JP2002230445A - Information rental method and rental system using satellite communication - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem in a conventional case of a reception-side terminal device being expensive before or a user taking trouble to rent and return a rental production at a rental store and incurring of cost for setting up the rental shop and employing store clerks. SOLUTION: The user 10 sends rental request data, including the production number and the rental period of a rental production, the specific key of STB(set top box) 12 from a personal computer 11 or the STB 12 to a rental service center 31 via the Internet 20. The rental service center 31 generates a distribution schedule, according to the received rental request data and sends rental data including the information data of the rental production, the specific key and rental period to the terminal device via a communication satellite 40 according to the distribution schedule. The terminal device receives and stores the rental data, with the matching specific key in a storage device and the user reads them out thereafter at one's favorite time to appreciate the requested rental production.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information rental method and a rental system using satellite communication, and more particularly to an information rental method and rental using satellite communication in which a rental company rents rental information requested by a user. About the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There has been known an information providing service system for providing information having a large amount of information such as a movie or music to a plurality of terminal devices (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-272577).
No.). In this conventional information service system,
In the information terminal device, a plurality of information and its time management information transmitted from the information supply device using a satellite line are received by the receiving means and stored in the storage means, and are stored in the storage means based on the time management information. In this configuration, reading of a plurality of pieces of information is controlled by a control unit.

In this conventional information providing service system, charging can be easily performed by charging information for appreciating information such as a movie or music based on the above-mentioned time management information for reading information that has exceeded the expiration date. It is like that.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional information providing service system, the purpose is to facilitate charging, and a rental system such as a member service in which a credit card settlement can be set in advance. Not applicable to Further, the above information providing service system is not a rental system that provides information requested from a plurality of terminal devices, but an information supply device unilaterally transmits a plurality of information together with time management information. It does not mention at all how to efficiently distribute the information requested from the terminal device.

[0005] On the other hand, a conventional rental system in which a rental company rents image information of movies and other programs requested by the user, audio information such as music, game information and other various types of information, the rental information of the rental works out of the various types of information described above. Recording media (video cassette, CD,
The user has to go to a rental shop to borrow a CD-ROM, a DVD, etc.), and after reproducing and using the borrowed recording medium, the user has to go to the rental shop again and return the recording medium, which is troublesome for the user. Costly and inconvenient.

[0006] Also, for the rental company side, as many rental shops as possible are installed at the nearest location of the user in consideration of user's convenience, etc., rental work at the rental shop, return work, package of work, etc. It is necessary to hire many clerks for organizing and displaying work, and there is a problem that huge costs such as shop construction costs, maintenance costs, and personnel costs are required.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above points,
An object of the present invention is to provide an information rental method and a rental system using satellite communication that can efficiently distribute information data of rental works requested from a large number of terminal devices.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an information rental method and a rental system using satellite communication which can improve user convenience.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an information rental method and a rental system using satellite communication, which can significantly reduce the cost required for rental by a rental company.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, an information rental method using satellite communication according to the present invention is provided in a communication system in which a plurality of terminal devices can be connected to a rental service center via a communication network. First, any terminal device among a plurality of terminal devices transmits rental request data for requesting rental of a desired rental work to a rental service center via a communication network.
And a second step in which the rental service center creates a distribution schedule based on the rental request data collected from the plurality of terminal devices via the communication network. Rental data including identification information uniquely assigned to the source terminal device, information data of a desired rental work, and rental expiration information is distributed to a plurality of terminal devices using a communication satellite line. A fourth step in which the plurality of terminal devices collate whether or not the identification information in the received rental data matches the unique identification information which the terminal device has in advance; and Information on the rental work received by the terminal device that originated the rental request data and obtained a matching result Characterized in that it comprises a fifth step of storing the chromatography data and rental term information into the storage device.

In order to achieve the above object, a rental system according to the present invention comprises a plurality of terminal devices capable of transmitting rental request data to a rental service center via a communication network; A rental system capable of distributing rental data to a terminal device via a communication satellite, wherein the plurality of terminal devices transmit rental request data for requesting rental of a desired rental work to a rental service center via a communication network. Transmitting means for receiving, rental means for receiving rental data distributed via a communication satellite, a storage device capable of storing and reading data, and the rental data received by the receiving means having the identification information in the rental data and the Is checked to see if it matches the unique identification information that it has in advance. Only when a result is obtained, a control means for storing information data of the rental work in the received rental data and rental expiration date information in a storage device, and the rental service center communicates from a plurality of terminal devices. Schedule creation means for creating a distribution schedule based on the rental request data collected via the network, identification information uniquely assigned to the terminal device that originated the rental request data according to the distribution schedule, and information on the desired rental work A distribution means for distributing rental data including data and rental expiration information to a plurality of terminal devices using a communication satellite line is provided.

In the information rental method and the rental system of the present invention, the terminal device transmits rental request data for requesting rental of a desired rental work to the rental service center, and the rental service center creates a distribution schedule according to the request. Then, the desired rental work is transmitted to the requesting terminal device via the communication satellite line, so that the user can acquire the information data of the desired rental work without going to the rental shop. Installation, hiring clerks to rent / return rental works, display rental works /
No need for organization work.

Further, according to the present invention, only a storage device having a capacity capable of storing at least information data of a rental work and information of a rental expiration date using a communication satellite line is provided.
You can get information on rental works.

In order to achieve the above object, the rental method according to the present invention further comprises a sixth step in which the terminal device as the source of the rental request data examines the rental expiration information stored in the storage device at regular time intervals; When it is detected by the sixth step that the information data of the rental work whose expiration date indicated by the rental expiration date information has been stored in the storage device, the information data of the rental work is deleted from the storage device. And a step.

In order to achieve the above object, in the rental system according to the present invention, the terminal device checks the rental expiration information stored in the storage device at predetermined time intervals, and determines whether or not the rental expiration date indicated by the rental expiration information has passed. When it is detected that the information data of the work is stored in the storage device,
There is further provided information data deleting means for deleting the information data of the rental work from the storage device.

In the information rental method and the rental system of the present invention, when it is detected that the information data of the rental work whose expiration date indicated by the rental expiration information is stored in the storage device, the rental work of the rental work is detected. Since the information data is deleted from the storage device, it is not necessary for the user of the terminal device to return the rental work to the rental service center.

According to the method of the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, in the second step, the rental service center uses the same rental work data based on rental request data collected from a plurality of terminal devices via a communication network. It is characterized in that a distribution schedule for collectively distributing as one rental data for each is created. Further, in the method of the present invention, in the above-mentioned second step, rental data combined for each of the same rental works is
It is characterized in that a distribution schedule for preferentially distributing rental works with a high rental request is created.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, according to the method of the present invention, an arbitrary terminal device may include a request for rental of a desired rental work in the first step, the rental request data including a reception deadline, and a communication network. When the rental service center creates a distribution schedule in the second step, and the rental work information data has a capacity that cannot be distributed within the reception deadline, the rental work information is transmitted. It is characterized in that a distribution schedule is created by cutting distribution of data to the terminal device that is the source of the rental request data.

[0019]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a schematic system configuration diagram of an embodiment of a rental system according to the present invention. In the figure, a rental system includes a plurality of terminal devices, a rental service center 31, the Internet 20 as an example of a communication network connecting lines between them,
It comprises a communication satellite 40 for delivering rental information to a plurality of terminal devices.

In FIG. 1, for convenience of illustration, only one terminal device is shown as a representative, and the terminal device is a user 1
0 operates a personal computer (hereinafter also referred to as a personal computer) 11, a device called a set-top box (hereinafter also referred to as an STB) 12, and a television receiver (hereinafter also referred to as a TV) 13 connected to the STB 12.
And a satellite antenna 14. In addition, STB12 is
This device controls the input of signals from satellites, CATV signals, and the like, and the output to television receivers, VTRs, and the like.

