JP5472262B2 - Information processing apparatus and information processing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method capable of accessing a storage provided inside and a storage connected to the outside.

  Conventionally, in order to obtain content on the network, it has been necessary to go through a number of steps, such as connecting a client computer to the network, searching for a location of the content on the network, downloading it, and checking the content.

JP-A-7-93369 JP-A-7-306933 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-110991 JP-A-5-219428

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an information processing apparatus and an information processing apparatus that allow a user to confirm the content of a content on a network with a simple operation without requiring a complicated operation. The purpose is to provide a method .

In order to solve the above problems, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an internal storage unit that stores internal content , a server that stores external content , a connection unit that transmits and receives data via the Internet, the internal content, A content acquisition unit for acquiring the external content, and an account and a password are transmitted to the server via the connection unit, and a directory list indicating the location of at least user-specific content is received from the server . to the display unit for chromatic and directories presentation area and a content presentation area, both of the above in the directory presentation area, external directory information on the external content based on the directory list received from the internal directory information and the server relating to the internal content Displaying, in the content presentation area of the display unit, according to the user selection for internal or external directory information of the directory presentation area, and controls to display either of the internal contents information or the external content information And a control unit that controls transmission to the server via the connection unit based on a drag-and-drop operation to the external directory information of the internal content.

  According to the present invention, the content of the content on the network can be confirmed by a simple operation without requiring a complicated operation from the user.

1 is an external perspective view of a notebook personal computer as an example to which the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram of the said notebook personal computer. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the information processing system which consists of the said notebook personal computer, the internet, and an image server. It is a figure which shows the state which is displaying the information regarding the content delivered from the image server on the picture gear window displayed on LCD on a notebook personal computer. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the content acquisition operation | movement on the network of the specific example of the said information processing system. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the display regarding the confirmation of the content in a directory which a user selects. It is a figure which shows the thumbnail image displayed on the image display part by the client application software. It is a figure for demonstrating the transmission operation | movement of the content on a network by the specific example of the said information processing system.

  Embodiments of an information processing apparatus and method and a medium storing a program according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an external appearance of a notebook personal computer 1 as an example to which the present invention is applied and a digital video camera 35 connected to the notebook personal computer 1 via a cable 9 conforming to the IEEE1394 format. .

  The notebook personal computer 1 basically includes a main body 2 and a display unit 3 that can be opened and closed with respect to the main body 2. FIG. 1 shows a state where the display unit 3 is opened with respect to the main body 2.

  The main body 2 includes a keyboard 5 operated when inputting various characters and symbols, a touch pad 6 as a pointing device operated when moving a mouse cursor on the display screen, and a power switch 8. It is provided on the upper surface. Although not shown, a so-called mouse as a pointing device is often connected and used. This mouse performs a cursor operation and the like in the same manner as the touch pad 6, and there is a mouse provided with a so-called mouse wheel.

  An LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 7 for displaying an image is provided in front of the display unit 3. Furthermore, a lamp made up of a power lamp PL, a battery lamp BL, a message lamp ML as required, and other LEDs is provided in the upper right part of the display unit 3.

  The jog dial 4 is disposed, for example, in the upper right position of the keyboard 5 of the main body 2 so that the dial side surface is exposed to the right side surface of the main body. Further, on the right side of the main body 2, for example, a PC card slot, a memory card slot, and the like are provided. The memory card slot incorporates a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory, and a memory card for storing still images, moving images, sounds, text data, programs, etc., for example, a so-called Memory Stick (trademark) is mounted.

  The notebook personal computer 1 is connected to the digital video camera 35 via the IEEE1394 cable 9 connected to the IEEE1394 terminal on the back side as described above. The notebook personal computer 1 can capture video from the digital video camera 35 as a moving image or still image by executing image capturing application software for capturing a still image / moving image. In addition to pre-captured video, camera-through video can also be captured directly.

  It is also possible to capture still images taken with a digital still camera or digital video camera via the memory stick.

  Further, the notebook personal computer 1 executes application software for image viewer & image shaping processing, and executes various kinds of removable media such as hard disk, floppy disk, MO, PC card, and other card type memory, and still images in the storage.・ Centrally manage videos.

  The notebook personal computer 1 centrally manages still images and moving images in a storage such as an image server connected via a network using application software for image viewer & image shaping processing.

  Note that the notebook personal computer 1 reads the application software for image viewer and image shaping processing, etc., specifically into a RAM from a program storage medium such as a CD-ROM or HDD, and the central processing unit (CPU) reads it. Run.

  First, an example of the electrical configuration of the notebook personal computer 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The CPU 51 is constituted by, for example, a Pentium (trademark) processor manufactured by intel, and is connected to the host bus 52. A north bridge 53 is further connected to the host bus 52, and the north bridge 53 is also connected to a PCI bus 56. The north bridge 53 is composed of, for example, 400BX manufactured by intel, and controls the periphery of the CPU 51 and the main memory 54. The north bridge 53 and the south bridge 58 described later constitute a so-called chip set.

  The north bridge 53 is further connected to a main memory 54 and a cache memory 55. The cache memory 55 is configured to cache data used by the CPU 51. Although not shown, the CPU 51 also includes a primary cache memory.

  The main memory 54 is composed of, for example, a DRAM (Dynamic Read Only Memory), and stores a program executed by the CPU 51 and data necessary for the operation of the CPU 51. Specifically, the main memory 54 stores, for example, an e-mail program 54A, an autopilot program 54B, a jog dial state monitoring program 54C, a jog dial driver 54D, an operating program (OS) 54E, and other application programs 54F1 when the activation is completed. -54Fn are transferred from the HDD 67 and stored. Hereinafter, the application software for the image viewer & image shaping process is referred to as an application program 54F1.

  The e-mail program 54A is a program for sending and receiving communication text via a network from a communication line such as a telephone line 76 via a modem 75 described later. The electronic mail program 54A has an incoming mail acquisition function as a specific function. This incoming mail acquisition function checks whether a mail addressed to itself (user) is received in the mail box 79 with respect to the mail server 78 provided in the provider 77, and if there is a mail addressed to itself. Execute the acquisition process.

  The autopilot program 54B is a program for sequentially starting and processing a plurality of preset processes (or programs) in a preset order.

  The OS (basic program software) 54E controls basic operations of a computer, such as so-called Windows 95 and 98 (both are trademarks) of Microsoft Corporation, so-called Mac OS (trademark) of Apple Computer Corporation, and the like. .

  The jog dial status monitoring program 54C receives notification from each of the applications as to whether or not it is compatible with the jog dial, and operates to display what can be done by operating the jog dial 4 if it is compatible. Normally, it is waiting for an event of the jog dial 4 and has a list for receiving notifications from the application. The jog dial driver 54D executes various functions in response to the operation of the jog dial 4.

  As a specific example of the application software for image viewer & image shaping processing described as the application program 54F1, there is PictureGear (trademark). The details of this picture gear are described on the Internet homepage whose URL is http://vaio.sony.co.jp/software/PictureGear/index.html. In the following, this picture gear is software that can centrally manage still images and videos in various removable media such as hard disks, floppy disks, MO, PC cards, and other card-type memory media. . Each image can be displayed as a list by a predetermined operation, and the user can view the target image at a glance. For image shaping, you can create 360-degree panoramas and labels with photos. Furthermore, it is possible to cope with creation of an HTML album that allows images to be viewed with a WWW browser. Details will be described later.

  The video controller 57 is connected to the PCI bus 56, and controls the display on the LCD 7 on the display unit 3 based on data supplied via the PCI bus 56.

  A sound controller 64 is connected to the PCI bus 56 and takes in an input from the microphone 66 or supplies an audio signal to the speaker 65. A modem 75 is also connected to the PCI bus 56. The modem 75 can be connected to a communication network 80 such as the Internet, a mail server 78 and the like via a public telephone line 76 and an Internet service provider 77.

  A south bridge 58 is also connected to the PCI bus 56. The south bridge 58 is configured by, for example, PIIX4E manufactured by intel, and controls various I / Os (Input / Output). That is, the south bridge 58 includes an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) controller / configuration register 59, a timer circuit 60, an IDE interface 61, and the like, and is connected to the IDE bus 62 or an ISA / EIO (Industry Standard Architecture). / Extended Input Output) The device connected via the bus 63 and the embedded controller 68 is controlled.

  The IDE controller / configuration register 59 includes two IDE controllers, a so-called primary IDE controller and a secondary IDE controller, a configuration register, and the like (both not shown).

  The primary IDE controller is connected to a connector (not shown) via the IDE bus 62, and the HDD 67 is connected to the connector. The secondary IDE controller is mounted when a bay device, which is a so-called IDE device, such as a CD-ROM drive, a second HDD, or an FDD (not shown) is mounted via another IDE bus. The connector of the bay device is designed to be electrically connected.

  The HDD 67 stores in advance an electronic mail program 67A, an autopilot program 67B, a jog dial state monitoring program 67C, a jog dial driver 67D, an OS (basic program software) 67E, and application programs 67F1 to 67Fn. Here, the application program 67F1 is application software for image viewer & image shaping processing like the picture gear. Therefore, the HDD 67 is a specific example of the program storage medium of the present invention.

  The programs 67A, 67B, 67C, 67D, 67E, 67F1 to 67Fn, etc. in the HDD 67 are sequentially transferred into the RAM 54 during the boot (boot-up) process, and as described above, the e-mail program 54A, The autopilot program 54B, jog dial state monitoring program 54C, jog dial driver 54D, operating program (OS) 54E, and other application programs 54F1 to 54Fn are temporarily stored.

  An embedded controller 68 is further connected to the ISA / EIO bus 63. The embedded controller 68 comprises a microcontroller and is used as an I / O controller. That is, the embedded controller 68 is configured by connecting an I / O interface 69, a ROM 70, a RAM 71, and a CPU 72 to each other.

  In the ROM 70, an LED control program 70A, a touch pad input monitoring program 70B, a key input monitoring program 70C, a wake-up program 70D, and a jog dial state monitoring program 70E are stored in advance.

  The LED control program 70A is a program for controlling lighting of a power lamp PL, a battery lamp BL, a message lamp ML as necessary, and other lamps including LEDs. The touch pad input monitoring program 70 </ b> B is a program for monitoring user input from the touch pad 6. The key input monitoring program 70C is a program for monitoring input from the keyboard 5 and other key switches. The wake-up program 70D checks whether or not a preset time has been reached based on the current time data supplied from the timer circuit 60 in the south bridge 58. When the preset time is reached, a predetermined process ( Or a program for managing each chip power source in order to activate the program).

  The jog dial state monitoring program 70E is a program for constantly monitoring whether the rotating part of the jog dial 4 has been rotated or pressed.

  The ROM 70 further stores a basic input / output system (BIOS) 70F. The BIOS is a basic input / output system, and is a software program that controls data transfer (input / output) between the OS and application software and peripheral devices (display, keyboard, HDD, etc.).

  The RAM 71 has registers for LED control, touch pad input status, key input status, set time, I / O register for jog dial state monitoring, and the like as registers 71A to 71F. For example, the LED control register 71A controls lighting of the message lamp ML that displays an instantaneous start-up state of an e-mail described later when the jog dial 4 is pressed. The key input status register 71C stores an operation key flag when the jog dial 4 is pressed for a one-touch operation described later. The set time register 71D can arbitrarily set a certain time.

