JPH05235878A - Communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the communication system in which the user acquires the charging state through a line and the charge is changed in response to request information and a user terminal equipment or the like. CONSTITUTION:When the user operates an output section 24 of a terminal equipment 20 and requests charging information, a request signal of charging information including a customer number is outputted from an output section 24 to a center 10 via an incoming transmission line 31 and the request reception section 12 of the center 10 receives the request signal via an I/F 11 to transfer a customer number in the signal to a customer management section 150. The charging information of the customer stored in the customer management section 150 is read and outputted from a charging output section 17 and an information multiplexer section 16 multiplexes the information with other information and the result is sent to the terminal equipment 20 through an outgoing transmission line 32. The charging information is demultiplexed at an input section 22a of the terminal equipment 20 and displayed on a display section 23.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system for supplying request information such as karaoke software from a center to a user terminal via a communication line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a communication system of this type has been disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-293784, and its configuration is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, the center 1 and a plurality of terminals 2 are connected via a transmission line 3 such as a CATV line, and the center 1 is connected to the AV requested by each terminal 2.
(Music, video) information is supplied via the transmission path 3.

In such a configuration, the user can use the terminal 2
When a desired AV information is requested by operating the output unit 21 of the center 1, the request signal including the customer number and the music number of the terminal 2 is transmitted from the output unit 21 to the center 1 via the upstream transmission line 31.
Be transmitted to. I / F (interface) 1 of center 1
1 receives this request signal and transfers it to the request accepting unit 12, and the request accepting unit 12 outputs an output command of music information and video information corresponding to the song number in the signal to the information storage unit 13 and the CD graphic, respectively. The customer number is output to the customer information section 14 and the customer number is transferred to the customer management section 15.
The music information and the video information are respectively stored in the information storage unit 13,
The information is read from the CD graphics information unit 14 and multiplexed by the information multiplexing unit 16, and this multiplexed information is transmitted to the terminal 2 via the I / F 11 of the center 1 and the downstream transmission path 32.

In the terminal 2, the multiplexed information is separated into music information and video information by the input section 22, the video information is reproduced by the display section 23, and the music information is reproduced by a speaker (not shown) or the like. Further, the customer management unit 15 of the center 1 counts the number of requests corresponding to the customer number in the request signal, and the user is charged at a later date, for example, by mail or the like according to the number of requests.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional communication system, since the center 1 supplies only the information requested by the user terminal 2, the user cannot know the charging status. ..
Further, in the above-described conventional communication system, since charging is only performed according to the number of requests, the charge may be changed according to the request information transmission time zone, transmission time (performance time), value, etc., and the user terminal 2 There is a problem that the price cannot be changed according to the.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a communication system in which a user can know the charging status via a line and can change the charge according to request information, user terminal and the like. ..

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is to supply the billing information through a communication line when the billing information is requested from the user terminal. The present invention also manages the billing information for each user terminal at a different billing rate for each user. The present invention further manages the billing information for each user terminal with a different fee for each information.

Therefore, according to the present invention, in a communication system in which a center supplies information requested by a user terminal to the user terminal via a communication line, the center manages billing information for each user terminal, There is provided a communication system comprising means for supplying billing information via a communication line when the billing information is requested from the user, and for notifying the user of the billing information via the user terminal.

The present invention is also a communication system in which a center supplies information requested by a user terminal to the user terminal via a communication line, wherein the center provides charging information for each user terminal, which is different for each user. There is provided a communication system characterized by having means for managing at.

Further, the present invention is a communication system in which a center supplies information requested by a user terminal to the user terminal via a communication line, wherein the center charges information for each user terminal at different charges. There is provided a communication system characterized in that it has means for managing.

[0011]

Since the present invention has the above configuration, the center manages the billing information for each user terminal, and when the billing information is requested from the user terminal, the billing information is supplied via the communication line, and the user terminal Since this charging information is notified to the user, the user can know the charging status via the line.

According to the present invention, the center manages the billing information for each user terminal at a different billing rate for each user.
The charge can be changed according to the user terminal or the like.

Further, according to the present invention, since the center manages the billing information for each user terminal with a different fee for each information, the fee can be changed according to the request information.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a communication system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the customer management unit of FIG. In FIG. 1, the same components as those shown in FIG. 7 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In FIG. 1, a center 10 and a plurality of terminals 2 are provided.
0 is connected via a transmission line 3 such as a CATV line, and the center 10 supplies the AV (music, video) information requested by each terminal 20 via the transmission line 3 as well as each terminal 20. Is configured to manage the billing information and to supply the billing information to the terminal 20 via the communication line when the billing information is requested from the terminal 20.

The center 10 has an I / F 11 for making a connection with each terminal 20 via the transmission path 3 and a request receiving section 12 for analyzing a request signal from the terminal 20.
An information storage unit 13 for supplying the music information requested by the terminal 20 and a CD graphics information unit 14 for supplying the video information requested by the terminal 20. The center 10 also has a customer management unit 150 for counting the number of requests from users and charging them.
A billing output unit 17 for outputting billing information managed by the customer management unit 150 to the terminal 20, and an information storage unit 1.
3 of the music information, the video information read from the CD graphics information unit 14, and the billing information output from the billing output unit 17 are selectively multiplexed, and the I / F 1
1 has an information multiplexing unit 16 for transmitting to each terminal 20 via the downlink transmission path 32. Here, the customer management department 1
The reference numeral 50 has a customer file including terminal number data for each terminal 20 and accumulated charge data.

When the user requests music information, the terminal 20 outputs a request signal including a music number and a customer number to the center 10 via the upstream transmission line 31, and an output unit 21 from the center 10. A music information and billing data input unit 22a for separating the multiplexed information into music information, video information and billing information, a display unit 23 for displaying the video information and billing information separated by the input unit 22, and a user When billing information is requested, the request signal including the information indicating that and the customer number is transmitted to the upstream transmission line 3
It has an output unit 24 for outputting to the center 10 via 1.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below.
First, when the user operates the output unit 21 of the terminal 20 to request only desired AV information, the operation is the same as in the conventional example, and therefore its description is omitted. On the other hand, when the user operates the output unit 24 of the terminal 20 to request the billing information, the billing information request signal including the customer number is sent from the output unit 24 to the center 1 via the upstream transmission line 31.
The request reception unit 12 of the center 10 outputs
The request signal is received via the I / F 11 and the customer number in the signal is transferred to the customer management unit 150. The customer management unit 150 is composed of a CPU (central processing unit), a memory and the like.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the customer management unit 150 receives the data from the request receiving unit 12 (step S1) and determines whether the request signal from the terminal 20 is a billing inquiry request or not according to this data. The determination is made (step S2). Then, if the request signal from the terminal 20 is a signal for requesting only AV information, the current request amount is added to the accumulated charge fee of the terminal number (step S3), while the request signal indicates the charge inquiry. If it is a request, the total of the charging charges of the terminal number is searched and obtained (steps S4 and S5), and output to the information multiplexing unit 16 via the charging output unit 17 (step S).
6). After adding the charging charges in step S3 and after outputting the cumulative total of the charging charges in step 6, the process returns to step S1 and waits for input of the next data from the request receiving unit 12.

The billing information is multiplexed with other information by the information multiplexing unit 16 and transmitted to the terminal 20 via the downlink transmission path 32. In the terminal 20, this billing information is separated by the input unit 22a and displayed by the display unit 23.
Therefore, according to the first embodiment, when the user operates the terminal 20 to request the billing information, the billing information of the customer stored in the customer management unit 150 is read and transmitted to the terminal 20. Since it is displayed on the display unit 23 of the terminal 20, the user can know the charging status via the transmission path 3.

According to the above embodiment, when the user simultaneously requests the desired AV information and billing information,
It is also possible that the center 10 multiplexes the AV information and the billing information, transmits the multiplexed information to the terminal 20, and displays it on the display unit 23 of the terminal 20. The data of the billing information transmitted from the center 10 to the terminal 20 may be character data or graphic data that can be displayed on the display unit 23 of the terminal 20, but may be transmitted as code data and then transmitted to the terminal 20. This side may convert this code data into character data or graphic data.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the second embodiment, FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the customer management unit 15a of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is an operation of the song number management unit 15b of FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the charging management unit 15c of FIG. In this example, the customer (terminal)
The billing rate (discount rate) for each number is set in advance in the customer management unit 15a of the center 10a, and the charge for each song number is set in advance for the song number management unit 15b. It is configured to be stored in the unit 15c, and the other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment.

That is, when the user operates the terminal 20 to request the desired AV information, when the request signal including the customer number and the music number of the terminal 20 is transmitted to the center 10a via the transmission line 3, The request receiving unit 12 of the center 10a transfers the music number to the information storage units 13 and 14 and the music number management unit 15b, and also transfers the customer number to the customer management unit 15a.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, when the customer management unit 15a receives the data from the request receiving unit 12 (step S11), it knows the terminal number of the terminal 20 from this data (step S12). It is determined whether or not the terminal number matches each terminal number in the customer file (steps S13 to S15). Then, when the terminal numbers match (step S13), the charging rate of the terminal number is obtained (step S16), and the charging rate and the terminal number are output to the charging management unit 15c (step S17). If the terminal number of the terminal 20 does not match the terminal number in the customer file in step S15, and
After outputting the billing rate and the terminal number to the billing management unit 15c at 17, the process returns to step S11 and waits for input of the next data from the request receiving unit 12.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, when the data from the request accepting unit 12 is input (step S21), the music number managing section 15b obtains the music number of the request information from this data (step S22), It is determined whether or not this song number matches each song number in the customer file (steps S23 to S25). Then, when the song numbers match (step S23), the charge for the song number is calculated (step S26) and output to the charge management unit 15c (step S27). If the song numbers do not match in step S25, or after the song charge is output in step S27, the process returns to step S21 and waits for the next data to be input from the request accepting unit 12.

Then, as shown in FIG. 6, when the respective data of the customer management section 15a and the song number management section 15b are input to the charging management section 15c (step S31), the customer management section 1
The terminal number and the charging rate are known from the data from 5a (step S32), and the music charge is known from the data from the music number management unit 15b (step S33). Then, when both the music charge and the charging rate are obtained (step S34), the music charge and the charging rate are multiplied (step S3).
5) Then, the multiplication value is added to the customer file corresponding to the terminal number (step S36). If both the music charge and the charging rate cannot be obtained in step S34, the process returns to step S31 and waits for the input of the next data.

Therefore, according to this second embodiment,
The request information is read from the information storage units 13 and 14 and transmitted to the terminal 20, and the multiplication value of the charge rate for each customer number and the charge for each song number is stored in the charge management unit 15c. According to the second embodiment, it is possible to change the charge according to the transmission time zone, the transmission time (performance time), the value, etc. of the request information, and the charge information is also the first charge information. As in the embodiment, the user may be informed.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The center manages the billing information for each user terminal, and when the billing information is requested from the user terminal, the billing information is supplied via the communication line, and the user terminal notifies the user of this billing information. The charging status can be known through the line.

According to the present invention, the center manages the billing information for each user terminal at a different billing rate for each user.
The charge can be changed according to the user terminal or the like.

Further, according to the present invention, since the center manages the billing information for each user terminal with a different fee for each information, the fee can be changed according to the request information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a communication system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the customer management unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the communication system according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the customer management unit in FIG.

5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the song number management unit of FIG.

6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the charging management unit of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,10,10a Center 150,15a Customer management unit 15b Song number management unit 15c Charge management unit 17 Charge output unit 20 Terminal 22a Music information and charge data input unit 23 Display unit (informing means) 24 Charge data request signal output unit

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] December 15, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Name of item to be corrected] Figure 7

[Correction method] Added

[Correction content]

[Figure 7]

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location H04N 7/16 C 8943-5C 7/173 8943-5C

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication system in which a center supplies information requested from a user terminal to a user terminal via a communication line, wherein the center manages charging information for each user terminal, and the charging information is requested from the user terminal. A communication system comprising means for supplying the billing information via a communication line when the request is made and for notifying the user of the billing information via the user terminal. 2. A communication system in which a center supplies information requested by a user terminal to the user terminal via a communication line, wherein the center manages charging information for each user terminal at a different charging rate for each user. A communication system comprising means. 3. A communication system in which a center supplies information requested by a user terminal to the user terminal via a communication line, wherein the center manages billing information for each user terminal at a different charge for each information. A communication system comprising: