JP3932041B2 - Multi-area user community communication system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a communication system on a network that connects user communities configured on a plurality of intra-area networks.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, networks have been built in areas such as condominiums, new residential areas, university campuses, office districts, etc., where the population is concentrated as a base and the communication demand density within the area is large. Is being formed.
[0003]
In such an environment, it is assumed that user attribute information is managed for each area. However, an information sender transmits optimal information for each user based on attribute information disclosed to the outside by users in the area. In doing so, the following issues can be considered.
(1) By disclosing the user's personal attribute information, Anonymity May be lost.
(2) Since information is separately transmitted for each user, traffic on the network increases.
[0004]
In order to overcome these issues, when sending information, it is necessary to search for communities based on the attributes of the community as a whole and to newly send out information in units of communities. There is.
[0005]
Conventionally, for example, in order to be able to obtain only information desired by a terminal user immediately when information is delivered from a server to a large-scale terminal, a customizer installed between the server and the terminal, There has been proposed a method in which information transmitted from a server is selected and delivered based on a pre-registered user profile (for example, Patent Document 1). However, such information in units of users (communities) for each area is proposed. No mention is made of a mechanism for sending and distributing.
[0006]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 10-49469 A
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
It is an object of the present invention to search a community based on attributes as a community aggregate configured for each area in an environment where a network community is being formed in units of areas, and to obtain information (contents) in units of communities. ) In a multi-area user community communication system.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention relates to a network used in a community in each area in a user community communication in a plurality of areas that connects a plurality of user communities in a plurality of areas and provides a user terminal with a communication service in or across them. the system, the only It comprises an area management server and a plurality of user terminals equipped with information transmission functions and reception functions such as video, audio and text information.
[0009]
The area management server includes attribute information (user profile) of individual users belonging to the area, and attribute information (community profile) of one or more communities configured by all or part of the community members in the area. Means for storing / managing a user, a content managing unit for accumulating / managing content (entity and its profile) held in the area, and a user terminal in the area and an area management server in another area And a main control unit having communication means between the user management unit and the content management unit.
[0010]
In the main control unit of the area management server, the user profile of the user belonging to the area transmitted from the user terminal is accumulated in the user management unit, and the user profile of the user belonging to each community in the area is aggregated to obtain the community profile. Each time the user profile information is added, deleted, or updated, the community profile of the community to which the user belongs is dynamically updated.
[0011]
In addition, the user management unit in each area manages a mapping table of community identifiers of the communities in the area and user identifiers of users belonging to the communities, and each user joins and leaves each community. The mapping table is dynamically updated.
[0012]
When a user transmits content from a user terminal, the main control unit of the area management server searches for a community, acquires a community profile, selects an appropriate transmission destination for each community, and transmits the content. Do.
[0013]
The main control unit of the area management server accepts a community search request specifying conditions that the profile of the community targeted by the content to be transmitted from the user terminal in the area or another area, and the community profile of the area The community identifier of the community that matches the condition is returned to the user terminal. Also specify a community identifier Content sent to a specific community in the area And the profile thereof, refer to the mapping table to obtain users belonging to the community, A user terminal that transmits the content is selected with reference to the user profile of the user belonging to the community and the content profile of the content. At this time, the main control unit refers to an attribute indicating the urgency of the content in the content, accumulates the content in the content management unit in the area, and sends it to the user terminal in response to a request from the user. Control whether to transmit or to immediately transmit to the user terminal used by the user.
[0014]
In addition, the user management unit in each area provides an attribute indicating the user terminal usage history in each area as an attribute of the user profile in the area, and sets a common attribute in each community as an attribute of the community profile. The attribute which shows the user terminal utilization log | history in each area for every user group to have is provided. The main control unit of the area management server transmits the user terminal usage history in each area of the user to the user management unit in the area to which the user belongs, so that the user profile of the user and the community to which the user belongs The community profile is updated. Then, in the community profile of the community to which each user belongs, refer to the user terminal usage history attribute of the user group having the same attribute as the user profile of the user, and select and acquire the content held in each area ,Send.
[0015]
With these various functions, it becomes possible for an information sender to search for a community based on attributes as a community aggregate configured for each area, and to send information in units of communities.
