JPH10105480A - Information processing system and apparatus and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To improve efficiency in downloading information from a client server. SOLUTION: A client inputs a URL into 22, and U
Before downloading the hybrid information such as the character information, image information, and audio information of the RL, the information amount of character information (23), the information amount of image information (24), and the information amount of audio information (25) ), Client's web browser 2
1 indicates that the operator has too much information.
Download of URL information can be stopped, and efficient information acquisition can be performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an information processing system capable of transmitting character information, image information, and voice information from a server to a client.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional client-server system, data transmission from a server to a client is performed by the server, and processing such as changing the data amount based on a request from the client is not performed.

[0003]

The information held by the server is generally hybrid information such as characters, images, and sounds. In such a case, the server transmits the hybrid information in response to a request from the client.

[0004] However, the weighting of each data of the information required by the client varies depending on its use. For example, there is a case where the weight of the character information is higher than other information. In such a case, if all information is transmitted and received uniformly, communication time is required and it is inefficient.

For example, a WWW browser or the like on a PC
When accessing and displaying data by accessing a WW server, or when acquiring information from a client server in a general client-server system, the amount of image information is large compared to the amount of character information, so it takes time to download information. It takes.

[0006] In particular, in a general public network having a small communication capacity, the example is remarkable.

An object of the present invention is to improve the usability.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, character information, image information,
An information processing system in which a client obtains information such as voice information, wherein the server transmits character information, image information, and voice information to the client before transmitting the character information, image information, and voice information. An information processing system having a function of notifying an information amount in advance is provided. In order to solve the above problems, the present invention preferably provides a method in which the server transmits the character information, image information, audio information, and the like to the client before transmitting the information such as character information, image information, and audio information. Is provided in advance.

The present invention is an information processing system in which a client acquires information such as character information, image information, and voice information stored in a server in order to solve the above-mentioned problems.
Before transmitting information such as text information, image information, and voice information to the client, the server has a function of inquiring about the presence or absence of transmission of the text information, image information, voice information, and the transmission ratio of each information. To provide an information processing system. In order to solve the above problems, the present invention preferably controls the information amount by changing the resolution, compression ratio, and compression method of each information based on the information obtained by the server, and changing the weight of each information. Transmission and reception.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention preferably has a function in which, after a client downloads from a server, the server inquires of the client whether or not to transmit character information, image information, audio information, etc., and a transmission ratio of each information. It has a function of recalling, updating the information by changing the resolution, compression ratio, and compression method.

[0010] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is an information processing apparatus for transmitting information such as character information, image information, and voice information to a client. In addition, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus having a function of notifying the amount of information such as the character information, image information, and audio information in advance before transmitting information such as audio information. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention preferably sets a transmission time of the character information, image information, audio information, etc. in advance before transmitting information such as character information, image information, audio information, etc. to a client. It has a function of notifying.

According to the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus for transmitting information such as character information, image information, and voice information to a client. In addition, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus having a function of inquiring about transmission / non-transmission of the character information, image information, audio information, and the like and transmission ratio of each information before transmitting information such as audio information. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention preferably changes the resolution, compression ratio, and compression method of each information based on the acquired information, and controls the amount of information by changing the weight of each information to transmit. It is characterized by doing.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention preferably calls again a function for inquiring the client about the presence / absence of transmission of character information, image information, audio information and the like, and the transmission ratio of each information, and provides resolution and compression. It has a function of updating each information by changing a rate and a compression method.

The present invention is directed to a method for controlling an information processing system in which a client acquires information such as character information, image information, and audio information stored in a server. On the other hand, before transmitting information such as character information, image information, and audio information, the character information,
Provided is a control method for an information processing system, which has a function of notifying in advance the amount of information such as image information and audio information.

The present invention is directed to a method for controlling an information processing system in which a client acquires information such as character information, image information, and voice information stored in a server. An information processing system having a function of inquiring about transmission of the character information, image information, audio information, and the like, and a transmission ratio of each information before transmitting information such as character information, image information, and audio information. Control method is provided.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(First Embodiment) Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a client-server system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a client, which is a personal computer on which a Web browser for connecting to the Internet and browsing hybrid information such as character information, image information, and audio information is installed.

