JPH036588A - Cai device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a CAI device, and particularly to a structure related to the management of teaching material screen data.

[Conventional technology j Conventionally, as a system for educating a large number of students using a computer, CA I (Computer A
A s5IBed Induction) device is used. For example, CAI equipment is used to provide simulation training for operating training to open and close dam gates for flood control, using a CAI device that provides interactive simulation training via a teaching material screen with participants learning dam management. There is.

FIG. 8 shows the system configuration of a conventional CAI device. The CAI device according to this conventional example has local terminals 10 that are provided in a number corresponding to the number of students and that interact with the students, and each local terminal 10 is connected via a bus 12. M that supplies a control signal to
It consists of a PX 14 and a main combiator 16 that gives instructions to each local terminal 10 via the MPX 14 and manages each student based on management information from each local terminal 10. That is, each student collects learning results, predetermined management information, and other information inputted at the local terminal 10 into the main computer 16 via the MPX 14, and the main computer 16 collects information such as learning results and predetermined management information inputted at the local terminal 10. instructions, such as displaying a predetermined teaching material screen, are given to each local terminal 10.

In this conventional example, the local terminal 10 includes a keyboard 18 through which students input learning results, predetermined management information, etc.
and a CPU 20 that supplies management information to the MPX 14 in response to input from the keyboard 18 and also receives instructions from the main computer 16, and a CPU 20 that displays necessary teaching material screens according to the student's learning progress, etc. CRT 22 and an FDD for storing data related to the teaching material screen displayed on the CRT 22 on a floppy disk.
It consists of 24. That is, depending on the teaching material screen displayed on the CRT 22, the student can press the keyboard 18.
When necessary learning answers or management information are input, the CPU 20 receives and receives management information and instructions between the main computers 16 via the MPX 14, and transfers data related to new teaching material screens to the FD as necessary.
Read from the D24 and display a new teaching material screen on the CRT22. The student then uses the new teaching material screen displayed on the CRT 22 to proceed with the learning process according to his or her own learning progress.

According to such a conventional CAI device, each student can perform necessary learning in an interactive manner using each local terminal 10, and furthermore, this learning is performed according to the progress of each student. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently carry out the desired learning process.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, the conventional CAI having such a configuration
According to the device, there was a problem in that it required a certain amount of time to display the teaching material screen, making it impossible to learn quickly. In other words, the teaching material screen displayed on the CRT is created by first reading out the image data recorded on the FDD to the CPU.
Because the configuration was such that the data was transferred from the computer to the CRT for display, time was required for the CPU to access the FDD.

Furthermore, with conventional CAI devices, when the number of students increases, it is necessary to add more CPUs, which increases the cost to accommodate the increase in the number of students.
Further, since the information related to the teaching material screen is also managed under an individual CPU, there is a problem in that the maintainability of updating, adding, etc. of the information relating to the teaching material screen is low.

The present invention has been made with the aim of solving these problems, and for this purpose, the present invention aims to shorten the time required to read and transfer image data on the teaching material screen, and to speed up learning. An object of the present invention is to provide a CAI device that is capable of reducing equipment costs and improving maintainability.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a local learning device including an image memory that temporarily stores image data of a teaching material screen displayed on a display device, and a plurality of a screen control device that includes a buffer storage device that temporarily stores image data and transfers the image data temporarily stored in the buffer storage device to a local adapter; It is characterized in that it is selectively transferred to a local adapter as needed and displayed as a teaching material screen on a display device.

[Function] In the CAI device according to the present invention, the image data temporarily stored in the buffer storage device built into the screen control device is
If necessary, the image data is transferred to a local adapter built in the local learning device, and the image data transferred to the local adapter is displayed as a teaching material screen on a display device to provide a teaching material screen for the student's learning. Further, image data is quickly read and transferred from the buffer storage device to the local adapter, reducing wasted time during interactive learning by the student using the CAI device. Furthermore, if the number of students increases, the facility will be accommodated by adding more local learning devices.

When performing maintenance such as updating or adding material screens,
The maintenance is performed only by adding update points to the image data stored in the screen control device.

