JPH10108154A - Conference system, communication terminal used therefor, image display method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To erase a desired write content having been once written from on a shared window without an erase operation on each occasion. SOLUTION: The terminal equipment is provided with a write means 3 that writes data in a prescribed way onto a shared window 2 shared in common by conference participants of an electronic conference, a designation means 4 that designates whether or not a content to be written by the write means 3 is to be tentatively displayed on the shared window, and a control means 5 that controls to erase the write content from on the shared window 2 after the lapse of a prescribed time when the means 4 designates the write content to be 'a temporarily written content'. In the case of writing data to the common share window 2, whether the write content is permanently or temporarily displayed is designated, and the content written as the temporarily written content is deleted automatically from the common share window 2 in a prescribed lapse time after the content is temporarily written.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conference system for conducting a so-called electronic conference by communicating video, audio, and data with a plurality of partner terminals via a communication network, a communication terminal used therefor, and an image. The present invention relates to a display method and a storage medium. In particular, the present invention relates to a technique for controlling display of a shared window shared by a plurality of conference participants.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conference system for performing a so-called electronic conference by communicating video, audio, and data with a plurality of parties via a communication network, the same contents are displayed on all terminals used by conference participants, and Providing a shared window accessible from all terminals is widely known under the name of a shared whiteboard or the like.

[0003]

However, in the conventional sharing window, the contents once written in the sharing window can be used only when the meeting participants perform a predetermined erasing operation.
It was always displayed on the sharing window. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that a predetermined erasing operation must be performed when the display is erased from the shared window even for the contents of a memo that is temporarily written.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a drawback, and it is possible to erase a once written content from a shared window without performing an erasing operation. The purpose is to be able to.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a conference system according to the present invention comprises: a writing unit for writing on a shared window shared by conference participants; Designating means for designating whether or not to temporarily display in the shared window, and controlling so that the writing contents designated as temporary by the designating means are deleted from the shared window after a predetermined time has elapsed. Control means for performing the control.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided storage means for storing data of the content written by the writing means, and display of the written content in the shared window is performed based on the data stored in the storage means. The control means controls the data written on the shared window and stored in the storage means to be erased after a lapse of a predetermined time when the specification means specifies that the data is temporary. It is characterized by:

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a conference system for conducting an electronic conference by communicating with a plurality of parties via a communication network, wherein a shared window shared by conference participants of the electronic conference is provided. Writing means for writing on the top, specifying means for specifying whether or not the content to be written by the writing means is to be temporarily displayed in the shared window for a first predetermined time; First control means for changing the display of the specified write content after a second predetermined time shorter than the first predetermined time elapses, and instructing to extend the display of the write content Extension instructing means for erasing the written content from the shared window after the first predetermined time elapses when the extension instruction is not issued. It is characterized in that a second control means for controlling the.

A communication terminal according to the present invention is a communication terminal used for holding an electronic conference by communication via a communication network. The communication terminal is provided on a display unit of the communication terminal and is provided on a shared window shared by conference participants. Writing means for performing predetermined writing, specifying means for specifying whether or not the content to be written by the writing means is to be temporarily displayed in the shared window; and specifying by the specifying means that the content is temporary. Control means for controlling the written contents to be erased from the shared window after a lapse of a predetermined time.

Further, the image display method according to the present invention is characterized in that when writing on a shared window shared by conference participants of an electronic conference, the written content designated as temporarily displayed in the shared window is It is characterized in that the shared window is deleted after a certain time has passed.

Further, the storage medium of the present invention is a writing means for writing on a shared window shared by conference participants of an electronic conference, and the content written by the writing means is temporarily displayed on the shared window. And a control means for controlling the computer to delete the written contents designated as temporary by the designation means from the shared window after a predetermined time has elapsed. I remember the program.

Since the present invention comprises the above technical means, when the content to be written in the shared window is designated as temporarily displayed, the content written in the shared window is automatically saved after a lapse of a predetermined time from the writing. Will be erased.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram for convenience showing an embodiment of the present invention, and is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of a conference system and a communication terminal used for the conference system.

In FIG. 1, a display means displays a video (moving image), a still image, or text data when an electronic conference is held by communicating with a plurality of parties via a communication network. is there. This display means has a sharing window shared by all conference participants.

The writing means writes desired contents on the shared window. The content written on the shared window of the own terminal by the writing means is sent to the other terminal (not shown) via the communication network by the communication means, and the same content is displayed on the shared window of the other terminal. The designating means designates whether or not the content to be written on the shared window by the writing means is to be temporarily displayed in the shared window.

The control means has timekeeping means,
Control is performed so that the writing content when "temporary" is specified by the specifying means is deleted from the shared window after a lapse of a predetermined time from the writing. At this time, the control means deletes the corresponding written content from the shared window of the own terminal, sends a control signal to the other terminal (not shown) via the communication network by the communication means, and Is also controlled to erase the corresponding write contents.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing one embodiment for realizing the functions of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, and is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a desktop video conference system based on a personal computer.

In FIG. 2, 1 is a CPU for controlling the entire system according to a program, 2 is a ROM for storing a group of programs such as a window system and a BIOS (basic input / output system), and 3 is a shared window control program and data. , A timer for monitoring time, 5 an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk, 6 a keyboard, 7 a mouse, and 8 a VGA (Video
It is a video display unit corresponding to Graphics Array).

Reference numeral 9 denotes a monitor for displaying graphics of a personal computer, received moving images, and the like.
TU-T Recommendation H. H.261, a video processing unit for performing a video encoding / decoding process and pre-processing and post-processing, 11 is a camera for inputting a self-portrait and the like, 12 is a line control process according to an ISDN user network interface, and an ITU-I T
Recommendation H. Reference numeral 13 denotes a communication processing unit that performs demultiplexing processing of data according to 221; 13 denotes an audio processing unit that performs audio encoding / decoding processing and echo cancellation processing; 14 denotes a microphone; 15 denotes a speaker; and 16 denotes a bus.

The display means of FIG. 1 corresponds to the monitor 9 of FIG. 2, and this monitor 9 includes a shared window. 1 includes the keyboard 6 and the mouse 7 shown in FIG. The control means of FIG. 1 includes the CPU 1, the ROM 2, the RAM 3, and the timer 4 of FIG. 2, and the timer 4 among these components corresponds to the time measuring means of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a shared window 200 displayed on the monitor 9 in the video conference system shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 201 denotes a title bar, 202 denotes a menu bar, 203 denotes a drawing toolbar, and 204 denotes a shared area shared by all conference participants.

The conference participant uses the functions indicated by the menu bar 202 and the drawing toolbar 203 to share the shared area 2.
04 can be written. Shared area 20
4 is sent to the communication network via the communication processing unit 12 in FIG. 2, and the same contents are displayed in the shared area 204 of the communication partner.

FIG. 4 shows the shared window 20 shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a more detailed configuration example of a drawing toolbar 203 of No. 0; 4, reference numeral 301 denotes a shared area 204
Reference numeral 302 denotes a temporary drawing button for writing a semi-permanent drawing object, and a temporary drawing button 302 for writing a temporary drawing object in the shared area 204.

By performing a click operation of the mouse 7 on each of the buttons 301 and 302, each of the buttons 301 and 302 is pressed, and a button press event is notified from the window system to the shared window control program.
When the mouse 7 is clicked on each of the buttons 301 and 302 in a state where the buttons 301 and 302 are pressed, the buttons 301 and 302 are in a non-pressed state. Button return event is notified.

The permanent drawing button 301 and the temporary drawing button 3
02 is a toggle relationship. For example, if the temporary drawing button 302 is pressed while the permanent drawing button 301 is pressed, the temporary drawing button 302 is pressed and the permanent drawing button 301 is not pressed. .

When each of the buttons 301 and 302 is in a pressed state, by performing a drag operation of the mouse 7 in the shared area 204, a drawing object is written in the shared area 204 along the locus of the mouse drag. By operating the keyboard 6, characters and the like can be written at a position where a cursor (not shown) is located in the shared area 204.

The drawing object written in the shared area 204 when the permanent drawing button 301 is pressed is displayed on the shared area 204 (including the terminal of the other terminal) unless a conference participant performs a predetermined erasing operation thereafter. It has been done. On the other hand, the drawing object written in the shared area 204 when the temporary drawing button 302 is pressed is automatically erased from the shared area 204 after a lapse of a predetermined time from the writing. This will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing information stored in the RAM 3 shown in FIG. 2 and showing a configuration example of a drawing object management table 400 for managing drawing objects written in the shared area 204 of FIG. It is.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 401 denotes an object identifier field, which stores an identifier for identifying the written drawing object. Reference numeral 402 denotes an object type field, which indicates whether the written drawing object is to be permanently displayed in the shared area 204;
Alternatively, type information indicating whether the display is temporarily displayed is stored.

