JP2003044390A - Contents sharing method, contents sharing managing device, computer program and terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a contents sharing method for simultaneously supplying the same contents to multiple users, and to provide a contents sharing managing device, a computer program and terminal equipment. SOLUTION: When the contents are requested from a Web browser 21, a contents supply part 31 requests the requested contents from an HTTP server 12. When the contents are correspondingly supplied, a contents acquirement part 34 stores the supplied contents in a contents holding part 32 and registers the address of the supplied contents in a management table holding part 33. The contents supply part 31 distributes the contents held by the contents holding part 32 to all terminal equipment 20 in a group registred in the management table holding part 33.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a content sharing method and a content sharing management device for sharing content among a plurality of users.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a content distribution method for distributing content to a plurality of users via a network such as the Internet, for example, a method in which a user downloads necessary information from a content provider's database (PULL type), content Method in which the server on the provider side transmits content to the user's terminal device (PUSH type)
Etc. are known.

A typical protocol used for PULL type content distribution is, for example, HTTP (Hyper Text).
Transfer Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protoc)
ol) etc. The HTTP protocol is used in communication for acquiring content from a database when browsing content using browsing software such as a Web browser. The FTP protocol is a protocol used when transferring a file of content to be browsed. On the other hand, in PUSH type content distribution, the content is often sent to the user as an electronic mail.

In the conventional content distribution system using the above-mentioned HTTP protocol, a content server 110 connected to a network 101 such as the Internet is used as shown in FIG. 6, for example. The content server 110 includes a database 111 that holds content and an HTTP server 112 that provides content via the network 101.

[0005] A user executes W on the terminal device 120.
The eb browser is operated to acquire the content from the content server 110, and the content is displayed on a display device included in the terminal device 120 and viewed, for example.

A plurality of such terminal devices 120 are provided, and a plurality of users each independently operate the terminal device 120.
Can be operated to access the content server 110. Also, the content server 1
10 can also independently transmit content to each terminal device 120.

[0007]

However, in the content distribution as described above, for example, the database 111 is used.
It may not be possible to simultaneously access the same file, etc. In such a case, a plurality of users may not be able to acquire the same content at the same time.

[0008] Further, services such as HTTP service are
Since the communication is basically one-to-one communication, the content providing server provides the content only to the terminal that has requested the content. Therefore, there are cases where the same content cannot be received by a plurality of terminals.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a content sharing method, a content sharing management device, a computer program, and a terminal device capable of simultaneously supplying the same content to a plurality of users. The purpose is to

[0010]

In order to solve the above problems, the content sharing method according to the present invention is a content sharing method for sharing content from a providing means for providing content among a plurality of terminal devices. Then, a step of acquiring the content from the providing unit according to the information specifying the content supplied from the terminal devices in the preset group, and a step of supplying the acquired content to all the terminal devices in the group. It is characterized by being provided.

A content sharing management device according to the present invention is a content sharing management device for sharing content from a providing means for providing content among a plurality of terminal devices, and is a terminal device in a group for distributing content. Holding means for holding information identifying the content, acquisition means for acquiring the content from the providing means in accordance with the information identifying the content supplied from the terminal devices in the group, and the acquired content for all terminal devices in the group And a delivery means for supplying to the.

Further, the program according to the present invention causes a computer to acquire the content from a providing means for providing the content in accordance with information specifying the content supplied from the terminal devices in a preset group. , Supplying the acquired content to all the terminal devices in the group.

Further, the terminal device according to the present invention distributes the content to all the terminal devices in the group in response to a request from the terminal devices in the preset group,
A terminal device that receives content from a shared management device that registers a terminal device in a group according to a received registration request, the shared management device including information that identifies the terminal device and information that indicates the group or specific content. It is characterized by comprising a registration requesting means for transmitting a registration request including.

