JP2002199099A - Information supply server and telephone system using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide effective advertisement distribution technology. SOLUTION: When a user is connected to the information supply server 100, a picture transmission part 130 reads the starting picture of a user terminal or a background picture from a picture data base 160 and advertisement information from an advertisement data base 162 and transmits them to the terminal of the user. A charging part 150 charges the compensation of advertisement to an advertiser and a profit return part 140 returns profit to the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an information providing server and a telephone device that can use the information providing server. The present invention particularly relates to an information providing server for providing information including a screen to a telephone device of a user, and a telephone device capable of using the server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Cellular phones have spread rapidly, and many people of all ages have possessed them. Mobile phone functions are also evolving steadily, and in addition to the usual calling function of talking to others over the public network, it will be possible to connect to the Internet to exchange e-mails and access web pages. It has become. Due to such convenience, the number of users is expected to increase in the future.

[0003]

As the number of users has increased and people with various values have come to use a mobile phone, a startup screen displayed when the mobile phone is started and an incoming call are displayed. The background screen that appears when you are waiting
More and more users want to set their favorite screen and enjoy it.

[0004] In addition, the number of people who always carry a mobile phone increases,
As the frequency of use is increasing, high advertising effects can be expected for mobile phones as well as television and radio. There is a need for an advertisement distribution technology that makes good use of the features of mobile phones.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an object thereof is to provide a technique for providing a screen displayed on a screen display unit of a telephone device such as a mobile phone. Another object of the present invention is to provide a technique for distributing an effective advertisement to a telephone device.

[0006]

One embodiment of the present invention relates to a telephone device. The telephone device has a screen display unit, a storage unit that stores a startup screen to be displayed on the screen display unit when power is turned on, and a storage unit that includes a memory configured to be rewritable at least for a data portion of the startup screen, A screen changing unit that changes the start screen, and the start screen changed by the screen changing unit is configured to include data related to advertisement information. The rewritable memory is, for example, a flash memory or an EEPROM.
(Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only
Memory), SRAM (Static Random Access Memory)
And so on. This memory may include a BIOS or a boot process, in which case the program area may be write protected in hardware. In other words, only the area where the data of the startup screen exists may be rewritable.

[0007] The telephone device may further include a screen acquisition unit for acquiring the startup screen via a network. The network may be a public network, a mobile phone network, a mobile phone packet network, the Internet, or the like.

[0008] Another embodiment of the present invention also relates to a telephone device.
The telephone device acquires a screen including advertisement information to be displayed on the screen display unit from the server when the control unit connects to a server, and a control unit that controls communication with the outside. A screen acquisition unit; and a screen setting unit that sets the screen as a background screen displayed on the screen display unit when waiting for an incoming call request via the control unit.

[0009] The telephone device is a portable mobile communication terminal, and the control unit controls communication between a first control unit that controls a telephone call via a public network and the server via the Internet. A second control unit may be included.

[0010] The screen acquisition unit may be configured to be unable to acquire data including new advertisement information for a predetermined period. This is because if the screen acquisition unit is configured to download data including new advertisement information one after another, the advertiser may not be able to provide advertisements effectively. Therefore, the screen acquisition unit may be configured such that data including new advertisement information cannot be downloaded for one week, and the same advertisement information may be displayed for one week.

[0011] Still another embodiment of the present invention relates to an information providing server. The information providing server is a server that provides information to the mobile communication terminal, and when the mobile communication terminal is connected to the server, a startup screen displayed on the screen display unit when the power is turned on, or A screen transmitting unit that transmits screen data corresponding to at least one of the background screens displayed on the screen when the mobile communication terminal is waiting for an incoming call to the mobile communication terminal in a form including advertisement information; And a billing unit that bills the provider of the advertisement information for a fee when the information is transmitted. The screen may be transmitted each time the mobile communication terminal connects to the information providing server, or may be transmitted every predetermined number of times.

[0012] The information providing server may further include a profit returning unit that performs a process of giving preferential treatment to the user of the mobile communication terminal that has transmitted the screen data. The preferential processing may, for example, reduce the user's communication costs or provide money or goods to the user.

[0013] The screen transmitting unit may transmit the screen data behind the screen while communicating with the mobile communication terminal. Thereby, an advertisement can be provided without making the user aware.

[0014] The screen data may include a function for accessing a web page related to the advertisement information.
Thereby, more detailed advertisement information can be provided to the user.

It is to be noted that any combination of the above-described components, and any conversion of the expression of the present invention between an apparatus, a method, a system, and a computer program are also effective as embodiments of the present invention.

[0016]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an information providing system 10 according to an embodiment. In the information providing system 10, the user terminal 200 includes a mobile phone packet network 40, which is an example of a network, and the Internet 20.
Is connected to the information providing server 100 via the. The mobile phone packet network 40 and the Internet 20 are connected by an Internet service provider 30. Hereinafter, when the user is simply referred to as “user”, the user and the user terminal are not particularly distinguished.

FIG. 2 shows the internal configuration of the information providing server 100. This configuration is realized by a hardware component such as a CPU of any computer, a memory, a program having a screen data distribution function loaded with a memory, and the like. I'm drawing. Therefore, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof.
The information providing server 100 includes a communication unit 110, a connection request receiving unit 120, a screen transmitting unit 130, a profit returning unit 140, a charging unit 150, a screen database 160, an advertisement database 162, a user database 164, and a charging database 166.

The communication unit 110 controls communication with the user terminal 200 via the Internet 20. Communication unit 11
Reference numeral 0 includes a driver such as a modem necessary for communication and a driver for controlling communication. The connection request receiving unit 120 receives the connection request from the user terminal 200 transmitted from the communication unit 110, and
Tell At this time, the connection request receiving unit 120 acquires information for specifying the user terminal 200 that has requested the connection, for example, the user ID and the telephone number of the user terminal 200. The user terminal 200 may be provided with a function for notifying the user ID, the caller ID notification function of the user terminal 200 may be used, or information for identifying the user may be cookied to the user terminal 200. You may have it as information. In short, any mechanism that can identify the user terminal that has requested the connection may be used.

The screen transmitting unit 130 is a screen database 1
From 60, the screen displayed on the screen display unit of the user terminal 200 is read. The screen transmission unit 130 further reads out the advertisement information from the advertisement database 162 and adds it to the screen,
Transmit to the user terminal 200. The screen may be transmitted every time the user connects to the information providing server 100, may be transmitted every predetermined number of times, or may be transmitted randomly. The information providing server 100 may be used for a purpose other than the user acquiring the screen.
The screen may be transmitted behind the communication even when the connection is made.

When a screen including advertisement information is transmitted to user terminal 200, charging section 150 charges an advertiser for the advertisement. This billing information is stored in the billing database 1
66. The profit returning unit 140 returns profit to the user by reducing the communication cost of the user.
This user information is stored in the user database 164.

According to the above configuration, there is an advantage for an advertiser that an advertisement can be effectively provided to a large number of users. For the user, there is an advantage that the profit is returned by seeing the advertisement. As described above, the system of the present embodiment realizes a business model that is advantageous for both the advertiser and the user.

The screen database 160 stores the user terminal 2
00 stores a startup screen or a background screen to be displayed on the screen display unit. The screen includes text data described in a markup language such as HTML and XML, and image data. The screen may be composed of only image data.

The advertisement database 162 stores the user terminal 2
The advertisement information to be displayed on the start-up screen or the background screen of 00 is stored. FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration, and the advertisement ID column 30
0, an advertiser column 302, an image file name column 304, and a link destination URL column 306 are provided. For example, Advertising I
Advertisement "OO", image file name "0001.gif", link destination URL as advertisement information where D is "0001"
“Http://www.xxx.co.jp” is stored. The screen transmission unit 130 embeds the image file read from the advertisement database 162 at a predetermined position on the screen read from the screen database 160, sets a link destination URL to the image, and transmits the image to the user terminal 200. Thereby, the information providing server 100 can provide a screen including an advertisement and a function for accessing a web page related to the advertisement.

The user database 164 stores information on users who use the information providing server 100. FIG.
Is an example of the configuration, and includes a user ID column 310, a telephone number column 312, an advertisement transmission number column 314, and a return amount column 316. For example, as the information of the user whose user ID is “0001”, a telephone number “090-xxxx-xxxx”, an advertisement transmission count “2 times”, and a return amount “20 yen” are stored.
The profit returning unit 140 is configured to transmit the advertisement information to the user specified by the user ID or the telephone number,
One time is added to the advertisement transmission number column 314 of the user, and the return amount corresponding to the advertisement is added to the return amount 316. The user database 164 may automatically add a record for the new user when a new user connects, or may provide a user registration unit (not shown) and the user himself may register the information. In the latter case, personal information, characteristics, preference information, and the like of the user may be further registered, and an advertisement to be provided may be determined based on the information.

The billing database 166 stores billing information for advertisers. FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration, in which an advertiser column 320, a transmission count column 322, and a billing amount column 324 are provided. For example, as information of the advertiser “XX automobile”, the number of transmissions is “175 times” and the billing amount is “3500 yen”.
Is stored. The billing unit 150 includes the user terminal 200
When the advertisement information is transmitted to the advertisement provider, it is added once to the number of transmissions column 322 of the provider of the advertisement, and the charge amount corresponding to the advertisement is added to the charge amount column 324.

FIG. 6 shows functional blocks of the user terminal 200. This configuration can be realized in various forms by only hardware, only software, or a combination thereof, as in the case of the information providing server 100 of FIG. The user terminal 200 includes a communication unit 210, a processing unit 22
0, including the screen display unit 280. The user terminal 200 according to the present embodiment communicates with a user via a public network and the Internet 20.
A mobile communication terminal capable of both data communication via the mobile communication terminal.

The communication unit 210 includes hardware such as a modem necessary for communication and a driver and other programs for controlling communication, and controls communication with the information providing server 100. Screen display unit 280 displays a start screen, an incoming call waiting screen, and other information necessary for operating the terminal. The screen display unit 280 may be configured by a liquid crystal display device.

The processing section 220 includes a first control section 230, a second control section 240, a screen acquisition section 250, a background screen setting section 260, a start screen change section 262, and a background screen storage section 27.
0, including a start screen storage unit 272. First control unit 230
Controls a call via a public network or a mobile phone network (not shown). The first control unit 230 includes hardware such as a speaker and a microphone necessary for a call, a driver for controlling the call, and other programs. The second control unit 240 controls the information providing server 1 via the Internet.
Control communication with 00.

The screen acquisition section 250 is provided for the information providing server 10.
Get screen from 0. Background screen setting section 260 sets the acquired screen as a background screen displayed when waiting for an incoming call request to first control section 230. Background screen storage section 270 stores a background screen. The startup screen changing unit 262 changes the startup screen displayed when the power is turned on. The startup screen storage unit 272 stores a startup screen. The background screen storage unit 270 and the startup screen storage unit 272 include a flash memory, an EEPROM (Electric
ally Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memor
y), SRAM (Static Random Access Memory)
It is composed of a rewritable memory. According to the above-described configuration, the user can set a favorite screen as the start-up screen or the background screen and enjoy the advertisement, and can also acquire and display advertisement information and the like as needed.

FIG. 7 shows the screen display unit 2 of the user terminal 200.
An example of a screen displayed at 80 is shown. The screen display unit 280 displays a background screen 282 displayed when waiting for an incoming call request and an advertisement 284. Ad 2
A link is provided at 84 so that when the user clicks on the advertisement 284, the web page associated with the advertisement can be accessed. As a result, more detailed advertisement information can be provided to the user, and a high advertisement effect can be expected. Here, the background screen when waiting for an incoming call is shown, but the same applies to the startup screen.

