JP2001282822A - Method and system to provide life style information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a system with high usability, which enable a client to obtain qualified life style information at one time. SOLUTION: The system shows a table of headers for the life style information of a selected region according to menu classification. The life style menu F1 prepares newspapers, sports and entertainments, TV guides, leaflets, advertisements, condolences, shops with delivery services, timetables, and traffic information. A header F3 for the life style information that corresponds with each menu is displayed under the menu F1. The system displays F2 that indicates categories the header F3 covers between the menu F1 and the header F3. If the TV guide is selected, it represents TV station names located in the Nagano prefecture with local contents. If the leaflet advertisement is selected, it represents shop names located in the east region of Nagano prefecture.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing method and system for providing information related to life through a network.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION As is well known, various information is provided on the Internet. In particular, information that is of interest to many people, such as news, weather, economic indicators, and the like, can be roughly obtained by accessing a site called a portal site.

However, looking back on our daily life, the most directly needed information is information closely related to the area where we live. More specifically, the information includes weather information of a living area, condolences such as condolences, flyer information such as bargain sale in a shopping district or a supermarket, and the like. It is convenient if such living information can be obtained collectively. On the other hand, such information fluctuates every day, and if not properly updated or maintained, there is a risk of causing unnecessary confusion rather than providing useful information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to provide a highly convenient information providing method and a system thereof which can collectively obtain accurate living information. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is directed to an area and a menu requested through a network from a database in which various kinds of living information are organized and stored for each area and each menu. In addition to providing the requested living information to the user of the request destination through the network, the expired living information among the living information stored in the database is automatically deleted.

One of the main modes is that the requesting user displays the living information in a list by region and menu, and when an item in the list is designated by the user, details of the designated item are displayed. Displaying information. Another form is characterized in that the living information includes at least one of congratulatory information, advertising information, delivery service information, and event information. Still another mode is characterized in that information provided from a user through a network is automatically registered in a corresponding area and a corresponding menu of the database. The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS <Overview of Embodiment> First,
In order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, an outline of an embodiment will be described. First, a first example will be described with reference to FIGS.

[0008] When a user accesses a site that provides living information using a personal computer, a mobile phone or a portable information terminal, a top page as shown in FIG. 1 is displayed, for example. In the example shown, the menu includes “Condolence Corner”, “Today's Flyer Corner”,
"Weather is here" is prepared. The user selects and clicks what he needs from these menus. For example, if the icon A1 of "condolence corner" is clicked, a region selection screen as shown in FIG. 2A is displayed. In the illustrated example, a selection column B1 indicating a prefecture and a selection column B2 indicating a region are prepared. For example, when the button BA is clicked, a list LA of prefecture names is displayed. The display of the list LA is scrolled by the scroll button SA. The user uses the scroll buttons SA to display and click the name of the prefecture for which information is required. Then, column RA
Displays the name of the selected prefecture.

Next, the user clicks button BB. Then, the local list LB of the selected prefecture is displayed. The list LB is displayed using the scroll button S
Scroll by B. The user uses the scroll buttons SB to display and click on the name of the locality requiring information. Then, the selected local name is displayed in the column RB. When a region is selected as described above, condolence information of the region is displayed as shown in FIG. In the illustrated example, information “C1” regarding the funeral of Taro Komoro of Komoro City is displayed when “Nagano Prefecture, Komoro City” is selected as the area.

Returning to FIG. 1, if the user clicks on the icon "A2 of today's leaflet", a region selection screen as shown in FIG. 3A is displayed. This screen has basically the same configuration as that of FIG. 2A, and the user performs the same operation to select a prefecture name and a local name. And when the region is selected,
The flyer information of the corresponding area is displayed as shown in FIG. In the example shown in the figure, "Nagano Prefecture, Toshin"
Is selected, and the flyer information D1 of “XX Super Sakudaira store, 100 yen for one pack of eggs, 2,200 yen for disposable diapers,...” Is displayed. As another flyer information, "△
"Electricity, notebook personal computer 180000 yen" is displayed. Others are as illustrated.

