JP2003030245A - Device, system, method and program for reading information, server device, terminal device, method and program for providing information and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily read only needed information. SOLUTION: An information acquiring means 1c acquires information 3a from a server device 3. An information converting means 1d extracts a prescribed type of display information from the acquired information 3a and attaches link information to the display information to generate reading object information. The generated reading object information is stored in an information storing means 1e. If a display request designating optional reading object information is later received, a display controlling means 1f displays display information in the optional reading object information on a display device 1b. If a switch 1a is pressed down while the display information in the optional reading object information is displayed on the display device 1b, an input controlling means 1g outputs to the display controlling means 1f a display request designating other reading object information associated with the switch 1a in the link information in the reading object information including the display information during being displayed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information browsing device for browsing information published via a network,
Regarding an information browsing system, a server device, a terminal device, an information browsing method, an information providing method, an information browsing program, an information providing program, and a recording medium, an information browsing device, an information browsing system, and a server for browsing information by a particularly simple procedure The present invention relates to a device, a terminal device, an information browsing method, an information providing method, an information browsing program, an information providing program, and a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, the World Wide Web on the Internet
(Hereinafter, referred to as WWW), data of various contents are disclosed by an unspecified number of senders. The disclosed data is viewed, reproduced, and used on a daily basis by an unspecified number of people, not limited to those who have a particular technical interest or who are familiar with machine operation.

The contents of these published data are character information, still images, voices, moving images, and software programs. In many cases, browsing, reproduction, and use of these contents are performed by running WWW browser software (hereinafter, referred to as a browser) on a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as PC). Depending on the type of data, the browser may also activate software for data reproduction.

When the user wants to browse the content, he / she uses a user interface prepared on the PC,
Operation input is required. As a basic user interface of a PC, an operating system (operating system) of the PC such as operation of a mouse or a keyboard is used.
A user interface (hereinafter referred to as OS) is prepared. In addition, there is a user interface provided by the browser, such as pressing buttons displayed by the browser on the monitor screen through mouse operations or inputting characters from the keyboard into the blank spaces displayed by the browser for browsing content. Has been done. The user can browse, reproduce, and use the content by performing an operation that combines these two types of user interfaces.

[0005]

By the way, some contents on the Internet are updated many times a day. For example, news flash, weather forecast, stock price flash, and the like. These contents are very useful information when viewed in real time.

[0006] However, it is very troublesome to go to the PC many times a day and to browse the contents at home just to browse these contents. Moreover, in order to browse content using a PC,
P using the user interface prepared on the PC
It is premised that C can be operated. Therefore, those who cannot use the PC could not browse the content.

Moreover, only the character information that is frequently browsed and has a relatively small number of characters such as "today's weather and temperature", "xx company's current stock price", and "today's news headlines". Even if it is desired to obtain contents, using a PC having the ability to reproduce moving image information is wasteful in terms of power and time. In other words, if you try to output character data of a few characters to a few hundreds of characters, you can achieve a function that is not necessary for reproducing the target information, or a performance that is required for reproducing the target information. You'll be booting a device with extra functionality. A high-performance PC consumes a large amount of power and wastes power. Also, it takes time to initialize high-performance hardware and software. Therefore, a highly functional OS that can play various contents other than character data
There is a waste of time until the startup. Furthermore, a high-performance CPU and abundant memory are required in order to move a high-performance and complicated OS at a comfortable speed, resulting in cost waste.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an information browsing device, an information browsing system, a server device, a terminal device, an information browsing method, and information that can easily browse only necessary information. An object is to provide a providing method, an information browsing program, an information providing program, and a recording medium.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in an information browsing apparatus for browsing information, at least one switch, a display device, and
Information storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of link information indicating a correspondence relationship between the switch and other browsing object information, and display information of a predetermined type, and any information in the information storage means. When there is a display request specifying the browsing target information, display control means for displaying the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device, and the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information are displayed on the display device. When the switch is pressed while being displayed, a display request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information is issued to the display control means. An information browsing device is provided, which comprises: an input control unit for outputting.

According to such an information browsing apparatus, when there is a display request designating arbitrary browsing target information in the information storage means, the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device. When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, the other browsing target information associated with the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information is specified. The display request is output to the display control means. As a result, the display information in the other browsing target information is displayed on the display device.

In order to solve the above problems, in the second invention, an information browsing system for browsing information is provided.
An information storage unit for storing at least one piece of browsing target information, which is composed of link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged, and display information of a predetermined type; A server device including: an information disclosure unit that transmits the arbitrary browsing target information stored in the information storage unit in response to a browsing request that specifies arbitrary browsing target information; at least one switch; and a display. When the device and the arbitrary browsing target information are received from the information disclosure means of the server device, the other browsing target information is associated with the switch in accordance with the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, and the arbitrary Display control means for displaying the display information in the browsing target information on the display device, and the display in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device. When the switch is pressed while the broadcast is being displayed, the browsing request specifying other browsed information corresponding to the switch in the display control means,
An information browsing system, comprising: a terminal device having an input control means for outputting to the information disclosure means of the server device.

According to such an information browsing system, when the server device issues a browsing request designating arbitrary browsing target information in the information storage means, the information disclosure means makes the arbitrary information stored in the information storage means. The browsing target information of is transmitted. When the terminal device receives arbitrary browsing target information from the information disclosure means of the server device, the display control means
The other browse target information and the switch are associated with each other in accordance with the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browse target information.
Further, the display control means displays the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device. Here, if the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browse target information is displayed on the display device, the input control unit specifies other browse target information associated with the switch by the display control unit. The browse request is output to the information disclosure means of the server device.

In a third aspect of the invention, in order to solve the above problem, in a server device that provides information to a terminal device, link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged, and a predetermined type Information storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of display information, and the information storage means in response to a browsing request from the terminal device designating arbitrary browsing object information in the information storage means. The information disclosure means for transmitting the arbitrary browsing target information stored in the terminal device to the terminal device, the information acquisition means for acquiring the information via the network, and the predetermined type from the information acquired by the information acquisition means. Of the display information is extracted, the link information is added to the display information to generate the browsing target information, and the browsing target information is stored in the information storage means. Server apparatus is provided, characterized in that it comprises a means.

Such a server device functions as a server device of the information browsing system according to the second invention. In the fourth invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, browsing target information composed of link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged, and display information of a predetermined type is provided from a server device. In the terminal device for acquiring and browsing, when receiving arbitrary browsing target information from at least one switch, a display device, and the server device, other browsing targets are described according to a description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information. Display control means for associating information with the switch and displaying display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device, and display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device. When the switch is pressed in the meantime, the display control unit sends a browsing request that specifies other browsing target information associated with the switch. Terminal device and having an input control means for outputting to the server device, is provided.

Such a terminal device functions as a terminal device of the information browsing system according to the second invention. In the fifth invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, at least 1
In an information browsing method for browsing information using one switch and a display device, a plurality of link information indicating a correspondence relationship between the switch and other browsing target information and a predetermined type of display information are provided. Of the browsing target information in advance, and when there is a display request designating any previously stored browsing target information, the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and the display device When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed, the other browsing target information associated with the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information is designated. There is provided an information browsing method characterized by outputting a display request.

According to such an information browsing method, the same processing as the processing performed by the information browsing apparatus of the first invention is realized. In order to solve the above problems, a sixth aspect of the present invention is an information browsing method for browsing information using a server device and a terminal device having at least one switch and a display device. A plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of link information in which descriptions pointing to one other piece of browsing object information are arranged and display information of a predetermined type are stored in advance, and any browsing object information is stored in the server device. In response to the specified browsing request, the arbitrary browsing target information is transmitted, and when the terminal device receives the arbitrary browsing target information from the server device, description in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information Corresponding other browsing target information with the switch in order, and displaying the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device. In the terminal device, when the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device, other browsing target information associated with the switch is designated. There is provided an information browsing method characterized by outputting a browsing request to the server device.

According to such an information browsing method, the same processing as the processing carried out by the information browsing system of the second invention is realized. In a seventh aspect of the invention, in order to solve the above problems, in an information providing method for providing information to a terminal device, information is acquired via a network, and the display information of the predetermined type is extracted from the acquired information. Then, the link information in which the description pointing to at least one other browse target information is arranged is added to the display information to generate the browse target information, and the generated at least one browse target information is stored, In response to a browsing request from the terminal device that specifies the browsing target information, the arbitrary browsing target information is transmitted to the terminal device.

According to such an information providing method, the same processing as the processing carried out by the server device of the third invention is realized. In order to solve the above problems, in the eighth invention, at least one switch and a display device are used, and link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged and display information of a predetermined type are provided. In an information browsing method for acquiring and browsing configured browsing target information from a server device, when arbitrary browsing target information is received from the server device, other browsing target information is transferred according to a description order in link information in the arbitrary browsing target information. While associating the browsing target information with the switch, the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device. When the switch is pressed on, a browsing request specifying other browsing target information associated with the switch is issued to the server device. To, the information browsing method, characterized in that there is provided.

According to such an information browsing method, the same processing as the processing carried out by the terminal device of the fourth invention is realized. In the ninth invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems,
In an information browsing program for browsing information using at least one switch and a display device, a computer is provided with link information indicating a correspondence relationship between the switch and other browsing target information, and display information of a predetermined type. A plurality of browsing target information configured in advance, when there is a display request that specifies any browsing target information stored in advance, display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device,
There is provided an information browsing program characterized by executing a process of outputting a display request designating another browsing target information associated with the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information.

According to such an information browsing program,
The same process as the process performed by the information browsing apparatus of the first invention is realized on the computer. In order to solve the above problems, a tenth invention includes a server computer,
In an information browsing program for browsing information using a client computer having at least one switch and a display device, link information in which a description indicating at least one other browsing target information is arranged in the server computer. , A plurality of pieces of browsing object information configured with display information of a predetermined type are stored in advance, and the arbitrary browsing object information is transmitted in response to a browsing request specifying arbitrary browsing object information, and the client computer When the arbitrary browsing target information is received from the server computer, the other browsing target information is associated with the switch in accordance with the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, and the arbitrary browsing target information is stored. Display information on the display device, and When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, a browsing request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch is sent to the server computer. There is provided an information browsing program which is characterized in that the information is output to the device and the process is executed.

According to such an information browsing program,
The same processing as the processing performed by the information browsing system of the second invention is realized on the computer. In order to solve the above problems, in an eleventh invention, in an information providing program for providing information to a terminal device, a computer acquires information via a network, and display information of a predetermined type from the acquired information. Is extracted, the link information in which the description pointing at least one other browse target information is arranged is added to the display information to generate browse target information, and the plurality of generated browse target information is stored. Provided is an information providing program, characterized in that, in response to a browsing request from the terminal device having designated arbitrary browsing target information, the arbitrary browsing target information is transmitted to the terminal device, and processing is executed. .

According to such an information providing program,
A process similar to the process performed by the server device of the third invention is realized on the computer. In order to solve the above problems, the twelfth invention uses at least one switch and a display device, and provides link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other piece of browsing target information are arranged and display information of a predetermined type. In an information browsing program for acquiring and browsing configured browsing target information from a server device, when the computer receives arbitrary browsing target information from the server device, description in link information in the arbitrary browsing target information The other browsing target information is associated with the switch in order, and the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device. When the switch is pressed while the browsing request is made, the browsing request specifying the other browsing target information associated with the switch is performed. Serial output to the server apparatus, the information browsing program for causing to execute a process is provided.

According to such an information browsing program,
The same process as the process performed by the terminal device of the fourth invention is realized on the computer. In order to solve the above problems, in a thirteenth invention, in a computer-readable recording medium in which an information browsing program for browsing information using at least one switch and a display device is recorded, the computer is provided with the switch. A plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of link information indicating a correspondence relationship between the browsing target information and other browsing object information and display information of a predetermined type are stored in advance, and display is performed by designating arbitrary prestored browsing object information. When requested, the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device. Outputting a display request specifying other browsing target information associated with the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, processing Recording medium, characterized in that to execute is provided.

