JPH10243046A - Method for automatic setting of application adaptive user environment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To set automatically a parameter of an application adaptive user environment by providing a setting-agent to set the parameter of the application and allowing the setting-agent to collect information relating to the user environment. SOLUTION: In the case that a setting agent 21a of a terminal equipment 1 sets an image transmission bit rate being a parameter of an application 11a, the setting agent 21a requests information relating to the parameter from the application 11a. A parameter decision table is acquired from the application 11a. Based on it, the setting agent 21a acquires a network operating rate from network monitors 4a, 4b and decides the image transmission bit rate according to the parameter decision table. The application 11a decides the image transmission bit rate according to the image transmission bit rate request by the setting agent 21a.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for automatically changing a parameter value of an application adapted to a type of an application used by the user, a terminal environment of the user, a use state of a network, etc. The present invention relates to a user environment adaptive application automatic setting method which can be set in a dynamic manner.

[0002] In a conventional application setting method, there is no method for automatically setting parameter values of an application. As a result, you can provide information about the applications with which you communicate,
The user collects information about the user environment, such as information about the terminal itself and the communication partner, information about the network, and determines the parameter values of the application based on empirical decisions, and performs setting work of the parameter values of the application.

[0003] In such a conventional application setting method, the parameter values of the application are determined empirically by the user, so that the type of application used by the user, the user's terminal environment, and the network usage status There is a problem that it is difficult to accurately determine parameter values of an application adapted to the above. In addition, the user has to collect information about the user environment, determine parameter values for the application, and set parameter values for the application. .

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for automatically setting parameter values of an application adapted to a user environment.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically setting an application adapted to a user environment, the method comprising the steps of: setting an application parameter value to determine an operation of the application; A configuration agent is provided, wherein the configuration agent collects information on the user environment and automatically sets parameter values of an application adapted to the user environment based on the information.

According to the present invention, the setting agent collects information about the user environment, such as information about the application, information about the user's terminal, and information about the network, and determines parameter values of the application based on the information. Therefore, the parameter value of the application adapted to the user environment can be determined. Further, since the setting agent automatically sets the parameter values of the application, the user who uses the application is not burdened with setting the parameter values of the application.

[0007]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for explaining an embodiment of a user environment adaptive application automatic setting method according to the present invention. The terminal device 1, a communication partner terminal device 2, a router device 3, and a network monitor device 4 are shown.
Consists of In the terminal device 1, the application 11
The setting agent 21 is operating, and the application 11 includes a parameter value setting unit 12, a parameter value setting interface 13, an application information holding unit 14, and an application information providing interface 15. Request part 2
2. It has a parameter value determining unit 23 and an information collecting unit 24.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a network to which a terminal device for executing the user environment adaptive application automatic setting method of the present invention is connected. The terminal device 1, the application 11a on the terminal device 1 and the setting are shown. Agent 21a, compatible application 31 on communication partner terminal device 2a that is compatible with communication partner terminal devices 2a, 2b and application 11 and does not execute the user environment adaptive application automatic setting method of the present invention, on communication partner terminal device 2b Application 11b and configuration agent 21
b, network monitor devices 4a and 4b, a router device 3, and networks 5a and 5b.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the parameter value determination table T1 held in the application information holding unit 14 of the application 11a in the first operation example, showing the correspondence between the network usage rate and the image transmission bit rate. Is shown. FIG. 4 is a table M1 showing the attributes and attribute values of information held by a device whose information is collected by the information collecting unit 24 of the setting agent 21a in the first operation example.
It is a figure showing an example of. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the setting agent 21a in the first operation example.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the image encoding system table La held by the application information holding unit 14 of the application 11a in the second operation example. FIG. 7 shows the application 11 in the second operation example.
6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image encoding system table Lb held by an application information holding unit 14 of FIG. FIG.
Are the setting agents 21a and 21 in the second operation example.
6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation b.

Next, the operation will be described. application
Consider a video conferencing application as 11. First, as a first operation example, in FIG. 2, the user of the terminal device 1 using the application 11a has a video conference with the user of the communication partner terminal device 2a using the compatible application 31, and the setting agent on the terminal device 1 21a
Will set the image transmission bit rate bw which is a parameter of the application 11a.

In FIG. 2, a user of the terminal device 1 and a user of the communication partner terminal device 2a start a video conference using their respective applications 11a and compatible applications 31. Information collection part of setting agent 21a
24 issues a request to acquire information on the parameters of the application 11a through the application information providing interface 15 of the application 11a (step in FIG. 5).
S1).

The application information holding unit 14 of the application 11a is provided with an information collecting unit 24 of the setting agent 21a.
Configuration agent 21a as a response to the request from
The parameter value determination table T1 is returned to the information collection unit 24 of FIG.
Accordingly, the setting agent 21a determines that the parameter to be set is the image transmission bit rate bw, the factor that determines the value of bw is the network usage rate value (nu),
It is determined that the correspondence between the value and the value (nu) is T1 (step S2 in FIG. 5).

The information collecting unit 24 of the setting agent 21a
An attribute of information to be collected is designated and a request for acquiring the attribute value is issued to the network monitor device 4a observing the traffic of the network 5a and the network monitor device 4b observing the traffic of the network 5b. The network monitor devices 4a and 4b hold a set of the attribute and the attribute value as a table as shown in FIG. 4, and return the attribute value of the specified attribute as a response to this request. By this operation, the information collecting unit 24 of the setting agent 21a can collect the attribute values from the network monitoring devices 4a and 4b. Here, configuration agent 21
a designates attr (nu) indicating the network usage rate as an attribute and issues a request to acquire the attribute value value (nu) to the network monitor devices 4a and 4b (step S in FIG. 5).
3).

