JPH0798687A - Group suggestion supporting method and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently attain group discussion, and to efficiently prepare a proper report by displaying entire information items inputted from its own terminal equipment and the other terminal equipments on a common screen. CONSTITUTION:When one operation input is generated, a common screen area 27 is cursor-designated by a mouse operation, and when input information this time is a character indicating an information item from a keyboard, the character is written in the common data memory of a common memory surrounded by a frame 33, and displayed on the common screen area 27 on a display screen 24b of a display 24. When a position moving instruction is inputted by a mouse after the display, a previously displayed information item 32 is moved to a position indicated by the mouse. Thus, both the information item 32 inputted from the other terminal equipment and an information item inputted from its own terminal equipment can be displayed on the same common screen area 27.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

[Industrial field of application] The present invention sets a single theme, allows a plurality of members to share various opinions and information about this theme, and to finally put out a single cohesive policy. The present invention relates to a groove idea support method and apparatus used therefor.

[0002]

[Prior Art] When developing a new product or starting a new business, what kind of specifications do you have due to lack of experience?
It is not easy to find what to solve and how to solve it. Therefore, a comprehensive picture of facts, inferences, predictions, ideas, opinions, etc. is structurally provided for objects in unknown and unexperienced fields, or future issues that are difficult and difficult to forecast immediately. It is necessary to organize into, identify problems or facts, and form a concept from the ideas of multiple members.

Conventionally, the so-called "KJ method" and "affinity drawing method", which is one of the seven tools of the new QC method, have been executed as a solution method in such a case. In this method, the opinions of each member are gathered according to the following procedure.

Step 1: Determine the theme. Step 2: Each member fills in each card with a short document as they come up with information about the theme or information not directly related (information item).

Step 3: Each member develops a card on which each information is entered on a large desk so that each member can see the document. Step 4: Collect cards with related information on the desk to create an "island" that is a collection of cards.

Step 5: Create a new card (affinity card) in which the words of the superordinate concept common to the information of each card belonging to each "island" are created and bundle each card belonging to each "island". At the top, attach the affinity card created this time to the top.

Step 6: Repeating Steps 4 and 5, "
Arrange the bundles on the imitation paper, taking into consideration the relationship between the islands. Step 7: Loosen each of the bundled cards and attach them to the imitation paper according to the determined arrangement.

Step 8: Enclose the card with a frame having different thicknesses and colors to complete the related diagram (or affinity diagram). Step 9: All members confirm the route that led to the conclusion and the solution based on the relational diagram. Step 10: Compile or publish the report for reporting to interested parties.

[0009]

However, the above-mentioned "K
The "J method" and the "affinity diagram method" still had the following problems to be improved. In step 2, each member's opinion is directly reflected on the card until each member writes each information on the card based on his / her free idea. However, the work after step 4 is a joint work of all members. Therefore, each member exchanges opinions with each other to divide into blocks (division into islands), determine information on superordinate concepts, and associate each information. In the process of this examination work, there is a tendency to be greatly influenced by the opinions of people who have a loud voice, those who have an aggressive character, and their superiors.

Further, the definition of the relation between the respective information items is ambiguous, and there is a concern that different results may be obtained when another group analyzes using the same information item. Furthermore, when creating a report,
It is necessary to rewrite each information once written on the card in the report.

Since it is necessary to develop the imitation paper, a wide desk for expanding the imitation paper is required. It is also necessary to secure a place to store the imitation paper during the work. Furthermore, after the final report is compiled, the imitation paper is generally discarded due to the storage location and the like.
In this way, even if the imitation paper describing the progress is discarded or even stored, it is a thought to move each card or a bundle of cards to the "islands" of people on the imitation paper and return it to the original. There is no history of.

Therefore, there is no way to deal with it when it is desired to verify the process that led to the result by looking at the created report at a later date. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides each member participating in a discussion with each terminal device incorporated in a communication network so that each member can receive each information item from its own terminal device. By enabling input and displaying all information items input from other terminal devices including self on a common screen, the opinion of each member can be respected, and manual work such as drawing on artificial paper can be eliminated, and objective It is an object of the present invention to provide a groove idea support method, a groove idea support apparatus, and an information item relation evaluation apparatus that can grasp the relationship between information items.

