JP4495503B2 - Content receiving method and content distributing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a content receiving method and a content distribution method for transmitting / receiving information related to content having location information existing on a network.

  In recent years, with the widespread use of mobile terminals having a GPS (Global Positioning System) function, there is an increasing demand for location information services that provide information about the current location of a user. From such a background, it can be easily guessed that in the near future, a mobile terminal having a position information acquisition function by GPS and an Internet access function by communication will be developed. When such mobile terminals become widespread, it becomes possible to provide more convenient location information services. As a conventional general location information service, there is a service in which location information is notified from a GPS-equipped mobile terminal to a server, information about the current location of the mobile terminal is searched on the server side, and a search result is returned to the mobile terminal. Are known.

  As a conventional example of the location information service, there is a method disclosed in Patent Document 1. In this method, menu data in which an attribute code indicating the content distribution target area is associated with the address of the content is broadcasted, and the terminal corresponds to the current location of the terminal by referring to the attribute code of the received menu data. The address of the obtained content is extracted and the content is acquired.

In addition, the data broadcasting transmission / reception method disclosed in Patent Document 2 distributes information classified by prefecture code or zip code by data broadcasting, and in the data broadcasting receiver, the prefecture code corresponding to the current location from the position information acquired by GPS. Alternatively, a zip code is calculated, and information related to the current location is extracted from the data broadcast.
JP 2002-334095 A, content distribution method, content distribution system, and content distribution facility Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-76962, data broadcasting receiver

  However, the methods of Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 classify content for each preset area based on an address or a zip code, and broadcast information about the content included in the area to which the terminal belongs to the terminal. The method of providing peripheral information included in an arbitrary area set with the current location of the user terminal as a reference is not mentioned. Areas that are required by individual user terminals from wide area information to distribute a huge number of information in a wide area such as nationwide and to provide users with peripheral information about arbitrary areas A means for selectively and efficiently retrieving information is required.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and an object thereof is to selectively and efficiently search regional information required by each user terminal from wide-area information.

The content receiving method of the present invention is a content receiving method executed by a content receiving apparatus that receives content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information. Wide area information content having a data structure in which the entire area of the distributed geographical space is expressed by the first mesh area and the URI of the content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given. A wide area information receiving step for storing the received wide area information content in the storage unit of the content receiving apparatus, and periodically acquiring point position information indicating a point in a geospace, Search that sets a geographical area based on location information as a search area An area setting step; searching the first unit mesh geographically overlapping the search area from the accumulated wide area information content; a URI corresponding to the searched first unit mesh; and The geographical space defined by the first unit mesh is expressed by the second mesh area, and the position information included in the geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is included. A wide area information search step for obtaining a URI indicating the location of the area information content having a data structure in which the metadata of the position-dependent content is listed, and the original location of the area information content is added to the accumulated area information content. The first URI shown is given and the location of the regional information content in the storage unit is indicated. When the second URI is not assigned and the second URI is not stored, the region information content is received from the content distribution device using the first URI, and the received region information Regional information for storing content in the storage unit, adding the storage location of the regional information content in the storage unit as the second URI to the stored wide area information content, and storing the second URI When the second URI is given to the accumulated wide area information content and the second URI is stored while executing the reception process, the area information reception step not executing the area information reception process; The second unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the accumulated area information content, and the searched second unit mem- bers. A region information search step of acquiring metadata of the position-dependent content having the position information included in the geographical space defined by the search and included in the search area.
The content distribution method of the present invention is a content distribution method executed by a content distribution apparatus that distributes metadata of position-dependent content that is content associated with geographical position information, and a geographical position associated with the position-dependent content. A storage step of storing metadata of position-dependent content including information and URI in the storage unit of the content distribution device; and analyzing the metadata of the plurality of position-dependent contents that have been stored, A distribution area calculating step for defining a geographical space in which content is distributed; and a first mesh unit that configures the first mesh area by setting a first mesh area in the geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed Area that sets the second mesh area in the geographical space specified by And region information having a data structure in which metadata of the position-dependent content having position information included in a geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is listed. A region information generation step of generating content, and a first URI indicating the original location of the region information content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is assigned, and the region information content Wide area information generating step for generating wide area information content having a data structure capable of additionally giving a second URI indicating a storage location in the content receiving apparatus, and wide area information distributing step for distributing the wide area information content to the content receiving apparatus And delivering the regional information content to the content receiving device Includes a frequency information distribution step, the.
The content receiving device of the present invention is a content receiving device that receives content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information, a search condition setting unit, a storage unit, and content reception And a content processing unit, wherein the search condition setting unit periodically acquires point position information indicating a point in a geographic space, and uses a geographical region based on the point position information as a search region And the content receiving unit expresses the entire area of the geographical space where the position-dependent content is distributed as a first mesh area, and corresponds to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area. The wide area information content having the data structure to which the URI is assigned is received from the content distribution apparatus and received. The wide area information receiving process for storing the wide area information content in the storage unit is executed, and the content processing unit searches the first unit mesh geographically overlapping the search area from the accumulated wide area information content. A URI corresponding to the searched first unit mesh, and a geographical space defined by the first unit mesh is expressed by a second mesh area, and the second mesh area is configured. Wide area information search for obtaining a URI indicating the location of area information content having a data structure in which the metadata of the position dependent content having the position information included in the geographical space defined by the second unit mesh is listed. The content receiving unit performs processing on the accumulated wide area information content to the original area information content. When the first URI indicating the location is assigned and the second URI indicating the location in the storage unit of the regional information content is not assigned and the second URI is not stored , Receiving the region information content from the content distribution device using the first URI, storing the received region information content in the storage unit, and determining a storage location of the region information content in the storage unit As the second URI, the regional information receiving process is executed to additionally give the accumulated wide area information content and store the second URI, while the accumulated second wide area information content is given the second URI. When the second URI is stored, the area information reception process is not executed, and the content processing unit does not store the accumulated area information component. The second unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the content, and the position information included in the geographical space defined by the searched second mesh is included in the search area. A region information search process for acquiring metadata of the position-dependent content is executed.
The content distribution apparatus of the present invention is a content distribution apparatus that distributes metadata of position-dependent content that is content associated with geographical position information, and includes a position including geographical position information and URI associated with the position-dependent content. A storage unit for storing the metadata of the dependent content, and analyzing the metadata of the plurality of the position-dependent contents that have been stored, defining a geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed, A data structure determining unit that sets a first mesh area in a distributed geographical space, and sets a second mesh area in a geographical space defined by a first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area; Included in the geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area Region information generating processing for generating region information content having a data structure in which metadata of the position-dependent content having the position information is listed, and a first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area A wide-area information content having a data structure capable of giving a first URI indicating the original location of the regional information content and adding a second URI indicating a storage location in the content reception device of the regional information content is generated. A content generation unit that performs a wide area information generation process, and a content distribution unit that distributes the wide area information content and the regional information content to the content receiving device.
The content receiving program of the present invention is a content receiving program for receiving content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information. A data structure in which the entire area of the geographical space where the position-dependent content is distributed is expressed by the first mesh area, and the URI of the content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given. A wide area information receiving step for receiving the wide area information content from the content distribution device, and storing the received wide area information content in the storage unit; Set geographical area based on information as search area A search area setting step, and searching the first unit mesh geographically overlapping the search area from the accumulated wide area information content, and a URI corresponding to the searched first unit mesh, and , The geographical space defined by the first unit mesh is expressed by a second mesh area, and the positional information included in the geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area A regional information retrieval step for obtaining a URI indicating the location of the regional information content having a data structure in which the metadata of the position-dependent content is enumerated, and the accumulated regional information content includes the original of the regional information content. A first URI indicating the location is assigned, and the location of the regional information content in the storage unit If the second URI indicating the second URI is not given and the second URI is not stored, the region information content is received from the content distribution device using the first URI, and the received Storing the regional information content in the storage unit, adding the storage location of the regional information content in the storage unit as the second URI to the stored wide-area information content, and storing the second URI; A region information receiving step that executes the region information receiving process, but does not execute the region information receiving process when the second URI is given to the accumulated wide area information content and the second URI is stored. And searching the second unit mesh geographically overlapping the search area from the accumulated area information content, and searching for the second unit mesh A region information search step of acquiring metadata of the position-dependent content having position information included in the geographical space defined by the unit mesh and included in the search area.
The content distribution program of the present invention is a content distribution program that distributes metadata of position-dependent content that is content associated with geographical position information, and a position that includes geographical position information and URI associated with the position-dependent content. An accumulation step for accumulating the metadata of the dependent content, a distribution area calculating step for analyzing a plurality of the accumulated position-dependent content metadata and defining a geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed; An area in which a first mesh area is set in a geographical space where the position-dependent content is distributed, and a second mesh area is set in a geographical space defined by a first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area. A setting step and a second constituting the second mesh area An area information generating step for generating area information content having a data structure in which metadata of the position-dependent content having position information included in a geographical space defined by a position mesh is listed; and the first mesh area The first URI indicating the original location of the regional information content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first unit mesh is added, and the second URI indicating the storage location in the content receiving device of the regional information content is additionally provided. Wide area information generation step for generating wide area information content having a possible data structure, wide area information distribution step for distributing the wide area information content to the content receiving device, and regional information for distributing the regional information content to the content receiving device The distribution step is performed by a computer.
The computer-readable storage medium of the present invention stores the above program.
The content adaptive distribution system of the present invention includes the above content distribution device and the above content reception device.

  According to the present invention, by referring to the wide area information, it is possible to execute the search process of the current location surrounding information after selectively receiving only the contents describing the area information related to the search area. It is possible to reduce the resources required for the search and to shorten the search processing time.

  In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to receive only regional information including information around the current location by referring to the wide area information, and content around the current location can be efficiently searched.

  The content receiving method according to the first aspect of the present invention is a content receiving method for receiving content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information, wherein the location-dependent content is distributed. Wide area information that represents the entire area of the geographic space to be represented by the first mesh area and receives the wide area information content to which the URI of the content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given From the receiving step, the search region setting step for periodically acquiring the location information indicating the location in the geographic space, and setting the geographic region based on the location information as the search region, and the received wide area information content Search for the first unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area, before the search A wide area information search step for acquiring a URI corresponding to the first unit mesh, and a second geographic area defined by the one unit mesh that is the content indicated by the acquired URI and that constitutes the wide area information content. The metadata of the position-dependent content having the position information included in the geographical space defined by the unit mesh is listed in the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area. A region information receiving step for receiving region information content, searching the second unit mesh geographically overlapping the search region from the received region information content, and searching from the searched second unit mesh Area information search for acquiring metadata of the position-dependent content having position information included in the area A configuration which is provided and the step, the.

  Thus, by referring to the wide area information content in which the URI to the regional information is described, only the local information content in which the local information related to the search area is described is selectively received, and the current location surrounding information Therefore, it is possible to reduce resources required for the search process and shorten the search process time.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the content receiving method according to the first aspect, the wide area information content includes a first mesh area definition in which information on a mesh division method of the first mesh area is described. And the first unit mesh is attached with a first mesh index number calculated from the first mesh area definition, and the regional information content is a mesh division of the second mesh area. A second mesh area definition in which information on the method is described, and a second mesh index number calculated from the second mesh area definition is added to the second unit mesh; Referring to the first mesh area definition, the first mesh corresponding to the first unit mesh that geographically overlaps the search area. The mesh index number is calculated, the first unit mesh having the calculated first mesh index number is searched, and the search area is geographically overlapped with reference to the second mesh area definition. The second mesh index number corresponding to the second unit mesh is calculated, and the second unit mesh having the calculated second mesh index number is searched.

  As described above, the mesh area geographically overlapping the search area is identified by referring to the mesh area definition given to the wide area information content and the regional information content, so the wide area information content and the local information content Without searching all the unit meshes included in, only the mesh area to be searched for position-dependent content can be accessed and content search can be performed efficiently.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the content receiving method according to the second aspect, the wide area information content belongs to the first unit mesh and a geographical space corresponding to the first unit mesh. First content number information indicating the number of the position-dependent content is added, and the region information content belongs to the second unit mesh and a geographical space corresponding to the second unit mesh. Second content number information indicating the number of the position-dependent content is added, the number of the position-dependent content to be searched is set as the number of search contents, and the first content number information is referred to, thereby Calculating the number of the position-dependent contents included in the first unit mesh overlapping the search area as an approximate number of contents; The size of the search area is adjusted by comparing the approximate number of contents and the number of search contents, and is included in the second unit mesh that overlaps the search area by referring to the second content number information. The number of the position-dependent contents to be calculated is calculated as an approximate number of contents, and the size of the search area is adjusted by comparing the approximate number of contents with the number of search contents.

  As described above, the detailed content search processing is performed by using the number of position-dependent contents belonging to the geographical area corresponding to the unit mesh that overlaps the search area that can be calculated from the wide area information content and the information described in the local information content Since the size of the content search area is adjusted before performing the search, it is possible to efficiently execute the content search around the current location when the number of searches is specified.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the content receiving method according to the second aspect, a process of accumulating the newly received wide area information content is performed, and a process of accumulating the newly received regional information content is performed. The URI indicating the storage location of the area information content is additionally described in the first unit mesh corresponding to the area information content with respect to the accumulated area information content, and the search area is geographically overlapped with the first area mesh. When the URI of the area information content that has already been stored is described in one unit mesh, the URI is acquired as a search result.

  In this way, it is possible to easily confirm whether or not the local information content to be searched has already been accumulated by adding a URI indicating the storage location of the newly acquired regional information content to the accumulated wide area information content. Thus, when a moving terminal periodically searches for content around the current location, content search processing can be efficiently executed without repeating unnecessary reception of content.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the content receiving method according to the second aspect, the data structure of the wide area information content is analyzed, the data structure analysis result is cached, and a new search area is set. In the case of using the cached data structure analysis result, a URI corresponding to the first unit mesh that geographically overlaps the search area is acquired, and the URI acquired in the wide area information search step is acquired. If the corresponding region information content has already been received, the region information content reception process is not executed, the data structure of the region information content is analyzed, the data structure analysis result is cached, and a new When the search area is set and there is a cached data structure analysis result of the area information content By utilizing the data structure analysis result, we obtain the metadata of the location-dependent content with location information included in the search area.

  In this way, analysis results of wide area information contents and area information contents are cached and reused, so that only the search conditions are changed for the same wide area information contents or area information contents, and the contents are searched. The search processing speed is improved when the process is repeated.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the content receiving method according to the second aspect, the regional information content has file-related information in which a URI of the wide area information content is described, and the wide area information receiving step; When the region information search step is executed in a state where the wide area information search step is not executed, the new search region is not included in the geographical region corresponding to the region information content in the search region setting step. In this case, the wide area information receiving step receives the wide area information content corresponding to the regional information content with reference to the file related information of the regional information content.

  As described above, since the regional information content can be accessed from the regional information content by referring to the link information to the wide area information content described in the regional information content, the acquisition order of the regional information content and the regional information content can be changed. Without specifying, it is possible to execute a data reception process and a search process for position-dependent content around the current location.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the content receiving method according to the sixth aspect, the newly received regional information content is processed, and the accumulated wide area information corresponding to the regional information content is stored. When content exists, the URI of the accumulated wide area information content is additionally described in the file related information of the area information content, and the accumulated wide area is included in the file related information of the area information content. If the URI of the information content is described, the accumulated wide area information content is acquired.

  In this way, link information to the accumulated wide area information content is added to the local information content, and when the wide area information content is accessed again from the local information content, the accumulated wide area information content is used, which is unnecessary. It is possible to avoid repeated content reception processing and to efficiently perform content search processing.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the content receiving method according to the second aspect, the acquired metadata of the position dependent content includes a URI of the position dependent content, A search result list in which the URI is described as a hyperlink and the position-dependent content can be acquired is generated, and the position-dependent content specified from the search result list is acquired and displayed.

  Thus, since the displayable content including the link to the searched position dependent content generated from the content search result is displayed, the user selects the desired position dependent content after confirming the content search result. Can be viewed.

  The content distribution method according to a ninth aspect of the present invention is the content distribution method for distributing metadata of position-dependent content, which is content associated with geographical position information, and the geographical position information associated with the position-dependent content. A storage step for storing location-dependent content metadata including a URI and a distribution that defines a geographical space in which the location-dependent content is distributed by analyzing a plurality of the location-dependent content metadata that have been stored A second mesh area in a geographical space defined by a region calculation step and a first unit mesh that configures the first mesh area by setting a first mesh area in the geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed And an area setting step for setting the second mesh area individually A regional information generation step of generating regional information content having a data structure enumerated by metadata of the location-dependent content having positional information included in a geographical space defined by the unit mesh in a second unit mesh; A wide area information generating step for generating wide area information content having a data structure in which each first unit mesh is given a URI of the area information content corresponding to the unit mesh for one mesh area; and the wide area information content And a regional information distribution step for distributing the regional information content.

  As a result, the mesh area expressing the distribution area of the position-dependent content and the information describing the geographical positional relationship of the position-dependent content are divided and distributed into one wide area information content and a plurality of local information contents. By referring to the wide area information content, the content receiving apparatus can receive only the regional information content including information around the current location, and can efficiently search for the position-dependent content around the current location.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the content delivery method according to the ninth aspect, a first mesh area definition describing information related to a mesh division method of the first mesh area is added to the wide area information content. In addition, the first mesh index number calculated from the first mesh area definition is added to the first unit mesh, and information on the mesh division method of the second mesh area is added to the area information content. The second mesh area definition described is added, and the second mesh index number calculated from the second mesh area definition is added to the second unit mesh.

  In this way, the wide area information content and the regional information content have mesh area definitions in which the mesh distribution method of the content distribution area is described, and an index number that can be calculated from the mesh area definition is assigned to each mesh. In addition, the data amount of the wide area information content and the local information content can be reduced, and the search processing time in the content receiving apparatus can be shortened. Further, since the wide area information content and the regional information content have mesh area definitions independently, the content receiving terminal can also execute a content search by the local information content alone.

  An eleventh aspect of the present invention is the content distribution method according to the tenth aspect, wherein the first unit mesh of the wide area information content belongs to a geographical space corresponding to the first unit mesh. The first content number information indicating the number of position-dependent content is added, and the position-dependent content belonging to a geographical space corresponding to the second unit mesh is added to the second unit mesh of the region information content. The second content number information indicating the number of content is added.

  As described above, since the number of position-dependent contents belonging to the geographical area corresponding to each unit mesh area is described in the wide area information content and the regional information content, the content receiving apparatus can detect the position included in the search area. The approximate number of position-dependent contents can be grasped without actually searching for position-dependent contents having information from local information contents.

  According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the content delivery method according to the tenth aspect, file-related information describing a URI of the wide area information content corresponding to the regional information content is added to the regional information content. .

  In this way, since the URI of the regional information content corresponding to the regional information content is described in the regional information content, the content receiving device can acquire the regional information content even when the regional information content is first acquired. By referencing, it is possible to easily access the regional information content in which information on the peripheral area of the geographical region corresponding to the first acquired regional information content is described.

  According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in the content distribution method according to the tenth aspect, metadata of the position-dependent content is collected from a server having the position-dependent content and its metadata.

  In this way, since content information is collected from servers scattered on the network, it is easy to generate wide-area information content and regional information content targeted for position-dependent content distributed over a wide geographical area, It is possible to provide highly convenient information to the user.

  According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in a content receiving apparatus that receives content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information, point location information indicating a location in a geospace is periodically transmitted. A search condition setting unit configured to set as a search area a geographical area based on the location information acquired as a reference, and expressing all areas of the geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed as a first mesh area, A wide area information receiving process for receiving wide area information content having a data structure to which a URI of the content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is assigned; and the URI described in the wide area information content One unit mesh that is the corresponding content and that constitutes the wide area information content is regulated. The location-dependent content metadata having the location information included in the geographic space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is listed. A content receiving unit that executes a local information receiving process for receiving local information content having a data structure that is configured, and the first unit mesh that is included in the wide area information content and that overlaps the search region geographically. From the wide area information search process for searching for one unit mesh and acquiring the URI corresponding to the searched first unit mesh, and the second unit mesh constituting the area information content, the search area and the geography The second unit mesh that overlaps with each other and a position included in the search region from the second unit mesh searched A content receiving apparatus characterized by comprising a content processing unit for executing a local search process for acquiring metadata of the location-dependent content having distribution, the.

  According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, in a content distribution apparatus that distributes metadata of position-dependent content that is content associated with geographical position information, the geographical position information associated with the position-dependent content and a URI are included. A storage unit for storing metadata of position-dependent content; and a plurality of the stored location-dependent content metadata are analyzed to define a geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed, and the position-dependent content is distributed A data structure determining unit that sets a first mesh area in a geographical space and sets a second mesh area in a geographical space defined by a first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area; and The geographic space defined by each unit mesh for each second unit mesh Region information generation processing for generating region information content having a data structure enumerated by metadata of the position-dependent content having position information to be recorded, and corresponding to each first unit mesh for the first mesh area A content generation unit that performs a wide area information generation process for generating a wide area information content having a data structure to which a URI of the regional information content is assigned, and a content distribution unit that distributes the wide area information content and the regional information content. It is the content delivery apparatus characterized by having.

  According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, in a content receiving program for receiving content selected from a list of location-dependent content, which is content associated with geographical location information, the geographical space in which the location-dependent content is distributed. Wide area information reception for receiving wide area information content having a data structure in which the entire area is expressed by the first mesh area and the content URI corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given. A search area setting step of periodically acquiring point position information indicating a point in a geospace and setting a geographical area based on the position information as a search area; and the first area included in the wide area information content The first unit mesh geographically overlapping the search area from one unit mesh A wide area information search step for acquiring a URI corresponding to the searched first unit mesh, and a content indicated by the URI acquired in the wide area information search step, and constituting the wide area information content The geographical space defined in one unit mesh is expressed by the second mesh area, and the location information contained in the geographical space defined by the unit mesh is expressed in the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area. A region information receiving step of receiving region information content having a data structure in which metadata of the position-dependent content is enumerated, and searching the second unit mesh geographically overlapping with the search region from the region information content And having position information included in the search area from the searched second unit mesh Is a program characterized by causing a local search step of acquiring metadata of the serial location-dependent content, to the computer.

  According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, in a content distribution program that distributes metadata of position-dependent content that is content associated with geographical position information, the position includes geographical position information associated with the position-dependent content and a URI. An accumulation step of accumulating the metadata of the dependent content, a distribution area calculating step of defining a geographical space in which the location-dependent content is distributed by analyzing the metadata of the plurality of accumulated position-dependent content, An area setting step of setting a first mesh area in a geographical space in which position-dependent content is distributed and setting a second mesh area in a geographical space defined by a first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area And each second unit mesh with respect to the second mesh area. A regional information generating step of generating regional information content having a data structure enumerated by metadata of the location-dependent content having positional information included in a geographical space defined by a unit mesh; and for the first mesh area Wide area information generating step for generating wide area information content having a data structure in which each first unit mesh has a URI of the area information content corresponding to the unit mesh, and wide area information distributing step for distributing the wide area information content And a regional information distribution step for distributing the regional information content to a computer.

  An eighteenth aspect of the present invention is a computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to the sixteenth aspect or the seventeenth aspect.

  According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a server that distributes a content list that hierarchically organizes metadata of the location-dependent content based on the location information regarding location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information. And a terminal that receives the content list and generates content information limited to a user's region of interest using the content list.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a content adaptive distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this content adaptive distribution system, a server provides a terminal with wide-area information related to position-dependent content, which is content having position information, and searches and displays position-dependent content at the terminal. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a content adaptive distribution system according to the present embodiment.

  The content adaptive distribution system 100 according to the present embodiment includes a content broadcast server 101, content communication servers 102 (102a to 102b), general Web servers 103 (103a to 103c), content receiving terminals 104 (104a to 104c), a communication network. 105, a radio base station 106, and a GPS satellite 107 are provided.

  The content broadcasting server 101 is a broadcasting station capable of performing general digital broadcasting to a terminal having a broadcast receiving function and simultaneously delivering content by carousel data broadcasting. In the present embodiment, the content broadcast server 101 distributes information related to position-dependent content by, for example, terrestrial digital broadcasting. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that content broadcast server 101 is connected to communication network 105.

  The content communication server 102 is a server that distributes content to a terminal having a communication function using an Internet protocol. A specific example of the content communication server 102 is a Web server (HTTP server) on the Internet. In the present embodiment, the number of content communication servers 102 is not limited.

  The general Web server 103 is a server that provides content to a terminal having a communication function using the Internet protocol in the same manner as the content communication server 102.

  The content receiving terminal 104 is a mobile terminal having a function of receiving a digital broadcast, a function of accessing a communication network, and a function of acquiring location information such as GPS (Global Positioning System). The content receiving terminal 104 receives content from the content broadcast server 101, the content communication server 102, and the general Web server 103. The content receiving terminal 103 may be any terminal such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or a car navigation system.

  The communication network 105 is a network capable of mutual communication between a server (content broadcasting server 101, content communication server 102, and general Web server 103) and a content receiving terminal 104, and includes the Internet, WAN (Wide Area Network), LAN ( It is an arbitrary network such as a local area network), a wireless network, or a network in which they are combined.

  The radio base station 106 relays communication between the communication network 105 and the mobile content receiving terminal 104.

  The GPS satellite 107 is a satellite used for navigation (positioning) of ships, airplanes, automobiles, and the like. The mobile content receiving terminal 104 receives radio waves from a plurality of GPS satellites 107 and calculates latitude / longitude coordinate values of the current location of the terminal.

  Next, data transmitted and received in the content adaptive distribution system 100 will be described. The content adaptive distribution system 100 can transmit / receive general arbitrary content existing on the Internet, but particularly transmits / receives position-dependent content and its metadata and list content.

  The position-dependent content is content having geographical position information or a geographical distribution range. For example, content such as contents describing information on a store or facility having a latitude / longitude and address, and content such as an advertisement with a limited distribution area correspond to this. In the present embodiment, the HTML content associated with the latitude / longitude coordinate value is set as the position-dependent content. However, the position-dependent content may be content described in a description language other than HTML, or moving image content such as MPEG.

  This position-dependent content is held in the general Web server 103, and can be freely accessed from any HTTP client terminal. That is, the position-dependent content has a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Hereinafter, latitude / longitude coordinate values and addresses are defined as information that defines points and areas in the geographical space, and are referred to as geographical location information. Similarly, a URL (or URI) is defined as information indicating the position of content in the communication network 105, and this is referred to as network position information. That is, the position-dependent content has geographical position information and network position information.

  The general Web server 103 having position-dependent content also has metadata as data accompanying the position-dependent content. In the present embodiment, the metadata of the position-dependent content is described in an XML-compliant description language, and includes at least the geographical position information and the network position information of the actual content. In addition to these, the metadata can include the title and category of the content, text describing the summary, contact information, update date and time, and the like. In addition, “contents in which metadata of position-dependent content is collected” is referred to as “meta information content”. Further, information extracted from the meta information content is referred to as content information.

  Next, list contents will be described. List content is content in which a list of addresses (URIs) indicating the location of position-dependent content is described. In the present embodiment, the list content is described in an XML-compliant description language, and the content information of the position-dependent content is classified according to the geographical position information. That is, when the geographical position information described in the list content is searched, it is possible to refer to the content information of the position dependent content related to the geographical position information.

  Next, the content broadcast server 101 and the content receiving terminal 104 in the content adaptive distribution system of FIG. 1 will be described in detail. Since the content communication server 102 and the general Web server 103 are very general Web servers (HTTP servers), description thereof is omitted. Similarly, the radio base station 106 and the GPS satellite 107 are general communication facilities, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

  First, the internal configuration of the content broadcast server 101 will be described with reference to FIG. The content broadcast server 101 collects meta information content of Web content from the general Web server 103 via the communication network 105, generates list content from the collected meta information content, and distributes the list content by broadcasting.

  The communication interface unit 201 is a communication unit for performing data transmission / reception with another communication device via the communication network 105.

  The meta information content collection unit 202 collects meta information content of web content transmitted from the general web server 103 and stores the collected meta information content in the storage unit 208. In this meta information content, it is assumed that metadata regarding the Web content is described, and at least position information related to the Web content is included. Details of the meta information content will be described later. Further, the meta information content collection unit 202 may search the general Web server 103 connected to the communication network 105 by a robot type search engine and actively acquire the meta information content.

