JP2003015940A - Data conversion system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data conversion system and a data conversion server by which a user has not to be aware of the execution of conversion operation by way of a proxy server. SOLUTION: The conversion server 105, that makes the nucleus of the system, converts data 103 provided by an information provider 101 according to information on the data 103 and information on a user terminal, and transmits converted data 107 to the user 109. Meanwhile, accounting is carried out regarding both of the information provider 101 and the user 109.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data conversion system, and more particularly to a data conversion system using a proxy server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, exchanges of mails using portable terminals have been widely performed. Special codes are used for pictograms used in mail texts, and these special codes are different for each communication carrier that handles each mobile terminal. Therefore, when the terminals for exchanging mail belong to different communication carriers, the pictograms from the other party cannot be displayed. The same thing can be said when the mail sent from the mobile terminal is received by a mailer on a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC). The conventional conversion server (personal computer communication / portal site) used for coping with this requires the user to be aware of its existence, and there is a significant problem in access transparency.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a data conversion system and a data conversion server in which a user does not need to be aware that conversion work is being performed by way of a proxy server. To do. It is another object of the present invention to provide a data conversion system and a data conversion server that realizes access transparency in an Internet environment that is essentially a distributed server environment and has great significance for user convenience.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, a data conversion system according to the first invention of the present application is a user terminal that requests data existing on a network, information regarding the user terminal, and / or information regarding the data. And a conversion server for transmitting the converted data, which has been converted according to the above, to the user terminal.

Further, the conversion server of the second invention of the present application is
Conversion of a data conversion system including a user terminal that requests data existing on a network and a conversion server that transmits converted data obtained by converting data according to information about the user terminal and / or information about the data to the user terminal A server, means for deriving information about data and information about the user terminal based on a data request signal from the user terminal, means for obtaining data based on information about the data, and based on information about the user terminal And means for converting data. Further, in the conversion server, means for determining whether or not to convert the data based on the identification information of the user terminal, and a charging process for the owner of the user terminal and / or the data provider when the data is converted. And means for executing.

[0006]

1 is a schematic diagram of a data conversion system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a first embodiment according to the present invention, and FIG. A second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 4 is a scenario chart of this system.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the basic concept of the data conversion system according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the data conversion server 105 that is the core of this system
Converts the data 103 provided by the information provider 101 according to the following parameters 1 to 3, and transmits the converted data 107 to the user 109. At this time, in the present embodiment, both the information provider 101 and the user 109 are charged.

The above parameters are shown below. Information about data 103 (data storage position, type, content, etc.) Information about information terminal of user 109 (terminal identification information, type of terminal, etc.) Here, the type of data is, in a broad sense, “data encoding method”. In the narrow sense, "File format (GI
F, PNG, MIDI, etc. " The information terminals include mobile phones and PCs. Further, the type of the terminal is, more specifically, the “type of terminal (type of browser software)”.

<Description of Operation of Data Conversion System> Next,
The operation of the present system will be described with reference to FIG. 4, which is a scenario flowchart of the present system. It is assumed that the data conversion server 105 includes the proxy processing unit 4201 to the charging processing unit 4207 shown in FIG. The details of the proxy processing unit 4201 to the charging processing unit 4207 will be described below.

1. The proxy processing unit 4201 receives a data acquisition request (S401) from the input user terminal 410. As a request, the user terminal 410 sends to the proxy processing unit 4201 information for determining the storage location (on the network) of the data that the user originally wants to acquire and the type of the user terminal 410. Processing a. The data originally desired by the user is acquired from the storage location via the network (S403). b. The acquired data and information regarding the user terminal 401 are output to the media conversion interface unit 4203. c. The converted data output by the media conversion interface unit 4203 is acquired.

The converted data is sent to the output user terminal 410 (S421). Communication interface is not specified, but HTTP of WWW Proxy defined by HTTP / 1.0
The minimum requirement is that processing can be applied to the request. It is desirable to use a unified interface with the maintainability media conversion interface unit 4203, and to realize it with a minimum number of steps even when different media conversion software is used. Assuming that the operating hardware and basic software are normal, it is desirable that the average failure time be 2400 hours or more.

2. Media conversion interface 4203 The data passed from the input proxy processing unit 4201 and the information regarding the user terminal 410 are input. Information that indicates the type of data (MIME content-type, etc.)
May be included. Processing a. The content analysis of the data requested by the user terminal 410 is performed (S405). If the data contains information indicating the type of data, use this information. If the information indicating the type of data is not included, depending on the content of the data,
Estimate the type of data. b. It is determined whether data conversion is necessary (S407). As a result, when the conversion is not necessary, the data is directly returned to the proxy processing unit 4201. c. As a result of S407, when it is determined that the data conversion is necessary, inquiry information is input to the charging processing unit 4207 and the output (conversion permission information / non-permission information) from the charging processing unit 4207 is waited. d. When the “non-permission information” is received from the billing processing unit 4207 in S415, the fact is notified to the proxy processing unit 4201 and the processing is ended. On the other hand, when the “permission information” is received from the billing processing unit 4207, the information regarding the data (here, the type of data) and the information regarding the user terminal 410 (here, the type of the user terminal).
Media conversion program 4 required for conversion with key
205 is specified. e. The media conversion program 4205 specified in d is activated (S417), and the data acquired in S403 is delivered. f. The converted data (converted data) is received from the media conversion program 4205. If necessary, the started media conversion program 4205 is terminated.

For the output proxy processing unit 4201,
Send the converted data. It is desirable to adopt an interface capable of efficient communication for the communication interface proxy processing unit 4201 and the media conversion program 4205. It is desirable that the interface with the maintainability media conversion program 4205 is unified and can be realized with a minimum number of steps even when different media conversion software is used. The media conversion program 4205 to be activated can be searched from the information on the database user terminal 410 and the information on the data. Mean failure time is 2400 hours or more, assuming that the operating hardware and basic software are normal.

3. Charge processing unit 4207 The information about the type of data delivered from the input media conversion interface unit 4203 and the information about the user terminal 410 are input. Processing a. The user information DB is searched using the information about the data and the information about the user terminal 401 as keys (S40).
9). b. It is determined whether to permit the data conversion process (S4).
11). In the case of disapproval, the disapproval information is transmitted to the media conversion interface unit 4203, and the process is ended. c. As a result of S411, when the data conversion process is permitted, the charging information is inserted into the user information DB (S413), and the permission information is transmitted to the media conversion interface unit 4203.

Information about output conversion permission / non-permission. Security Do not disclose the access procedure to the user information database to the outside. Provide the following ac in the database user information DB. a. Information about the user terminal. b. The type of data that users are allowed to convert. c. Query that has unit price for data conversion as a field. Mean failure time is 2400 hours or more, assuming that the operating hardware and basic software are normal.

4. Media conversion program 4205 The media conversion program unit 4205 is not a part developed in this system, but uses a known converter or the like. However, the conditions necessary to operate this system are listed below. At the time of testing, the media conversion program 4205 that matches the following must be used.

Input media conversion interface unit 4
The data from 203 is input. Process Perform conversion process. The details depend on each media conversion program 4205. The converted data is output to the output media conversion interface unit 4203. If an unrecoverable error occurs during software / interface data conversion, it is possible to notify the media conversion interface unit 4203. Assuming multiple processes / threads are running at the same time, it is advisable to keep in mind the naming method when creating temporary files.

Communication Interface It is desirable to adopt an interface capable of communicating with the media conversion interface unit 4203. Hardware limit It is desirable not to reserve more than 64MB of memory. Do not process the entered data as a script or executable binary. When using a fixed-length memory area, it is desirable to pay close attention to problems due to buffer overrun.

In the embodiment of the present invention, NTT DOCOMO Co., Ltd. and AE Co., Ltd. are used as examples of communication carriers, and the following network services provided by these communication carriers are used by users. A description will be given of the case when 109 is used. i-mode (Trademark registration number 4303252, NTT DoCoMo, Inc.) EZweb (Trademark registration number 4436614, Ayu Co., Ltd.)

<First Embodiment> FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment in which the data conversion server of the present invention is used as a content conversion server. As shown in the figure,
Content is provided from the ASP (Application Service Provider) 201 to the network 203 (i-mode), and the content is provided from the ASP 207 to the network 209 (Ez).
Content is provided to the Web). Conventionally, i-
The user 205 who uses the mode-compatible mobile terminal is the AS
The user provided with the content provided from P201 and the mobile terminal compatible with EzWeb can only browse and use the content provided from the ASP 207. However, through the data conversion server 105 according to the present invention, the user 205 receives the content provided from the ASP 207 to the network 209 (EzWeb), and the user 211 receives the content from the ASP 201 to the network 20.
It is possible to browse and use the contents provided to 3 (i-mode). The data conversion server 105 is a proxy server, and the users 205 and 211 can browse and use contents that could not be browsed and used conventionally only by selecting and setting the data conversion server 105 as a proxy server.

<Second Embodiment> FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment in which the data conversion server of the present invention is used as a character conversion server. As shown in FIG.
E-mail 301 sent from an ode-compatible mobile terminal
Is passed to the network 303 (i-mode) and Ez
E-mail 307 sent from a web-compatible mobile terminal
Is passed to the network 309 (EzWeb). Since the pictograms used by the mobile terminals of both carriers have special codes, the two companies could not display the letters of each other in the past. In addition, the electronic mail 301 (307) from these portable terminals could not be displayed when sent to a mailer such as a PC.

However, the data conversion server 1 according to the present invention
As a result, the user 305 can access the pictogram input on the EzWeb-compatible mobile terminal through i.
It can be displayed on a mobile terminal compatible with ode. Similarly, the user 311 can display the pictogram input on the i-mode compatible mobile terminal on the EzWeb compatible mobile terminal owned by the user 311. At this time, the data conversion server 105 selects one of the pictograms in the text of the transmitted electronic mail, which corresponds to the network of the destination terminal (303).
Alternatively, if there is one that matches the pictogram managed in 309), it is converted into a corresponding code. Further, when the destination is a mailer such as a PC, the target pictogram is converted into an image and transmitted as an HTML mail.

<Other Embodiments> In addition to the above embodiments, the data conversion system and data conversion server 105 of the present invention can be used as a system and a server as shown by a to c below. a. With the internationalization of character code conversion servers, the use of displaying homepages in various languages on information terminals is increasing. Like a normal PC environment, it can be displayed if the target language font can be downloaded, but it is difficult to download the language font on a mobile phone or mobile device.
However, through the data conversion server 105 according to the present invention, it can be displayed as an image of the target font. In this case, the following technical elements are required. IMT2000 level broadband font for each language b. Ringtone extraction server

A humming song or some kind of music is transmitted to the data conversion server 105 according to the present invention, a melody line is extracted by the data conversion server 105, and a ringtone (ring tone melody) corresponding to each user terminal (portable terminal belonging to each communication carrier) is transmitted. ) Supply data. In this case, the following technical elements are required. Melody line extraction software Ringtone conversion software

C. Business Card Character Recognition Server An image of a business card is created via a digital camera, FAX, or scanner, and the image is transmitted to the data conversion server 105 according to the present invention. The data conversion server 105 performs character recognition from the image, analyzes the information type, and stores it in the business card database. Further, the business card information can be accessed via a mobile terminal or the Web. in this case,
The following technical elements are required. Intelligent character recognition software Business card database Web application for business card management

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
The advantages according to the invention are listed. 1. The data (content) supply side can transmit information to users of multiple models with one data. 2. The user can browse a wide range of data regardless of the model. 3. The user only has to configure the proxy server once. 4. Hardware vendors can reduce the frequency of software updates. 5. Pictograms between different mobile terminals can be converted and displayed. 6. A mail including a pictogram can be sent to a user using a general mailer as an HTML mail including an image of the pictogram. 7. A home page written in each language can be easily browsed on a mobile terminal.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a data conversion system and a data conversion server in which the user does not need to be aware that the conversion work is being performed by way of the proxy server. it can. Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a data conversion system and a data conversion server that realizes access transparency in an Internet environment that is essentially a distributed server environment and has great significance for user convenience.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the basic concept of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a scenario flowchart of a data conversion system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 Information provider 103 data 105 Data conversion server 107 Converted data 109 users

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A user terminal requesting data existing on a network, and a conversion server for transmitting converted data obtained by converting the data according to the information related to the user terminal and / or the information related to the data to the user terminal. A data conversion system comprising: 2. A user terminal that requests data existing on a network, and a conversion server that transmits converted data obtained by converting the data according to the information related to the user terminal and / or the information related to the data to the user terminal. Which is a conversion server of a data conversion system comprising: means for deriving information about the data and information about the user terminal based on a data request signal from the user terminal; and based on the information about the data, A conversion server comprising: a unit for acquiring data; and a unit for converting the data based on information about the user terminal. 3. The conversion server according to claim 2, further comprising: a unit that determines whether to convert the data based on identification information of the user terminal; and an owner of the user terminal when the data is converted. And / or a means for executing a billing process for the data provider.