[0013]

In the groove idea support method of the present invention, each information item input from each terminal device incorporated in a communication network is collectively displayed on a common screen provided in each terminal device. , The relationship between each information item displayed on this common screen is quantified, each information item is divided into a plurality of blocks having a common superordinate concept from this quantified relationship, and each divided Each information item and superordinate concept included in the block are edited and output in a report.

Further, the group idea support device according to claim 2 of the present invention collectively displays the information items input from each terminal device incorporated in the communication network on the common screen, and the common screen is displayed from each terminal device. It enables access to each information item displayed in.

Then, for each terminal device, a display device for displaying an image accessible from the input device of each terminal device incorporated in the communication network including itself and each terminal device including itself Numerical values of the information item display means for displaying the information item designated at the display position input from the input device at the designated display position of the display device and the relationship between the information items displayed on the display device from the mutual positional relationship. Relevance calculation means for transforming into a display and display on the display device based on a block division command designating a superordinate concept input from each input device of each terminal device including self based on the calculated relation Block dividing means for dividing each information item into a plurality of blocks having a common superordinate concept.

According to a third aspect of the group idea supporting device, each of the terminals included in each block in response to a report output command inputted from the input device to each terminal device in the group idea supporting device of the second aspect. A report output unit for editing and outputting the information item and the superordinate concept to the report is added.

Further, each terminal device in the group idea support device of claim 4 is configured as shown in FIG.
That is, a common screen area 1a displaying an image accessible from an input device of each terminal device incorporated in a communication network including itself and a personal screen area 1b displaying an image accessible only from its own input device. A display device 1 having a display device, an information item display unit 2 for displaying an information item specifying a display position input from each input device of each terminal device including the self at a specified display position of a common screen region, and a common screen region. The image copying means 3 for copying the image displayed on the personal screen area to the personal screen area, and the display position of each information item based on the movement command input from its own input device for each information item copied to the personal screen area. A personal screen editing means 4 for moving the information, and a relevance calculating means 5 for quantifying the reciprocal relationship between the respective information items after the movement from the mutual positional relationship, A common superordinate concept for each information item displayed in the common screen area based on a block division command that specifies a superordinate concept input from each input device of each terminal device including self based on the issued relationship Block dividing means 6 for dividing into a plurality of blocks having a plurality of blocks, and report outputting means for responding to a report output command input from an input device and editing and outputting each information item and superordinate concept included in each block into a report. 7 and 7 constitute each terminal device.

In the group idea support device of claim 5, the movement locus of each information item in the personal screen editing means and the calculation in the relevance calculation means for each terminal device in the group idea support device of claim 4 are calculated. Thought locus memory holding means for memorizing and holding the thinking process such as the numerical value of each relevance and the access locus to the common image area in time series, and the thought for sequentially outputting each thinking process memorized and held in response to the trace instruction input. The process trace means is added.

According to another aspect of the group idea generation support device of the present invention, a small conversation screen area for displaying a message formed in the display device and its own input are provided to each terminal device of the group idea generation support device of claim 4. Message addition means for transmitting a message input from the device to another terminal device and message display means for displaying a message received from another terminal device in the small conversation screen area are added.

In the group idea support device according to claim 7, for each terminal device in the group idea support device according to claim 4, a higher-order superordinate concept input from each input device of each terminal device including self Based on the hierarchy dividing command designating., A layer dividing means for further dividing the plurality of blocks previously divided into blocks into layers is added.

In the group idea support device according to claim 8, in the group idea support device according to claim 4, all the relations between the information items calculated by the relation calculating means in each terminal device are all determined. A relevance averaging means for averaging across terminal devices is added.

Further, the information item-related evaluation device of claim 9 is a display device for displaying various information, an input device for sequentially inputting information items whose display positions are designated, and an input device for inputting information from this input device. Information item display means for enclosing each information item in a frame at a specified position of the display device, center position calculation means for obtaining the center position of the frame of each information item displayed on the display device, and each calculated center position And a related value calculating means for calculating a distance between the information items as a related value between the information items.

[0023]

In the group idea support method according to claim 1 and the group idea support apparatus according to claim 2 configured as above, when each member of the group inputs an information item from a terminal device given to itself, The information items are collectively displayed on a common screen provided in each terminal device, the relationship between the information items is quantitatively calculated, and the information items are divided into blocks based on the calculated relationship. For each block, a superordinate concept common to each information item forming the corresponding block is attached.

Further, in the group idea support device according to the third aspect, when a report output request is input, the concept included in each block and the superordinate concept of each block are edited in a report format and printed out to, for example, a printer or the like.

In the group idea support device according to the fourth aspect, as shown in FIG. 1, two types of screen regions, a common screen region and a personal screen region, are formed on the display device of each terminal device. The common screen area can be accessed from all terminal devices, and the personal screen area can be accessed only by the corresponding terminal device.

Therefore, when all the information items from each terminal device are displayed in the common screen area, the display contents of the common screen area are copied to the personal screen area, and each of the information displayed in the personal screen area is copied. It is possible to edit the screen such as moving the position of the information item. That is, each member of the group can independently perform the screen editing process on all the information items based on his / her own idea. Then, when the editing is completed, it is possible to quantitatively grasp the relationship between the respective information items for each member.

Then, each member can assert his / her opinion at the time of block division work for each information item displayed in the common area based on the calculated relation. In the group idea generation support device according to claim 5, thought processes such as the movement locus of each information item in the personal screen editing means, the calculated numerical value of each relevance, and the access locus to the common screen area are stored in time series. It And these can be reproduced when needed. Therefore, since the thinking process can be traced, even after the final report is created, the process of reaching the conclusion can be easily known not only by each member who participated in the discussion but also by a third party other than the group. it can.

In the group idea support device of the sixth aspect, it is possible to exchange messages between the members of the group via the communication network.
Therefore, discussions on group ideas can be conducted with members in remote areas.

In the group idea generation support device according to the seventh aspect, the already divided blocks are further hierarchically divided by the superordinate concept. In this way, the conclusion becomes clearer by dividing each block into a tree structure.

In the group idea support device of the eighth aspect, the relations among the respective information items calculated by the respective terminal devices are averaged over all the terminal devices. As a result, when the information items are divided into blocks using the common screen area, fairness and objectivity of opinions among the members are secured.

According to the information item-related evaluation device of claim 9, when the information item and the display position of this information item are input using the input device, the input information item is automatically surrounded by a frame. It is displayed at the specified position on the display screen. Next, the center position of each frame is calculated. The calculated distances between the respective center positions are obtained as related values between the information items. Therefore, it becomes possible to easily and quantitatively determine the relevance of each information item input by each member.

[0032]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a group idea supporting device to which the group idea supporting method of the present invention is applied. This group idea support device is composed of a kind of communication network such as a LAN (local area network) in which a plurality of terminal devices 11 are connected by a transmission line 12. Therefore, information can be freely exchanged between the terminal devices 11 as necessary. One terminal device 11 is assigned to each member 13 participating in the group discussion.

The terminal devices 11 are arranged in the same room so that the members 13 can see each other. In addition, it is not always necessary to arrange them in the same room, and they may be arranged in different rooms. Further, they may be dispersed in different areas such as the head office and branch offices.

Each of the terminal devices 11 has the same structure and is composed of a kind of computer as shown in FIG. 4, for example. For the bus line 14, a CPU 15 for executing various information processing, a ROM 16 for storing various fixed data such as a control program, a RAM 17 for storing various variable data to be processed, and a member 13 informing the terminal device 11 of information. A man-machine (M / M) device 18 for inputting various information such as items in an interactive manner, an individual memory 19,
Common memory 20, transmission interface 21 connected to transmission line 12, printer 2 for printing out reports
Printer interface 2 that outputs print data to 2
3 and the trace memory 34 are connected.

