Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-29
2004-01-06
Jaroenchonwanit, Bunjob (Department: 2143)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
C709S205000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06675197
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collaborative work support system and particularly to a collaborative work support system which can provide an environment to implement communication with a suitable party on the basis of a work area designated as required by each user on the occasion of making communication among plural users through computers in the virtual work space on a network connecting the plural computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
With rapid propagation of the Intranet and Internet in recent years, the environment for execution of works through cooperation by plural users in the virtual space on a network is now being established. Under this condition, users generally have intensive desire to smoothly complete their own works while making suitable communication with the other users in identical work condition depending on the work which is now in execution.
The related arts to sequentially and dynamically change the communication partners depending on work conditions of users at a certain timing can be classified into the following three methods from the functional viewpoint.
The first method is to change a communication partner on the basis of the preset information. In this first method, the environment to dynamically change the communication partner is offered to users by selecting each time the condition registered in advance.
For example, the group environment setting method and system described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 9-034844 discloses that group names and corresponding environment setting information (access right, software used, menu setting, etc.) are registered in advance and communication environment based on the environment setting information related to such groups is offered when users designate the registered group name.
Moreover, the collaborative work starting apparatus described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application Hei 7-210513 is capable of providing communication environment to users by registering user information (user name and terminal name) table and application information (application name and starting system) in advance and by extracting, based on the information preset to each table, the communication partner when users designate group member and name of application used.
The second method is that a communication partner is searched in the virtual reality and it is then changed. For example, in the human interface system described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-095997, there are provided a human interface system which has a function to implement the actions identical to that in the actual world as well as a communication environment to change as required the communication partner while users are confirming virtual rooms and members on the display area.
In addition, the FreeWalk (Proceedings of the ACM Conference on CSCW '96, Kyoto University) provides a communication environment using videos and voices to change the communication partner as required when users are going to become near or further to the other users by providing the two-dimensional map and virtual three-dimensional space for confirming the position of communication partner.
The third method is to change communication partner through selection of reference information. For instance, the reference “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR STORING AND RETRIEVING COLLABORATIVELY PROCESSED INFORMATION BY ASSOCIATED IDENTIFICATION DATA” described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,507 provides a communication environment which can change as required a communication partner based on the communication mode selected by users by presenting to users some communication devices (such as telephone set, electronic bulletin board) in advance.
Moreover, the communication system described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-128343 provides a communication environment to change as required a communication partner based on the partner selected by users and communication mode by presenting some communication devices and other users who are simultaneously making reference to information of WWW (World Wide Web) server.
In addition, Piazza (SunSoft, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on CSCW '96) provides the environment for making communication with users as required through multimedia communication by presenting users who are accessing the same information among the dispersed communities, users who are satisfying the preset condition and users who are taking part in a project.
Moreover, although not a method to dynamically change a communication partner, it is also proposed as a method for finding out the communication partner depending on the work condition of users to use a document retrieving apparatus for the document retrieval by utilizing a keyword. Namely, in the document retrieving apparatus including a WWW robot, the entire part of similar documents are extracted by comparing the keyword input by a user with all keywords included in the document information for static document information accumulated previously in the database on the network. Thereby, the communication partner in relation to the work which is executed in current by a user can be extracted.
However, these related arts have the following problems. First, since communication groups and communication environments must be set in advance, it is impossible to provide an environment which can always implement communication with the belt partner considering the work condition of a user which changes from time to time. In other words, every possible condition must be assumed and detail settings must also be done in advance depending on such conditions in order to provide an environment which always assures the communication with the best partner considering the work conditions. However, numerous condition settings are required for this purpose and moreover such setting must also be done in advance. Therefore, in fact, it is impossible in the first method that to generate dynamic communication group depending on work condition of users.
In the second method, although it is not required, unlike the first method, to set the detail conditions in advance, since the communication group is generated only with the virtual positional information of each user, namely with the coordinates information at the time of generating a communication group, whether the communication partner is in the same work condition as own condition cannot be known until the actual communication with partner is started. Therefore, if the communication partner is isolated in the virtual space even if the partner is in the identical work condition, a user cannot make communication with such partner. Accordingly, even with the second method, it is impossible to solve the problem that a user can always make communication with an adequate partner in the suitable work condition matched with own condition.
In the third method, the condition to make reference to the same file on the virtual space is used in place of the coordinates information used in the second method. However, even in this method, if there are plural different files on the virtual space, although these are entirely identical in contents, users are never registered to the communication group even when such users are executing the works of the identical contents. Namely, in this case, it is a serious problem that communication cannot be implemented. Moreover, in the third method, since the information suggesting a part of the file in which users are interested is not yet detected, if a certain user is interested with different part of the file, here rises a problem that such a user is registered to the communication group because this user is observing the identical file. Therefore, even with the third method, it is impossible to solve the problem that a user cannot implement the communication with an adequate partner depending on the condition of own work.
Moreover, in the method for generating communication groups using a document retriev
Katsurabayashi Hiroshi
Satoh Chihiro
Fuji 'Xerox Co., Ltd.
Jaroenchonwanit Bunjob
LandOfFree
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