JP5415721B2 - Display system and display method thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a display system that displays various information using a plurality of display devices, and a display method thereof.

  There is known a system in which members existing remotely are communicated with each other using video or audio using communication means. An example of such a system is a video conference system. In a video conference system, for example, a conference room is configured in a pseudo manner by displaying materials used in a conference on a display unit that is located at a remote location, or displaying a video of a conference partner with a video camera. .

Regarding such a video conference system, a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known. This system is composed of a plurality of member-side terminals equipped with videophones and a host-side terminal connected to the plurality of member-side terminals. During a meeting, one image of attendees at each member-side terminal is displayed. Split it on one screen.
JP-A-4-140990

  However, the conventional techniques have the following problems.

  Since a plurality of member-side terminals are connected to one host-side terminal, transactions are concentrated on the host-side terminal, which becomes a bottleneck. This makes it difficult to increase the number of member-side terminals and display units that can participate in the conference.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display system and a display method thereof in which processing related to display of various information using a plurality of display devices is distributed. To do.

In order to achieve the above object, a display system according to an aspect of the present invention includes:
A plurality of unified coordinate space management means for managing a unified coordinate space;
Subspace management means connected to the unified coordinate space management means , wherein first spatial information relating to a display area of the display means is acquired from one or more display means connected to the partial space management means And a partial space management means for creating and managing a first partial space to be arranged in a part of the unified coordinate space based on the first spatial information;
Comprising
The unified coordinate space management means includes:
Detection means for detecting other unified coordinate space management means;
When the other unified coordinate space management means is detected by the detection means , the other unified coordinate space management means has a display area of one or more display means connected to the other unified coordinate space management means Obtaining means for obtaining a second partial space created based on the second spatial information regarding ;
Characterized by comprising the arrangement means for arranging a second portion space and the first subspace acquired by the acquisition unit before Symbol unified coordinate space.

One embodiment of the present invention includes
A plurality of unified coordinate space management means for managing a unified coordinate space, and a partial space management means connected to the unified coordinate space management means, from one or more display means connected to the partial space management means , Partial space management for acquiring first spatial information relating to a display area possessed by the display means, and creating and managing a first partial space to be arranged in a part of the unified coordinate space based on the first spatial information A display method in a display system comprising means,
The unified coordinate space management means includes:
A detection step of detecting other unified coordinate space management means;
When another unified coordinate space management means is detected, the other unified coordinate space management means is a second one related to the display area of one or more display means connected to the other unified coordinate space management means. An acquisition step of acquiring a second partial space created based on the spatial information ;
Run the process comprising the arrangement step of arranging a second portion space and the first subspace obtained by the obtaining step before Symbol unified coordinate space,
The display means includes
Content arranged in an area corresponding to its own display area arranged in the unified coordinate space is displayed.

  According to the present invention, since processing related to display of various types of information using a plurality of display devices is distributed and controlled, for example, scalability with respect to the number of display devices can be improved.

  Embodiments of a display system and display method according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(Embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a display system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The display system includes one or more computers. The computer includes, for example, main control means such as a CPU and storage means such as ROM (Read Only Memory) and RAM (Random Access Memory). Further, the computer may be provided with communication means such as a network card, input / output means such as a keyboard, a display, or a touch panel. These constituent units are connected by a bus or the like, and are controlled by the main control unit executing a program stored in the storage unit.

  Here, in the display system, as a functional configuration, a unified coordinate space management unit (100a to 100c) 100, a partial space management unit (120a to 120d) 120, a display unit (140a to 140e) 140, a content An arrangement unit 150 is provided.

  The display unit 140 displays various information (for example, video) such as still images and moving images on the display area (screen). Each display unit 140 is connected to the partial space management unit 120. The display unit 140 outputs the spatial information (for example, the size of the displayable area on the display unit 140) to the partial space management unit 120.

  One or a plurality of display units 140 are connected to the partial space management unit 120 via connection interfaces (162a to 162e) 162. Spatial information is input to the subspace management unit 120 from the display unit 140 connected to (subordinate to) the subspace management unit 120. The partial space management unit 120 creates a partial space based on the spatial information and manages it. The spatial information is information related to the spatial area of the display unit 140, and is information including at least the size.

