JP4661066B2 - Information processing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus used for information processing work such as a computer and a PDA.

  In recent years, businesses using information processing devices such as computers are increasing. However, once the operation is interrupted in the operation of such information processing equipment, it is necessary to remember the progress of the operation before the interruption when returning to the operation.

Conventionally, as a device to remind you of the progress of such work, record the display screen so that you can reproduce the work that was performed immediately before the work interruption, and the display screen that was recorded when returning to work An apparatus (Patent Document 1) to be presented to the user is considered.
JP 2003-280946 A

  However, since the above-described conventional apparatus records a large amount of information such as a display screen, the amount of data to be recorded becomes enormous and individual work records cannot be reproduced, and the memory of the worker is evoked to some extent. Stay in it.

  On the other hand, if you keep all the operation information by itself like a keyboard macro, you need to re-execute all the work contents from the beginning if you want to see the work contents from a specific point in time. In this case, the work state at the specific time cannot be reproduced, and the convenience is low.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an information processing apparatus that can reproduce the operation contents of the operator sequentially to present the work progress of the user and improve convenience. One of its purposes.

  The present invention for solving the problems of the above conventional example is an information processing apparatus, and first recording means for sequentially recording at least one of an operation content from a user or a content received from a network as event information And second recording means for recording snapshot information for restoring the information storage state of the apparatus at each timing at each predetermined timing.

  The present invention for solving the problems of the conventional example is an information processing program, in which at least one of operation content from a user or content received from a network is sequentially recorded as event information on a computer. And a second recording procedure for recording snapshot information for restoring the information storage state of the apparatus at each timing at a predetermined timing.

  In addition, the first recording procedure is a procedure for associating and recording information specifying the time point when each event information is received from the user or received from the network, and the second recording procedure is It is a procedure for recording the timing point in association with the information specified in relation to the event information, receiving an instruction to reproduce the operation by designating a past point in time, and before the designated point The snapshot information recorded by the second recording means is acquired, the information storage state of the device is updated to a state corresponding to the snapshot information, and the event after the time point associated with the acquired snapshot information is Sequential presentation procedure for sequentially reading the event information recorded by the first recording means and sequentially presenting the results of processing the event When the sequential presentation procedure sequentially reads the event information, if there is snapshot information associated with a time point before the event information to be read next, the snapshot information is acquired. Then, the information storage state of the apparatus may be updated to a state corresponding to the snapshot information.

  Further, when the sequential presentation procedure sequentially reads the recorded event information and sequentially presents the results of processing the event, if there is a stop operation from the user, or the event information to be read is If there is at least one of them, the computer may execute a procedure for predicting the user's next operation content and a procedure for presenting the predicted operation content.

  Furthermore, the timing at which the second recording procedure records the snapshot information is the timing at which the user has received an instruction to record the snapshot information, and the first recording means recorded after the previous snapshot information was recorded. It may be at least one of a timing at which the number of event information exceeds a predetermined threshold and a timing for each predetermined time.

  The timing at which the second recording unit records the snapshot information may be a timing at which the application program ends.

  Furthermore, the present invention for solving the problems of the above conventional example is an information processing method, in which at least one of operation content from a user or content received from a network is sequentially recorded as event information. And a second recording step of recording snapshot information for restoring the information storage state of the apparatus at each timing at predetermined timings.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a control unit 11, a main storage unit 12, a secondary storage unit 13, an operation unit 14, a display unit 15, and a communication unit 16. It consists of

  The control unit 11 includes an arithmetic processing unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and operates according to a program stored in the main storage unit 12 or the secondary storage unit 13. The control unit 11 performs document processing and the like according to various application programs (hereinafter abbreviated as “applications”) such as a word processor and a spreadsheet application. In addition, as will be described in detail later, the control unit 11 stores a process (history acquisition process) for storing an operation content performed by the user on the application and an information storage state related to the application, Based on the information, a process of reproducing a user's operation performed in the past (history reproduction process) is performed.

  The main storage unit 12 includes a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. The main storage unit 12 holds a program executed by the control unit 11 and, for example, temporarily stores application data such as document data when the control unit 11 executes an application or the like. 11 work memory. The secondary storage unit 13 is a hard disk or the like, for example, and holds a program executed by the control unit 11. The secondary storage unit 13 temporarily stores the storage contents of the main storage unit 12 (such as holding a swap area for realizing so-called virtual storage), and various parameter information (settings) related to program execution Information).

