JP3412241B2 - Collaborative work support system and method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a collaborative work support system in which a plurality of persons collaborate using a shared window using a workstation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a system for displaying shared data in a shared window via a network using workstations for real-time message exchange when performing collaborative work (for example, P of Xerox).
Colab System by alo Alto Laboratories
m [1], NTT's TeamWorkstation
[2] [3] [4] [5], NEC's MERMAID
[6] [7]). That is, in such a conventional system, when a plurality of people hold a meeting at a remote place, for example, each person who makes a meeting moves an pointing device (pointing device) such as a mouse, and other people see the movement of the mouse. In addition, voice data can be exchanged. As a result, it becomes possible for a plurality of collaborators to share their mouse movements and exchange opinions through the shared window.

[1] Stefik, M. et al. , Bob
row, D.R. G. Foster, G .; , L
anning S. , And Tata, D .;
"WYSIWIS: Revised: Early
Experiences with Multius
er Interfaces, ”ACM Trans
actions on Office Information
motion systems, Vol. 5, No.
2, April 1987, pp. 147-16
7. [2] Ishii, Hiroshi. "Team
Worksstation: Towards a Se
amless Shared Workspace. ”
CSCW '90 Proceedings, O
ctober 1990, pp. 13-26 [3] JP-A-3-119476 (NTT)
"Shared screen control system" [4] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-119477 (NTT)
"Shared screen control system" [5] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-119478 (NTT)
"Shared screen control method" [6] Kazuo Watanabe, Shiro Sakata, Kazutoshi Maeno, Hideyuki Fukuoka, Toyoko Omori. "Multimedia distributed presence conference system MERMAID", IPSJ Transactions, V
ol. 32, No. 9, September 19
91, Pages 1200-1209. [7] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-58658 (NEC) "Distributed Conference System"

[0004]

However, the conventional collaborative work system (for example, Palo A of Xerox) is used.
Colab System [1] by the lto Institute,
NTT's TeamWorkstation [2] [3]
[4] [5], NEC's MERMAID [6] [7])
If there is a gap between the voice data and the movement of the pointing device, or if you did not see the movement of the pointing device, or if you scrolled the window or was under another window, other collaborators There was a problem that sometimes it was not possible to know which position was pointed out and said. Further, when there are many collaborators, there is a problem that the correspondence between the speaker and the speaker's pointing device is not known, and it is difficult to know which position is pointed to and who is speaking. In addition, the history of the proposal and its result depends on the memory of each participant, and there is a problem that it is difficult to grasp the history so far after the meeting and during the meeting.

The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems. That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a collaborative work support system capable of easily ascertaining which position the collaborative worker points with which pointing device. Another object of the present invention is to provide a collaborative work support system capable of easily grasping the correspondence relationship between a collaborator who has expressed an opinion or a proposal and the content of the opinion or the proposal. Another object of the present invention is to provide a collaborative work support system capable of easily grasping the history of collaborative work later.

[0006]

The present invention provides a plurality of workers.
Is a collaborative work support system that collaborates
Shape and meaning of instructions given by the operator using the device (41)
An accumulating means (6) for accumulating information indicating taste in association with each other;
Accepts the input of instructions given by the operator using the pointing device
The instruction input means (4) and the shape of the received instruction.
A pointing shape determination means (5) for determining and a storage in the storage means.
Based on the accumulated information,
A converter that converts information that represents the meaning associated with it
A row (7) and a plurality of tables showing information representing the converted meaning.
Display control means for controlling to display on the display means (3)
(8) and are provided.

One aspect of the collaborative work support system of the present invention
Is the meaning corresponding to one shape in the above configuration
If multiple pieces of information indicating
And presents information indicating the plurality of meanings, and
Further comprises an information selection means (13) for receiving the selection from
I am.

In one aspect of the collaborative work support system of the present invention, a finger from another worker participating in the collaborative work is selected.
It is characterized in that a reply input means (9) for inputting a reply to the information presented by the indication and a reply display control means (10) for displaying the returned reply on the display means are provided.

In another aspect of the collaborative work support system of the present invention, a counting means (1) for counting the returned replies.
1) is provided, and the result of tabulation is displayed on the display means under the control of the reply display control means.

[0010] The presentation of the other aspects of the collaborative support system, sent from the front Symbol conversion means of the present invention
It is characterized in that a reply selecting means (12) for replying by selecting a reply to the received information is provided.

