JP2003125114A - Charging system for image transmission and relaying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a charging system for image transmission that can eliminate a sense of disease from a user caused by its entry or the like of ID information of a credit card and simplify the procedure when the user receives provision of a road video image and to provide a relaying device used for the system. SOLUTION: In the case that a server device (image collection distribution device) 10 downloads a road video image to a communication terminal 80 such as a personal computer possessed by the user via a communication network 100 such as the Internet, an intermediary enterprise 400 intervenes in the communication between the user and the server device 10. The intermediary enterprise 400 is provided with the relaying device, calculates the communication charge with respect to the communication and the information charge with respect to the road video image altogether and performs charging processing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention transmits, for example, an image taken by an in-vehicle camera mounted on a vehicle so as to be displayed on a personal computer, a mobile phone, a car navigation device or the like via a communication line. The present invention relates to an image transmission billing system for performing billing processing at the time of performing, and a relay device used in the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a system for providing road images (moving images), a car navigation device is connected via a mobile phone to an information center for collecting and storing road images, and road images stored by the information center are stored. Is displayed on a monitor included in the car navigation device. In the case of the above system, unlike a service that distributes the traffic jam condition of the road using character information, since the actual video can be browsed, the user can grasp the road condition intuitively. In addition, TC is used for communication with the information center.
By using a protocol compliant with P / IP,
In addition to the car navigation device, the personal computer at home receives the distributed road image,
You can browse.

[0003]

However, in the case of the above-mentioned conventional system, the communication company collects the communication fee for transmitting / receiving the image information, and the information charge for the image information provides the image information. For example, it is separately collected by a content distribution company or the like. Therefore, in order for the user to pay the information fee charged for the video information, the ID information of the credit card is registered in advance with the content distribution business company through the communication terminal such as a mobile phone or a personal computer possessed by the user. In particular, if there are multiple content distribution companies and they are to be used, it is necessary to register each of them, which may cause security problems, which may cause anxiety to users. The registration process was complicated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and includes an image concentrator for collecting image information installed in an information center, a monitor of a car navigation device, a mobile phone. When distributing image information to an image display device such as a personal computer,
A relay device such as a server provided by a business company that has a system capable of collecting both communication charges and information charges such as TT DOCOMO acts as an intermediary, and a charging process is performed to collect communication charges and information charges at the relay device. By performing the above, it is not necessary to register the ID information of the credit card for many existing content business companies, and it is possible to eliminate the user's anxiety, as long as the content companies are registered in advance. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image transmission billing system that can reduce the procedures described above, and a content distribution business company that can reliably collect an information fee, and a relay device used in the system.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image transmission charging system, wherein an image collecting device for collecting image information via a communication line transfers an image to an image display device for displaying an image based on the image information. In an image transmission billing system for performing billing processing when transmitting information, a relay device that relays communication between the image concentrator and the image display device is provided, and the relay device is the image concentrator. And a means for performing a charging process according to a communication charge for communication between the image display devices and an information charge for image information to be transmitted and received.

A relay device according to a second aspect of the present invention is a relay device for relaying communication when image information is transmitted and received between other devices, and a communication charge for the communication and information related to the image information transmitted and received. It is characterized in that it is provided with means for performing a charging process according to the charge.

According to the first invention and the second invention, when the image information is distributed from the image concentrating device installed in the information center to the image display device, the relay device mediates the image information and distributes the image information to the image display device. By performing the charging process according to the communication charge and the information charge, it is not necessary to register the ID information of the credit card to many content business companies if they are registered in advance in the business company. An image transmission charging system capable of relieving the user's anxiety, reducing the procedure at the time of receiving image information, and reliably collecting an information fee according to the image information to be received, and to be used for the system A relay device can be realized.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments thereof. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration in an embodiment of an image transmission charging system according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a photographing vehicle, and the photographing vehicle 1,
1, ... are video cameras 50 for shooting forward images
And an in-vehicle device 30 for wirelessly transmitting an image captured by the video camera 50. The shooting vehicles 1, 1, ... Are taxis, delivery vehicles,
When using a bus or the like, it is not necessary to separately drive a vehicle for capturing a road image.

The in-vehicle devices 30, 30, ... Are capable of communicating with a wireless base station and further store road images taken by a video camera 50 through a communication network 100 such as the Internet via an exchange. Can be communicably connected to the server devices (image concentrators) 10, 10 ,.

Further, the server devices 10, 10, ... Are managed by a large number of content business companies and the like, and cameras (hereinafter referred to as “side cameras”) installed on the side of a road or the like via the communication network 100 and the exchange, respectively. , Fixed camera) 90 and a control device thereof can be communicably connected. The fixed camera 90 is installed at major national roads, intersections, etc., and photographs road conditions.

Further, the server device 10 includes a communication network 100,
Via the intermediary company 400, the exchange, and the wireless base station,
It is communicably connected to a user vehicle 2 equipped with a car navigation device (hereinafter, car navigation system) 60 and a personal information terminal 70 such as a mobile phone, and also via a communication network 100, an intermediary company 400, and an exchange. A communication terminal 8 such as a personal computer provided in a home, an office or a company.
It is also connected so that it can communicate with 0. The intermediary company 400 manages communication performed via the communication network 100, collects a communication charge for the communication from the user, and
For example, it is a corporation or the like that can collect the information fee from the user when transmitting (paid) web content provided by the server device 10 that requires the information fee to the user.

In the image transmission charging system shown in this embodiment, the video cameras 50 provided in the photographing vehicles 1, 1, ...
50, ... Or a road image taken by the fixed camera 90 is accumulated in the server device 10 via the communication network 100,
The user downloads and browses the road images accumulated in the server device 10 using the car navigation system 60, the personal information terminal 70, or the communication terminal 80 installed in the user vehicle 2, and communicates between the user and the server device 10. In, communication charges and information charges are charged by the intermediary business operator 400.

As a video transmission system between the video camera 50 and the vehicle-mounted device 30, NTSC (National Telev) is used.
ision System Committe) Analog signals such as composite signals, digital signals such as ITU-REC656,
II, which is a video transmission protocol in IEEE1394
Follow the specifications such as DC Digital Camera Specification. The road image captured by the vehicle-mounted device 30 is compressed using a conversion format such as MPEG4.

Communication between the radio base station and the vehicle-mounted device 30 is carried out by a mobile phone, DSRC (dedicated area communication), wireless LA.
N or the like may be used, and TCP is used as the communication protocol.
In addition to using the Internet protocol such as / IP, the protocol conversion may be performed in the wireless base station using various protocols.

Further, as a means for performing communication between the communication terminal 80 such as a personal computer provided in a home, an office, a company and the intermediary business 400, an analog modem, a CATV modem, and an ADSL modem are used. The communication terminal 80 can display a road image using a WWW browser or the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the vehicle-mounted device 30. The vehicle-mounted device 30 includes a control unit 31 including a CPU, and the control unit 31 includes the GPS receiver 32 and the position calculation unit 3
3, wireless communication unit 34, in-vehicle communication unit 35, and storage unit 36
Etc. to control the operation. The GPS receiver 32 receives radio waves transmitted from at least three satellites 37, 37, ... Of the 24 GPS satellites 37, 37 ,. Position information regarding the absolute position of the photographing vehicle 1 is calculated. Further, when calculating the position information regarding the absolute position, the calculated value is corrected by the self-contained navigation using the vehicle speed sensor and the gyro. If the photographing vehicle 1 has a car navigation system 60,
In addition to the absolute position, it is possible to obtain information about the name of the road on which the vehicle is running and the name of the intersection.