Here, the network monitor devices 4a and 4b
If there is no response from, the process determines that value (nu) cannot be collected and terminates the process (step S5 in FIG. 5). If a response is obtained, the process proceeds to the next step (step S4 in FIG. 5).
Here, value (nu) =
0.5 is obtained, and value (n
u) = 3 is obtained (step S6 in FIG. 5).

The parameter value deciding unit 23 of the setting agent 21a is configured such that the information collecting unit 24
Value (nu) with the largest value among value (nu) collected from 4b
= 3, and the value of the image transmission bit rate bw, which is a parameter of the application 11a, is determined as Medium based on the parameter value determination table T1 (Step S in FIG. 5).
7). Parameter value setting request part 2 of setting agent 21a
2 requests the parameter value setting unit 12 of the application 11a to set the value of the image transmission bit rate bw to Medium through the parameter value setting interface 13 of the application 11a (Step S7 in FIG. 5).

The parameter value setting unit 12 of the application 11a sets bw = Medium according to a request from the parameter value setting request unit 22 of the setting agent 21a. The setting agent 21a periodically repeats steps S3 to S8 of FIG. 5 and sets an image transmission bit rate adapted to the dynamically changing network usage rate of the networks 5a and 5b as needed. Thus, the user of the terminal device 1 can hold a video conference using the application 11 at an image transmission bit rate according to the traffic conditions of the networks 5a and 5b.

Next, as a second operation example, FIG.
The user of the terminal device 1 using the application 11a has a video conference with the user of the communication partner terminal device 2b using the application 11b, and the setting agent 21a on the terminal device 1 sets the image encoding method ec which is a parameter of the application 11a. The case where the setting agent 21b on the communication partner terminal device 2b sets the image encoding method ec which is a parameter of the application 11b will be described.

In FIG. 2, a user of the terminal device 1 and a user of the communication partner terminal device 2b start a video conference using applications 11a and 11b, respectively. The information collecting unit 24 of the setting agent 21a issues a request to acquire information on the image encoding method ec, which is a parameter of the application 11a, through the application information providing interface 15 of the application 11a (step S1 in FIG. 8).

The application information holding unit 14 of the application 11a is provided with an information collecting unit 24 of the setting agent 21a.
Configuration agent 21a as a response to the request from
The image encoding system table La is returned to the information collecting unit 24 of the. Accordingly, the setting agent 21a sets the current setting value of the image encoding method ec of the application 11a to En.
The application 11a knows that the image encoding method supported by the application 11a is Encode-A, Encode-B, and Encode-C (step S2 in FIG. 8).

The information collecting unit 24 of the setting agent 21a
Similarly, the application 11 on the communication partner terminal device 2b
The image encoding system table Lb is collected from b, the current setting value of the image encoding system ec of the application 11b is Encode-D, and the image encoding systems supported by the application 11b are Encode-C and Encode-D. (Steps S3 and S4 in FIG. 8)

The parameter value determining unit 23 of the setting agent 21a determines the applications 11a and 11b based on the information on the image encoding system ec of the applications 11a and 11b collected from the terminal device 1 and the communication partner terminal device 2b by the information collecting unit 24. , A common image encoding method is searched, and if there is no common image encoding method, it is determined that the common image encoding method cannot be set, and the processing is terminated (step S6 in FIG. 8). If there is, go to the next step (step S in FIG. 8).
Five).

Here, the parameter value determination unit 23 of the setting agent 21a determines Encode-C, which is an image encoding method common to the applications 11a and 11b, as the value of the image encoding method ec of the application 11a (see FIG. 8). Step S7). The parameter value setting request unit 22 of the setting agent 21a transmits the application value through the parameter value setting interface 13 of the application 11a.
It requests the parameter value setting unit 12 of 11a to set the value of the image encoding method ec to Encode-C (step S8 in FIG. 8).

The parameter value setting section 12 of the application 11a sets ec = Encode-C in accordance with a request from the parameter value setting request section 22 of the setting agent 21a. The setting agent 21b on the communication partner terminal device 2b also performs the same processing for the applications 11a and 11b as the setting agent 21a, and sets the value of the image encoding system ec of the application 11b to ec = Encode-C. Thus, the user of the terminal device 1 and the user of the communication partner terminal device 2b can hold a video conference using the application 11 by a common image encoding method.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The configuration agent collects information about the user environment, such as information about the application, information about the user's terminal device, and information about the network, and determines parameter values for the application based on the information. Can be determined. In addition, because the configuration agent automatically sets the parameter values of the application,
There is no burden to set application parameter values.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system for explaining an embodiment of a user environment adaptive application automatic setting method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a network to which a terminal device that executes the user environment adaptive application automatic setting method of the present invention is connected.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a parameter value determination table.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table indicating attributes and attribute values of information held by a device whose information is collected by an information collecting unit of a setting agent.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of a setting agent.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image encoding method table held by an application information holding unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of the image encoding system table held by the application information holding unit.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating another example of the operation of the setting agent.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal device 2, 2a, 2b Communication partner terminal device 3 Router device 4, 4a, 4b Network monitor device 5a, 5b Network 11, 11a, 11b Application 12 Parameter value setting unit 13 Parameter value setting interface 14 Application information holding unit 15 Application Information providing interface 21, 21a, 21b Setting agent 22 Parameter value setting requesting unit 23 Parameter value determining unit 24 Information collecting unit 31 Compatible application T1 Parameter value determining table M1 Attribute and attribute value table La, Lb Image encoding system table

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An application setting method for determining an operation of an application by setting a parameter value of the application, wherein a setting agent is provided, the setting agent collects information on a user environment, and based on the information, a user agent is provided to the user environment. A user environment adaptive application automatic setting method, which automatically sets parameter values of an adapted application.