  The embedded controller 68 is connected to the jog dial 4, the touch pad 6, and the keyboard 5 through connectors (not shown), and signals corresponding to the operations of the jog dial 4, touch pad 6, and keyboard 5. Are output to the ISA / EIO bus 63. The embedded controller 68 is connected to a power lamp PL, a battery lamp BL, a message lamp ML, and other lamps including LEDs.

  A power supply control circuit 73 is further connected to the embedded controller 68. The power control circuit 73 is connected to a built-in battery 74 or an AC power supply, and supplies necessary power to each block and performs control for charging the built-in battery 74 and a second battery of a peripheral device. Has been made. The embedded controller 68 monitors the power switch 8 that is operated when the power is turned on or off.

  Further, the embedded controller 68 is connected to the IEEE 1394 port 26, and the video from the digital video camera 35 can be received by the IEEE 1394 cable 9 connected to the IEEE 1394 port 26.

  Next, referring to FIG. 3, an image viewer & image shaping processing system including the notebook personal computer 1, the Internet 80, and the image server 100 will be described.

  An example of the image server 100 is a server used in “ImageStation” (trademark) established as an image sharing service.

  This image station is a new network service using moving images and still images. By accessing the site of the image station and registering as a member, the user can upload data such as videos and still images that he owns from a personal computer and save it as an album. Saved images can be viewed and sent on your personal computer, etc., and can be used as a place for communication, such as publishing an album or uploading image data to a shared album by users with the same hobby.

  Up to now, in order to upload an image on the Internet, knowledge such as a procedure for constructing a website or a network has been required. In the image station, by incorporating the information processing apparatus and method according to the present invention into the system, the user can convert the image data on the desktop of his / her personal computer to the icon for drag and drop on the image station site. You can upload it just by placing it inside. Downloading can also be performed with a simple operation.

  Of course, what is connected to the notebook personal computer via the Internet is not limited to the image server, but may be a storage such as a large-capacity HDD or other recording medium.

  In particular, the notebook personal computer 1 includes an internal storage and an LCD 7 that displays information stored in the image server 100 connected to the outside via the Internet 80, and performs operations on the information stored in each storage. While confirming the display on the LCD 7, the user performs the same procedure using the operation unit such as the keyboard 5 and the touch pad 6.

  When the information stored in the image server 100 connected to the outside is displayed, the LCD 7 displays auxiliary information indicating that fact. The auxiliary information is indicated by a difference in folder name as will be described later, or shown in the background in the display area shown in the LCD 7.

  In the image viewer & image shaping processing system shown in FIG. 3, the picture gear window 201 displayed on the LCD 7 on the notebook personal computer 1 (local computer) has a notebook personal computer as shown in FIG. In addition to the information related to the content stored in the storage inside the computer 1, information related to the content transmitted from the image server 100 is also displayed. As described above, the image viewer & image shaping processing system stores multimedia contents such as image information stored in the internal storage through a simple operation without burdening the user operation. Display the same as display information.

  Next, the content acquisition operation on the network of the information processing system such as the image viewer & image shaping processing system will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the image viewer & image shaping processing application software is shown as client application software, and the image server 100 is shown as a server module.

  This client application software includes a connection step for performing communication connection to the image server 100 connected via the Internet 80, and image information stored in the image server 100 secured through the connection step. As in the case of the image information stored in the storage, a selection step for selecting using the operation unit while displaying on the LCD 7, and an information acquisition step for acquiring the image information from the image server 100 selected in the selection step, Is provided.

  A specific example of the connection process is a user authentication process in step S1 described later. Specific examples of the selection process are a directory listing process in step S2, which will be described later, a content acquisition process in step S3, and a necessary minimum information acquisition process in step S4. A specific example of the information acquisition process is a content acquisition process in step S5 described later.

  First, by executing the client application software, the notebook personal computer 1 performs user authentication processing (step S1). In the following description, it is assumed that the client application software is being executed by the notebook personal computer 1. User authentication includes sending accounts and passwords. As a result of this authentication, a result indicating that the user has been confirmed is sent from the server module to the client application software.

