JP2003030529A - Information distribution system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information distributing system capable of realizing the unitary management of the personal information of each information distributor through the Internet by a server even when the information is distributed from a plurality of information distributors to terminal equipment. SOLUTION: This information distributing system is constituted of PC (information providing and distributing means) 30, 38 for distributing information, MODEM 31 and 39 for modulating the information into analog signals, and for demodulating the analog signals into digital signals, the Internet 32 to which the MODEM 31 and 39 are connected, a server 33 for managing the information of the PC 30 and 38 as clients, a public line 34 for transmitting the analog signals worked by the server 33, a DOCOMO (registered trademark) pocket bell network 35 for providing a quick cast service, a judging part for judging a pocket bell(not shown in a figure) and the personal address, and terminal equipment 36 and 37 constituted of display units for displaying the contents of the information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information distribution system, and more particularly to an information distribution system in which a server holds and manages information distributed by a PC and distributes the information to terminals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Currently, personal computers (P
Various information presentation devices such as C), car navigation systems, and mobile terminals are used, and some of them are devised in information presentation methods. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-81099 has means for adding priority to information, importance determining means according to user's interest, and the like, and the order in which information is displayed and individual information The level of detail is determined and information is displayed.
It also discloses means for controlling the timing of collecting information from the network. In addition, the following techniques can be given as techniques for obtaining appropriate information from a large amount of information. (1) Push technology: A technology for sending information matching the user's taste from a server. (2) Information filtering: A technique for selecting information that matches the taste of the user from the information sent. (3) Agent technology: A technology for collecting information from the network according to the taste of the user. These techniques are techniques for selecting information based on correlation information between a user's preference and a keyword. Furthermore, pager (quick cast: NTT
There is a system for distributing information using Docomo's registered trademark). FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a conventional information distribution system using a pager. A distributor 1 that distributes information from a PC or the like, a modem 2 that modulates the information into an analog signal or demodulates the analog signal into a digital signal, a public line 3 that transmits the analog signal modulated by the modem 2, and a quick Docomo Pager Network 4, which provides casting services, and Pager (PB)
5a and a display device 5b for displaying the content of the information # 1 terminal device 5, and a pager 6a and a display device 6b for displaying the content of the information device # 2 terminal device 6 (two in this example. , Any number).

Next, the operation of the information distribution system having this configuration will be described. First, the distributor 1 transmits a message (character string) to the pager (PB) 5a, 6a of the destination (# 1 terminal device 5 or # 2 terminal device 6).
The terminal device 5 or 6 including the PB and the display device is attached to a shop front, a building wall surface, or the like (advertisement delivery, municipal information delivery, etc.). Message transmitting software is installed in the distributor 1 (PC). The distributor 1 sends a message to the target PB via this software. The message is stored / stored in a memory of a terminal device (not shown) and repeatedly displayed on the display device in a predetermined order. In this case, an individual distribution contract (A call contract) will be made for each PB with NTT Docomo. In addition to this, NTT Docomo also provides a service called a broadcast distribution contract (B call contract) that allows the same message to be sent to a plurality of PBs with one call. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a conventional information distribution system based on a broadcast distribution contract (B call contract). The same components are given the same reference numerals, and a duplicate description will be omitted. Figure 6
The point different from the individual distribution contract (A call contract) is that the same message can be simultaneously distributed to all terminals by one call. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the information distribution system of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-048361. The same components are given the same reference numerals, and a duplicate description will be omitted. 8 is different from FIG. 7 in that an individual address is added to character information and a function of selecting a specific terminal from a plurality of terminals is added, and the individual address is determined for each terminal. This is the point where a judgment unit is added.

