JPH10185599A - Processing terminal device, information providing system, information acquiring method, and information providing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information providing system for easily acquiring desired information, for example, at a remote area using a wallet-type or wrist- type, compact, and portable processing-terminal device. SOLUTION: A processing-terminal device 6a acquires position information by a GPS at a position-acquiring part 39 and sends the information to a GPS server 22 in an accumulation exchange type information package of electronic mails. The GPS server 22 corrects the position information to accurate, relative position-measurement information using a WADGPS, gathers information that a user desires from a large amount of information, for example, on a network based on the position information, and packages the information in electronic mails and then sends it to a user. The user receives the electronic mails at a signal reception part 44 and decodes the packaged information at an output part 45. A processing-terminal device 6a does not receive load to correct position information or gather information, so a user can obtain an desired information by the small and portable processing-terminal device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal processing device such as a portable computer capable of acquiring position information, an information providing system capable of providing information related to the position information,
And a method for acquiring or providing information related to position information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Systems have been developed which receive radio waves from a plurality of satellites, perform radio wave positioning, and detect their current location. For example, GPS (Global Positioning Sysyt
em) is installed in a car navigation system of a car, and a portable GPS receiver is used for climbing and hiking navigation, so that the user's current location can be easily indicated to a user.

[0003]

On the other hand, in recent years, high-performance personal computers (personal computers) have become available at low cost, and information can be easily exchanged via computer networks such as the Internet. For this reason, a huge amount of various information exists on computer networks and the like in various formats such as image data, character data, and audio data, and tends to increase further in the future. Therefore, it is important to be able to quickly and accurately select desired information from among these vast amounts of information. In particular, a portable processing terminal (PDA: Pe
rsonal Digital Assistant) has been developed, and handy-type wallets and wrist-type processing terminals have appeared. Therefore, there is a demand that anyone can easily obtain necessary information using such a personal processing terminal.

[0004] Such a PDA can be carried on business trips, driving, traveling, sports, other leisure activities, etc., and is necessary not only for work information but also for travel destinations such as restaurants and toilets. It is desirable that the information to be obtained can be easily obtained from a vast amount of information existing on a computer network or the like. However,
Even if the processing capacity of a CPU or the like is rapidly improved, the processing capacity of a portable personal processing terminal such as a PDA is limited. Further, in order to communicate with a plurality of servers existing on a network and search for a desired information from a vast amount of information, it is necessary to communicate for a long time in a state where a communication environment is prepared. It is difficult to always use a mobile terminal in such an environment, and at present, accurate information such as an accommodation place and a restaurant is quickly obtained using a portable processing terminal such as a PDA at a business trip destination or a travel destination. Can not do.

[0005] In addition, the position accuracy is insufficient with the single positioning of the GPS which can be generally used at present, and even if the position can be grasped by matching with the main road on the map as in the case of car navigation, the user still cannot find the position. It is difficult to determine the location of a walking city or a small street. On the other hand, base stations (fixed stations) whose positions are known with high accuracy
Relative positioning that improves the accuracy of the position information by correcting the data obtained by the single positioning based on the difference information from the DG.
It is called PS (differential GPS). By adopting DGPS, the position accuracy can be improved to several meters,
The current position of the user can be specified with high accuracy.
Further, a wide area DGPS for correcting position information obtained by solely positioning using difference information obtained from a plurality of base stations.
(WADGPS) can further improve the positional accuracy. By adopting WADGPS, errors and multipath errors due to spatial interaction of each base station can be eliminated, and even if there is a malfunctioning base station, the area can be covered by another base station. Become. For this reason, since a small number of base stations can cover a wide area, stable and accurate position information can be obtained.

Therefore, when obtaining information on a shop, restaurant, toilet, or the like near the position where the user is currently located, it is necessary to adopt position information obtained by relative positioning using DGPS or WADGPS instead of sole positioning.
However, in order to perform DGPS, means for obtaining difference information is required, and in order to perform WADGPS, it is necessary to access a plurality of base stations. PDA
If these functions are mounted on a portable processing terminal such as a portable terminal, it becomes large and expensive, and it takes time to communicate with a plurality of base stations. Further, if the communication condition is poor, information for relative positioning cannot be obtained, and position information cannot be obtained.

