JP5074233B2 - Screen sharing processing apparatus, screen sharing method, and computer program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technical field of a screen sharing processing apparatus, a screen sharing method, and a computer program that can be applied when, for example, a display screen is shared by a plurality of bases.

  As a technique related to this kind of technical field in terms of transmission of an image, a car navigation system that appropriately transmits an image has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1). The image data supply device disclosed in Patent Document 1 (hereinafter referred to as “conventional technology”) pays attention to the difference in priority when considering the visual characteristics of the viewer. It is said that appropriate transmission within a predetermined communication band can be performed by reducing the amount of transmission data by intra-frame compression and by inter-frame compression during non-scroll playback.

JP 2000-232645 A

  In a data conference or the like where screens are shared, the screens to be shared are not predetermined, such as the screens corresponding to the map images for navigation described above, and are diverse. Accordingly, there are a wide variety of actions performed on the shared screen by the user, and various screen updates that are not limited to scrolling can be performed regularly or irregularly. Therefore, in the conventional technique specialized in scroll reproduction, image compression is not necessarily performed properly, and a delay in display response due to a lack of a transmission band may become apparent.

  On the other hand, for example, when performing a data conference by remotely controlling (remotely controlling) a display device or a control device installed in a remote place, for example, via a network, scrolling if the network transmission band is insufficient Although it may be possible to secure the communication speed by applying conventional technology that performs some compression for images or non-scroll images, in this case, the quality of the screen to be shared Since it remains degraded, the quality of the shared screen may be degraded.

  That is, the conventional technique has a technical problem that it is difficult to achieve both immediacy required when sharing a screen and the quality of the screen to be shared.

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems described above, and provides a screen sharing processing apparatus, a screen sharing method, and a computer that can achieve both immediacy required when sharing a screen and the quality of the shared screen. The challenge is to provide a program.

In order to solve the above-described problem, the screen sharing processing device according to claim 1 is a network device together with a terminal device capable of sequentially displaying images on a first display unit based on image data sequentially supplied via a network. A screen sharing processing apparatus that can constitute a screen sharing system together with the first display unit, the terminal device, and the second display unit, and displays a sharing target image to be shared according to a predetermined input. A display control means for controlling the second display means, a dividing means for dividing the image to be shared into a plurality of virtual cells, and whether or not each of the divided virtual cells has been updated. determining means for, for said each specifying means for specifying the number of times or time that is not continuously updated, the shared image corresponding to the displayed shared object image Serial to be displayed on the first display means, a plurality of different shared image data of data size, for each said second shared image the data size compared to the first shared image data and the first shared image data is smaller a generating means for generating data, via the network to the terminal device (1) the second shared image data as the image data supplied prior to the first shared image data for said each (2) The second shared image data is supplied as the image data for the virtual cell determined to be updated among the respective ones, and (3) the number of times determined to be not updated among the respective ones and the specified number of times or time; and a supply means for supplying said first shared image data as the image data for the virtual cell reaches a predetermined value And wherein the door.

In order to solve the above-described problem, a screen sharing method according to claim 5 is provided in the network together with a terminal device capable of sequentially displaying images on the first display unit based on image data sequentially supplied via the network. A screen sharing method in a screen sharing processing apparatus that is housed and can constitute a screen sharing system together with the first display unit, the terminal device, and the second display unit, and is a sharing target image that is to be shared in accordance with a predetermined input Display control step for controlling the second display means so as to be displayed, a division step for dividing the image to be shared into a plurality of virtual cells, and whether each of the plurality of divided virtual cells has been updated. a determination step of determining whether, for said each a specifying step of specifying the number of times or time that is not continuously updated, versus the displayed shared object image For displaying the shared image to the first display means for, as a plurality of shared image data having different data sizes, for said each small the data size compared to the first shared image data and the first shared image data a generation step of generating a second shared image data, the first supply supplying ahead the second shared image data as the image data for said each through the network to the terminal device to the first shared image data A second supply step of supplying the second shared image data as the image data for the virtual cell determined to be updated among the respective via the network to the terminal device, and to the terminal device Via the network, it is determined that each of the above has not been updated, and the specified number of times or During it is characterized by comprising a third supply step of supplying the first shared image data as the image data for the virtual cell reaches a predetermined value.

In order to solve the above-described problem, a computer program according to a sixth aspect causes a computer system to function as the screen sharing processing apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects.

<Embodiment of Screen Sharing Processing Device>

An embodiment according to the screen sharing processing apparatus of the present invention is accommodated in the network together with a terminal device capable of sequentially displaying images on the first display means based on image data sequentially supplied via the network, A screen sharing processing device capable of configuring a screen sharing system together with a first display means, the terminal device, and a second display means, wherein the share target image to be shared is displayed in response to a predetermined input. Two display control means for controlling the display means, dividing means for dividing the image to be shared into a plurality of virtual cells, determining means for determining whether or not each of the divided plurality of virtual cells has been updated, for the each specifying means for specifying the number of times or time that is not continuously updated, the shared image corresponding to the displayed shared object image of the first display means For displaying, as a plurality of shared image data having different data sizes for the respective, first shared image data and the first shared image data as compared with generating means for generating a second shared image data the data size is smaller And (1) supplying the second shared image data as the image data for each of the terminal devices prior to the first shared image data via the network , and (2) updating each of the terminals. The second shared image data is supplied as the image data for the virtual cell determined to be, and (3) among each of the virtual cells is determined not to be updated, and the specified number of times or time is set to a predetermined value. Supply means for supplying the first shared image data as the image data for the reached virtual cell .

  The “network” in the present embodiment includes a relatively limited communication network such as a WAN (Wide Area Network) network or a LAN (Local Area Network) network, and further through these WAN networks or LAN networks, or It is a concept that encompasses a wide-area communication network such as the Internet that is appropriately connected via a telephone line, an ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), or an optical fiber cable. Note that various information, data, data files, and the like exchanged between the terminal device and the screen sharing processing device accommodated in the network may be, for example, via some server device, for example, P2P ( Peer To Peer) may not be used. Note that the terminal device and the screen sharing processing device may be equivalent to each other in terms of hardware configuration. For example, both may be constructed as various computer systems such as a personal computer and a workstation.

  The screen sharing processing device according to the present embodiment constructs a screen sharing system together with the terminal device and the first and second display means, and the first display means is separate from the terminal device, although it is configured integrally with the terminal device. Even if it is comprised, it installs in one base of the various events performed using this screen sharing system as a suitable form. Similarly, whether the second display means is configured integrally with the screen sharing processing apparatus or separately, as a preferred form, in addition to various events performed using this screen sharing system. It is installed in the base of.

  Supplementally, the “screen sharing system” described here refers to various events that can be progressed while visually sharing the display screen through different display means among a plurality of bases, such as various conferences, The system is applicable to screen sharing in meetings, lectures, lectures, discussions, meetings, presentations or presentations.

  At this time, the control mode of the display means at a plurality of bases can take various forms, for example, various control means for controlling the display means at another base or the display means from a control device at one base. You may remotely control (remote control) the display means from one site to another by supplying commands and control signals for screen display control to the control device, etc. via the network. A common application is started between a base and another base via a computer system or the like that can control display means, for example, a sender side of a screen (or image data related to the screen) to be shared By appropriately setting the receiver side and supplying the screen or image data to be shared from the sender side, the function of the application program As at least a part may be realized screen sharing of this kind.

  In addition, the “base” refers to a location or place where participants or groups of these various events are present as a preferable form, and each base requires, for example, screen sharing as a suitable form. The remote locations may be remote from each other or may be close to each other.

  According to this embodiment, at the time of the operation, various processing units such as various processing units such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or MPU (Micro Processing Unit), various processors, controllers, various functional modules, and the like can be taken, or The second display means is controlled by the display control means that can take a completely different physical, mechanical, mechanical or electrical configuration so that the image to be shared is displayed according to a predetermined input.

  “Predetermined input” in the present embodiment refers to, for example, the owner or user of the screen sharing processing apparatus, or the owner or user of the terminal apparatus, for example, a mouse, keyboard, touch pen, trackball, touch pad It is a broad concept encompassing various input operations performed via various input means that can take the form of a scroll button or a touch panel device, and various drive signals, control signals, control information, etc. that are generated or supplied along with them. Therefore, the individual specific aspect related to the predetermined input is irrelevant to the essential part of the present embodiment. For example, the predetermined input is the activation of the appropriate application software for screen sharing and subsequent to the activation. Various settings, selections, instructions, designations, command transmissions, and the like may be included as appropriate.

  In response to this type of input, the sharing target image is displayed on the second display means. The sharing target image is an image to be shared between a plurality of locations (that is, an image constituting a screen to be shared) and an image having a reference display quality. The image to be shared may be an image representing the entire display screen of the second display means, or may be an image representing a part thereof. In this case, for example, various windows developed on the display screen, or Various images such as various icons or various character information may be included.

  Here, since the sharing target that is shared between the multiple sites by the screen sharing processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is an image of the screen to the end, the sharing target image is developed by developing data files on various application software. Even if it is obtained, this kind of relatively small data file is not supplied to the terminal device, and the image corresponding to the image to be shared is displayed on the first display means. When trying to share the display screen with the base on the terminal device side, it is necessary to supply the image data corresponding to the image to be shared via the network (that is, it may be expressed as transmission or transmission). .

  At this time, since the terminal device can display the images sequentially on the first display means based on the image data sequentially supplied via the network, the first display means is ideally shared. A shared image corresponding to the target image (depending on various image quality control modes such as resolution and color settings, the image quality does not necessarily match the shared target image) can be sequentially displayed.

  However, there are various types of network capacity (for example, transmission bandwidth or data transmission speed) provided for image data depending on the degree of infrastructure development. For example, image data supply It is necessary to complete the supply of the same image data in a broadband network in the sense that the bandwidth of the transmission band provided to the network is relatively wide and a narrowband network in the sense that the bandwidth is relatively narrow It is obvious that the transmission time changes, and if no measures are taken, there can be a great difference in the effect obtained by screen sharing depending on the capacity of the network.

  For example, if the screen sharing processing device is to be applied to a scene that requires time-series consistency, in other words, immediacy (follow-up performance), for the display timing of the shared image between the bases, The delay of the display of the shared image at the time may significantly hinder the smooth progress of the various events described above. On the other hand, some of the various events mentioned above place importance on the display quality of shared images (for example, meetings and presentations on various new products where design is important), in order to avoid the above-mentioned problems. If the data size of the data to be transmitted is significantly reduced, the display quality of the shared image at the base on the terminal device side is remarkably lowered, and the significance of the conference or presentation to be performed under screen sharing may be impaired.

  Therefore, according to the screen sharing processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, both immediacy required when sharing a screen and the quality of the screen to be shared can be achieved as follows. That is, according to the screen sharing processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, various modes such as various processing units such as a CPU or MPU, various processors, controllers, various functional modules, or the like can be taken during the operation. A plurality of shared image data for causing the first display means to display the shared image corresponding to the shared target image is generated by the generating means that can adopt different physical, mechanical, mechanical, or electrical configurations.

Here, the generating unit has the first shared image data as the plurality of shared image data and a data size smaller than that of the first shared image data (that is, as a preferable form, the amount of data such as compression in some form) Second shared image data that has been subjected to reduction processing is generated. That is, the data size of the first shared image data is relatively large, and the data size of the second shared image data is relatively small. At this time, the largest of the plurality of shared image data corresponds to the image to be shared (that is, the display screen of the second display means and the display screen of the first display means are matched). It is possible to correspond to an image having a higher quality (for example, higher resolution) than the image to be shared, or to an image having a lower quality (for example, lower resolution) than the image to be shared. May be. Further, the number of shared target image data to be generated is not necessarily limited to two.
The generation mode of the second shared image data is not limited in any way as long as the data size is smaller than the first shared image data. For example, various irreversible data compression methods such as JPEG or MPEG are adopted. For example, the data size may be reduced by performing a color reduction process or the like. Note that, as a preferred form, it is sufficient that these two types of shared image data are generated. However, the generation unit does not necessarily generate only these two types of shared image data.

When a plurality of shared image data is generated by the generation means, various physical units such as various processing units such as a CPU or MPU, various processors, controllers, various functional modules, or the like, or completely different physical or mechanical The generated shared image data is supplied to the terminal device via the network by a supply means that can take a mechanical, mechanical, or electrical configuration. At this time, the supply unit supplies the shared image data in ascending order of the data size. That is, the second shared image data is supplied prior to the first shared image data. Accordingly, in the terminal device, the second shared image data having a relatively small data size is acquired prior to the first shared image data having a relatively large data size.

  As described above, in the terminal device, it is possible to cause the first display means to sequentially display images based on the image data sequentially supplied via the network (that is, the shared image data corresponds to this). As a result, a relatively low quality shared image is displayed on the first display means at least in the initial stage.

At this time, since the second shared image data corresponding to the low-quality shared image has a relatively small data size, the screen sharing processing device starts supplying shared image data to share the image to be shared. In practice, the time delay that occurs before the relatively low-quality shared image is displayed on the first display means is minimized as much as possible, and the display response is improved.

Hand, according to the screen sharing apparatus according to the present invention, such a form that follows the supply of the second shared image data corresponding to the low quality shared images, high-quality shared images (e.g., shared object image The first shared image data corresponding to the image that can form a display screen having the same quality as the first shared image data is supplied . Therefore, the data is eventually acquired by the terminal device regardless of the network capacity and the time delay corresponding to the absolute data size of the shared image data. That is, at the stage where the acquisition of the first shared image data corresponding to the high-quality shared image is completed or as the acquisition proceeds, the high-quality shared image is displayed on the display screen of the first display means. It will be displayed sequentially.

