JPH1127261A - Information transmission system and information processor for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information transmission system and an information processor used for the same which can reduce line fee even when an internet is connected by a meter accounting network such as general subscriber's line or the like. SOLUTION: A user of a network client 200 requests an information collection function part 120 to collect information by way of a request reception function part 110 of a network server 10 from an information collection request function part 210, compresses as needed the amount of information, collected by the information collection function part 120, by means of an information compression function part 130 and returns to the network client 200 from a return function part 140.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information transmission system and an information processing apparatus used therefor, and more particularly to an information transmission system suitable for application to an information retrieval system in a computer network environment such as the Internet environment and information processing used therefor. Related to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, along with the development of network infrastructure technology, an environment in which a network can be accessed from a place close to us, such as an office or a home, is being prepared. In particular, the Internet, which has integrated networks on a global scale, has access to its access point through a fixed-line dedicated line or a pay-as-you-go general subscriber line (hereinafter "general line").
), And users can use network resources located on servers all over the world connected to the Internet.

As such an application on the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW: Wor)
There is a wide area information system called “ld Wide Web”. The WWW is a system for constructing a hyperlink text on a network so that all information such as text, images and sounds can be accessed seamlessly. The user accesses the Internet from a dedicated line or a general line, searches and browses information on the WWW around the world (hereinafter referred to as "browsing"),
Image data can be downloaded and displayed.

[0004] However, a user who accesses the Internet using a general line follows a link and downloads and displays various pieces of information until the user reaches desired information (during browsing). Time occupies most of the time and a waiting time occurs, so that the waiting time is wasted. Furthermore, while reading information that takes a long time to browse the contents, such as text information, do not disconnect from the Internet, and avoid the trouble of connecting again when following the next link. However, during this time, data transmission is not performed, so connection charges for general lines are wasted.

As described above, a user who accesses the Internet using a general line wastes the above-described waiting time during browsing and the line usage fee until reaching the desired information.

As a method of eliminating such waste, for example, SUPER ASCII, February 1997, ASCII, p. Web patrol software described in 136 to 162 is known. Web patrol software is WWW
Based on the rules specified by the user in advance (for example, the range of specific information and the type of information), the data is automatically collected and stored in a large-capacity storage medium such as a hard disk. This software allows browsing to take time after disconnecting the line, thereby reducing browsing and line usage fees.

[0007]

Problems to be solved by the Web patrol software
Since information on the Internet can be automatically collected and WWW information stored in its own terminal can be read and browsed later, useless waiting time during browsing does not occur.

However, the Internet is a network constructed by interconnecting various networks having different line speeds with a network connection device called a router, and is located between a user's access point and WWW having desired information. In some cases, it may take extra time to search for information through a network with a low transmission speed, a congested network, or a router with a low processing speed. That is, transmission performance on the Internet becomes a bottleneck, causing a transmission delay, and data flowing on a line connecting a user terminal to an access point to the Internet is interrupted. As a result, WWW is interrupted.
Will result in a longer data transmission time. Especially,
For a user who accesses the Internet via a general line, the line usage fee is charged for the connection time, so transmission delay on the Internet becomes a bottleneck, the download time of desired data becomes longer, and the line usage fee increases. There was a problem.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information transmission system capable of reducing a line usage fee even when connected to the Internet by a pay-as-you-go network such as a general subscriber line, and an information processing apparatus used therefor. .

[0010]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

(1) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a first computer terminal on a client side and a server side connected to the first computer terminal via a first network for pay-per-use. , And a third computer terminal connected to the second computer terminal via a second network and holding information, wherein the first computer terminal In the information transmission system for searching for information held in the third computer terminal via the second computer terminal, the second computer terminal transmits information collected from the third computer terminal Information compression means for compressing, the second computer terminal compresses information collected from the third computer terminal, It is obtained by the send the serial first computer terminal. With this configuration, the transmission time for sending information to the first computer terminal can be shortened, and the line usage fee can be reduced.

(2) In the above (1), preferably,
The second computer terminal includes a request receiving unit that disconnects the connection via the first network after receiving a request for information collection conditions sent from the first computer terminal. . With such a configuration, the connection to the first network is cut off during the information collection period for the second computer terminal, so that the line usage fee can be reduced.

(3) In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a first computer terminal on a client side is connected via a first network for pay-per-use,
An information processing apparatus used by being connected to a third computer terminal holding information via a second network, comprising an information compression unit for compressing information collected from the third computer terminal. It is like that. With this configuration, the transmission time for sending information to the first computer terminal can be shortened, and the line usage fee can be reduced.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The configuration of an information transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

First, an overall configuration of a network system of an information retrieval system of the Internet WWW, which is an information transmission system according to the present embodiment, will be described with reference to FIG.

The computer terminal 100 has a network server function for connecting the network 10 to the network 20 and providing a user of the computer terminal 200 connected to the network 10 with a connection service to the network 20 and the network 30. Yes, hereafter referred to as a network server. The computer terminal 200 is hereinafter referred to as a network client.

The network 10 is based on a pay-as-you-go system such as a network which is charged according to the time of use like a normal telephone line, and a network which is charged according to the amount of data transmitted like an ISDN packet communication line. This is the network where billing is performed. The networks 20 and 30 are networks with no charge such as LANs, or networks with fixed charges such as dedicated lines. Network 2
0, 30 may be a network in which metered billing is performed.

The network connection terminal 400 is a router for connecting a plurality of networks to each other, and the networks 20 and 30 are connected one after another by the network connection terminal 400 to form a worldwide network such as the Internet. .

The computer terminals 300 and 310 are connected to the network 20 and the network 30, respectively, and hold information forming the WWW, and are hereinafter referred to as WWW servers. A hypertext markup language (HTM) is provided on the WWW server 300.
L: Hiper Text Mark-up Lang
age), and information data files 302 and 304 created according to the format
4 and still image data 306 and audio data 3
08 and the like are stored. Also, the WWW server 310
Above, an information data file 312 created in accordance with the HTML format, moving image data 314 associated with the information data file 312, and the like are stored. Note that W
A moving image file may be stored on the WW server 300 in relation to the stored information data file.
Still image files and audio files may be stored on the WW server 310 in relation to the stored information data files.

Normally, the user of the network client 200 accesses the network 20 via the network server 100 and browses the data on the WWW servers 300 and 310 while following the link of the WWW.

Next, referring to FIG. 2, WWW of the Internet, which is an information transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention, will be described.
An example of the link relation of the data that constitutes will be described.

Information file 3 described in HTML format
02, 304, and 312 have therein link information to another file called a tag. HTML302
Is linked to the HTML 304 and the still image data 306 of 640 × 480 pixels, for example. Also, HT
The ML 304 links, for example, the HTML 312 and the stereo audio data 308. In addition, HTM
The L312 links the moving image data 314 of 30 frames / second and the HTML 302. These data may be on the same computer terminal or on another computer terminal as shown in FIG.

Next, a system configuration of a computer terminal used in the information transmission system according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The network server 100 includes a request receiving function unit 110, an information collecting function unit 120, an information compressing function unit 130, and a reply function unit 140. The network client 200 has the information collection request function unit 2
10, information decompression function unit 220, and information browsing function unit 23
0 and a reply receiving function unit 240. Each of these functional units may be constructed as software operating on each computer terminal, or may be configured to be realized by a combination of software and hardware.

The operation of each functional unit will be described below in accordance with the procedure by which the user of the network client 200 browses WWW information. When a user of the network client 200 browses WWW information using the network client 200, the user of the network client 200 uses an input means such as a keyboard to input information collection conditions using an information collection request function unit. Input to 210. Information collection request function unit 2
10 connects the network client 200 to the network server 100 via the network 10 and informs the request receiving function unit 110 of the conditions for collecting information. If the network server 100 and the network client 200 are already connected via the network 10, there is no need to make a new connection.