[Example] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of a CAI device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Conventional C shown in FIG.
Components similar to those of the AI device are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, the CAI device includes a keyboard 18
, a local terminal 28 comprising a CRT 22 and an adapter 26 according to the feature of the present invention, and a screen control device 30 that manages the teaching material screen of each local terminal 28 via the bus 12 according to another feature of the present invention. , answers from the student from the keyboard via the keyboard bus 32;
A main computer 16 that reads management information and the like and provides instructions to the screen control device 30 for controlling the teaching material screen on each local terminal 28.
It is composed of and. That is, the learning results and predetermined management information of each student entered through the keyboard 18 are collected in the main computer 16, and the main computer 16 monitors each student's learning progress by giving instructions to the screen control device 30. The image data related to the teaching material screen according to the local terminal 28
It is supplied to an adapter 26 built in.

FIG. 2 shows the internal configuration of the screen control device 30.

In this figure, the CPU 34, which performs screen control to supply predetermined image data to the local terminal 28 in accordance with instructions from the main computer 16, is an R52
It is connected to the main computer 16 via a R5232C boat 36 and to each local terminal 28 via another R5232C boat 38. That is, instructions issued in the main computer 16 in response to information input from the keyboard 18 of the local terminal 28 are input to the CPU 34 as serial data via the R8232C board 36, and the CPU 34 processes predetermined image data in accordance with the instructions. is supplied to the local terminal 28, and a control signal in serial format is supplied to each local terminal 28 via the R8232C port 38.

This control signal is transmitted to multiple local terminals 28 as described below.
This is a signal for selecting one of the following.

The CPU 34 also includes a fixed disk device 40 that stores image data required in the CAI device of the embodiment on a fixed disk in a predetermined format. It is connected via a disk interface 42 that converts the data into a format that can be handled by the CPU 34. That is, the fixed disk of the fixed disk device 40 records image data related to teaching material screens that have been compressed in a predetermined manner to improve recording efficiency, and this image data is read from the fixed disk device 40 and sent to the disk interface. 42. In the disk interface 42, this compressed image data is converted via the CPU 34 into a format that can be supplied to the local terminal 28 as image data.

Furthermore, a cache memory 44 according to the features of the present invention is connected to the CPU 34. That is, the image data output from the fixed disk device 40 via the disk interface 42 is temporarily stored in the cache memory 4.
Expanded on 4.

The CPU 34 outputs desired image data from among the plurality of image data developed on the cache memory 44 to each local terminal 28 in response to instructions supplied from the main computer 16 via the R8232C boat 36. Here, the cache memory 44 is a buffer storage device having a storage capacity of, for example, 16 Mbytes, and has a storage capacity of, for example, 96 Mbytes per frame.
It is possible to store 1,600 frames of image data of KB. Furthermore, the time taken to read data from the cache memory 44 is significantly shorter than the time taken to read data from the fixed disk device 40.

In the fixed disk device 40, the time required to access the fixed disk is, for example, about 3 seconds.
Memory access time in cache memory 44 is 0
．． It takes about 1 second. Therefore, of the teaching material screens that are used practically on the local terminal 28, most frequently used teaching material screens can be temporarily stored in the cache memory 44, and furthermore, the teaching material screens can be transferred from the cache memory 44 to the local terminal 28. The transfer of such image data is
Fixed disk installation! 40, this can be done significantly faster.

The CPU 34 includes an MT device 46 that performs magnetic tape (MT) recording as a backup record of image data related to the teaching material screen, and an MT device 46 that converts the image data stored in the MT device 46 into image data that can be handled by the CPU 34. An interface 48 and, for example, a screen control device 3
Keyboard 50, CRT, which is a console for manual control when an abnormality occurs in 0
52 and a printer 54 are connected. Further, an FDD device 55 is connected to the disk interface 42 for accessing a floppy disk containing educational software created separately from the fixed disk software related to the fixed disk device 40.

FIG. 3 shows the construction of an adapter 26 according to another feature of the invention.

In this figure, the adapter 26 is connected to the adapter 26 built in the screen control device 30 and other local terminals 28 through a built-in line receiver 56. That is, the line receiver 56 includes the CPU 34.
The image data is also sent from the CPU34 to R8232.
A control signal is also input via the C port 38. Here, the image data input from the CPU 34 to the line receiver 56 is specifically a signal including an image RGB signal, a horizontal synchronization signal, a vertical synchronization signal, a clock, etc., and is input to the line receiver 56 at a so-called TTL level. is input. In the line receiver 56, this image data undergoes a predetermined correction such as phase correction. Also, C.P.
The control signal input from U34 to the line receiver 56 via the R5232C boat 38 is transmitted to the screen control device 3.
A signal indicating which local terminal 28 has been selected among the plurality of local terminals 28 connected to 0,
Local terminal 28 selected by this control signal
In this case, the built-in adapter 26 performs processing as described later. In addition, these image data and control signals are sent to the adapter 2 built in the other local terminal 28.
6 (branch output), and the respective local terminals 28 connected in parallel commonly handle image data and control signals supplied from the screen control device 30.

