WO2005103867A1

WO2005103867A1 - Multi-terminal control interface to manage information within user groups connected to each other in peer-to-peer networks

Info

Publication number: WO2005103867A1
Application number: PCT/EP2004/004253
Authority: WO
Inventors: Denis Fompeyrine
Original assignee: Denis Fompeyrine
Priority date: 2004-04-22
Filing date: 2004-04-22
Publication date: 2005-11-03

Abstract

This control interface is designed for terminals interconnected in a peer-to-peer network, and is based on a delimitation of a working space into at least one shared documents area (12), a search area (13), and a communication area (14), providing access to commands for sharing documents with other terminals, commands to find information among information made available to the network by terminals, and commands for communication with other terminals, the control interface being designed to display a shared documents list when the shared documents area (12) is selected, a list of results of a previous search when the search area (13) is selected, and a list of person identifiers when the communication area (14) is selected.

Description

MULTI-TERMINAL CONTROL INTERFACE TO MANAGE INFORMATION WITHIN USER GROUPS CONNECTED TO^' EACH OTHER IN PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKS

This invention relates to networking of terminals based on a "peer-to-peer" architecture, and more particularly a control interface used to exploit functions offered by such architecture. This type of network architecture enables two terminals connected to a transmission network to communicate with each other directly without passing through a host server that redistributes data. In this architecture, each terminal is configured so as to act as both server and client. In this way, each terminal can share its information with an unlimited number of terminals without needing to use a host server. Therefore, this architecture offers file exchange and telecommunication functions . At the moment, there are several peer-to-peer networks used by installing specific software such as LIMEWIRE, KAZAA, BEARSHARE, AIM or NAPIGATOR on each terminal. However, each of these software packages has a limited offer in terms of services, some being specifically designed for exchanges of audio files or files in general, others to offer an instantaneous message service. Moreover, these systems are incompatible with each other, so that they are incapable of communicating with each other. The result is that each of these systems creates its own user community and users of one system who would like to participate in other communities or to use other peer-to- peer services have to install several peer-to-peer communication software packages on their terminal and be familiar with how to use each software package. Moreover, a user with several terminals of different types, for example a personal computer and a mobile telephone, cannot access the same user communities from each of his terminals. These systems are incompatible with each other, particularly because they are made in the form of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) specially designed for a specific operating system and a specific communication protocol. Thus, for example some systems offer API sets written in the C++ language for Microsoft's Windows operating system (registered trademark) and the TCP/IP protocol. APIs for other systems are written in the C language, and in Java for UNIX type operating systems. To solve this problem, the SUN Microsystems Company has launched the JXTA project designed to make all existing peer-to-peer systems uniform, to support all communication protocols used in peer-to-peer communications, and that can be installed on any type of terminal, including a personal computer connected to the Internet network or a mobile terminal such as a mobile telephone or a personal assistant connected to a mobile network, for example through a GSM type or a UMTS type high speed network. However, this project does not include any provision related to the control interface that must be adapted to the size of the display screen and control devices for each type of terminal. Terminals that can be used in peer-to- peer networks may have very different characteristics concerning the size and format of the display screen and control devices. The purpose of this invention is to propose a control interface designed to access services offered by a peer-to- peer network, and adapted to terminals with display and control capabilities that are both restricted and extended. This objective is achieved by providing a terminal control interface for terminals interconnected to the peer-to-peer network, each terminal comprising client and server functions to exchange information with other terminals connected to the peer-to-peer network, a display screen and control devices. According to the invention, the control interface is based on a delimitation of a working space into at least one shared documents area, a search area and a communication area, providing access to commands for sharing documents with other terminals in the peer-to-peer network, commands to find information elements among elements made available to the network by terminals, and commands for communication with other terminals in the peer-to-peer network, the terminal control devices including a selection device designed to select directions, each direction selectable using the selection device being associated with one of the areas, the control interface also comprising means for starting the display of a list of shared documents when the shared documents area is selected by the selection device, a list of results of a previous search when the search area is selected by the selection device, and a list of person identifiers when the communication area is selected by the selection device. According to one particular feature of the invention, the control interface comprises means for starting specific commands when an object appearing in one of the displayed lists is selected and one of the areas is selected using the selection device. According to another particular feature of the invention, the control interface also comprises means for delimiting a fourth group management area in the working space providing access to user group management commands, and means for starting the display of a list of groups to which the terminal user belongs when the group management area is selected by the selection device. According to one feature of the invention, the control interface also comprises means for selecting user groups in the groups list, the document search being made only among documents provided to the peer-to-peer network by user terminals in the selected groups. Advantageously the control interface includes means for creating a new user group when a document in a displayed list is selected and the user group management area is selected using the selection device, the document thus selected being provided to users in the new group. Preferably, documents in the list of shared documents are stored by user groups with which they are shared, in the peer-to-peer network. Also preferably, person identifiers in the list of person identifiers are stored by user groups to which the persons belong, in the peer-to-peer network. According to another particular feature of the invention, the control interface also includes means for starting a search for similar groups when a group is selected in the list of groups displayed on the terminal screen and the search area is selected using the selection device. According to another feature of the invention, the control interface also comprises means for starting a search for similar documents when a document is selected in a list of documents displayed on the terminal screen and the search area is selected using the selection