JPH07325718A - Message transmission controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a message transmission controller which can easily secure the compatibility even when the arranged object is replaced and also can shorten its processing time. CONSTITUTION:A-message is received by a message receiver means 13. Then arithmetic expression of the message is taken out of a positional relation management means 12 by a transmission destination deciding means 14. The means 14 calculates the position information from the object identifier of the transmitter side of the message, the positional relation identifier and the arithmetic expression which are included in the message. The identifier of the object included in the position information is taken out of an object management means 11 by the means 14. Then the event identifier which is received for the object to be identified by the object identifier that is taken out by the means 14 is transmitted by a message transmitter means 15.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inter-object message transmission control device, and more particularly to an inter-object message transmission control device having position information such as coordinates in space.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, object orientation has been attracting attention. Message handling is one of the characteristic elements of object orientation. In object-oriented, it is not necessary to instruct how-to-do to operate an object as a message,
The feature is that only t-to-do needs to be indicated. An object is a collection of procedures for performing calculations and operations, the information itself necessary for the procedures, and areas for storing the information, but in this specification, the simulation will be performed as shown below. It is used as limited as what can be displayed when performing.

As a conventional message transmitting apparatus for an object, there is one using the following two message transmitting methods. Here, it is assumed that an object representing a button of a remote controller of a device such as a television is arranged on a plane or the like on the screen to simulate the button arrangement. In other words, it is assumed that a specific object is selected from objects showing various kinds of buttons and the like, and the optimum arrangement is determined by replacing the arranged object.

The first message transmission method is a method of transmitting the designated event identifier to the designated object by designating the object identifier, which is the identifier of the destination object, together with the event identifier, which is the identifier indicating the operation content. is there. In other words, the action content is specified for the object itself. For example, it is assumed that objects are arranged as shown in FIG. At this time, when an event identifier is operated to transmit an event identifier to a box object displaying a channel number indicated by 62, the transmission destination is determined by accepting the object identifier of the box object.

The second message transmission method is a broadcasting-type message transmission method of designating a class to which an object belongs and transmitting an event identifier to all the objects belonging to the designated class. The object receiving the event identifier has a control method of processing the event if the event can be processed. Here, the class defines common features of similar objects.

[0006]

However, according to the first conventional message transmission method, when an object arranged two-dimensionally or the like is replaced, the object identifier of the transmission destination needs to be changed each time the object is replaced. It was troublesome to have sex. On the other hand, the second conventional message sending method requires a process of sending an event to all objects belonging to a specified class and determining whether all objects receiving the event can process the event. . Therefore, it is easy to maintain consistency even if the objects are replaced, but on the other hand, when the number of objects belonging to the specified class becomes large, the processing amount on the computer becomes enormous and the processing time will be large. There was a problem of this.

In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide a message transmission control device that can easily obtain consistency even when the placed objects are replaced and does not take a long time to process.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to claim 1 of the present invention, information indicating an object identifier for identifying an object and coordinates and a size in an area where the object is to be arranged. The position information is calculated using as parameters the object management means that stores one or more sets having the area specifying information and the positional relationship identifier indicating the positional relationship between the object identifier and the object identified by the object identifier. A positional relationship managing means for storing the arithmetic expression, a message receiving means for receiving a message consisting of an object identifier for identifying an object of a message transmission source, a positional relationship identifier, and an event identifier which is an identifier for instructing operation contents. , The arithmetic expression managed by the positional relationship management means Out, to evaluate the arithmetic expression to calculate the position information in the space and the positional relationship identifier and transmission source object identifier of the message contained in the message received by the message reception means as a parameter,
The message receiving means receives the object identifier of the object including the calculated position information from the object managing means, and the message receiving means for the object identified by the object identifier extracted by the destination determining means. And a message delivery means for transmitting the event identifier.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the message transmission control device further includes a positional relation indicating means for receiving positional relation indicating information which is a pair of a vector having a direction and a length and a positional relation identifier in the space, and the position. An arithmetic expression stored by the relationship management means is generated from the positional relationship instruction information received by the positional relationship instruction means, and the positional relationship generation means is stored in the positional relationship management means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, instead of the positional relationship managing means, a set of an arrangement coordinate of a message transmission source object, a positional relation identifier, and an arrangement coordinate of an object of a message transmission destination is stored as positional coordinate relation information. Further, in place of the destination determining means, the identifier of the object of the sender of the message accepted by the message input means and the positional coordinate relationship information stored in the positional coordinate relationship managing means are provided. Using the placement coordinates of the destination object to retrieve the object identifier of the destination object from the object management means using the location coordinates and the area specifying information managed by the object management means, the destination object determination Means for delivering the message to the destination. Characterized in that the object identified by the object identifier extracted in object determining means for transmitting the event identifier received in the message reception means.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the message transmission control device further comprises: an object arranging means for arranging the objects stored in the object managing means in a space; and an object arranged by the object arranging means. A vector received by the positional-relationship receiving unit, the positional-relationship receiving unit receiving a vector shown between desired objects and a positional-relationship identifier corresponding to the vector, and the positional-coordinate relation information managed by the positional-coordinate relation managing unit. And a positional relationship identifier, and a positional coordinate relationship generating means for storing the positional coordinate relationship management means in the positional coordinate relationship managing means.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, an object management means for storing at least one set having an object identifier and area specifying information, and an area for storing an area identifier for identifying an area and area information indicating a range of the area. The area information managed by the area managing means is extracted by using the managing means, the message receiving means for receiving the message including the area identifier and the event identifier, and the area identifier received by the message receiving means, and the area information A destination identification unit that extracts the object identifier of an object included in the region indicated by the region information by the region identification information managed by the object management unit, and an object that is identified by the object identifier extracted by the destination determination unit. On the other hand, the event accepted by the message acceptance means Characterized in that a message delivery means for transmitting the Besshi.

[0013]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, an event which is an object identifier for identifying an object of a message sender and a positional relationship identifier indicating a positional relationship between the object identified by the object identifier and an identifier for instructing operation contents The message including the identifier is accepted by the message accepting means. Next, with the object identifier and the positional relationship identifier as parameters, the arithmetic expression is extracted by the transmission destination determining means from the positional relationship management means that stores the arithmetic expression for calculating the positional information. The location information in the space is calculated by the destination determining means by evaluating the arithmetic expression with the object identifier of the sender of the message included in the message accepted by the message accepting means and the positional relationship identifier as parameters. The object identifier of the object including the calculated position information stores at least one set having an object identifier and area specifying information which is information indicating coordinates and a size in an area where the object is to be arranged. It is retrieved from the object management means by the destination determination means. The event identifier accepted by the message accepting means is transmitted by the message delivering means to the object identified by the object identifier extracted by the destination determining means.

In the second aspect, the positional relationship indicating information, which is a pair of the vector having the direction and the length and the positional relationship identifier in the space, is accepted by the positional relationship indicating means. The arithmetic expression stored in the positional relationship management means is generated by the positional relationship generation means from the positional relationship instruction information received by the positional relationship instruction means. Then, the arithmetic expression is stored in the positional relationship managing means by the positional relationship generating means.

In the third aspect, the set of the arrangement coordinates of the message transmission source object, the positional relationship identifier, and the arrangement coordinates of the message transmission destination object is stored as positional coordinate relationship information by the positional coordinate relationship management means. The arrangement coordinates of the destination object are extracted by the destination object determining means using the identifier of the source object of the message received by the message input means and the positional coordinate relationship information stored in the positional coordinate relationship managing means. Further, the object identifier of the destination object is retrieved by the destination object determining means from the object managing means using the arrangement coordinates and the area specifying information managed by the object managing means.

The event identifier accepted by the message accepting means is transmitted by the message delivering means to the object identified by the object identifier retrieved by the destination object determining means.
In the fourth aspect, the object stored in the object management means is arranged in the space by the object arrangement means. Among the objects arranged by the object arranging means, a vector shown between desired objects and a positional relationship identifier corresponding to the vector are received by the positional relationship receiving means. The positional coordinate relationship information managed by the positional coordinate relationship managing means is generated by the positional coordinate relationship generating means based on the vector and the positional relationship identifier received by the positional relationship receiving means.
Then, the positional coordinate relation management information is stored in the positional coordinate relation management means by the positional coordinate relation management means.

In the fifth aspect, the message including the area identifier for identifying the area and the event identifier is accepted by the message accepting means. Using the area identifier received by the message reception means, the area information managed by the area management means that stores the area identifier and the area information indicating the range of the area is retrieved by the destination determination means. Then, the object identifier of the object included in the area indicated by the area information by the extracted area information and the area specifying information managed by the object management means that stores one or more pairs having the object identifier and the area specifying information. Is taken out by the destination determining means. The event identifier accepted by the message accepting means is transmitted by the message delivering means to the object identified by the object identifier retrieved by the destination determining means.

[0018]

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the environment surrounding the message transmission control device of the present invention. This figure comprises a message transmission control device 1, a simulation device 2, an input unit 3, and a display unit 4. The simulation device 2
For example, as shown in FIG. 6, an object or the like representing a button or the like of the remote controller of the television is displayed on the display unit 4. Further, an object representing a button or the like is virtually regarded as a button on the remote controller, and an operation instruction from the user is received via the input unit 3. Then, the state displayed on the display unit 4 is changed according to the received instruction. Further, as an example of the operation instruction, there is an instruction to select the object indicating the channel button 61 in FIG. 6 and change the channel from 12 to 1. Further, the replacement of the objects representing these buttons and the like is also performed by the simulation device 2 upon receiving an instruction from the user via the input unit 3. The replacement means, for example, replacing the object, which is shown in FIG. 6 and which shows the channel box for displaying the current channel number, with another type of channel box having a different display method. The simulation device 2 also has a converter 5 inside. The conversion unit 5 will be described later.