[0016]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a wide area network system for connecting user communities in a plurality of areas for implementing the present invention. In FIG. 1, areas 1 to 3 are specific areas in which a community network (intra-area network) is formed by the accumulation of humans, such as a shopping mall, a general hospital, a university campus, and a condominium. . Here, only three areas are shown, but the present invention is not limited to this. In addition, one or more (generally plural) communities exist in one intra-area network.
[0017]
The network in area 1 is a user terminal 150 used by users in the area. ₁ ~ 150 _i And an area management server 100 capable of communicating with each user terminal by TCP / IP. Similarly, the intra-area 2 network is a user terminal 250 used by users within the area. ₁ ~ 250 _j , And an area management server 200 that can communicate with each user terminal by TCP / IP, and the network in area 3 is a user terminal 350 used by a user in area management. ₁ ~ 350 _k And an area management server 300 that can communicate with each user terminal by TCP / IP. The area management servers 100, 200, and 300 in each of the areas 1, 2, and 3 can communicate with each other in a common format (here, SOAP / XML) that does not depend on the area.
[0018]
2 and 3 show functional configuration examples of the area management server 100. FIG. Since the functional configuration examples of the area management servers 200 and 300 in the area 2 and the area 3 are the same as those of the area management server 100, illustration is omitted. Note that each area management server 100, 200, 300 is a computer having a communication interface function.
[0019]
As shown in FIG. 2, the area server 100 includes a main control unit 110, a user management unit 120, and a content management unit 130. The user management unit 120 accumulates and manages individual attributes of users in the area to which the user belongs in the XML format as a user profile, and totals each user profile to collect all user profiles in the area. Alternatively, the community profile DB 123 that stores and manages one or more community attributes configured by a part thereof in the XML format as a community profile, and stores and manages mapping information between each user and the community in the area to which the user belongs. And the user mapping DB 132 to be configured. The content management unit 130 includes a content DB 131 that stores and manages content (actual entities and their profiles) held in the area. The main control unit 110 is connected to each user terminal 150 in the area. ₁ ~ 150 _i Communication with the area management servers 200 and 300 in the other areas 2 and 3, access to the user management unit 120 and the content management unit 130, etc., generation and updating of community unit flow files, community search based on community profiles, content Control transmission and reception.
[0020]
FIG. 3 is a detailed functional configuration example of the main control unit 110 of the area management server 100. The main control unit 110 is connected to each user terminal 150 in the area. ₁ ~ 150 _i And the user management unit / content management constituting the interfaces of the user terminal / external area management server IF111, the user management unit 120, and the content management unit 130 constituting the interfaces of the area management servers 200, 300 of other areas Unit IF 112, community profile generation / update control function 113 for generating / updating community profiles, community search control function 114 for searching for necessary community based on community profiles, emergency in community units A content transmission control function 115 for transmitting low-quality content, an emergency content transmission control function 116 for transmitting emergency content, a content cache 117 for temporarily storing emergency content, Consisting of such as user behavior history collection / content transmission control function 118 for the collection and content transmission based on that of the action attribute of over The. Note that the content cache may use a part of the content DB 131.
[0021]
The in-area user terminal / external area management server IF111 receives various information (request, each profile, its ID, content, etc.) from the user terminal in the area and the area management server in other areas, and analyzes it. Then, the information is transferred to a desired control function, and information is transferred from the control function to the user terminal in the area or the area management server in another area. In this case, communication with user terminals in the area is performed using TCP / IP HTTP, and communication with the area management server in other areas is performed using a common format (SOAP / XML) independent of the area. . The user management unit / content management unit IF 112 transmits and receives information (user profile, community profile, content, etc.) between the control function and the user management unit 120 or the content management unit 130 in accordance with an instruction from the control function.
[0022]
4, 5, and 6 show specific examples in which a user profile, a community profile, and a user mapping table are described in an XML format. The user profile is classified by a user ID (user identifier) unique to each user, and the community profile is classified by a community ID (community identifier) unique to each community. In the user mapping table, user IDs of users belonging to the community are held for each community ID.
[0023]
Next, operations of community profile generation / update, community search, content transmission in case of non-emergency, content transmission in case of emergency, user action history collection, and content transmission based on it will be described with reference to FIGS. . In the following description, the functions of the in-area user terminal / external area management server IF and user management unit / content management unit IF are omitted.
[0024]
<Generate / update community profile>
FIG. 7 shows an example of an operation sequence for generating and updating a community profile. Here, area 3 will be described as an example.
