JP2003067615A - Terminal for receiving electronic coupon, and server device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a terminal capable of automatically displaying an electronic coupon usable in an area and at every time of moving the area to use the electronic coupon, and to provide a server device capable of the displaying the coupon. SOLUTION: The terminal detects its own location at present by a location data detection part 34, retrieves the electronic coupon in the area around the location at present on the basis of the detected present location data and is provided with a means 30 retrieving usable time such as service providing time of the retrieved electronic coupon and a means 22 displaying it. The server device distributes coupon information composed of location information of a service provider, the service providing time and time information of a valid period.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal and a server device that receive a coupon, coupon, ticket, etc. (hereinafter, referred to as an electronic coupon) that is electronically issued and distributed via communication or the like, More specifically, the present invention relates to a terminal that receives an electronic coupon and a server device that distributes electronic coupon information therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a service provider distributes coupons such as coupons for discounting selling prices and rental prices on the Internet in the form of electronic mail, and prints out the electronic mail, for example. By presenting, the technology of a business model for providing the price discount service to the presenter has been established. In addition, business model technology has also been established in which electronic coupons for a certain area are collectively delivered and electronic coupons that are easy to use in the area are provided.

[0003]

However, in the technology of these business models, since the service provider side unilaterally distributes the electronic coupons, it is necessary to identify the electronic coupons that the user does not need and to specify. When the electronic coupons are collectively delivered to the area of, the user must manually search for the electronic coupon that is delivered to the area and is available at that time every time the user moves the area where the electronic coupon is used. In addition, many electronic coupons appear depending on how to search, and it takes time and effort to find the target electronic coupon by scrolling on a mobile terminal or mobile phone with a small display screen. There was a fact that it was not easy to use.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to be automatically usable in an area where an electronic coupon is used, and further, to provide service time and / or It is to provide a terminal that displays electronic coupon information corresponding to a useful time including a service valid period, and a server device that distributes the coupon information that enables the display.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal for receiving electronic coupon information including at least position information of a service provider and useful time information including a service providing time and / or a service valid period, Means for automatically detecting the current position of the terminal itself when the terminal is used, and means for comparing the detected current position with the position information of the service provider and searching for electronic coupon information around the current position. A terminal provided with a means for displaying the retrieved electronic coupon information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the terminal according to the first aspect, the means for retrieving the electronic coupon information is:
The terminal is characterized by comparing current time information and the useful time information and searching for electronic coupon information corresponding to the useful time information.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in a server device that distributes electronic coupon information to a client via a network, at least the position information of a service provider and useful time information including a service providing time and / or a service valid period are used. The server device is provided with means for delivering the following electronic coupon information.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a network system to which the present invention is applied, in which a server 101 is a LAN 102.
It is connected to the Internet 104 via the route control device 103 and an appropriate communication line, and the clients 105 and 106 are connected to the Internet 104. The server 101 is a server that distributes coupon information, which will be described later, and distributes coupon information in response to a download request for coupon information from the clients 105 and 106. The clients 105 and 106 can be mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 2 is an external view of a mobile phone as an electronic coupon receiving terminal to which the present invention is applied. The mobile phone 1 includes an upper end 2 of a box-shaped case 20.
The antenna 21 of the drawer storage body is provided in 0A,
A display unit 22 including a liquid crystal display is provided on the front surface 20B.
And an input unit 23 including operation keys. A speaker 24 is provided inside the upper side of the front surface 20B.
A microphone 25 is housed inside the 0B lower side.
Further, the side surface 20C is provided with a slot 27 for mounting a removable external memory (Memory Stick: registered trademark: Sony Corporation) 26, and a headphone jack 28.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the mobile phone. The control unit 30 includes a CPU, ROM and RAM (not shown).
The basic program and application stored in advance in the ROM are loaded into the RAM, and the mobile phone is controlled according to the loaded basic program and application. In the case of realizing the function as a telephone, first, at the time of transmission, when a telephone number is input or a call request is made by a key operation from the input unit 23, the control unit 30 accordingly responds to the communication processing unit 31 and the antenna 21. Through the base station (not shown). Next, the communication processor 31 modulates the voice data picked up from the microphone 25, and the modulated voice data is transmitted to the base station via the antenna 21. At the time of reception, the received data is taken into the communication processing unit 31 from the antenna 21, demodulated, and then output as voice through the speaker 24 to realize a call. The position data detection unit 34 is a self-position detection device using GPS (Global Positioning System), and grasps the coordinate data (latitude, longitude) of the position where the mobile phone is present at regular time intervals, and this data is When supplied to the control unit 30, the map data loaded in the external memory 26 is stored in the memory I / O.
By referring through the F (interface) 32, it is detected which area the current location corresponds to, that is, whether it is around Tokyo station or around Shinagawa station. Also in the case of coupon information communication as an electronic mail, the electronic coupon information is received by performing the same operation, and the control unit 30 stores it in a storage device (not shown) and displays it on the display unit 22.

The first embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, when the user moves from around Tokyo Station to around Shinagawa Station, it automatically displays electronic coupons available around Shinagawa Station and at that time. Hereinafter, the process of determining the display data of the electronic coupon distributed as the electronic mail illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 7 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 8. 4 and 5 are display examples in which the distributed electronic coupons are displayed on the display unit 22, and display examples of the electronic coupons distributed around Tokyo station and around Shinagawa station, respectively. Further, FIG. 6 is a display example of an electronic coupon that can be further used around 8:00 at Tokyo Station, and FIG. 7 is a display example of an electronic coupon that is finally used.

In FIG. 8, the mobile phone 1 has an input unit 23.
When the operation key is operated in a predetermined operation procedure, it operates as a mobile terminal that receives coupon information, and the display data determination process starts. When this process starts, the CPU (not shown) of the control unit 30 acquires the coordinate data of the current position where the mobile phone 1 is used by the position data detection unit 34, and acquires the position information of the area from the coordinate data. (S11). Next, connect to the server 01 shown in FIG. 1 via the antenna 21 and the communication processing unit 31,
The position information and the position information of the coupon information to be distributed are referred to and searched (S12), and it is checked whether or not there is coupon information to be distributed to the area (S13). When there is no coupon information (S13, NO), this process is terminated, and when there is coupon information (S1
3, YES), the CPU further refers to the service provision time information included in the time information and the coupon information of the clock device (not shown) held by the mobile phone 1, and the coupon corresponding to the service provision time from the coupon information. Information is searched (S14), and it is checked whether or not there is coupon information (S15). When there is no coupon information (S15, NO), this process is terminated, and when there is coupon information (S15, YES), the CPU similarly applies the service valid period from among the coupon information. The coupon information is searched (S16), and it is checked whether the coupon information exists (S17). When there is no coupon information (S17, NO), this process is ended, and when there is coupon information (S17, YES), the display of the corresponding coupon information is determined (S18), and this process is ended. .

In this way, finally, the electronic coupon that can be used around 8:00 pm around Tokyo station shown in FIG. 6 is displayed. Therefore, the user
A predetermined service is received by selecting the screen of "Half price of coffee and olive coffee", displaying the screen as shown in FIG. 7 and presenting it to the service provider. When the user moves from around Tokyo station to around Shinagawa station, the electronic coupon corresponding to the service providing time and / or service validity period around Shinagawa station is automatically displayed.

According to the present embodiment, the mobile phone 1 is provided with the position data detection unit for detecting its own current position, so that when the display data determination process is performed, the mobile phone 1 automatically detects its own position. If detected and the user is around Tokyo station, the electronic coupon around Tokyo station is displayed, and if the user moves to around Shinagawa station, the electronic coupon around Shinagawa station is displayed. In addition, since the service information such as 8:00 pm and the service validity period information are embedded in the coupon information, the user can instantly search for an electronic coupon corresponding to the service provision time and / or the service validity period that the user wants to use. indicate. Therefore, it takes less time to search for an electronic coupon, and the usability as an electronic coupon receiving terminal is improved. Since the electronic coupon provider can accurately provide information to the area used by the user, it can enhance the effect of attracting customers.

Further, although the present embodiment describes the display of electronic coupons in a predetermined area, icons for shortcuts linked to pre-registered sites are arranged side by side to display the latest special sale in the area. It can also be applied for the purpose of easily confirming contents and events.

(Embodiment 2) In Embodiment 2 of the present invention, in order to obtain the display, electronic coupon information including coupon data, position data of a service provider, and service provision time and / or service validity period time data. It is characterized by delivering. FIG. 9 is an internal schematic configuration diagram of the server 101 shown in FIG. 1. The server 101 is a coupon database 41 in which coupon data (image data for display) is stored, a place where an electronic coupon is used for the coupon data. Data (position data) 44 and coupon information database 42 that stores coupon information to which metadata of service providing time and / or service valid period data (time data) 45 is added. The coupon information is generated by the central processing unit 43 by adding metadata of the position data 44 and the time data 45 to the coupon data.
In this case, the position data and the time data are input from an input unit (not shown) of the server 101, or the server 101 is called from a personal computer of a service provider (not shown) connected to the Internet 104 of FIG. Input from the input section,
The server 10 via the route control device 103 and the LAN 102.
1 may be transmitted. The generated coupon information is stored in the coupon information database 42, and the client 1
In response to the requests from 05 and 106, the data is distributed via the LAN connection input / output device 206, the LAN 102, the route control device 103, and the Internet 104.

Here, FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a data structure of coupon information, which is issued NO (number) ... 200100001, coupon data (display image data) ... 200100001.gif, service provision. It is composed of data of the location of the company (position data) ... N35wwxx0E139uuvv0, and data of service provision time (time data) ... 20:00. As an example of position data, latitude and longitude obtained by GPS can be used. In the case of one service provider in Tokyo, east longitude (abbreviated as E) 139 degrees uu minutes vv seconds, north latitude (abbreviated as N) 35 degrees ww Since it is minutes xx seconds, it is configured as above. Thus, each service provider has its own location data, which is the service providing location. In addition,
In the present invention, the format of the GPS data is not specified, and any format that can be processed by the client may be used. Although not shown, the size of the coupon data changes, so the coupon data, A header (2 bytes) is added to the beginning of each of the position data and time data so that each data can be identified.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of processing for distributing such coupon information. The central processing unit 43 arranged in the server 101 confirms the connection request from the client 105, 106 side (S21), and checks whether there is a connection (S22). When there is no connection (S22, NO), the step (S21)
Return to and continue the confirmation work. If there is a connection (S22, YES), the coupon information database 20
2 is searched (S23) and coupon information is distributed (S2
4) End the process.

According to this embodiment, coupon data, position data based on latitude and longitude, service providing time and / or
Alternatively, since the coupon information consisting of time data based on the service useful time including the service effective period is distributed, the user is the receiving terminal and is near the terminal as shown in FIGS. Can be easily displayed in a short time.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the current position (place) is obtained in the mobile phone based on the position data acquired by the position data detection unit 34 via the GPS antenna 33. Bluet
ooth: Wireless interface such as ISM band (wireless communication protocol using 2.4 GHz charged wave) summarized by Bluetooth Special Interest Group), F
The current position may be detected directly via M multiplex broadcasting or a wired interface such as USB. Further, although the image data is used for displaying each coupon information, the data may be text data or a mixture of text data and image data. Further, the site to be connected when acquiring the coupon information may be a homepage of each company or the like, or may be a portal site that collects the coupon information. If the coupon information is only image data and does not include other metadata, time information or the like may be manually input and the same operation may be performed. Furthermore, in this embodiment,
Although the example in which the coupon information is distributed using the electronic mail has been described, the same operation can be performed by downloading the image data that can be displayed by the www browser from the www server. That is, it suffices that the information is distributed by a distribution means that can be received by the client. The display data is g
Although the example on the if side is shown, MPEG or JP
The EG method may be used, and not only the still image,
Video including coupon information (animation gif, MP
The same thing can be performed by using EG4, JAVA (registered trademark) applet, or the like.

[0021]

According to the invention of claim 1, even if the area where the electronic coupon is used is changed, the electronic coupon information which can be used in the area can be automatically displayed. According to the invention of claim 2, in addition to the effect of the invention of claim 1, it is possible to display the electronic coupon information corresponding to the useful time including the service providing time and / or the service valid period. According to the invention of claim 3, even if the area where the electronic coupon is used is changed, the electronic coupon information which can be automatically used in the area and corresponds to the useful time including the service providing time and / or the service valid period can be displayed. The electronic coupon information can be distributed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a network system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a mobile phone to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is an internal schematic configuration diagram of a mobile phone to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a display example of an electronic coupon according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a display example of an electronic coupon according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a display example of an electronic coupon according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a final display example of the electronic coupon according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of display data determination processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an internal schematic configuration diagram of a server according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a data configuration of coupon information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a coupon information distribution process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

22 ... Display, 23 ... Input, 20A ... Top, 20B ...
Front, 30 ... Control unit, 41 ... Coupon database, 4
2 ... Coupon information database, 44 ... Position data, 4
5 ... Time data

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A terminal for receiving electronic coupon information including at least location information of a service provider and useful time information including a service providing time and / or a service valid period, which is automatically transmitted when a use area of the terminal is changed. A means for detecting its own current position, a means for comparing the detected current position with the position information of the service provider, searching for electronic coupon information around the current position, and a means for displaying the searched electronic coupon information. A terminal characterized by having. 2. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the means for retrieving the electronic coupon information compares current time information with the useful time information and retrieves electronic coupon information corresponding to the useful time information. A terminal characterized by. 3. A server device for delivering electronic coupon information to a client via a network, wherein electronic coupon information including at least position information of a service provider and useful time information including a service providing time and / or a service valid period is provided. A server device comprising means for delivering.