The httpd server 2 is a WWW server placed on the Internet.

The CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script 3 is a CGI program built in the server program.

Reference numeral 4 denotes each URL (Uniform Resource Locato).
This is a database of hybrid data such as character information, image information, and audio information stored for each r).

Next, the configuration of the client 1 in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

The CPU 101 is a central processing unit that executes the processing of the flowchart described later. The KB 102 is, for example, a keyboard for inputting a URL as shown at 22 in FIG. The VRAM 103 is a memory for displaying character information and image information on the display 104 or the WEB browser shown in FIG. Display 104
Is a CRT or LCD, which is a display unit for displaying a web browser or the like. 105 is a hard disk (HD). 106 is a communication device for connecting to the httpd server. 107 is a system bus. Reference numeral 108 denotes an external storage device such as a floppy disk.

The operation of the above-described embodiment of the present invention using the client-server system will be specifically described.

<Client Operation> Before describing the client operation in detail, the browse screen of FIG. 3 will be described.

FIG. 3 is a browse screen of the web browser displayed in 1 of FIG.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a title bar of the web browser on the client.

Reference numeral 22 denotes an area for entering a URL of a connection destination such as http://www.abc.com/abc.html.

Reference numerals 23, 24, and 25 are the most characteristic displays of the present invention.

In this display, the amount of each information is displayed before the hybrid information such as the character information, image information, and audio information of the URL set in 22 is downloaded to the client. Reference numeral 23 indicates that the character information transmitted from the server is 100 KByte. Reference numeral 24 indicates that the image information transmitted from the server is 1 MByte. Reference numeral 25 indicates that the audio information transmitted from the server is 1 MByte.

The operator can check the amount of information before downloading the URL information.

In the present embodiment, the information amount of each of the character information, the image information, and the audio information is displayed, but the time until the download of all the information is completed may be displayed. In addition, both information can be displayed.

Next, the operation of the client will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

First, the following processing is performed when the client 1 starts the browser.

In the initial state of the startup, the URL 22 in FIG.
In the state where 22, 23, 24 and 25 are not displayed yet
The web browser is displayed.

In step S601, the WEB browser 21 (http
URL (www.abc.com/abc.h) to connect to d server 2)
tml) 22 and connect to the set URL. In step S602, as shown in FIG. 3, data (23, 24, 25) representing the information amount of character information, image information, audio information, etc. corresponding to the set URL is displayed.

In step S603, the operator determines the amount of display information, and determines whether an instruction key OK key 26 for browsing or a Cancel key 27 for canceling browsing has been instructed.

Here, if it is determined that the OK key 26 has been instructed, the process proceeds to step S605 to display hybrid information such as character information, image information, and audio information downloaded from the server. Step S603
As a result, if it is determined that the Cancel key 27 has been instructed, the process ends.

<Server Operation> Next, the server (http
The operation of the d server 2) will be described.

In step S701, the connection from the client 1 is confirmed, and data representing the amounts of information such as character information and image information is transmitted to the client 1.

In step S702, after receiving the answer from the client 1, in step S703, the CGI program is started. In step S704, the CGI program determines the answer from the client 1, and returns the transmission data to the server.

In step S705, the server sends the result from the CGI program to the client 1.

Next, the operation of the CGI program in step S703 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S1001, the CGI program obtains data representing each information amount such as character information and image information from the server.

In step S1002, it is determined whether character information is selected. If so, character data is created in step S1003.

In step S1004, it is determined whether image information has been selected. If so, image data is created in step S1005. At this time, the optimum compression method is automatically selected according to the value entered by the client. For example, in the case of image information, if the set value of the client is 50% or more, JPEG is selected, and if it is less than 50%, GIF is selected. If JPEG is selected,
Data for each frequency component is created according to the value entered by the client by the progressive build-up method.

In step S1006, it is determined whether audio information has been selected. If so, in step S1007, the same processing as for image data is performed to create data.

In step S1008, the character, image, and sound data processed in the above steps are transmitted to the server (http
hand over to d server 2).

According to the flowcharts of FIGS. 6, 7 and 10, before the client acquires the hybrid information such as character information, image information and audio information stored in the server,
Each information amount of the hybrid information can be confirmed in advance.

Further, since it is possible to confirm the time until the download is completed from the server, it is possible to provide a more detailed server / client system.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the browse screens of FIGS. 4 and 5, and the flowcharts of FIGS.

<Client Operation> Before specifically describing the client operation, the browse screens shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 will be described.

Reference numeral 32 denotes an area for entering a URL of a connection destination such as http://www.abc.com/abc.html. Reference numeral 33 indicates that the character information transmitted from the server is 100 KB. Reference numeral 34 indicates that the amount of image information transmitted from the server is 1 MByte when 100% is transmitted. 35 indicates that the audio information transmitted from the server is 1
The transmission of 00% indicates 1 MByte.

Reference numeral 41 denotes a web browser on the client. Reference numeral 42 denotes an area for entering a URL of a connection destination such as http://www.abc.com/abc.html. Reference numeral 43 indicates that the character information transmitted from the server is 100 KB. 44 is the image information amount 1 transmitted from the server
This indicates that only 50% of the MByte is transmitted.
45 is 1 MByte of voice information transmitted from the server
However, this data is not transmitted.

The second embodiment will be described using such a browse screen.

The portions described in the first embodiment will be briefly described.

In step S601 of FIG. 6, the client 1 connects to the WWW server (httpd server 2) on the network by the web browser 31 of FIG.
RL (www.abc.com/abc.html) 32 is set, and in step S602, data 33, 34, and 35 representing the amounts of information such as character information and image information from the server are displayed.

When downloading 50% of the text information and the image information without downloading the audio information, the browser sets the amount of information to be downloaded to 43, 44 in FIG.
Fill in as 45.

In step S603, the operator determines the amount of information to be displayed, and determines whether an instruction key OK key 46 for browsing or a Cancel key 47 for canceling browsing has been instructed.

Here, if it is determined that the OK key 46 has been instructed, the process proceeds to step S605 to display the character information and image information downloaded from the server. If it is determined in step S603 that the Cancel key 47 has been instructed, the process ends.

<Server Operation> Next, the server (http
The operation of the d server 2) will be described.

In step S701, the connection from the client 1 is confirmed, and data representing the amounts of information such as character information and image information is transmitted to the client 1.

In step S702, after receiving the response from the client 1, in step S703, the CGI program is started. In step S704, the CGI program determines the response from the client 1, and returns the transmission data to the server.

In step S705, the server sends the result from the CGI program to client 1.

The data structure of the server will be described with reference to FIGS.

The data structure for each URL is constituted by the unit shown in FIG.

Reference numeral 801 denotes a character information section in the data structure for each URL.

Reference numeral 802 denotes an image information section in the data structure for each URL.

Reference numeral 803 denotes a voice information section in the data structure for each URL.

FIG. 9 shows that image / sound data is divided into units for each frequency component such as JPEG if it is an image.
It is configured as a multiplex of all frequency data.

Reference numeral 901 denotes the data of the image / audio part is DCT
(Discrete Cosine Transform) and the like are divided into data for each frequency component, and are managed as each block data from a high frequency component (902) to a low frequency component (903).

(Third Embodiment) The third embodiment is described as a first embodiment.
This will be described with reference to the browser screen of FIG.

The processing by the server and the client is the same as in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Reference numeral 1101 denotes a client Web browser.

If the user wants to obtain 100% image information after downloading the image information at 50%, the user can select the option / download pull-down menu to call up the browse screen of FIG. 4 again. . So select the image information and set it to 100%,
Select OK.

The subsequent operation is the same as in the above-described embodiment, and will not be described.

In the above-described embodiment, JPEG and GIF are used as image compression methods, but other compression methods may be used.
In the above embodiment, a WWW server and a client are used, but another client server system may be used.

Further, according to the present invention, a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or the apparatus supplies the storage medium. It is needless to say that the present invention is also achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R,
It can be used for a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and the like.

The functions of the above-described embodiments are implemented when the computer executes the readout program code. In addition, the OS or the like running on the computer performs the actual processing based on the instructions of the program code. The functions of the above-described embodiment can be realized by performing a part or all of the above.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, The CPU provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing,
The functions of the above-described embodiment can also be realized by such processing.

The present invention is applicable to a case where the program is distributed from a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a requester via a communication infrastructure such as personal computer communication. Needless to say, this can also be applied.

[0083]

As described above, according to the present invention, before a client acquires hybrid information such as character information, image information, and audio information stored in a server,
Each information amount of the hybrid information can be confirmed in advance.

Further, since the time until the download is completed from the server can be confirmed, a more detailed server / client system can be provided.

When accessing a WWW server from a WWW browser or the like on a PC to acquire and display data, or when acquiring information from a client server in a general client-server system, information is downloaded for each information to be downloaded. The amount can be confirmed, and the time required for downloading can be selected by the user for each image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a client-server system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a client according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a browse screen according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a browse screen according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a browse screen according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of a client according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart of a server according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of a server according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of a server according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart at the time of operation of a CGI program on a server according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a browse screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 CPU 102 KB 103 VRAM 104 Display 105 HD 106 Communication device 107 Bus 108 FD

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An information processing system in which a client acquires information such as character information, image information, and audio information stored in a server, wherein the server provides the client with information such as character information, image information, and audio information. Before transmission of the character information, image information,
An information processing system having a function of notifying an amount of information such as voice information in advance. 2. A server having a function of notifying a client of a transmission time of character information, image information, audio information, and the like before transmitting information such as character information, image information, and audio information to a client. The information processing system according to claim 1. 3. An information processing system in which a client acquires information such as character information, image information, and voice information stored in a server, wherein the server sends the client information such as character information, image information, and voice information. An information processing system having a function of inquiring about the presence / absence of transmission of the character information, image information, audio information, and the like and a transmission ratio of each information before transmission. 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the resolution, compression ratio, and compression method of each piece of information are changed based on the information obtained by the server, and the weight of each piece of information is changed to control the amount of information to be transmitted and received. 3. The information processing system according to 3. 5. After the client downloads from the server, the server sends character information, image information,
The function according to claim 4, further comprising a function of calling again a function for inquiring whether or not transmission of audio information or the like and a transmission ratio of each information are performed, and updating each information by changing a resolution, a compression ratio, and a compression method. Information processing system. 6. An information processing apparatus for transmitting information such as character information, image information, and voice information to a client, wherein the information processing apparatus transmits character information, image information, and voice information to the client before transmitting the information. An information processing apparatus having a function of notifying in advance the amount of information such as the character information, image information, and audio information. 7. A function of notifying a client of a transmission time of the character information, image information, audio information, etc. before transmitting information such as character information, image information, audio information, etc. to a client. The information processing device according to claim 6. 8. An information processing apparatus for transmitting information such as character information, image information, and voice information to a client, wherein the information processing apparatus transmits character information, image information, and voice information to the client before transmitting the information. An information processing apparatus having a function of inquiring about the presence / absence of transmission of the character information, image information, audio information, and the like, and a transmission ratio of each information. 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein a resolution, a compression ratio, and a compression method of each piece of information are changed based on the obtained information, and the weight of each piece of information is changed to control the amount of information to be transmitted. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1. 10. A function for inquiring the client about the presence / absence of transmission of character information, image information, audio information and the like and a transmission ratio of each information is called again, and each information is updated by changing a resolution, a compression ratio, and a compression method. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9 having a function. 11. A method for controlling an information processing system in which a client acquires information such as character information, image information, and audio information stored in a server, wherein the server provides the client with character information, image information, and audio information. Before transmitting information such as, the character information, image information,
A method for controlling an information processing system, comprising a function of notifying in advance the amount of information such as voice information. 12. A method for controlling an information processing system in which a client acquires information such as character information, image information, and voice information stored in a server, wherein the server provides the client with character information, image information, voice information, and the like. A method of inquiring about the presence or absence of transmission of the character information, image information, audio information, and the like and the transmission ratio of each information before transmitting the information.