JP2005085057A - Content display control system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the drawing of Web contents, in an information display device using a multi-display. <P>SOLUTION: The information display device using the multi-display 50 has: a browser control part 20 controlling the whole; image display parts 30 displaying content information; and a proxy part 60. The image display parts 30 are respectively connected to displays 40, an input address from an operator through an input device 10 connected to the browser control part 20 is transmitted to the proxy part 60, and the content information is precedingly acquired from a content server 70 capable of being accessed by the proxy part 60 to draw the content whose contents change in each connection or the content information using encrypted communication. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a system or method for controlling content display, and more particularly to a content display control system or method for use in a multi-display system.

  The multi-display device is a device that controls a plurality of display devices and displays information such as character data and images, and is used as a single high-resolution display or as a plurality of displays.

When viewing web content on a multi-display device, an image output device is required, such as inserting a graphics card that can output multiple screens to a single PC, or inserting multiple graphics cards. .
Therefore, as an image display system using a multi-display that enables display and control without adding hardware-like settings by using a WWW browser for image display, for example, described in Patent Document 1 The system is known.

  On the other hand, in order to use a multi-display device as a single high-resolution display, it is necessary to seamlessly connect images between displays. For example, a system described in Patent Document 2 is known.

  This conventional multi-projection video display device is limited to a multi-display system using multi-projection, but can perform display and control as a single-sided display by blending the joints between the displays.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-189586 JP 2000-241876

  Such a conventional system has the following problems.

In a multi-display system using a single PC, there is a limit to the number of slots into which boards for function expansion such as image output can be inserted, and usually about 3 to 5 boards. Also, the number of screens that can be output on a single board is usually around four. Also, if the driver for controlling the board is not made for such a purpose, it will not operate normally, and if a board for another purpose such as a network board or a sound board is introduced, the number of slots will be reduced.
Therefore, there is a problem that the number of usable displays is limited even when trying to browse the Web on a large screen and high definition.

On the other hand, the image display system described in Patent Document 1 has a problem in using it as a one-sided display because it does not consider joints.
The image display system specializes in image display, and does not consider text files that can be displayed by a WWW browser or information content described in a markup language.

  Furthermore, in an image display system using a multi-display, the amount of data of an image to be displayed is proportional to the resolution, so that it is necessary to produce details, and the cost for producing the content increases.

Therefore, it is realistic to display text data, images in vector format, and content described in markup language. In multi-display, such content can be displayed by connecting to content holding servers with multiple browsers. , There is a problem that can not cope with the content that changes in content every time it is read.
Similarly, there is a problem that encrypted communication cannot be supported by connection by a plurality of browsers.

  On the other hand, if a dedicated image display device is used, there is a problem that information with high sequentiality such as stock price display at that time cannot be presented.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a content display control system or method in a multi-display system.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, in a content display control system having a plurality of displays, a proxy unit acquires content information from a content server at an address designated by the control unit via a network. Next, the content information is acquired from the proxy unit by the image display unit, and the content information is statically or dynamically displayed on the image display unit.

  According to another feature of the present invention, in a content display control system having a plurality of displays, the browser control unit instructs the image display unit to specify the address of the content server, and then the content of the address is displayed from the image display unit. In order to acquire the information, the proxy unit requests the content information of the address, and then in response to a request from the image display unit, the proxy unit acquires the content information from the content server via the network. The content information is obtained from the image display unit, and the content information is displayed statically or dynamically on the image display unit.

  According to still another feature of the present invention, in the above-described content display control system, the image display unit has a browser function or a function equivalent to a browser.

  According to still another feature of the present invention, in the above-described content display control system, the proxy unit has a function of converting content based on multi-display configuration information.

  According to still another feature of the present invention, in the above-described content display control system, the proxy unit has a function of generating or updating a style sheet.

  According to still another feature of the present invention, in the content display control system described above, the proxy unit has an encrypted communication function.

  According to the present invention, high-definition display is possible even in a multi-display system.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a content display control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The browser control unit 20, the image display unit 30, and the proxy unit 60 are connected to each other via a network such as a LAN.

  The browser control unit 20 is connected to the input device 10 as necessary.

  The input device 10 serves as an interface with the operator. Usually, the input device 10 is an input device using a joystick or a position sensor in addition to a mouse or a keyboard, or may be a combination of these devices. Further, the input device 10 may not be directly connected to the browser control unit 20, but may be connected via a network.

Based on the input from the input device 10, the browser control unit 20 communicates mouse cursor position information and the like to the image display unit 30 as necessary, and the image display unit 30 displays the mouse cursor.
The image display unit 30 is connected to the display 40 and functions as a multi-display 50.

