JP2003345750A - System and method for providing information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a network system capable of recognizing where a terminal is ellegally used by determining whether the terminal is illegally used and storing position information transmitted from the terminal when the terminal is illegally used. <P>SOLUTION: Whether the terminal is illegally used is determined on the basis of a GPS (global positioning system) receiver 5 and an identifier of an agent transmitted from the terminal 1 having the agent with the identifier of a user attached to the position information obtained by the GPS receiver 5, and when the terminal is illegally used, the position information is stored. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for transmitting information related to terminal location information to a terminal.

2. Description of the Related Art It has become common for computer systems to be connected by a network, and a distributed system such as a client-server system has been used. In such a distributed system, there may be a plurality of servers having different types of databases or a plurality of mail servers on a network, and a single user operates the terminal to use the plurality of servers. is there.

As one method for efficiently processing a large amount of data existing on this distributed system, there is a concept of a network agent. Network agents are programs that use the resources and data available at computer systems in a network to perform tasks for users of computer systems on the network.

In a conventional distributed system, when searching a plurality of databases of different formats from one terminal, search operations for each database are often performed individually. Similarly, when a plurality of mail servers are used, the operation of sending and receiving e-mails to each mail server is often performed individually.

Further, in such a distributed system, there is a demand for using a terminal outside the office, such as taking out a terminal used by a user from an office and having the terminal transmit information related to the location information of the terminal. was there. Also, if an unauthorized distributed system is attempted to be accessed by a terminal that cannot be managed due to loss or theft, information such as user ID and password will be stolen, and the user ID and password will automatically be To an unauthorized distributed system using a terminal.

[0005]

As described above, the conventional network system has a problem that an unauthorized access is attempted using a terminal that cannot be managed due to loss or theft. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and determines whether or not a terminal is used improperly, and stores the position information transmitted from the terminal when the terminal is used improperly. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to obtain a system that can know where an unauthorized use of a terminal has been performed.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal having a GPS, an agent in which a user identifier is added to position information obtained by the GPS, and a terminal for transmitting the agent; Terminal authentication means for judging whether or not the terminal is used improperly based on the identifier of the agent transmitted by the above, and storing the position information when the terminal is used improperly. is there.

A second invention provides a transmitting step of transmitting an agent in which a user identifier is added to position information obtained by GPS held by a terminal, and transmitting the agent of the agent transmitted in the transmitting step to the identifier. And determine if the device is being used fraudulently,
And a storage step of storing the position information when used illegally.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an information providing system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a terminal operated by a user in this system, which includes a GPS receiver 5 for specifying a current position by a radio wave from an artificial satellite and a search agent 6 for searching a database through a server system. (E-mail written in the program) or 7 e-mail receiving agents that go around the server system and receive e-mails. Reference numeral 2 denotes a terminal connection device, which includes terminal authentication means 8 and agent transmission / reception means 9 of the terminal connection device 2. The terminal 1 and the terminal connection device 2 are connected by a wireless line 3.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a server system for providing the function of an SQL database. The agent transmitting / receiving means 111 as a search means for searching data in the database, the SQL database 112, and the SQL as a procedure language decoding means for the own database. And a database procedure decoding means 113. Here, the agent transmitting / receiving means 111 is also a transmitting means for transmitting data retrieved from the database. Reference numeral 12 is a server system for providing a database function. However, unlike the server system 11, non-SQL
It provides a database function and includes an agent transmitting / receiving means 121, a non-SQL database 122, and a non-SQL database procedure decoding means 123 as a procedure language decoding means for its own database.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a server system for providing a mail server function.
1, a mail server 212, a mail server procedure decoding means 213, and an electronic mail arrival notification agent 214. Reference numeral 22 denotes a server system for providing a mail server function.
1, a mail server 222, a mail server procedure decoding means 223, and an electronic mail arrival notification agent 224. Reference numeral 31 denotes a server system for providing a program for a terminal.
1 and a binary mail display program 312 for displaying binary mail on a terminal. Reference numeral 4 denotes a network, the terminal connection device 2 and the server system 11
And the server system 12, the server system 21, the server system 22, and the server system 31.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an agent used in the network agent system shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is an algorithm diagram showing an operation performed by the agent transmitting / receiving means 9 of the terminal connection device 2. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of language decoding performed by the SQL database procedure decoding unit 113 of the server system 11, and FIG. 5 is an algorithm diagram illustrating an operation performed by the agent transmitting / receiving unit 111 of the server system 11.
Similarly, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of language decoding performed by the non-SQL database procedure decoding means 123 of the server system 12.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 41 denotes an agent, and an agent ID 411 for identifying the agent.
And the type of agent 412 and the terminal position information 413 by GPS indicating the position of the terminal obtained by GPS
A terminal H / W ID 414 for identifying the terminal body, a user ID 415 for identifying the terminal user, and a user ID
Password 416 and user ID 415
Additional user ID 417 and additional user ID
The password 418 for the agent 417 and the agent 41
A procedure 419 of processing performed by the server system;
Data (attached program, data) 420 attached to the agent as a result of processing in the server system. The procedure 419 is described in an intermediate language format that can be decoded by any of the procedure decoding means provided in each server system.

When the agent 41 is the search agent 6, a procedure for searching the database such as the name of a database to be searched and search conditions is described in a procedure 419. If the agent 41 is the e-mail receiving agent 7, the procedure 419 describes the name of the mail server that wants to receive the mail and information on the type of binary mail that can be displayed on the terminal 1. The user ID used by the accessing server system
May be described in the procedure 419 to use the additional user ID 417 instead of the user ID 415.

Next, the operation of each means and each unit shown in FIG. 1 will be described. First, a search will be described. The database searcher operates the terminal 1 to search the database. When the searcher inputs a search condition into the terminal 1 and performs a search execution operation, an ID for identifying the agent is set in the agent ID 411 of the search agent 6, and a value indicating the search agent is set in the agent type 412. , The position information of the terminal at the time of performing the search execution operation is set in the terminal position information 413 by GPS, the ID 414 unique to the terminal H / W is set,
A user ID 415 and a password 416 are set,
The search condition is set in procedure 419. Here, the server system 11 and the server system 12 are used as search conditions.
It is assumed that the description is made so that the search is performed by circulating the search. Additional user ID 417 and password 418 are set as needed.

When necessary values and procedures are set in the search agent 6, the wireless line 3 is connected, and the search agent 6 having search conditions moves to the terminal connection device 2.
According to the algorithm of FIG. 3, first, in step S11 (hereinafter simply referred to as S11), the agent transmitting / receiving means 9 of the terminal connection device 2 reads the procedure 419 of the search agent 6 in S12 when knowing that the agent has been received. From this procedure 419, it is known that the first patrol destination of the search agent 6 is the server system 11 in S15, and the search agent 6 is connected to the server system 1 in S16.
Move to 1.

When the search agent 6 arrives at the server system 11 via the network 4, the agent transmitting / receiving means 111 processes a database search procedure according to the algorithm shown in FIG. If the agent transmitting / receiving means 111 has received the agent,
Then, the procedure 419 included in the search agent 6 is read to obtain database search conditions. Subsequently, the agent transmitting / receiving means 111 transmits the search condition described in the intermediate language form to the procedure 419 in SQL in order to perform the described processing.
It passes to the database procedure decoding means 113. SQL
The database procedure decoding unit 113 converts the intermediate language of the search condition into a form that allows the SQL database 112 to be searched, as in the example of FIG. Then, the SQL database 112 is searched according to the SQL sentence selected as a result of the conversion. The execution result of the search is the search agent 6
As data 420.

The search agent 6 that has completed the search of the server system 11 is moved by the agent transmission / reception means 111 to the next server system 12 which follows the flow shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, first, S
In step 21 and S22, the procedure 419 is read to obtain a server to be visited by the agent. Next, the data 420 is read in S23. Since the data 420 includes the search result of the database that has already been searched, the server that has already been visited can be obtained from the data 420. For example, S26
Then, the difference between the server information obtained from the procedure 419 and the server information obtained from the data 420 is determined, the next server to be visited is determined, and the search agent 6 is moved in S27.

The search agent 6 is a server system 12
, The same operation as in the server system 11 is performed. That is, in step S21 of FIG. 5, the agent transmitting / receiving means 121 reads the procedure 419 included in the search agent 6 and obtains a database search condition. The search condition described in the intermediate language in the procedure 419 is a non-S
The non-SQL database 122 is converted into a form that can be searched by the QL database procedure decoding unit 123 as shown in the example of FIG. 6, and the search of the non-SQL database 122 is executed. The search execution result is added to the search agent 6 as data 420.

When the search agent 6 that has completed the search is, for example, the last search server according to the algorithm shown in FIG.
It is moved to the terminal connection device 2. As in the case of the agent transmitting / receiving means 111, S22 to S25
Then, the agent reads the procedure 419 and the data 420 of the agent, and obtains information on the server to be visited by the agent and the server which has already visited. At the search agent 6 that has completed the search, it can be seen from the difference between the server information that there are no more servers to be visited. Then, the search agent 6 is moved to the terminal connection device 2 in order to return the search agent 6 to the terminal 1 in S28.

The terminal connection device 2 connects the terminal 1 with the wireless line 3. Then, the search agent 6 returns to the terminal 1 and displays the search result added to the agent as data 420 on the terminal 1. As described above, it is possible to easily perform a search from a plurality of server systems simply by inputting search conditions once at the terminal 1. The same applies to a case where a wired terminal other than a wireless terminal is connected to the terminal connection device 2 and a search is input from the wired terminal.

According to the above basic search operation,
Next, a case will be described in which information about the position of the terminal is searched for and the searched information is passed to the terminal. The configuration of the system itself is the same as that shown in FIG.

In this case, the search agent 6 or the e-mail reception agent 7 sent from the terminal 1 does not need to input the position of the terminal by the user himself. Location information 4
13 is added.

That is, in the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the terminal 1 has the GPS receiver 5, and the terminal 1 transmits the search agent 6 with the position information from the GPS receiver 5 added. When the agent transmitting / receiving means 111 or 121 included in the server system 11 or 12 receives the search agent 6 with the position information, the information related to the position is also checked by the algorithm shown in FIG. First, S7
2, terminal location information 413 included in the search agent 6
I Read. Next, in S73, the terminal location information 41 is obtained from the data defined in the database in the server system.
The data related to the position is searched using 3 as a key. Then, the search result is added to the search agent in S74. In this manner, not only the search based on the search condition included in the search agent 6 but also limited information related to the position can be transferred to the search agent 6 by the position information of the terminal 1 also included in the agent. .

For example, when the terminal 1 is taken out of the office and used in Kamakura city, Kanagawa prefecture, when the database is searched, the GPS is stored in the search agent 6.
Is set as the terminal location information 413 by the user. This search agent 6 is received by the agent transmitting / receiving means of the server system,
When the search is performed and the result is sent by the agent transmitting / receiving means, the weather forecast in the Kamakura region of Kanagawa Prefecture can be passed from the agent transmitting / receiving means to the search agent 6 together with the search result based on the search condition. In this way, an automatic information service related to the position information can be provided.

Similarly, when the search agent 6 is received by the agent transmitting / receiving means 111 or 121 included in the server system 11 or 12, the search range based on the search condition included in the search agent 6 is related to the position information of the terminal 1. Range. For example, when the terminal 1 is located in Kanagawa Prefecture, the search range of the database can be limited to information on Kanagawa Prefecture.

When the users who can search the server system 12 are limited to those who are moving to Saitama Prefecture, the GPS
If the terminal location information 413 does not include the location information of Saitama Prefecture, the agent transmission / reception means 121 can reject reception of the agent. In this way, the users who can access the server system 12 can be limited.

When the search agent 6 and the e-mail receiving agent 7 are sent to the terminal connection device 2, the terminal authentication means 8 performs the authentication work. The terminal authentication means 8 stores the position information of the terminal 1 included in the search agent 6 and the e-mail receiving agent 7. Conventionally, even if a terminal was used illegally, it was not possible to know where it was used. However, by adding location information by GPS to the agent and storing this location information in the terminal authentication means 8, And where the unauthorized use of the terminal was made. As described above, information related to the position information of the terminal 1 can be obtained without any special designation on the terminal side. Further, the search range and the search operation of the search agent 6 can be changed or restricted based on the position information of the terminal 1.

[0028]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

In the first invention, the terminal obtains location information,
When the terminal transmits information obtained by adding the identifier of the user to the obtained position information, it is determined whether or not the terminal is used illegally based on the identifier in the information, and the terminal is used illegally. At times, the location information transmitted from the terminal is stored, so that it is possible to know where the unauthorized use of the terminal was performed.

[0030] In the second invention, when an agent in which the user's identifier is added to the location information obtained by GPS held by the terminal is transmitted, the terminal is illegally operated based on the identifier of the agent. It is determined whether or not the terminal is used, and when the terminal is used illegally, the position information is stored, so that it is possible to know where the terminal was used illegally.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an information providing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an agent in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process when an agent transmitting / receiving means of the terminal connection device in FIG. 1 receives an agent.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of conversion of a search condition from an intermediate language into an SQL sentence by the SQL database procedure decoding means in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process when an agent transmitting / receiving means of the server system in FIG. 1 transmits an agent.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of conversion from an intermediate language to a non-SQL type database search sentence by the non-SQL database procedure decoding means in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process performed by an agent transmitting / receiving means of the server system when the search agent has position information in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 terminal, 2 terminal connection device, 3 wireless line, 4 network, 5 GPS receiver, 6 search agent,
7 e-mail receiving agent, 8 terminal authentication means,
9 agent transmitting / receiving means, 11 server system (with SQL database), 12 server system (with non-SQL database), 21 server system (with mail server), 22 server system (with mail server), 111 agent transmitting / receiving means ,
112 SQL database, 113 SQL database procedure decryption means, 121 agent transmission / reception means, 122 non-SQL database, 123 non-SQL
Database procedure decryption means, 211 agent transmission / reception means, 212 mail server, 213 mail server procedure decryption means, 214 e-mail incoming notification agent, 221 agent transmission / reception means, 222
Mail server, 223 Decoding means for mail server, 224 E-mail incoming notification agent, 311
Agent sending / receiving means, 312 Binary mail display program.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus comprising: a GPS; and an agent in which a user identifier is added to position information obtained by the GPS,
Based on the terminal transmitting the agent and the identifier of the agent transmitted by the terminal, determine whether the terminal is used illegally, and store the position information when the terminal is used illegally An information providing system, comprising: 2. A transmitting step of transmitting an agent in which a user identifier is added to location information obtained by GPS held by a terminal, and based on the identifier of the agent transmitted in the transmitting step. A storage step of determining whether or not the terminal is used illegally, and storing the position information when the terminal is used illegally.