The wireless communication unit 34 is hardware for transmitting and receiving information to and from the server device 10 through the communication network 100 via the wireless base station and the exchange, and the in-vehicle communication unit 35 is provided in the photographing vehicle 1. The road image which is connected to the on-board video camera 50 and photographed by the video camera 50 is transmitted via the wireless communication unit 34. Storage unit 36
In addition to storing the position information calculated by the position calculation unit 33, is information (position information, road images, etc.) transmitted and received via the wireless communication unit 34, and data generated when the control unit 31 performs calculation. Is temporarily stored, and various programs necessary for realizing the vehicle-mounted device 30 and ID information unique to the vehicle-mounted device 30 itself are stored. The video camera 50 connected to the in-vehicle communication unit 35 is attached to a position in the photographing vehicle 1, such as behind a rearview mirror, which has a good forward field of view and does not hinder the driver's field of view.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the server device 10. The server device 10 includes a control unit 11 including a CPU, and the control unit 11 controls operations of the communication unit 12, the video storage unit 13, the acquisition planning unit 14, the input unit 15, and the like. The communication unit 12 is hardware for transmitting and receiving information via the communication network 100, and the video storage unit 1
Reference numeral 3 is for storing and accumulating road images received via the communication unit 12, and is composed of a hard disk or the like.
The image storage unit 13 also stores a road list regarding road images that can be provided to the user and that is created based on the position information received from the vehicle-mounted device 30.

The acquisition planning unit 14 includes the vehicle-mounted devices 10, 10, ...
Is based on the information input from the input unit 15 such as a keyboard, the timing of receiving the position information from the vehicle-mounted devices 30, 30, ... (For example, every 5 minutes). A preset reception plan is set, position information is requested to the photographing vehicles 1, 1, ... Based on the reception plan, and the received position information is stored in a database format while being updated. In addition, the photographing vehicle 1 that is the source of the road image based on the received position information
Is selected and a transmission request to acquire and transmit a road image to the selected photographing vehicle 1 is issued. Further, it has a built-in timer for measuring the timing. In addition to the preset preset reception plan as described above, for example, by calculating the frequency of the browsing request from the user, the reception interval of the position information and the road video is lengthened for a road with a low frequency, For high roads, it may be dynamically created by shortening the reception interval of position information and road video.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the relay device 40 provided in the intermediary business 400. Relay device 40
Includes a control unit 41 including a CPU, and the control unit 41
Is a first communication unit 42, a second communication unit 43, a billing processing unit 4
4, and the operation of the storage unit 45 and the like. The first communication unit 42 is hardware for transmitting and receiving information between the server device 10 and the like via the communication network 100,
The second communication unit 43 includes a car navigation system 60, a personal information terminal 70,
And hardware for transmitting and receiving information to and from the communication terminal 80 and the like. The billing processing unit 44 includes the relay device 4
In addition to calculating the communication charge for communication performed via 0, when the information received via the first communication unit 42 is transmitted via the second communication unit 43, the information charge related to the information is calculated. And is realized by using an application or the like. The storage unit 45 also includes the first communication unit 42.
Information that is transmitted and received via the second communication unit 43, and data that is generated when the control unit 41 performs a calculation is temporarily stored, and a user or communication device (car navigation 6
0, personal information terminal 70, communication terminal 80, etc.) in addition to storing the ID information in a database format, various programs necessary for realizing the relay device 40 are stored.

Next, the flow of operation of the image transmission charging system having the above-mentioned structure will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of operations when the server device 10 collects road images. First, the server device 1
0 transmits to the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices 30, 30, ... At a predetermined timing, information requesting the position information regarding the position where the photographing vehicles 1, 1 ,. The in-vehicle devices 30, 30, ...
2), GPS receiver 32 and position calculation unit 3 upon request
The position information calculated using 3 and the ID information unique to itself are transmitted to the server device 10 (S3).

On the other hand, the server device 10 uses the timer built in the acquisition planning unit 14 immediately after transmitting the information requesting the position information in step 1, and then the in-vehicle devices 30, 3 are used.
Time is measured to measure the timing (for example, after 5 minutes) of requesting position information for 0, ... (S4). Upon receiving the position information and the ID information from the vehicle-mounted devices 30, 30, ... (S5), the server device 10 creates a road list showing roads that can be provided to the user, and at the same time, transmits the road image based on the position information. Then, the photographing vehicle 1 is selected (S6). That is, for example, when it is determined from the position information that a plurality of photographing vehicles 1, 1, ... Are traveling within a predetermined range of the same national road, the photographing vehicle 1 that satisfies a preset condition is selected. It is conceivable that the condition is that of the vehicles 1, 1, ... Which travel within the predetermined range, the vehicle 1 that has entered the predetermined range most recently. Further, when the photographing vehicles 1, 1, ... Are equipped with a car navigation system, the traveling plan set by the driver or the like in the car navigation system is used to predict the photographing vehicle 1 approaching within the predetermined range. The vehicle 1 may be selected predictively. Note that any shooting vehicle 1 may be selected without setting conditions.

The server device 10 transmits information requesting a road image to the vehicle-mounted device 30 which can be identified by the ID information installed in the photographing vehicle 1 selected in step 6 (S7). Upon receiving this, the in-vehicle device 30 (S
8), transmission of the road image taken by the video camera 50 to the server device 10 is started (S9).

When the road image is transmitted from the vehicle-mounted device 30, the server device 10 starts the reception (S10),
The road image previously stored in the image storage unit 13 is sequentially updated and stored (S11). In this way, the server device 10 measures the time by the timer according to the reception plan preset by the acquisition planning unit 14 while continuously receiving and updating and storing the road image transmitted from the vehicle-mounted device 30. As a result, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time has passed, that is, whether or not the next timing for requesting position information from the vehicle-mounted devices 30, 30, ... Has come (S12). As a result of the determination,
If the predetermined time has not elapsed, the determination of whether or not the predetermined time has elapsed is repeated while continuing the reception and update storage of the road image, and if it is determined that the predetermined time has elapsed, return to step 1. The information requesting the position information is transmitted to the vehicle-mounted devices 30, 30, ... And thereafter, the same operation is repeated.

In the case where the operations from step 1 to step 12 are repeated, the second time and thereafter,
If the photographing vehicle 1 previously selected in step 6 and the photographing vehicle 1 selected this time are different, information indicating that the transmission of the road image should be stopped is transmitted to the photographing vehicle 1 selected last time.

In this embodiment, the case where the server device 10 measures the time (S4) and determines whether or not a predetermined time set in advance has elapsed (S12) has been described. The in-vehicle device 3 displays information requesting the position information.
When transmitting to 0, 30, ..., In addition, an instruction to repeatedly transmit position information every 5 minutes is also issued.
The time may be measured by the in-vehicle devices 30, 30, ...

Further, for the road on which the fixed camera 90 is installed, the image of the fixed camera 90 is received and stored in the image storage unit 13, and the photographing vehicle 1,
.. are present, road images are not received from the photographing vehicles 1, 1 ,.

Next, the flow of operation in the distribution of road images including the billing process that characterizes the present invention will be described.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the operation of the image transmission charging system according to the present embodiment, which performs a charging process when distributing the road images collected by the server device 10 for viewing by the user. is there. It should be noted that in the present embodiment, a charging process when the user receives a road image from the server device 10 using the communication terminal 80 such as a personal computer provided in the home will be described.

First, in order to use this image transmission charging system, information indicating that access is requested from the communication terminal 80 to the relay device 40 based on the operation of the communication terminal 80 by the user, and the communication terminal 80 or the user The identifiable ID information is transmitted (S20). The ID information is a telephone number, a user ID, a password, etc. when the communication terminal 80 uses a dial-up connection.

The relay device 40 which has received them receives (S2
1), start calculating the communication charge based on the ID information (S2
2) Further, the information requesting access received from the communication terminal 80 is transmitted to the server device 10 (S23). The server device 10 receiving this (S24), the in-vehicle device 3
The road list created based on the position information received from 0, 30, ... Is acquired (S25), and the acquired road list is transmitted to the relay device 40 (S26). Relay device 40
Relays the road list to the communication terminal 80 (S2
7), the communication terminal 80 receiving this displays it on the monitor (S28).

