JP4479901B2 - Information providing system, information providing apparatus, and information providing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention reads tag information from a radio tag having a wireless communication function at a close range, or an article attached with an optically read tag such as a bar code or a two-dimensional code, and stores the information on the user's portable information. The present invention relates to an information providing system, an information providing apparatus, and a method for providing to a terminal.

  Conventionally, in a store, a tag having information related to a product, such as the name of a product or a raw material, is attached to the product, the tag information is read by an information terminal with a built-in tag reader, and the terminal includes the read information. There is a way to display. Further, the tag ID and information related to the product are stored in advance in a database on the communication network, and when the mobile terminal reads the tag of the product, the information related to the ID is acquired from the database on the network. There is a way. As a technique related to such a method, for example, there is a technique described in Patent Document 1 described later.

The technology described in Patent Literature 1 is a system including a portable terminal having means for receiving an article identifier from a tag device attached to an article, and a database that stores article information of the article. When the article identification information is transmitted to the database, the database transmits the article information to the mobile terminal and accumulates the history of the transmitted article information for each mobile terminal.
JP 2003-122896 A

  By the way, generally, a tag reader is more expensive than a tag attached to an article. However, in the above-described technique, it is essential to provide the tag reader in a portable information terminal. Therefore, when the user who tries to acquire article information is a customer of a store, there is a disadvantage that a cost burden is imposed on the customer side. In addition, when a plurality of users using the above-described portable information terminals are present in a relatively narrow area, the interrogation waves emitted from the tag readers to the tags may cause interference, and as a result, article information may not be acquired properly. There is.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for smoothly acquiring information of an article with a tag attached thereto using a portable information terminal.

An information providing system according to the present invention includes portable information terminals and a plurality of information providing apparatuses that are communicably connected to each other, a terminal tag having tag information including an identifier of the portable information terminal, and article information related to the article. A tag information acquisition unit that acquires the tag information from the terminal tag and the item tag, and the portable information from the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit. A terminal search unit for searching for an identifier of the terminal, and the tag information of the article tag acquired by the tag information acquisition unit to the portable information terminal of the identifier detected by the terminal search unit, and another information providing device the request tag information from the tag information from, and a data transmitting unit that transmits the tag information read at the time of accepting the request to the other information providing device, the information Transmitting section, when the terminal searching unit detects the identifier of the portable information terminal, requests the tag information of the article tag, each obtained in the other information providing apparatus to the other information providing apparatus, to the request The received tag information is received, and the received tag information and the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit of the information providing apparatus that detects the identifier of the portable information terminal are transmitted to the portable information terminal.

The information processing method according to the present invention is an information providing method performed by each of a plurality of information providing apparatuses connected to a portable information terminal so as to be able to communicate with each other , wherein the tag information acquisition unit provided in the information providing apparatus includes: A terminal tag having tag information including an identifier of a portable information terminal, a step of acquiring the tag information from an article tag having tag information including article information relating to the article, and a terminal search unit provided in the information providing device The step of searching for the identifier of the portable information terminal from the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit, and the information transmission unit provided in the information providing device is the portable information terminal of the identifier detected by the terminal search unit. In contrast, the tag information of the article tag acquired by the tag information acquisition unit is transmitted, and in response to a request for tag information from tag information from another information providing device, The tag information read at the time the request was accepted and a step when transmitting to the other information providing apparatus, the information transmitting unit, when the terminal searching unit detects the identifier of the portable information terminal, the other requesting tag information of the article tag, each obtained in the other information providing apparatus to the information providing apparatus receives the tag information transmitted to the request, the tag information and an identifier of the portable information terminal thus received The tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit of the information providing apparatus that detects the message is transmitted to the portable information terminal.

  According to the present invention, it is not necessary to provide a tag reader on a terminal when acquiring tag information of an article with a portable information terminal. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the cost burden on the user who uses the portable information terminal, and it is possible to avoid radio wave interference when reading tag information. Thereby, the information of the article | item with which the article tag was attached | subjected can be acquired smoothly with a portable information terminal.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the first embodiment. The system 101 according to the present embodiment is connected to the portable information terminal 10 used by a user who attempts to acquire article information described later regarding the article 30a and the article 30b, and the portable information terminal 10 via a communication network 100 including an IP network and a telephone network. The information providing apparatus 20 is provided.