  The tree structure generation unit 203 analyzes the meta information content stored in the storage unit 208 and generates tree structure data that hierarchically represents the geographical positional relationship of the position-dependent content in the content distribution area. The tree structure data is generated by (1) obtaining a content distribution area including all position-dependent contents, (2) dividing the content distribution area into mesh areas, and (3) geographical areas of the mesh area and position-dependent contents. It consists of three processes of generating a tree structure that expresses the positional relationship hierarchically. Details of the tree structure expressing the relationship between the mesh area and the position-dependent content will be described later.

  The list content generation unit 204 refers to the meta information content of the Web content collected by the meta information content collection unit 202 and the tree structure data generated by the tree structure generation unit 203 to generate list content. There are two types of list contents: a case where the list content is composed of only one file and a case where the list content is composed of a plurality of files. When the meta information content included in the content distribution area is small, the list content generation unit 204 describes the tree structure data as one list content and outputs it as one file. On the other hand, when there are many meta information contents included in the content distribution area, the list content generation unit 204 separates the tree structure data into one root tree and a plurality of partial trees, and outputs each tree as list contents. To do. Details of the data format of the list contents will be described later.

  The GUI unit 205 is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for the administrator to control the content broadcast server 101. The administrator of the content broadcast server 101 sets various parameters (for example, conditions such as the number of content searches and search areas) necessary for generating the list content, an instruction for generating the list content, via the GUI unit 205. Alternatively, it is possible to check the content of Web content metadata and list content.

  The content distribution unit 206 distributes the list content generated by the list content generation unit 204 by carousel data broadcasting.

  The broadcast interface unit 207 is a broadcast means for executing a carousel data broadcast in addition to a function of performing a normal digital broadcast.

  The accumulation unit 208 is a data storage unit for accumulating meta information content, tree structure data, and list content of Web content. The meta information content collection unit 202, the tree structure generation unit 203, the list content generation unit 204, the content The delivery unit 206 is connected.

  The control unit 209 controls all the components of the content distribution server 101 and performs scheduling such as generation and distribution of list content.

  The content broadcast server 101 may be configured only by hardware, or may be hardware having a software program execution environment. For example, among the components of the content broadcast server 101, the meta information content collection unit 202, the tree structure generation unit 203, the list content generation unit 204, the content distribution unit 206, and the like can be installed as software programs.

  In the present embodiment, the content broadcast server 101 includes the communication interface 201 and the meta information content collection unit 202. However, the content broadcast server 101 collects the meta information content offline and stores the collected meta information content in the storage unit 208. In this case, the communication interface 201 and the meta information content collection unit 202 may be omitted.

  Next, the internal configuration of the content receiving terminal 104 will be described with reference to FIG. The content receiving terminal 104 can efficiently view web contents related to the current location of the content receiving terminal 104 by using the position information acquired by GPS or the like and the list content acquired from the content broadcasting server 101. Client terminal.

  The broadcast interface 301 is data receiving means for receiving broadcasts such as terrestrial digital broadcasts, satellite broadcasts, and cable televisions, and can receive carousel data broadcasts.

  The communication interface 302 is data transmission / reception means for performing two-way communication with an arbitrary communication device connected to the communication network 105, and is used for acquiring content from a server using the Internet protocol, particularly HTTP.

  The content processing unit 303 acquires data (control message or content) from the broadcast interface 301 or the communication interface 302 in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 308, and executes HTTP proxy processing or content adaptation processing for list content. Further, the data processed in the content processing unit 303 is output to the content display control unit 305.

  The content structure analysis unit 304 performs a structure analysis of the list content in accordance with an instruction from the content processing unit 303. In the structure analysis of the list content, data processing such as expressing the list content as tree structure data and extracting partial data from the tree structure data is performed. Tree structure data obtained as a result of the structure analysis of the list content is temporarily stored in the storage unit 307 as intermediate data for content adaptation processing.

  The content display control unit 305 converts the data (content) acquired from the content processing unit 303 into a format that can be displayed by the browser unit 306. For example, when the browser unit 306 is an XHTML browser, XHTML content is generated using XSLT or the like, and the generated HTML content is output to the browser unit 306.

  The browser unit 306 displays the content acquired from the content display control unit 305, and has the same function as a general Web browser (HTML browser). The browser unit 306 outputs a message (HTTP message) related to content distribution to the content processing unit 303 via the control unit 308, and receives HTML content as a response. The browser unit 306 can also display content acquired from the content broadcast server 101 in the same manner as content acquired from the content communication server.

  The storage unit 307 is a data storage unit used to temporarily store the content being processed by the content processing unit 303 and the content structure analysis unit 304, and includes a memory and a hard disk. For example, content to be subjected to content adaptation processing or content received from broadcasting is temporarily stored in the storage unit 307 and is transmitted to the browser unit 306 via the content display control unit 305 after being subjected to predetermined processing.

  The control unit 308 performs overall control of the content receiving terminal 104. The main function of the control unit 308 is to notify the content processing unit 303 of the position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 309. Also, the control unit 308 instructs the content processing unit 303, the content display control unit 305, and the browser unit 306 to acquire content and display content. For example, the control unit 308 notifies the content processing unit 303 of parameters (reception channel, program identifier, etc.) necessary for acquiring content from the content broadcast server 101, or notifies the browser unit 306. Then, processing such as notifying the address (URL) of the content of the general Web server 103 and the address (file name) of the content stored in the storage unit 307 and instructing display of the content is performed.

  The position information acquisition unit 309 acquires geographical position information (latitude / longitude coordinate values) using GPS or the like, and outputs the acquired position information to the control unit 308. This position information indicates the current location of the mobile content receiving terminal 104. Hereinafter, the position information output by the position information acquisition unit 309 is referred to as interest point position information.

  The map processing unit 310 has functions of general map display applications such as map drawing, map display area change / enlargement / reduction, and map search. This map processing unit 310 is used for displaying the current location of the content receiving terminal 104 or for searching for an arbitrary location (eg, destination) by the user. Further, the map processing unit 310 can also output position information (= interesting point position information) of a specific point on the map to the control unit 308. If the content receiving terminal 104 does not require a map display function, the map processing unit 310 may be omitted.

  The GUI unit 311 has a function of acquiring instructions from users related to content viewing, map display, and map search, a function of selecting content received from the content broadcast server 101 (reception channel selection, etc.), a content communication server 102, and the like. A GUI (Graphical) having a function of specifying an address of content acquired from the Web server 103, a function of presenting information included in the list content received from the content broadcast server 101 to the user, a function of receiving various information inputs from the user, and the like. User Interface).

  Here, the relationship among the content processing unit 303, the content display control unit 305, the browser unit 306, and the control unit 308 will be supplemented. As described above, the content processing unit 303 acquires data from the broadcast interface 301 or the communication interface 302 in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 308, executes HTTP proxy processing or content adaptation processing for list content, and performs post-processing. Is output to the content display control unit 305.

  In the present embodiment, the browser unit 306 is an HTML browser, and displays content acquired by HTTP. Transmission / reception of the HTTP message between the Web server and the browser unit 306 at this time is executed via the communication interface unit 302, the content processing unit 303, and the content display control unit 304. That is, the content processing unit 303 has a function according to an HTTP proxy that relays an HTTP message.

  The control unit 308 gives the content processing unit 303 (1) an instruction to acquire data from the data broadcast, (2) an instruction to acquire list contents and a position adaptation process, and (3) a periodic notification of point of interest position information, I do.

  In (1), the content processing unit 303 acquires content included in the carousel data broadcasting via the broadcast interface 301. The content processing unit 303 receives data according to the specification of the carousel data broadcasting, and temporarily stores the received data in the storage unit 307. The content processing unit 303 notifies the control unit 308 of the address (file name) of the content stored in the storage unit 307 when reception / storage of the content transmitted in a divided manner is completed. The address of this content is notified from the control unit 308 to the browser unit 306, whereby the content received from the content broadcast server 101 and stored in the storage unit 307 is displayed on the browser unit 306.

  In (2), the content processing unit 303 executes position adaptation processing on the list content acquired from the content broadcast server 101 or the content communication server 102. The position adaptation process is a list of web contents included in a region of interest set around a point indicated by point-of-interest position information from a list content that is a list of position information of web content, that is, a local region list content. Indicates the process to be generated.

  In the present embodiment, the local area list content is content that cannot be directly displayed on the browser unit 306. The content processing unit 303 transmits the local area list content to the content display control unit 305. The content display control unit 305 converts the acquired local area list content into content that can be displayed by a browser using XSLT or the like, and outputs the content to the browser unit 306.

  In (3), the content processing unit 303 acquires the interest point position information periodically notified from the control unit, reads the list content accumulated in the accumulation unit 307, and indicates the latest interest point position information. A circular area centering on the point is set as a search area, position adaptation processing is executed, and local area list content is generated. The generated local area list content is output to the content display control unit 305 as in the case of (2). Note that the radius of the circular area is appropriately set in the content processing unit 303 or set by the user via the GUI unit 311.

  As described above, the content processing unit 303 executes the relay process of the HTTP message and the position adaptation process for the content in accordance with the instruction from the browser unit 306 or the control unit 308.

  Next, an overview of services provided to the content receiving terminal 104 in the content adaptive distribution system 100 will be described. FIG. 4 shows a geographical space in which position-dependent content is distributed, that is, a content distribution region, assumed in the present embodiment.

  The content distribution area 400 in FIG. 4 is divided into a rectangular mesh shape with four divisions in the x-axis direction and three divisions in the y-axis direction. Hereinafter, each rectangular mesh is referred to as a geographic content area. Further, numbers starting from 0 are assigned to the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction in FIG. 4, and individual rectangular meshes are represented by xy coordinate values. For example, a rectangular mesh with x coordinate = 2 and y coordinate = 1 is described as a geographical content area (2, 1).

  Within each geographical content area, features such as stores and facilities are distributed. Here, the feature is a technical term used in a GIS (Geographic Information System) field, and refers to “a real-world phenomenon associated with a certain point on the earth”. In the present embodiment, the generic term of what is mapped on the map as “point” or “area” is called “feature”. Specific examples of “features” include buildings, parks, and roads.

  Here, the feature A belonging to the area (0, 2) in FIG. The store A has content on which information related to products handled by the store is posted. Since the content is associated with the store location (latitude / longitude coordinate values), it can be said to be position-dependent content. The store A has a general Web server 103, publishes the URL of the server, and provides the content receiving terminal 104 with the location-dependent content of the store A and its meta information content.

  That is, the general Web server 103 holds the position-dependent content related to the feature A and its meta information content. The position-dependent content related to the feature A has network location information (URL), and the latitude / longitude coordinate value of the point where the feature A exists is associated with the geographical location information.

  In FIG. 4, the content broadcast server 101, the content communication server 102, and the general Web server 103 are not shown. These servers may be located at any positions as long as they can be accessed from the content receiving terminal 104. Further, the geographical position of the feature and the geographical position of the general Web server 103 corresponding to the feature do not necessarily match. That is, the general Web server 103 of the feature A does not need to exist at the position of the feature A, and the general Web server 103 may exist in a completely different location. In FIG. 4, twelve geographical content areas are presented, but the number of geographical content areas may be arbitrary. Similarly, the number of features included in each geographic content area may be arbitrary.

  Next, an outline of content reception in the content receiving terminal 104 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, it is assumed that the content receiving terminal 104 moves from a point 401P to a point 403P via a point 402P, and the user of the content receiving terminal 104 searches for information on the vicinity of the current location during the movement.

  In FIG. 4, circular regions 401R, 402R, and 403R set around respective points 401P, 402P, and 403P are regions of interest ROI (Region Of Interrest). This region of interest ROI is, for example, a region that is set based on the current location of the content receiving terminal 104, and defines a search range for position-dependent content. In the present embodiment, the region of interest ROI is a circular region, but it may have a shape other than a circle.

  The content receiving terminal 104 receives the list content distributed by the content broadcast server 101 while moving on the route shown in FIG. 4, and generates local area list content from the list content. The list content includes information on all position-dependent contents existing in the content distribution area 400, whereas the local area list content includes only information on position-dependent contents in the region of interest. Yes.

  For example, when the content receiving terminal 104 exists at the point 401P, since the feature A and the feature B exist in the region of interest 401R, only the feature A and the feature B are included in the local region list content. Information is described. When the content receiving terminal 104 moves to the point 402P, the local area list content is updated to include only the information on the feature C and the feature D. Furthermore, when the content receiving terminal 104 moves to the point 403P, the local area list content is updated to include only information on the feature E, the feature F, and the feature G.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the local area list content displayed on the browser unit 306 of the content receiving terminal 104. The local area list contents 501, 502, and 503 are obtained by the content receiving terminal 104 at points 401P, 402P, This corresponds to the case of being located at 403P. When the user selects content desired to be viewed from the local area list content displayed on the browser unit 306, the content receiving terminal 104 accesses the general Web server 103 corresponding to the selected content, and is dependent on the browser unit 306 depending on the position. Display content.

  As described above, the content receiving terminal 104 generates local area list content from the list content distributed by broadcasting, and by sequentially updating the local area list content to be presented to the user along with the position movement, it is efficiently position dependent. You can search for content.

  Next, the content format according to the present embodiment will be described.

  First, meta information content of position-dependent content will be described with reference to FIG. The meta information content information of the position-dependent content is described in an XML-compliant description language. In the present embodiment, a meta information content is described by defining a fictitious name space called “ContentInfo”. The namespace prefix (Namespace prefix) is “ci”. Note that all XML description examples presented in this embodiment are incomplete XML documents in which XML declarations, namespace declarations, and the like are omitted.

  In the meta information content 600 of FIG. 6, several types of information regarding the position-dependent content are described between the start tag 601 and the end tag 610 of the ContentInfo element. The description content of the meta information content is not particularly limited, and arbitrary information can be described.

  A location element 605 describes location information of content. The Location element has a Coordinate element, an Address element, and a ZipCode element as child elements. In the Coordinate element, the latitude / longitude coordinate value of the point where the feature corresponding to the position-dependent content exists is described. The Address element and the ZipCode element are elements for describing the address and zip code of the point where the feature corresponding to the position-dependent content exists, respectively. Note that the Coordinate element corresponds to the geographical position information. On the other hand, what is indicated by reference numeral 607 is a Reference element that describes a content reference destination by a URL, and this corresponds to network location information. In the example of FIG. 6, the Coordinate element that is the geographical position information and the Reference element that is the network position information are essential information for the list content generation in the content broadcast server 101.

  The other elements described in FIG. 6 will be briefly described. A language element 602 indicates a language describing the content. Reference numeral 603 describes the title and category of the content, and keywords used for searching. What is indicated by reference numeral 604 is a Date element that summarizes information indicating the creation date, effective period, and update date of the content. Shown at 606 is a ContactAddress element that describes the contact (phone number and email address) associated with the content. What is indicated by reference numeral 608 is a Distribution Range element for describing the distribution range of the content. What is indicated by reference numeral 609 is an Abstract element that describes the outline of the content in text.

  FIG. 7 is a description example of content information. The content information 700 is composed of information extracted from the meta information content 600 and includes at least network location information. The ContentInfo element of the content information 700 includes, as child elements, a Title element, a Category element, a Coordinate element as geographical location information, a Reference element as network location information, and a Metadata element. Here, the Metadata element is an element that describes a reference destination of the content metadata described in the Reference element. That is, the content information 700 includes link information to the meta information content 600.

  The content broadcast server 101 collects a plurality of meta information contents, generates content information from the meta information contents, and further generates a list content. In this list content, content information classified by geographical position information is listed. In the list content, not the meta information content 600 including various information as shown in FIG. 6, but the content information 700 with a reduced amount of information as shown in FIG. 7 is described. This is intended to reduce the total data amount of the list content. Therefore, when the total data amount of the list content is not limited, the meta information content 600 may be described as it is in the list content. Further, the Metadata element included in the content information 700 is intended to allow the meta information content 600 to be referred to.

  Next, the structure and description example of the list content will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The list content is content that lists content information classified by geographical location information described in an XML-compliant description language. Hereinafter, the description language for describing the list contents is called CLML (Contents List Markup Language), and the namespace prefix is “cl”.

  FIG. 8 shows the structure of list content. List content 800 is described by a list content element 810. The list content element 810 includes one mesh area definition 820, one area position information 830, and a plurality of area information blocks 831. Each area information block 831 included in the list content element 810 includes one area position information 840 and a plurality of content information blocks 841. Further, in the list content 800 shown in FIG. 8, each area information block 841 includes one area position information 850 and a plurality of area information blocks 851. Thus, one area information block has a hierarchical structure in which a plurality of area information blocks are included therein.

  Here, the area information block is an element describing information in the geographical content area. Also. The area position information is an element describing position information (eg, position coordinates and shape information of a reference point) of a geographical content area, and an absolute position information description and a relative position information description are possible. The absolute position information is, for example, data composed of latitude / longitude coordinates of the representative reference point of the content area and parameters defining the area shape. On the other hand, the relative position information is an index number (= mesh index number) assigned to each mesh by dividing the content distribution region into meshes. The mesh area definition 820 in FIG. 8 is information defining the content distribution area and the mesh area division.

  The area information block 851 located at the lowest layer in the list content 800 is composed of area position information 860 and a plurality of content information blocks 861. The content information block 861 includes geographical location information 870 and content information 871, and the content information 871 includes at least network location information 880. Here, the content information block is an element describing meta information of one position-dependent content. Note that the list content in FIG. 8 is composed of three layers of area information blocks, but the area information blocks may have any number of layers.

  In the example of FIG. 8, the list content 800 is composed of one file, but the list content can be divided into a plurality of files. 9 and 10 are diagrams showing the structure of list content composed of a plurality of files. The list content in FIG. 9 describes area information blocks up to the second level of the list content 800 in FIG. 8 and link information to the area information blocks in the third level. On the other hand, the list content in FIG. 10 describes area information blocks in the third and lower layers.

  8, 9, and 10 are all list contents. In order to distinguish these, FIG. 8 is called the whole tree list content, FIG. 9 is called the root tree list content, and FIG. 10 is the partial tree. Called list content. Further, the entire tree list content composed of FIGS. 9 and 10 is composed of one root tree list content and a plurality of partial tree list contents. Note that the entire tree list content may be divided into a root tree and a partial tree even in an area information block of an arbitrary hierarchy, and the partial tree list content can be further divided into partial trees.

  Next, the list content 900 corresponding to the root tree of FIG. 9 will be described. List content 900 is described by a list content element 910. The list content element 910 includes one mesh area definition 920, one file relation information 930, one area position information 940, and a plurality of area information blocks 941. Each area information block 941 included in the list content element 910 includes one area position information 950 and a plurality of area information blocks 951. Further, each area information block 951 includes one area position information 960 and a plurality of area information URIs 961.

  Here, the area information URI 961 is link information to the partial tree list content. For example, if the partial tree list content is Web content, the area information URI 961 describes the URL of the content. The file relationship information 930 is an element that describes the relationship between the root tree list content and the partial tree list content. For example, the file-related information 930 of the partial tree list content describes the URI of the list content corresponding to the root tree. Similarly, in the file relation information 930 of the root tree list content having a partial tree, information indicating the presence or absence of the partial tree is described. If the list content is not separated into a root tree and a partial tree but is composed of one file, the file relation information 930 may not be present.

  Next, the list content 1000 corresponding to the partial tree in FIG. 10 will be described. List content 1000 is described by list content element 1010. The list content element 1010 includes one mesh area definition 1020, one file relation information 1030, one area position information 1040, and a plurality of area information blocks 1041. Each area information block 1041 included in the list content element 1010 includes one area position information 1050 and a plurality of content information blocks 1051. Each content information block 1051 includes one piece of geographical location information 1060 and content information 1061. The content information 1061 includes at least network location information 1070. When the mesh area definition is common with the root tree list content, the mesh area definition 1020 may not be provided. If there is no need to refer to the root tree from the partial tree, the file-related information 930 may not be included in the partial tree list content. Further, when the partial tree list content has a mesh area definition, the partial tree list content is a part of the whole tree and also functions as a whole tree list content by itself. That is, the content receiving terminal 104 can search for content by using only the partial tree list content without referring to the root tree list content.

  Next, it supplements about the relationship between a mesh area and an area information block. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a geographical relationship between the content distribution area and the mesh area. In FIG. 11, regarding the content distribution region 1100 divided into 8 × 8 meshes, a group of 2 × 2 meshes is defined as a higher mesh, and the 2 × 2 meshes are further grouped with respect to the higher meshes to obtain 3 Defines a hierarchical mesh hierarchy. This modified structure corresponds to the hierarchical structure of the area information block of the list content presented in FIG.

  A mesh hierarchical structure 1110 and a mesh hierarchical structure 1120 in FIG. 11 illustrate area information blocks of the root tree list content in FIG. 9 and the partial tree list content in FIG. 10, respectively. The mesh hierarchical structure 1110 represents the relationship between the area information blocks of the first hierarchy and the second hierarchy of the root tree list content 900 of FIG. The root tree list content 900 includes four area information blocks as the first hierarchy. This corresponds to 1111 in FIG. Each of the four area information blocks in the first layer has four area information blocks. This corresponds to 1112 in FIG.

  In FIG. 9, the area information block of the second hierarchy has link information (area information URI 961) to the partial tree list content. This link information indicates the mesh hierarchical structure 1120 in FIG. This mesh structure 1120 represents the relationship between the area information block and the content information block of the partial tree list content 1000 of FIG. The partial tree list content 1000 includes four area information blocks. This corresponds to 1121 in FIG. Each area information block has a plurality of content information blocks. This content information block corresponds to meta information of position-dependent content in the mesh area.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, the content distribution area is divided into hierarchical mesh areas, which are represented by a tree structure, and the tree structure is divided into a root tree and a partial tree. Further, the geographical positional relationship between the mesh area having a hierarchical structure and the position-dependent content is described as an XML document.

  Here, the reason why mesh area division is performed will be described. The list content presented in FIG. 8, FIG. 9, and FIG. 10 manages the meta information of the position-dependent content existing in the content distribution area. When managing position-dependent contents included in a content distribution area in a lump, if the number of position-dependent contents increases, the processing time required for search becomes longer and the management of contents becomes complicated. Therefore, as shown by 1100 in FIG. 11, the content distribution area is divided into meshes, and the content is managed in units of meshes. In this way, when searching for position-dependent content based on position information, the processing efficiency can be improved by a two-step search process, that is, a corresponding mesh area search and a content search within a mesh.

  Next, the reason why the mesh area is hierarchized will be described. When the content distribution area is vast and the number of position-dependent contents included therein is enormous, it is necessary to increase the number of mesh divisions of the content distribution area. As the number of mesh areas increases, the processing time required to search for mesh areas increases. Therefore, in order to further increase the efficiency of processing time, the mesh area is hierarchized so that the search area can be narrowed down in stages.

  Next, the reason for dividing the list content into a root tree and a partial tree will be described. The content distribution area is widened, the number of position-dependent content is increased, the hierarchical structure of the list content is deepened, and the number of branches of the tree is also increased. For example, consider a list content whose content distribution area is the entire country of Japan. The content receiving terminal 104 having a movement range only in a certain limited area does not need information on the entire area of Japan, and it is sufficient to hold only information on a geographical area corresponding to the movement range. Assuming such a case, it can be said that it is desirable to manage information by dividing a file in area units rather than managing all information with one list content. Therefore, the list content is divided into a root tree describing the hierarchical structure of the mesh area and a plurality of partial trees describing information of the mesh area of the lower layer, and the list required by each content receiving terminal 104 Only content can be acquired. Moreover, dividing the list content into a root tree and a partial tree has an advantage that position-dependent content can be distributed and managed for each region. That is, the root tree list content is wide area information in which a URI to the area information is described, and the partial tree list content functions as area information distributed and managed for each area. In addition, it is possible to collect list contents created for each region, use the list contents as partial tree list contents, and create root tree list contents that integrate the partial tree list contents.

  In the example of FIG. 11, the list content has a tree structure based on a 2 × 2 mesh. However, any tree structure (hierarchy) may be used depending on the number of position-dependent contents and the number of mesh divisions of the content distribution area. A list content having a number, a partial tree division position, etc.) may be constructed.

  In this way, information describing the geographical location relationship between the mesh area representing the position dependent content distribution area and the position dependent content is divided into one root tree list content and a plurality of partial tree list contents for distribution. Therefore, the content receiving apparatus can receive only the partial tree list content including the information around the current location by referring to the root tree list content, and can efficiently search the position-dependent content around the current location. Can do.

  Subsequently, the list contents will be described with reference to a description example by CLML. FIG. 12 shows the basic structure of the CLML content. The list content 1200 in FIG. 12 is surrounded by a Clml start tag and a Clml end tag, and a Component element 1201 is included therein. This Component element 1201 has, as child elements, a LocationCondition element 1202 that describes a position condition, and a Container element 1203 that describes text data that is selected (extracted) when the position condition is satisfied. That is, in the position adaptation process, the position condition described in the LocationCondition element 1201 is referred to. If this condition is satisfied, the contents of the Container element are output. As a result, a document including no CLML tag is generated.

  In the example of FIG. 12, there is only one Component element in the Clml element, but it is possible to enumerate and describe the Component elements. Further, the Container element can have a Component element as a child element. By combining the parallel description of the Component element and the nested description of the Component element, the list contents presented in FIGS. 8, 9, and 10 can be expressed as an XML document. Note that the LocationCondition element cannot be used alone, whereas the Container element can be used alone. In this case, since the condition regarding the position is always “true”, it means that the Component element and the Location Condition element are omitted, and only the Container element is described.

  FIG. 13 shows the basic structure of list contents described in CLML. This example corresponds to a list content composed of one file as shown in FIG. The list content 1300 in FIG. 13 is surrounded by a Clml start tag 1301 and a Clml end tag 1304, and includes one MeshAreaDef element 1302 and one Component element 1303.

  The MeshAredDef element 1302 in FIG. 13 will be described. The MeshAreaDef element 1302 is an element that is described only once at the top of the list content, and describes a parameter that defines the mesh distribution method of the content distribution region, that is, a mesh area definition. In the example of FIG. 13, the MeshAreaDef element 1302 indicates the entire part surrounded by the MeshAreaDef start tag 1305 and the MeshAreaDef end tag 1310. The MeshAreaDef start tag 1305 has a type attribute for indicating the shape of the mesh basic unit. In this example, the basic mesh unit is a rectangle. The MeshAreaDef element 1302 has a MeshOrigin element 1306, an AreaSize element 1307, a NumOfMesh element 1308, and a TreeStructure element 1309 as child elements.

  A Mesh Origin element 1306 describes a mesh division reference point (= content distribution region reference point). The Mesh Origin start tag has a pos attribute, and any vertices of the rectangle are designated by this pos attribute. Then, the latitude / longitude coordinates of the point indicated by the pos attribute are defined by the Coordinate element of the child element. In the example of FIG. 13, the upper right vertex of the rectangular area is used as the reference point.

  The AreaSize element 1307 describes the length of the side of the content distribution area. Here, the mesh basic unit corresponds to a geographical content area. In the example of FIG. 13, the unit of length is specified by the unit attribute, and the length of the vertical and horizontal sides of the content distribution area is defined as 4000 m by the x attribute and the y attribute.

  The NumOfMesh element 1308 describes the number of mesh reference units arranged in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction. In this example, the x attribute and the y attribute define that eight rectangular meshes are arranged in the x-axis direction and eight rectangular meshes are arranged in the y-axis direction.

  In the TreeStructure element 1309, tree structure information of the mesh area is described. In this example, the number of mesh area layers is defined by the NumOfLayer attribute of the TreeStructure element 1309, and the number of meshes in the first and second layers is defined by the LayerInfo element that is a child element. The LayerInfo element has a layer attribute indicating a layer number, and an x attribute and a y attribute indicating the number of meshes arranged in the x and y directions. In the example of FIG. 13, it is described that the first layer is composed of 4 × 4 and the second layer is composed of 2 × 2 mesh areas.

  The mesh area definition has an advantage that the content description amount can be reduced and the readability of the content can be improved by relatively expressing the area position information of each mesh area included in the list content. . The mesh area definition also has an advantage that the arrangement of geographical content areas existing in the content distribution area can be grasped without analyzing the entire list content.

  In addition, since the root tree list content and the partial tree list content each independently have a mesh area definition, the content receiving terminal 104 can also execute content search using the partial tree list content alone. Furthermore, since the content receiving terminal 104 identifies a mesh area that is geographically overlapped with the search area by referring to the mesh area definition given to the list content, the content receiving terminal 104 searches all unit meshes included in the list content. Therefore, it is possible to access only the mesh area to be searched for position-dependent content and perform content search efficiently.

  In the example of FIG. 13, for the sake of simplicity, a rectangular area having sides parallel to the longitude line and the latitude line is set, but a mesh basic unit having an inclination with respect to the longitude line and the latitude line is set. It is also possible to extend the description method of the MeshAreaDef element 1302 as possible.

  Next, the component element 1303 in FIG. 13 will be described. The Component element 1303 includes a Location Condition element 1311 and a Component element 1312. The Component element 1312 includes four Component elements 1313a to 1313d.

  A Location Condition element 1311 in FIG. 13 corresponds to the area position information 830 in FIG. 8 and is an element describing the geographical position information associated with the Container element 1312. Since the list content in FIG. 13 has a mesh area definition 1302, the area position information is described by a layer number and an in-layer mesh index number using a MeshPosition element. The Component element 1303 corresponds to the entire content distribution region, that is, the mesh area of the uppermost layer, so that the layer number = 0 is defined and the mesh index number in the layer is defined as none. Accordingly, in the Location Condition element 1311, only the layer number is described by the layer attribute of the MeshPosition element.

  Component elements 1313a to 1313d in FIG. 13 correspond to the area information block 831 in FIG. Here, the Component element 1313a will be described as an example. The Component element 1313a is an area information block that describes information related to the mesh area having the layer number = 1 and the mesh index number (0, 0) within the layer. In the Component element 1313a, area position information and an area information block or a content information block included in the area are described. When the component element 1313a includes an area information block, a layer number and a mesh index number are described as area position information. On the other hand, when a content information block is included in the Component element 1313a, the latitude / longitude coordinate values of the feature corresponding to the position-dependent content are described as the area position information.

  FIG. 14 shows the skeleton structure of the content information block. The content information block 1400 indicates the entire part surrounded by the component start tag and the component end tag, and includes a LocationCondition element 1401 describing the geographical position information and a Container element 1402 corresponding to the content information. It is.

  In the geographical position information 1401, geographical position information related to the position-dependent content corresponding to the content information 1402 is described. For example, when the position-dependent content is a store, the geographical position information 1401 describes latitude / longitude coordinate values indicating the location where the store is located. Note that the information described in the geographical location information 1401 is extracted from the meta information content of the location-dependent content presented in FIG.

  On the other hand, in the content information 1402, the metadata of the position-dependent content is described by the ContentInfo element in the Container element. The content information 1402 includes at least network location information described by a Reference element. Further, the content information 1402 may include the same information as the geographical location information 1401, that is, information indicating the geographical location to which the location-dependent content is related.

  Next, a specific example of list contents divided into a root tree and a partial tree is shown. 15 to 20 show root tree list contents, and FIGS. 21 to 25 show partial tree list contents.

  The root tree list contents shown in FIGS. 15 to 20 will be described. Hereinafter, the content composed of 1500-1 to 1500-6 shown in FIGS. 15 to 20 will be referred to as root tree list content 1500. This root tree list content 1500 describes the data structure as shown in FIG. 9 as an XML document. At the top of the root tree list content 1500 is a Relationship element 1501 describing file-related information and a MeshAreaDef element 1502 describing a mesh area definition. Have.

  The Relationship element 1501 is an element for describing the relationship between the list contents divided into the root tree and the partial tree. In this example, it is described that there is no parent tree and there is a partial tree that is a child tree. Yes. That is, the root tree list content 1500 has link information (URI) to the partial tree list content existing as a separate file.

  A MeshAreaDef element 1502 describes a mesh area dividing method of the content distribution area. In this example, a content distribution area having a square of 4000 m on one side is divided into 4 × 4 meshes, and a two-level tree structure is given thereto. The first layer of the tree is composed of a 2 × 2 mesh area (the length of one side of the unit mesh is 2000 m), and the second layer of the tree is a 2 × 2 mesh area (the length of one side of the unit mesh). 1000m). Therefore, the content distribution area managed by the partial tree list content defined in another file is a square area having a side length of 1000 m.

  In the partial tree list content, an area of 1000 m × 1000 m is divided into 2 × 2 mesh areas, and each of the mesh areas of a square area of 500 m × 500 m which is the minimum unit has two position-dependent contents each. Is assumed to exist. At this time, since there are 8 × 8 = 64 minimum mesh areas in the entire content distribution area, there are a total of 128 position-dependent contents in the content distribution area.

  The root tree list content 1500 has a Component element corresponding to the entire content distribution region, that is, the Layer number = 0 after the mesh area definition 1502. This Component element has a Location Condition element in which area position information is described, and a Container element including in-area information. As described above, the Container element can have a Component element as a child element, and expresses the hierarchical structure of the mesh area by parallel description and nested description of the Component element.

  Here, it supplements about the LocationCondition element 1503 and the LocationCondition element 1504 in FIG. These LocationCondition elements have a MeshPosition element and a NumberOfContents element as child elements. However, the NumberOfContents element may be omitted.

  Since the Location Condition element 1503 corresponds to the entire content distribution area, it is a mesh area of the 0th layer. The mesh area of the 0th layer has one mesh and no mesh index number is required. Therefore, the MeshPosition element is an empty element, and only the 0th layer is described by the Layer attribute. In the NumberOfContents element, the number of position-dependent contents (= 128) included in the mesh area of the 0th layer is described. Note that the NumberOfContents element is referred to in order to confirm the approximate number of contents when searching for contents.

  As described above, since the number of position-dependent contents belonging to the geographical area corresponding to each unit mesh area is described in the wide area information content and the regional information content, the content receiving apparatus can detect the position included in the search area. The approximate number of position-dependent contents can be grasped without actually searching for position-dependent contents having information from local information contents.

  The mesh area definition 1502 defines that the mesh area of the first layer is divided into 2 × 2. That is, in the Container element corresponding to the Location Condition element 1503, there are four mesh areas whose mesh index numbers are (0, 0) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 1).

  The Location Condition element 1504 is area position information corresponding to the first mesh area of the first layer. Therefore, the content of the MeshPosition element describing the mesh index number is “0, 0”, and the Layer attribute is Layer = “1”. In the NumberOfContent element, the number of position-dependent contents (= 32) included in the mesh area of the 0th layer is described.

  Next, the Component element 1601 in FIG. 16 will be described. This Component element 1601 corresponds to the mesh area of the mesh index number (0, 0) of the second layer. In FIG. 9, the Component element 1601 corresponds to the area information block 951, the LocationCondition element as a child element corresponds to the area position information 960, and the Container element corresponds to the area information URI 961.

  The area information URI is described by a Reference element. The Container element that is a child element of the Component element 1601 includes two Reference elements 1602 and 1603. The Reference element is an element describing the URI of the partial tree list content, and has a type attribute indicating the type of URI. The attribute value of the type attribute includes “source” and “cache”. The attribute value “source” means that the URI indicates the location of the original partial tree list content, and the attribute value “cache” indicates the location of the partial tree list content that has been received and stored in the content receiving terminal 104. It means to show.

  With respect to the Reference element 1603 in FIG. 16, the type attribute is “cache”, and the “existence” element indicating the existence of data is “no”. This indicates that the content receiving terminal 104 has not received the partial tree list content indicated by the Reference element 1602. When the content receiving terminal 104 receives / stores the partial tree list content, the reference element 1603 is updated, and if the URI of the stored partial tree list content is described, it is necessary to repeatedly receive the partial tree list content. Thus, it is possible to efficiently execute the position-dependent content search process using the list content. When the list content is distributed, the Reference element 1603 whose type attribute value is “cache” may not be described. When receiving / accumulating the partial tree list content, the content receiving terminal 104 additionally describes a Reference element whose type attribute value is “cache” in the root tree list content as necessary. In this way, after receiving and storing the root tree list content and the partial tree list content, the stored partial tree list content can be reused when the content receiving terminal is powered off and restarted. .

  First, the content receiving terminal 104 acquires the root tree list content 1500, sequentially refers to the mesh area from the upper layer to the lower layer, and limits the mesh area that overlaps the region of interest ROI. When the area information URI to be referred to is determined, the content receiving terminal 104 acquires partial tree list content from the content broadcast server 101 or the content communication server 102.

  Subsequently, the partial tree list contents shown in FIGS. 21 to 25 will be described. Hereinafter, content composed of 2100-1 to 2100-5 shown in FIGS. 21 to 25 will be referred to as partial tree list content 2100. There are 16 partial tree list contents corresponding to the root tree list content 1500, one of which is the partial tree list content 2100.

  This partial tree list content 2100 describes a data structure as shown in FIG. 10 as an XML document. At the top of the partial tree list content 2100, there are a Relationship element 2101 describing file-related information and a MeshAreaDef element 2102 describing mesh area definitions. Have. The Relationship element and the MeshAreaDef element are the same as those described in FIG.

  The Relationship element 2101 indicates the presence or absence of the root tree list content by a Parent element as a child element, and a partial tree that is further divided into files in a lower hierarchy of the partial tree list content 2100 by a Child element that is also a child element. Indicates whether or not list content exists. In the example of FIG. 21, the URI of the root tree list content existing in the upper hierarchy of the partial tree list content 2100 is described, and it is shown that the partial tree list content does not exist in the lower hierarchy. Thus, if the URI of the root tree list content corresponding to the upper hierarchy is described in the partial tree list content, even when the content receiving terminal 104 first receives the partial tree list content, the partial tree list content By referring to the root tree list content corresponding to, the partial tree list content corresponding to the position adjacent to the mesh area corresponding to the first received partial tree list content can be easily accessed. That is, the content receiving terminal 104 can execute the data receiving process and the search process for the position-dependent content around the current location without specifying the acquisition order of the root tree list content and the partial tree list content.

  Regarding the Relationship element 2101, the Parent element whose type attribute attribute value is “source” describes the URI of the root tree list content corresponding to the partial tree list content 2100, and the attribute value of the type attribute The Parent element with “cache” indicates that there is no received and accumulated root tree list content. When receiving the partial tree list content after receiving and storing the root tree list content, the content receiving terminal 104 receives a URI (file name) indicating the storage location of the root tree list content as a Parent element that is a child element of the Relationship element 2101. ) Is added. Thus, by describing the URI of the received / stored root tree list content in the partial tree list content, the root tree list content can be efficiently referred to from the partial tree list content without repeating the reception process. Is possible.

  The MeshAreaDef element 2102 describes a mesh area dividing method related to the content distribution area under the management of the partial tree list content 2100. In this example, the content distribution area whose side is 1000 m square is divided into 2 × 2 meshes.

  The partial tree list content 2100 has a Component element 2103 corresponding to Layer number = 0 after the mesh area definition 2102. This Component element has a Location Condition element in which area position information is described, and a Container element including in-area information. The Component element, the Location Condition element, and the Container element are the same as those described in FIG. 15, and the hierarchical structure of the mesh area is described by these elements.

  Here, it supplements about the LocationCondition element 2201 and the Component element 2202 in FIG. A Location Condition element 2201 is an element describing area position information of a mesh area having a mesh index number (0, 0) in the first layer. In the Cotainer element paired with the Location Condition element 2201, content information included in the mesh area is listed, and one of the content information is a Component element 2202.

  The Component element 2202 corresponds to the content information block 1051 in FIG. 10, and includes a LocationCondition element indicating the geographical position information of the position-dependent content and content information including meta information of the position-dependent content. This content information includes the URI of the position-dependent content.

  Subsequently, content adaptation processing for the list content presented in FIGS. 15 to 20 and FIGS. 21 to 25 will be described. The content receiving terminal 104 specifies partial tree list content 2100 having information included in the region of interest ROI from the root tree list content 1500, and extracts content information included in the region of interest ROI from the partial tree list content 2100. The URI included in the content information is link information to the position-dependent content included in the region of interest ROI.

  The content receiving terminal 104 includes (1) setting a region of interest ROI, (2) analyzing root tree list content, (3) obtaining partial tree list content, (4) analyzing partial tree list content, and (5) region of interest. A series of processes of acquiring the URI of the position-dependent content included in the ROI and (6) acquiring / displaying the position-dependent content are repeated.

  The analysis of the list contents in (2) and (4) corresponds to position adaptation processing for the list contents. Here, a supplementary description will be given of the position adaptation processing of the content receiving terminal 104.

  First, the content receiving terminal 104 refers to the mesh area definition 1502 described at the top of the root tree list content 1500, and acquires information related to the mesh distribution method of the content distribution region and the hierarchical structure of the mesh area.

  Next, the content receiving terminal 104 analyzes the LocationCondition element 1503 of the Component element (at the highest hierarchy) located on the outermost side of the root tree list content. The LocationCondition element 1503 has a Layer attribute and has a mesh index number as the content. From the attribute value of the Layer attribute, the mesh index number, and the mesh area definition, geographical position information (latitude / longitude coordinates of the reference point and area shape) of the mesh area can be calculated. The content receiving terminal 104 determines whether the region of interest ROI and the mesh area overlap geographically. If it is determined that they overlap, the content receiving terminal 104 analyzes the content of the Container element corresponding to the Location Condition element 1503 to be analyzed Execute.

  In the Container element, four Component elements corresponding to the mesh area of the first hierarchy are included, and each of these Component elements has a LocationCondition element. As described above, the content receiving terminal 104 calculates position information of each area from the Location Condition element and the mesh area definition, and determines whether the region of interest ROI overlaps with the mesh area. When the same processing is repeated recursively, the area information URI included in the area information block at the lowest layer of the root tree list content is reached.

  The content receiving terminal 104 also performs processing similar to that of the root tree list content for the partial tree content, and extracts content information from the Component element corresponding to the lowermost mesh area that overlaps the region of interest ROI.

  FIG. 26 illustrates an example of a content distribution area and a mesh area. The content distribution area in FIG. 26 is divided into 4 × 4 mesh areas in accordance with the root tree list content 1500. Of the 4 × 4 mesh area, the upper right mesh area 2601 corresponds to the partial tree list content 2100 and is further divided into 2 × 2 mesh areas. In addition, regarding the mesh area 2601, position-dependent contents C1 to C8 distributed therein are displayed.

  Under such conditions, the region of interest ROI 2602 is set in the mesh area of FIG. The output result of the position adaptation process at this time, that is, the local area list content is shown in FIG. In FIG. 26, the position-dependent contents C2 and C5 exist inside the region of interest ROI 2602. When the position adaptation process is appropriately performed on the partial tree list content 2100, as shown in FIG. 27, the local area list content includes only the content information of the position-dependent contents C2 and C5. Note that the local area list content in FIG. 27 is an incomplete XML document, but in actual operation, the content receiving terminal 104 outputs the local area list content as a well-formed XML document.

  The position adaptation processing of the content receiving terminal 104 has been described above while presenting specific examples of list content described in CLML.

  Next, specific operations of the content broadcast server 101 and the content receiving terminal 104 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, the operation of the content broadcast server 101 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing the meta information content collection processing of the content broadcast server 101. The content broadcast server 101 collects metadata of position-dependent content, that is, meta information content from a general Web server 103 existing on the Internet. As a method for collecting meta information content, (1) a method for passively acquiring meta information content transmitted from the general Web server 103, and (2) a robot type search engine installed, A method of searching and actively acquiring content information is conceivable. In the present embodiment, the method (1) is used. In addition, the format of the meta information content conforms to the format presented in FIG.

  The meta information content collection processing in FIG. 28 is executed by the meta information content collection unit 202 of the content broadcast server 101. First, the meta information content collection unit 202 receives a metadata registration request transmitted from the general Web server 103 in step S2801. In this step, when there is no metadata registration request, the metadata information content collection unit 202 stands by in a reception waiting state, and when a metadata registration request is received, the process proceeds to the next step.

  In step S2802, the meta information content collection unit 202 confirms the content of the metadata registration request and returns a response notifying the registration result to the transmission source of the metadata registration request. In the metadata registration request, information that should not be described in the metadata of the position-dependent content, such as the contract contents between the operator of the content broadcast server 101 and the operator of the general Web server, or should not be described Contains information. In this step, the metadata information content collection unit 202 confirms the content of the metadata registration request, determines permission / rejection of metadata registration, and returns a response to the general Web server 103.

  S2803 is a metadata reception processing step. In this step, the meta information content collection unit 202 receives the meta information content transmitted by the general Web server 103 that has notified the metadata registration permission in S2802.

  S2804 is a metadata registration processing step. In this step, the meta information content collection unit 202 accumulates the meta information content in the accumulation unit 208 after confirming the content of the meta information content received in S2803. Note that meta information content that does not satisfy a predetermined format is not stored in the storage unit 208.

  S2805 is a metadata registration completion notification step. In this step, the metadata information content collection unit 202 notifies the result of the metadata registration processing in S2804 to the general Web server 103 that is the metadata transmission source.

  S2806 is an end determination step of the meta information content collection process. In this step, the meta information content collection unit 202 performs continuation / end determination of meta information content collection. When the collection is continued, the process returns to S2801 and a series of processing is repeated. The collection end condition may be arbitrary.

  The meta information content collection unit 202 collects a large number of meta information contents from the general Web server 103 by executing steps S2801 to S2806. Note that the method for receiving the metadata registration request and the method for receiving the metadata may be any method. For example, the content broadcast server 101 publishes a data registration Web page, and an administrator of a general Web server registers meta information content using the registration Web page. In the flowchart of FIG. 28, S2801 and S2802 may be omitted and the meta information content may be directly received.

  As described above, the content broadcast server 101 according to the present embodiment collects content information from the servers scattered on the network, so that the wide area information content targeted for position-dependent content distributed over a wide geographical area, and the region It is easy to generate information content, and it is possible to provide highly convenient information to the user.

  Next, the list content generation process of the content broadcast server 101 will be described. The list content generation process is executed by the tree structure generation unit 203 and the content generation unit 204 of the content broadcast server 101. This list content generation processing is processing for generating list content from meta information content collected from the general Web server 103, and is periodically executed according to the collection status of meta information content. In the list content generation process, list contents as shown in FIGS. 15 to 20 and FIGS. 21 to 25 are generated, and the list contents are stored in the storage unit 208. FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing list content generation processing.

  In FIG. 29, in S2901 and S2902, parameters necessary for list content generation are determined.

  S2901 is a content distribution range calculation process. In this step, the tree structure generation unit 203 analyzes the meta information content stored in the storage unit 208. The meta information content includes data indicating the geographical position information of the position-dependent content. In the case of the meta information content of FIG. 6, the Coordinate element (latitude / longitude coordinate value) included in the Location element 605 corresponds to this. The tree structure generation unit 203 extracts position information of position-dependent content from all meta information contents related to list content generation, and obtains a rectangular area including all of the data. In the present embodiment, a latitude / longitude coordinate system is approximated to an orthogonal coordinate system to determine a rectangle composed of parallel lines or parallel lines with meridians. Here, the content distribution area is defined by the latitude / longitude coordinates of the upper left and lower right vertices of the rectangle.

  S2902 is a mesh area | region division | segmentation process step. In this step, the tree structure generation unit 203 divides the content distribution region determined in S2901 into a mesh shape. In the present embodiment, the basic unit of the mesh is a rectangle. The size of the mesh is set in consideration of the distribution density of position-dependent content. The data size of one partial tree list content is proportional to the number of position-dependent contents included therein. If the number of position-dependent content included in the partial tree list content is not appropriate, content reception and content search cannot be performed efficiently at the content receiving terminal 104. Therefore, the content distribution area is appropriately set according to the distribution density of the position-dependent content. Need to be divided into meshes.

  S2903 is a meta information content area classification process. In this step, the tree structure generation unit 203 distributes all meta information contents related to list content generation to the mesh area (= geographic content area) set in S2902. That is, with reference to the geographical position information described in each meta information content, it is determined to which geographical content area the position-dependent content belongs, and the meta information content is classified for each area.

  S2904 is a list content tree structure generation process. In this step, the tree structure generation unit 203 generates a tree structure as shown in FIG. 11 with reference to the mesh area set in S2902. This tree structure is a hierarchical (pyramid) definition of a high-order mesh consisting of 2x2 meshes based on the smallest unit of the mesh. Meta information content is positioned at the lowest layer of this tree structure. It is done. When the meta information content contained in the content distribution area is small, the relationship between the mesh area and the position-dependent content is expressed by one tree structure as shown in FIG. 8, and the list content is described by one file. On the other hand, when there are many meta information contents included in the content distribution area, the tree structure defining the relationship between the mesh area and the position-dependent contents is separated into a root tree and a partial tree, and each is used as a list content. In S2904, list content corresponding to the root tree is generated.

  The loop processing from S2905 to S2906 in FIG. 29 is processing for generating list content corresponding to the partial tree. In the present embodiment, the loop processing of S2905 to S2906 is repeated as many times as the number of list contents corresponding to the partial tree.

  When the tree structure generation unit 203 and the list content generation unit 204 execute the list content generation process of FIG. 29, the list content corresponding to the root tree as shown in FIGS. 15 to 20 and the cases shown in FIGS. A list content corresponding to a partial tree is generated. In this example, the root tree has one list content and the partial tree has 16 list contents. Note that link information linking the structures of the root tree and the partial tree is added to the list contents of the root tree and the partial tree.

  Next, content distribution processing of the content broadcast server 101 will be described. The list content distribution process is executed by the content distribution unit 206 of the content broadcast server 101. This content distribution process is a process for distributing the list content generated by the list content generation unit 204 to the content receiving terminal 104 by carousel data broadcasting. FIG. 30 is a flowchart showing content distribution processing of the content broadcast server 101.

  S3001 is preprocessing for content distribution. In this step, the content distribution unit 206 executes processing necessary for starting data broadcasting, such as reading list contents from the storage unit 208 and setting a data transmission schedule.

  The processing loop constituted by S3002 and S3003 corresponds to a process of actually distributing list contents by carousel data broadcasting. In actual data broadcasting, a plurality of contents are multiplexed and distributed. That is, in S3002 and S3003, the content distribution unit 206 repeats transmission of the list content divided into predetermined units until the end of the list content is reached. In the present embodiment, the list content is composed of 17 files (list content corresponding to the root tree and 16 partial trees). Therefore, the data transmission processing is performed with these 17 files as one set. Executed.

  Further, the content distribution unit 206 returns to S3001 and repeats the list content distribution processing unless the end of transmission is detected in S3004.

  As described above, the content broadcasting server 101 generates the list content as shown in FIGS. 15 to 20 and FIGS. 21 to 25 from the meta information content collected from the general Web server 103, and the content receiving terminal 104. The list contents are distributed.

  The content communication server 102 has the same function as the content broadcast server 101. The content communication server 102 executes the meta information content collection process of FIG. 28 and the list content generation process of FIG. The content may be distributed to the content receiving terminal 104. Further, both the content broadcast server 101 and the content communication server 102 may perform processing corresponding to FIGS. Further, the content broadcast server 101 generates a root tree list content and a partial tree list content in consideration of the distributed arrangement of the partial tree list content, and distributes the partial tree list content to the plurality of content communication servers 102. May be. Alternatively, in a plurality of content communication servers 102, meta information content collection processing and partial tree list content generation are performed for regions under the control of each content communication server 102, and each content communication server 102 is processed in the content broadcast server 101. The root tree list content corresponding to the partial tree list content generated by may be generated.

  Next, the operation of the content receiving terminal 104 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  First, the message processing procedure of the content receiving terminal 104 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 31 is a flowchart showing a message processing procedure in the content processing unit 303 according to the present embodiment. In the message processing shown in FIG. 31, the content processing unit 303 processes a message notified from the browser unit 306 or the control unit 308, and executes position information processing or content distribution processing depending on the type of message. .

  In step S <b> 3101, the content processing unit 303 waits for message reception from the browser unit 306 or the control unit 308. When the content processing unit 303 receives a message, the process proceeds to the next step. The message received by the content processing unit 303 is either an HTTP message GET command, an extended HTTP message notifying location information, or an extended HTTP message requesting broadcast reception.

  In step S3102, the content processing unit 303 analyzes the received message and determines whether the message is a message for notifying position information. If the message is a message for notifying position information, the process proceeds to position information processing in S3103, and if it is any other message, the process proceeds to S3104.

  In step S3103, the content processing unit 303 executes position information processing. Here, the position information processing is a process for position information notified from the control unit 308. When this process ends, the process moves to the next S3107. Details of the position information processing will be described later.

  In step S3104, the content processing unit 303 determines whether the received message is a message requesting data broadcast reception. If the message is a request for broadcast reception, the process proceeds to S3105, and if it is another message, that is, an HTTP GET command, the process proceeds to S3106.

  In step S3105, the content processing unit 303 executes data broadcast processing. Here, the data broadcast processing is processing for acquiring content distributed by the content broadcast server 101 through carousel data broadcasting. Details of the data broadcasting process will be described later.

  In step S3106, the content processing unit 303 executes content distribution processing. Here, the content acquisition process is a process of distributing the content received from the server via the content display control unit 305 to the browser unit 306. Details of the content acquisition process will be described later.

  In the last S3107, a process end determination is performed. That is, unless there is an instruction to end message processing, the process returns to the message reception waiting loop of S3101 and continues message processing.

  As described above, the content processing unit 303 repeatedly executes position information processing, data broadcasting processing, and content distribution processing depending on the type of message notified from the browser unit 306 or the control unit 308.

  Next, a data broadcast process corresponding to S3105 in FIG. 31 will be described. FIG. 32 is a flowchart showing data broadcast processing in the content processing unit 303 according to the present embodiment.

  The content broadcast server 101 can distribute any content including list content by data broadcasting. In the data broadcasting process, the content processing unit 303 temporarily stores the content received from the content broadcasting server 101 and notifies the control unit 308 of a URI (file name) indicating the temporarily stored content.

  In step S3201, the content processing unit 303 acquires broadcast reception parameters from the message received from the control unit 308. Here, the broadcast reception parameter refers to information necessary for broadcast reception such as a reception channel and a program identifier.

  In the next steps S3202 to S3204, the content processing unit 303 receives the carousel-type data broadcast, and stores the content included in the designated channel in the storage unit 308. In this data broadcasting, a data file is periodically and repeatedly distributed, and reception / storage processing is not always started from the top of the data file. Therefore, the content processing unit 303 receives data for each predetermined unit according to the format specification of the data broadcast (S3202), and repeats the process of temporarily storing the received data while concatenating the received data (S3203) until the entire content is received (S3202). S3204).

  When the data reception is completed in S3204, the content processing unit 303 proceeds to S3205 of the next process.

  In next step S3205, the content processing unit 303 generates a response message to the broadcast reception command and transmits the message to the control unit 308. In this response message, the URI (file name) of the content stored in the storage unit 307 is described. The content processing unit 303 stores this URI for content distribution processing to be executed later.

  By executing the processing of S3201 to S3205 as described above, the content processing unit 303 notifies the control unit 306 of the URI (file name) of the content received from the data broadcast and stored in the storage unit 307. Note that content (= broadcast content) accumulated in the accumulation unit 307 by content distribution processing executed later is distributed from the content processing unit 303 to the browser unit 306 via the content display control unit 305.

  Next, the content distribution process in S3106 of FIG. 31 will be described. FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing content distribution processing in the content processing unit 303 according to the present embodiment. In this content distribution process, the content processing unit 303 executes an HTTP communication relay process or a cache content distribution process in accordance with an HTTP GET command (content acquisition request) transmitted from the browser unit 306.

  In step S3301, the content processing unit 303 analyzes the received HTTP GET command and determines a process to be executed. Specifically, the content processing unit 303 compares the URL character string included in the GET command with the URL character string stored in S3205 of the data broadcasting process in FIG. If the two URLs match, the content processing unit 303 may transmit the content already received and stored from the data broadcast to the storage unit 307, and the process proceeds to S3308. On the other hand, if the two URL character strings do not match, the content processing unit 303 needs to acquire content from the content communication server 102, and the process proceeds to S3302.

  In S3302 to S3305, the content processing unit 303 performs relay transfer of the HTTP GET command.

  In step S3302, the content processing unit 303 refers to the received content acquisition request message and generates a message to be transmitted to the content communication server 102. This message is an HTTP GET message for requesting the server to acquire content. Then, the content processing unit 303 transmits the generated message to the appropriate content communication server 102.

