JP2002199434A - Information-providing method, information providing device and accuracy information providing device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information-providing method and an information-providing device, that can relieve a load related to maintenance and operation on the information-providing device operated by an information-providing enterprise attended with new models of portable communication terminals and prevent in advance from providing position relation information of a location apart from an actual current position of a user to the user, because of deteriorated accuracy of position information. SOLUTION: Functions of a conventional server unit of an information-providing enterprise is divided into a 1st function, that is a function not required to be revised attended with addition of models of he portable communication terminals and uses one of procedures specifying current positions, depending on the accuracy of position information having been prepared in advance, to provide information related to the current position and a 2nd function that is a function required to be revised attended with addition of models or the like of the portable communication terminals and providing information (accuracy or the like of positional information, depending on models or the like of the portable communication terminals) to be a clue to select one of information-providing procedures.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for providing a mobile communication terminal with information related to its current position (position-related information), and to provide the mobile communication terminal with the position-related information. And an accuracy information providing device for providing the information providing device with accuracy information about a position acquisition unit of the portable communication terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Location information is originally used for the purpose of military use, and is implicitly used for the operation of airplanes, ships, etc., and is widely used as a car navigation system for ordinary passenger cars. became. At present, with the progress of technological development, the miniaturization and power saving of GPS have been progressing, and the products that are mounted on portable communication terminals carried by pedestrians have been commercialized. In the near future, they will be mounted on mobile phones. It is said that the provision of a location information service using a method of acquiring the position of the mobile phone terminal from the position of the base station with which communication is being performed has been started by each wireless communication carrier one after another, It is expected to spread as a more general service.

[0003] As means for acquiring the position, there are a GPS that receives signals from a plurality of satellites and measures the position, and a mobile phone or a PHS that measures the position of a terminal from the position of a communicating radio base station. There is a method.

[0004] The accuracy of the GPS greatly differs depending on the performance of the receiver used and the reception state, and an error of about several tens to several hundreds of meters occurs.

In a method using a base station, there is a method of simply returning the position of a base station with which communication is being performed, and a method of communicating with a plurality of base stations and calculating the position of a terminal from sensitivity and timing. An error of about several kilometers occurs.

[0006] There is also a system in which both a GPS and a base station are used in combination.

[0007] Which method is adopted is determined by the purpose of use, the convenience of the communication carrier and the manufacturer of the portable communication terminal, and terminals having various position acquisition accuracies are flooding the world.

[0008] This poses a serious problem for an information provider that provides location-related information. The significance of using location information in the first place is to save the user from having to input information on the current location. Several kilometers if providing coarse information limited to the area, such as a weather forecast
Even if there is an error, the problem is small. For example, providing a Shinjuku weather forecast to people in Yoyogi would not be a problem. However, there is a problem in providing information around Shinjuku Station when it is desired to provide information on shops in front of the station to people at Yoyogi Station. Providing station square information would require an accuracy of several hundred meters.

Therefore, it is necessary for the information provider to judge what kind of position acquisition method the user has used to send the position information, and to provide an information provision procedure according to the judgment. For example, when providing station front information, if the location is sent within an accuracy of several hundred meters, the nearest station is automatically searched and information is provided, and the location is sent with an accuracy of several hundred meters or more. If it comes, you may need to give up searching for the nearest station automatically and ask the user to enter the station name from the beginning.

As described above, even if a position is acquired in a single bite, the accuracy varies greatly and the speed of model change is high as seen in recent mobile phones. It becomes a situation where the used models are mixed up and used. Providing services that support new technologies is an important issue for information providers in order to acquire users. A service must be constructed so as to determine whether or not the location information has been sent using such a location acquisition method and to provide an information provision procedure according to the location information.

More specifically, the accuracy is determined from the terminal model, etc., and a system is constructed in consideration of an information providing procedure corresponding to the accuracy. Each time a new model appears, the terminal information is registered and the procedure is additionally changed. Work will be done. Considering that the number of target models and the number of types increase day by day, it is very costly for information providers to deal with this problem.

[0012]

As described above,
The method of acquiring the position information differs depending on the model of the mobile communication terminal and the communication carrier (carrier) used, and thus the accuracy of the position information itself differs. Also, depending on the type of mobile communication terminal and the carrier used (carrier), the location information cannot be automatically acquired from the beginning, and the information provider identifies the current location by inquiring the user. Sometimes. As described above, depending on the model of the mobile communication terminal, the communication carrier, and the like, there are various means for accuracy of position information and position identification.

Further, depending on the information provided to the user,
Some require high-accuracy location information, and if you use inaccurate location information as the current location,
The information to be provided does not satisfy the user's request and becomes meaningless.

Therefore, when the accuracy of the acquired position information is low, it is determined whether or not the acquired position information can be adopted as the current position according to the requested information. It is necessary to take another means for specifying the current position of the portable communication terminal. If the location information cannot be automatically acquired from the beginning, the information cannot be provided until a procedure for inquiring the portable communication terminal about the current location is performed.

Conventionally, an information provider that provides a service for providing information corresponding to the current position of a mobile communication terminal has been required to provide a model of the mobile communication terminal, a communication provider that provides a network used by the mobile communication terminal, In accordance with the information to be provided, an information providing procedure (including a procedure for specifying the current position of the mobile communication terminal) suitable for the information has to be prepared in advance.

That is, the server device of the conventional information provider provides the information providing procedure (the current position of the mobile communication terminal for specifying the current position of the mobile communication terminal) corresponding to the model of the mobile communication terminal and the information to be provided. (Including procedures) built in advance, and every time a new model appears on a mobile communication terminal, it is necessary to add an information provision procedure to the system corresponding to this model. For the business, the labor and cost involved in such work have been a great burden.

Therefore, the present invention can reduce the burden on maintenance and operation of a server device as an information providing device operated by an information providing company with the addition of a new model of a portable communication terminal. An information providing method and an information providing apparatus as a server apparatus using the information providing method, which can prevent in advance from providing position related information at a position far from a user's actual current position due to poor accuracy of position information. The purpose is to provide.

That is, it is a function that does not need to change the function of the server device of the conventional information provider as described above with the addition of the model of the portable communication terminal, and is provided with the accuracy of the position information prepared in advance. Function for providing information related to the current position (position-related information) using one of a plurality of procedures for specifying the current position according to the mobile communication terminal model Is a function that needs to be changed in accordance with the addition of information, such as information that can be used as a clue for selecting one of a plurality of information providing procedures (accuracy of position information depending on a model of a mobile communication terminal, etc.). Etc.) to provide a second function.

The server provided by the information provider of the present invention has only the first function and is operated by another information provider (which may be the same information provider). It is only necessary to select the procedure for specifying the current position using the information provided from the server device having the second function, so that the burden on the maintenance and operation of the server device of the information provider is reduced. can do. In addition, the first function selects a procedure for specifying the current position according to the accuracy of the position information. Therefore, since the accuracy of the position information is poor, the position of the position far from the actual current position of the user is determined. Providing the position-related information can be prevented in advance.

[0020]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided, in response to an information request from a portable communication terminal, position-related information related to the current position of the portable communication terminal.
When an information request from the mobile communication terminal is received, at least attribute information such as a model of the mobile communication terminal, which is acquired accompanying the information request, is set in at least a mobile communication terminal predetermined for each mobile communication terminal. An error range of the position information is provided to the server device that determines the accuracy of the position information acquisition unit that acquires the position information of the terminal, and is at least as accuracy of the position acquisition unit of the portable communication terminal that is the information request source from the server device When the obtained error range is within a range allowed to specify a current position necessary for searching the position-related information, the current position is specified by using the position information. Selecting a first procedure for specifying the current position, wherein the obtained error range specifies a current position necessary for searching the position-related information. A second procedure for specifying the current position without using the position information when the current position is outside the allowable range, and the current position is specified according to the first procedure or the second procedure. When this is done, the location-related information related to the current location is provided to the mobile communication terminal that has requested the information.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the burden on maintenance and operation of an information providing device operated by an information providing company due to the addition of a new model of a portable communication terminal, and the accuracy of position information is poor. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the provision of the position-related information at a position far from the actual current position of the user in advance.

According to the present invention, in response to an information request from a portable communication terminal, position-related information related to the current position of the portable communication terminal is provided. When received, to acquire accompanying the information request, at least, attribute information such as the model of the portable communication terminal, and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition means predetermined in the portable communication terminal, An error range of the position information as at least the accuracy of the position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal of the information request source, the error range being provided to a server device that determines at least the accuracy of the position information acquisition unit; The search target range obtained by searching for a search target serving as a guide for selecting an area specifying the location for each predetermined search range in a region near the point indicated by the position information When a search result is obtained and the error range is within a range allowed to specify a current position necessary for searching the position-related information estimated based on the range search result, the position information is obtained. A first procedure for specifying the current position capable of specifying the current position by utilizing the position-related information in which the obtained error range is estimated based on the range search result When the current position required for searching is out of the range allowed to specify the current position, the second procedure for specifying the current position without using the position information is selected. when the current position is identified according to step 1 or the second procedure, and providing position-related information associated with the current location to the information requesting mobile communication terminal.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the burden on maintenance and operation of an information providing apparatus operated by an information providing company due to the addition of a new model of a portable communication terminal, and the accuracy of positional information is poor. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the provision of the position-related information at a position far from the actual current position of the user in advance.

Preferably, based on the number of searches of the search object for each search range obtained as the range search result,
The first search range is selected by selecting the search range in which the search number is an optimal number that can be easily selected from the mobile communication terminal, and comparing the selected search range with the error range.
One of the above procedure and the second procedure is selected.

According to the present invention, there is provided an information providing apparatus for providing location-related information related to a current position of a portable communication terminal in response to an information request from the portable communication terminal. When the information is received, at least the attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal acquired with the information request (or the attribute information and the location information acquired by the location information acquisition unit predetermined for the mobile communication terminal). Position information) to the server device that determines at least the accuracy of the position information acquisition unit, and the server device determines at least the error of the position information as the accuracy of the position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal that has requested the information. range (or a predetermined test of the region near the point indicating the searched which is a measure for selecting a region for specifying the current position and said error range the position information Obtaining means for obtaining the search target range search result obtained by searching for each range), and the error range is allowed to specify a current position required for searching the position-related information. When the position information is within a predetermined range (or when the position is within a range permitted to specify a current position necessary for searching the position-related information estimated based on the range search result), the position information is used. First selecting means for selecting a first procedure for specifying the current position, which is capable of specifying the current position,
When the obtained error range exceeds a range allowed to specify a current position necessary for searching the position-related information (or, alternatively, the position-related information estimated based on the range search result) Is outside the range allowed to specify the current position necessary for searching for the second position), and selecting the second procedure for specifying the current position without using the position information. And information providing means for, when the current position is specified according to the first procedure or the second procedure, providing position-related information related to the current position to the portable communication terminal of the information request source. It is characterized by having.

For example, by using the information providing device of the present invention, the information providing company can reduce the burden of maintaining and operating the information providing device operated by the information providing company with the addition of a new model of a portable communication terminal. Be able to
It is possible to prevent the provision of position-related information at a position far from the actual current position of the user due to poor accuracy of the position information.

Also, according to the present invention, there is provided an information providing apparatus for providing position-related information related to the current position of a portable communication terminal,
The accuracy information providing device as the server device that provides accuracy information about the position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal includes attribute information such as a model of the mobile communication terminal attached to an information request from the mobile communication terminal (or Means for acquiring the attribute information and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition means predetermined for the mobile communication terminal), and at least the accuracy of the position acquisition means of the mobile communication terminal of the information request source. The error range of the position information (or the error range,
The search target range search result obtained by searching for a predetermined search range of the area near the point indicated by the position information for a search target as a guide for selecting an area specifying the current position ) As accuracy information, and means for providing the accuracy information obtained by this means to the information providing device. This eliminates the necessity of making a change in accordance with the addition of a new mobile communication terminal.

[0028]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of a conventional location information service.

The location information service is mainly provided by a communication carrier to provide an information provider with position information for specifying the position of a portable communication terminal such as a portable telephone (hereinafter simply referred to as a portable terminal). It is a service, and in a broad sense, it may include an application service provided by an information provider using the mechanism.

The mobile terminal is an information terminal used by the user, such as a mobile phone with a GPS.

[0032] The communication service provider, and the like operating company that operates the wireless communication services such as mobile phone, telecom operators to provide the ability to identify the location of the mobile terminal as a service to the information provider.

The information provider is a business company that operates information services such as shop information and train transfer information. For example, the information provider uses information on the position of a portable terminal notified via a communication carrier. Then, a server that provides information related to the current position of the mobile terminal to the mobile terminal is operated.

As a method of acquiring information related to a position, a user operates a portable terminal, and a PULL type method in which a request for information retrieval is issued from the portable terminal side, or an information provider automatically acquires information. There is a PUSH-type method of transmitting Here, the outline of the conventional location information service in the former method will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when the user operates the mobile terminal 1 and accesses the server operated by the information provider 2 through the network of the communication provider to which the user has contracted, the communication provider becomes the information provider. Is notified that the current position of the portable terminal 1 can be specified.

[0036] Then, the information provider performs a confirmation or may acquire the position information of the current position of the portable terminal 1 to the user, information provider from a communication service provider by the user to agree Is transmitted. At this time, as a means for the communication carrier to acquire the position information of the portable terminal 1, there are a method of acquiring the position information by the GPS built in the portable terminal, a method of specifying from the position of the base station of the communication carrier, and the like.

The information provider who has received the location information,
The mobile terminal 1 searches for information requested by the user, for example, information on a shop near the current location of the mobile terminal 1 specified by the location information obtained from the restaurant information database.
Send to The mobile terminal 1 displays the information of the restaurant near the current position that has been sent on a display or the like.

At this time, as described above, the accuracy of the location information greatly differs depending on the model of the portable terminal 1 used by the user, the communication carrier used, and the like. It is necessary to prepare different information provision procedures in advance depending on the model, the communication carrier used, the information to be provided, and the like. Therefore, every time a model of a portable terminal is added, it is necessary to add an information providing procedure corresponding to the model to the server 2.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a system configuration for an information providing service using the location information service according to the present invention.

The feature of the present invention is that at least the terminal information of the portable terminal 10 which has accessed the information server 20 as the first server operated by the information provider is at least:
The accuracy of the position information provided from the communication carrier to the information provider as the position information service for the portable terminal 10 (that is, the accuracy of the position acquisition means for acquiring the position information, which is an error range) is determined. In addition, an accuracy information server 30 is newly provided as a second server for providing the determination result to the information server 20. Furthermore, the accuracy information server 30 uses the information server to search results based on the position information for a reference (search target) for selecting an area for specifying the current position required for searching for the position-related information. 20.

In FIG. 2, one accuracy information server 3
0 is used by a plurality of information servers 20, but is not limited to this case.

Also, one server device is the information server 2
0, a first function unit having a function of
And a second function unit having the above function, and an operation may be performed while performing communication between these function units.

Further, the information provider operating the accuracy information server 30 and the information provider operating the information server 20 may be the same or different. If different, a service in which an information provider that operates only the accuracy information server provides accuracy information and the like to an information provider that operates only the information server 20 that provides position-related information is a query of the accuracy information. It is also possible to provide a service that charges for the number of times and the period.

As shown in FIG. 2, the conventional information server 2
Is a function that does not need to be changed every time a model of the mobile terminal 20 is added, by separating a portion that needs to be changed each time a model of the mobile terminal is added, and a plurality of pieces of information prepared in advance. A first function for providing information according to the current position using one of the provision procedures, and a function that needs to be changed in accordance with the addition of a model of the mobile terminal 20 and the like. A second method for providing information (such as accuracy of a position acquisition unit depending on a model of a mobile communication terminal or the like) as a clue for selecting one of the information providing procedures.
It functions and the separation.

The information server 20 has only the first function, and the accuracy information server 30 has the second function.
The information providing procedure (the first procedure and the second procedure) is selected using the information provided by.

According to the present invention, it is only necessary to prepare a few basic information provision procedures in the information server 20, and the accuracy information server 30 responds intensively when the types of terminals increase. Is possible, and the operating cost of the information provider that maintains and manages the information server 20 can be reduced.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the information server 20 and the accuracy information server 30.

The accuracy information server 30 includes a communication unit 31 for communicating with the information server 20, an accuracy information storage unit 33 for storing terminal information and the accuracy of the position acquisition means in association with each other, and stores the map station from information and bus stops, the correspondence between the search by specifying the range of the search, such as stores (range search) the search range and the search is the search target of the number of time (range search results) From the range search index storage unit 34 and the terminal information and the position information sent from the information server 20, the accuracy information storage unit 33 and the range search index storage unit 34 are searched and the mobile terminal 10 is preset. And an execution unit 32 for obtaining the accuracy of the obtained position acquisition means, the range search result, and the like.

The information server 20 includes a communication unit 21 for performing communication between the portable terminal 10 and the accuracy information server 30,
Information related to the position, such as gourmet information (location-related information)
And an information providing procedure based on the request from the user and the accuracy obtained from the accuracy information server 30, and the portable terminal 10 specified according to the selected information providing procedure. And an execution unit 22 for executing a search process of the position-related information related to the current position from the position-related information storage unit 23 based on the current position, and transmitting the search result to the mobile terminal 10 through the communication unit 21.

The location-related information storage unit 23 stores information related to the location (for example, information on facilities such as stations and bus stops, city information, etc.) in correspondence with predetermined regions, stations, addresses, and the like. , districts, and information about the regional classifications, such as town, transfer method of transportation, used for storing the information, etc.) of the store of the popular-topic, the execution unit 22 on the basis of the identified current position, as shown in the following search By doing
Position-related information corresponding to the current position is obtained.

FIG. 4 shows an example of information storage in the accuracy information storage section 33. The terminal information (location information service name, carrier name, model), the corresponding position acquisition means, and the accuracy of the position acquisition means are shown. Are stored in association with each other.

In FIG. 4, “location information service name” and “carrier name” are used to identify the location information service provided by each communication carrier (carrier).
“Model” is the model name of the mobile terminal 10, “Position acquiring unit” is the name of the method for acquiring the position, and “Accuracy” is specifically an error range, and is, for example, guaranteed under certain conditions. it represents the maximum error is. The storage data in the fourth row in FIG. 4 is storage data in which the accuracy is associated with the positioning method using the GPS mounted on the mobile terminal 10 regardless of the communication carrier.

[0053] in the terminal information is, at least, the portable terminal 10
And the name of a communication carrier that operates a network that can be used by the mobile terminal 10, and is information registered in advance at the center of the communication carrier. For example, when the mobile terminal 10 accesses the information server 20 and makes an information provision request, this terminal information is added to the information provision request by the communication carrier and sent to the information server 20.

FIG. 5 shows a range search index storage unit 3.
4 is a storage example of range search index information stored in No. 4;

The range search index information is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), when a range search is performed at a certain point, the number of search targets, that is, for example, the number of stations and buildings to be searched is determined for each of a plurality of search ranges predetermined for each search target. This is information indicating the number of the search targets searched within the range. Here, the search target is a guide for selecting an area that specifies the current location necessary for searching for location-related information, and is a facility such as a station or a bus stop, a city, a ward, a town, or the like. There are regional divisions.

Since it is not efficient to store information from all points, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), certain map information is divided into meshes at regular intervals, and for each of the divided areas, With the center point as a representative point, the result of range search at that point is stored in a table format as shown in FIG. 5B. That is, FIG. 5B shows range search index information corresponding to the divided area B1 in FIG. 5A, and the range search index information shown in FIG. Created for each divided area,
It is stored in the range search index storage unit 34.

In FIG. 5B, the center point of the divided area B1 is
That is, latitude 35 degrees 41 minutes 30 seconds, longitude 139 degrees 42
For a point of minute 00 seconds, "station", "bus stop", "store", "general building", "city, ward", "town", etc., have a radius of 100
m, 500 m, 1000 m, 2000 m, and 3000 m represent the respective numbers when the range search is performed.

Next, the flowcharts shown in FIGS.
The processing operation of the information server 20 and the accuracy information server 30 will be described with reference to the screen transition diagram of the mobile terminal 10 shown in FIG. The flowchart shown in FIG. 6 shows the processing operation of the information server 20 as the first server, and the flowchart shown in FIG. 7 shows the processing operation of the accuracy information server 30 as the second server. It is a thing.

On the display of the portable terminal 10, for example,
When the menu screen such as the screen G1 shown in FIG. 8 has been displayed, the user can, for example, from the menu screen G1, select "gourmet information", and performs a predetermined operation for the information request . The information request from the portable terminal 10 is transmitted to the information server 2 that provides the “gourmet information”.
Sent to 0. At this time, it is assumed that the information request includes terminal information of the mobile terminal 10 that has transmitted the request.

As described above, the terminal information includes, for example,
The information includes the model name of the mobile terminal 10 and the name of a communication carrier that operates a network that can be used by the mobile terminal 10. The terminal information may be all or part of the location information service name, carrier name, model, and location acquisition means as shown in FIG.

Further, the information carrier 20 is sent from the communication carrier.
It is assumed that the location information of the mobile terminal 10 can be provided to the operating information provider, and this location information is also added to the information request and transmitted to the information server 20. The position information is latitude and longitude information indicating the position of the mobile terminal 10.

When the communication unit 21 of the information server 20 receives the information request, the terminal information, and the position information from the portable terminal 10 (step S1), first, the communication unit 21
At least the received terminal information is transmitted, or the terminal information and the position information, or the terminal information and the position information and the search target are transmitted, and a request is made to judge the accuracy of the position information (a position obtaining unit that obtains the position information) ( Step S2). The search target transmitted from the information server 20 to the accuracy information server 30 is expressed as a target name in FIG.
"Station", "bus stop", "store", etc. In this case,
It is assumed to be a "station".

Proceeding to step S11 in FIG. 7, the communication section 31 of the accuracy information server 30 receives only the terminal information, the terminal information and the position information, or the terminal information, the position information and the search target from the information server 20. (Step S1
1).

Then, the execution section 32 stores the accuracy information storage section 3
3 to obtain the accuracy corresponding to the terminal information (step S1).
2). At this time, the transmitted terminal information does not include all information of the location information service name, carrier name, model, and location acquisition means shown in FIG. In this case, the one with the highest accuracy value (low accuracy) is selected.

For example, as the terminal information, the model is “T76
4 ”and the carrier name“ CoCoMo ”,“ 100 m ”is obtained as the accuracy from FIG.

Normally, in step S11, the position information should also be received. However, for some reason, the position information of the portable terminal 10 cannot be measured, and the position information may not be included. In this case, the process proceeds from step S13 to step S16.

In other cases, the process proceeds to steps S13 to S14, and the execution unit 32 searches the range search index storage unit 34 using the position information and the search target received in step S11. That is, from the index information for range search of the divided area corresponding to the position information, the number of search targets (range search results) that can be searched within each of the plurality of search ranges of the search target is obtained (step S14).

For example, (station, 100: 1, 500: 2,
1000: 5, 2000: 13, 3000: 20).

On the other hand, in step S16, since there is no position information, the number of search targets that can be searched from each search range is determined from the index information for range search of the predetermined default point. Alternatively, an average value thereof is obtained. Alternatively, from the index information for range search of the divided area corresponding to the previously acquired position information, the number of the search targets that can be searched within each of the plurality of search ranges of the search target may be obtained. Or,
The search in the range search index storage unit 34 in step S16 may be skipped, and the process may proceed to step S15.

[0070] Finally, at step S15, determined as above, at least the accuracy of the position acquisition unit (e.g., "100m") and, or, the accuracy of the position acquisition means and the range search results (e.g., (Station , 100: 1, 500:
2, 1000: 5, 2000: 13, 3000: 2
0)) is transmitted to the information server 20 via the communication unit 31 (step S15).

Next, proceeding to step S21 in FIG. 6, when the information server 20 receives the accuracy of the position acquisition unit and the range search result from the accuracy information server 30, first, the information server 20 checks the accuracy S of the received position acquisition unit. Based on the position information, it is determined whether or not the first procedure for specifying the current position at which the current position can be specified using the position information can be adopted.

That is, in order to retrieve the position-related information, the current position of the portable terminal 10 must first be specified. In order to select a procedure for specifying the current position according to the accuracy of the position information, a distance L is determined as a threshold for branching the process according to the accuracy S returned from the accuracy information server 30 ( Step S21). In step S22, the accuracy S returned from the accuracy information server 30
Is smaller than the distance L, the flow branches to step S23, and if not, the flow branches to step S24.

In step S21, as a method of determining the value of L, for example, it can be determined using a predetermined value for each content of information to be provided, or can be determined from a range search result.

For example, when it is necessary to specify a location at a station, the nearest station is automatically searched using the position information, and the candidate can be easily specified by displaying a list on the portable terminal 10. However, there is a limit to the number of candidates when using the list display selection depending on the screen size of the mobile terminal 10 and the operation system.
One guideline would be to limit the number to ten that can be specified with the buttons up to "9".

Using the range search index information in FIG. 5 as an example, it can be seen that the search range must be within a radius of 1000 m in order to reduce the number of candidate stations to 10 or less. In some cases, using location information has little effect. Therefore, in this case, L is set to 1000 m.

When the location should be specified at the municipal level as in a weather forecast, L is a large value such as 10 km.

In step S23, the portable terminal 10 having the position acquisition means having a higher accuracy than the required accuracy of the position information.
Since this is an access from the user, the first procedure for specifying the current position at which the current position can be specified using the position information is selected.

For example, in FIG. 8, after the user selects "gourmet information" from the menu screen of the screen G1, if the accuracy of the position acquisition means is high, the information server 20 selects the first procedure. . According to the first procedure, in step S23, the portable terminal 10 first displays a screen for selecting a method of designating a place, as shown in a screen G2. From this screen G2, it is possible to select a method for specifying the current position based on the position information. When the user selects a method for specifying the current position from the screen G2 based on the position information, the information server 20 automatically searches for the nearest station based on the position information from the position-related information storage unit 23, and displays the screen G2.
To specify the current position by displaying the menu as shown in 3.

When searching for the nearest station, the range search result obtained from the accuracy information server 30 is used to search the distance range for searching for the nearest station so that the list can be selected on the portable terminal 10. You may make it set from a range. For example,
In the case of a mobile phone, up to 10 candidates are "0" ~
Since the button can be designated with the button "9", processing such as searching for the nearest station at a radius of 1000 m is performed at the place shown in FIG.
As a result, it is possible to present as many options as possible according to places with different degrees of congestion, such as urban areas and rural areas. Can be reduced.

The accuracy of the position information acquisition means is, for example, 1
In the case of 00m, the search range may be set to 100m or 500m which is one range wider than that.

On the other hand, step S24 is a case where access is made from the portable terminal 10 in which the accuracy of the position acquisition means is lower than the required accuracy, and if this is the case, the search range must be widened in consideration of errors. For example,
The number of nearest station candidates is too large. Therefore, a second procedure for specifying the current position without using the position information is selected.

For example, in FIG. 8, after the user selects “gourmet information” from the menu screen of the screen G1, if the accuracy of the position acquisition unit is poor, the information server 20 selects the second procedure. . According to the second procedure, in step S25, the mobile terminal 10 firstly displays a screen for selecting a method of designating a place, as shown in screen G4. From this screen G4, it is not possible to select a method for specifying the current position based on the position information. And screen G
A menu such as 5 is displayed, and the user is allowed to directly input the station name, or the user is allowed to specify the station name by using a selection menu such as an order. In this case, since there is only one option of the screen G4, the screen G1 may directly transition to the screen G5.

Even if the position acquisition accuracy is good, if the method of designating a place is selected from the screen G2, the screen G5 is displayed.

Finally, in step S25, the screen G shown in FIG.
3, or by using the point designated from the screen G5 as the current position, the position-related information related to the current position is searched from the position-related information storage unit 23, and the search result is transmitted to the mobile terminal 10 (step S25).

In FIG. 8, the current position is specified at the station. However, there are various methods for specifying the current position depending on the information to be provided, the search target, and the like. FIG. 9 shows an example of screen transition displayed on the mobile terminal 10 in accordance with the procedure for specifying the current position by the address or the intersection name when the position acquisition accuracy is good.

In this case, similarly to the case where the search target is “station”, the range search results for the search target “town” and “intersection” are obtained from the accuracy information server 30 (see FIG. 7). Then, for example, when the method of specifying the current position by the position information is selected from the screen G2 in FIG. 8, the information server 20 exists within the selected search range based on the position information from the position-related information storage unit 23. Searching for "town" and as a result,
The screen G11 of FIG. 9 is displayed on the mobile terminal 10.

When the user selects a certain town from the screen G11, the information server 20 sets the position-related information storage unit 23
Is searched for the "intersection" existing in the selected town, and as a result, the screen G12 of FIG.
Will be displayed.

When the number of intersections is within the range that can be selected from the list from the portable terminal 10 based on the range search result, the display of the screen G11 is skipped and the screen G12 is displayed immediately without selecting the town. It may be displayed.

FIG. 10 shows an example of screen transition displayed on the portable terminal 10 in accordance with the procedure for specifying the current position by the address when the position acquisition accuracy is good. Note that, in this case, first, in the same manner as described above, the information server 20 searches the accuracy information server 30 for the search target “town”, “chome”,
The respective range search results of “address” are acquired (see FIG. 7).

The accuracy obtained from the accuracy information server 30 and
From the respective range search results of the search targets "town", "chome", and "address", control is performed so that a screen transition is started in which selection is started from the minimum unit that becomes the number of choices that can be selected in the list. For example, when the accuracy is 2000 m and the number of towns is 3 and the number of streets is 15 from the range search result, a screen G2 for selecting “town” is used.
Display starts from 1. If the number of streets is a list selectable number and there are multiple street names, the display starts from the “Chome” selection screen, but the display is displayed with the street name added like “○ town × chome” It is desirable to do.

FIG. 11B shows another example of information storage of the accuracy information storage unit 33. That is, in the configuration shown in FIG. 4, the terminal information (location information service name, carrier name, model), the corresponding location acquisition unit, and the accuracy of the location acquisition unit are stored in association with each other. FIG. 11B shows an example in which the data is further expanded so as to be stored in consideration of the position and the time.

In FIG. 11, for example, the latitude and longitude shown in FIG. 11A are (35.41.30, 139.42.00).
In place, as shown in FIG. 11 (b), for example,
The location acquisition accuracy of the location information service of the service B is usually 1000 m, and weekdays 17:00 to 23:00 are 200.
0 m and holidays from 12:00 to 19:00 represent 2000 m.

Therefore, the accuracy information server 30 first obtains the position information service name corresponding to the terminal information from the table shown in FIG.
The position acquisition accuracy of the time zone corresponding to the current time is acquired from the table shown in (b). Alternatively, the location information service name may be included in the terminal information itself. In that case, the location acquisition accuracy of the time zone corresponding to the current time is immediately acquired from FIG.

The information server 20 stores user profile information as shown in FIG. 12 and uses this user profile information when providing an information providing service.

As shown in FIG. 12, the user profile information is information indicating whether or not each user who can use the information providing service uses the location information service. And stored in a table format. The user identification information may be, for example, a telephone number or the like, and is information that can be included in the terminal information.

In FIG. 12, "1" indicates that the device is always used, "0" indicates that the use is confirmed each time, and "-1" indicates that the device is not always used.

If the mobile terminal is set to be always used, the first procedure for specifying the available current location of the location information is always selected, and as a result, the portable terminal is set according to the first procedure. The screen transition at 10 is the screen G1 → G2 → G3 or the screen G1 → G2 → G5 in FIG.
Becomes Furthermore, the screen G2 may be skipped from the screen G1, and the process may immediately proceed to the screen G3.

If the setting is not always used, the second procedure for specifying the current location without using the location information is selected. As a result, by following this second procedure, the portable terminal The screen transition at 10 is shown in FIG.
The screen changes from G1 to G4 to G5.

In the case of "0", step S22 in FIG.
Is controlled as shown in FIG.

[0101] In the information server 20, the first procedure, when selecting the second procedure, and provided to each time the portable terminal 10 the screen as shown in FIGS. 8 to 10, identifying the current position Instead of the portable terminal 10, for example, JAVA
If you have a platform-independent program execution environment (virtual machine) such as
And the second procedure are described in JAVA language, respectively.
The information server 20 has a first program that describes the first procedure and a second program that describes the second procedure in advance, transmits each program to the mobile terminal 10, and executes the first procedure, According to the second procedure, the current position specified by displaying the screen as shown in FIGS. 8 to 10 on the mobile terminal 10 may be returned to the information server 20.

As described above, according to the above embodiment, the function of the server device of the conventional information provider does not need to be changed with the addition of the model of the portable communication terminal. Information relating to the current position (position-related information) using one of the procedures (first procedure, second procedure) for specifying a plurality of current positions according to the accuracy of the obtained position information And a function that needs to be changed with the addition of a mobile communication terminal model, etc., and provide a clue for selecting one of a plurality of information provision procedures. It is separated into a second function for providing such information (such as the accuracy of position information depending on the model of the mobile communication terminal).

The server (information server 20) operated by the information provider has only the first function, and is operated by another information provider (may be the same information provider). Using information (accuracy of the position information acquisition unit, range search result) provided from the server device (accuracy information server 30) having the second function described above, out of the first procedure and the second procedure Since it is only necessary to select one of them, the burden on the maintenance and operation of the server device of the information provider can be reduced. In addition, the first function selects a procedure for specifying the current position according to the accuracy of the position information. Therefore, since the accuracy of the position information is poor, the position of the position far from the actual current position of the user is determined. Providing the position-related information can be prevented in advance.

That is, the information server 20 stores
When the information request from the mobile communication terminal is received, at least the attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal and the location information obtained by the location information obtaining means predetermined for the mobile communication terminal are acquired. The obtained position information is provided to the accuracy information server 30 that determines at least the accuracy of the position information acquisition unit. In response to this, the accuracy information server 30 searches the accuracy information storage unit 33 from the accuracy information storage unit 33 for the error range of the position information as the accuracy of the position acquisition unit of the mobile terminal 20 that has requested the information, based on the terminal information. position based on, searches the range search index storage unit 34 every predetermined search range of the region near the point indicated by the position information search target which is a measure for selecting a particular regional current position Searching for the number of searches per search range of the search target obtained as a range search result, and specifying the current position required for searching for the position-related information in which the error range is estimated based on the range search result. Is within the allowable range, the first procedure for specifying the current position at which the current position can be specified using the position information is selected, and the obtained error range is included in the range search result. When the current position required to search for the position-related information to be estimated exceeds the allowable range for specifying the current position, a second procedure for specifying the current position without using the position information is selected. And the first
When the current position is specified according to the second procedure or the second procedure, by providing the position-related information related to the current position to the mobile communication terminal of the information request source, the new model of the mobile communication terminal is added. The burden on maintenance of the information server 20 as the information providing device operated by the information providing company can be reduced, and the position of the position far from the actual current position of the user due to poor accuracy of the position information can be reduced. Providing the related information can be prevented in advance.

As described above, the problem of the user and the problem of the information provider caused by the difference in the position acquisition accuracy depending on the terminal are solved. For the former, it eliminates the disappointment of using the location information but the accuracy was poor and was eventually useless, and wasted time and communication charges.For the latter, the accuracy data of each terminal and location information system was used. Services to be managed are aggregated to enable construction and operation separately from the information providing service system, and by using range search results, it becomes possible to reduce unnecessary search execution and thereby reduce operating costs. .

The method of the present invention described in the embodiment of the present invention can be implemented as a program that can be executed by a computer such as a magnetic disk (floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, etc.), an optical disk (C
D-ROMs, DVDs, etc.) and storage media such as semiconductor memories for distribution.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified in an implementation stage without departing from the gist thereof. Furthermore, the above embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriate combinations of a plurality of disclosed configuration requirements. For example, even if some components are deleted from all the components shown in the embodiments, (at least one of) the problems described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention can be solved, and the effect of the invention can be solved. If at least one of the effects described in (1) is obtained, a configuration from which this component is deleted can be extracted as an invention.

[0107]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The burden on maintenance and operation of the information providing device operated by the information provider accompanying the addition of a new model of the mobile communication terminal can be reduced, and the accuracy of the position information is poor, so that the actual current position of the user can be reduced. It is possible to prevent the provision of the position-related information at a position that is far apart.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the structure of a conventional location information service.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a system configuration for an information providing service using a location information service according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an information server and an accuracy information server.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an information storage example of an accuracy information storage unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of information storage in a range search index storage unit.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the information server.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the accuracy information server.

FIG. 8 is a view for explaining an example of screen transition of the mobile terminal.

FIG. 9 is a view for explaining another example of the screen transition of the mobile terminal.

FIG. 10 is a view for explaining still another example of the screen transition of the mobile terminal.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another information storage example of the accuracy information storage unit.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a storage example of user profile information stored in an information server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Portable communication terminal (mobile terminal) 20 ... Information server (1st server) 21 ... Communication part 22 ... Execution part 23 ... Position related information storage part 30 ... Accuracy information server (second server) 31 ... Communication part 32 network ... run by executing portion 33 ... accuracy information storage unit 34 ... a range search index storage unit 40 ... operators

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/30 310 G01S 5/14 H04B 7/26 H04B 7/26 106B // G01S 5/14 K H04Q 7 / 04 CF term (reference) 2F029 AA07 AB07 AC02 5B075 KK07 ND20 PP10 PP11 PP30 PQ02 UU14 5J062 AA08 BB05 CC07 DD24 5K067 AA33 AA44 BB04 DD20 EE02 EE10 FF23 FF31 HH21 HH22 JJ64 LL01 LL

