JPH10124414A - Information distribution system and device, and information receiving terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information distribution system which can educe the waiting time for distribution of data and also can reduce the increase of the communication cost. SOLUTION: In this information distribution system, a user terminal 100 is connected to a host system 200 through a network 300. A storage medium 6 storing the identification data is previously added to the terminal 100. Then the terminal 100 sends the identification data of the medium 6 to a host system 200 via the network 300 and also sends an information distribution request to the system 200 via the network 300. Receiving the information distribution request from the terminal 100, the system 200 decides the data stored in the medium 6 of the terminal 100 based on the identification data of the medium 6 and sends the difference data between the identification data and the stored data of the medium 6 to the terminal 100 via the network 300. The terminal 100 synthesizes the received difference data with the data read out of the medium 6 to generate the requested data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information distribution system, an information distribution apparatus, and an information receiving terminal suitable for application to, for example, a so-called communication karaoke system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Network information distribution systems using telephone lines and satellite communication lines are used in various fields because they can provide users with the latest data immediately.

This network information distribution system is configured by connecting a host system for distributing information and a user terminal via a network. On the host system side, usually, one host computer includes:
The data to be distributed is managed collectively as a database,
Data is updated as needed to ensure that the contents of the database are always up to date.

When a data distribution request is transmitted from a user terminal via a network, the host system transmits distribution data corresponding to the request to the requesting user terminal.

[0005]

However, the conventional information distribution system described above has a configuration in which all information provided to the user is managed by the host computer and distributed to the user terminal. When the number of terminals increases, the total amount of data transmitted from the host system per unit time becomes enormous, and there is a problem that the load on the host computer becomes extremely large.

Accordingly, it is conceivable to improve the functions of the host computer. However, even if the function of the host computer is improved, every time a data distribution request from the user terminal is performed, communication time is required to distribute the data without fail. There is also a problem that the waiting time until the data is received by the client increases. In addition, even if the distribution request is not congested, there is also a problem that it takes time to distribute a large amount of data such as audio and image data, which impairs the interactivity between the host system and the user terminal. there were.

Further, there is a problem that the communication cost increases due to the increase in the communication time.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information distribution system capable of reducing the waiting time for data distribution and reducing an increase in communication cost, and an information distribution device and an information receiving device used in the system. And

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, an information distribution system according to the present invention comprises a host system, a drive unit for a storage medium, and a user terminal to which the storage medium can be attached and detached. An information distribution system connected through the user terminal, wherein the user terminal is provided with the storage medium to which the identification data is added in advance, and the user terminal is provided with the storage medium loaded in the drive unit. The identification data is transmitted to the host system through the network, and an information distribution request is transmitted to the host system through the network.When the host system receives the information distribution request from the user terminal, Determining the storage data of the storage medium on the user terminal side based on the identification data of the storage medium; And information to be provided to the information distribution request, the difference between the storage medium of the data delivered to the user terminal via the network, the user terminal includes a data from said host system received,
The information in response to the information distribution request is obtained by combining data read from the loaded storage medium.

Further, an information distribution apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus for distributing information to a user terminal through a network, wherein the same storage content as a storage medium distributed to the user terminal side is associated with each storage medium. A storage medium information storage unit that stores the storage medium in an identifiable manner, data for identifying the storage medium loaded in the user terminal, received from the user terminal through the network, and using the received data, the storage medium Means for determining the same storage content as the storage medium loaded in the user terminal in the information storage unit, and when receiving an information distribution request from the user terminal, as distribution data for the information distribution request, Means for transmitting only the difference from the storage data of the storage medium loaded in the user terminal.

[0011] Further, an information receiving terminal according to the present invention comprises:
An information receiving terminal connected to a host system via a network, including a drive unit for a storage medium, and capable of attaching and detaching the storage medium, wherein the identification data of the storage medium loaded in the drive unit is transmitted to the network. Means for transmitting to the host system through the network, and means for transmitting an information distribution request to the host system through the network, the information transmitted from the host system in response to the information distribution request, and the storage The information for the information distribution request is obtained by using one or both of the information stored in the medium.

In the information distribution system having the above-mentioned configuration, a storage medium such as a disk is distributed to a user who receives information in advance. Then, the information to be provided in response to the distribution request from the user terminal transmits only the difference from the information in the storage medium to the user terminal from the host system, and obtains the information in the storage medium and the difference. To be configured.

Therefore, the amount of data transmitted from the host system to the user terminal through the network is greatly reduced. Then, the information in the storage medium can be obtained immediately by reading it out at the user terminal, so that the waiting time until the requested data is provided is reduced, and the increase in communication cost can be reduced.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, an outline of an embodiment of an information distribution system according to the present invention will be described.

The distribution of data through a network is as follows:
As described above, the immediate advantage of obtaining the latest data is the greatest advantage. For this purpose, the database is always updated, but the entire database is not always updated, and the update is often partial.

On the other hand, a recording medium such as a CD-ROM disk has advantages that the data capacity is much larger than that of a communication medium, the transfer speed is high, and the cost per unit information is low. The disadvantage is that data cannot be updated frequently.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a computer device on which a CD-ROM disk can be loaded is prepared as a user terminal, and frequently-referenced data that has a low degree of update is provided on the CD-ROM disk. The CD-ROM disk is periodically distributed to the members who receive the network service in advance.

When the user terminal requests the host system for data distribution through a communication line, the user terminal and the CD-RO loaded in the user terminal are requested.
It is configured to transmit identification information (ID) of the M disk.

On the other hand, the host system holds a copy of the contents of all CD-ROM discs distributed in the past and stores the copies on the CD-ROM disc loaded in the user terminal according to the disc identification information from the user terminal. Determine the stored data. Then, the data stored in the CD-ROM disc loaded in the user terminal is subtracted from the data to be provided requested by the user, and the difference data is transmitted to the user terminal.

The user terminal has a communication means and a CD-RO
An M drive and a CPU are provided, a header of the received data is analyzed, and the missing data is read from the loaded CD-ROM disc and corrected. Using the completed data, an output corresponding to the user's input is displayed on a screen or output from a speaker.

In this case, the CD-ROM disk is periodically delivered to the subscriber user (member).
You do not need to use the latest disc that has always been sent. When an old version of a CD-ROM disc is loaded, the difference from the latest data to be provided is large, so that only the amount of difference data increases, and the processing procedure viewed from the user does not change.

An embodiment of the information distribution system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the information distribution system described below, the information provided to the user is image information in which lyrics are displayed and so-called karaoke music information, and the user terminal (information receiving terminal) uses a CD-ROM as a storage medium for the game software. This is an example of a case where the video game machine is provided with a communication function using a ROM.

First, a configuration example of a video game machine constituting a user terminal will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a television game machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. This example is an example of a game machine having a three-dimensional graphics function and a moving image reproduction function. is there.

FIG. 3 shows the appearance of the game machine of this embodiment. The game machine of this embodiment comprises a game machine main body 1 and a control pad 2 constituting an operation input section for a user. The control pad 2 is connected to the game machine main body 1 by connecting a connector plug 4 attached to a tip of a cable 3 connected to the control pad 2 to a connector jack 5A of the game machine main body 1. . In this example, two connector jacks 5A and 5B are provided on the game machine main body 1 so that two control pads 2 can be connected to the game machine main body 1 for a so-called battle game or the like. ing.

The game machine of this example has a CD-ROM as an auxiliary storage means in which a game program and image data are written.
The game can be enjoyed by loading the ROM disk 6 into the game machine body 1.

Next, the configuration of the game machine of this example will be described with reference to FIG. The game machine of this example has a configuration including two system buses including a main bus 10 and a sub bus 20. These main buses 1
The exchange of data between 0 and the sub-bus 20 is controlled by the bus controller 30.

The main bus 10 has a main CP
U11, main memory 12, image decompression decoding unit 1
3, a drawing processing unit 14, and a main DMA controller 15 are connected. A processing memory 16 is connected to the drawing processing unit 14, and the drawing processing unit 14
Is a frame buffer (frame memory) for display data
including. Then, the digital video signal from the drawing processing unit 14 is converted into an analog video signal by the D / A conversion circuit 17 and output to the video output terminal 18. Although not shown, the video output terminal 18 is connected to, for example, a CRT display as a display device.

The sub bus 20 includes a sub CPU 21, a sub memory 22, a boot ROM 23, a sub DMA controller 24, an audio processor 25, an input unit 26, an auxiliary storage unit 27, and an extension The communication interface unit 28 is connected. As will be described later, in the information distribution system of this example, the communication interface unit 28 is connected to the telephone line L1.

In this example, the auxiliary storage unit 27 is a CD-ROM.
A ROM decoder 41 and a CD-ROM driver 42 are provided. The boot ROM 23 stores a program for starting up the game machine. The audio buffer 25M is provided for the audio processor 25.
Is connected. The audio processing processor 25 generates background music and sound effects from a waveform memory provided in the audio buffer for game software, and reproduces karaoke music for karaoke software. The digital audio signal from the audio processing processor 25 is converted into an analog audio signal by the D / A conversion circuit 29. Then, the analog audio signal is led to the audio output terminal 33 through the audio mixing circuit 31.

On the other hand, an audio signal from the microphone 34 connected to the microphone jack 32 is supplied to the audio mixing circuit 31. Then, the audio mixing circuit 31
For example, an audio signal in which a karaoke music signal from the audio processing processor and a singing voice signal from the microphone 34 are mixed is obtained from the audio signal, and is output to the audio output terminal 33. The audio signal obtained at the audio output terminal 33 is
The sound is supplied to a speaker (not shown) and emitted.

The auxiliary storage unit 27 decodes data recorded on the CD-ROM disc 6 loaded in the CD-ROM driver 42. When the CD-ROM disk 6 is for game software, an application program (for example, a game program) is recorded, and the application program contains a polygon drawing command. The CD-ROM disk 6 also records image data of moving images and still images compressed by the MPEG2 method using, for example, discrete cosine transform (DCT), and image data of a texture image for modifying polygons. ing.

When the CD-ROM disk 6 is for karaoke, a disk ID, which is information for identifying the disk, is recorded.
A list of songs recorded on the CD-ROM disk 6, sound source data necessary for reproducing each song, and moving image information for displaying the lyrics of the song during playback of each song or 3 Dimensional modeling data is recorded. In this example, the information of the moving image in which the lyrics are displayed is recorded after being image-compressed by the above-described MPEG2 method.

The disc ID corresponds to the recorded content recorded on the disc 6, and also indicates the version. Therefore, if the disk ID is different,
The number of recorded songs and the number of songs are different. Even if the same music is recorded on disks with different disk IDs, the karaoke may be slightly different or the image information for displaying the lyrics may be different.

The input section 26 includes the control pad 2 as the operation input means described above, a video signal input terminal, and an audio signal input terminal.

The main CPU 11 manages and controls each unit on the main bus 10 side. Also, this main CP
U11 performs a part of the processing when the object is drawn as a group of many polygons. The main CPU 11 creates, on the main memory 12, a drawing instruction sequence for generating a drawing image for one screen. Data exchange between the main CPU 11 and the main bus 10 is performed in packet units by converting data into a packet format, thereby enabling burst transfer.

The main memory 12 has a memory area for compressed image data and a memory area for decompressed image data subjected to decompression processing for image data of moving images and still images. The main memory 12 has a memory area for graphics data such as a drawing instruction sequence (this is called a packet buffer). This packet buffer is used to set a drawing command sequence by the main CPU 11 and
It is used for transferring the drawing instruction sequence to the drawing processing unit.

The image decompression decoding unit 13 is a CD-ROM
The compressed video data reproduced from the disk 6 and transferred to the main memory and the compressed texture pattern data on the main memory 12 are expanded. In this example, the MPEG2 image compression method is used. It has a corresponding decoder configuration.

The drawing processing section 14 executes the transferred drawing information and writes the result in the frame memory, or writes the transferred moving image information in the frame memory. Then, the image data read from the frame memory is output to the video output terminal 18 via the D / A converter and displayed on the screen of the image monitor.

The basic processing of this game machine will be described below.

When the game machine in the example of FIG. 2 is turned on and the game machine main body 1 is loaded with the game software CD-ROM disc 6, a so-called initialization process for executing the game in the boot ROM 23 is performed. Is executed by the sub CPU 21. Then, CD-
The data recorded on the ROM disk 6 is captured as follows.

That is, in the auxiliary storage unit 27, the compressed image data, the drawing command, and the program executed by the main CPU 11 are stored from the CD-ROM disk 6.
CD-ROM driver 42, CD-ROM decoder 41
, And are temporarily loaded into the sub memory 22 by the sub DMA controller 24.

The data fetched into the sub memory 22 is transferred to the main memory 12 by the sub DMA controller and bus controller 30, and further by the main DMA controller 16. The sub CP
U21 is configured to directly access the frame of the drawing processing unit 14, and the sub CPU
The display processing unit 14 also changes the display image contents.
Is possible apart from the control.

In this example, the compressed image data out of the input data of the main memory 12 is, after the main CPU 11 performs the Huffman code decoding process, again
11 is written to the main memory 12. And
The main DMA controller 15 transfers the image data after the decoding processing of the Huffman code from the main memory 12 to the image decompression decoding unit 13. The image decompression decoding unit 13 performs the dequantization process and the inverse DCT process to perform the decompression decoding process of the image data. The decompressed image data is transferred to the main memory 12 by the main DMA controller 15.

The main CPU 11 transfers the decompressed data to the frame memory of the drawing processing unit 14 when a fixed amount of unit data called macroblocks of the decompressed image data is stored in the main memory 12. At this time, if the decompressed image data is transferred to the image memory area of the frame memory, it will be displayed on the image monitor as a background moving image. Also, the data may be transferred to the texture area of the frame memory. The image data of the texture area is used as a texture image for modifying a polygon.

The polygons constituting the surface of the object are drawn in order from the polygon at the deep position in the depth direction in accordance with the Z data which is three-dimensional depth information.
An image can be stereoscopically displayed on the two-dimensional image display surface. The main CPU 11 stores a drawing command sequence for causing the drawing processing unit 14 to perform drawing in order from the polygon located at a deep position in the depth direction.
Create on 2.

The main CPU 11 calculates the movement of the object and the viewpoint based on the user's operation input from the control pad of the input unit 26, and creates a polygon drawing instruction sequence on the main memory 12.

When this drawing command sequence is completed, the main DM
The A controller 15 sends the main memory 1
2 to the drawing processing unit 14. The drawing processing unit 14 sequentially executes the transmitted data and outputs the result.
It is stored in the drawing area of the frame memory. At the time of this polygon drawing, the data is sent to the gradient calculation unit of the drawing processing unit 14, where the gradient calculation is performed. The gradient calculation is a calculation for calculating the inclination of the plane of the mapping data when filling the inside of the polygon with the mapping data by polygon drawing. In the case of texture, polygons are filled with texture image data, and in the case of Gouraud shading, polygons are filled with luminance values.

In the case of the moving image texture, the compressed moving image data from the CD-ROM disk 6 is once read into the main memory 12 as described above. Then, the compressed image data is sent to the image expansion decoding unit 13. The image data is expanded by the image expansion decoding unit 13.

Then, the decompressed moving image data is sent to the texture area on the frame memory of the drawing processing unit 14. Since the texture area is provided in the frame memory of the drawing processing unit 14, the texture pattern itself can be rewritten for each frame.
As described above, when a moving image is sent to the texture area, the texture is dynamically rewritten and changed every frame. If texture mapping to polygons is performed using the moving image in the texture area, the texture of the moving image is realized.

The game machine of this example has a karaoke C
The processing operation when the D-ROM disk 6 is loaded will be described later.

