JP2003284139A - Information providing service and information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information providing system for transmitting information required by an information request terminal side in real time. <P>SOLUTION: The information providing service provided by an information service provider related to a first mobile terminal group including a plurality of mobile terminals each having information input output function and an information transmission reception function via a network and using a service providing server for managing information of the mobile terminals includes: a step of acquiring position information of the respective mobile terminals belonging to the first mobile terminal group; a step of receiving an information providing request including a position of the information providing object and contents from the first mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group; a step of searching a second mobile terminal group existing in an object area including the position from the first mobile terminal group; and a step of requesting the second mobile terminal group to reply with respect to the information providing request. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing service for providing information to a portable terminal requesting to provide information by an information providing server connected via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a means for providing the latest information regarding a specific area or facility, WWW (World Wide W
It is possible to use the information providing service according to eb). For example, an amusement park operator provides the presence or absence of the current entry restrictions and the congestion degree of the parking lot on the WWW server, and the side requesting the information accesses the WWW server using a mobile terminal or the like to obtain the predetermined information. Obtainable.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-197564 discloses that
A system that updates the database at the center by notifying the center of the change information of the information content from the information provider side, and provides information from the center based on the updated database when the mobile terminal requests information Has been done.

When accessing the WWW server,
URL (Uniform Resou) corresponding to each facility
rc Locator) from the information requesting side. Depending on the current position and designation on the information requesting side, the latest information near the current location and the designated location can be obtained.
It is possible to obtain information about karaoke shops with vacant rooms near the current location or near a designated area. Furthermore, GPS (Global)
l Positioning System) and PHS
(Personal Handyphone System
By transmitting the current position information from the information provider side by using the position information provided by m), it is possible to provide detailed position information when the facility moves like a food stall. There is.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-168909 monitors the position information of a plurality of mobile terminals, and based on the information such as the address transmitted from the information requesting terminal, the mobile terminals existing near the designated area. There is a description about the information providing system for notifying the contact information of.

[0006] By using this information providing system, for example, a staff member having a mobile terminal is arranged in an amusement park, and when an information requesting side makes an inquiry about a certain attraction, the mobile terminals located in the vicinity are You can reply to the contact information. As a result, the information requesting side can directly contact the staff near the attraction,
It will be possible to get the latest information about a specific location, such as congestion information for each attraction.

[0007]

However, when the real-time information is updated on the WWW server described above and the information is provided from the center based on the updated information from the information providing side, the following problems exist. Was.

(1) Since only the information expected by the information provider can be provided, the information desired by the information requester may not be provided in some cases. (2) It takes time and effort to check the congestion status of each attraction and to check the availability of the parking lot. In order to automate this, it is necessary to install a surveillance camera or the like, which requires extra cost. (3) In the case of updating information at a predetermined timing, if the time lag for updating the information is large, the information provided by the information provider side and the information acquired by the information requester side are likely to be different. If the time lag for updating information is reduced, the cost of the information provider increases.

Further, in the case of a system capable of directly contacting the staff as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-168909, the cost for arranging the staff at each point is required and there is not a sufficient number of staff. Then, there is a problem that a staff member is not placed near the designated attraction (place), and the information that can be provided is limited.

Further, as a problem common to both, since the operator of the facility provides the information, the obtained information is objective information such as congestion degree, or PR of the facility.
There is also a problem in that it becomes information and it is difficult to obtain subjective information such as the impression of using the facility. An object of the present invention is to provide a service for sending information required by an information requesting terminal side in real time.

[0011]

According to one aspect of the present invention, a first mobile terminal group including a plurality of mobile terminals having an information input / output function and an information transmission / reception function is associated via a network, An information providing service provided by an information service provider using a service providing server that manages the information of the mobile terminals, wherein the position information of each mobile terminal belonging to the first mobile terminal group is acquired; Receiving an information provision request including a position and contents of an information provision target from a first mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group; and existing in a target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group. An information providing service including a step of searching for a second mobile terminal group and a step of requesting a response to the information providing request to the second mobile terminal group is provided.

According to the information providing service, accurate information can be obtained more quickly and surely. Further, a step of acquiring information for identifying the first mobile terminal,
And a step of sending information identifying the first mobile terminal to the second mobile terminal, whereby the information requesting side discloses its own mail address and the like, and the information providing side and the information requesting side are peer-to-peer. Information can also be exchanged.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the first portable terminal group including a plurality of portable terminals having an information input / output function and an information transmitting / receiving function is associated via a network, and the information of the portable terminal is stored. A service providing server that manages the location information, the location information acquiring unit acquiring location information of each mobile terminal belonging to the first mobile terminal group, and providing information from the first mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group. In response to the information provision request including the position and the content of the target, the second mobile terminal group existing in the target area including the position is searched from the first mobile terminal group, and the second mobile terminal group is searched. An information providing system including a service providing server having a means for requesting a response to the information providing request. The acquired position information is updated as appropriate.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a first mobile terminal group including a plurality of mobile terminals having an information input / output function and an information transmission / reception function is associated via a network,
A program for causing an information providing service to be executed by a service providing server that manages information of the mobile terminal, the step of acquiring position information of each mobile terminal belonging to the first mobile terminal group; A step of receiving an information provision request including a position and content of an information provision target from a first mobile terminal in the mobile terminal group; and a second mobile cell existing in a target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group. A program for causing the service providing server to execute a step of searching a terminal group and a step of requesting a response to the information providing request to the second mobile terminal group is provided.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the present specification, the term mobile terminal refers to a mobile phone or PDA (Personal Di).
digital assistant), portable notebook PC
Etc. are included and the form is not limited.

A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an information providing service system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, an information providing service system A according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes an intermediary server (information providing server) 101, an advertisement server 102, a billing server 103, and a plurality of mobile terminals. 104 ・ 105,
It has a network 106 and a radio base station 107.

The intermediary server 101 is connected to the network 106 via, for example, a wired line, and has an information requesting terminal 105 for requesting information and an information providing terminal 104 for providing information.
Mediate with. The advertisement server 102 uses the information requesting terminal 1
05 and the advertisement information transmitted to the information providing terminal 104 is held and searched. The billing server 103 performs billing processing relating to transmission and reception of information based on the mobile terminal information received from the mediation server 101.

In the present embodiment, the configuration in which the intermediary server, the advertisement server, and the billing server are provided on the network will be described as an example. However, the intermediary server and the advertisement are provided in a telecommunication switch in the telephone network or a router in the IP network. It is obvious that a function equivalent to a server or a billing server may be added.

The information requesting terminal 105 is connected to the radio base station 107.
Is connected to the network 106 via the network, and mediates the information specifying data for specifying the requested information content, the area specifying data for specifying the area where the information content is desired to be acquired, and the terminal-specific data for specifying the own terminal such as the mail address and the telephone number. Send to the server 101. Further, the information requesting terminal 105 displays the provided information received from the mediation server 101.

The information providing terminal 104 is a radio base station 107.
Is connected to the network 106 via the mediation server 1
The information provision request is received and displayed from 01, and the provision information input by the terminal user is transmitted to the mediation server 101.

2 to 6, an intermediary server 101, an advertisement server 102, a billing server 103,
Detailed configurations of the information providing terminal 104 and the information requesting terminal 105 will be described. Refer to FIG. 1 as needed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mediation server 101. As shown in FIG. 2, the mediation server 101
Is a control unit 201, an information request acquisition unit 202, an additional information reception unit 203, a terminal information acquisition unit 204,
Evaluation data receiving means 205, information providing means 206,
Information provision requesting means 207 and advertisement information transmitting means 208
An information providing terminal searching means 209, a terminal information table access means 210, an area management table 211, a terminal information table 212, a past information searching means 213,
Past information storage means 214 and past information table 215
, Information conversion means 216, and advertisement information acquisition means 217
, Charging information transmitting means 218, and program storing means 2
And 19 are included.

The control means 201 is the program storage means 2
Each unit is controlled according to the program read from 19. The information request acquisition unit 202 acquires, for example, the area designation data, the information designation data, and the terminal unique data transmitted from the information request terminal 105. Provision information receiving means 20
3 acquires the provision information transmitted from the information provision terminal 104.

The terminal information acquisition means 204 acquires terminal information such as the terminal specific data registered from the information providing terminal 104 and the information requesting terminal 105 and the position data transmitted from the information providing terminal 104. Evaluation data receiving means 205
Receives evaluation data for providing information from the information requesting terminal 105. The information providing unit 206 receives the additional information acquired by the additional information receiving unit 203 from the information requesting terminal 10
Send to 5. The information provision requesting unit 207 selects the information providing terminal 1 selected by the information providing terminal searching unit 209 based on the information request content acquired by the information request acquiring unit 202.
04 (indicated by reference numerals 104-1 and 104-2 in FIG. 1), an information provision request is transmitted.