As described above, according to the screen sharing processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, a plurality of shared image data having different data sizes are generated and supplied in ascending order of the data size, thereby displaying the shared image on the first display unit. As a result, it is possible to display a high-quality shared image based on shared image data having a large data size on the first display means. The display quality of the shared image is not hindered during collateralization. That is, it is possible to achieve both immediacy required when sharing a screen and the quality of the shared screen.
Here, in particular, according to the screen sharing processing apparatus according to the present invention, various forms such as various processing units such as a CPU or MPU, various processors, controllers, various functional modules, etc. can be adopted, or they are physically different from them. The sharing target image is divided into a plurality of virtual cells by dividing means that can adopt a mechanical, mechanical, or electrical configuration.
Further, for example, a discrimination that can take various forms such as various processing units such as CPU or MPU, various processors, controllers or various functional modules, or can adopt a completely different physical, mechanical, mechanical, or electrical configuration. The means determines whether each of the plurality of virtual cells has been updated.
Whether or not each of the virtual cells has been updated may be determined based on, for example, a comparison between some index value and a determination reference value, or in advance, experimentally, empirically, theoretically or each time It may be determined individually and concretely according to various algorithms set so that it is possible to estimate that consistency with the image to be shared is required rather than display quality based on simulation or the like.
In addition to supplying the second shared image data ahead of the first shared image data described above, the supplying means updates the second shared image data having a smaller data size for the virtual cell determined to be updated. For the virtual cell in which the number of times or the time has not been reached reaches a predetermined value, the first shared image data corresponding to the relatively high-quality shared image is supplied.
Therefore, for example, in a situation where only a part of the image to be shared has been updated, such as when the mouse cursor is blinking or only the part corresponding to the clock icon on the taskbar is moving, the first display means High-speed display based on the second shared image data is possible for virtual cells that are continuously updated while avoiding that the entire displayed shared image becomes a low-quality image based on the second shared image data. Therefore, it is extremely useful in practice.
From another viewpoint, according to the screen sharing processing apparatus of the present invention, when the virtual cell is continuously updated, the supply of the first shared image data is prohibited. For this reason, the shared image and the image to be shared can be matched as much as possible within a range in which the deterioration of the image quality of the shared image is not substantially realized, which is practically beneficial.
“Continuously updated” is a concept including, for example, a case where a moving image is displayed, a case where automatic playback is performed in a slide show function, and the like. A case in which a user who actually visually recognizes (a user on the terminal device side) requests consistency (in other words, immediacy or followability when displaying a shared image) rather than display quality of the shared image. May be included.

In one aspect of the embodiment of the screen sharing processing apparatus of the present invention, an acquisition means for acquiring control information corresponding to a terminal-side input made to update the shared image in the terminal device via the network is further provided. The display control means updates the sharing target image based on the acquired control information .

  According to this aspect, various physical units such as various processing units such as CPU or MPU, various processors, controllers, various functional modules, or the like, or a completely different physical, mechanical, mechanical, or electrical configuration may be adopted. The control information corresponding to the terminal-side input is acquired by the acquisition means that can adopt the above. This terminal side input is made to update the shared image displayed on the first display means, for example, an input of the corresponding part by a pointer, or input related to entry of characters, symbols, numbers, lines or pictures, etc. The control information may include information regarding the type of terminal-side input and the position on the shared image or the sharing target image.

  According to this aspect, the display control unit appropriately updates the sharing target image based on the acquired control information in addition to appropriately updating the sharing target image according to the predetermined input described above. Along with this update of the image to be shared, shared image data is newly generated and supplied to the terminal device by the supply means. Therefore, the shared image displayed on the first display means is as if the input on the terminal side is a shared image directly. It is updated as if it was reflected in That is, according to this aspect, the shared image corresponding to the shared target image is simply displayed as an image (that is, only the visual alignment of the display screen is made) on the terminal device side. Active participation in various events using the screen sharing system can be promoted, and a high practical benefit that the interactivity of various events can be significantly improved is provided. Further, as the bidirectionality of various events is improved as described above, the influence of the network capacity on the progress of the event is increased, so that this embodiment can function more effectively.

  In another aspect of the embodiment of the screen sharing processing apparatus of the present invention, the generating unit generates the plurality of shared image data for at least a part including a part updated from the previous time in the sharing target image.

  According to this aspect, the shared image data is generated for at least a part including the part updated from the previous time among the sharing target images and supplied to the terminal device. That is, according to this aspect, a known data transmission aspect called “difference area transmission” or the like is realized, and the original data size of the shared image data can be reduced.

  Therefore, it is possible to improve the robustness with respect to the network capacity, and it is possible to make various events proceed more smoothly. In view of the fact that it is possible to reduce the data size of the image to be shared by this kind of difference area transmission, as a different approach, of the shared image data generated by the generating means, the smaller of the data size It is also possible to make the data size of the shared image data considerably larger (that is, to reduce the degree of quality deterioration of the shared image on the low quality side with respect to the shared image).

In one aspect of the embodiment of the screen sharing apparatus of the present invention, the supply means for said each said first shared image data to the terminal device is the shared object image in the period being supplied updated When it is, the second shared image data corresponding to the updated sharing target image is supplied to the terminal device instead of the first shared image data.

  The image to be shared is an image corresponding to, for example, a screen of various application software displayed on the second display means, and is an image on the side that plays the role of facilitating the conference in a data conference or the like. Regardless, there is a high possibility that it is frequently updated (that is, “predetermined input” or “terminal-side input” frequently occurs). Here, when the image to be shared is updated regardless of its size (for example, when the display page is switched in the slide show function in the application software for presentation or the like), the first sharing destination of the screen is used. On the display means side, it is necessary to immediately follow the update. However, if the first shared image data having a relatively large data size is being transmitted via the network at that time, any measures should be taken. Otherwise, after the supply of the first shared image data ends, the supply of the second shared image data for displaying the shared image corresponding to the updated image to be shared must be started. In this case, it becomes difficult for the update of the shared image to follow the update of the image to be shared, and the first shared image data supplied over a relatively long time is wasted in some cases.

According to this aspect, when the sharing target image is updated in each virtual cell during the period in which the first shared image data is supplied, the supply of the first shared image data being executed is stopped and a new The supply of the second shared image data corresponding to the sharing target image updated at the start is started. For this reason, the immediacy at the time of sharing a screen is ensured and suitable.

An embodiment of the screen sharing method of the present invention is accommodated in the network together with a terminal device capable of sequentially displaying images on the first display means based on image data sequentially supplied via the network, and the first A screen sharing method in a screen sharing processing apparatus capable of configuring a screen sharing system together with one display means, the terminal device and the second display means,
A display control step of controlling the second display unit so that a sharing target image to be shared is displayed according to a predetermined input; a dividing step of dividing the sharing target image into a plurality of virtual cells; and the division A determination step for determining whether or not each of the plurality of virtual cells has been updated, a measurement step for measuring the number of times or time that has not been continuously updated for each of the plurality of virtual cells, and the displayed sharing target image As the plurality of shared image data having different data sizes for displaying the corresponding shared image on the first display means, the data size of each of the first shared image data and the first shared image data is larger than the first shared image data. a generation step of generating a smaller second shared image data, the second shared as the image data for said each through the network to the terminal apparatus A first supply step of supplying image data prior to the first shared image data; and the second as the image data for a virtual cell determined to be updated among the respective via the network to the terminal device. A second supply step for supplying shared image data, and the terminal device is determined not to be updated through the network, and the acquired number of times or time has reached a predetermined value A third supply step of supplying the first shared image data as the image data for the virtual cell .

According to the embodiment of the screen sharing method of the present invention, it is shared with the immediacy required when sharing the screen by the action in each step equivalent to each means in the screen sharing processing apparatus of the present invention described above. It is possible to balance screen quality.
<Embodiment of Computer Program>

  The embodiment according to the computer program of the present invention causes a computer system to function as any one of the above-described screen sharing processing devices.

  According to the embodiment of the computer program of the present invention, a solid, which can be attached to and detached from a computer system such as a recording medium such as ROM, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, hard disk, or USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory for storing the computer program. If the computer program is read from the type storage device into the computer system and executed, or if the computer program is downloaded to the computer system via, for example, communication means, the computer program is executed. This embodiment of the screen sharing processing apparatus can be realized relatively easily.

  Incidentally, in response to the various aspects in the embodiment of the screen sharing processing apparatus of the present invention described above, the embodiment of the computer program of the present invention can also adopt various aspects.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the screen sharing processing apparatus of the present invention, the display control unit, the generation unit , the division unit, the determination unit, the specifying unit, and the supply unit are provided. It is possible to achieve both the immediacy of being performed and the quality of the shared screen.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the screen sharing method of the present invention, the display control process, the generating process , the dividing process, the determining process, the specifying process, the first supplying process, the second supplying process, and the third supplying process. Therefore, it is possible to achieve both immediacy required when sharing a screen and the quality of the shared screen.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the computer program of the present invention, any one of the above screen sharing processing devices can be realized relatively easily.

  These effects and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the embodiments described below.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings as appropriate.
<First embodiment>
<Configuration of Example>
First, the configuration of the screen sharing system 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram conceptually showing the configuration of the screen sharing system 10.

  In FIG. 1, the screen sharing system 10 includes a presenter side system 100 and a participant side system 200 accommodated in a network 11 that is a LAN network that connects a base A and a base B that are conference rooms separated from each other. The presenter-side system 100 is under the jurisdiction, and the presenter 12A at the base A (single or plural) and the participant-side system 200 under the jurisdiction The system is configured to be able to hold a data conference with 12B (which may be singular or plural) while visually sharing the display screen with each other.

  The presenter-side system 100 includes a presenter-side PC 110 and a presenter-side display device 120.

  The presenter-side PC 110 is a control device that controls the operation of the presenter-side system 100, and is an example of the “screen sharing processing device” according to the present invention. The detailed configuration of the presenter PC 110 will be described later.

  The presenter-side display device 120 is a display device having a display screen 121 for displaying an image, and is an example of the “second display means” according to the present invention. The presenter-side display device 120 is in a state of being electrically connected to the presenter-side PC 110 and is configured such that the display content of the display screen 121 is controlled by the presenter-side PC 110. As the presenter-side display device 120, various display devices such as a plasma display device, a CRT display device, and a liquid crystal display device are applicable.

  The participant side system 200 includes a participant side PC 210 and a participant side display device 220.

  The participant-side PC 210 is a control device that controls the operation of the participant-side system 200, and is an example of the “terminal device” according to the present invention. The detailed configuration of the participant side PC 210 will be described later.

  The participant side display device 220 is a display device having a display screen 221 for displaying an image, and is an example of the “first display means” according to the present invention. The participant-side display device 220 is in a state of being electrically connected to the participant-side PC 210, and the display content of the display screen 221 is controlled by the participant-side PC 210. Note that various display devices such as a plasma display device, a CRT display device, and a liquid crystal display device are applicable as the participant-side display device 220, for example.

  Next, a detailed configuration of the presenter side PC 110 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually showing the configuration of the presenter PC 110. In addition, in the same figure, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the location which overlaps with FIG.

  In FIG. 2, the presenter-side PC 110 includes a control unit 111, a communication unit 112, a display control unit 113, an image data generation unit 114, and an input unit 115.

  The control unit 111 includes a CPU as an arithmetic processing unit and various storage units such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and controls the entire operation of the presenter PC 110. It is a control unit configured to be able to. The HDD of the control unit 111 stores in advance a screen sharing application for executing screen sharing processing described later and various general-purpose applications such as presentation software that can be started under the control of the screen supply application. This screen sharing application is an example of a “computer program” according to the present invention, which is executed by the CPU of the control unit 111.

  The communication unit 112 is a communication interface that is electrically connected to the network 11 via, for example, a LAN cable or a wireless communication unit having a predetermined wireless communication band.

  The display control unit 113 is configured to generate display data relating to an image to be displayed on the presenter-side display device 120 and to display an image on the display screen 121 according to the generated display data. Device. The display control unit 113 is electrically connected to the control unit 111, and the operation is controlled by the control unit 111 at a higher level.

  The image data generation unit 114 has a function of compressing image data, and generates various image data to be appropriately transmitted to the participant side PC 210 in the process of executing the screen sharing process while appropriately performing the data size compression process by the data compression function. It is a data processing unit configured to be able to. The image data generation unit 114 is electrically connected to the control unit 111, and the operation is controlled by the control unit 111 at a higher level.

  The input unit 115 is an input device that includes a keyboard, a mouse, a touch pen, and the like and is configured to be appropriately operated by the presenter 12A. The input unit 115 is electrically connected to the control unit 111 via an input interface (not shown), and the input made via the input unit 115 is an example of the “input” according to the present invention. It becomes the structure grasped by real time.

  Next, a detailed configuration of the participant side PC 210 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram conceptually showing the configuration of the participant side PC 210. In addition, in the same figure, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the location which overlaps with FIG. 2, and the description is abbreviate | omitted suitably.

  In FIG. 3, the participant side PC 210 includes a control unit 211, a communication unit 212, a display control unit 213, and an input unit 214.

  The control unit 211 is a control unit that includes a CPU as an arithmetic processing unit and storage means such as a ROM, a RAM, and an HDD, and is configured to control the entire operation of the participant side PC 210. The HDD of the control unit 211 stores a screen sharing application for executing screen sharing processing described later in advance. This data conference application is configured to be executed by the CPU of the control unit 211.

  The communication unit 212 is a communication interface that is electrically connected to the network 11 via, for example, a LAN cable or a wireless communication unit having a predetermined wireless communication band.

  The display control unit 213 is configured to generate display data related to an image to be displayed on the participant-side display device 220 and to display an image on the display screen 221 according to the generated display data. It is a processing device. The display control unit 213 is electrically connected to the control unit 211, and the operation is controlled by the control unit 211 to the upper level.

  The input unit 214 is an input device that includes a keyboard, a mouse, a touch pen, and the like and is configured to be appropriately operated by the participant 12B. The input unit 215 is electrically connected to the control unit 211 via an input interface (not shown), and the input content via the input unit 215 is an example of “terminal side input” according to the present invention. The control unit 211 is configured to be grasped in real time.

  In the present embodiment, the presenter side PC 110 and the participant side PC 210 are configured to be able to send and receive data and information directly via the network 11 by means of the communication units 112 and 212 provided respectively. However, such a configuration is an example. For example, the presenter PC 110 and the participant PC 210 may be configured to be able to transmit and receive data and information via various server devices provided in the network 11. .

<Operation of Example>
Next, with reference to FIG. 4, the details of the screen sharing process executed by the control unit 111 of the presenter PC 110 will be described as the operation of the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the screen sharing process. When the screen is shared between the site A and the site B, the screen sharing application described above is selectively executed by the control unit in each of the presenter side PC 110 and the participant side PC 210 in advance. Initial setting processing related to screen sharing including connection processing with the network 11 and mutual authentication processing between the bases is performed, but details of this type of initial setting processing are not related to the gist of the present invention. For the purpose of preventing the explanation from becoming complicated, the explanation is omitted here.

  Further, at the start of the screen sharing process in FIG. 4, it is assumed that the presentation software described above is activated on the presenter PC 110 and the appropriate application screen is displayed on the display screen 121. An image displayed on the display screen 121 (for example, when the application screen is displayed on the entire display screen 121, for example, an application screen including various work windows). When displayed, a desktop background screen, a task bar, various icons, etc. in addition to the application screen may be included as appropriate) is an example of the “shared image” according to the present invention.

  In FIG. 4, the control unit 111 determines whether or not the display screen 121 has been updated (hereinafter, abbreviated as “screen update” as appropriate) (step S101).

  Here, “screen update” refers to, for example, a change in display content caused by various function operations related to the application, which is appropriately performed by the presenter 12A via the input unit 115, for example, an image to be provided for the presentation , Writing various visual information for emphasizing the point part, inputting various text information similar to the minutes and notes, changing the window size, adding a new image and enlarging or reducing the image, or presentation function Can take various forms such as moving an icon on the desktop or changing the position of the pointer on various pointing devices. In other words, in this embodiment, all images are treated as being updated except that an image that has not changed at all with respect to the image displayed on the previous display screen 121 is displayed.

  Note that, as a supplement, the screen update is not always generated only by an input made via the input unit 115. In the screen sharing processing according to the present embodiment, the right to directly process the image is not given to the participant PC 210 that receives the supply of the image to be shared. For example, the participant 12B at the site B via the input unit 214 For example, the controller 211 that analyzes the type and position information from the input unit 214 performs operations such as a position instruction using a pointer, writing character information, and writing various symbols and lines on the display screen 221. It is configured to transmit to the presenter PC 110 as input information on the participant side (that is, an example of “control information” according to the present invention) via the communication unit 212.

  The presenter PC 110 acquires the input information via the communication unit 112, analyzes the content, controls the display control unit 113, and displays an appropriate image on the display screen 121. As a result, for example, the screen is updated such that the pointer pointing position changes on the display screen 121, character information or symbol information is written, and the like. Such a screen update originating from the participant's operation is also an aspect of the screen update.

  When it is determined that a screen update has occurred (step S101: YES), the control unit 111 controls the image data generation unit 114 to generate high-speed display data PIChs (step S102).

  Here, the “high-speed display data” is image data for displaying the display content of the display screen 121 as an image, and in particular, an image whose resolution is equivalent to that of the display screen 121 (that is, “ The “second shared image” according to the present invention, which is an example of the “shared image” and is reduced in comparison with the resolution of the “original image ORG” as appropriate. The data size is at least smaller than that of the original image ORG. This is image data as an example of “data”.

  When the high-speed display data PIChs is generated, various data compression methods similar to irreversible compression (that is, not necessarily required to comply with any standard) conforming to standards such as JPEG and MPEG are employed. The resolution is reduced to the desired value. At this time, the degree of data compression may be a single fixed value in advance, or may be a value that is selectively determined from a plurality of options, and reflects the intention of the presenter 12A. It may be a variable value. When the high-speed display data PIChs is generated, the control unit 111 controls the communication unit 112 to transmit the generated high-speed display data PIChs to the participant side PC 210 via the network 11 (step S103).

  On the other hand, when it is determined that no screen update has occurred (step S101: NO), the controller 111 determines the number of times that it has been continuously determined that no screen update has occurred (hereinafter referred to as “the number of times without continuous update” as appropriate). ”) Is the reference value“ N ”(that is, whether or not it has been determined that screen updating has not occurred N times consecutively) (step S104). When the number of times of no continuous update is not N (step S104: NO), the control unit 111 returns the processing to step S101 and repeats a series of processes, and when the number of times of no continuous update is N (step S104: YES) The data generation unit 114 is controlled to generate high-quality display data PIChc (step S105). In this embodiment, whether or not the number of continuous updates is N is used as a criterion. However, the number of times of no continuous update is a time in view of the fact that the operation clock of the control unit 111 can be regarded as substantially constant. It is possible to easily replace it with a concept. For example, a time during which no screen update occurs (hereinafter referred to as “the number of times without continuous update” as appropriate) corresponds to X seconds (as a preferred form, N times). It is good also as judgment criteria whether it is (time). Alternatively, even if the operation clock is not constant (that is, the number of times of no continuous update and the time of no continuous update is not unambiguous), the absolute elapsed time can also be a significant criterion. There will be no practical problem with the decision.

  Here, the “high-quality display data” is image data for displaying the display content of the display screen 121 as an image, and in particular, has the same resolution (participant side PC 210) as the original image ORG described above. And at least the high-speed display data PIChs, which may be determined according to the configuration and specifications of the participant-side display device 220, and not necessarily the same resolution as the original image). This is image data as an example of “first shared image data”.

  When the high-quality display data PIChc is generated, the data is not compressed, or a data compression method such as irreversible compression such as JPEG or MPEG is not adopted as a preferable form. A reversible data compression method is employed. Alternatively, for example, it has been determined in advance that there is no significant difference in human visual perception based on, for example, experimental, empirical, theoretical or simulation in advance. An irreversible data compression method may be adopted within a range that falls within a possible range.

  When the high-quality display data PIChc is generated, the control unit 111 controls the communication unit 112 to transmit the generated high-quality display data PIChc to the participant PC 210 via the network 11 (step S106). ). When the high-speed display data PIChs is transmitted in step S103 or the high-quality display data PIChc is transmitted in step S106, the process returns to step S101, and a series of processes is repeated. The screen sharing process is repeatedly executed as described above.

  Here, the operation of the participant side PC 210 will be described. The control unit 211 basically controls the communication unit 212 when executing the screen sharing process, and an image transmitted from the presenter side PC 110 via the network 11. A series of processes for acquiring data and transferring the acquired image data to the display control unit 213 to process it into display data and displaying the image on the display screen 221 of the participant side display device 220 is repeatedly executed. is doing. At this time, if the transmitted image data is the high-speed display data PIChs, the image displayed on the display screen 221 is a low-quality high-speed display image HS whose resolution is lower than that of the original image ORG. If the received image data is high-quality display data PIChc, the image displayed on the display screen 221 is a high-quality high-quality display image HC having a resolution equivalent to that of the original image ORG. Both are examples of the “shared image” according to the present invention.

  Here, the effect of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a timing chart relating to screen sharing at the sites A and B. In the figure, the same reference numerals are given to the same portions as those in FIG. 4, and the description thereof will be omitted as appropriate.

  In FIG. 5, if the original image ORG is displayed at the base A at time T0 and the screen is updated, if the time required for data generation is ignored for convenience, the transmission of the high-speed display data PIChs is performed at time T0. Be started. Since the high-speed display data PIChs is image data having a relatively small data size when viewed relatively, it is assumed that the data transmission band (that is, the data transmission speed) in the network 11 is constant. The required transmission time is ΔThs shown in the figure.

  Accordingly, at the site B, the display of the high-speed display image HS is started at the time T1 when the illustrated transmission time ΔThs has elapsed from the time T0. However, the high-speed display image HS is an irreversible compressed image whose resolution is lowered with respect to the original image ORG, and is a rough image as shown in the figure in terms of image quality.

  On the other hand, when transmission of the high-speed display data PIChs is completed at time T1, transmission of the high-quality display data PIChc is started immediately. Since the high-quality display data PIChc is image data having a relatively large data size, it is assumed that the bandwidth for data transmission (namely, the data transmission speed) in the network 11 is constant and is used for data transmission. The required transmission time is ΔThc (ΔThc> ΔThs) shown in the figure.

  Accordingly, at the base B, at the time T2 when the illustrated transmission time ΔThc has elapsed from the time T1, the display of the high-quality display image HC is started, and the high-speed display image HS is switched to the high-quality display image HC. At this time, the high-quality display image HC is an uncompressed image or a lossless compressed image having a resolution equivalent to that of the original image ORG, and is an image comparable to the original image ORG in terms of image quality as shown in the figure.

  As described above, according to the screen sharing process according to the present embodiment, the transmission of the high-speed display data PIChs is executed prior to the transmission of the high-quality display data PIChc, so that the base A is updated after the screen is updated. It is possible to shorten the time required until the display screen 221 of B is updated so as to follow the display screen 221 as much as possible.

  Here, in particular, if the transmission of the high-quality display data PIChc is performed prior to the transmission of the high-speed display data PIChs, the delay time during which the display screen at the site B is not updated is equal to the transmission time ΔThc of the high-quality display data PIChc. This is a corresponding time, which is clearly longer than the present embodiment. For this reason, even if the screen sharing process is used for data conferencing or applied to other purposes, it is difficult to avoid the adverse effect of the immediacy deterioration during screen sharing.

  In addition, in this embodiment, when the transmission of the high-speed display data PIChs is completed, the transmission of the high-quality display data PIChc is started immediately. Is updated to a high-quality display image HG equivalent to the original image ORG. That is, the image displayed on the display screen 221 normally converges to the high-quality display image HC as compared with simply reducing the data size of the image data by pursuing only immediacy. It is clearly advantageous in terms of

  In addition, in this embodiment, the high-quality display data PIChc is not immediately transmitted when it is determined that the screen update has not occurred, but the number of times of no continuous update and the reference value (here, N ), The high-quality display data PIChc is transmitted when it can be determined that the display screen 121 of the presenter-side display device 120 is truly stable. For this reason, when the original image ORG is continuously updated, for example, when a slide show display or animation display is performed, the display quality is significantly deteriorated due to the data size of the high-quality display data PIChc (that is, on the display screen 121). Thus, even if the original image ORG is updated, the shared image on the display screen 221 does not follow, or the continuity of the slide show or animation is significantly reduced.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, when screen sharing is performed, it is possible to suitably solve a problem that is a trade-off between guarantee of immediacy and suppression of deterioration of the quality of the shared screen, and it is possible to realize suitable screen sharing. It becomes.
<Second embodiment>
Next, a screen sharing process according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the screen sharing process according to the second embodiment. In the figure, the same reference numerals are given to the same portions as those in FIG. 4, and the description thereof will be omitted as appropriate.

  In FIG. 6, when the number of times of no continuous update has reached N (step S104: YES), the control unit 111 starts a high-quality display thread (step S204).

  Here, the high-quality display thread will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the high-quality display thread. In the figure, the same reference numerals are given to the same portions as those in FIG. 4, and the description thereof will be omitted as appropriate. Supplementally, the high-quality display thread is a process executed in parallel with the screen sharing process.

  In FIG. 7, the control unit 111 generates high-quality display data PIChc (step S105), and transmits the high-quality display data PIChc generated by controlling the communication unit 112 (step S106). When the transmission of the high-quality display data PIChc is finished, the high-quality display thread is finished.

  Returning to FIG. 6, when it is determined in the process according to step S <b> 101 that screen updating has occurred (step S <b> 101: YES), the control unit 111 determines whether or not the high-speed display data PIChs is being transmitted. (Step S201). When the high-speed display data PIChs is being transmitted (step S201: NO), the control unit 111 returns the process to step S101 and repeats a series of processes.

  When the high-speed display data PIChs is not being transmitted (step S201: YES), the control unit 111 further determines whether or not the high-quality display data PIChc is being transmitted (step S202). When it is determined that the high-quality display data PIChc is being transmitted (step S202: YES), the control unit 111 forcibly ends the above-described high-quality display thread (step S203).

  When the high-quality display thread is forcibly terminated or when it is determined in step S202 that the high-quality display data PIChc is not being transmitted (step S202: NO) (that is, in this case, the screen is updated). In the situation, this corresponds to the case where neither the high-speed display data PIChs nor the high-quality display data PIChc is transmitted), and the control unit 111 generates the high-speed display data PIChs (step S102) and transmits it to the participant-side PC 210. (Step S103).

  As described above, in this embodiment, the high-quality display data PIChc is executed independently of the screen sharing process by the high-quality display thread that is executed in parallel with the screen sharing process. When the high-quality display data PIChc is being transmitted at the stage when the occurrence of the error occurs (in other words, when the high-quality display thread is being executed), the execution of the high-quality display thread is immediately stopped and the updated display screen is displayed. The original image ORG corresponding to the content 121 is set as the sharing target image, and immediacy is ensured by generating and transmitting the high-speed display data PIChs.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the high-quality display thread is normally terminated after the high-quality display thread is started after the determination that the display screen 121 is stable (that is, the update is not frequently performed). When a screen update occurs in a period up to (that is, transmission of high-quality display data PIChc is completed) (that is, a period corresponding to the transmission time ΔThc described above) (when the number of times of no continuous update reaches N, Basically, since the screen update can be performed at an arbitrary timing, the possibility of this kind of situation is not necessarily low enough to be ignored), and the screen update is performed until the transmission of the high-quality display data PIChc ends. Immediate deterioration due to having to wait for transmission of the corresponding high-speed display data PIChs is preferably prevented.
<Third embodiment>
Next, a screen sharing process according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the screen sharing process according to the third embodiment. In the figure, the same reference numerals are given to the same portions as those in FIG. 6, and the description thereof is omitted as appropriate.

In FIG. 8, when the high-speed display data PIChs is transmitted by the process according to step S103, the control unit 111 sets the image update block arrangement flag Fg_blc (step S401).

  Here, in the present embodiment, so-called difference area transmission is applied when image data is transmitted to the participant-side PC 210. The difference area transmission includes at least an area where a change has been made to the previously displayed sharing target image among the sharing target images (for example, the original image ORG) after the screen update (not necessarily only such areas). This is a data transmission mode in which a part of the data is transmitted, and the data size is significantly reduced (for example, the difference) compared to the case of transmitting image data (shared image data) for the entire screen every time the screen is updated. If the area is half of the entire image, the data size can be reduced to about half as a simple calculation).

  As one aspect of such difference area transmission, block transmission is further realized in the present embodiment. Block transmission is a method of transmitting shared image data in units of a predetermined block. Images corresponding to blocks for which transmission has been completed (that is, a part of the shared image) are sequentially reflected on the display screen 221. Therefore, compared with the case where it is reflected on the display screen when transmission of image data for all screens is completed, the flexibility in screen sharing is superior.

  Here, in view of the situation in which such block transmission is applied, even if the high-quality display thread is forcibly terminated in the processing according to step S203 in FIG. There may be a block in which the transmission of PIChc has been completed. Further, in view of the situation where differential area transmission is applied, it is not always necessary to switch the entire area of the original image ORG to the high-speed display image HS when a screen update occurs, and the screen sharing process is sufficient. As the state after proceeding to the above, the shared image developed on the display screen 221 of the participant side display device 220 can be a mixture of the high-quality display image HC and the high-speed display image HS.

  The image update block arrangement flag Fg_blc according to step S401 in FIG. 8 is a flag that defines the arrangement of blocks to which the high-quality display data PIChc is to be transmitted, and is a differential area that is selectively transmitted reflecting screen update. Even if the high-speed display image HS is displayed based on the high-speed display data PIChs corresponding to, and the high-resolution display thread is forcibly terminated in the past even if it does not correspond to the difference area, the high-quality display is still in progress. The flag that defines the arrangement of blocks that have not been switched to the image HC is updated as needed by the control unit 111 when the high-speed display data PIChs is transmitted.

  Next, the details of the high-quality display thread according to the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the high quality display thread according to the third embodiment. In the figure, the same reference numerals are assigned to the same parts as those in FIG. 7, and the description thereof is omitted as appropriate.

  In FIG. 9, the control unit 111 calculates an update region for the entire region of the original image ORG (that is, the sharing target image after the screen update) based on the image update block array flag Fg_blc set in advance (step S501). ). When the update area is calculated, high-quality display data PIChc is generated for the block corresponding to the calculated update area (step S105) and transmitted via the network 11 (step S502). When the transmission of the high-quality display data PIChc is completed, the image update block array flag Fg_blc is cleared (step S502), and the high-quality display thread ends.

As described above, in the third embodiment, by executing the differential area transmission and the block transmission, the image quality display data PIChc that requires a relatively long time for the transmission of the image data becomes apparent in practice. It is possible to transmit efficiently without causing the transmission to occur. For this reason, screen sharing between bases is realized more promptly and smoothly. Further, the application of the differential area transmission relatively improves the robustness of screen sharing with respect to the transmission band of the network 11.
<Fourth embodiment>
Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. First, the details of the screen sharing process according to the fourth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the screen sharing process.

  In FIG. 10, the control unit 111 executes a cell attribute setting process (step S600), and then executes an image data process (step S700). The screen sharing process proceeds by repeatedly executing these two processes. Here, with reference to FIG. 11, the detail of the cell which is a concept peculiar to a present Example is demonstrated. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the original image ORG.

  In FIG. 11, the original image ORG is divided into 256 on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis, respectively, and is virtually divided into a total of 65536 cells from the cell CL1 corresponding to the upper left corner to the cell CL65536 corresponding to the lower right corner. It is divided. Each cell is a minute area of, for example, 16 × 16 = 256 dots, and is handled as the minimum unit of image update in this embodiment. The division mode of the original image ORG is not limited to that exemplified here.

  The cell attribute setting process according to step S600 of FIG. 10 is a process of setting the attributes of these individual cells CLi (i is a cell identifier, which is a natural number of 65536 or less in this embodiment). Supplementally, the “attributes” according to the present embodiment are attributes of image quality (resolution) such as whether to display the high-quality display image HC or the high-speed display image HS, and these to the participant PC 210. And attribute relating to necessity of transmission such as whether or not image data should be transmitted.

  More specifically, the attribute of each cell is defined by two types of attribute flags, a high image quality display flag Fg_hc and a high speed display flag Fg_hs. The high image quality display flag Fg_hc indicates that the high image quality display data PIChc should be transmitted when the value “1” is taken, and the high image quality display data PIC_hc should not be transmitted when the value “0” is taken. Are high-speed display flags Fg_hs, the high-speed display flag Fg_hs indicates that the high-speed display data PIChs should be transmitted when the value “1” is taken. Each flag specifies that PIC_hs should not be transmitted.

  Here, the details of the cell attribute setting process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 12 is a flowchart of the cell attribute setting process.

  In FIG. 12, the control unit 111 sets the cell counter i to an initial value “1” (step S601). Here, the cell counter i is a counter for specifying the above-described cell identifier, and the numerical value of the cell counter i is treated as a cell identifier as it is.

  When the cell counter i is initialized, the control unit 111 determines whether or not the cell CLi has been updated (step S602). When the cell CLi has been updated (step S602: NO), the control unit 111 sets the update counter j to the initial value n and initializes the update counter j (step S604).

  Here, the update counter j is a flag that defines the update state of each cell, and is generally a flag that is decremented from the initial value n every time it is determined that it has not been updated. The value of the initial value n is a compatible value, and may be equal to the reference value N for the number of times of no continuous update in the various embodiments described above, for example. When the update counter j is initialized, the control unit 111 sets the high-speed display flag Fg_hs, which is one of the attribute flags described above, to “1” (step S608).

On the other hand, when the cell CLi has not been updated (step S602: YES), the control unit 111 decrements the update counter j by “1” (step S603). When the update counter j is decremented, the control unit 111 determines whether or not the update counter j is “0” (step S605). When the update counter j is not “0” (step S605: NO), the control unit 111 sets both of the two types of attribute flags, the high-speed display flag Fg_hs and the high-quality display flag Fg_hc, to “0” (step S607). That is, in this case, the cell CLi is excluded from the transmission target of the image data related to the shared image. When the update counter j is “0” (step S605: YES), the control unit 111 sets the high image quality display flag Fg_hc to “1” (step S606).
When any one of steps S606, S607, and S608 is executed, the process proceeds to step S609, the cell counter i is incremented by “1”, and the cell for which the attribute flag is set is currently selected. Switch to a cell adjacent to the cell.

  At this time, it is determined whether or not the cell counter i is the total number of cells, that is, “65536” (step S610). If the cell counter i is not “65536” (step S610: NO), in other words, if the process from step S602 to step S606, S607 or S608 has not yet been performed for all cells, the process returns to step S602. And a series of processing is repeated. When the attribute flag is set for all the cells in this way, the cell counter i becomes the number of cells, that is, “65536”, the branch relating to step S610 becomes “YES”, and the cell attribute setting process ends.

  As described above, according to the cell attribute setting process, for each cell set for the original image ORG, the high-speed display flag Fg_hs is set to “once” at the time of cell update (that is, the same concept as screen update). When the cell is not updated n times continuously, the high image quality display flag Fg_hc is set to “1” only once. In all other cases, the attribute flags are set to “0”.

  Next, details of the image data processing will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 13 is a flowchart of image data processing.

In FIG. 13, the control unit 111 determines whether or not there is a high-speed display cell (step S701). The fast display cell, a cell fast display flag Fg_hs is set to "1". If there is no high-speed display cell (step S701: NO), the process proceeds to step S705.

  On the other hand, if there is a high-speed display cell (step S701: YES), the control unit 111 performs division and compression of the original image ORG (step S702).

  Here, the division and compression of the original image ORG means that a high-speed display cell is possible as much as possible (rather than whether it is physically possible or not, it is possible to have advantages such as a reduction in control load in practice. It means that the original image ORG is divided using the aggregate of the aggregated high-speed display cells as a unit.

  However, such processing is intended to reduce the control load when transmitting image data in units of cells, and is of course only an example. For example, transmission of image data in units of individual cells. Is not necessarily required if the control process is configured to perform

  When the division and compression of the original image ORG is completed, the control unit 111 generates high-speed display data PIChs for each region generated as a result of the division and compression (step S703), and controls the communication unit 112 to control the network. The generated high-speed display data PIChs is transmitted to the participant-side PC 210 via step 11 (step S704).

  If it is determined in step S701 that there is no high-speed display cell, or if high-speed display data PIChs is transmitted in step S704, the control unit 111 determines whether there is a high-quality display cell (step S701). S705). The high-quality display cell is a cell in which the high-quality display flag Fg_hc is set to “1”. When there is a high quality display cell (step S705: YES), the control unit 111 performs division and compression of the original image ORG as in the case of the high speed display cell (step S706).

  When the original image ORG is divided and compressed, the control unit 111 generates high-quality display data PIChc for each region generated as a result of the division and compression (step S707), and controls the communication unit 112. The generated high-quality display data PIChc is transmitted to the participant side PC 210 via the network 11 (step S708).

  When the process according to step S708 is executed, or when it is determined in step S705 that there is no high-quality display cell (step S705: NO), the image data process ends.

  According to the present embodiment, the attribute flag setting process and the image data process are repeatedly executed in this way, so that the shared image displayed on the display screen 211 of the participant side display device 210 can have as high image quality as possible. While maintaining the display image HC, an extremely high profit is provided in practice, such as ensuring immediacy by promptly displaying the high-speed display image HS for the updated cells.

  For example, when only the minimal region is continuously updated in the original image ORG (for example, although the original image itself is stable as a still image, the cursor is constantly at a position different from the original image). If the concept of such a cell is not introduced, the entire original image ORG is switched to the high-speed display image HS by simply determining that the original image ORG has been updated. The high-speed display image HS with a low image quality can be displayed for the portion that is originally a still image. In this case, in terms of the feeling of the participant 12B of the base B who shares the screen, the user may feel uncomfortable that the image quality of the shared image is unnecessarily lowered.

  In this regard, by applying the present embodiment or similar processing, the display area of the high-speed display image HS can be limited to, for example, a portion corresponding to the minimal area, and the shared image corresponding to the minimal area is updated. In order to ensure immediacy, the occurrence of a situation that is undesirable in practice, such as a reduction in image quality in most other areas, is preferably prevented.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist or concept of the invention that can be read from the claims and the entire specification. A screen sharing method and a computer program are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram conceptually showing a configuration of a screen sharing system according to a first example of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually showing a configuration of a presenter side PC in the screen sharing system of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually showing the configuration of a participant side PC in the screen sharing system of FIG. 1. It is a flowchart of the screen sharing process performed by a control part. It is a timing chart which concerns on the screen sharing between bases. It is a flowchart of the screen sharing process which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. It is a flowchart of the high quality display thread concerning a 2nd example. It is a flowchart of the screen sharing process which concerns on 3rd Example of this invention. It is a flowchart of the high quality display thread | sled which concerns on 3rd Example. It is a flowchart of the screen sharing process which concerns on 4th Example of this invention. It is a schematic diagram of the original image which concerns on 4th Example. It is a flowchart of the cell attribute setting process performed in the screen sharing process of FIG. It is a flowchart of the image data process performed in the screen sharing process of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Screen sharing system, 11 ... Network, 12A ... Presenter, 12B ... Participant, 100 ... Presenter side system, 110 ... Presenter side PC, 111 ... Control part, 112 ... Communication part, 113 ... Display control part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 114 ... Image data generation part, 115 ... Input part, 120 ... Presenter side display apparatus, 121 ... Display screen, 200 ... Participant side system, 210 ... Participant side PC, 211 ... Control part, 212 ... Communication part, 213 ... display control unit, 215 ... input unit, 220 ... participant side display device, 221 ... display screen.

Claims (6)

The first display means, the terminal device, and the second display means are accommodated in the network together with a terminal device capable of sequentially displaying images on the first display means based on image data sequentially supplied via the network. And a screen sharing processing apparatus that can configure a screen sharing system,
Display control means for controlling the second display means so that a share target image to be shared is displayed in response to a predetermined input;
Dividing means for dividing the image to be shared into a plurality of virtual cells;
Determining means for determining whether or not each of the plurality of divided virtual cells has been updated;
For each of the above, specifying means for specifying the number of times or time not continuously updated,
As the plurality of shared image data having different data sizes for displaying the shared image corresponding to the displayed image to be shared on the first display means , the first shared image data and the first shared image for each of the shared image data Generating means for generating second shared image data having a data size smaller than that of data ;
(1) supplying the second shared image data as the image data for each of the terminal devices prior to the first shared image data via the network ; and (2) determining that each of the terminals has been updated. The second shared image data is supplied as the image data for the virtual cell that has been selected, and (3) among each of the virtual cells is determined not to be updated, and the specified number of times or time has reached a predetermined value A screen sharing processing apparatus comprising: supply means for supplying the first shared image data as the image data for a virtual cell . Via the network, further comprising acquisition means for acquiring control information corresponding to the terminal-side input made to update the shared image in the terminal device;
The screen sharing processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit updates the sharing target image based on the acquired control information. 3. The screen sharing processing device according to claim 1, wherein the generation unit generates the plurality of shared image data for at least a part including a part updated from the previous time in the sharing target image. For each of the above , the supplying means changes the first shared image data to the terminal device when the sharing target image is updated in a period in which the first shared image data is supplied to the terminal device. instead it screen sharing apparatus according possible in any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in supplying said second shared image data corresponding to the shared target image the update. The first display means, the terminal device, and the second display means are accommodated in the network together with a terminal device capable of sequentially displaying images on the first display means based on image data sequentially supplied via the network. And a screen sharing method in a screen sharing processing device capable of configuring a screen sharing system.
A display control step of controlling the second display means so that a sharing target image to be shared is displayed according to a predetermined input;
A dividing step of dividing the image to be shared into a plurality of virtual cells;
A determination step of determining whether or not each of the divided virtual cells has been updated;
For each of the above, a measuring step for measuring the number of times or time that is not continuously updated, and
As the plurality of shared image data having different data sizes for displaying the shared image corresponding to the displayed image to be shared on the first display means , the first shared image data and the first shared image for each of the shared image data Generating a second shared image data having a data size smaller than that of the data ;
A first supply step of supplying the second shared image data as the image data for each of the terminal devices via the network prior to the first shared image data;
A second supply step of supplying the second shared image data as the image data for the virtual cell determined to have been updated among each of the terminal devices via the network;
The first shared image as the image data for a virtual cell that is determined not to be updated among each of the terminal devices via the network and the obtained number of times or time has reached a predetermined value. A screen sharing method comprising: a third supply step for supplying data . A computer program for causing a computer system to function as the screen sharing processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4 .

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