Next, an information distribution system according to this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 1 shows the entire information distribution system of this example. A plurality of user terminals 100 and one host system 200 common to the plurality of user terminals 100 are connected to a network. It is connected through a communication line, in this example, a public telephone network 300.

A user who intends to receive the karaoke distribution service provided by the information distribution system makes a subscriber contract with a service company that operates the host system 200. As the user terminal 100, the above-described game machine is used, and a user who already has the game machine does not need to purchase a new terminal machine.

When a subscriber contract is made, the latest version of the CD-ROM disc 6 on which karaoke software is recorded is distributed to each subscriber user periodically, for example, monthly.

The host system 200 includes a host computer 201. This host computer 201
Manages the master database 203 and the distributed disk database 204 connected thereto via the system bus 202. The system bus 202 is connected to another network via a communication interface 205, and the host computer 2
01 accesses the outside as necessary, acquires necessary information and stores it in the master database 203,
It is used as distribution information.

In this example, a telephone line is used as a communication line of the network.
A PBX (private branch exchange) 206 is provided between the host computer 201 and the host computer 201. The PBX 206 is
A request from a user terminal is received through a plurality of lines connected thereto, and data is distributed.

The master database 203 holds information on the latest karaoke software to be provided to the subscriber users, and also stores identification information and billing information (accounts) of the subscriber users to the services provided by the information distribution system. Has been recorded. The host computer 201
When a data distribution request is received from a subscriber user, the account of the user is incremented and the accounting information is updated. That is, charging is performed for each data distribution request.

In the distributed disk database 204,
All versions of the CD-ROM disk 6 distributed to the subscriber user up to that time are stored. That is, from the oldest version to the latest version,
A plurality of CD-ROM disks 6 having different disk IDs are stored.

Next, each processing operation when communication is performed between each of the user terminals 100 and the host system 200 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing routine in the user terminal 100. That is, in the case of this example, since the above-described game machine is used as the user terminal 100, the karaoke CD-ROM
It is determined whether or not the disk 6 is loaded (step S
1) When the karaoke CD-ROM disk 6 is loaded, the disk ID of the CD-ROM 6 is stored in the sub-memory 22 (step S2).

Next, input operation data from the input section 26 is read (step S3). Then, it is determined whether the input operation data indicates the end (step S4),
If it indicates termination, the processing routine is terminated. If the operation input is not an indication of an end but is an operation input relating to a request to the host system 200, the disk I of the currently loaded CD-ROM disk 6 stored in the sub memory 22 is read.
D and a data request corresponding to the operation input are sent to the host system 200 through the telephone network 300 using the communication interface 28 (step S5).

Then, necessary information is read as basic data from the CD-ROM disk 6 (step S6).
Next, the host system 200 responds to the request.
Is received via the telephone network 300 and read into the sub memory 22 (step S7). Next, the basic data and the difference data read from the CD-ROM disk 6 are combined, the sound source data is stored in the sub memory 22, and the other image patterns and three-dimensional model data are stored in the main memory 12 (step S1). S8). Then, the synthesized data is sent to the audio processor 25 and the drawing processor 14 to reproduce the audio and display the image on the display (step S9).
Then, the process returns to the state of waiting for input of the input operation data in step S3, and the above-described steps after step S3 are repeated.

Next, an example of the processing routine of the host system 200 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the process waits for a request from the user terminal 100 and the arrival of the disk ID of the CD-ROM disk 6 (step S11). When the request arrives, whether or not the requested data is stored in the database of the host system 200 is determined. A determination is made (step S12).

If stored, the received disk ID
By this, the user knows which version of the CD-ROM disk 6 loaded in the user terminal 100 that made the request, and among the information provided for the request, the information stored as a database in the host system 200 and the user side Of the information stored in the CD-ROM disk 6 is created, the difference data is created (step S17), and the difference data is transmitted to the requesting user terminal 100 via the telephone network 300 (step S16). ).

If it is determined in step S12 that the requested data is not stored in the database of the host system 200, a request is made to transfer necessary data to the external network through the interface 205 (step S13). .
Then, the data is received from the external network (step S14), and the received new data is stored as the master database 203 (step S15). Then, the user terminal 10 requesting the data
0 through the telephone network 300.

