based function list 454 includes “enjoy photos”, “organize photos”, “process photos”, etc., if the functions are based on photos. Further, examples of functions based on video include “enjoy video”, “organize video”, “create video”, “edit video”, and the like. As described above, the second hierarchy 504 includes functions based on categories and realizable by each application.

  The third level 506 displayed in the application list 456 includes “Photo application 1” corresponding to the “Enjoy photos” function, “Photo application 2” corresponding to the “Organize photos” function, and “Enjoy videos”. "Video application 1" corresponding to the "Function", "Video application 2" corresponding to the "Create video" function, and the like.

  The hierarchical structure data shown in FIG. 5 may be stored in, for example, the data storage unit 156 in FIG. Further, the hierarchical structure data is stored in advance in the data storage unit 156 and has a fixed hierarchical structure in the present embodiment, but is not limited to this example. For example, the user may add hierarchical structure data later, or update the hierarchical structure data every time an application is added.

  Returning to FIG. 4, the description of the screen example of the navigation screen 450 is continued. As described above, when a thumbnail of one content is selected from the list screen 402, the screen is switched to the navigation screen 450. At this time, an application corresponding to the selected content may be displayed in focus. The focus display is a conspicuous display that is distinguished from other items in order to let the user know which item is selected from among a plurality of items.

  For example, when photo content is selected by the user on the list screen 402, a navigation screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed. That is, the category list 452 is displayed with focus on “Photo”, the function list 454 is displayed with focus on “Watch Photo”, and the application list 456 includes an application corresponding to the function (Picaso Giigle). The focus is displayed.

  In this way, the focus display allows the user to select one content on the list screen 402 and to meet the user's purpose of “view photos” without reading the display of the application function description. An application can be automatically selected. In addition, when there are a plurality of applications having the function of “view photos”, a plurality of applications may be displayed in the third layer. In this case, the user can easily find an application having a function of “view a picture”.

  Further, the display content of the navigation screen 450 may be changed in conjunction with the display content displayed in the text information display area 407 described above. That is, the display control unit 152 sequentially displays the functions based on the content category in the text information display area 407, and the selection unit 154 selects one of the functions based on the plurality of content categories sequentially displayed according to the user operation. Select features based on category. Then, the display control unit 152 focuses-displays the operation elements of the application corresponding to the function based on the category selected by the selection unit 154.

  For example, the display content displayed in the text information display area 407 may be displayed randomly in one of the function lists of the second hierarchy every time the user moves the cursor to the thumbnail of the content. For example, a case where the cursor is placed on a thumbnail of content whose category is video will be described. It is assumed that “Create video” is displayed in the text information display area 407, and the user clicks a thumbnail at that timing and switches to the navigation screen 450.

  From the list screen 402, the display control unit 152 displays a navigation screen 450 in which the first layer is “video”, the second layer is “create video”, and the third layer is a focus display of an application for creating a video. Switch the display screen. Further, when the cursor is still placed on the thumbnail, the function list may be displayed randomly at regular intervals (for example, 3 seconds).

  Furthermore, a function list corresponding to the application may be preferentially displayed according to the activation frequency of the user's application. Here, a case where a function list corresponding to an application is displayed according to the activation frequency of the application will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the activation frequency of an application.

  The activation frequency list 550 illustrated in FIG. 6 may be stored in the data storage unit 156 described above. The activation frequency list 550 includes data such as an application 552, a function list 554, the number of activations 556, a weight 558, an appearance probability 560, and the like. Since the application 552 and the function list 554 have been described above, a description thereof will be omitted.

  The number of activations 556 is the number of activations of the application. The weight 558 is obtained by adding “1” to the activation count 556. The appearance probability 560 is obtained by determining the probability that each function appears for each category of content thumbnails.

  According to the startup results shown in FIG. 6, when the mouse cursor is placed on the thumbnail of the photo content on the list screen 402, “enjoy photos” is selected with a probability of 4/17, and the probability of 8/17. “Organize photos” is selected. Therefore, the function of the application is displayed in the text information display area 407 with a probability corresponding to the appearance probability. For example, “enjoy photos” is displayed in the text information display area 407 with a probability of 4/17, and “organize pictures” is displayed in the text information display area 407 with a probability of 8/17.

  Thereby, the user can easily select an application that is frequently started. Further, for example, data obtained by analyzing user preferences may be stored in the data storage unit 156, and an application that is displayed in focus on the navigation screen 450 may be selected in accordance with the user preferences. For example, when the user prefers to view a photograph or video with a high-resolution image, an application having an excellent reproduction function is displayed in focus. If the user prefers to edit or process a photo or video, an application having an excellent editing or processing function is displayed in focus.

  Next, application activation from the display of the navigation screen 450 will be described. When the navigation screen 450 shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, the user selects an operator in the application list 456 that is the third hierarchy, and the application is activated. When the application is activated, the content selected on the list screen 402 may be used.

  For example, a thumbnail of one music content is selected on the list screen 402, and an application of a music playback player is selected on the navigation screen 450. Then, when the selected music playback player is activated, the music content selected previously is played back by the music playback player.

  In addition, when the list screen 402 is changed to the navigation screen 450, it may not be understood which content is selected on the list screen 402. Therefore, a thumbnail of the content selected on the list screen 402 may be displayed in a partial area 458 of the navigation screen 450.

  In addition, after the navigation screen 450 is displayed, if a category of a type different from the content selected on the list screen 402 is selected on the navigation screen 450, the thumbnail of the content displayed in the area 458 may be deleted. . In this case, the data that associates the content with the application may also be deleted. That is, the navigation screen 450 can function as a screen having the same function as the conventional navigation screen.

  In addition, on the list screen 402, an introduction screen that introduces the function of the application is displayed. When the introduction screen is selected, the content selected on the introduction screen is displayed in the area 458 of the navigation screen 450. It may be. For example, an introduction screen that introduces functions of a music playback application is displayed on a part of the list screen 402, and the introduction screen is selected. In this case, the music channel number being played may be displayed in the area 458 of the navigation screen 450. In addition, when a music playback application whose function is introduced from the application list 456 is selected and activated, the selected music channel may be played back.

  When an introduction screen that introduces the function of a video creation application that creates a video such as a slide show from photo content is displayed on a part of the list screen 402, the photo content used on the introduction screen is read. The video creation application may be activated.

[4] Flow of display control processing The functional configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 has been described above. Next, display control processing in the information processing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of display control processing in the information processing apparatus 100.

  As shown in FIG. 7, first, the display control unit 152 displays a list of content thumbnails via the display screen 160 (S102). Next, it is determined whether or not a content thumbnail has been selected by a user operation (S104).

  In step S104, if the content thumbnail is not selected, the determination in step S104 is executed again. If it is determined in step S104 that a thumbnail of content has been selected, the display control unit 152 generates a navigation screen 450 (S106).

  Then, the display control unit 152 switches the display from the content thumbnail list screen 402 to the navigation screen 450 generated in step S106 (S108). It is determined whether or not an application operator has been selected on the navigation screen 450 switched in step S108 (S110).

  In step S110, if the application operator is not selected, the determination in step S110 is executed again. If it is determined in step S110 that the application operator has been selected, the application is activated (S112). The display control method of the information processing apparatus 100 has been described above.

  According to the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, the list screen 402 capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents is displayed on the display screen 160. A thumbnail of one content is selected from the list screen 402 by a user operation, and a navigation screen 450 that is an activation screen of an application corresponding to the selected content can be displayed. As a result, the user can display a navigation screen for starting an application corresponding to the content only by placing the cursor on the thumbnail of the content. Therefore, it is possible to easily select and start an application that suits the user's purpose without reading the explanation display of the application one by one.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to such examples. It is obvious that a person having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains can come up with various changes or modifications within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims. Of course, it is understood that these also belong to the technical scope of the present invention.

It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the information processing apparatus concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is the block diagram which showed the function structure of the information processing apparatus concerning the embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the example of a screen of the list screen displayed by the display control part concerning the embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the example of a screen of the navigation screen concerning the embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the hierarchical structure of the display data displayed on the navigation screen concerning the embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the starting frequency of the application concerning the embodiment. It is the flowchart which showed the flow of the display control process in the information processing apparatus concerning the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Information processing apparatus 152 Display control part 154 Selection part 156 Data storage part 158 Content storage part

Claims (8)

A display control unit for displaying a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents;
A selection unit for selecting a thumbnail of one content from thumbnails of the plurality of content displayed on the list screen by a user operation;
With
The information processing apparatus, wherein the display control unit displays a startup screen of an application corresponding to the content selected by the selection unit.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit switches from the list screen to a navigation screen that guides activation of an application corresponding to the content when a thumbnail of the content is selected by the selection unit. . The startup screen of the application is a navigation screen that guides the startup of the application,
The navigation screen includes a hierarchical display screen in which a list of categories to which the plurality of contents belong is an upper level, a function list based on the category is a middle level, and an application list corresponding to the function is a lower level. 3. The information processing apparatus according to any one of 2. The application list is a list of a plurality of operators for guiding activation of one or more of the applications,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit focuses-displays an operator of an application corresponding to the content selected by the selection unit.   The information processing apparatus according to any one of 1 to 4, wherein the display control unit changes a focus display of the plurality of operators included in the navigation screen in response to selection of a thumbnail of the content by the selection unit. . The display control unit sequentially displays functions based on the plurality of content categories together with the plurality of contents.
The selection unit selects a function based on one category from functions based on a category of the plurality of contents sequentially displayed according to a user operation,
The information processing apparatus according to any one of 1 to 5, wherein the display control unit focuses-displays an operator of an application corresponding to a function based on the category selected by the selection unit. Displaying a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of multiple contents;
Selecting a thumbnail of one content from thumbnails of the plurality of content displayed on the list screen by a user operation;
Displaying an application startup screen corresponding to the selected content;
A display control method including: Computer
A display control unit for displaying a list screen capable of displaying a list of thumbnails of a plurality of contents;
A selection unit for selecting a thumbnail of one content from thumbnails of the plurality of content displayed on the list screen by a user operation;
With
The display control unit displays a startup screen of an application corresponding to the content selected by the selection unit, and functions as an information processing apparatus.

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