JP3503755B2 - Wireless communication billing system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a billing system for collecting information usage fees used by a terminal device by wireless communication, in particular, satellite communication. 2. Description of the Related Art In wireless communications such as radio broadcasting, television broadcasting, and broadcasting using satellites, how to collect information usage fees has been a major issue. As a method widely used at present, it is generally considered that a channel is used by installing a television device, and a usage fee is collected. Also, in recent satellite communications, scrambling is added to a signal at the time of transmission, a decoder is separately provided on the receiving side to cancel the scrambling, and a monthly fee determined when this decoder is installed is collected. Systems are also widespread. [0003] However, in the conventional method, it is premised that the receiving side voluntarily pays the receiving fee, and the efficiency of collecting the fee is very low. In satellite communications, a decoder for descrambling is required, and it is possible to prevent the receiving side other than the subscriber from using the radio wave without permission, but regular subscribers are forced to pay extra for the decoder. Therefore, there is a problem that the number of subscriptions does not increase. An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and to appropriately charge a user in accordance with the frequency of used media without collecting a uniform fixed fee from a receiving side. Is provided. [0005] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a billing system according to the present invention receives a host computer storing various data and a transmitter, and receives and executes the various data. First, an identification code for each information is written in a signal frame of data from the transmission side. The terminal device is provided with a usage counter for storing the identification code of the executed data among the received data, and by comparing the conversion code periodically transmitted from the transmission side with the identification code stored in the usage counter, Calculate the charge data. This fee data is converted into frequency data based on the CATV usage fee by the CATV adapter control circuit in the terminal device, and the frequency data is uploaded from the terminal device to the CATV station, and the CATV station sends the frequency data to the terminal device. On the other hand, means for downloading information corresponding to the frequency data was used. The transmitting device and the terminal device communicate with each other by wireless communication represented by satellite communication, and perform various data communications such as karaoke data, game data, and video signals. The terminal device stores an identification code attached to the executed data among various data transmitted from the transmission device in a usage status counter, and uses the identification code as a basis for calculating a usage fee by wireless communication. The charge conversion data periodically transmitted from the transmission device includes charging information for each identification code, and the charge conversion data is compared with the identification code stored in the usage counter to calculate. Thereby, the regular information use fee is calculated as the fee data. [0007] The CATV adapter control circuit converts the charge data into frequency data based on the information use charge in CATV, and uploads it to the CATV station via the CATV adapter. The frequency data has an effect that the terminal device applies to the CATV station for charging according to the frequency. Further, the CATV station processes the frequency data separately from the charging of the normal pay information, and charges the information usage fee in the satellite communication by downloading the information corresponding to the frequency data to the terminal device. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the entire present invention when satellite communication is used as a means of wireless communication.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a communication satellite, 2 denotes a transmitting device for transmitting information corresponding to various media as signals, and 3 denotes a terminal device. The terminal device 3 is in contact with the CATV station 20 and performs communication. As shown in FIG. 2, the transmitting device 2 mainly includes a host computer 4, a database 5, a transmitter 6, and an antenna 7. Then, the transmitting device 2 transmits signals of a plurality of channels to the communication satellite 1 with different types of information addressed to each channel. Next, the internal configuration of the terminal device 3 will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 8 denotes a tuner for receiving a satellite signal, which is a device for receiving a signal transmitted from the transmitting device 2. A signal to be transmitted is transmitted in the form of a video signal if it is a video signal, and a digital signal if it is data necessary for karaoke or a game. Note that the tuner 8 is configured to be able to receive a plurality of channels simultaneously. Reference numeral 9 denotes a reception data processing unit such as a buffer memory, which temporarily saves data when signals of a plurality of channels are simultaneously received by the tuner 8 and processes a data string used for communication such as a header and a footer. This block performs basic processing such as extracting only essential information. 10 is a control CP for controlling the entire terminal device 3
U. Reference numeral 11 denotes a signal processing circuit in which circuits corresponding to the types of transmission / reception signals, such as a video signal processing circuit 11a, a karaoke signal processing circuit 11b, and a game signal processing circuit 11c, are provided in parallel. The output of each processing circuit is connected to output terminals 12a, 12b, and 12c. Reference numeral 13 denotes an operation panel for selecting desired information by a key operation based on a list of information displayed on the display panel 14 or the like. Next, a configuration for charging information use will be described. In FIG.
The usage status in the signal processing circuit 11 is counted and accumulated as the number of times of use for each circuit. And
The accumulated data is used to calculate the charge data based on the charge conversion data periodically transmitted from the transmission side 2. Here, information for counting the use status, that is, an identification code for counting the number of times of use of each circuit is to be inserted into the transmission signal from the transmission device 2, and for example, according to the type of information, such as karaoke or a game. The identification code is written in the signal frame. The signal received by the tuner 8 is processed by the control CPU, and the data selected by the operation panel 13 corresponds to the processing circuit 11.
Although the processing is performed by a to 11c, the number of times of use for each type is stored in the usage status counter 15 as the number of times of processing, that is, the accumulated number of identification codes. For example, if the karaoke is processed N times and the game is processed M times in a certain period, the karaoke N and the game M are accumulated as frequency data in the usage status counter 15. Further, the stored identification code and the fee conversion data periodically transmitted from the transmission side are collated on a data table to calculate the fee data as the information regular usage fee. In this embodiment, the case where the communication satellite is used has been described. However, the basic configuration is not changed at all even by wireless communication by another means such as FM communication. The charge data calculated as described above is:
When this is determined, it is sent to the CATV adapter control circuit 16. Further, the CATV adapter control circuit 16 performs data conversion of the fee data based on the CATV information usage fee using the frequency as a parameter. For example, 1
The frequency is defined as x yen, and the information usage fee by satellite communication is 1
00x circle, the CATV adapter control circuit 16
Converts the usage fee into frequency data with this usage fee as 100 frequencies. Then, an ID unique to the terminal device 3 is added to the frequency data, and the CA data is passed through the CATV adapter 17 to the CA.
Upload to the TV station 20. On the other hand, the CATV station 20 prepares a channel dedicated to charging separately from a normal pay information channel. This channel dedicated to charging does not provide information to the terminal user such as broadcasting a program, but is a channel for charging only the terminal device 3 side. That is, when frequency data is uploaded from the terminal device 3 to the CATV station 20, the CATV station 20 selects information corresponding to the frequency data from the charging dedicated channel and downloads the information to the terminal device 3. For example, one channel for charging only
When the frequency data of 120 degrees is uploaded from the terminal device 3 together with the ID from the terminal device 3, C is constituted by a file for each frequency, such as frequency, 10 degrees, and 100 degrees.
The ATV station 20 selects one 100-degree file and two 10-degree files from the dedicated charging channel, combines them, and downloads them to the terminal device 3. By doing so, the fee for using information via satellite communication will be CATV
Is charged as an information usage fee. Note that the charging-only channel is not for the purpose of providing information as described above. However, in order to confirm whether or not charging has been performed on the terminal device side, a charging-only channel such as transmitting a still image such as a landscape image is used. Information to be transmitted from the channel is free on condition that both parties decide in advance. By the way, the CATV station 20 usually adopts a method of collecting a fee for a program or time used by a subscriber. That is, charging is performed according to the information use frequency of CATV subscribers. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a file (information) corresponding to the frequency data is downloaded to the terminal device, and the fee is charged for the use of the information by CATV. However, in the present invention, the terminal device accesses the CATV station 20 because the terminal device
Not for the purpose of using ATV information, but for the CATV station 20
This is in order to apply for accounting according to the frequency. Therefore, it is sufficient for the CATV station 20 to calculate the usage fee based on the frequency data. That is, when frequency data is uploaded from the terminal device, the CA
The TV station 20 can also download simple and uniform information to the terminal device at least so as to confirm that the terminal is in a billing state, regardless of the frequency. In this case, the CATV station 20 calculates the usage fee of each terminal device from the frequency data, and performs charging. As described above, the fee data calculated in the terminal device 3 is converted into CATV usage fee as frequency data, and the total amount including the normal CATV information usage fee is finally collected by the CATV company on behalf of the CATV company. . Here, in the present embodiment, as an example, a known payment means of paying a sender, an information provider, an amount obtained by subtracting the actual usage fee and the agency fee from the collected amount is adopted. Further, the charge conversion data from the transmitting side is transmitted in accordance with the collection time of the usage charge. As described above, according to the present invention, at the same time that various information is transmitted from the transmitting side, identification codes corresponding to the respective information are written, the identification codes used are stored, and the transmitting device is used. The usage fee is calculated according to the fee conversion data that is periodically transmitted from. Therefore, the user (recipient) will be charged an amount corresponding to the desired media, which is very reasonable. Also,
The transmitting side can also perform charging according to the value of the information to be provided, and can solve the conventional problems such as enriching the types of information. Furthermore, since the information use fee is converted into data corresponding to the CATV fee system and the CATV company collects the fee, the user can receive the information service without changing the conventional payment method. At the same time, the fee collection rate has been improved for the sender, and an effective charging system has been achieved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a communication mode using a communication satellite. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a transmission device. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a terminal device of an embodiment. 1 Communication satellite 2 Transmission device 3 Terminal device 4 Host computer 5 Database 6 Transmitter 7 Antenna 8 Tuner 9 Received data processing unit 10 Control CPU 11 Signal processing circuit 12a Output terminal 12b Output terminal 12c Output terminal 13 Operation panel 14 Display panel 15 Usage counter 16 CATV adapter control circuit 17 CATV adapter 20 CATV station

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-173213 (JP, A) JP-A-60-171885 (JP, A) JP-A-3-236641 (JP, A) JP-A-4-173 145597 (JP, A) JP-A-57-196681 (JP, A) JP-A-3-34795 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04H 1/00-3 / 00 H04H 7/00-9/00 H04N 7/10 H04N 7/14-7/173 H04N 7/20-7/22

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims 1] A transmission device comprising a host computer and a transmitter storing various data, and a terminal device receiving and executing the various data. In the signal frame, while writing an identification code for each information, the terminal device is provided with a usage counter for storing the identification code of the executed data among the received data,
The charge data is calculated by comparing the charge conversion data periodically transmitted from the transmission side with the identification code stored in the use status counter, and the charge data is converted into the CATV charge by the CATV adapter control circuit in the terminal device. The frequency data is converted into frequency data based on the frequency, and the frequency data is uploaded from the terminal device to the CATV station,
A charging system for wireless communication, characterized in that information corresponding to the frequency data is downloaded from a station to the terminal device.