Next, the operation of the information distribution system having this configuration will be described. The information distributed by the distributor 1 is always distributed as a B call contract. However, although the transmission format is normally composed of a header part and a character information part in FIG. 8A, a part of the character information part is used as an individual address part as shown in FIG. 8B. And # 1
The terminal device 53 is provided with the determination unit 5c, and the #n terminal device 54 is provided with the determination unit 6c. The determination units 5c and 6c are PBs 5a and 6
It is determined whether or not the message received by a includes the individual address of its own station. For example, if it is addressed to the # 1 terminal device 53, it is displayed on the display device 5b, and if it is not addressed to its own station, it is not displayed. If an address indicating simultaneous distribution is written in the individual address, the # 1 terminal device 53 to the #n terminal device 5
The same information is displayed on all four. As a result, simultaneous distribution and individual distribution can be realized only with a B call contract. Also, if the group ID is used as an individual address, group distribution can be easily performed. FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a conventional information distribution service having another configuration. The NTT Docomo network 63 is provided with, for example, a database (DB) 60 that stores news from A news agency, a database 61 that stores weather information from the Meteorological Agency, and other various databases 62, and database information distribution for each PB If you make a contract, the latest news will be delivered automatically. It can be incorporated into earlier systems to display such information between the broadcaster's original messages.

[0005]

However, in the case of the individual distribution contract of FIG. 6, since the individual distribution contract is made with NTT Docomo, when sending the same message to a large number of terminals,
It is necessary to send messages one by one (recalling many times) and is suitable for the purpose of distributing different messages individually, but is suitable for distributing the same message to multiple machines. Absent. Further, in the case of the broadcast distribution contract of FIG. 7, it is not possible to individually send a message to the terminal device. It is only necessary to make a contract for both distribution services and use them separately, but the cost will be higher due to the two contracts. For example, when there are N terminals, # 1-10 is message X, # 11-30 is message Y, # 31-N is message Z, etc. When sending messages by group, after all, multiple calls are made by individual distribution. Will be done.

Further, even in the system shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, or the Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-048361 applied in FIG. 8, there are the following problems. If you put the dedicated software in the PC that is the distributor and specify the destination correctly, you can display messages from multiple PCs on the terminal device, and manage the message sent to which terminal device with the dedicated software Although it is possible, as shown in FIG. 10, for example, when there are PCs 10 and 20 in Osaka and Tokyo, respectively, and both parties use this system to deliver a message,
PC10 in Osaka uses Message A with dedicated software 11
~ C is managed by own PC, but PC2 in Tokyo
The information is not transmitted to 0. Similarly, messages a to c by the dedicated software 21 of the PC 20 in Tokyo are not transmitted to Osaka. That is, when the content of the message is updated, the content cannot be centrally managed unless the content is notified to the other PC by phone or FAX. Also,
Since the pager is a one-way street, it is not possible for the pager to give feedback on the current display contents of its own station.
Therefore, duplicate postings are likely to occur. The information distribution service of FIG. 9 requires an individual contract with NTT Docomo, Inc. for each PB, and the service menu is small. In view of such a problem, the present invention enables centralized management of information of each information providing / delivering means by enabling management by a server via the Internet even when individual information is distributed to a terminal device from a plurality of information distributors. The purpose is to provide an information distribution system. Another object of the present invention is to provide an information distribution system in which a server is provided with a database and information provided by the server can be distributed by each information providing distribution means by selecting it on a Web page.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a terminal device connected to a network via a public line from an information providing / delivering means for providing information. An information distribution system for distributing information, comprising a server that receives information from the information providing and distributing means via a Web page obtained using a communication procedure used on the Internet and distributes the information to the terminal device. The server has a storage unit for storing information distributed for each of the distribution destination terminals, and the information stored in the storage unit is stored in the W in response to a request from the information providing distribution unit.
It is provided on the eb page. All data transmitted and received from each information providing / delivering means (PC) connected via the Internet is managed by the server. However, the server must hold the managed information so that it can be identified for each terminal. As one of the methods, a method of storing the content of the information for each information terminal device in a memory as a table is effective. Also,
The information stored in the memory is not constant and may be changed or updated at the request of each information providing / delivering means. In that case, in response to a request from each information providing / delivering means, it is necessary to immediately and surely retrieve and provide the information stored in the memory. According to this invention, since all the data is managed by the server, it is not necessary to install the dedicated software on the PC. Also, no matter where you access it, you can check the messages that have been delivered to the current terminal. The updated contents will be delivered immediately. As a result, duplicate posting can be prevented, and communication between the respective information providing / delivering means becomes unnecessary.

According to a second aspect of the invention, the server is
It is also possible to have an updating unit that updates the content of the information stored in the storage unit in response to a request from the information providing / delivering unit, and manage the information updated by the updating unit for each terminal device. Is an effective means. The server needs to store the information from the information providing and delivering means accurately and promptly in the memory and respond to the request from the information providing and delivering means as much as possible. For example, when updating the information distributed from a certain information providing / delivering means, first, the information providing / delivering means accesses the server, and the server searches the table in the server for the corresponding information, and the information is We.
Display on page b. At this time, the content of the already transmitted message is displayed. After that, enter the message you want to update and the destination and send. Then, the server updates the table based on the sent contents and sends the message to the terminal. According to such a technical means, since the posting Web page is displayed on the browser, the contents currently displayed can be immediately confirmed, the necessity of updating is found from the contents, and further duplicate posting can be prevented.

Further, the invention of claim 3 is an information distribution system for distributing information from an information providing and distributing means for providing information to a terminal connected to a network through a public line, the communication used on the Internet. A server that receives information from the information providing / delivering means and delivers the information to the terminal device via a Web page obtained by using the procedure, the server having a database for information delivery, and the information The providing / delivering means enables selection of service information stored in the desired database on the Web page, and the server delivers the service information selected by the information providing / delivering means to the terminal device. . There are various places and purposes for installing terminals. For example, in the case of a bank, it is a message from the head office, economic information, etc., in general public facilities, it is news and entertainment information, and in a taxi, it is a commercial of the company, etc. In order to meet such needs, information on as many genres as possible is needed. After all, it is good and quick to rely on specialized media for such information. For that, a database that stores information from each medium is required. But,
The amount of information in these databases is enormous, and it is not possible to store it on each information distributor's PC, and it is inefficient. Therefore, the method of storing in the memory in the server is the most effective. According to this invention, each information distributor can easily select and distribute a necessary service online from a large amount of information without making a troublesome contract.

According to the invention of claim 4, the server is
It is also an effective means of the present invention to have a history management means for managing a distribution history of distributing the service information to the terminal device, and to charge the information providing and distributing means with the charging information obtained from the history management means. is there. Except for some information, it is generally charged for information. The server acquires and distributes the original message and the distribution service information arbitrarily selected from the Web page by the information providing and distributing means, so that the distribution history (log information) of what message is distributed to the terminal device. It is important to leave.
From the distribution history (log information), the information providing and distributing means is billed on a regular basis (generally on a monthly basis). According to this technical means, since the charge information is calculated by the history management means, it is possible to accurately charge the information distributor without annoying the operation.

Further, in the invention of claim 5, the information providing means of the information distribution database can change the contents of the information distribution database by accessing the server via the Internet. It is an effective means of the invention. The contents of the database are usually constantly updated. We may also contract with new information providers. Therefore, the information provider is required to be able to easily access the database. According to this technical means, the information provider can access it via the Internet, so that the latest data can be easily updated. Further, in the invention of claim 6, when the content of the service information is added or changed, the server transmits the content of the addition or change to the information providing / delivering means by mail, which is also effective in the present invention. It is a means. The service information provider can change the contents of the database when the contents of the service are changed. However, if the user who uses the service information does not know the content, there is a risk that incorrect information will be sent to the terminal side. According to such a technical means, since the contents of the change are notified by e-mail, the latest information can always be sent to the terminal side.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. However, the constituent elements, types, combinations, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like described in this embodiment are merely explanatory examples, not the gist of limiting the scope of the present invention thereto, unless specifically stated. .. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information distribution system according to the first embodiment of this invention. This configuration is a PC that delivers information
(Information providing and distributing means) 30, 38, modems 31 and 39 for modulating the information into analog signals or demodulating analog signals into digital signals, the Internet 32 to which the modems 31 and 39 are connected, and clients as clients. P
A server 33 that manages the information of C30 and C38, a public line 34 that transmits an analog signal processed by this server 33, a docomo pager network 35 that provides a quickcast service, and a pager (not shown) # 1 terminal device 36 to #N including a determination unit for determining an address and a display device for displaying the content of information
The terminal device 37 is used.