According to such a recording medium, the same processing as that executed by the information browsing apparatus of the first invention is realized on the computer. In a fourteenth invention, in order to solve the above problems, a computer-readable record recording an information browsing program for browsing information by using a server computer and a client computer having at least one switch and a display device. In the medium, the server computer is caused to store in advance a plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other piece of browsing object information are arranged, and display information of a predetermined type, In response to a browsing request specifying browsing target information, the arbitrary browsing target information stored in the information storage means is transmitted, and the client computer receives the arbitrary browsing target information from the server computer, According to the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, other Display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device while the display target information is associated with the switch, and display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device. When the switch is pressed while is displayed, a process of causing the server computer to output a browsing request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch is executed. A recording medium is provided.

According to such a recording medium, the same processing as the processing executed by the information browsing system of the second invention is realized on the computer. In order to solve the above problems, in a fifteenth invention, in a computer-readable recording medium in which an information providing program for providing information to a terminal device is recorded, the computer acquires the information via a network, and acquires the information. The display information of the predetermined type is extracted from the information, and the link information in which the description indicating at least one other piece of browse target information is arranged is added to the display information to generate the browse target information. Storing a plurality of browse target information, and transmitting a process of transmitting the arbitrary browse target information to the terminal device in response to a browse request from the terminal device specifying the arbitrary browse target information. A recording medium is provided.

According to such a recording medium, the same processing as the processing carried out by the server device of the third invention is realized on the computer. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a sixteenth invention uses at least one switch and a display device, and provides link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged and display information of a predetermined type. In a computer-readable recording medium in which an information browsing program for acquiring and browsing the configured browsing target information is recorded, when the computer receives arbitrary browsing target information from the server device, the arbitrary According to the description order in the link information in the browsing target information, the other browsing target information is associated with the switch, and the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and the display device is configured to display the arbitrary information. Corresponding to the switch when the switch is pressed while the display information in the browse target information is displayed The vignetting browsing request specifying the other viewing object information, and outputs to the server apparatus, a recording medium, characterized in that to execute processing is provided.

According to such a recording medium, the same processing as the processing carried out by the terminal device of the fourth invention is realized on the computer.

[0028]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention. The information browsing device 1 according to the present invention is connected to a server device 3 via a network 2. Network 2
Is, for example, the Internet. The server device 3 is
This is a content server that publishes information 3a. The information 3a is, for example, HTML (HyperText Markup Language).
ge) document. In the example of FIG. 1, the information 3a is a web page of weather information.

The information browsing device 1 has at least one switch 1a, a display device 1b, an information acquisition means 1c, an information conversion means 1d, an information storage means 1e, a display control means 1f and an input control means 1g.

The switch 1a is a fixed switch that is physically provided. For example, four switches 1a are provided so as to correspond to the upper, lower, left, and right directions. The display device 1b has a display screen suitable for displaying a predetermined type of display information. What is the display information of a predetermined type?
For example, character information. Here, the character information is information (including characters and symbols) handled by a character code in a computer.

The information acquisition means 1c acquires the information 3a from the server device 3 via the network 2. The information conversion unit 1d extracts display information of a predetermined type from the information 3a acquired by the information acquisition unit 1c, adds link information to the display information, and generates browsing target information. The link information is information indicating a correspondence relationship between the switch 1a and other browsing target information. The information conversion unit 1d stores the generated browsing target information in the information storage unit 1e.

The information storage means 1e stores a plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of link information and display information of a predetermined type. When there is a display request designating any browsing target information in the information storage unit 1e, the display control unit 1f displays the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device 1b.

When the switch 1a is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing object information is displayed on the display device 1b, the input control means 1g associates the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing object information. The display request specifying the other browsed information is output to the display control unit 1f.

According to the information browsing apparatus 1 having such a configuration, first, the information acquisition means 1c acquires the information 3a from the server apparatus 3. For example, the information acquisition means 1c
When a display request for arbitrary browsing target information stored in the information storage unit 1e is issued, the information that has generated the arbitrary browsing target information is acquired. Further, the information acquisition unit 1c may acquire the information, which is the generation source of each of the plurality of pieces of browsing target information stored in the information storage unit 1e, at a predetermined cycle.

Information 3a acquired by the information acquisition means 1c
The information conversion unit 1d extracts display information of a predetermined type and adds link information to the display information. As a result, the browsing target information is generated. For example, the information 3a shown in FIG. 1 includes image information of the sun and an umbrella in addition to the character information indicating the weather. In the information converting means 1d, the image information in the information 3a is removed,
Only textual information is extracted. At this time, it is not always necessary to extract all the character information, and only the character information that matches a specific condition (which can be specified by the number of paragraphs from the beginning) can be extracted. In the example of FIG. 1, only the character information regarding today's weather is extracted, and the character information regarding tomorrow's weather is not extracted. The generated browsing target information is stored in the information storage unit 1e.

After that, when there is a display request designating arbitrary browsing target information, the display control means 1f displays the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device 1b. For example, as shown in Fig. 1, "Today's weather
The text information "8 ° C" is displayed. When the switch 1a is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device 1b, the input control means 1g causes the switch 1a in the link information in the browsing target information including the display information being displayed. The display request specifying the other browsing target information associated with is output to the display control unit 1f. Then, the display control means 1f displays the display information in the other browsing target information on the display device 1b.

Further, the display control means 1f causes the information acquisition means 1c to acquire the latest information when specified by the display request, and displays a predetermined type included in the latest information acquired by the information acquisition means 1c. The information may be displayed on the display device 1b.

With this, the character information of the information 3a published on the network 2 can be easily browsed by a few simple switch operations. At this time, the information browsing device 1 does not need to handle moving images and high-quality image information, and thus can be realized with a very simple configuration.

Moreover, it is not necessary to use a high-performance PC in order to obtain simple character information with a small number of characters from the Internet, and it is possible to save waste in terms of time and power.

An embodiment will be described below by taking as an example the case of browsing an HTML document on the Internet using the apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In the following description of the embodiments, the server device will be simply called a server.

[First Embodiment] Various configurations are conceivable as an embodiment of the present invention. For example, a server that acquires content from the Internet and a terminal device for displaying text messages can be separated. In this case, the server and the terminal device are connected to each other via a home LAN (Local Area).
Network) and so on. If the server and the terminal device are separated, the size and weight of the terminal device can be reduced.

An example in which the server and the terminal device are separated will be described below as the first embodiment. Figure 2
It is a figure which shows the system structural example of 1st Embodiment. The server 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention and a plurality of terminal devices 200, 200a, ... Are connected by a LAN 21. The LAN 21 is, for example, Ethernet (registered trademark).

A router 40 is connected to the LAN 21. The router 40 is, for example, a DSL (Digital Subsc
It is a broadband router for connecting to the Internet 22 with a ribber line. The router 40 is connected to the Web servers 31, 32, ... Through the Internet 22.

The Web servers 31, 32, ... Provide the contents of the HTML document to the devices connected via the Internet 22. Although the server 100 and the plurality of terminal devices 200, 200a, ... Are on the same network in the example of FIG. 2, they may be connected to another network via a router or a bridge.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the server. The server 100 is a CPU (Central Process).
ing unit) 101 controls the entire apparatus.
The CPU 101 is provided with a ROM (Read
Only Memory) 102, RAM (Random Access Memory) 1
03 and the bridge 104 are connected.

The ROM 102 stores a basic program for operating the server 100 (a program for performing initialization processing at power-on, etc.). RAM
103 is a program to be executed by the CPU 101,
Data required for processing is temporarily stored.

The bridge 104 controls data transmission between the bus 109a on the CPU 101 side and the bus 109b to which peripheral devices are connected. The disk device 107 and the network interface 108 are connected to the bus 109b.

The disk device 107 stores an OS and application programs. The network interface 108 is connected to the LAN 21.
The network interface 108 includes a router 40, terminal devices 200, 200a, ...
Sends and receives data to and from.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration example of the terminal device. The entire terminal device 200 is controlled by the CPU 201. A ROM 202 and a RAM 203 are connected to the CPU 201 via a bus 208, and a display control circuit 204, an input interface 205, and a network interface 206 are connected to the CPU 201 via a bus 209.

A program to be executed by the CPU 201 is stored in the ROM 202. In RAM203,
Programs to be executed by the CPU 101 and data required for processing are temporarily stored.

The display control circuit 204 includes a display device 214.
Are connected. The display device 214 is, for example, a liquid crystal display device. The display control circuit 204 includes the CPU 201.
The character information is displayed on the display device 214 according to the command from.

A link switch 220 is connected to the input interface 205. Link switch 220
Is a switch for switching the information displayed on the display device 214. The input interface 205 transfers the input signal from the link switch 220 to the CPU 201.

The network interface 206 is an L
It is connected to AN21. The network interface 206 transmits / receives data to / from the server 100 via the LAN 21.

With the above hardware configuration,
The processing function of this embodiment can be realized. Figure 5
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of each device in the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, the server 100
Has an information acquisition unit 111, an information conversion unit 112, an information storage unit 113, and an information disclosure unit 114.

The information acquisition unit 111 is connected to the Web server 3 on the Internet 22 via the LAN 21 and the router 40.
, 32, ..., Web servers 31, 32,
Acquires the HTML document from.

The information conversion unit 112 includes a Web server 31,
The HTML document acquired from 32, ...
.., 200a, ... A document that can be handled by the terminal devices 200, 200a, ... Is H composed of link information and character information.
It is a TML document. The link information defines the association between the HTML documents stored in the information storage unit 113. The association between HTML documents will be described later.

The information storage unit 113 includes the HTML document converted by the information conversion unit 112 and the information conversion unit 11.
2 stores conversion rules used when converting information. H
The TML document is categorized and stored as, for example, “media and news”, “weather”, “business and economy”, “company”, and “stock price”.

The information disclosure unit 114 is the H obtained by the information acquisition unit 111 and converted by the information conversion unit 112.
The HTTP server is an HTTP server for publishing the TML document and the HTML document stored in the information storage unit on the LAN 21.
The information disclosure unit 114 includes terminal devices 200, 200a, ...
. And the HTTP protocol are communicated with each other, and the HTML documents requested by the terminal devices 200, 200a, ...
Send to a ...

The terminal device 200 includes a server communication unit 21.
1, HTML analysis unit 212, interface control unit 21
3, a display device 214, and a link switch 220.

The server-to-server communication section 211 communicates with the server 100 in accordance with the HTTP protocol, and the HTM
Get L document. The HTML analysis unit 212 divides the link information and the text in the acquired HTML document. HT
The ML analysis unit 212 sends the link information, which is the link information obtained by the division, and the character information forming the text, to the interface control unit 213.

The interface control unit 213 uses the HTML
The character information sent from the analysis unit 212 is sent to the display device 214. Further, the interface control unit 213 responds to the signal received from the link switch 220 by the HTML analysis unit 2
The link information sent from 12 is sent to the server communication unit 211.

The display device 214 displays the character information sent from the interface controller 213. Display device 21
For example, 4 can display characters within 1000 characters.

The link switch 220 is composed of a plurality of switches whose physical positions are always fixed regardless of the state of software. The link switch 220 fixedly corresponds to the order in which the link description appears in the link description section analyzed by the HTML analysis section 212 by the action of the interface control section 213.

In the first embodiment, the function of combining the display control means 1f and the input control means 1g shown in FIG. 1 is the HTML analysis section 212 and the interface control section 2
It is realized by 13 and.

Next, each H stored in the information storage unit 113
The structure of the TML document and the relational status of the HTML document will be described. FIG. 6 shows H published on the Web server.
It is a figure which shows an example of a TML document. This HTML document 3
00 is a page of weather information. In the example of FIG. 6, a today's weather column 301 and a tomorrow's weather column 302 are provided.

In the today's weather column 301, today's weather "fine" and temperature "18 ° C" are displayed. Further, an image 301a showing a clear sky is displayed. Tomorrow's weather column 302 displays tomorrow's weather “rain” and temperature “16 ° C.”. Also, an image 302a showing rain is displayed.

The HTML document shown in FIG. 6 is the information conversion unit 1.
Converted at 12. When the converted HTML document is displayed by a normal browser, it becomes as follows. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an HTML document whose format has been converted. Figure 7
Is an HTML document 310 stored in the information storage unit 113.
Is an example of when is displayed by a normal browser.

