JP2000048081A - Information provider - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide information while customizing it for each user by synthesizing user image data and article image data and displaying the display information. SOLUTION: A user designates the place to preserve image data in his own room, specifies user image data, synthesizes them with the image data of his own room on the displayed picture of a web page and selects/designates the image data of the desired furniture to be simulated. A personal computer(PC) 11 transmits information specifying the image data of the selected furniture to a world wide web(WWW) server 21. The WWW server 21 transmits a dynamic hyper text makeup language(DHTML) file for simulation to the PC 11. This DHTML file contains a description showing the destination to preserve user' s own room image data and furniture data. The PC 11 displays the simulation picture and displays the user's own room image data and furniture image data on the screen while overlapping them.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for providing information mainly through a network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The Internet World Wide Web (hereinafter referred to as "WWW").
Above, various information providing services are provided (the information provided and distributed in this manner is also referred to as “content”). As the above services, for example, various services such as news distribution, various program / software download services, image / audio data distribution, and the like are provided. In addition, merchandise catalogs and the like are displayed on a homepage, and mail-order sales are also performed via the Internet.

[0003] Contents provided on a homepage are described in a language called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). Hyper text
A document is a document created by organically connecting characters, graphics, and the like with specific keywords. In HTML, associating an Internet web page (a page described in HTML published on the WWW) with another web page is called a hyperlink, and a jump destination is described on the web page. By clicking on it, you can go to the corresponding web page by clicking it. These web pages can be viewed by reading HTML files with an application called a WWW browser.

[0004]

However, in the conventional services on the Internet, the user can only receive the information provided by the service provider as it is, and the content received by the user can be customized. There was a problem that you can not.

In addition, there is no way to simulate the received content together with an image prepared by the user or to re-lay it out on a personal computer, and only to browse information in a format prepared by the provider.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides an information providing system capable of customizing contents provided via the Internet by linking information possessed by a user or the like. The task is to provide. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system capable of performing a simulation or the like using data possessed by a user in a service provided by the Internet.

[0007]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing system connected to a user terminal via a network, for storing product image data. And the user terminal,
Means for requesting designation of user image data prepared by a user in advance, means for acquiring user image data designated by a user, means for requesting a user terminal to select a product, Means for obtaining product image data corresponding to the product selected by the user from the storage means, and combining the user image data and the product image data to create combined display data, and display information including the combined display data. And a display control means for displaying on the user terminal.

According to the information providing system configured as described above, when a user connects to the information provider's system via a network such as the Internet and performs a simulation or the like using an image of the user, The system requests the user to specify user image data and select product image data. When designation and selection are made, the selected product image data is read out from the storage means, and is combined with the designated user image data to create composite display data, which is displayed on the user terminal. Therefore, the user can browse in a state where the user's own image data is combined with the image data provided by the information provider, and can provide information in a form customized for each user.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the information providing apparatus according to the first aspect, there is provided a user registration database for storing the user image data in association with an identification number of the user. As a result, even when the user accesses the information provided by the information provider from a terminal other than the terminal where the user image data is stored, the user can obtain the user image data from the user registration database. it can. Therefore, it is possible to receive information provision from terminals installed in all places.

[0010] The invention described in claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2.
In the information providing device according to the above, the display control means,
A change control unit configured to change the content of the combined display data based on a change instruction of the combined display data performed by the user on the user terminal. Thereby, the user can change the method of synthesizing the user's own user image and the product image for observation, and can perform a more realistic simulation.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the information providing apparatus according to the third aspect, the change control means determines a relative position between the user image data and the product image data constituting the combined display data. Change placement. This allows
The user image data and the product image data can be combined in various modes.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the information providing apparatus according to the third or fourth aspect, the change control means is configured to determine a relative position between the user image data and the product image data constituting the combined display data. Change the scale. Thereby, the user image and the product image can be combined in a more realistic manner.

[0013]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[1] First Embodiment The system according to the first embodiment is a system for displaying and selling goods via the Internet. In particular, a content sender provides furniture, interior introduction, and sales services. In this system, a user can simulate interior coordination using an image of his / her own room prepared in advance and images of various furniture provided by the sender.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This system has a form in which the user 10 and the content sender 20 are connected via the WWW 5 of the Internet.
The user 10 and the caller 20 can communicate information bidirectionally via the WWW 5.

As shown in the figure, the user 10 has a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a "PC") 11,
It includes a hard disk 12 and a digital camera 13. The personal computer 11 is mainly used to access a web page provided by the caller 20 via the WWW 5, and a browser 14 is installed as application software for browsing information provided on the web page. In the present embodiment, as one means for dynamically displaying and processing an image on a web page at the time of a simulation described later, the sender 20 uses a technique called Dynamic HTML (Dynamic HTML). Provide content. Therefore, the browser 11 compatible with dynamic HTML is installed in the personal computer 11. In the following description, the image data prepared by the user in this manner is also referred to as “user (image) data”.

