EP1198744A1

EP1198744A1 - System for retrieving and transmitting information

Info

Publication number: EP1198744A1
Application number: EP00947866A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Arian Koster; Arthur Meijboom; Onno Florian Albers; Petrus Hendrikus Cornelis Bol; Antonius Wilhelmus Eduard Maria Schut
Original assignee: Koninklijke KPN NV
Current assignee: Koninklijke KPN NV
Priority date: 1999-06-30
Filing date: 2000-06-23
Publication date: 2002-04-24
Also published as: AU6151300A; WO2001002933A1; NL1012478C2

Abstract

System for, by way of a telecommunication network, retrieving and having transmitted information desired by an intended user, said user having to afford the information supplier the opportunity to determine whether a property of the user complies with a predetermined criterion. For this purpose, the intended user must seek contact with a verification system, whereafter he, in the event of a positive verification result, receives an access code with which the information desired by him becomes accessible.

Description

System for retrieving and transmitting information.

A. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a system for retrieving and transmitting information, comprising at least one telecommunication network having a first access point to the at least one telecommunication network for setting up, by an intended user of information, a first link with a first information provider, the first provider comprising a verification system for testing a property of the intended user against a predetermined criterion, with, in the event of a positive verification result, the first information provider supplying first information to the intended user.

Such a system is generally known, particularly in countries where information providers, on the grounds of government instructions, inter alia, are committed to take measures to achieve that specific information distributed by them can only be received by well-defined categories of users. In this connection, there may be thought of, e.g., information which is intended for adults only, at any rate for persons above a specific age. Having said this, an information provider in this connection is understood to mean: an organisation or system which may forward information to human users. Furthermore, the term information should be associated not only with factual information, but also with images, sounds and the like having a recreational and/or aesthetic nature, such as film images or music .

In a system according to this known technique, it is fitting that in one way or another it be communicated that information is available to a limited group of intended users, and which is the access point that may be used for this purpose. Such communication may occur, e.g., through announcements in daily newspapers or other periodicals, or even through so-called "banners" on Internet pages. The intended user should then, by way of the access point communicated, make contact with the information provider by having a link set up therewith. By way of this link, he enables the information provider to verify that he belongs to the group of persons to whom the information in question is available. In the event of age verification, the information provider may comprise a system which, on the basis of characteristics of the voice of the intended user, may determine whether the age of said intended user lies above a predetermined threshold value. In the event of a positive verification result, i.e., if the user indeed has the required minimum age, the information requested is provided. In his book "Principles of Voice Production", Dr Ingo R. Titze describes, e.g., that the fundamental frequency of the human voice, particularly during the first 20 years of life, decreases with age in such a manner that it may be reliably deduced from this whether a test subject has an age below or above a specific value.

Such a system has the drawback, inter alia, that each information provider who wants to distribute information among a limited target group in this way, should dispose of a verification system. In addition, a monitoring organisation, e.g., a government agency, must individually verify, for each information provider of the group referred to here, whether the verification system used complies with the specifications imposed.

B. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With a system according to the invention, the object is to eliminate the above drawbacks, namely, by achieving that a verification system be mutually used by several information providers. For this purpose, a system according to the invention is characterised in that the first information comprises an access code for accessing second information with a second provider by way of a second access point and a second link, the first and second access points being allowed to be the same. In this system, the first information provider is an issuer of access codes, disposing of an advanced and reliable verification system, while the second information provider need check only the access code attributed to the intended user for validity and possibly for the correspondence with an additional characteristic of the intended user, laid down during the retrieval of his access code. The latter corresponds to the well-known access check with a user's name and a password. The second information provider, therefore, need not dispose of a verification system himself . After the access code has been approved, the information desired by the intended user is transmitted to the latter by the second information provider. The link with the first information provider may be set up by way of the most elementary telecommunication network, e.g., a voice link by way of the public telephone network, while the link with the second information provider may be (partially) set up by way of a multimedia network, such as the Internet. The information desired by the intended user may then have the form of a multimedia presentation, and therefore comprise, apart from sound, pictures as well, whether moving or not.

According to a first preferred embodiment of the invention 50, the system is characterised in that the verification system is arranged for determining whether the age of the intended user lies above a predetermined threshold value. This offers the provider of information which may be accessible only to persons above a specific age, the opportunity to comply, in a relatively simple and inexpensive way, with requirements imposed by external agencies, e.g., by the government. The check by said agencies on the compliance with the requirements is simplified by the restriction of the number of verification systems.