Next, the designation of the road desired to be browsed (road designation information) inputted by the user operating the keyboard, the mouse or the like is accepted (S29), and the accepted road designation information is transmitted (S30). The road designation information transmitted from the communication terminal 80 is relayed by the relay device 40 (S31) and received by the server device 10 (S32).
The server device 10 selects a road image to be transmitted based on the received road designation information (S33), and starts distribution of the selected road image (S34). The road image whose distribution is started from the server device 10 is relayed by the relay device 40 (S35), the communication terminal 80 starts receiving the relayed road image (S38), and is monitored using a WWW browser or the like. Is displayed on the screen (S39).

Further, in step 35, the relay device 40
The image transmission charging system according to the present embodiment is performed by relaying the road image, calculating the information charge of the road image (S36), and performing the charging process together with the communication charge started in step 22 (S37). Ends the operation. In the calculation of the information fee in step 36, for example, the server device 10
By adding the information about the information fee to the header of the information including the road image transmitted from the relay apparatus 40, the information fee can be obtained if the relay device 40 refers to the header, but the information fee can be obtained by another method. It may be calculated. Further, the communication fee and the information fee calculated as described above are stored in association with the ID information received in step 24 so that the information fee is also charged when charging the communication fee to the user. The billing process is performed by being stored in the unit 45. For example, NTT Docomo has already built a system that collects communication charges and information charges together. Can be reduced.

In the present embodiment, the server device 10
Describes the billing process when the road information is collected and stored from the vehicle-mounted devices 30, 30, ... In advance, and the road information is provided from the stored road information when the user requests. In addition, without collecting and storing road images in advance from the vehicle-mounted devices 30, 30, ..., The photographing vehicle 1 existing at the corresponding position is immediately specified when the user requests, and the photographing vehicle 1 The image transmission charging system according to the present invention is applied even when a so-called on-demand system is used, in which a road image received from the vehicle-mounted device 30 mounted in 1 is distributed to the communication terminal 80 or the like owned by the user. You can

According to the image transmission charging system according to the present embodiment, in the communication between the server device 10 and the communication terminal 80 or the like, an intermediary capable of performing charging processing for both the communication charge and the information charge. Since the charging process is performed via the business operator 400 using the relay device 40 included in the intermediary business operator 400, for example, the communication business company and the content distribution business company are not separately collected, and especially the user For this reason, it is not necessary to register the ID information of the credit card by paying the information fee to the content distribution business company, and it is possible to eliminate the security anxiety and reduce the procedure. Further, for the content distribution business company, it is possible to reliably collect the information fee by obtaining the information fee from the intermediary company 400.

[0035]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, registration of credit card ID information is not required, and the user's anxiety can be eliminated, and the procedure for receiving image information can be reduced. , An image transmission charging system capable of reliably collecting an information fee according to the image information received,
Also, a relay device used in the system can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of an image transmission charging system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a server device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a relay device included in an intermediary business.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of operations when a server device collects road images.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of operation of the image transmission charging system according to the present embodiment, which performs charging processing when distributing road images collected by the server device for viewing by the user. .

[Explanation of symbols]

1 shooting vehicle 2 user vehicle 10 Server device (image collection device) 30 Onboard equipment 40 relay device 44 Charge processing unit 50 video camera 60 Car navigation system (image display device) 70 Personal information terminal (image display device) 80 Communication terminal (image display device) 90 fixed camera 100 communication network 400 Broker

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F term (reference) 5C064 BA04 BB01 BC10 BC11 BC16                       BC20 BC25 BD03 BD08 BD09                 5K015 AB01 AE01 AF06                 5K025 BB06 BB07 BB10 CC02 DD05                       DD09 EE18 FF17 GG04                 5K101 KK16 LL12 NN06 NN18 NN48                       PP04

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image transmission charge for performing a charge process when image information is transmitted from an image concentrator that collects image information via a communication line to an image display device that displays an image based on the image information. In the system, a relay device for relaying communication between the image concentrator and the image display device is provided, and the relay device transmits and receives a communication charge for communication between the image concentrator and the image display device. An image transmission billing system comprising means for performing billing processing according to an information charge relating to the image information to be stored. 2. A relay device, which relays communication when image information is transmitted and received between other devices, in accordance with a communication charge for the communication and an information charge for the transmitted and received image information. A relay device comprising means for performing.