Next, the communication procedure described above is performed by sending a karaoke song request from the user terminal 100 to the host system 2.
The case of sending to 00 will be described more specifically.

The user can use the CD-RO distributed periodically.
Normally, the latest M disk 6 is loaded into a game machine as a user terminal. However, the latest CD-ROM
There is no need to load the disk 6, and any version of disk may be used. Next, the user performs a selection operation through the input unit 26 on a request for a list of songs that can be provided. The request for the list of songs that can be provided is based on the loaded CD-ROM.
The host system 20 together with the disk ID of the disk 6
Sent to 0.

As described above, the CD-ROM disk 6 holds the list data of the music pieces recorded on this disk. The host system 200 stores the user's C
Judging from the disc ID of the D-ROM disc 6, a changed, added, or deleted music list is detected from the music list recorded on the CD-ROM disc 6, and the changed, added, or deleted music list is detected. Then, the data about the data item is created as difference data and sent to the user terminal 100.

The user terminal 100 combines the received difference data with the music list read from the CD-ROM disk 6 to generate the latest music list, stores it in the main memory 12, and Display on the display screen.

The user performs an input operation of selecting a desired song from the song list and requesting the song. User terminal 10
0, in response to this input operation, sends a request to provide the selected music to the host system 200 together with the disk ID.

The host system 200 determines the disc ID of the CD-ROM disc 6 of the user and determines the
Sound source data not stored in the M disk 6 and components for image display (image patterns, three-dimensional model data, and the like) are cut out as difference data, and are cut out together with music sequence data (musical score information) by the user. Terminal 10
Send to 0.

In the user terminal 100, sound processing data necessary for reproducing the music is read from the loaded CD-ROM disk 6 by the same processing operation as that for displaying the music list, and the difference data is read. The contents are generated by synthesizing them, and the sound source is reproduced in accordance with the sent sequence data to reproduce a song (karaoke). Further, the data read from the loaded CD-ROM disk 6 and the data in the difference data are combined to generate display data constituting a screen to be displayed during the reproduction of the music, and the display data is displayed based on the data. Screen display.

If all of the data to be provided is stored on the CD-ROM disc 6
When it is above, that is, when there is no difference data, the host system 200 transmits a message to that effect to the user terminal 100. Upon receiving this message, the user terminal 100 reads necessary information from the loaded CD-ROM disc 6, and plays karaoke and displays a screen in the same manner as described above.

As described above, according to the system of this embodiment, since the difference data is transmitted from the host system through the communication line as the distribution information,
The data transfer amount is small, and the communication time can be reduced. For this reason, the response to the user input at the user terminal becomes faster, and the operability is improved. In addition, communication costs can be reduced.

[Other Examples] In the above example, the present invention is applied to a so-called communication karaoke system. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
r TextModel Language) or HTT
P (Hiper Text Transfer Pro
The same processing operation can be applied to a browser of a description language on the Internet typified by tocol).

That is, for example, a user regularly distributes a CD-ROM disk storing HTML constituting an up-to-date Internet homepage frequently referred to and image data linked to the HTML.

The user's HTML browser reads the URL specified by the user or the URL referred to by the HTML.
Requests the host computer to connect to When the host computer receives the data, if the data corresponding to the URL is stored in the CD-ROM disc mounted by the user and is the latest data, the host computer transmits the fact to the user terminal. . Otherwise, U
The latest data is delivered to the user terminal by accessing the address of the RL.

Upon receiving the response from the host system, the user terminal updates the contents of the loaded CD-R.
If it is on the OM, access it. Also, when the latest data is distributed, it is taken.

Therefore, also in this case, the data flowing on the Internet is the minimum data, the data transfer amount is small, and the communication cost is reduced.

In the above embodiment, the CD-RO
By regularly distributing M disks, the amount of data transferred on the communication line was reduced.
Instead of the OM disk, the user terminal is provided with a large capacity rewritable disk or semiconductor memory (RAM), and the host system periodically transfers difference data with the latest data, and the difference data Only the terminal may be rewritten. In this case, each time the data is rewritten, data indicating the rewritten version is also stored in the disk or memory.
Then, when sending the information distribution request to the host system side, the version information is also sent.