  The portable information terminal 10, the article 30a, and the article 30b in the system 101 have a wireless tag on which an IC chip having a memory function for holding tag information, which will be described later, and a wireless communication function at a short distance is mounted, or a barcode or two-dimensional A tag that is optically read like a code is attached or built in. The terminal tag 10a attached to the portable information terminal 10 has information including an identifier indicating that it is a portable terminal and an identifier indicating the destination of the portable terminal as tag information. For example, an e-mail address that can be used in the communication network 100 is set as the identifier representing the destination. The article tag 31a and the article tag 31b attached to the article 30a and the article 30b respectively include, as tag information, for example, the article name, raw material, production place, expiration date, manufacturer, seller, article classification, etc. It has information about the article 30b.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the information providing apparatus 20 includes a tag information acquisition unit 21 that acquires tag information from the terminal tag 10a, the article tag 31a, and the article tag 31b, and an identifier of the portable information terminal 10 from the acquired tag information. And the information transmission part 23 which transmits the tag information of each article tag 31a and 31b which the tag information acquisition part 21 acquired at the same time as the terminal tag 10a to the portable information terminal 10.

  The tag information acquisition unit 21 includes a tag reader 21a as a tag reading unit that reads tag information wirelessly or optically. In this embodiment, the tag information acquisition unit 21 has two information acquisition targets within the reading range of the tag reader 21a. An article 30a and an article 30b and one portable information terminal 10 exist. In FIG. 1, the tag reader 21a is included in the information providing apparatus 20 for the sake of explanation. However, when the tag reader 21a is actually installed, the tag reader 21a is externally connected to the information providing apparatus 20 through a wireless LAN or a wired LAN. There may be.

  FIG. 2 shows an operation flow of the information providing apparatus 20. The tag information acquisition unit 21 of the information providing apparatus 20 reads tag information for each tag including the article tag 31a and the article tag 31b by the tag reader 21a (step S100). As the timing for reading, for example, a cycle is set in advance, and reading is performed at the cycle.

  Each time the tag information is read (step S101: YES), the terminal search unit 22 searches for the identifier of the portable information terminal 10 from the tag information (step S103), so that the terminal tag is included in the read tag. It is checked whether or not 10a is included, that is, whether or not the portable information terminal 10 is within the reading range. As a result, when the terminal tag 10a is not detected in the read tag (step S103: No), it is assumed that there is no portable information terminal 10 to which information is to be provided this time, and the next read tag information The identifier of the information terminal 10 is searched.

  On the other hand, when the terminal tag 10a is detected (step S103: YES), other tag information read during the same reading period as that tag information is addressed to the address included in the tag information of the terminal tag 10a. (Step S104). Here, information about the article 30a and the article 30b, which is tag information read from the article tag 31a and the article tag 31b, is transmitted to the e-mail address of the portable information terminal 10. The portable information terminal 10 that has received the tag information from the information providing device 20 via the communication network 100 notifies the user of information related to each article on a screen as shown in FIG. 3, for example.

  According to the system 101 described above, tag information of an article can be acquired by the portable information terminal 10 without providing the portable information terminal 10 with a tag reader, and radio waves for reading the tag information cause interference. You can avoid that. Thereby, the tag information of the article can be easily acquired by the portable information terminal 10.

  The system 101 shown in FIG. 1 has a configuration using a single information providing device 20, but a plurality of information providing devices 20 are prepared and connected to each other, and a service by cooperation of the plurality of information providing devices 20 is provided. It can also be provided. The configuration is schematically shown in FIG. The system 101 ′ shown in the figure has a configuration in which three information providing devices 20a, 20b, and 20c, each similar to the information providing device 20 shown in FIG. 1, are connected to each other. Information for accessing other information providing apparatuses is stored in advance. Note that the information providing apparatuses 20a to 20c are installed at predetermined intervals in consideration of interference between radio waves transmitted from the tag readers 21a.