  Next, the client application software running on the notebook personal computer 1 uses the server module to know where the user-specific content or content shared by a specific group exists (hereinafter referred to as a directory). To request a directory listing. On the other hand, a directory list is transmitted from the server module to the client application software. Then, the client application software enumerates and presents the directory list to the user (step S2), and selects which directory the contents are to be confirmed. At this time, the client application software also displays a list of directories related to the content stored in the internal storage in the directory presentation area 202 described later.

  FIG. 6 shows a specific example of display related to confirmation of contents in a directory to be selected by the user. The picture gear window 201 includes a directory presentation area 202, an image display unit 203, and another image display unit 204 with an increased reduction degree. The image display unit 203 displays a large number of images as a list (sheet view display) in an arbitrary zoom state. In addition, in order to see all of a large number of images, another image display unit 204 with an increased reduction degree may be used. Further, only one image selected from the sheet view display can be displayed on the image display unit 203. The image display units 203 and 204 are enlarged / reduced by a slide operation unit 205 with a gauge for zooming in / out. The list image displayed on the sheet view or one sheet by the slide operation unit with gauge 205 can be zoomed in / out at a high speed of, for example, 12.5 to 800%.

  In the directory presentation area 202, in order to clarify the difference between the folder in the storage inside the notebook personal computer 1 and the folder in the server module connected to the outside via the Internet, the internal folder is stored. Simply present “folders” and external folders as “external connections”. In FIG. 6, content in the internal “folder” is displayed on the image display unit 203. Here, when “external connection” is selected, a desired folder (folder A or folder B) may be selected from the detailed presentation area 202 a of the external folder in the presentation area 202.

  Here, for example, when the folder B is selected, the client application software requests a list of contents existing in the directory of the folder B from the server module. If the server module transmits the content list in response to the content list request, the client application software can acquire the content list (step S3).

  The client application software requests a part of each content from the server module in order to acquire the minimum necessary information for all the contents acquired in step S3 (step S4). On the other hand, the server module transmits a part of each content. Here, the minimum necessary information is, for example, an image thumbnail or a frame of a moving image.

  FIG. 7 shows a thumbnail image 206 displayed on the image display unit 203 by the client application software. By looking at the thumbnail image 206, the user can grasp the content before obtaining the content, and can obtain a criterion for selecting necessary data. This processing is actively performed by the application software without user operation. For this reason, the user can grasp the contents of the contents existing there simply by selecting the directory. At this time, the image display unit 203 displays auxiliary information 207 representing an image station on the background of the thumbnail image 206. This is to distinguish the internal storage information display form from the image display form of the image station.

  In step S4, the client application software acquires the minimum necessary content information, displays it as the thumbnail image 206 on the image display unit 203, and when the user determines that the user wants to acquire data by viewing it, the user's In response to the operation, the application software acquires all contents (step S5). The operation at this time can be performed by the same operation as the operation on the content in the local computer. This operation is, for example, file copying, image display, or the like.

  Next, the content transmission operation on the network by the information processing system will be described with reference to FIG. Again, user authentication (step S11), directory listing (step S12), content acquisition (step S13), and acquisition of minimum necessary information (step S14) are performed in steps S1 to S1 shown in FIG. This is performed in the same manner as step S4.

  Then, the contents in the client's local computer (notebook personal computer 1) are transferred to the server module (step S15). The operation at this time can be performed by the same operation as the operation on the content in the local computer. Specifically, operations such as file pasting and drag & drop. More specifically, a local folder stored in the internal storage is opened in the directory presentation area 202 in the picture gear window 201 shown in FIG. 6, and a content image is displayed on the image display unit 203. A desired image is selected from the images and dragged and dropped into a folder in the image station presented in the directory presentation area 202.

