JPH09101871A - Hypremedia device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to display the same node by various formats such as a still picture and a moving picture by finding out a node corresponding to parts based upon a retrieving condition specified by the parts when a GUI object has the parts and then displaying the found GUI object. SOLUTION: A transitted GUI object determining means 4 selects a transitted GUI object to be a GUI object corresponding to a node found out by a navigation control means 1 by the use of a GUI object selecting rule describing node information. A display node determining means 6 obtains a GUI object corresponding to the selected transitted GUI object from a GUI object storing means 5, and when the GUI object has parts, finds out a node corresponding to the parts through a node retrieving means 2 based upon a retrieving condition specified by the parts. A GUI object displaying means 7 displays the obtained GUI object.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hypermedia device, and more particularly to a hypermedia device having a display control function capable of transitioning nodes representing media data such as still images, moving images, texts, voices and animations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a general model of hypertext / hypermedia (hereinafter referred to as hypermedia), reference 1: "The Dexter hyperte".
xt reference model. ", Hala
sz, F. G. FIG. and Schwartz, M .; Author, C
communications of the ACM,
Vol. 37, no. 2, 1994, pp. 30-3
9. Have been advocated by. This model is a reference model created by analyzing various existing hypermedia systems, and represents a method of many existing hypermedia systems.

In the conventional hypermedia system represented by the model of Document 1, media data such as a still image, a moving image, a text, a voice, and an animation is represented by a node, and the nodes are connected by a link to establish a relation between the nodes. Represent There is an area called an anchor in the node,
A link is associated with the anchor. When the user designates the anchor area via an input device such as a mouse or a touch panel, a link is obtained from the anchor to obtain a related node, and the content is displayed on the screen. The node is accompanied by presentation information that defines a display format such as size, arrangement, background color, background pattern, border color, and character type, and the screen display of the node contents is performed according to this description.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a navigation operation in a conventional hypermedia system. The upper half of FIG. 6 shows the screen image and the lower half shows the corresponding node link structure. There are two types of nodes: basic nodes and complex nodes. Complex nodes can have other nodes as parts. Basic nodes cannot have parts. In the basic node N1 of FIG.
N1 is a node identifier, P1 is presentation information, still image 1 is corresponding media data, a1, a2,
a3 represents an anchor. Each anchor corresponds to a dotted line area a1, a2, a3 in the still image 1 of the screen image. In the composite node N2, N2 indicates a node identifier, P2 indicates presentation information, Null indicates that media data is empty, and N21 and N22 indicate that basic nodes N21 and N22 are provided as parts. The presentation information P2 also describes the arrangement information of the parts N21 and N22. The basic node N21 has the moving image 1 as the corresponding media data, and the basic node N22 has the text 1 as the corresponding media data. The basic node N1 and the composite node N2 are connected by a link L1. In the link L1, L1 is a link identifier, N1, a1 are link origin nodes and their anchors,
N2 and a1 are the end point node and its anchor.

The navigation operation is as follows. First, when the anchor area a1 on the still image 1 in the window 1 is designated by the input device, first, the node N1 and the anchor a1 corresponding to the still image 1 are detected. Next, (N
1, a1) is searched for the link L1 and the link L1 is searched.
The end point node N2 of 1 is obtained. Then, the window 2 is displayed based on the presentation information of the node N2. At this time, the moving image 1 and the text 1 which are the media data corresponding to the nodes N21 and N22 are displayed in the area of the window 2 based on each presentation information.

[0006]

In the conventional hypermedia system, since the presentation information is attached to the node, the display format is fixed with respect to the node, and if the same media data is desired to be displayed in different formats. , It is necessary to create another node with the same media data but different display format.

When a plurality of media data are displayed in one window, composite nodes are used as described in the prior art to combine component nodes representing media data and specify their arrangement. Therefore, it is necessary to create a compound node for each combination of component nodes.
Further, even if the component nodes are the same, it is necessary to create a composite node separately only by changing the arrangement.

From the above, in the conventional hypermedia system, a new node must be defined in order to change the display format and the component node, and the number of nodes increases and the management becomes complicated. is there. In addition, changing only the display format requires consideration of the structure of the node, resulting in a heavy work load.

