JP3445026B2 - Multimedia communication system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multimedia communication system for transmitting information such as moving image data, still image data, voice data and computer data, and more particularly to charging for providing information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various communication networks have been developed, such as maintenance of optical fiber networks in trunk communication networks, realization of B-ISDN using them, spread of cable systems, practical use of communication satellites, spread of local networks, etc. Are being rapidly developed and their interconnections are being actively made. On the other hand, by using these information communication networks, not only character data but also still images, audio,
Information called so-called multimedia such as moving images is being exchanged on a global scale. Under such circumstances, the information service industry using the multimedia information network is rapidly expanding. For example, the following information services have been developed and deployed on the premise of multimedia information networks.

(1) Video-on-demand which allows access to the video library from the terminal to select and watch favorite ones. (2) Select a favorite one from the game library,
Game network to play with distant people (3) Access to various databases and call necessary information Information retrieval service (4) Search for and purchase the desired product from hundreds of thousands of products. (5) Attendance TV where users participate (6) A video conference where people who are far away are discussing while sharing materials

In putting these services into practical use,
The billing technology of "delivering the price of the used service to the service provider surely" occupies an important position. In particular, if you consider copyright issues such as illegal copying of information and software,
This is a life and death problem for the information service industry on the premise of the multimedia information network described above.

However, the conventional billing system is a monthly billing system which is unrelated to the frequency of use such as a cable television system or satellite broadcasting, or a use which is unrelated to the type and quality of information such as a computer usage service. In many cases, it was a charging system in which only the frequency (or usage time) was counted.

[0006]

The conventional charging method that does not depend on the type and quality of the information and services as described above is to cope with various information and services that are expected to further expand in the future. Is difficult, and proper billing has been an important issue. Further, when there are a large number of users and information providers on the network, there is a problem in that channels on the network are easily blocked, which makes it difficult for the users to receive information.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and provides a multimedia communication system and a communication device capable of reliably receiving information received by a user and performing proper charging. With the goal.

[0008]

The invention according to claim 1 relates to a multimedia communication system, and a user terminal device for a user to receive information, and to provide the above information to the user. An information provider terminal device used by an information provider for doing, a network to which each of the terminal devices is connected, information received by the user, reception time,
A reservation means for circulating a reservation table for selecting a used channel and presence / absence of additional information between the information provider terminal device and the user terminal device is provided.

[0009]

[0010]

[0011]

According to the present invention, by reserving the information and the time that each user wants to receive based on the reservation table that each user has come to, the information can be surely transmitted to the user and the reservation can be made. It is possible to charge based on the. Further, the charging system can be changed according to the type of information to be transmitted and the time.

[0012]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a user terminal device 10 used by a user in a multimedia network. This terminal device 10 has a communication interface 1 for communicating with the outside.
1. A user input / output unit 12 for displaying a sent signal on a display (not shown), designating a signal channel, etc., indicating whether or not a user receives a commercial advertisement (hereinafter referred to as CM) as additional information. A CM selection unit 13 that specifies selection by a keyboard or a switch, performs signal conversion such as converting a signal sent from the communication interface 11 from digital to analog, and specifies the user input / output unit 12 and the CM selection unit 13. It has a control unit 14 for selecting a signal according to the above.

The terminal device 10 performs input and output by the user, and in particular, the user can select via the control unit 14 and the communication interface 11 by setting in the CM selection unit 13 whether or not to receive the CM. Particularly in the case of video-on-demand, the CM selection by the user is sent to the information provider via the communication interface 11 together with the designation of the request information in advance. In addition, the information provider performs the process of inserting or not inserting the CM into the original information.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of an information provider terminal device 20 used by an information provider in a multimedia network. The terminal device 20 includes a video-on-demand library 21 that holds a large number of video works, a CM database 22 that holds a large number of CMs, a CM insertion unit 23 that inserts a CM into a video work at the request of the user, and a video when requested by the user. A control unit 24 that searches for a work from the on-demand library 21 or the CM database 22 and controls the insertion of a CM, and a fee charged by the control unit 24 depending on the presence or absence of a CM for the user and the sponsor. Part 2
5. A communication interface 26 for exchanging information between the transmission line and the control unit 24.

The terminal device 20 transmits information, which is mainly video, to the user via the communication interface 26 according to the designation of the user. When the user specifies the insertion of the CM, the control unit 24 manages to extract the video and audio of the CM from the CM database 22, and the CM insertion unit 23 inserts the CM on the video-on-demand signal at an appropriate timing. It When viewing a work with a commercial inserted, the fee is charged to the sponsor by the charging unit 25 according to the video-on-demand work, and the user can watch the work for free or at a lower charge than when there is no advertisement. .

When the user does not select the CM, the control section 24 manages the video-on-demand video and audio information to be sent as it is. In this case, the charging unit 25 charges the user terminal device 10 connected to the communication interface 26 with the amount of money according to the video-on-demand work.

As shown in FIG. 3, the billing unit 25 comprises a billing database 27, a cumulative amount storage device 28 and a billing device 29, and the control unit 24 informs the billing unit 25 of the person to be billed and the type of service. Then, the accumulated amount of money of the target person is read from the accumulated amount of money storage device 28 to the charging device 29, the amount of money according to the type of service is calculated by the charging device 29 by the charging database 27, and it is transmitted to the sponsor via the communication interface 26. To be The accumulated amount storage device 28 can be omitted when the payment is made each time. Charges are billed to the user and sponsor respectively.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a sponsor terminal device 30 used by a sponsor in a multimedia network. The terminal device 30 includes a communication interface 32 for exchanging information between the transmission line and the control unit 31, and a control unit 3 for controlling the communication interface 32 and the sponsor input / output unit 33.
1. The sponsor comprises a sponsor input / output unit 33 for displaying or changing the charge amount. Further, if necessary, a billing database 34 for storing billing requests from each information provider and billing amounts for each CM is added.

In the above-mentioned configuration, when the information provider makes a billing request via the communication interface 32, this information is output to the sponsor input / output unit 33 to inform the sponsor of the billing details. In addition, the charging database 34
If there is a billing request from each information provider and each CM
It is also possible to store the billing amount of.

FIG. 5 shows each of the above-mentioned terminal devices 10, 20, 3
1 shows a multimedia communication system configured by connecting 0 to a network 40. In the illustrated example, two terminal devices 10, 20, 30 are used, but at least one terminal device may be used. As the network 40, for example, an ATM network is used. In the following description, the terminal devices 10, 20, 30 are simply referred to as a user 10, an information provider 20, and a sponsor 30, respectively, for the sake of clarity.

In the above-mentioned configuration, when a user 10 requests one information provider 20 for a service with a video-on-demand CM, the user 10 first connects to the information provider 20 and connects with the video with CM. Make an on-demand bill. Subsequently, the information provider 20 uses the CM insertion unit 23 to
The CM from the M database 22 is inserted into the video information from the video-on-demand library 21 and sent to the user 10. Subsequently, the charging unit 25 of the information provider 20 notifies the sponsor 30 of the charging data and charges the charging amount. At this time, if the amount of the charge is not the burden of the sponsor 30, the user 10
Will also be charged a portion of the charge.

When the user 10 makes a request for a service without a CM, the user 10 connects to the information provider 20 and makes a video-on-demand request without a CM.
Then, the information provider 20 sends the video information of the video-on-demand library 21 to the user 10. Subsequently, the charging data of the charging unit 25 of the information provider 20 is notified to the user 10, and the charging amount is charged.

