JP5639793B2 - Information processing apparatus, portable information terminal, and thin client system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a thin client system that performs communication between a server and a client terminal and controls the client terminal based on data received from the server.

A system in which a client terminal is connected to a server by operating the client terminal and the client terminal displays a screen based on data received from the server is one of thin client systems. A mobile phone terminal, which is an example of a client terminal, is less powerful than the processing capability of a server, and it is difficult to perform processing that requires high processing performance by itself. Therefore, by leaving high-load processing to the server and performing only the minimum necessary processing for the client terminal, even a client terminal with low processing capability can respond to a user's processing request. In such a thin client system, since a general client terminal does not hold data in the terminal, it is known that there is an advantage of preventing information leakage from an accident such as theft or loss (Patent Document 1).
Conventionally, a technique is known in which a user interface for display on a mobile terminal is described in an XML document, and information on contents, soft keys, display styles, and the like is separated and stored in the mobile phone terminal (Patent Literature). 2).

JP 2007-034687 A JP 2006-216045 A

  In the thin client system disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, the client terminal has only a simple function of displaying a screen using data generated on the server side and transmitting an input request from the user to the server. It is good if the user's processing request is completed by processing other processing on the server side. However, if you want to perform linkage processing with the server using the processing result using the function that only the client terminal has, like this A functional configuration is not sufficient.

  Moreover, in patent document 2, the data regarding a user interface are described in an XML document. However, there is a problem that data relating to the user interface is not sufficient when the cooperation processing with the server is performed using the processing result using the function of only the client terminal as described above.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a function for efficiently controlling functions of only a client terminal from a server in a thin client system that controls the client terminal based on data received from the server.

In order to solve the above problems, the thin client system according to the present invention has the following configuration.
The information processing apparatus includes a communication unit that communicates with other devices, and an instruction data generation unit that generates instruction data for instructing other devices. The instruction data generation unit generates data related to a user interface for display on another device and data related to device control for controlling functions provided in the other device as one document, and the communication unit is a portable A document related to the instruction data is transmitted to the information terminal.

  On the other hand, the portable information terminal includes a communication unit that communicates with other devices, a storage unit that stores information, an analysis unit that analyzes instruction data received from the communication unit, and a display that displays data related to the user interface. And a device control unit that controls a device included in the portable information terminal. When the communication unit receives instruction data from the information processing apparatus, the received data is stored in the storage unit, and the analysis unit analyzes the reception data in the storage unit and extracts data related to the user interface. The display unit displays the content indicated by the data related to the user interface, and when the received data includes data related to device control, when the device control unit executes control on the device, the display unit A user interface generated by the terminal is displayed.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform cooperation between an information processing apparatus and a portable information terminal, such as efficiently controlling a device provided in a client terminal having only weak processing capability.

It is a functional block diagram of an information processor and a personal digital assistant. It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of the cooperation between an information prime management apparatus and a portable information terminal. It is a figure which shows an example of the communication sequence between information processing apparatus and a portable information terminal. It is a figure which shows an example of the instruction data XML which an information processing apparatus produces. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen of a server creation user interface and a portable information terminal production | generation user interface.

A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
First, FIG. 1 is a configuration example of an information processing apparatus 1 and a portable information terminal 2 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus 1 includes a control unit 101, a communication unit 102, a storage unit 103, and an instruction data generation unit 104.

  The control unit 101 has a function of controlling the communication unit 102 described later to store data received from the portable information terminal 2 in the storage unit 103. In addition, it controls the instruction data generation unit 104 to be described later to create instruction data to be transmitted to the portable information terminal 2 and store it in the storage unit 103, or reads the stored instruction data from the storage unit 103. Then, control is performed to transmit to the portable information terminal 2 using the communication unit 102.

The communication unit 102 is a communication module having a function of transmitting / receiving data to / from the communication unit 202 included in the portable information terminal 2. Instruction data stored in a storage unit 103 to be described later is transmitted, and a connection request, a device control execution result, and the like are received from the portable information terminal 2.
The storage unit 103 has a function of storing information, and includes a hard disk, a semiconductor memory, and the like. Here, the instruction data created by the instruction data generation unit 104 and the data received from the portable information terminal 2 are stored.

The instruction data generation unit 104 has a function of generating instruction data to be transmitted to the portable information terminal 2 in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 101. The format of the instruction data to be created is not particularly limited, but in the present embodiment, description will be given taking an example described in XML (eXtensible Markup Language).
The portable information terminal 2 includes a control unit 201, a communication unit 202, a storage unit 203, an analysis unit 204, a display unit 205, a device control unit 206, a device unit 207, and an input unit 208.

  The control unit 201 has a function of controlling the communication unit 202 described later to store data received from the information processing apparatus 1 in the storage unit 203. In addition, it has a function of causing the analysis unit 204 to analyze the received data stored in the storage unit 203 and instructing the storage unit 203 to store the analysis result. Further, it has a function of instructing the display unit 205 to display using the data stored in the storage unit 203 and instructing the device control unit 206 to control the device. In addition, the communication unit 202 is instructed to transmit data stored in the storage unit 203 to the information processing apparatus 1.

The communication unit 202 is a communication module having a function of transmitting / receiving data to / from the communication unit 102 included in the information processing apparatus 1. Data stored in a storage unit 203 (to be described later) is transmitted, and instruction data is received from the information processing apparatus 1.
The storage unit 203 has a function of storing information and is configured by a hard disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like. Here, the instruction data received from the information processing apparatus 1 by the communication unit 202, the result data analyzed by the analysis unit 204, the data transmitted by the communication unit 202 including the result of the device control unit 206 controlling the device, etc. Is stored.

The analysis unit 204 has a function of analyzing the instruction data received by the reception unit 202 from the information processing apparatus 1 and stored in the storage unit 203 in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 201. For example, when the instruction data is described in an XML format, the analysis unit can be realized using an XML parser.
The display unit 205 is a display panel using a liquid crystal display, an organic EL, or the like. There is no particular limitation as long as the panel can display characters and images. In accordance with an instruction from the control unit 201, a function of displaying a screen serving as a user interface is provided.

The device control unit 206 is a driver for controlling the device 207 mounted on the portable information terminal 2. The device 207 is controlled in accordance with a control instruction from the control unit 201. A command execution result for controlling the device 207 is stored in the storage unit 203.
The device unit 207 is a device mounted on the portable information terminal 2. For example, an RFID reader / writer that reads a tag attached to a product or the like or an IC card reader / writer for reading / writing an IC card or the like may be used, and any device that can be controlled from the portable information terminal 2 is not particularly limited.
The input unit 208 is a button or a keyboard for inputting a user request to the control unit 201. Used by the user to change the user interface screen and input the timing for executing device control.

Next, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a cooperation method between the information processing apparatus 1 and the portable information terminal 2.
The information processing terminal 1 creates instruction data that includes at least UI data intended to be displayed on the display unit 205 of the portable information terminal 2 and optionally includes a device control instruction, and transmits the instruction data to the portable information terminal 2 (S301). ). The portable information terminal 2 analyzes the received instruction data and performs UI display (S302).

At this time, if a device control instruction is included in the instruction data, the device control is executed to obtain an execution result, and the device control result is transmitted to the information processing apparatus 1 (S303).
On the other hand, when only the user interface (hereinafter referred to as UI) data is included in the instruction data, the UI screen operation result input by the user is acquired and transmitted to the information processing apparatus 1 without executing device control. .

  The information processing terminal 1 recognizes the UI operation result and device control result received from the portable information terminal 2, creates instruction data including the next UI data and device control instruction, and transmits the instruction data to the portable information terminal 2. That is, this means that the process returns to S301, and the cooperative operation of the information processing apparatus 1 and the portable information terminal 2 can be continued.

Next, FIG. 3 is an example of a communication sequence between the information processing apparatus 1 and the portable information terminal 2. This sequence diagram is described based on the notation of UML (Unified Modeling Language).
First, the information processing apparatus 1 is activated (S401), and similarly the portable information terminal 2 is activated (S402). Then, the user tries to connect to the information processing apparatus 1 by operating the portable information terminal 2 (S403).

  In this connection process, the user may simultaneously transmit user authentication information such as an ID and password input using the input unit 208. At this time, the control unit 201 reads the user authentication information from the storage unit 203 together with data indicating the address of the information processing device 1 that is the connection destination, and instructs the communication unit 201 to transmit to the information processing device 1. This authentication process may be performed after connecting to the information processing apparatus 1, and there is no particular problem even if the authentication process itself is omitted.

  The control unit 101 of the information processing apparatus 1 instructs the instruction data generation unit 104 to create instruction data to be transmitted to the portable information terminal 2. The instruction data generation unit 104 newly generates instruction data and stores it in the storage unit 103, and then notifies the control unit 101 that the generation is complete. Details of the instruction data will be described later with reference to FIG. If the instruction data is created in advance and is already stored in the storage unit 103, the instruction data generation unit 104 notifies the control unit 101 that the creation is complete. The control unit 101 reads the created instruction data from the storage unit 103 and instructs the portable information terminal 2 to transmit the instruction data using the communication unit 102. In accordance with this instruction, the communication unit 102 transmits instruction data to the portable information terminal 2 (S404).

When receiving the instruction data from the information processing apparatus 1, the communication unit 202 of the portable information terminal 2 first stores the instruction data in the storage unit 203. When the reception of the instruction data is completed, the control unit 201 instructs the analysis unit 204 to analyze the received data. Upon receiving the instruction, the analysis unit 204 reads the instruction data stored in the storage unit 203, extracts data related to UI display, and stores the extracted data in the storage unit 203 (S405).
When the data extraction process related to UI display shown in S405 is completed, the control unit 201 instructs the display unit 205 to perform UI display using the extracted data. Upon receiving the instruction, the display unit 205 displays a UI (S406).

  In S407, the device control contents are grasped and the control is executed. First, when the instruction data shown in S405 does not include data related to device control, the process proceeds to S409. When data related to device control is included (corresponding to the opt frame in FIG. 4), the analysis unit 204 starts detailed analysis of data related to device control and stores the analysis result in the storage unit 203. The control unit 201 reads the analysis result from the storage unit 203 and recognizes the control content to the device unit 207. Thereafter, the control unit 201 instructs the device control unit 206 to control the content recognized from the analysis result, and the device control unit 206 controls the device 207 as instructed by the control unit 201 (S407).

  Subsequently, the device control unit 206 acquires a result of controlling the device 207, notifies the control unit 201 of execution completion, and stores the execution result in the storage unit 203. Upon receiving a control completion notification from the device control unit 206, the control unit 201 reads data related to the execution result from the storage unit 203 and instructs the display unit 206 to display a screen corresponding to the result. For example, as shown later on a screen 505 in FIG. 5, the success or failure of the execution result is displayed (S408).

After confirming the execution result displayed on the display unit 205, the user instructs the timing to transmit the execution result to the information processing apparatus 1 using the input unit 208 (S409). Alternatively, even if the user does not explicitly specify the transmission timing, the execution result may be automatically transmitted after the execution result is displayed.
When the control unit 201 detects a transmission request from the input unit 208 or automatically transmits an execution result, the control unit 201 creates transmission data including various parameters such as device control execution contents and execution time. . Then, it instructs the communication unit 202 to transmit transmission data (S410).

Thereafter, by receiving the instruction data from the information processing device 1 as a response to the transmission data (returning to S404), the cooperation processing between the information processing device 1 and the portable information terminal 2 can be continued (Loop in FIG. 4). Equivalent to a frame).
Note that the user can use the input unit 208 to issue a request to end the portable information terminal. When detecting the termination request, the control unit 201 terminates the related program being executed in the portable information terminal (S411).

Next, FIG. 4 is an example of instruction data XML created by the information processing apparatus 1. An example in which the instruction data generation unit 104 of the information processing apparatus 1 generates the following XML document to control the device 207 included in the portable information terminal 2 will be described.
The <? xml> tag is a tag indicating that this data is an XML document, and has a version and a character code as attributes.
The lower tag and content included in the <serverdata> tag indicate the instruction content from the information processing apparatus 1. Subordinate tag names including the <serverdata> tag are not particularly limited.

  In <control> tag, describe to include various parameters to control the device. In the example of FIG. 4, “Read” is the execution command name in the <commandname> tag, “4” is the designation of the read length in the <bytelength> tag, and “0x1234abcd” is the designation of the read start address in the <address> tag. Is described. The advantage of XML is that these tags can change the presence or absence of tags depending on the execution command specified by the <commandname> tag, and can be flexibly described so that other tags can be increased or decreased by the execution command. is there.

  In addition, a plurality of device control instructions may be included in one instruction data. In this case, <control> may describe an instruction for continuously performing a plurality of device control instructions such as executing the next control instruction when the first control instruction is successful or unsuccessful. In that case, a tag indicating the order of device control and a tag for branching the process according to the execution result of the previous device control are described.

  Furthermore, a plurality of <control> tags may be described so that the user can select a control to be executed from a plurality of device control instructions. At this time, a tag for instructing the caption of the soft key, which will be described later, may be specified together with a tag indicating the position of the soft key, or if no position is specified, the tag may be arranged at a predetermined position in the order of appearance of the tag. Good.

The <softkey> tag describes the caption of the button in the soft key area at the bottom of the screen on the UI screen displayed on the display unit 205. For example, a caption such as “read” is designated. The UI by this soft key enables device control at a timing convenient for the user.
Subsequently, in the <url> tag, a URL indicating the location of the information processing apparatus 1 that transmits the success or failure of the device control is described. Here, it is a description of transmission using the http protocol, but there is no particular limitation.

Finally, the <ui> tag describes the content of the UI screen displayed on the display unit 205. Here, an example is described using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). This is a description example showing that a read command is executed when the user presses a soft key displayed on the display unit 205.
As described above, when the instruction data is described using XML, the data related to device control and the data related to UI display can be collectively transmitted and received in the same document.

Next, FIG. 5 is a screen example of a server creation UI and a portable information terminal generation UI. Screens 501 and 503 to 505 are UI screens generated and displayed by the portable information terminal 2, and the screen 502 is a UI screen included in the instruction data generated by the information processing apparatus 1. The switching of the UI screen will be described with reference to FIG.
First, a broken line 510 is a line that divides the main body of UI screen generation. The right side from the broken line 510 is a screen that displays a UI generated by the portable information terminal 2, while the left side is a UI screen created by the information processing apparatus 1.

  A screen 501 generated by the portable information terminal is an example of a UI screen for confirming to the user whether or not connection to the information processing apparatus 1 is necessary after the activation process shown in S402. When the user selects and executes the soft key 501 a “connection” at the bottom of the screen using the input unit 208, the screen transitions to the screen 502. At this time, processing S403 and S404 are executed between the information processing apparatus 1 and the portable information terminal 2. On the other hand, when the soft key 501b “end” is selected and executed, the control unit 1 ends the program without connecting to the information processing apparatus 1.

  The UI screen displayed on the screen 502 is UI content included in the instruction data in S404, and the portable information terminal 2 executes the process S406. The server generation UI screen 502a displays a UI screen related to device control related to “reading”, but various UIs are realized by changing the data related to the UI included in the instruction data shown in FIG. be able to. If the data related to device control is included in the instruction data, a display such as “read” on the soft key 502b is performed. At this time, when the user selects and executes the soft key 502b using the input unit 208, the screen can be changed to a screen 503. When the soft key 502d “disconnect” is selected and executed, the connection to the information processing apparatus 1 is disconnected and the screen 501 is returned to. When the soft key 502c “select” is selected and executed, a UI operation result in accordance with the display of the server generation UI screen 502a is transmitted to the information processing apparatus 1. Subsequently, data relating to UI display included in the received instruction data is displayed on the display unit 205 as the next server generation UI screen 502a.

  A screen 503 is a device control execution preparation screen, a screen 504 is a device control execution screen, and a screen 505 is a device control execution result display screen. In the screens 503 to 504, the portable information terminal 2 executes the process S407. On the other hand, the process S408 is executed on the screen 505.

  The screen 503 displays a UI screen for inquiring the user whether or not to execute device control. This UI content is generated by the portable information terminal 2 and is not generated by the information processing apparatus 1. At this time, when the user selects and executes the soft key 503 a “execute” using the input unit 208, the screen can be changed to a screen 504. When the soft key 503b “Cancel” is selected and executed, the screen 502 is displayed again.

A screen 504 displays a UI screen indicating that device control is being executed. From this screen 504, when the success or failure of execution is confirmed, or when a timeout error occurs, the screen 505 is automatically transitioned to.
The screen 505 displays a UI screen indicating the execution result of the device control execution result. The user uses the input unit 208 to input an instruction to transmit the execution result to the information processing apparatus 1. Further, in order to re-execute the device control, a screen transition that returns to the screen 503 by pressing a soft key or the like may be used.

In this way, a common UI screen for controlling the device 208 included in the portable information terminal 2 can be generated by the portable information terminal 2.
As described above, in the process involving device control, by using the server-generated UI screen on the screen 502, the purpose and background for controlling the device unit 208 included in the mobile phone terminal 2 are indicated on the mobile phone terminal 2 side. There is no need to get involved in Therefore, the module size of the program executed on the mobile phone terminal 2 can be reduced.

  On the other hand, instead of using the UI screen generated by the information processing apparatus 1, the screens 503 to 505 are displayed using the UI generated by the mobile phone terminal 2, thereby eliminating the need for communication with the information processing apparatus 1. Become. Therefore, since the processing time required for communication can be reduced among the processing time of the instruction content of the information processing apparatus 1, it is possible to reduce the processing time required for displaying the UI screen and controlling the device.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Information processing apparatus, 2 ... Portable information terminal, 101 ... Control part, 102 ... Communication part, 103 ... Memory | storage part, 104 ... Instruction data generation part, 201 ... Control part, 202 ... Communication part, 203 ... Memory | storage part, 204 ... analyzing unit, 205 ... display unit, 206 ... device control unit, 207 ... device unit, 208 ... input unit.

Claims (13)

An information processing apparatus that processes information by communicating with other devices via a communication line,
A communication unit for communicating with the other device;
According to data relating to a user interface for display on the other device, data relating to device control for controlling a function provided in the other device, and a result of device control executed in the other device, An instruction data generation unit for creating instruction data with data related to conditional branching for branching device control to be executed as one document;
A storage unit for storing the information received by the communication unit and the instruction data created by the instruction data creation unit;
A controller that authenticates the other device and controls the operation of the information processing apparatus,
The controller is
When the other device communicates via the communication unit, the other device is authenticated, and the instruction data stored in the storage unit is transmitted to the communication unit to the other device. A characteristic information processing apparatus.   2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein after the communication unit receives a connection request from the other device, the control unit instructs the instruction data generation unit to generate the document. A characteristic information processing apparatus. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document includes at least data related to a user interface and includes data related to device control only when a function provided in another device is controlled. An information processing apparatus characterized by that. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein data relating to device control included in the document is provided in another device while a result of device control executed in the other device is successful. An information processing apparatus including data indicating that it is not necessary to transmit an execution result using a communication unit. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data related to device control included in the document includes other data while the result of device control executed by another device is unsuccessful. An information processing apparatus including data indicating that an execution result does not need to be transmitted using a communication unit provided in a device. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the document is in an XML format, and the instruction data generation unit includes data relating to a user interface as an XML document, and functions provided in other devices. An information processing apparatus characterized in that data relating to device control for controlling a device can be structured and described. A portable information terminal that processes information by communicating with other devices via a communication line,
A communication unit for communicating with the other device;
A storage unit for storing information received by the communication unit and data related to a common user interface for display when controlling the device;
An analysis unit for analyzing the information received by the communication unit;
A display unit for performing display relating to data relating to a user interface obtained by analysis by the analysis unit;
A control unit for controlling a device included in the portable information terminal,
The control unit, when the communication unit receives information from the other device,
Storing the information in the storage unit, causing the analysis unit to analyze the information stored in the storage unit,
When the analysis unit extracts data related to the user interface, the content indicated by the data related to the user interface is displayed on the display unit,
When the analysis unit extracts data related to the control of the device, it performs device control on the device to be controlled and stores it in the storage unit, not the content indicating the data related to the user interface included in the received information Control to display the content indicated by the data related to the common user interface
A portable information terminal characterized by that. In the portable information terminal according to claim 7,
As a result of analyzing the received data by the analysis unit, when the received data includes data related to device control, the display unit displays a display indicating that device control is included, or device control The portable information terminal characterized by the said control part instruct | indicating to display the execution content. In the portable information terminal according to any one of claims 7 to 8,
As a result of analyzing the reception data by the analysis unit, the reception data includes data related to device control, and when there is a pre-execution command that needs to be executed in advance before executing the device control, The portable information terminal characterized in that the device control unit instructs the control unit to execute specified device control after executing the pre-execution command. In the portable information terminal according to any one of claims 7 to 9,
A portable information terminal further comprising an input unit that receives an input from a user, wherein the control unit instructs to execute device control at a timing when the input unit detects an input from the user. 8. The portable information terminal according to claim 7, wherein the data relating to the common user interface stored in the storage unit includes a preparation screen to be displayed immediately before performing device control. A personal digital assistant characterized by directing. 12. The portable information terminal according to claim 7, wherein the device control unit stores a result of executing device control in a storage unit, and the communication unit transmits the stored execution result to another device. A portable information terminal characterized by the control unit directing. In the information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6 and the portable information terminal according to 7 to 12,
The storage unit of the portable information terminal stores data related to a common user interface to be displayed when controlling the device,
The instruction data generation unit of the information processing apparatus is executed in data related to a user interface for display on another device, data related to device control for controlling a function provided in the other device, and other device. According to the result of the device control, the data related to the conditional branch for branching the device control to be executed next is generated as one document, and the communication unit transmits the document related to the instruction data to the other device. ,
When the communication unit of the portable information terminal receives instruction data from the information processing device, the communication unit stores the received data in the storage unit, and the analysis unit analyzes the received data in the storage unit and extracts data related to the user interface The display unit displays the content indicated by the data related to the user interface, and when the received data includes data related to device control, the received information when the device control unit executes control on the device. Display the content indicated by the data related to the common user interface stored in the storage unit, not the content indicating the data related to the user interface included in the storage unit, and subsequently store the result of executing the device control in the storage unit, The communication unit sends the stored execution result to the communication unit of the information processing apparatus. After,
The communication unit of the information processing apparatus receives data from the communication unit of the portable information terminal, the instruction data generation unit generates instruction data including at least a user interface related to the next processing, and the communication unit The thin client system is characterized in that the control unit instructs the information processing apparatus and the portable information terminal to perform processing in cooperation by repeatedly transmitting the instruction data to the communication unit of the portable information terminal.

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