Next, the operation of the information distribution system having this configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the server 33 provides the PCs 30 and 38 with a Web page for posting a message. The server has the broadcast distribution contract (B call contract) described in FIG. Further, the server 33 determines the individual address by the determination unit of FIG. 8 described above based on the distribution request from the PCs 30 and 38, and if it is the address of its own station, distributes it by the display method (up to this point Already). Next, the distributing PC accesses the server 33. Then, the PC displays the posting Web page on the browser. FIG. 2 is an example of the display screen. In the screen shown in FIG. 2A, the "simultaneous" button 2a is selected when the broadcast distribution is desired, and the "individual" button 2b is selected when the individual distribution is desired. In that case, the ID of the destination
In the field of "Enter destination ID" 2c. Also, if you want to see the message to be delivered in advance, "Preview" 2
When d is selected, the message can be confirmed on the screen 2h. If this is all right, select "OK" 2e, and if you want to cancel, select "Cancel" 2f to cancel. Moreover, when confirming the content of the message which has been delivered to each terminal, select "to latest message confirmation screen" 2g. The screen at that time is shown in FIG. When confirming the latest message, in the case of individual distribution, enter the ID of the terminal you want to confirm in the "Enter destination ID" 20a column,
Press "OK" 20b. Then, the message content is displayed in the screen area 20d. To return to the posting page from the latest message confirmation screen, select "Go to posting page" 20c to return to the posting page.

FIG. 3 is an example of the posting page screen of FIG. When the posted message is previewed, it is displayed on the preview display unit 70 in the same manner as the content displayed on the display unit of the terminal. The items to be entered on this screen are the contributor name (affiliation department name, etc.), contributor ID (ID of the department to which they belong;
(Required for billing), priority (priority is displayed as a number),
Delivery date (year, month, day), time (display time), display method (for example, scrolling from right to left independently), display speed (three scroll speeds; fast, normal, or slow), customer Contact E-Mail address (your E-mail address
-Enter the mail address), Password
(Enter password), Expiration date (Enter the expiration date of this display by year, month, day), time (expiration time), text color (specify display text color), background color (display) (Specify the background color of the container), and enter a message in the column of posted message 71 within a limit of 40 full-pitch characters and 80 half-pitch characters. When the "preview" 72 is pressed, the content of the column of the posted message 71 is displayed on the preview display section 70 under the conditions set above. As a result, if this is okay,
When “decide” 73 is pressed, the posted data is transmitted to the distribution center. If the user wants to cancel, pressing "Cancel" 74 cancels everything. The server 33 holds the content of the message as a table in the memory and manages it for each terminal.
Then, the message is transmitted via the public line 34 to the respective terminal devices 36, 37 by the docomo pager network 35.
Will be broadcast simultaneously. Each terminal device 36, 37 determines the individual address by the determination unit provided therein, and if it is the address of its own station, displays the content on the display device. With the above configuration, it is not necessary to install the dedicated software on the PCs 30 and 38, you can check the message that has been delivered to the current terminal device no matter where you access it, and the updated content will be delivered immediately. It can be prevented. Further, the communication between the PCs 30 and 38 becomes unnecessary. In the present embodiment, the PC has been described as having two terminals, but any number of PCs may be used.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an information distribution system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. This configuration has a PC (information providing and delivering means) 40 that delivers information, a modem 41 that modulates the information into an analog signal or demodulates the analog signal into a digital signal, and the Internet 44 to which the modem 41 is connected. A news provider (information providing means) 42 that is connected to the Internet 44 and provides information such as news, a weather information provider (information providing means) 43 that provides weather information, a PC 40 as a client, and an information providing means. Server 4 that manages information of 42 and 43
5, a database 46 for information distribution managed and held by the server 45, a public line 47 for transmitting an analog signal processed by the server 33, and a docomo pager network 48 for providing a quickcast service. , Having a pager (not shown) and a determination unit for determining an individual address and a display for displaying the content of information #
1 terminal 49 to #N terminal 50. The information distribution database 46 has various databases such as news 46a, weather 46b, fortune telling 46c, horse racing 46d, and lottery 46e.