As described above, a wallet type or list type PD
Even if A can be equipped with a function of acquiring position information, it is difficult at present to acquire highly accurate position information. Further, it is impossible to access a vast amount of information on a network with a PDA, and to perform a process such as finding a position of a restaurant near the current location from the information. Therefore, in the present invention, even a small portable device can acquire high-precision relative position information using DGPS or WADGPS, and furthermore, local information based on this position information can be transmitted to a network. It is an object of the present invention to provide a processing terminal device that can select and acquire from a huge amount of information existing on the upper side. Another object of the present invention is to provide an information acquisition method capable of acquiring specific information based on position information even in a communication environment that is not so good using a portable processing terminal device having a small processing capacity. Further, the present invention provides
High-precision relative position information obtained by using the single-located position information obtained by the processing terminal device, and information that can be provided by selecting from a vast amount of information related to the position information. It aims to provide a provision system. Further, the present invention provides an information providing method capable of acquiring location information from a portable processing terminal device and efficiently performing certain local information related thereto even under conditions where communication environment is not so good. It is an object.

[0008]

For this reason, in the present invention, a processing terminal device used by a user acquires position information by independent positioning, and a server equipped with a host machine having a large size and high processing capability for the position information. Is transmitted to an information providing system which is a DGPS.
Alternatively, high-accuracy position information can be obtained by performing WADGPS processing. Further, the information providing system can collect information desired by the user from information on the computer network based on high-precision position information and send it to the processing terminal device. in this way,
By calculating the DGPS position information on the side of the information providing system having a high processing capability or forming information desired by the user based on the position information, the load on the processing terminal device side can be significantly reduced. Therefore, it is possible to quickly obtain regional information related to the current location of the user from a vast amount of information using a small and portable processing terminal device such as a wallet type or a list type.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to transmit position information from a processing terminal device to an information providing system, and to transmit relative positioning information and information having a locality related thereto from the information providing system to the processing terminal device. In this case, a store-and-forward type information package such as electronic mail is used. That is, the processing terminal device of the present invention comprises: a position acquisition unit capable of acquiring position information indicating its own current position; a packaging unit for forming a storage-exchange type information transmission package including the position information; and an information transmission package. Transmitting means for transmitting to the information providing system, receiving means for receiving a storage and exchange type information providing package corresponding to the information sending package transmitted from the information providing system, and decompressing information included in the information providing package. Information output means for providing to the user. Also,
An information providing system according to the present invention includes: a receiving unit capable of receiving a storage-and-exchange type information transmission package having position information indicating a current position of a processing terminal; a forming unit configured to form provided information related to position information; And a transmitting means for transmitting the information provision package to the processing terminal.

Further, in the portable processing terminal of the present invention, information related to position information is obtained by a method having the following steps.

1. A first step of acquiring position information indicating the current location of the user. 2. A second step of forming a store-and-forward type information transmission package including location information. 3. Third step of transmitting the information sending package to the information providing system. 4. A fourth step of receiving the store-and-forward type information providing package transmitted from the information providing system in response to the information sending package. 5. Fifth step of decompressing the information included in the information providing package and providing it to the user.

Further, in the information providing system of the present invention, information related to the position information is provided by a method having the following steps.

6. A sixth step of receiving a store-and-forward type information transmission package provided with position information indicating the current location of the processing terminal; 7. A seventh step of forming provided information related to the position information. 8. An eighth step of forming a store-and-forward type information providing package provided with the provided information. 9. Ninth step of transmitting the information providing package to the processing terminal.

The information acquiring method and the information providing method of the present invention having these steps can be realized as a logic circuit or software, and the software is ROM,
The program can be provided by being stored in a computer-readable recording medium such as a hard disk and an IC card.

[0015] The processing terminal device and the information providing system are connected in real time, for example, via the Internet, and the position information obtained independently is analyzed on the information providing system side.
It is also possible to configure a system that displays the information collected as a result on the processing terminal device side. However, for this purpose, it is necessary to maintain a good communication state with high reliability and high communication speed for a long time. It is very difficult to mount a device necessary for maintaining such a communication state on a small processing terminal device, which causes an increase in size and cost. Further, the above communication state cannot always be maintained in a remote place or an urban area.
On the other hand, in the present invention, the location information and the information collected by the location information are exchanged by an information package such as a storage-and-exchange type information transmission package or an information providing package. Information can be exchanged via a mail server or the like, and the information need not necessarily be in a state where information can be directly exchanged between the processing terminal device and the information providing system. Therefore, when the processing terminal device, the information providing system, the information obtaining method and the information providing method of the present invention are employed, it is possible to transmit / receive (ship and receive) the position information and the information selected in relation thereto with a simple interface. Therefore, information can be reliably transmitted and received without being greatly influenced by the communication state. Further, in the information providing system, since the stored information packages may be sequentially processed without being restricted by the processing terminal device, the processing can be advanced at a high speed, and the operation efficiency can be improved.