According to a second preferred embodiment of the invention, the system is characterised in that the first link 150 is a voice link and the verification system determines whether the age of the intended user lies above a predetermined threshold value on the basis of characteristics of the intended user's voice. This form of age verification may be carried out relatively simply and without too much intervening in the personal privacy.

According to a third preferred embodiment of the invention, the system is characterised in that the first link is a voice link and the verification system requests the intended user to pronounce a word not known in advance, or a series of sounds not known in advance, whereafter the verification system determines whether the word pronounced, or the series of sounds pronounced, corresponds to the word or the series of sounds requested, and whether the age of the intended user lies above a threshold value predetermined on the basis of characteristics of the intended user's voice. In this embodiment, it is virtually impossible to lead the verification system astray by utilising prerecorded speech fragments .

According to a fourth preferred embodiment of the invention, the system is characterised in that the first access point provides access to a first telecommunication network and the second access point provides access to a second telecommunication network. The first telecommunication network may be, e.g. , the public telephone network, while the second telecommunication network may be a multimedia network, such as the Internet . Said embodiment may be applied when there is a need to carry out the verification at another point in time, and with simpler means, than retrieving information. An alternative is carrying out the verification by way of the same network as retrieving, e.g., by building in the verification option into the web browser with which the multimedia network is approached.

According to a fifth preferred embodiment of the invention, the system is characterised in that the first link is a voice link and providing the first information takes place by transmitting voice signals. In this embodiment, in the event of a positive verification result the access code is supplied to the intended user in the form of one or more words or series of sounds generated, e.g., by a voice-synthesis system.

According to a sixth preferred embodiment of the invention, the system is characterised in that, in the event of a positive verification result, there is laid down an additional characteristic of the intended user by the first information provider, coupled to the access code supplied. Such additional characteristic may be, e.g., a name utilised by the intended user, or a number, established by the first information provider, of the connection from where the first link is set up. This makes possible an additional protection against fraud by way of access codes .

According to a seventh preferred embodiment of the invention, the system is characterised in that the system comprises means with which the first information provider communicates the additional characteristic of the intended user to the second information provider, together with the access code supplied to said intended user. Said provision makes it possible not only to keep a check in hindsight on the use of issued access codes, but to carry out said check of an access code during the validity investigation by the second information provider already. C. REFERENCE

Principles of Voice Production, Ingo R. Titze, 1994, SBN 0-13-717893-X.

D. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention will be further explained by way of a description of an exemplary embodiment, reference being made to a drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 schematically shows an overview of a system according to the invention, in which, for the first link and for the second link, there is consecutively made use of two networks possibly differing in properties.

E. DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1, the digit 1 denotes the user who wants to retrieve information from information provider 5. For this purpose, user 1 contacts information provider 2 by way of telecommunication network 3 ; the data for this purpose he was able to derive from a communication in a daily newspaper or a periodical, or he acquired it from an Internet session. The information provider 2 preferably disposes of a "voice-response" system by which user 1 is requested to answer one or more questions. The voice signals reaching the information provider 2 by way of the telecommunication network 3 are analysed by a verification system available within the information provider 2. Based on said analysis, it is determined whether user 1 complies with a predetermined criterion, e.g., whether user 1 has at least reached a specific age. Should user 1 comply with this (a positive verification result) , then information provider 2 communicates an access code to user 1, in this example in spoken form.

In the embodiment discussed here, the user 1 subsequently breaks off the link by way of telecommunication network 3 and sets up a new link with information provider 5 by way of multimedia network 4. When he is asked for an access code, in this example he keys in the access code received in advance from information provider 2. If the keyed-in [?] code is valid, information provider 5 then transmits the desired information to user 1 by way of the multimedia network 4. In FIG. 1, there is shown a link 6 optionally present between information providers 2 and 5. By way of this link, information provider 2 may communicate an additional characteristic of user 1 to information provider 5, in such a manner that the latter may check whether the access code keyed in by user 1 corresponds to said additional characteristic. The additional characteristic may be, e.g., the number of the connection from where user 1 contacted information provider 2. This has the advantage that the access code communicated to user 1 may only be used from the connecting number laid down therewith. This renders "trade in access codes" less attractive. A further measure, which may be taken to reduce the chance of fraud, lies in validating access codes supplied for a limited period of time. Variants of the embodiment sketched here may be imagined without detracting from the basic principle of the invention. Thus, it is possible that no use is made of two separate telecommunication networks, but that networks 3 and 4 coincide. In this case, the access to the provider of access codes may also be afforded by way of the web browser, loaded into the PC of user 1, with which the latter approaches the multimedia network.

Claims

1. System for retrieving and transmitting information, comprising at least one telecommunication network, having a first access point to the at least one telecommunication network for setting up, by an intended user of information, a first link with a first information provider, the first provider comprising a verification system for testing a property of the intended user against a predetermined criterion, with, in the event of a positive verification result, the first information provider supplying first information to the intended user, characterised in that the first information comprises an access code for accessing second information at a second provider by way of a second access point and a second link, the first and second access points being permitted to be the same.

2. System according to claim 1 , characterised in that the verification system is arranged for determining whether the age of the intended user exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

3. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the first link is a voice link and that the verification system determines whether the age of the intended user exceeds a predetermined threshold value, based on the characteristics of the voice of the intended user.

. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the first link is a voice link and that the verification system requests the intended user to pronounce a word not known in advance, or a series of sounds not known in advance, whereafter the verification system determines whether the word pronounced, or the series of sounds pronounced, corresponds to the word or the series of sounds requested, and whether the age of the intended user exceeds a predetermined threshold value, based on characteristics of the voice of the intended user.

5. System according to claim 1 , characterised in that the first access point provides access to a first telecommunication network, and that the second access point provides access to a second telecommunication network.

6. System according to claim 1 , characterised in that the first link is a voice link, and that providing the first information takes place by transmitting voice signals .

7. System according to claim 1 , characterised in that , in the event of a positive verification result, an additional characteristic of the intended user is laid down by the first information provider, coupled to the access code supplied.

8. System according to claim 7, characterised in that the system comprises means, with which the first information provider communicates the additional characteristic of the intended user to the second information provider, together with the access code supplied to said intended user.

9. System according to claim 8 , characterised in that it is checked, by the second information provider, whether the access code used by the intended user corresponds to the additional characteristic of said intended user.

10. Method for retrieving and transmitting information, comprising the following steps: a. setting up, by an intended information user, a first link with a first information provider, by way of a first access point to a telecommunication network, b. testing, by a verification system belonging to the first information provider, whether a property of the intended user complies with a predetermined criterion, c. providing, in the event of a positive verification result, first information, by the first information provider, to the intended user, characterised in that the method additionally comprises: d. notifying the first information received earlier by way of access code, by the intended user, by way of a second access point to a telecommunication network, and a second link to a second information provider, e. providing second information, by the second information provider, to the intended user, after the first information has been found valid as an access code.

11. Method according to claim 10, characterised in that step b. comprises : determining whether the age of the intended user exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

12. Method according to claim 10, characterised in that the first link is a voice link, and that step b. comprises: determining whether the age of the intended user exceeds a predetermined threshold value, based on characteristics of the voice of the intended user.

13. Method according to claim 10, characterised in that the first link is a voice link, and that step b. comprises: - requesting, by the verification system to the intended user, to pronounce a word not known in advance or a series of sounds not known in advance, determining, by the verification system, whether the word pronounced, or the series of sounds pronounced, corresponds to the word or the series of sounds requested, determining, by the verification system, whether the age of the intended user exceeds a predetermined threshold value, based on characteristics of the voice of the intended user.

14. Method according to claim 10, characterised in that step a. comprises setting up a link by way of a first telecommunication network, and that step d. comprises setting up a link by way of a second telecommunication network.

15. Method according to claim 10, characterised in that step a. comprises setting up a voice link, and that step c. comprises the transmission of spoken information.

16. Method according to claim 10, characterised in that step c. additionally implies that an additional characteristic of the intended user is laid down by the first information provider, coupled to the access code provided.

17. Method according to claim 16, characterised in that step c. additionally implies that the first information provider communicates the additional characteristic of the intended user to the second information provider, together with the access code provided to said intended user.

18. Method according to claim 17, characterised in that step e. additionally implies that the second information provider checks whether the access code used by the intended user corresponds to the additional characteristic of said intended user.