The digital camera 13 is used by the user 10 to capture unique image data. In the present embodiment, the user 10 uses the digital camera 13 to take an image of his / her own room, and stores the image data in the hard disk 12. This image data is used in a simulation described later.

The sender 20 has a WWW server 21 and a database 22. The database 22 is a WWW
The WWW server 21 stores the image data displayed on the web page provided by the server 21, reads the image data from the database 22,
The web page is provided by arranging it at a predetermined position according to the description of the L text.

Next, a procedure in which the user 10 accesses a web page provided by the caller 20 by the above-described system and simulates interior coordination using image data of the own room prepared in advance will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a simulation on a web page, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process of a simulation part in the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating an image display process during a simulation. 5 to 7 show examples of display screens displayed on the user's personal computer 11 during the simulation.

First, the user 10 enters the digital camera 13
The image of the own room to be used in the simulation is photographed using (step S1), and the image data is stored in the hard disk 12 (step S3). In this way, an image used in a simulation of interior coordination to be performed later is prepared.

Next, the user 10 starts the browser 14 on his / her personal computer 11 and sends the message to the sender 20 through the WWW 5.
Access the web page of the interior contents provided by the user (step S5). Specifically, the user 10 connects to the Internet and sets the URL of the web page.
(Uniform Resource Locator) to access the above web page. Thereby, the personal computer 11 of the user 10 acquires the DHTML file describing the web page from the WWW server 21, and the browser 14 displays the main screen on the personal computer screen based on this.

Next, the user 10 starts a simulation of interior coordination (step S).
7). FIG. 3 shows the detailed processing of the simulation. The following processing is mainly performed by the personal computer 11 on the basis of the DHTML file acquired from the WWW server 21 of the caller 20, software for browsing a web page,
That is, it is executed using the browser 14.

First, the WWW server 21 requests user image data to be used in the simulation (step S21). Thereby, the personal computer 1 of the user 10
On FIG. 1, a screen as shown in FIG. 5 (A) appears. On the other hand, the user 10 specifies the user image data by designating the storage location of the image data of the own room prepared in advance (step S23). In the present embodiment, since the user 10 has stored the image data of his / her room in the hard disk 12 in step S3 described above, the user 10
0 inputs the corresponding directory name and image data file name. Then, the personal computer 11 sends the designated storage destination information to the WWW server 21 (step S25).

Next, on the screen of the displayed web page, the user 10 selects and designates the image data of the furniture to be simulated by combining it with the image data of the own room (step S27). This means, for example, that options are displayed on a web page as shown in FIG.
This is performed by having When the image data of the furniture is selected, the personal computer 11 transmits information specifying the image data of the selected furniture to the WWW server 21.

Next, the WWW server 21 transmits a DHTML file for simulation to the personal computer 11 (step S29). This DHTML file is
The description includes a storage destination of the own room image data specified by the user 10 and a storage destination of furniture data selected by the user. Next, the personal computer 11 displays a simulation screen according to the description of the DHTML file.
Thereby, the user's own room image data and furniture image data are displayed on the screen in a superimposed manner (step S31).

One way to achieve this is shown in FIG.
The DHTML file corresponding to the simulation screen includes the description of the storage destination of the user's own room image data and the storage destination of the furniture data selected by the user as described above. Referring to the storage location information, first, the user accesses the storage location of the own room image data in the hard disk 12 to acquire the own room image data, and develops the data on the work memory (not shown) of the personal computer 11. The working memory of the personal computer 11 is virtually constituted by two layers (layers), and the own room image data is developed on the main layer 7. Further, the personal computer 11 refers to the storage location information of the furniture image data selected by the user 10, acquires the furniture image data from the database 22 via the WWW 5, and expands the furniture image data on the sublayer 8 in the work memory. At this time, the own room image data is drawn on the main layer 7 as it is. On the other hand, in the sublayer 8, an image is drawn such that a portion other than the furniture image is transparent. The personal computer 11 superimposes the sublayer 8 on the main layer 7 and displays it on the screen of the personal computer 11. As a result, a display in which the furniture image data is superimposed on the own room image data is displayed. FIG. 6 shows an example of such a display.

When the user 10 moves the furniture image data on the screen by operating an input device such as a mouse on the display screen, the personal computer 11 controls the relative display position of the sublayer 8 with respect to the main layer 7. To change the position of the furniture image on the screen. If necessary, as shown in FIG. 6, the user 10 can adjust the size of the furniture image by designating appropriate scaling conditions. As a specific operation, for example, the browser 1
Enter a numerical value for the percentage of the original image to be displayed in the input area 4 or click the two points that define the area where you want to store the image with the mouse pointer, and measure the distance between the two points The length can be specified by inputting how many cm. In response to such an input, the image data is scaled by the script described in the DHTML file corresponding to the screen, and the scaled image is displayed by the browser 14.

