Collaborative work support system

• US 5,872,924 A
• Filed: 04/26/1996
• Issued: 02/16/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Koizumi, Minoru, Tanigawa, Yoshinobu, Hayashi, Toshimitsu, Ishizaki, Takeshi, Kameda, Masami, Nakayama, Yoshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui, Bryan
• Application Number:
  US08/638,129
• Time in Patent Office: 1,026 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.35, 395/326, 395/339, 395/340, 395/331-332, 395/343, 395/344, 395/346, 395/200.31, 395/200.33, 395/200.57, 395/200.68, 395/500, 364/DIG. 1, 364/228, 364/222.2, 364/284.4, 364/243, 364/271, 345/118, 345/330, 345/331, 345/332, 345/326
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

A shared window of the same content is displayed on each display device of a plurality of computers connected through a communication network for use in a collaborative work and objects are displayed on the window. Each object is displayed based on object management data having a plurality of types of attributes set therein and the shared windows on which the objects are displayed are limited by the attribute values of the attributes. Further, participants of the collaborative work who are permitted to erase the objects are limited by the settings of the attribute values of the attributes.

Claims

1. A collaborative work support system including a plurality of computers each having a display device connected through a communication network, comprising:

means for displaying a shared window on each display device of each of said computers;

means for accepting an entry of an object from a user of one of said computers and accepting an attribute for designating a user or a group of users as a display attribute of the object, said display attribute restricting the display of said object to the designated user or group of users; and

display control means for displaying said object on the shared window displayed on the display device of said one computer and displaying said object on the shared window on each of the display devices of the computers used by the user or group of users designated by the display attribute.

2. A collaborative work support system according to claim 1 further comprising:

means for accepting change of the attribute of the object displayed on the shared window displayed on the display device of said one computer.

3. A collaborative work support system according to claim 1, wherein said object includes one of a pointing object having a display position thereof on the shared window moved in accordance with the operation by the user, a draw object which is an image displayed on the shared window and a comment object which is an image including a text and displayed in association with said draw object selectively in accordance with the operation by the user.

11. A collaborative work support system according to claim 3 further comprising:

edit means for editing the object in said one computer in accordance with the operation by the user of said one computer and accepting a designation as to whether the object being edited is opened to other users or not from the user of said one computer;

when said edit means accepts the designation not to open the object being edited to other users, said display control means inhibiting the display of the object being edited on the display devices of the computers used by the user or the user belonging to the user group designated by the display attribute of the object.

4. A collaborative work support system including a plurality of computers each having a display device connected through a communication network, comprising:

means for displaying a shared window on each display device of each of said computers;

means for accepting an entry of an object from a user of one of said computers and accepting an attribute for designating a user or a group of users as an operation attribute of the object, said operation attribute restricting an effective range of an operation to said object within the designated user or the users belonging to the designated group;

means for displaying the object on each shared window displayed on said display device of each of said computers; and

operation means for accepting an operation entry of the object displayed on the shared window displayed on the display device of an arbitrary computer by the user of said arbitrary computer and applying the accepted operation to the object;

said operation means accepting the operation of the object only when the user entering the operation is the user or one of the users belonging to the group of users designated by the operation attribute.

5. A collaborative work support system according to claim 4 further comprising:

means for accepting change of the attribute of the object displayed on the shared window displayed on the display device of said one computer.

6. A collaborative work support system according to claim 4, wherein said object includes one of a pointing object having a display position thereof on the shared window moved in accordance with the operation by the user, a draw object which is an image displayed on the shared window and a comment object which is an image including a text and displayed in association with said draw object selectively in accordance with the operation by the user.

7. A collaborative work support system including a plurality of computers each having a display device connected through a communication network, comprising:

means for displaying a shared window on each display device of each of said computers;

means for accepting an entry of object from a user of one of said computers and accepting first information for designating a user or a group of users as a display attribute of the accepted object entry and also accepting second information for designating a user or a group of users as an operation attribute of the accepted object entry;

display control means for displaying an object accepted in said one computer on the shared window displayed on the display device of said one computer and displaying said object on the display devices of the computers used by the user or the users belonging to the group of users designated by the display attribute of the object; and

operation means for accepting an operation entry of the object displayed on the shared window displayed on the display device of said one computer by the user of said one computer and applying the accepted operation to the object;

said operation means accepting the operation of the object only when the user entering the operation is the user or the users belonging to the group of users designated by the operation attribute of the object.

8. A collaborative work support system according to claim 7 wherein the group of users designated by the attribute includes all users of said plurality of computers.

9. A collaborative work support system according to claim 8 wherein the group of users designated by the attribute includes only a portion of the users of said plurality of computers.

10. A collaborative work support system according to claim 7 wherein the group of users designated by the attribute includes only a portion of the users of said plurality of computers.

12. A collaborative work support system according to claim 7 further comprising:

means for displaying an identifier identifying the user or the group of users designated by the operation attribute of the object at a specified position of the object in the shared window displayed on the display device of each of said computers.

13. A collaborative work support system according to claim 7, further comprising:

means for accepting change of the attribute of the object displayed on the shared window displayed on the display device of said one computer.

14. A collaborative work support system according to claim 7 wherein said object includes an pointing object having a display position thereof on the shared window moved in accordance with the operation by the user, a draw object which is an image displayed on the shared window and a comment object which is an image including a text and displayed in association with said draw object selectively in accordance with the operation by the user.

15. A collaborative work support system for displaying shared windows on display devices of a plurality of computers connected through a communication network, each of said computers comprising:

means for storing object management data for determining a plurality of attributes for each of objects to be displayed on said shared windows; and

means for displaying the object on the shared windows displayed on the associated display devices in accordance with the object management data;

at least one attribute of the object in said object management data including an attribute value to limit an effective range of the attribute to a group of computers within said plurality of computers.

16. A collaborative work support system according to claim 15 further comprising:

means for accepting a direction to change an attribute value of a selected attribute in the object in the object management data and changing the attribute value in accordance with the direction.

17. A collaborative work support system according to claim 15 wherein one of the attributes of the object includes an attribute value to limit the effective range of all attributes of the object to a portion of said plurality of computers.

18. A collaborative work support system according to claim 15 wherein one of the attributes of the object includes an attribute value to set whether an interim status of the preparation of the object to be displayed on the shared windows displayed on the display devices of the computers other than the computer of the site at which the object is being prepared.

19. A collaborative work system according to claim 15 wherein one of the attributes of the object includes an attribute value to set whether an attribute value of the attribute of the owner of the object is to be displayed additionally to the object displayed on the shared window.

20. A collaborative work support system according to claim 15 wherein said object includes at least one of a tele-pointing object, a tele-writing object and a comment object.

21. A collaborative work support system according to claim 15 wherein at least one of the attributes includes an attribute value applied to all of said plurality of computers and one of the attribute values is selected as the attribute value of said at least one attribute.

22. A collaborative work support system according to claim 15 wherein the effective range of said at least one attribute designates all computers for which the display of the corresponding objects on the shared windows is granted.

23. A collaborative work support system according to claim 15 wherein the effective range of said at least one attribute designates all computers for which the operation of the corresponding objects on the shared windows are granted.