In the processing terminal device, the information providing system, the information obtaining method and the information providing method according to the present invention, the position information independently measured by the processing terminal device is transmitted to the information providing system to perform the DGPS or WADGPS processing. It is possible to obtain highly accurate relative positioning position accuracy. In the present invention, it is not possible to obtain position information using DGPS or WADGPS in real time because a store-and-forward type information package is employed. However, as described above, highly accurate position information can be obtained with a simple system without much time difference. For this reason, it is possible to obtain highly accurate position information using a small-sized processing terminal device such as a wallet type or a list type that can be easily carried by a user. Further, it is possible to collect information having locality based on highly accurate position information on the information providing system side and transmit the collected information to the processing terminal device.

For transmission and reception between the processing terminal device and the information providing system, a wired system using a wireless or public telephone line can be adopted. Furthermore, by transmitting and receiving information sending packages and information providing packages via a computer network such as the Internet that has spread worldwide, highly accurate position information and information related to the position information can be obtained anywhere. .

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows an outline of a system that uses information from the information providing station 10 with a focus on an information providing station 10 including an information providing system 20 according to the present invention. The information providing system 20 of the present example includes a mail server 21 connected to the Internet 1 and a GPS server 22 for transmitting and receiving information via the mail server 21.
The GPS server 22 sends the mail server 2 from the user.
The e-mail addressed to the GPS server 22 arriving at 1 is analyzed and processed, and the result is converted into an e-mail to be transmitted (shipped) to the address of the sending user. Further, the GPS server 22 can access various servers connected to the Internet 1, and accesses a plurality of DGPS (differential GPS) base stations (fixed stations) 2 to access a WADGPS (wide area D
GPS (Global Positioning System) data, and access to the WWW (World Wide Web) server 3 in each region to store appropriate information and the address of the WWW server 3 and the information in a database in the GPS server 22 Or a database server 4 connected to the Internet 1 to search for information.

The mail server 21 receives location information in the form of e-mail from the processing terminal of each user via the server 5 of the provider connected to the Internet 1, and the GPS server 22 analyzes this location information. Then, the appropriate information is converted into an electronic mail again and transmitted to the server 5 of the provider. The wallet type terminal 6a and the list type terminal 6b are connected to the provider server 5 via a wired or wireless connection by dial-up IP connection.
Alternatively, a terminal 6c mounted on an automobile is connected. These terminals 6a, 6b and 6c have a plurality of GPs.
It receives radio waves from the S-satellite 9 and performs radio wave positioning independently to acquire position information with a certain degree of accuracy. The e-mail with the embedded location information is sent from these terminals 6a, 6b and 6c to the SMTP (Simple M
ail Transfer Protocol) Outgoing through a gateway. Further, the e-mail embedded with the regional information related to the position information transmitted from the GPS server 22 is temporarily stored in the mailbox of the provider server 5, and is stored in the user terminal 6 via the POP server.
a, 6b and 6c.

The information providing station 10 of the present example is capable of providing information all over the world via the Internet 1 by the information providing system 20, and also has the function as a provider described above. For this reason, a mailbox system 17 is connected downstream of the information providing system 20, and gateways 12a, 12b, 12c and 12d for various uses are connected to the mailbox system 17 via a bus (LAN) 11. I have. Then, these gateways 12a, 12
An e-mail with location information is sent from each user's terminal through b, 12c, and 12d, and reaches the mail server of the information providing system 20 via the SMTP gateway 18 of the mailbox system 17. Since the electronic mail including the position information is addressed to the GPS server 22, the above-described processing is performed by the GPS server 22. On the other hand, ordinary e-mail is distributed via the Internet 1 simply via the mail server 21.

The GPS server 22 receives the DGPS
Alternatively, the highly accurate position information relative-positioned using WADGPS is sent back to the post office 19 of the mailbox system 17 to the user having the mailbox. The user terminals are gateways 12a, 12
b, 12c and 12d to P of post office 19
Access the OP (Post Office Protocol) server,
GPS server 22 stored in own mailbox
Receive email from. And the user's terminal is G
The local information included in the mail from the PS server 22 is decompressed and provided to the user.