  In step S3303, the content processing unit 303 waits for a response to the HTTP GET command transmitted to the server, and when a response is received, proceeds to the next step S3304. This response message includes content. Here, when an invalid message is received or when there is no response even after a predetermined time has elapsed, appropriate error processing is performed.

  In step S3304, the content processing unit 303 determines whether the content received in step S3303 is list content (by the extension of the file name). If the received content is list content, the process proceeds to S3306. If the received content is not list content, the process proceeds to S3305.

  In S3305, the content processing unit 303 transfers the response message received from the server in S3303 to the transmission source of the content acquisition request message (that is, the browser unit 306). This process is an HTTP relay transfer process.

  In steps S3306 to S3307, the content processing unit 303 executes list content storage processing. The content processing unit 303 stores the list content included in the response message received from the server in S3303 in the storage unit 307 (S3306), and notifies the control unit 308 that the list content has been stored (S3307).

  In S3308 to S3309, the content processing unit 303 executes cache content distribution processing. The content processing unit 303 reads the content received from the content broadcast server 101 from the storage unit 307 (S3308), generates a response message including the content, and transmits the generated response message to the browser unit 306 (S3309). .

  As described above, in the content distribution process according to the present embodiment, any one of the HTTP communication relay process, the list content accumulation process, and the accumulated broadcast content distribution process is performed according to the URL included in the HTTP GET command. Do something.

  Next, the position information processing procedure executed in S3103 of FIG. 31 will be described using FIG. In this position information processing, position adaptive content processing is executed on the acquired list content based on the latest position information. FIG. 34 is a flowchart showing a position information processing procedure according to the present embodiment.

  In step S3401, the content processing unit 303 stores the latest ROI information periodically notified from the control unit 308. Here, the ROI information indicates a latitude / longitude coordinate value indicating the current location of the content receiving terminal 104 and a radius of a substantial circle area in the content search range.

  In S3402, the content processing unit 303 stores the number of content searches notified from the control unit together with the ROI information. Note that the ROI information and the number of content searches stored in S3401 and S3402 are designated by the user by the GUI unit 311 of the content receiving terminal 104 and notified to the content processing unit 303 via the control unit 308. However, the ROI information and the number of content searches may not be specified by the user, but the control unit 308 may automatically set recommended values.

  In step S3403, the content processing unit 303 confirms whether the list content has already been acquired. If the list content has not been acquired, the content processing unit 303 ends the position information processing. If the list content has been acquired, the content processing unit 303 proceeds to S3404 which is the next step.

  In step S3404, the content processing unit 303 executes position adaptive content processing. In the position adaptive content process, the local area list content is generated from the acquired list content with reference to the latest ROI information and the number of content searches. Details of the position adaptive content processing will be described later.

  In step S3405, the content processing unit 303 transmits the local area list content generated in step S3404 to the content display control unit 305. The local area list content is content in which content information as shown in FIG. 27 is listed, and cannot be directly displayed on the browser. The content display control unit 305 converts the local area list content into a format that can be displayed on the browser unit 306, for example, HTML content, and transmits the converted content to the browser unit 306.

  As described above, in the position information processing shown in FIG. 34, the content processing unit 303 generates the local region list content from the list content every time new position information notification is received, and generates the local region list content via the content display control unit 305. The local area list content thus transmitted is transmitted to the browser unit 306. By such processing, a list of contents related to the vicinity of the current location of the terminal is presented to the user. At this time, the content displayed on the browser unit 306 is the network location information of the content information included in the local region list content, that is, the URL is described as a hyperlink, and the location-dependent content can be acquired and displayed by clicking on the screen. It is like that. The information displayed on the browser is a title or category included in the content information. Further, the meta information content is obtained by referring to the Metadata element included in the content information of FIG. 7, and the address described in the Address element included therein and the text data described in the Abstract element are given to the browser. You may display.

  As described above, the content receiving terminal 104 displays the displayable content including the link to the searched position-dependent content generated from the content search result. Therefore, after confirming the content search result, the user can select a desired content. Position-dependent content can be selected and viewed.

  Next, the position adaptive content process corresponding to S3404 in FIG. 34 will be described. In the position adaptive content process, the content processing unit 303 generates a local area list content from the list content based on the ROI information notified from the control unit 308 and the number of content searches. FIG. 35 is an example of a flowchart showing position adaptive content processing in the content processing unit 303 according to the present embodiment. This position adaptive content processing is mainly executed by the content processing unit 303 and the content structure analysis unit 304.

  In step S <b> 3501, the content processing unit 303 confirms whether the tree structure analysis for the list content stored in the storage unit 307 has been completed. The content receiving terminal 104 performs position adaptive content processing on the same list content according to the position movement, and presents the local region list content generated as a result to the user. That is, the tree structure analysis for the same list content may be performed once. Therefore, if the tree structure analysis is completed, the process proceeds to S3503, and if not completed, the process proceeds to S3502.

  In this way, the content receiving terminal 104 caches the analysis results of the root tree list content and the partial tree list content and reuses them, so only the search condition is changed for the same list content. The search processing speed when the content search process is repeated is improved.

  In S3502, the content processing unit 303 causes the content structure analysis unit 304 to perform a tree structure analysis of the list content. The tree structure analysis executed by the content structure analysis unit 304 analyzes the list contents having the structures as shown in FIGS. 15 to 20 and FIGS. 21 to 25, and the tree structure data as shown in FIGS. Is held as The tree structure data of the list content is held in the storage unit 307 or the content structure analysis unit 304.

  In the loop of S3503 to S3505, the content processing unit 303 adjusts the radius data of the ROI information suitable for the designated number of content searches. In the position adaptive content processing, the local region list content is generated based on the ROI information specified by the user and the number of content searches. Depending on the distribution status of the content, the number of content included in the mesh area overlapping the ROI may be The number of content searches specified by the user may not be reached.

  Therefore, the content processing unit 303 adjusts the radius of the ROI according to a predetermined condition (S3503), refers to the tree structure data held by the content structure analysis unit 304, and selects an area information block selection that selects a mesh area that overlaps with the ROI. The process is executed (S3504), and it is determined whether the number of contents included in the mesh area overlapping with the ROI is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (S3505). If this condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to S3506, which is the next step. If this condition is not satisfied, the process returns to S3503, and the adjustment of the radius of the ROI is repeated.

  By the loop processing from S3503 to S305, the ROI radius can be adjusted so as to satisfy the request regarding the number of content searches specified by the user. If the number of content searches is not specified, or if the ROI radius is prioritized over the number of content searches, the ROI radius is fixed, and the ROI adjustment in S3503 and the content search count confirmation processing in S3505 are executed. You don't have to.

  In the area information block selection process of S3504, the content processing unit 303 refers to the mesh area definition and ROI information included in the list content, identifies the mesh index number of the mesh area that overlaps with the ROI, and the mesh index number. Is extracted from the list content.

  In the first loop processing in S3503, the initial radius value is used as it is without adjusting the radius of the ROI. In the adjustment of the ROI radius in S3503, for example, the radius value is increased by 10%, or the ROI radius is increased so that the ROI overlaps more mesh areas. Similarly, the number of contents included in the mesh area in S3505 can be acquired by referring to the NumberOfContent element included in the LocationCondition element of the list content.

  As described above, the content receiving terminal 104 uses the number of position-dependent contents belonging to the geographical area corresponding to the unit mesh that overlaps the search area that can be calculated from the information described in the list content, to thereby perform a detailed content search. Since the size of the content search area is adjusted before processing, content search around the current location can be efficiently performed when the number of searches is specified.

  In step S3506, the content processing unit 303 confirms whether there is unacquired list content. The list content may be composed of a single file as shown in FIG. 8, or may be divided into a root tree and a partial tree as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, and may be composed of a plurality of files. In the latter case, not only the list contents of the root tree but also the list contents of the partial tree are required. The presence of the partial tree list content can be determined by checking whether or not the root tree list content has a link to another file. Further, when the parent-child relationship between the list content files is described by the Relationship element as shown in FIG. 15, it is possible to determine the presence of the partial tree list content. In step S3506, the content processing unit 303 confirms whether or not the file is composed of a plurality of files. If there is unacquired list content, the process proceeds to step S3507. If not, the process skips steps S3507 to S3509. Then, the process proceeds to S3510.

  In S3507 to S3509, partial tree list content is acquired. This list content is distributed by the content broadcast server 101 or the content communication server 102. In the root tree list content, a link to the partial tree list content is described, and by referring to this, it is possible to determine which method should be used for acquiring the partial tree list content by broadcasting or communication.

  In step S3507, the content processing unit 303 determines the acquisition destination of the partial tree list content. If the list content is acquired from broadcasting, the process proceeds to S3508, and if acquired from communication, the process proceeds to S3509.

  In step S <b> 3508, the content processing unit 303 acquires partial tree list content from the content broadcast server 101. The content acquisition processing from broadcasting follows the data broadcasting processing procedure of FIG. If there are a plurality of partial tree list contents acquired in S3508, the data broadcast processing procedure is repeated to acquire all necessary list contents. When the acquisition of the list content is completed, the process proceeds to the next step S3510.

  In step S <b> 3509, the content processing unit 303 acquires partial tree list content from the content communication server 102. The content acquisition processing from communication follows the content distribution processing procedure of FIG. If there are a plurality of partial tree list contents acquired in S3509, the content distribution processing procedure is repeated to acquire all necessary list contents. When the acquisition of the list content is completed, the process proceeds to the next step S3510.

  In S3508 and S3509, not all partial tree list contents constituting the list content are required, and only the partial tree list contents related to the area information block extracted in S3504 may be acquired. In S3508 and S3509, the content structure analysis unit 304 executes tree structure analysis of the partial tree list content, and also holds the tree structure data. In addition, processing for adding the URI of the partial tree list content accumulated in the root tree list content 1500 using the Reference element, or the URI of the root tree list content accumulated in the partial tree list content 2100 is a parent element that is a child element of the Relationship element. The process of additionally writing is also executed in S3508 and S3509. Note that these additional recording processes are also executed on the tree structure data that is the tree structure analysis result of the root tree list content and the partial tree list content.

  In the loop of S3510 to S3512, the content processing unit 303 adjusts the radius data of the ROI information suitable for the designated number of content searches. In the position adaptive content processing, the local area list content is generated based on the ROI information specified by the user and the number of content searches. Depending on the distribution status of the content, the number of content included in the ROI is specified by the user. It may greatly exceed the number of content searches.

  Therefore, the content processing unit 303 adjusts the radius of the ROI according to a predetermined condition (S3510), refers to the tree structure data held by the content structure analysis unit 304, and selects content information block for extracting content information in the ROI The process is executed (S3511), and it is determined whether the number of contents included in the ROI is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold value (S3512). If this condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to S3513, which is the next step. If this condition is not satisfied, the process returns to S3510, and the adjustment of the radius of the ROI is repeated.

  By the loop processing of S3510 to S312, the ROI radius can be adjusted so as to satisfy the request regarding the number of content searches specified by the user. If the number of content searches is not specified, or if the ROI radius is prioritized over the number of content searches, the ROI radius is fixed, and the ROI adjustment in S3510 and the content search count confirmation processing in S3512 are executed. You don't have to.

  In the content information block selection process of S3511, the content processing unit 303 selects the content information block included in the ROI with the area information block selected in S3504 as a processing target. In the Location Condition element of the content information block, geographical position information corresponding to the content information included in the content information block is described. The content processing unit 303 refers to the position information described in the LocationCondition element, and selects a content information block having the position information included in the ROI.

  In the first loop process in S3510, the initial radius value or the ROI radius determined in S3503 is used as it is without adjusting the ROI radius. Further, in the adjustment of the ROI radius in S3510, for example, an adjustment such as reducing the radius value by 10% is performed.

  In S3513, the content processing unit 303 generates a local area list content from the list content based on the result of the content information block selection process in S3512. The local area list content is composed of content information included in the Container element of the selected content information block.

  As described above, the local area list content adapted to the region of interest ROI is generated from the list content described in CLML by the position adaptive content processing of FIG.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the partial tree list content in which the region information related to the search region is described by referring to the root tree list content in which the URI to the region information is described. Since only the current location information is selectively received and the current location surrounding information search process is executed, resources required for the search process can be reduced, and the search process time can be shortened.

  Further, the processing performed by the content receiving terminal 104 is set as a program, stored in a storage medium readable by a general-purpose computer, and a general-purpose computer having a communication function, a broadcast reception function, and a position information acquisition function executes the program. It may be.

  The content receiving method and the content distribution method according to the present invention are useful for distributing meta information related to content associated with geographical position information to various mobile terminals and efficiently searching for peripheral information in the mobile terminal.

