JP2006039960A - Information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information providing system, capable of providing information suitable for a user to the user of a portable terminal, and that has no need for notifying personal information to an information providing side. <P>SOLUTION: This information provision system comprises an IC tag 10 having an information storage part 11 storing a plurality of pieces of providing information by the personal information such as gender, and a request response part 12 reading the providing information, according to the gender or the like from the information storage part 11 and transmitting it, when receiving a command of a prescribed format designating the gender or the like; and the portable terminal 20 having a personal information storage part 22 storing the gender or the like of the user set by the user, and an information provision processing part 23 transmitting the command including the gender or the like stored in the personal information storage part 22 to obtain the providing information from the IC tag 10, and displaying it on a display. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing system for providing information to a user (user of a portable terminal).

  As is well known, when a mobile phone with a contactless IC tag is brought close to a device displaying advertisement information in recent years, a specific mail delivery server sends an advertisement being displayed to the mobile phone. A technique (for example, refer to Non-Patent Document 1) in which an email of information related to information is distributed has been developed.

According to this technology (hereinafter referred to as IC tag-based advertisement distribution technology), it is possible to provide each mobile phone user with information corresponding to the gender of the user. However, the existing IC tag utilization advertisement distribution technology cannot be used for providing information to a user who dislikes so-called user registration. This is because the existing IC tag using advertisement distribution technology requires that each user's mail address be stored in the mail distribution server (so-called user registration is required). Because.
"Holding your mobile phone over the screen to get information", September 11, 2001, edited by BizTech, published by Nikkei BP Inc.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an object of the present invention is to provide a user of a mobile terminal with information suitable for the user, and each user can perform work equivalent to user registration. The object is to provide an information providing system that does not require (an act of notifying personal information to the information provider side).

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides an information providing system for providing information to a user, which includes one or more portable terminals and a plurality of IC tags each attached to an article. Each of the plurality of IC tags has a predetermined format including a plurality of providing information and providing information storage means for storing correspondence information for associating each providing information with information identifying data, and information identifying data Information identification data included in the command from among a plurality of provision information stored in the provision information storage means based on the correspondence information stored in the provision information storage means when the command is received And providing information transmitting means for transmitting the specified providing information, each of the one or more mobile terminals being used by the user. A command for transmitting a command in a predetermined format including information identification data storage means for storing the personal information of the user set as information identification data and information identification data stored in the information identification data storage means It is configured as a system that is a terminal that includes a transmission unit and a provision information reception / display unit that receives provision information transmitted by an IC tag that has received a command transmitted by the command transmission unit and displays the information on a display. Keep it.

  That is, the information providing system of the present invention communicates between an IC tag, which is attached in some form to an article (product or printed matter), and a mobile terminal, thereby allowing the user of the mobile terminal to It has a configuration in which information suitable for the user (providing information associated with personal information / information identification data set by the user) is provided. Therefore, if this information providing system is used, contents suitable for the user can be provided to the user of each mobile terminal in such a way that there is no need to perform an operation equivalent to user registration (an act of notifying personal information to the information provider side). Can be provided.

  In realizing the information providing system of the present invention, each IC tag is further provided with type information transmitting means for transmitting type information indicating the type of information identification data when receiving a predetermined command. A portable terminal is provided as means for storing data for identifying information, and has means for storing a plurality of types of personal information set by the user as information identifying data, and transmits a predetermined command as command transmitting means. Means for transmitting a command in a predetermined format including information identification data specified by the received type information stored in the information identification data storage means after receiving the type information from the IC tag It can be set as an IC tag equipped with. In other words, the information providing system according to the present invention includes the “IC tag for changing the information to be provided to be transmitted based on the gender notified from the portable terminal” and “the information to be provided to be transmitted based on the age notified from the portable terminal. It can also be realized as a system including several types of IC tags such as “IC tag for changing” and a portable terminal capable of receiving providing information from any of these IC tags.

  In addition, when a predetermined type of information is received from the IC tag by transmitting a predetermined command from the command transmission means provided in each portable terminal, information indicating the current date and time (date, current date and time, current time, etc.) is identified. The information providing system of the present invention may be realized in the form of means for transmitting a command of a predetermined format included as data for use. In addition, according to the information providing system of the present invention realized in such a manner, it is possible to meet the current date and time without increasing the manufacturing cost of each IC tag (without mounting an RTC on each IC tag). Information for providing contents can be provided to the user.

  Further, the providing information receiving / displaying unit provided in each portable terminal is a unit that, when the providing information received from the IC tag is a URL, acquires information identified by the URL and displays it on the display. In this way, the information providing system of the present invention may be realized.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  An information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention is a system including a plurality of IC tags attached to an article (product or printed matter) in some form and one or more portable terminals having a predetermined function. .

  As schematically shown in FIG. 1A, the IC tag 10 included in the information providing system according to the present embodiment includes an information storage unit 11 and a request response unit 12. Further, as schematically shown in FIG. 1B, the mobile terminal 20 included in the information providing system includes an IC tag reader 21, a personal information storage unit 22, an information providing processing unit 23, and a display (not shown). It has become with.

  The information storage unit 11 included in the IC tag 10 is a unit (nonvolatile memory) in which information having contents as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4 is set (recorded) (non-volatile memory; “providing information storage unit” in claim 1). Equivalent).

  In other words, the information storage unit 11 designates a plurality of pieces of provision information including display information and information server URLs as designation information such as “address”, “age and gender”, “current date”, etc. Is equivalent to “information identification data” in (if given), it is a unit stored in a form in which one piece of information for provision is determined (corresponding to “correspondence information” in claim 1). . Although not explicitly shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the information storage unit 11 is a unit in which a designation information type value indicating the type of information necessary for defining one piece of provision information is set. It is also. The specific use of the information storage unit 11 will be described later. A significant (not “null”) information server URL is set in the information storage unit 11 on the Internet based on the information server URL. This is a case where an environment in which display information can be acquired from the Internet is realized (a server capable of returning display information is prepared on the Internet).

  The request response unit 12 (FIG. 1) included in the IC tag 10 is a unit that can respond to a designation information type value request command or a provision information request command (corresponding to “providing information transmission means” in claim 1). It is.

  Here, the designation information type value request command is a command consisting of only a command code (corresponding to a “predetermined command” in claim 2). Upon receiving this designation information type value request command, the request response unit 12 performs a process of transmitting the designation information type value (corresponding to “type information” in claim 2) stored in the information storage unit 11. The provision information request command is a command (corresponding to a “predetermined format command” in claim 1 or the like) including a command code and designation information (such as “address”). Upon receiving this provision information request command, the request response unit 12 provides provision information (display information and display information) associated with the designation information included in the received provision information request command from the information storage unit 11. Information server URL) is read out, and the read provision information is transmitted.

  The IC tag reader 21 provided in the portable terminal 20 (FIG. 1) is a unit that communicates with the IC tag 10 under the control of the information provision processing unit 23.

  The personal information storage unit 22 included in the mobile terminal 20 is a unit that stores personal information about the user of the mobile terminal 20 (address, age, gender, information about a field of interest, etc.). The information provision processing unit 23 is a unit that executes a predetermined process (details will be described later) when a predetermined instruction (an instruction to read the IC tag 10) is given from the user.

  The portable terminal 20 is realized (manufactured) by installing an information provision processing program in a portable information terminal (which can be connected to the Internet) in which the IC tag reader 21 is incorporated. The information provision processing program is a program that causes the user to input various personal information at the first activation, and stores the various personal information input by the user in the HDD of the mobile terminal 20. A part of the HDD of the portable information terminal used for storing personal information is referred to as a personal information storage unit 22, and an information provision processing program in the portable information terminal (after the input of personal information is completed). A portion related to the execution of the information providing portion (a portion including a CPU, a RAM, and the like) is referred to as an information provision processing unit 23. Further, in this portable terminal 20, the personal information storage unit 22 corresponds to the “information identification data storage means” in claim 1 or the like, and the portion comprising the information provision processing unit 23 and the IC tag reader 21 is defined in claim 1. This corresponds to “command transmission means” and “providing information reception / display means”.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the mobile terminal 20 (information provision processing unit 23) will be described.

  The information provision processing unit 23 is a unit that executes a process whose procedure is shown in FIG. 5 when a predetermined instruction (an instruction to read the IC tag 10) is given from the user.

  That is, the information provision processing unit 23 (information provision processing program) given a predetermined instruction from the user first acquires the designation information type value from the IC tag 10 by controlling the IC tag reader 21 (step S101) is performed. That is, in this step S101, the information provision processing unit 23 uses the IC tag reader 21 to transmit the designation information type value request command and the designation information type value received by the IC tag reader 21 from the IC tag 10. The processing received from the tag reader 21 is performed.

  Next, the information provision processing unit 23 performs a process of reading out information of the type specified by the acquired designation information type value from the personal information storage unit 22 (step S102). Then, the information provision processing unit 23 performs a process of acquiring provision information from the IC tag 10 by causing the tag reader 21 to transmit a provision information request command in which the read information is set as designation information (step S103). .

  Although not shown in the flowchart, the information provision processing unit 23 accesses the personal information storage unit 22 in step S102 if the acquired designation information type value represents a date. In step S103, the provision information request command in which the information representing the date of the day (date information managed by the mobile terminal 20) is set as the designation information is transmitted to the tag reader 21 in step S103. A process of obtaining information for provision from the tag 10 is performed.

  The information provision processing unit 23 that has finished the process of step S103 determines whether or not the obtained provision information includes a significant (not “null”) information server URL (step S104). Then, when the acquired providing information includes a significant information server URL (step S104; YES), the information providing processing unit 23 displays the display information identified by the information server URL on the Internet. After performing the process acquired from (Step S105), the process for displaying the acquired display information on the display (Step S106) is performed.

  On the other hand, when the providing information does not include a significant information server URL (step S104; NO), the information providing processing unit 23 displays the display information in the providing information acquired from the IC tag 10 on the display. The process of displaying on the screen (step S106) is performed.

  And the information provision process part 23 which displayed the information for a display on a display complete | finishes the process of FIG.

  The information providing system according to this embodiment includes the mobile terminal 20 and the IC tag 10 as described above. For this reason, in this information providing system, for example, a user living in Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama City, reads out information from the IC tag 10 storing the information shown in FIG. 22, when using a mobile terminal 20) in which it is stored that the address is Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama-shi, on the display of the mobile terminal 20, “Yokohama Kita sales office phone number is 045-aaa-aaaa "will be displayed. On the other hand, when a user who lives in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, reads out information from the same IC tag 10, “Yokohama” is displayed on the display of the mobile terminal 20. "The phone number of the South office is 045-ccc-cccc" will be displayed.

  In addition, when a male user in his thirties reads out information from the IC tag 10 in which the information shown in FIG. 3 is stored using his / her mobile terminal 20, on the display of the mobile terminal 20, Information such as “Please access http: //business.shop.jp ...” (information including a sentence omitted in the part of “…”) is displayed. On the other hand, when a female user in his / her thirties uses a mobile terminal 20 to read information from the same IC tag 10, “http: // www Please try to access .shop.jp ... "will be displayed.

  As described above, when the information providing system according to the present embodiment is used, each user notifies the information provider side of the personal information as long as the user sets personal information related to the mobile terminal 20. Therefore, it is possible to realize an environment in which information suitable for itself can be acquired from each IC tag 10.

  Also, the user reads out information from the IC tag 10 storing the information shown in FIG. 4 using his / her mobile terminal 20 within the period from April 1, 2004 to June 30, 2004. In this case, information such as “campaign first product 20% OFF (until the end of June 2004)” is displayed on the display of the mobile terminal 20. On the other hand, when information is read from the same IC tag 10 within the period from July 1, 2004 to September 30, 2004, “Campaign No. 1” is displayed on the display of the mobile terminal 20. “Two bullets, 10 recommended items for half price (until the end of September 2004)” will be displayed. In addition, when information is read from the same IC tag 10 after October 1, 2004, display information set in the server (for example, information indicating that the campaign has ended, campaign third Information indicating that a bullet is being carried out) is displayed on the display of the portable terminal 20.

  Therefore, the information providing system according to the present embodiment provides information whose contents change depending on the date or the like to the user using an inexpensive IC tag 10 (without mounting an RTC [real time clock] on the IC tag 10). In addition to being a possible system, it can also be said that it is a system that can provide the user with information that defines the contents of the IC tag 10 after the completion of manufacturing.

<Deformation>
The information providing system according to the above-described embodiment can perform various modifications. For example, the IC tag 10 and the portable terminal 20 may be modified to those that do not have a function related to the designation information type value request command or a function related to the information server URL. In addition, the mobile terminal 20 transmits a command including all the information stored in the personal information storage unit 22 to the IC tag 10, and the IC tag 10 is determined based on the information group included in the command. , Which provision information is to be transmitted may be determined. In other words, the information providing system may be realized as a system in which personal information that is not actually required by the IC tag 10 is passed from the portable terminal 20 to the IC tag 10.

  In addition, the above-described information providing system is a system in which a portable information terminal (so-called PDA) is used as the portable terminal 20, but the information providing system is modified to a system in which a cellular phone is used as the portable terminal 20. Also good. Further, a specific configuration of the information storage unit 11 (type and format of information stored in the IC tag 10) and a specific configuration of the personal information storage unit 22 (set by the user and stored in the portable terminal 20) Naturally, the information type and format may be different from those described above.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the IC tag which is a component of the information provision system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and a portable terminal. It is explanatory drawing of the information storage part with which the IC tag which concerns on embodiment is provided. It is explanatory drawing of the information storage part with which the IC tag which concerns on embodiment is provided. It is explanatory drawing of the information storage part with which the IC tag which concerns on embodiment is provided. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the portable terminal (information provision process part) which concerns on embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 IC tag 11 Information storage part 12 Request response part 20 Portable terminal 21 IC tag reader 22 Personal information storage part 23 Information provision process part

Claims (4)

An information providing system including one or more portable terminals and a plurality of IC tags each attached to an article,
Each of the plurality of IC tags is
Providing information storage means for storing a plurality of providing information, and correspondence information for associating each providing information with information identification data;
The plurality of provision information stored in the provision information storage unit based on the correspondence information stored in the provision information storage unit when a command in a predetermined format including information identification data is received Providing information associated with the information identification data included in the command, and providing information transmitting means for transmitting the specified providing information,
Each of the one or more mobile terminals is
Information identification data storage means for storing the personal information of the user set by the user as information identification data;
Command transmitting means for transmitting the command of the predetermined format including the information identifying data stored in the information identifying data storage means;
An information provision system comprising: provision information reception / display means for receiving the provision information transmitted by the IC tag that has received the command transmitted by the command transmission means and displaying the information on a display . Each of the plurality of IC tags is
Type information transmitting means for transmitting type information indicating the type of the information identification data when receiving a predetermined command;
Each of the one or more mobile terminals is
The information identification data storage means includes means capable of storing a plurality of types of personal information set by the user as information identification data, respectively.
As the command transmission means, the type information is received from the IC tag by transmitting the predetermined command, and then specified by the received type information stored in the information identification data storage means. The information providing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for transmitting the command in the predetermined format including the information identification data. The command transmission means included in each of the one or more mobile terminals includes:
A means for transmitting a command in the predetermined format including information indicating the current date and time as the data for information identification when the type information of the predetermined content is received from the IC tag by transmitting the predetermined command. The information providing system according to claim 2, wherein the system is an information providing system. The providing information receiving / displaying unit included in each of the one or more mobile terminals includes:
The means for acquiring information identified by the URL and displaying it on the display when the providing information received from the IC tag is a URL. The information providing system according to any one of the above.