  In the system 101 ′ shown in FIG. 4, for example, when the information providing apparatus 20b detects the terminal tag 10a of the portable information terminal 10 together with the article tag 31a and the article tag 31b, the information transmitting unit 23 of the information providing apparatus 20b The tag information read at that time is requested to the neighboring information providing devices 20a and 20c. Thereby, for example, the tag information of the article tag 31c is supplied from the information providing apparatus 20a to the information providing apparatus 20b, and the tag information of the article tag 31d and the article tag 31e is supplied from the information providing apparatus 20c. The information transmission unit 23 transmits the tag information of the article tag 31 a and the article tag 31 b acquired by the own apparatus and the tag information supplied from another apparatus to the portable information terminal 10.

  According to the system 101 ′ of FIG. 4, each information providing device (20) can send information acquired from other devices in addition to the tag information read by itself, and thus is out of the reading range of the own device. It is possible to provide information on the article to the portable information terminal 10 as well.

[Second Embodiment]
FIG. 5 shows a configuration of the system 102 according to the second embodiment. The information providing apparatus 20 in the system 102 according to the present embodiment functions as a server apparatus having a database unit 24 that holds the identifiers of the articles 30a and 30b and information about each article in association with each other.

  The terminal tag 10a, the article tag 31a, and the article tag 31b of the present embodiment have IDs that uniquely identify the tags as the respective tag information in order to associate the information stored in the database unit 24 with the tags. 6 to 8 show information tables held by the database unit 24. FIG. The information table shown in FIG. 6 is a type list indicating “type” associated with each ID. For example, ID “101” is an ID associated with the type “product”, In the form, the item tag 31a and the item tag 31b are set. The ID “201” is associated with the “portable terminal” and is set in the terminal tag 10a.

  The information table shown in FIG. 7 associates the ID of the portable information terminal 10 with the destination address of the terminal. From this table, for example, it can be known that the electronic mail address of the portable information terminal 10 having the ID “201” in FIG. 6 is “abc@def.ghi.com”. As a method for resolving the address of the portable information terminal 10, instead of providing the information table of FIG. 7 in the database unit 24, the destination address is recorded in the terminal tag 10a as in the first embodiment. It is also possible to leave it.

  The information table shown in FIG. 8 is an article list in which article IDs and article information are associated with each other. In the example shown in the figure, as article information for the “product” IDs “101” and “102” shown in FIG. “Name”, “raw material” and “production area” are registered.

  The operation procedure of the information providing apparatus 20 will be described along the flowchart shown in FIG. The information providing apparatus 20 reads the tag information with the tag reader 21a (step S200). When the tag information is received (step S201: YES), the terminal search unit 22 acquires the type list of FIG. 6 from the database unit 24 ( Step S202).

  The terminal search unit 22 refers to the type list and searches for the terminal tag 10a from the ID included in the acquired tag information (step S203). When the terminal search unit 22 detects the ID of the terminal tag 10a such as ID “201” (step S204: YES), the information transmission unit 23 acquires the ID acquired during the same reading period as the ID from the database unit 24. Obtain (step S205). Specifically, for example, when the tag reader 21a reads the IDs “101” and “102” of the product tag 31a and the product tag 31b together with the ID “201” of the terminal tag 10a, the information transmission unit 23 The article information corresponding to the IDs “101” and “102” is acquired from the article information list of FIG.

  When the information transmission unit 23 obtains the corresponding article information, the information transmission unit 23 refers to the address list of FIG. Thereby, for example, a screen as shown in FIG. 3 for notifying the article information is displayed on the portable information terminal 10.

  According to the system 102 described above, the terminal tag and the article tag have IDs, and the database unit 24 holds information related to the IDs. Therefore, the information stored in each tag is simplified. And even if the tag is broken, the target information is not lost. Furthermore, since the database unit 24 holds tag information other than the ID, such as the e-mail address of the portable information terminal 10, personal information can be easily leaked even if the terminal tag 10a is illegally read. Absent. In consideration of the security of such personal information, it is desirable to provide an authentication procedure when accessing the database so that only authenticated users and stores can access.

  The system 102 shown in FIG. 5 has a configuration in which the information providing apparatus 20 has a single tag reader 21a, but may have a configuration having a plurality of tag readers 21a. In that case, when one of the tag readers 21a reads the terminal tag 10a, the article information of the article read by the tag reader 21a and the article information of the article read by the other tag reader 21a at the same time are combined. To the portable information terminal 10. Thereby, similarly to the case where a plurality of information providing devices 20 are provided in the first embodiment, information outside the reading range of one tag reader 21a can be provided to the portable information terminal 10.