The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. The above embodiment is an exemplification, and it is understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the combination of each component and each processing process, and that such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

As an example of such a modification, the function of the information providing server 100 may be provided to the Internet service provider 30. When the user terminal 200 connects to the Internet, it always passes through the Internet service provider 30. By transmitting the advertisement information to the user at this time, the number of times the advertisement information is transmitted and the number of updates can be increased. The advertising effect can be expected.

Although the embodiment has been described in connection with the case where the user terminal is a mobile communication terminal, the user terminal may be a telephone device connected to a fixed communication network.

In the embodiment, the profit returning unit 140 returns the financial profit to the user. However, the profit may be provided to the user or the communication cost may be reduced. In short, it is sufficient if there is a mechanism that promotes the user to see the advertisement.

In addition to the contents of the embodiment, a screen acquisition unit 25
0 may be configured so that data including new advertisement information cannot be acquired for a predetermined period. For this,
A timer (not shown) is provided in the screen acquisition unit 250 so that the elapsed time from the previous download does not exceed a predetermined value.
The operation of the screen acquisition unit 250 may be disabled. As a result, the same advertisement information is displayed during that period, and the advertisement effect can be secured.

[0036]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a telephone device whose screen can be changed as desired. Further, it is possible to provide a technology for effectively distributing advertisements.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information providing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of an information providing server.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing internal data of an advertisement database.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing internal data of a user database.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing internal data of a charging database.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a user terminal.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on a screen display unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 information providing server, 130 screen transmission unit, 1
40 profit return unit, 150 charging unit, 200 user terminal, 230 first control unit, 240 second control unit, 250 screen acquisition unit, 260 background screen setting unit, 262 startup screen change unit, 270 background screen storage unit, 272 Start screen storage unit.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04M 1/00 H04M 1/00 R 3/487 3/487 11/00 302 11/00 302 15/00 15 / 00Z F term (reference) 5K015 AB01 AD01 AF02 5K024 AA77 CC11 FF04 GG05 5K025 AA08 BB10 CC09 EE12 FF17 GG10 GG24 5K027 AA11 CC08 FF22 MM17 5K101 KK16 LL05 LL12 MM07 NN03 NN18 NN18 NN18 NN18

Claims (9)

[Claims] A storage unit including a screen display unit, and a memory configured to store a startup screen to be displayed on the screen display unit when power is turned on, and to be rewritable at least for a data portion of the startup screen. And a screen change unit for changing the start screen, wherein the start screen changed by the screen change unit is constituted by data including advertisement information. 2. The telephone device according to claim 1, further comprising a screen acquisition unit that acquires the start screen via a network. 3. A screen display unit, a control unit for controlling external communication, and a screen including advertisement information to be displayed on the screen display unit from the server when the control unit is connected to a server. A telephone, comprising: a screen acquisition unit; and a screen setting unit that sets the screen as a background screen displayed on the screen display unit when waiting for an incoming call request from outside. apparatus. 4. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the telephone device is a portable mobile communication terminal, and wherein the control unit is configured to control the first control unit that controls the call via a public network, and to communicate with the server via the Internet. The telephone device according to claim 3, further comprising: a second controller configured to control the telephone device. 5. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein the screen acquisition unit is configured to be unable to acquire data including new advertisement information for a predetermined period. apparatus. 6. A server for providing information to a mobile communication terminal, wherein when the mobile communication terminal is connected to the server, a startup screen displayed on the screen display unit when power is turned on;
Or a screen transmission unit that transmits screen data corresponding to at least one of the background screens displayed on the screen when the mobile communication terminal is waiting for an incoming call, to the mobile communication terminal in a form including advertisement information, An information providing server, comprising: a billing unit that charges a provider of the advertisement information when the advertisement information is transmitted. 7. The information providing server according to claim 6, further comprising a profit returning unit that performs a process of giving preferential treatment to the user of the mobile communication terminal that has transmitted the screen data. 8. The information providing server according to claim 6, wherein the screen transmitting unit transmits the screen data behind the mobile communication terminal during communication with the mobile communication terminal. 9. The information providing server according to claim 6, wherein the screen data includes a function for accessing a web page related to the advertisement information.