Next, the operation of the information distribution system having this configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. Since the news provider 42 and the weather information provider 43 are connected to the Internet 44, they can access the server 45 at any time to update or add information in the information distribution database 46. In that case, naturally, each genre has a dedicated area for storage, and a database is constructed corresponding to each information provider. First, the distributing PC accesses the server 33. Then, the PC displays the posting Web page on the browser. FIG. 5 is an example of the screen at that time. On the left side of the screen is an original message posting screen 52, which is operated by the procedure as described in the first embodiment. This embodiment is characterized by the information service menu 51 on the right side of the screen. There are radio buttons for selecting menus by genre such as news, entertainment, sports, weather, fortune telling, lottery, and horse racing. Each PC selects an arbitrary menu from this screen. Then, the server 45 reads the information of the selected database from the information distribution database 46 and distributes the information. Here, the content may be once displayed on the screen and then delivered. In this way, the server manages the distribution history (log information) of each distributed information service, and charges each PC based on the information. As a result, each PC can easily select and deliver a required service from a large amount of information online without making a troublesome contract. Further, since the charge information is calculated by the history management means, the charge can be made accurately without bothering the information distributor.

Next, as a modified example of the information distribution system of the second embodiment, selection contents of information service are added,
When the change is made, the server 45 automatically notifies each PC by mail of the change and confirms the change. In addition, looking at the mail, each P
If C finds an error, it may be canceled (changed) free of charge within a certain period.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, in claim 1, since all the data is managed by the server, the dedicated software need not be installed in the PC.
Also, no matter where you access it, you can check the messages that have been delivered to the current terminal. The updated contents will be delivered immediately. By doing so, duplicate postings can be prevented and each P
Communication between C becomes unnecessary. According to the second aspect, since the posting Web page is displayed on the browser, the contents currently displayed can be immediately confirmed, the necessity of updating is found from the contents, and duplicate posting can be prevented. According to claim 3, each information distributor can easily select and distribute a necessary service online from a large amount of information without making a troublesome contract. According to the fourth aspect, since the charge information is calculated by the history management means, the charge can be made accurately without bothering the information distributor. According to claim 5, the information provider can access to the latest data easily because the information provider can access it via the Internet. According to the sixth aspect, since the contents of the change are notified by mail, the latest information can always be sent to the terminal side.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a display screen of the information distribution system according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 3 is a screen of a posting page of the information distribution system according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an information distribution system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display screen of the information distribution system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of an information distribution system of a first conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a second conventional information distribution system.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram and a data format diagram of an information distribution system of a third conventional example.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of an information distribution system of a fourth conventional example.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a problem of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

30, 38 PC (information provision and distribution means) 31, 39 modem 32 Internet 33 servers 34 Public line 35 Docomo Pager Network 36, 37 Terminal

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Tatsuro Kaneko             2-1-1 Kotani, Samukawa-cho, Takaza-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture               Toyo Communication Equipment Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5B075 KK07

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. In an information distribution system for distributing information from an information providing and distributing means for providing information to a terminal connected to a network via a public line, We obtained using a communication procedure used on the Internet.
a server for receiving information from the information providing / delivering means via page b and delivering the information to the terminal device;
The server has a storage unit that stores information distributed to each of the distribution destination terminals, and provides the information stored in the storage unit on the Web page in response to a request from the information provision distribution unit. An information distribution system characterized by that. 2. The server has updating means for updating the content of the information stored in the storage means in response to a request from the information providing and delivering means, and the information updated by the updating means is provided in the terminal device. It manages for every, Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned.
Information distribution system described. 3. An information distribution system that distributes information from an information distribution means for providing information to a terminal connected to a network via a public line, We obtained by using a communication procedure used on the Internet.
a server for receiving information from the information providing / delivering means via page b and delivering the information to the terminal device;
The server has a database for information delivery, the information providing delivery means enables selection of service information accumulated in the desired database on the Web page, and the server selects the service information selected by the information providing delivery means. An information distribution system for distributing service information to the terminal device. 4. The server has a history management means for managing a distribution history of distributing the service information to the terminal device, and charges the information providing and distributing means with charging information obtained from the history management means. The information distribution system according to claim 3, characterized in that. 5. The information providing means of the information distribution database can access the server via the Internet to change the contents of the information distribution database. Information distribution system. 6. The server according to claim 3, wherein when the content of the service information is added or changed, the server sends the content of the addition or change to the information providing / delivering means by mail. Information distribution system.