The display unit 4 is realized by a CRT or the like. The input unit 3 is realized by a keyboard, a mouse or the like. Converter 5
When the simulation device 2 receives via the input unit 3 an operation instruction by the user when an object representing a button or the like is virtually regarded as a button of a remote controller, the message transmission control device 1 creates a message to be sent to 1 and sends it to the message sending controller 1. The message is, in the first embodiment, the object identifier of the transmission source, the positional relationship identifier, and the event identifier. The transmission source object identifier is an identifier of the transmission source, that is, the object that is the current operation target. The event identifier is an identifier that represents an event. The positional relationship identifier is an identifier representing a positional relationship such as "up, down, left, right". This is, for example, 61 in FIG.
When the object that represents the channel button of is operated by the user and accepts an event of changing the channel, it indicates to which position the object should be sent based on the content of the event. , Left, right ”and so on.

The message transmission control device 1 receives a message from the conversion unit 5 and determines to which object the event identifier should be sent. Specifically, it is shown in FIG. This figure shows an object management unit 11, a positional relationship management unit 12, a message reception unit 13, and a destination determination unit 1.
4, message delivery means 15, positional relationship instruction means 16,
It is composed of the positional relationship generating means 17.

The object managing means 11 is an object identifier for identifying an object, position information represented by coordinates (x coordinate and y coordinate) in the two-dimensional space, and area information indicating a size in the two-dimensional space. One or more objects having (width and height) as attribute information are managed. Further, an event for a managed object is accepted, and as a result, an event generated from the object, an instruction for the display unit 4, and the like are sent to the simulation device 2. FIG. 4 shows an example of the contents of the attribute information of the objects that are specifically managed. As an object in this case, as shown by 61 to 67 in FIG. 6, objects showing components such as buttons of the remote controller of the television are given as an example. First, the object identifier 41 is an identifier for identifying an object. The 42 class is a name when the objects are grouped in the same group, and is composed of three types of classes, panel, button and box. Next, the shape of 43 is the displayed shape of the object showing these buttons and the like shown in FIG. The size of 44 is the size of the portion indicated by the shape 43, where W is the horizontal width and H is the height (vertical width). Then, the shape 43 and the size 44 are combined to form area information. The arrangement coordinates of 45 are position information,
Specifically, these buttons and the like are coordinates to be arranged in the TV operation panel indicated by 67. In addition, an object whose layout coordinates have no value is displayed on the TV operation panel 67.
Indicates that it is not placed in. The 46 candidate data are numerical values and characters to be displayed in boxes such as 62, 64, and 65 in FIG. When the focus is ON, it indicates that it is the current operation target, and when it is OFF, it indicates that it is not the current operation target.

Among the managed objects, the button object is an object for a switch for operation, accepts the operation as an event, and as a result, generates an event for another object. The object that indicates a box is an object that displays a value that is the operation result of a button by accepting an event. The object showing the panel is an object showing a portion where the objects showing these buttons and boxes are to be arranged.

The positional relationship managing means 12 is "upper, lower, left,
The arithmetic expression used to calculate the specific coordinates in the two-dimensional space is stored by using the positional relationship identifier indicating the positional relationship such as “right” and the object identifier of the transmission source which is the current operation target as parameters. As an example of the formula, as a general formula, f (O, L) = (get_x (O) + get
V_x (L), get_y (O) + getV_y
(L)). “O” is an object identifier of a transmission source which is currently an operation target, and L means a positional relationship identifier. Here, get_x (O) means the x component of the arrangement coordinate of the object indicated by the object identifier of the transmission source which is the current operation target, and similarly get_x (O).
y (O) means the y component of the arrangement coordinates of the object. Further, getV_x (L) and getV_y (L) are values stored in correspondence with the positional relationship identifiers, specifically, the positional relationship identifiers "up" and "
Vectors corresponding to respective positional relationship identifiers are “(0, −20)”, “(0,
20) ”,“ (30,0) ”, and“ (−30,0) ”, getV_x (top) = 0 getV_x (bottom) = 0 getV_x (right) = 30 getV_x (left) = − 30 getV_y (upper) =-20 getV_y (lower) = 20 getV_y (right) = 0 getV_y (left) = 0.

The message accepting means 13 accepts a message from the converting section 5. Here, as a specific example of the message, it is assumed that (volume button, up, focus movement) is accepted. As shown in FIG. 6, the volume button is the object identifier of the volume button 63 indicating the object currently operated by the user. The focus movement is an instruction of the received operation content. Above is
It is the received positional relationship identifier.

The destination determining means 14 retrieves from the object managing means 11 the arrangement coordinates of the object indicated by the object identifier of the sender in the message accepted by the message accepting means 13. As an example, if the transmission source object identifier is "volume button", the arrangement coordinates (5, 30) indicated by the object identifier are retrieved from the object management means 11 shown in FIG. Next, the positional relationship management unit 1 uses the positional relationship identifier among the messages received by the message receiving unit 13.
The arithmetic expression controlled by 2 is taken out. Specific coordinates in the quadratic space are calculated from the extracted arrangement coordinates and the arithmetic expression. As an example, the received positional relationship identifier is "upper"
Since the arrangement coordinates are (5, 30), from the arithmetic expression “f (O, L)” extracted from the positional relationship management means 12,
f (volume button, up) = (get_x (O) + getV
_X (top), get_y (O) + getV_y (top))
= (5 + 0,30-20) = (5,10)
A specific coordinate “(5,10)” is calculated.

Then, of the attribute information of the object, the object having the attribute information including the specific coordinates in the area represented by the arrangement coordinates and the size is specified, and the object identifier of the object is retrieved from the object management means 11. . However, among the object identifiers to be extracted, the object identifiers of objects whose class is panel are excluded from the objects to be extracted. As a specific example, the area including the specific coordinate “(5, 10)” in the area represented by the arrangement coordinate and the size is the arrangement coordinate which is the attribute information of the object “channel button” shown in FIG. Since the area is represented by "(5, 10)" and the size (20, 10), it is specified as an object having the arrangement coordinates and the size representing the area as attribute information, and the object identifier is extracted.

The message delivery means 15 sends the event identifier accepted by the message accepting means 13 to the object identified by the object identifier retrieved by the destination determining means 14. As an example, the event identifier “focus movement” is transmitted to the object identifier “channel button”. The positional relationship instruction means 16 receives positional relationship instruction information including a vector having a direction and a length and a positional relationship identifier. A vector having a direction and a length means "↑ ↓" on the left side in FIG.
→ ← ”, etc., and these are input by a graphic editor or the like.

The positional relationship generation means 17 generates an arithmetic expression to be stored in the positional relationship management means 12 from the positional relationship instruction information received by the positional relationship instruction means 16. Specifically, from a vector having these directions and lengths input by a graphic editor or the like, the expression “(X,
Y) ”is used to generate the arithmetic expression stored in the positional relationship managing means 12 in association with the positional relationship identifier.

Regarding the control operation of the positional relationship indicating means 16 and the positional relationship generating means 17, an arithmetic expression is generated according to FIG. Next, the control for determining the destination of the message will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. As an example, assume a case where a message is transmitted from an object indicating a volume button 63 in FIG. 6 to an object indicating a volume box 64. Specifically, when the volume button is operated to increase the volume, the message (volume button, right, volume increase) is generated by the conversion unit 5.

First, a message is accepted. Therefore, the object identifier is "volume button", the positional relationship identifier is "right", and the event identifier is "
"Increase in volume" is accepted (steps S301 to S304). From the "volume button", which is the identifier of the object of the object of the message transmission source accepted next, is the arrangement coordinate of that object managed in FIG. 4 ( 5, 30) is taken out (step S30
5). Furthermore, it is the arrangement coordinate and the positional relation identifier.
The specific coordinates (35, 30) are calculated based on "right" (step S306).
Judges whether the object including the specific coordinates is stored in the object management means 11 based on the arrangement coordinates and the size shown in FIG. 4 (step S30).
7). Here, since the specific coordinates (35, 30) are included in the volume box 1, the object including the coordinates is determined to be “volume box 1”. Next, the event identifier "volume increase" is transmitted to the object identifier "volume box 1" (step S307).
-Step S310).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, by determining the destination object in the directions such as up, down, left and right, when the placement of the object is changed or the placed object is replaced, etc. In addition, the message can be transmitted normally and at high speed without rewriting the message transmission instruction. In addition, in the present embodiment, one destination object could be specified, but there may be a plurality of objects that include the calculated specific coordinates. At this time, the destination object may be determined by giving priority to a plurality of objects, or the event may be transmitted to all the objects including the calculated coordinates.

Although only one vector corresponding to each positional relationship identifier is shown in the present embodiment, a plurality of vectors may be shown. When a plurality of vectors corresponding to the respective positional relationship identifiers are shown, the destination object may be determined by giving priority to the vectors, or the plurality of vectors may be set to f.
You may evaluate as a parameter of (O, L), calculate a some specific coordinate, and may transmit an event to all the objects containing a some specific coordinate. Alternatively, an object 1 that most contains a plurality of calculated specific coordinates.
You may send an event to any one.