The information provision terminal searching means 209 selects an appropriate terminal from the terminals registered in the terminal information table 212 based on the area designation data / information designation data. The terminal information table 212 is held, for example, in the format shown in FIG. 12, and the holder information such as the ID of the user (terminal holder), the mail address, the gender, the age, the hobby / preference, and the current status of the terminal. Position data, availability information about whether or not it is possible to respond to information provision requests at present, cumulative value of points that increase or decrease due to information request or information provision, evaluation value for information provision contents up to now, terminal display Performance data and input performance data are recorded. In addition to this, the owner information may include personal information such as the occupation and family structure of the user.

The display performance data displays information as to whether or not the terminal has a function for displaying the provided information. In FIG. 12, a still image display function such as JPEG,
Information about whether or not a moving image display function such as MPEG4 is provided is recorded. To this item, for example, an item regarding the presence or absence of a reproduction function such as voice may be added, or detailed information such as a displayable image size and format may be added. Similarly, the input performance data records information such as whether or not the camera has a camera function for providing still image and moving image information.

The area management table 211 is, for example, as shown in FIG.
It is held in the format shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.
6 is a table showing the correspondence between area designation data (location) designated by the information requesting terminal 105 and position data.
In addition, in FIG. 14, the position data is represented as area names such as A1 and A2, but may be represented by an absolute position such as latitude and longitude, or may include various information that can specify the position. good.

The terminal information table access means 210,
When there is a change in the position data or compatibility information of each mobile terminal, the information in the terminal information table 212 is updated based on the information obtained by the terminal information acquisition means 204, or the information about each mobile terminal is acquired. It is used to

The past information storage means 214 stores a history of information request contents and provided information contents, as in the past information table 215 shown in FIG. The stored contents can be acquired by the past information search means 213.

The information converting means 216 is used by the information providing terminal 10
The provided information acquired from No. 4 is converted into data in a format that can be displayed by the information requesting terminal 105. Advertising information acquisition means 217
Transmits terminal information to the advertisement server and receives optimum advertisement information for the terminal from the advertisement server. The received advertisement information is sent from the advertisement information transmitting means 208 by the information providing terminal 104.
Alternatively, it is sent to at least one of the information requesting terminals 105.
The billing information transmitting means 218 performs billing processing by transmitting the terminal information acquired from the terminal information table access means 210 to the billing server 103.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of the information requesting terminal 105. The information requesting terminal 105 includes a control unit 301, a program storage unit 302, a storage unit 303, an input unit 304, and a data reception unit 305.
And a data transmission unit 306 and a display unit 307.

The control means 301 is the program storage means 3
Each part is controlled according to the program stored in 02.
The storage unit 303 holds terminal-specific data such as a mail address and temporarily stores the received provided information. The input unit 304 receives a user's input with a key or the like. The data receiving unit 305 is the intermediary server 10.
1 receives the provided information. The data transmission means 306,
The terminal-specific data, the information specifying data, and the area specifying data are transmitted to the mediation server 101. Also, the evaluation result for the provided information is transmitted. The display unit 307 displays the received provided information on the screen.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of the information providing terminal 104. The information providing terminal 104 includes a control unit 401, a program storage unit 402, a storage unit 403, an input unit 404, and a position data acquisition unit 40.
5, a camera 406, a data receiving unit 407, a data transmitting unit 408, and a display unit 409.

The information providing terminal 104 is the information requesting terminal 10
Although it has almost the same configuration (function) as that of 5,
For example, GPS (Global position on)
It has a position data acquisition unit 405 for acquiring position data by a gsystem) and a camera 406 for inputting image information. The position data acquired by the position data acquisition unit 405 can be transmitted to the mediation server 101, and the position data can be updated at a desired opportunity.

A portable terminal such as PHS (mobile terminal)
However, if the cell information used in the location registration of the terminal performed with the base station is used, even if the mobile terminal does not have a special function such as GPS, the mediation server 101
Can obtain and update the position data of the mobile terminal.

In addition, PDC (Person) other than PHS
Al Digital Cellular) and NTT Docomo's FOMA (Freedom of Mobile)
Mobile terminals such as eMultimedia Access) and GSM (Global System for)
Mobile Communication) and CD
MA (Code division multiple)
It is possible to acquire the position information by using the cell information even in a general mobile phone such as access.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the advertisement server 102. The advertisement server 102 controls the control means 50.
1, terminal information acquisition means 502, and advertisement provision means 503
, Advertisement information table 504, and optimum advertisement search means 50
5 and a program storage unit 506.

The control means 501 is the program storage means 5
Each unit is controlled according to the program stored in 06. The terminal information acquisition unit 502 acquires the position data of the terminal and the holder information from the mediation server 101. The advertisement providing unit 503 uses the information acquired by the terminal information acquisition unit 502 to transmit the advertisement information selected by the optimum advertisement search unit 505 to the mediation server 101. Optimal advertisement search means 5
05 searches the advertisement information table 504 for the optimum advertisement to be transmitted to each terminal.

The advertisement information table is held, for example, in the data format shown in FIG. 17, and indicates in which position the terminal provides the corresponding advertisement in addition to the “advertiser” and the “advertisement information”. It includes "position data", "advertising conditions" for transmitting the corresponding advertisement, "billing information" for each advertiser, and the like.

For example, the advertisement of "Tavern YY" is selectively transmitted only when the position data of the terminal is C5 and the age of the holder is 20 years or older. Further, the "ZZ sports" is selectively transmitted only when the position data is C5 and the hobby of the terminal holder includes "sports".

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the billing server 103. As shown in FIG. 6, the charging server 10
3 is a control unit 601, a terminal information acquisition unit 602,
A billing information table 603, a billing unit 604, and a program storage unit 605 are included.

The control means 601 is the program storage means 6
Each unit is controlled according to the program stored in 05. The terminal information acquisition unit 602 acquires, from the mediation server 101, the identification number (ID), point information, etc. of the mobile terminal that is the target of charging. The billing unit 604 calculates the billing amount for the user of the mobile terminal based on the point value held by the mobile terminal, and bills based on the account number or credit card number of the terminal holder (user) acquired from the billing information table 603. Perform processing.

Next, the processing of the information providing service according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 7 is a front view of a mobile terminal which is a target of the information providing service according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of display screens of the information requesting terminal 105 and the information providing terminal 104 in the information providing service according to the first embodiment of the present invention along the flow of the information providing service,
FIG. 19 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing in the first embodiment of the present invention. Description will be made with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 as appropriate.

First, the information providing terminal 104 accesses the mediation server 101 and performs terminal registration operation. As shown in FIG. 7, the mobile terminal 700 has a liquid crystal display screen 701.
And an operation unit 721 and a communication antenna 731.

The liquid crystal display screen 701 is, for example, an area 702 for displaying the mail address registered by the user, an area 703 for displaying the name of the terminal used, and an area 7 for displaying the sex.
04, an area 705 for displaying an age, an area 706 for selectively displaying a user's hobby (preference), and a registration selection area 707.

The operation unit 721 turns on / off the portable terminal 700.
A power button 722/723 to turn off, an input button 724 for inputting characters and numbers, and a selection button 7 that allows easy switching and selection of screen display and the like.
25 and.

The user of the information providing terminal inputs at least one of the information such as the mail address of his / her mobile terminal, the terminal used, sex, age and hobbies, and when he presses the register button at the end, the respective input contents are It is sent to the mediation server 101 via the network 106 (step 190).
1).

In the intermediary server 101, the terminal information acquisition means 2
The information such as the mail address, sex, age, hobbies, etc. is acquired by 04, and newly registered in the terminal information table 212 by the terminal information table access means 210. At this time, the input performance data and the display performance data are also acquired based on the used terminal name and registered in the terminal information table 212. Initialize the evaluation point items. (Step 1
902).

Next, the information providing terminal 104 transmits the position data acquired by the position data acquisition means 405 to the mediation server 101 (step 1903). In the mediation server 101, the terminal information table access means 210 updates the item of position data in the terminal information table 212 based on the newly updated position data (step 19).
04).

The information requesting terminal 105 inputs area designation data (which place you want to know) and information designation data (what you want to know) from the information requesting screen 801 shown in FIG. 8 (step 1905). For example, on the display screen 801, the "Ferris wheel" is targeted for the "crowding degree"
This is an example of requesting information regarding "and impressions".
The "ferris wheel" is the area designation data, and the "crowding degree" and "impression" are the information designation data. In this case, the information designation data has been selected from the contents assumed in advance, but by selecting "Other", you can directly enter the information designation data, such as "I want to know the business hours". May be. Further, by checking the "image" in the attached information column, it is possible to further request information with an image such as a photograph.