  The unified coordinate space management unit 100 is connected to another unified coordinate space management unit 100 via a connection interface (160a, 160b) 160, and one or a plurality of partial spaces via a connection interface (161a to 161d) 161. Connected to the management unit 120. The unified coordinate space management unit 100 acquires spatial information from the partial space management unit 120 connected to a lower level of the unified coordinate space management unit 100, and arranges it in the unified coordinate space as a partial space. The spatial information acquired from the partial space management unit 120 corresponds to the display area of the display unit 140 connected to its lower level. For example, the display units 140a and 140b are provided in association with the unified coordinate space management unit 100a. The unified coordinate space management unit 100a displays the display units 140a and 140b via the partial space management unit 120a. Spatial information corresponding to the region is input. In FIG. 1, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 and the display unit 140 are connected via the partial space management unit 120. This is to reduce the processing load on the unified coordinate space management unit 100. It is. Therefore, for example, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 and the display unit 140 may be directly connected. For example, if it is desired to further reduce the processing load, the partial space management units 120 may be connected hierarchically.

  The content placement unit 150 places one or a plurality of contents in the unified coordinate space. The content placement unit 150 outputs the content and its placement information to the unified coordinate space management unit 100 after the content placement. Thereby, each display unit 140 displays the content arranged in the range of the partial space (display area) to which it corresponds in the unified coordinate space. For example, the arrangement information and the like are provided from the unified coordinate space management unit 100 to the partial space management unit 120, and the partial space management unit 120 that receives the arrangement information creates display information based on the input information, Is output to the display unit 140. As a result, each display unit 140 displays the above-described content. In addition, the input of the display information to each display unit 140 may be realized by other methods, and the method is not particularly limited. For example, a processing unit for creating display information based on information related to a partial space managed by the unified coordinate space management unit 100 and the partial space management unit 120, arrangement information output from the content arrangement unit 150, and the like is provided. The display may be realized. Note that content refers to all digital data including a wide range of text (text), music, images, video, and the like.

  Here, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 has, as its functional configuration, a unified coordinate space information holding unit 110, a unified coordinate space update unit 111, an arbitration unit 112, a unified coordinate information acquisition unit 113, and a detection unit. 114 and a spatial information input unit 115. In FIG. 1, the functional configuration is shown only in the unified coordinate space management unit 100a, but of course, the unified coordinate space management units 100b and 100c have the same functional configuration.

  The unified coordinate space information holding unit 110 holds information related to the unified coordinate space. The unified coordinate space update unit 111 updates information related to the unified coordinate space held in the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110. The arbitration unit 112 arbitrates processing in the unified coordinate space management unit 100. This arbitration is performed, for example, by locking the processing in the unified coordinate space management unit 100 and releasing the lock.

  The unified coordinate information acquisition unit 113 acquires information related to a unified coordinate space managed by another unified coordinate space management unit 100 (for example, origin information and size information of a region managed in the unified coordinate space). The detection unit 114 detects another unified coordinate space management unit 100. Spatial information input unit 115 receives input of spatial information.

  Further, the partial space management unit 120 includes a spatial information output unit 130, a partial space information holding unit 131, a partial space arrangement unit 132, and a spatial information input unit 133 as its functional configuration. The In FIG. 1, the functional configuration is illustrated only in the partial space management unit 120a, but, of course, the partial space management units 120b, 120c, and 120d also have the same functional configuration.

  The spatial information output unit 130 outputs information related to the partial space managed by itself as spatial information. The partial space information holding unit 131 holds information related to the partial space managed by itself. The spatial information input unit 133 receives spatial information input from the display unit 140. The partial space arrangement unit 132 arranges spaces based on the spatial information input from the spatial information input unit 133 and creates a partial space. The above is the description of the configuration in the display system. Note that the configuration of the display system illustrated in FIG. 1 is merely an example, and is not limited to this configuration.

  Next, an example of the operation in the display system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, the procedure for (adding) arranging the partial space corresponding to the display area of the display unit 140 on the unified coordinate space will be described with reference to FIG. Here, the unified coordinate space management unit 100c when the unified coordinate space management unit 100c participates in the display system in a state where the partial space is already arranged on the unified coordinate space by the unified coordinate space management units 100a and 100b. The operation at 100c will be described.

