JP2003248697A - Information provision device, information acquisition device, information system, and recording medium recording information processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information provision device, an information acquisition device, an information system, and a recording medium recording information processing program capable of constructing easy and handy information using environment at low cost. <P>SOLUTION: In this information system, the information provision device 10 is provided with an acquisition request receiving part 11 receiving an information acquisition request signal, a transmission information determination part 12 receiving a notification of the receiving of the acquisition request from the acquisition request receiving part 11 and determining information to be transmitted to the device outside, an information display part 13 displaying the information to be provided stored in an information storage part 15, a provision information control part 14 determining which information in the information stored in the information storage part 15 is displayed on the information display part and controlling it, and an information transmission part 16 transmitting the information outside the device. The information acquisition device 20 requests the information acquisition without clearly specifying the information to be acquired and the information provision device 10 specifies the information to be provided to the information acquisition request and provides it to the information acquisition device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is information provided with an information providing device that retrieves or processes various information and displays it, and an information acquisition device that can obtain and carry information provided by the information providing device. The present invention relates to a providing device, an information acquisition device, an information system, and a recording medium recording an information processing program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Examples of information providing devices capable of processing and displaying information include televisions and personal computers (hereinafter referred to as personal computers). These devices have a display device such as a CRT or LCD for displaying information, and present the information processed by the device side to the user.

In the case of a television, the information presented to the user is information prepared by a third party other than the user and may be provided to a plurality of users at once by wide area wireless broadcasting or the like. When connected and used, it may be provided as information recorded in advance on, for example, a video tape. In the case of a personal computer, in a network-connected environment such as the Internet, information prepared by a third party other than the user may be provided in response to a request from each connected terminal. It may be provided as information recorded in advance on a recording medium such as a disk (registered trademark) or a CD-ROM that reads by using magnetism or light. The presented information may not only be created by a third party, but may be information created by the user himself. For example, in a personal computer, a user can create information, record the information in a hard disk, and the user can reuse the information, and the user can present the information on a screen at any time.

A user who uses the above information providing apparatus can obtain information as visual information through a display device, but wants to save this information in another apparatus or recording medium having a recording apparatus and carry it. There are cases. For example,
There may be a simple case of reconfirming it as visual information at another place, and sometimes it is desired to process the information again in another information processing environment and use it. Here, if the information is previously recorded in a portable recording medium, it is possible to carry the recording medium, and in some cases the information providing device itself is portable. Not all of the recorded information is necessary, and if you also carry unnecessary information, you will need to retrieve that information from other information again when using it. On the other hand, if there is an environment that can be connected to a wide area connection network such as the Internet, it is possible to temporarily record the desired data in the information providing device and acquire the information via the network, but if there is no connection environment There are problems such as the cost of connection and connection.

Therefore, there is a need to record the information desired by the user in another recording medium or another portable information providing device. Conventionally, as a method of recording on such a portable recording medium or an information providing apparatus, a method of using an information recording apparatus connected to the information providing apparatus on the providing side has been generally used. That is, the user can perform recording by setting only the recording medium in the recording device connected to the information providing device and operating the information providing device. Normally, in order to operate the information providing device, switch operations such as a dedicated button provided in advance or a GUI (Graphical User Interface) displayed on a personal computer screen are displayed.
ce)) to perform an interactive operation, select desired information, and give instructions to write information.

[0006] By the above, only the desired information can be recorded in the portable recording medium.
In recent years, due to downsizing of recording devices and improvement in processing capacity, it is possible to easily carry not only recording media but also storage devices themselves. You can now build a system to obtain and utilize information from. As a good example of such an information acquisition system, for example, a portable PDA (Pers
Data cooperation between so-called mobile devices such as onal Digital Assistants) and personal computers. A personal computer and a mobile device are connected via a wired or wireless communication means, desired information is selected, the information is transmitted to the mobile device side, and the information is recorded on the mobile device side. Looking at a personal computer as an information providing device for providing information, the mobile device side is positioned as an information acquisition device.

Here, in order to record only the information desired by the user on the information acquisition device side, it is necessary to select the information. PD
In the case where the data of A and the personal computer are simply synchronized, or when the information to be acquired is always constant, it is sufficient to send and receive only the predetermined information.
In order to select only the information desired by the user from a plurality of pieces of information in the information providing apparatus, it is usually necessary to operate either the information providing apparatus or the information acquiring apparatus via some user I / F. That is, the operation means for selecting desired information must be provided at least in the information providing device or the information acquisition device. As these operation means, it is general to use an input means such as a keyboard, a mouse and a touch panel and a GUI.

By the way, the concept of separating the above-mentioned information recording function and carrying it as an information acquisition device brings several other advantages. First, as long as the communication system between the information providing device and the information acquiring device is specified, the information providing device side does not have to consider the type and form of the recording medium, and thus the cost of the example of the information providing device is reduced. To be done. If the information provided by the information providing device has various media forms such as characters, images, videos, and audios, or if the information providing device itself records on a conventional portable recording medium, In order to deal with this, it was necessary to add a recording device accordingly.

Secondly, since the information acquisition device side has a recording function to increase the cost of the information acquisition device side, the information acquisition device side does not consider the configuration of the information acquisition device side.
The data acquired according to the communication method can be freely recorded. It becomes possible to record only the necessary information, or to reprocess and record the information once it has been acquired, and accordingly, the recording device on the information acquisition device side can be freely designed.

Thirdly, by having a recording function on the side of the information acquisition device, it becomes possible to record and acquire information at a place where the user likes. When an information providing apparatus is equipped with a recording device and information is acquired via a recording medium, the user usually carries the medium to the recording device because the recording device is installed in advance at a fixed position regardless of whether it is wired or wireless. There is a need. Further, if the recording function is provided in the portable information acquisition device, the user will not be limited in the position where the information is acquired as long as the communication means with the information providing device can be established. For example, wireless LAN
There is a method of applying a wireless technology such as (Local Area Network) as a communication means and acquiring information according to a communication protocol such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

The system combining the information providing apparatus and the information acquiring apparatus as described above regards a conventional personal computer or television as an information providing apparatus, and adds a communication means between the information providing apparatus and the information acquiring apparatus, so that While it is possible to construct it as a system for the user to exchange the information acquisition device and the information acquisition device, which are owned individually, a plurality of users each own only the information acquisition device and It is also possible to construct it as a system for acquiring information. Here, when the purpose of the information providing device is to distribute information and the purpose of the information acquiring device is to acquire only the desired information, the latter is more efficient in positioning the information acquiring device. It can be said that the utility value is high. As an information system for providing such information to a plurality of users, for example, JP-A-1
There is a wireless system for information distribution as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 0-163991. The device described in the above publication, as a component for performing high-speed and low-cost information distribution,
The information providing device and the portable information terminal owned by the user are connected by using the optical communication means, and the user operates the information selection unit provided in the information providing device to make a genre of information (for example, newspapers). It is disclosed how to specify information only (such as news) and collectively obtain information. By using this method to record information on the information acquisition device side, it is possible to bring a merit to the information distributor by reducing the cost unit cost on the information providing device side, and the user can also use the recording medium. You can get information without worrying about it.

[0012] Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-65494, in an advertisement providing service such as hanging advertisements, a portable telephone is carried between an advertisement providing device accompanying the hanging advertisement and a portable information terminal owned by a user by using an optical communication means. A method is disclosed in which detailed information of a hanging advertisement is transmitted to an information terminal, the mobile terminal receives the information and stores it in a storage device, and then the user confirms the advertisement information at hand. In this method, since the information providing apparatus itself does not use a display device for displaying information, the information presenting is fixed, but by recording the information on the side of the information obtaining apparatus, it is fixed regardless of the recording medium. The convenience of the user is enhanced by being able to provide the user with more information than the information is presented, and to be able to acquire the information at a position that the user likes to some extent.

[0013]

However, such a conventional information acquisition device has the following problems. For example, in the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-163991, information can be recorded on the portable information terminal owned by the user, that is, the information acquisition device side, but basically there is a pair between the information providing device and the information acquisition device. There is a relationship of 1, and it is necessary to perform an operation on the information providing device side in order to select the genre of information. This operation needs to proceed interactively, and it may be troublesome and time-consuming to get to the information. In addition, when a plurality of users want to acquire information at the same time, the information providing devices have to be used sequentially in time, and the interactive operation time of each user is accumulated. On the other hand, a method of preparing a plurality of operation units in the information providing apparatus is conceivable, but there remains a problem that the cost increase on the information providing apparatus side cannot be avoided.

Similarly, in the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-65494, although information can be recorded on the side of the portable information terminal owned by the user, basically there is only one connection between the information providing device and the portable information terminal. It remains the same as a one-on-one relationship. However, since the information is selected uniquely on the information providing device side according to the type of hanging advertisement, the user does not need to perform a selection operation. However, it can be said that there is no room to select information.

Generally, when it is desired to acquire information from an information providing device, a GUI such as a menu screen is displayed on the information providing device or the information acquiring device to perform an interactive operation (hereinafter, this is referred to as interactivity). However, if the information acquisition operation is troublesome, the user's willingness to use may be adversely affected. On the other hand, if the information providing device does not have interactivity and information cannot be selected, the content of the information that can be acquired becomes uniform. It is conceivable that the information acquisition device side that the user individually acquires the information collectively, and then the information acquisition device side selects the information, but it is necessary to obtain the unnecessary information as well. Storage cost and communication cost are problems.

By the way, the method of connecting the information providing device and the information acquisition device of the user by the short-distance wireless communication means to acquire the information can be provided with the recording system on the side of the information acquisition device of the user. Therefore, as long as communication means with the information providing device is provided, the digital data transmitted from the information providing device may be recorded on the information acquisition device side in accordance with the recording method of the recording system owned by itself. But,
When the recording system is installed on the information providing device side, the target of the recording medium can be limited, so it is easy to record in a format that matches the recording capacity. There is a case where the capacity and format that can be processed are unknown, and for example, the amount of information sent is too large, or the information recording format cannot be processed by the processing capacity of the information acquisition device. Therefore, in the end, reliable information acquisition may become difficult unless the form of the information medium is interactively selected or the form of the medium is not unified.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and can reduce the burden of the user's selection operation while maintaining the selectivity of information, thereby increasing the user's willingness to use. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information providing device, an information acquisition device, an information system, and a recording medium recording an information processing program, which is capable of constructing a simple and easy-to-use information use environment at low cost.

[0018]

An information providing apparatus according to the present invention is an information providing apparatus for searching or processing information and providing the information to an information acquiring apparatus, and an information storing means for storing information.
Display means for displaying information, communication means for communicating with the information acquisition device, time when there is an information provision request, relative position information with the information acquisition device, information displayed on the display means, or An information specifying unit that specifies information to be provided based on at least one piece of information of the processing capability information of the information acquiring apparatus added to the information provision request, and the information to be acquired by the information obtaining apparatus is specified. It is characterized in that the information to be provided is specified with respect to the information acquisition request without any specific designation and is provided to the information acquisition device.

The information acquisition device of the present invention is an information acquisition device for acquiring information provided from an information providing device, information storage means for accumulating information, display means for displaying information, and communication with the information acquisition device. The communication means for performing the information providing request, the time when the information providing request is made, the relative position information with respect to the information obtaining device, the information displayed on the display means, or the processing capability of the information obtaining device added to the information providing request. Based on at least one of the information, to the information providing device having an information specifying means for specifying the information to be provided, an information acquisition request is made without explicitly designating the information to be acquired, In response to the request, the information providing apparatus acquires the information specified and provided.

The information system of the present invention is an information system including an information providing device for searching or processing information to provide the information, and an information obtaining device for obtaining the information provided from the information providing device. Is an information storage means for storing information, a display means for displaying information, a communication means for communicating with the information acquisition device, a time when an information provision request is made, relative position information with the information acquisition device, Based on at least one of the information displayed on the display means or the processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request, an information identification means for identifying information to be provided, The information acquisition device specifies the information to be provided in response to the information acquisition request without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired, and provides the information acquisition device with the information acquisition device. Device is characterized in that obtaining the identified information.

The information providing apparatus, the information acquisition apparatus and the information system of the present invention configured as described above include information owned by a user who wants to obtain information when he or she wants to obtain the information displayed by the information providing apparatus. Only by operating the acquisition device and making an acquisition request, the required information can be acquired. The user does not need to explicitly specify the information to be acquired without operating the information providing device when acquiring the information,
Only by performing an acquisition request operation on the information acquisition device, the information provision device specifies the information to be provided based on the stored contents. The information providing apparatus can transmit the information determined to be provided to the information acquiring apparatus side via the communication unit, and the information acquiring apparatus can receive the information and then store it in the storage unit in the information acquiring apparatus. As a result, the user can obtain the information without knowing the operation knowledge of the information providing apparatus. Further, the information providing device may not have an operation unit for selecting information. Further, it is not necessary to prepare a plurality of operation units to support a plurality of users, and the cost can be reduced.

The information providing apparatus of the present invention further comprises a first associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed on the display means with the time, and the associating information by the first associating means and the information acquisition apparatus. Identify the information to be provided based on the time when the information acquisition request was made from
The information acquisition device is provided.

In the information acquisition apparatus of the present invention, the information providing apparatus further includes first associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed on the display means with time.
It is characterized in that the information to be provided is specified based on the associating information by the associating means and the time at which the information acquisition request is made, and the information acquisition device acquires the specified information.

In the information system of the present invention, the information providing apparatus further comprises first associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed on the display means with time.
The information to be provided is specified and provided to the information acquisition device based on the association information by the associating means and the time when the information acquisition request is issued from the information acquisition device.

The information providing apparatus, information acquiring apparatus, and information system of the present invention configured as described above can uniquely specify the relationship between information and time. Also,
Based on this association information, the information providing device can display the information on the display device according to the time axis. That is, when the desired information is displayed, the user can obtain the information by a simple acquisition request operation of the information providing apparatus, for example, by pressing one acquisition button. The time at the time of the information acquisition request can be determined by providing a time detection unit in the information providing device and specifying the time at which the information acquisition request was made.

In the information providing apparatus of the present invention, the relative position information detecting means for detecting relative position information with respect to the information acquiring apparatus, and the information displayed by the display means and the relative position information are uniquely associated with each other. Further comprising two associating means, which specifies the information to be provided based on the associating information by the second associating means and the relative position information when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device, It is characterized in that it is provided to the information acquisition device.

In the information acquisition device of the present invention, the information providing device detects relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, relative position information detection means, information displayed by the display means, and the relative position information. And a second associating unit for uniquely associating with each other, which should be provided based on the associating information by the second associating unit and the relative position information when an information acquisition request is made from the information acquiring device. It is characterized in that information is specified and the information acquisition device acquires the specified information.

In the information system of the present invention, the information providing apparatus detects relative position information detecting means for detecting relative position information with respect to the information acquiring apparatus, information displayed by the display means, and the relative position information. Further providing second associating means for uniquely associating, and information to be provided based on the associating information by the second associating means and the relative position information when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device. Is specified and provided to the information acquisition device.

In the information providing apparatus, the information acquiring apparatus and the information system of the present invention configured as described above, for example, when a wireless communication means by infrared rays is used, the information providing apparatus side has a plurality of infrared light receiving sections having different light receiving directions. Is provided to determine which light receiving unit received the acquisition request signal from the information acquisition device. Furthermore, the information providing device displays a plurality of information on a plurality of display devices or different areas in a single display device, and uniquely associates the displayed information with the light receiving unit. The information providing device, when there is an acquisition request, transmits information associated with the light receiving unit that has received the acquisition request signal to the information acquiring device,
The information acquisition device can receive and store the information.

That is, the user does not operate the information providing device, but an information acquisition request operation for sending a request signal to any one of the plurality of light receiving parts provided in the information providing device, for example, acquisition. Information can be obtained by pressing one button. Regarding the relationship between the display device and the light receiving unit, when there are a plurality of display devices, if only the user who is directly facing each light receiving unit can see the display device, the plurality of users can It becomes possible to obtain the information that each person sees while seeing the information.

When information is displayed in a plurality of areas on the screen with a single display device, it is on the right side of the display screen when the acquisition request signal is received, for example, when the acquisition request is made from the right direction. By providing information, it becomes possible for different users to obtain different information at once. Conversely, when the operator of the information acquisition device makes an acquisition request, among the information displayed by the information providing device, information that is difficult to see due to the relative positional relationship of the user (for example, for the display screen If the user on the right side of the display device builds the information system after estimating in advance (for example, when the characters of the information displayed in the left area of the display device are difficult to see), it can be used when there is an information acquisition request. It is also possible to provide only information that is difficult for a person to see. To check the light-receiving angle, simply arrange a plurality of light-receiving units at fixed angles and measure which light-receiving unit receives light, or which light-receiving unit has the highest light-receiving sensitivity. I can judge. By thus determining the information to be provided based on the relative position information, the convenience of the user can be improved.

The information providing apparatus of the present invention further comprises third associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed by the display means with the information to be transmitted, and the associating information by the third associating means, and It is characterized in that information to be provided is specified and provided to the information acquisition device based on the information displayed when the information acquisition device makes an information acquisition request.

In the information acquisition apparatus of the present invention, the information providing apparatus further comprises third associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed by the display means with the information to be transmitted, and the third associating means. The information to be provided is specified based on the association information by the means and the information displayed when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device, and the information acquisition device acquires the specified information. It is characterized by

In the information system of the present invention, the information providing apparatus further comprises third associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed by the display means with the information to be transmitted, and the third associating means. It is characterized in that the information to be provided is specified and provided to the information acquisition device based on the associating information according to (4) and the information displayed when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device.

The information providing apparatus, the information acquiring apparatus and the information system of the present invention configured as above are displayed, for example, when the information providing apparatus is an information providing apparatus for displaying a moving image such as a television. The information to be provided can be appropriately changed depending on whether the content is a movie or news. That is, when the content displayed by the information providing device is a movie when the information acquisition device requests the information acquisition, the moving image file data itself, for example, MPE.
G (Moving Picture Experts Group) file data is provided, whereas in the case of news, a text file of news manuscript can be provided. The contents of the displayed information and the information to be provided are uniquely related in advance assuming the data format when actually using the information, so that the user simply sends a request signal. Information can be obtained by an information acquisition request operation, for example, pressing one acquisition button, and it is possible to save the trouble of selecting information in consideration of the data format.

Similarly, when the information providing device is a personal computer, for example, Windows of Microsoft Corporation is used.
GUI (Graphical User Interface) based OS composed of multiple windows such as (registered trademark)
In the case of (Operation System), the information to be provided can be changed according to the display content of the topmost window when the information acquisition device requests the information acquisition. For example, regarding word processing file data, if it is displayed as an icon representing the data in the window, the file data itself is provided, while the word processing application is started and the document data is displayed in the window of the application. If it is, you can use it by providing only the character string part displayed in the window. That is, the user may want the entire file data even for the same word processing file data information, but when the word processing screen is displayed, it is desired to clip only the display area to temporarily use the text information. We assume that there is a possibility. In this way, even if the information is from the same data file, by defining in advance what information the user actually desires and providing the information, the user can format the data. Therefore, it is possible to save the trouble of selecting information in consideration of.

Further, more preferably, the communication means of the information providing device may be a short-distance wireless means, and the information acquisition device is a short-distance wireless means as a communication means for communicating with the information providing device. May be provided.
In the information providing apparatus, the information acquiring apparatus, and the information system of the present invention configured as described above, for example, an IrDA (Infrared Data Association) is provided between the information providing apparatus and the information acquiring apparatus.
n) or Bluetooth (registered trademark), etc., so that it becomes possible to connect by a short-range wireless communication means. The short-distance wireless communication means here is a wireless communication system that enables communication only within a limited local range. As a simple merit of wireless communication, it is not necessary to consider wiring for connection as compared with wired connection, and it is not necessary to prepare multiple wirings when there are multiple users, and thus the information providing device It becomes easy to establish a connection between a plurality of information acquisition devices. Further, as a characteristic of the short-range wireless communication, there is an advantage that a higher-level application can be constructed in consideration of the position information of the user by limiting the connection range. For example, a plurality of receiving antennas on the information providing device side for receiving the information acquisition request signal transmitted from the information acquiring device are prepared, and the receiving antennas are installed so that respective receiving areas are mutually exclusive. Depending on which antenna has received the information acquisition request signal, the location of the user can be narrowed down to a certain range. This makes it possible to obtain the position information of the user, and this information can be used to identify the information to be provided. The same applies to, for example, GP
Although it is possible to incorporate an S (Global Positioning Systems) device into the information acquisition device and to transmit the position information together with the acquisition request signal, the information acquisition device is forced to increase its cost. By using the short-range wireless as the communication means, the position information can be implicitly transmitted to the information providing device side.

Further, when the information requesting apparatuses make an acquisition request and the information to be provided is the same information, the information providing apparatus sends the information by the broadcast communication to the plurality of information acquiring apparatuses. The information acquisition device may include a communication unit that acquires the information simultaneously provided to the plurality of information acquisition devices by the information communication device by the broadcast communication. .

More preferably, when making an information acquisition request, the information acquisition device adds ID information capable of identifying itself and transmits it, and the information provision device broadcasts information to be provided. At this time, the ID information of the information acquisition device that requested the information is added and transmitted together with the provided information, and the information acquisition device displays the information to which the own ID information is added among the information received by the broadcast communication. It may be acquired.

In the information providing apparatus, the information acquiring apparatus and the information system of the present invention configured as described above, for example, when a plurality of information acquiring apparatuses make different information acquisition requests at the same time, the information providing apparatus acquires the provided information. When transmitting by the broadcast communication means, the ID information of the requested information acquisition device is added and transmitted, so the information acquisition device only needs to store the information to which its own ID is added. Besides, it is possible to reduce the cost of storing and processing the information that is broadcast.

Further, the information providing device determines the amount of information to be transmitted and / or the recording format according to the information processing speed, the information storage capability, or the information display capability of the information acquisition device, and thus the information acquisition device. When the operator makes an information acquisition request, the information acquisition speed, the information display capacity, the processing capacity such as the information storage capacity of the information acquisition device, for example, the processing speed, the compatible format, and the remaining storage capacity are used as internal information. Since it can be used on the information providing device side and an information system can be constructed to send information according to it,
The user can obtain the information without selecting it, without being aware of the form of the medium of the obtainable information.
As a method of providing information in different recording formats,
The same information may be described in advance in a plurality of different recording formats and stored in the information providing apparatus, or only one recording format may be provided to the processing capacity of the information providing apparatus when an information acquisition request is made. It may be provided after being automatically converted accordingly.

Further, since the information providing device is a movable device, it is possible to increase the degree of freedom in designing an information providing system using the information providing device and the information acquisition device. As an information providing apparatus for providing information, for example, a method of specially designing and permanently installing an information providing apparatus installed in a public place such as a KIOSK (kiosk) can be considered. A method of combining a peripheral device with a wireless communication function with a personal computer is also conceivable. If it is a general-purpose personal computer, it is relatively easy to move, and it can be appropriately installed depending on the purpose of providing information, the time and place of providing the information.

Further, since the information providing apparatus has the information acquisition function equivalent to that of the information acquiring apparatus, the information providing apparatus can provide the information by itself and can acquire and collect the information. This makes it possible to build a system for redistributing the collected information. In particular, if the information providing device itself is movable and designed to have the same portability as the information acquisition device, it can be used for exchanging information between users, and a flexible information system can be provided. Can be built.

Further, according to the present invention, in an information providing apparatus which retrieves or processes information and provides the information to the information acquiring apparatus, information accumulating means for accumulating the information, display means for displaying the information, and communication with the information acquiring apparatus. The communication means for performing the information providing request, the time when the information providing request is made, the relative position information with respect to the information obtaining device, the information displayed on the display means, or the processing capability of the information obtaining device added to the information providing request. Based on at least one of the information, an information specifying means for specifying the information to be provided, and for the information acquisition request without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired by the information acquisition device Computer-readable recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the information providing device provided to the information acquisition device. Which is a recording medium.

Further, according to the present invention, in an information providing device for searching or processing information and providing the information to the information acquiring device, an information storing means for storing the information, a display means for displaying the information,
A communication unit that communicates with the information acquisition device, a time when there is an information provision request, relative position information with the information acquisition device,
An information specifying unit for specifying information to be provided based on at least one of the information displayed on the display unit or the processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information providing request. , Specifying information to be provided in response to an information acquisition request without explicitly designating the information to be acquired by the information acquiring apparatus, and causing a computer to execute the information providing apparatus to be provided to the information acquiring apparatus It is a program for.

Further, according to the present invention, in an information acquisition device for acquiring information provided from an information providing device, information storage means for storing information, display means for displaying information, and communication with the information acquisition device. Of the communication means and the time when the information provision request is made, relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, information displayed on the display means, or processing capacity information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. Based on at least one of the information, an information acquisition request is made to the information providing device including information specifying means for specifying the information to be provided without explicitly designating the information to be acquired, and the request is made. In response to the above, a program for causing a computer to execute an information acquisition device that acquires the information specified and provided by the information providing device is recorded. A Do recording medium.

Further, according to the present invention, in an information acquisition device for acquiring information provided from an information providing device, information storage means for storing information, display means for displaying information, and communication with the information acquisition device. Of the communication means and the time when the information provision request is made, relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, information displayed on the display means, or processing capacity information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. Based on at least one of the information, an information acquisition request is made to the information providing device including information specifying means for specifying the information to be provided without explicitly designating the information to be acquired, and the request is made. In response to the above, it is a program for causing a computer to execute an information acquisition device that acquires the information specified and provided by the information providing device.

[0048]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of an information system of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information system including an information providing device and an information acquisition device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the information system according to the present embodiment, the information providing device is assumed to be a kiosk-type information providing device installed in a convenience store or a public facility, and information about the nearest store or other facility, advertisement of products, etc. Shall be provided. The information acquisition device is a laptop computer, PDA
Personal digital assistants such as (Personal Digital Assistants),
This is an example applied to a mobile phone.

In FIG. 1, the information system is composed of an information providing device 10 that retrieves or processes various information and displays it, and an information acquisition device 20 that acquires the information of the information providing device 10 and is portable. The information providing apparatus 10 includes an acquisition request receiving unit 1 that receives a request signal for acquiring information from outside the apparatus.
1 (communication means), a transmission information determining unit 12 that receives notification of acquisition request reception from the acquisition request receiving unit 11 and determines information to be transmitted to the outside of the apparatus, and information to be provided stored in the information storage unit 15. An information display unit 13 (display means) for displaying,
Of the information stored in the information storage unit 15, the presentation information control unit 14 (information specifying unit, association unit) that determines and controls which information is displayed on the information display unit 13, and information that stores the information to be provided. The storage unit 15 (information storage unit) and the information transmission unit 16 (communication unit) that receives information from the transmission information determination unit 12 to transmit information to the outside of the device are configured and acquired by the external information acquisition device 20. The information to be provided is specified and provided to the information acquisition device 20 in response to the information acquisition request without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired.

When the non-contact communication means is used, the acquisition request receiving unit 11 uses, for example, IrDA or Bluetooth.
The device (antenna, amplifier) and the like for realizing short-distance wireless communication means such as h. The transmission information determination unit 12 is composed of an arithmetic unit for performing a determination process, a memory device used for storing the processing method and holding a result, and the like. The information display unit 13 is, for example, a CRT,
It is composed of display devices such as LEDs and liquid crystals.

The presentation information control unit 14 is composed of a CPU or the like and controls the entire apparatus including execution of information retrieval processing. The CPU is a ROM, a RAM, and an electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM (electrically erasable memory).
It is equipped with an e programmable ROM) and a Flash ROM, and stores various data such as programs, communication control data, and identification codes of information acquisition devices.

In particular, the presentation information control unit 14 determines the time when the information provision request is made, the relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device 20,
Based on the information displayed on the display screen or at least one of the processing capability information of the information acquisition device 20 added to the information providing request, a function as an information identifying means for identifying information to be provided is provided. Have.

The information storage unit 15 is a storage device such as a non-volatile semiconductor memory device or a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD), which stores information to be provided and is described later with reference to FIGS.
It holds grouping information and an association table as shown in. When the information transmitting unit 16 uses a non-contact communication means like the acquisition request receiving unit 11, for example, the PDA or B is used.
It is composed of devices (antenna, amplifier) and the like for realizing short-range wireless communication means such as Bluetooth.

The acquisition request receiving section 11 and the information transmitting section 1
Reference numeral 6 is a communication device for exchanging data with the information acquisition device 20, and the interface is a mobile phone or a PH.
A wireless interface such as S or a non-contact type IC card, or a wired interface connected to a cable may be used.

Here, the information providing apparatus 10 has a configuration in which a peripheral device for wireless communication means is connected to a so-called personal computer, and the transmission information determination unit 12 and the presentation information control unit 14 are software using a CPU and a memory of the personal computer. It can also be realized by a program. Further, the information providing device 10 may be a server that delivers commercial content information.

The information acquisition device 20 transmits an acquisition request for transmitting an information acquisition request signal to the outside of the device according to an instruction from the acquisition determination operation unit 21 and the acquisition determination operation unit 21 for the user to operate the information acquisition device 20. The unit 22 (communication unit), the information display unit 23 that displays the acquired information stored in the information storage unit 25, the information receiving unit 24 (communication unit) that receives information provided from outside the device, and the information receiving unit 24. It is configured to include an information storage unit 25 that stores and stores the received information,
The information acquisition request is made without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired, and the information provided from the information providing apparatus 10 is acquired in response to the request.

The information acquisition device 20 is arranged to be communicable through the acquisition request receiving unit 11 and the information transmitting unit 16 of the information providing device 10. The acquisition determination operation unit 21 is an input device including a keyboard and a push-button switch, a pressure-sensitive touch panel, and the like for performing an input operation for inputting information acquisition conditions by a user. For example, it is a function for inputting to information acquisition devices such as keys and jog dials.

The acquisition request transmission unit 22 includes the information providing device 10
It is composed of a device for realizing a communication means corresponding to the acquisition request receiving unit 11. The information display unit 23 is configured by a display device using, for example, a small LCD in consideration of the portability of the information acquisition device 20. The information receiving unit 24
It is configured by a device for realizing a communication unit corresponding to the information transmitting unit 16 of the information providing apparatus 10.

In consideration of the portability of the information acquisition device 20, the information storage unit 25 is composed of an external storage device such as a non-volatile semiconductor memory device or a microminiature hard disk drive (HDD). Acquisition request transmission unit 22
The information receiving unit 24 is a communication device that exchanges data with the information providing device 10. The interface is a mobile phone or PHS (Personal Handy-Phone Syste).
m), a wireless interface such as a non-contact type IC card, or a wired interface connected to a cable.

Here, each part constituting the information acquisition device 20 can be shared with a device constituting a so-called mobile phone, and the information acquisition device 20 can be used as a PHS / mobile phone.
It can also be realized as a form of a portable information terminal such as a PDA. Further, when the information acquisition device 20 is incorporated in a portable information terminal such as a PDA, the information storage unit 15 stores, in addition to the HDD, the SRAM (Static
Compact Flash (registered trademark) (C) consisting of a RAM card and flash memory that does not require power backup
F), smart media, memory stick, etc. Hereinafter, the operation of the information system configured as described above will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the basic sequence of information presentation and acquisition by this information system, where S indicates each step of the flow. First, the sequence on the side of the information providing device 10 will be described. Step S1
In No. 1, the information providing apparatus 10 must first store the information to be provided to the user. This information is digital data composed of a bit string of 0 or 1 and is stored in the information storage unit 15. The side providing information (for example, the operator of the information providing apparatus 10) may store this information data in the information storage unit 15 in advance and then install the information providing apparatus 10, or the information storage The unit 15 may be composed of a removable storage medium (magnetic data cartridge, magneto-optical disk, etc.) and may be replaced if necessary. In addition, it is possible to write information to the information storage unit 15 using various communication means, whether wired or wireless,
A mode in which the information content is dynamically updated may be used.

Next, the information stored in step S12 is presented to the user. Specifically, the information storage unit 1
The information to be provided among the information stored in 5 is determined by the presentation information control unit 14 and displayed on the information display unit 13. This information is displayed as, for example, a character, a still image, or a moving image. Here, the presentation information control unit 14 can dynamically change the information to be provided. For example, by changing the information to be displayed every minute, more information can be provided. Instead of the information display unit 13, a device having a voice output function may be configured to provide voice information. Alternatively, the display function and the voice output function may be used together.

Next, in step S13, the information providing device 1
0 checks whether or not there is an information acquisition request from outside the device. Specifically, the acquisition request receiving unit 11 is always waiting for a signal from the outside, and when it is received, the information including the information accompanying the request signal (such as an ID number unique to the information acquisition device) is transmitted. The information determination unit 12 is notified. The signal waiting may be realized by keeping the information providing apparatus 10 always waiting for a request signal from the information acquisition apparatus 20 regardless of the presence or absence of the information acquisition apparatus 20, for example, 2.4 GHz band wireless communication. In the case of using the Bluetooth technology according to, the information providing apparatus 10 investigates whether or not the information acquisition apparatus 20 exists within the information transmission / reception range with a certain time interval based on the standard specification of the technology. The information providing device 10 regardless of whether or not there is a request to acquire information.
May be configured as an ad hoc network (piconet) in which the master is the master and the information acquisition device 20 is the slave, and then waits for a signal requesting information from the information acquisition device 20 (slave).

If there is no acquisition request from the information acquisition device 20 in step S13, the process returns to step S12,
Continue to display information and wait for acquisition signals. The information display (step S12) and the waiting for the acquisition signal (step S13) are shown as a sequential flow in the flow of FIG. 2, but can be actually performed in parallel.

When the acquisition request is received from the information acquisition device 20 in step S13, the information providing device 10 determines the information to be transmitted corresponding to the request in step S14.
The information to be transmitted is stored in the information storage unit 15,
Which of the stored information should be sent is uniquely determined by the internal state of the information providing apparatus 10 and the information associated with the acquisition request received in step S13.
Details of this determination method will be described later with reference to FIG.

Next, in step S15, the information providing device 1
0 transmits the information determined in step S14 to the information acquisition device 20 that has made the acquisition request. Specifically, the information transmission unit 16 transmits the information determined to be transmitted among the information stored in the information storage unit 15 to the external information acquisition device 20. This transmission may be performed by a general wireless communication method such as IrDA in which the transmitting side and the receiving side have a one-to-one relationship, or the transmitting side broadcasts (broadcasts) to a plurality of receiving sides. You may go by the mechanism. For example, in the case of broadcast communication using broadcasting, in addition to the information to be transmitted, a unique ID number that can specify the information acquisition device 20 that has made the acquisition request is also transmitted, and the receiving side specifies that ID, It suffices to use a method in which only the information having the own ID number is stored. By using broadcasting, multiple information acquisition devices can receive transmission information at once, so if the same information request continues, if the same information acquisition request is made within a certain time range, it will be transmitted collectively. It becomes possible to do. In other words, if after deciding which information to send in response to an information request and then sending the same information continuously within a predetermined time, send that information as the same newsletter. As a result, redundant transmission can be omitted. On the contrary, when there is an information acquisition request, the information is always transmitted by broadcasting,
The information acquisition device may receive all the broadcasted information, and then the information acquisition device may determine whether to store each piece of information. It is necessary to provide a means for selectively deciding whether or not to store. After transmitting the information, the information providing apparatus 10 returns to the information display in step S12.

Next, the sequence on the information acquisition device 20 side will be described. The user of the information acquisition device 20 visually checks the information displayed by the information providing device 10 in step S12,
When it is desired to acquire the information in the information acquisition apparatus 20 at hand, the information acquisition apparatus 20 is operated in step S21, and an acquisition request is transmitted to the information providing apparatus 10 in step S22. Here, when the user wants information, the user only needs to decide at least whether or not to transmit the information acquisition request. Therefore, for example, the acquisition operation determination unit 21 is configured by only one push button. The information acquisition device 20 can be configured such that the user simply presses the button to transmit the acquisition request. The transmission method of the acquisition request is
A method corresponding to the acquisition request waiting method used in step S13 in the sequence of the information providing apparatus 10 may be used.

Then, in step S23, the information acquisition device 2
0 waits for transmission information from the outside of the device and determines whether or not the information is received. If you receive the desired information,
Information is stored in the information storage unit 25 in step S24, and the information stored in step S26 is displayed on the information display unit 23 to notify the user. As a method of waiting for transmission information, a method corresponding to the information transmission method used in step S15 of the sequence of the information providing apparatus may be used. Further, the transmission of the acquisition request of the user, the waiting of the information, and the display of the acquired information are shown as a sequential flow in the flow of FIG.
In actuality, parallel operations such as making the next acquisition request may be performed even while waiting for transmission information. After acquiring the information, the information acquisition device 20 returns to step S21 in preparation for a new user's acquisition operation. The means for determining the information to be transmitted by the information providing apparatus 10 in step S14 will be described in more detail.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure until the information providing apparatus 10 determines the information to be transmitted.
First, in step S31, the information associated with the information acquisition request from the information acquisition terminal 2 is specified. The information accompanying the request is, when the acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device 20,
It means internal information of the information acquisition device 20 itself transmitted at the same time as the acquisition request. For example, a unique ID number that the information acquisition device 20 has individually, personal information stored in advance by the user and permitted to be disclosed, information provided by an application running on the device, and attached to the information providing device 10. Information from sensors such as GPS, usable storage capacity, compatible media format formats, processing speed, and the like. These pieces of information are used as judgment materials when judging whether to permit the information request or deciding the transmission information. If it is not necessary to use the accompanying information, step S31 can be skipped.

Next, in step S32, it is determined whether to accept the information acquisition request. Here, the above step S3
Based on the information specified in 1, it may be determined whether the information should be transmitted to the information acquisition device that has made the acquisition request. For example,
The ID of the information acquisition device that permits the provision of information is stored in advance in the information providing device 10. The ID is compared with the ID specified in step S31, and if the IDs match, the process proceeds to the next step and the information is transmitted. In addition, the I of the information acquisition device that requested acquisition
The number of acquisition requests corresponding to D may be counted in the information providing apparatus 10, and a use restriction of information may be set such that the information is not provided when the number of times reaches a certain number or more. These usage permission determinations are particularly effective when the information provision is linked with the charging system.

Next, in step S33, the information providing device 1
Identify the required information from the 0 internal states. In step S31, the internal information of the information acquisition device 20 is specified, whereas in step S33, the internal information of the information providing device 10 is specified. In particular, the internal information when the information acquisition request is received, for example, the reception time and the strength of reception when the communication sensitivity is strong or weak are specified. That is,
Basically, it means to identify information having fluctuation among the information inside the information providing apparatus 10 at the timing of reception.

In step S34, the above step S3
1, the information to be transmitted is determined based on the internal information of the device obtained in step S33. Specifically, an association table (which will be described later with reference to FIG. 4) in which the transmission information is associated with the internal information as a key is held in advance in the information providing apparatus 10, and the internal information specified in steps S31 and S33 is used. Select transmission information from the association table. Through the steps described above, the information providing apparatus 10 determines the information to be transmitted. As described above, in the case of following the basic flowchart up to the determination of transmission information in FIG. 3, it is necessary to associate specific internal information with transmission information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an association table when the time is used as internal information for determining the transmission information. In FIG. 4, the transmission content is associated with the situation of morning, afternoon, and evening, but of course, simple allocation may be performed without considering such a situation. Further, in FIG. 4, the association between the content category and whether to limit the transmission target is also performed. By using this association when determining whether to accept the acquisition request in step S32 of FIG. 3, it is possible to select whether to permit transmission of information to the information providing apparatus itself for each displayed information. You can also do it.

Further, in FIG. 4, the format of information to be transmitted is also associated. That is, since the information providing device 10 can use the internal information of the information acquisition device 20 when determining the information to be transmitted in step S34 of FIG. 3, the information processing of the information acquisition device 20 is performed here. Processing capabilities such as speed, information display capability, and information storage capability can be used. For information on processing capacity, information acquisition devices 20 are grouped in advance,
A unique group ID can be designated for each information acquisition device. The processing speed used in FIG.
FIG. 5 shows an example showing the grouping of the information acquisition devices according to the difference in information processing capability such as the format of the compatible media format and the maximum usable storage capacity.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of grouping according to processing capacity. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the level is divided by the minimum information processing capability of the information acquisition device 20, and the upper level includes the processing capability of the lower level. For example, the information acquisition device belonging to the highest level 5 exceeds the processing capability of the information acquisition devices belonging to the lower levels 1 to 4, so that it can handle information that can be processed by the lower information acquisition device. It is divided into groups. If the level of the information acquisition device based on this grouping is known when determining the information to be transmitted in step S34 of FIG. 3, the information of the recording method of the corresponding level in the association table of FIG. Should be decided and transmitted.

As a result, a high-resolution moving image with a large number of frames can be transmitted if it is compatible with the moving image media format format and has sufficient storage capacity and processing speed, and vice versa It is necessary to send text information that expresses the same content as character information to an information acquisition device that cannot perform such operations, or, in the worst case, the URL (Uniform Resource
It is also possible to send only Locators). as a result,
It becomes possible to provide information according to the processing capacity of the information acquisition device, and it becomes possible to save the user the trouble of selecting a recording method.

Here, the information on the processing capability of the information acquisition device 20 may be statically grouped in advance as described above, or may be dynamically investigated when an information acquisition request is made. Thus, for example, when transmitting text information, the number of characters of the text to be transmitted can be changed according to the remaining storage capacity that can be stored in the information acquisition device 20, or the information acquisition device that supports video information can be used. If the remaining storage capacity is insufficient even if there is, the information can be provided according to the processing capability at the time of the acquisition request of the information acquisition device 20, such as transmission as text information that requires less information.

On the basis of the above, the example of the association table shown in FIG.
Of the information displayed on the information display unit 13, the field to which the information content belongs (including information as to whether or not the information transmission partner is limited), and the processing capability (level) of the information acquisition device. It shows the format of the information that should be provided. For example, a user who has a level 5 information acquisition device is an information providing device 10
When an information acquisition request is issued to the information providing apparatus 10 at 7:01 when the request signal is received, the information about the magazine released today is a still image composed of a 640 × 480 dot screen. It will be sent as an image format.

By the way, although the association table shown in FIG. 4 does not mention the amount of information to be displayed, the contents to be displayed and the contents to be provided do not necessarily have the same contents and information amount. In the example shown in FIG. 4, since the information amount of the information to be transmitted is basically reduced according to the processing capacity of the information acquisition device 20, the information itself displayed on the information providing device 10 is If the transmission information format shown in FIG. 4 has an amount of information of level 5 or higher, the user can obtain almost any information by checking the information displayed on the information providing device 10. It can be assumed that it can be determined. However, it is not always necessary to maximize the amount of information to be displayed. On the contrary, when only the symbolized information having a small amount of information is displayed on the information providing apparatus 10, the user may be able to easily understand what can be obtained.

For example, the displayed information is "news".
If only the characters such as “weather forecast” and “last train information” or symbols that represent them are used, and if there is a user's acquisition request, information related to the displayed characters and symbols, that is, “ If "news", TV nice video,
If it is "weather forecast", the image from the satellite from the satellite,
If it is "last train information", send a live video of the lightning time bulletin board at the station platform. In this way, it is also possible to send information in which the amount of information to be sent is larger than the amount of information to be displayed, and any information can be sent as long as the contents of the information are related. Is. That is, when realizing the functions of the present embodiment, the display information and the transmission information do not necessarily have to be defined as the same content and amount of information, and the information providing device when the user makes an information acquisition request After specifying the storage content, the information to be separately transmitted may be determined according to a predetermined association table.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating a usage scene when the time is used as internal information in the kiosk type information providing apparatus. In FIG. 6, the information providing device 30 is a kiosk-type information providing device here, and the information acquisition device 40 is a mobile phone or a mobile information terminal carried by a user here. The information providing device 30 of FIG.
A wireless transmission / reception receiver 31 (communication means, short-distance wireless means) for wirelessly receiving a signal for requesting information acquisition and transmitting information to the outside of the apparatus, a timer 32, an association table shown in FIG. 33, wireless transmission / reception receiver 3
1, the transmission information determining unit 34, which determines the information to be transmitted to the outside of the device upon receiving the acquisition request reception notification from the information storage unit 37.
The information display unit 35 (display unit) that displays the information to be provided stored in the (information storage unit), and which information among the information stored in the information storage unit 37, the information display unit 35.
The wireless transmission / reception receiving unit 31 includes a presentation information control unit 36 (information specifying unit, associating unit) that determines and controls whether to display the information, and an information storage unit 37 that stores the information to be provided.
The information is transmitted to the outside of the device in response to the instruction from the transmission information determination unit 34.

The information providing apparatus 30 shown in FIG. 6 has, for example, the association table shown in FIG. Information acquisition device 40
The operator visually checks the screen of the information providing device 30 and presses the operation button of the information acquisition device 40 when he / she wants the information displayed there, and a request signal is transmitted to the information providing device 30. To be done.

The kiosk-type information providing device 30, which is an information providing device, determines the information to be sent based on the time when the request signal is received, and sends the information to the information obtaining device 40. In this way, the operator can obtain the information only by pressing the button of the information acquisition device 40. Also,
The operator can select desired information by pressing a button in accordance with the time change of the display content. This makes it possible to obtain information with pseudo interactivity only by a simple single operation of pressing the button by the operator.

As described above, in the information system according to the present embodiment, the information providing apparatus 10 receives the acquisition request reception notification from the acquisition request receiving unit 11 that receives the information acquisition request signal. Of the information stored in the information storage unit 15 and the information display unit 13 that displays the information to be provided stored in the information storage unit 15 A presentation information control unit 14 that determines and controls which information is displayed on the information display unit 13, and an information transmission unit 1 that transmits information to the outside of the device.
6, the information acquisition device 20 makes an information acquisition request without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired, and the information providing device 10 specifies the information to be provided in response to this information acquisition request. The information acquisition device 20 is provided with the information acquisition device 20.
Obtains the information provided from the information providing apparatus 10 in response to the request, and therefore, when the user who wants to obtain the information wants to obtain the information displayed by the information providing apparatus 10, the information obtaining apparatus owned by himself / herself Just operate 20 and make an acquisition request,
You can get the information you need. The user does not have to operate the information providing apparatus 10 at the time of acquiring information and does not need to explicitly specify the information to be acquired. The providing device 10 identifies the information to be provided based on the stored contents.
Therefore, it is possible to reduce the burden of the user's selection operation while maintaining the information selectivity, increase the user's motivation to use, and construct a simple and easy-to-use information use environment at low cost.

Second Embodiment FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information system including an information providing apparatus and an information acquisition apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the information system according to the present embodiment, the information providing device is mainly installed outdoors, for example, and provides an advertisement having a large-sized display device generally called aurora vision or news with high publicity. It is assumed that the device is a device whose purpose is to provide information to a plurality of people at the same time. The same components as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description of the overlapping portions will be omitted.

In FIG. 7, the information system is composed of an information providing device 50 that retrieves or processes various information and displays it, and an information acquisition device 20 that acquires the information of the information providing device 50 and is portable. In addition, this information acquisition device 20
May be a mobile phone carried by the user or the personal digital assistant 40.

The information providing device 50 receives the acquisition request reception control unit 51 that receives an information acquisition request signal from the outside of the device and the information that should be transmitted to the outside of the device upon receiving the acquisition request reception notification from the acquisition request reception control unit 51. Information determining unit 5 for determining
2. Information display section 53 (display means) for displaying the information to be provided, which is stored in the information storage section 55, information storage section 55
Which information is stored in the information display unit 5
Presentation information control unit 54 for determining and controlling whether to display
(Information specifying unit), information storage unit 55 (information storage unit) that stores information to be provided, information transmission control unit 56 that transmits information to the outside of the device in response to an instruction from the transmission information determination unit 52, bus and I / O. The port 57 includes a plurality of information transmitting / receiving devices 58 to 60 (communication means) installed outside.

The elements constituting the information providing apparatus 50 and the information acquiring apparatus 20 are basically the same as those in the first embodiment, but in the present embodiment, the acquisition request receiving unit and the acquisition request receiving unit of the information providing apparatus 50 are used. A plurality of information transmission units are installed respectively. In FIG. 7, the acquisition request receiving unit and the information transmitting unit are collectively represented as the information transmitting / receiving devices 58 to 60. Along with this, the acquisition request reception control unit 51 that arbitrates the transmission of request signals from the plurality of information transmission / reception units 58 to 60 and controls the information acquisition request, and which of the plurality of information transmission / reception units transmits the transmission information. Information transmission control unit 5 for controlling whether to transmit using
6 is added to the components.

The information transmitting / receiving devices 58 to 60 may be configured in the information providing device 50 like the acquisition request receiving unit 11 and the information transmitting unit 16 in FIG. 1, but as shown in FIG. It may be installed outside the information providing device 50 so that information can be transmitted to the information providing device 50 by some communication means regardless of wired or wireless. In addition, the information providing device 5
0 may be used together with the one installed inside. In addition, each of the plurality of information transmitting / receiving devices 58 to 60 records the reception condition such as the reception intensity and the reception time when the acquisition request signal is received, and transmits the contents to the information providing device 50. It shall be equipped with means capable of Hereinafter, the operation of the information system configured as described above will be described. The flow of basic information display and acquisition is similar to that of the first embodiment, but since there are a plurality of acquisition request reception units and information transmission units, arbitration of acquisition requests and information transmission is required. .

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the basic sequence of information presentation and acquisition by the information system, which corresponds to the basic sequence of FIG.
Steps that perform the same processing as the flow shown in FIG. 2 are assigned the same reference numerals. In the sequence on the side of the information providing device 50, information is first stored in step S11, and then step S1
Display the information in 2.

Next, in step S41, the information providing device 5
0 investigates whether there is an information acquisition request from outside the device. This step is also basically the step S in FIG.
13 is the same, but since there are multiple acquisition request receiving units,
The investigation of this acquisition request means that a plurality of investigations are executed in parallel. In the present embodiment, the information transmitting / receiving devices 58-6
The information transmission / reception unit including 0 always waits for a signal from the outside, and when each signal is received, information (ID number or the like unique to the information acquisition device) attached to the request signal, reception time, reception intensity, etc. Including the internal information of the information transmitter / receiver,
The information is transmitted to the acquisition request reception control unit 51. The means for waiting for the request acquisition signal is the same as in the case of the first embodiment.
It may be possible to wait only for the request signal, or to build an ad hoc network in advance from the information providing device 50 side,
The request signal may then be received. Here, the transmission to the acquisition request reception control unit 51 may use the same method as the standby unit for the request acquisition signal. Also, Bluetooth
When an ad hoc network (piconet) is constructed with the h technology, the acquisition request reception control unit 5 is provided in the piconet.
1. All or one of the information transmission / reception devices 58 to 60, or any one of the information acquisition devices 20 may be configured in the same piconet to construct a network.

Returning to the flow of FIG. 8, the information providing device 50
The operation is divided depending on whether or not there is an acquisition request in step S41. If there was no acquisition request,
Returning to step S12, the information display and the waiting for the acquisition signal are continued. The information display (step S12) and the waiting for the acquisition signal (step S41) are shown as a sequential flow in the flow of FIG. 8, but can be actually performed in parallel.

When the acquisition request is received, step S42
Then, the information providing apparatus 50 arbitrates the acquisition request. The acquisition request may be issued to a plurality of information transmitting / receiving devices at the same time. When an acquisition request is issued from a plurality of information acquisition devices to different information transmission / reception devices, it becomes necessary to arbitrate which information transmission / reception device is processed from the acquisition request.
This may be performed by prioritizing the information transmitting / receiving devices in advance and processing according to the order. The acquisition requests with the highest priority are sent to the transmission information determining unit 52 in order, and step S4
The process proceeds to 3. In this case, if the information transmission / reception device that received the acquisition request to be processed is specified, the information transmission / reception device that has received the acquisition request when transmitting the information to the information acquisition device 20 can transmit the acquisition request. For example, management is performed by giving an internal ID for each acquisition request of the processing target, and the management information is also transmitted to the information transmission control unit 56, so that efficient information transmission control is performed based on the management information. It can be performed.

Further, there is a possibility that a plurality of information transmitting / receiving devices may receive the same acquisition request signal from the same information acquiring device. In this case, if the same acquisition request is not confirmed and the requests are dealt with each time, the information is transmitted and acquired a plurality of times, which is redundant and inefficient. Therefore, when a plurality of the same acquisition requests are received by using a means for determining that they are the same acquisition request, it is necessary to remove one of the requests and remove it. For example, the unique IDs of the information acquisition devices accompanying the acquisition request are compared, and when there are a plurality of acquisition requests having the same ID, the relative priority order is determined using the priority order of the information transmission / reception devices used in step S42. The method of leaving only the acquisition request from the highest

When the acquisition request to be processed is determined in step S43, the information to be transmitted corresponding to the acquisition request is determined in step S44. The information to be transmitted is stored in the information storage unit 55, and the information providing device 5
Based on the internal state of 0 and the information associated with the acquisition request received in step S41, and the internal information of the information transmitting / receiving device such as the reception time and the reception intensity, which of the stored information should be uniquely transmitted. decide. In particular, when the same acquisition request signal is received from the same information acquisition device described above, it can be used as a means for determining the information to be transmitted using the received internal information of the plurality of information transmission / reception devices. The details of this determination method will be described later.

Then, in step S44, the information providing device 5
0 arbitrates the information to be transmitted. Specifically, the information corresponding to the acquisition request is sequentially transmitted to the information transmitting / receiving device that has received the acquisition request. As described above, efficient information transmission becomes possible by transmitting information corresponding to the acquisition request from the information transmitting / receiving device that has received the acquisition request. Of course, a method of transmitting information from the inside of the information providing apparatus as in the first embodiment is also possible, but when short-range wireless is used as the communication means, the communication range is limited, so that the present embodiment As described above, when assuming that the range for providing information is wider than that in the first embodiment, the short communication distance may pose a problem in use. Therefore, the information providing apparatus and the information transmitting / receiving apparatus In many cases, it is better to separate the hardware.

Further, when arbitrating the information to be transmitted, it is known before the transmission that a plurality of other information acquisition devices successively request the acquisition of the same information within a certain processing time range. In that case, one-to-one communication must be sequentially processed by broadcasting (broadcast communication) information to a plurality of information acquisition devices that make the same acquisition request when transmitting information. The inefficiency that must be improved can be improved. For example, in the case of broadcasting, in addition to the information to be transmitted, a unique ID number that can specify the information acquisition device 20 that has made the acquisition request is also transmitted, and the receiving side specifies the ID and information that has its own ID number. Just save only. On the contrary, when there is an information acquisition request, the information is always transmitted by broadcasting, and the information acquiring apparatus receives all the broadcasted information and then judges whether to accumulate individual information. It is also possible to do so by the side, but in that case it is necessary to separately install the selection means on the information acquisition device side.

Next, the information transmission / reception device of the information transmission / reception devices 58-60 which has received the acquisition request transmits the information determined in step S43 to the information acquisition device 20 in step S45. The transmission method is shown in FIG.
A method similar to the method described in the flowchart shown in FIG. After transmitting the information, the information providing apparatus 50 returns to the information display (step S12). This is the end of the description of the content of the sequence on the information providing apparatus side. On the other hand, the information acquisition device 20
The sequence on the side is basically the same as in the case of the first embodiment, so the same step numbers are assigned and description thereof is omitted.

The means for determining the information to be transmitted by the information providing device 50 in step S43 will be described in more detail. Basically, the procedure to determine the transmission information is the first
3 is the same as the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 described in the above embodiment. However, the internal state of the information transmitting / receiving apparatus at the time of receiving the acquisition request transmitted from the information transmitting / receiving apparatus includes the internal state of the information providing apparatus used to identify necessary information among the internal state of the information providing apparatus in step S33 of FIG. Information shall be included.

Further, as described above, when the same acquisition request signal is received from the same information acquisition device, even if the acquisition request itself is unified by the reception arbitration process in step S42 of FIG. It is also possible to use the internal information of the device for determining transmission information without discarding it.
For example, when the acquisition request is made by a wireless radio wave communication method, the position of the information acquisition device is estimated from the difference in reception time or the difference in reception intensity when the information transmission / reception devices receive the same acquisition request, and the position is determined. Accordingly, it becomes possible to determine the information to be transmitted. The position may not be accurate, but may be a relative positional relationship between the information providing device and the information acquisition device. More simply, the information to be transmitted may be determined depending on which transmitting / receiving device first received the acquisition request. 9 and 10 show examples of usage scenes and systems of the information providing apparatus and the information acquiring apparatus when the information providing apparatus 50 and the information acquiring apparatus 20 are provided with information by associating the relative positional relationship with the information to be transmitted. Will be schematically described.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing a system example 1 when the relative position is used as internal information, and FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing a system example 2 when the relative position is used as the internal information. is there. The information providing device 9 illustrated in FIG. 9 includes three information transmitting / receiving devices 9-A to 9-C. Further, it is assumed that there is a large-screen information display section, but the contents displayed on the information display section are different in three areas A, B, and C. Here, it is assumed that the operator having the information acquisition device makes an information acquisition request before displaying the information of interest to him, and the position at which the acquisition request is made by the position specifying method as described above is displayed. By specifying, the position of the operator, that is, the information in which the operator is interested can be estimated and the information can be transmitted. Simply, as shown in FIG. 9, if the reception areas of the information transmission / reception devices 9-A, 9-B, and 9-C are reception areas A, B, and C, which reception area is the operator? That is, it is possible to estimate the information desired by the operator depending on the relative position of the information acquisition device with respect to the information providing device. In the example of FIG. 9, the operator in the reception area A is watching the information displayed in the area A of the information display unit of the information providing apparatus and presumes that the information is desired. The information displayed in the area A or associated information is provided to the information acquisition device. The operators in the reception areas B and C are similarly estimated and provided with information.

The information providing apparatus 10 shown in FIG.
The information transmission / reception device 10-A and the information transmission / reception device 10-B are provided. Further, although it has a large screen information display section, the content displayed on the information display section is divided into two areas A and B. Here, eye-catching information such as video is presented in the area A, and specific information that complements the information in the area A is presented in the area B by displaying character information in a telop format. It is assumed that the area A has a relatively large area compared to the area B so that the area A has a degree of attention so that the content can be confirmed even from a position distant from the information providing device. In addition, the reception range of the acquisition request of the information transmitting / receiving apparatus 10-A is set only near the information providing apparatus, whereas the information transmitting / receiving apparatus 10-B is installed relatively far, and the reception range of the acquisition request is set from the information providing apparatus. Target relatively distant locations.

Here, it is assumed that the operator having the information acquisition device is at a position apart from the information providing device 10 to some extent. There is a possibility that the operator can see the information of the area A but cannot grasp the information of the area B sufficiently. At this time, when the operator makes an acquisition request, the information to be transmitted is the text information displayed in the area B within the range of the information transmitting / receiving apparatus 10-B. On the other hand, it is assumed that the operator having the information acquisition device is in a position very close to the information providing device 10. The operator's acquisition request is received by the information transmitting / receiving apparatus 10-A. From the fact that the operator is very close, we speculate that the operator may be very interested in the displayed contents, and in addition to the information in area B, for example, If it is an advertisement, electronic coupons will be sent, or related information such as shop maps and business hours will be sent.

As described above, the means for determining the information to be transmitted using the relative positional relationship between the information providing apparatus and the information acquisition apparatus may be used alone or in combination with the time information. For example, FIG. 11 shows an example of an association table when the reception areas A, B, and C and the reception time are used as the relative positions in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of an association table when the time and the relative position are used as internal information in order to determine the transmission information. According to the association table of FIG. 11, except for the common information (news), the three pieces of advertising information are displayed in the areas A, B, and C while being shifted. Therefore, since three pieces of information are displayed at one time on the display device itself of the information providing device 9, it is possible to determine what information is being provided to the operator of the information acquisition device to be provided with information. Can be presented to. Further, the operator can acquire only the information of the display area closest to the operator. Conversely, if you want other information, you can move by yourself, or if you stop and wait for a time interval, the information displayed in the area to the right of the operator's attention area can be acquired sequentially. become. In this way, it is possible to achieve information acquisition with pseudo interactivity only by a simple single operation of pressing the button of the operator.

Third Embodiment The information providing apparatus in the first and second embodiments has been described assuming the usage scene by the information providing apparatus for the public as shown in FIG. The information providing apparatus that can achieve the object of the invention does not necessarily have to be an apparatus that provides information services to the public. That is, FIG.
Means for accumulating information to be provided, and means for uniquely identifying the information to be transmitted in response to the information acquisition request and transmitting the information to the information acquiring apparatus without the user's designation. If the above is applied, personal computers or televisions owned by individuals or groups in the home or office can be used as the information providing device.

When it is applied to a personal computer, it can be realized by replacing the elements constituting the information providing apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 as follows. That is, the information display unit 13 of FIG. 1 is a display device such as a CRT monitor or a liquid crystal monitor, and the transmission information determination unit 12 and the presentation information control unit 14 are provided.
May be created as a software program that uses the CPU and memory of the personal computer, stored in a hard disk of the personal computer, and then executed when used. The hard disk or the like is also used as the information storage unit 15 for storing the information to be provided. The acquisition request receiving unit 11 and the information transmitting unit 16 can use various wireless interfaces realized as personal computer peripheral devices. The information acquisition device 20 can be realized by the same configuration as that of the first embodiment.

On the other hand, when applied to a television, the screen of the television monitor can be applied to the information display unit 13 of FIG. It is necessary to construct a system in which an information providing device in which components other than the display unit 13 are mounted and a television monitor as the information display unit 13 are connected.

In the present embodiment, a personal computer is assumed as the information providing device, and the information displayed on the monitor of the personal computer or the information related to the information is simply acquired by the information obtaining device. A system will be described as an example. As described above, each component of the information providing apparatus of this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, and may be realized by replacing each component of the personal computer system.

Hereinafter, a program for realizing the processing on the information providing apparatus side of the present invention on a general-purpose personal computer will be referred to as an acquisition request processing program. However, the present embodiment will be described focusing on a system that uses a computer system mainly for personal use and an information acquisition device in cooperation with each other, rather than a system that aims at information distribution to the public.

First, a computer system intended for personal use will be briefly described. In recent years, as an OS (Operating Systems) used in a computer system for personal use, there is an OS having a GUI as a system often used. In these OSs, G, which is generally called the window system,
UI is used. File information managed by the OS, system information, and application information (including operation information, processing steps, and processing results) are displayed in an area called a window on the display screen, and the user can look at this window for information. Can be confirmed.

Although various information is displayed in the window, if the information managed by the OS is displayed, for example, a list of files in the hard disk is displayed, the OS has the following special functions. Sometimes the window you have is used. That is, a file managed by the OS is displayed as an abstract picture called an icon in this special window, and further, the user uses a pointing device such as a mouse to input a file associated with the icon. It is also possible to directly give a processing method to the OS. According to this instruction, the OS can operate the file information in the storage device of the personal computer, and can start the application if the file is an application (program). On the other hand, in many cases, each application started from the OS also creates a necessary window via the function of the OS and displays the processing process and the result. In addition to displaying the application process and results,
It is also possible to interactively change the processing content by creating a virtual switch in the window and allowing the user to give an instruction through the input device such as the pointing device. The process or result based on the instruction is reflected in the same window again, or another window is created and displayed.

By the way, generally, a plurality of windows can exist at the same time, and each window has a certain priority. When a plurality of windows exist in the display area, it is possible that they exist in the same area in the display area. However, considering that they actually exist in the same area, as long as they are two-dimensional display devices, they are simultaneously displayed. It is impossible to display. Therefore, the window with the highest priority is displayed, and the other windows are displayed only in the area exclusive of the window with the highest priority. The user can change this priority arbitrarily,
It is possible to switch the window with the highest priority (hereinafter referred to as the active window). Normally, only one active window exists in the display area, and file and application operations via the input means of the personal computer are often applied to this active window.

There is a wide variety of information displayed in the active window. If it is a window that displays system information, an icon representing file information may be displayed, and if it is a window created by an application, if the application is a word processor, the content of the document file is displayed as a character string. It may be displayed, or one scene of a moving image may be displayed in the case of an application for reproducing a moving image. An example of these active windows is shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows a window system.
It is a figure for showing the concept of an active window and its example. Based on the above, in the case of a personal computer equipped with a window system, if the user wants to store the information managed by the personal computer in the information acquisition device and carry it, as described in the conventional example, the storage medium normally connected to the personal computer is used. Writing (copying) information through an interactive selection operation through a window to record information in a storage device
Need to do. In the present embodiment, the purpose of this selection operation is to improve the convenience of the user by omitting and simplifying the procedure of this selection operation, and a method of determining which information of the information managed by the personal computer should be copied. Can be applied as If this embodiment is applied, the information to be provided is specified based on the content displayed when the acquisition request is made by using the means for uniquely associating the displayed information content with the information to be transmitted. It is possible to build a system to run on a personal computer. This makes it possible to determine which information should be copied based on the content of the information displayed in the window without the user performing a selection operation. The procedure for acquiring information to the information acquisition device will be specifically described below.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining the basic sequence of the information providing device (personal computer) and the information acquisition device of this embodiment. The basic flow of information acquisition of this flow is in accordance with the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3 shown in the first embodiment, but unlike the case of the first embodiment, the display of information is different. Since it is not always performed in a fixed order along the time axis, it is difficult to specify the transmission information by using the time. In the present embodiment, the information displayed at the time of information acquisition is first specified, and then the transmission information is specified based on the information content.

The sequence of the example of the information providing apparatus will be described.
First, the personal computer as the information providing device starts with step S51.
As an example, it is assumed that a normal OS operation is performed. The normal OS operation includes processing of basic functions of the OS, including changing to file information by an operator operating through an icon and starting an application and performing various processing through the application. And an application (program) other than the acquisition request processing program are executed on the OS.

Then, in step S52, the acquisition request processing program for executing the processing of this embodiment is started. In step S53, the activated acquisition request processing program investigates whether or not there is an information acquisition request from an external information acquisition device. If there is an acquisition request, the process proceeds to step S54, and if there is no acquisition request, step S5.
Return to the normal OS operation of 1.

The processing of the acquisition request processing program after step S52 may be implemented as a program that operates on a personal computer with the same functions as those of the first embodiment, but means such as waiting for an acquisition request signal may be used. If a short-distance wireless communication means is used for implementation, since the wireless communication means is often provided as a peripheral device, a program for communicating with the peripheral device is implemented as a device driver of the OS. There are many cases. Generally, an OS of recent years is implemented as a multitasking OS that performs parallel operations by switching a plurality of programs at extremely short unit times. Therefore, when an acquisition request program implemented as a device driver is started, Even if the standby processing part of the acquisition request of (1) is looped, the operations of other programs and the processing operations of the basic functions of the OS are not permanently interrupted. That is, it is possible to execute the processing from step S52 onward in parallel with the normal OS operation.

In step S54, the content of the information currently displayed in the active window is acquired. In order to handle the contents of information, a data format for holding the information is required. However, as shown in the example of FIG. 12, since the information displayed in the active window is diverse, when the information is actually converted into data for separate use, the data format is also various. For convenience of explanation, the data format of information is limited to two types in this embodiment. The first data format is a data format in which the drawing content itself drawn in the window area is converted into image data. Hereinafter, information in this data format is referred to as "window screen capture information". This information may be in a so-called two-dimensional image data format, and is, for example, bit string data that holds gradation information for each pixel of 8 bits for each of Red, Green, and Blue. Of course, so-called JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts G
The data format may be a data format that has been subjected to image compression processing such as the roup) data format.

The second data format is presented based on a file (hereinafter referred to as a data file) in which the information displayed in the window is stored in the storage device of the personal computer separately from the program file of the application. It is a data format for holding the unique information of the data file. Information in this data format is called "data file property information". This information is, for example, the storage location of the data file (hereinafter,
File path name), data file size, data file category (whether it is a document file, video file, etc.), the time when the file contents were updated, the time when the file was last accessed, etc. . For example, the file path name is expressed as a character string and is a character string with a length of 256 bytes, and the file size is 4
Hexadecimal value of byte length, the category of file contents is expressed by a character string, the character string of 10 byte length, the file update time, and the last access time are year / month / day of 2 bytes / 1 byte / 1 byte length respectively 16 expressed as a hexadecimal value
Expressed as a string of decimal numbers.

As an example of obtaining the window screen capture information and the data profile information from the information displayed in the active window described above, the moving picture application for reproducing the moving picture data file is started, and the recorded data file is reproduced so that the active window is displayed. FIG. 14 is a diagram for schematically explaining the window screen capture information and the data file property information in the situation where a moving image is drawn.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a data format for expressing the information content displayed in the active window.
In a general-purpose computer system, in order to acquire the above-mentioned window screen capture information and data file property information, a mechanism for the acquisition request processing program to acquire these information contents via the OS is required. In the case of window screen capture information, it is the function of the OS to draw a normal window, so direct drawing information such as window screen capture information is managed by the OS side, and that information is provided to programs other than the OS. Often has the function to provide. On the other hand, it is difficult to provide the data fill property information acquisition method as a function only on the OS side. In the above, the data file property information is assumed that the application presents information to the window based on the data file, but such a data file does not always exist. Normally, the OS does not manage the specific data file to be processed by each application and its data processing process, so the information content of the window displayed by the application is associated with which data file, or at all. It is difficult to identify from other programs, including whether or not there is a data file to be used. In order for the acquisition request processing program to grasp these pieces of information, it is necessary to separately install the means on the OS side and each other application. For example, an application is created so that the information of the file currently being processed for each application is registered in a common management table managed by the OS, and the registered information is also used by other applications.
It is possible to implement it by making it available through the functions provided by. Alternatively, it is created so that the OS side provides a means capable of inquiring information managed by each other between applications, and each application implements this means and provides data file information when inquired from other programs. It is also conceivable that the acquisition request processing program performs the acquisition operation of the information content for each application via the matching means. Whichever implementation is used, since there is no direct relation to the detailed OS implementation method, an environment in which the above-mentioned data file property information and window screen capture information can be simply acquired is provided here. The following description will be made on the premise of this.

Returning to the flow of FIG. 13, step S54.
Then, the acquisition request processing program can acquire the display content of the active window in the data format of the window screen capture information and the data profile information described above. The data profile information can be acquired only when there is a data file corresponding to the display contents of the window. Then, in step S55, the information to be transmitted to the information acquisition device is determined based on the association table (which will be described later with reference to FIG. 16). Detailed processing of step S55 will be described later with reference to the sub-flowchart of FIG.

Upon completion of step S55, the information to be transmitted at this point is determined, and the information is transmitted to the information acquisition device in step S56. In the case of window capture information, since the acquisition request processing program itself has acquired it as data in step S54, this data will be transmitted via the short-range wireless communication means. However, in the case of transmitting a data file, It is assumed that the data file is acquired from the storage device according to the file path name information in the data file property information, and then the data is transmitted.

After transmitting the information, the information providing apparatus returns to the normal OS operation (step S51). This is the end of the description of the content of the sequence on the information providing apparatus side. On the other hand, the sequence on the information acquisition device side is basically the same as in the case of the first embodiment, so the same step numbers are assigned and the description thereof is omitted.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the processing for determining the information to be transmitted, and step S55 in FIG.
The sub-flowchart of is shown. First, in step S61, the data file property information is changed to step S in FIG.
At 54, it is determined whether or not it is acquired. When the data profile information is not acquired, it means that the window and the data file are not associated with each other. Therefore, the capture information of the window screen is determined as the transmission information as the information to be transmitted in step S62. If the data file property information exists, step S63
Checks the category information of the file in the data file property information and compares it with the pre-prepared association table. FIG. 16 shows an example of the association table.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of an association table when a category, which is one of file information, is used as internal information. This association table means that, for example, if the file category is a moving image, it is associated with a data file, and if it is a word processing application document, it is associated with window capture information.

In the association table of FIG. 16, since the file category is associated with either the data file or the window capture information, whether the data file is the information to be transmitted based on the result of the step S62, Either window capture is selected (step S63). If the category is associated with the data file, the information to be transmitted in step S64 is the data file itself. If the category is associated with the window capture information, the information to be transmitted in step S65 is the window capture information.

The association table used here must be determined in advance according to the configuration of the information acquisition device and the purpose of information acquisition. In the association table shown in FIG. 16, the association table is determined by making the following assumptions. That is, if the data file is text information such as a document, the user
That is, when a mail application, a word processing application, a web browser application, etc. are activated and displayed in the active window, the purpose of the user to make an acquisition request for the active window is displayed in the window. It is assumed that the user wants to leave information as a simple memo in the information acquisition device. For example, in the case of a mail application, the data file is often configured as a database-like aggregate file, and the user is unlikely to need all the database-like aggregate files of the mail application. That is, it is considered that all that is necessary is to read the character string of the mail currently displayed, and it can be said that an image capturing the window screen is sufficient as a memo. If the character string of the currently displayed mail can be extracted from the data file as text information, the character string may be the information to be transmitted.
However, it is necessary to implement so that the character string of the mail currently displayed on the mail application side is provided to the acquisition request processing program via the function of the OS. On the other hand, when the category of the data file is a moving image, a still image, a sound, etc., the purpose of the user to make an acquisition request is to acquire the data file itself and reuse it in the information acquisition device, or other information. Since it is assumed that the user wants to carry the data file to the device (such as a personal computer) via the information acquisition device, the data file itself is the information to be transmitted.

The association table may be prepared in advance in the acquisition request program, but may be prepared individually by the user himself or herself. If software for customizing the association table is separately prepared and provided to the user, the user can modify the association table according to the purpose for acquiring information by the information acquisition device. For example, when the category of the data file is a moving image, it is assumed above that the user's acquisition purpose is to obtain the data file.
Maybe you just want a captured image of the scene. If an environment in which users can freely customize the association table will be provided, it will be easier to deal with the differences in individual purposes of use.

In this embodiment, the information to be transmitted is only the data file or the window screen capture information, but it is of course possible to increase the number to two or more. For example, file property information may be added as the information to be transmitted. The user may not want to obtain the data file itself, but may want to obtain only the information of the file, and as an example, the data file may be a web page. The file path name of the data file property information described above can be defined as a URL on the Internet in the case of a Web page. Of course, We
It is not impossible to send the page b itself as a data file to the information acquisition device, but if the information acquisition device has a means for accessing the Web on the Internet, it is sufficient for the user to simply have the URL information. There is a nature. In other words, it is conceivable to use only the URL and re-access the Web page from the information acquisition device. Besides file property information,
For example, instead of simply sending the data file, it is set in the association table whether the data file is sent in the original data format or the data format is converted, and the data format conversion is performed in advance of the information transmission in step S56. It is also possible to do this. If the data can be converted, it is possible to perform transmission in conformity with the information acquisition device side, such as transmitting with the data format of the moving image fixed.

With the above, the procedure of the sub-flowchart of FIG. 15 is completed, and step S55 of FIG. 13 is completed. At this time, the information to be transmitted is determined, and the information is transmitted to the information acquisition device in step S56. In the case of window capture information, since the acquisition request processing program itself has acquired it as data in step S54, this data will be transmitted via the short-distance wireless communication means. It is assumed that the data file is acquired from the storage device according to the file path name information in the file property information and then the data is transmitted.

As described above, the present invention can be applied to a general-purpose computer system such as a personal computer used by an individual or a group at home or in the office, and the information acquisition device can be constructed as a linked system. It is possible, and the data acquisition to the information acquisition device can be realized easily without any selection operation, and the convenience of the user can be improved.

By the way, in the present embodiment, the information providing apparatus is shown to be constructed by a personal computer which is a general-purpose computer system, but it is possible to miniaturize the personal computer itself due to the technical progress of the personal computer at present. This means that the information providing device itself can be easily moved. That is, even in the case of the information measures for the purpose of providing information to the public as described in the first and second embodiments, by implementing it as a personal computer system, it is possible to provide the information according to the purpose of providing the information and the place where it is provided. It becomes possible to make a flexible information providing device that can be moved by using the above method.

For example, it is possible to combine the information providing apparatus with a moving vehicle such as a bus. In general, a public-purpose bus vehicle may be provided with a signboard or the like on the outer wall surface of the vehicle, but a system that provides information by replacing the signboard portion with a display device and using the entire bus as an information providing device can be envisioned. When a user with an information acquisition device is at a stop and wants to get the information by looking at the display device on the wall surface of the bus vehicle that stops at the stop, request the information to obtain the information. Obtainable. Since the information providing side can prepare a plurality of information providing devices, for example, an information providing device is prepared according to the route of the bus, and individual information is provided so that advertisements of shops existing on the route are distributed. The device can also be configured. The user can support a plurality of information providing devices with the same information acquisition device. In this way, by providing the information providing device with mobility, it is possible to construct a flexible information distribution system using a plurality of information providing devices and information acquisition devices.

Further, the information acquisition device itself can be constructed as a general-purpose computer system. For example, it can be realized by replacing the elements constituting the information acquisition device 20 in FIG. 1 as follows.
That is, the information display unit 23 is a display device such as a CRT monitor and a liquid crystal monitor, and the acquisition request transmission unit 22 and the information reception unit 24 can be replaced by linking various wireless interfaces realized as peripheral devices. Then
The acquisition request determination operation unit 21 can be replaced by an input means such as a keyboard of a personal computer, and the information storage unit 2
For 5, a hard disk can be used. After replacing these elements, a series of operations of the information acquisition device, such as making an acquisition request, waiting, accumulating and displaying received information, can be controlled by a software program using a CPU and a memory of a personal computer.

The fact that both the information providing device and the information acquiring device can be implemented as a program that operates on a general-purpose computer means that the information providing device and the information acquiring device can be operated by a single computer system. Means that. That is, it is possible to create an information device having both functions. Thus, for example, if an information providing system is constructed in an information device such as a mobile phone, users of the mobile phones can show each other the display device portions of the mobile phones and want the displayed information. It is also possible to create a flexible system in which an information acquisition request is made to obtain information and the obtained information is provided to the user of another mobile phone.

In each of the above embodiments, an example of selecting an advertisement has been described, but the information provided may be any information. When a plurality of pieces of information are provided under the same conditions, a random number generator in the presentation information control unit may be used to select appropriate information, and the proportion of information provided according to a contract such as an information fee. May be reflected.

Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the configuration in which the information such as the association table is read from the information storage unit such as the HDD has been described as an example, but any information storage medium may be used. In addition, the I
The configuration may be such that D is read out and is managed in a server system or a management system connected to the information providing apparatus based on the ID.

The information system of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and it goes without saying that various changes can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the example in which the information providing device and the information acquisition device are applied to a personal computer, a television, a dedicated terminal device, a mobile information terminal, and the like has been described, but any information processing device that provides or acquires information may be used. Good. It may be incorporated as a data communication function of a portable information terminal such as a PDA or a personal computer, and any kind of stored information may be used.

Also, in the present embodiment, the information providing device,
Although the names of the information acquisition device and the information system are used, this is for convenience of description, and may be an advertising system, an information distribution system, an information providing method, or the like. further,
The types of mobile terminals and the like that make up the information system, the types of operating stores (including buses, etc.), the method of constructing a database of advertisement information, etc. are not limited to the above-described embodiments.
For example, if this information system is applied to an automobile service station, it is possible to inform the time of oil change when entering a vehicle.

The information system described above is also realized by a program for causing this processing device to function. This program is stored in a computer-readable recording medium. In the present invention, as this recording medium,
The main memory itself may be a program medium, or may be a program medium that is provided with a program reading device as an external storage device and is readable by inserting a recording medium therein. In any case, the stored program may be configured to be accessed and executed by the CPU, or in any case, the program is read and the read program is stored in a program storage area (not shown). The program may be downloaded to the computer and the program may be executed. It is assumed that this download program is stored in the main body device in advance.

Here, the program medium is a recording medium which can be separated from the main body, and is, for example, a PC card (SRAM card), a tape system such as a magnetic tape or a cassette tape, a floppy disk or a hard disk. Magnetic disk and CD-ROM / MO / MD / D
Disk system of optical disk such as VD, card system such as IC card (including memory card) / optical card, mask ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash RO
It may be a medium including a semiconductor memory such as M that holds the program fixedly.

Further, in the present embodiment, since the system configuration is such that a communication network including the Internet can be connected, it may be a medium that carries the program fluidly so as to download the program from the communication network. . When the program is downloaded from the communication network in this way, the program for downloading may be stored in the main body device in advance, or may be installed from another recording medium. Further, the content stored in the recording medium is not limited to the program and may be data.

[0146]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, an information providing apparatus that can be used indoors or outdoors to retrieve or process various information and display the information, and information of the information providing apparatus can be obtained. It can be applied to an information system with an information acquisition device that can be carried around, and by increasing the user's willingness to use by reducing the burden of the user's selection operation while maintaining the selectivity of information, it is easy and easy to use. An information utilization environment can be constructed at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a basic sequence of information presentation and acquisition by the information system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure until the information providing apparatus of the information system according to the present embodiment determines the information to be transmitted.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an association table when time is used as internal information for determining transmission information of the information system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of grouping according to the processing capacity of the information system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating a usage scene when the time is used as internal information in the kiosk-type information providing device of the information system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information system according to a second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a basic sequence of information presentation and acquisition by the information system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing a system example 1 in which the relative position of the information system of the present embodiment is used as internal information.

FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing a system example 2 when the relative position of the information system of the present embodiment is used as internal information.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of an association table in the case of using time and relative position as internal information for determining transmission information of the information system of the present embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the concept of an active window and its example in the window system of the information system according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a basic sequence of an information providing device (personal computer) and an information acquisition device of the information system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a data format for representing information content displayed in an active window of the information system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a process of determining information to be transmitted by the information system of the present embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of an association table when a category which is one of file information of the information system of the present embodiment is used as internal information.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 30, 50 Information providing device 11 Acquisition request receiving unit (communication means) 12,52 Transmission information determining unit 13, 53 Information display unit (display means) 14, 36, 54 Presentation information control unit (information specifying means, associating means) ) 15, 37, 55 information storage section (information storage means) 16 information transmission section (communication means) 20, 40 information acquisition device 21 acquisition determination operation section 22 acquisition request transmission section (communication means) 23 information display section 24 information reception section (Communication means) 25 Information storage section 31 Wireless transmission / reception receiving section (communication means, short-distance wireless means) 32 Timer 33 Association table 34 Transmission information determination section 51 Acquisition request reception control section 56 Information transmission control section 57 Bus and I / O port 58-60 Information transmitting / receiving device

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Claims (33)

[Claims] 1. An information providing apparatus that retrieves or processes information and provides the information to an information acquisition apparatus, an information storage section that stores information, a display section that displays information, and a communication section that communicates with the information acquisition apparatus. And at least the time when the information provision request is made, the relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, the information displayed on the display means, or the processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. An information specifying unit that specifies information to be provided based on one piece of information, and should be provided to the information acquisition request without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired by the information acquisition apparatus An information providing device, characterized in that information is specified and provided to the information acquisition device. 2. A first associating unit for uniquely associating the information displayed on the display unit with the time, the association information by the first associating unit, and an information acquisition request from the information acquiring device. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information to be provided is specified based on the time when the information was provided and provided to the information acquisition apparatus. 3. Relative position information detecting means for detecting relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, and second associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed by the display means with the relative position information. Providing information to be provided to the information acquisition device based on the association information by the second association means and the relative position information when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that: 4. A third associating unit for uniquely associating the information displayed by the displaying unit with the information to be transmitted, the associating information by the third associating unit and the information from the information acquisition device. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information to be provided is specified based on the information displayed when the acquisition request is made and provided to the information acquiring apparatus. 5. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit is a short-range wireless unit. 6. When acquisition requests are made from a plurality of information acquisition devices and the information to be provided is the same,
The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information is simultaneously provided to the plurality of information acquisition apparatuses by broadcast communication. 7. The information amount and / or recording format to be transmitted is determined according to the information processing speed, the information storage capacity, or the information display capacity of the information acquisition device. The information providing device according to 1 above. 8. The information providing device according to claim 1, wherein the information providing device is a movable device. 9. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information providing apparatus has an information acquiring function equivalent to that of the information acquiring apparatus. 10. An information acquisition device for acquiring information provided from an information providing device, information storage means for storing information, display means for displaying information, communication means for communicating with the information acquisition device, At least one of the time at which the information provision request is made, relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, information displayed on the display means, or processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. Based on the information, an information acquisition request is made to the information providing device including information specifying means for specifying the information to be provided without explicitly designating the information to be acquired, and in response to the request, An information acquisition device characterized by acquiring information specified and provided by an information providing device. 11. The information providing device further comprises a first associating unit for uniquely associating the information displayed on the display unit with the time, and the associating information by the first associating unit and the information acquisition request. The information acquisition device according to claim 10, wherein the information acquisition device specifies the information to be provided, and the information acquisition device acquires the specified information. 12. The information providing device, wherein the relative position information detecting means for detecting relative position information with respect to the information acquiring device, and the information displayed by the display means and the relative position information are uniquely associated with each other. Further comprising two associating means, specifying information to be provided based on the associating information by the second associating means and the relative position information when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device, The information acquisition device according to claim 10, wherein the information acquisition device acquires the specified information. 13. The information providing apparatus further comprises third associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed by the display means with the information to be transmitted, and associating information by the third associating means, and The information to be provided is specified based on the information displayed when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device, and the information acquisition device acquires the specified information. Item 10. The information acquisition device according to item 10. 14. The information acquisition apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the communication unit is a short-range wireless unit. 15. The information acquisition device according to claim 10, further comprising a short-range wireless unit as a communication unit for communicating with the information providing apparatus. 16. The information providing device, when acquisition information is requested from a plurality of information acquiring devices and the information to be provided is the same information, broadcasts the information to the plurality of information acquiring devices. 11. The information acquisition device according to claim 10, wherein the information acquisition device acquires the information provided at the same time. 17. The information acquisition device according to claim 10, further comprising a communication unit that acquires the information that the information providing device has simultaneously provided to a plurality of information acquisition devices by broadcast communication. 18. The information acquisition device acquires information in which the amount of information to be transmitted and / or the recording format is determined according to the information processing speed, the information storage capacity, or the information display capacity of the information acquisition device. The information acquisition device according to any one of claims 10 to 17. 19. An information system comprising: an information providing device that retrieves or processes information to provide the information; and an information acquisition device that obtains information provided from the information providing device, wherein the information providing device accumulates the information. Information storage means, display means for displaying information, communication means for communicating with the information acquisition device, time at which an information provision request was made, relative position information with the information acquisition device, displayed on the display means Information, or information specifying means for specifying information to be provided based on at least one piece of processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request, wherein the information acquisition device The information acquisition device specifies the information to be provided in response to an information acquisition request without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired, and provides the information acquisition device with the special information. Information system and acquires the information. 20. The information providing device further comprises a first associating unit for uniquely associating the information displayed on the display unit with the time, and the association information by the first associating unit and the information acquisition device. 20. The information system according to claim 19, wherein the information to be provided is specified and provided to the information acquisition device based on the time when the information acquisition request is made by the user. 21. The information providing device, wherein the relative position information detecting means for detecting relative position information with respect to the information acquiring device, and the information displayed by the display means and the relative position information are uniquely associated with each other. Further comprising two associating means, specifying information to be provided based on the associating information by the second associating means and the relative position information when the information acquisition request is made from the information acquisition device, The information system according to claim 19, wherein the information system is provided to an information acquisition device. 22. The information providing device further comprises third associating means for uniquely associating the information displayed by the displaying means with the information to be transmitted, and the associating information by the third associating means, and 20. The information system according to claim 19, wherein the information to be provided is specified and provided to the information acquisition device based on the information displayed when the information acquisition device makes an information acquisition request. 23. The information system according to claim 19, wherein the communication unit is a short-range wireless unit. 24. The information system according to claim 19, wherein the information acquisition device further includes a short-range wireless unit as a communication unit that communicates with the information providing device. 25. If the information to be provided is the same information when an acquisition request is made from a plurality of information acquisition devices, the information providing device sends the information by the broadcast communication to the plurality of information acquisition devices. 20. The information system according to claim 19, wherein the information system is provided to the users simultaneously. 26. When the information acquisition device makes an information acquisition request, the information acquisition device adds ID information capable of identifying itself and transmits the information acquisition device, and when the information providing device broadcasts information to be provided. , The ID information of the information acquisition device that requested the information is transmitted together with the provided information, and the information acquisition device acquires the information to which the own ID information is added from the information received by the broadcast communication. 26. The information system according to claim 25, wherein: 27. The information providing device determines the amount of information to be transmitted and / or the recording format according to the information processing speed, the information storage capability, or the information display capability of the information acquisition device, and the information acquisition device The information system according to any one of claims 19 to 26, characterized in that the determined information is acquired. 28. The information system according to claim 19, wherein the information providing device is a movable device. 29. The information system according to claim 19, wherein the information providing device has an information acquisition function equivalent to that of the information acquisition device. 30. An information providing device for searching or processing information and providing the information to the information acquisition device, an information storage means for storing the information, a display means for displaying the information, and a communication means for communicating with the information acquisition device. And at least the time at which the information provision request is made, relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, information displayed on the display means, or processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. An information specifying unit that specifies information to be provided based on one piece of information, and should be provided to the information acquisition request without explicitly designating the information to be acquired by the information acquisition apparatus A computer-readable recording medium, characterized in that a program for causing a computer to execute an information providing device that specifies information and provides the information obtaining device is recorded. 31. An information providing apparatus for searching or processing information and providing the information to an information acquiring apparatus, an information storing section for storing the information, a displaying section for displaying the information, and a communication section for communicating with the information acquiring apparatus. And at least the time at which the information provision request is made, relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, information displayed on the display means, or processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. An information specifying unit that specifies information to be provided based on one piece of information, and should be provided to the information acquisition request without explicitly designating the information to be acquired by the information acquisition apparatus A program for causing a computer to execute an information providing device that specifies information and provides the information obtaining device. 32. An information acquisition device for acquiring information provided from an information providing device, information storage means for storing information, display means for displaying information, and communication means for communicating with the information acquisition device. The time when the information request was made,
It should be provided based on at least one of the relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, the information displayed on the display means, or the processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. An information acquisition request is made to an information providing apparatus including information specifying means for specifying information without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired, and the information providing apparatus specifies and provides the information in response to the request. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded therein a program for causing a computer to execute an information acquisition device for acquiring information. 33. An information acquisition device for acquiring information provided from an information providing device, information storage means for storing information, display means for displaying information, and communication means for communicating with the information acquisition device. The time when the information request was made,
It should be provided based on at least one of the relative position information with respect to the information acquisition device, the information displayed on the display means, or the processing capability information of the information acquisition device added to the information provision request. An information acquisition request is made to an information providing apparatus including information specifying means for specifying information without explicitly specifying the information to be acquired, and the information providing apparatus specifies and provides the information in response to the request. A program that causes a computer to execute an information acquisition device that acquires information.