The first gateway 12a provided in the information providing station 10 of this embodiment is a user terminal having a function of performing radio wave positioning via radio, for example, a wallet-type terminal 13a, a wrist-type terminal 13b, and a vehicle-mounted terminal. It can communicate with the terminal 13c of the type.
The second gateway 12b is a gateway for dial-up connection, and is connected to the public telephone network 7. Therefore, a user having a wallet-type terminal 14a, a wrist-type terminal 14b, and a vehicle-mounted terminal 14c having a function of performing independent positioning can use a public telephone network from any place using a means such as a PHS or a mobile phone. And exchanges e-mail with the mailbox system 17. For this reason, it is possible to send an e-mail with location information embedded from an appropriate place,
At an appropriate timing, a mail from the GPS server 22 in the mailbox can be opened and information can be received.

The information providing station 10 of this embodiment further includes a voice gateway 12c. Therefore,
The position information supplied from the wireless telephone terminal 15 having the function of performing the radio positioning together with the function such as the PHS via the base station 7b and the public telephone network 7 can be converted into an electronic mail and transmitted to the GPS server 22. . The voice gateway 12c has a function of vocalizing e-mails stored in the mailbox of the post office 19 and outputting the converted e-mails. The user can use the wireless telephone terminal 15 such as a PHS to collect local e-mails collected by the GPS server 22. I can hear information.

Further, the information providing station 10 of the present embodiment
Has a pager gateway 12d for accessing the pager terminal 16. The pager gateway 12d converts the position information obtained from the pager type terminal 16 into an electronic mail and sends it to the GPS server 22. At the same time, if there is a command to access from the user, the e-mail from the GPS server 22 stored in the mailbox of the post office 19 is encoded and transmitted, and can be displayed on the screen of the pager terminal 16. Thus, the information providing station 10 of the present example is
Is not limited to a so-called information processing device such as a PDA,
Communication devices such as PHSs and pagers having a radio positioning function can also be used as processing terminals.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a processing terminal device of the present embodiment capable of receiving radio waves from GPS satellites and acquiring position information indicating its current location. Processing terminal device 6 described above
a, 6b, 6c, 13a, 13b, 13c, 14a, 1
4b, 14c, 15 and 16 have almost the same configuration with respect to the information providing service, and therefore the following description will be made using the wallet type terminal 6a as an example. The information processing terminal 6a of this example is mainly configured with a CPU 31 as a control unit, and an internal bus 36 connected to the CPU 31
A memory 32 which is an internal storage device having a ROM and a RAM; a display device 33 such as an LCD; an input device 34 capable of inputting data from a keyboard or a pen; an external storage device 35 such as a flash ROM; The bus interface 37 is connected. Internal bus 36
Is connected to a server of a provider via a public telephone network or the like, and further connected to the information providing system 20 connected to the Internet according to the TCP / IP protocol. E-mail can be exchanged. Further, a GPS surveying unit 39 is connected to the internal bus 36, and the GPS surveying unit 39
GPS via an external antenna attached to the receiving antenna 40 or an external external antenna terminal 41
The system includes a receiver 39a for receiving data from a satellite, and a computer 39b for analyzing received data to obtain position information such as coordinate position and time information.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional schematic configuration of the information processing terminal 6a of the present embodiment and the information providing system 20. The information processing terminal 6a of this example performs the independent positioning using the GPS surveying unit 39 as a position acquiring unit, and embeds the obtained position information in a storage exchange type information package of a predetermined format by the packaging unit 42. . As a storage-and-exchange type information package, it is possible to use an e-mail format that is an extension or compliant version of RFC (Request for Comments) 1911, which is currently being considered as a standard for Internet mail. By employing such a storage-and-exchange type information package, it is possible to send the position information to a predetermined address by an interface according to a very simple protocol such as SMTP. In addition, RFC 1911
By adopting a format that can be used worldwide, such as, it is possible to include not only location information but also request information such as the type and grade of information desired by the user in the same information package, and provide information It becomes possible for the system 20 to acquire carefully selected information. The data packaged by the packaging unit 42 is sent to the information providing system 20 through an appropriate route by the transmission unit 43.

From the processing terminal 6a to the information providing system 2
The information package transmitted to the information providing system 20 is sent directly or via a plurality of servers.
Reaches the mail server 21. Mail server 21
Confirms the address of the information package including the position information of this example by the SMTP interface 23, transmits the information package addressed to the GPS server 22 to the GPS server 22, and directs the other information packages (e-mails) to the respective addresses. Transfer. As will be described in detail later, the information package in which various information related to the location information is packaged by the GPS server 22 passes through the SMTP interface 23 of the mail server 21 again via the Internet, and the processing terminal device 6a of the user. Sent to

In the processing terminal device 6a, the information package supplied from the information providing system 20 is received by the receiving unit 44.
Get by. Then, the output unit 45 decompresses the information included in the information package and provides the same to the user through the LCD 33 shown in FIG. Receiver 14
Refers to a user's mailbox prepared in a server such as a provider via a POP, and obtains an information package (hereinafter, e-mail) from the GPS server 22 in the mailbox, if any. In the processing terminal device 6a of this example, the GPS server 22
When an e-mail is transmitted from the transmission unit 43, the reception unit 44 refers to the mailbox at a relatively short interval, and provides the user with the information as soon as the e-mail arrives from the GPS server 22. I can do it. Alternatively, when an e-mail from the GPS server 22 arrives at a post office of a server such as a provider, a signal is supplied to the user's processing terminal device 6a to cause the receiving unit 44 to automatically start up, and the GPS server 22
It is also possible to provide information from the user to the user quickly and automatically.

FIG. 4 shows a more detailed functional configuration of the GPS server 22 using a block diagram. GP
The S server 22 receives the e-mail including the position information sent from the processing terminal device 6a to the GPS server 22 by the receiving unit 24, and temporarily stores the e-mail. The e-mails stored in the receiving unit 24 are sequentially decoded by the analyzing unit 25 to separate request information such as position information and the type of information desired by the user. The decoded position information of the user is processed by the DGPS operation unit 26. In the GPS server 22 of the present example, difference information sent from a plurality of base stations 2 via the Internet is acquired by the difference information acquisition unit 54, and these are stored in the difference information database 51. The DGPS calculation unit 26 corrects the position information sent from the user based on the value of the difference information database 51, and
A service as S (wide area DGPS) can be provided.

The accuracy of the position information obtained by the single positioning of the GPS is 10 or less for the band and the code generally open at present.
Accurate coordinates can be obtained with an error of several meters or less by differential GPS (DGPS) using error information obtained via a network or the like from a fixed reference station whose coordinates are clearly about 0 m. Further, in the GPS server 22 of the present example, the W that corrects the position information obtained by the single positioning using the difference information of the plurality of fixed base stations.
ADGPS system is adopted. For this reason, a measurement error of each base station, for example, an error due to spatial interaction or a multipath error can be reduced, so that more accurate position information can be obtained than when corrected by differential information of a single base station. Obtainable. Also, W
By employing ADGPS, even if a malfunctioning fixed station (base station) exists, the difference information from other fixed stations can be processed and covered, so that a stable service can be provided. In this example, difference information of a plurality of fixed stations is obtained via the Internet 1.
It is also possible to connect these fixed stations with a dedicated line and collect difference information as part of an intranet.

By applying DGPS or WADGPS in the DGPS calculation unit 26, it is possible to correct the position information obtained by the independent positioning to the position information obtained by the relative positioning, and to obtain extremely accurate position information. Can be. The GPS server 22 of the present example further includes an information collecting unit 27. Collection unit 27 of this example
Collects information according to the user's request obtained by the decoding unit 25, from among a vast amount of information existing on the Internet, information related to highly accurate position information. Then, the collected information is packaged together with the highly accurate position information obtained by the DGPS calculation unit 26.
And the packaging information (information providing package) is sent from the transmission unit 29 to the address of the e-mail that sent the position information.

The information collecting unit 27 is provided with a WWW server search file 52 that is compiled so that the address of the WWW server 3 connected to the Internet and the types and contents of the contents stored in the server can be searched, and an open to the Internet. It is connected to a database server search file 53 compiled so that the address of the other database server 4 and the type of information stored in the server can be searched. You can quickly find and collect information according to your current location and wishes.
The GPS server 22 updates the WWW server search file 52 and the database server search file 53 automatically in order to follow information on the Internet that changes daily.
And 56.