  In FIG. 1, the image display unit 30 and the display 40 are connected on a one-to-one basis, but a plurality of displays 40 may be connected to one image display unit 30.

  For example, in the case of the display 40 using the projection method, the display 40 can display the display areas so as to overlap each other, and the adjacent display areas are projected so that the image display unit 30 can display the adjacent display areas 40. If it has a function of blending images between them, seamless image display is possible, and such a function may be provided.

  When blending, each display 40 identifies a self-drawing area based on the display configuration information 80 and displays an image so that overlapping projection is possible.

  The display 40 may be a CRT, liquid crystal, projector, or the like. For example, the screen 40 may function as the display 40 even if the screen and the display device are not physically connected, such as a rear projection projection display or a front projection projection display.

  The display configuration information 80 includes physical information of the multi display 50 and position information of the display 40. Two sets of numerical data representing the physical size of the multi-display 50, two sets of numerical data representing the number of the multi-display 50 in the vertical and horizontal directions, and the display 40 representing position information of the display 40 on the multi-display 50. It consists of four sets of numerical data, upper left coordinates and lower right coordinates.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of data composed of display configuration information. The multi-display information 80 indicates that the physical size of the multi-display 50 is 6 meters wide and 4 meters long, the multi-display configuration is three horizontal and two vertical, a total of six, and the position of the display 1 is (0, 0), the lower right corner is (1023,767), the upper left corner is (1000,0), the lower right corner is (2023,767), and display 1 and display 2 have a 23-dot overlap in the horizontal direction. Represents.

  Each image display unit 30 determines its own drawing range based on the display configuration information 80 and outputs only its own drawing area to the display 40.

  The display configuration information 80 is stored in a storage unit included in the browser control unit 20, and part or all of the display configuration information 80 is distributed from the browser control unit 20 to the proxy unit 60 and the image display unit 30 as necessary. .

  The display configuration information 80 represents the position and size on one surface of each display 40 when the multi-display 50 is regarded as a single display device. The display configuration information 80 represents an overlapping area, and each image display unit The image 30 can be drawn without worrying about the drawing area of the other image display unit 30.

  When the image display unit 30 has a browser function, communication can be performed using HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), and not only HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) data but also various image data can be displayed. In addition, by introducing a plug-in that expands the browser function, it is possible to display vector format image data and data in various formats provided by a third party.

The content server 70 is normally connected to the proxy server through the Internet, but may be connected to the proxy unit 40 via a LAN or connected to the same network as the browser control unit 20.
The browser control unit 20, the image display unit 30, and the proxy unit 60 are usually other devices connected to a network such as a LAN. However, the browser control unit 20, the image display unit 30, and the proxy unit 60 may be a single device or a combination of them if they have the same function. It doesn't matter.

  In this embodiment, the network is not limited to wired or wireless, and is not limited to LAN or WAN.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the flow of processing in the present invention.

  First, by the operation of the input device 10 connected to the browser control unit 20 by the operator, the browser control unit 20 receives the address of the content to be browsed by inputting a direct address or selecting from a menu. (Step 201).

  The browser control unit 20 transmits the instructed address to the proxy unit 60, and the proxy unit 60 acquires content (step 202).

  Normally, Web content is described in a markup language called HTML, and the proxy unit 60 can perform character enlargement and layout adjustment by using the multi-display configuration information 80, as necessary. Thus, by rewriting the style sheet, the content information is converted without extra communication (step 203).

  Next, the browser control unit 20 controls the image display unit 30 and acquires content information from the proxy unit 60 (step 204).

  At that time, since only the content server 70 and the proxy unit 60 generate a connection, the proxy unit 60 communicates the same information to the image display unit 30, so that an advertisement whose contents change every reading and the number of visitors can be determined. Each image display unit 30 can display the same contents even on the page having the counter shown (step 205).

  In addition, since encrypted communication is performed only by the content server 70 and the proxy unit 60, each image display can acquire the same content information, and information display on a single screen is possible. .

  When content is provided with a link indicating movement to another page and the address of the new content can be instructed by the input device 10 connected to the browser control unit 20 The proxy unit 60 acquires new content information, and thereafter repeats the same processing (step 206).

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the proxy unit 60.

The content acquisition unit 61 has a function of acquiring content data from the content server 70 and actually acquires content data.
The content data may be divided into data representing the content body and a style sheet representing the content display method. In this case, the data representing the content body is sent to the content generation unit 62 and the style sheet is styled. The sheet is transferred to the sheet generation unit 63.

  When the content data is not divided into data representing the content main body and style sheets representing the content display method, the data is delivered only to the content generation unit 62.