When the user 10 requests a service with a commercial, the information provider 20 may change the charge amount charged to the sponsor 30 according to the frequency of viewing. In that case, the charge amount may be set in the charge database 27 according to the viewing frequency. Furthermore, when the user 10 exceeds a certain viewing frequency for the same service, the charge amount may be capped. That is, when the number of times exceeds a certain number, the charge amount is set to zero.
Depending on the case, the number of times may be only once.

Next, in the present invention, it is possible to deal with the case where the information to the user 10 exceeds the communication channel capacity of the network 40. That is, the load on the transmission line is reduced by notifying the user 10 of the vacant state of the transmission line and reserving the vacant time of the transmission line and the program.

For this purpose, the information provider 20 causes the network 40 to circulate the reservation table shown in Table 1 in which the program name, the broadcast time, etc. are written.

[0026]

[Table 1]

Each user 10 has a user input / output unit 1
3, the user's unique name and the program to be viewed are written in the vacant time of the vacant channel and returned to the information provider 20 via the communication interface 11. The information provider 20 periodically inspects the reservation table by the control unit 24 and transmits the program according to the reservation written in the reservation table. The user 10 views the reserved program, and the information provider 20 charges the user 10 a charge corresponding to the received program. When there is a sponsor, the user 10 can also specify whether or not a CM is selected in the reservation table, and in that case, the charge amount is charged to the sponsor or the user 10 according to the program.

If there is no sponsor 30 on the network 40, there is no additional information, so the CM selection unit 13 of the user 10 can be omitted and the information provider 20 can be omitted.
The CM insertion unit 23, the CM database 22 and the like in can also be omitted. When an ATM network is used as the network 40, the reservation table can be composed of ATM cells, packets and the like.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, the user can obtain the information to be received, the reception time, the channel used,
And, the presence or absence of additional information is selected to make a reservation using the reservation table, and the information provider transmits information based on the reservation.
Each user can reliably send and receive the desired information at the desired time using a vacant channel. Also, by selecting the presence or absence of additional information such as CM in the reservation table, it can be selected separately. Compared to the case where it is done, not only the information provider but also the user can be made more convenient.
By allowing the user to select a channel in advance, it is possible to prevent the load on the transmission line from becoming large. In addition, the information provider side can certainly perform charging and management based on the reservation. Furthermore, by changing the billing system according to the type of information to be sent, time of day, and additional information,
For example, it is possible to charge a surcharge for popular movies and transmissions during golden time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a user terminal device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a terminal device for an information provider.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a charging unit of the information provider terminal device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a sponsor terminal device.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a multimedia communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

Terminal device for 10 users 11 CM selection section 14 Control unit 20 Information Provider Terminal Equipment 21 Video on Demand Library 22 CM database 23 CM insertion section 24 Control unit 25 Billing Department 30 Sponsor terminal device 31 Control unit 33 Sponsor I / O unit 34 Billing database 40 networks

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A user terminal device for a user to receive information, an information provider terminal device used by an information provider for providing the user with the information, and each of the terminal devices. The information provider terminal device and the user terminal device are provided with a reservation table for selecting a network to be connected and information to be received by the user, reception time, used channel, and presence / absence of additional information. A multimedia communication system comprising: a reservation unit that makes a round trip to and from. 2. The multimedia communication system according to claim 1, wherein the reservation means is provided in the information provider terminal device. 3. A transmission means for transmitting information to the information provider terminal device based on the reservation table circulated by the reservation means, and a charging means for charging the user according to the transmitted information. The multimedia communication system according to claim 1, further comprising: 4. The multimedia communication system according to claim 1, further comprising a sponsor terminal device used by a sponsor connected to the network and providing additional information to the information. 5. The multimedia communication system according to claim 4, further comprising: charging means for charging the sponsor when the user requests information including the additional information. 6. The multimedia communication system according to claim 3, wherein the charging means is configured to charge the user an amount of money according to the frequency with which the user receives the additional information to the information. 7. The multimedia communication system according to claim 5, wherein the charging means comprises means for limiting the number of times the sponsor is charged for the same additional information.