In the GPS server 22 of the present embodiment, the DGPS calculation section 26 for forming position information of relative positioning and the information collection section 27 described above constitute an information formation section 59 for forming information to be provided to the user. . And D
The relative position information obtained by the GPS operation unit 26 and the information collected by the information collection unit 27 are packaged in an e-mail in a predetermined format by the packaging unit 28, and are transmitted from the transmission unit 29 to the user's address. Sent to

The process of obtaining information and the process of providing information in the processing terminal device 6a and the GPS server 22 of this embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, when the user requests information on the current location, for example, a list of restaurants at a travel destination, the processing terminal device 6a determines in step 61
Is operated to catch radio waves from GPS satellites and perform independent positioning. Step 6:
In step 63, the e-mail with the request information indicating the desire to provide the restaurant information is sent to the GPS server 2 via the Internet in step 63.
2 is sent. At this stage, the processing related to information acquisition in the processing terminal device 6a ends once and another processing can be started. Thereafter, in step 65, the processing terminal device 6a periodically accesses its own mailbox by the dial-up IP connection or the like and collects the received mail. The step 65 of collecting the e-mail may be performed at intervals at which the processing terminal device 6a normally sends and collects the e-mail,
After sending the e-mail to the server 22, the connection interval can be shortened so that the e-mail from the GPS server 22 can be caught as soon as possible. Also, a system may be adopted in which when an e-mail arrives at its own mailbox prepared on the provider's server, an instruction is issued from the provider's server to the processing terminal device 6a to access the mailbox. It is possible. Alternatively, it is also possible to establish a connection from the server to the terminal and automatically send the mail to the terminal.

In step 65, if there is an e-mail addressed to the processing terminal device 6a, in step 66, G
Whether or not the reply is the reply of the e-mail sent to the PS server 22 is confirmed by referring to the subject of the e-mail or the like. If the received e-mail is a reply e-mail, in step 67, the information contained in the e-mail is decompressed and a list of desired restaurants is output to the user. As described above, in the processing terminal device 6a of the present embodiment, basically, the same processing as ordinary e-mail (Internet mail) can be adopted in order to acquire information related to position information. Therefore, it is possible to acquire information with a very simple interface as compared with a case where information is acquired after connecting to a WWW server using a browser or the like. Further, communication processing via the provider or the Internet requires only a processing time for transmitting and receiving electronic mail. For this reason, information from the WWW server may be interrupted due to poor communication conditions, or it may take a very long time to obtain the information, the display may not proceed, and other jobs may stop during that time. No. Therefore, the processing time for acquiring information can be reduced, and the processing capability of the processing terminal device 6a is not burdened. For this reason, a very small and portable information processing terminal such as a wallet type or a list type is used to quickly obtain information desired by a user, particularly regional information based on location information, from a vast amount of information. be able to.

On the other hand, the GPS server 22 accumulates the e-mail from the processing terminal device 6a as soon as it is received in step 71, and performs processing in the order in which the e-mail was received. In step 72, the contents of the e-mail are analyzed, and requests for location information, user address, and desired information type are read. Next, in step 73, the WADG is added to the solely located position information transmitted by the difference information of the plurality of base stations (fixed stations).
The PS is corrected, and highly accurate relative positioning position information is generated. By performing WADGPS or DGPS processing, the user's current location when sending an e-mail can be reliably grasped with an error of several meters.
The information corresponding to the current location can be reliably provided.

It is of course possible to obtain correction information for DGPS or WADGPS and to generate position information with high relative positioning accuracy on the processing terminal device 6a side.
However, in order to perform such processing, a means for obtaining correction information through FM radio waves or other media is required, and it is necessary to arrange dedicated transmitting stations all over the world, resulting in enormous costs. Further, it is necessary to provide a receiving means on the side of the processing terminal device 6a. It is also possible to obtain correction information via the Internet and perform relative positioning, and the cost of maintaining such an environment is greatly reduced. However, in order to perform relative positioning in real time, it is necessary to maintain connection with a server that provides correction information such as a base station during that time. Therefore, if the communication environment deteriorates, DGPS or WADG is required.
Position information relative-positioned by the PS cannot be obtained. On the other hand, if it is not necessary to perform relative positioning in real time, the timing at which highly accurate position information can be obtained is the same as that of the processing terminal device of the present example. Furthermore, considering the step of sending the obtained location information to the server and acquiring the information, it is necessary to establish connections one after another from the processing terminal device to a plurality of servers to collect the information, which takes an enormous amount of time. .

