JPH04328627A - Cursor display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily decide the owner of a cursor in a system where a display screen connected to plural computers connected to each other via a communication circuit is shared by the remote users and each user inputs the instructions to the screen with use of a cursor in response to the input given from a pointing device. CONSTITUTION:A start point (the coordinates showing the start point of an extension/contraction line) of the face image side and an end point (the coordinates showing the end point of the extension/contraction line) of the cursor side are obtained (101, 102). Then a straight line connecting the start and end points together is drawn (103). When the cursor is shifted (104), the extension/contraction line drawn previously is erased and an extension/ contraction line is drawn to a new end point (105-107). Thus it is possible to always display the face image and its owned cursor for each user.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cursor display method, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a method for displaying a cursor, and in particular, a method for allowing remote users to share the screen of a display connected to a plurality of computers connected via communication lines.
The present invention relates to a cursor display method in a system in which each user inputs instructions to a screen using a cursor that is linked to input from a pointing device such as a mouse or a tablet.

0002

[Background Art] Conventionally, computer-supported cooperative activity support (CSCW)
In the field of cooperative work, a shared screen method is known in which the same document image and each user's face image are displayed on multiple computers connected via communication lines, and multiple users point and mark using each other's cursors. ing. In this method,
When multiple users perform collaborative document editing using a shared screen, multiple cursors controlled by each user are displayed on the shared screen. Therefore, as the number of users working together increases, it becomes more difficult to identify one's own cursor, and it becomes more difficult to determine who owns a cursor other than one's own. As a countermeasure against this problem, a display method as shown in FIG. 2, for example, has been proposed. In FIG. 2, 21 and 23 are face images of user A, 22 and 24 are cursors that follow user A's instruction operations, and A to C indicate three users. In addition, (a) shows a method of changing the color of the cursor for each user. For example, by giving the same color to the area around the face image 21 of user A and the cursor 22, user A can easily distinguish his or her cursor. be able to. Also, (b
) shows how to give the user's name to the cursor,
For example, user A's face image 23 and cursor 24 have "
By giving the name "A" and displaying it on the shared screen, the owner can be easily identified. This type of method is described in, for example, "S.R. Ahuja, J.R. Enso, and S.E. Raco, "A Comparison of Application Sharing Mechanisms in Real-Time Desktop Conferencing Systems," Proc. Ding of C.O.I.S. '90, 1990, page
238-248 (S.R.Ahuja, J.R.Ens.
or and S. E. Lucco, “A COMPA
RISON OF APPLICATION SHAR
EING MECHANISM IN REAL-T
IME DESKTOP CONFERENCE
SYSTEMS”,Proceeding of CO
IS '90, 1990, pp. 238-248).

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned conventional technology, when there are many users working together and there is a limit to the number of colors that can be displayed, it is difficult to uniquely determine in advance the correspondence between each user's cursor and color. I can't. Therefore, the association between users and colors changes dynamically for each session. For example, a user who was displayed with a red cursor in the previous session may be displayed with a yellow cursor in the current session. be. Therefore, in order to determine the owner of the cursor, it is necessary to compare the color of the cursor with the colors around the face image at any time. Furthermore, when determining the owner of a cursor based on characters, the characters attached to the cursor must be read, and there is a problem in that it is difficult to determine the owner of the cursor at a glance. An object of the present invention is to solve these problems by connecting each user's face image displayed on a shared screen and the corresponding cursor with a line that expands and contracts as the cursor moves. An object of the present invention is to provide a cursor display method that allows the owner (user) of a cursor to be determined.

0004

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the cursor display method of the present invention comprises a plurality of computer terminals connected through communication lines and a pointing device connected to these terminals, When multiple users share a display screen, each user simultaneously inputs instructions using a pointing device, and moves the cursor provided for each user on the shared screen to indicate a target, The feature is that a facial image including a moving image for each user is displayed, and the facial image and the cursor are connected by an elastic line that expands and contracts in accordance with the movement of the cursor.

[0005]

[Operation] In the present invention, by finding the starting point on the face image side (coordinates that are the starting point of the expansion/contraction line) and the end point on the cursor side (coordinates that are the ending point of the expansion/contraction line), and drawing a straight line connecting them, The face image of each user and the owned cursor are displayed in association with each other. Furthermore, when the cursor moves, the previously drawn expansion/contraction line is erased, and an expansion/contraction line is drawn between it and the new end point. In this way, since the expansion/contraction line is displayed following the movement of the cursor, the owner of the cursor can be easily determined.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a communication system to which the cursor display method of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 3, 31 to 33 are terminals of each user (users A, B, and C), 34 to 36 are pointing devices (so-called mice, etc.) connected to the terminals 31 to 33, and 37 to 39 are video points of each user. 40 to 42 are terminals 31 to 42, which capture facial images including
Communication lines connecting 33 and shared screen server 46, 43-4
5 is a display of each terminal. These terminals 31~
33 outputs inputs from pointing devices 34-36 and video cameras 37-39 to shared screen server 46 via respective communication lines 40-42. Then, the shared screen server 46 displays the facial images input through the respective communication lines 40 to 42 on the shared screen,
The cursor is controlled according to the input from the pointing devices 34 to 36, and the results are displayed on the displays 43 to 45.
The image is reflected on the document editing screen, and the corresponding face image and cursor are displayed in combination with an elastic line that expands and contracts as the cursor moves. In addition, the function of the shared screen server 46 can also be made to function as one of the user terminals 31 to 33.

Next, a cursor display method in this embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a cursor display method in a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method for drawing an elastic line connecting a face image and a cursor in the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a shared screen in the first embodiment of the present invention. In this example, as shown in Fig. 1, first, the coordinates of the starting point of the stretch line are found and set as (x1, y1) (101), and then the coordinates of the cursor, which is the end point of the stretch line, are found. This is (x2, y2)
(102). Then, a straight line connecting the coordinates (x1, y1) and the coordinates (x2, y2) is drawn (103). As a result, a face image and a cursor connected by a stretch line are displayed as shown in FIG. 4(a). Furthermore, when the cursor moves (104), the coordinates of the new cursor are determined and set as (x2', y2') (105), and the previously drawn coordinates (x1, y1) and the coordinates (x2, y2) is deleted (106). Then (x2', y2'
) are respectively substituted into (x2, y2) (107), and the process returns to step 103 to draw a straight line again. This results in
As shown in FIG. 4(b), the display of the expansion/contraction line changes as the cursor moves. Note that the dotted cursor and expansion/contraction line indicate the previous display position. For example, a display example when the cursors of users A to C of this embodiment are displayed on the shared screen is shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, 51 to 53 are cursors operated by users A to C, respectively;
56 is a face image of users A to C. In this embodiment, the face image of each user and the cursor corresponding to each user are combined and displayed on the shared screen of the displays 43 to 45 shown in FIG. 3 by an elastic line that expands and contracts as the cursor moves. For example, user A uses cursor 5 that he owns.
1 and the person's face image 54 are connected by an expanding and contracting line, it is possible to instantly determine which cursor is owned by the person, and also to be able to see how the person is captured by the video camera 37. You can check if there are any. Furthermore, since the cursors 52 and 53 of users B and C displayed on the screen of user A are connected to the face images 55 and 56 of users B and C, respectively, by lines that expand and contract, Whether the owner of the cursor performing the instruction operation is user B or user C
It is possible to immediately determine whether

Next, a case will be described in which display using expansion lines and display using colors determined for each user are used together. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a shared screen in the second embodiment of the present invention. Note that the system configuration and method of drawing expansion/contraction lines in this embodiment are the same as those in the first embodiment. In this embodiment, the cursor owner is not only clearly indicated by the expansion/contraction line, but also a predetermined color is assigned to each user. That is, the outer frames of the face images 64 to 66 of users A to C and the cursors 61 to 63
By assigning a user-specific color to the cursor, the cursor owner can be identified more effectively. Note that the cursor display method of the present invention is not limited to the above system configuration and screen display example, but can be applied to a wide range of applications.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a system for inputting instructions on a screen using a cursor linked to input from a pointing device, and in particular, a system for inputting instructions to a screen using a cursor linked to input from a pointing device. In a system that is shared between users and in which each user inputs instructions using a pointing device, each user's face image is displayed on the shared screen, and a line that expands and contracts as the cursor moves is displayed between the cursor and the corresponding face image. By combining, it is possible to determine the owner of a cursor at a glance.

0010

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a cursor display method in a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a shared screen using a conventional cursor display method.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a communication system to which the cursor display method of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method for drawing an elastic line connecting a face image and a cursor in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a shared screen in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a shared screen in the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

21 Face image 22 Cursor 23 Face image 24 Cursor 31 Terminal 32 Terminal 33 Terminal 34 Pointing device 35 Pointing device 36 Pointing device 37 Video camera 38 Video camera 39 Video camera 40 Communication line 41 Communication line 42 Communication line 43 Display 44 Display 45 Display 46 Shared screen server 51 Cursor 52 Cursor 53 Cursor 54 Face image 55 Face image 56 Face image 61 Cursor 62 Cursor 63 Cursor 64 Face image 65 Face image 66 Face image

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A computer terminal comprising a plurality of computer terminals connected through communication lines and a pointing device connected to the terminals, wherein the display screen of the terminals is shared by a plurality of users, and the users can simultaneously In a cursor display method when instructions are input using a pointing device and a cursor provided for each user is moved on a shared screen to indicate a target object, a face image including a video for each user is displayed on the shared screen, and the cursor provided for each user is displayed on the shared screen. Between the face image and the cursor above,
A cursor display method characterized by connecting the cursors with lines that expand and contract following the movement of the cursor.