The rental service center 31 collects rental information requests from a large number of terminal devices, and edits a program that determines the order of distribution based on those requests. The rental service center 31 selects information to be rented from the work database 32 and distributes the selected rental information to the requesting terminal device via the communication satellite 40. In addition, STB12 is not only for satellite broadcasting, but also for CA.
An interactive service can be performed on the TV 13 via the TV or the Internet. The service center 31 has a website 33 as described later.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a main part of the terminal device. In the figure, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. In FIG. 2, the storage device 15 stores rented information and is read by the STB 12 at any time. The audio signal output from the STB 12 is subjected to predetermined processing by the stereo device 16 and is emitted by the speakers 17a and 17b.

This terminal device has a configuration capable of receiving rental data from the communication satellite 40, and does not need to be a configuration capable of receiving satellite broadcasting. The storage capacity of the storage device 15 can store information data of rented works. It may be of a small capacity. Further, in the satellite broadcast receiving apparatus, it is necessary for a human to manually select necessary data, but in this terminal apparatus, there is a difference that unnecessary data is automatically rejected. In FIG. 2, the personal computer 11 is not shown.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.
This will be described in detail with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 2, an explanatory diagram of an example of the rental request method of FIG. 3, and an explanatory diagram of a procedure of an embodiment of the service center of FIG.

First, a user contracts with a rental agent to acquire a user ID. The rental fee is contracted to be deducted from the user's credit card financial account. For this reason, information for charging is not required in the distributed information. The STB 12 and the satellite antenna 14 can be borrowed from a rental company at the time of a rental contract.

When the user wants to rent an arbitrary work at any time after the rental contract, as shown in FIG. 3, the service is provided by the service center 31 from the personal computer 11 or the STB 12 using the Internet 20. The user wants to rent from the rentable work information transmitted to the website 33 and transmitted from the website 33 and displayed on the screen of the personal computer 11 or the screen of the TV 13 by the STB 12 as shown in FIG. A work is selected, and rental conditions (a rental period, a reception deadline indicating that the reception is unnecessary if the reception is not possible by a certain number of days) are entered, and a rental request is registered.

Thus, the personal computer 11 or the STB 12
The rental request data 50 for requesting the rental of a desired rental work is transmitted to a website 33 provided by the service center 31 via the Internet 20. The rental request data 50 includes a user ID, STB12
, A work number to be rented, a rental period, a reception deadline, and the like.

The rental service center 31 collects rental request data 50 from a plurality of terminal devices via the website 33 and creates a distribution schedule according to the procedure shown in FIG. A closing time is set, and a distribution schedule is created between the rental request data collected so far and the next closing time.

That is, in FIG. 4, the rental service center 31 first collects rental request data from a plurality of terminal devices (users or customers), sorts them by rental request work, and requests one of the same works. (Step S1). This is because a plurality of terminal devices can simultaneously receive the same work in one delivery. continue,
Rental service center 31
The work is rearranged in the order of the works with the largest number of applicants, and the work with the largest number of applicants is given higher priority (step S2).

Next, the rental service center 31 refers to the work database (DB) 32 for each work, checks the capacity of each work, checks the time required for delivery of each work from the capacity, and determines a temporary delivery schedule. Is created (step S3).

Thus, for example, from 19:00 to 19:40
Work A is distributed to users 1, 2, and 3
A distribution schedule 61 is created such that the work B is distributed to the users 4 and 5 from 14:00 to 20:15. Finally, the rental service center 31
Of the rental request data from each terminal device (user, customer), the reception expiration date is checked, and the work is distributed to the terminal device that originated the rental request data that cannot be delivered within the reception expiration date (delivery is not in time). Is cut (step S4).

For example, when the time limit for receiving the rental request data from the user 4 indicates that the user wants to distribute by 20:00, the distribution schedule 61 indicates that the work B
Since the distribution of the work B to the user 4 takes until 20:15, the distribution of the work B cannot be performed by the reception deadline. Therefore, in this case, the distribution schedule 62 in which the distribution of the work B to the user 4 is cut off is finalized. To create.

The rental service center 31 distributes the rental data to each terminal device using the satellite line of the communication satellite 40 in accordance with the distribution schedule created in this way. Here, the format of the rental data is composed of a header and information data of the work to be rented, and the header has a key unique to the STB in the transmission destination terminal device, a rental term, and information information immediately following the header. The work number (or work name) is included.

As shown in FIG. 2, the rental data 70 transmitted from the rental service center 31 by the satellite antenna 14 via the communication satellite 40 is simultaneously received by all the terminal devices of this system. here,
The received rental data 70 includes information data 71 of work A addressed to users 1, 2 and 3 and having a rental period of 10/1,
The information data 72 of the work B for the rental period 10/2 addressed to the user 5 is sequentially received after 19:00.

However, as described above, the header received immediately before each piece of information data contains the ST in the destination terminal device.
B contains a unique key.
B12 is the ST obtained from the header of the received rental data.
The unique key B is compared with the unique key previously assigned to itself, and only when the two match, the information data following the header can be reproduced. The information data 71 cannot be received / reproduced by terminal devices of users other than the users 1, 2 and 3, and the information data 72 cannot be received / reproduced by terminal devices of users other than the user 5. .

Assuming that the STB 12 in the terminal device shown in FIG.
Can demodulate the information data 71 having the same STB-specific key, and temporarily store it in the storage device 15 together with the rental period information. Therefore, after the end of the accumulation, the user 1
At any time during the rental period, the information data of the work A is read from the storage device 15 at a time desired by the user.
The signal A is processed by the TB 12, and the obtained image signal is supplied to the TV 13 to display an image, while the audio signal obtained by the STB 12 is output from the speakers 17 a and 17 b through the stereo device 16, thereby producing the work A. You can appreciate it.

The STB 12 checks the rental period corresponding to the information data of the work stored in the storage device 15 at regular intervals, and deletes the information data of the work whose rental period has expired from the storage device 15. Therefore, for example, when the storage device 15 stores the information data 151 of the work Z with the rental period of 9/28 and the information data 152 of the work A with the rental period of 10/1, after September 28, The information data 151 is automatically deleted from the storage device 15 by the STB 12.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the user 10 can create his favorite work while staying at home.
When desired, a rental request is made to the rental service center 31 via the Internet 20, and the information data of the desired work distributed from the rental service center 31 is stored in the storage device 15 using a satellite line, and Since the information data of the work whose rental period has expired is automatically deleted from the storage device 15, there is no need for the user 10 to return the rented work. Can be greatly improved as compared with the related art.

Further, since the rental company can eliminate the cost of setting up the rental shop, the labor cost of the clerk of the rental shop, the education cost of the clerk, etc., the cost required for the rental business can be greatly reduced.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is not necessary to set up a rental shop, hire a clerk to rent / return rental works, and display / organize rental works, because users can obtain information on desired rental works without visiting the rental shop. Can significantly reduce the cost of the rental business for the rental business.

Further, according to the present invention, the information data of the rental work whose rental period has expired is automatically deleted from the storage device, so that the user does not have to go to the rental shop and return the rental work. Therefore, the convenience for the user can be greatly improved.

According to the present invention, the rental request data collected from a plurality of terminal devices is edited, and a distribution schedule for distributing the same rental work as one rental data collectively is created, and according to the distribution schedule. Since the information data of the rental work is distributed to a plurality of terminal devices, the information data of the rental work requested from many terminal devices can be efficiently distributed.

Further, according to the present invention, the identification information unique to the terminal device (such as an STB unique key) is collated, and only when the identification information matches, the received rental work information data can be stored in the storage device. Since it is configured to be possible, the charging of the rental work can be set in advance such as payment with a credit card, so that the charging mechanism can be eliminated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a main part of the terminal device in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a rental request method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a procedure of a service center according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 User 11 Personal computer (PC) 12 Set-top box (STB) 13 Television receiver (TV) 14 Satellite antenna 15 Storage device 16 Stereo device 17a, 17b Speaker 20 Internet 31 Rental service center 32 Work database (DB) 33 Service Center website 40 Communication satellite 50 Rental request data 70 Rental data

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Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A communication system in which a plurality of terminal devices can be connected to a rental service center via a communication network, wherein any one of the plurality of terminal devices is provided with a desired rental work via the communication network. A first step of transmitting rental request data requesting lending to the rental service center, based on the rental request data collected by the rental service center from the plurality of terminal devices via the communication network, Create distribution schedule 2
The rental service center includes, according to the distribution schedule, identification information uniquely assigned to the terminal device that is the source of the rental request data, information data of the desired rental work, and rental expiration information. A third step of distributing the rental data to the plurality of terminal devices using a communication satellite line, wherein the plurality of terminal devices have in advance the identification information in the received rental data and the self. A fourth step of collating whether or not the unique identification information matches, and a collation result of the match is obtained by the fourth step.
A fifth step in which the terminal device of the rental request data transmission source stores the received information data of the rental work and rental expiration date information in a storage device, wherein the fifth method comprises the steps of: . 2. A sixth step in which the rental request data transmission source terminal device checks the rental expiration information stored in the storage device at regular intervals, and the rental expiration information is determined by the sixth step. A step of deleting the information data of the rental work from the storage device when it is detected that the information data of the rental work whose expiration date has passed is stored in the storage device. The information rental method using satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the rental service center collectively collects one rental data for each same rental work based on the rental request data collected from the plurality of terminal devices via the communication network. 2. The information rental method using satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein a distribution schedule for distribution is created. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second step is to create a distribution schedule for distributing the rental data, which is grouped together for each of the same rental works, preferentially to rental works with a high rental request. Item 3. An information rental method using satellite communication according to item 3. 5. The arbitrary terminal device transmits to the rental service center via the communication network, including in the first step rental request data for requesting rental of a desired rental work, including a reception time limit. When the rental service center creates the distribution schedule in the second step, if the information data of the rental work has a capacity that cannot be distributed within the reception deadline, the rental of the information data of the rental work is performed. 2. The information rental method using satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein a distribution schedule in which distribution to the terminal device of the request data transmission source is cut is created. 6. A plurality of terminal devices can transmit rental request data to a rental service center via a communication network, and distribute the rental data from the rental service center to the plurality of terminal devices via a communication satellite. A possible rental system, wherein the plurality of terminal devices transmit, via the communication network, rental request data for requesting rental of a desired rental work to the rental service center; and Receiving means for receiving the rental data distributed by the receiving means, a storage device capable of storing and reading data, and the rental data received by the receiving means having the identification information in the rental data and its own in advance. Match with the unique identification information, and obtain the matching result Control means for storing information data of rental works and rental expiration date information in the received rental data in the storage device, wherein the rental service center is connected to the plurality of terminal devices via the communication network. Schedule creation means for creating a distribution schedule based on the collected rental request data, and identification information uniquely assigned to the terminal device that is the source of the rental request data according to the distribution schedule;
A rental system for distributing the rental data including the information data of the desired rental work and rental expiration information to the plurality of terminal devices using a line of the communication satellite. . 7. The terminal device checks the rental expiration information stored in the storage device at regular time intervals, and stores information data of the rental work that has passed the expiration date indicated by the rental expiration information in the storage device. 7. The rental system according to claim 6, further comprising information data deleting means for deleting information data of the rental work from the storage device when it is detected that the rental work is stored.