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to separate presentation information from a node and dynamically refer to the presentation information according to the node to be displayed so that the same node can be displayed in various formats. It is to provide a hypermedia device.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems A first invention of the present invention is:
Node link storage means for storing nodes representing media data such as still images, moving pictures, texts, voices, animations, and links representing relationships between the nodes, and a node of the node link storage means with a search condition as an input Node search means for finding a node corresponding to the search condition from the information of the above, a GUI object storage means for holding a GUI object used to display the media data expressed by the node, and a user-instructed screen on the screen. A region is detected and used as a coordinate value, and based on the coordinate value, the corresponding G is stored from the GUI object storage means.
A UI object is obtained, a search condition for searching the node search means is created based on the node associated with the GUI object and the coordinate value, and a transition destination node is selected from the node search means. A transition for selecting a navigation control unit to be obtained and a transition destination GUI object which is a GUI object corresponding to the node obtained by the navigation control unit by using a GUI object selection rule describing a transition destination GUI object corresponding to the information of the node. The destination GUI object determining means and the GUI object corresponding to the transition destination GUI object obtained by the transition destination GUI object determining means are obtained from the GUI object storage means,
When the GUI object has a component, a display node determining unit that obtains a node associated with the component based on a search condition specified for the component via the node searching unit, and the display node determining unit. And a GUI object display means for displaying the obtained GUI object.

A second aspect of the present invention is the same as the first aspect, wherein the display node determining means is the transition destination GU.
When the I object is a component of the transition source object which is the GUI object obtained by the navigation control means, a node designated as the component with respect to another component whose node search condition depends on the transition destination GUI object It is characterized in that a node associated with the component is obtained through the node search means based on a search condition.

Further, in a third invention of the present invention, in the first and second inventions, the navigation control means detects a coordinate value of an area on a screen designated by a user and includes the coordinate value. A GUI object is obtained from the GUI object storage means, and a transition destination node is directly obtained from the GUI object according to the type of the GUI object, or the node is obtained based on the node corresponding to the GUI object and the coordinate value. It is characterized in that a search condition is issued to the search means to obtain a transition destination node.

Further, in the fourth invention of the present invention, in the first, second and third inventions, the transition destination GUI object determining means sets a transition destination GUI object selection rule for each transition source GUI object. , And the transition source G
Transition destination GUI of UI object If there is no rule corresponding to the GUI object selection rule, transition destination G shared as a whole
It is characterized in that the transition destination GUI object is obtained by referring to the UI object selection rule.

Furthermore, in a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first, second, third and fourth aspects, the transition destination GUI object selection rule of the transition destination GUI object determining means is a transition destination GUI object. It is characterized in that a transition process, which is a process performed before displaying, is described, and the transition process is executed by the GUI object display means.

Further, a sixth aspect of the present invention is a still image,
Node link storage means for storing a node representing media data such as video, text, audio, animation, etc., and a link representing a relationship between the nodes, and a node and link information of the node link storage means with a search condition as an input. Node searching means for obtaining a node corresponding to the search condition from the above, GUI object storing means for holding a GUI object which is a component used to display the media data expressed by the node, and media data expressed by the node. G used to display
A GUI object template storage means for storing a template of a UI object, and an area on the screen designated by the user is detected as a coordinate value, and based on the coordinate value, a corresponding GU from the GUI object storage means.
An I object is obtained, and a search condition for searching the node search means is created based on the node associated with the GUI object and the coordinate value.
A navigation control unit that obtains a transition destination node from the node search unit and a transition destination GUI object that is a GUI object corresponding to the node obtained by the navigation control unit are a transition G corresponding to node information.
A transition destination GUI object determining means for selecting a UI object using the described GUI object selection rule or newly generating from a template stored in the GUI object template storage means;
If the transition destination GUI object obtained by the transition destination GUI object determining unit or the GUI object corresponding to the generated GUI object is obtained from the GUI object storage unit and the GUI object has a component, the component is added to the component. A display node determining unit that obtains a node associated with the component based on a specified search condition through the node searching unit, and a GUI that displays the GUI object obtained by the display node determining unit.
And an I object display means.

[0016]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the first aspect of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the configuration of the hypermedia device of the first invention.

The hypermedia device according to the present embodiment includes nodes representing media data such as still images, moving images, texts, voices, animations, etc., a node link storage means 3 for storing links representing relationships between the nodes, and a search. In order to display a media data represented by a node and a node search means 2 which inputs a condition and obtains a transition destination node and a corresponding node which are nodes corresponding to the search condition from the node link storage means 3, and a presentation operation. GUI object storage means 5 for storing GUI objects which are components forming the screen of the hypermedia used for the above, and an area on the screen instructed by the user is detected as a coordinate value, and the GUI is based on the coordinate value. Search the object storage means to find the GUI object including the area of the coordinate value Further, the node associated with that GUI object, issue the node search condition on the basis of the coordinate values, searches the node search unit 2,
Using the navigation control means 1 for obtaining the transition destination node and the GUI object selection rule which determines in advance which GUI object to transition from the information of the transition destination node, the transition destination node obtained by the node search means is determined. The transition destination GUI object determining means 4 for selecting the transition destination GUI object to be displayed, and the GUI object of the transition destination GUI object obtained by the transition destination GUI object determining means are input from the GUI object storage means, and the GUI object is In the case of having a part, based on the node search condition specified for the part, the display node determining means 6 for obtaining the corresponding node which is the node associated with the part via the node searching means, and the transition destination. Transition destination GUI obtained by GUI object determining means 4 The object has a GUI object display means 7 for display based on the processing of the display node determining means 6.

Next, a more detailed embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of nodes and links stored in the node link storage means 3.

As shown in FIG. 9A, the node is composed of a node id, an attribute, an anchor and a content. Node i
d is an identifier for uniquely identifying the node. An attribute is a set of a pair of an attribute name and an attribute value, and is used to describe a property of a node. In FIG. 9A, A1, A2, ... Are attribute names and V1, V2 ,. There may be a plurality of attribute values for one attribute name. Also, the type of the attribute value does not matter. The anchor includes an anchor id and anchor area information. In FIG. 9A, a1, a2, ... Are anchor i.
The anchor area information is d, r1, r2, .... Anchor i
It suffices that d can uniquely identify the anchor within the node. The anchor area information indicates a spatio-temporal area in the content. When the coordinate value of the pointing input from the user is included in the area information, the anchor is detected. There are various formats of the anchor area information for a still image, such as a rectangle, a polygon, and a free curve. In the case of an anchor for a moving image, each frame of the moving image has the same area information as that of a still image. There are various types of anchors and they are not within the scope of the present invention. The content is media data such as a still image, a moving image, a text, an animation and a sound, and the data may be stored directly or a pointer to the data may be stored. Also, there may be nodes that have no content.

As shown in FIG. 9B, the link is composed of a link id, an attribute, start point information, and end point information. Link i
d is an identifier for uniquely identifying the link. An attribute is a set of attribute name and attribute value pairs, and is used to describe the property of a link, as in the case of a node. The starting point information is a set of the id of the node that is the starting point of the link and the anchor id within that node. In FIG. 9B, N1 is the origin node id and a1 is the anchor id of N1. The end point information is the id of the node that is the end point of the link and the anchor i within that node.
It is a set of d. There may be a plurality of end point information. Further, the end point information may include only the end point node id without having the anchor id. In FIG. 9B, N2, N3, ... Are end point nodes id, a2 is an anchor id of N2, and a1 is an anchor i of N3.
d.

Other than the above, there are various methods of configuring node links. For example, the correspondence between nodes and links is
In the above method, the anchor id is mediated, but there is also a method in which not the anchor id but the direct link id is described in the anchor information of the node. Further, it is possible to specify not only the forward direction from the origin node to the end node, but also the backward direction or both directions. In addition, a plurality of link origin nodes may be provided. These variations are not within the scope of the invention. It should be noted that the node link information may be composed of only the node without having a link.

The node link is given in advance by the hypermedia creator. The method may be set by a program, may be given in a description language, or may be given by a GUI editor, and is not specified in the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows GUI object storage means 5.
It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the GUI object memorize | stored in FIG. This corresponds to the presentation information described in the related art.

The GUI object is a component forming a hypermedia screen such as a frame window, a subwindow, and a button. The frame window is an outer frame window for assembling the parts, and the sub window is a window for displaying media contents such as moving images, still images, texts, and animations. The button is
It is used to receive various user inputs and perform various operations such as playback and stop of media and navigation.

As shown in FIG. 10, the GUI object includes a GUI object id, a corresponding node, a node search condition, a component GUI object, a parent GUI object, and a GUI object body. The GUI object id is an identifier for uniquely identifying the GUI object. The corresponding node is a node to be displayed or operated by the GUI object, and is usually set when the hypermedia system is executed. The node search condition is a description of the node search condition executed by the node search means 2. GetNo given as an example in FIG.
de (G1, type, text) is an instruction to search a node obtained by tracing a link whose attribute value of type is a character string of "text" from the corresponding node of G1 which is the parent GUI object. The part GUI object is a set of GUI object ids included as parts. The parent GUI object is a set of ids of GUI objects including itself. GUI
The object body is a set of GUI object size, position, resource information, etc., and its format is defined by the underlying window system.

The GUI object is given in advance by the creator of the hypermedia. The method can be set by a program, given in a description language, or G
It may be given by the UI editor and is not specified in the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining the processing performed by the node search means 2. The search processing of the node search means 2 is roughly divided into navigation search and condition search.

In the navigation search, the node id and the anchor id are specified, the link corresponding to the anchor id is traced, and the end node id of the link is output. For example, when (N2, a1) is designated in FIG. 12, a link L2 having that as a starting point is obtained and the end point node N21 of the link L2 is output. It is also possible to search by following the link in the reverse direction.

There are many types of conditional search.
For example, by specifying a node id and a link attribute, a link satisfying the link attribute is selected from links having the node as a starting point node, and the end point node id of the link is selected.
Can be output. For example, in FIG. 12, when the node N2 and the link attribute (A1, yyy) are designated, the link L3 is followed to obtain the node N22.

It is also conceivable to specify a node id and a node attribute and output a node satisfying the node attribute among the nodes connected to the node by some kind of link. Furthermore, it is also conceivable to combine a plurality of conditions with a logical sum or a logical product. In addition, various variations can be considered for the condition search, but the variation of conditions is not within the scope of the present invention.

The transition destination GUI object determining means 4 is
Determines which GUI object to transition to when navigation occurs from the anchor area of the current GUI object. At that time, the transition destination GUI object determining means 4 refers to the GUI object selection rule.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the GUI object selection rule. The GUI object selection rule is held for each GUI object. The GUI object selection rule is composed of a search condition and a transition destination GUI object id.

As shown in FIG. 13, as types of search conditions, for example, the transition destination node id matches, the transition destination node parent node id matches, the transition destination node content media type matches, and the transition destination node matches. For example, matching attributes. Here, the fact that the node P is the parent node of the node N means that the starting point node of the link having the node N as the end point node is the node P. In addition, an arbitrary search may be performed by designating a general function and its argument as search conditions.

The transition destination GUI object determining means 4 is
GUI for the transition destination node obtained by navigation
The search condition of the object selection rule is evaluated, and the matching transition destination GUI object is output. For example, FIG.
In 3, when the node id of the transition destination node is N3 and its parent node is N0, G3 is obtained as the transition destination GUI object. There are various methods for evaluating the search conditions and resolving conflicts, but they are not specified in the present invention.

The display node determining means 6 obtains a corresponding node of each part of the transition destination GUI object. Specifically, the transition destination GUI object output from the transition destination GUI object determining unit 4 is input, and the transition destination G
GU the GUI object corresponding to the UI object
Obtained from the I object storage means 5. And the GU
The node search condition of the GUI object of each part in the I object is passed to the node search means 2 to execute the search, and the obtained node is set as the corresponding node of the part GUI object. For example, GetNode (G
1, type, text) is the GUI object G
After obtaining the corresponding node N1 of 1, the search command GetNo
De and N1, type, and text as its arguments are passed to the node search means 2. Then, the node search means 2
Then, the value of the attribute of type from node N1 is "tex".
Find the node obtained by following the link that is t ″.
However, this command GetNode is merely an example, and various search descriptions can be given according to the function of the node search means 2.

The GUI object display means 7 displays the transition destination GUI object on the screen. First, GUI
Display the object body through the window system. Next, the content of the node corresponding to each part GUI object is displayed on each part GUI object.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the process of the first invention. First, the navigation control means 1 obtains coordinate values on the screen input from an input device such as a mouse, a touch panel, or a keyboard (step S1).

Next, the navigation control means 1 detects one of the GUI objects currently displayed on the screen which includes the input coordinate value (step S).
2). In this process, for example, the coordinate value is first passed to the underlying window system, and the GUI including the coordinate value is transmitted.
The object body is returned, and the GUI object storage means 4 generates a G based on the GUI object body.
Search for UI objects. Further, the corresponding node of the GUI object is obtained.

Normally, G from step S1 to step S2
The process until the UI object body is obtained is consistently performed by the window system. However, the method of these processes differs depending on the window system,
Not specified in the present invention. The point is that the target GUI object should be obtained.

Next, the navigation control means 1 passes the obtained corresponding node and coordinate value to the node searching means 2, and the node searching means 2 uses the corresponding node and coordinate value as the anchor i.
d is obtained (step S3). Check the anchor area information of the corresponding node, and the anchor id corresponding to the input coordinate value
Ask for. Here, the coordinate value is not the coordinate value on the display but is normalized to the coordinate value in the content of the corresponding node. As a normalization method, for example, the coordinate system on the display may be converted to the coordinate system of the media display area of the GUI object, and the coordinate system of the GUI object may be converted to the coordinate system of the content. In the latter case, consider the effects of scaling and scrolling.

Next, the node searching means 2 obtains a transition destination node by tracing a link from the corresponding node and the obtained anchor id (step S4). The link to be traced is found by searching a link having the corresponding node id and the obtained anchor id as the starting point information. Alternatively, when the link information is directly stored in the anchor information of the node, the link id is obtained. The end point node id is obtained from the obtained end point information of the link and is set as the transition destination node. The transition destination node is returned from the node search means 2 to the navigation control means 1.

Next, the navigation control means 1 obtains the transition destination GUI object by passing the transition destination node id to the transition destination GUI object determining means 4 and referring to the GUI object selection rule from the transition destination node id (step S5). ). The method is as described above.

Next, the transition destination GUI object determining means 4 passes the transition destination GUI object to the display node determining means 6, and the display node determining means 6 sets the corresponding node of each component GUI object of the transition destination GUI object. (Step S6). The method is as described above.

Next, the display node determining means 6 passes the transition destination GUI object in which the corresponding node is set to the GUI object display means 7, and displays the contents of the transition destination GUI object and the corresponding node on the screen (step S7). .

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an example of navigation operation in the hypermedia device of the first invention. Compared with the conventional hypermedia system shown in FIG. 6, there is no presentation information in the node, and the GU
That information is transferred to the I object. Also, there are no compound nodes, all are basic nodes. Information on the component node of the composite node has been transferred to the GUI object side. In FIG. 7, nodes corresponding to FIG. 6 are N1, N2, N.
21, N22, and N0 and N23 are nodes for explaining variations. Further, in FIG. 7, since N2 is no longer a composite node, links L2 and L3 are introduced to represent the relationship between N2 and N21 and N22.

The navigation operation is as follows.
First, when the anchor area a1 on the still image 1 of the window 1 is designated by the input device, the GUI object G2
Accordingly, the corresponding node N1 of the still image 1 is obtained. Next, based on the pointed coordinate values, the anchor a from the node N1
1 is detected. Next, the link L1 starting from (N1, a1) is searched to find the end node N2 of the link L1. Therefore, the GUI object selection rule is referenced with N2 as the transition destination node. For example, using FIG. 13 as the GUI object selection rule, the parent node N2 of N2
Since N0 hits among 1 and N0, G3 is obtained as the transition destination object. To find the parent node, N
The link may be traced in reverse with 2 as the end node. Since there is only one search condition for the parent node here, N
0 is a hit. As a result, the corresponding node of G3 is N
Set to 2. Next, the corresponding nodes of G4 and G5, which are the parts GUI objects of G3, are obtained. The G4 node search condition (the “search” field of G4 in FIG. 13) is G
Since it is etNode (G3, type, video), the attribute called type from the corresponding node N2 of G3 is v.
The node N21 is obtained by following the link L2 that is the video. Similarly, N22 is obtained as the corresponding node of G5. Finally, the window 2 corresponding to the GUI object G3,
Also, the moving image 1 and the text 1 corresponding to the nodes N21 and N22 are displayed on the screen.

Next, the hypermedia device which is the second invention of the present invention will be explained.

In the hypermedia device of the second invention,
When the transition source GUI object and the transition destination GUI object have a common parent GUI object, the display node is set only for the GUI objects that need to be replaced.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an operation example of the hypermedia device of the second invention. In FIG. 8, when the anchor a1 of the still image 1 is designated, the moving image 1 in the same window,
The text 1 displays the media data of the transition destination nodes N21 and N22. At this time, the content of the still image 1 does not change. For this reason, among the parts GUI objects G2 (corresponding to the still image 1), G4 (corresponding to the moving image 1), and G5 (corresponding to the text 1) of the window 1, only the corresponding nodes of G4 and G5 are changed. .

In order to realize this, first, as shown in FIG. 11, a node search dependency is added to the GUI object storage means 5. A set of GUI objects is stored in the node search dependency, and when the corresponding node is set, the corresponding node of the GUI object having the node search dependency is also recalculated.

The process flow of the hypermedia device of the second invention is the same as that of FIG. 3 which is the description of the process flow of the first invention described above, except for the processes of steps S6 and S7.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining an example of the processing performed in step S6 in the hypermedia device of the second invention. First, the transition destination GUI object is set to x (step S31). Since the corresponding node of x is the transition destination node, it is set at this point. Next, it is checked whether x is a component of the current GUI object (step S32). If x is not a part, x is the highest-ranking parent window, so corresponding nodes of all the parts may be obtained (step S34). If x is a component, the set of GUI objects for which corresponding nodes are to be calculated is set to y, and its initial value is set to an empty set (step S33). Next, y is the node search dependency of x, G
A UI object set is added (step S35). y
If is an empty set, the process ends (step S3).
6). If y is not an empty set, its first element is x,
x is subtracted from y (step S37). Then, the corresponding node of x is obtained by the node search means 2 (step S
38). The above process is to search the tree with depth priority when the node search dependency of the transition destination node is expanded to a tree structure. As a result, the corresponding nodes of all GUI objects obtained by tracing the node search dependency relationship from the transition destination node are obtained. Note that the node search dependency is set in advance so as not to form a loop. If there is no guarantee, it is necessary to add a process for detecting a loop in FIG. Further, although the depth priority is given in FIG. 5, there are various other search methods and the present invention does not define such a method. In short, all Gs obtained by following the node search dependency of the transition destination node
It suffices if the corresponding node of the UI object can be set.

In step S7, the GUI object display means 7 displays only the content of the component whose corresponding node has been replaced. For this purpose, for example, the GUI object in which the corresponding node is replaced is stored in the display target queue, and the GUI object display means 7 displays only the GUI object stored in the display target queue. Alternatively, there is also a method in which a corresponding node replacement flag is prepared in the configuration of the GUI object storage means and only those for which the flag is set are displayed.

Next, the hypermedia device which is the third invention of the present invention will be explained.

In the hypermedia device of the third invention,
GU pointed at by the navigation control means 1
Handle the case where the I object is a button.

When the transition source GUI object is a button, the transition destination node can be obtained without using the node search means 2 by setting the corresponding node of the button as the transition destination node. In this case, the transition destination node is directly passed to the transition destination window determining means 4.

The flow of the entire processing is shown in FIG. The process is the same as that of the flow chart 3 of the first invention except that steps S23 and S25 are added. In step S23, it is determined whether the transition source GUI object is a button, and if it is a button, the corresponding node is set as the transition destination node in step S25.

Next, a hypermedia device which is the fourth invention of the present invention will be described.

In the hypermedia device of the fourth invention,
If there is no corresponding GUI object selection rule of the transition source GUI object, another selection rule is referred to. This example is shown in FIG.

If there is no corresponding GUI object selection rule of the transition source GUI object, the parent GU
The I object selection rule is referred to, and if not applicable, the global selection rule that can be referred to by the entire GUI object is referred to. Furthermore, by providing a default selection rule in the system, a hypermedia creator can give a general presentation without having to create a selection rule.

The flow of processing is the same as that of the first invention except that the above-described processing is performed in step S5 of FIG.

Next explained is a hypermedia device which is the fifth invention of the present invention.

In the hypermedia device of the fifth invention,
An item "transition process" is added to the GUI object selection rule.

FIG. 15 shows an example of the GUI object selection rule. The transition process is a process performed before displaying the transition destination GUI object. For example, H in FIG.
"ide" erases the transition source GUI object from the screen.
HideAll also erases all GUI objects on the screen. Close deletes the transition source GUI object and releases its memory area. By these,
It becomes possible to instruct to delete the GUI object which is no longer needed at the time of transition from the screen. In addition to the GUI object deletion, a process command and an argument may be given to the transition process to perform an arbitrary process.

The process flow is the same as that of the first invention except that the transition process is also performed in step S7 of FIG.

Next explained is a hypermedia device which is the sixth invention of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a hypermedia device according to an embodiment of the sixth invention. The hypermedia device of this embodiment includes a navigation control unit 21, a node search unit 22, a node link storage unit 23, and a transition destination GUI object determination unit 24.
, GUI object storage means 25, GUI object template storage means 28, display node determination means 26, and window display means 27.