  The content generation unit 62 converts or generates the content data acquired by the content acquisition unit 61 or data representing the content body into data that can be displayed on the image display unit 30.

  The style sheet generation unit 63 uses the style sheet acquired by the content acquisition unit 61 if it exists, and further converts the style sheet or generates a new style sheet using the display configuration information 80.

  The style sheet is not necessarily generated or converted, and the content data generated by the content generation unit may be described similarly to the style sheet.

  Also, the style sheet can change the character size, change the font type, and define a specific tag display method according to the display configuration information 80.

  The content distribution unit 64 has a function of distributing the content data generated by the content generation unit 62 and the style sheet generation unit 63 in response to a request from the image display unit 30, and normally has a function of an HTTP server. Any protocol that can be acquired is acceptable.

  Further, the internal configuration of the proxy unit 60 may be as follows.

  The content acquisition unit 61 acquires Web pages on the Internet and connects to an external database as necessary. If the URL instructed from the browser control unit is a page corresponding to encrypted communication, the content acquisition unit 61 and the external Web server perform encrypted communication. The proxy unit processes internal data without encryption.

  The style sheet generation unit creates a style sheet that defines the appearance of the content based on the instruction from the browser control unit and the display configuration information 80.

  The content generation unit 62 creates content data based on the content data acquired by the content acquisition unit and, if necessary, the display configuration information 80.

  If necessary, processing such as changing the character size is also performed.

  The content distribution unit has a server function that provides the data processed in the previous stage by accessing it from the image display unit, and behaves the same as a normal Web server.

  The above is an example of the internal configuration of the proxy unit 60 different from FIG. 3 that can be applied when the acquired content data does not include data corresponding to the style sheet.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the user interface screen in the present invention.
The content address designation box 410 is an input unit for designating content data to be played back, and corresponds to the processing of S1 in FIG. 2, and is a file selection by a menu format, a file selection by a button method, or a file name. It may be a file selection by input. By pressing the content display button 420, the processing after S2 in FIG. 2 is performed.

  The reduced display unit 430 displays the same content as that displayed on the multi-display as necessary. The user interface screen in FIG. 4 may display information such as the current mouse position as necessary.

  A method for displaying all listed stock prices in the multi-display system will be described by taking as an example a case where the content acquisition section 61 in the proxy section 60 has a function of acquiring stock price information from a Web server on the Internet.

  The stock price information acquired by the content acquisition unit is held as content data, and the content generation unit 62 generates HTML data.

  Next, a style sheet designating a font size based on the display configuration information 80 is generated by the style sheet generation unit 63, and the generated content data is distributed by the content distribution unit 64 having an HTTP server function.

  Through the above processing, each drawing unit 30 can acquire the distributed content from the proxy unit 60 and display it on the display to display the image information of all listed stock prices displayed in high definition.

  If the content acquisition unit 61 has a function of communicating with an external file server or database, a long-term stock price transition or stock price browsing several days ago can be performed.

According to the present embodiment, even when browsing information on a server on the external Internet, the traffic is not increased.
Also, even information that changes in content every time it is read can be browsed.
Moreover, even information corresponding to encrypted communication can be browsed.
Moreover, it converts into suitable information by the structure of a multi display, and enables a display.
It also enables content production without worrying about the resolution of the multi display.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a content display control system. FIG. The proxy part block diagram. The user interface screen block diagram. The block diagram of display structure information.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Input device 20 Browser control part 30 Image display part 40 Display 50 Multi display 60 Proxy part 70 Content server 80 Display configuration information

Claims (6)

In a content control display system having a plurality of displays, a proxy unit acquires content information from a content server at an address designated by a browser control unit via a network, and then an image display unit acquires the content information from the proxy unit. A content display control system, wherein the content information is statically or dynamically displayed on the image display unit. In a content display control system having a plurality of displays, the browser control unit instructs the image display unit to specify the address of the content server, and then the content information of the address is acquired from the image display unit to the proxy unit. Requests the content information of the address, and then, in response to a request from the image display unit, the proxy unit acquires the content information from the content server via the network, and the image display unit acquires the content information from the proxy unit And a content display control system that statically or dynamically displays the content information on the image display unit. 3. The content display control system according to claim 1, wherein the image display unit has a browser function or a function equivalent to a browser. 4. The content display control system according to claim 1, wherein the proxy unit has a function of converting the content based on the configuration information of the multi-display. 5. The content display control system according to claim 1, wherein the proxy unit has a function of generating or updating a style sheet. 6. The content display control system according to claim 1, wherein the proxy unit has an encrypted communication function.

Images