device. According to yet another feature of the invention, the control interface also comprises means for starting downloading a document appearing in the list of search results when the document is selected in the list of search results, and another area of the screen is selected using the selection device. According to yet another feature of the invention, the control interface comprises means for starting sending a thumbnail of the document to the terminal of a person in the displayed list when the communication area is selected, when a document appearing in a list and the person identifier are selected, using the selection device. The invention also relates to a communication terminal designed to be connected to a peer-to-peer network and comprising client functions and server functions to exchange information with other terminals in the peer-to- peer network, a display screen, control devices and a control interface like that defined above. One preferred embodiment of the invention will be described below as a non-limitative example with reference to the attached drawings among which: Figure 1 diagrammatically shows a set of terminals connected in a peer-to-peer network using several communication or data transmission networks; Figure 2 shows an image displayed on the control interface screen according to the invention, for access to peer-to-peer services; Figure 3 shows a control device for the control interface according to the invention, for access to peer- to-peer services; Figures 4 to 7 contain flowcharts illustrating different steps performed by the control interface according to the invention to access peer-to-peer services. Figure 1 shows a peer-to-peer network connecting a set of terminals 7, 8, 9 of different types, physically connected to fixed or mobile public telecommunication networks 1, 2 or digital data transmission networks such as the Internet network. The networks 1, 2 are interconnected through gateways 3 to enable a terminal connected to a network to communicate with another terminal connected to another network. The terminals can also be connected to each other directly through a wire link or a wireless link such as "Bluetooth" or a private LAN. For example, the terminal may be a personal computer 7, a mobile telephone 9 or a Personal Data Assistant (PDA) 8. Servers 4 may also participate in the peer-to-peer network by providing network users with documents. For example, the control interface according to the invention may be designed in the form of APIs ( Application Programming Interface) calling lower level primitives or functions in a peer-to-peer network kernel, such as JXTA. In particular, this type of peer-to-peer network kernel groups functions for routing information through the network, for detection of a user present on the network, for the definition of user groups and for management of accesses to these groups, and for information searches. Figure 2 shows the host image of the control interface according to the invention displayed on screens 11a, lib, lie of terminals 7, 8 and 9 respectively. This image comprises boundaries delimiting four main command areas, namely: - a "shared documents" area 12 used to access documents shared with other users in the peer-to-peer network; - a "search" area 13 used to access commands to search for documents, or persons or groups of persons in the peer- to-peer network, and - a "contacts" area 14 used to access commands for communication with persons in contact with the user; - a "groups" area 15 used to access commands affecting user groups in the peer-to-peer network. The image reception may also include an area 16, for example in the form of an icon enabling access to the delete information or delete files command. All that is necessary to access commands for areas 12 to 15 is to select these areas, either by placing a cursor on them for example using a selection device such as a mouse 20 or a pen, or using a set of keys or a single control device to select a direction, like that shown in figure 3. This control device 21 includes four direction keys 22, 23, 24, 25 or a single control device (for example a joystick) that can be moved into a particular direction (right, left, up, down) and a validation key 26, for example a central key. The control device 21 thus provides access to commands for one of the areas 12 to 15 along the selected direction, and thus access the corresponding commands. The area 16 can be selected using a delete or erase key, normally provided on the terminal. All that is necessary to move an object (document, thumbnail, group) is to select the object to be moved using the control device 21 or the selection device 20, and then use the same device again to select the direction corresponding to the area to which the document is to be moved. Note that objects to be moved must not be captured and dragged visually on the screen at any time (using the control or selection device) . Figures 4 to 7 show the processing that is executed for the selection of areas 12 to 15 respectively. When a user selects the "shared documents" area 12, the terminal performs the procedure 30 shown in figure 4. This procedure includes firstly a step 31 to display a list of all documents shared with at least one user group in the peer-to-peer network, these documents being stored in different directories including at least one documents folder accessible to all users of the network and a private documents folder not accessible to other users of the peer- to-peer network. Then, if the area 12 is not selected with a document (for example by displacing its thumbnail into area 12) (step 32), and if the user selects a document in the list (step 33), the terminal generates a thumbnail of the document and displays it in a window in the display screen (step 34), a thumbnail of the document being an extract from the document that enables the user to identify its contents. In this state, the user can move the thumbnail into another directory in the area 12 (step 35) or move the thumbnail into another area 13, 14, 15 (step 36), or delete the corresponding document by moving it to the bin 16 (step 37) . Preferably, all thumbnail movements of documents between directories will delete the document from its original directory, unless the original directory is a private directory belonging to the user. Moreover, all movements of a document thumbnail out of area 12 will not delete the document from the original directory unless the thumbnail of the document is moved to the bin 16. Once the move has been done in step 35, the list of shared documents is updated in step 41 to take account of the document move, and this move is notified to some or all of the other users connected to the peer-to-peer network, in step 42. Execution of the procedure continues by returning to step 31 to display the list of shared documents to take account of the modification made. If the document thumbnail is moved into another area 13, 14 or 15 (step 36) , the terminal executes procedure 50, 70 or 100 respectively (that will be described later) , depending on the destination area of the move. If the document thumbnail is moved to the bin 16 (step 37), the document is deleted from the directory in which it was located in step 38, and the terminal then continues executing the procedure starting from step 42. The shared documents area 12 may also be accessed by sliding a document thumbnail originating from another area 13, 14 of the screen (step 32) to a directory of the list displayed in step 31 (step 39) . In this case, the document corresponding to the thumbnail is transferred or downloaded (step 40) into the selected directory and a document descriptive information file is created if it does not already exist. The terminal then continues execution of procedure 30 in step 41 to update the list of shared documents . All documents manipulated by the control interface according to the invention, and all _. other objects manipulated by this interface, are associated with a set of descriptive information, for example stored in a file, including particularly the size of the object (space occupied by the object in the terminal memory) , the type of object or for a document, the type of data contained in it (text, word processor, spreadsheet, image, sound sequence, video sequence, person's name and address, definition of a group of persons in the network, etc.) or the name of the application used to view it, etc. A thumbnail of a document appearing in the list of shared documents may also be moved towards the desktop (intermediate area between areas 11 to 16) to start an application associated with the document type, so that the document can be viewed or edited. The application associated with a document can also be started, for example by a double click (using mouse 20 or button 26) on the document in the list in which it is displayed or on its thumbnail . Starting from the screen shown in figure 2, if the "up" button 24 is pressed (or if area 13 is selected) , the terminal executes procedure 50 shown in figure 5. In the first step 52 of this procedure, the terminal determines whether or not the "search" area 13 is selected with a document thumbnail or more generally an object (move an object from another area of the screen) . If the area 13 is selected with an object thumbnail (step 52), a search is started in the next step 54 among all similar objects accessible in the peer-to-peer network. It would be possible for the search to apply to objects with a similar name, the same type or the same approximate size, or objects associated with the same or similar keywords. Preferably, a window could be displayed in which the user can choose the information to be used to create the thumbnail of the object in order to make the search for similar objects. Execution may be done using a search engine, for example on a server accessible through the peer-to-peer network. Thumbnails of found objects are received and then sorted in the next step 55, for example in alphabetic order or as a function of search criteria, order of relevance. In the next step 56, the terminal displays the list of received and sorted objects. If the user selects an object in the list (step 59) , the terminal displays the thumbnail of the selected object in another window (step 60) . In this state, the user can move the object outside the search area 13 (step 63) which triggers procedure 30 or 100 corresponding to the selected area, delete it from the list of search results by moving it into the bin 16 (steps 61 and 62) , or start a new search dealing with objects similar to the new object selected in this way, by moving its thumbnail in the search area 13 outside the window in which the list of search results is displayed. In this case, the terminal performs procedure 50 starting from step 52 with the new object. If the user moves a document or more generally an object to the list of search results (step 64), it would also be possible to start a new search in step 54 among objects appearing in the list to find objects similar to the object that was moved. The user can thus refine a search, particularly when the list of results obtained is too long to be useable. Obviously, a search can be made from several documents, the user having the possibility of selecting several documents in the displayed list and moving selected documents to the search area 13. If the search area is not selected with an object thumbnail in step 52, execution of procedure 50 continues in step 56 by displaying the list obtained during the previous search. If the user selects the "contacts" area 14, for example because the terminal has signaled reception of a new message, the terminal executes the procedure 70 shown in figure 6. This procedure comprises firstly a step 71 to display the list of persons with whom the user is in contact, these persons possibly being sorted into groups to which the user belongs . If the area is not selected with a document thumbnail by moving this thumbnail towards this area (step 72), the user may either select a person or a group of persons in the list of contacts to view messages received from this or these persons (step 73), or press a control button associated with each person or group in the list to start a chat type conversation or an instant message service with the person or the associated group (step 86) . If the user selects a contact or a group of contacts (step 73) , the terminal displays the list of new messages received from the person or the group thus selected, or all messages received from this person or this group including a particular breakdown of new messages, in the next step 74. Each message in this list is associated with a list of documents attached to the message, if applicable. If the user wants to view these messages, all he needs to do is to select the list of received messages displayed in the previous step (step 75) , which triggers the display of thumbnails of all messages in the list (step 76) . In this state, the user can reply to the message by selecting a message thumbnail (step 77), deleting all messages in the received message thumbnails window by moving it to the bin 16 (step 81) which would delete all messages thus selected (step 82) , delete a message or an attached document by moving its thumbnail to the bin (step 83), which triggers deletion of the message or the document thus selected (step 84), then display the new list in step 76, or move the thumbnail of a message or a document to another area (step 85) that triggers downloading the message or document, creation of an associated file containing the description of the message or the document, and execution of procedure 30, 50 or 100 corresponding to the area 12, 13, 15 reached with the document thumbnail. If the user would like to reply to the message by selecting the thumbnail of a message, the terminal displays a message input window (step 78) . When the user has written his message, he validates it (step 79) which starts transmission of the message in step 80 through the peer-to- peer network to the sender of the message being read, or to the group if a group was selected in step 73. In step 73, the user can also search for a contact by moving a contact to the search area 13 (step 91) to search for similar persons (same name or other criterion) . In this case, the terminal executes the procedure 50. If the user would like to initiate a discussion with a person or a group of persons by pressing the corresponding button provided for this purpose (step 86) , the terminal sends a start discussion request with the person (s) concerned (step 87) and displays a dialogue window (step 88) containing an end of discussion control button. At the end of the discussion, the user presses the end of discussion button (step 89) , which closes the discussion window (step 90) . At the end of steps 80, 82 and 90, the terminal continues execution of the procedure in step 71. If the user selected the "contacts" area 14 in step 72 by moving a thumbnail of a document from another area 12, 13 or from the desktop (step 92), and if he selects a contact or a group (step 93), the terminal displays a window in which an accompanying message for the document can be input (step 94), so that the document can be sent to the addressee (s) thus selected. When the user has finished writing his message (step 95), the terminal sends the message and the document to the selected addressee (s) (step 96) and then continues execution of the procedure in step 71. The user can also select the area 14 with a contact thumbnail (step 97), in other words a document containing person address and call number information. In this case, the terminal adds the new contact to the list of contacts

(step 98) and then returns to step 71 to display the new list. If the user selects the "groups" area 15, the terminal executes the procedure 100 shown in figure 7. This procedure includes firstly a step 101 to display a list of group names to which the user belongs. The user can thus belong to four group categories depending on whether they are static or dynamic, in other words whether or not their existence depends on whether or not there is at least one user in the group and whether or not they are open or closed, in other words if access to other network users is completely uncontrolled or is limited to a set of persons chosen by the user who created the closed group and provided a password to these persons. Groups displayed in the list are advantageously sorted by group category. The displayed groups list provides access to four commands or command types. Thus, the user can select a group in the list (step 102) to display a group thumbnail window containing information describing the selected group (step 103), namely the group creator's name, and descriptive keywords of the object of the group. The user can then start a group search (step 104) by moving the group thus displayed to the search area 13. This search may be made at the choice of the user, according to search criteria on the group name or its creator's name, or on the group description. The terminal then starts searching for the group among existing groups in the peer-to-peer network, regardless of whether they are static or dynamic or open or closed, by executing procedure 50 described above . Starting from step 103, the user can also withdraw from the group by moving his thumbnail into the bin 16 (step 115) . This action starts withdrawal of the group thus moved from the groups list (step 116) and a withdrawal from group notification is sent on the network (step 117). The terminal then continues execution of the procedure in step 101. The user can start from the list displayed in step 101, and then also activate or deactivate groups so as to limit the extent of document searches. According to the invention, the document search is only made among active groups, which limits the extent of searches to terminals of persons who are interested in a given subject defined by the purpose of a group. If a document used as a search query is not relevant for the group (there is no similarity between it and shared documents in the group) , the search will not find any results, thus forming a preliminary filter. A similarity threshold (possibly variable) can be defined, below which the documents appearing in a search results list will not be visible. Each group in the list of groups displayed in step 101 is associated with a check box that the user uses to activate or deactivate the group. If the user activates a group check box (step 120) and the group is already active (step 121) , the group will be deactivated in the next step 122. Otherwise, the group will be activated in step 123. A check box associated with each group type (static, dynamic and open or closed) can also be provided. If the user selects the check box for a group type, all groups with this group type are activated or deactivated depending on their previous state. The user can also choose to create a group by selecting the "groups" area 15 in the list displayed in step 101, with one or several document thumbnails (step 110) , or he can enter an existing group by selecting this area with a group thumbnail obtained after a group search performed by procedure 50 (step 105). If the user would like to enter an existing group denoted by its thumbnail (step 105), the terminal adds the group in step 106 into the list of groups displayed in step 101. In the case of a closed group, the terminal firstly asks the user for a group access password, and executes step 106 only if the user inputs the correct password. In the next step 107, the terminal notifies the network that the user has entered the group, and it then returns to step 101 in which the list of groups is displayed to display the new list. If the user would like to create a new group (step 110) , the terminal displays an input window showing a thumbnail of the description of the new group to be created

(step 111). After the user has validated the input (step

112), the terminal starts from the information appearing in the thumbnail to determine whether or not the new group to be created is an open group (step 113) . In the case of a closed group, the terminal creates the new group by executing the procedure starting from step 106. Otherwise, the terminal starts a search for groups similar to the group that the user wants to create, to avoid creating several open groups for the same purpose, unless the user really wants to do that. Consequently, the terminal executes procedure 50 starting from the group thumbnail input by the user. If the user would like to create the new group that he defined in step 111 anyway, he can do so by using a button provided for this purpose, after making the search by execution of the search procedure 50. He can determine which persons are connected to the network in each group by selecting the "contacts" area 13 to obtain the list of groups of which the user forms part at the moment, and identifiers of connected persons belonging to each group appearing in the list. Moreover, documents displayed in the "shared documents" list accessible by selecting area 12 are also put into order by group to which the user belongs. In this way, the user can display which documents he provides to a group, and move a document from one group to another or from the private or public area. Creating a new group and putting a user into or taking a user out of a group has consequences on the list of documents displayed after the shared documents area 12 has been selected, and on the contacts list displayed after the contacts area 14 has been selected. Thus, the list of shared documents displayed in step 31 is modified so as to take account of the fact that the user has been put into or taken out of a group, and possibly the document (s) made accessible to other members of the group (after a group has been created in steps 110 to 113) . Similarly, the list of contacts is modified to take account of the new list of groups to which the user belongs . Simplified group management would also be possible, in which the user belongs to a single group and therefore cannot access the groups area 15. In this case, displayed lists of shared documents and contacts do not include any subdivisions corresponding to the groups. Note that, in the above description, if only the thumbnails of documents are moved and downloaded when they are moved to a document storage area such as area 12, it would be also possible to manipulate complete documents, particularly if speeds available in the peer-to-peer network make it possible. In general, the control interface that has just been described is suitable for terminals with a wide variety of display and command configurations, so that the user can trigger complex functions related to a peer-to-peer network using a very small number of actions. By enabling association of documents with user groups, that may be theme groups, the control interface according to the invention enables each user to participate in structuring and sorting of information available on the peer-to-peer network, so that searches can be made by themes. In this way, a search on several groups provides a means for displaying connections between the corresponding themes. Moreover, when the group is dynamic, sorting of documents by group members is only temporary due to the fact that the sort disappears when the group disappears.

Claims

1. A terminal control interface for terminals (7, 8, 9) interconnected in a peer-to-peer network, each terminal comprising server functions and client functions to exchange information with other terminals connected to the peer-to-peer network, a display screen (11a, lib, lie) and control devices, characterized in that it is based on a delimitation of a working space into at least one shared documents area (12), a search area (13) and a communication area (14), providing access to commands for sharing documents with other terminals in the peer-to-peer network, commands to find information elements among information elements made available to the network by terminals, and commands for communication with the other terminals in the peer-to-peer network, the terminal control devices comprising a selection device (20, 21) designed to select directions, each direction selectable using the selection device being associated with one of the areas, the control interface also comprising means for starting the display of a list of shared documents when the shared documents area (12) is selected by the selection device, a list of results of a previous search when the search area (13) is selected by the selection device, and a list of person identifiers when the communication area (14) is selected by the selection device.

2. The control interface according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises means for starting specific commands when an object appearing in one of the displayed lists is selected and one of the areas (12 to 15) is selected using the selection device (20, 21).

3. The control interface according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it also comprises means for delimiting a fourth group management area (15) in the working space providing access to user group management commands, and means for starting the display of a list of groups to which the terminal user belongs when the group management area is selected by the selection device (20, 21) .

4. The control interface according to claim 3, characterized in that it also comprises means for selecting user groups in the groups list, the document search being made only among documents provided to the peer-to-peer network by user terminals in the selected groups.

5. The control interface according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that it also comprises means for creating a new user group when a document in a displayed list is selected and the user group management area (15) is selected using the selection device (20,21), the document thus selected being provided to users in the new group.

6. The control interface according to one of claims 3 to 5, characterized in that documents in the list of shared documents are stored by user groups with which they are shared, in the peer-to-peer network.

7. The control interface according to one of claims 3 to 6, characterized in that person identifiers in the list of person identifiers are stored by user groups to which the persons belong, in the peer-to-peer network.

8. The control interface according to one of claims 3 to 7, characterized in that it includes means for starting a search for similar groups when a group is selected in the list of groups displayed on the terminal screen and the search area (13) is selected using the selection device (20, 21) .

9. The control interface according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that it comprises means for starting a search for similar documents when a document is selected in a list of documents displayed on the terminal screen, and the search area (13) is selected using the selection device (20, 21) .

10. The control interface according to one of claims 1 to

9, characterized in that it also comprises means for starting downloading a document appearing in the list of search results when the document is selected in the list of search results, and another area of the screen is selected using the selection device (20, 21).

11. The control interface according to one of claims 1 to

10, characterized in that it comprises means for starting sending a thumbnail of the document to the terminal of a person in the displayed list when the communication area (14) is selected, when a document appearing in a list and the person identifier are selected, using the selection device (20, 21) .

12. A communication terminal designed to be connected to a peer-to-peer network, and comprising client functions and server functions to exchange information with other terminals in the peer-to-peer network, a display screen (11a, lib, lie) , and control devices, characterized in that it comprises a control interface according to claims 1 to 11.