  In addition, the database unit 24 of the information providing apparatus 20 may be distributed and provided on a plurality of networks. In that case, the ID of each tag is registered in advance in the information providing apparatus 20 in association with the address of the database in which the tag information is stored, and when the ID is acquired from the tag, the ID is obtained based on the registered information. Identify a database with tag information and access that database. Thereby, more tag information can be handled compared with the structure with a single database.

[Third Embodiment]
FIG. 10 shows the configuration of the system 103 according to the third embodiment. In this embodiment, the portable information terminal 10 side determines the acquisition timing of article information. As shown in FIG. 10, the portable information terminal 10 in the system 103 has an information requesting unit 11 that requests article information from the information providing apparatus 20, and the information requesting unit 11 instructs the user to send the request. Input means (not shown) such as a key button. When requesting article information, the information request unit 11 transmits the ID of its own terminal to the information providing apparatus 20.

  The information providing apparatus 20 of the system 103 includes an information registration unit 25 that associates the identifier of the portable information terminal 10 detected by the terminal search unit 22 with the tag information of the article tag acquired at the same time and registers it in the database unit 24. . Each time the information registration unit 25 registers the association in the database unit 24, the information registration unit 25 sets an expiration date of the association.

  FIG. 11 shows an operation flow of the information providing apparatus 20. The procedure from step S300 to step S304 from when the tag information acquisition unit 21 acquires the tag information to when the terminal search unit 22 searches for the ID of the portable information terminal 10 is performed according to the flowchart of FIG. The procedure is the same as that described in the second embodiment, and the description is omitted here.

  When the terminal search unit 22 detects the ID of the mobile information terminal 10 (step S304: YES), the information registration unit 25 detects the ID of the mobile information terminal 10 and the article tag 31a and the article read at the same time. The ID of the tag 31b is associated and registered in the database unit 24 (step S305). At this time, the information registration unit 25 sets an expiration date for the association of the registered ID. If the association of the ID to be registered is already registered, the expiration date is overwritten.

  FIG. 12 shows an example of registration contents by the information registration unit 25. The illustrated information table is an association ID list indicating the ID of the portable information terminal 10, the ID of an article such as the article 30a, and the expiration date to which the association of these IDs is applied. In the illustrated example, the terminal ID “201” is associated with the article IDs “101” and “102”. This indicates, for example, that the article tag 31a and the article tag 31b with the IDs “101” and “102” are read at the same time when the terminal tag 10a with the ID “201” is read.

  The expiration date set by the information registration unit 25 can be set as appropriate, for example, by setting a predetermined time limit for each ID registration or by setting an arbitrary time limit. Thus, by setting the expiration date for the association between the terminal ID and the article ID, it is possible to cope with a change in the information provision target as the user carrying the portable information terminal 10 moves.

  After the information registration unit 25 registers the ID association, the information requesting unit 11 of the portable information terminal 10 transmits a request for article information according to a user instruction, and the information providing apparatus 20 receives this request (step S306: YES). ), The information transmission unit 23 acquires the article information corresponding to the article ID associated with the ID received from the portable information terminal 10 from the database unit 24 (step S307), and notifies the portable information terminal 10 of this (step S307). Step S308).

  Specifically, for example, when the ID “201” is received from the portable information terminal 10, the information transmitting unit 23 refers to the list of FIG. 12, and the article ID associated with the ID “201” is “101”. And “102”. Based on the article list of FIG. 8, the article information corresponding to the IDs “101” and “102” is transmitted to the portable information terminal 10 by electronic mail. Prior to transmitting the article information to the portable information terminal 10, the list of article ID information associated with the terminal ID in the list of FIG. 8 is transmitted to the portable information terminal 10 and designated by the user from the list. May be transmitted.

  The information registration unit 25 constantly monitors the expiration date set in the list of FIG. 8, and instructs the database unit 24 to delete the expired record (step S309).