  The operation unit 14 includes a mouse, a keyboard, and the like, and transmits the contents of the operation performed by the user to the control unit 11. The display unit 15 is a liquid crystal display device, for example, and presents information to the user in accordance with an instruction input from the control unit 11. The communication unit 16 transmits data via a network according to an instruction input from the control unit 11, receives data that arrives via the network, and outputs the data to the control unit 11.

  Here, the control unit 11 executes an application under an execution environment generally called an operating system (OS). Specifically, the content of the operation performed by the user via the operation unit 14 is output to the application side as information called “event”. Specifically, this event includes the type of event (aside from pressing the mouse button or key operation), the position where the event was performed (for example, the position of the mouse pointer when the mouse button was pressed), and the event type. And information elements such as the contents of the event (such as the contents of the pressed key). Even when data is transmitted and received via the communication unit 16, information is exchanged with the application side as an event. For example, when e-mail data received via a network is received, the OS side outputs the e-mail data to the mail application as an event (communication event) for the mail application.

  Further, in many OSs, it is possible to acquire and record the contents of such events before outputting them to the application side. Even if the user does not actually perform the operation, the OS can generate event information and output it to the application. Specifically, some languages such as macros use such an OS mechanism, and since these processes are widely known, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  Hereinafter, a history acquisition process and a history reproduction process which are operations of the control unit 11 will be described. First, the history acquisition process will be described. When the control unit 11 receives an instruction to acquire a history of a specific application (which specifies at least one application by its name, etc., hereinafter referred to as an application of interest) from the user, the control unit 11 starts the process illustrated in FIG. The event of the input operation generated on the OS side (mouse movement, mouse click, key input, etc.), the event of data transmission / reception from the network, etc. are acquired (S1).

  Then, by referring to the information on the type of the event, it is checked whether or not the event is predetermined to be recorded (S2). Specifically, whether or not the event is related to the application of interest (can be determined by whether the location where the event occurred is within the application window, etc.), or communication from the server specified by the user It is determined based on a predetermined recording rule such as whether or not the event is an event, and whether or not the event type is a predetermined specific event.

  If it is determined that the event is to be recorded (Yes), information related to the event is stored in the main storage unit 12 or the secondary storage unit 13 (S3). Information about the event is stored in a manner as shown in FIG. That is, a series of event numbers as event identifiers are issued in the order of event acquisition (occurrence), and the event number, event occurrence time (date and time, etc.), event type, event content, Are stored in association with each other. Here, at least one of the event identifier and the event occurrence time corresponds to information for specifying an event operation time as an example of event information. Of these events, when the content exceeds a predetermined size threshold, such as a communication event, the information of the content may be compressed by the LZ method and held. In addition, when the information related to these events is stored in the main storage unit 12, the control unit 11 later copies and stores at least a part thereof in the secondary storage unit 13.

  Next, the control unit 11 checks whether or not a predetermined timing has arrived as the timing for storing the information storage state information (hereinafter referred to as snapshot information) regarding the application (S4). This timing may be, for example, a timing when the number of information related to the events stored in the process S3 (recording event count) exceeds a predetermined threshold after recording the previous snapshot information, It is good also as timing for every time. Here, when the number of recorded events is used, the counter held in the main storage unit 12 in the process S3 is incremented, and the predetermined timing is determined depending on whether or not the value of the counter exceeds a predetermined threshold value. It may be determined whether or not it has arrived. At this time, the counter may be reset to “0” when processing for storing snapshot information described later is performed.

  In addition, when the timing is set every predetermined time, for example, the time when the previous snapshot information was stored is stored, and a predetermined time elapses between the time and the current time with reference to a clock (not shown). When it is determined that the predetermined timing has been reached, it is assumed that a predetermined timing has arrived.

  When the control unit 11 determines in step S4 that the predetermined timing has not arrived (No), the control unit 11 returns to step S1 and continues the process. If it is determined in step S4 that a predetermined timing has arrived (Yes), the snapshot information is stored (S5), and the process returns to step S1 and continues.