  When this process starts, the unified coordinate space management unit 100c first performs an initialization process (S301). In the initialization process, information related to the unified coordinate space held in the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110 is initialized. Specifically, the entire unified coordinate space is set as an unused area. Accordingly, the unified coordinate space held by the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110 is in a state indicated by 404 in FIG. In the initialization process, the arbitration retry count of the arbitration process by the arbitration unit 112 is set to a specified value. The arbitration retry count is set to 1 or more. Each time the arbitration process by the arbitration unit 112 is repeated, the number is subtracted by “1”. Further, in the initialization process, reception of a request for newly adding (or deleting) an area to the unified coordinate space is prohibited (locked). This is performed in order to maintain consistency when adding or deleting a partial space in the unified coordinate space.

  When the initialization process ends, the unified coordinate space management unit 100c calculates the size of the partial space registered in the unified coordinate space (S302). In this process, the spatial information input unit 115 receives the partial space size information held by the partial space management unit 120. Then, based on the input information, the range of the partial space to be registered in the unified coordinate space, that is, the size is calculated. By this processing, the unified coordinate space held by the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110 becomes, for example, a state indicated by 401 in FIG. Reference numeral 401 in FIG. 3 shows a case where the partial space to be registered in the unified coordinate space is in the range of horizontal 4096 and vertical 1024.

  Subsequently, the unified coordinate space management unit 100c causes the detection unit 114 to detect another unified coordinate space management unit (S303). As a result, if another unified coordinate space management unit 100 is not detected (NO in S304), the process proceeds to S311. On the other hand, when another unified coordinate space management unit 100 is detected (YES in S304), the unified coordinate space management unit 100c locks the unified coordinate space management unit 100 in the arbitration unit 112 (S305). By this lock, the addition or deletion of the partial space to the unified coordinate space can be performed only at one place in the system at the same time, and the consistency of the unified coordinate space is maintained. As a locking method, for example, Mutex (a kind of semaphore) may be used. In addition, for example, a method may be employed in which the entire system is locked at a time using a specific token unique to the entire system (a locked state when the token is not held). Note that the arbitration process in S305 can be omitted if the entire system can be locked at once as in the case of using a token. Here, it is assumed that the unified coordinate space management unit 100a has been detected in the processing of S304 and S305.

  Subsequently, the unified coordinate space management unit 100c determines whether the arbitration process in S305 is successful. If arbitration fails (NO in S306), if there is a locked unified coordinate space management unit 100, the lock is released (S320). Next, the unified coordinate space management unit 100c determines whether or not the arbitration retry count is 0, and if it is 0 (YES in S321), the process is terminated (abnormal). If the arbitration retry count is greater than 0 (NO in S320), the arbitration retry count is decremented by “1” (S322), and the process returns to S304 again.

  When the mediation is successful (YES in S306), the unified coordinate space management unit 100c is unified by the unified coordinate information management unit 100 managed by the management unit from the unified coordinate space management unit 100 detected in the process of S304. The area information on the coordinate space is acquired (S307). That is, the origin information and the size information of the partial space on the unified coordinate space managed by the management unit are acquired from the unified coordinate space management unit 100a.

  The unified coordinate space management unit 100c updates the unused area in the unified coordinate space held in the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110 in the unified coordinate space update unit 111 (S308). This update is performed based on the origin information and the size information acquired from another unified coordinate space management unit (in this case, the unified coordinate space management unit 100a) in the process of S307. For example, if the origin position of the unified coordinate space managed by the unified coordinate space management unit 100a is (0, 0) and its size is (2048, 2048), the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110 holds it. The unused area in the unified coordinate space is in a state indicated by 402 in FIG.

  In the unified coordinate space management unit 100c, the detection unit 114 detects another new unified coordinate space management unit 100 (S309). Thus, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 that has not yet obtained the unified coordinate space information is detected. This can be realized, for example, by using a method in which all unified coordinate space management units are held in a list structure or a method in which all unified coordinate space management units are held in an array.

  As a result of detection, when another unified coordinate space management unit 100 is detected (YES in S310), the process returns to S305 again. For example, it is assumed that the unified coordinate space management unit 100c is detected by this detection, the origin position of the unified coordinate space managed by the management unit is (2048, 0), and the size is (2048, 1024). In this case, the unused area in the unified coordinate space held by the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110 is in a state indicated by 405 in FIG.