1 is a system configuration diagram of a content adaptive distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Block diagram of the content broadcast server according to the above embodiment Block diagram of content receiving terminal according to the above embodiment The 1st figure which shows the relationship between the content distribution area | region concerning the said embodiment, a mesh area, and the region of interest ROI. The figure which shows an example of the display of the local area | region list content concerning the said embodiment 1st figure which shows an example of the content information concerning the said embodiment 2nd figure which shows an example of the content information concerning the said embodiment The 1st figure which shows the structure of the list content concerning the said embodiment 2nd figure which shows the structure of the list content concerning the said embodiment 3rd figure which shows the structure of the list content concerning the said embodiment The figure which shows the geographical relationship of the content distribution area and mesh area concerning the said embodiment The figure which shows the basic structure of the content described by CLML concerning the said embodiment The figure which shows the structure of the list content described by CLML concerning the said embodiment The figure which shows the structure of the content information block described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 1st figure which shows an example of the list content (higher layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 2nd figure which shows an example of the list content (higher layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 3rd figure which shows an example of the list content (higher layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 4th figure which shows an example of the list content (higher layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 5th figure which shows an example of the list content (upper layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment FIG. 6 is a sixth diagram illustrating an example of list content (upper layer) described in CLML according to the embodiment; 1st figure which shows an example of the list content (lower layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 2nd figure which shows an example of the list content (lower layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 3rd figure which shows an example of the list content (lower layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment 4th figure which shows an example of the list content (lower layer) described by CLML concerning the said embodiment FIG. 5 is a fifth diagram showing an example of list content (lower layer) described in CLML according to the embodiment; 2nd figure which shows the relationship between the content distribution area | region concerning the said embodiment, a mesh area, and the region of interest ROI. The figure which shows an example of the local area | region list content produced | generated from the list content concerning the said embodiment Flowchart showing the meta information content collection processing procedure of the content broadcast server according to the above embodiment The flowchart which shows the list content production | generation process procedure of the content broadcast server concerning the said embodiment The flowchart which shows the list content delivery processing procedure of the content broadcast server concerning the said embodiment The flowchart which shows the message processing procedure of the content receiving terminal concerning the said embodiment The flowchart which shows the data broadcast processing procedure of the content receiving terminal concerning the said embodiment The flowchart which shows the content delivery processing procedure of the content receiving terminal concerning the said embodiment The flowchart which shows the position information processing procedure of the content receiving terminal concerning the said embodiment The flowchart which shows the position adaptive content processing procedure of the content receiving terminal concerning the said embodiment

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Content adaptive delivery system 101 Content broadcast server 102, 102a-102b Content communication server 103, 104a-104c General web server 104, 104a-104b Content receiving terminal 105 Communication network 106 Wireless base station 107 GPS satellite 201 Communication interface 202 Meta information content Collection unit 203 Tree structure generation unit 204 List content generation unit 205 GUI unit 206 Content distribution unit 207 Broadcast interface unit 208 Storage unit 209 Control unit 301 Broadcast interface unit 302 Communication interface unit 303 Content processing unit 304 Content structure analysis unit 305 Content display control Unit 306 Browser unit 307 Storage unit 308 Control unit 309 Location information acquisition unit 310 Map Processing section 311 GUI part

Claims (17)

In a content receiving method executed by a content receiving device that receives content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information,
A data structure in which the entire region of the geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed is expressed by a first mesh area, and a URI of the content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given Receiving a wide area information content from a content distribution device, and storing the received wide area information content in a storage unit of the content receiving device ;
A search area setting step for periodically acquiring point position information indicating points in the geospace, and setting a geographical area based on the position information as a search area;
The first unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the accumulated wide area information content , the URI corresponds to the searched first unit mesh , and the first unit mesh The location-dependent content having the location information included in the geographic space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is expressed by the second mesh area. A wide area information search step for obtaining a URI indicating the location of area information content having a data structure in which metadata is listed ;
A first URI indicating the original location of the regional information content is assigned to the accumulated wide area information content, and a second URI indicating the location of the regional information content in the storage unit is assigned. If the second URI is not stored, the region information content is received from the content distribution device using the first URI, and the received region information content is stored in the storage unit. In addition, the storage location of the local information content in the storage unit is added as the second URI to the stored wide area information content, and the second URI is stored. If the second URI is given to the wide area information content and the second URI is stored, the regional information And regional information receiving step you do not want to run the reception process,
The second unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the accumulated area information content , and is included in the geographical space defined by the searched second unit mesh and is included in the search area. A region information search step for acquiring metadata of the position-dependent content having the included position information;
A content receiving method comprising: The wide area information content has a first mesh area definition in which information on a mesh division method of the first mesh area is described,
A first mesh index number calculated from the first mesh area definition is added to the first unit mesh,
The regional information content has a second mesh area definition in which information on a mesh division method of the second mesh area is described,
A second mesh index number calculated from the second mesh area definition is added to the second unit mesh,
Referring to the first mesh area definition, the first mesh index number corresponding to the first unit mesh that geographically overlaps the search area is calculated, and the calculated first mesh index number The first unit mesh having the search is searched, the second mesh index number corresponding to the second unit mesh geographically overlapping the search region is calculated with reference to the second mesh area definition The content receiving method according to claim 1, wherein the second unit mesh having the calculated second mesh index number is searched. In the wide area information content, first content number information indicating the number of the position-dependent content belonging to a geographical space corresponding to the first unit mesh is added to the first unit mesh,
In the area information content, second content number information indicating the number of the position-dependent content belonging to the geographical space corresponding to the second unit mesh is added to the second unit mesh,
The number of the position-dependent contents to be searched is set as the number of search contents, and the number of the position-dependent contents included in the first unit mesh overlapping the search area is determined by referring to the first content number information. The content approximate number is calculated, the size of the search area is adjusted by comparing the content approximate number and the search content number, and the second content number information is referred to, thereby overlapping the search area. The number of the position-dependent contents included in a second unit mesh is calculated as an approximate number of contents, and the size of the search area is adjusted by comparing the approximate number of contents and the number of search contents. 2. The content receiving method according to 2.   The regional information content includes file-related information in which a URI of the wide area information content is described, and the regional information search step is executed in a state where the wide area information reception step and the wide area information search step are not executed. When the new search area is not included in the geographical area corresponding to the area information content in the search area setting step, the wide area information receiving step includes the file-related information of the area information content. The content receiving method according to claim 2, wherein the wide area information content corresponding to the regional information content is received. When the newly received regional information content is stored, and the accumulated wide area information content corresponding to the regional information content exists, the file related information of the regional information content includes If the URI of the accumulated wide area information content is additionally described and the URI of the accumulated wide area information content is described in the file-related information of the area information content, the accumulated wide area information 5. The content receiving method according to claim 4, wherein content is acquired. The acquired metadata of the position-dependent content includes the URI of the position-dependent content, and the URI of the position-dependent content is described as a hyperlink,
3. The content receiving method according to claim 2, wherein a search result list that can acquire the position-dependent content is generated, and the position-dependent content designated from the search result list is acquired and displayed. In a content distribution method executed by a content distribution device that distributes metadata of position-dependent content that is content associated with geographical position information,
An accumulation step of accumulating metadata of location-dependent content including geographical location information and URI associated with the location-dependent content in an accumulation unit of the content distribution device ;
By analyzing the metadata of a plurality of the location-dependent content is already stored, the distribution area calculation step of defining the geographic space in which the location-dependent content is distributed,
Area for setting the second mesh area geographic space in which the location-dependent content sets the first mesh area geospatial distributed, first unit mesh forming the first mesh area defined Configuration steps;
Generating regional information content having a data structure in which metadata of the location-dependent content having location information included in a geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is listed. A regional information generation step;
A second URI indicating the storage location of the area information content in the content receiving device is assigned with a first URI indicating the original location of the area information content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area . A wide area information generation step for generating wide area information content having a data structure that allows additional URIs to be added ;
A wide area information distribution step of distributing the wide area information content to the content receiving device ;
A regional information distribution step of distributing the regional information content to the content receiving device ;
A content distribution method comprising: A first mesh area definition describing information related to the mesh division method of the first mesh area is added to the wide area information content, and the first unit mesh is calculated from the first mesh area definition The second mesh area definition is added to the area information content, and the second mesh area definition describing the information on the mesh dividing method of the second mesh area is added, and the second unit mesh is added. The content distribution method according to claim 7, further comprising adding a second mesh index number calculated from the second mesh area definition. First area number information indicating the number of the position-dependent contents belonging to the geographical space corresponding to the first unit mesh is added to the first unit mesh of the wide area information content, and the area information the second unit mesh content claims, characterized in adding the second content number information indicating the number of the location-dependent content belonging to a geographical space corresponding to the said second unit mesh 7. The content distribution method according to 7 . 8. The content distribution method according to claim 7, wherein file-related information in which a URI of the wide area information content corresponding to the regional information content is added to the regional information content. 8. The content distribution method according to claim 7 , wherein metadata of the position-dependent content is collected from another content distribution apparatus having the position-dependent content and its metadata. In a content receiving device that receives content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information,
A search condition setting unit, a storage unit, a content receiving unit, and a content processing unit,
The search condition setting unit
Periodically acquires the point position information indicating a point in geospatial, it sets the geographic region relative to the said point position information as a search area,
The content receiver is
A data structure in which the entire region of the geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed is expressed by a first mesh area, and a URI of the content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given the wide-area information content having, received from the content distribution apparatus, the wide-area information contents received running global information reception process of accumulating in the storage unit,
The content processing unit
The first unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the accumulated wide area information content, the URI corresponds to the searched first unit mesh, and the first unit mesh The location-dependent content having the location information included in the geographic space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is expressed by the second mesh area. A wide area information search process for obtaining a URI indicating the location of the area information content having a data structure in which metadata is listed is executed.
The content receiver is
A first URI indicating the original location of the regional information content is assigned to the accumulated wide area information content, and a second URI indicating the location of the regional information content in the storage unit is assigned. If the second URI is not stored, the region information content is received from the content distribution device using the first URI, and the received region information content is stored in the storage unit. In addition, the storage location of the local information content in the storage unit is added as the second URI to the stored wide area information content, and the second URI is stored. If the second URI is given to the wide area information content and the second URI is stored, the regional information Without executing the receiving process,
The content processing unit
The second unit mesh geographically overlapping with the search area is searched from the accumulated area information content, and is included in the geographical space defined by the searched second mesh and included in the search area. A region information search process for obtaining metadata of the position-dependent content having the position information to be performed;
A content receiving apparatus. In a content distribution apparatus that distributes metadata of position-dependent content that is content associated with geographical position information,
An accumulation unit for accumulating metadata of position-dependent content including geographical position information and URI associated with the position-dependent content;
By analyzing the metadata of a plurality of the location-dependent content is already stored, define a geographic space in which the location-dependent content is distributed, the first mesh area geographic space in which the location-dependent content is distributed set, and the data structure determination unit first first unit meshes constituting the mesh area to set the second mesh area geographic space defined
Generating regional information content having a data structure in which metadata of the location-dependent content having location information included in a geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is listed. In the region information generation process, the first URI indicating the original location of the region information content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given, and the region information content receiving device and the wide area information generation process of generating a wide-area information content additional application of the second URI indicating the storage location has a data structure as possible, a content generation unit that performs,
A content delivery unit for delivering the wide area information content and the regional information content to the content receiving device ;
A content distribution apparatus comprising: In a content receiving program for receiving content selected from a list of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information,
In the computer of the content receiving device having the storage unit,
A data structure in which the entire region of the geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed is expressed by a first mesh area, and a URI of the content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area is given Receiving a wide area information content from a content distribution device, and storing the received wide area information content in the storage unit ;
A search area setting step for periodically acquiring point position information indicating points in the geospace and setting a geographical area based on the position information as a search area;
The first unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the accumulated wide area information content , the URI corresponds to the searched first unit mesh , and the first unit mesh The location-dependent content having the location information included in the geographic space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is expressed by the second mesh area. A wide area information search step for obtaining a URI indicating the location of area information content having a data structure in which metadata is listed ;
A first URI indicating the original location of the regional information content is assigned to the accumulated wide area information content, and a second URI indicating the location of the regional information content in the storage unit is assigned. If the second URI is not stored, the region information content is received from the content distribution device using the first URI, and the received region information content is stored in the storage unit. In addition, the storage location of the local information content in the storage unit is added as the second URI to the stored wide area information content, and the second URI is stored. If the second URI is given to the wide area information content and the second URI is stored, the regional information And regional information receiving step you do not want to run the reception process,
The second unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the accumulated area information content , and is included in the geographical space defined by the searched second unit mesh and is included in the search area. A region information search step for acquiring metadata of the position-dependent content having the included position information;
A program characterized by causing the. In a content distribution program that distributes metadata of location-dependent content, which is content associated with geographical location information,
A storage step of storing the metadata of the location-dependent content including the geographical location information and the URI associated with the location-dependent content,
By analyzing the metadata of a plurality of the location-dependent content is already stored, the distribution area calculation step of defining the geographic space in which the location-dependent content is distributed,
Area for setting the second mesh area geographic space in which the location-dependent content sets the first mesh area geospatial distributed, first unit mesh forming the first mesh area defined Configuration steps;
Generating regional information content having a data structure in which metadata of the location-dependent content having location information included in a geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is listed. A regional information generation step;
A second URI indicating the storage location of the area information content in the content receiving device is assigned with a first URI indicating the original location of the area information content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area . A wide area information generation step for generating wide area information content having a data structure that allows additional URIs to be added ;
A wide area information distribution step of distributing the wide area information content to the content receiving device ;
A regional information distribution step of distributing the regional information content to the content receiving device ;
A program characterized by causing a computer to execute. A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 14 or 15 . A content distribution device that distributes metadata of location-dependent content that is content associated with geographical location information;
A content receiving device that receives content selected from the list of position-dependent content, and
The content distribution device includes:
A first storage unit for storing metadata of location-dependent content including geographical location information and URI associated with the location-dependent content;
A geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed by analyzing metadata of the plurality of position-dependent contents that are already stored in the first storage unit, defining a geographical space in which the position-dependent content is distributed A data structure determining unit that sets a first mesh area and sets a second mesh area in a geographical space defined by a first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area;
Generating regional information content having a data structure in which metadata of the location-dependent content having location information included in a geographical space defined by the second unit mesh constituting the second mesh area is listed. A content information generating device, and a first URI indicating the original location of the regional information content corresponding to the first unit mesh constituting the first mesh area, and the content receiving device for the regional information content A content generation unit that performs a wide area information generation process for generating a wide area information content having a data structure capable of additionally giving a second URI indicating the storage location in
A content delivery unit for delivering the wide area information content and the regional information content to the content receiving device;
Comprising
The content receiving device is:
A search condition setting unit, a second storage unit, a content receiving unit, and a content processing unit,
The search condition setting unit
Periodically acquiring point location information indicating a point in the geospace, setting a geographical area based on the location information as a search area,
The content receiver is
Receiving the wide area information content from the content distribution device , and executing the wide area information receiving process of storing the received wide area information content in the second storage unit ;
The content processing unit
The first unit mesh that is geographically overlapped with the search area is searched from the wide area information content stored in the second storage unit, and is a URI corresponding to the searched first unit mesh, and , Executing a wide area information search process for obtaining a URI indicating the location of the area information content,
The content receiver is
When the first URI is added to the wide area information content stored in the second storage unit, and the second URI is not added and the second URI is not stored Receiving the region information content from the content distribution device using the first URI, storing the received region information content in the second storage unit, and storing the second URI in the second URI In addition to adding to the wide area information content stored in the storage unit and storing the second URI, the regional information receiving process is executed, while the second wide area information content stored in the second storage unit is added to the second wide area information content. If the second URI is stored and the region information reception process is not executed,
The content processing unit
The second unit mesh that geographically overlaps the search area is searched from the area information content stored in the second storage unit, and is included in the geographical space defined by the searched second mesh. And performing an area information search process for obtaining metadata of the position-dependent content having position information included in the search area,
Content adaptive distribution system characterized by this.

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