In this way, the user 10 has an image in which the image of the selected furniture is superimposed on the image of his / her room on the screen of the personal computer 11, that is, when the furniture is virtually purchased and placed in his / her room. You can see the status. Further, by freely operating the mouse to move the relative position of the furniture image with respect to the image of the own room, it is possible to obtain virtual images when the furniture is arranged in various places.
Therefore, it is possible to more realistically determine whether or not the furniture matches the own room, as compared with a case where only furniture is observed alone. The user can determine desired furniture, for example, by selecting different furniture as needed.

The user 10 determines whether or not to purchase,
When the end of the simulation is instructed (step S3
3), the process proceeds to step 9 in FIG. 2, and the WWW server 21 inquires whether to purchase the furniture. User 10
When the user inputs that he / she wants to purchase, an order form as shown in FIG.
In the case of “0”, necessary information is entered and transmitted (step S1
1). When the transmission is completed, a message as shown in FIG. 7B is displayed, and the process ends. The transmitted order form is processed by the WWW server 21. on the other hand,
If the user 10 does not purchase furniture, the process ends.

As described above, since the user can simulate the contents provided on the web page by combining the images of the user's room, it is assumed that the user purchases the furniture. Can be.

It should be noted that a configuration is also possible in which the user 10 can store image data displayed during the simulation on the hard disk 12 or the like. In this case, the own room image data and the furniture data stored in the work memory of the personal computer 11 may be combined and the combined image data may be stored. As another method, both data can be stored as separate image data, and the relative positional relationship between the two can be stored. As a result, in a case where the user 10 cannot determine whether or not to purchase a product at that time, the combined image data is viewed again and reviewed again without accessing the web page again and performing the simulation. be able to.

[2] Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The second embodiment is basically similar to the system of the first embodiment, but differs in that user image data can be registered at the sender.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration of a system according to the second embodiment. Note that the same components as those of the system of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. 8, the difference from the first embodiment is that the personal computer 11 of the user 10 has an FTP (File Trans
fer Protocol) application 15 is installed, and the user registration database 23 is installed on the sender 20 side.

FTP refers to TCP such as the Internet.
/ IP is a protocol for performing file transfer between hosts using / IP, and enables file transfer using a login name, password, and the like. In the present embodiment, the FTP application 15 is installed in the personal computer 11 of the user 10 and performs a function of transferring user image data to the sender 20.

User registration database 2 of sender 20
Reference numeral 3 stores the personal information of the user in association with the image data provided by the user. Thereby, the user 1
By accessing the WWW server 21 of the sender 20, the user 0 can pull out image data registered in advance on a web page. In the first embodiment, since the user image data used in the simulation is stored on the hard disk 12 of the user 10, the user cannot perform the simulation without using the personal computer 11. In contrast, in the present embodiment,
Since the user image data is registered in the sender 20 in advance, it is possible to access the web page by any personal computer or terminal capable of accessing the WWW server 21 of the sender 20 and perform simulation using the user image data. Become.

Next, the procedure of the simulation in the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the following, the WWW server 21 of the sender 20 provides a web page for selling clothes,
A case will be described in which a simulation is performed by combining an image of a user's own face prepared in advance with clothes on a web page.

First, as in the case of the first embodiment, the user 10 takes an image of his / her own face using the digital camera 13 (step S41).
2 (step S43). Then, the user accesses the web page (step S45) and starts the simulation (step S47).

FIG. 10 shows the detailed operation of the simulation. First, the user 10 has already set his / her user image to WW.
An instruction is input to the W server 21 as to whether or not it has been registered (step S60). If not registered (step S60:
No), the WWW server 21 requests the user 10 to specify an image (step S61). On the other hand, the user 10 obtains a desired image (an image of his / her face in the present embodiment).
Is specified (step S63). The data of the designated storage destination is linked with the FTP application 15 in the personal computer 11, and the face image data is stored in the WWW server 21.
(Step S65). The WWW server 21 receives the face image data and sends the face image data to the user.
D, the ID and password of the image are determined, and the face image data is stored in the user registration database 23 by the user I.
D, the image ID, and the like. Then, the determined user ID, image ID, password, etc.
0 is notified (step S67). Thus, the user image data is registered, and the user image data to be used in the simulation is obtained.

On the other hand, if the user has already registered,
When the user's own face image data is stored in the user registration database 23, the user instructs that the user has already been registered (step S60), and inputs an ID, a password, and the like (step S69). The WWW server 21 acquires target image data from the user database 23 based on the input information such as the ID (step S7).
1).