The host system knows the information stored in the user terminal based on the version, and when there is an information distribution request from the user, the version of the stored information on the user side determines the content of the stored information on the user side. And a difference between the information to be provided and the stored information on the user side is generated, and the difference is transmitted to the user terminal side.

[0084]

As described above, according to the present invention, what is transferred from the host system to the user terminal is:
Since the data becomes differential data and the data transfer amount is small, the communication time is reduced. Therefore, the waiting time is reduced, the response speed of the user terminal to the information provision request is increased, and the operability is improved. Further, since the data transfer amount is small, the communication cost can be reduced. Further, the burden on the host system can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment of an information distribution system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of a game machine used as a user terminal of the information distribution system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an appearance of the game machine in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation on the user terminal side in an embodiment of the information distribution system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation on the host system side in an embodiment of the information distribution system according to the present invention.

[Description of Signs] 6 ... CD-ROM disk, 100 ... User terminal, 20
0: Host system, 201: Host computer, 2
02: system bus, 203: master database,
204: Distributed disk database.

Claims (5)

[Claims] An information distribution system comprising a host system, a storage medium drive unit, and a user terminal to which the storage medium can be attached and detached, which is connected through a network, wherein the user terminal includes identification data. The storage medium provided with is distributed in advance, and the user terminal transmits the identification data of the storage medium loaded in the drive unit to a host system through the network, and sends an information distribution request to the host system. The information is transmitted to a host system through a network, and the host system receives the information distribution request from the user terminal, and stores the storage medium in the user terminal based on the identification data of the storage medium. The data is determined, and a difference between information to be provided in response to the information distribution request and data in the storage medium is determined. Distributing to the user terminal through the network, the user terminal combines the received data from the host system and the data read from the loaded storage medium to obtain information for the information distribution request An information distribution system, characterized in that: 2. An apparatus for distributing information to a user terminal through a network, comprising: storing the same storage content as a storage medium distributed to the user terminal;
A storage medium information storage unit that stores the correspondence with each storage medium in an identifiable manner; and data for identifying the storage medium loaded in the user terminal, received from the user terminal through the network, and the received data Using, in the storage medium information storage unit, means for determining the same storage content as the storage medium loaded in the user terminal, When receiving an information distribution request from the user terminal,
Means for transmitting only a difference from the storage data of the storage medium loaded in the user terminal as distribution data for the information distribution request. 3. An information receiving terminal which is connected to a host system via a network, includes a drive unit for a storage medium, and is capable of attaching and detaching the storage medium, wherein the identification of the storage medium loaded in the drive unit is performed. Means for transmitting data to the host system through the network; and means for transmitting an information distribution request to the host system via the network, wherein the information is transmitted from the host system in response to the information distribution request. An information receiving terminal, wherein information for the information distribution request is obtained using one or both of information and information stored in the storage medium. 4. The information distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the information used by the user terminal is karaoke information, and the storage medium stores the karaoke information, An information distribution system for transmitting a karaoke information distribution request for each song as the information distribution request. 5. An information delivery system in which a host system and a user terminal are connected via a network, wherein the host system periodically updates the latest data from the host system.
The difference from the data stored in the storage means provided in the user terminal up to that time is transmitted to the user terminal through the network, and the storage content of the storage means provided in the user terminal is updated. Transmits, to the host system via the network, identification data relating to the data stored in the storage means, and transmits an information distribution request to the host system via the network, wherein the host system transmits the information distribution request from the user terminal. When a request is received, the storage data of the user terminal is determined based on the identification data relating to the storage data of the storage unit, and information to be provided in response to the information distribution request and the storage data of the user terminal are determined. And distributing the difference to the user terminal through the network, Chromatography The terminal information delivery system and data from said host system received, by synthesizing the data read from said storage means and to obtain information for the information distribution request.