On the other hand, the information providing system 20 of the present embodiment
In, the GPS server 22 can receive the position information obtained by the sole positioning and correct the position information obtained by the relative positioning, and further, the information collected based on the position information is bundled and provided to the user. Therefore, the time required for the user to obtain the desired information is greatly reduced. Furthermore, since the load of collecting information is not imposed on the processing terminal device, information can be obtained with a small and inexpensive processing terminal device. Also, in the GPS server 22, the location information from the user is given by e-mail which is storage-and-exchange type data, and the information can be distributed to the user by e-mail. The processing time is not affected by the communication environment and speed of the server, and the processing capacity of the GPS server 22 is fully utilized, the correction is performed using WADGPS in a short time, and the processing of collecting the information of the next step is performed. Can be.

If highly accurate position information can be formed in step 73, information relating to the position information is extracted from a vast amount of information on a network or the like in step 74. In this example, information is collected based on highly accurate relative positioning position information using DGPS or WADGPS instead of solely positioning position information that may cause an error of about several hundred meters. I have. For this reason, it is possible to limit the range of information to be collected, and it is possible to send spot-like information with as little extra information as possible to the user. Of course, it is possible to send a wide range of information, but spot-like information such as information on the next store or the location of a toilet is often useful.

The information collected in step 74 is:
For example, various data such as map data related to the current location of the user, souvenir shops, events, restaurants, toilets, and the like can be considered. Since the collection of such information is performed by the GPS server 22 of the information providing station 10, by introducing the GPS server 22 having a high processing capability,
The collection processing speed and collection range can be freely set. On the other hand, since no load is applied to the processing terminal device, as described above, a small and inexpensive processing terminal device may be used.

When the information provided to the user is collected,
In step 75, the information is packaged in an electronic mail, and in step 76, it is sent to the user's address. It is of course possible to transmit the collected information in the form of a text. In the case of a large amount of information, the information may be compressed and transmitted, and may be decompressed on the processing terminal side. In addition, information collected using a Java applet or the like can be converted into an object and transmitted by e-mail so as not to depend on an application on the processing terminal device side. Further, it is possible to encrypt information embedded by using the position information independently measured on the processing terminal device side and embed the information in an electronic mail, and it is also possible to enhance the confidentiality maintaining function.

In the above description, the electronic mail is used as the storage and exchange type information package. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that an information package in a format independent of the electronic mail may be used. In addition, the format of the information package for sending location information and GP
Of course, the information package for sending the information provided from the S server may be different. However, in recent years,
The format of the e-mail is expanded so that various data can be incorporated, and by using the e-mail, existing hardware or software resources can be used.

[0043]

As described above, in the processing terminal device, the information providing system, the information obtaining method and the information providing method of the present invention, the position information and the information related thereto are stored and exchanged by electronic mail or the like. Since the exchange can be performed by using the information package, the processing terminal device and the information providing system can acquire the information with almost no restrictions on communication and can provide the information. That is, the processing terminal device can select and acquire desired information from a vast amount of information on a network or the like by using hardware and software capable of transmitting and receiving an e-mail. In particular, when it is desired to obtain local information, a system for obtaining position information such as GPS may be mounted, and the position information is embedded in an e-mail and sent to select and output regional information. be able to. Therefore, it is possible for the user to easily obtain desired information at a travel destination or the like by using a small and portable processing terminal device such as a wallet type or a list type.

Further, in the information providing system, the position information transmitted by the electronic mail is corrected, and the job for collecting the information related to the position information is communicated with the processing terminal device in the communication state, the speed or the performance of the processing terminal device. You can proceed independently without relation to For this reason, it is possible to perform processing at high speed and smoothly perform processing for collecting various kinds of information transmitted from many users.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an outline of a service using a processing terminal device and an information providing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of a processing terminal device illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating schematic functions of a processing terminal device and an information providing system illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing schematic functions of a GPS server shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a schematic process of a processing terminal device and a GPS server shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1. Internet 2. Base station (fixed station) for DGPS 3. WWW server 4. Database server 5. Provider 6, 13, 14 ... Processing terminal device 7. Public telephone line 10. Information Provision station 11. Bus (LAN) 12. Personal computer for gateway 15. PHS 16. Pager 17. Mailbox system 20. Information provision system 21. Mail server 22. GPS server 24. Reception Unit 25 decoding unit 26 DGPS operation unit 27 information collection unit 28 packaging unit 29 transmission unit 39 location acquisition unit 42 packaging unit 43 transmission unit 44 reception Part 45 ・ ・ output part

Claims (18)