Further, another terminal device according to the present invention delivers the content to all the terminal devices in the group in response to a request from the terminal devices in the group set in advance, and also responds to the received deletion request. A terminal device that receives content from the shared management device that deletes the terminal device from the group, and requests the shared management device to delete the information specifying the terminal device and the information indicating the group or the specific content. It is characterized by comprising registration request means for transmitting.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION (Structure) A content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes, for example, as shown in FIG. Terminal device 20
And an agent device 30 that controls the content provided to the terminal device 20.

The content server 10 and the agent device 30 are connected via a network 1 such as an internetwork. The agent device 10 and the terminal device 20 are connected to each other via, for example, a public communication network.

The content server 10 is, for example, a CP.
It has a U, a memory, an auxiliary storage device, and the like. When the CPU executes a predetermined control program, in the content server 10, the database 11 holding the content and the HTTP server 12 providing the content via the network 1 function.

The terminal device 20 has, for example, a CPU, a memory, an auxiliary storage device, and the like, like the content server 10. When the CPU executes a predetermined control program, the terminal device 20 functions as a web browser 21 capable of browsing contents.

This terminal device 20 is, for example, a Web terminal in addition to a fixed terminal such as a personal computer (PC).
The browser 21 can be composed of a mobile phone terminal or a mobile terminal such as a personal digital assistant (PDA).

Like the content server 10, the agent device 30 has, for example, a CPU, a memory, an auxiliary storage device, and the like. When the CPU executes a predetermined control program, the agent device 30 has a content providing unit 31 that provides content in response to a content request from the terminal device 20, and the content server 1.
A content holding unit 32 that holds content from 0
Also, the management table holding unit 33 for managing content requests to the content server 10 and the content acquisition unit 34 for acquiring content from the content server 10 function.

The management table holding unit 33 has, for example, FIG.
As shown in, information indicating the grouped users (identification information such as the address of the terminal device 20 of the user),
URL (Unified Resource) indicating the address of the content to be distributed as shared information to the grouped users
Locator) and the like are stored in association with each other (cache table). This address indicates the address of the content held in the content holding unit 32.

This cache table may be managed as a group for each address of the content to be distributed, as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the address of the content to be distributed may be managed for each group.

When the content acquisition unit 34 acquires the content from the HTTP server 12 according to an instruction from the grouped user, the acquired content is held in the content holding unit 32, and the address of the acquired content is held in the management table. Register in section 33.

(Operation) In the content distribution system configured as described above, for example, by the procedure shown in FIG.
The distribution of the content to the plurality of terminal devices 20 is executed.

(1) Group Registration First, a group of users is registered before actual content distribution. Specifically, for example, the terminal device (A) 20 transmits to the agent device 30 a registration request (reference numeral in FIG. 3) for a group of which the terminal devices A and B are members.

If the registration request is for a new group, the agent device 30 accordingly creates the table as shown in FIG. 2 and the members of the group corresponding to the table (this In this case, a registration completion notification (reference numeral in the figure) indicating that the registration is completed is transmitted to the terminal devices A and B).

(2) Addition of Members When there is an existing group as described above, for example, the terminal device 20 transmits a message requesting addition of members to the agent device 30. In this message, for example, information for identifying the terminal device 20 of the newly added user and information indicating the group to be added (for example, the address of the content to be distributed as described above)
Etc. are included. Upon receiving such a message, the content providing unit 31 adds the user specified in the message to the content table of the group specified in the message.

(3) Member Deletion When deleting a member from a group registered in the cache table of the content holding unit 32, the terminal device 20 sends the agent device 30 information and a group indicating the member to be deleted. Send a message with the indicated information.

Upon receiving such a message, the content providing section 31 deletes the user specified in the message from the content table of the group specified in the message.

(4) Content Request First, the user operates the Web browser 21 executed on the terminal device 20 to request the content provided by the content server 10. This request is supplied to the agent device 30 as an access request (reference numeral in the figure) including an address such as a URL of the target content.
This access request is specifically composed of, for example, a message or the like for the Web browser 21 to request the content of a predetermined URL.