In the HTML document 310, four link objects 311 to 314 and character information 315 are displayed. The link objects 311 to 314 include descriptions regarding other HTML documents in the information storage unit 113 (for example, URL (Uniform Resource by anchor tag).
(Locator) designation), it is associated with another HTML document.

The link object 311 is a link object for returning to the above category. The link object 312 is a link object for advancing to the category below. The link object 313 is a link object for returning to the previous HTML document in the same category. The link object 314 is a link object for advancing to the next HTML document in the same category. In the present embodiment, each switch of the link switch 220 provided in the terminal device 200 is associated with the link objects 311 to 314.

The character information 315 is the HTML shown in FIG.
It is character information extracted from the document 300. In this example, the character information 315 “Today's weather, sunny temperature, 18 ° C.” is extracted and displayed.

Next, the relationship between the HTML documents stored in the information storage unit 113 will be described. Figure 8
[Fig. 3] is a schematic diagram showing an example of a relationship situation between HTML documents. In the example of FIG. 8, nine HTML documents 310a to 310a are included.
10i is classified into three categories A1 to A3. In FIG. 8, the relationships between the HTML documents 310a to 310i are indicated by arrows. The direction indicated by the arrow is the forward direction, and the direction opposite to the arrow is the return direction.

The upward arrow connecting the other categories in FIG. 8 corresponds to the "return category" link object 311 shown in FIG. A downward arrow connecting different categories corresponds to the "go to category" link object 312 shown in FIG. The arrow pointing to the left corresponds to the "return" link object 313 shown in FIG. The arrow pointing to the right corresponds to the "forward" link object 314 shown in FIG.

For example, assume that the HTML document 310d is currently displayed on the display device 214 of the terminal device 200. Here, when the link object 311 of “return to category” is designated by the operation input of the link switch 220, the HTML document 310 is displayed on the display device 214.
a is displayed. When the “advance category” link object 312 is designated by operating the link switch 220, the HTML document 310 is displayed on the display device 214.
g is displayed. When the "return" link object 313 is designated by the operation input of the link switch 220, the HTML document 310c is displayed on the display device 214. When the “advance” link object 314 is designated by the operation input of the link switch 220, the HTML document 310e is displayed on the display device 214.

Below, the link objects 311 to 314
The relational state between the and the HTML document is expressed as "" return "is linked to the HTML document". In this example, the "category advance" of the HTML document 310a and the HTML document 310b are both linked to the HTML document 310c, and the HTML documents 310c, 310d, 310 are linked.
e, 310f "return category" are all HTML documents 3
Linked to 10a.

In FIG. 8, the documents in the same row arranged side by side (hereinafter, documents in the same category) are "category advance" and
The category back "is always linked to a single document in the next category. By relating in this way,"
The HTML document at the beginning of each category can be displayed by pressing the "Category advance" or "Category return" switch once.Therefore, only the switches corresponding to "Category return" and "Category advance" It is possible to browse HTML documents without omission.

In the example shown in FIG. 8, when it comes to the rightmost document, it is written that it cannot go further to the right and the leftmost does not go further to the left. You may make it connect and may perform a periodic transition. Similarly, for the categories in the vertical direction, the bottom and the top may be connected to perform periodic transition.

By the way, in the case of the structure of FIG. 8, when the number of categories increases, it takes time and effort to go round all the categories. Further, the structure of FIG. 8 is not suitable for making categories hierarchical.

When the large categories are subdivided into small categories, and each of the small categories is further subdivided into smaller categories, the phenomena in the world can be easily summarized when hierarchically classified. Therefore, it may be preferable to link each HTML document hierarchically.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the relationship when HTML documents are hierarchically linked. In the example of FIG. 9, 1
The two HTML documents 320a to 320l are hierarchically related.

In the figure, the HTML document on the right side has a larger conceptual unit of category, and the HTML document from the left has a smaller conceptual unit of category. For example, HTML document 3
If 20c is a document related to sports, the HTML document 320d is a document related to baseball, and the HTML document 32d.
0g is a document related to soccer.

In this example, "return category" is linked to the HTML document indicating the category of the concept above the currently displayed HTML document. "Go to category"
Is linked to an HTML document indicating a category of a concept below the currently displayed HTML document. "Return"
Is linked to the previous (upper side in FIG. 9) HTML document in the category of the concept at the same level as the currently displayed HTML document. "Forward" means the HT currently displayed
It is linked to the next (lower side in FIG. 9) HTML document in the concept category at the same level as the ML document.

For example, when the link switch 220 corresponding to "return to category" is pressed while the HTML document 320g is displayed, the HTML document 320c is displayed. When the link switch 220 corresponding to "advance category" is pressed, the HTML document 320h is displayed. When the link switch 220 corresponding to "return" is pressed, the HTML document 320d is displayed. When the link switch 220 corresponding to "advance" is pressed, HTML
The document 320i is displayed.

By associating HTML documents with each other in such a structure, categories can be classified hierarchically. This is convenient when you want to search the target document by following the hierarchy.

The structure shown in FIG. 8 and the structure shown in FIG. 9 are not contradictory to each other, and another structure may be provided as a part of each structure. In the following description, the server 10
The HTML document stored in the information storage unit 113 of 0 is managed by the structure shown in FIG. 9 as it is, and the user uses the arbitrary registration function (applied in the second and third embodiments) described later. The HTML document arbitrarily registered by
It shall be managed by the structure of FIG.

Next, the operation of the system having the above configuration will be described. First, a process in which the server 100 acquires an HTML document from the Web servers 31, 32, ... And stores the HTML document will be described.

The information acquisition unit 111 of the server 100 is shown in FIG.
The HTML document 300 as shown in is acquired from the Web server 31, for example. The information acquisition unit 111 passes the acquired HTML document 300 to the information conversion unit 112. The information conversion unit 112 receives the HTM received from the information acquisition unit 111.
Only the character information is extracted from the L document, and the terminal devices 200, 2
00a, ... Converts to an HTML document in a format that can be handled. Then, the information conversion unit 112
Stores the converted HTML document in the information storage unit 113.

As can be seen from FIG. 7, the information conversion unit 11
The documents converted in 2 are the link objects 311 to 311.
14 and character information 315. Hereinafter, the information conversion processing in the information conversion unit 112 will be described separately for the generation processing of the description part (hereinafter referred to as link information) regarding the link objects 311 to 314 and the generation processing of the character information 315.

First, the link information generation process will be described. The information conversion unit 112 generates link information according to the structure of association between HTML documents defined in the information storage unit 113. The link information is the generated H
The content is determined depending on the position in the document structure in the information storage unit 113 where the TML document is stored. For example, if it is stored as the HTML document 310d shown in FIG. 8, the "return category" link object 31
1, the link description to the HTML document 310a is inserted, and the link description to the HTML document 310g is inserted as the "advance category" link object 312.
A link description to the HTML document 310c is inserted as a "return" link object 313, and a link description to the HTML document 310e is inserted as a "forward" link object 314.

Next, the process of generating the character information 315 in the information conversion unit 112 will be described. In the generation processing of the character information 315, there are a case where the character string included in the HTML document of the generation source is directly inserted as the character information and a case where the specification of the information acquisition program is inserted in order to always obtain the latest information. is there.

The information acquisition program is a program in which the processes executed by the information acquisition unit 111 and the information conversion unit 112 are described. The other device activates the information acquisition program to cause the information acquisition unit 111 and the information conversion unit 11 to operate.
Processing performed with 2 (acquisition and conversion of HTML documents)
Can be provided. That is, the execution request of the information acquisition program means a request to acquire the latest information of the HTML document.

When the character string included in the HTML document of the generation source is directly inserted as the character information, for example,
The character information extracted from the HTML document may be inserted in the area surrounded by the <P> tag and the </ P> tag.

When inserting the designation of the information acquisition program, for example, a CG prepared in advance in the server 100 is used.
Insert the link information to the I (Common Gateway Interface) program.

Here, the reason for acquiring the latest information via the server 100 will be described. The documents that can be stored in the server 100 are limited. In addition, it is very difficult for the server 100 to change a lot of information that changes in real time every time by itself. Therefore, from the HTML document stored in the information storage unit 113 of the server 100, the HTML document (H of the generation source) that the Web servers 31, 32, ... On the Internet have.
Web server 31, 32,
Need to get information from ...

However, the terminal devices 200, 200a in the server client system of the present embodiment,
.. have the ability to process only HTML documents of a specific format, so even if the HTML documents are acquired directly from the Web servers 31, 32, .. That is, even if the HTML document stored in the information storage unit 113 is linked with a normal <A> tag,
The terminal devices 200, 200a, ... Do not operate as expected. For example, when linked to the "advance" switch, the terminal devices 200, 200a, ... directly access the server on the Internet using the server communication unit 211 with the server 100 to obtain the target HTML document.
This document is generally a terminal device 200, 200a, ...
・ The format required by is not satisfied. Therefore, the display is disturbed or the original document cannot be displayed even if the "return" switch is pressed.

Therefore, regarding the latest HTML document,
It is necessary to perform conversion processing in the server 100. First
In the embodiment of the present invention, for example, <ILA
The YER> tag is used, the CGI program included in the information disclosure unit 114 is specified in the SRC attribute, and the parameters to be passed to the CGI program are also specified at the same time. Note that this CGI program is processed by the information acquisition unit 111 and the information conversion unit 112 (HTML, based on the instruction from the information disclosure unit 114).
This is a program for executing document acquisition and character information extraction in information conversion processing.

The HTML document is sent to the terminal device 200, 200.
If it is dedicated to a, ..., you can create your own tag or set an escape symbol etc. in the body to interpret it, but you can also browse it with a normal browser. Therefore, in this embodiment, the existing tag is used.

At this time, the HTTP server of the information disclosure unit 114 needs to be set to permit execution of the CGI program. Below, get the HTML document,
The processing procedure of the server 100 up to storage in the information storage unit 113 will be described.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the document acquisition processing in the server. Hereinafter, the process illustrated in FIG. 10 will be described in order of step number. [Step S11] The information acquisition unit 111 follows the operation input from the user and the like.
HTML documents are acquired from the Web servers 31, 32, .... In addition, the operation input to the server 100 is LAN2.
LAN from another PC (not shown) connected to 1
It can be done via 21. The information acquisition unit 111 passes the acquired HTML document to the information conversion unit 112.

[Step S12] The information conversion section 112
Predetermined character information is extracted from the HTML document received from the information acquisition unit 111. For example, according to a rule such as "from the fifth <p> tag to the next </ p>tag",
Extract character information. The extraction rule is stored in advance in the information storage unit 113.

[Step S13] The information converting section 112
An HTML document to be stored in the information storage unit 113 is generated. At this point, the generated HTML document has only an empty file.

[Step S14] The information conversion section 112
Insert the link information into the generated HTML document. The link information is determined by the position where the generated HTML document should be stored in the relationship between the HTML documents shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. The link information corresponds to the link objects 311 to 314 in FIG. 7.

[Step S15] The information conversion section 112
Determine whether it is real-time update information. Whether to use the real-time update information can be determined, for example, according to an operation input from the user. If it is real-time update information, the process proceeds to step S17. If it is not real-time update information, the process proceeds to step S16.

[Step S16] The information conversion section 112
The character information extracted in step S12 is inserted into the generated HTML document. Then, the process proceeds to step S18.

[Step S17] The information conversion section 112
Specify the information acquisition program in the generated HTML document,
Insert the parameters to be passed to the information acquisition program.
The information acquisition program is, for example, the information disclosure unit 114.
Is a CGI program managed by. The parameter is a location (for example, a URL) where the HTML document of the generation source is placed, designation information of character information to be extracted in the HTML document, or the like.

[Step S18] The information conversion section 112
The generated HTML document is stored in the information storage unit 113 as a part of the document structure in the information storage unit 113. In this way, by sequentially storing HTML documents, the terminal device 20
A structured document including a plurality of HTML documents that can be used for 0, 200a, ... Is built in the information storage unit 113.

The user of the terminal device 200 operates the link switch 220 to select the HTML document displayed on the display device 214 and browse any HTML document stored in the information storage unit 113. You can

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the external appearance of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 11, on the front surface of the terminal device 200,
Four link switches 221 to 224 that form the display device 214 and the link switch 220 are provided. The name of the link switch 221 is "category retreat",
The name of the link switch 222 is “category forward”, the name of the link switch 223 is “backward”, and the name of the link switch 224 is “forward”.

The link switch 220 shown in FIG.
Is a concept indicating an aggregate of a plurality of link switches 221 to 224, but in the following description, when referring to any one of the link switches 221 to 224, it will be referred to as a link switch 220.

A LAN cable 231 and a power cable 232 are connected to the terminal device 200. LA
The N cable 231 is connected to the LAN 21. The power cable 232 is an outlet (socket) for household power supply.
Connected to.

The display device 214 displays the character information of the HTML document stored in the information storage unit 113 of the server 100. FIG. 11 shows the HTML document 21 shown in FIG.
An example in which 0 is displayed on the terminal device 200 is displayed. In this example, the screen of the display device 214 displays “Today's weather, fine weather temperature, 18 ° C.”.

In the terminal device 200, the HTML analysis unit 212 deletes the part enclosed by the <A> tag with the HREF attribute in the HTML document, and removes the text of the text excluding the link information describing the link destination. The information and the link information are separately sent to the interface control unit 213. The interface control unit 213 sends only the text information of the text to the display device 214. Therefore, the link objects 311 to 311, which are displayed by a normal browser as shown in FIG.
No. 4 is not displayed on the display screen of the display device 214, and only the text information 215 of the text is displayed.

The four link switches 221 to 224 are
The link objects 311 to 31 shown in FIG. 7, respectively
It is fixedly associated with one of the four. The link switch 221 has a link object 3 of “category return”.
It is associated with 11. Link switch 222
Is associated with the link object 312 of “advance category”. The link switch 223 "returns"
Associated with the link object 313. The link switch 224 is associated with each “forward” link object 314.

The correspondence relationship between the link switches 221 to 224 and the link objects 311 to 324 is actually the interface control unit 213 and the information conversion unit 112.
It is defined by and. That is, in the interface control unit 213, the link switches 321 to 324
And the HTML document name in the HTML document (for example, URL enclosed by an anchor tag) are defined. In the information conversion unit 112, the correspondence relationship between the HTML document name and the link destination in the document structure in the information storage unit 113 is defined.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the correspondence between switches and link objects. FIG. 12 shows the correspondence relationships among “switch name”, “position of switch on housing”, “arrangement in interface control section”, and “arrangement in information conversion section”.

For the link switch 221 whose switch name is "category backward", "position of switch on housing" is "up" and "arrangement in interface control section" is "1".
"Th HTML document name", "Agreement in information conversion unit"
Is "return category".

For the link switch 222 whose switch name is "category advance", the "position of the switch on the housing" is "down" and the "arrangement in the interface control section" is "2".
"Th HTML document name", "Agreement in information conversion unit"
Is "go to category".

For the link switch 223 whose switch name is "reverse", the "position of the switch on the housing" is "left",
"Arrangement at interface control unit" is "3rd H
“TML document name” and “arrangement in information conversion unit” are “return”.

In the link switch 224 whose switch name is "forward", the "position of the switch on the housing" is "right",
"Agreement at interface control unit" is "4th H
“TML document name” and “arrangement in information conversion unit” are “advance”.

In accordance with such a definition, the information conversion section 11
The conversion of the HTML document in 2 and the association in the interface control unit 213 are performed. That is, FIG.
According to the definition shown in FIG. 2, it is also defined where the four HTML document names appearing in the HTML document are located at the top, bottom, left, and right of the relational diagram between the HTML documents shown in FIGS.

For example, when creating the HTML document for the terminal device 200, the information converting section 112 creates the anchor tag <A> according to this designation. From the correspondence relationship shown in FIG. 12, it can be seen that, for example, the link switch 221 is linked to the HTML document corresponding to “return category”. That is, the position of the switch is associated with the direction in the logical space shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 by the arrangement of the interface control unit 213 and the information conversion unit 112, and the physically touchable switch and the HTML document are The link relationship of is created.

The link information sent from the HTML analysis unit 212 to the interface control unit 213 is the HTML document name linked by the first <A> tag and the second <A> tag.
It is a collection of information in which the order in which <A> tags appear and the name of the HTML document to which the tag is linked are paired, such as the HTML document name to which the A> tag is linked. Then, the link switches 221 to 2 located on the upper front of the main body
When 24 is pressed, the interface control unit 213 sends the HTML document name corresponding to each link switch to the server communication unit 211 to acquire the document.

Here, the correspondence between the link switch and the HTML document name is that when the link switch 221 is pressed, the first HTML document name in the link information is the link switch 2
22 is the second, link switch 223 is the third, and link switch 224 is the fourth.

The display device 214 shown in FIG. 11 can display, for example, 20 characters × 3 lines of characters. Note that the display portion of the display device 214 may be wider. Two
If 0 characters x 10 lines = about 200 characters can be displayed, a news summary or the like can be displayed at once.

On the contrary, the display section of the display device 214 may be arranged in one line. In that case, the characters that cannot be displayed at one time are displayed by scrolling. You may make it scroll automatically, or link switch 2 in the left-right direction.
23 and 224 may be used to control scrolling.
In this case, one switch comes to perform two operations having different meanings, but the right link switch 224
Press to scroll the characters to the left, and after the scrolling is complete and the rightmost character is displayed, if the right link switch 223 is further pressed, the original "link forward" operation of the link switch is performed. To do. As a result, the movement becomes a natural movement that is natural with respect to the relationship in the logical space of FIGS. 8 and 9, and the intelligibility of the operation, which is the object of the present invention, is not lost.

Further, although the number of link switches is four in this embodiment, it may be two or six. By pushing the link switch, the logical space shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 is moved. Therefore, when there are two link switches, a pair of link switches can move in a one-dimensional space. When there are four link switches, two pairs of link switches can move in a two-dimensional space. When the number of link switches is 6, three pairs of link switches enable movement in a three-dimensional space.

The world in which we live is spatially a three-dimensional space. For this reason, there are three-dimensional spaces that ordinary people can easily understand as a logical space in their heads.
Therefore, in consideration of the operability of the user, it is desirable that the three-dimensional space is accommodated, that is, the number of link switches is within six (three pairs of link switches).

In the example of FIG. 11, the link switch 2
Reference numerals 21 to 224 are ordinary push switches, but any shape may be used as long as it is possible to image the forward direction and the reverse direction with respect to one degree of freedom.

For example, a rotary switch may be used as the link switch for the terminal device 200a. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a terminal device having a rotary lick switch. Terminal device 200 shown in FIG.
The display device 214a and the two link switches 221a and 222a are provided on the front surface of a. The link switch 221a corresponds to "return to category". The link switch 222a corresponds to "advance category".

A rotary link switch 223a is provided on the right side surface of the terminal device 200a. The rotary link switch 223a works like the link switch 223 corresponding to "return" when turned to the right, and the same as the link switch 224 corresponding to "forward" when turned to the left.

The browsing procedure in the terminal device when the link switch is pressed will be described below. Figure 1
4 is a flowchart showing a browsing processing procedure in the terminal device. The processing illustrated in FIG. 14 will be described below in order of step number.

[Step S21] The interface control section 213 receives an operation input of the link switch 220. Then, the interface control unit 213 passes the HTML document name corresponding to the pressed link switch to the server communication unit 211.

[Step S22] Server-to-server communication section 211
Is the HTML passed from the interface control unit 213.
The server 1 sends an acquisition request for the HTML document corresponding to the document name.
To 00.

[Step S23] Server-to-server communication section 211
Acquires the HTML document sent from the server 100 in response to the HTML document acquisition request sent in step S22. The server communication unit 211 passes the acquired HTML document to the HTML analysis unit 212.

[Step S24] HTML analysis unit 212
Separates the HTML document passed from the server communication unit 211 into link information and character information. [Step S25] The HTML analysis unit 212 determines the HTML
The link information separated from the document is passed to the interface control unit 213. Then, the interface control unit 213
Updates the association between the link switch and the HTML document name of the linked document according to the description of the link information.

[Step S26] HTML analysis unit 212
Determines whether the separated character information is the information acquisition program designation. If the information acquisition program is designated, the process proceeds to step S27. If the information acquisition program is not specified (simple character string), the process is step S2.
Proceed to 9.

[Step S27] HTML analysis unit 212
Passes the execution request of the information acquisition program described in the character information to the server communication unit 211. The server communication unit 211 sends to the server 100 the execution request of the information acquisition program passed from the HTML analysis unit 212.

Specifically, the HTML analysis unit 212 uses the HT
When the <ILAYER> tag is found in the ML document, an information acquisition program execution request consisting of the CGI program specified by the SRC attribute and the parameter of “server name / CGI program name? Parameter # 1 + parameter # 2 + ...” Generate in the format. The generated information acquisition program execution request is transmitted to the server 100 via the server communication unit 211.

[Step S28] Server-to-server communication section 211
Is the server 10 in response to the execution request of the information acquisition program.
The latest information (character information) sent from 0 is acquired.
The server communication unit 211 uses the acquired latest information in HTML.
It is passed to the analysis unit 212.

[Step S29] HTML analysis unit 212
If the character information separated from the HTML document is a simple character string, the character information is passed to the interface control unit 213. In addition, the HTML analysis unit 212 uses the HT
When the character information separated from the ML document is the information acquisition program designation, the latest information sent from the server 100 is passed to the interface control unit 213 instead of the character information separated from the HTML document. The interface control unit 213 displays the character information passed from the HTML analysis unit 212 on the screen of the display device 214.

In this way, the terminal device 200 can browse the character information included in the HTML document. Next, the operation of the server 100 when providing the HTML document and the latest character information to the terminal device 200 will be described.

The server 100 is roughly divided into two operations. One is an operation of releasing the HTML document stored in the server 100 in response to an HTML document acquisition request. The other is to acquire an HTML document from the Internet in response to an execution request of the information acquisition program, convert the HTML document into a format that the terminal device 200 can handle, and convert the converted H
This is an operation of storing or publishing a TML document.

The operation of releasing the HTML document stored in the server 100 will be described. FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for releasing an HTML document stored in the server. Hereinafter, the process illustrated in FIG. 15 will be described in order of step number.

[Step S31] The information disclosure unit 114
An HTML document acquisition request from the terminal device 200 is received. [Step S32] The information disclosure unit 114 retrieves the HTML document corresponding to the acquisition request for the HTML document from the information storage unit 113.

[Step S33] The information disclosure section 114
The extracted HTML document is sent to the terminal device 200. The sent HTML document is sent to the HTML analysis unit 212 via the information disclosure unit 114 and the server communication unit 211.

Next, the server 100 sets the Internet 22
The operation of acquiring the latest information of the HTML document from the above Web servers 31, 32, ..., converting the latest information into a format that the terminal device 200 can handle, and storing or publishing the converted HTML document will be described.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the latest information acquisition processing in the server. The processing illustrated in FIG. 16 will be described below in order of step number. [Step S41] The information disclosure unit 114 uses the terminal device 20.
0 to receive the information acquisition program execution request from the server communication unit 211.

[Step S42] The information disclosure unit 114
The CGI program specified by the information acquisition program execution request is activated with parameters. The CGI program is written in the Perl language, and its operation is (process 1) obtaining the HTML document specified by the parameter # 1 from the Internet. (Processing 2) Parameter # 2 from the acquired HTML document
Extract the character string according to the following instructions. (Processing 3) The extracted character string is output. Is.

[0148] Note that (Process 1) is a function of the information acquisition unit 111, (Process 2) is a function of the information conversion unit 112, and (Process 3) is a function of the information disclosure unit 114. [Step S43] When the information disclosure unit 114 activates the CGI program, the information acquisition unit 111 acquires the HTML document specified by the parameter # 1 from the Internet 22 (process 1). HT specified from the Internet
The acquisition of the ML document is performed by, for example, the OS (Opera) of the server 100.
ting System) is UNIX (registered trademark), fetch
You can do this by invoking the command or wget command.

[Step S44] The information conversion section 112
A character string is extracted from the HTML document acquired by the information acquisition unit 111 according to the instruction of parameter # 2 and thereafter (process 2). To extract a character string, pass the parameters of the CGI program as 5+ <p + 1 + </ p> etc. and extract it from the fifth <p> tag to the next </ p> tag that appears. ” It can be executed by programming it to be interpreted as.

