JP2005108057A - Contents acquisition system, browser device and contents downloading method and program to be used for browser device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a browser device capable of reducing communication costs and shortening download processing time without performing excess communication. <P>SOLUTION: After the browser device 11 downloads HTML contents from a contents server group 2, a profile information acquisition part 111 acquires a profile information file buried in a tag of each data. A communication route determination part 112 determines a communication route for acquiring target data on the basis of the profile information acquired by the profile information acquisition part 111, a data download part 113 downloads data from a data server group 4 by using the determined communication route and a display part 114 displays the HTML contents and respective data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a content acquisition system, a browser device, a content download method used therefor, and a program thereof, and more particularly to a browser device that operates on a client terminal capable of displaying content on a server connected through a plurality of different communication paths.

  In a client terminal such as a PC (Personal Computer) or a cellular phone, a browser device (including browser software) for acquiring and displaying content described in a content description language such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) from a server computer ) Is installed.

  In addition, when displaying the above content, the communication path between the client terminal and the server includes a plurality of communications such as a wired LAN (Local Area Network), a wireless LAN, an infrared ray, a wireless communication using a mobile phone, and a broadcast distribution. Means exist.

  In content such as HTML, image information in a format such as GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) or JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), audio data, movie data, and the like can be displayed on the same screen as text information.

  At that time, the HTML content main body, the image information, the audio data, and the movie data may be stored on the same server or may be stored on different servers.

  If the example of the content described by HTML is taken, there exists a description example as shown in FIG. 5, for example. Here, it is assumed that the HTML content body is stored in “server1”. In FIG. 5, the image data “gazou1” specified by the first img tag is stored in “server2” as specified by the src attribute value in the img tag, and is specified by the second img tag. The designated image data “gazou2” is stored in “server1” which is the same as the HTML content body.

  The browser device on the client terminal downloads each data using a currently effective single communication means and displays it on the screen of the client terminal. For example, if a wired LAN is currently available on the client terminal, HTML content and image data are downloaded using the wired LAN and display processing is performed.

  Here, regarding the distribution means by broadcasting, unlike other communication means, the server does not return data in response to a request from the browser, but data is unilaterally distributed by broadcasting from the server. The side receives this and stores it in the terminal.

JP 2002-95045 A

  In the conventional browser device described above, even if the client terminal can use a plurality of communication means such as wireless LAN, wired LAN, wireless communication by mobile phone, and distribution by broadcast, one content and accompanying image and audio data are stored. When downloading, the browser device on the client terminal uses only one communication means to download each data.

  Therefore, when the browser device is currently set to use the wireless communication of the mobile phone, even if the content contains large movie data, the movie is transmitted using the wireless communication means of the mobile phone. Data download processing is performed, and there is a problem that communication time and communication charges are significantly increased.

  In order to solve this problem, in Patent Document 1 described above, a good download is realized by selecting a communication system according to the content of data, but profile information according to the content of data at the time of communication request Must be acquired from the site and sent to the client terminal, and it takes extra communication and time to download on the client terminal side.

  In addition, when multiple types of data are mixed in the content, and when downloading multiple types of data from different sites, the extra communication and time required for each download are required. Therefore, you may not be able to download smoothly.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems and to reduce a communication cost and a download processing time without performing extra communication, a content acquisition system, a browser device, a content download method used therefor, and its To provide a program.

  A content acquisition system according to the present invention includes at least a server that stores content, and a browser device that is installed in a client terminal that includes a plurality of communication units that perform data transmission and reception with the server and that downloads data in the content. In the content acquisition system, when acquiring and displaying the content on the server, the profile information indicating at least the attributes of each of the various data included in the content is acquired based on the information described in the content And means for determining, for each type of data, a communication means that is optimal for downloading various types of data based on the acquired profile information.

  A browser device according to the present invention is a browser device that is mounted on a client terminal including a plurality of communication means for performing data transmission / reception with at least a server that stores content, and that downloads data in the content, on the server Means for acquiring profile information indicating at least attributes of various data included in the content based on information described in the content when the content is acquired and displayed, and based on the acquired profile information And means for determining for each type of data the optimum communication means for downloading the various types of data.

  A content download method according to the present invention includes at least a server that stores content, and a browser device that is installed in a client terminal that includes a plurality of communication units that perform data transmission / reception with the server and that downloads data in the content. In the content download method of the system, each of the various data included in the content is acquired based on information described in the content when the content on the server is acquired and displayed on the browser device side. The method includes a step of acquiring profile information indicating at least an attribute, and a step of determining, for each data, an optimal communication means for downloading various data based on the acquired profile information.

  A program for a content download method according to the present invention is a browser device that is installed in a client terminal including at least a server for storing content and a plurality of communication means for transmitting and receiving data between the server and downloads data in the content A content download method program for a system comprising: the browser device computer including the content on the basis of information described in the content when the content on the server is acquired and displayed on the computer A process of acquiring profile information indicating at least an attribute of each of the various data to be acquired, and a process of determining, for each data, an optimal communication means for downloading the various data based on the acquired profile information .

  That is, the browser device according to the present invention is a browser device that operates on a client terminal having a plurality of communication means [wireless LAN (Local Area Network), wired LAN, wireless communication by mobile phone, distribution by broadcasting, etc.] When displaying content described in a content description language such as (Hyper Text Markup Language), an image based on information described in the content [for example, URL (Uniform resource Locator) or profile information of each data itself] After acquiring profile information of data and audio data and deciding which communication means to use to download each data based on the acquired profile information, each data is obtained using the determined communication means. To download the data.

  As a result, in the browser device of the present invention, the profile information of each data such as image, sound, movie, etc. included in the content is directly acquired in advance based on the information described in the content, and is described in each profile information. Since the data download process is performed by selecting the optimal communication path for each data based on the data type, available communication path, and data size, there are multiple data such as images, sounds, and movies. When displaying the contained content, it is possible to use an optimal communication path for each data without performing extra communication, and it is possible to display at high speed and reduce communication costs.

  In the browser device of the present invention, even when the profile information cannot be acquired, the acquired data amount in the middle of the data acquisition process or when the elapsed time from the start of the data acquisition process exceeds a certain amount, or By switching to an inexpensive communication path and continuing to download data, it is possible to use the optimal communication path for each data without extra communication, enabling high-speed display and reducing communication costs. It becomes.

  With the configuration and operation as described below, the present invention can reduce the communication cost and the download processing time without performing extra communication.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a content acquisition system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the content acquisition system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a client terminal 1, a content server group 2, and a data server group 3. The client terminal 1 and each server group can be connected by various communication means 121 to 12N such as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), a wired LAN, infrared rays, and wireless communication.

  The client terminal 1 includes a browser device 11, various communication units 121 to 12N, and a recording medium 13. The browser device 11 includes a profile information acquisition unit 111, a communication path determination unit 112, a data download unit 113, The display unit 114 is configured to execute programs stored in the recording medium 13 (computer-executable programs) to realize the operations of the respective units.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of profile information acquired by the profile information acquisition unit 111 of the browser apparatus 11 of FIG. In FIG. 2, the profile information includes content type information (“JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)”), size information (“1 MByte”), and available communication means (“wired LAN”, “wireless LAN”, “broadcast”). Distribution ”) and URL (Uniform resource Locator) (“ http: //usenserver/image1.jpg ”,“ http: //musenserver/image1.jpg ”,“ http: //image1.jg ”) Etc. are described. Further, when the communication means is broadcast distribution, the date and time (“2003/06/20”) when the corresponding data is distributed is also described.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of HTML content in which profile information is embedded in an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, “<img src =“ http: // server2 / gazou1 ”content type =“ gif ”communication type 1 =“ wireless LAN ”URL1 =“ http: // musenserver1 / gazou1. gif ”communication type 2 =“ infrared ”URL2 =“ http: // segisenseserver2 / gazo1, gif ”>,“ <img src = “http: // server1 / gazou2” content type = “png” communication type 1 = “ “Mobile radio” URL1 = “http: // keitaiserver / gazou2. png ">" is embedded in the tag as profile information.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the browser device 11 of FIG. The operation of the browser device 11 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that the processing shown in FIG. 3 is realized by the browser device 11 executing the program of the recording medium 13.

  In the following description, a case will be described in which content described in a content description language such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is downloaded from the content server group 2 using the browser device 11 on the client terminal 1.

  Here, for example, it is assumed that the content is described in HTML. In addition, the client terminal 1 includes a plurality of communication units 121 to 12N. For example, wireless communication using a wired LAN, a wireless LAN, and a mobile phone, and broadcast distribution can be used. Any of these communication means may be used when downloading content from the content server group 2, but in this operation example, the HTML content is downloaded from the content server group 2 using wireless communication of a mobile phone. And

  After the browser device 11 downloads the HTML content from the content server group 2, the profile information acquisition unit 111 displays the image data, audio data, movie data, etc. in the HTML content using tags as shown in FIG. The designated location is checked (step S1 in FIG. 4), and profile information embedded in each tag is acquired (step S2 in FIG. 4).

  As shown in FIG. 2, the acquired profile information describes content type information, size information, usable communication means, a set of URLs at that time, and the like. When the communication means is broadcast distribution, the date and time when the corresponding data is distributed is also described.

  The communication path determination unit 112 determines a communication path for acquiring target data based on the profile information acquired by the profile information acquisition unit 111 (step S3 in FIG. 4). The data download unit 113 downloads data from the data server group 3 using the communication path determined by the communication path determination unit 112 (step S4 in FIG. 4).

  When determining the communication path, for example, when the data size is large, a determination is made to select the fastest path among the available communication paths or to select the path with the least communication cost. For this determination, the user may set a determination criterion in advance.

  As a result, in this embodiment, for example, large movie data can be downloaded using a wired LAN, and wireless LAN or cellular phone wireless communication can be used for non-large image data.

  The browser device 11 performs a series of processes such as profile information acquisition, communication path determination, and data download through the determined communication path for each image / audio / movie data specified in the HTML content. (FIG. 4, step S5). Thereafter, the browser device 11 displays the HTML content and each data on the client terminal 1 using the display unit 114 (step S6 in FIG. 4).

  As described above, in this embodiment, the profile information of each data such as image, sound, and movie included in the content is directly acquired in advance, and the data type described in each profile information, the available communication path, Based on the data size, the optimal communication path for each data is selected and the data download process is performed. Therefore, when displaying content that contains multiple data such as images, audio, movies, etc. By using the optimal communication path for data, high-speed display and reduction of communication costs can be achieved.

  In the present embodiment, the content information server group 2 and the data server group 3 are described as separate server groups, but these server groups may be the same server.

  In the case of data for which profile information could not be obtained, data download processing is performed using any of the communication means currently available on the client terminal 1. The policy of which communication means 121 to 12N is used is as follows: 1) Use the same communication means that acquired the HTML content, 2) Use the fastest communication means, 3) The cheapest communication means However, it is also possible to make it possible for the user to set judgment criteria in advance.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, an example in which the communication means 121 to 12N are selected and used for each data such as each image / sound / movie included in the downloaded HTML content is described. However, the description is given in the HTML content. Similarly, the communication means 121 to 12N can be selected and used for the HTML content linked by the URL that has been set. Also in this case, it is assumed that the profile information file is embedded in the a tag of the HTML content to be linked.

  In this case, the profile information acquisition unit 111 acquires a profile information file embedded in the a tag of the linked HTML content, and the communication path determination unit 112 determines each of the information based on the profile information file acquired by the profile information acquisition unit 111. A data communication path is determined, and each data is downloaded and displayed.

  As the profile information file, the URL of the profile information file can be separately designated as an attribute value of the tag at a location where each data such as image / sound / movie in the HTML content is designated by the tag. In this case, the profile information acquisition unit 111 acquires profile information from the server specified by the URL.

  For example, <img src = “http: //server1/gazou1.gif” profile = “http: //server2/profile1.txt”>, using the attribute “profile” and the URL of the image data body. Apart from this, it is also possible to specify the URL of the profile information.

  In addition, in each of the above embodiments, when profile information for certain data cannot be acquired, the corresponding data is downloaded using any communication means currently available on the client terminal 1. Yes.

  However, as another method, when downloading the corresponding data, if the amount of downloaded data for that data exceeds a certain amount, or if the elapsed time since the start of downloading exceeds a certain amount of time In the case of a failure, it may be possible to change to a communication path with a higher communication speed or a communication path with a lower communication cost, and download the remaining data via the changed communication path.

  Thus, in the present invention, even when the profile information could not be acquired, when the acquired data amount in the middle of the data acquisition process or the elapsed time from the start of the data acquisition process exceeds a certain amount, faster, Alternatively, by switching to an inexpensive communication path and continuing the data download process, high-speed display and reduction of communication costs can be achieved.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the content acquisition system by one Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the profile information which the profile information acquisition part of the browser apparatus of FIG. 1 acquires. It is a figure which shows an example of the HTML content which embedded the profile information in one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the browser apparatus of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of an HTML content.

Explanation of symbols

1 Client terminal
2 Content server group
3 Data server group
11 Browser device
13 Recording media
111 Profile information acquisition unit
112 Communication path determination unit
113 Data download part
114 Display part 121-12N Communication means

Claims (22)

  A content acquisition system comprising at least a server that accumulates content and a browser device that is installed in a client terminal including a plurality of communication means for performing data transmission and reception between the server and downloads data in the content, Means for acquiring profile information indicating at least attributes of each of various data included in the content based on information described in the content when acquiring and displaying the content on the server, and the acquired profile What is claimed is: 1. A content acquisition system comprising: the browser device having means for determining, for each type of data, an optimal communication means for downloading various types of data based on information.   The content acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein the information described in the content is address information of a server that stores the profile information.   The content acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein the information described in the content is profile information embedded in the content in advance.   The content acquisition system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the communication unit includes at least wired, wireless, and broadcast distribution.   The content acquisition system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the various data includes at least image data, audio data, movie data, and linked content data.   The content acquisition system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the profile information is downloaded using any one of communication means that can use unacquired data.   At least a higher-speed communication means and a lower charge among the communication means currently available on the client terminal when any of the communication amount and communication time related to the data when each of the various data is downloaded exceeds a certain amount The content acquisition system according to claim 6, wherein the browser device includes means for changing to any one of the communication means and continuing to download the data.   A browser device that is mounted on a client terminal including a plurality of communication means for performing data transmission / reception with at least a server that stores content and that downloads data in the content, and acquires and displays the content on the server Means for acquiring profile information indicating at least attributes of various data included in the content based on information described in the content, and downloading the various data based on the acquired profile information. And a means for determining the optimum communication means for each type of data.   9. The browser apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the information described in the content is address information of a server that stores the profile information.   9. The browser device according to claim 8, wherein the information described in the content is profile information embedded in the content in advance.   The browser device according to any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein the communication unit includes at least wired, wireless, and broadcast distribution.   12. The browser apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the various data includes at least image data, audio data, movie data, and linked content data.   The browser device according to any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein the profile information is downloaded using any one of communication means that can use unacquired data.   At least a higher-speed communication means and a lower charge among the communication means currently available on the client terminal when any of the communication amount and communication time related to the data when each of the various data is downloaded exceeds a certain amount 14. The browser apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising means for changing to any one of the communication means and continuing to download the data.   A content download method for a system comprising at least a server that stores content and a browser device that is installed in a client terminal that includes a plurality of communication means for transmitting and receiving data to and from the server and that downloads data in the content. Then, when the content on the server is acquired and displayed on the browser device side, profile information indicating at least an attribute of each of various data included in the content is acquired based on information described in the content And a step of determining, for each type of data, an optimum communication means for downloading various types of data based on the acquired profile information.   16. The content download method according to claim 15, wherein the information described in the content is address information of a server that stores the profile information.   16. The content download method according to claim 15, wherein the information described in the content is profile information embedded in the content in advance.   The content download method according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the communication means includes at least wired, wireless, and broadcast distribution.   The content download method according to any one of claims 15 to 18, wherein the various data includes at least image data, audio data, movie data, and linked content data.   The content download method according to any one of claims 15 to 19, wherein the profile information is downloaded using any one of communication means that can use unacquired data.   The browser device has at least a higher-speed communication means currently available on the client terminal when any of the communication amount and the communication time regarding the data when each of the various data is downloaded exceeds a certain amount. 21. The content download method according to claim 20, wherein the download of the data is continued by changing to any one of the communication unit and the low-price communication unit. Program for content download method of system comprising at least server for storing content and client device including a plurality of communication means for transmitting / receiving data to / from server and browser device for downloading data in content A profile indicating at least an attribute of each of various data included in the content based on information described in the content when the content on the server is acquired and displayed on the computer of the browser device A program for executing a process of acquiring information and a process of determining, for each type of data, an optimum communication means for downloading various types of data based on the acquired profile information.

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