JP4308045B2 - Content providing system, content providing server, user terminal, content providing program, and content acquisition program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a content providing system, a content providing server, a user terminal, a content providing program, and a content acquisition program, and in particular, a content providing system, a content providing server, a user terminal, and a content providing program for reducing the addition of a server. And a content acquisition program.

  Conventionally, in order for a user to use content provided from a server on the Internet, the content is configured using a protocol such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) via a communication network using a browser or the like from a user terminal such as a personal computer. A means of acquiring a file to be used is widely used.

  Here, a configuration of a conventional content providing system, a screen example of a web page, and a content reading timing will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional content providing system. The content providing system 10 shown in FIG. 1 is configured to include a content providing server 11 and user terminals 12-1 to 12-n, and the content providing server 11 and the user terminal 12 are composed of the Internet or the like. They are connected by a communication network 13.

  Further, the content providing server 11 is configured to include a transmission / reception unit 14, an object acquisition unit 15, and an object DB 16.

  Based on the content request from the user terminal 12, the transmission / reception means 14 receives a corresponding content or object acquisition request via the communication network 13, and requests a content or object corresponding to the request from the user terminal 12. It transmits to the user terminal where there was, via the communication network 13.

The object acquisition unit 15 determines the content (file name or the like) of the request information from the user terminal 12 received by the transmission / reception unit 14 and stores the corresponding content and the object included in the content in the object DB 16 in advance. Extract from the group and output to the transmission / reception means 14. The object DB 16
In addition to content files and object files, text format source files described in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) serving as a content base are also stored.

  FIG. 2 is an example of content displayed on the user terminal. As shown in FIG. 2, the content 20 displayed on the screen includes still image objects 21 and 22 and moving image objects 23 and 24, which are arranged at predetermined positions of the content. That is, the content 20 includes a web page source file in text format described in HTML and the objects 21 to 24, and the web page source file and the object are provided as different data. The above-mentioned object is data in various formats such as a still image, a moving image, a text file, and an audio file.

  Next, the content acquisition procedure shown in FIG. 2 will be described. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a conventional content providing procedure. First, when an acquisition request for content 20 is made from the user terminal 12 to the content providing server 11 in which desired content is stored, the request is transmitted to the content providing server 11 via the communication network 13 (S01).

  The content providing server 11 extracts content from the object DB 16 based on the content request from the accumulated content group, and transmits it to the user terminal 12 that has requested acquisition (S02). At the same time when the user terminal 12 acquires and displays the content, the object acquisition request for the objects 21 to 24 described in the source file of the text-format web page is transmitted to the content providing server 11 (S03). The content providing server 11 extracts the objects 21 to 24 corresponding to the object acquisition request from the object group stored in the object DB 16 and transmits them to the user terminal 12 at almost the same timing (S04).

  That is, the user terminal 12 displays the content 20 to the user by reading the content 20 and subsequently reading the objects 21 to 24.

  The configuration of the conventional user terminal 12 will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional user terminal. The user terminal 12 shown in FIG. 4 includes an object request interface 31, an object request unit 32, a transmission / reception unit 33, an object acquisition unit 34, an object analysis unit 35, and an object display unit 36. .

  The object request interface 31 is an interface for a user to make a content request or an object request from the user terminal 12 to the content providing server 11. More specifically, the object request interface 31 is “http: // Request information such as “/xxx/index.html” is input from a user interface such as a keyboard or a mouse or another program.

  The object request unit 32 generates object acquisition request information from the request information input by the object request interface 31 or the object analysis unit 35 to the content providing server 11. In addition, the object request unit 32 outputs the generated acquisition request information to the transmission / reception unit 33.

  The transmission / reception unit 33 transmits the request information obtained by the object request unit 32 to the content providing server 11 via the communication network 13. Further, the transmission / reception unit 33 outputs the content or object received from the content providing server 11 via the communication network to the object acquisition unit 34.

  When content data is input by the transmission / reception unit 33, the object acquisition unit 34 acquires an object included in the content data and outputs the acquired object data to the object analysis unit 35. Further, when the object data is inputted by the transmission / reception means 33, the object acquisition means 34 outputs the object data as it is to the object analysis means 35.

  The object analyzing unit 35 outputs information about the object to be acquired to the object requesting unit 32 in order to acquire the object immediately when the input object includes an object to be further acquired. The object analyzing means 35 outputs the input object to the object displaying means 36 in a form that can be displayed by the object displaying means 36. The object display means 36 displays / outputs the content or object acquired by the object analysis means 35 to the user using a browser or the like, and is composed of a display, a speaker, and the like.

  By the way, the timing for acquiring the desired content or object is determined by the time when the user operates the browser or the like to output the content or object acquisition request. Therefore, for example, when many users wish to use content stored in a content providing server at the same time, acquisition requests may be concentrated from one user server to one server. .

  As a result, the server and network devices may become heavily loaded, the network line connecting the server and the Internet may be congested, and user content and object acquisition may fail, resulting in system failures and service interruptions. There is.

  As a method for reducing the load on the system due to this content acquisition request, multiple servers providing content are prepared, and the communication path is converted in response to the content acquisition request from the user, and the load is distributed to the plurality of servers. There is a load distribution method (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In addition, in the case of a static content service that only provides files with the same content to all users, the content is stored on a dedicated server device cache server that stores the files requested by any user and provides them instead of the server. By placing it separately from the server, the load on the server can be reduced.

Furthermore, in order to reliably provide users with the content requested by each user, a method for reserving and securing network and server resources for a predetermined user terminal has been proposed. As a method for reserving resources, there is a method for providing an environment in which a server can be used at a reserved time by a user reserving a server resource from a browser (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 10-31365 A JP 2001-358767 A

  However, although a method using a load balancer or a cache server is widely used, it is necessary to add a hardware device other than a normal server, the system configuration becomes complicated, and equipment costs and operation costs increase. The entire server system can be applied only within a certain range according to the cost.

  In addition, the method of reserving server resources is a method that prevents many users from requesting content at the same time, and although content can be reliably provided to user terminals that have reserved some server resources, Content cannot be provided to other users. In addition, the method using server resource reservation complicates the system configuration and operation and increases the cost due to the processing of the reservation information, so a web service that provides content to many users at the same time at a low cost, etc. Not suitable for.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and provides a content providing system, a content providing server, a user terminal, a content providing program, and a content acquisition program for reducing the load on a server that provides content. For the purpose.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs means for solving the problems having the following characteristics.

Claimed described in claim 1 the invention comprises a user terminal for outputting to the user the content that includes one or more objects, in the content providing system including a content providing server that provides content to the user terminal, the content providing server, by the delay information for delaying a request for an object included in the content provided to the user terminal, an acquisition request of the object in which the user terminal requests is delayed from the time of obtaining the content to have an object obtaining means for obtaining a corresponding object, and transmission means for transmitting the obtained Luo object by the object obtaining means to the user terminal, the user terminal is acquired by the content providing server The delay information included in the content And an object request delay means for delaying an acquisition request for an object included in the content .

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, when there is an acquisition request for an object included in content data or content from a large number of user terminals in the content providing server, by delaying an acquisition request for some or all objects, The load on the server, because useless acquisition requests from a user terminal that stops browsing content or a user terminal that moves to other content before an object acquisition request is actually sent are not sent to the content providing server. Can be reduced.

The invention described in claim 2, in the content providing server for providing an object included in the content and the content was out of the user terminal requested, an acquisition request time from the user terminal to the object included in the content and delay information setting means for setting a delay information for delaying from the time of obtaining the content, transmission means for transmitting the content to the delay information is added by the delay information setting means to the user terminal, by the transmission means the delay information for delaying a request for an object included in the content provided to the user terminal, relative to the acquisition request of the object in which the user terminal requests is delayed from the time of obtaining the content, the corresponding object Get object to get And having a stage.

  According to the invention of claim 2, when there are acquisition requests for content data and objects included in content from a large number of user terminals in the content providing server, by delaying acquisition requests for some or all objects, The load on the server, because useless acquisition requests from a user terminal that stops browsing content or a user terminal that moves to other content before an object acquisition request is actually sent are not sent to the content providing server. Can be reduced.

The invention described in claim 3 is characterized in that the delay information setting means adds the delay information to communication protocol information for transmitting the content to the user terminal.

  According to the invention described in claim 3, since the delay information is set in the communication protocol information, it is not necessary to load the content with a description of the special delay information. In addition, the acquisition request delay time can be unified for all objects included in the content. Therefore, for example, the delay time corresponding to the server load can be dynamically set.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the delay information setting means sets the delay information for each object based on a preset content size and a display size of an output screen for outputting content provided in the user terminal. It is characterized by setting information.

  According to the invention of claim 4, by delaying an acquisition request for an object that is not initially displayed on the output screen, for example, a user who moves to other content before acquiring the delayed object is wasted Since no request is made and the server does not acquire useless request information, the load on the server can be reduced.

The invention described in claim 5 is characterized in that the delay information setting means sets the delay information for each object based on the data size of the object included in the content .

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, by delaying an acquisition request for an object with a large data size that increases the load, for example, a user who moves to another content or the like before acquiring the delayed object is useless. Since no acquisition request is made and the server does not acquire useless request information, the load on the server can be reduced.

The invention described in claim 6, in the user terminal for obtaining the content or the object corresponding to the acquisition request of one or more objects included in the content or the content from the content providing server from the content providing server Object analysis means for analyzing presence / absence of delay information for delaying an acquisition request for each object preset in the content from the acquired content, and the delay information to at least one of the objects by the object analysis means Is set, object request delay means for delaying a corresponding object acquisition request based on the delay information is provided.

  According to the invention of claim 6, when there is an acquisition request for content data from a large number of user terminals and an object included in the content in the content providing server, by delaying the acquisition request for some or all objects, The load on the server, because useless acquisition requests from a user terminal that stops browsing content or a user terminal that moves to other content before an object acquisition request is actually sent are not sent to the content providing server. Can be reduced.

  The invention described in claim 7 is characterized in that the object analyzing means analyzes presence / absence of the delay information from a source file of the content.

  According to the seventh aspect of the invention, the user terminal can delay the object acquisition request by acquiring the delay information for each object included in the content.

  The invention described in claim 8 is characterized in that the object analyzing means analyzes presence / absence of the delay information from communication protocol information for transmitting the content.

  According to the eighth aspect of the invention, by analyzing the delay information from the communication protocol information, the delay information can be easily obtained for all objects included in the content. On the content providing server side, the acquisition request delay time can be set uniformly for the objects included in the content and set to be acquired with a delay. Therefore, for example, the delay time corresponding to the server load can be dynamically set.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the content providing program for providing the content requested from the user terminal, the computer obtains the acquisition request time from the user terminal for the object included in the content. delay information setting means for setting a delay information for delaying from the time, transmitting means for transmitting the content to the delay information is added by the delay information setting means to the user terminal, and, to the user terminal by the transmitting means An object that acquires a corresponding object in response to an acquisition request for the object that the user terminal requests with a delay from the acquisition time of the content by delay information for delaying an acquisition request for an object included in the provided content of function as an acquisition unit That.

  According to the invention of claim 9, when there are acquisition requests for content data and content objects from many user terminals in the content providing server, by delaying acquisition requests for some or all objects, The load on the server, because useless acquisition requests from a user terminal that stops browsing content or a user terminal that moves to other content before an object acquisition request is actually sent are not sent to the content providing server. Can be reduced. Further, the content providing process can be easily realized by installing the program.

The invention described in claim 10, in the content acquisition program for acquiring the content corresponding to the acquisition request from the content providing server, a computer, from a content acquired from the content providing server, it is preset in the content object analysis means for analyzing the presence or absence of delay information for delaying the acquisition request for each of the objects, and, if the delay information to at least one of the objects is set by the object analyzing means, said delay information Based on this, it is made to function as an object request delay means for delaying a corresponding object acquisition request.

  According to the invention described in claim 10, when there is an acquisition request for an object included in content data or content from a large number of user terminals in the content providing server, by delaying an acquisition request for some or all objects, The load on the server, because useless acquisition requests from a user terminal that stops browsing content or a user terminal that moves to other content before an object acquisition request is actually sent are not sent to the content providing server. Can be reduced. Also, the content acquisition process can be easily realized by installing the program.

  According to the present invention, when the content providing server has an acquisition request for content data from the user terminal or an object included in the content, the load on the server is reduced by delaying the acquisition request for some or all of the objects. be able to.

<Outline of the present invention>
The present invention is a method of delaying an object acquisition request from a browser of a user terminal to a server that provides content for a predetermined time for a predetermined object when the content includes a plurality of objects such as a plurality of images and moving images. Is used. Thus, for example, in the case of a user who finishes using the content in a short time or moves to other content in a short time, some or all of the objects are not requested to be acquired all at once. By making acquisition requests in stages from the user terminal side, it is possible to prevent unnecessary acquisition requests and prevent the server from acquiring unnecessary request information.

  Note that the object that makes this delay acquisition request and the delay time are set in the content source file or communication protocol for content transmission, and the browser or the like acquires the information at the time of content acquisition and is specified. After delaying the time set for the object, an acquisition request is output to the server.

<Specific Examples of the Present Invention>
Here, a specific example of the present invention will be described. For example, in content composed of web pages, one web page is a text format file described in one or more HTML, GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) format, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format, etc. It consists of many objects such as image data and software embedded in a page such as Java (registered trademark) content.

  Normally, when a user browses a web page, the browser acquires all the objects existing on the page simultaneously or sequentially in time. When an object having a large data size exists on the page at the time of object acquisition, if a large number of users make content acquisition requests at the same time, the server tends to be heavily loaded.

  On the other hand, among the users who have made content acquisition requests, there are some users who actually use the content over time, and other users can stop using just by looking at the content for a short time, It may move to other linked pages on the page. In the present invention, the former is referred to as “staying type user” and the latter is referred to as “passing type user”.

  In the present invention, by instructing the user terminal to delay the acquisition request timing of an object having a large data size for a predetermined time from the time when the user makes a content acquisition request through the browser, The acquisition request for an object having a large data size is suppressed for the terminal of “pass-through user” who stops using the content or moves to another page. As a result, since the object acquisition requests to the server as a whole user are reduced, the server load can be reduced.

  Here, in general, on the top page of a website that is frequently accessed by users, a lot of link information for moving to other contents inside and outside the site is arranged, and many users who visit the top page select these links. You can see moving to another page in a short time. In the present invention, particularly when there are many such “pass-through users”, only “stay-type users” who browse the top page for a certain period of time read an object with a large data size, Can reduce the server load by preventing the object from being read.

  In the method of the present invention, there is an adverse effect that some objects on the page are read with a delay for the “stay-type user”, but depending on the content and format of the content, Detrimental effects can be mitigated by devising content that does not cause delays in reading. For example, when the user first displays the content on the browser, the object is read with a delay between the first displayed range and the non-displayed range, corresponding to the size of the screen on which the user browses the content, Processing such as dividing the content file by a predetermined number of bytes can be performed. A specific display method will be described later.

  In the above-described example, the case where the object data size is set as the delay setting condition has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the object to be delayed can be selected based on a selection example described later. it can. In addition, the above-mentioned “stay-type user” and “pass-through type user” may be different users, and even one user may “stay” corresponding to the user's mood or situation at a certain point in time. Type user "or" passing type user ". In the above description, the web page has been described. However, the same method can be applied to content in a format composed of a plurality of data objects such as a web page.

  In this way, by applying the present invention, it is possible to provide content corresponding to the user without having to increase the number of servers.

  Next, an embodiment to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Embodiment>
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first configuration example of the content providing system according to the present invention. The content providing system 40 shown in FIG. 5 is configured to include a content providing server 41 and user terminals 42-1 to 42-n, and the content providing server 41 and the user terminal 42 are composed of the Internet or the like. They are connected by a communication network 43. The content providing server 41 is configured to include a transmission / reception unit 44, an object acquisition unit 45, and an object DB 46.

  That is, the content providing server 41 in the first configuration example of the content providing system is the same as the configuration of the conventional content providing server 11 shown in FIG. Further, the processing of each component having the same name in the content providing system is the same as the content described in FIG.

  However, as shown in FIG. 5, when content and objects are registered in the object DB 46, delay information for delaying an acquisition request from the user terminal 42 is set for each object included in the content. The specific setting contents of the delay information will be described later. Thereby, the load on the server can be reduced without changing the configuration on the server side.

  Next, the configuration of the user terminal 42 in the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a user terminal according to the present invention. 6 includes an object request interface 51, an object request unit 52, a transmission / reception unit 53, an object acquisition unit 54, an object analysis unit 55, an object display unit 56, and a time information providing unit 57. And an object request delay means 58.

  The object request interface 51 is an interface for a user to make a content request or an object request from the user terminal 42 to the content providing server 41. An API (Application) that receives a request from a user interface such as a keyboard or a mouse or another program. Program Interface) and the like.

  The object request unit 52 generates object acquisition request information for the content providing server 41 based on the request information input from the object request interface 51, the object analysis unit 55, or the object request delay unit 58, and the generated acquisition. The request information is output to the transmission / reception means 53.

  The transmission / reception unit 53 transmits the request information obtained by the object request unit 52 to the content providing server 41 via the communication network 43. The transmission / reception unit 53 outputs the content or object received from the content providing server 41 via the communication network to the object acquisition unit 54.

  When the content data is input by the transmission / reception unit 53, the object acquisition unit 54 acquires an object included in the content data and outputs it to the object analysis unit 55. Further, when the object data is input by the transmission / reception unit 53, the object acquisition unit 54 outputs the object data as it is to the object analysis unit 55.

  The object analysis means 55 analyzes whether or not delay information is included as a designation of an object to be further acquired among the acquired objects. In the case of an object without delay information, in order to acquire the object immediately, information on the acquired object is output to the object request unit 52. If the object has delay information, the object request information and delay time information are output to the object request delay means 58.

  The object analysis means 55 outputs the content source file to the object display means 56 in a form that can be displayed by the object display means 56. When object data is input from the object acquisition unit 54, the object is similarly output to the object display unit 56 in a form that can be displayed by the object display unit 56. The object display unit 56 displays and outputs the content or object acquired by the object analysis unit 55 to the user from a display, a speaker, or the like.

  The object request delay means 58 delays the output of the request information to the object request means 52 based on the time information obtained from the time information providing means 57 and the delay information obtained from the object analysis means 55. The object request delay means 58 outputs request information delayed by a predetermined time to the object request means 52.

  Based on the configuration of the user terminal 42 described above, a content or object acquisition request is made to the content providing server 41 based on delay information preset in the content or object stored on the server side.

  Here, the content provision processing in the present embodiment will be described using a sequence diagram. FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of content providing processing according to the present embodiment. Note that the content read into the user terminal is the content 20 shown in FIG. First, when an acquisition request for content 20 is made from the user terminal 42 to the content providing server 41 in which desired content is stored, the request is transmitted to the content providing server 41 via the communication network (S11).

  The content providing server 41 extracts content from the accumulated content group based on the content request, and transmits it to the user terminal 42 that has requested acquisition (S42).

  The user terminal 42 acquires and displays the source file transmitted from the content providing server 41. In addition, among the objects included in the content, there are an object having a setting for delaying an acquisition request and an object without a setting. Therefore, an object acquisition request is sent to the content providing server 41 for an object without a delay setting. Transmit (S13). In S13, an object acquisition request for the still image objects 21 and 22 shown in FIG.

  The content providing server 41 extracts each object corresponding to the object acquisition request from the accumulated object group, and transmits it to the user terminal 42 at successive timings (S14).

  If there is a delay setting of Δt as the delay time, after Δt has elapsed, an acquisition request for the target object is transmitted to the content providing server 41 (S15). In S15, an object acquisition request for the moving image objects 23 and 24 shown in FIG.

  The content providing server 41 extracts each object corresponding to the object acquisition request from the accumulated object group and transmits it to the user terminal 42 at successive timings (S16). That is, the user terminal 42 is a browser or the like. In addition, the content 20 is read, and the content acquisition server 41 delays the object acquisition request based on the object delay time set by the content providing server 41 to display the content 20 to the user.

  Here, in the case of the “pass-through user” described above, the content providing server 41 is unnecessary for the user terminal 42 because there is a high possibility of moving to another web page before the objects 23 and 24 are read. The load on the content providing server 41 can be reduced without transmitting / receiving data.

<Delay information setting example 1>
Next, a specific setting example of the delay information described above will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of delay information setting in the source file. An example of an instruction written in JavaScript that is embedded in the content is shown. As shown in FIG. 8, a delay time setting portion 62 and a delay object setting portion 63 are described in a script description area 61 in the source file 60. In the delay time setting section 62, 10 seconds (10000) is designated as the time (delayload ()) for delaying the object request. In the delay object setting portion 63, a JPEG format object (“object10.jpg”) is set with the file name “image1”.

  In the body area 64, the above-described Javascript is designated to be executed (onLoad = “settimer ()”), and the “image1” file set above is designated as a designation for reading an image into HTML. After 10 seconds, an “image1” object acquisition request is made. Thereby, the delay of the object acquisition request can be realized.

  Note that the page-embedded software such as the script language and Java (registered trademark) described here is widely used in browsers that can be used by the user terminal 42. By using this method, existing server software and user software can be used. The content provision according to the present invention can be implemented only by script description in the content without changing the browser software on the terminal.

<Delay information setting example 2>
As another example, a description format for delaying a predetermined time to make an object acquisition request is added to tag information for acquiring an object in a source file describing content in HTML, and the description format is supported. By using the browser, the object can be provided in the present invention.

  The above contents will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of setting delay information in an image tag. FIG. 9A shows an example of an image tag format in a normal HTML format, and FIG. 9B shows an example of an image tag format to which a delay time is specified.

  In FIG. 9A, the image object “object10.jpg” is set to be displayed with a width of 200 pixels and a height of 150 pixels. Here, as shown in FIG. 9B, the tag description format of the image object is expanded, and a format (DELAY = 10000) for adding a parameter for delaying the object request is set, and the expanded description format is supported. It is possible to take a method of reading using a browser that performs a request and reading operation. In FIG. 9B, the part designated as “DELAY = 10000” indicates that the content providing server 41 is requested to acquire the image object “object10.jpg” after 10 seconds.

  This method makes content description easier than a method using a script language or embedded software.

  As a result, in the method of describing the object request delay time in the content, it is only necessary to embed the object read delay time in the individual content on the server side. It is not necessary and can be realized at low cost. In addition, the delay time for reading each object can be set separately according to the contents.

<Delay information setting example 3>
Furthermore, as another embodiment, provision of objects in the present invention can be realized by setting delay information in an extension header of the communication protocol.

  Here, the above-mentioned content is demonstrated using figures. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of setting delay information in the extension header. 10A shows an example of an image tag format, and FIG. 10B shows a description example of an HTTP extension header. As shown in FIG. 10, as the script or tag description in the content, the value of the time for delaying the request for the object from the user terminal is not described directly in the image tag, but as shown in FIG. Among them, an object to be read later is specified without description of time ("DELAY"), and the value of the delay time is used when acquiring content HTML as shown in FIG. 8B. A delay is set as an extension header of a communication protocol such as the HTTP protocol ("X-Delayload-time: 10000"), and the delay information can be transmitted to the user terminal.

  Further, when setting delay information in the extension header of the communication protocol in this way, it is preferable to provide delay information setting means in the content providing server. Here, a configuration example of a content providing server having delay information setting information setting means will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a second configuration example of the content providing system according to the present invention. The content providing server 70 illustrated in FIG. 11 is configured to include the content providing server 71 and the user terminals 42-1 to 42-n illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6. Are connected by a communication network 43 such as the Internet. The content providing server 71 includes a transmission / reception unit 74, an object acquisition unit 75, an object DB 76, and a delay information setting unit 77.

  That is, the content providing server 71 in the second configuration example of the content providing system has a configuration in which delay information setting means is newly provided in the configuration of the conventional content providing server 11 shown in FIG.

  Based on the content request from the user terminal 42, the transmission / reception means 74 receives a corresponding content or object acquisition request via the communication network 43, and requests the content or object corresponding to the request from the user terminal 42. It transmits to the user terminal where there was, via the communication network 43.

  The object acquisition unit 75 determines the content of the request information from the user terminal 42 received by the transmission / reception unit 74 and extracts the corresponding content and the object included in the content from the object group stored in the object DB 76 in advance. The extracted content or object is output to the delay information setting unit 77.

  The delay information setting unit 77 sets the delay information as shown in FIG. 10B described above in the extension header of the communication protocol such as the HTTP protocol for transmitting the content to the user terminal 42. The data is output to the transmission / reception means 74.

  As described above, in the method of embedding the object reading delay time in the communication protocol extension header, the delay time of the entire server is set, and the object delay time for delaying the reading for all contents can be set uniformly. it can. Therefore, for example, the delay time corresponding to the server load can be dynamically set. Thereby, the server load can be reduced.

<Delayed object selection example 1>
Next, an example of selecting an object for setting the delay information described above will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a first example of selecting an object for which delay information setting is performed.

  FIG. 12 is configured to have a screen area 91 of the user terminal, a content size 92, and a plurality of image objects 93-1 to 93-6 added to the content. In FIG. 12, as an example of the screen size of the user terminal, 1024 pixels in the horizontal direction and 768 pixels in the vertical direction are set. Here, when the user terminal 42 browses the content shown in FIG. 12, the image objects are displayed as 93-1 to 93-3 first, and the images 93-4 to 93 are displayed by scrolling the image downward. -6 will be displayed sequentially.

  Therefore, in the case of the image object as shown in FIG. 12, when the user displays the content on the user terminal in the range exceeding the screen size, For a moving image object, a delay time is set based on the description example described above. As the delay time, in the case of the image object 93-4, since the time displayed by scrolling is earlier than that of the image object 93-6, the delay time of the image object 93-4 is the image object 93-5 or the image object. Set shorter than 93-5.

<Delayed object selection example 2>
As another example, there is a method of setting the required time according to the data size of the object. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a second example of selecting an object for which delay information setting is performed. In FIG. 13, description will be made using the same content as in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 13, the image data sizes of the image contents 93-1 to 93-6 added to the content are compared, and the image size is larger than a preset data size (for example, 100 kbytes). And set the delay time. The set value of the data size can be set dynamically according to the load status of the server.

  In FIG. 13, for example, when a threshold value that is a guideline for setting the delay time is 100 kbytes and the image object 932 exceeds 100 kbytes, the delay time is set for the image object 93-2. As a result, an object having a large file size among the objects included in the content can be read with a delay.

  As a result, there is no request for acquisition of large-capacity object data from all users, and, for example, there is no need to send / receive extra data to / from “pass-through users”, thereby reducing the load on the content providing server. be able to.

<Program>
Here, as described above, the content providing server and the user terminal can also provide and acquire the content in the present invention by using a dedicated device configuration. However, the content providing server and the user terminal can acquire the content in the content providing server and the user terminal. By generating an execution program that can be executed by the computer and installing the program in, for example, a general-purpose personal computer or workstation, the provision and acquisition of content in the present invention can be realized.

  Here, an example of a hardware configuration of an executable computer in the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration capable of realizing content provision and content acquisition according to the present invention.

  14 includes an input device 101, an output device 102, a drive device 103, an auxiliary storage device 104, a memory device 105, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 106 that performs various controls, and a network connection device. 107, which are connected to each other by a system bus B.

  The input device 101 has a pointing device such as a keyboard and a mouse operated by a user, and inputs various operation signals such as execution of a program from the user. The output device 102 has a display for displaying various windows and data necessary for operating the computer main body for performing the processing according to the present invention, and displays the program execution progress, results, and the like by the control program of the CPU 106. can do.

  Here, in the present invention, the execution program installed in the computer main body is provided by, for example, the recording medium 108 such as a CD-ROM. The recording medium 108 on which the program is recorded can be set in the drive device 103, and the execution program included in the recording medium 108 is installed in the auxiliary storage device 104 from the recording medium 108 via the drive device 103.

  The auxiliary storage device 104 is storage means such as a hard disk, and can store an execution program in the present invention, a control program provided in a computer, and the like, and can perform input / output as necessary.

  The CPU 106 performs processing of the entire computer, such as various operations and input / output of data with each hardware component, based on a control program such as an OS (Operating System) and an execution program read and stored by the memory device 105. By controlling the above, each processing in content provision or content acquisition can be realized. Various kinds of information necessary during the execution of the program can be acquired from the auxiliary storage device 104 and can also be stored.

  The network connection device 107 is connected to a communication network or the like to acquire an execution program from another terminal connected to the communication network or the execution result obtained by executing the program or the execution in the present invention. The program itself can be provided to other terminals.

  With the hardware configuration as described above, it is possible to provide content in the content providing server and acquire content in the user terminal at low cost without requiring a special device configuration.

  Next, a processing procedure in the execution program will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, about the process sequence mentioned later, the process sequence of a content provision server and the process sequence of a user terminal are demonstrated.

<Processing procedure of content providing server>
FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a content providing process procedure according to the present embodiment. Note that FIG. 15 shows a processing procedure based on the second configuration example of the content providing system. First, the content providing server receives request information from the user terminal (S21). Next, the requested content (whether it is a content request or an object request) is determined from the request information (S22), and the content or object corresponding to the requested content is acquired from the object DB (S24).

  Next, for the object included in the acquired content, the delay time is set as shown in the delay information setting example 3 (S24), and the content is transmitted to the user terminal that requested it (S25). .

  If the delay information is set by the setting method as shown in the delay information setting example 1 or the delay information setting example 2, the process of S24 is not performed, and the content including the delay information acquired in S23 Or send an object.

  Thereby, a special apparatus configuration is not required, and the load on the server can be reduced by installing the program in a general-purpose personal computer, a workstation, or the like and performing the above-described processing.

<User terminal processing procedure>
Next, a processing procedure when the present embodiment is applied to the user terminal will be described with reference to the flowchart with reference to the drawings. In the processing procedure described later, a case where content including at least one object is acquired will be described. FIG. 16 is an example flowchart for explaining the processing procedure at the user terminal according to the present embodiment.

  First, the user terminal makes a content acquisition request to the content providing server (S31). Next, the user terminal acquires content from the content providing server (S32), and outputs the acquired content to the user terminal based on the source file (S33). Further, it is determined whether the object included in the content is an object for which delay information for delaying the acquisition request is set (S34).

  If the object is to be delayed (YES in S34), the content source file or the delay information described in the communication protocol is acquired (S35). Next, the user terminal delays the object acquisition request according to the acquired delay information (S36), and makes an object acquisition request to the content providing server (S37). If the object is not to be delayed in S34 (NO in S34), an object request is immediately made to the content providing server.

  Next, the user terminal acquires the requested object from the content providing server (S38), and outputs the object to the user terminal (S39).

  Here, for example, when the user terminal moves to another content or the like while making an object request in S36, the steps of S37 to S39 are not executed, so an object request is made to the content providing server. Therefore, the load on the server side can be reduced, and the load on the communication network and the load on the user terminal can be reduced.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the load on the server can be reduced. Specifically, by delaying the acquisition request from the user terminal to the content providing server for some or all objects for each object, the above-described acquisition request from the user terminal corresponding to the pass-through user is not performed. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the load on the server, so that, for example, when providing content that changes in accordance with broadcasting, it is possible to provide a service with a larger amount of data.

  Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiment, and various modifications, within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims, It can be changed.

It is a figure which shows the example of 1 structure of the content provision system in the past. It is an example of the content displayed on a user terminal. It is an example sequence diagram for demonstrating the provision procedure of the content in the past. It is a figure which shows one structural example of the conventional user terminal. It is a figure which shows the 1st structural example of the content provision system in this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of 1 structure of the user terminal in this invention. It is an example sequence diagram for demonstrating the provision process of the content in this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the delay information setting in a source file. It is a figure which shows an example of the delay information setting in an image tag. It is a figure which shows an example of the delay information setting in an extension header. It is a figure which shows the 2nd structural example of the content provision system in this invention. It is a figure which shows the 1st example which selects the object which sets delay information. It is a figure which shows the 2nd example which selects the object which sets delay information. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions which can implement | achieve the content provision and content acquisition in this invention. It is an example flowchart for demonstrating the provision process procedure of the content in this Embodiment. It is an example flowchart for demonstrating the process sequence in the user terminal in this Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

10, 40, 70 Content providing system 11, 41, 71 Content providing server 12, 42 User terminal 13, 43 Communication network 14, 33, 44, 53, 74 Transmission / reception means 15, 34, 45, 34, 75 Object acquisition means 16 , 46,76 Object DB
20 Content 21, 22 Still image object 23, 24 Moving image object 31, 51 Object request interface 32, 52 Object request means 35, 55 Object analysis means 36, 56 Object display means 57 Time information providing means 58 Object request delay means 60 Source File 61 Script description area 62 Delay time setting portion 63 Delay object setting portion 64 Body area 77 Delay information setting means 91 User terminal screen area 92 Content size 93 Image object 101 Input device 102 Output device 103 Drive device 104 Arithmetic processing device 105 Memory device 106 CPU
107 network connection device 108 recording medium

Claims (10)

A user terminal for outputting a content to a user comprising one or more objects, in the content providing system including a content providing server that provides content to the user terminal,
The content providing server, by the delay information for delaying a request for an object included in the content provided to the user terminal, an acquisition request of the object in which the user terminal requests is delayed from the time of obtaining the content to have an object obtaining means for obtaining a corresponding object, and transmission means for transmitting the obtained Luo object by the object obtaining means to the user terminal,
The content providing system according to claim 1, further comprising: an object request delay unit configured to delay an acquisition request for an object included in the content based on the delay information included in the content acquired by the content providing server. In a content providing server for providing content requested from a user terminal and an object included in the content,
And delay information setting means for setting a delay information for delaying from the time of obtaining the content acquisition request time from the user terminal to the object included in the content,
Transmitting means for transmitting the content to which the delay information is added by the delay information setting means to the user terminal;
In response to the acquisition request for the object requested by the user terminal with a delay from the acquisition time of the content, by delay information for delaying an acquisition request for the object included in the content provided to the user terminal by the transmission unit. And an object acquisition means for acquiring a corresponding object. The delay information setting means includes
The content providing server according to claim 2, wherein the delay information is added to communication protocol information for transmitting the content to the user terminal. The delay information setting means includes
The delay information is set for each object based on a preset content size and a display size of an output screen for outputting content provided in the user terminal. Content providing server. The delay information setting means includes
5. The content providing server according to claim 2 , wherein the delay information is set for each object based on a data size of the object included in the content. 6. The content or the user terminal for obtaining the content or the object from the content providing server corresponding to the acquisition request of one or more objects included in the content,
Object analysis means for analyzing presence / absence of delay information for delaying an acquisition request for each object preset in the content from the content acquired from the content providing server;
An object request delay unit configured to delay an acquisition request for a corresponding object based on the delay information when the delay information is set in at least one of the objects by the object analysis unit; Terminal. The object analysis means includes
The user terminal according to claim 6, wherein presence / absence of the delay information is analyzed from a source file of the content. The object analysis means includes
8. The user terminal according to claim 6, wherein presence / absence of the delay information is analyzed from communication protocol information for transmitting the content. In a content providing program for providing content requested from a user terminal,
Computer
Delay information setting means for setting a delay information for delaying from the time of obtaining the content acquisition request time from the user terminal to the object included in the content,
Transmitting means for transmitting the content to which the delay information is added by the delay information setting means to the user terminal ; and
In response to the acquisition request for the object requested by the user terminal with a delay from the acquisition time of the content, by delay information for delaying an acquisition request for the object included in the content provided to the user terminal by the transmission unit. A content providing program that functions as an object acquisition unit that acquires a corresponding object. In the content acquisition program for acquiring the content corresponding to the acquisition request from the content providing server,
Computer
Object analysis means for analyzing presence / absence of delay information for delaying an acquisition request for each object preset in the content from the content acquired from the content providing server ; and
A content acquisition program that functions as an object request delay unit that delays an acquisition request for a corresponding object based on the delay information when the delay information is set in at least one of the objects by the object analysis unit .

Images