The line receiver 56 includes an image memory 58 for storing image data, a serial read output circuit 60 for reading and outputting image data from the image memory 58, and a timing control for writing/reading image data into the image memory 58. a pixel/line counter 64 that counts the number of pixels and lines of image data; an image memory 58; a serial read output circuit 60; a pixel/line counter 64 that counts the number of pixels and lines of image data; R52 for controlling
A 32C boat 66 and a local CPU 68 that controls these elements are connected.

That is, the image data output from the line receiver 56 is, for example, 4 bits having a capacity of 16 kByte.
The data is supplied to an image memory 58, which is a memory, and a serial read output circuit 60. In the image memory 58, image data is written/written at the required timing based on the count result of the pixel/line counter 64 and the memory access control signal generated by the timing generator 62.
Reading is performed, and the data read from the image memory 58 is input to the serial read output circuit 60.

The image data input to the serial read output circuit 60 is sent to the line receiver 5 indicating the selection of the local terminal 28.
The control signal input to R5232C boat 6
6 and the timing signal generated by the timing generator 62 as described above, image data is output. In addition, each element involved in this image data transfer, that is, the image memory 58,
Serial read output circuit 60, timing signal [Notaro 2, pixel/line counter 64 and R3232C
Timing control of boat 66 is performed by local CP068.

The serial read output circuit 60 is connected to an analog RGB output circuit 70 that converts the image signal into analog and outputs it. That is, the image data stored in the image memory 58 and input to the serial read output circuit 60 is image data converted into serial format digital image data by the pixel/line counter 64, but this analog RGB output circuit At 70, digital image data in serial format is converted into analog data and supplied as a video output to the CRT 22 constituting the local terminal 28.

In this manner, the adapter 26 according to the features of the present invention stores image data and outputs it to the CRT 22 when itself is selected by the image data and control signal supplied from the screen control device 30. be exposed.

Next, the operation of the CAI device of this embodiment will be explained.

FIG. 4 shows the flow of courseware in interactive learning using the CAI device of this embodiment.

This courseware is composed of a predetermined number of learning courses depending on the learning progress of the student.

That is, after the student starts learning using this courseware (100), the student first performs the first learning course 110,
Next, a group of learning courses is set in stages, such as performing the second learning course 120.

The first learning course 110 includes a lesson 1 course 111 for carrying out a predetermined first stage of learning, a test 1 course 112 for testing the learning results in this lesson 1 course 111, and the results of the students' answers in the test 1 course 112. It includes a grading course 113 for determining the answer and moving on to the next learning course 121 if the answer is correct, and returning to the lesson 1 course 111 and restarting the learning of lesson 1 if the answer is not correct. . That is, after starting the courseware, a teaching material screen related to Lesson 1 is presented to the student taking the courseware 275 on the CRT 22, and after completing a predetermined dialogue, the learning results are tested in the test 1 course 112. Then, the result of this test is determined in the scoring course 113, and it is determined whether or not the student can move on to the next learning course 120. In the second learning course 120, the first learning course 11
Similarly to 0, the results learned in the lesson 2 course 121 are tested in the test 2 course 122, and the test results are determined in the grading course 123.

In addition, the learning content in the subsequent learning course (for example, learning course 120) may be different from the learning content in the previous learning course (for example, learning course 110).
), the previous course of study (for example, course of study 110) is determined based on the judgment result of the course of grading (for example, course of grading 123).
The learning will be carried out again.

When the student completes all the learning courses belonging to this courseware, the completion of this courseware is registered (130). With this completion registration, this courseware ends (140).

FIG. 5 shows task operations of the main computer 16 related to the courseware shown in FIG. Ts4.