In this embodiment, the space is 2
Although the example of the dimensional space is shown, even if the dimensional space is 3
It may be a dimensional space. The dimensionality of the space may be any dimensionality. In this embodiment, the coordinate system is xy.
Although the coordinate system is used, any coordinate system may be used as long as the coordinate system can specify the position in the space.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a message transmission control device in the second embodiment of the present invention. This figure shows an object management unit 21, a position coordinate relationship management unit 22, a message reception unit 23, and a destination object determination unit 2.
4, message delivery means 25, object placement means 2
6, a positional relationship instructing means 27 and a positional relationship generating means 28.

Since the environment surrounding the message transmission control device in this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment,
The description is omitted, and the object management means 21, the message reception means 23, and the message delivery means 25 of this embodiment are the same as the object management means 11, the message reception means 13, and the message delivery means 15 of the first embodiment. Therefore, the description is omitted here.

As shown in FIG. 11, the positional coordinate relationship management means 22 determines the arrangement coordinates of the source object and "up,
A pair of a positional relationship identifier such as "bottom, left, right" and the arrangement coordinates of the destination object is stored in association with each other. As a stored example, each set shown in FIG. 11 corresponds to the directions of the instructions 101 to 109 shown in FIG. That is, for example, 101 means the direction of the instruction from the channel button 111 to the channel box 112. The corresponding set of positional relationship identifiers and arrangement coordinates shown in FIG. 11 is 11a. It is the arrangement coordinates of the transmission source object of 11a (5, 10) as shown in FIG.
It can be seen from the arrangement coordinates of the "channel button", and the arrangement coordinates (40, 10) of the destination object are the arrangement coordinates of the "channel box" according to FIG. Similarly, other pairs of positional relationships and arrangement coordinates also correspond to the directions of instructions shown in FIG. , The respective arrangement coordinates correspond to the arrangement coordinates of the object stored in FIG.

The destination object determining means 24 retrieves from the object managing means 21 the arrangement coordinates of the object indicated by the source object identifier received by the message receiving means 23. As an example, if the transmission source object identifier is "volume button", the arrangement coordinates (5, 30) indicated by the object identifier are taken out from the object management means 21 shown in FIG. The placement coordinates of the destination object stored in the location coordinate relationship management means 22 are retrieved using the retrieved placement coordinates of the transmission source object and the location relationship identifier accepted by the message acceptance means. As an example, since the retrieved arrangement coordinates are (5, 30) and the received positional relationship identifier is "upper", the positional coordinate relationship managing means 22 arranges the arrangement coordinates (5 10) is taken out based on the set of 11b in FIG. Then, the object indicated by the arrangement coordinates is specified based on the arrangement coordinates, and the object identifier of the object is taken out from the object management means 21. As an example, the object identifier “channel button” is taken out based on the arrangement coordinates of (5, 10).

The object placement means 26 places the objects stored in the object management means 21 on a plane. Specifically, the objects having the attribute information shown in FIG. 4 are sequentially arranged based on the arrangement coordinates. At that time, if the placement coordinates are not stored in the object management means 21, they are excluded from the placement targets. Further, the arranged state is shown in FIG.

The positional relationship instructing means 27 accepts the designation of the vector between the objects arranged by the object arranging means 26 as shown in FIG. 10 and the positional relationship identifier corresponding to the vector. In this case, the vectors 101 to 109 shown in FIG. 10 are designated by a graphic editor or the like. Further, it is assumed that the object identifier of the transmission source object and the transmission destination object identifier can be specified from this vector.

From the vector and the positional relationship identifier received by the positional relationship instructing means 27, the positional relationship generating means 28 uses the arrangement coordinates of the source object, the positional relationship identifier and the object identifier of the destination object as shown in FIG. The following positional relationship information is generated. Specifically, the object identifier of the transmission source object and the object identifier of the transmission destination object are specified from the vector received by the positional relationship instructing means 27. As an example, 10
If it is the vector shown in FIG. 1, the object identifier of the transmission source object is specified as “channel button” of 111 in FIG. 6, and the object identifier of the transmission destination object is specified as “channel box” of 112 in FIG. It Then, the placement coordinates of these objects are retrieved from the object management means 21 from the object identifiers of the source objects and the object identifiers of the destination objects. For example, since the object identifier of the transmission source is "channel button", the arrangement coordinates (5, 10) are taken out, and the object identifier of the transmission destination is "channel box".
The arrangement coordinates (40, 10) are taken out. In this case, if the positional relationship identifier “right” received by the positional relationship instructing means 27 is accepted, this positional relationship identifier “right”, the arrangement coordinates (5, 1, 1) of the extracted source object
0) and the placement coordinates of the destination object (40, 10)
By this, the positional relationship information shown in 11a is generated.

The positional relationship information generating operation control by the object arranging means 26, the positional relationship instructing means 27, and the positional relationship generating means 28 in the message transmission control method configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. . First, it is determined whether or not the placement coordinates of the object exist in the attribute information of the object management means 21 shown in FIG. 4 (steps S901 to S90).
3) Only those having arrangement coordinates are arranged on the plane (steps S904, S905). this is,
The state in which all objects managed by the object management means 21 are placed and arranged is the state shown in FIG. Next, the designation of a vector between objects and a positional relationship identifier corresponding to the vector is received for the arranged objects (step S906). Then, from the received vector and positional relationship identifier, positional relationship information including the arrangement coordinates of the source object, the positional relationship identifier, and the object identifier of the destination object as shown in FIG. 11 is generated (steps S908 to S9).
11).

Next, the control for determining the message destination will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. As an example, assume a case where a message is transmitted from an object indicating a volume button 63 in FIG. 6 to an object indicating a volume box 64. Specifically, this is when the volume button is operated to increase the volume.

First, an object identifier, a positional relationship identifier, and an event identifier of the message transmission source object are received as a message (steps S301 to S304). The message in this case is (volume button, right, volume increase) as an example. Therefore, "volume button" is accepted as the object identifier, "right" is accepted as the positional relationship identifier, and "volume increase" is accepted as the event identifier. Next, the placement coordinates of the object that is the source of the received message are retrieved from the object identifier (step S305).
For example, using the received object identifier "volume button", the arrangement coordinates (5, 30) of the object managed in FIG. 4 are extracted. Further, the arrangement coordinates (30, 30) of the destination object are calculated based on the arrangement coordinates and the positional relationship identifier "right" and the positional relationship information shown in FIG. 11 (step S).
306). Further, the transmission destination determining means 14 determines whether the object including the specific coordinates is stored in the object managing means 11 based on the arrangement coordinates and the size shown in FIG. 4 (step S307). here,
Since the arrangement coordinates (30, 30) are included in the volume box 1, the object including the coordinates is determined to be “volume box 1”. Next is the event identifier "
“Volume increase” is transmitted to “volume box 1” which is the object identifier (steps S307 to S31).
0).

As described above, according to this embodiment, the identifier of the destination object is determined by associating the positional relationship identifier with each of the source objects.
Even if the object on the plane changes to another object due to replacement, etc., it is possible to send a message to another object at the specified position without rewriting the message transmission command, and further, the specified position is It can be specified flexibly.

Next, a third embodiment will be described. The environment surrounding the message transmission control device in the third embodiment is shown in FIG. 5 as in the first embodiment. However, the conversion unit 5 in the figure differs from the first embodiment in the message to be sent to the message transmission control device 1. The message in this embodiment is a region identifier that is a region identifier and an event identifier. Here, the area is shown in FIG.
An area in which an object as shown in 5 is to be placed. The area identifier is determined by the content of the accepted event and the object identifier of the object that is currently the operation target. For example, in FIG. 16 showing the arranged objects, when the object “? Button” is pressed by the user and the event “display” of the help message is accepted, the transmission destination is based on the object identifier of the object and the content of the event. The area identifier of the area is determined.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a message transmission control device according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the object managing means 31, the area managing means 32, the message receiving means 33, the destination determining means 34, the message delivering means 35, the object arranging means 36, the area designating means 3 are shown.
7, area information generating means 38. Further, since the message delivery means 35 of the present embodiment and the message delivery means 15 of the first embodiment are the same, description thereof will be omitted here.

The object management means 31 has an object identifier and coordinates in the two-dimensional space (x coordinate and y coordinate).
One or more objects having attribute information such as position information represented by and area information (width and height) indicating the size in the two-dimensional space are managed. FIG. 14 shows an example of the content of the attribute information of the objects that are specifically managed. "Contents of character string" shown in 141
The attribute is an attribute of an object belonging to a character string class and indicates a character string to be displayed. The “include object” attribute 142 is an attribute of an object belonging to the panel class, and describes the object identifier of the object to be arranged in the panel. If the "arrangement (X, Y)" attribute in FIG. 14 is blank (NULL), it means that the object is not currently arranged by the object arrangement means 36.

The area management means 32 stores the area identifier which is the identifier of the destination area and the area management information consisting of the plane coordinates (X, Y) and the size (W, H) consisting of width and height. . An example of the stored contents is shown in FIG. This figure shows the area management information of each area shown in FIG. The message accepting means 33 accepts a message including an area identifier and an event identifier.
Specific examples of the message include (help area, display). "Display" is the help message shown in FIG. 16 while the "? Button" shown in FIG. 16 is being pressed.
This means an event of displaying "movie", "speech", and "music". The "help area" indicates an area identifier of an area to which this event is sent.

The destination determining means 34 uses the area identifier accepted by the message accepting means 33 to extract the area management information managed by the area managing means 32. The area management information is a pair of plane coordinates and size shown in FIG. For example, the received area identifier is "help area"
If so, using this, the plane coordinates (40, 0) and the size (60, 50) stored in FIG. 20 are extracted.
Next, the object identifier of the object in the area is retrieved from the object management means 31 using the area management information and the attribute information of the object shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 21, the object arranging means 36 displays an object whose attribute information is managed by the object managing means 31 on a plane as shown in FIG.
Arrange as shown in. And the object management means 3
“Placement coordinates (X, Y)” (see FIG. 14), which is the attribute of the object to be managed as 1, is determined. The determined “placement coordinates (X, Y)” is the object management means 3
1 and the attribute information is determined as shown in FIGS.

The area designating means 37 receives the area and area identifier shown in the figure editor. An example of the area is a frame written by a graphic editor shown by 151 to 154 shown in FIG. The area information generating means 38 converts the area shown by the area instructing means 37 into plane coordinates (X, Y) and a size (W, H) consisting of width and height, and the area instructing means 37 converts it. The received area identifier is stored in the area management means 32 as shown in FIG.

Next, the control for determining the message transmission destination will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. As an example, the “?” Of 181 displayed in FIG.
It is assumed that a message is sent from the object representing the "button" to the "help area" shown in Fig. 15. Specifically, "? This is when the user presses the "button" to display a help message as shown on the right side of FIG.

First, the object identifier and the area identifier of the message transmission source object are received as a message (steps S1301 to S130).
3). In this case, the message is (? Button,
Display). Therefore, "help area" is accepted as the area identifier, and "display" is accepted as the event identifier. Next, the plane coordinates and size of the area are extracted from the received area identifier (step S1304). As an example, "help area" which is the area identifier received
Is the plane coordinates (40, 0) and the size (60, 5) of the object managed in FIG.
0) and are taken out. Next, the destination determining unit 34 determines whether the object contained in the area indicated by the extracted plane coordinates and size is managed by the object managing unit 31, and if the object is managed, the object is determined. Object identifier is extracted (step S13
05-step S1308). As an example, according to FIG. 14, the objects included in the area indicated by the plane coordinates (40, 0) and the size (60, 50) are “movie”, “speech”, and “music”. The object identifier of is retrieved. Next, the event identifier is transmitted to these retrieved object identifiers (step S1310).

As described above, according to this embodiment, by designating a predefined area as the message destination, the message is transmitted to the objects arranged in the area and the arrangement of the objects is changed. When the message becomes empty or the object to be placed is replaced, the message can be sent normally and at high speed without rewriting the message sending instruction.

Although a specific example has been described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 18, it may be described with reference to FIGS. 17 and 19, respectively.

[0056]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the identifier of the destination object is determined by evaluating the arithmetic expression having the source object identifier and the positional relationship identifier as parameters. When the previous object is replaced by another object due to replacement or the like, there is no need to rewrite the message sending command, and the object of the message sending destination is determined when the placement is fixed, so the processing is not delayed. .

According to the second aspect of the invention, the positional relation information is received by the positional relation indicating means, and the positional relation generating equation is used to generate the arithmetic formula. Can be defined as one. In the invention of claim 3, since the identifier of the destination object is determined using the object identifier of the transmission source, the positional relationship identifier, and the positional coordinate relationship information, the destination object is replaced with another object by pasting or the like. In case of changing, it is not necessary to rewrite the message transmission command, and since the object of the message transmission destination is determined at the stage when the arrangement is fixed, there is an effect that the processing is not delayed,
In addition, since the positional coordinate relationship information is provided corresponding to each source object, the destination can be flexibly designated.

According to the invention of claim 4, the objects stored in the object management means are arranged by the object arrangement means, the vector and the positional relation identifier corresponding to the vector are received by the positional relation receiving means, and the vector and the positional relation identifier are received. Since the position coordinate relationship information is generated by and, the destination can be defined as desired.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when the message destination is designated by the area identifier and the object placed in the area identified by the area identifier is replaced by another object by replacement or the like, a message is displayed. There is no need to rewrite the send command, and the object to which the message is sent is determined at the stage when the arrangement is fixed, so there is the effect that processing will not be delayed, and in addition, even if there are multiple objects in the area, it is sent securely be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a message transmission control device according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing arithmetic expression generation operation control in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing control for determining a message transmission destination.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing attribute information of objects managed by the object management means 11.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an environment surrounding a message transmission control device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example in which objects managed by object management means 11 are displayed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing correspondence between vectors and positional relationship identifiers.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a message transmission control device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing control of object placement and positional relationship information generation operation in the second embodiment.

10 is a diagram showing a vector and a positional relationship identifier designated by a positional relationship designating means 27. FIG.

11 is a diagram showing positional relationship information stored in the positional coordinate relationship management means 22. FIG.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a message transmission control device in a third embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing control for determining a message transmission destination in the third embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing attribute information of objects managed by the object management means 31.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing each area.

16 is an example of a panel arranged by an object arrangement means 36. FIG.

FIG. 17 is an example of a panel placed by an object placement unit 36.

FIG. 18 is a panel display when the “? Button” is not pressed.

FIG. 19 is a panel display when the “? Button” is not pressed.

20 is a diagram showing the contents managed by the area management means 32. FIG.

21 is a diagram showing attribute information of objects managed by the object management means 31. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Message transmission control device 2 Simulation device 3 Input part 4 Display part 5 Conversion part 11 Object management means 12 Positional relationship management means 13 Message input means 14 Destination determination means 15 Message delivery means 16 Positional relationship instruction means 17 Positional relationship generation means 21 Object managing means 22 Position coordinate relationship managing means 23 Message receiving means 24 Destination object determining means 25 Message delivering means 26 Object arranging means 27 Position relationship instructing means 28 Position relationship generating means 31 Object managing means 32 Area managing means 33 Message receiving means 34 Destination determining means 35 message delivering means 36 object arranging means 37 area instructing means 38 area information generating means

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An object management means for storing at least one set having an object identifier for identifying an object and area specifying information which is information indicating coordinates and a size in an area where the object is to be arranged. , A positional relationship management unit that stores an arithmetic expression for calculating positional information using an object identifier and a positional relationship identifier that indicates a positional relationship between the object identified by the object identifier and a message transmission source object as an identifier Message receiving means for receiving a message consisting of an object identifier for the purpose, a positional relationship identifier, and an event identifier, which is an identifier for instructing the operation content, and an arithmetic expression managed by the positional relationship managing means is taken out to receive the message. Included in the messages received by means From the object management means, the arithmetic expression is evaluated by using the object identifier of the sender of the message and the positional relationship identifier as parameters to calculate the positional information in the space, and the object identifier of the object including the calculated positional information is calculated And a message delivery unit for transmitting the event identifier accepted by the message accepting unit to the object identified by the object identifier retrieved by the destination determining unit. Message transmission controller. 2. The message transmission control device further includes a positional relationship instructing means for receiving positional relationship instruction information which is a pair of a vector having a direction and a length and a positional relationship identifier in space, and the positional relationship managing means. The positional relation generating means for generating a stored arithmetic expression from the positional relation indicating information received by the positional relation indicating means, and storing it in the positional relation managing means, the message according to claim 1. Transmission controller. 3. A position coordinate that stores, as position coordinate relationship information, a set of a position coordinate of an object of a message sending source, a position relationship identifier, and a position coordinate of an object of a message destination instead of the position relationship managing means. Further, a relationship management unit is provided, and instead of the destination determination unit, the identifier of the source object of the message received by the message input unit and the position coordinate relationship information stored in the position coordinate relationship management unit are used for transmission. A destination object deciding means for taking out the arrangement coordinates of the preceding object and further extracting the object identifier of the destination object from the object managing means by using the arrangement coordinates and the area specifying information managed by the object managing means. , The message delivery means is the destination object Message transmission control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein sending the event identifier received in the message reception means for the object identified by the object identifier extracted in a constant way. 4. The message transmission control device further includes an object placement unit that places objects stored in the object management unit in a space, and a desired object among the objects placed by the object placement unit. The positional relationship receiving means for receiving the vector and the positional relationship identifier corresponding to the vector, and the positional coordinate relationship information managed by the positional coordinate relationship managing means, the vector and the positional relationship identifier received by the positional relationship receiving means. 4. The message transmission control device according to claim 3, further comprising: a position coordinate relationship generation unit that generates the position coordinate relationship management unit and stores it in the position coordinate relationship management unit. 5. An object management means for storing at least one set having an object identifier and area specifying information, and an area management means for storing an area identifier for identifying an area and area information indicating a range of the area. The area information managed by the area managing means is extracted using the message receiving means for receiving the message including the area identifier and the event identifier, and the area information and the object managing means are used by using the area identifier received by the message receiving means. The destination identification means for extracting the object identifier of the object included in the area indicated by the area information managed by the area identification information, and the object identified by the object identifier extracted by the destination determination means Send the event identifier accepted by the message acceptance means Message transmission control device being characterized in that a message delivery means for.