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A according to the information request from the mobile communication terminal,
An information providing method for providing location-related information related to a current location of the mobile communication terminal, comprising: acquiring an information request from the mobile communication terminal along with the information request; The attribute information such as the model of the communication terminal is provided to the server device that determines the accuracy of the position information acquisition unit that acquires the position information of the mobile communication terminal, which is predetermined for each mobile communication terminal. At least an error range of the position information as an accuracy of a position obtaining unit of the mobile communication terminal of the information request source is obtained, and the obtained error range specifies a current position necessary for searching the position-related information. Select the first procedure for specifying the current position that can specify the current position using the position information when the current position is within the allowable range. When the obtained error range is beyond a range allowed to specify a current position necessary for searching for the position-related information, to specify the current position without using the position information Selecting the second procedure, and when the current location is specified according to the first procedure or the second procedure, providing the location-related information related to the current location to the portable communication terminal of the information request source An information providing method characterized by the following. 2. In response to an information request from a mobile communication terminal,
An information providing method for providing location-related information related to a current location of the mobile communication terminal, comprising: acquiring an information request from the mobile communication terminal along with the information request; Attribute information such as the model of the communication terminal, and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit predetermined for the mobile communication terminal,
An error range of the position information as at least the accuracy of the position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal of the information request source, the error range being provided to a server device that determines at least the accuracy of the position information acquisition unit; And a search target range search result obtained by searching a search target serving as a guide for selecting an area for specifying a predetermined search range in a region near the point indicated by the position information. When the error range is within a range allowed to specify a current position necessary to search for the position-related information estimated based on the range search result, the current position is determined using the position information. Selecting a first procedure for specifying the current position capable of specifying a position, wherein the obtained error range is the position-related information estimated based on the range search result; When the current position required for searching is out of the range allowed to specify the current position, selecting the second procedure for specifying the current position without using the position information, An information providing method comprising: when a current position is specified according to the first procedure or the second procedure, providing position-related information related to the current position to the mobile communication terminal that has requested the information. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the search range is an optimal number that is easily selectable from the mobile communication terminal based on a search count of the search target for each search range obtained as the range search result. 3. An information providing method according to claim 2, wherein said selected search range and said error range are compared to select one of said first procedure and said second procedure. . 4. In response to an information request from a mobile communication terminal,
An information providing apparatus for providing position-related information related to a current position of the mobile communication terminal, wherein at least the mobile communication terminal acquires the information request from the mobile communication terminal when the information request is received from the mobile communication terminal. Attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal is provided to the server device that determines the accuracy of the location information acquisition unit that acquires the location information of the mobile communication terminal that is predetermined for each mobile communication terminal, and at least the An acquiring unit for acquiring an error range of the position information as the accuracy of the position acquiring unit of the mobile communication terminal of the information requesting source; and an error range acquired by the acquiring unit is a current necessary for searching the position-related information. For specifying the current position, which is capable of specifying the current position using the position information, within a range permitted to specify the position. First selecting means for selecting the first procedure; and when the obtained error range exceeds a range allowed for specifying a current position necessary for searching the position-related information, Second selecting means for selecting a second procedure for specifying the current position without using information; and when the current position is specified according to the first procedure or the second procedure, the current position An information providing unit for providing location-related information related to the information to the mobile communication terminal that has requested the information. 5. In response to an information request from a mobile communication terminal,
An information providing apparatus for providing position-related information related to a current position of the mobile communication terminal, wherein at least the mobile communication terminal acquires the information request from the mobile communication terminal when the information request is received from the mobile communication terminal. Attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal, and the location information acquired by the location information acquisition means predetermined in the mobile communication terminal,
An error range of the position information as at least the accuracy of the position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal of the information request source, the error range being provided to a server device that determines at least the accuracy of the position information acquisition unit; And a search target range search result obtained by searching for a search target serving as a guide for selecting an area specifying the location for each predetermined search range in a region near the point indicated by the position information. Acquiring means, when the error range is within a range allowed to specify a current position necessary for searching for the position-related information estimated based on the range search result, using the position information First selecting means for selecting a first procedure for specifying the current position capable of specifying the current position, and the obtained error range is included in the range search result. The second position for specifying the current position without using the position information when the current position required to search for the position-related information to be estimated is beyond a range allowed to be specified. Second selecting means for selecting the procedure described above, and when the current location is specified according to the first procedure or the second procedure, the location-related information related to the current location is transmitted to the information requesting portable communication terminal. An information providing device, comprising: an information providing unit to provide. 6. The method according to claim 6, wherein said search range is an optimal number that is easily selectable from said mobile communication terminal based on a search count of said search target for each search range obtained as said range search result. 6. The information providing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein one of the first procedure and the second procedure is selected by comparing the selected search range with the error range. . 7. An accuracy information providing apparatus for providing, to an information providing apparatus for providing position-related information related to a current position of a mobile communication terminal, accuracy information on a position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal, Means for acquiring attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal accompanying the information request from the mobile communication terminal; and at least an error range of the position information as the accuracy of the position obtaining means of the mobile communication terminal of the information requesting source. An accuracy information providing apparatus comprising: means for obtaining the accuracy information; and means for providing the accuracy information obtained by the means to the information providing apparatus. 8. An accuracy information providing apparatus for providing, to an information providing apparatus for providing position-related information related to a current position of a mobile communication terminal, accuracy information about a position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal, Means for acquiring attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal accompanying the information request from the mobile communication terminal, and position information obtained by predetermined position information obtaining means for the mobile communication terminal; The error range of the position information as the accuracy of the position acquisition means of the mobile communication terminal of the information requesting source, and the area near the point indicated by the position information indicating a search target as a guide for selecting an area specifying the current position Means for obtaining, as accuracy information, a range search result of the search object obtained by performing search for each of predetermined search ranges, and the information providing apparatus And a means for providing accuracy information. 9. In response to an information request from a mobile communication terminal,
A program for causing a computer to execute a process for providing position-related information related to a current position of the mobile communication terminal, the program being provided when an information request from the mobile communication terminal is received. At least the attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal is obtained by a server device that determines at least the accuracy of the position information obtaining unit that obtains the position information of the mobile communication terminal predetermined for each mobile communication terminal. provides a process for acquiring the error range of the position information of the accuracy of the position acquiring means of at least the information requesting mobile communication terminal from the server device, the error range obtained by this acquisition unit, wherein When the current position required to search for the position-related information is within a range allowed to specify the current position, the position information is used to specify the current position. A process for selecting a first procedure for specifying the current position that is possible, and the acquired error range is allowed to specify a current position necessary for searching the position-related information. A process for selecting a second procedure for specifying the current position without using the position information when the current position is outside the range to be performed; and a current position according to the first procedure or the second procedure. And a process for providing the location-related information related to the current location to the mobile communication terminal that has requested the information when the computer is identified. 10. A program for causing a computer to execute a process for providing position-related information related to a current position of the mobile communication terminal in response to an information request from the mobile communication terminal, the program comprising: When an information request from the terminal is received, at least the attribute information such as the model of the mobile communication terminal to be acquired accompanying the information request and the location information acquired by the location information acquisition means predetermined for the mobile communication terminal. Location information
An error range of the position information as at least the accuracy of the position acquisition unit of the mobile communication terminal of the information requesting source from the server device; acquires said search range search result of the target obtained by searching every predetermined search range of the region near the point indicated by the search target the position information as a guide for selecting a specific regional and And a process for using the position information when the error range is within a range allowed to specify a current position necessary to search for the position-related information estimated based on the range search result. Processing for selecting a first procedure for specifying the current position capable of specifying the current position, and the obtained error range is determined based on the range search result. When the current position required to search the position-related information to be estimated exceeds a range allowed to specify the current position, the second position for specifying the current position without using the position information is used. And when the current position is specified according to the first procedure or the second procedure, providing the position-related information related to the current position to the portable communication terminal of the information request source For causing a computer to execute the processing for