[0011]

In another aspect of the collaboration support system of the present invention, it is activated based on the instruction pattern discrimination means discriminating the indicating shape <br/> before Ki蓄 information stored in the product means, voice Audio recording / reproducing means for recording and reproducing data (1
4) and a voice storage means (15) for storing voice data.

In another aspect of the collaborative work support system of the present invention, there is provided a time-out means (16) for automatically stopping recording when a voice recording process is performed for a predetermined time.

In another aspect of the collaboration support system of the present invention, the display control means discriminates the sender before SL message sent from the conversion means, a display in association with the corresponding sender and message It is characterized by doing. For example, to determine the sender of the previous SL message sent from conversion means to display a message to appear in the balloon from the still image, such as the sender's face photograph. Alternatively, the sender of the message is determined and the color of the message or the arrow is displayed in the color corresponding to the sender.

[0015]

In the collaborative work support system of the present invention, instructions are given.
The shape determining means determines the shape from the movement of the pointing device performed by the operator.
The shape is discriminated, and the discriminated pointing shape is sent to the conversion means for converting the pointing shape into semantic information. Converting means, based on the instruction form sent, the message indicating the meaning <br/> taste of referring to an instruction form the information associated instructions shape and their meanings are accumulated in accumulation means Convert. The message is displayed on the display means by the display control means. As a result, the intention display by the operator's instruction device is displayed not only as a pointing on the display screen but also as a message, so that the intention of the operator can be grasped more clearly when seen by a third party. it can.

In the collaborative work support system of the present invention, each worker participating in a collaborative work such as a meeting is as described above.
Using an information processing device having a function, write and modify operations are performed while viewing the same data. The information processing apparatus is the operator, indicating shape determining means determines indicating shape from the movement of pointing device that the operator has performed, it sends the discriminated instruction shape conversion unit. Conversion means, based on the instruction form sent, indicating shape stored in the accumulation means
Is converted into a message representing the meaning of the indicated shape by referring to the information in which the meaning is associated with. A message display request is sent to each information processing device participating in the collaborative work. The display control means of the information processing device which has received the message display request displays the message by the display means. According to the invention,
It becomes easier to understand the relationship between the movement of the pointing device (for example, a remote mouse) and the content of the statement in the collaborative work, and the intention of the speaker can be understood even if the movement of the pointing device is missed.

The message display control means issues a request to the reply input means when it determines from the received message display request that a reply is required. The reply input means that has received the request displays the reply input request to the worker and conveys the request input by the worker to the message display control means. Upon receiving the operator's input, the message display control means sends the operator's reply to the reply display control means of the device that has made the message display request as a reply to the message display request. The reply display control means that has received the reply to the message displays the reply. According to the present invention, by providing the reply input means and the reply display control means, it is possible to easily reply to the proposal, so that the labor of operation can be saved and the work can be efficiently advanced.

In the case of the structure provided with the totalizing means, the reply to the message display request is received by the totaling means, not the reply display control means. Upon receiving the response to the message display request, the counting means determines the worker who has made a reply and the message number, totals the message number and the worker separately, and displays the result on the display means through the reply display control means. Also, the totalized result is accumulated as a history. According to the invention,
By providing the counting means, it is possible to save the history of conversation, grasp the flow of the meeting by looking at the history, and know the work situation smoothly.

The message display control means determines whether or not the message display request has a reply selection item, and if there is a selection item, the selection item is passed to the reply selection means. The reply selecting means, which has received the selection item from the message display controlling means, presents a reply option to the worker, and passes the selected reply to the message displaying control means. According to the present invention, since the reply selecting means is provided, it is possible to easily reply to the proposal, so that the labor of operation can be saved and the meeting can be proceeded efficiently.

The conversion means may, when determining the message than the indicated shape means corresponding data accumulated in the accumulation means from the instruction device operation, if there are multiple messages, send multiple messages to the message selection means. The message selection means that has received the plurality of messages displays the plurality of messages and waits for the operator's selection. The item selected by the operator is sent to the conversion means. According to the present invention, by providing the message selecting means, it is possible to easily make an optimal proposal even with the operation of the same pointing device, so that the labor of operation can be saved and the meeting can be advanced efficiently. In addition, it is possible to increase the expression ability and convey subtle nuances.

The conversion means, if the reference data representing the meaning of indicating shape stored in Toki蓄 product means for determining a message from the instruction form, the items of audio recording is "required" is co A voice recording start request is issued to the voice recording / reproducing means of all the workers who participate in the work, by adding start numbers. Upon receiving the voice recording start request, the voice recording / reproducing means attaches a start number and stores the voice from the voice input / output unit in the voice storing means. In the case of voice reproduction, the voice recording / reproducing means of each worker synchronizes and reproduces the voice. According to the present invention, by providing the voice recording / reproducing means and the voice accumulating means, the conversation can be recorded for each proposal and can be reproduced later, so omission of important items can be reduced.

The time-out means is activated at the same time when the voice recording / reproducing means is activated, waits for the preset time, and issues an end request to the voice recording / reproducing means at the preset time. Upon receiving the end request, the audio recording / reproducing means stops the audio recording in the audio recording state.
According to the present invention, by providing the time-out means, even if the voice recording of the conversation is forgotten to be canceled, the recording is automatically canceled at a fixed time, so that it is possible to prevent the data from unnecessarily increasing.

[0023] The message display control means, in one aspect of the present invention, to determine the sender of the previous SL message sent from the conversion means, so as to display in association with the corresponding sender and message. In this case, the correspondence between the participants in the collaborative work and the opinions becomes clear. For example, by displaying the face photograph and the message in a balloon, it is possible to visually recognize who the proposer is, so that it is possible to reduce misunderstandings and proceed with the meeting smoothly. In addition, by displaying the message in color, it is possible to visually recognize who the proposer is, so that it is possible to reduce misunderstandings and proceed with the meeting smoothly.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the apparatus of this embodiment, workstations (1) ... (n) used by workers are connected via a network 1. The workstation includes a communication management unit 2, a display unit 3, an information input unit 4, an instruction device operation determination unit 5, an instruction device operation definition storage unit 6, a gesture-character conversion unit 7, a message display control unit 8, a reply input unit 9, Reply display control unit 10,
A totaling unit 11, a reply selecting unit 12, a message selecting unit 13,
The audio recording / playback unit 14, the audio storage unit 15, and the timeout unit 16 are provided.

The communication management units 2 and 2 ′ are devices for communicating via the network 1. The pointing device operation determination units 5 and 5 ′ determine the movement of the pointing device (pointing device) such as a mouse performed by the operator in the information input unit 4. The pointing device operation determination unit 5 sends the determined pointing device operation to the gesture-character conversion unit 7. The pointing device operation definition storage units 6 and 6 ′ store pointing device operation definition data.

The gesture-character converters 7 and 7'are an example of an instruction device operation / semantic information conversion means, and give an instruction based on the operation of the instruction device determined by the instruction device operation determiner 5 or 5 '. The operation of the indicating device is converted into a message from the indicating device operation definition data accumulated in the device operation definition accumulating unit 6, 6 ', and the message is sent to the message display control unit 8, 8'of each workstation participating in the meeting. Send a display request. In addition, the gesture-character conversion units 7 and 7 ′ are
When a message is identified from the pointing device operation based on the pointing device operation definition data stored in the pointing device operation definition storage unit 6 or 6 ', if there are a plurality of messages, the plurality of messages are selected. Communicate to.
Further, the gesture-character converters 7 and 7 ′ refer to the pointing device operation definition data stored in the pointing device operation definition storage units 6 and 6 ′ when determining a message from the pointing device operation, and record the voice recording. If the item is "necessary", the voice recording start request is issued to the voice recording / reproducing units 14 and 14 'of the workstations of all the workers participating in the joint work by giving start numbers.

The message display control unit 8 or 8'receives the message display request and displays the message on the display unit 3 or 3 '.
To display. In addition, the message display control unit 8 activates the reply input unit 9 when it is determined that the reply is necessary. Further, the message display control unit 8 or 8 ′ determines whether or not the message display request includes a reply selection item, and if there is a selection item, passes the selection item to the reply selection unit 12. Further, the reply transmitted from the reply input unit 9 or the reply selection unit 12 is sent to the reply display control unit 10 'of the workstation that has issued the message display request as a reply to the message display request. The message is displayed by determining the sender of the message sent from the gesture-character conversion unit 7 ',
A face-photograph interlocking display method of displaying a message so that it looks like a balloon from the sender's still image, a color display method of a message in which the color of the message or the arrow is displayed in a color corresponding to the sender, and the like may be used.

The reply input units 9 and 9'display a reply input request to the worker and inform the message display control unit of the reply input by the worker. The reply display control unit 10, 10 ′ displays the reply of the message received from the reply input unit 9, 9 ′ on the display unit 3, 3 ′. The aggregating unit 11 or 11 'discriminates the worker who has made a reply from the message number, totals the reply contents for each message number or each worker, and displays the reply through the reply display control unit 10 or 10'. Display on 3, 3 '. Also, the totalized result is accumulated as a history. As for the display method of the aggregated results, the aggregated and displayed method that aggregates and displays the aggregated results of responses for each person participating in the meeting, and the aggregated and display method that aggregates and displays the aggregated results of responses for each proposal proposed in the meeting and Display methods can be used. The reply selecting unit 12 or 12 'presents a reply option to the worker and transmits the selected reply to the message display control unit 8 or 8'.

The message selectors 13 and 13 'display a plurality of messages and transmit the item selected by the operator to the gesture-character converters 7 and 7'. Voice recording / playback unit 1
4, 14 'are assigned voice numbers to the voice input / output unit 17,
The voice from 17 'is stored in the voice storage units 15 and 15'. In the case of voice reproduction, the voice recording / reproducing units 14 and 14 'of the respective workers reproduce the voice in synchronization with each other. The voice storage units 15 and 15 'store voice data under the control of the voice recording / playback units 14 and 14'. When the end request is received from the time-out section 16 or 16 ', the voice recording is stopped in the voice recording state. Timeout section 16,
16 'is activated at the same time as the voice recording / reproducing units 14 and 14' are activated, waits for a preset time, and at the preset time, the voice recording / reproducing unit 1 '
A termination request is issued to 4, 14 '.

Next, the data structure of the data used in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of the instruction device operation definition data stored in the instruction device operation definition storage units 6 and 6 ′. The “instruction device operation” represents the instruction device operation name recognized by the instruction device operation determination unit 5, 5 ′. “Message” indicates a candidate for a message transmitted by a specific pointing device operation. "Need for reply"
Indicates whether the message needs to be answered after the message is transmitted. "Option" indicates a reply that can be selected when a reply is given. “Voice recording” indicates whether or not voice data of conversation is recorded by a specific instruction device operation.

3A and 3B are a structural diagram of message display request data and a structural diagram of response data to the message display request. The “operator” indicates the worker who issued the request. "Workstation" indicates the workstation used by the worker who issued the request. “Request” indicates a request item for another workstation. "Request No." is added to identify the command issued from the workstation. Request N if the workstation responds to the request
o. It is possible to identify which request has been responded to by replying with. "Message" indicates a message displayed by a specific pointing device operation. The "coordinates" indicate the display position of the message. “Reply” indicates whether or not the worker who receives the message needs to reply. "Option" indicates a reply that can be selected when a reply is given. “Message number” indicates the serial number of the issued message. Replies are sorted and stored by message number and can be searched by message number. “Reply” indicates a reply to the message.

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of voice recording activation request data. The "voice recording start number" is assigned a serial number when voice recording is performed, and the voice data is organized and accumulated for each voice recording start number and can be searched by the voice recording start number.

FIG. 5 is a structural diagram of reply aggregation data held by the aggregation units 11 and 11 '. The message number indicates the serial number of the issued message. The message indicates the issued message. The coordinates indicate the position where the message is displayed. The worker indicates the worker who responded to the message. The reply indicates the content of the reply issued by the worker. Replies are sorted and stored by message number, and can be searched by message number, message, coordinates, worker, and reply.

8 to 14 show examples of screen display displayed on the display screen in the operation of this embodiment. FIG. 8 is an example of a screen display when a message is displayed according to the movement of the mouse. FIG. 9 is a screen display example of inputting a reply to a proposal and displaying a reply. Figure 10
Is a screen display example of aggregating the replies to the proposal. Figure 1
1 is a screen display example in the case where the total result of the reply total data accumulated in the totalizing units 11 and 11 ′ of FIG. 1 is viewed for each person. FIG. 12 is an example of a screen display in the case of looking at the total result of the reply total data accumulated in the totalizing units 11 and 11 ′ of FIG. 1 for each proposal. FIG. 13 is a display example of a pop-up menu for an operator to select a message displayed on the display device by the message selection units 13 and 13 ′ of FIG. FIG. 14 is an example of a screen display when a speech bubble comes out from a facial photograph of a person.