Returning to FIG. 1, if the user clicks on the icon A3 of "Click here for the weather", an area selection screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. of course,
Although an area may be selected as shown in FIG. 2A, a desired area is selected from the map E of the Japanese archipelago in this example. Since the area of the weather forecast is generally considered to be larger than the area of the congratulations information or the flyer information described above, the area is selected by the map E as shown.
When the user clicks on a desired area, the corresponding weather information is displayed (not shown).

Next, a second example will be described with reference to FIGS. In this example, when the user accesses, a prefecture name list as shown in FIG. 5 is first displayed. When a corresponding prefecture is selected from this list, a list of municipalities or areas (not shown) for each prefecture is displayed. The region is selected by the user selecting a corresponding city, ward, town or village from the list. Then, in this example, as shown in FIG. 6, the headings of the living information of the selected area are arranged and displayed for each menu. In the illustrated example, “Komoro City, Nagano Prefecture” is selected as the area, and “General newspaper”, “Sports / Entertainment”, “TV column”, “Flyer advertisement”, “Condolence”, "Delivery store",
"Timetable" and "traffic information" are prepared. And
Under these menus F1, headings F3 of life information corresponding to each menu are displayed. Menu F
1 and the information heading F3, a range F2 covered by the displayed heading F3 is shown.

For example, when looking at the "TV column", there are "TV xx", "xx broadcast",..., All of which are displayed as "Nagano prefecture version". Therefore, it can be seen that the life information in the TV column has the same contents in any other municipalities in Nagano Prefecture. Looking at the “flyer advertisement”, there are “△△△ store”, “△△ ○ store”,..., And it can be seen that these are all “Tonoshin, Nagano”. Therefore, if you look at other areas, there is a possibility that other flyer advertisement information will be displayed. In this state, when, for example, the icon F11 of “flyer advertisement” is clicked, information on the corresponding flyer advertisement is displayed as shown in FIG. Further, when the corresponding flyer is clicked in FIG. 7A, a new window is opened as shown in FIG. 7B, and the corresponding flyer is enlarged and displayed. Of course, voice and music can be reproduced as needed, and moving images can be displayed on the screen. Note that, when the icon F31 is clicked in FIG.
The enlarged display shown in (B) is performed. When the “Delivery Store” icon F12 is clicked, information on the corresponding “Delivery Store” is displayed as shown in FIG. In the example shown in the figure, a delivery shop in Ueda is displayed, but the location of the shop does not matter as long as delivery to Komoro is possible.

Further, an "event calendar" for the area is prepared on the heading screen shown in FIG. When the calendar icon F4 is clicked, for example, FIG.
The calendar shown in is displayed. The illustrated example is an example of a calendar for March 2000 in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture.
When the user wants to know the details of each event, the user clicks the corresponding item. For example, when the user clicks on “Men's Basketball Tournament” on March 19, the details are displayed as shown in FIG. 9 (B).

<System Configuration of Embodiment> Next, a system configuration of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, a personal computer 10 used by each user
The mobile phone 12 or the mobile information terminal 14 is connected to the Internet 16 through a provider or a communication network (neither is shown). A life information server 20 is also connected to the Internet 16.

The hardware configuration of the living information server 20 is the same as that of a general one.
4, an output unit 26, a display unit 28, a main storage 30, a communication connection unit 32, and an external storage 40. Of these, a keyboard is generally used as the input unit 24, but in the present embodiment, a scanner (not shown) for inputting a flyer is included. The output unit 26 includes a printer, an FDD, and the like. The display unit 28 is configured by a liquid crystal display or a CRT display. The main memory 30 is constituted by a RAM, and is a memory for loading a program and temporarily storing data. The communication connection unit 32 includes a network card and a router.

Further, the external storage 40 is constituted by a large-capacity hard disk, and includes a living information database 42, a server program 44, a user registration information processing program 46, and a database maintenance program 4.
8. An information time limit management program 50 is stored. Among these, the living information database 42 is a database in which living information such as the above-mentioned weather information and congratulations information is accumulated, and is organized for each area and each menu, for example, as a list shown in FIG. The server program 44
It corresponds to the basic function as a server. In particular,
It functions as a general server such as a DNS server, a mail server, a WWW server, and a firewall. The user registration information processing program 46 is for performing a process of reflecting the life information registered by the user in the database 42. The database maintenance program 48 registers and updates (changes,
This is for performing maintenance on the server side such as addition and deletion) and deletion. Information expiration management program 5
0 is for managing the expiration date of the life information included in the life information database 42 and automatically deleting the expiration date.

<Operation of System> Next, the operation of the living information system described above will be described. First, the display operation of the living information described above is the same as that of the normal Internet. That is, when the living information server 20 is accessed from the personal computer 10, the mobile phone 12, or the like, the corresponding living information is sent to the living
Is read from. The read life information is supplied to the corresponding personal computer 10 via the communication connection unit 32 and the Internet 16, and is displayed here.

Next, operations for registering, updating, and deleting living information in the living information database 42 will be described.
The registration and update of the living information can be performed on the user side or on the server side. When the living information is registered from the user side, for example, the information registration icon A4 in FIG. 1 is clicked. Then, for example, a screen as shown in FIG. 12 is displayed. This example is an example of a registration screen for condolence information. The user fills in the required fields and clicks a send button K. Then, the inputted living information is sent to the living information server 20 via the Internet 16. On the other hand, in the life information server 20, the CPU 22 executes the user registration information processing program 46, whereby the received life information is registered in a corresponding area of the database 42 and a corresponding menu. More specifically, an item is added to a corresponding menu in a corresponding area, and detailed information is stored so that the item can be called up and displayed when the icon of the item is clicked. If the corresponding information already exists in the database 42, the update is performed. In the above-described automatic registration of user information, procedures such as confirmation of a user ID and authentication by a password are performed.

On the other hand, the registration and update of the living information on the server side are performed by the database maintenance program 4.
8. First, information to be registered and updated is captured by the input unit 24. For example, the flyer information is obtained by scanning the flyer with a scanner and capturing it as an image file. The information input from the input unit 24 is registered in the database 42 by the maintenance program 48. If there is corresponding information, it is updated. In addition, the deletion of the incorrectly registered information is also performed by the maintenance program 48. In addition, the maintenance program 48 also performs general maintenance of the database 42 such as addition and modification of the area and menu items.

Next, deletion of information from the living information database 42 is performed by the information time limit management program 48. For example, the flyer advertisements shown in FIGS. 3B and 7 are those of January 7, 2000. Therefore, it is no longer necessary on January 8, the next day. Rather, if displayed after January 8, there is a possibility that confusion will result because the item is not actually sold at that price. On the other hand, the delivery service information shown in FIG. 8 is generally effective for a relatively long time. Even if the scheduled date has passed, it is often convenient to post the event calendar information shown in FIG. 9 until the relevant month has passed, because it is possible to know what kind of event has occurred.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the information period management program 50 is periodically executed by the CPU 22 to monitor the expiration date of each piece of living information, and automatically deletes the expired items from the living information database 42. Such time limit management processing is performed by adding time limit data DT to each piece of information in the database 42 shown in FIG. 11 and monitoring this. Note that information that is updated at regular intervals, such as weather information or news, does not need to be deleted because old information that has expired is automatically updated with new information. . By performing such processing, it is possible to constantly provide fresh living information.

The present invention has many embodiments, and can be variously modified based on the above disclosure. For example, the following is also included. (1) The screen configuration shown in the embodiment is an example, and may be appropriately changed as needed. In addition, the menu of the living information may be appropriately increased or decreased as needed. For example,
The flyer advertisement menu of the above embodiment may include various types of advertising information other than flyers such as bargain sale and bargain sale. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the region is set in units of municipalities. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The region may be appropriately set in consideration of a living area. (2) Congratulations or congratulatory information may be posted on the event calendar. By doing this,
Various kinds of life information can be obtained from a time point of view, and convenience is further improved. On the other hand, the event information may be displayed in a list as in the case of other living information as shown in FIG.

(3) A news headline or an appropriate banner advertisement may be displayed on a screen of a personal computer or the like used by the user. For example, a super banner advertisement is formed on the display screen when the user selects the flyer information (see FIG. 3A). (4) Information registration and update of the database may be performed only on the server side in consideration of security. (5) Various well-known expression methods, such as playing music, displaying moving images, providing a CGI form field for inquiry or order, and providing a bulletin board, may be applied.

(6) Information of each menu may be classified and displayed. For example, flyer advertisements are classified into genres according to sales styles such as general retail, retail, department store, convenience store, mass retailer, and mail order. They are divided into genres, and they are combined into genres.

FIG. 14 shows a display example when such genre classification is performed. This example is shown in FIG.
When the button G10 is pressed in correspondence with (A), a list of genres is displayed. Then, when a desired genre is selected from this list, the corresponding genre is entered in column G.
12 is displayed. In the illustrated example, as indicated by G14, as the information of the flyer advertisement, 15 items are registered in the genre of “general retail”, 2 items in the genre of “food”, and 2 items in the genre of “clothing”. ing. And column G1
As shown in FIG. 2, “general retail” is selected as the genre. For this reason, the flyer information corresponding to the genre “general retail” is displayed as shown.

When the genre of the living information is classified as described above, the genre is designated when the information is registered. For example, when the content of the flyer advertisement to be registered is related to a department store, "Department store" is specified as a genre, and when the flyer advertisement is related to food, "Food" is specified as a genre. Of course, a plurality of genres may be specified. In this case, the information is registered in each of a plurality of designated genres.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The following effects are obtained. (1) Information necessary for daily life is stored in a database,
High convenience. (2) Since unnecessary information is automatically deleted, fresh living information can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a life information top screen.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an area selection screen for condolence information and a display screen for condolence information.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a flyer information area selection screen and a flyer information display screen.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a weather information area selection screen.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of a top screen of life information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of life information of a selected area.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen of a flyer advertisement.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a delivery service store.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen of an event calendar.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a life information providing system.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a database.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a registration screen by a user.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another example of a display screen for living information.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing another example of a display screen of a flyer advertisement.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Personal computer 12 ... Cellular phone 14 ... Portable information terminal 16 ... Internet 20 ... Living information server 22 ... CPU 24 ... Input part 26 ... Output part 28 ... Display part 30 ... Main memory 32 ... Communication connection part 40 ... External storage 42 ... Living information database 44 ... Server program 46 ... User registration information processing program 48 ... Database maintenance program 50 ... Information time limit management program A1, A2, A3 ... Icon A4 ... Information registration icon B1, B2 ... Selection field BA, BB ... Button C1 ... Condolence information D1 Flyer information DT Time limit data F1 Menu F2 Range F3 Headline F11 Icon K Send button LA, LB List RA, RB Column SA, SB Scroll button G10 Button G12 Column G14 Display the number of registered information by genre

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B075 ND20 NR03 PP03 PP13 PP22 PQ02 5B082 CA13 EA10 5B089 GA11 GA21 GA25 HA10 JA22 JA40 JB01 JB03 LB14

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. providing, from a database in which various types of living information are organized and stored for each region and each menu, to the requesting user through the network, living information corresponding to the requested region and menu through the network; Automatically deleting the expired life information from the life information stored in the database;
A method for providing living information, comprising: 2. A step of displaying a list of the living information by area and menu on the requesting user side; when the user specifies an item in the displayed list, details of the specified item 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying information. 3. The living information is congratulations information, advertising information,
3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of delivery service information and event information. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of automatically registering information provided from a user via a network to a corresponding area and a corresponding menu of said database. Life information provision method. 5. A database in which living information is organized and stored by region and by menu; database management means for performing maintenance of the database; Life information characterized by comprising: term management means for deleting; data providing means for reading, from the database, living information corresponding to the area and menu requested through the network and providing the requested user through the network. Delivery system. 6. The life information according to claim 5, further comprising a user information registering means for automatically registering information provided from a user via a network to a corresponding area and a corresponding menu of said database. Delivery system. 7. The living information includes congratulatory information, advertising information,
7. The living information providing system according to claim 5, wherein at least one of delivery service information and event information is included.