JP2010217952A - Information providing device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely obtain information related with a certain research object from a remote place even on the holidays of the search object or beyond business hours. <P>SOLUTION: The history of location information to be periodically transmitted from a portable terminal equipment 4 of a preregistered member is accumulated in a DB 5 connected to an information providing server 5. An information provision claimant performs access to an information providing server by using terminal equipment 3, and requests the provision of information related with a certain facility. An information providing server 2 specifies a member located within a prescribed distance from the facility in a prescribed period based on the history of the location information accumulated in the DB 5, and transmits mail to request a reply to the portable terminal equipment 4 of the member. When receiving the reply, the information providing server 2 transmits mail and a reply to the terminal equipment 3 of the information provision claimant to notify the claimant that the reply has been received. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus and program capable of obtaining and providing information related to a certain survey target by inquiring a person who is in an area including the location where the survey target is located.

  Conventionally, in order to know information about restaurants, stores, amusement parks, etc. (business days, business hours, congestion, etc.), it has been common to inquire about these facilities over the phone or go to the site and check for yourself. is there. If the facility has a homepage, you can check it on the homepage.

  In addition, as a system that can be known from the remote location without going to the site, such as the congestion status of these facilities and the length of the waiting queue, the server, the client terminal device, GPS (Global Positioning System) ) When having a mobile communication terminal device with an information transmission function and inquiring about the current state of a restaurant or the like from the client terminal device to the server, the server contacts the mobile communication terminal device located near the restaurant or the like. There is an information providing system that can know the current state of a restaurant or the like by sending a reply request regarding the current state of the restaurant or the like by e-mail and sending a reply from the user of the mobile communication terminal to the client terminal device ( Patent Document 1).

  However, telephone inquiries cannot be made outside business hours. If it is confirmed on the homepage, it can be done outside business hours, but it is not possible for facilities that do not have a homepage, and even if it is established, the necessary information is not necessarily disclosed. In the case of the above information provision system, since the information provision is requested to the user who is near the facility by chance, there is no user who can request the provision of information on the closed day of the facility or outside business hours, and the information provision You may not be able to receive it.

JP 2005-227841 A

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and its purpose is to ensure that information relating to a certain survey object can be obtained from a remote location at any time during the business holiday or outside business hours. Is to do.

The information providing apparatus of the present invention provides a history information database for storing a history of location information of information providers registered in advance, and information provision for receiving information provision requests regarding survey targets transmitted from the terminal device of the information provision requester Request accepting means, information provider specifying means for specifying an information provider who has been in a predetermined area including the survey target for a predetermined period with reference to the history information database, and the terminal device of the specified information provider In response, an answer request transmitting means for transmitting an answer request for the information providing request, an answer receiving means for receiving an answer from the terminal apparatus, and an answer for transmitting the received answer to the terminal apparatus of the information providing requester An information providing apparatus comprising: a transmission unit;
The program of the present invention is a program for causing a computer of an information providing apparatus having a history information database that stores a history of location information of information providers registered in advance to function as each unit of the information providing apparatus of the present invention. .

[Action]
When the information providing apparatus of the present invention receives a request for providing information related to a certain investigation object from the terminal apparatus of the information provision requester, the information provider who is in a predetermined area including the investigation object during a predetermined period, The information provider is specified based on the location information history of information providers registered in advance, and the specified information provider is requested to answer. Next, the response sent from the information provider is received and sent to the information provision requester's terminal device, so that the information provision requester can be provided with information about the investigation target at any time upon request. Can do.

  According to the present invention, the requester of information provision keeps the information he / she wants to know about the survey target, either by the person who actually went to the survey target location or by his / her neighbor, regardless of the holiday or business hours of the survey target. It can be freely acquired from anytime and anywhere as information based on the experience of a person.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the information provision system of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of the information provision server and database of a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the historical data registration procedure in the information provision system of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence diagram which shows an example of the procedure from the information provision request | requirement in the information provision system of the 1st Embodiment of this invention to information acquisition. It is a figure which shows the question input screen in the 1st Embodiment of this invention, and the question information preserve | saved at question and answer DB. It is a map which shows the range of the information provision member who requests the reply with respect to an information provision request. It is a figure which shows the historical information of the information provision member who requests the reply with respect to an information provision request. It is a figure which shows the reply input screen in the terminal device of an information provision member. It is a figure which shows the list | wrist of the reply result from an information provision member. It is a figure which shows the content of the 1st answer in the list | wrist of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows a process when the information provision server receives the information provision request | requirement in the information provision system of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First Embodiment]
As shown in FIG. 1, the information providing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a network 1 such as the Internet, an information providing server 2 connected to the network 1, a terminal device 3, and a mobile phone with a location information transmission function. A DB (database) 5 is connected to the information providing server 2 including the terminal device 4. The DB 5 may be provided on the network 1 or may be incorporated in the information providing server 2.

  The terminal device 3 includes a personal computer, a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a PND (Personal Navigation Device), and the like. A member who has registered as an information provision requester (questioner) who can request information provision using the information provision service of the present embodiment (hereinafter referred to as an information request member) uses the terminal device 3. By accessing the information providing server 2 via the network 1, a predetermined information providing service can be received.

  The mobile terminal device 4 with a location information transmission function is composed of a GPS receiver, a mobile phone incorporating a VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) receiver, a PDA, and the like. The mobile terminal device 4 with a location information transmission function of a member who has registered as an information provider (responder) who responds in response to an information provision request from an information requesting member (hereinafter referred to as an information providing member) The information providing server 2 is accessed via the network 1, and self-location information (longitude information, latitude information, time information, etc.) measured by the GPS receiver and similar information acquired by the VICS receiver are transmitted.

  The information providing server 2 is an information processing apparatus installed in a company or the like that operates an information providing service. The information providing server 2 includes a personal computer, a workstation, and the like, and provides various information providing services to previously registered members.

As shown in FIG. 2, the DB 5 includes a member information DB 51, a map information DB 52, a history information DB 53, and a question / answer information DB 54.
The member information DB 51 stores information related to information requesting members and information providing members. Here, the information on the information requesting member includes a member number, name, age, email address, user ID, password, etc. The information on the information providing member includes the member number, name, age, gender, email address, answer And the number of evaluation points from the user for the answer, the number of return points, and the like. The member registration as the information requesting member and the member registration as the information providing member may be common or individual. That is, each person may be able to individually register both, or may only be able to register both.

  The map information DB 52 stores information such as map image data (vector data, raster data, time information, etc.), administrative districts, and commercial areas. The history information DB 53 stores a history of position information periodically transmitted from the portable terminal device 4 with a position information transmission function owned by the information providing member. In the question / answer information DB 54, a question from the information requesting member (contents of the information providing request) and a response from the information providing member are stored in association with each other. Details of such information will be described later.

  The information providing server 2 includes a communication control unit 21, a member information management unit 22, a map information management unit 23, a history information management unit 24, and a question / answer information management unit 25. These means are realized by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) built in the information providing server 2 reading a program in a ROM (Read Only Memory) and using a RAM (Random Access Memory) as a work area. Functional block.

  The communication control unit 21 performs data communication control between the terminal device 3 and the mobile terminal device 4, the member information management unit 22, the map information management unit 23, the history information management unit 24, and the question / answer information management unit 25. Do. Member information management means 22, map information management means 23, history information management means 24, and question / answer information management means 25 manage member information DB 51, map information DB 52, history information DB 53, and question / answer information DB 54, respectively. At the same time, necessary data is exchanged with the communication control means 21.

The operation of the information providing system of the present embodiment having the above configuration will be described.
Prior to detailed description of the operation of the information providing system of the present embodiment, first, the operation will be schematically described.