Next, with reference to the configuration of the embodiment of FIG. 1 described above, the data structure of each information, the screen display example, etc., the operation of each part of the embodiment will be described with reference to a flow chart. FIG. 15 shows a control flow of the instruction device operation determination unit 5. First, in step 101, the pointing device operation determination unit 5 recognizes a specific pointing device operation from the movement of the pointing device. For example, when a circular motion that encircles a portion to be designated as a broken line with a pointing device such as a mouse is performed as in the display screen on the left side of FIG. 8, the motion is recognized. As the operation of the pointing device, as shown in FIG. 2, there are, for example, “circle”, “two circles”, “double circle”, “hatena”, and the like. In step 102, the recognized name of the pointing device operation is sent to the gesture-character conversion unit 7. Gesture
The character converted by the character conversion unit 7 is displayed at the designated position as in the screen on the right side of FIG.

FIG. 16 shows a control flow of processing of the gesture-character conversion unit 7. First, step 11
In 1, the instruction device operation determination unit 5 determines whether the name of the instruction device operation has been transmitted, and if not transmitted, step 111 is repeated. If it is transmitted, the process proceeds to step 112. In step 112, the name of the pointing device operation is searched for pointing device operation definition data.
In step 113, it is judged from the retrieved pointing device operation definition data whether or not there are a plurality of messages. In the example of the pointing device operation definition data in FIG. 2, “circle” and “double circle”
Has multiple messages, "two circles" and "Hatena" have only one message. When there are a plurality of messages, the plurality of messages are sent to the message selection unit 13 in step 114. For example, when the pointing device operation is "circle" in the example of FIG. 2, "Kore", "Is this correct?", "Is this correct?", "This is better", "This area" is displayed. is there. In step 115, the message is returned from the message selection unit 13, and when the message is returned, the process proceeds to step 116. If there is only one message in step 113, it is determined in step 116 based on the retrieved pointing device operation definition data whether or not voice recording is necessary. In the example of FIG. 2, the case where the pointing device operation is “Hatena” corresponds to the case where voice recording is necessary. If voice recording is required, the activation number is incremented by 1 in step 117. In step 118,
A voice recording start request is given to the voice recording / reproducing units 14 and 14 'of the workstations participating in the meeting with a start number, and the process proceeds to step 119. If it is not necessary to record the voice in step 116, in step 119, the message is displayed on the message display control units 8 and 8'of the workstations participating in the meeting with the data structure shown in FIG. 3A. Send Request, Step 1
Return to 11.

17 and 18 show the control flow of the process of the message display control section 8. First, in step 201, the message display control unit 8 determines whether or not there is a message display request from the gesture-character conversion unit 7 '. If there is no message display request, step 201 is repeated. If there is a message display request in step 201, step 202
Then, the operation is judged and the operator is discriminated from the received message display request data as shown in FIG. Step 203
In step 6, it is determined whether or not the display color needs to be changed by a person based on the attribute value of the attribute name "message color" of the attribute data corresponding to the operator as shown in FIG. If it is necessary for the operator to change the display color, in step 204, the meeting participant management data in which the display color is determined for each participant as shown in FIG. 7 is referred to, the display color of the message is determined, and the process proceeds to step 205. In step 203, if it is not necessary for the operator to change the display color, the process proceeds to step 205. Step two
In 05, it is determined whether the message is displayed in a balloon shape from the attribute value of the attribute name "message display state" of the attribute data as shown in FIG. When displaying the message in a balloon form, the process proceeds to step 206, the meeting management data is referred to, the position where the balloon and the message are displayed is determined in accordance with the still image display position of the sender of the message, and the process proceeds to step 207. In step 205,
If the message is not displayed in a balloon, the process proceeds to step 207. In step 207, a message is sent to the display unit 3 and displayed together with the display position and color. Specifically, in the case of displaying in a balloon shape, as shown in FIG. 14, each participant's face picture is displayed as appropriate, and a message in a balloon shape is displayed from the position of the message sender's face picture.

