JP2004200831A - Server apparatus, terminal, data transmission method, data processing program, and data transmission system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display web contents on a terminal with a small display screen. <P>SOLUTION: A server 1 acquires contents data on the Internet N1 on the basis of a request from a terminal 2, converts the acquired contents data into an image file to be displayed on a browser, and divides the image file after the conversion into a plurality of blocks on the basis of contents of the acquired contents data. Further, the server 1 attaches an index to each blocked part and transmits the blocked image file to the terminal 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a technique for transmitting content data on the Internet to a terminal device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A server device that acquires content data on the Internet and transmits it to a terminal is known (see Patent Document 1). In this server device, based on resource information such as the resolution of the display device of the terminal and the number of display colors, the data conversion process of the content data acquired so as to match the resource of the terminal is performed, and the data after the conversion process is transmitted to the terminal. Send.
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-11-250009 [Patent Document 2]
JP-A-11-102273
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when content data is displayed on a small display screen such as a portable terminal, even if the content data can be displayed on one screen on a monitor of a personal computer, for example, it cannot be displayed on one screen of the display screen of the portable terminal. Therefore, in order to view all the content data, the operator needs to perform an operation of scrolling the screen.
[0005]
The present invention provides a server device that performs predetermined processing on web content and then transmits the processed content to a terminal, a terminal device that receives and displays web content transmitted from the server device, a method for transmitting data such as web content, and a web content. A program for processing data and a data transmission system are provided.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
(1) A server device according to the present invention acquires content data on a network based on a request from a terminal device, converts the acquired content data into an image file to be displayed on a browser, and converts the content data into a content file. It is divided into a plurality of blocks on the basis of the index, and an index is attached to each of the divided portions and transmitted to the terminal device.
(2) The terminal device according to the present invention includes an operation unit for selecting at least one content block to be displayed on the display unit from the image file including a plurality of content blocks sent from the server device. A request for transmitting data of at least one content block selected by the means is sent to the server device.
(3) The data transmission method according to the present invention acquires content data on a network based on a request from a terminal device, converts the acquired content data into an image file to be displayed on a browser, and converts the acquired content data. Dividing an image file into a plurality of blocks based on the content, assigning an index to each of the blocked image files, dividing the image file into blocks, and transmitting the image files each having an index to a terminal device. It is characterized by.
(4) The data processing program according to the present invention divides the image file into a plurality of blocks based on the procedure for converting the content data to be transmitted to the terminal device into an image file to be displayed on a browser, and the content of the content data. It is characterized in that a procedure and a procedure for assigning an index to each of the blocked image files are executed on a computer.
(5) In a data transmission system for acquiring content data on a network by a server device in response to a request from a terminal device and transmitting the acquired content data to the terminal device, the server device transmits the acquired content data to a browser. The image file is converted into an image file for display, the image file is divided into a plurality of blocks based on the content of the acquired content data, and each of the blocked image files is indexed and transmitted to the terminal device. And
[0007]
【The invention's effect】
(1) According to the server device, the data transmission method, and the data transmission system according to the present invention, content data requested from a terminal device is converted into an image file to be displayed on a browser, and the converted image file is converted into content data. Is divided into a plurality of blocks based on the content of the content, and an index is assigned to each of the blocked portions and transmitted to the terminal device. Therefore, even in a terminal device having a small display screen, the content data is displayed for each of the blocked portions. be able to.
(2) According to the data processing program of the present invention, the requested content data from the terminal device is converted into an image file to be displayed on a browser, and the converted image file is divided into a plurality of blocks based on the content of the content data. Since it is possible to execute the process of assigning an index to each of the divided and blocked portions, by executing this program, the content data can be displayed for each of the blocked portions even on a terminal device having a small display screen. It becomes possible.
(3) According to the terminal device of the present invention, when the user selects at least one content block to be displayed on the display device from the image file composed of a plurality of content blocks sent from the server device, using the operation device. Since the transmission request of the selected content block data is issued to the server device, the desired content block data can be transmitted from the server device and displayed on the display means.
[0008]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an embodiment showing a configuration of an entire network including a server device according to the present invention. The server 1 accesses the Internet N1 to acquire web content (web page) based on a request from the terminal 2, performs processing described later on the acquired web content, and transmits the processed web content to the terminal 2. I do. The terminal 2 is, for example, an in-vehicle device, issues a web content acquisition request to the server 1, and receives content data transmitted from the server 1. Although only one terminal 2 is shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of terminals are actually connected to the server 1. The terminal ID database 3 stores ID information for identifying each terminal 2 and information such as the display capability of a display device (described later) included in the terminal 2. The cache database 4 stores web contents obtained by the server 1 accessing the Internet N1.
[0009]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of the terminal 2. The ROM 22 is configured by a nonvolatile storage medium, and stores an ID and the like unique to each terminal. The network device 23 is, for example, a mobile phone or a modem, and communicates with the server 1 via wireless. The storage device 24 is a rewritable storage device composed of a flash memory, a magnetic disk, or the like, and stores web contents sent from the server 1, an access history to a homepage on the Internet N1, a bookmark, and the like.
[0010]
The display device 25 is, for example, a liquid crystal display, and displays an operation menu when the operator performs an operation using an operation device 26 described later, and web contents transmitted from the server 1. Usually, the display screen of the display device provided in the vehicle-mounted device is smaller than the display screen of a personal computer used at home or the like, and is, for example, 6 inches. However, the present invention is not limited to the size of the display screen of the display device 25. The operation device 26 is a device for a user to operate, and includes, for example, a plurality of buttons and a touch panel. The audio output device 27 is a device that outputs the content of the acquired web content or the content of the e-mail by voice, and includes a TTS (Text-to-Speech) that reads out text data by synthetic voice, a speaker, and the like. . The control device 21 is connected to these components 22 to 27 constituting the terminal 2 and controls the components 22 to 27.
[0011]
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of the server 1. The server 1 includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like (not shown), and includes a control unit 31, network control units 32 and 33, an image generation engine 34, a syntax analysis engine 35, and a blocking engine 36 , An image analysis engine 37, an image conversion engine 38, and a block extraction engine 39.
[0012]
The network control unit 32 communicates with the terminal 2 to perform terminal authentication (user authentication), receive a terminal ID and URL data requested by the terminal 2, transmit web contents, and the like. The network control unit 33 connects to the Internet N1 and acquires content data including an HTML file, image data, and the like. The acquired content data is stored in the cache database 4. The image generation engine 34 converts the HTML file acquired by the network control unit 33 into an image file. This image file is a file to be displayed on a WWW browser.
[0013]
The syntax analysis engine 35 and the image analysis engine 37 analyze the content data in order to block the web content with the blocking engine 36 described later. The syntax analysis engine 35 performs syntax analysis of the HTML file (source file) acquired by the network control unit 33. The syntax analysis is performed based on various tags included in the HTML file. The image analysis engine 37 analyzes an image such as GIF format or JPEG format image data acquired by the network control unit 33. For example, when an <IMG> tag is used in an HTML source file, it is unclear in the syntax analysis using the tag whether an image is inserted in the text or the image is used as a dividing line. Therefore, based on the arrangement, shape, size, file type, message added to the file, and the like of the image in the image file obtained by converting the HTML file, whether the image data is a simple image or a dividing line, It is determined whether the button is a button or a banner.
[0014]
The blocking engine 36 divides the web content acquired by the network control unit 33 into blocks based on the analysis result of the content data performed by the syntax analysis engine 35 and the image analysis engine 37. For example, block processing is performed based on tags used as content delimiters, such as a <P> tag, a <UL> tag, an <HR> tag, and a <TABLE> tag detected by the syntax analysis engine 35. Here, the <P> tag is a tag used when inserting a paragraph, and the <UL> tag is a tag used when each item of the list is separated by a circle or a square point. The <HR> tag is a tag used for drawing a horizontal line, and the <TABLE> tag is a tag used for creating a table including an arbitrary number of rows.
[0015]
The blocking of the web content is performed to display the web content on a display screen smaller than a display of a personal computer, such as a display device 25 included in the terminal 2 which is an in-vehicle device. Accordingly, the blocking engine 36 performs processing such as attaching an index number to each divided block and embedding an anchor in the original content stored in the cache database in order to associate the content data of each divided block. Anchors are typically embedded in a file to point to a particular location in the file. By embedding this in the original file, the server 1 can read a specific part in the file in response to a browsing request from the terminal 2 specifying a specific block.
[0016]
The blocking engine 36 further extracts a certain number of characters at the head of each block as a heading. That is, since it is not possible to display all the information on one screen of the display device 25, the display device 25 first displays a heading indicating the content of each block. The operator can display the content data of a desired block by referring to the heading and selecting an index number to be described later of the blocked content data.
[0017]
The image conversion engine 38 performs processing such as reduction and color reduction of the image file generated by the image generation engine 34 according to the display capability of the display device 25 of the terminal 2. For example, when the number of display colors of the display device 25 is small, the color reduction processing according to the number of display colors is performed. The data relating to the display capability of the display device 25 is stored in advance in the terminal ID database 3 for each terminal 2, and the data relating to the display capability is acquired from the terminal ID database 3 based on the terminal ID acquired by the network control unit 32. . The block cutout engine 39 cuts out the content data of the block requested by the terminal 2 from the content data stored in the cache database 4 by designating the index number of the operator.
[0018]
The control unit 31 is connected to the network control units 32 and 33, the image generation engine 34, the blocking engine 36, the image conversion engine 38, and the block extraction engine 39, and controls these control units and each engine. Further, when there is a web content acquisition request from the terminal 2, the control unit 31 determines whether or not the requested web content is stored in the cache database 4. A command to connect to the Internet N1 is issued to the network control unit 33, and the requested web content is acquired from the Internet N1.
[0019]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing performed by the server 1. In step S10, it is determined whether data relating to a terminal ID and a request to acquire web content has been transmitted from the terminal 2. When the operator operates the operation device 26 of the terminal 2 to input a URL for accessing a home page on the Internet, select a bookmark, and the like, the terminal 2 and the data relating to the acquisition request of the web content are transmitted from the terminal 2 to the server. Sent to 1. If the network control unit 32 determines that the terminal ID and the data related to the acquisition request of the web content have been received, the process proceeds to step S20, and if not, the process waits in step S10.
[0020]
In step S20, the network control unit 32 determines whether the terminal ID received in step S10 matches the terminal ID included in the terminal ID database 3. If the terminal IDs match and the user authentication is accepted, the process proceeds to step S30. If the terminal IDs do not match and the user authentication is denied, the process proceeds to step S120. In step S120, since the user authentication is denied, an error message such as "terminal ID is not registered" is transmitted to terminal 2.
[0021]
In step S30, which proceeds when the user authentication is accepted, the web content requested from the terminal 2 is acquired. The control unit 31 determines whether or not the requested web content is stored in the cache server 4. When determining that the web content is stored, the control unit 31 obtains the requested web content from the cache database 4. On the other hand, if it is determined that the web content requested to be obtained is not stored in the cache server 4, it accesses the Internet N 1 via the network control unit 33 to obtain the requested web content. After acquiring the requested web content, the process proceeds to step S40.
[0022]
In step S40, the control unit 31 determines whether the web content data acquired in step S30 is an HTML file. When it is determined that the web content data is an HTML file, the process proceeds to step S50, and when it is determined that the web content data is not an HTML file, the process proceeds to step S130. In step S130, it is determined whether the web content data acquired in step S30 is data that can be displayed on terminal 2. This determination is made by acquiring data on the display capability of the terminal 2 stored in the terminal ID database 3 based on the terminal ID received in step S10. If it is determined that the acquired web content data is data that can be displayed on the terminal 2, the process proceeds to step S140. If it is determined that the acquired web content data is data that cannot be displayed, the process proceeds to step S150. In step S140, the obtained web content data is transmitted to the terminal 2 as it is, and the processing according to this flowchart ends. On the other hand, in step S150, a message indicating that the acquired web content data is non-displayable data is transmitted to terminal 2, and the process according to this flowchart ends.
[0023]
On the other hand, in step S50, the syntax analysis engine 35 determines whether a link tag is included in the HTML file that is the web content data acquired in step S30. The link tags include an <IMG> tag and a <FRAME> tag. The <IMG> tag is a tag used when attaching an image, and the <FRAME> tag is a tag used when a display screen is divided and displayed. If it is determined that a link tag is included in the HTML file, the process proceeds to step S60; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S70.
[0024]
In step S60, a file (data) of a link destination specified by using a link tag included in the HTML file is acquired. For example, if the <IMG> tag is included in the HTML file, the specified image data is acquired. When the file at the link destination is obtained, the process proceeds to step S70. In step S70, the HTML file acquired in step S30 is converted into an image file by the image generation engine 34. At this time, if there is a file obtained in step S60, the file is also included in the image file. The size of the image file is, for example, 800 × 600 pixels. FIG. 5A shows an example of the generated image file.
[0025]
In step S80 following step S70, the syntax analysis engine 35 and the image analysis engine 37 analyze the HTML file. This analysis is, as described above, an analysis for blocking content data. After analyzing the HTML file, the process proceeds to step S90. In step S90, the content data is blocked by the blocking engine 36 based on the analysis result performed in step S80. The blocking engine 36 assigns an index number to each of the divided blocks, writes the index number in the image file, and attaches the above-described anchor or the like to each block. Further, when the blocking is performed, the blocking engine 36 extracts a certain number of characters or the like at the head of each block as a heading.
[0026]
In step S100 following step S90, the image conversion engine 38 acquires data on the display capability of the display device 25 of the terminal 2 stored in the terminal ID database 3 based on the terminal ID received in step S10, The image file of the content is reduced or reduced in color according to the display capability of the display device 25. After performing the image file reduction / color reduction processing, the process proceeds to step S110. In step S110, the image file processed in step S100 is transmitted to the terminal 2 that has requested acquisition of the web content, and the process according to the flowchart ends.
[0027]
FIG. 5B shows an image file that has been subjected to content blocking processing and file reduction / color reduction processing based on the image file shown in FIG. 5A. The image file shown in FIG. 5B is divided into four blocks 51 to 54, and further provided with a block 55 for displaying a heading of each block 51 to 54. As described above, since the image file shown in FIG. 5B is a simple file that does not include all the contents of the original image file (FIG. 5A), the contents of the blocks 51 to 54 are shown. Attach a heading.
[0028]
When the terminal 2 receives an image file as shown in FIG. 5B sent from the server 1, the received image file is displayed on the display device 25. The user selects the block number (index number) of the content desired to be browsed from the content displayed on the display device 25 by using the operation device 26 while referring to the headline displayed in the block 55. . The selected block number is sent to the server 1. The server 1 that has received the block number sent from the terminal 2 cuts out the requested block by the block cutout engine 39 and transmits it to the terminal 2. The terminal 2 displays the block of the content sent from the server 1 on the display device 25, and outputs text data included in the content by voice using the voice output device 27. FIG. 5C shows an example of a block-based content displayed on the display device 25.
[0029]
As shown in FIG. 5C, the content of the content data of one block of the acquired content data is displayed on the display device 25 of the terminal 2. Therefore, even when the content of the content data can be displayed on one screen of the display device 25 or cannot be displayed on one screen, the amount of operation for the operator to scroll the screen can be reduced.
[0030]
According to the server device of the present embodiment, after converting the content data acquired based on the request from the terminal 2 into an image file, the content data is converted into a plurality of blocks based on the content of the content data, and Since the content data is transmitted to the terminal 2 with an index, the content data can be processed so that the content data can be easily viewed even when the terminal 2 has a small display screen.
[0031]
Since the blocking of the image file is performed based on the HTML source of the content data or based on the HTML source and the image data attached to the content data, it is possible to perform accurate blocking. In addition, since the image file transmitted to the terminal 2 includes a heading indicating the content of the blocked portion, the operator using the terminal 2 can easily select a desired content block and display it on the display screen. Can be done.
[0032]
In addition, since the block image file is subjected to a process suitable for the display capability of the terminal 2, that is, a reduction process and a color reduction process of the image file, a display close to the original display image is performed regardless of the type of the terminal 2. It can be performed.
[0033]
In the information display device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-102273, one frame is displayed on one screen in a web page including a plurality of frames, but the frame function is not used. It cannot be applied to web pages. On the other hand, according to the server device of the present embodiment, it can be applied to a web page (web content) that does not use the frame function.
[0034]
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the terminal 2 has been described as an in-vehicle device, but may be a portable information terminal or a mobile phone. Also, as examples of tags used when blocking web content, a <P> tag, a <UL> tag, a <HR> tag, and a <TABLE> tag have been described. Based on this, a blocking process may be performed. Further, the content data is not limited to an HTML format file, but may be an XML format file or another format file.
[0035]
The operation device 26 of the terminal 2 has been described as being configured with a plurality of buttons and a touch panel. However, a configuration may be employed in which a microphone for voice input is provided so that the operator can issue various instructions by voice. In this case, the user can select the block number (index number) of the content desired to be browsed from the content displayed on the display device 25 by voice instruction.
[0036]
The correspondence between the components of the claims and the components of the embodiment is as follows. That is, in the server device, the network control unit 33 transmits the data acquisition unit, the image generation engine 34 transmits the file conversion unit, the blocking engine 36 transmits the blocking unit, the index addition unit, and the headline creation unit, and the network control unit 32 transmits the data. As for the means, the image conversion engine 38 constitutes a display ability detecting means and a display ability adapting means, respectively. In the terminal device, the network device 23 constitutes a receiving means and a transmission requesting means, the display device 25 constitutes a display means, the operation device 26 constitutes an operation means, and the audio output device 27 constitutes an audio output means. Note that each component is not limited to the above configuration as long as the characteristic functions of the present invention are not impaired.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an entire system. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a terminal. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a server. FIG. FIG. 5A is a diagram showing an example of an image file obtained from the Internet, and FIG. 5B is a process for displaying the image file on a display device of a terminal. FIG. 5 (c) is a diagram showing an example of a later image file, and FIG. 5 (c) is a diagram showing blocked content displayed on a display device of the terminal.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Server, 2 ... Terminal, 3 ... Terminal ID database, 4 ... Cache database, 21 ... Control device, 22 ... ROM, 23 ... Network device, 24 ... Storage device, 25 ... Display device, 26 ... Operating device, 27 ... Voice output device, 31 ... Control unit, 32, 33 ... Network control unit, 34 ... Image generation engine, 35 ... Syntax analysis engine, 36 ... Blocking engine, 37 ... Image analysis engine, 38 ... Image conversion engine, 39 ... Block Logging engine

Claims (13)

Data acquisition means for acquiring content data on the network based on a request from the terminal device;
File conversion means for converting the content data acquired by the data acquisition means into an image file for display on a browser,
Blocking means for dividing the image file converted by the file converting means into a plurality of blocks, based on the content of the content data obtained by the data obtaining means,
Index adding means for adding an index to each part blocked by the blocking means,
A server device, comprising: a transmitting unit that transmits an image file that has been blocked by the blocking unit and added with an index by the index adding unit to the terminal device that has made the request. The server device according to claim 1,
The content data to be converted into an image file by the file conversion means is an HTML file,
The server device, wherein the blocking unit divides the image file into a plurality of blocks based on at least an HTML source of the content data. The server device according to claim 2,
The server device, wherein the blocking unit divides the image file into a plurality of blocks based on a tag in the HTML source. The server device according to claim 2 or 3,
The server device, wherein the blocking unit divides the image file into a plurality of blocks based on an HTML source of the content data and image data attached to the content data. The server device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
Heading creating means for creating a heading indicating the contents of the blocked part in association with the index assigned to each of the blocked parts,
The image file transmitted by the transmission unit includes a headline created by the headline creation unit. The server device according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
Display capability detection means for detecting the display capability of the terminal device, based on information for identifying each terminal device, sent from the terminal device,
A display capability adaptation unit that performs a process of adapting the blocked image file to the display capability detected by the display capability detection unit,
The server device, wherein the transmission unit transmits the image file after the adaptation processing by the display capability adaptation unit is performed to the terminal device. The server device according to claim 6,
The server device, wherein the display capability adapting unit performs at least one of a reduction process and a color reduction process of the image file. Receiving means for receiving an image file composed of a plurality of content blocks sent from the server device,
Display means for displaying at least the image file received by the receiving means,
An operation unit for selecting at least one content block to be displayed on the display unit from the image files displayed on the display unit;
A terminal device, comprising: a transmission request unit that issues a transmission request of at least one content block data selected by the operation unit to the server device. The terminal device according to claim 8,
A terminal device further comprising: a voice output unit that outputs text data included in at least one content block transmitted from the server device by voice after issuing a transmission request from the transmission request unit. The terminal device according to claim 8, wherein
The terminal device is an in-vehicle terminal device mounted on a vehicle. Based on a request from a terminal device, obtain content data on a network,
Convert the obtained content data into an image file for display on a browser,
Dividing the image file into a plurality of blocks based on the content of the acquired content data,
Index each of the blocked image files,
A data transmission method comprising: transmitting an image file which is divided into blocks and each of which is indexed to the terminal device which has made the request. A procedure for converting content data to be transmitted to the terminal device into an image file for display on a browser;
A step of dividing the image file into a plurality of blocks based on the content of the content data;
A data processing program for causing a computer to execute a procedure for assigning an index to each of the blocked image files. Various types of information are exchanged between the terminal device and the server device via wireless communication.According to a request from the terminal device, content data on the network is acquired by the server device, and the acquired content data is transmitted to the terminal device. In the data transmission system to transmit,
The server device converts the acquired content data into an image file to be displayed on a browser, divides the image file into a plurality of blocks based on the content of the acquired content data, and converts the image file into blocks. Sending to the terminal device with an index,
The data transmission, wherein the terminal device issues a transmission request to the server device for content block data corresponding to at least one index selected by a user among the image files transmitted from the server device. system.

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