JP2005038208A - Presence information management device and its program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a user cost of communication for giving an incentive to update presence information. <P>SOLUTION: When presence of terminals B and C positioned on the periphery is confirmed by a short range radio communication and presence information about the terminals B and C on the periphery is collected by a terminal A selected according to a certain terminal selection criterion to be integrally transmitted to an IM server, the respective terminals B and C position on the periphery receive completion of update of the presence information and update the presence information in their own terminals to be synchronized with the terminal A. As the terminal selection criterion, for example, a borrowing/lending value, which is represented by a predetermined value increasing/reducing according to collection of the presence information and presence/absence of a notification contract, is managed, and the borrowing/lending value of a terminal user positioned on periphery is obtained to be compared with own borrowing/lending value for selecting a terminal with the highest debt. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a presence management apparatus that notifies presence information change to each terminal connected to a network each time presence information of a terminal is changed, and performs network communication between the terminals, and a program thereof.

  With the spread of the Internet, opportunities for network communication between users are increasing. A representative communication tool for performing simple message exchange on a network is an instant message system (hereinafter simply referred to as an IM system). Recently, it has become popular for mobile phone terminals.

By the way, in order to facilitate the maintenance and management of the presence information of the user, such as being enrolled, absent, etc., the presence / absence of the user is entered using an input terminal and registered in a LAN (Local Area Network) server, and the same LAN connection is established. There is known an enrollment display system that displays whether or not a user is enrolled on a display terminal (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Similarly, in the above IM system, user presence information is managed by the IM server and used as a communication trigger for starting message exchange. Specifically, a specific party who wants to exchange messages is registered with the IM server, and this IM server provides the user with a list of registered users as a contact list, and discloses each other's presence information to exchange messages with each other. Only when it is possible, send and receive messages using the IM system.
JP-A-10-207938

By the way, in the IM system on the mobile phone terminal, a presence transmission notification packet is required every time presence information is updated. For this reason, the problems listed below occur.
(1) Since a packet for transmission / reception is generated and charged, it causes a decrease in incentive for updating presence information.
(2) The frequency of use decreases and the reliability as presence information also decreases. As a result of the decrease in the usage frequency, the number of users as a whole decreases, and the number of users exchanging presence information (users in the contact list) also decreases.
In the first place, most of the other parties who notify the presence information are doing the same thing by a meeting or a business trip, and when each terminal notifies the IM server individually of the presence information, it occurs when communication occurs. Packets are expensive.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to reduce the user cost of communication by any one terminal undertaking notification of presence information, and to provide incentives to update presence information. An object is to provide an information management apparatus and a program thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a presence information management apparatus and its program that maintain fairness by circulating and assigning terminals that notify presence information.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a presence information management apparatus that notifies each terminal connected to a network of a change in presence information and performs network communication between the terminals. Presence information that confirms the presence of terminals located in the vicinity, collects presence information of the terminals located in the vicinity at a terminal selected according to a certain terminal selection criterion, and collectively transmits the selected terminals to the server And a batch transmission means.

  According to the present invention, presence information batch transmission means confirms the presence of a terminal located in the vicinity by short-range wireless communication and is collected by a terminal selected according to a certain terminal selection criterion. Can be sent to the server in a batch so that any one of the terminals can be notified of presence information, thereby reducing the user cost of communication and providing incentives to update presence information. be able to.

  Further, in the present invention, the presence information that notifies the terminal located in the vicinity that the presence information has been transmitted to the server by short-range wireless communication, and instructs to update presence information in the terminal is synchronized. And an information update instruction means.

  According to the present invention, the presence information update instructing means notifies the terminal located in the vicinity that the presence information has been transmitted to the server by short-range wireless communication, and instructs to update the presence information in the terminal. Therefore, each terminal located in the vicinity that has received notification of the completion of presence information update can update presence information within the terminal and synchronize with others, and can change presence information without communication. Cost can be reduced.

  Further, in the present invention, as the terminal selection criteria, the lending / borrowing value that increases or decreases by a predetermined value depending on whether or not the presence information is collected and notified is managed, and lending and borrowing of terminal users located in the vicinity by the short-range wireless communication A value is obtained, and a terminal having the largest borrowing is selected in comparison with its own lending / borrowing value.

  According to the present invention, the lending / borrowing value whose predetermined value increases / decreases depending on the presence information collection / notification contract is managed, the lending / borrowing value of the terminal user located in the vicinity is acquired, and compared with the lending / borrowing value of itself. By selecting the terminal with the largest borrowing as the terminal selection criterion, updating a large amount of presence information is advantageous in terms of cost, which can be an incentive to increase the number of contact lists. In addition, since terminals that notify presence information can be visited and allocated, fairness can be maintained.

  Further, in the present invention, as the terminal selection criterion, terminals located in the vicinity are grouped, and terminals for which collection and notification of the presence information are contracted according to a priority order defined in advance in the grouped terminals are determined in advance. It is characterized by following a round-robin method of assigning in turn.

  Further, in the present invention, as the terminal selection criterion, the time stamp when the presence information is collected and notified is held, the time stamp of a terminal user located in the vicinity by the short-range wireless communication is acquired, The oldest terminal with a time stamp is selected in comparison with the time stamp.

  Further, in the present invention, as the terminal selection criteria, the total number of packets when the presence information collection and notification are undertaken is held, and the total number of packets of terminals located in the vicinity by the short-range wireless communication is acquired, It is characterized in that the terminal having the smallest total number of packets is selected compared with its own total number of packets.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a program used in a presence information management apparatus that notifies presence information change to each terminal connected to a network and performs network communication between the terminals. The presence of terminals located in the vicinity is confirmed by distance wireless communication, and the presence information of the terminals located in the vicinity is collected at a terminal selected according to a certain terminal selection standard, and the selected terminals are collectively sent to the server. The step of transmitting is executed by a computer.

  In the present invention, the step manages the lending / borrowing value that increases or decreases a predetermined value depending on whether or not the presence information is collected and notified, and the lending / borrowing value of a terminal user located in the vicinity by the short-range wireless communication. It includes a sub-step of acquiring and selecting a terminal having the largest borrowing compared with its own lending / borrowing value.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to update presence information without needing to be charged only by confirming a nearby terminal by short-range wireless communication. Can be reduced. In addition, since the presence information frequently changes, the reliability of the presence information can be improved, and the use frequency can be expected to increase.
Furthermore, since it is advantageous in terms of cost to update more user presences according to the lending / borrowing value, etc., it is possible to provide an incentive for increasing the number of contact lists.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an IM system configuration to which a presence information management apparatus of the present invention is connected.
In FIG. 1, reference numerals 11, 12, and 13 denote mobile phone terminals with built-in instant messengers, which are hereinafter referred to as a terminal A (11), a terminal B (12), and a terminal C (13), respectively. Reference numeral 14 denotes an IM server, which is connected to each of terminal A (11), terminal B (12), and terminal C (13) via an IP (Internet Protocol) network (not shown).

According to the example shown in FIG. 1, there are a user A, a user B, and a user C who use an instant message. The user A, the user B, and the user C are a terminal A (11), a terminal B (12), and a terminal, respectively. I have C (13).
Then, the user A holds the presence information of the users B and C in his / her contact list CLa, the user B holds the presence information of the users A and C in his / her contact list CLb, and the user C Presence information of user B and user A is held in their own contact list CLc. The contact lists CLa to CLc are assigned to the storage areas of the terminals A (11), B (12), and C (13) and display presence information.
The storage area further stores information such as an IP address that identifies each other's terminals. Further, each terminal A (11), terminal B (12), and terminal C (13) incorporate means for short-range wireless communication, such as Bluetooth and IrDA (Infrared Data Association).

In the above configuration, first, the terminal A (11) detects the presence of the terminal B (12) and the terminal C (13) in the vicinity using short-range wireless communication. On the other hand, the terminal A (11), the terminal B (12), and the terminal C (13) select a terminal that communicates with the IM server 14 based on a terminal selection criterion described later. Here, when the terminal A (11) is selected, the terminal A (11) collects the presence information of the users B and C via the terminal B (12) and the terminal C (13), and collects IM Send to server 14.
The terminal A (11) receives the presence information update notification of the terminal A (11), the terminal B (12), and the terminal C (13) from the IM server 14, and further, the terminal B (12) and the terminal C (13 ) To the IM server 14 that the presence information is notified by short-range wireless communication. As a result, the terminal B (12) and the terminal C (13) update the presence information of the instant message in the own terminal and synchronize with other terminals.

The terminal selection criteria described above are prepared for circulating and allocating terminals that notify presence information and maintaining fairness, and are listed as (1) to (4) below.
(1) Selection by lending / borrowing value:
Collects presence information and manages lending and borrowing values that increase or decrease by a predetermined value depending on whether or not notification is contracted, obtains lending and borrowing values of terminal users located in the vicinity, and selects the terminal with the largest borrowing compared to its own lending and borrowing value Select.
(2) Selection by round robin:
A terminal that collects presence information and receives notifications is determined in advance, and a round-robin method is assigned in order. Specifically, terminals located in the vicinity, for example, terminal A (11), terminal B (12), and terminal C (13) shown in FIG. 1 are recognized as one group, and the priority order in the group is determined. For example, the terminal A (11) is defined as the first place, the terminal B (12) is defined as the second place, and the terminal C (13) is defined as the third place. In accordance with the priority order, the terminal that collects and notifies the presence information is determined in advance. deep.

(3) Selection by time stamp:
The time stamp when the presence information is collected and notified is held, the time stamp of the terminal user located in the vicinity is obtained, and the terminal with the oldest time stamp is selected in comparison with its own time stamp.
(4) Selection based on the total amount of packets:
Collects the presence information and keeps the total number of packets when undertaking notification, obtains the total number of packets of the terminals located in the vicinity, and selects the terminal with the smallest total number of packets compared to the total number of own packets .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an expanded function of the internal configuration of the terminal A (11) as the presence information management apparatus of the present invention.
Terminal A (11) includes a short-range wireless communication unit 111, a presence information batch transmission unit 112, a presence information update instruction unit 113, a terminal selection reference unit 114, and a terminal selection parameter storage unit 115.

The short-range wireless communication unit 111 has a communication function using a wireless medium such as Bluetooth and IrDA as described above, and the presence information batch transmission unit 112 transmits and receives radio waves by short-range wireless communication using the short-range wireless communication unit 111. Presence information of terminals located in the vicinity collected by a terminal selected in accordance with a certain terminal selection criterion (hereinafter referred to as a master terminal) is detected in a lump by detecting the presence of terminals located in the periphery within the allowable range. 14 has a function to transmit to the network
In addition, the presence information update instruction unit 113 notifies the terminals located in the vicinity that the presence information has been transmitted to the IM server 14 by short-range wireless communication, and instructs the presence information to be updated in the terminal. Has the ability to synchronize.

  The terminal selection reference unit 114 determines the size of the parameters of the own terminal and other terminals based on any parameter information among the lending / borrowing value, time stamp, and total packet amount held in the terminal selection parameter storage unit 115. In comparison, it has a function of selecting a master terminal for collecting presence information and receiving notifications.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart quoted for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention, and specifically shows the processing procedure of the presence information management program of the present invention. Here, an example in which a master terminal is selected as a terminal selection criterion using a loan value as a parameter is shown.
FIG. 4 is an operation sequence diagram quoted for explaining the operation of the entire IM system in which the present invention is used. To supplement the explanation of the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing transmission / reception of information between IM servers 14. In FIG. 4, steps denoted by the same step numbers as those shown in FIG. 3 correspond to steps shown in FIG.
Here, there are user A and user B who use instant messages, and user A and user B have terminal A (11) and terminal B (12), respectively. The user A holds the presence information of the user B in his / her contact list CLa, and the user B holds the presence information of the user A in his / her contact list CLb. Further, it is assumed that the terminal A (11) and the terminal B (12) hold the current lending / borrowing values in the terminal selection parameter storage unit 115 for each contact list described above.
The operation of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS.

First, the terminal A (11) and the terminal B (12) detect and confirm the presence of the terminal B (12) and the terminal A (12), respectively, located in the radio wave transmission / reception allowable range by the short-range wireless communication unit 111. (S31). Then, a request for obtaining a loan / lending value α is issued to terminals located in the vicinity of each other (S32), and the lending / borrowing value β of the terminal is read out from the storage area (S33), and the comparison is performed for the master terminal. Selection is performed (S34).
That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the negotiation (a) of the borrowing / borrowing value is performed between the terminal A (11) and the terminal B (12), and the lending / borrowing value α at the end located in the vicinity and the lending / borrowing value β of itself are obtained. In comparison, the terminal with the largest borrowing is selected as the master terminal. Here, the terminal A (11) is selected as the master terminal, and the terminal A (11) as the master collects presence information of the terminal B (12) as a slave located in the vicinity, and IM along with its own presence information. It plays a role (b) for batch transmission to the server 14.

The master terminal A (11) issues a presence information acquisition request to the slave terminal B (12) and acquires it via the short-range wireless communication unit 111 (S35). 112 sends the presence update information to the IM server 14 together with its own presence information and issues a presence update request (S36). Thereby, in the IM server 14, the presence information of the terminal A (11) and the terminal B (12) is updated.
When the notification of the presence update completion is received from the IM server 14 (S37), the presence information is transmitted to the IM server 14 by the short-range wireless communication via the presence information update instruction unit 113 to the slave terminal B (12). (S38) and instruct to update the presence information in the slave terminal B (12) to synchronize.

Note that, in the process of S38, if synchronization cannot be established in a situation where short-distance wireless communication is not possible due to radio wave conditions or the like, presence information may be directly updated from the IM server 14 later.
As a result, the slave terminal B (12) can update the presence information of the instant message in its own terminal and can synchronize with the master terminal A (11).

The master terminal A (11) further notifies the change of the lending / borrowing value reflecting the current communication (the notification of the presence information of the slave terminal B (12)) from the slave terminal B (12). Is received (S39), and the lending / borrowing value is changed (S40).
As described above, since the lending / borrowing value is held in the terminal selection parameter storage unit 115, an update process occurs here. Specifically, for example, the user A has +2 for the number of people whose presence information has been updated. The user B increases or decreases the lending / borrowing value by “−1”.
On the other hand, when a presence information acquisition request is issued from the master terminal A (11) (S41), the slave terminal B (12) transmits its presence information by short-range wireless communication (S42). Further, when the presence information update completion message from the IM server 14 is received from the master terminal A (11) (S43), the lending / borrowing value held by itself is changed to reflect the current borrowing (S44), The fact that the lending / borrowing value has been changed is notified to the master terminal A (11) by short-range wireless communication (S45).

  Note that, instead of the lending / borrowing value in the description here, for example, the priority order, the time stamp, or the packet amount may be stored in the terminal selection parameter storage unit 115 to select the master terminal.

As described above, according to the present invention, any one terminal undertakes notification of presence information, thereby reducing the user cost for communication and providing an incentive to update presence information. In addition, fairness is maintained by circulating and assigning terminals that notify presence information.
The procedures executed by each of the presence information batch transmission unit 112, presence information update instruction unit 113, and terminal selection reference unit 114 shown in FIG. 2 are recorded on a computer-readable recording medium and recorded on this recording medium. It is assumed that the presence information management apparatus of the present invention is realized by causing a computer system to read and execute a program. The computer system here includes an OS and hardware such as peripheral devices.

Further, the “computer system” includes a homepage providing environment (or display environment) if a WWW system is used.
The program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by a transmission wave in the transmission medium. Here, the “transmission medium” for transmitting the program refers to a medium having a function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line.
The program may be for realizing a part of the functions described above. Furthermore, what can implement | achieve the function mentioned above in combination with the program already recorded on the computer system, and what is called a difference file (difference program) may be sufficient.

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to the embodiments, and includes designs and the like that do not depart from the gist of the present invention.

It is a figure which shows an example of the system configuration | structure to which the presence information management apparatus of this invention is connected. It is the block diagram which expanded the function and showed the internal structure of the terminal A as a presence information management apparatus of this invention. It is the flowchart quoted in order to demonstrate operation | movement of embodiment of this invention. It is the operation | movement sequence diagram quoted in order to demonstrate operation | movement of the whole IM system in which this invention is used.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Terminal A, 12 ... Terminal B, 13 ... Terminal C, 14 ... IM server, 111 ... Near field communication part, 112 ... Presence information batch transmission part, 113 ... Presence information update instruction part, 114 ... Terminal selection reference | standard part 115 ... Terminal selection parameter storage unit

Claims (8)

A presence information management device that notifies presence information change to each terminal connected to the network and performs network communication between the terminals,
The presence of terminals located in the vicinity is confirmed by short-range wireless communication, and the presence information of the terminals located in the vicinity is collected at a terminal selected according to a certain terminal selection standard, and the server is collectively collected from the selected terminal. Presence information batch transmission means for transmitting to
A presence information management apparatus comprising: A presence information update instructing means for notifying the terminal located in the vicinity that the presence information has been transmitted to the server by short-range wireless communication, and instructing and updating the update of the presence information in the terminal;
The presence information management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: As the terminal selection criteria,
Collects presence information and manages lending and borrowing values that increase or decrease by a predetermined value depending on whether there is a notification contract, obtains lending and borrowing values of terminal users located in the vicinity by the short-range wireless communication, and compares them with their lending and borrowing values The presence information management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a terminal having the largest borrowing is selected. As the terminal selection criteria,
According to a round robin method in which terminals located in the vicinity are grouped, and terminals for which the presence information is collected and notified are determined in advance according to a priority defined in advance in the grouped terminals, and assigned in order. The presence information management apparatus according to claim 1. As the terminal selection criteria,
The time stamp when the presence information is collected and notified is held, the time stamp of the terminal user located in the vicinity is obtained by the short-range wireless communication, and the oldest time stamp is compared with the own time stamp. The presence information management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the terminal is selected. As the terminal selection criteria,
The total number of packets when the presence information is collected and notified, the total number of packets of terminals located in the vicinity by the short-range wireless communication is acquired, and the total number of packets is compared with the total number of packets of itself The presence information management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the smallest terminal is selected. A program used in a presence information management device that notifies each terminal connected to a network of presence information change and performs network communication between the terminals,
The presence of terminals located in the vicinity is confirmed by short-range wireless communication, and the presence information of the terminals located in the vicinity is collected at a terminal selected according to a certain terminal selection standard, and the server is collectively collected from the selected terminal. Sending to
Presence information management program that causes a computer to execute.   The step manages the lending and borrowing value that increases or decreases by a predetermined value depending on whether the presence information is collected and whether or not the notification is contracted, obtains a lending value of a terminal user located in the vicinity by the short-range wireless communication, and lends and borrows itself The presence information management program according to claim 7, further comprising a sub-step of selecting a terminal having the largest borrowing compared to the value.

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