[Claims] A location acquisition unit capable of acquiring location information indicating a current location of the user; a packaging unit for forming a storage-and-exchange type information transmission package including the location information; Transmitting means for transmitting the information providing package to the information providing package, receiving means for receiving the storage and exchange type information providing package transmitted corresponding to the information transmitting package, and decompressing the information contained in the information providing package. And a data output means for providing the information to a user. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position acquisition unit includes a unit that receives a radio wave from a satellite and performs radio wave positioning, and the position information includes single positioning information obtained by the radio wave positioning. The information terminal package further includes relative positioning information in which the single positioning information is corrected by difference information from at least one base station. 3. The processing terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the information providing package includes relative positioning information in which the single positioning information is corrected by difference information from a plurality of base stations. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said position acquiring means includes means for receiving a radio wave from a satellite and performing radio wave positioning, and said position information includes single positioning information obtained by said radio wave positioning. Further, the information providing package includes information having locality based on the relative positioning information in which the single positioning information is corrected by difference information from at least one base station. Processing terminal device. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting unit can transmit the information sending package via a computer network, and the receiving unit can receive the information providing package via the computer network. A processing terminal device characterized by the above-mentioned. 6. A receiving means capable of receiving a storage-and-exchange type information transmission package provided with position information indicating a current location of a processing terminal; a forming means for forming provided information related to the position information; An information providing system, comprising: packaging means for forming a storage-and-exchange type information providing package; and transmitting means capable of transmitting the information providing package to the processing terminal. 7. The position information according to claim 6, wherein the position information includes single positioning information obtained by radio positioning using radio waves from a satellite, and the forming unit transmits the single positioning information from at least one base station. An information providing system, comprising: a correction unit configured to generate relative positioning information by correcting the difference information based on the difference information, and forming the provided information including the relative positioning information. 8. An information providing system according to claim 7, wherein said correction means generates relative positioning information by correcting said single positioning information with difference information from a plurality of base stations. 9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the position information includes single positioning information obtained by radio positioning using radio waves from a satellite, and the forming unit transmits the single positioning information from at least one base station. An information providing system, comprising: a correction unit configured to generate relative positioning information by correcting the relative positioning information; and a collection unit configured to collect information related to the relative positioning information and form the provided information. . 10. The method according to claim 6, wherein:
An information providing system, wherein the information sending package can be received via a computer network, and the transmitting means can send the information providing package via the computer network. 11. A first step of acquiring location information indicating the current location of the user, a second step of forming a store-and-forward type information transmission package including the location information, and providing the information transmission package with information. A third step of transmitting to the system; a fourth step of receiving a storage and exchange type information providing package transmitted from the information providing system corresponding to the information transmitting package; and a fourth step of being included in the information providing package. And a fifth step of decompressing the provided information and providing it to the user. 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein in the first step, a radio wave from a satellite is received and radio wave positioning is performed, and the position information includes single positioning information obtained by the radio wave positioning. An information acquisition method, wherein the information providing package includes relative positioning information obtained by correcting the single positioning information with difference information from at least one base station. 13. The method according to claim 11, wherein in the first step, a radio wave from a satellite is received to perform radio wave positioning, and the position information includes single positioning information obtained by the radio wave positioning. An information acquisition method, wherein the information providing package includes information having locality based on relative positioning information in which the single positioning information is corrected based on difference information from at least one base station. 14. The method according to claim 11, wherein in the third step, the information sending package is transmitted via a computer network, and in the fourth step, the information providing package is received via the computer network. Characteristic information acquisition method. 15. A sixth step of receiving a storage-and-exchange type information transmission package having position information indicating a current location of a processing terminal; a seventh step of forming provided information related to the position information; An information providing method, comprising: an eighth step of forming a store-and-forward type information providing package including provided information; and a ninth step of transmitting the information providing package to the processing terminal. 16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the position information includes single positioning information obtained by radio positioning using radio waves from a satellite.
An information providing method, comprising: generating relative positioning information by correcting with relative information from two base stations; and forming the provided information including the relative positioning information. 17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the position information includes single positioning information obtained by radio positioning using radio waves from a satellite, and the seventh step includes the step of transmitting the single positioning information to at least one base station. A tenth step of generating relative positioning information by correcting with difference information from a station, and an eleventh step of collecting information related to the relative positioning information to form the provided information. Characteristic information provision method. 18. The method according to claim 15, wherein in the sixth step, the information sending package is received via a computer network, and in the ninth step, the information providing package is sent via the computer network. Characteristic information provision method.