In response to such an access request, the agent device 30 designates the address of the content and makes a proxy access to the content server 10 in order to obtain the instructed content (reference numeral in the figure).

In response to this, when the content is supplied from the HTTP server 12 (reference numeral in the figure), the content acquisition unit 34 temporarily stores the supplied content in the content holding unit 32, and the address of the content. Is registered in the cache table shown in FIG.

After that, the content providing unit 31 determines that the HTT
The content supplied from the P server 12 is read from the content holding unit 32 and transmitted to the users in the group (reference numeral in the figure).

As a result, for example, the content requested to be accessed by the terminal device A is supplied to the terminal devices A and B in the group.

By distributing the content as described above, the content can be shared among the users in the group.

Further, in this content distribution system,
The content is once held in the agent device 30 and then supplied to each mobile terminal device 20 in the group.
Therefore, for example, even content from the content server 10 that does not allow access from multiple users at the same time can be distributed to multiple users at the same time.

Further, in this content distribution system,
A well-known Web browser can be used as it is as the interface on the terminal device 20 side. Therefore, it is possible to contribute to alleviation of the conditions required on the terminal device 20 side.

In the above description, as shown in FIG. 1 described above, the content server 10 and the agent device 30.
, And the terminal device 20 are connected via a public communication network or the like, the content server 10, the terminal device 20, the agent device 30. The connection between the two is not limited to this.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the content server 10, the terminal device 20, and the agent device 30 may be connected to each other via a network 1 such as the Internet.

In the case of such a configuration, the terminal device 20 accesses the agent device 30 via the network 1 (reference numeral in FIG. 4), and the agent device 30
Accesses the content server 10 via the network 1 as necessary (reference numeral in the figure).

In response to this, when the content is supplied to the agent device 30 via the network 1 (reference numeral in the figure), the agent device 30 causes the network 1 to operate.
The supplied content is supplied to the terminal device 20 in the same manner as above, though via the way. As a result, the same operational effects as those of FIG. 1 described above are obtained.

Further, in FIG. 1 described above, the case where the number of the agent devices 30 is one is shown, but as shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of agent devices 30 may be provided.

In the case of such a configuration, each agent device 30 is provided with the communication unit 35 for realizing the consistency of the cache table held in the management table holding unit 33.

The communication unit 35 notifies the other agent device 30 of the contents of the cache table at regular intervals. Further, the communication unit 35 compares the cache table notified from the communication unit 35 of the other agent device 30 with the cache table held in its own management table holding unit 33, and is notified of a different portion. Change according to the cache table.

In this way, the communication unit 35 can maintain the consistency of the cache table held in the management table holding unit 33 of each agent device 30.

Except for the cache table updating operation by the communication unit 35, the same operational effects as those shown in FIG. 1 are obtained.

Specifically, when there is a request for content from a certain user, this request is supplied to the HTTP server 12 via the content acquisition unit 34. In response to this
The content supplied from the TTP server 12 is held by each agent device 30 to which the terminal device 20 of the user who belongs to the same group as the terminal device 20 of the user who has requested the content via the content acquisition unit 34 is connected. It is held by the unit 32.

Similar to the above-described operation, as a method of holding the same content in the content holding unit 32 of different agent devices 30, for example, the HTTP server 1
A method in which 2 distributes the content to the two agent devices 30, a method in which the content held in one content holding unit 32 is transmitted to the other content holding unit 32 via the communication unit 35, and the like can be considered.

The content held in each content holding unit 32 is distributed by the content providing unit 31 to the terminal device 20 of the user in the group according to the cache table held in the management table holding unit 33. .

As a result, even if the terminal devices 20 of the users in the group are under the control of different agent devices 30, the content to be distributed to the terminal devices 20 in the group can be reliably delivered.

[0051]

According to the present invention, the content is acquired from the providing means according to the information for specifying the content supplied from the terminal devices in the preset group, and the acquired content is distributed to all the terminal devices in the group. Supply. Thereby, the same content can be simultaneously provided to a plurality of terminal devices.

Since the contents to be provided to all the terminal devices in one group are acquired only once from the providing means, it is possible to reduce the concentration of access to the providing means.

Further, in order to deliver the same content to a plurality of terminals, it is necessary to copy the content somewhere, but when the content is copied at the providing means or at a position close to the providing means, it is copied. Since the content needs to be transmitted to each terminal, the traffic volume in the entire network is not reduced so much.

Therefore, for example, by disposing the distribution means for supplying the content to all the terminal devices in the group at a position close to the terminal devices, it is possible to contribute to the reduction of the traffic amount in the entire network.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a cache table held in an agent device which constitutes the content distribution system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation of the content distribution system.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another example of connection among a content server, a terminal, and an agent device which constitute the content distribution system.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another configuration example of the content distribution system.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional content distribution system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Network 10 ... Content server 11 ... Database 12 ... HTTP server 20 ... Terminal device 21 ... Web browser 30 ... Agent device 31 ... Content providing section 32 ... Content holding unit 33 ... Management table holding unit 34 ... Content acquisition unit 35 ... Communication unit

Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yoko Kikuta             2-11-1, Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Stock             Ceremony company NTT Docomo (72) Inventor Masami Yabuzaki             2-11-1, Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Stock             Ceremony company NTT Docomo F-term (reference) 5B082 HA02 HA05 HA08

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A content sharing method for sharing content from a providing means for providing content among a plurality of terminal devices, wherein the content sharing method is based on information specifying the content supplied from the terminal devices in a preset group. And a step of acquiring the content from the providing means, and supplying the acquired content to all the terminal devices in the group. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of registering the terminal device in the group according to the information specifying the terminal device supplied from the terminal device and the information indicating the group or the specific content. Claim 1
Content sharing method described. 3. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of deleting the terminal device registered in the group according to the information specifying the terminal device supplied from the terminal device and the information indicating the group or the specific content. The content sharing method according to claim 1, wherein: 4. A content sharing management device for sharing content from a providing means for providing content among a plurality of terminal devices, and holding means for holding information for specifying the terminal devices in a group to which the content is distributed. An acquisition unit for acquiring the content from the providing unit according to the information specifying the content supplied from the terminal device in the group, and a distribution unit for supplying the acquired content to all the terminal devices in the group. A content sharing management device comprising: 5. A registration means for registering the terminal device in the group according to the information specifying the terminal device supplied from the terminal device and the information indicating the group or the specific content is provided. Claim 4
The described content sharing management device. 6. Deletion means for deleting the terminal device registered in the group according to information specifying the terminal device supplied from the terminal device and information indicating the group or the specific content. The content sharing management device according to claim 4, further comprising: 7. An updating means for updating the information held in the holding means in accordance with the information supplied from another content management server and specifying the terminal device in the group to which the content is distributed. The content sharing management device according to claim 4, wherein 8. A step of causing a computer to acquire a content from a providing means for providing the content according to information specifying the content supplied from a terminal device in a preset group, and the acquired content And a step of causing all of the terminal devices in the group to supply the computer program. 9. A step of causing a computer to register the terminal device in the group according to information specifying the terminal device supplied from the terminal device and information indicating the group or the specific content. The computer program according to claim 8, characterized in that: 10. The content is distributed to all the terminal devices in the group according to a request from a terminal device in a preset group, and the terminal device is registered in the group according to the received registration request. A terminal device for receiving content from a sharing management device, comprising: registration requesting means for transmitting to the sharing management device a registration request including information specifying a terminal device and information indicating the group or the specific content. A terminal device characterized by the above. 11. The content is distributed to all the terminal devices in the group according to a request from a terminal device in a preset group, and the terminal device is deleted from the group according to the received deletion request. A terminal device for receiving content from the sharing management device, the registration managing means transmitting to the sharing management device a deletion request including information identifying the terminal device and information indicating the group or the specific content. A terminal device, comprising: