JP3122121B2 - Joint work support method, terminal and joint work support system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] Subscriber terminals installed at remote locations are interconnected via a communication path to display information such as characters and graphics, and a plurality of collaborative operations are performed while correcting the display information. The present invention relates to a method and a terminal for supporting collaborative work performed by a group of participants, and to provide an environment in which geographically dispersed people can easily collaborate even with complex work through a computer network. A common area and a personal area are provided on the display of the subscriber terminal connected via a communication channel, and are separately managed, so that the joint work on the display contents of the common area can be advanced by information transmission between the terminals. I do. Further, when modifying the common area, the access right is acquired and simultaneous modification by other subscriber terminals is prohibited.

[Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a joint work support method and a terminal using a computer network, and a joint work support system.

In recent years, with the rapid changes in the economic environment and industrial structure, organizations such as companies and organizations have been diversified, and the need to deal with various information by connecting head offices, sales offices, factories, etc., which are separated from each other, has increased. ing.

In addition, as competition between companies intensifies, business complexity increases, and the need for dense communication beyond conventional telephones increases for remote parties.

This allows geographically dispersed people to perform complex tasks,
It is necessary to build a system that can be operated in the same environment as if everyone was gathering using a network of workstations.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, people who are geographically dispersed use a telephone for handling voice information, an electronic mail for handling text information, and a video phone capable of handling text simultaneously with voice. And a video conference system.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, such conventional telephone, e-mail,
In videophones and videoconferencing systems, etc., sufficient communication can be performed on matters that can be performed at the conversation level, but sufficient communication is required to advance complex development work such as system design as joint work. It is not possible to do so, and people who are geographically dispersed have to gather at a specific place such as a research institute or the like to carry out collaborative work, and there is a problem that geographical and time constraints are greatly imposed.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and enables people who are geographically dispersed to cooperate with each other through sufficient communication through a computer network, even if the work is complicated. It is an object to provide a joint work support method, a terminal, and a joint work support system.

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the principle of the present invention.

First, as shown in FIG. 1 (a), according to the present invention, a subscriber terminal 10-1 to 10-n installed at a distant place can transmit multimedia information such as characters, graphics, images and voices. Are interconnected via a communication path 12 having
A plurality of participants work together while displaying information such as characters and figures on 1 to 10-n and correcting, adding and deleting display information, as shown in FIG. 1 (b). ,
A display unit 18 for displaying information in each of the subscriber terminals 10-1 to 10-n separately in a common area 14 and a personal area 16;
A common area management unit 20 that manages display control of the 18 common areas 14
A personal area management unit 22 that manages display control of the personal area 16 of the display unit 18; and edits information of the personal area management unit 22 based on information on the personal area of the participant, and Area management unit based on control information for
An edit control unit 24 that edits 20 pieces of information and an audio information detection unit (4) that detects audio information obtained through the communication path (12).
4) a transmission ID generation unit (46) for detecting a transmission ID from the voice information detected by the voice information detection unit (44) and displaying it in the personal area (16); and a voice detected by the voice information detection unit (44). And a voice label generation unit (48) for generating a voice label from the information and displaying the generated voice label in the personal area (16).

[Operation] According to the present invention having such a configuration, a common area and a personal area are provided on the display unit of the subscriber terminal, and a lock function for establishing an access right is provided for the common area. Participants who gain access can freely modify, add, or delete data in the joint area.

In addition, multimedia information transmission that can simultaneously handle characters, graphics, images, sounds, and the like in a computer network is used.

As a result, people who are geographically dispersed gather together in one place to write and write texts and figures, and even if it is a complicated task that repeatedly corrects information, it can easily proceed. be able to.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of the present invention, in which subscriber terminals 10-1 and 10- using a workstation for a communication path 12.
Are connected to form a computer network. The communication path 12 has a function of transmitting multimedia information such as characters, figures, images, and sounds.

Each of the terminal devices 10-1, 10-2, and 10-3 has a common area 14 and a personal area 16 on a CRT display 18 as a display unit.
The joint area 14 displays data such as characters and figures obtained through joint work performed through a computer network, and the personal area 16 displays statements and the like of individual participants.

FIG. 3 is an embodiment configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the subscriber terminal of FIG.

In FIG. 3, the CRT display 18 of the subscriber terminal is provided with a common area 14 and a personal area 16 as shown in FIG. The display control unit 28-1 for the common area 14
And a common area management unit 20. For the personal area 16, a display control unit 28-2 and a personal area management unit 22 are provided. The joint area management unit 20 and the individual area management unit 22 are each subjected to editing processing by the editing control unit 24. Editing control unit 24
Is connected to the control data interface 30,
Connected to the control data interface 30 are a network interface 32 and a device interface 34 for input / output of the terminal itself. The communication path 12 is connected to the network interface 32, and the network interface 32 also has an interface function of multimedia information of characters, graphics, images, and sounds corresponding to the multimedia information transmission function of the communication path 12.

A keyboard 36, a mouse 38, a printer 40, and the like of the subscriber terminal are input / output connected to the device interface 34. The editing control unit 26 includes a device interface 34,
Alternatively, based on the control data obtained from the network interface 32, the joint area management unit 20 and the personal area management unit
Edit the management data of 22. That is, if the control data is for the common area 14, the editing control unit 24 fetches the management data of the common area management unit 20 and performs editing processing such as correction, addition, and deletion according to the control data. If the control data is data relating to the personal area 16, the editing control unit 24 adds the newly received participant's remarks and the like to the management data of the personal area management unit 22.

Although the display control units 28-1 and 28-2 are separated for convenience of explanation, they are constituted by one unit, specifically, a frame memory and a CRT controller. The frame memories constituting the display control units 28-1 and 28-2 are divided into a common area and a personal area, similarly to the CRT display 18. Data stored in each area is stored in the common area management unit 20 and the personal area management. It is managed individually by the unit 22.

Further, a lock control unit 26 is provided for the edit control unit 24. When a participant modifies, adds, or deletes the common area 14, the lock control unit 26 performs control to acquire an access right and prohibit other participants from working on the common area 10.

For example, in the three subscriber terminals 10-1 to 10-3 shown in FIG. 4, for the graphic "O" displayed in the common area 14 of the subscriber terminal 10-1, "O" is displayed on the subscriber terminal 10-2. If the process of changing “○” to “△” is performed simultaneously on the subscriber terminal 10-3 at the same time as the deletion, the display in the common area 14 will be inconsistent. Therefore, in order to avoid inconsistency when two or more participants access the common area, lock control is performed by the lock control unit 26.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of lock control by the lock control unit 26 of FIG.

In FIG. 5, first, in step S1 (hereinafter, "step" is omitted), it is determined whether or not a lock has been acquired by another terminal. If the lock has been acquired by another terminal, the lock is released. The process of S1 is repeated until.

If the lock has not been acquired by another terminal in S1, the process proceeds to S2 and checks whether the lock key is on or off. When the participant wants to modify, add, or delete the common area 14, he or she first turns on the lock key using a keyboard or the like.
When it is determined in S2 that the lock key is turned on, the process proceeds to S3 and issues a lock request to another terminal. Subsequently, in S4, the process waits for a request response indicating lock confirmation from another terminal in response to the lock request, and repeats the processes in S3 and S4 including the waiting in S5 until the lock request responses are obtained from all the terminals.

When lock request responses from all terminals are obtained in S4, S6
And the lock is acquired. When the lock is acquired in S6, the correction information is transmitted to another terminal in S7,
The same correction processing is performed for the common area 14 of all terminals. When the transmission of the correction information in S7 ends, the lock is released in S8, and a series of processing ends. By such a lock control, the common area 14 of a plurality of subscriber terminals as shown in FIG.
Can be avoided.

FIG. 6 is an embodiment configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the audio information processing section 42 shown in FIG.

In FIG. 6, a voice information detecting unit 44 is provided for the network interface 32, and the voice information detecting unit 44 is provided.
The voice information obtained through the network interface 32 is detected by the outgoing ID generating unit 46 out of the detected received data, and the outgoing ID generating unit 46 detects
To generate a label indicating that it is audio information, and sends it to the display control unit 28-2 to send the label to the personal area 16 of the CRT display 18.
To be displayed.

On the other hand, the audio data obtained by the audio information detecting unit 44 is cut out by the audio information extracting unit 50, and is converted from digital data into an analog audio signal by the audio output unit 52 and transmitted from the speaker. At the same time, the audio data extracted by the audio information extraction unit 50 is stored in the file storage unit 54. The content stored in the file storage unit 54 is a file correspondence table in which the audio label generated by the audio label generation unit 48 and the index of the audio stored in the file storage unit 54 are linked.
The audio data is stored in the file 56, and the audio can be output again by referring to the file correspondence table.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a multimedia transfer interface as one embodiment of the network interface of FIG.

In FIG. 7, the network interface 32-1
A system including a data buffer 58, a data compression unit 60, a switching circuit 62, and a data buffer 64 is provided as a transmission system between the control process interface 30-1 corresponding to the control data interface 30 of FIG. On the other hand, the receiving system includes a data buffer 64, a data restoration unit 66, a switching circuit
A system including a data buffer 68 and a data buffer 58 is provided. That is, in the case of transmission, the data is compressed by the data compression unit 60, and in the case of reception, the compressed data is restored to the original data by the data restoration unit 66.

The switching circuits 62 and 68 are switched by the data type determination unit 70. The data type determining unit 70 determines the type of data from the head information of the data obtained from the upper process interface 30-1 or the network interface 32-1 and switches the switching circuits 62 and 68. That is, for data requiring compression and decompression, the switching circuit 62 is switched to the data compression unit.
Switching to the 60 side and switching circuit 68 to the data restoration unit 66 side. On the other hand, for data that does not require compression and decompression, the switching circuits 62 and 68 directly exchange data between the network interface 32-1 and the upper process interface 30-1 without passing through the data buffers 58 and 64. Switch as follows.

According to such a collaborative work support system of the present invention,
A plurality of subscriber terminals 10-1, 10 connected via the communication path 12
The participants of −2, 10−3,... Modify, add, or delete display information such as characters, graphics, and codes using the common area 14 of the CRT display 18 of each subscriber terminal, thereby participating. The same collaborative work can be easily performed when persons gather in one place to discuss and proceed with work.

On the other hand, regarding the personal area 16 with respect to the common area 14, the remarks of each participant at the time of proceeding with the joint work are represented by, for example, the transmission ID and the voice label obtained from the voice information processing unit shown in FIG. indicate. The display of the participant's statement may be displayed in the participant's side formed in the personal area 16 or an ID for identifying the participant in one personal area 16 without dividing the personal area 16. It may be displayed together with.

Of course, multimedia information such as characters, graphics, images, and voices can be displayed in both the joint area 14 and the personal area 16 as necessary.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of subscriber terminals can simultaneously handle characters, graphics, images, sounds, and the like through a computer network, and can be accessed by a plurality of participants. By providing a common area and a personal area for displaying the speech of each participant, and detecting and displaying the ID and voice label from the voice information, it is possible to use multiple subscriber terminals installed at remote locations. Thus, for example, it is possible to efficiently perform a collaborative work even for a complicated work in which information is corrected by writing a character or a figure on a blackboard and having a discussion.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a subscriber terminal according to the present invention; FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a lock control process of the present invention; FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a voice information processing unit of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a multimedia transfer used in the present invention; It is an interface explanatory view. In the figure, 10-1 to 10-n: subscriber terminal (workstation) 12: communication path 14: common area 16: personal area 18: display unit (CRT display) 20: common area management unit 22: personal area management unit 24: Edit control unit 26: Lock control unit 28-1, 28-2: Display control unit 30: Control interface 30-1: Host process interface 32, 32-1: Network interface 34: Device interface 36: Keyboard 38: Mouse 40: Printer 42: Audio information processing unit 44: Audio information detection unit 46: Oscillation ID generation unit 48: Audio label generation unit 50: Audio information extraction unit 52: Audio output unit 54: File storage unit 56: File correspondence table management Unit 58, 64: Data buffer 60: Data compression unit 62, 68: Switching circuit 66: Data restoration unit 70: Data type determination unit

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-84860 (JP, A) IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, vol. 1989 no. 1, 2, p. 1227-1231 ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, vol. 5 no. 2, p. 187-211 (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 15/00 G06F 13/00 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A joint work support method in which terminals are interconnected via a communication path, information is displayed on each terminal, and a plurality of participants work jointly. And displaying the information separately in a personal area, a common area management unit managing display control of the common area of the display unit, a personal area management unit managing display control of the personal area of the display unit, and an edit control unit. Edit the information of the personal area management unit based on the information about the participant's personal area, and edit the information of the joint area management part based on the control information for the participant's common area. The voice information obtained through the communication path is detected, the outgoing ID generation unit detects the outgoing ID from the voice information detected by the voice information detecting unit, and displays it in the personal area, and the voice label generating unit detects the voice information. From the audio information detected by the detector Collaboration support method and displaying on the individual regions by generating the voice label. 2. A terminal in a joint support system in which a plurality of terminals are interconnected via a communication path, wherein the display unit displays information separately in a common area and a personal area; A joint area management unit that manages display control; a personal area management unit that manages display control of a personal area of the display unit; and edits information of the personal area management unit based on information on a personal area of a participant. An edit control unit that edits information of the joint area management unit based on control information on a joint area of a participant; an audio information detection unit that detects audio information obtained via a communication channel; An outgoing ID generation unit for detecting an outgoing ID from the voice information detected by the unit and displaying the outgoing ID in the personal area; a sound generated from the voice information detected by the voice information detecting unit and displayed in the personal area Terminal comprising the; and label generation unit. 3. In a joint support system in which a plurality of terminals are interconnected via a communication path, and a plurality of participants perform a joint work by each terminal, the terminals are divided into a common area and a personal area. A display unit for displaying information; a common area management unit for managing display control of a common area of the display unit; a personal area management unit for managing display control of a personal area of the display unit; An edit control unit that edits the information of the personal area management unit based on the information and edits the information of the joint area management unit based on control information on the joint area of the participant; A voice information detection unit for detecting voice information; a transmission ID generation unit for detecting a call ID from the voice information detected by the voice information detection unit and displaying the call ID in the personal area; a voice information detected by the voice information detection unit From Collaboration support system comprising the; and audio label generation unit to be displayed on the personal area generates a voice label.