  The information requesting member accesses the information providing server 2 from his terminal device 3 and informs the information providing request message (for example, recommended menu of the ramen shop P in Yurakucho 3-chome, busy hours, year-end business days and business hours) .)

  When the information providing server 2 receives the information providing request from the terminal device 3, the information providing server 2 searches the DB 5 and selects the ramen shop P for a predetermined period (for example, the past three days) among the information providing members who own the portable terminal device 4. Information providing member who has been in a predetermined area (for example, Yurakucho 3-chome or within a radius of 500 m from ramen shop P), the history information of the location information of the portable terminal device 4 of the information providing member stored there Then, an email requesting an answer (information provision) to the information provision request is transmitted to the portable terminal device 4 of the information provision member.

  When the information providing server 2 receives the answer from the mobile terminal device 4, the information providing server 2 transmits an e-mail notifying that there is an answer and the answer to the terminal device 3. This answer may be transmitted as an email attachment, or a URL linked to the answer may be described in the mail text. The user of the terminal device 3 can receive necessary information by receiving an answer from the member by e-mail.

Next, the operation of the information providing apparatus schematically shown above will be described in order.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for registering the history of position information of the mobile terminal device 4 in the history information DB 53.
In this figure, when the flow on the mobile terminal device 4 side is activated at regular intervals, a connection request signal is transmitted to the information providing server 2 (step S1). This connection request signal includes terminal identification information of the mobile terminal device 4, for example, a mobile phone number, a user ID, and a terminal number.

  When this connection request signal is received by the communication control means 21 of the information providing server 2, the flow on the information providing server 2 side starts. The communication control unit 21 passes the terminal identification information in the connection request signal to the member information management unit 22. The member information management unit 22 checks whether the passed terminal identification information exists in the member information DB 51 and notifies the communication control unit 21 of the result.

  When the communication control means 21 receives a notification “existing” from the member information management means 22, it transmits a connection response signal (OK) to the mobile terminal device 4 and notifies the mobile terminal device 4 that it does not exist. If received, a connection response signal (NG) is transmitted to the mobile terminal device 4 (step S2). Here, it is assumed that a connection response signal (OK) is transmitted.

  The mobile terminal device 4 that has received the connection response signal (OK) transmits the position information measured by the built-in GPS receiver to the information providing server 2 (step S3). The communication control unit 21 in the information providing server 2 passes the received position information to the history information management unit 24. The history information management unit 24 registers the passed position information in the history information DB 53.

  As described above, the position information of the portable terminal device 4 of the information providing member registered in the member information DB 51 is registered in the member information DB 51 at regular intervals for each member by the processing shown in FIG. Therefore, the history information of the whereabouts for every fixed time for each information providing member is stored in the member information DB 51. Note that the transmission timing of the position information of the mobile terminal device 4 is not limited to every certain time, and can be set every time the amount of change in position exceeds a threshold, for example. In addition, GPS position data and a telephone number are registered by a server provided in a mobile phone base station (not shown) on the network 1 between the mobile terminal device 4 and the information providing server 2, and the information providing server It can also be configured to forward to 2.

Next, the operation of the information providing system from when the information requesting member starts the information providing request using the terminal device 3 until receiving the requested information will be described with reference to FIG.
When the information requesting member accesses the information providing server 2 using the terminal device 3, a login screen for inputting a user ID and a password is displayed on the display of the terminal device 3. At this time, it is preferable to simultaneously display an input field for new registration of a user who has not registered as a member. When the information requesting member inputs the user ID and password, a connection request signal is transmitted to the information providing server 2 (step S11).

  In the information providing server 2, the communication control unit 21 passes the user ID and password in the connection request signal to the member information management unit 22. The member information management means 22 checks whether or not the passed user ID and password exist in the member information DB 51, and notifies the communication control means 21 of the result (authentication result) (step S12).