  According to the notebook personal computer incorporated in the image viewer & image shaping processing system, content that does not actually exist on the personal computer side can be presented to the user as if it existed. it can. By handling the content on the network with the same operation as the content operation in the local computer that the user is used to, the user interface (UI) can be unified, and the operations that the user has to learn can be reduced.

  Here, the notebook personal computer 1 reads out the image viewer & image shaping processing application software shown in FIGS. 5 and 8 from a medium storing a program such as an HDD, and executes it on the CPU. Yes. When the image viewer & image shaping processing apparatus is configured using only hardware, the apparatus becomes considerably large, but the hardware configuration can be simplified.

  In the above embodiment, specific examples of handling image information such as still images and moving images have been described. However, the information may be music information or text information.

  For example, in the case of audio information, in step S4 shown in FIG. 5, for example, the title and artist name of music information may be displayed, or an intro for several seconds may be played.

  1 notebook personal computer, 5 keyboard, 6 touchpad, 7 LCD, 51 CPU, 67F1 image viewer & image shaping processing application software, 67F2 image upload / download application software, 100 image server

Claims (11)

An internal storage unit for storing internal content ;
A connection unit that transmits and receives data via the Internet with a server that stores external content ;
A content acquisition unit for acquiring the internal content and the external content;
Via the connection unit transmits the account and password to the server, receives the directory list indicating the location of at least user-specific content from the server, in one screen, and organic and directories presentation area and the content presentation area to the display unit, the above-mentioned directory presentation area, displays both external directory information on the external content based on the directory list received from the internal directory information and the server relating to the internal contents, the content presentation area of the display unit the, according to the user selection for internal or external directory information of the directory presentation area, and controls to display either of the internal contents information or the external content information, the external directory for the internal content Based on the drag-and-drop operation to re information, and a control unit for controlling to transmit to said server via said connection portion
An information processing apparatus comprising: When the display unit displays the external content information in the content presentation area, the control unit displays at least one auxiliary information indicating that the external content information is being viewed around the external content information. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is controlled so as to be displayed . The information processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the auxiliary information is not displayed in the directory presentation area.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external directory information includes second auxiliary information indicating that the external directory information is directory information related to external content. The content acquisition unit acquires partial information of the external content when the display unit displays the external content information according to a user selection,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays the partial information. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein when the external content is an image, the partial information includes a thumbnail image. The control unit controls to display the operation icon in the vicinity of the content presentation area to said display unit,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a display size of the display unit for the internal or external content information is enlarged or reduced by operating the operation icon. The control unit displays either the internal content information or the external content information in the vicinity of the content presentation area with respect to the display unit according to a user selection for the internal or external directory information in the directory presentation area. Control to display other content presentation areas that are configured to display,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a display size of the internal or external content information in the other content presentation area is smaller than a display size of the internal or external content information in the content presentation area. The controller may, in the directory presentation area, among the internal directory information and the external directory information, according to claim 1, wherein the control so as to display the information indicating information and the external storage showing the internal storage as the same hierarchy Information processing device. The control unit may, with respect to the display unit, controls to display either of the internal contents information or the external content information as a list in the content presentation region,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the internal directory information or the external directory information is continuously displayed while the list is displayed in the content presentation area. A content storage step of storing internal content in the internal storage unit;
A data transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving data via a connection unit via the Internet and a server storing external content;
A content acquisition step of acquiring the internal content and the external content by a content acquisition unit;
A display unit that transmits an account and a password to the server via the connection unit, receives a directory list indicating the location of at least user-specific content from the server, and has a directory presentation region and a content presentation region in one screen Both the internal directory information related to the internal content and the external directory information related to the external content based on the directory list received from the server are displayed in the directory presenting area, and the directory presenting area of the display unit displays the directory According to the user selection of the internal or external directory information in the presentation area, control is performed to display either the internal content information or the external content information, and the internal content information is transferred to the external directory information. Based on Tsu grayed-and-drop operation, and a control step of controlling to transmit to said server via said connection portion
An information processing method comprising:

Images