The conditions for collecting information include, for example, the starting point of the information to be collected, the number of layers of information, the type of information, and the upper limit of the line usage fee. For example, if the information has a link relationship as shown in FIG. 2, the starting point of the information is HTM
L302. The number of information layers is HTML 304 and still image data 306 on the first layer.
The third layer is HTML 312 and stereo audio data 308, and the third layer is moving image data 314 and HTML 302. As the content type of the information, for example, only a still image such as a still image
It is possible to specify that a moving image such as 14 is not collected. The upper limit of the line usage fee is a value that depends on the time required to transmit the collected information via the network 10, and is a parameter that limits the upper limit of the amount of information to be collected.
The connection time is calculated based on the line usage fee, and the upper limit of the amount of collected information can be calculated from the connection time and the transmission speed of the network 10.

When the request receiving unit 110 of the network server 100 receives the information collection condition sent from the information collection request function unit 210, it temporarily disconnects the network 10, and the information received by the information collection function unit 120. Instructs information collection according to collection conditions. After receiving the information collection condition, the request receiving unit 110 disconnects the connection by the network 10 so that the use of the network 10 during the information collection is not charged, and the line usage fee can be reduced accordingly. it can.

The information collection function unit 120 collects information of a specified type by tracing the WWW 300 and 310 via the network 20 to a specified hierarchy. If the total amount of collected information does not exceed the upper limit of the information amount corresponding to the specified line usage upper limit, the reply function unit 140
Again, it connects to the network client 200 via the network 10 and transmits all the collected information to the network client 200.

If the total amount of collected information exceeds the upper limit of the amount of information corresponding to the specified upper limit of the line usage, the information compression function unit 130 reduces the amount of collected information. The information with the reduced amount of information is again connected to the network client 200 via the network 10 by the reply function unit 140 and transmitted to the network client 200. In the present embodiment, even if the information is compressed, even if the information amount of the compressed information exceeds the upper limit of the information amount corresponding to the line usage upper limit, the information is sent to the network client 200 as it is. . However, even if the information is compressed, if the amount of information of the compressed information exceeds the upper limit of the amount of information corresponding to the upper limit of the line usage, the upper limit is exceeded from the network server 100 to the network client 200. Is notified, the user of the network client 200 is answered,
Alternatively, a portion exceeding the upper limit may be cut and then sent.

Here, as a method of reducing the amount of information, for example, if the collected information includes text data such as HTML data or an executable program, these are obtained by using a reversible compression method such as LHA or ZIP. Compress and reduce the amount of information. When the collected information includes multimedia data such as a still image, a sound, and a moving image, the information amount is compressed and reduced by using a lossy compression method. For example, for still images and moving images, the number of pixels is reduced, the number of colors is reduced, and the amount of information is greatly reduced. For audio, stereo is converted to monaural, and for digital audio data, Reduce the amount of information by reducing the sampling rate. For moving image data, a method such as reducing the number of frames may be used. For multimedia data such as still images, audio, and moving images, JPEG,
A reversible compression method such as MPEG or MPEG Audio may be used. In the reversible compression method, even if the compressed data is decompressed, 100
Although the original data cannot be restored, the original data can be obtained. On the other hand, in the reversible compression system, 100% original data can be restored even if the compressed data is expanded. In the irreversible compression system, compressed data cannot be expanded.

Some of the information collected by the information collecting function unit 120 is compressed in advance.
For such collected information that has been compressed, the information compression function unit 130 expands the information once, and then again executes the above-described lossless compression method, irreversible compression method, or lossless compression method. Compress using The information compression function unit 130 can also compress the compressed information of the still image data, the audio data, and the moving image data while maintaining the compressed information.

The information sent from network server 100 is received by reply receiving function unit 240 of network client 200. Reply receiving function 2
40 passes the received information to the information decompression unit 220. The information decompression unit 220 decompresses the lossless-compressed HTML data into the original data,
00 is stored in an information storage device 250 such as an HDD. The irreversibly compressed moving image data, still image data, and audio data are stored in the information storage device 250 in a compressed state. The reversibly compressed moving image data, still image data, and audio data are stored in the information storage device 250 after being substantially decompressed to the original data. Also, the reversibly compressed moving image data, still image data, and audio data may be stored in the information storage device 250 in a compressed state.

Note that the still picture data is 320 × 240 data by reducing the number of pixels from 640 × 480 to half length and width, and the audio data is data obtained by converting stereo to monaural. 3 frames
The information may be stored in the information storage device 250 after being reduced from 0 fps (frames / second) to 1/3 of 10 fps. Thereby, the capacity to be stored in the information storage device 250 can be reduced. Reducing the amount of information of multimedia data is effective in saving resources of a network or a storage device, but may reduce quality, but may be sufficient for information retrieval use.

As described above, when the total amount of collected information exceeds the upper limit of the amount of information corresponding to the specified upper limit of the line usage, the information compression function unit 130 is used to store the information of the collected information. Since the volume is reduced and then sent to the network client 200, the line usage fee can be reduced even when the Internet is connected by a pay-as-you-go network such as a general subscriber line.

When storing the HTML data and the moving image data in the information storage device 250, the information decompression unit 220 restores the link relationship and manages the data on the HDD or the like as the information storage device 250, for example, the file structure of the directory. And stored in the information storage device 250. For example, the HTML 302 is the HTML on the information storage device 250.
The link information is rewritten so as to link the L304A and the still image data 306A, thereby obtaining an HTML 302A. The still image data 306A is obtained by reducing the number of pixels in the vertical and horizontal halves of the still image data 306 on the WWW server 300. The HTML 302 </ b> A is an H on the WWW server 300.
Although the link information has been rewritten in the TML 302, the data is the same. HTML 304A also uses W
Although the link information has been rewritten in the HTML 304 on the WW server 300, the data is the same.

Similarly, the HTML 304 stores the HTML 312A on the information storage device 250 and the audio data 308A.
And rewrite the link information to link
304A. The audio data 308A is obtained by converting the stereo audio data 308 on the WWW server 300 into monaural. Further, the HTML 312 rewrites the link information so as to link the moving image data 314A on the information storage device 250 and the HTML 302A.
A. The moving image data 314A is stored in the WWW server 310.
The moving image data 312 at 30 fps above is converted to 10 fps.

In this manner, the WWW information developed on the information storage device 250 is transmitted to the network client 2.
00 uses the information browsing function unit 230 to browse.

As described above, the network server 1
After receiving a request from a user of the network client 200, the request receiving function unit 110 operating at 00 temporarily disconnects the network 10, collects information, and returns the information to the network client 200 collectively. Therefore, even if the data transmission on the Internets 20 and 30 is interrupted, the transmission time on the network 10 is not affected, so that the line usage time does not become longer and the line usage fee can be reduced. Will be possible.

Further, since the information compression function unit 130 of the network server 100 compresses the information amount and returns it to the network client 200, the line usage fee can be reduced.

[0039]

According to the present invention, even when the Internet is connected by a pay-as-you-go network such as a general subscriber line, the line usage fee can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a network system of an information retrieval system of the Internet WWW, which is an information transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a link relation of data constituting a WWW of the Internet which is an information transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram of a computer terminal used in the information transmission system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20, 30 ... network 100 ... network server 110 ... request receiving function unit 120 ... information collection function unit 130 ... information compression function unit 140 ... reply function unit 200 ... network client 210 ... information collection request function unit 220 ... information decompression function Unit 230: Information browsing function unit 240: Response receiving function unit 300, 310: Computer terminal 400: Network connection terminal

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A first computer terminal on a client side, and a first charge-based charge for the first computer terminal.
A second computer terminal on the server side connected via the network of the above, and a third computer terminal connected via the second network and holding the information to the second computer terminal. An information transmission system configured to search for information held by the third computer terminal from the first computer terminal via the second computer terminal, wherein the second computer terminal includes: An information compression unit that compresses information collected from the third computer terminal, wherein the second computer terminal compresses the information collected from the third computer terminal and sends the compressed information to the first computer terminal. An information transmission system, characterized in that: 2. The information transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the second computer terminal receives a request for information collection conditions sent from the first computer terminal, and then receives the request from the first network. An information transmission system, comprising: a request accepting unit for disconnecting a connection by a user. 3. A third computer terminal connected to a first computer terminal on the client side via a first network for pay-per-use and holding information via a second network. An information processing apparatus, which is connected and used, comprising: information compression means for compressing information collected from the third computer terminal.