JP2003022230A - Information distribution system and information terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information distribution system by which a user can acquire information without imposing any load related with communication costs and operations or the like on the user without using any telephone line or the like, and to provide an information terminal to be used for the system. SOLUTION: This information distribution system is provided with a digital data transmitting station 1 for transmitting digital data associated with position information and information terminal equipment 2 for receiving the transmitted digital data, and for selectively displaying the digital data associated with the preliminarily set position information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information distribution system for distributing position-dependent information and an information terminal device used in this system for receiving the above information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a system mainly using a public telephone line has been used to acquire position-dependent data. In this system, a method of information distribution is used, in which a terminal side makes a call to an information server via a telephone line, transmits its own position information, and acquires data via the telephone line. An example of such a system is Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
There is one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 00-10892.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional information distribution system utilizing the telephone line, when obtaining information, first, the operation of calling from the terminal (that is, accessing the information server) is performed by using the terminal. There is a problem that it is difficult for people (information recipients) to obtain information and it is complicated. Further, since the telephone line is used, there is a problem that the user incurs a communication fee for the telephone line each time the information is updated.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, and utilizes the broadcasting for an unspecified large number of people, in particular, the digital data broadcasting, and the above-mentioned digital data broadcasting is carried out by an information terminal which holds position information. Information delivery system and information terminal device used in this system, by receiving the message and selecting data depending on the position, without bothering the user of the terminal and suppressing the occurrence of communication cost The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information distribution system including: a digital data transmitting station for transmitting digital data associated with position information; and a digital data transmitting station for receiving the transmitted digital data. An information terminal device for selectively displaying digital data associated with preset position information.

An information terminal device according to a second aspect of the present invention is an information terminal device used in an information distribution system for distributing digital data associated with position information, and is transmitted from a digital data transmitting station. A receiving unit for receiving digital data associated with the positional information, a storage unit for storing preset positional information, and digital data associated with the positional information stored in the storage unit from the received digital data. A selection unit for selecting and a display unit for displaying the selected digital data are provided.

The information terminal device according to a third aspect of the present invention is such that the position information acquired from the GPS system or the mobile phone system is set in the storage section.

The information terminal device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is such that the position information input from the operation unit is set in the storage unit.

An information terminal device according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is provided with a second storage section for storing the selected digital data.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiment 1. Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the first embodiment.
It is a block diagram of the information distribution system concerning. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a digital data broadcasting transmitting station that distributes position-dependent information (for example, local weather information) by digital data broadcasting, and reference numeral 2 is an information terminal device that receives and displays the position-dependent information.

In the information terminal device 2, 21 is a receiving unit for receiving the data transmitted from the digital data broadcast transmitting station 1 via an antenna, and 22 is the receiving data from the position information stored in the position information storage medium 23 in advance. A selection unit for selection, 24 is a display unit for displaying the selected data, 25 is an operation unit for a terminal user to operate the terminal, 26
Is a control unit that controls each functional unit of the information terminal.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information distribution system according to the first embodiment. The terminal user selects a desired digital data broadcast through the operation unit 25 (step 1). The receiving unit 21 receives the selected digital data broadcast (step 2). The received data is sent to the selection unit 22, and the corresponding information is selected based on the position information stored and held in the position information storage medium 23 in advance (steps 3 and 4). The selected data is sent to the display unit 24 and displayed (step 5).

A so-called description language is used to describe the data of the digital data broadcast. This description language includes BML (Broadcast Markup Lang) used for BS digital broadcasting.
uage), BXML (Broadcast eXtensible Markup Languag) that incorporates a mechanism to set tags for each broadcast content
e) etc. are considered. The description language is a language in which a symbol called a tag is added to distinguish the contents of data. Data attributes (properties and meanings of the data itself) can be set in the tag portion that constitutes this description language. Therefore, this tag makes it possible to associate data with attributes. For example, a tag can have information on the position of data as an attribute.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the meteorological data described in the above description language. "<" In the figure
The tags are surrounded by and ">". Tag <
Concrete meteorological data is described in the part sandwiched between the weather> and the tag </ weather>. Further, each meteorological data is described by being classified into data for each area. For example, “<Kobe> 6:00 to 9:00, clear and cloudy </ Kobe>” is “6:00 to 9:” in the “Kobe” area.
Up to 00, it means that the weather is "clear and then cloudy". In other words, tag <Kobe> and tag </ Kobe>
Indicates that the data sandwiched between and is the Kobe area meteorological data. As described above, in the description language, the attribute of data can be expressed by the tag. Further, as shown in the example, a tag may be multiply provided to form a hierarchical data structure.

The selection unit 22 selects desired data based on the information of the tag portion in this description language. For example, if “Kobe” is recorded as the position information in the position information storage medium 23, the selecting unit 22 selects the meteorological data in which “Kobe” is described in the tag portion and displays it on the display unit 24. It will be.

Since the information delivery system according to the invention of the first embodiment is configured as described above, the terminal operator can obtain desired information without inputting his / her position information one by one. It becomes possible to receive information distribution. Further, the information terminal device does not need a transmission function, and only needs to have a digital broadcast reception function.

Embodiment 2. Next, a second embodiment will be described in which an information terminal having a function of acquiring and updating its own position information such as a GPS or PHS terminal is used as the information terminal. FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are block diagrams of the information distribution system according to the second embodiment. The digital data broadcasting transmitting station is omitted. In the figure,
The position information stored in the position information recording medium 23 is GPS
(FIG. 4 (a)) or PHS terminal (FIG. 4 (b)) and the like, and the sequential update is performed. In this case, since it is necessary to convert the position information from GPS or the like into a description language used for digital data broadcasting, the position information recording medium 23 has a function of converting the position information. The selection unit 22 changes the selection range of the received data according to the update of the position information.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information distribution system according to the second embodiment. The operations from steps 1 to 5 are the same as in the case of FIG. 2 is different from the case of FIG.
The difference is that the position information acquired from the terminal is sent to the position information storage medium 23.

Since the information distribution system according to the second embodiment of the present invention is configured as described above, since the position of the information distribution system can be known through the GPS satellite and the PHS system, the terminal user can move the terminal. It becomes possible to use it.

Embodiment 3. Next, a third embodiment in which an information terminal having a function of allowing a terminal user to input and update position information is used as the information terminal will be described. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the information distribution system according to the third embodiment. As shown in the figure, the terminal user operates the operation unit 25 with respect to the information terminal.
The position information held by the position information recording medium 23 is input and updated via. In this case, a place name, an address, a postal code, a latitude and longitude, etc. can be considered as the input position information, but since it is necessary to convert these position information into a description language used for digital data broadcasting, the position information recording medium 23 Has a function of converting position information. The selection unit 22 changes the selection range of the received data according to the update of the position information.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information distribution system according to the third embodiment. The operations from steps 1 to 5 are the same as in the case of FIG. This is different from the case of FIG. 2 in that the information terminal user inputs the position information into the position information storage medium in step 7.

The information delivery system according to the invention of the third embodiment is configured as described above, and the terminal user can use the user even if the terminal cannot automatically acquire or update the position information. Since the user can set the position information by himself / herself from the operation unit, it can be used flexibly. Also, data at any position can be acquired.

Fourth Embodiment Next, a fourth embodiment in which position-dependent information is acquired using an information terminal equipped with a storage medium that holds selected data will be described. Figure 8
9 is a block diagram of an information terminal according to Embodiment 4. FIG. In the figure, 27 is a storage medium for holding the information selected by the selection unit 22.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information distribution system according to the fourth embodiment. The terminal user selects a digital data broadcast received through the operation unit 25 (step 1). The receiver 21 receives the selected digital data broadcast (step 2). The received data is sent to the selection unit 22, and corresponding information is selected based on the position information stored in the position information storage medium 23 in advance (steps 3 and 4). The selected data is the selected data storage medium 27.
And held (step 8). In response to a display request from the terminal user (step 9), the selected data storage medium 27
Is sent to the display unit 24 and displayed (step 5).

Since the information delivery system according to the invention of the fourth embodiment is configured as described above, since the information terminal can always receive the digital data broadcast and update the data, It is possible to keep the data to be updated at all times.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to receive position-dependent information without complicated operations. Also, there is no cost to obtain information.

Therefore, the terminal user can eliminate the operation for receiving the information distribution.

Further, in the present invention, the GPS is used to input the position information.
Receives radio waves from satellites and acquires position information, or P
It is shown that a function of acquiring own location information of an HS terminal or the like is added. As a result, even if the terminal position moves, the position information is automatically updated and it can be used flexibly.

Further, according to the present invention, it is shown that the position information input method allows the user to input the position information. As a result, if the position information is not automatically updated during operation for some reason, it is possible to obtain information on an auxiliary or arbitrary location.

Further, the information terminal according to the present invention can be provided with a storage medium for holding the selected data. With this, it is possible to display the image according to the user's need.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the operation of the information distribution system according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of broadcast data used in the information distribution system according to the first embodiment.

4A and 4B are configuration diagrams of an information distribution system according to a second embodiment, where FIG. 4A shows a case of using GPS and FIG. 4B shows a case of using PHS.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the operation of the information distribution system according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of an information distribution system according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the operation of the information distribution system according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of an information distribution system according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the operation of the information distribution system according to the fourth embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 digital data broadcasting transmitting station, 2 information terminal device,
21 reception unit, 22 selection unit, 23 position information storage medium, 24 display unit, 25 operation unit, 26 control unit, 27 GPS reception unit, 28 selection data medium medium, 3PHS terminal.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04Q 7/20 H04Q 7/04 Z F term (reference) 5K024 AA05 AA76 CC11 FF03 FF04 GG03 GG10 5K027 AA11 BB02 CC08 FF22 5K067 AA34 BB04 EE02 EE07 EE10 FF01 FF31 JJ52 JJ56 JJ65 5K101 KK02 KK16 LL12 NN18 NN21

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A digital data transmitting station for transmitting digital data associated with position information, and an information terminal for receiving the transmitted digital data and selectively displaying digital data associated with preset position information. An information distribution system comprising a device. 2. An information terminal device used in an information distribution system for distributing digital data associated with position information, the receiving unit receiving digital data associated with position information transmitted from a digital data transmitting station. , A storage unit that stores preset position information,
An information terminal comprising: a selection unit that selects digital data associated with the position information stored in the storage unit from the received digital data; and a display unit that displays the selected digital data. apparatus. 3. The information terminal device according to claim 2, wherein position information acquired from a GPS system or a mobile phone system is set in the storage unit. 4. The information terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the position information input from the operation unit is set in the storage unit. 5. The information terminal device according to claim 2, further comprising a second storage unit that stores the selected digital data.