  On the other hand, when no other unified coordinate space management unit 100 is detected in S310 (NO in S310), the unified coordinate space management unit 100 manages itself for the unified coordinate space in the unified coordinate space update unit 111. An area to be processed, that is, a partial space is arranged (S311). This partial space is arranged at a position other than the area managed by the other unified coordinate space management unit 100. In this way, by arranging the areas corresponding to the plurality of display units on the unified coordinate space, multi-display display using the plurality of display units becomes possible. The arrangement position may be any area other than the area managed by the other unified coordinate space management unit 100. For example, the arrangement position may be arranged adjacent to the area managed by the other management part. In this way, the partial space calculated in the process of S302 is arranged in the unused area of the unified coordinate space. For example, if the unused area is 405 in FIG. 3 and the size of the partial space to be registered is 401 in FIG. 3, the partial space is arranged as indicated by 406 in FIG. The unified coordinate space management unit 100c, in the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110, holds the position and size of the arranged partial space as an area on the unified coordinate space managed by itself.

  Finally, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 performs a lock release process in the arbitration unit 112 (S312). As a result, the locked unified coordinate space manager is unlocked. This completes the process of adding a subspace to the unified coordinate space.

  Next, a procedure for deleting a partial space corresponding to the display area of the display unit 140 from the unified coordinate space will be described with reference to FIG.

  When this process starts, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 first performs an initialization process (S351). In the initialization process, reception of a request to delete (or add) a new area to the unified coordinate space is prohibited (locked). This is performed in order to maintain consistency when adding or deleting a partial space in the unified coordinate space.

  When the initialization process ends, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 calculates the size of the partial space to be deleted from the unified coordinate space (S352). In this process, the spatial information input unit 115 receives the partial space size information held by the partial space management unit 120. Then, based on the input information, the range, that is, the size of the partial space to be deleted from the unified coordinate space is calculated.

  Subsequently, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 deletes an area to be deleted from the unified coordinate space in the unified coordinate space update unit 111 (S353). That is, the origin information and the size information of the partial space to be deleted are deleted from the unified coordinate space held in the unified coordinate space information holding unit 110. Finally, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 performs a lock release process in the arbitration unit 112 (S312). As a result, the locked unified coordinate space manager is unlocked.

  Here, an example of the operation in the partial space management unit 120 shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the spatial information input unit 133, the partial space management unit 120 acquires the size of the display area from the display unit 140 connected to itself (S371). Then, in the partial space arrangement unit 132, an area corresponding to the size of the acquired display area is arranged in the partial space managed by itself (S372). After this arrangement, the partial space management unit 120 holds the arrangement information in the partial space information holding unit 131 (S373), and outputs the spatial information in the spatial information output unit 130 (S374). The output destination of the spatial information is, for example, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 connected to the upper level.

  The operation in the display system shown in FIG. 1 has been described above. In the above description, the unified coordinate space management unit 100 does not describe the process of changing the arrangement of the partial space, but this process is performed by continuously deleting (see FIG. 4) and arranging (see FIG. 2). Therefore, the description thereof is omitted.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, display areas corresponding to a plurality of display devices are managed on a unified coordinate space, and the unified coordinate space is distributed by a plurality of unified coordinate space management units 100 (for example, hosts). to manage. Thereby, the scalability with respect to the number of the display apparatuses connected to the member side terminal can be improved, for example.

  The above is an example of a typical embodiment of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, and can be appropriately modified and implemented without departing from the scope of the present invention. .

  It should be noted that the present invention can take the form of, for example, a system, apparatus, method, program, or recording medium. Specifically, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus composed of a single device.

  Further, the present invention achieves the functions of the embodiments by supplying a software program directly or remotely to a system or apparatus, and reading and executing the supplied program code by a computer incorporated in the system or apparatus. This includes cases where In this case, the supplied program is a computer program corresponding to the flowchart shown in the drawings in the embodiment.

  Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. In other words, the present invention includes a computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention. In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, it may be in the form of object code, a program executed by an interpreter, script data supplied to an OS (Operating System), or the like.

  Examples of the computer-readable recording medium for supplying the computer program include the following. For example, floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD- R).

  As another program supply method, a client computer browser is used to connect to a homepage on the Internet, and the computer program of the present invention is downloaded from the homepage to a recording medium such as a hard disk. In this case, the downloaded program may be a compressed file including an automatic installation function. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the present invention.

  Further, the program of the present invention may be encrypted, stored in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, and distributed to users. In this case, a user who has cleared a predetermined condition is allowed to download key information for decryption from a homepage via the Internet, execute an encrypted program using the key information, and install the program on the computer. You can also.

  In addition to the functions of the above-described embodiment being realized by the computer executing the read program, the embodiment of the embodiment is implemented in cooperation with an OS or the like running on the computer based on an instruction of the program. A function may be realized. In this case, the OS or the like performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  Furthermore, the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, so that part or all of the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized. May be. In this case, after a program is written to the function expansion board or function expansion unit, the CPU (Central Processing Unit) provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit is a part of the actual processing or based on the instructions of the program. Do everything.

It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the display system concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a 1st flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement in the display system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the transition of the area | region in unified coordinate space. 4 is a second flowchart illustrating an example of an operation in the display system illustrated in FIG. 1. 6 is a third flowchart showing an example of the operation in the display system shown in FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols

100 (100a to 100c) Unified coordinate space management unit 110 Unified coordinate space information holding unit 111 Unified coordinate space update unit 112 Arbitration unit 113 Unified coordinate information acquisition unit 114 Detection unit 115 Spatial information input unit 120 (120a to 120d) Partial space management Unit 130 Spatial information output unit 131 Partial space information holding unit 132 Subspace arrangement unit 133 Spatial information input unit 140 (140a to 140e) Display unit 150 Content arrangement unit 160 (160a, 160b), 161 (161a to 161d), 162 ( 162a to 162e) Connection interface

Claims (7)

A plurality of unified coordinate space management means for managing a unified coordinate space;
Subspace management means connected to the unified coordinate space management means , wherein first spatial information relating to a display area of the display means is acquired from one or more display means connected to the partial space management means And a partial space management means for creating and managing a first partial space to be arranged in a part of the unified coordinate space based on the first spatial information;
Comprising
The unified coordinate space management means includes:
Detection means for detecting other unified coordinate space management means;
When the other unified coordinate space management means is detected by the detection means , the other unified coordinate space management means has a display area of one or more display means connected to the other unified coordinate space management means Obtaining means for obtaining a second partial space created based on the second spatial information regarding ;
Display system characterized by comprising an arrangement means for arranging a second portion space and the first subspace acquired by the acquisition unit before Symbol unified coordinate space. Content placement means for placing content on the unified coordinate space;
The display means includes
The display system according to claim 1, wherein the content arranged by the content arrangement unit is displayed in an area corresponding to its own display area arranged on the unified coordinate space. The unified coordinate space management means includes:
When another unified coordinate space management means is detected by the detection means, the process for the unified coordinate space by the other unified coordinate space management means is locked, and the first partial space is placed by the placement means. The display system according to claim 1, further comprising: arbitration means for releasing the lock after the operation. The unified coordinate space management means includes:
The display system according to claim 1, wherein when a specific token is received, processing for the unified coordinate space is performed. The acquisition means includes
Obtaining the origin information and the size information in the unified coordinate space managed by the other unified coordinate space management means as the second partial space ;
The arrangement means includes
The first partial space is arranged in an area in the unified coordinate space that is not managed by the other unified coordinate space management means based on the origin information and the size information obtained by the obtaining means. The display system according to claim 1. The arrangement means includes
The display system according to claim 5, wherein the first partial space is arranged adjacent to any of the regions in the unified coordinate space managed by the other unified coordinate space management unit. A plurality of unified coordinate space management means for managing a unified coordinate space, and a partial space management means connected to the unified coordinate space management means, from one or more display means connected to the partial space management means , Partial space management for acquiring first spatial information relating to a display area possessed by the display means, and creating and managing a first partial space to be arranged in a part of the unified coordinate space based on the first spatial information A display method in a display system comprising means,
The unified coordinate space management means includes:
A detection step of detecting other unified coordinate space management means;
When another unified coordinate space management means is detected, the other unified coordinate space management means is a second one related to the display area of one or more display means connected to the other unified coordinate space management means. An acquisition step of acquiring a second partial space created based on the spatial information ;
Run the process comprising the arrangement step of arranging a second portion space and the first subspace obtained by the obtaining step before Symbol unified coordinate space,
The display means includes
A display method in a display system, comprising: displaying content arranged in an area corresponding to its own display area arranged in the unified coordinate space.

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