First, when this CAI device starts operating (200),
A screen list is registered on the execution table of the main computer 16 (210). This execution table is a memory table formed corresponding to each student, and one execution table shows the execution order of screen displays in the courseware for the student corresponding to the execution table, and the displayed information. The registration number of the screen to be displayed in the screen control device 30 and the control code representing the type of screen are recorded. Here, the control code means that the screen is the reference screen (
For example, this is a code that indicates the distinction between the screen displayed in the lesson 1 course in Figure 4) or the test screen (for example, the test 1 course 112 shown in Figure 4), and furthermore, this screen is the test screen. In some cases, a correct key number indicating a correct answer to the test and a return number indicating a return step in the case of an incorrect answer are included.

Next, identification information for identifying the student and the device is registered (220). That is, each local terminal 2
The device number assigned to No. 8 and the recipient-R number assigned to each student are registered, and the execution table is associated with the specific device and student.

After the initialization in steps 210 and 220 is completed,
The first screen from the screen list registered in step 210
The registration number of the teaching material screen related to the th execution order is referenced (230). In step 240, it is determined whether or not the courseware can be terminated. Normally, after the registration number of the teaching material screen related to the first execution order after the completion of the initialization is read out, it is determined in step 240 that the courseware is terminated. No judgment will be made. Then, the identification information registered in step 220 is outputted to the screen control device 30 as a screen output command in step 250. That is, this screen output command is an instruction given by the main computer 16 to the screen control device 3o,
The identification information included in this screen output command selects the local terminal 28 for displaying the teaching material screen.

The student's answer corresponding to the screen displayed on the local terminal 28 in response to the screen output command is input to the main computer 16 as an input from the -t- board 18, but until this keyboard input Computer 16 assumes a standby state (260). Then, when there is the keyboard input, it is determined whether the screen related to the current display is the reference screen (2
70).

As a result of this determination, if the teaching material screen currently displayed on the CRT 22 is the reference screen, the process moves to step 280, and it is determined whether or not the displayed screen can be changed, that is, a page break is possible. And if a page break occurs, step 2
30; if no page break occurs, step 290;
Move on. Also, in step 270, the current CRT
If it is determined that the teaching material screen displayed in step 22 is not a reference screen, the process moves to step 290 as in the case where a page break is not performed in step 280.

In step 290, it is determined whether the currently displayed teaching material screen is a test screen. If the displayed screen is a test screen, the process moves to step 300, and it is determined whether the student's answer, which is the keyboard input in step 260, is correct or incorrect. If the student's answer is correct, the process moves to step 230 and a screen related to the next learning course is displayed. If the student's answer is incorrect, a return screen is designated based on the return number included in the control code (310), and then the process moves to step 230.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 290 that the currently displayed screen is not a test screen, step 24
The operation of the main computer 16 for this student ends (320) in the same way as when it is determined in step 0 that the courseware has ended.

As mentioned above, the main computer 1 shown in FIG.
The operation No. 6 is an operation related to the recipient 315 of the - person, that is, a task operation, and a multitasking operation is performed with this as one task.

FIG. 6 shows the operation of the screen control device 30 related to the courseware shown in FIG. 4.

The operation of the CAI device according to this embodiment starts (400)
After that, the screen control device 3 goes through a predetermined initialization (410).
Image data output of 0 is started. That is, after the start-up of the cache memory 44 etc. is completed, the next step 42
Transition to 0.

In step 420, it is determined whether there is a screen output command from the main computer 16 (420). That is, the screen output command issued from the main computer 16 in step 250 shown in FIG. 5 is supplied to the screen control device 30, and the screen control device 30 starts the screen output operation in response to this command. If the screen output command has not been input to the screen control device 30, this step 420 is continued, and the screen output command is in a waiting state.

If it is determined in step 420 that there is a screen output command, the registration number of the educational material screen included in this screen output command is referenced to determine whether the image data corresponding to this registration number has been developed on the cache memory 44. is determined (430).

If the image data is not developed on the cache memory 44, the image data on the fixed disk of the fixed disk device 40 is searched (440), and the searched desired image data is transferred to the disk interface 42.
is newly developed on the cache memory 44 via (
450). Furthermore, if the image data corresponding to the registration number related to the screen output command has already been developed on the cache memory 44, the search step 440 and the development step 450 are omitted.

Next, image data corresponding to a desired screen is selected from among the image data developed on the cache memory 44 (460). The selected image data is transferred and output from the CPU 34 to the adapter 26 as an image signal (470
)'. Further, based on the identification information included in the screen output command, a selection signal for selecting a specific local terminal 28 from among the plurality of local terminals 28 is extracted and output (480). In steps 470 and 480, the image signal and selection signal supplied to the local terminal 28 cause the local terminal 28 to display a necessary teaching material screen. After outputting these signals, the screen control device 30 returns to step 420 and returns to a standby state for a screen output command.

FIG. 7 shows the operation of the local terminal 28.

After startup (500) of the CAI device according to this embodiment,
The local terminal 28 waits for input of the image signal and selection signal (510).

That is, the image signal and the selection signal are output from the image control device 30 to the adapter 26 built in each local terminal 28, but each local terminal 28 outputs the image signal and the selection signal to the CRT 22 only when it is selected. Communicate the teaching material screen display. For this purpose, the select state is determined based on the select signal (520). As a result of this determination, if the user is selected, the process moves to the next step 530, otherwise, the process returns to step 5.
The process moves to step 10 and enters a signal input wait state.

In step 530, image data related to the image signal inputted in step 510 is stored in the image memory 5.
It is expanded on 8. That is, the image signal output from the screen control device 30 is supplied to the image memory 58 via the line receiver 56, and then a new screen output command is issued from the main computer 16 and the image signal is outputted by the screen control device 30. The images are stored on the image memory 58 until a suitable screen is selected and transferred.

The image data developed on the image memory 58 is
In accordance with the signal from the timing generator 62, the signal is transferred to the serial read output circuit 60 and further displayed on the CRT 22 via the analog RGB output circuit 70 (540).
. After the display in step 540, local terminal 28
waits for input of an image signal and a select signal corresponding to a new screen output command.

In this way, according to the CAI device according to this embodiment, it is possible to quickly display the teaching material screen on the CRT 22 of each local terminal 28.

That is, in response to input from the keyboard 18, the main computer 16 issues a screen output command, and in response to this screen output command, the screen control device 30 supplies a predetermined image signal and a selection signal to the adapter 26 included in the local terminal 28. This adapter 26 displays a teaching material screen on the CRT 22. At this time, image data related to the teaching material screen is temporarily stored in a cache memory 44 built in the screen control device 30, and is supplied from the memory 44 to the adapter 26 via the CPU 34. This cache memory 44 is
For example, data can be accessed much faster than the data access time in the FDD shown in FIG. For example, access time to the FDD 24 requires about 5 seconds, but the same time to access the cache memory 44 requires only about 0.1 seconds, for example.

Therefore, the time required to display the teaching material screen in interactive learning using the CAI device of the embodiment is significantly shortened.

Further, according to the CAI device according to this embodiment, even when the number of students increases, by adding the local terminals 28, it is possible to provide equipment at a low cost. In addition, the fixed disk related to the fixed disk device 40 built in the screen control device 30 may be replaced, or the FDD device 5 may be replaced.
It is possible to maintain the teaching material screen by updating the software in step 5.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the CAI device according to the present invention,
By first transferring a plurality of image data stored in the image storage device to the buffer storage device and then to the local learning device, it is possible to quickly display a teaching material screen related to the image data.

Further, according to the CAI device according to the present invention, it is possible to provide equipment at low cost when the number of students increases, and it is possible to easily manage and maintain teaching material screens.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of a CAI device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a screen control device used in this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the courseware related to the operation of the present example; FIG. M5 is the operation of the main computer 16 related to the courseware shown in FIG. 4. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the screen control device 3G related to the courseware shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the local terminal 28 related to the courseware shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional CAI device. Main Computer Keyboard RT Adapter Local Terminal Screen Control Device Fixed Disk Device Cache Memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] A display device that displays a teaching material screen to students;
It has a local adapter that includes an image memory that temporarily stores the image data of the teaching material screen displayed on this display device, and an input terminal into which students' answers and management information are input. a local learning device, and a screen for managing the teaching material screen of the display device by temporarily transferring a plurality of image data stored in the built-in image storage device to the built-in buffer storage device, and then to the local adapter. a control device; and a central processing unit that controls the screen control device based on information input from the input terminal, and performs this control so that each student can select and specify a teaching material screen on the display device. , selecting arbitrary image data as necessary from a plurality of stored image data once transferred from the image storage device to the buffer storage device, and displaying the selected image data on the display device as a teaching material screen. A CAI device featuring: