1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus, method, and program for supporting creating the minutes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the content of the discussion on the conference or meeting is regarded as variable asset of an organization, and the minutes are often required to create and submit after the conference. Every conference has a writer who takes notes on the content of the conference in handwriting. This is a burden of the minutes writer. Therefore, the techniques have been proposed for supporting creating the minutes as follows.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-266084 (hereinafter, referred to as Document 1) describes the apparatus for supporting creating the minutes by giving the system voice keywords such as “title”, “participant”, “problem”, and the like while the conference is being held, and converting the keywords into character data.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-153224 describes the apparatus for supporting the progress of the online meeting system, by clearly expressing opinions such as “agree”, “disagree”, “neutral” before making remarks, and using as the minutes.
It is to be noted that there is a problem in that the minutes cannot be written according to the interests, if the minutes are written by inputting fragmentary characters of the voice keywords with the use of the apparatus as described in Document 1. Moreover, there is another problem in that the apparatus as described in Document 2 imposes a burden on the participants of the online meeting in inputting texts as represented by chatting.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides an apparatus, method, and program for supporting creating the minutes that are capable of creating the minutes to include intentions of the minutes writer, without imposing a burden on the minutes writer.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there may be provided a minutes-creating support apparatus including a conference image retaining portion retaining a conference image captured by a capturing apparatus to be associated with date and time information, a memo editing portion associating information input from an inputting apparatus with the date and time information, and a minute creating portion editing the information input from the inputting apparatus with retaining the date and time information. The minutes can be created while retaining the linkage between the content of the conference progress and the conference image, and the description in the minutes and the conference image can be linked. This makes it possible to confirm which description is associated with what scene on the conference after the conference. A burden is not imposed on the conference participants.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there may be provided a minutes-creating support method including retaining portion retaining a conference image captured by a capturing apparatus to be associated with date and time information, associating information input from an inputting apparatus with the date and time information, and editing the information input from the inputting apparatus with retaining the date and time information.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a storage medium readable by a computer, the storage medium storing a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform a function for supporting creating the minutes, the function including retaining portion retaining a conference image captured by a capturing apparatus to be associated with date and time information, associating information input from an inputting apparatus with the date and time information, and editing the information input from the inputting apparatus with retaining the date and time information.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein:
A description will now be given, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of embodiments of the present invention.
The memo editing portion 2 is used for associating the information that has been input on the keyboard (inputting apparatus) with the date and time information. That is to say, the memo editing portion 2 receives a content of conference progress that has been input by the minutes writer, and in addition stores the content of conference progress after associating with the conference image. Here, the content of conference progress denotes a memo that has been input by the minutes writer. The memo editing portion 2 associates the content of conference progress with the conference image according to the date and time information of the conference image. The memo editing portion 2 provides a screen (user interface) on which the content of conference progress can be input. Accordingly, the memo editing portion 2 serves as an editor so that the minutes writer may record remarks or decisions on the conference. In addition, the memo editing portion 2 associates a given piece of information that has been input from the inputting apparatus with the date and time information. Here, the given piece of information may be a character, word, phrase, sentence, line, and combinations thereof. The given piece of information may be called as block. The information that has been input from the inputting apparatus is, for example, the information in text format. Referring to
The minutes creating portion 3 provides a screen on which the information that has been input from the inputting apparatus can be edited with retaining the date and time information. The minutes creating portion 3 is capable of creating the minutes with retaining the association of the content of conference progress with the conference image, on the basis of the text written by obtaining the content of conference progress that has been input from the memo editing portion 2 and by obtaining the voice on the conference. Even if the text is moved by cut and paste or drag and drop, the date and time of the block in which the texts are included are also moved. Further, even if the text is modified, the original date and time included in the block are kept without change. The minutes that have been completed in the above-mentioned manner can be traced which memo is a fundamental from among those written on the conference, by referring to the date and time given to the content. A replay portion that replays the conference image is further provided on the basis of the information that has been input from the inputting apparatus, although the replay portion is omitted in
The minutes displaying portion 5 displays the minutes that have been created by the minutes creating portion 3. The minutes displaying portion 5 displays a portion that has been created on the basis of the content of conference progress in the minutes so that the portion can be identified. The minutes displaying portion 5 displays the portion in which the content of the conference progress has been edited with colors. Even if the memo that has been written on the conference is modified, the date and time are still given to the modified memo included in the minutes that have been created in the minutes creating portion 3 as far as the whole block in the memo is not deleted.
Next, a description will be given of a process flow of the minutes-creating support apparatus 1.
After the minutes are delivered, the minutes reader takes a look at the minutes displayed on the minutes displaying portion 5 in step S5. Here, the colored portion is the text that has been written on the conference and has been edited and included in the minutes. Clicking the colored portion allows the minutes reader to view the corresponding conference image. It is therefore possible to reuse the memos written on the conference and create the minutes readily. The minutes reader is able to access the corresponding image readily with the content of the minutes. That is to say, the minutes reader is able to read the minutes and view only the image in which the reader gets interested, and is also able to confirm the minutes at once if the reader likes to know more.
The minutes can be created in consideration of the content of conference progress that has been input by the minutes writer, in accordance with the present invention. It is therefore possible to automatically create the minutes including the intentions or impressions of the minutes writer. In addition, if the description in the minutes is sometimes different from the memory of the minutes reader, the minutes reader likes to know which is correct. The description of the minutes is not linked with the conference image according to the conventional techniques, and accordingly, it is impossible to know which scene the description has written about. In contrast, the minutes are created with retaining the association of the content of conference progress with the conference image in accordance with the present invention. It is therefore possible to make a linkage between the content of conference progress in the minutes and the conference image. This enables to later confirm to which scene captured on the conference the description corresponds. In addition, the present invention does not impose a burden on the conference participants.
A minutes-creating support program of the present invention is realized with a CPU (Central Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like, by installing a program from a portable memory device or a storage device such as a hard disc device, CD-ROM, DVD, or a flexible disc or downloading the program through a communications line. Then, the steps of program are executed as the CPU operates the program.
The aforementioned program may include retaining portion retaining a conference image captured by a capturing apparatus to be associated with date and time information, associating information input from an inputting apparatus with the date and time information, and editing the information input from the inputting apparatus with retaining the date and time information. The memo editing portion 2 corresponds to an editing portion.
On the minutes-creating support apparatus in the above-mentioned aspect, the minutes-creating support apparatus may further include a replay portion replaying the conference image according to the information input from the inputting apparatus. The information that has been input from the inputting apparatus is linked with the conference image, it is therefore possible to view the conference image from the information that has been input from the inputting apparatus.
On the minutes-creating support apparatus in the above-mentioned aspect, the memo editing portion associates the information input from the inputting apparatus with the date and time information on a given piece of information basis. This makes it possible to edit on a given block basis, for example, every line.
Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.
The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-090123 filed on Mar. 25, 2005 including specification, claims, drawings, and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2005-090123 | Mar 2005 | JP | national |