  Here, an operation example of the system 103 will be described with reference to the sequence diagram shown in FIG. When the tag reader 21a reads the IDs “101” and “102” of the article tag 31a and the article tag 31b in the vicinity thereof, the portable information terminal 10 approaches the article 30a and the article 30b and falls within the reading range of the tag reader 21a. Then, the ID “201” of the terminal tag 10a is also read. The information providing apparatus 20 acquires the type list of FIG. 6 from the database unit 24, classifies the IDs read by the tag reader 21a into terminals and articles, and among the classified IDs, the article ID “101” is assigned to the terminal ID “201”. ”And“ 102 ”are registered in the database unit 24 in association with each other.

  After that, when receiving a request for article information from the portable information terminal 10, the information providing apparatus 20 acquires an article ID related to the ID “201” notified at the time of the request from the database unit 24. Further, the product information corresponding to the acquired product IDs “101” and “102” is acquired from the database unit 24, and the product information is transmitted to the portable information terminal 10. Further, the information providing apparatus 20 monitors the expiration date of the association ID list of FIG. 12, and when the expiration date set for the association between the terminal ID “201” and the articles “101” and “102” has expired, Remove this related information from the list.

  According to the system 103 described above, the user can acquire article information at a desired timing.

  In addition, it is also possible to set the information disclosure level for the article information that the information providing apparatus 20 transmits to the portable information terminal 10. The information disclosure level setting is a setting for changing article information to be provided according to the user. For example, the user is classified into “member” and “non-member”, and more useful information is “member”. It means setting to provide to. In implementing this, information relating to the information disclosure level is registered in the database unit 24 in advance. FIG. 14 shows an example of information to be registered in the database unit 24.

  The information in FIG. 14A is a list in which the terminal ID is associated with “member” or “non-member” which is the level of the user of the terminal. FIG. 5B is a list in which the article ID, the price of the article as the article information, and the above-described disclosure level are associated with each other. In the illustrated example, the price for “members” is set to be lower than that of “nonmembers” in order to differentiate services for users.

  Here, for example, when there is an information request from the portable information terminal 10 with the terminal ID “201”, the user is recognized as a “member” from the list of FIG. 14A, and the article in FIG. The price of “member” is extracted from each of the IDs “101” and “102”. If there is an information request from another portable information terminal having the terminal ID “202”, the price corresponding to “non-member” in FIG. 14B is extracted.

  By setting the information disclosure level as described above, it is possible to control information to be transmitted to a specific terminal or change information to be provided for each terminal. This method is not limited to the third embodiment in which the timing of information provision is determined by the user, but can also be applied to the first and second embodiments in which information provision is automatically performed from the information provision apparatus 20. .

  The portable information terminal 10 in each of the embodiments described above is not limited to a specific portable terminal for business use, but can be a widely used portable telephone, a schedule management terminal, and the like, and a terminal tag 10a Can be built in or pasted. In addition, the terminal tag and the article tag in the present invention are not necessarily attached to the portable information terminal or the article. For example, the terminal tag is attached to the clothes of the user carrying the portable information terminal or the vicinity of the article The present invention can be implemented even in a state where the tag and the object are separated, such as by attaching an article tag to a price display board.

  The present invention can be applied to various uses for providing information related to goods, and can be used, for example, to provide information related to merchandise sold in a store, or management of goods in and out of a warehouse. In particular, when used in a store, the information providing apparatus according to the present invention is linked to an existing sales management system to provide sales information for the product in addition to the product information as information for the store clerk. It is also possible.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of 1st Embodiment by this invention. It is a flowchart of operation | movement of the information provision apparatus in 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the display screen of the portable information terminal in 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the application example of 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of 2nd Embodiment by this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the information hold | maintained in the database part of 2nd Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the information hold | maintained in the database part of 2nd Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the information hold | maintained in the database part of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart of operation | movement of the information provision apparatus in 2nd Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of 3rd Embodiment by this invention. It is a flowchart of operation | movement of the information provision apparatus in 3rd Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the information hold | maintained in the database part of 3rd Embodiment. It is a sequence diagram which shows operation | movement of the system of 3rd Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the information hold | maintained in the database part of 3rd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

101-103 system 100 communication network 10 portable information terminal 10a terminal tag 11 information request unit 20 information providing device 21: tag information acquisition unit 22: terminal search unit 23: information transmission unit 24: database unit 25: information registration Part 30a-30e article 31a-31e article tag

Claims (25)

A portable information terminal and a plurality of information providing apparatuses connected to be communicable with each other, a terminal tag having tag information including an identifier of the portable information terminal, and an article tag having tag information including article information related to the article ,
Each of the information providing devices includes a tag information acquisition unit that acquires the tag information from the terminal tag and the article tag, and a terminal search unit that searches for an identifier of the portable information terminal from the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit. The tag information of the article tag acquired by the tag information acquisition unit is transmitted to the portable information terminal having the identifier detected by the terminal search unit, and the tag information is requested from the tag information from another information providing device. On the other hand, an information transmission unit that transmits the tag information read at the time of receiving the request to the other information providing device ,
Wherein the information transmission unit, wherein when the terminal search unit detects the identifier of the portable information terminal, requests the tag information of the article tag, each obtained in the other information providing apparatus to the other information providing apparatuses, the The tag information transmitted in response to the request is received, and the received tag information and the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit of the information providing apparatus that has detected the identifier of the mobile information terminal are transmitted to the mobile information terminal. An information providing system characterized by that.   The information transmission unit has information related to an information disclosure level of article information with respect to the portable information terminal, and determines tag information to be transmitted to the portable information terminal based on the information. Information provision system. Furthermore, an article tag having an article identifier as tag information is provided.
The information providing apparatus further includes a database unit that holds the identifier of the article and article information related to the article in association with each other,
The information transmission unit extracts article information corresponding to an identifier of an article as tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit from the database unit, and carries the identifier detected by the terminal search unit. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the information providing system transmits the information to an information terminal.   The information providing system according to claim 3, wherein the tag information acquisition unit includes a plurality of tag reading means for acquiring tag information at a plurality of points. The database unit is distributed in a plurality of communication networks connected to each other,
The information providing unit according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the information transmitting unit specifies a database unit from which the article information is to be extracted based on information for identifying the database unit provided in a distributed manner. system. The portable information terminal has an information requesting unit that requests article information from the information providing device,
The information providing apparatus includes an information registration unit that registers the identifier of the portable information terminal detected by the terminal search unit and the tag information of the article tag acquired by the tag information acquisition unit in the database unit in association with each other.
The information transmitting unit, when receiving a request for article information from the portable information terminal, extracts article information related to the identifier of the portable information terminal from the database unit and transmits the article information to the portable information terminal. The information provision system according to any one of claims 3 to 5.   The information providing system according to claim 6, wherein the information registration unit sets an expiration date of the registration for each registration, and deletes the registration when the expiration date is exceeded. The database unit has information on an information disclosure level for the portable information terminal of the article information to be held,
The said information transmission part extracts the article information which should be transmitted to the said portable information terminal from the said database part based on the information regarding the said information disclosure level, The any one of Claim 3 thru | or 7 characterized by the above-mentioned. Information provision system. One of a plurality of information providing devices connected to a portable information terminal so as to communicate with each other,
A terminal tag having tag information including an identifier of the portable information terminal, a tag information acquiring unit for acquiring the tag information from an article tag having tag information including article information about the article, and the tag information acquiring unit Transmitting the tag information of the article tag acquired by the tag information acquisition unit to a mobile information terminal of the identifier detected by the terminal search unit ; An information transmitting unit that transmits tag information read at the time of receiving the request to the other information providing device in response to a request for tag information from the tag information from the other information providing device ,
Wherein the information transmission unit, wherein when the terminal search unit detects the identifier of the portable information terminal, requests the tag information of the article tag, each obtained in the other information providing apparatus to the other information providing apparatuses, the The tag information transmitted in response to the request is received, and the received tag information and the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit included in the information providing apparatus that detects the identifier of the portable information terminal An information providing apparatus for transmitting to a portable information terminal.   10. The information transmission unit has information related to an information disclosure level of article information with respect to the portable information terminal, and determines tag information to be transmitted to the portable information terminal based on the information. Information provision device. And a database unit for associating and holding the identifier of the article and the article information related to the article,
The tag information acquisition unit further acquires the tag information from an article tag having an article identifier as tag information,
The information transmission unit extracts article information corresponding to an identifier of an article as tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit from the database unit, and carries the identifier detected by the terminal search unit. The information providing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the information providing apparatus transmits the information to an information terminal.   The information providing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the tag information acquisition unit includes a plurality of tag reading units for acquiring tag information at a plurality of points. The database unit is distributed in a plurality of communication networks connected to each other,
The information providing unit according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the information transmitting unit specifies a database unit from which the article information is to be extracted based on information for identifying the database unit provided in a distributed manner. apparatus. And an information registration unit that registers the identifier of the portable information terminal detected by the terminal search unit and the tag information of the article tag acquired by the tag information acquisition unit in the database unit in association with each other.
The information transmitting unit, when receiving a request for article information from the portable information terminal, extracts article information related to the identifier of the portable information terminal from the database unit and transmits the article information to the portable information terminal. The information providing apparatus according to any one of claims 11 to 13.   15. The information providing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the information registration unit sets an expiration date of the registration for each registration, and deletes the registration when the expiration date is exceeded. The database unit has information on an information disclosure level for the portable information terminal of the article information to be held,
16. The information transmission unit according to claim 11, wherein the information transmission unit extracts article information to be transmitted to the portable information terminal from the database unit based on information on the information disclosure level. Information providing device.   A program for causing a computer to function as the information providing apparatus according to any one of claims 11 to 16. In an information providing method performed by each of a plurality of information providing devices connected to a portable information terminal so as to communicate with each other ,
Tag information acquiring section by the information providing apparatus includes the terminal tag having tag information including an identifier of the portable information terminal, and obtains the tag information from the article tag having tag information including the item information about the article Steps ,
A step of the terminal search unit said information providing device is equipped with, searches for the identifier of the portable information terminal from the tag information the tag information acquiring unit has acquired,
The information transmitting unit provided in the information providing device transmits the tag information of the article tag acquired by the tag information acquiring unit to the portable information terminal having the identifier detected by the terminal searching unit, and other information In response to a request for tag information from the tag information from the providing device, the tag information read at the time when the request is received is transmitted to the other information providing device.
The information transmission unit, when the terminal searching unit detects the identifier of the portable information terminal, requests the tag information of the article tag, each obtained in the other information providing apparatus to the other information providing apparatuses, the The tag information transmitted in response to the request is received, and the received tag information and the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition unit of the information providing apparatus that has detected the identifier of the mobile information terminal are transmitted to the mobile information terminal. An information providing method characterized by the above. Determining the information transmission unit that is pre Kijo report providing apparatus includes has an information about the information disclosure level for the portable information terminal of the article information, on the basis of the information, the tag information to be transmitted to the portable information terminal The information providing method according to claim 18, wherein: Before Kijo report providing apparatus, further further comprising the step of providing a database that retrieves the tag information from the article tag having an identifier of the article as the tag information, held in association with the article information about the article identifiers and article ,
The information transmitting unit provided in the information providing device extracts article information corresponding to an identifier of an article as the tag information acquired by the tag information acquiring unit from the database, and the extracted article information is stored in the terminal. The information providing method according to claim 19, wherein the information is transmitted to the portable information terminal of the identifier detected by the search unit . 21. The information providing method according to claim 20, wherein the tag information acquiring unit provided in the information providing apparatus acquires tag information at a plurality of points. The database is distributed across a plurality of interconnected communication networks,
21. The information transmitting unit included in the information providing apparatus specifies a database from which the article information is to be extracted based on information for identifying the distributed database. Or the information provision method of 21. The information registering unit by the information providing apparatus includes further comprises a step of registering to said database in association with the tag information of the identifier and the article tag the acquisition of the portable information terminal pre Symbol detection,
When the information transmitting unit provided in the information providing apparatus receives a transmission request for the article information from the portable information terminal, the article information related to the identifier of the portable information terminal is extracted from the database The information providing method according to any one of claims 20 to 22, wherein the information is transmitted to a portable information terminal. 24. The information registration unit provided in the information providing apparatus sets an expiration date of the registration for each registration in the database, and deletes the registration when the expiration date is exceeded. Information providing method described. The information providing apparatus stores information on an information disclosure level for the portable information terminal of the held article information in the database,
25. The information transmitting unit included in the information providing apparatus extracts article information to be transmitted to the portable information terminal from the database based on information on the information disclosure level. The information provision method according to any one of the above.

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