When the face image data of the user is obtained in this manner, the simulation is performed in the same procedure as in the first embodiment. That is, the user 10 selects his favorite clothes on the web page (step S73), and the WWW server 2
1 acquires the corresponding clothing image data from the database 22. Further, the WWW server 21 transmits the DHTML file including the display information of the user's face image data and the selected clothing image data to the personal computer 11 of the user 10 and causes the browser 14 to display the file (step S7).
5). As a result, the user can combine and display both images on the screen of his / her personal computer 11, and perform a simulation with an image as if he / she actually wears the clothes (step S77).

If necessary, the user 10 can use the browser 14
The image of the clothing is scaled above to adjust the scale of the image of the face. As an adjustment method, image scaling can be performed on the display image as described above. Alternatively, the user can designate the top and bottom of the face portion of his / her face image by clicking with the mouse, set the actual size (ie, the actual face length), and then set the size and size of the clothes usually worn. When the user inputs his / her height or the like, an image of the clothing scaled to a shape close to his / her height may be displayed. Thereby, a simulation of a dress-up doll can be performed by combining the image of the clothes and the face image of the user.

When the user instructs the end of the simulation, the process returns to the flowchart of FIG. 9, and the purchase process is performed according to the user's request (steps S49 and S5).
1). When a purchase is made, the WWW server 21 can store information at the time of purchase (eg, data entered in an order form) in the user registration database 23 in association with the ID of the user. From the above,
The process ends.

As described above, according to the system of the second embodiment, since the user image data is registered in the sender 20, the user uses a personal computer that does not store his or her own user image data. Simulation can be performed. That is, a simulation can be performed from anywhere using not only a personal computer at home but also a personal computer, a terminal, or the like on the go.

As described above, according to the present invention, W
When providing content to users using the WW,
It is possible to combine data to be provided with user data and develop it on a web page, and perform simulations and the like with content customized for each user. Therefore, it is possible to effectively convey the content to the user, increase the user's interest in the content, and promote mail order and the like.

[0045]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a user can browse in a state where his / her own image data is combined with image data provided by an information provider. Information can be provided in a form customized for each user.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, even when a user accesses information provided by an information provider from a terminal other than the terminal in which his / her own user image data is stored,
The user's own image data can be acquired from the user registration database. Therefore, it is possible to receive information provision from terminals installed in all places.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the user can change the method of synthesizing the user's own image and the product image for observation, and can perform a more realistic simulation.

According to the present invention, the user image data and the product image data can be combined in various modes.

According to the present invention, the user image and the product image can be combined in a more realistic manner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a simulation on a web page according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing of simulation steps in the flowchart shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating an image display process during a simulation.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a web page display screen during a simulation.

FIG. 6 is another diagram showing an example of a web page display screen during a simulation.

FIG. 7 is another diagram showing an example of a web page display screen during a simulation.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a simulation on a web page according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing of simulation steps in the flowchart shown in FIG. 9;

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 WWW 10 User 11 Personal computer 12 Hard disk 13 Digital camera 14 Browser 15 FTP application 20 Sender 21 WWW server 22 Database 23 User registration database

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Ken Hirai 1-1-1, Ichigaya-Kaga-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Dai-Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5B049 AA01 BB11 CC10 CC28 DD01 DD05 EE01 EE05 EE07 EE41 FF03 FF04 FF09 GG04 GG07 5B050 BA11 BA13 BA15 CA05 CA07 CA08 EA12 EA19 FA02 FA13 GA08 5B075 KK03 KK07 KK13 KK33 KK37 MM11 ND03 ND08 ND36 NS10 PP03 PP13 PP30 PQ02 PQ16 PQ40 PQ48 PQ49 PQ65 PQ69 UU38 UU10 GAB21 GAB5

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information providing system connected to a user terminal via a network, wherein: a storage means for storing product image data; and a designation of user image data prepared in advance by the user to the user terminal. Means for requesting, means for acquiring user image data designated by the user, means for requesting the user terminal to select a product, and storing the product image data corresponding to the product selected by the user. Means for acquiring from the means, display control means for combining the user image data and the product image data to create combined display data, and displaying display information including the combined display data on the user terminal; An information providing device comprising: 2. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a user registration database that stores the user image data in association with an identification number of the user. 3. The display control unit according to claim 1, further comprising: a change control unit configured to change the content of the combined display data based on a change instruction of the combined display data performed by a user on the user terminal. Or the information providing device according to 2. 4. The information providing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the change control unit changes a relative arrangement between the user image data and the product image data constituting the composite display data. 5. The information providing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the change control unit changes a relative scale between the user image data and the product image data constituting the composite display data.