Reference numeral 403 denotes a timer counter field, which stores the time until the written drawing object is erased when it is to be temporarily displayed. 404 is an object data field,
The coordinate value of each point constituting the written drawing object is stored. As shown in FIG. 5, the drawing object management table 400 includes a plurality of records indicating individual drawing objects.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the video conference system according to the present embodiment. When the temporary drawing button 302 is in a pressed state, a mouse drag operation is performed on the shared area 204 to change the shared window from the window system. 4 shows the processing of a mouse event notified to a control program. Hereinafter, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to this flowchart.

First, in step S501, it is determined whether or not the generated event is a mouse button down event. If so, the process proceeds to step S502; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S504. In step S502,
An object identifier is generated, and registered in the object identifier field 401 of an empty record in the drawing object management table 400 in FIG.

In the next step S503, the coordinate value of the current mouse pointer notified together with the mouse button down event is stored in the object data field 404 of the corresponding record in the drawing object management table 400.
Is registered as the data of the starting point of the drawing object, and the process ends.

On the other hand, in step S504, it is determined whether or not the generated event is a mouse movement event. If so, the process proceeds to step S505; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S507. In step S505, the coordinate value of the current mouse pointer notified together with the mouse movement event is registered in the object data field 404 of the corresponding record in the drawing object management table 400 as data of the halfway point of the drawing object.

In the next step S506, a straight line connecting the coordinates of the previous point and the coordinates of the current point registered in the object data field 404 of the corresponding record in the drawing object management table 400 is formed in the shared area 204.
, And the process ends. Also, the above step S50
In step S507 branched from 4, it is determined whether or not the generated event is a mouse button up event.
If so, the process proceeds to step S508; otherwise, the process ends.

In step S508, the current coordinate value of the mouse pointer notified together with the mouse button up event is stored in the object data field 404 of the corresponding record in the drawing object management table 400.
Register as the data of the end point of the drawing object. In the next step S509, a straight line connecting the coordinates of the immediately preceding point registered in the object data field 404 of the corresponding record in the drawing object management table 400 and the coordinates of the current point is drawn in the shared area 204.

In step S510, the object type field 402 of the record in the drawing object management table 400 is set to "temporary". In step S511, a preset value T indicating the time until the corresponding drawing object is deleted is set in the timer counter field 403 of the corresponding record in the drawing object management table 400, and the process ends.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the video conference system according to the present embodiment, and shows the processing of a timer event notified from the window system to the shared window control program. Less than. The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to this flowchart.

First, in step S601, the first record is set in the corresponding record pointer P of the drawing object management table 400 in FIG. Next step S602
Then, it is determined whether or not the pointer P has exceeded the last record of the drawing object management table 400. If the pointer P has exceeded the last record, the process is terminated, and if not, the process proceeds to step S603.

In step S603, it is determined whether the object type of the record is a "temporary" object. If the object type is "temporary", the process proceeds to step S604; otherwise, the process jumps to step S607. In step S604, the value stored in the timer counter field 403 of the record
Decrease by T.

In the next step S605, it is determined whether or not the value stored in the timer counter field 403 of the corresponding record is 0. If the value is 0, the process proceeds to step S606; otherwise, the process jumps to 607. In step S606, since the designated time has elapsed, the corresponding record is deleted from the drawing object management table 400, and the drawing object written in the shared area 204 is deleted.

In step S607, the pointer P pointing to the corresponding record in the object management table 400 is advanced to the next record, and the process returns to step S602. As described above, the drawing object written at the time of pressing the temporary drawing button 302 becomes the shared area 204 after the elapse of the predetermined time T.
More automatically erased.

In the above embodiment, the shared area 20
Although the time from when the data is written to No. 4 to when the data is erased is determined in advance, it may be configured so that the user can arbitrarily set the time.

<Other Embodiments> In the above-described embodiments, what is drawn in the shared area 204 by the temporary drawing instruction is:
In this configuration, the data is automatically deleted after a predetermined time has elapsed. However, in this configuration, depending on the set value of the predetermined time, the deletion is performed without any notification even though the operator does not want the deletion yet.

In the following embodiment, in consideration of the above points,
The predetermined time is set in two stages. For example, as the first predetermined time, a time at which the image drawn as described above is automatically erased is set. As the second predetermined time, a time before a predetermined time before the first predetermined time is set. When the second predetermined time is reached, the drawing data to be erased is displayed in a blinking manner, and the operator is informed that the drawing data will be erased after a while.

On the other hand, on the shared window (shared area 204 in FIG. 3), when the drawing data blinks, how long the drawing data is to be erased is always displayed as a multi-window. . Further, by instructing the extension button 303 of FIG. 4, the time until the data is erased is extended as a predetermined time as the extension time.

According to the above-described configuration, the data drawn by the temporary drawing instruction blinks prior to erasure. Therefore, if the operator does not want to delete the drawing data yet, the operator issues an extension instruction to extend the time until the erasure. It becomes possible. In the above-described configuration, the drawing data to be erased is made to blink, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various display changing processes such as changing a drawing color to a specific color may be used. Needless to say.

The above embodiment may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, a processing method for causing a storage medium to store a program for operating the configuration of the above-described embodiment so as to realize the functions of the above-described embodiment and executing the present embodiment according to the program stored in the storage medium is also described above. A storage medium in which the above-described program is stored is also included in the above-described embodiment.

As such a storage medium, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM and the like can be used. Further, the present invention is not limited to the one that executes processing by the program stored in the storage medium alone, and operates on an OS (Operating System) in cooperation with other software and functions of an extension board. The above-described operation is also included in the category of the above-described embodiment.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to specify either permanent display content or temporary display content when writing to a shared window, Since the content written as a proper display content is automatically erased after a lapse of a predetermined time from the writing, an effect is obtained that the user does not have to perform a troublesome erasing operation one by one.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of a conference system according to the present invention and a communication terminal used for the conference system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment for realizing the functions of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 1, and is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a desktop video conference system based on a personal computer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a sharing window displayed on a monitor in the video conference system shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a more detailed configuration example of a drawing toolbar of a shared window shown in FIG. 3;

5 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a drawing object management table for managing drawing objects written in the shared area of FIG. 3, which is information stored in the RAM shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a mouse event process (drawing process) performed by a mouse drag operation in the shared area when the temporary drawing button in FIG. 4 is pressed.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a timer event process for automatically erasing a drawing object written when the temporary drawing button in FIG. 4 is pressed;

[Description of Signs] Display means Shared window Writing means Designating means Control means Timing means Communication means Communication network 1 CPU 2 ROM 3 RAM 4 Timer 5 Auxiliary storage device 6 Keyboard 7 Mouse 8 Video display unit 9 Monitor 10 Video processing unit 11 Camera 12 Communication processing unit 13 Audio processing unit 14 Microphone 15 Speaker 16 Bus

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A conference system for performing an electronic conference by communicating with a plurality of parties via a communication network, wherein a writing unit writes on a shared window shared by conference participants of the electronic conference. And specifying means for specifying whether or not the content to be written by the writing means is to be temporarily displayed in the shared window; and writing the content specified as temporary by the specifying means after a predetermined time has elapsed. A conferencing system comprising: control means for performing control so as to delete from the shared window. 2. A storage means for storing data of contents written by the writing means, wherein the display of the contents written on the shared window is performed based on the data stored in the storage means. The control means controls the data written on the shared window and stored in the storage means to be erased after a lapse of a predetermined time when the specification means specifies the temporary state. Item 2. The conference system according to Item 1. 3. A communication terminal used when an electronic conference is held by communication via a communication network, wherein a predetermined writing is performed on a shared window provided on a display unit of the communication terminal and shared by conference participants. Writing means; specifying means for specifying whether the content to be written by the writing means is to be temporarily displayed in the shared window; and writing the content specified as temporary by the specifying means for a predetermined time. Control means for performing control so as to delete from the shared window after a lapse of time. 4. A conference system for conducting an electronic conference by communicating with a plurality of parties via a communication network, wherein the writing means writes on a shared window shared by conference participants of the electronic conference. Designation means for designating whether or not the content to be written by the writing means is to be temporarily displayed in the shared window for a first predetermined time; and the writing content designated to be temporary by the designation means First control means for controlling the display to be changed after a second predetermined time shorter than the first predetermined time has elapsed, and extension instructing means for instructing that the display of the written content be extended. A second control for controlling to erase the written content from the shared window after the first predetermined time elapses when the extension instruction is not issued; Conference system is characterized in that a stage. 5. When writing on a shared window shared by conference participants of an electronic conference, the content of writing specified to be temporarily displayed in the shared window is written on the shared window after a predetermined time has elapsed. An image display method characterized by erasing from an image. 6. A writing means for writing on a shared window shared by conference participants of an electronic conference, and a designation for designating whether the content written by the writing means is to be temporarily displayed in the shared window. And a storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as control means for controlling the write contents designated as temporary by the designation means to be deleted from the shared window after a lapse of a predetermined time.