As shown in the figure, the man-machine (M / M) device 18 includes a display 24 and a display interface 24a, a keyboard 25 and a keyboard interface 25a, and a mouse 26 and a mouse. It is composed of an interface 26a. Also, instead of the mouse 26, an input device such as a pointing pen or a trackball can be used.

As shown in FIG. 3, the display screen 24b on the display 24 is displayed from the input device including the keyboard 25 and the mouse 26 of its own terminal device 11 and the input device of the terminal device 11 of the other member 13. Common screen area 27 that displays a common image that can also be accessed by a user, and personal screen area 2 that displays a personal image that can be accessed only from the user's own input device
8, a small conversation screen area 29 for displaying a short message exchanged with other members 13, and an editing tool screen area 30 are formed.

In the editing tool screen area 30, a plurality of commands such as "association", "trace", "text conversion", "abstract conceptualization" and the like can be designated by the mouse 26 of the man-machine device 18.

In the individual memory 19, a personal data memory 28a for storing data such as information items displayed in the personal screen area 28 of the display screen 24b of the display 24, a message displayed in the conversation small screen area 29, and the like. A conversation data memory 29a for storing is formed.

A common screen area 27 is provided in the common memory 20.
A common data memory 27b is formed for storing data such as information items to be displayed on. This common memory 20
The stored content of is kept the same as the common memory 20 of all the terminal devices 11 constituting the communication network. Specifically, by the remote mount method, each terminal device 1
When the storage content of the common data memory 27b is changed in one of the terminal devices 11 of 1, the changed content is automatically transmitted to the other terminal device 11 and written in the corresponding common data memory 27b.

Therefore, as a result, the display contents of the common screen area 27 of the display screen 24b of each terminal device 11 match, and the display contents can be accessed by the input devices of all the terminal devices 11.

On the other hand, the personal data memory 28a of the individual memory 19 can be accessed only from its own input device. A relevancy table 31 shown in FIG. 5 is formed in the RAM 17. In this relevance table 31, each information item 3 displayed in the personal screen area 28 is displayed.
The related value R shown in FIG. 6 calculated between the two is stored.

In the trace memory 34, the terminal device 1
The member 13 to which 1 is assigned performs the information item input operation performed by using the man-machine device 18, the movement operation of each information item 32 displayed in the personal screen area 28, and the operation displayed in the personal screen area 28. Regarding this group discussion such as a result of calculating a related value between the information items 32, an access operation from another terminal device 11 to each information item 32 displayed in the common screen area 27, a block dividing operation of the information item 32, and the like. All processing items are written in chronological order.

Then, the CPU 15 controls the member 13
When various types of information and commands are input from the input device such as the keyboard 25 and the mouse 26, the program is configured to execute various types of processing corresponding to the operation input according to the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 and 8.

When one operation input occurs, the flow chart of FIG. 7 is started, and in P (program step) 1, the common screen area 27 is designated by the cursor (arrow) by operating the mouse 26, and the input information this time is the keyboard. If it is a character indicating an information item from 25 (P2), this character is surrounded by a frame 33 as shown in FIGS.
0 in the common data memory 27a. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, it is displayed in the common screen area 27 on the display screen 24b of the display 24. When the position movement command is input by the mouse 26 after the display (P3), the previously displayed information item 32 is moved to the position indicated by the mouse 26.

In this way, the information item 32 input from the other terminal device 11 and the information item 32 input from the own terminal device 11 are displayed in the same common screen area 27. But to get as much information as possible,
It is impossible to cancel the information item 32 once input.

In P4 of FIG. 7, if the input information is the "individual thought movement command", it is judged that the input operation of the information item 32 in each member 13 has already been completed, and the common data memory of the common memory 20. The image data of 27a is copied to the personal data memory 28a of the individual memory 19. After that, the copied image is displayed in the personal screen area 28 of the display 24.

Further, in P5, the personal screen area 28
Is designated by the arrow of the mouse 26, and if the previous input operation is a command to move the information item 32 using the mouse 26 (P6), it is designated by the arrow of the mouse 26 displayed in the personal screen area 28. The information item 32 is moved to the destination position designated by the mouse 26.