  Here, in the process of storing the snapshot information, for example, a register value in the CPU of the control unit 11, a program counter value, a register context such as a stack pointer, text or data in a memory space used by the application of interest, User level context such as stack and shared memory, and various information used by the OS (for example, information related to the management table of the process corresponding to each application when multiple applications are multitasked) For example, information for reproducing the processing state in the control unit 11 is stored in the secondary storage unit 13. Further, the control unit 11 stores in the storage unit 13 disc content reproduction information that reproduces at least a part of the secondary storage unit 13 (for example, a user's disk area) at that timing. The disc content reproduction information can be generated by using a so-called log file system (LFS) or journaling technology. Since the log file system technology has already been put into practical use, for example, as BSD LFS, and the journaling technology is widely used, detailed description thereof is omitted here. In the present embodiment, description will be made assuming that the amount of disc content reproduction information is reduced by using a log file system.

  When storing the disc content reproduction information, the control unit 11 stores the event identifier issued for the latest event at that time in association with the disc content reproduction information.

  When the control unit 11 determines in step S2 that the event acquired in step S1 is not an event that should be recorded in advance, the control unit 11 instructs the user to record snapshot information. (S6), and if it is an instruction to that effect (Yes), the process proceeds to S5 and the process is continued. On the other hand, when it is not an instruction to record snapshot information in the process S6 (in the case of No), the control unit 11 determines whether or not the event finally acquired in the process S1 is an instruction to end the application of interest. (S7). Here, if the instruction is to end the application of interest (in the case of Yes), the process proceeds to step S5 and the process is continued. If it is not an instruction to end the application of interest in the process S7 (if No), it is next checked whether or not the event is an instruction to restore the state (S8). If the event is an instruction to restore the state (if Yes), state restoration processing is started (S9). When this history reproduction process is completed, the process returns to process S1 to continue the process.

  Here, the state restoration process is a process for restoring the state of the apparatus at the time of being accepted by the user's instruction operation. Specifically, in this process, for example, time information is accepted as information for specifying the time point of restoration. The control unit 11 searches the event-related information for an event that occurred immediately before the time specified by the received information. Specifically, the time specified by the specified information, the event occurrence time information stored in the secondary storage unit 13 and the like are compared in order of the event occurrence time, and the event being compared is compared. The first event identifier whose occurrence time is after the specified time is acquired. The event associated with the event identifier immediately before the acquired event identifier is an event that occurred immediately before the time specified by the received information (immediate event). The event search can be accelerated by constructing a binary tree (B-tree) using the event occurrence time as a key.

  Then, the control unit 11 checks whether there is snapshot information associated with each event identifier while going back in order of occurrence from the immediately preceding event, and acquires the first snapshot information found. That is, the control unit 11 finds snapshot information stored immediately before the specified time. In the following description, an event identifier associated with snapshot information stored immediately before the specified time is referred to as a start event identifier.

  Next, the control unit 11 rewrites the content of the secondary storage unit 13 based on the disc content reproduction information included in the snapshot information. In addition, each piece of information for reproducing the processing state in the control unit 11 included in the snapshot information can be set in the main storage unit 12, the secondary storage unit 13, the CPU of the control unit 11, and the like (process processing state) To reproduce).

  Then, the control unit 11 executes processing for each event from the event associated with the start event identifier to the immediately preceding event (for example, if there is a key press, mouse movement, click, etc., processing to respond to them) Do).

  As a result, the state of the apparatus is restored to the state specified by the user. In addition, when the contents of the secondary storage unit 13 are rewritten, the contents of the secondary storage unit 13 to be rewritten are restricted to the user area in order to prevent the state restoration process of the control unit 11 from being sustained. May be. In this case, event information, disc content reproduction information, and the like are written not in the user area but in other areas such as the system area. If there is no system area or the like, a RAM disk is generated using the main storage unit 12, and information (event information, a program for state recovery processing, etc.) necessary for the state recovery is generated on the generated RAM disk. May be copied.