The processing in the navigation control means 21 is as follows.
This is the same as the navigation control means 1 in the first invention. The processing by the node search means 22 is the same as the node search means 2 in the first invention. The processing in the node link storage means 23 is the same as that of the node link storage means 3 in the first invention. The processing in the GUI object storage means 25 is the same as that of the GUI object storage means 5 in the first invention.

The GUI object template storage means 28 stores the template of the GUI object having the same shape as in FIG. However, if the GUI object id, the component GUI object, and the parent GUI object are
UI object template id is stored,
When the GUI object is generated, it is replaced with the GUI object id generated from the template. Further, the GUI object body stores the template of the GUI object rather than the entity thereof. The format of the main body template is specified by the underlying window system.

The transition destination GUI object determining means 24 uses the GUI object selection rule shown in FIG. The difference from the GUI object selection rule in the first invention is that a command for generating a new GUI object is added to the designation of the transition destination object. FIG.
In the above example, the GUI object is generated by the command new T1. Here, new is a generation command, and T1 is a template of the GUI object. Transition destination GU
When this command is obtained as the output of the GUI object selection rule, the I object determining means 24 stores the G stored in the GUI object template storing means 28.
A GUI object is generated based on the UI object template. The generated GUI object is stored in the GUI object storage means 25 with the unique name generated by the system as id.

The process in the display node determining means 26 is the same as that of the display node determining means 6 in the first invention.

The processing in the GUI object display means 27 is the same as the GUI object display means 7 in the first invention.
Is the same as

Therefore, in the first invention, the GUI object is generated when the hypermedia device is started, and the number of GUI objects that can be displayed on the screen at the time of execution is fixed. However, in the sixth invention, a new GUI object is executed at the time of execution. Can be generated. Thereby, for example, new search results can be displayed on the screen one after another while leaving the previous search results on the screen.

[0076]

As described above, in the hypermedia device of the present invention, when it is desired to change the display format, only the GUI object information needs to be changed without being aware of the node link structure. This has the effect of reducing the definition work. Further, since there is no compound node, the node link structure is simplified, and since it is not necessary to be aware of the display format, there is an effect that the work of node definition and node management is reduced. For example, in FIG. 7, if the GUI object for displaying a still image with the search condition GetNode (G1, type, image) instead of the GUI object G5 is replaced with the part of the GUI object G3, the still image is replaced with the text image 1. 2 can be displayed in window 2. At this time, it is not necessary to change the node link structure.

Further, in the hypermedia apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of nodes of the same type are connected to a certain node A, and the node A is used as a retrieval condition of the GUI object selection rule, so that the nodes of the same type are shared. GU
It can be displayed as an I object. For example, in FIG. 7, the node N0 is connected to the node N2, and the node N2 is a moving image node N21 and a text node N.
22 and a still image node N23 are connected. Here, for example, the node N0 is regarded as a node representing a set of baseball players, the node N2 is a baseball player, the node N21 is a video image of the player, the node N22 is an introduction document, and the node N23 is a facial photograph. Here, when a new node N3 is prepared and connected to the node N0, and further, a moving image node N31, a text node N32, and a still image node N33 are connected to N3, the same structure as N2 is obtained, and another Can represent baseball player data. Then, when the nodes N2 and N3 become the transition destination nodes, G of FIG.
If the UI object selection rule is used, the search condition “parent node = N0” is matched, and the nodes N2 and N3 have the same G
It can be displayed by the UI object G3. In general, if a plurality of nodes of the same type as the node N2 are connected under the node N0, all of them can be displayed using the GUI object G3. In the conventional method, it is necessary to describe the presentation information for each node even in this case, and the definition and correction of the presentation information are complicated. In the present invention,
As described above, the presentation information for the same type of node may be described in one GUI object, which has the effect of reducing the work of defining and modifying the presentation information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a hypermedia device according to an embodiment of the first invention of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a hypermedia device according to an embodiment of the sixth invention of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a hypermedia device according to an embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a hypermedia device according to an embodiment of the third invention of the present invention.

5 is a flow chart for explaining the processing of the display node determining means 6 of FIG. 1 in the second invention of the present invention. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a navigation operation in a conventional technique.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a navigation operation in the hypermedia device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a navigation operation in the hypermedia device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing configurations of node information and link information.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration of a GUI object in the first invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration of a GUI object in the second invention.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing how nodes and links are connected.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transition destination GUI object selection rule in the first invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a search order of a transition destination GUI object selection rule in the fourth invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transition destination GUI object selection rule in the fifth invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transition destination GUI object selection rule in the sixth invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Navigation Control Means 2 Node Search Means 3 Node Link Storage Means 4 Transition Destination GUI Object Determining Means 5 GUI Object Storage Means 6 Display Node Determining Means 7 GUI Object Display Means 21 Navigation Control Means 22 Node Search Means 23 Node Link Storage Means 24 Transitions Destination GUI object determining means 25 GUI object storing means 26 Display node determining means 27 GUI object displaying means 28 GUI object template storing means

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A node link storage means for storing a node representing media data such as a still image, a moving image, a text, a sound, an animation and a link representing a relationship between the nodes, and a node link storage by inputting a search condition. A node search means for finding a node that meets the search condition from the node and link information of the means; a GUI object storage means for holding a GUI object used to display the media data represented by the node; Detect the specified area on the screen and use it as the coordinate value,
To obtain a corresponding GUI object from the GUI object storage means based on the coordinate values, and to search the node search means based on the node associated with the GUI object and the coordinate values. A navigation control unit that creates a search condition and obtains a transition destination node from the node retrieval unit, and a transition destination GUI object that is a GUI object corresponding to the node obtained by the navigation control unit From the GUI object storage means, a transition destination GUI object determining means for selecting using the GUI object selection rule describing the destination GUI object, and a GUI object corresponding to the transition destination GUI object obtained by the transition destination GUI object determining means. Get in front GUI
When the object has a component, the display node determining unit that obtains the node associated with the component based on the search condition specified for the component via the node searching unit, and the display node determining unit obtains the node. And a GUI object display means for displaying the GUI object. 2. The display node determining means is a transition destination GUI.
When the object is a component of the transition source GUI object, the component is associated with another component whose node search condition depends on the transition destination GUI object based on the node search condition specified in the component. The hypermedia device according to claim 1, wherein a node is obtained through the node search means. 3. The navigation control means detects the coordinate value of a region on the screen designated by the user, obtains a GUI object including the coordinate value from the GUI object storage means, and determines the GUI object according to the type of the GUI object. Then, the transition destination node is directly obtained from the GUI object, or a transition condition is obtained by issuing a search condition to the node search means based on the node corresponding to the GUI object and the coordinate value. The hypermedia device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The transition destination GUI object determining means sets the transition destination GUI object selection rule for each transition source GU.
If there is no rule corresponding to the transition destination GUI object selection rule of the transition source GUI object, the transition destination GUI object selection rule that is shared as a whole is referred to obtain the transition destination GUI object. The hypermedia device according to claim 1, 2, or 3. 5. The transition destination GUI object selection rule of the transition destination GUI object determining means describes a transition time processing which is a processing performed before displaying the transition destination GUI object, and the GUI object display means performs the transition time processing. The hypermedia device according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, which executes a process. 6. A node link storage means for storing a node representing media data such as a still image, a moving image, a text, a sound, an animation and a link representing a relation between the nodes, and a node link storage by inputting a search condition. A node search unit that finds a node satisfying the search condition from the node and link information of the unit, and a G that holds a GUI object that is a component used to display the media data represented by the node.
UI object storage means, GUI object template storage means for storing a template of a GUI object used to display the media data represented by the node, and a region on the screen designated by the user is detected and used as coordinate values.
To obtain a corresponding GUI object from the GUI object storage means based on the coordinate values, and to search the node search means based on the node associated with the GUI object and the coordinate values. A navigation control unit that creates a search condition and obtains a transition destination node from the node retrieval unit, and a transition destination GUI object that is a GUI object corresponding to the node obtained by the navigation control unit GUI object selection rules that describe GUI objects are selected, or transition destination GUI object determination means that is newly generated from a template stored in the GUI object template storage means and transition destination GUI object determination means are used. The transition If a GUI object corresponding to the destination GUI object or the generated GUI object is obtained from the GUI object storage means, and if the GUI object has a component, the component is supported based on the search condition specified for the component. A hypermedia device comprising: a display node determining unit that obtains the attached node through the node searching unit; and a GUI object display unit that displays the GUI object obtained by the display node determining unit.