[Step S45] The information disclosure section 114
The character string extracted by the information conversion unit 112 is used as the terminal device 200.
(Processing 3). The sent character string is sent to the HTML analysis unit 212 via the information disclosure unit 114 and the server communication unit 211. The HTML analysis unit 212 replaces the location of the <ILAYER> tag in the HTML document with the sent character string.

As described above, the link information is the original HTML.
Document 210 remains as it is on the Internet 22
It can be replaced with the one acquired from the b server 31, 32, .... As a result, the server 100 viewed from the terminal device 200 can have a function as an entrance to the Internet (hereinafter referred to as a portal site).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, if the terminal devices 200, 200a, ... Are put in a place where they normally live, the character information published on the Internet can be easily browsed. . That is, since the terminal devices 200, 200a, ... Have limited functions, they can be operated with several link switches. As a result, the character information can be easily browsed without knowing the operation on the user interface of a normal PC.

For example, conventionally, as a means for reproducing various types of contents published by various sites on the Internet, a PC or a versatile means similar to a PC has been used in many cases. Versatility here means various types of content, such as text information, still images,
This means that you can handle all audio, video, and software programs. Such diverse data 1
Unifying with one method is advantageous in terms of ease of operation, reuse and reuse of software and hardware.

However, the user must remember the operation of the PC and the OS as a platform for "unifying various data by one means" described above, and the operation of the application software running on the OS is required. There is also an operational difficulty in having to remember the operation.

Further, in the current system, the PC, the network, the OS, and the browser operate in a complicated relationship, so that the same mouse operation is performed for an application having a similar user interface. However, there are cases where the device responds immediately and cases where it does not respond easily. Even if the user performs the same operation in exactly the same situation as the user, the device may react immediately at one time but not at another time depending on the network condition. The fact that the reaction speed is not constant in spite of performing the same operation on objects that look the same increases the operational difficulty.

Therefore, in order to use the conventional means, O
It is necessary to make full use of the user interfaces prepared by S and the browser. The operation of these user interfaces is not something that anyone can remember. In fact, in recent years, due to such operational difficulties, the polarization of people who can use information on the Internet and those who cannot use it has begun to occur. Is starting to change.

Even if the OS and browser can be operated, even in order to obtain a display of character information of a few characters to a few hundred characters, the user looks at the screen and moves the mouse to move the cursor to a virtual screen on the screen. It takes a lot of time to repeat the operation of pointing and clicking on the switch exactly several times.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the information can be acquired by operating a few buttons, it is possible for a very large number of people to easily browse the information on the Internet as compared with the conventional one. Become.

Further, the terminal devices 200, 200a, ...
Since the function is limited, the size and weight can be reduced and the power consumption can be reduced. As a result, the terminal device 2 can be installed at a plurality of places in one home.
It is possible to install 00, 200a, ... And leave the power on. If the terminal devices 200, 200a, ... Are installed at a plurality of places in the home, the terminal device 20 that is close to the user when he / she wants to browse the content.
The character information can be immediately viewed from 0, 200a, .... This eliminates waste of time.

[Second Embodiment] Next, the second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The embodiment will be described. The second embodiment is
An HTML document can be stored in the terminal device according to an arbitrary designation of a user who operates the terminal device.

For example, the information storage unit 11 of the server 100
When the HTML document stored in No. 3 is arranged in the structure as shown in FIG. 9, it is necessary to go back and forth in the hierarchical structure to obtain the information required by the user, which is troublesome. Therefore, in the second embodiment, only the information required by the user can be organized and stored in the terminal device.

The system configuration of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment except the configuration of the terminal device.
Therefore, in the description other than the terminal device, the reference numerals in the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 5 are used.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration example of the terminal device in the second embodiment. Terminal device 4
In 00, the entire device is controlled by the CPU 401. The CPU 401 is connected to the ROM 40 via the bus 408.
2 and the RAM 403 are connected to each other, and the display control circuit 404, the input interface 405, and
The network interface 406 and the disk device 407 are connected. ROM402, RAM40
3, display control circuit 404, network interface 406, display device 414 and link switch 420
Has the same function as that of the component having the same name in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 4, and a description thereof will be omitted.

A storage switch 415 is connected to the input interface 405 in addition to the link switch 420. The storage switch 415 is a switch to be pressed when the HTML document displayed on the display device 414 is stored in the terminal device 400. The input interface 405 is
When the memory switch 415 is pressed, the memory switch 415 is pressed.
The signal corresponding to is transferred to the CPU 401 via the bus 409.

The disk device 407 stores the HTML document according to the instruction of the CPU 401. FIG. 18 shows the second
4 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of the terminal device in the embodiment of FIG. The terminal device 400 includes the server communication unit 4
11, HTML analysis unit 412, interface control unit 4
13, a display device 414, a link switch 420, a storage switch 415, a page conversion unit 416, and an in-terminal storage unit 417.

The server communication unit 411 communicates with the server 100 in accordance with the HTTP protocol and HTML.
Get the document. The HTML analysis unit 412 acquires the acquired H
The link information in the TML document and the character information in the body are divided. The HTML analysis unit 412 sends the link information obtained by the division and the character information forming the text to the interface control unit 413.

The interface control unit 413 uses the HTML
The character information sent from the analysis unit 412 is sent to the display device 414. Also, the interface control unit 413, in accordance with the signal received from the link switch 420, the HT of the link destination.
The information of the ML document is sent to the server communication unit 411. Further, when the interface control unit 413 receives the input signal from the storage switch 415, it issues a page storage request to the page conversion unit 416.

The display device 414 displays the character information sent from the interface control section 413. Display device 41
For example, 4 can display characters within 1000 characters.

The link switch 420 is composed of a plurality of switches whose positions are always fixed regardless of the state of software. By the action of the interface control unit 413, the link switch 420 fixedly corresponds to the order in which the link description in the link description unit analyzed by the HTML analysis unit 412 appears.

The storage switch 415 is a switch for storing the HTML document displayed on the display device 414 in the in-terminal storage unit 417. The user presses the memory switch 415 to send an arbitrary HTML document to the terminal device 4
It can be stored in 00.

The page conversion unit 416 responds to the page conversion request from the interface control unit 413 and displays the H being displayed.
The link information of the TML document is converted and stored in the terminal storage unit 417.
To store. At this time, the page conversion unit 416 rebuilds the association between the HTML documents in the in-terminal storage unit 417. That is, the page conversion unit 416 converts the link information of the HTML document already stored in the in-terminal storage unit 417 to convert the newly stored HTML document and another HTML document in the in-terminal storage unit 417. Make a connection.

The in-terminal storage unit 417 stores the HTML document arbitrarily designated by the user. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of the external appearance of the terminal device according to the second embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 19, on the front surface of the terminal device 400, the display device 414, the four link switches 421 to 424 forming the link switch 420, and the storage switch 41.
5 are provided. A LAN cable 431 and a power cable 432 are connected to the back surface of the terminal device 400. Terminal device 40 according to the second embodiment
The external appearance of 0 differs from the terminal device 200 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 11 only in that a storage switch 415 is added.

Next, the operation of the terminal device 400 when storing an HTML document in the terminal device 400 will be described. The terminal device 400 is the information storage unit 113 of the server 100.
When the storage switch 415 is pressed while displaying the HTML document in the inside, the interface control unit 413 issues an instruction to the HTML analysis unit 412 to store the displayed document. HTM
The L analysis unit 412 displays the H currently displayed on the page conversion unit 416.
Send a TML document.

H to be newly stored in the internal storage unit 417
The TML document is another HTML inside the storage unit 417 in the terminal.
You have to make a new link with the document. Therefore, the page conversion unit 416 converts the link information of the HTML document to be stored and the relationship between the documents in the internal storage unit 417, so that the link of the HTML document adjacent to the location to which the HTML document is added has. Convert information.

FIG. 20 shows a terminal internal storage unit 41 in the terminal device.
7 is a diagram showing an example of conversion of link information when an HTML document is stored in FIG. FIG. 20A shows the arrangement in the information storage unit of the server. In the example of FIG. 20 (A), four HTMs
The L documents 331 to 334 are the information storage unit 11 of the server 100.
Stored in 3. The document names of the respective HTML documents 331 to 334 are "A", "B", "C", and "D". Note that each document name in the description of FIG.
Information on the storage location of the TML document is also included.
Here, the HTML document 332 of “B” is added to the terminal device 400.
Consider the case of memorizing inside.

FIG. 20 (B) shows the arrangement in the terminal internal memory of the terminal device. In FIG. 20B, four HTML documents 341 to 344 are stored. Each HTML document 34
The document names of 1 to 344 are "W", "X",
These are "Y" and "Z". Here, the HTM of the document name "X"
The HTML of the document name “B” in the server 100 is located between the L document 342 and the HTML document 343 of the document name “Y”.
The document 332 is stored.

FIG. 20C shows the layout in the terminal storage unit of the terminal device after storing the HTML document. "B" HTML
The copy of the document 332 is the HTML document 3 with the document name "Ba".
32a. Similarly, the link information of the HTML document 342 of "X" and the HTML document 343 of "Y" are changed, and are changed to a new HTML document 342a and a new HTML document 343a, respectively.

The link information included in the HTML document is H
TML document ("Go to category", "Go to category", "
Expressed in the form of "return", "forward"), B (B, D, A, C) → Ba (W, Z, X, Y) X (W, Z, X, Y) → X (W, Z) , X, Ba) Y (W, Z, X, Y) → Y (W, Z, Ba, Y).

In the above example, the document name "B" in FIG.
HTML document 332 of "X" is replaced with the HTML document 342 of "X"
And the "Y" HTML document 343, the insertion position is set as follows.

The user is the information storage unit 113 of the server 100.
Memory switch 415 while browsing the HTML document 332 in
push. The page conversion unit 416 is the H of the internal storage unit 417.
The contents of the TML document 341 are sent to the interface control unit 413 via the HTML analysis unit 412, and an instruction to display this document while blinking is given.

When the user presses the link switch 420, the interface controller 413 sends the link information to the page converter 416. The page conversion unit 416 extracts the HTML document according to the link information from the internal storage unit 417,
The interface control unit 413 is instructed to blink and H
Send a TML document.

In this way, the user selects the link switch 4
By pressing 20, the location where the HTML document is stored can be specified in the space showing the relationship between the documents in the in-terminal storage unit 417.

When the user presses the storage switch 415 again in this state, the interface control unit 413 sends a trigger to the page conversion unit 416. The page conversion unit 416 performs the above-mentioned HTML document conversion and storage operation.

FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing the procedure of the HTML document storing process in the terminal device. less than,
The process shown in FIG. 21 will be described in order of step number. Note that the following processing is performed by the H stored in the server 100.
While displaying the TML document, the memory switch 415
Shall be started when is pressed.

[Step S51] The interface control section 413 receives an input from the storage switch 415 and issues a page storage request to the page conversion section 416. [Step S52] The page conversion unit 416 determines the currently displayed HTML document as an HTML document to be stored, and temporarily stores the HTML document to be stored in the RAM 403 or the like.

[Step S53] Page Converter 416
Acquires a reference HTML document from the in-terminal storage unit 417. The standard HTML document is predetermined.
For example, the HTML document 341 shown in FIG. 20B is the reference HTML document.

[Step S54] Page Converter 416
Passes the reference HTML document to the HTML analysis unit 412. The HTML analysis unit 412 divides the passed HTML document into link information and character information, and passes it to the interface control unit 413. The interface control unit 413 changes the definition of the link switch 420 based on the link information and causes the display device 414 to blink the character information.

[Step S55] The interface control section 413 determines whether or not the memory switch 415 has been input. If the memory switch 415 is input, the process proceeds to step S59. If the memory switch 415 has not been input, the process proceeds to step S56.

[Step S56] The interface controller 413 determines whether or not the link switch 420 has been input. If the link switch 420 is pressed, the process proceeds to step S57. Memory switch 41
If 5 is not input, the process proceeds to step S55.

[Step S57] The interface control unit 413 designates the HTML document of the link destination corresponding to the pressed link switch 420, and passes the document acquisition request to the page conversion unit 416. The page conversion unit 416 acquires the linked HTML document from the in-terminal storage unit 417 in response to the request from the interface control unit 413.

[Step S58] Page conversion unit 416
Passes the linked HTML document to the HTML analysis unit 412. The HTML analysis unit 412 divides the passed HTML document into link information and character information, and passes it to the interface control unit 413. The interface control unit 413 changes the definition of the link switch 420 based on the link information and causes the display device 414 to blink the character information. Then, the process proceeds to step S55.

[Step S59] Page Converter 416
Is a storage target HTM stored in the RAM 403 or the like
Change the link information of the L document. [Step S60] The page conversion unit 416 performs step S60.
The HTML document in which the link information is converted in 59 is stored in the in-terminal storage unit 417.

[Step S61] Page converter 416
Changes the link information of the HTML document in the in-terminal storage unit 417 related to the newly stored storage target HTML document. Thus, the HTML document can be stored in the terminal device 400 and can be associated with the already stored HTML document.

The user operates the link switch 420 to operate the HT stored in the information storage section 113 of the server 100.
The ML document and the HTML document stored in the in-terminal storage unit 417 can be arbitrarily selected and displayed. For example, the HTML document 331 in the server 100 shown in FIG. 20 (A) and the HT in the terminal device 400 shown in FIG. 20 (B).
The ML document 341 may be associated. In particular,
The HTML document 341 is set in the "advance category" of the HTML document 331. Similarly, the HTML document 331 is set to the “category return” of the HTML document 341. This allows the HTML document 341 in the terminal storage unit 417 to be displayed from the state in which the HTML document 331 in the information storage unit 113 is displayed.

In the above description, the HTML document is displayed in a blinking manner in order to inform the user that the storage location is selected. Therefore, other than this, a method such as turning on a lamp for notifying that the memory location is being selected may be used.

In the above description, the memory switch 415 is used for two operations, that is, the selection of the HTML document to be stored and the confirmation of the place to store the selected HTML document. To clarify the behavior of the switch,
Physically different switches, the select "switch" and the "store" switch, may be assigned.

Further, as described above, the document name "B" in FIG.
When storing the HTML document 332 of the document name “Ba” as the HTML document 332a of the document name “Ba”, the page conversion unit 416 determines the position (UR) of the HTML document 332 of the original document name “B”.
H) of document name "Ba" with L) as the fifth <A> tag
It is stored by writing in the L document 332a. The information on the original position of B is necessary when the content of the document is updated by reading the HTML document B again. It is also used in the patrol operation described later.

Further, the page conversion unit 416 is stored in H
When the content of the TML document is to call a CGI program, that is, when the <ILAYER> tag is found in the HTML document, the CGI program and parameters specified by the SRC attribute are set to the server name / CGI program name? A request is made to the server communication unit 411 in the format of parameter # 1 + parameter # 2 + .... The page conversion unit 416 replaces the value obtained as a result with the description of the <ILAYER> tag. This operation is not essential as a memory operation. That is, the CGI may be stored as it is. However, it is necessary to take advantage of the cyclic operation described below.

[Third Embodiment] Next, a third embodiment will be described. In the third embodiment, the cyclic operation is performed at a constant cycle, and the HTML document stored in the terminal device is periodically updated to the latest contents.

That is, in the second embodiment, the user provides a method of selecting and collecting only the information that he / she needs to browse. With this function, the user can obtain desired information with a few switch operations. But the second
When the preservation method described in the above embodiment is used, stored information may become old.

As described above, the document can be updated by including the link to the original HTML document in the HTML document in the terminal device. However, in the configuration of the second embodiment, when the user gives an instruction to update the document, the user will give an HTML document to the information storage unit 113 of the server 100 after receiving the instruction.

[0202] In addition, when it is completed in the server 100, it is not a big problem, but the acquired HTML document is a CGI that acquires information from a server on the Internet.
HTM over the Internet if described in
I need to go get an L document. However, it may take a long time to obtain the information, such as when the network is congested or when the server storing the intended information is stopped due to a temporary trouble.

Therefore, it is desired that the information selected by the user be displayed with as little waiting time as possible. In particular, since the present invention handles character information having a small number of characters, it cannot be said to be convenient if it takes several tens of seconds to acquire information of only a few tens of characters.

In the third embodiment, when the user browses the stored information, the information stored in the terminal internal storage unit is always displayed, and the HTML stored in the terminal internal storage unit is displayed. Documents are now automatically updated on a regular basis.

The system configuration of the third embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment except the configuration of the terminal device.
Therefore, in the description other than the terminal device, the reference numerals in the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 5 are used. Further, the hardware configuration of the terminal device according to the third embodiment is the same as the hardware configuration of the terminal device 400 according to the second embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 22 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of the terminal device according to the third embodiment. The terminal device 500 includes a server communication unit 511 and an HTML analysis unit 51.
2, interface control unit 513, display device 514, link switch 520, storage switch 515, page conversion unit 516, in-terminal storage unit 517, patrol control unit 518, timer 519, timer setting switch 530, timer setting unit 531. ing.

The server-to-server communication unit 511 communicates with the server 100 according to the HTTP protocol,
Get L document. The HTML analysis unit 512 divides the link information and the text in the acquired HTML document. HT
The ML analysis unit 512 sends the link information obtained by the division and the character information forming the text to the interface control unit 513.

The interface control unit 513 uses the HTML
The character information sent from the analysis unit 512 is sent to the display device 514. Also, the interface control unit 513 responds to the signal received from the link switch 520 by the HTML analysis unit 5.
The link information sent from 12 is sent to the server communication unit 511. Further, when the interface control unit 513 receives the input signal from the storage switch 515, the page conversion unit 5
A page storage request is issued to 16.

The display device 514 displays the character information sent from the interface control section 513. Display device 51
For example, 4 can display characters within 1000 characters.

The link switch 520 is composed of a plurality of switches whose positions are always fixed regardless of the state of software. The link switch 520 fixedly corresponds to the order of appearance of the link description in the link description section analyzed by the HTML analysis section 512 by the action of the interface control section 513.

The storage switch 515 is a switch for storing the HTML document displayed on the display device 514 in the in-terminal storage unit 517. The user presses the memory switch 515 to send an arbitrary HTML document to the terminal device 5.
It can be stored in 00.

The page conversion unit 516 responds to the page conversion request from the interface control unit 513 and displays the H currently displayed.
The link information of the TML document is converted and stored in the terminal storage unit 517.
To store. At this time, the page conversion unit 516 rebuilds the association between the HTML documents in the in-terminal storage unit 517. That is, the page conversion unit 516 converts the link information of the HTML document already stored in the in-terminal storage unit 517 to associate the newly stored HTML document with another HTML document.

The internal storage unit 517 stores the HTML document arbitrarily designated by the user. The patrol controller 518
In response to the trigger from the timer 519, the server communication unit 5
11, HTML analysis unit 512, and page conversion unit 51
H stored in the in-terminal storage unit 517 in cooperation with
Performs TML document update processing.

The timer 519 issues a trigger to the patrol control unit 518 at a preset time interval. The timer setting switch 530 is a switch for the user to set the time interval at which the timer 519 outputs a trigger.

The timer setting section 531 sets the time at which the timer 519 outputs a trigger in response to an operation input from the user using the timer setting switch 530. In the terminal device 500 having such a configuration, the HTML document is regularly updated as follows.

The timer 519 triggers the patrol control unit 518 at preset time intervals. The patrol control unit 518 that receives the trigger stores the HTM stored in the internal storage unit 517.
The link to the HTML document in the server 100 recorded in the L document is taken out and passed to the server communication unit 511. The HTML document acquired by the server-to-server communication unit 511 communicating with the server 100 is sent to the HTML analysis unit 512.

The patrol control unit 518 has the HTML analysis unit 51.
2 for the HTML document to the interface control unit 513
To the page conversion unit 516
Is instructed to store the HTML document held by the HTML analysis unit 512. The patrol control unit 518, for all the HTML documents stored in the internal storage unit 517,
After performing the same operation, the state again waits for the trigger from the timer 519.

The time interval at which the timer 519 outputs the trigger can be set arbitrarily by using the timer setting switch 530. When the timer setting switch 530 is pressed, the timer setting unit 531 causes the interface control unit 5 to operate.
Display the number on 13. This number represents a time unit of "minute", and the number is increased or decreased by the user pressing the link switch 520 of "category return" or "category advance". The timer setting unit 531 sets the time of the numeral displayed when the timer setting switch 530 is pressed again in the timer 519.

The setting of the timer 519 can also be realized by incorporating the CGI program in the terminal device 500 and activating the CGI from the HTML document stored in the terminal device 500. By doing so, the timer setting switch 530 can be omitted.

[Fourth Embodiment] Next, a fourth embodiment will be described. In the fourth embodiment, the HTML document selected by the terminal device is stored in the server. That is, in the second embodiment, the terminal device has an HTML document storage unit therein.
The server can be provided with this to simplify the configuration of the terminal device. Hereinafter, a method for storing the HTML document selected by the user in the server will be described.

The system configuration of the fourth embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment except the configurations of the terminal device and the server. Therefore, in the description other than the terminal device, FIG.
The reference numerals in the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. In addition, regarding the hardware configurations of the server and the terminal device in the fourth embodiment, FIG.
The hardware configurations of the server 100 and the terminal device 200 according to the first embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 23 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of the terminal device according to the fourth embodiment. Server 6
00, the terminal device 700, and the router 40 are connected via the LAN 21. Since the router 40 and the LAN 21 are the same as those in the first embodiment, the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment are attached and the description thereof will be omitted.

The server 600 includes an information acquisition section 611, an information conversion section 612, an information storage section 613, an information disclosure section 614, and
Page conversion unit 615 and client information storage unit 6
It has 16.

The information acquisition unit 611 is the Internet 22
From the Web server on the Internet 22
Get a TML document. The information conversion unit 612 converts the HTML document acquired from the Internet 22 into the terminal device 700.
It is converted into a format that can be handled by the HTML analysis unit 712.

The information storage unit 613 stores the HTML document converted by the information conversion unit 612 and the information conversion unit 61.
2 stores conversion rules used when converting information. The information disclosure unit 614 is obtained through the information acquisition unit 611,
HTML document converted by the information conversion unit 612,
It is an HTTP server for publishing the HTML document stored in the information storage unit 613 or the client information storage unit 616 on the network. The information disclosure unit 614 communicates with the terminal device 700 according to the HTTP protocol, and stores the HTML document requested by the terminal device 700 in the information storage unit 61.
3 and the client information storage unit 616 and sends it to the terminal device 700.

The page conversion unit 615 has an information storage unit 613.
A copy of the HTML document stored in the client information storage unit 616 after changing the link information.
To store.

The client information storage unit 616 stores the HTML document designated by the terminal device 700. The terminal device 700 includes a server-to-server communication unit 711 and an HTML analysis unit 7.
12, interface control unit 713, display device 714,
It has a link switch 720 and a storage switch 715.

The server-to-server communication section 711 communicates with the server 600 in accordance with the HTTP protocol and HTML.
Get the document. The HTML analysis unit 712 acquires the H
The link information and the body of the TML document are divided. HTM
The L analysis unit 712 uses the link information obtained by the division,
The interface controller 71 exchanges the character information forming the text.
Send to 3.

The interface control unit 713 uses the HTML.
The character information sent from the analysis unit 712 is sent to the display device 714. Further, the interface control unit 713 responds to the signal received from the link switch 720, and the HTML analysis unit 7
The link information sent from 12 is sent to the server communication unit 711.

The display device 714 displays the character information sent from the interface controller 713. The link switch 720 is composed of a plurality of switches whose positions are always fixed regardless of the state of software. By the action of the interface control unit 713, the link switch 720 fixedly corresponds to the order in which the link description in the link description unit analyzed by the HTML analysis unit 712 appears.

The storage switch 715 is a switch for storing the HTML document displayed on the display device 714 in the client information storage unit 616 of the server 600. The user can save an arbitrary HTML document in the server 600 by pressing the memory switch 715.

Upon receiving the signal from the storage switch 715, the interface control section 713 receives the HTML analysis section 71.
Give specific instructions to 2. Then, the HTML analysis unit 712
Uses the URL of the HTML document currently held and the data for specifying the terminal as parameters to start the CGI program in the information disclosure unit 614 of the server 600, “CGI program name? URL + information for specifying terminal”. The request of the form is sent to the information disclosure unit 614 through the server communication unit 711.

The information disclosure unit 614 executes the CGI program according to the request. When the CGI program is executed, information identifying the terminal (parameter 1
The terminal device is specified from (1). Then, the HTML document of the URL designated by the parameter is stored in the specified area dedicated to the terminal in the client information storage unit 616.

The storage operation is the same as that of the HTML document to the internal storage unit 417 in the second embodiment.
A part of the HTML document is changed and stored. At this time, the page conversion unit 416 corresponds to the page conversion unit 615, the HTML analysis unit 412 corresponds to the information disclosure unit 614, and the in-terminal storage unit 417 corresponds to the client information storage unit 616.

The connections between HTML documents stored in the client information storage unit 616 are also updated as shown in FIG. In order to select the position to store the new HTML document, the HTML document in the client information storage unit 616 is blinked and returned as the return value of CGI to return the HTML document to be displayed. It is possible to realize a user interface similar to the user interface for selecting the storage location in the second embodiment.

According to the above method, the information specified by the user of the terminal device 700 can be stored in the server 600. In this case, it is desirable that the server 600 and the terminal device 700 are on the same network. This is because the terminal device 700 has to communicate with the server 600 in order to display any HTML document. If the terminal device 700 is located in a place separated from the network, it may be necessary to meet the request from the user depending on the network congestion. This is because it may take time.

[Fifth Embodiment] Next, a fifth embodiment will be described. In the fifth embodiment, a home server is equipped with the function according to the present invention.

In recent years, devices called routers and bridges have begun to be used in ordinary households for the purpose of relaying communication between the Internet and PCs in the home or relaying communication between PCs in the home. A router is a device for relaying communication between different subnets, and a bridge is a device for relaying communication between the same subnets. With the increase in the number of devices that use networks at home, it has become necessary to install routers and bridges at home.

Further, computers called home servers and home gateways, which are equipped with a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk drive in a router or a bridge, have come to be seen. The function of the home server is to store data of various contents obtained through the Internet, permanently store information temporarily stored in devices other than the Internet such as digital still cameras, and to store multiple PCs at home. Information sharing between the two and relaying communication between the Internet and a home PC.

Further, as for communication means used in routers, bridges, home servers, and home gateways, in addition to wired interfaces such as conventional modems and Ethernets, devices equipped with radio interfaces using radio waves are increasing. ing. An apparatus that has a wired interface and a wireless interface and relays communication between devices having a wireless interface and relays communication between a device having a wireless interface and a wired network is called an access point.

[0241] In the following, a device for executing processing in response to a request from another computer at home will be generically called a home server. Household servers include routers, bridges, access points, home servers, home gateways, and the like.

Conventionally, a home server has not been connected with input / output devices such as a keyboard and a monitor, and when operating these, remote login from another PC or HTT is required.
It is common to operate from another PC using a browser according to the P protocol. Operating these devices occurs only infrequently, such as when installing them for the first time or when changing operation settings, so I / O devices are omitted to save cost and space. That is, the size and weight are reduced.

Moreover, the home server is always turned on so that the request from the client PC can be met at any time. That is, the conventional home-use server does not have an input / output interface for reproducing information, although the device is always available for the user to wait for the device to start up. So, on a home server,
By implementing a simple input / output interface, it is possible to provide a browsing function of character information by using a device already installed in the home.

[0244] In addition, in the case of a device having only a wired interface among household servers, it can be placed in an inconspicuous place, but an access point and a device including the function of the access point should be installed in a place with good visibility. There is a need. This is because the radio waves used for the access point have a high frequency of about 10 to the 9th hertz (gigahertz), and such a high frequency is difficult to reach the shaded area because of its high straightness. Because there is. Therefore, the access point is located in a place where the user can easily see it, and constantly transmits and receives information through the network. Even though the power is always on, it cannot obtain or display simple text information by itself. . That is, it is very convenient if the access point can browse the simple character information published on the Web server.

Therefore, in the fifth embodiment, the access point has a function of extracting character information from an HTML document and displaying the character information. Figure 24
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration example of an access point. The access point 800 is entirely controlled by the CPU 801. A ROM 802 and a RAM 803 are connected to the CPU 801 via a bus 809a, and a display control circuit 80 is connected via a bus 809b.
4, an input interface 805, a network interface 806, a disk device 807, and a wireless interface 808 are connected.

A program to be executed by the CPU 801 is stored in the ROM 802. RAM 803 has
Programs to be executed by the CPU 801 and data required for processing are temporarily stored.

The display control circuit 804 has a display device 817.
Are connected. The display device 817 is, for example, a liquid crystal display device. The display control circuit 804 is a CPU 801.
The character information is displayed on the display device 817 according to the command from. A link switch 820 is connected to the input interface 805. The link switch 820 is a switch for switching the information displayed on the display device 817. The input interface 805 transfers the input signal from the link switch 820 to the CPU 801.

The network interface 806 is L
It is connected to AN21. The network interface 806 is connected to the Internet and transmits / receives data to / from a Web server on the Internet.

The disk device 807 is a storage medium for storing HTML documents and the like. The wireless interface 808 is a wireless LAN interface. With the above hardware configuration, the processing function of the fifth embodiment can be realized.

FIG. 25 is a functional block diagram showing the processing functions of the access point in the fifth embodiment. The access point 800 includes a routing unit 811, an information acquisition unit 812, an information conversion unit 813, an information storage unit 814,
HTML analysis unit 815, interface control unit 816,
It has a display device 817, a link switch 818, and a wireless interface 819.

The routing unit 811 performs routing of packets transmitted between the Internet 22 and a wireless LAN using the wireless interface 819. The information acquisition unit 812 acquires an HTML document from a Web server on the Internet 22 via the routing unit 811.

The information converting section 813 converts the HTML document acquired by the information acquiring section 812 into a predetermined format (HTML document consisting of link information and character information) and stores it in the information storage section 814. In addition, the information conversion unit 813 is an HTM.
In response to a request from the L analysis unit 815, the latest information of the HTML document is acquired and the character information is extracted.

The information storage unit 814 stores the HTML document converted into a predetermined format. HTML analysis unit 815
Acquires an HTML document from the information storage unit 814. Then, the HTML analysis unit 815 divides the link information and the text in the acquired HTML document. HTML analysis unit 8
15 sends the link information obtained by the division and the character information forming the text to the interface control unit 816.

The interface control unit 816 uses the HTML
The character information sent from the analysis unit 815 is sent to the display device 817. Also, the interface control unit 816 responds to the signal received from the link switch 818, and the HTML analysis unit 8
HTML analysis unit 815
Return to.

The display device 817 displays the character information sent from the interface controller 816. The link switch 818 is composed of a plurality of switches whose positions are always fixed regardless of the state of software. The link switch 818 fixedly corresponds to the order of appearance of the link description in the link description section analyzed by the HTML analysis section 815 by the action of the interface control section 816.

The wireless interface 819 is a wireless LAN.
Interface. Wireless interface 819
Performs data communication with another computer 910 wirelessly.

As described above, the access point 800 is
By having the routing unit 811 and the wireless interface 819 for connecting to another network device by wireless communication, it can operate as an access point.

The access point 800 is always turned on in order to always function as an access point. It also connects to the network and has a CP inside.
It also has U. Therefore, the function that is configured inside the terminal device 200 in the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is implemented in one housing of the access point 800. Since the access point is installed in a place that is usually noticeable, even if the display device 817 and the link switch 818 are mounted on the access point 800, there is no problem in terms of usability for the user.

Also, the display device 817 and the link switch 8
The terminal device having only 18 may be provided in a separate housing, and the terminal device and the access point may be connected by a communication line. Note that the communication line may be not a normal network such as a LAN but a line such as RS232C closed to an external device.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 25, the information disclosure unit 114 and the server communication unit 21 required in the first embodiment.
1 becomes unnecessary. This can be realized with a simple configuration.

With this structure, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained. Therefore, it is possible to provide an access point having a system for browsing character information with low power consumption while providing a user interface that is intuitively and intuitively easy to understand.

In the above example, the access point is provided with the character information browsing function according to the present invention, but another home server may be provided with the character information browsing function according to the present invention. The other home server is, for example, a router, a bridge, a home server, or the like.

The above processing functions can be realized by the server computer and the client computer. In that case, a server program describing the processing content of the function that the server device should have and a client program describing the processing content of the function that the terminal device should have are provided. By executing the server program on the server computer, the processing functions of the server device are realized on the server computer. Further, by executing the client program on the client computer, the processing function of the terminal device is realized on the client computer.

The server program and the client program in which the processing contents are described can be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. Computer-readable recording media include magnetic recording devices, optical disks, magneto-optical recording media, semiconductor memories, and the like.
The magnetic recording device includes a hard disk device (HDD), a flexible disk (FD), a magnetic tape, and the like.
Optical discs include DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) and D
VD-RAM (Random Access Memory), CD-ROM (C
ompact Disc Read Only Memory), CD-R (Recordabl
e) / RW (ReWritable). Magneto-optical recording media include MO (Magneto-Optical disc) and the like.

When the server program and the client program are distributed, for example, a portable recording medium such as a DVD or a CD-ROM in which each program is recorded is sold. It is also possible to store the client program in the storage device of the server computer and transfer the client program from the server computer to the client computer via the network.

The server computer that executes the server program stores, for example, the server program recorded in the portable recording medium in its own storage device. And
The server computer reads the server program from its own storage device and executes processing according to the server program. The server computer can also read the server program directly from the portable recording medium and execute processing according to the server program.

The client computer which executes the client program stores, for example, the client program recorded in the portable recording medium or the client program transferred from the server computer in its own storage device. Then, the client computer reads the client program from its own storage device and executes processing according to the client program. The client computer can also read the client program directly from the portable recording medium and execute processing according to the client program. Further, the client computer can also sequentially execute processing according to the received client program each time the client program is transferred from the server computer.

[0268]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the browsing target information including the link information and the display information of the predetermined type is displayed, only the display information is displayed on the display device and the switch is pressed. At this time, since the display request for other browsing target information associated with the switch by the link information is output, it is possible to sequentially browse the display information while following the link information with a simple operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a system configuration example of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a server.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a terminal device.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing a processing function of each device in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an HTML document published on a Web server.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an HTML document whose format has been converted.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a relationship situation between HTML documents.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a relationship when HTML documents are hierarchically linked.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a document acquisition process in the server.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an appearance of a terminal device.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a correspondence relationship between switches and link objects.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a terminal device having a rotary lick switch.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a browsing processing procedure in the terminal device.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for releasing an HTML document stored in the server.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the latest information acquisition processing in the server.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a terminal device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of the terminal device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of an external appearance of a terminal device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of conversion of link information when an HTML document is stored in a terminal internal storage unit in the terminal device according to the second embodiment. (A) is an arrangement in the information storage unit of the server, (B) is an arrangement in the terminal storage unit of the terminal device, and (C) is an arrangement in the terminal storage unit of the terminal device after storing the HTML document. .

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing the procedure of an HTML document storage process in the terminal device.

FIG. 22 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of the terminal device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of the terminal device according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of an access point.

FIG. 25 is a functional block diagram showing processing functions of an access point according to the fifth embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Information browsing device, 1a ... Switch, 1b ... Display device,
1c ... Information acquisition means, 1d ... Information conversion means, 1e ... Information storage means, 1f ... Display control means, 1g ... Input control means,
2 ... network, 3 ... server device, 3a ... information, 21
... LAN, 22 ... Internet, 31,32 ... Web
Server, 40 ... router, 100 ... server, 200, 20
0a ... Terminal device

Claims (35)

[Claims] 1. An information browsing device for browsing information, comprising: at least one switch, a display device, link information indicating a correspondence relationship between the switch and other browsing target information, and display information of a predetermined type. When there is a display request that designates any browsing target information in the information storage unit, an information storage unit that stores a plurality of browsing target information composed of Display control means for displaying on a display device, and when the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, An information control device comprising: an input control unit that outputs a display request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch to the display control unit. Viewing device. 2. The information browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined type of the display information stored in the information storage means is a character. 3. Information acquisition means for acquiring information via a network, and display information of the predetermined type is extracted from the information acquired by the information acquisition means, and the link information is added to the display information. The information browsing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an information conversion unit that generates the browsing target information and stores the browsing target information in the information storage unit. 4. The information acquisition unit, when a display request for the arbitrary browsing target information is issued, acquires the information that is the generation source of the arbitrary browsing target information, and the display control unit, 4. The information browsing device according to claim 3, wherein the display device displays the display information of the predetermined type included in the information acquired by the information acquisition unit. 5. The information acquisition unit acquires, at a predetermined cycle, information that is a generation source of each of the plurality of pieces of browsing target information stored in the information storage unit. Information browsing device described. 6. An information browsing system for browsing information, comprising at least one browsing comprising link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged, and display information of a predetermined type. Information storage means for storing target information, and information disclosure for transmitting the arbitrary browse target information stored in the information storage means in response to a browse request designating arbitrary browse target information in the information storage means. A server device having a means, at least one switch, a display device, and an order of description in link information in the arbitrary browsing target information when the arbitrary browsing target information is received from the information disclosure means of the server device. According to the above, the other browsing target information is associated with the switch, and the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device. If the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display control unit and the display device, other browsing target information associated with the switch by the display control unit. An information browsing system, comprising: a terminal device having: an input control unit that outputs a browsing request that specifies to the information disclosure unit of the server device. 7. The information browsing system according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined type of the display information stored in the information storage means is a character. 8. The server device extracts an information acquisition unit that acquires information via a network, the display information of the predetermined type from the information acquired by the information acquisition unit, and extracts the display information from the information. The information browsing system according to claim 6, further comprising: an information conversion unit that generates the browsing target information by adding the link information and stores the browsing target information in the information storage unit. 9. The information acquisition means of the server device,
When a request to acquire the latest information of the arbitrary browsing target information is issued, the information that is the generation source of the arbitrary browsing target information is acquired, and the information disclosure unit of the server device is the information acquisition unit. The latest display information of the predetermined type included in the information acquired, in response to an acquisition request of the latest information, the display control means of the terminal device, in the arbitrary browsing target information When the latest information acquisition request command is included, the latest information acquisition request is transmitted to the server device, and the latest display information transmitted from the server device is displayed on the display device. The information browsing system according to claim 8. 10. The terminal device displays a storage switch and the arbitrary browsing target information when the storage switch is pressed while display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device. 7. The information browsing system according to claim 6, further comprising: a storage unit in the terminal for storing. 11. The terminal device, when the storage switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device, displays the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information. 11. The information browsing system according to claim 10, further comprising an information conversion unit that replaces the description with a description that indicates the browsing target information in the terminal storage unit. 12. The information acquisition means of the server device acquires the information from which the arbitrary browsing target information is generated when a request for acquiring the latest information of the arbitrary browsing target information is issued. , The information disclosure means of the server device,
The latest display information of the predetermined type included in the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is transmitted in response to the acquisition request of the latest information, and the terminal device is stored in the terminal internal storage unit. A request for acquiring the latest information regarding each piece of browsing target information is transmitted to the server device at a predetermined cycle, and the latest display information sent from the server device in response to the request for acquiring the latest information causes the internal storage in the terminal to be stored. 11. The information browsing system according to claim 10, further comprising a patrol control unit that updates each of the browsing target information stored in the unit. 13. The server device further includes a terminal information storage unit that stores the browsing target information designated by the information storage request in the information storage unit in response to the information storage request, If the memory switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, the information of the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed to the server device. 7. A storage requesting means for transmitting a storage request is further provided.
Information browsing system described. 14. A server device for providing information to a terminal device, wherein a plurality of browsing targets each of which is composed of link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged and display information of a predetermined type. In response to a browsing request from the terminal device that stores information, an information storage unit that stores information, and the arbitrary browsing target information stored in the information storage unit , Information disclosure means for transmitting to the terminal device, information acquisition means for acquiring information via a network, and extraction of the display information of the predetermined type from the information acquired by the information acquisition means, In contrast, the information conversion unit that adds the link information to generate the browsing target information, and stores the browsing target information in the information storage unit, Over server apparatus. 15. The server device according to claim 14, wherein the predetermined type of the display information stored in the information storage means is a character. 16. The information acquisition unit acquires the information that is the generation source of the arbitrary browsing target information when a request for acquiring the latest information of the arbitrary browsing target information is issued from the terminal device. The information disclosure unit transmits the latest display information of the predetermined type included in the information acquired by the information acquisition unit to the terminal device in response to the acquisition request of the latest information, The server device according to claim 14. 17. A terminal information storage means for storing the browsing target information designated by the information storage request in the information storage means in response to an information storage request from the terminal device. The server device according to claim 14. 18. A terminal device that acquires browsing target information, which is composed of link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged, and display information of a predetermined type, from a server device and browses the information. , At least one switch, a display device, and when receiving arbitrary browsing target information from the server device,
Display control means for associating the other browsing target information with the switch according to the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, and displaying the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device, When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browse target information is being displayed on the display device, the display control unit issues a browse request designating other browse target information associated with the switch. An input control means for outputting to the server device, and a terminal device. 19. The display control means, when the arbitrary information to be browsed includes a latest information acquisition request command, transmits the latest information acquisition request to the server device, The terminal device according to claim 18, wherein the latest display information transmitted from the device is displayed on the display device. 20. A memory switch, and a memory in the terminal that stores the arbitrary browsing target information when the storage switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device. The terminal device according to claim 18, further comprising: 21. When the storage switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device, the description of the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information is added to the terminal. 21. The terminal device according to claim 20, further comprising information conversion means for replacing the browsing target information in the internal storage means with a description indicating the information. 22. A request for acquiring the latest information regarding each piece of browsing target information stored in the terminal storage unit is transmitted to the server device at a predetermined cycle, and the server device is responsive to the request for acquiring the latest information. 21. The terminal device according to claim 20, further comprising a tour control unit that updates each of the browsing target information stored in the in-terminal storage unit with the latest display information sent from the terminal unit. 23. A storage switch, and when the storage switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device, the arbitrary browsing target is displayed to the server device. 19. The terminal device according to claim 18, further comprising storage requesting means for transmitting an information storage request for information. 24. An information browsing method for browsing information using at least one switch and a display device, comprising link information indicating a correspondence relationship between the switch and other browsing target information, and display of a predetermined type. When a display request is made by pre-storing a plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of information and a display request specifying any of the pieces of browsing object information stored in advance, the display information in the arbitrary browsing object information is displayed on the display device. Then, when the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, the switch is associated with the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information. An information browsing method characterized by outputting a display request specifying the browsing target information of. 25. An information browsing method for browsing information using a server device and a terminal device having at least one switch and a display device, wherein at least one other browsing target information is provided in the server device. In advance, a plurality of browsing target information configured by link information in which pointing descriptions are arranged and display information of a predetermined type are stored, and in the server device, in response to a browsing request in which arbitrary browsing target information is designated. , The arbitrary browsing target information is transmitted, and in the terminal device, when the arbitrary browsing target information is received from the server device, other browsing target information is acquired in accordance with the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information. Corresponding to the switch, display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, Then, when the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, a browsing request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch is displayed. An information browsing method characterized by outputting to a server device. 26. An information providing method for providing information to a terminal device, which acquires information via a network, extracts display information of the predetermined type from the acquired information, and The link information in which the description indicating at least one other browsing target information is arranged is added to generate the browsing target information, the generated at least one browsing target information is stored, and any browsing target information is designated. An information providing method comprising: transmitting the arbitrary browsing target information to the terminal device in response to a browsing request from the terminal device. 27. A server for browsing target information including link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged using at least one switch and a display device, and display information of a predetermined type. In an information browsing method for obtaining and browsing from a device, when receiving any browsing target information from the server device,
Corresponding other browsing target information and the switch according to the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and the display device When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed, a browsing request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch is output to the server device. Information browsing method characterized by the following. 28. In an information browsing program for browsing information using at least one switch and a display device, a computer is provided with link information indicating a correspondence relationship between the switch and other browsing target information, and predetermined information. When a display request is made by pre-storing a plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of display information of a type and designating arbitrary browsing object information stored in advance, the display information in the arbitrary browsing object information is displayed. When the switch is pressed while being displayed on the device and the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device, the switch is associated with the switch in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information. An information browsing program that executes a process that outputs a display request that specifies other browsing target information. 29. A server computer and at least one
In an information browsing program for browsing information using a client computer having one switch and a display device, link information in which a description indicating at least one other browsing target information is arranged in the server computer, and a predetermined information A plurality of browsing target information configured with display information of the type of is stored in advance, in response to a browsing request that specifies arbitrary browsing target information, the arbitrary browsing target information is transmitted, and the client computer, When the arbitrary browsing target information is received from the server computer, the other browsing target information is associated with the switch according to the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, and the display in the arbitrary browsing target information is performed. Information is displayed on the display device, and the terminal device displays the information on the display device. When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed,
An information browsing program that causes the server computer to output a browsing request that specifies other browsing target information associated with the switch. 30. In an information providing program for providing information to a terminal device, a computer acquires information via a network, and extracts display information of a predetermined type from the acquired information,
Link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged to the display information is generated to generate browsing target information, and the plurality of generated browsing target information is stored, and any browsing target is stored. An information providing program, characterized in that, in response to a browsing request from the terminal device specifying information, the arbitrary browsing target information is transmitted to the terminal device. 31. A server for browsing target information including link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged using at least one switch and a display device and display information of a predetermined type. In an information browsing program for acquiring and browsing from a device, when the computer receives arbitrary browsing target information from the server device,
Corresponding other browsing target information and the switch according to the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and the display device When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed, a browsing request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch is output to the server device. , An information browsing program characterized by executing processing. 32. A computer-readable recording medium recording an information browsing program for browsing information using at least one switch and a display device, wherein the computer is configured to store the switch and other browsing target information. If a plurality of pieces of browsing target information composed of link information indicating a correspondence relationship and display information of a predetermined type are stored in advance, and there is a display request designating any of the prestored arbitrary browsing target information, the arbitrary selection is performed. When the display information in the browsing target information is displayed on the display device and the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is being displayed on the display device, the inside of the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed. In the link information of, the display request specifying the other browsing target information associated with the switch is output, and the processing is executed. That recording medium. 33. A server computer and at least one
In a computer-readable recording medium recording an information browsing program for browsing information using a client computer having one switch and a display device, a description indicating at least one other browsing target information in the server computer A plurality of pieces of browsing object information composed of link information in which the are arranged and display information of a predetermined type are stored in advance, and in response to a browsing request in which arbitrary browsing object information is designated, the arbitrary browsing object information When the client computer receives the arbitrary browse target information from the server computer, the other browse target information and the switch are associated with each other in accordance with the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browse target information, Display information in the arbitrary browsing target information on the display device. When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device with respect to the terminal device,
A recording medium characterized by causing the server computer to output a browse request designating other browse target information associated with the switch. 34. A computer-readable recording medium recording an information providing program for providing information to a terminal device, wherein the computer acquires information via a network, and the predetermined type is acquired from the acquired information. The display information is extracted, the link information in which the description pointing to at least one other browse target information is arranged is added to the display information to generate the browse target information, and the plurality of generated browse target information is generated. A recording medium, which stores and transmits the arbitrary browsing target information to the terminal device in response to a browsing request from the terminal device that specifies arbitrary browsing target information. 35. A server for browsing target information including link information in which descriptions pointing to at least one other browsing target information are arranged using at least one switch and a display device, and display information of a predetermined type. In a computer-readable recording medium recording an information browsing program for acquiring and browsing from a device, the computer receives any browsing target information from the server device,
Corresponding other browsing target information and the switch according to the description order in the link information in the arbitrary browsing target information, display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed on the display device, and the display device When the switch is pressed while the display information in the arbitrary browsing target information is displayed, a browsing request designating other browsing target information associated with the switch is output to the server device. , A recording medium characterized by causing processing to be executed.