In FIG. 7, the user 3A belonging to the area 3 moves to the user terminal 350. ₁ When a new community registration request is made to the main control 310 of the area management server 300 (701), the community profile generation / update control function 313 generates a community profile in a predetermined format and creates a new one in the community profile DB 323. While registering (702), the community ID is registered in the user mapping DB 322 (703). At this time, the entity of the community profile in the community profile DB 323 is NULL.
[0025]
Next, for example, the user 3A receives the user terminal 350. ₁ Accordingly, when a request to join the community is transmitted to the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 (704), the community profile generation / update control function 313 sends the user 3A to the user mapping DB 322 on the mapping table of the community. Is registered (705), the user profile of the user 3A is acquired from the user profile DB 321 (706, 707), and the content of the corresponding community profile in the community profile DB 323 is updated based on the user profile (708).
[0026]
Next, for example, the user 3A receives the user terminal 350. ₁ When a user profile update request is transmitted to the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 (709), the control function 313 sends a user 3A profile update request to the user profile DB 321 to update the user A profile. At the same time (710), a search request for the community to which the user 3A belongs is issued to the user mapping DB 322 (711), a reply of the community ID is obtained (712), and a profile update request for the community is sent to the community profile DB 314. Then, based on the profile contents of the user A, the community profile to which the user 3A belongs is updated (713). The same applies basically when the user adds or deletes a user profile.
[0027]
<Community search>
FIG. 8 shows an example of the community search operation sequence. The community search is executed to know whether or not there is a community that matches the condition when the user transmits content. Here, it is assumed that the user in area 3 is the search source.
[0028]
For example, the user 3A in the area 3 ₁ When transmitting more content, an attribute condition to be satisfied by the profile of the community targeted by the content is specified, and a community search request is made to the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 in the area 3 (801) ). The community search control function 314 of the main control unit 310 requests a community search from the community profile DB 323 based on the received search request (802), acquires the community ID of the matching community (803), and performs the main control. User terminal 350 together with address information (area management server address) of unit 310 ₁ (804).
[0029]
On the other hand, the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 in the area 3 receives the user terminal 350. ₁ The community search request is broadcasted to the main control units 110 and 210 of the area management servers 100 and 200 in the areas 1 and 2 (805 and 810). The community search control functions 114 and 214 of the main control units 110 and 210 request community searches from the community profile DBs 123 and 223 based on the received search requests (806 and 811), and acquire community IDs of matching communities. (807, 812), together with the address information of the main control units 110, 210, the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 is answered (808, 813). The main control unit 310 displays the answer results from the main control units 110 and 210 on the user terminal 350. ₁ (809, 814).
[0030]
<Content transmission>
FIG. 9 shows an example of a content transmission sequence in the case where there is little need to urgently notify the content to the transmission destination. Here, it is assumed that the user 3A in the area 3 transmits content, and the community that matches the search condition and the condition exists in the area 1.
[0031]
The user 3A receives the user terminal 350 ₁ From the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 in the area 3, the content destination address is set as the main control unit 110 (area management server 100) in the area 1, the content and its attribute information (profile), and the transmission destination community. The urgency information describing that the ID and the urgency level are low is transmitted (901). The main control unit 310 includes a user terminal 350 ₁ The contents, the profile, the transmission destination community ID, and the urgency information received from are transmitted to the main control unit 110 of the area management server 100 of the transmission destination address (902).
[0032]
The main control unit 110 of the area management server 100 in area 1 stores the content, its profile, and the destination community ID in the content DB 131 by the content transmission control function 115 (903).
[0033]
For example, user terminal 150 in area 1 ₁ When the user 1A logs in and a terminal use request is transmitted to the main control 110 of the area management server 100 (904), the content transmission control function 115 first uses the user ID of the logged-in user 1A as a search key. The community ID to which the user belongs is acquired from the user mapping DB 122 (905, 906). Next, using the acquired community ID as a search key, the content profile transmitted to the community is acquired from the content DB 131 (907, 908), and the user profile of the user 1A is acquired from the user profile DB 121 (909, 910). Then, the content transmission control function 115 performs matching between the acquired content profile and the user profile (911), and if they match, the content is transferred to the user terminal 150. ₁ (912, 913). The same applies when other users 1B, 1C,.
[0034]
When a user in area 2 or 3 logs in, the content transmitted from the user 3A is not transmitted to the area management servers 200 and 300 in area 2 and 3, and is therefore distributed to the users in area 2 and 3. Not.
[0035]
<Emergency content transmission>
FIG. 10 shows an example of a content transmission sequence when there is a high need for urgent notification of content to a destination. Also here, it is assumed that the user 3A in the area 3A transmits the content, and the community that matches the condition and the condition is present in the area 1 as a result of the previous community search.
[0036]
The user 3A receives the user terminal 350 ₁ From the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 in the area 3, the content destination address is described as the main control unit 110 in the area 1, and the content, its profile, the destination community ID, and the degree of urgency are described. The urgency information is transmitted (1001). The main control unit 310 includes a user terminal 350 ₁ The content, the profile, the transmission destination community ID, and the urgency information received from are transmitted to the main control unit 110 of the area management server 100 of the transmission destination address (1002).
[0037]
The main control unit 110 of the area management server 100 in the area 1 holds the content, its profile, and the destination content ID in the content cache 117 by the emergency content transmission control function 116 (1003). Then, the emergency content transmission control function 116 acquires the IDs of users belonging to the transmission destination community from the user mapping DB 112 using the transmission destination community ID as a search key (1004, 1005). Using the acquired user ID of each user as a search key, the user profile of each user is acquired from the user profile DB 121 (1006, 1007), matching with the content profile (1008), and the matching user is currently using After acquiring the address of the user terminal (1009, 1010), the content held in the content cache 117 is transferred to the user terminal (here, 150). ₁ , 150 ₂ ) (1011, 1012).
[0038]
<User action history collection / content transmission>
FIG. 11 shows a sequence example of content transmission based on the user's behavior history. Here, as an example of the user's behavior history, shopping in the description examples (community usage history) of the user profile and community profile in FIGS. 4 and 5 will be described as an example. The area 1 is a shopping mall composed of a plurality of stores. Area 3 is a condominium.
[0039]
User 3 150 (condominium resident) belonging to area 3 has a user terminal 150 installed in the store at a clothing store in area 1 of a shopping mall composed of a plurality of stores. ₁ By inserting an IC card or USB key (hereinafter referred to as a USB key) into the user terminal 150, ₁ Terminal usage history is transmitted to the main control unit 110 of the area management server 100 (1101). Based on the community ID of area 3 (apartment) recorded in the USB key, the main control unit 110 uses the user ID of the user 3A for the address of the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 that is held in advance. Using the community ID of the shopping mall in area 1 and the community ID of the clothing store as an argument, a use history registration request is made (1102).
[0040]
In the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 in the area 3 that has received the use history registration request, the user behavior history collection / content transmission control function 318 uses the user profile of the user 3A in the shopping mall (area 1). The attribute value indicating the number of uses of the clothing store is incremented by 1 (1103). Further, the ID of the community to which the user 3A belongs is acquired from the user mapping DB 3223 (1104, 1105), and the clothing in the shopping mall (area 1) by the user group having the same attribute as the user 3A in the profile of the community The attribute value indicating the number of times the store is used is incremented by 1 (1106).
[0041]
Thereafter, in the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 in the area 3, the user behavior history collection / content transmission control function 318, for example, periodically, users having a common attribute in each community from the community profile 323DB. The community ID of the community in the area that is frequently used for each group (here, the clothing store in the shopping mall in area 1) and the community ID of the shopping mall are acquired (1107, 1108) and stored in advance. A content request representative of the clothing store is transmitted to the address of the main control unit 110 of the area management server 100 in the area 1 (shopping mall) (1109).
[0042]
The main control unit 110 of the area management server 100 in the area 1 acquires the content representative of the clothing store area 1 registered in advance and the profile thereof from the content DB 131 by the user action history collection / content transmission control function 118. (1110), and 1111), the request is transmitted to the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 in the area 3 (1112). The main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 registers the content and its profile in the content DB 331 by the user action history collection / content transmission control function 318 (1113).
[0043]
Thereafter, when each user inserts a USB key into the user terminal in area 3 (apartment), the main control unit 310 of the area management server 300 uses the user action history collection / content transmission control function 318 to Based on the terminal usage history of the user group having the same attributes as the user in the community profile of the community to which the user belongs, for example, the representative content of the community in the frequently used area is transmitted to the user terminal .
[0044]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, in an environment where a network community is being formed on an area basis, an information sender searches for a community based on attributes as a community aggregate configured for each area, Information can be transmitted in units of communities. As a result, the user's anonymity may be lost due to the disclosure of the individual attribute information of the user when the user in the area transmits the optimum information for each user based on the attribute information disclosed to the outside. Since information is transmitted individually, it is possible to solve problems such as an increase in traffic on the network.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a wide area network system targeted by the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a configuration example of an area management server.
FIG. 3 is a configuration example of a main control unit in an area management server.
FIG. 4 is a description example of a user profile.
FIG. 5 is a description example of a community profile.
FIG. 6 is a description example of a user mapping table.
FIG. 7 is an example of a community profile generation / update sequence
FIG. 8 is an example of a community search sequence.
FIG. 9 is an example of an information transmission sequence (when not urgent);
FIG. 10 is an example of an information transmission sequence (in case of emergency).
FIG. 11 is an example of a content collection sequence based on an action history.
[Explanation of symbols]
100, 200, 300 Area management server
150, 250, 350 User terminal
110 Main control unit
111 User terminal in area / external area management server IF
112 User management unit / content management unit IF
113 Community profile generation / update control function
114 Community Search Control Function
115 Content transmission control function
116 Emergency content transmission control function
117 Content cache
118 User behavior history collection / content transmission control function
120 User Management Department
121 User Profile DB
122 User mapping DB
123 Community Profile DB
130 Content Management Department
131 Content DB

Claims (5)

A multi-area user community communication system that connects user communities in a plurality of areas and provides a user terminal with a communication service for content distribution within or across the area,
The network system used in each area community is composed of a single area management server and a plurality of user terminals connected to the area management server.
The area management server
Attribute information of individual users belonging to the area (hereinafter referred to as user profile), attribute information of one or more communities (hereinafter referred to as community profile) constituted by all or part of community members in the area, Accumulate and manage a mapping table of community identifiers of each community in the area and user identifiers of users belonging to each community, and update the mapping table as each user joins or leaves each community. A user management department;
A content management unit for storing and managing content (entity and its profile) held in the area;
Comprising a main control unit having communication means with a user terminal in the area and an area management server in another area, and communication means between the user management unit and the content management unit,
The main control unit of the area management server is:
Accepts a community search request that specifies the conditions that the profile of the community targeted by the content to be transmitted should satisfy from the user terminal in the area or other area, and matches the conditions by referring to the community profile of the area A function of returning a community identifier of the community to the user terminal;
From the user terminal in the area or other area, specify the community identifier, accept the content and its profile transmitted to the specific community in the area, and obtain the users belonging to the community by referring to the mapping table , Having a function of referring to a user profile of a user belonging to the community and a content profile of the content, and selecting a user terminal that transmits the content,
When the user transmits content from the user terminal at the main control unit of the area management server, the community is searched and the community profile is acquired, and an appropriate transmission destination is selected for each community, and the content is transmitted. I do,
A multi-area user community communication system characterized by the above. In the multiple area user community communication system according to claim 1,
The main control unit of the area management server accumulates the user profiles of users belonging to the area transmitted from the user terminal in the user management unit, and aggregates the user profiles of users belonging to each community in the area to create a community profile Each time the user profile information is added, deleted, or updated, the community profile of the community to which the user belongs is further updated.
A multi-area user community communication system characterized by the above. In the multiple area user community communication system according to claim 1,
When the main control unit of the area management server receives the content transmitted to the specific community in the area, the main control unit stores the content in the content management unit in the area with reference to the attribute indicating the urgency of the content And further having a function of controlling whether to transmit to the user terminal in response to a request from the user or immediately to the user terminal used by the user,
A multi-area user community communication system characterized by the above. In the multiple area user community communication system according to claim 1,
The user terminal usage history in each area is shown as an attribute of the user profile in that area. And an attribute indicating the user terminal usage history in each area for each user group having a common attribute in each community as an attribute of the community profile,
The main control unit of the area management server further has a function of updating the user profile of the user and the community profile of the community to which the user belongs by transmitting and receiving a user terminal usage history in each area of the user.
A multi-area user community communication system characterized by the above. In the multiple area user community communication system according to claim 4,
The main control unit of the area management server refers to the user terminal usage history attribute of the user group having the same attribute as the user profile in the community profile of the community to which each user belongs, and holds it in each area It further has a function to select and acquire and transmit content.
A multi-area user community communication system characterized by the above.

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