  In step S8, if the event is not an instruction to restore the state (if No), the control unit 11 instructs the event to reproduce an operation designating a past time point (reproduction instruction). (S10). If it is a reproduction instruction (Yes), history reproduction processing described later is started (S11).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S10 that the instruction is not a reproduction instruction (if No), it is checked whether or not an event recording end instruction has been issued (S12). If there is an end instruction, the process ends. If there is no end instruction, the process returns to step S1 and continues.

  Next, the contents of the history reproduction process will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 11 acquires snapshot information recorded immediately before the time point specified in the reproduction instruction (S21, this process may be the same as that in the state restoration process described above). . Based on the disk content reproduction information included in the snapshot information, the contents of the secondary storage unit 13 are rewritten, and the processing state (execution state of the application of interest) in the control unit 11 included in the snapshot information is reproduced. Each information can be set in the main storage unit 12, the secondary storage unit 13, the CPU of the control unit 11, etc., and the processing state of the application is reproduced (S22). For example, in UNIX (registered trademark) or the like, information at the time of acquiring snapshot information may be set in the main storage unit 12 or the secondary storage unit 13. According to this, a process table, a program pointer, and the like are set, and the entire use environment of the user is set to a state before the specified time.

  Next, the control unit 11 acquires the event identifier associated with the snapshot information acquired in step S21, and executes processing for the event related to the acquired event identifier (S23). As a result, the display unit 15 displays how the application responds to the event. It should be noted that a character string or an icon representing the contents of the event processed at this time may be displayed together.

  Then, the control unit 11 increments the event identifier (S24), and determines whether there is a stop instruction or whether there is an event corresponding to the event identifier after the increment (S25). If there is no stop instruction or there is no event associated with the event identifier after incrementing (if “processing is continued”), is there snapshot information associated with the event identifier after incrementing in step S24? Whether or not there is snapshot information (if Yes), the processing state of the application is reproduced (S27) in the same manner as the processing S22, and the processing returns to the processing S23 to continue the processing (A). If there is no snapshot information in the process S26, the process returns to the process S23 to continue the process (A).

  Further, the control unit 11 starts the operation prediction process when there is a stop instruction in the process S25 or when there is no event corresponding to the event identifier after the increment (if "process stop") (S28).

  As a result, events regarding the operation contents after the snapshot information acquired in relation to the designated point in the past are sequentially read, and the results of executing each event are sequentially presented. At this time, if there is snapshot information associated with a time point before the next event to be read out, the snapshot information is acquired, and the information storage state of the device is changed to a state corresponding to the snapshot information. Update. As a result, even when an event that has not been recorded is processed, the processing state is held at each snapshot time point, so that more accurate reproduction can be performed.

  Next, operation prediction processing performed by the control unit 11 will be described. In the present embodiment, a sequence of events executed up to that point when a user performs a stop operation or when there are no more events while executing the events sequentially and presenting the results. Based on this event and information on a series of events executed in the past, the event to be executed next is predicted by, for example, Bayesian theory, and the result of the prediction is displayed on the display unit 15. Specifically, when the event is predicted to be a mouse click, a character string, an icon, or the like indicating the position to be clicked and what to click is displayed. Further, the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display an application response result (state of operation of the application) when the predicted event is executed. In addition, although the display is performed on the display unit 15 here, a voice may be sounded instead.

  The control unit 11 instructs the user to input an instruction as to whether or not to execute the predicted event, and executes the predicted event when receiving an instruction to execute the event from the user. . If an instruction not to execute is received, the process is terminated.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, events such as the contents of application operations of the user are sequentially stored using the program operating in the OS or as an extended function of the OS, and the application is executed at every predetermined timing. Information on the contents of the CPU, memory, disk, etc. for reproducing the environment is stored as snapshot information.

  Then, using the operation contents of the application and the snapshot information stored sequentially, the past work is reproduced as follows. That is, the snapshot information recorded immediately before the specified time is acquired, the device status at the time of acquiring the snapshot information is reproduced, the events after the time when the snapshot information is acquired are sequentially read, and the results of executing each event Are presented sequentially. At this time, if there is snapshot information associated with a time point before the next event to be read out, the snapshot information is acquired, and the information storage state of the device is changed to a state corresponding to the snapshot information. Update.

  Here, the event processing results after the snapshot information acquisition time immediately before the designated time point will be presented sequentially, but for example, until the processing of the event immediately before the designated time point is completed, Control may be performed so that the display content of the display unit 15 is not changed, and only event processing results after the specified time point may be presented.

  In addition, while processing past events sequentially, information on the occurrence time of each event may be displayed on the display unit 15. Furthermore, here, event identifiers are issued to correlate the event's predecessor relationship and snapshot information acquisition time, but if the user does not set the time, the event identifier is not issued and the event occurrence time is simply The above-described processing can be performed even if each snapshot information is recorded in association with the time information (date and time) indicating the acquisition time.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the display screen is not recorded, and the event including the individual work records is basically recorded. Therefore, the individual work records can be reproduced, and the user's work contents are sequentially recorded. Can be confirmed. In addition, since all work records are not held alone and snapshot information is recorded at every predetermined timing, it is not necessary to re-execute all work contents from the beginning. Thereby, each operation content can be reproduced sequentially to show the user's work progress, and convenience can be improved.

It is a block diagram showing an example of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart figure showing the example of history acquisition processing of the information processor concerning an embodiment of the invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of the holding mode of the information of an event. It is a flowchart figure showing the example of history reproduction processing of the information processor concerning an embodiment of the invention.

Explanation of symbols

11 control unit, 12 main storage unit, 13 secondary storage unit, 14 operation unit, 15 display unit, 16 communication unit.

Claims (5)

First recording means for recording, as event information, at least one of the operation content from the user or the content received from the network sequentially in association with the information specifying the time when the operation from the user or the reception from the network is received When,
2nd recording means for recording snapshot information for restoring the information storage state of the own device at each timing for each predetermined timing, the information specifying the time point of each timing in relation to the event information Second recording means for recording in association with each other;
A means of accepting instructions to reproduce the operation by specifying a past point in time,
Control means for performing control for obtaining snapshot information recorded by the second recording means before the designated time point ,
The control means is
Control to update the information storage state of the own device to a state corresponding to the acquired snapshot information;
Event information recorded by the first recording means is sequentially read as events after the time point associated with the acquired snapshot information, and the results of processing the events are sequentially presented using the display means. In the control , when the event information is sequentially read out, and there is snapshot information associated with a time point before the event information to be read out next, the event information before the event information to be read out next is read Sequential presentation control for acquiring snapshot information associated with the time point and updating the information storage state of the own device to a state corresponding to the snapshot information;
An information processing apparatus characterized by performing The timing at which the second recording means records the snapshot information is as follows:
When receiving an instruction to record snapshot information from the user,
Timing when the number of event information recorded by the first recording means after recording snapshot information last time exceeds a predetermined threshold;
The timing of every predetermined time,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the timing is at least one timing. The timing at which the second recording means records the snapshot information is as follows:
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the application program ends. In the sequential presentation control, when the control unit sequentially reads the recorded event information and sequentially presents the result of processing the event, or when the user performs a stop operation, Processing using Bayesian theory based on event information of a series of events executed up to that point and event information of a series of events executed in the past when there is no event information to be output Accordingly, a control of predicting an event to be executed next,
Control to display the result of the prediction on the display means ;
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized by further performing. Computer
First recording means for recording, as event information, at least one of the operation content from the user or the content received from the network sequentially in association with the information specifying the time when the operation from the user or the reception from the network is received When,
2nd recording means for recording snapshot information for restoring the information storage state of the own device at each timing for each predetermined timing, the information specifying the time point of each timing in relation to the event information Second recording means for recording in association with each other;
A means of accepting instructions to reproduce the operation by specifying a past point in time,
And functioning as control means for performing control to acquire snapshot information recorded by the second recording means before the designated time point ,
When functioning as the control means,
Control to update the information storage state of the own device to a state corresponding to the acquired snapshot information;
Event information recorded by the first recording means is sequentially read as events after the time point associated with the acquired snapshot information, and the results of processing the events are sequentially presented using the display means. In the control , when the event information is sequentially read out, and there is snapshot information associated with a time point before the event information to be read out next, the event information before the event information to be read out next is read Sequential presentation control for acquiring snapshot information associated with the time point and updating the information storage state of the own device to a state corresponding to the snapshot information;
An information processing program for performing

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