JP2007310833A - Server device, its client device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To notify a user of the latest relevant information on contents timely. <P>SOLUTION: When a CPU 11 of a server device 1 receives relevant information about content transmitted from a client device 2, the CPU 11 stores the relevant information in a relevant information memory 13b and updates summary information on the basis of the relevant information by a summary information update program 14c. Namely, the CPU 11 prepares the summary information including not only a content distribution state but also a registered state of the relevant information, such as a comment and track back registered from the user with respect to the content and associates the prepared summary information with the content and stores the summary information in a summary information memory 13c. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a server device that supports communication between users using a website on a network, a client device thereof, and a program, for example.

  Every day, a huge amount of information is sent from various websites on the Internet. Conventionally, it was necessary to actually visit each site to know that new information was transmitted. RSS (RDF Site Summary / Rich Site Summary / Really Simple Syndication) is a format for describing summary information of contents distributed from these sites (for example, Non-Patent Document 1). The user can receive the distribution of the summary information of the registered site simply by registering the RSS of the site that is interested in the dedicated software called the RSS reader. As a result, new content or a headline of content that has not been confirmed by the user is automatically notified, so that the user can reach content that can be an object of interest from a vast amount of content relatively easily.

  RSS is widely used for distributing update information in a web log. A web log (hereinafter referred to as a blog) refers to a diary page that is updated daily. Blog systems often have a “comment function” and a “trackback function”. The comment function allows the user who views the content to register the opinion and related information in the form of text, audio, etc. in association with the content on the system that publishes the content so that the user can refer to it. . The trackback function is information prepared for each content including related information (referred to as trackback Ping) including URLs of other content published on another (which may be the same) related to the content. By transmitting to a logical address (referred to as a trackback PingURL) dedicated to accepting associations, it is registered in the database on the system, and the contents are associated with each other so that the user can refer to them. If you use this trackback feature, you can see comments from each other's blogs from either website, so you can expect a wider exchange of opinions than a single blog.

  In such a communication system, there are many cases where information (hereinafter referred to as related information) itself associated with a content or a part thereof, such as comments and trackbacks as described above, has great value. For example, in the case of news content on a news site, the opinions presented by the content provider are limited to a certain aspect, but the multifaceted opinions related to the content introduced in the news based on related information gathered from the user for the content. Can be referred to. In addition, the product introduction site or the like gathers the reputation of the product as related information, which is useful as reference information when purchasing the product. In addition, on the community site, someone's comments (related information) can trigger the discussion on the spot. In the community site, the exchange of related information is the actual state of communication.

  For video content, viewers can register textual comments on the system for each scene expressed in terms of time, and a system that supports communication between viewers interested in the same scene. It has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

"RSS 2.0 Specification", Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Internet <URL: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss>

“Technical Specifications for Trackback”, SixApart, Internet <URL: http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/docs/trackback_spec>

Japanese Patent No. 3622711

  As described above, related information such as comments and trackbacks sometimes has great value like content, and a huge amount is distributed on the network. However, for example, in order to know that new related information has been posted to a blog article, the user must actually access the blog page itself and check whether there is related information. As a result, there was a problem in that useful information was missed and it was not possible to participate in the discussion in a timely manner.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above circumstances, and its object is to provide a server device capable of notifying the user of the latest related information related to the content in a timely manner, and its client device and program. It is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, a server device according to the present invention is a server device that stores content and distributes the content to a client device via a communication line, from the client device via the communication line. Related information receiving means for receiving the related information when related information related to the content is sent, and related information storage means for storing the related information received by the related information receiving means in association with the content; Summary information creating means for creating summary information indicating the distribution status of the content and the storage status of the related information; and summary information storage means for storing the created summary information in association with the content. Features.

  In the above configuration, summary information including not only the content distribution status but also the registration status of related information such as comments and trackbacks registered by the user for the content is created. By distributing such summary information from the server device, the user can grasp all the latest related information posted to the content without accessing the content itself.

The server device of the present invention is also characterized by having the following various configurations.
The first configuration monitors whether the related information stored in the related information storage means is updated, and executes the summary information creating means to create the summary information when the related information is updated. It further comprises update means.
With this configuration, since the summary information is updated each time related information related to the content is added / changed, the latest related information registered for the content can be notified to the user in a timely manner. It becomes.

In a second configuration, when a summary information acquisition request corresponding to the content is sent from the client device, the summary information corresponding to the content is read from the summary information storage unit, and the read summary information is It further comprises summary information distribution means for distributing to the client device via a communication line.
For example, by registering a site of interest to dedicated software on the client device side, when related information corresponding to the content of the site is updated, summary information including the related information of this content is distributed. The Thus, the user can grasp in a timely manner that newly received related information has been posted without bothering to access the content itself.

  In the third configuration, when the content has temporal position information and the related information storage means stores related information for an arbitrary time range of the content, the summary information creating means Summary information describing a content distribution status, a storage status of the related information, and information for specifying the time range is created.

  When the content to be distributed has temporal position information such as audio and video, for the scene specified in the time range, the information specifying the specific scene and the relationship registered by the user for the scene Information is described in summary information and distributed to the client device. As a result, the user can be notified of the registration status of related information for scenes such as audio and video content, and can easily access the scene in which the related information is registered and the related information.

  In a fourth configuration, when the content has spatial position information and the related information storage means stores related information for an arbitrary spatial range of the content, the summary information creating means Summary information describing a content distribution status, a storage status of the related information, and information for specifying the spatial range is created.

  When the content from the server device has spatial location information such as text and still images, information about a specific spatial range and related information registered by the user for that range are described in the summary information. To the client device. Thereby, the user can receive notification of the registration status of related information for a specific range such as text and still image content, and can easily access related information related to the range.

  According to a fifth configuration, the related information receiving means receives information of a registrant who registers the related information together with related information related to the content, and the related information storage means receives the received related information and registration. The summary information creating means creates summary information describing the delivery status of the content, the storage status of the related information, and the registrant information. It is characterized by that.

  In the above configuration, the information specifying the registrant of the related information is described in the summary information together with the related information related to the content. Thus, the user can be notified when relevant information is registered from a specific registrant, and can immediately access comments and trackbacks of interested persons. In addition, when distributing summary information, related information registered by a specific registrant that he / she does not like can be prevented from being displayed.

  According to a sixth configuration, the related information receiving unit receives information on a registration time for registering the related information together with related information related to the content, and the related information storage unit stores the received related information and registration. Time information is stored in association with corresponding content, and the summary information creating means creates summary information describing the distribution status of the content, the storage status of the related information, and the registration time. It is characterized by.

  In other words, in the above configuration, information specifying the registration time of the related information is described in the summary information together with the related information related to the content. As a result, the user can receive notification of related information filtered by the registration time. In addition, regarding the registration of related information for content, for example, by specifying the period and frequency and filtering the content to be displayed, it is possible to easily access the content that is the center of the topic and participate in the exciting discussion It becomes possible.

  A client device according to the present invention is a client device connected to the server device having the second configuration via the communication line, and sends a summary information acquisition request for requesting acquisition of summary information corresponding to the content. Summary information acquisition request transmitting means for transmitting to the server device via the communication line, and summary for receiving summary information distributed from the server device via the communication line in response to transmission of the summary information acquisition request It comprises information receiving means, and summary information presenting means for presenting information representing a storage status of related information corresponding to the content based on the received summary information.

  With this configuration, the client apparatus receives summary information including the registration status of related information from a desired site, and not only the content update status of this site but also the registration status of related information for each content. It can be presented together. As a result, the user can receive notification of registration status and easily access related information for related information registered for each content as well as the content.

  In the client device according to the present invention, the summary information presenting means includes a means for accepting an input of a presentation condition for extracting relevant information to be presented, and the input presentation condition from the received summary information. Means for extracting corresponding summary information, and presenting the extracted related information.

  For example, discussions in which registrants interested in the user participate by extracting relevant information and contents to be presented to the user from the received summary information on the condition of the registrant and registration time of the related information It is possible to participate in a place where there is a lot of discussions.

In short, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a server device, a client device, and a program thereof that can notify the user of the latest related information related to the content in a timely manner.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information distribution system including a server device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In this system, a server device 1 and a client device 2 are connected via a communication network NW. A plurality of client devices 2 may be connected to the server device 1. The communication network NW is composed of, for example, a computer network represented by the Internet.

  The server device 1 includes a central processing unit (CPU: Central Processing Unit) 11 such as a microprocessor. A data memory 13, a program memory 14, and a communication interface (communication I / F) 15 are connected to the CPU 11 via a bus 12. And are connected. The communication I / F 15 performs communication processing with the client device 2 via the communication network NW under the control of the CPU 11.

  The data memory 13 uses, for example, a RAM and a hard disk as a storage medium. The data memory 13 stores a content memory 13a, a related information memory 13b, and a summary information memory 13c. The content memory 13a stores the content to be presented on the website published by the server device 1, and stores the content with a content ID attached thereto. The content is created by, for example, text, a still image, video, audio, or a combination thereof. The related information memory 13b stores related information such as comments and trackbacks registered by the viewer for the content. The summary information memory 13c stores summary information about the content.

  The program memory 14 stores a content distribution program 14a, a related information reception program 14b, and a summary information update program 14c as control programs according to the present invention. In response to a content presentation request from the client device 2, the content distribution program 14 a reads out the corresponding content from the content memory 13 a and transmits it via the communication I / F 15. The related information reception program 14b receives related information such as comments and trackbacks input from the client device via the communication network NW, and stores the received related information in the related information memory 13b with an ID added thereto. The summary information update program 14c regenerates summary information when content or related information is updated, and updates the summary information stored in the summary information memory 13c.

  On the other hand, a personal computer, a portable information terminal having a browser function, or the like is used for the client device 2, and an input interface (input I / F) 23 and an output interface (output I / F) are connected to the CPU 21 via the bus 22. ) 24, communication I / F 25, and program memory 26 are connected. For example, an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse is connected to the input I / F 23 to receive operation information input from the user. A monitor such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is connected to the output I / F 24, and the CPU 21 displays content and the like distributed from the server device 1 via the output I / F 24 on the monitor.

  The program memory 26 stores a related information registration program 26a. The related information registration program 26 a registers related information such as comments and trackbacks input from the user for the presented content in the server device 1. When the CPU 21 receives the related information through the input I / F 23, the CPU 21 transmits the related information to the server device 1 through the communication network NW through the communication I / F 25.

Next, the operation of the information distribution system configured as described above will be described. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing the procedure and content of the summary information update operation. For this description, the website published by the server device 1 and the content presented by this website will be described.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a top page of a website published by the server device 1. The server device 1 provides a community site connectable with a URL “http://www.site.sumple.com” named “distribution source site” on a server of a general blog system on the Internet. It shall be. In this site, a link to each content and a link to summary information are presented, and it is possible to refer to each content and summary information from a general web browser. This site has three content files, “Content 1”, “Content 2” and “Content 3”, which are open to the web browsers, “http://www.site.sumple.com/contents1.htm1” and “http It can be viewed by connecting to “http://www.site.sumple.com/contents2.html” and “http://www.site.sumple.com/contents3.html”.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of content presented by the website of FIG. By selecting “Content 1” from the above site, a web page showing the content is displayed. The user can connect to this page with a web browser operating on the client device 2 and refer to the content, related information (comments, trackback list), and trackback PingURL. In addition, a comment related to the content 1 can be registered from the comment registration form. Also, it is possible to track back to this content from a general blog system using the referenced trackback PingURL.

  FIG. 5 is an example in which the distribution status of such site content is summarized as summary information. Normally, the blog system is described in a generalized format such as the above-mentioned RSS, but for the sake of explanation, a unique description method conforming to the XML format is used. In this method, each child element tag surrounded by tags of <summary information> describes information of each content published on this site and the site. The contents of each tag, which is a child element enclosed by <site> tags, describe information related to the site. The <site link> tag describes the URL of the site, the <site title> tag describes the site title, and the <content> tag describes the information of the content published. The tag of each child element enclosed in the <content> tag describes information related to individual contents registered on the site. The <content link> tag describes the content URL link, the <content title> tag describes the content title, and the <article summary> tag describes the content summary. In this example, since three contents are disclosed on the site, there is a description of a <content> tag corresponding to each.

  In addition, when a new content is published on the site, the description related to the <content> tag increases. This process may be performed manually by the site administrator, but in a general blog system, summary information is automatically updated when a content file is registered.

Regarding the contents described in the summary information given as an example so far, tags that can be described in the same way using existing RSS are prepared.
In the present invention, related information registered for each content is further described in the summary information. In this example, since a general blog system is assumed, comments and trackbacks are assumed as related information related to content from the user. Therefore, in this example, a <related information> tag is prepared as a child element tag described in a <content> tag, and a <comment><trackback> tag is prepared as a child element thereof.

In this example, the <Comment> tag has attributes “Posting time”, “Contributor”, and “Content”, and the <Trackback> tag has attributes “Posting time” and the trackback specification. “Title”, “excerpt”, “URL”, and “blog_name” for describing the article title, summary, article, URL, and blog title are prepared. FIG. 4 describes a state in which two comments and one trackback are associated with the content 1.
In this example, this summary file can be accessed at “http://www.site.sumple.com/youyaku.xml”.

Now, assume that the user is viewing the content 1 and registers a comment as related information related to the content 1 from the comment registration form.
In step S21, the user designates a comment association target, in this case, content. In this example, content 1 is selected. In this example, since the comment registration form exists on the reference page of the content 1, it can be said that the target to associate the information in step S22 is selected at the stage of viewing the content 1, but other URLs are specified. It is also conceivable to specify the content by another means such as registering related information such as a comment.

  In step S22, a request for registration of related information is made to the server apparatus 1 for the content to be associated specified in step S21. In this example, a comment is registered from the comment registration form. In this form, enter "Commentator 3" in the name field at the time of February 16th, 2006 at 10:03:05, leave the e-mail address blank, and enter "Comment 3 for Content 1" as a comment. By pressing the button, the server apparatus 1 is requested to register a comment.

  In step S23, the server device 1 accepts relevant information coming from the communication network NW by the related information registration operation, and stores it in the relevant information memory 13b in association with the content. The content distribution program 14a reads related information corresponding to the content from the related information memory 13b as necessary when distributing the content, and transmits it to the client device 2. For example, if the state before the comment registration is the content shown in FIG. 5, the user who next requested the blog server to present the content 1 can refer to the newly registered comment 3 as shown in FIG. It becomes like this.

  By the way, when new related information is registered in the related information memory 13b, in step S24, the CPU 11 performs summary information update processing by the summary information update program 14c. That is, the contents of the newly registered related information are added to the summary information of the content stored in the summary information memory 13c. In this embodiment, for example, if the summary information before the comment registration is in the state as shown in FIG. 5, the description corresponding to the comment 3 newly registered in steps S22 to S23 is the summary information as shown in FIG. To be added.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, not only the content distribution status but also related information related to content represented by comments, trackbacks, and the like is described in the summary information. As a result, not only the content distribution status but also the registration status of related information can be distributed from the server device 1, and new arrival information can be notified to the user in a timely manner.

(Second Embodiment)
In the second embodiment of the present invention, the summary information created as in the first embodiment is distributed from the server device to the client device, so that the user can not only view the content distribution status but also the content. It is possible to receive notifications regarding related information such as comments and trackbacks.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an information distribution system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Note that parts having the same configuration as in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.
The program memory 14 of the server device 1 stores a content distribution program 14a and a summary information distribution program 14d. The summary information distribution program 14d reads the corresponding summary information data from the summary information memory 13c in response to the summary information acquisition request sent from the client device 2, and sends the summary information data to the client device via the communication network NW. And deliver. As described in the first embodiment, the summary information memory 13c stores summary information that describes the distribution status of content and the registration status of related information related to the content.

  The program memory 26 of the client device 2 stores a summary information acquisition program 26b, a viewing history management program 26c, a summary information presentation program 26d, and a content presentation program 26e. Furthermore, a viewing history database 27 is connected to the CPU 21 via the bus 22. The viewing history database 27 stores the viewing history of content and related information for each site.

  The summary information acquisition program 26b transmits a summary information acquisition request for content specified by the user to the server device 1 and receives the summary information distributed from the server device 1. The viewing history management program 26c manages the viewing history of content and related information for each site, compares the received summary information with the viewing history, and selects the item to be presented from the received summary information.

  The summary information presentation program 26d presents the content of the received summary information based on the selected item to be presented. The content presentation program 26e transmits a distribution request for content and related information designated by the user to the server device 1, and presents the content and related information distributed from the server device 1.

Next, the operation of the information distribution system in the second embodiment configured as described above will be described. FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing the procedure of the summary information presentation operation.
In step S <b> 91, the CPU 21 of the client apparatus 2 transmits an acquisition request for the summary information of the site registered by the user to the server apparatus 1 by the summary information acquisition program 26 b. Various triggers can be considered for this request. In general blog systems, dedicated information called RSS reader is used to automatically and automatically acquire summary information (RSS) of sites registered in the software. There are many cases.

  Now, it is assumed that the summary information acquisition program 26b is set to periodically acquire summary information of a blog site that distributes three contents as shown in FIG. Of course, if the user sets a plurality of sites of interest in addition to this site, the summary information of those sites can also be acquired periodically.

  In step S92, the server apparatus 1 reads the corresponding summary information from the summary information memory 13c and distributes it to the client apparatus 2 in response to the summary information acquisition request from the client apparatus 2 by the summary information distribution program 14d. Here, for example, summary information as shown in FIG.

  When receiving summary information distributed from the server device 1, the CPU 21 selects information to be presented to the user by the viewing history management program 26c in step S93. In the RSS reader of a general blog system, the latest RSS and the latest RSS are compared, new arrival information is extracted, unread information is extracted from the comparison with the user's viewing history, and the like as presentation candidates. The information that meets the conditions is further extracted from the information and presented to the user.

  In this client device 2, not only the content but also the related information related to the content, the information similar to the above-mentioned content, information on the registrant and registration time of the related information are extracted together, and information on the presentation candidates is extracted. Furthermore, information that meets the conditions specified by the user is presented to the user. Here, it is assumed that before the summary information as shown in FIG. 7 is acquired in step S92, the summary information as shown in FIG. 5 is acquired and the user has already viewed some information.

  In the client device 2, the viewing history management program 26c manages the user's viewing history in the viewing history database 27, and compares the newly acquired summary information with the user's viewing history to extract information to be presented. It has the function to do. An example of the configuration of the viewing history database 27 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 10, the viewing history database 27 manages information on sites, contents, comments, and trackbacks in respective tables.

  The information managed in the viewing history database 27 is basically information obtained from the site management table at the time of site registration, and the remaining table information shows information obtained from the summary information and the relationship between the data. It can be acquired / updated from the read / unread information that can be acquired from the ID information and whether the information is accessed from the content presentation program 26e. About the comparison between the information on the database necessary for the extraction work and the summary information, it is possible to compare the contents by uniquely specifying the target using the URL described in the summary information, and the same applies to the comments. In addition, since the time and comment information of the summary information and the trackback can be identified almost uniquely from the time and URL, the necessary information can be extracted similarly by comparing with the information in the database.

  Here, it is assumed that the client device 2 acquires summary information as shown in FIG. 7 in step S92, and the viewing history management program 26c sets the user to present unread or new content and related information. First, the CPU 21 has unread / read columns in the viewing history database 27 with content IDs 1 and 3, content with comment ID 2 and content with trackback ID 1 unread. Extract as related information. Further, the CPU 21 compares the summary information shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 7, and extracts the comment posted at the posting time = “2006-02-14T22: 18; 20 + 09: 00: 00” as the difference as newly related information. To do.

  In step S94, the summary information presentation program 26d displays a list of related information extracted in step S93 as newly arrived items. FIG. 11 is a display example of summary information before registration of related information in the client apparatus 2, and FIG. 12 is a display example of summary information after registration of related information. As shown in FIG. 12, the user is notified in an easy-to-understand manner that a new comment has been registered for the content 1. In addition, when the desired related information is selected from the summary information displayed in the list, details of the selected related information are displayed, and there is a “link to comment target content”. The content selected by clicking this link Can be viewed. This is because the link of the <content link> element in the summary information shown in FIG. 8 is given to each item to be displayed and related information (comment, trackback), so that the selected content, comment, trackback source Can be requested.

  The CPU 21 transmits a request for acquiring the content thus requested to the server device 1 by the content presentation program 26e. In response to this request, the server device 1 reads out the corresponding content from the content memory 13a and distributes it to the client device 2 in step S95. The CPU 21 receives the content distributed from the server device, and outputs the received content to the monitor through the output I / F 24 in step S96. At this time, if you have a mechanism that presents related information along with the content, you can discuss it in a timely manner by referring to the comment after receiving a comment or trackback notification and registering your opinion as related information. You will be able to participate in.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, the server device distributes not only the content distribution information of the site but also the related information for the content represented by comments, trackbacks, and the like together with the summary information. Will be able to receive notifications not only about the content distribution status of the site, but also related information about the comments being made through comments and trackbacks.

The database management on the client this time is an example, and the management location and management method of the information can be used as long as it can manage the necessary history and can compare with the summary information necessary for the present invention. It doesn't matter. For example, a mode in which history information is described in XML format and managed on the server device 1 for each user of the client device 2 can be considered.

(Third embodiment)
The third embodiment of the present invention describes scene information and related information such as comments and trackbacks for the scene in summary information when handling content that can specify a scene in a time range such as video and audio. The user refers to related information registered for a scene such as a video. The configuration of the information distribution system will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, a method for registering related information specifying a time range will be described. FIG. 13 is an example of a related information registration page in which a time range is specified. On this page, the user designates a time range to be a scene target, registers a comment regarding the designated scene, and presents a trackback PingURL. Further, as shown in FIG. 14, the moving image content is composed of a plurality of predetermined scenes, and a comment is registered from a form in a scene including a time that is reproduced in synchronization with the reproduction of the content, or a trackback PingURL. The method of presenting can be considered. In addition to this, for example, in the registration page of FIG. 14, a time range for designating a scene for registering related information, such as a method in which seconds before and after the playback time t are treated as a scene and related information is registered in synchronization with playback Any method can be used if it can be specified. In addition, if the time range is considered to be 0, a certain time can be captured as a scene.

  In the present embodiment, summary information describing information related to the scene shown in the time range of the content and related information such as a comment and a track back is created for each scene. FIG. 15 is a description example of summary information in the present embodiment. In this example, similarly to the description example of the summary information in the first embodiment, the site information and the information related to the content in the site are described, but the information related to the scene is described as a child element in the <content> tag. <Tag information> tag exists as a tag. The <scene information> tag has attributes such as starttime and endtime that describe the beginning and end of the scene as time information, and a URL that presents a link for playing the scene at the beginning. Furthermore, as a child element of the scene tag, a tag that describes related information such as a comment and a trackback associated with the scene, a <related information> tag having the same attribute as in the first embodiment, and its child Element, <comment> tag, and <trackback> tag are described.

  In the summary information of FIG. 15, the content distributed from the distribution source site, content 1 (URL: http://www.site.sumple.com/contents1.mpg), starts at 0:00 and ends at 0:05. In the example, a trackback from an entry having a title “Trackback Article 1” attached to the scene ending at 0:00 and the track is added as related information. Further, in this case, instead of directly designating an audio or video file as a content link, a web page in which these files are embedded may be designated.

  The summary information is updated when the related information is registered as shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment. However, in the third embodiment, related information such as comments and trackbacks is registered not for the content itself but for the scene with the content. In step S21, the scene is selected as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 instead of the content as the association target. In step S23, the CPU 11 stores the received related information in the related information memory 13b in association with the content scene, not the content. In response to this, in step S24, the scene tag information for the content is updated in the description format as shown in FIG. 12, and the related information is described as a child element of the scene tag in association with the scene.

  The distribution of summary information and the presentation of summary information are performed as shown in the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 9 described in the second embodiment. However, the summary information is described in a format as shown in FIG. For example, in the presentation of the summary information heading in step S94, scene information is also presented as shown in FIG. For the link attached to the headline, a link for cueing and reproducing the scene described in the URL attribute of the <Scene> tag is used, or the content reproduction side presents related information in synchronization with the reproduction of the content. As a result, it is possible to receive distribution of related information that is not registered for a scene of video or audio content, and to easily access the scene and related information.

  According to the third embodiment of the present invention, the server device 1 distributes the summary information describing the scene information of the content and the related information for the scene, so that the user is performed through comments and trackbacks. By receiving notification of related information for the scene, it is possible to easily access the related information and the target scene.

(Fourth embodiment)
In the fourth embodiment of the present invention, when handling content that has spatial position information such as text and still images and can specify range information, the summary information is related to range information, range comments, trackbacks, etc. The information is described and distributed together so that the user can refer to related information attached to a still image or a text range. The configuration of the information distribution system will be described with reference to FIG.

  In this embodiment, instead of describing related information for each content in the description of summary information, information about a spatial range and related information such as a comment and a trackback are described for each range. Here, an example of a method for designating a spatial range is shown. FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of range specification in text content. As shown in FIG. 17, the range can be determined by designating the start position and end position of the range to be designated by the number of characters in the text. The first word “text content” in the content 1 can be represented as, for example, spatial information “1-9”.

  FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of range designation in still image content. This example shows an example of a range specified by a rectangle having sides parallel to the x and y coordinates of the still image content 1 having the number of pixels of 800 × 600. The range described above can be determined by specifying the coordinates of the points. In addition, the position in the still image can be designated simply by indicating the coordinates.

  FIG. 19 is a description example of summary information in the present embodiment. This example shows an example in which a range is specified for still image content by the method described with reference to FIG. Similar to the description example of the summary information of the first embodiment, the site information and information about the content in the site are described. However, as a tag for describing information about the range as a child element in the <content> tag, <range Information> tag exists. The <Range Information> tag presents a “starting point” that indicates a point close to the origin of the coordinates that define the range, an “end point” that indicates the opposite point, and a link that displays the range information together with the content. It has an attribute “URL”. Furthermore, as a child element of this range tag, as a tag describing related information such as a comment and trackback associated with the range, a <related information> tag having the same attributes as in the first embodiment, and its child elements, A <comment> tag and a <trackback> tag are described.

  In the summary information shown in FIG. 19, the coordinates (400, 300) and (800, 600) for the content distributed from the distribution source site, content 1 (URL: http://www.site.sumple.com/contents1.jpg). ) As a diagonal vertex and a trackback from an entry titled “Trackback Article 1” attached to the range is shown as related information. The summary information is updated when the related information is registered as shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment. However, in the fourth embodiment, related information such as comments and trackbacks is registered not for the content itself but for the content range.

  In step S21, not the content but the range is selected as the association target. As a range selection method, a “frame” indicating the range is displayed in advance on the still image content, and it is selected. Alternatively, the range is determined by pointing the start and end points with a pointing device on the still image. However, the method is not limited as long as the range in which the related information is registered can be specified. Further, if the area of a certain range is considered as 0, a certain coordinate point can be regarded as the range.

  In step S23, the related information is stored in the related information memory 13b in association with the content range, not the content. In response to this, in step S24, the information of the <range> tag for the content is updated in a description format as shown in FIG. 19, for example, and the related information is described as a child element of the <range> tag in association with the range. The distribution of the summary information and the presentation of the summary information are performed according to the procedure shown in the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 9 described in the second embodiment. However, the summary information is described in a format as shown in FIG. For example, as shown in the summary information heading in step S94, the range information is also presented as shown in FIG. 20, and the range information described in the URL attribute of the <range> tag is included in the link attached to the heading. It is registered for the range of still image content by using a link to be presented together or by presenting related information along with the content obtained from this link and its range on the content playback side. Receive related information and easily access its scope and related information.

  As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the server device 1 distributes summary information describing content range information and related information for the range, so that the user can make comments and trackbacks. By receiving notification of related information for the range being performed, it is possible to easily access the related information and the range of the content to be processed.

  Note that the range specification method described in the fourth embodiment is an example, and the range is specified using a circle specified from the coordinates of the center point and the length of the radius, or other numerical formulas. Any method can be used as long as the range of the still image can be specified. In addition, the correspondence to a still image is an example, and any target can be used as long as the content can specify a positional range, such as the above-described text or 3D graphic.

(Fifth embodiment)
In the fifth embodiment of the present invention, by creating summary information that describes related information having information of registrants such as comments and trackbacks on content as information elements, related information registered by a specific person can be easily obtained. It can be referred to. The configuration of the information distribution system will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the present embodiment, the summary information is described in the same description format as in the example shown in the first embodiment, but is different in that the related information includes information indicating a comment or a trackback contributor. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 5 above, a contributor such as “poster” or “mail” information that is an attribute of the <comment> tag, or “blog_name” that is an attribute of the <trackback> tag. The format must include information that identifies

  The summary information is updated when the related information is registered, for example, according to the procedure shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment. The distribution of the summary information and the presentation of the summary information are performed according to procedures such as the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 9 described in the second embodiment. However, when selecting a display item in step S93, the user of the client apparatus 2 is referred to by referring to the information of “Contributor” that is the attribute of the <comment> tag and “blog_name” that is the attribute of the <trackback> tag. This is different from the above-described embodiments in that filtering using poster information can be performed.

  For example, if the client device 2 is set to display the related information registered by the “commentator 1”, the comment registered for the content 1 when the summary information as shown in FIG. 5 is distributed. Of the two and one trackback, <comment posting time = "2006-02-01T11: 06: 38 + 09: 00" contributor = "commentator 1" mail = "comment1@mai1.com" content = "comment on content 1 One of them is that only the comment represented by the tag "/>" will be presented. On the other hand, it is possible to realize a function of not displaying the information of the poster who is designated.

  As described above, according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention, the related information including the poster information is described in the summary information from the server device 1 and distributed, so that the user can receive the related information from a specific poster. You can be notified when you are registered, and you can access comments and trackbacks of interested people in a timely manner. It is also possible to prevent the display of related information registered by a specific contributor who is not necessary for the summary information distribution.

(Sixth embodiment)
In the sixth embodiment of the present invention, by creating summary information that describes related information having related time information such as comments and trackbacks for content, related information registered in a specific time range or The contents posted with a high frequency of related information can be easily referred to. The configuration of the information distribution system will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the present embodiment, the summary information is described in the same description format as in the example shown in the first embodiment, but is different in that the information indicating the posting time is included in the related information. For example, in the example shown using FIG. 5 above, information specifying the poster such as “posting time” that is the attribute of the <comment> tag and “posting time” that is the attribute of the <trackback> tag is always included. Format.

  The summary information is updated when the related information is registered, for example, according to the procedure shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment. The distribution of the summary information and the presentation of the summary information are performed according to procedures such as the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 9 described in the second embodiment. However, when selecting a display item in step S93, the "comment" tag attribute "posting time" information and the <trackback> tag attribute "posting time" are referred to, and the client device 2 It differs from each of the above embodiments in that filtering using post time information is possible by user settings and the like.

  In this way, it is possible to display only related information posted after a certain time, or to select and display content with high posting frequency of related information within a certain period. For the former, for example, if the client device 2 is set to “display related information registered after February 10, 2006”, the summary information as shown in FIG. 5 is delivered from the server device 1. In the case of two comments and one trackback registered for content 1, <comment posting time = "2006-02-12T21: 38: 50 + 09: 00" contributor = "commentator 2" mai1 = " comment2@mail.com "Content =" Comment 2 for content 1 "Only comments written with the tag" /> "will be presented.

  For the latter, for example, if the setting “display content in which three or more related information is registered in February 2006” is set, content 1 is displayed when summary information as shown in FIG. 5 is distributed. Information is presented. At this time, in the setting of “display content in which four or more related information is registered in February 2006”, information regarding any content including content 1 is not displayed. As a result, the community service can be notified of information about contents with which information is frequently exchanged to some extent (the degree can be selected by setting), and can participate in a communication place in a timely manner.

  As described above, according to the sixth embodiment, the related information including the posting time information is described in the summary information from the server device 1 and distributed, so that the user can download the related information filtered by the time information. The distribution can be received, and the registration notification of only the latest information in the period specified by the user can be received. In addition, by specifying the period and frequency for registration of related information, it is possible to access timely places where related information is actively posted and participate in discussions.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, in each of the above embodiments, examples of description of comment and trackback and attribute information as related information are given as an example. Of course, attributes other than the above may be described for comment and trackback, and some of them are omitted. May be. Also, for example, in a system for registering comment information related to contents by voice, an information element having an attribute such as the URL of the voice file of the voice comment as an attribute is described as a <voice comment> tag. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and descriptions relating to contents other than these may be used. In all the embodiments including this embodiment, the description of the summary information is also an example, and any management format, management location, and description format may be used as long as the format realizes the object of the present invention. Absent.

  Further, in each of the above embodiments, an example has been given in which a blog is taken up as an information delivery system, a comment is taken up as related information, and a comment is registered from a web page form, but the configuration of the information delivery system and the server device 1 and the client device The internal configuration, the operation procedure, the content of related information, the information elements to be handled, the attributes, and the like are not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  In short, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and can be embodied by modifying the components without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Moreover, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above embodiments. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in each embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the information delivery system of 1st Embodiment provided with the server apparatus concerning this invention. The sequence diagram which shows the procedure of the summary information creation operation | movement in the information delivery system shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the top page of a website. The figure which shows an example of the content shown by the website of FIG. The figure which shows the example of description of the summary information produced with a server apparatus. The figure which shows an example of the content shown after comment registration. The figure which shows the update content of the summary information shown in FIG. The block diagram which shows the structure of the information delivery system of 2nd Embodiment. The sequence diagram which shows the procedure of the summary information presentation operation | movement in the information delivery system shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of a structure of viewing history database. The figure which shows the example of a display of the summary information shown based on the summary information shown in FIG. The figure which shows the example of a display of the summary information shown based on the summary information shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the registration page of the relevant information in 3rd Embodiment. The figure which shows the other example of the registration page of the relevant information in 3rd Embodiment. The figure which shows the example of a description of the summary information produced in 3rd Embodiment. The figure which shows the example of a display of the summary information shown based on the summary information shown in FIG. The figure explaining an example of the range specification method of the content in 4th Embodiment. The figure explaining the other example of the range specification method of the content in 4th Embodiment. The figure which shows the example of description of the summary information produced in 4th Embodiment. The figure which shows the example of a display of the summary information shown based on the summary information shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Server apparatus, 2 ... Client apparatus, NW ... Communication network, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... Bus, 13 ... Data memory, 13a ... Content memory, 13b ... Related information memory, 13c ... Summary information memory, 14 ... Program memory, 14a ... Contents distribution program, 14b ... Related information reception program, 14c ... Summary information update program, 15 ... Communication interface, 21 ... CPU, 22 ... Bus, 23 ... Input interface, 24 ... Output interface, 25 ... Communication interface, 26 ... Program memory, 26a ... related information registration program, 14d ... summary information distribution program, 26b ... summary information acquisition program, 26c ... viewing history management program, 26d ... summary information presentation program, 26e ... content presentation program, 27 ... viewing history Database.

Claims (10)

A server device that stores content and distributes the content to a client device via a communication line,
Related information receiving means for receiving related information when the related information related to the content is sent from the client device via the communication line;
Related information storage means for storing related information received by the related information receiving means in association with the content;
Summary information creating means for creating summary information indicating the distribution status of the content and the storage status of the related information;
A server apparatus comprising: summary information storage means for storing the created summary information in association with the content. The system further comprises updating means for monitoring whether or not related information stored in the related information storage means is updated, and executing the summary information creating means to create the summary information when the related information is updated. The server device according to claim 1, wherein: When an acquisition request for summary information corresponding to the content is sent from the client device, the summary information corresponding to the content is read from the summary information storage unit, and the read summary information is read via the communication line. 2. The server apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising summary information distribution means for distributing to the client apparatus. When the content has temporal position information and the related information storage means stores related information for an arbitrary time range of the content,
2. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the summary information creating means creates summary information describing a distribution status of the content, a storage status of the related information, and information for specifying the time range. . When the content has spatial position information and the related information storage means stores related information for an arbitrary spatial range of the content,
2. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the summary information creating means creates summary information that describes a distribution status of the content, a storage status of the related information, and information for specifying the spatial range. . The related information receiving means receives information of a registrant who registers the related information together with related information related to the content,
The related information storage means stores the received related information and registrant information in association with corresponding contents,
The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the summary information creating unit creates summary information describing the distribution status of the content, the storage status of the related information, and the information of the registrant. The related information receiving means receives information on registration time for registering the related information together with related information related to the content,
The related information storage means stores the received related information and registration time information in association with corresponding contents,
The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the summary information creating unit creates summary information describing a distribution status of the content, a storage status of the related information, and information on the registration time. A client device connected to the server device according to claim 3 via the communication line,
Summary information acquisition request transmitting means for transmitting a summary information acquisition request for requesting acquisition of summary information corresponding to the content to the server device via the communication line;
Summary information receiving means for receiving summary information distributed from the server device via the communication line in response to transmission of the summary information acquisition request;
A client apparatus comprising: summary information presenting means for presenting information indicating a storage status of related information corresponding to the content based on the received summary information.   The summary information presenting means includes means for receiving an input of a presentation condition for extracting relevant information to be presented, and means for extracting summary information corresponding to the inputted presentation condition from the received summary information. The client apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the extracted related information is presented. A program used in a computer that stores content and distributes the content to a client device via a communication line,
A related information receiving process for receiving the related information when related information related to the content is sent from the client device via the communication line;
Related information storage processing for storing the related information received by the related information receiving means in the memory in association with the content;
Summary information creation processing for creating summary information indicating the distribution status of the content and the storage status of the related information;
A program that causes the computer to execute summary information storage processing for storing the created summary information in a memory in association with the content.

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