After moving to the personal screen area 28, both the information item 32 input from the other terminal device 11 and the information item 32 input from the own terminal device 11 are placed at arbitrary positions under the same conditions. It is possible to move it.

In P7, when the "association" command of the editing tool screen area 30 shown in FIG. 3 is designated with the mouse 26, in P18, the associated value calculation process is executed. A specific calculation procedure in this related value calculation processing will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the three information items 32 displayed in the personal screen area 28. In FIG.
Three information items A, B, C to simplify the description
Are displayed in a state of being respectively surrounded by the frame 33.

In such a state, first, the coordinates P _A , P _B and P _C of the center position of the rectangular frame 32 are calculated. Next, the respective distances R _AB , R _AC , and R _BC between the respective coordinates P _A , P _B , and P _C are calculated. Then, the calculated distances are related values R _AB , R between the information items A, B, C.
_AC and R _BC . Then, it is determined that the smaller the value, the greater the relevance.

For example, in FIG. 6, the related value R _AB between the information items A and B is 6.6, the related value R _BC between the information items B and C is 5.1, and the information items A and B are The associated value R _AC between C is 3.5. Therefore, it can be evaluated that the relevance between the information items A and C is the highest.

The relation values R between the information items 32 thus calculated are stored in the corresponding areas of the relation table 31 shown in FIG. When the storage process of all the related values R in the relevance table 31 is completed, the relevance calculation process of P8 in FIG. 7 is completed.

In P9 in FIG. 8, the conversation screen area 29 is designated by an arrow by operating the mouse 26, and in P10, the previously input information is a message from another terminal device 11 via the transmission interface 21. In this case, the message is written in the conversation data memory 29a of the individual memory 19 and the corresponding message is displayed in the conversation small screen area 29 of the display screen 24b.

In the case of a message input from the own keyboard 25 (P11), the message is transmitted to another terminal device 11 via the transmission interface 21.

If the "report generation command" is input at P12 and the previous operation input is a block division command designating a superordinate concept (P13), block division processing is performed (P14). If the previous operation input is a level division command designating a higher concept (P15), a layer division process is performed (P16). In addition, the previous operation input is mouse 2
In the case of the "text conversion" command by 6 (P17), a report creating process is performed (P18). When the report output command is input at P19, the created report is printed out by the printer 22.

Although not shown in the flow chart of FIG. 8, when the “related value averaging command” is input via the keyboard 25, the relevance of all terminal devices 11 including the terminal device 11 of its own. The respective associated values R among the information items 32 stored in the table 31 are averaged. The calculated average value of each related value R is displayed in a window in a part of the common screen area 27.

Further, when the "trace command" in the editing tool screen area 30 is designated by the mouse 26, the trace memory 3 is responded to by the skip operation on the keyboard 25.
The operation locus, the movement locus of the information item 32, and the calculated related value R stored in No. 4 are sequentially read in time series and displayed in the common screen area 27 or the personal screen area 28.

Next, details of the block division processing, the layer division processing, and the report generation processing will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 (a) (b) (c).
Will be explained. In the block division processing, for example, when a plurality of information items 32 are displayed in the common screen area 27 as shown in FIG. 3, the information items 32 having high relevance (low relevance value R) with each other. Tend to get together. Then, as shown in FIG.
The information items 32 having a high degree of relevance are treated as one block, for example, by enclosing operation of the mouse 26.
6 and draw the keyboard 25 on this enclosure line 36.
The superordinate concept 35 common to each information item 32 belonging to this block, which is designated by the above item, is displayed. Therefore, in the common screen area 27, a plurality of blocks surrounded by the enclosure line 36 are displayed.

Then, when a level division command designating the higher concept is input, as shown in FIG. 9B,
An enclosure line 37 is drawn so as to include a block and another single information item 32, or a plurality of blocks, and on the enclosure line 37, a block common to the blocks and information items 32 included in the enclosure line 37, The higher-level superordinate concept 38 that has been input to is displayed.

Therefore, in FIG. 9 (b),
The information items G and H are the lowest hierarchy, the information item I different from the higher concept F is the middle hierarchy, and the information item J which is independent from the higher concept E above is the highest hierarchy.

9A and 9B are simultaneously displayed in the common screen area 27, the information items B, C and D shown in FIG. 9A are intermediate layers. , The superordinate concept A is the highest hierarchy.

In the above block dividing process and hierarchical dividing process, if necessary, the average value of the related value R between the information items is referred to, or the trajectory of the thinking process stored in the trace memory 34 is traced. It is possible to refer.

When the "text conversion command" is input, the common screen area 27 shown in FIG. 9 (a) is displayed.
The uppermost hierarchy of the superordinate concepts A and E and the information item J in (b) are extracted, and as shown in FIG.
Format 9 on the rightmost side of the first page.

Then, the intermediate hierarchy of the next information item B, C, D, the superordinate concept F, and the information item I is extracted, and FIG.
As shown in (c), the format is sequentially performed on the next line of each top layer of the first page of the report 39.

In this embodiment, FIG. 9 (a)
The lowest layers of the information items G and H in (b) are judged to be unnecessary to be described in the report 39 and are discarded.
Of course, it is possible to easily include all the information items 32 submitted by each member 13 in the report 39.

Then, each superordinate concept 35, 38 and each information item 32 classified by the hierarchy shown in FIG. 9C.
The report 39 is created by referring to. This creation work is performed by each member 13 using the input device such as the keyboard 25.

With reference to FIG. 10, an actual work procedure performed by each member 13 forming a discussion group on his / her own terminal device 11 in the thus configured group idea supporting apparatus will be described.

First, each member 13 sits toward each given terminal device 11. Then, the theme of this time is set and displayed on each common screen 27 (Q1).
When the theme is decided, each member 13 inputs the information item 32 considered to be related to this theme from the keyboard 25 and displays it in the common screen area 27 (Q2). When the ideas of each member 13 are exhausted (Q3), a discussion is made as to whether to think individually or as a group (Q4).

When thinking individually, the display information in the common screen area 27 is copied to the personal screen area 28. Then, each member 13 has each information item 32 based on his / her own thoughts.
The screen is edited by moving the display position, and divided into blocks. Then, the related value R between each information item 32
Is calculated (Q5). If necessary, other members 13
The relevant value R calculated by (1) and the relevant value R calculated by itself are compared and compared (Q6).

Upon completion of the examination for each member 13 as described above, it is discussed again whether individual thinking or group thinking (Q7). When individual thinking is required, if rethinking is necessary (Q8), Returning to Q5, the evaluation is performed again using the personal screen area 28. When the evaluation is completed again,
Proceed to Q9 and create a report 39 for each member 13.

In Q7, when thinking in groups,
While exchanging messages between each member, operations such as rearranging each information item 32 displayed in the common screen area 27, dividing into blocks, dividing into levels (Q1) are performed.
0). Then, when all the members 13 have agreed (Q11), the process proceeds to Q9 and the report 39 is prepared. It should be noted that whether or not all members 13 have agreed can be decided by voting of a message in each member 13. When there is a certain percentage or more of the voting results in favor of it, Q
The rule of going to 9 may be adopted.

Further, in Q4, when a group discussion is to be conducted from the beginning, the process directly proceeds to Q10 without performing individual thinking. With the group idea support device configured in this way, each member of the group 1
3 inputs the information item 32 from the terminal device 11 given to himself and designates the display position with the mouse 26, and designates it with the frame 33 attached to the common screen area 27 provided in each terminal device 11. They are displayed at the displayed positions. Then, it is possible to quantitatively calculate the relationship between the information items 32. Therefore, each information item 32 can be rationally assigned to the superordinate concept 35 and divided into blocks with reference to the quantitatively obtained related values R.

Each member 13 has its own terminal device 1
Each related value R calculated in the personal screen area 28 of
It is also possible to average over all members 13 and display each information item 32 positioned with each averaged associated value R in the common screen area 27. By displaying the averaged information items 32 in the common screen area 27 as initial values in this way, the discussion among the members 13 is started from the state in which the ideas of the respective men 13 are evenly woven. Therefore, the best block division can be efficiently performed.

Further, if necessary, it is possible to divide the plurality of blocks into blocks into a plurality of layers according to a higher concept. Then, at the end, when the thoughts among the members 13 are gathered, the report is prepared.

In this way, each terminal device 11 carries out the manual work, which is carried out by the conventional method, in which the idea of each member is written on the card and arranged on the desk to divide the cards of the related information items into “islands”. Since it can be automatically performed by, the complicated work of each member can be omitted, and each member can concentrate his / her thoughts on the discussion content itself.

Even when a report is created, the manual work of copying the information item 32 and the superordinate concepts 35 and 38 once input through the input device such as the keyboard 25 into the report 39 can be omitted, so that the work load of each member 13 is further reduced. Can be reduced.

If necessary, the work of dividing into blocks and levels of each member is carried out, and then the work of dividing into blocks and level is carried out by the entire group, whereby the idea of each member 13 is examined as a whole. Results are more accurately reflected.

In each terminal device 11 which also has a function as the information item relation evaluation device of the present invention, the relation between the displayed information items 32 is surrounded by the information items 32 as shown in FIG. The distances between the center positions of the frames 33 are quantified. That is, the idea of each member 13 can be objectively expressed by quantitatively obtaining the relation between the information items 32, which is probably qualitative information.

This objective related value R is set to all members 1
By averaging over 3 items, further fairness and objectivity of the opinions among the members can be secured when the information items 32 are divided into blocks and levels by using the common screen area 27.

Personal screen area 28 conducted by each member 13
The thinking process such as the movement locus of each information item 32, the calculated numerical value R of each relation, and the access locus with respect to the common image area 27 is stored in the trace memory 34 in time series. Then, it can be read and reproduced when necessary. Therefore, since each person's thinking process can be traced, not only each member can understand the process of reaching a conclusion in the process of dividing into blocks, dividing into levels, creating a report, etc., and even after the final report is created.
Third parties other than the group can easily find out.

Further, since it is possible to exchange messages with each other among the members 13 of the group via the communication network, it is possible to carry out a discussion of the group idea with members at remote places. Also, voice may be simultaneously communicated with the message, if necessary.

Further, since the message is transmitted by mediating each terminal 11 and the transmission line 12, factors such as a loud voice and forcible speech are caused on the common screen area 27 due to the character of each member 13. It can be excluded from the block classification, level, and report creation results.

[0084]

As described above, in the group idea generation support method and group idea generation support apparatus of the present invention, each member participating in the group discussion is given each terminal device incorporated in the communication network so that each member can self-operate. Each information item can be input from the terminal device of
All the information items input from other terminal devices including self are displayed on the common screen. Therefore, the opinion of each member can be respected, the conventional manual work such as drawing on the imitation paper can be eliminated, the group discussion can be efficiently performed, and the appropriate report can be efficiently created.

Further, according to the information item relation evaluation apparatus of the present invention, the relation of each input information item is quantified by each distance between the center positions of the respective frames surrounding each information item. Therefore, it is possible to quantitatively grasp the relation between information items, which is probably qualitative information, so that the ideas of each member can be objectively expressed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a group idea support device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an overall configuration of a group idea supporting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display screen of a display in each terminal device incorporated in the example group idea generation support device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the terminal device of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relevance table formed in a RAM of the terminal device of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a method of calculating a related value between information items in the terminal device of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the terminal device of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the operation of the terminal device of the same embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a procedure of dividing into blocks, dividing into levels, and creating a report in the terminal device of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a work procedure when a group discussion is carried out using the example group idea supporting method and the group idea supporting apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Terminal device, 12 ... Transmission path, 13 ... Member, 15
... CPU, 18 ... Man-machine device, 19 ... Individual memory,
20 ... Common memory, 21 ... Transmission interface, 24 ...
Display, 25 ... Keyboard, 26 ... Mouse, 27 ... Common screen area, 28 ... Personal screen area, 29 ... Conversation small screen area, 30 ... Editing tool screen area, 31 ... Relationship table, 32 ... Information item, 33 ... Frame, 34 ... Trace memory, 35, 38 ... Superordinate concept, 36, 37 ... Enclosure line, 3
9 ... Report.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. Information items input from each terminal device incorporated in a communication network are collectively displayed on a common screen provided on each terminal device, and information items displayed on the common screen are mutually displayed. Quantifying the relevance, dividing each information item into a plurality of blocks each having a common superordinate concept from this quantified relevance, and reporting each information item and superordinate concept included in each divided block Group idea support method to edit and output. 2. An information item input from each terminal device incorporated in a communication network is collectively displayed on a common screen so that each terminal device can access each information item displayed on the common screen. A group idea support device, wherein each of the terminal devices includes a display device that displays an image accessible from an input device of each terminal device incorporated in the communication network including itself, and each terminal including itself. The information item display means for displaying the information item designating the display position input from each input device of the device at the designated display position of the display device and the relationship between the information items displayed on the display device are mutually related. Inputting from each input device of each terminal device including self based on the calculated relation Group idea support apparatus and a block division means for dividing into a plurality of blocks having a common higher concept each information item that is displayed on the display device based on the block division instruction specifying a broader concept. 3. Each of the terminal devices, in response to a report output command input from the input device, a report output means for editing and outputting each information item and superordinate concept included in each block into a report. The group idea support device according to claim 2, which is provided. 4. An information item input from each terminal device incorporated in a communication network is collectively displayed on a common screen so that each terminal device can access each information item displayed on the common screen. A group idea support device, wherein each of the terminal devices includes a common screen area for displaying an image accessible from an input device of each terminal device incorporated in the communication network including itself and only from the own input device. A display device having a personal screen area for displaying an accessible image and an information item designating a display position input from each input device of each terminal device including self are displayed at the designated display position of the common screen region. Information item display means, image copying means for copying the image displayed in the common screen area to the personal screen area, and the personal screen area Personal screen editing means for moving the display position of each information item based on the movement command input from the input device of each information item copied to the information item, and the relation between the respective information items after the movement. Relevance calculation means for quantifying the sex from the mutual positional relationship, and a block division command designating the superordinate concept input from each input device of each terminal device including self based on the calculated relevance Block dividing means for dividing each information item displayed in the common screen area into a plurality of blocks having the common superordinate concept based on the report output command input from the input device. A group idea generation support device comprising: a report output unit that edits and outputs each information item and a superordinate concept included in a block into a report. 5. The thought process of the movement trajectory of each information item in the personal screen editing means, the numerical value of each relevance calculated in the relevance calculating means, the access trajectory to the common image area, and the like in each terminal device. 5. The group idea generation support according to claim 4, further comprising: a thought locus memory holding means for memorizing and holding chronologically and a thought process tracing means for sequentially outputting each memorized and holding thought process in response to a trace instruction input. apparatus. 6. Each of the terminal devices comprises a small conversation screen area for displaying a message formed in the display device, and a message transmitting means for transmitting a message input from its own input device to another terminal device. 5. The group idea support device according to claim 4, further comprising a message display unit that displays a message received from another terminal device in the small conversation screen area. 7. Each of the terminal devices further includes a plurality of blocks divided into blocks based on a hierarchical division command input from each input device of each of the terminal devices including self, which specifies a higher superordinate concept. The group idea generation support device according to claim 4, further comprising a hierarchy dividing means for dividing the hierarchy. 8. The relation averaging means for averaging the relations among the respective information items calculated by the relation calculating means in each terminal device across all the terminal devices. Group idea support device. 9. A display device for displaying various information,
An input device for sequentially inputting information items designating a display position, an information item display means for displaying each information item input from the input device at a designated position on the display device by enclosing the information item in a frame, and the display device. A center position calculating means for obtaining the center position of the frame of each displayed information item, and a related value calculating means for calculating a distance between the calculated center positions as a related value between the information items are provided. Information item related evaluation device.