JP2003061131A - Location information providing system, location information providing device, location information providing method, computer-readable recording medium and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently grasp location information of a facility user. SOLUTION: An IC tag reader/writer 115 detects a contactless IC tag 113 and an IC tag number at a prescribed time interval and transmits the read IC tag number to a location information providing server 101 together with a channel number of a sensor 111 sensing the number. The location information providing server 101 generates a location information table in which the IC tag number and the channel number of the sensor 111 and the reception time of the information are cross-referenced with each other, and records the table to a statistic DB 105. When a mobile phone 104 requests browsing of the information recorded in the statistic DB 105 to the location information providing server 101, the location information providing server 101 extracts the information responding to the request from the statistic DB 105 and transmits the information to the mobile phone 104.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a position information providing system, a position information providing device, a position information providing method for providing information on the position of a user who uses a facility such as a hotel.
The present invention relates to a computer-readable recording medium and a computer program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various facilities have been tried in facilities such as hotels and amusement parks in order to obtain information on the position of the user of the facility.

For example, when searching for a user who is lost in a facility, it is common to make an announcement throughout the facility. For example, if a child gets lost in the facility, employees of the facility make announcements in the facility in response to requests from the child's family, and indirectly to other facility users who have witnessed the child. Or directly to the lost child.

Such an announcement in the facility may be used to call a customer who has made a reservation for incidental equipment (for example, a restaurant) in the facility when the scheduled time is not reached. is there.

Further, in order to investigate the trend of users in the facility, an employee or the like is arranged at a predetermined place in the facility and the number of users passing in front of the employee or the like is counted. Is being carried out. On the facility side, it is possible to analyze the relationship between the location of the facility user and the time, and use it for expanding service provision and determining the place of installation of advertisements during congestion.

[0006]

In the above-mentioned facility user search method, the name and characteristics of the person to be searched (searchee) are first heard from the requester of the search, and it is generally performed based on this information. Target. However, for example, when a child of a very young child is requested to search for the family, there is a problem that the child may not be able to hear information to be announced.

Further, as described above, even if an announcement is made in the facility, the announcement may not be heard by the person being searched or the witnesses, and there is a problem that an efficient search cannot be performed. .

Further, in the above-mentioned conventional trend survey of facility users, there has been a problem that an employee or the like has to count the facility users at a predetermined position, resulting in a large burden of time and labor.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a position information providing system and a position information providing device capable of efficiently grasping the position information of facility users. , A position information providing method, a computer-readable recording medium, and a computer program.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a position information providing system capable of supporting surveys and analyzes of facility users,
A position information providing device, a position information providing method, a computer-readable recording medium, and a computer program are provided.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a position information providing system for providing information on the position of a user of a facility, which is owned by the user. A plurality of sensor means for detecting the IC tag, each of which is installed at a predetermined position in the facility, and identification information recorded on the IC tag detected by the sensor means. A position for obtaining position information indicating the position of the user, based on a reading unit for reading, the identification information read by the reading unit, and a predetermined position where the sensor unit that has read the identification information is installed. An information calculating means, a recording means for recording the position information obtained by the position information calculating means, and a transmitting means for transmitting the position information recorded in the recording means. .

The invention described in claim 2 is the same as claim 1.
The position information providing system described in (1) above is further provided with a movement locus calculation means for obtaining a movement locus of the user in the facility based on the position information recorded in the recording means.

The invention described in claim 3 is the same as claim 1
In the position information providing system described in (3), further comprising concentration degree calculating means for obtaining the degree of concentration of the user at a predetermined position in the facility based on the position information recorded in the recording means. And

The invention according to claim 4 is the same as claim 3
In the position information providing system described in (3), the concentration degree calculating means obtains the concentration degree for each time zone.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a position information providing device for providing information regarding the position of the user of the facility, which is detected by a sensor means installed at a predetermined position in the facility. In addition, a collection unit that collects the identification information of the IC tag possessed by the user, the identification information collected by the collection unit, and a predetermined unit in the facility where the sensor unit corresponding to the identification information is installed. Position information calculating means for obtaining the position information indicating the position of the user, the recording means for recording the position information calculated by the position information calculating means, and the position recorded in the recording means. And a transmission means for transmitting information.

The invention according to claim 6 is a position information providing method executed by a position information providing system for providing information on the position of a user of a facility, which is installed at a predetermined position in the facility. In the sensor means, the IC tag carried by the user is detected, the identification information recorded in the detected IC tag is read, the read identification information, and the sensor means that reads the identification information. Position information indicating the position of the user is obtained based on a predetermined position in the facility in which is installed, the obtained position information is recorded in a recording unit, and the position recorded in the recording unit is recorded. It is characterized by transmitting information.

Further, the invention according to claim 7 is a computer-readable recording medium, wherein each of the location information providing devices for providing information on the location of the user of the facility has a predetermined location in the facility. The identification information of the IC tag possessed by the user detected by the sensor means installed at the position is collected, and the collected identification information and the sensor means that reads the identification information are installed. The position information indicating the position of the user is calculated based on the predetermined position in the facility, the calculated position information is recorded in the recording unit, and the position information recorded in the recording unit is transmitted. It is characterized in that a program for recording is recorded.

Further, the invention according to claim 8 is a computer program, wherein each of the position information providing devices for providing information on the position of the user of the facility is installed at a predetermined position in the facility. In the facility where the identification information of the IC tag possessed by the user detected by the sensor means is collected, and the collected identification information and the sensor means that has read the identification information are installed. The position information indicating the position of the user is calculated based on the predetermined position of the user, the calculated position information is recorded in a recording unit, and the position information recorded in the recording unit is transmitted. And

[0019]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a position information providing system to which the present invention is applied, and conceptually shows only a portion related to the present invention. The position information providing system of the present embodiment is a LAN (Local Ar) installed in the hotel 100.
A plurality of sensors 111, a position information providing server 101, a marketing server 102, and a mobile phone 104 are connected to an ea network 110. here,
Position information providing server 101 and marketing server 1
02 can also be configured as an integral unit.

The sensor 111 is the control unit 1
14 and an IC tag reader / writer (R / W) 115 to connect to the LAN 110. Each of the sensors 111 is installed at a predetermined position near each guest room in the hotel 100, near an elevator and a restaurant, and detects the IC tag number recorded in the non-contact IC tag 113. Here, the IC tag number is an identification number for identifying each non-contact IC tag, and is recorded in advance in the non-contact IC tag 113 using an IC tag reader / writer.

The control unit 114 includes the sensor 1
A channel number is assigned to each of 11 and the non-contact IC tag 1 received by each antenna based on this number.
Information of 13 is passed to the IC tag reader / writer (R / W) 115, and information to be transmitted to the IC tag reader / writer 115 is passed to each antenna.

The IC tag reader / writer 115 receives the non-contact IC tag 113 received from the control unit 114.
Information is read and transmitted to the LAN 110.

The non-contact IC tag 113 is attached to the room key of the guest room where the facility user stays. This is also called an IC tag. For example, it is attached to a product at a CD or video store to prevent theft, or is the same as the one that is attached to an employee ID card at a company and used as a building admission certificate. Is a label that uses the communication technology described in 1. above, and is configured by, for example, disposing an IC chip on an adhesive sheet and providing a protective sheet on the upper layer. Non-contact IC tag 1
13 emits a weak electric wave, and by detecting this electric wave with the sensor 111, the IC tag number recorded in the memory inside the non-contact IC tag 113 is received.

The marketing server 102 is a computer system connected to a statistical database (DB) 105, which is a set of position information indicating the position information of facility users, and controls this database. For example, the marketing server 102 collects the IC tag number in the non-contact IC tag 113 read by the IC tag reader / writer 115 and records it in the statistical database 105. The statistical database 105 is a set of data including IC tag numbers and calculation results of calculation processing described later, and can be recorded on, for example, an external hard disk connected to the marketing server 102.

The position information providing server 101 records, searches, deletes, etc., the IC tag number in the statistical database 105 via the marketing server 102, and also provides information on the position of the facility user as described later. This is a computer system that performs the required processing.

With this configuration, when the position information providing server 101 receives the IC tag number of the non-contact IC tag 113 from the sensor 111, the position information providing server 101 sends the information based on the channel number assigned to the antenna. Since it is possible to specify where the transmission source antenna is installed, it is possible to specify the position of the holder 112 of the non-contact IC tag 113.

The mobile phone 104 is a wireless mobile device used by employees of the facility, and is equipped with software for realizing a WWW (World Wide Web) browsing function, and is equipped with a mobile network 103, a terminal adapter (TA) 106 and a LAN.
It has a function of acquiring the customer's position information from the position information providing server 101 via 110 and displaying it on the display unit.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually showing a hardware configuration example of a computer system used as the position information providing server 101 or the marketing server 102 to which the present invention is applied.

The computer system 200 has a CPU 201 for controlling the entire system and a ROM 202 for storing a program for executing the position information providing method according to the present invention.
And a RAM 203, which is a temporary storage area, are connected via a bus 204. Further, a computer program for executing the position information providing method according to the present invention, a hard disk 207 storing a data and the like referred to by the program, a keyboard / mouse interface section 206, and a video connected to the display 211. The interface unit 210, the communication interface unit 205 for communicating via the LAN 110, and the SCSI interface unit 2 for connecting to other peripheral devices.
08 is connected to the bus 204.

Keyboard / mouse / face portion 206
Is a keyboard 20 used to enter commands and symbols
9 and the mouse 212. Further, the computer system shown in this figure is the marketing server 102.
When used as, the hard disk in which the statistics DB 105 is recorded is connected to the SCSI interface unit 208.

The position information providing method according to the present invention is achieved by the CPU 201 reading and executing the program code from the hard disk 207 in which the program code of the program for realizing the processing described later is recorded. In such an implementation method, the hard disk 207 functions as a computer-readable recording medium according to the claims of the present invention.

Next, referring to the communication sequence diagram of FIG.
The procedure of the position information providing method according to this embodiment will be described.

The IC tag reader / writer 115 detects the non-contact IC tag 113 and reads the IC tag number at regular time intervals (for example, every minute) (step S30).
0). Then, the read IC tag number is transmitted to the position information providing server 101 together with the channel number of the sensor 111 that has detected this number. Location information server 1
01 creates a table of position information in which the received IC tag number and the channel number of the sensor 111 are associated with the reception time of this information, and records it in the statistical DB 105 via the marketing server 102 (step S304). The position information providing server 101 uses the ICs from the plurality of sensors 111.
The tag numbers are collected and this recording process is executed. As a result, the information shown in the example of Table 1 (hereinafter,
"IC tag information for each sensor" is accumulated and recorded.

[0035]

[Table 1]

In Table 1, the numerical value written in the "location" column indicates the channel number of the sensor 111. Since the sensor 111 can read a plurality of non-contact IC cards at the same time, a plurality of IC tag codes may be recorded at a predetermined time as shown in Table 1.

Next, the position information providing server 101 performs a calculation process based on the sensor-specific IC tag information recorded in the statistical DB 105 at regular time intervals (for example, every 24 hours) (step S306), and the calculation result is sent to the marketing server. It records in the statistics DB 105 via 102 (step S308).

That is, the position information recorded in the statistical DB 105 includes the position information recorded in step S304 and the processing result of step S306 obtained based on this information. The details of the position information creation processing in step S306 will be described later.

When the mobile phone 104 requests the location information providing server 101 to browse the information recorded in the statistics DB 105 (step S310), the location information providing server 101 searches for the requested information. Command the marketing server 102. The marketing server 102 searches the statistical DB 105 and extracts information that responds to the command (step S314), and the mobile phone 10
Send to 4. The mobile phone 104 displays the received information on the display unit (step S316).

Next, the position information creating process performed by the position information providing server 101 in step S306 will be described. The location information providing server 101 uses the statistics D
For example, the following calculation process can be performed based on the sensor-specific IC tag information recorded in B105.

(1) Customer-by-customer movement route calculation processing The position information providing server 101 extracts the sensor-specific IC tag information from the statistical DB 105 in units of non-contact IC tags to obtain the movement locus table shown in the example of Table 2. It is created and recorded in the statistical DB 105 via the marketing server 102 as “customer-specific movement trajectory information”.

[0042]

[Table 2]

The user of the mobile phone 104 can grasp the time and through which route the customer corresponding to the specific IC tag number moves by browsing the above-mentioned customer-specific movement trajectory information. You can Therefore, the facility side can analyze this value and use it for determining the location of the store and advertisement in the facility.

(2) Time-zone-based concentration degree calculation processing In this processing, the position information providing server 101 uses the statistics D
Based on the sensor-specific IC tag information recorded in B105, the number of non-contact IC tags detected by each sensor 111 is calculated in time units. Then, the ratio obtained by dividing the number obtained at each time by the number of all facility users is obtained, and is recorded in the statistical DB 105 via the marketing server 102 as “concentration information by time zone”. Table 3 shows an example of a table obtained by this calculation process.

[0045]

[Table 3]

On the facility side, by browsing this information using the mobile phone 104, it becomes possible to grasp the place where the effect of attracting customers is high on an hourly basis.

(3) Location-based customer attraction degree calculation processing In this processing, the position information providing server 101 executes (2)
The concentration status information for each time zone obtained in the calculation process of
The marketing server 102 is arranged according to one installation place.
It is recorded in the statistics DB 105 via. Mobile phone 104
By referring to this information, the predetermined sensor 111
It is possible to check whether the customer has visited the installation location of.

(4) Customer-by-Customer Visit Density Calculation Processing In this processing, the location information providing server 101 executes (1)
For each installation location of the sensor 111, the number of times a certain customer has visited the location is calculated based on the customer movement trajectory information obtained in (1).

(5) Stay Time Calculation Processing In this processing, the location information providing server 101 calculates how long the user stayed at each location based on the customer movement trajectory information obtained in (1).

In the browsing request process of step S310, the mobile phone 104 instructs the position information providing server 101 to perform (1) to (5) in addition to the IC tag detection information for each sensor.
It is possible to request the browsing of the result of the calculation process shown in. Here, the calculation results of (1) to (5) are all obtained based on the sensor-specific IC tag detection information. Therefore, the information requested to be viewed from the mobile phone 104 is the IC
It is possible to narrow down by the tag number, the channel number of the sensor 111, or the time. In this case, the user of the mobile phone 104 specifies the IC tag number, the identification code of the sensor 111, or the time to the position information providing server 101 to make the above-mentioned information browsing request. The position information providing server 101 requests the marketing server 102 to search for information that matches the received designation during the search request process in step S312.

Next, an information providing process to the mobile phone 104 executed by the marketing server 102 will be described. As means for providing information from the location information providing server 101, in addition to providing information via a web page and receiving FTP download to the mobile phone 104,
This can be done by periodical delivery of e-mail. For example, in the case of information provision by a web page, the marketing server 102 acquires information from the statistical DB 105 in response to a search request for information received from the location information provision server 101, edits the web page based on this information, and then edits the web page. Download the downloaded web page.
The information to be provided is W in text format or table format.
It can be an eb page.

The form of the information displayed on the mobile phone 104 is not limited to the matrix of numerical values as shown in Tables 1 to 3, but may be in the form of a graph, for example. Further, when the information to be provided is the movement track information, a top view of the hotel floor may be displayed on the Web page and the movement track of the specific facility user may be indicated by a line.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and can be implemented in various other modes. For example, in the above-described embodiment, a hotel has been described as an example of the facility, but other accommodation facilities, gaming facilities such as an amusement park,
It can be applied to the provision of information in various facilities provided for a predetermined purpose, such as medical facilities such as hospitals, educational facilities such as schools, recreation facilities, public facilities, stores, companies, offices, and the like.

Further, the detection of the non-contact IC tag by the IC tag sensor can be continuously performed without a fixed time interval.

In addition to the above identification information, the non-contact IC tag may be recorded with information such as a user ID for identifying a facility user, a name, a facility use start time, and a contact information.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example in which a mobile phone is used as a wireless mobile device has been described. However, instead of this, a mobile terminal such as PHS or PDA in which software for realizing browsing of Web information is installed. May be used.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiments, the case where each embodiment is realized independently has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this case, and in other embodiments. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that can be implemented by appropriately combining the embodiments.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the information processing apparatuses having different functions are connected to the LAN in the facility has been described, but it is understood by those skilled in the art that a plurality of functions can be realized by one information processing apparatus. Is obvious to

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the technique of browsing the web page by the wireless mobile device is used, but the information may be transmitted and received by voice or other known communication methods.

Further, the above-mentioned display screen is an example for explanation, and the arrangement and size of the display area are not limited to the example shown in the embodiment of the present invention.

Further, various modifications other than the above-described modes are possible. However, as long as the modification is based on the technical idea described in the claims, the modification is within the technical scope of the present invention.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to easily find a facility user who is lost in the facility.

Further, since it is possible to obtain time-based congestion information at important points in the facility, it is possible to efficiently market the facility.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a position information providing system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration example of a computer system used as a marketing server or a position information providing server.

FIG. 3 is a communication sequence diagram showing a procedure of a position information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 Location information providing server 102 Marketing server 103 mobile network 104 mobile phone 105 Statistics DB 106 terminal adapter 110 LAN 111 sensor 112 Facility users 113 Non-contact IC tag 114 control unit 115 IC tag reader / writer 200 computer system 201 CPU 202 ROM 203 RAM 204 bus 205 Communication interface section 206 Keyboard / Mouse Interface 207 hard disk 208 SCSI interface part 209 keyboard 210 Video interface section 211 display 212 mouse

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Koji Kurosawa             2-11-1, Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Stock             Ceremony company NTT Docomo (72) Inventor Masahiro Yoshida             2-11-1, Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Stock             Ceremony company NTT Docomo (72) Inventor Koichi Suwa             1-25-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Taisei             Construction Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Jun Takagi             1-25-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Taisei             Construction Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5K067 AA21 BB21 DD17 DD20 EE02                       EE12 FF03 HH22 HH23 HH24                       JJ53 KK00 LL01

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A position information providing system for providing information on a position of a user of a facility, comprising a plurality of sensor means for detecting an IC tag carried by the user, each of which is in the facility. , A reading means for reading the identification information recorded in the IC tag detected by the sensor means, the identification information read by the reading means, and the identification information. Position information calculating means for obtaining position information indicating the position of the user based on the read predetermined position where the sensor means is installed, and recording means for recording the position information obtained by the position information calculating means A position information providing system comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit the position information recorded in the recording unit. 2. The position information providing system according to claim 1, further comprising a movement locus calculation means for obtaining a movement locus of the user in the facility based on the position information recorded in the recording means. A position information providing system characterized in that 3. The position information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the concentration degree calculation for obtaining the degree of concentration of the user at a predetermined position in the facility based on the position information recorded in the recording means. A position information providing system, further comprising means. 4. The position information providing system according to claim 3, wherein the concentration degree calculating unit obtains the concentration degree for each time zone. 5. A position information providing device for providing information on the position of a user of a facility, said device being carried by said user detected by a sensor means installed at a predetermined position in said facility. The use based on a collection unit that collects the identification information of the IC tag, the identification information collected by the collection unit, and a predetermined position in the facility where the sensor unit corresponding to the identification information is installed. A position information calculation unit for obtaining position information indicating the position of the person; a recording unit for recording the position information calculated by the position information calculation unit; and a transmission unit for transmitting the position information recorded in the recording unit. A position information providing device characterized by the above. 6. A position information providing method executed by a position information providing system for providing information on a position of a user of a facility, the sensor means being installed at a predetermined position in the facility, An IC tag carried by a person is detected, the identification information recorded in the detected IC tag is read, and the read identification information and the sensor means for reading the identification information are installed in the facility. Position information indicating the position of the user is obtained based on a predetermined position, the obtained position information is recorded in recording means, and the position information recorded in the recording means is transmitted. Location information provision method. 7. A position information providing device for providing information on the position of a user of a facility, each of which is possessed by the user detected by a sensor means installed at a predetermined position in the facility. The identification information of the IC tag is collected, and the position of the user is determined based on the collected identification information and a predetermined position in the facility where the sensor unit that has read the identification information is installed. A computer-readable recording medium, characterized in that a program for causing the recording device to record the obtained positional information, recording the obtained positional information, and transmitting the recorded positional information to the recording device is recorded. 8. A position information providing device for providing information on a position of a user of a facility, each of which is detected by a sensor means installed at a predetermined position in the facility and possessed by the user. The identification information of the IC tag is collected, and the position of the user is determined based on the collected identification information and a predetermined position in the facility where the sensor unit that has read the identification information is installed. A computer program characterized by causing the recording means to record the obtained positional information, and transmitting the positional information recorded in the recording means.