The message display control unit 8 proceeds to step 20.
In step 8, the "reply" data of the message display request received from the gesture-character conversion unit 7 is checked to determine whether a reply is required. If no reply is required, the process returns to step 201. If it is determined in step 208 that a reply is required, the process proceeds to step 209, and it is determined whether there is a reply selection item from the "option" data of the message display request. If there is a reply selection item, the process proceeds to step 210, the reply selection unit 12 is activated, the selection item is passed to the reply selection unit 12, and the process proceeds to step 212. If there is no reply selection item in step 209, the process proceeds to step 211, and the reply input unit 9 is activated. Then, step 212
Proceed to and wait for the reply to come back from the reply input unit 9 or the reply selection unit 12, and when the reply comes back, step 2
Proceed to 13. In step 213, the reply is sent to the reply display control unit 10 'or the tallying unit 11' of the device that issued the message display request. Then, the process returns to step 201.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a control flow of processing of the reply input unit 9. The reply input unit 9 is first step 1
At 31, a reply input request to the worker is displayed, and the process proceeds to step 132. In step 132,
Wait for the reply to be input, and if the reply is input, proceed to step 133. In step 133, the reply input by the operator is transmitted to the message display control unit 8, and the process is ended.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a control flow of processing of the reply display control unit 10. The reply display control unit 10 first receives the reply to the message from the message display control unit 8 ′ in step 141, and when receiving the reply, proceeds to step 142. In step 142,
A reply is displayed and the process returns to step 141.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a control flow of the processing of the totalizing section 11. First, the aggregating unit 11 executes step 151.
In, the message display control unit 8 ′ waits for the reply of the message, and when the reply is received, the process proceeds to step 152. In step 152, the worker who has made a reply and the message number are discriminated from the response data having the data structure shown in FIG. 3B, and the process proceeds to step 153. Step 15
In 3, the answers of each worker are totaled, and the totaled result is accumulated as reply totalized data having a data structure as shown in FIG. Next, the process proceeds to step 154, the display for each message number and each worker is totaled for display, the result is displayed on the display unit 3 through the reply display control unit 10, and the process returns to step 151. FIG. 10 shows an example of displaying the total number of replies to the proposal on the screen of the participant A. The participants A, B, C, and D are displayed with or without their replies, respectively. The aggregated value is also displayed. FIG. 11 is an example of a screen display when viewing the statistical results for each participant, and shows how Mr. B replied to the proposal from the aggregation results. FIG. 12 shows a screen display example displaying the result of totaling the responses of each participant for each proposal.

FIG. 22 shows a control flow of the reply selecting section 12. First, the reply selecting unit 12 performs step 1
At 61, the message display control unit 8 waits for the reply selection item to be transmitted, and when it is transmitted, the step 1
Proceed to 62. In step 162, the operator is presented with reply options, and the process proceeds to step 163. Step 16
In step 3, the operator is prevented from selecting the reply, and when the reply is selected, the process proceeds to step 164. FIG. 9B shows a state in which a window for inputting a reply to be presented to the worker is opened, in which the reply selectors, that is, “Yes” and “No”, are displayed.
The operator selects one of the selectors with the mouse. In step 164, the reply selecting unit 12 passes the selected reply to the message display control unit 8 and ends the process.

FIG. 23 shows a control flow of the message selection unit 13. First, the message selection unit 13 waits for the message to be transmitted from the gesture-character conversion unit 7 in step 171, and when the message is transmitted, proceeds to step 172, presents a plurality of messages to the worker, and Proceed to 173. Step 1
At 73, the operator waits for the message to be selected, and when the operator selects the message, step 174
Go to. FIG. 13 is an example of a screen display when a message is selected, and an example of a message when the operation of the pointing device in FIG. 2 is “circle” is displayed. In this example, as the selection items, a message such as "here", "is this OK?", "This is good here", "this area", and an arrow indicating the position are displayed. The operator changes the position of the arrow to point to a desired position and selects one of the displayed messages. In step 174, the item and position selected by the operator are sent to the gesture-character conversion unit 7, and the process returns to step 171.

FIG. 24 shows a control flow of the audio recording / reproducing unit 14. The voice recording / playback unit 14 first waits for a voice recording start request from the gesture-character conversion unit 7 in step 181. When the voice recording activation request having the data structure shown in FIG. 4 is received, the voice recording activation number in the data is determined, and the process proceeds to step 183.
In step 183, the timeout unit 16 is activated,
Go to step 184. In step 184, the voice number from the voice input / output unit 17 is started to be stored in the voice storage unit 15 with the activation number, and the process proceeds to step 185. In step 185, the process waits until the voice recording end request is received. When the end request is received, the process proceeds to step 186 to stop the voice recording. Then, the process returns to step 181.

FIG. 25 shows a control flow of the timeout section 16. The timeout unit 16 first receives the start request in step 191,
If received, proceed to step 192. In step 192, the timer is reset to 0, the timer is started, and the process proceeds to step 193. In step 193, it is determined whether the voice recording timeout time set in the attribute data of FIG. 6 has been reached, and when the set time is reached,
Proceeding to step 194, an end request is issued to the audio recording / playback unit 14, and the process ends.

In the above embodiment, the information is transmitted through the network as the communication means, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the constituent means of the present invention can be provided in the same workstation. If it exists, it may be communication between processes or communication using a bus.

[0047]

As described above, according to the collaborative work support system of the present invention, the pointing shape determining means and the pointing shape are paired.
Accumulation means for accumulating information indicating the meaning to respond , pointing shape −
By providing the means for converting the semantic information and the message display control means, it becomes easy to understand the relationship between the movement of the pointing device and the contents of the statements of the participants in the collaborative work, and even if the movement of the pointing device is missed, the intention can be transmitted. .

According to the collaborative work support system of the present invention, since the reply input means and the reply display control means are provided, it is possible to easily reply to the proposal.
The labor of operation can be saved and the work can proceed efficiently.

Further, according to the collaborative work support system of the present invention, by providing the totalizing means, the history of conversation can be saved, and the flow of the meeting can be grasped by looking at the history and the work situation can be carried out smoothly. You can know. When summed up for each participant in the collaborative work, the items that were in favor of and the items that were disagreed by each person can be found, so the points to be discussed are easy to understand, and the discussion can proceed smoothly. In addition, when summing up for each proposal, it is possible to know the items that were agreed and the items that were disagreed by each participant of the collaborative work, so that the points to be discussed are easy to understand and the meeting can be smoothly proceeded.

Further, according to the collaborative work support system of the present invention, by providing the reply selecting means, it is possible to easily reply to the proposal, so that the labor of the operation can be saved and the meeting can be advanced efficiently.

Further, according to the collaborative work support system of the present invention, by providing the message selecting means, the optimum suggestion can be easily made even with the operation of the same pointing device, so that the labor of the operation can be saved and the meeting can be efficiently arranged. Is advanced. In addition, it is possible to increase the expression ability and convey subtle nuances.

Further, according to the collaborative work support system of the present invention, since the voice recording / reproducing means and the voice accumulating means are provided, the conversation can be recorded for each proposal and can be reproduced later, thereby reducing omission of important items. can do.

Further, according to the present invention, by providing the time-out means, even if the voice recording of the conversation is forgotten to be canceled, the recording is automatically canceled at a fixed time, so that it is possible to prevent the data from unnecessarily increasing. be able to.

Further, according to the collaborative work support system of the present invention, the message display control means controls the operation of the pointing device.
When the sender of the message sent from the character conversion means is discriminated and the correspondence between the sender and the message is displayed in association with each other, the correspondence between the participants of the collaborative work and the opinion becomes clear. For example, by displaying the face photograph and the message in a balloon, it is possible to visually recognize who the proposer is, so that it is possible to reduce misunderstandings and proceed with the meeting smoothly. In addition, by displaying the message in color, it is possible to visually recognize who the proposer is, so that it is possible to reduce misunderstandings and proceed with the meeting smoothly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a collaborative work support system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of pointing device operation definition data.

3A is a structural diagram of message display request data, and FIG. 3B is a structural diagram of response data to a message display request.

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of voice recording start request data.

[Figure 5] Structure of reply aggregate data

[Fig. 6] Structure diagram of attribute data

[Figure 7] Structure of meeting manager data

FIG. 8: Example of screen display when message is displayed according to movement of mouse

9A and 9B are screen display examples of inputting a reply to a proposal and displaying a reply.

[Fig. 10] Example of screen display for totaling responses to proposals

[Fig. 11] Example of screen display when viewing the counting results for each person

[Figure 12] Screen display example when viewing the aggregation results for each proposal

[Figure 13] Screen display example when selecting a message

[Fig. 14] Example of screen display when a balloon comes out of a person's face photo

FIG. 15 is a control flow chart of processing of an instruction device operation determination unit.

FIG. 16 is a control flow diagram of processing of a gesture-character conversion unit.

FIG. 17 is a control flow chart of the processing of the message display control unit (No. 1)

FIG. 18 is a control flow chart of the process of the message display control unit (part 2).

FIG. 19 is a control flow chart of processing of the reply input unit.

FIG. 20 is a control flow chart of processing of the reply display control unit.

FIG. 21 is a control flow chart of processing of an aggregating unit

FIG. 22 is a control flow chart of processing of the reply selection unit.

FIG. 23 is a control flow chart of processing of a message selection unit.

FIG. 24 is a control flow chart of processing of an audio recording / playback unit.

FIG. 25 is a control flow chart of processing of the timeout section.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Network 2, 2 '... Communication management unit 3,
3 '... display section 4, 4' ... information input section 5, 5 '...
Instructing device operation discriminating unit 6, 6 '... Instructing device operation definition accumulating unit 7, 7' ... Gesture-character converting unit 8,
8 '... Message display control unit 9, 9' ... Reply input unit 10, 10 '... Reply display control unit 11, 11' ...
Totaling section 12, 12 '... Answer selection section 13, 13'
... message selection unit 14, 14 '... voice recording / playback unit 15, 15' ... voice storage unit 16, 16 '... timeout unit 17, 17' ... voice input / output unit

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A 63-136290 (JP, A) JP-A 5-224671 (JP, A) JP-A 1-266619 (JP, A) JP-A 3-42713 (JP , A) JP 5-46559 (JP, A) JP 5-22290 (JP, A) JP 6-35821 (JP, A) JP 4-160628 (JP, A) JP 2-307161 (JP, A) JP-A-4-95450 (JP, A) JP-A-4-35539 (JP, A) JP-A-5-265412 (JP, A) JP-A-1-276892 (JP, A) A) JP 63-47790 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 15/00 G06F 13/00 G06F 3/00

Claims (9)

(57) [Claims] 1. A collaborative work in which a plurality of workers collaborate
A support system that uses the pointing device to determine the shape and meaning of an instruction given by an operator.
Accepts the input of instructions given by the operator using the storage device and the instruction device that associates and stores the indicated information
Instruction input means and an instruction shape determination means for determining the shape of the received instruction
And the above-mentioned determination based on the information accumulated in the accumulating means.
Change the shape of the instruction into information that represents the associated meaning.
Converting means for converting and displaying the information representing the converted meaning on a plurality of displaying means
And a display control means for controlling to
A collaborative work support system. 2. Information representing a meaning corresponding to one shape
If multiple reports are stored,
Information that represents multiple meanings is presented and selected from the above workers.
Characterized by further comprising information selection means for accepting selection
The collaborative work support system according to claim 1. 3. Fingers of other workers participating in the collaborative work.
Collaboration of claim 1 wherein the reply inputting means for inputting a reply against the presented information by indicates, that the reply came back provided an answer display control means for displaying on said display means, wherein Support system. 4. The collaborative work support system according to claim 3, wherein a totalizing means for totaling the returned replies is provided, and the result of the totaling is displayed on the display means under the control of the reply display control means. . 5. has been sent from the front Symbol conversion means the presentation
4. The collaborative work support system according to claim 3, further comprising reply selecting means for replying by selecting a reply to the received information . 6. the instruction determined in the instruction pattern discrimination means
It is activated on the basis of the information stored in shape as the accumulation means, recording audio data, and audio recording and reproducing means for reproducing, according to claim 3, characterized in that a sound storage means for storing audio data The described collaborative work support system. 7. The collaborative work support system according to claim 6, further comprising a time-out means for automatically stopping recording when the voice recording process is performed for a predetermined time. Wherein said message display control means discriminates the sender of a message sent to you than the previous SL-varying <br/> switch means,
4. The collaborative work support system according to claim 3, wherein the sender and the message are displayed in association with each other. 9. A collaborative work in which a plurality of workers collaborate
A method for supporting collaborative work using a support system, comprising:
The step of accumulating in the accumulating means in association with the information to be represented and the input of the instruction made by the operator using the instruction device are accepted
The step of determining the shape of the received instruction, and the shape of the instruction determined based on the accumulated information
The step of converting to information that represents the meaning associated with
And information indicating the converted meaning is displayed on a plurality of display means.
Collaborative work support characterized by having steps to
Way .