  The communication control unit 21 transmits a connection response signal corresponding to the notification from the member information management unit 22 to the terminal device 3 (step S13). That is, when a notification (authentication OK) of “registered / exists” is received, an input screen (hereinafter referred to as a question input screen) for inputting a question is displayed on the display of the terminal device 3. When a notification (authentication NG) of “unregistered / not present” is received, a message prompting the user to input the correct user ID or password is displayed on the login screen. Here, it is assumed that the authentication is OK.

  The information requesting member inputs a question on the question input screen. FIG. 5A shows a question input screen when a question is input. On the question input screen, a question target place input field 101, a question input field 102, and a “question above” button 103 are arranged. In addition to these, input fields such as an answer deadline, the age and sex of the other party can be arranged. When the information requesting member inputs the information and clicks the “question above” button 103, the question data is transmitted to the information providing server 2 (step S14).

  In the information providing server 2, the communication control means 21 receives the question data, and various information (member number, question reception time, question target location, question content) in the question data as shown in FIG. In addition to the means 24, the question target location in the question data is passed to the map information management means 23 (step S15).

  The question / answer information management means 25 registers various information received from the communication control means 21 in the question / answer information DB 54. On the other hand, the map information management means 23 refers to the map information DB 52 based on the question target location (place) received from the communication control means 21 and refers to the location information of the question target location (here, Marunouchi 3-chome area information and ramen). (Location information of the shop P) is acquired and passed to the history information management means 24. (Step S16).

  The history information management means 24 accesses the history information DB 53, specifies the information providing member who has been in the position indicated by the position information received from the map information management means 23 for a predetermined period (for example, the past three days), and responds to the request. And the list is transferred to the communication control means 21 (step S17).

  Here, as shown in FIG. 6, Marunouchi 3-chome is composed of areas AR1 to AR6, and ramen shop P exists in area AR1. The history information management means 24 reads the history information of information providing members who have been in the areas AR1 to AR6 of FIG. 6 from the history information DB 53 for the past three days, that is, December 27 to 29, and lists the information providing members. To the communication control means 21.

  FIG. 7 shows history information of information providing members who were in the areas AR1 to AR6 of FIG. 6 from December 27 to 29. As shown in the figure, there are nine people, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J. Among them, Mr. C and Mr. G stayed in Ramen shop P or stayed from 12:45 to 13:15 on December 27 and from 17:45 to 18:30 on December 28, respectively. It is estimated that

  The communication control means 21 is a list of information providing members received from the history information management means 24 (here, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J) Is sent to the member information management means 22 to access the member information DB 51 to report the mail address of the information providing member in the list. Then, the reported mobile terminal device 4 is notified by e-mail that there is a question (step S18). When an information providing member possessing the portable terminal device 4 opens a mail and performs a predetermined operation, a screen (hereinafter referred to as an answer input screen) on which the content of the question and an answer input field are displayed is displayed. The

  The information providing member who possesses the portable terminal device 4 knows and answers the answer to the question (here, the recommended menu of the ramen shop P in Marunouchi 3-chome, the busy hours, the year-end business days and business hours). Answer if you can. FIG. 8 shows an answer input screen when an answer is input. As shown in the figure, after inputting the answer in the answer input field 111, clicking the “answer above” button 112 transmits the answer data to the information providing server 2 (step S19).

  In the information providing server 2, the communication control means 21 receives the answer data and passes the contents of the answer to the question / answer information management means 25. The question / answer information management means 25 associates the received answer with the question and registers it in the question / answer information DB 54. At this time, the communication control means 21 may pass the response data to the member information management means 22, and the member information management means 22 may access the member information DB 51 to increment the return point number of the information providing member who has made the reply. .

  Answers from one or more information providing members are registered in the information providing server 2. Here, it is assumed that responses of five people, C, G, H, I, and J, are registered. The question / answer information management means 25 reads out the answers for five people from the question / answer information DB 54, performs predetermined editing (the editing contents will be described later), and passes them to the communication control means 21 (step S21). The communication control means 21 transmits an e-mail notifying that there has been an answer and the edited answer to the terminal device 3 of the information requesting member (step S22). This answer may be transmitted as an email attachment, or a URL linked to the answer may be described in the mail text.

  When the information requesting member opens a mail received at the terminal device 3 and performs a predetermined operation, an answer is displayed on the display. Here, the displayed answer is edited by the question / answer information management means 25. Hereinafter, an example of editing will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the responses for five people are arranged in a ranking based on predetermined evaluation values. As the evaluation value for determining the ranking, (1) the response from the information providing member in the area AR1 including the ramen shop P is larger than the response from the information providing member in the other areas AR2 to AR6. (2) Among the information providing members who were in the area AR1, the responses from the information providing members who were in the store of the ramen shop P had a larger evaluation value than the responses from the information providing members that were not in the store Yes, (3) Increase the evaluation value of the answer from the information providing member who has a large number of evaluation points by the questioner with respect to the past answer, (4) Evaluation of the answer from the information providing member close to the current time in the area The display order of the list is determined by giving a predetermined weight to these conditions. By clicking the “Sort” button 121 on the screen of FIG. 9 and using a pull-down menu, it is possible to switch to a display corresponding to a desired evaluation value.

  On the screen shown in FIG. 9, for example, when No. 1 in the list is clicked, Mr. G's answer is displayed as shown in FIG. On this screen, the contents of the question and answer, information about the answer (respondent, answer time, etc.), the image (still image, moving image) 130 of the ramen shop P, the evaluation button 131, etc. are displayed.

  When the information requesting member thinks that this answer is useful and clicks the evaluation button 131 with “Yes”, the evaluation point data is notified to the information providing server 2 (step S23), and the member information management means 22 performs the member information DB 51. The number of evaluation points of Mr. G above is updated (step S24). In FIG. 10, instead of the question “Is this answer useful?” And the “Yes” button 131, a message “Please rate respondents” and “good”, “normal”, “bad” "Button can also be displayed.

  The contents of the answer editing by the question / answer information management means 25 include setting the display size according to the evaluation value in addition to the list display according to the evaluation value described above. That is, the answer of the information providing member having a larger evaluation value is displayed larger on the display of the questioner's terminal device 3.

As described above in detail, according to the information providing system of the first embodiment of the present invention, when an information provision request regarding a certain facility is received, the facility is included in a predetermined period (for example, the past three days). Information requesting members who are in a given area are requested to provide information, and the response is notified to the information requesting member, so that information on the facility can be obtained from a remote location even when the facility is closed or outside business hours. Increases nature.
Further, when a plurality of answers are obtained, the answers are edited and transmitted to the information requesting member based on a predetermined evaluation value, so that highly reliable information can be provided.

[Second Embodiment]
FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing processing when the information providing server receives an information providing request in the information providing system according to the second embodiment of this invention. Other than this processing, the process is the same as that of the first embodiment.

  This process is executed following step S15 in FIG. 4. First, the question / answer information management means 25 receives various information (member number, question reception time, question target location, question information) from the communication control means 21 in the question data. When (content) is received, the question / answer information DB 54 is referred to (step S31), and it is checked whether or not the same question and its answer exist in the past and are stored (step S32).

  As a result of the examination, if it is stored (S32: YES), it is examined whether or not a predetermined period has elapsed since the answer (step S33). If not (S33: NO), question / answer information The answer stored in the DB 54 is edited and transmitted to the questioner's terminal device 3 (step S34).

  On the other hand, when the same question in the past and its answer are not stored (S32: NO), and when it is stored and a predetermined period has passed (S33: YES), steps S16 to S22 in FIG. 4 are executed. (Step S35).

  According to the present embodiment, when the same question and answer in the past are stored and are not old, it is possible to shorten the time from when the information requesting member inputs the question until obtaining the answer.

The present invention can be modified as in the following (1) to (6) with respect to the first and second embodiments described above.
(1) If there is no answer to the question in steps S20 and S21 of FIG. In addition, when the information providing member that is the target of the response request has a plurality of terminals and they are registered in the member information DB, a question is transmitted to the plurality of terminals.
This increases the possibility of obtaining answers to the questions.

(2) In step S17 of FIG. 4, the history information management unit 24 passes the list excluding information providing members who are known to reject responses to the communication control unit 21.
As a result, useless answer requests can be prevented.

  (3) By clicking the characters “Marunouchi 3-chome Ramen Shop P” on the answer display screen of FIG. 10 or the image 130 of the Ramen Shop P, the terminal device 3 accesses the homepage of the shop. Using this access as a point, the point is returned to the information providing member who registered the mobile terminal device 4 and provided the information. The information providing member can be rewarded by providing information, and can also be rewarded when the information requester accesses the provided information.

(4) When the information providing server 2 receives an answer from the mobile terminal device 4, the information providing server 2 registers it as a return point in the member information DB 51 of the responding information providing member. In addition, data for providing coupons to information providing members who have replied from the ramen shop P is registered.
Thereby, the information providing member who has replied can obtain the merit of having made the reply from both the information service providing company and the ramen shop P.

(5) On the answer screen of FIG. 10, advertisements such as a map around the ramen shop P and stores on the map are displayed.
Thereby, since the advertisement targeted at the advertising target can be performed, the improvement of the advertising effect can be expected.

(6) To be able to receive an information providing service without registering as an information requesting member. In addition, it is possible to receive an information providing service through the use of affiliates, other websites, SNS (Social Networking Service) or blogs. In addition, points may be returned to the person who made the information provision request (information requesting member, non-member).
As a result, early dissemination of information providing services can be expected.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Network, 2 ... Information provision server, 3 ... Information provision requester's terminal device, 4 ... Respondent's portable terminal device, 21 ... Communication control means, 22 ... Member Information management means, 23 ... Map information management means, 24 ... History information management means, 25 ... Question / answer information management means, 51 ... Member information DB, 52 ... Map information DB, 53 ... History information DB, 54 ... Question / answer information DB.

Claims (7)

A history information database for storing a history of location information of pre-registered information providers;
An information provision request accepting means for accepting an information provision request related to a survey object transmitted from the terminal device of the information provision requester;
An information provider specifying means for specifying an information provider in a predetermined area including the survey target in a predetermined period with reference to the history information database;
A response request transmitting means for transmitting a response request to the information providing request to the identified information provider terminal device;
An answer receiving means for receiving an answer from the terminal device;
Reply sending means for sending the received reply to the terminal device of the requester of information provision;
An information providing apparatus comprising: In the information provision apparatus described in Claim 1,
An information providing apparatus, comprising: an answer editing unit that edits a received answer based on a predetermined evaluation value, wherein the answer transmitting unit transmits the answer edited by the answer editing unit. In the information provision apparatus described in Claim 2,
The information providing apparatus, wherein the response editing means arranges a plurality of responses in the order according to the evaluation value. In the information provision apparatus described in Claim 2,
The response editing means sets the display size of the response on the terminal device of the information provision requester to a size according to the evaluation value. In the information provision apparatus described in Claim 1,
A question / answer information database that stores information request contents in association with the answers, and
Determination means for determining whether the content of the information provision request received by the information provision request acceptance means and whether or not the answer is stored in the question / answer information database;
If it is determined by the determining means that the answer candidate specifying means, the answer request transmitting means, and the answer receiving means are not operated, the answer transmitting means transmits the answer stored in the question / answer information database. Control means for controlling so as to
An information providing apparatus comprising: In the information provision apparatus described in Claim 1,
An information provider information database for storing information related to the information provider, and an information provider return point corresponding to the terminal device that has transmitted the answer on the information provider information database based on reception of the answer by the answer receiving means An information providing apparatus comprising means for updating the information.   The program for functioning the computer of the information provision apparatus which has a history information database which preserve | saves the log | history of the positional information on the information provider registered beforehand as a means of the information provision apparatus described in Claim 1.

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