The information request input through the above steps is transmitted to the mediation server 101 via the network 106. In the mediation server 101, the past information search means 2
13 is used to search for a similar information request in the past (step 1907), and if there is a similar information request within a certain time, for example, within a time so short that the information does not need to be updated, Get the information provided.

On the other hand, if there is no similar information request within a fixed time, the information providing terminal searching means 209 searches for an appropriate information providing terminal based on the "area designation data". Then, the information provision requesting means 207 transmits the information provision request mail (step 1908).

On the side of the information providing terminal which has received the information providing request mail, the request content is displayed as a display screen 802 (step 1910). Upon receiving this, the user of the information providing terminal creates an information providing mail with an image photographed by the camera 406 attached, as shown on the display screen 803, and sends it to the mediation server 101 (step 1911). The intermediary server 101 that has received the provision information by the provision information receiving unit 203 stores a plurality of provision information
Editing processing such as grouping into one mail is performed (step 1912), and the edited mail is transmitted to the information requesting terminal 105 by the information providing means 206 (step 191).
3).

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the information is provided by the information provider. However, if the information is not provided after a certain period of time, the mediation server 101 sends the information requesting terminal 105 a message. , "Not providing information" is transmitted.

When transmitting the information provision to the information requesting terminal 105, the information converting means 216 causes the information requesting terminal 105 to operate.
The data format conversion may be performed based on the display performance data. For example, when the information requesting terminal 105 has only a monochrome display function and a color image is transmitted from the information providing terminal 104 side, the color image received by the mediation server 101 is converted into a monochrome image. However, it can also be transmitted to the information requesting terminal 105. In this way, data that cannot be displayed as it is can be displayed on the information requesting terminal 105 side. Also,
There is also an advantage that the amount of transfer data can be reduced by previously thinning out data such as conversion into a monochrome format.

When the information requesting terminal 105 receives the provided information mail (step 1914), the screen as shown in the display screen 804 is displayed. On the other hand, the user of the information requesting terminal 105 inputs the evaluation score for the provided information as shown on the display screen 805 and sends it to the mediation server 101 (step 1915).

Upon receiving the evaluation data by the evaluation data receiving means 205, the intermediary server 101 uses the terminal information table access means 210 to add points corresponding to the evaluation points to the points of the terminal information table 212 (steps 1916 and 1917). . For example, in the terminal information table 212 shown in FIG. 12, when information is provided from mobile terminals with ID = 1 and ID = 6 and the evaluation points are 5 points and 10 points, respectively, The point term is a value obtained by newly adding 5 points and 10 points as shown in FIG. Further, the evaluation item is increased or decreased based on the evaluation of the content of the provided information, for example. With the provision of this information, the point is lowered for the mobile terminal with ID = 1, and the ID = 6. For mobile terminals, the points are up.

In the information providing service according to the present embodiment, the case where points are acquired according to the evaluation points has been described as an example, but uniform points may be added regardless of the evaluation points. .

In the information requesting terminal 105, assuming that the total value of the evaluation points this time, 15 points, is used, 15 points are subtracted from the point item of the terminal information table. For example, when the mobile terminal with ID = 4 in FIG. 12 requests information, 15 points are deducted as shown in FIG. In this example, the usage points are calculated according to the evaluation value input from the information requesting terminal 105. However, for example, a uniform value such as “20 points for one information request” is defined. You can leave it. Points are deducted when requesting information and added when providing information.

At a specific time such as the end of the month, the intermediary server 1
01 transmits information about each mobile terminal to the billing server. If the received point value is a negative value, the billing server 103 performs billing processing based on the account number and credit card number acquired from the billing information table 603. On the other hand, if the point value is a positive value, cashback processing is performed. After that, the point value is cleared to 0 (reset).

The points required when requesting information may be changed depending on the contents of the area designation data. For example, if the XX amusement park is a sponsor, it is possible to provide free or cheap information when requesting information about the XX amusement park. On the other hand, the XX amusement park side has the advantage that it is possible to provide free or cheap information service to the park visitors, and it does not require new costs for constructing a dedicated system.

Next, the intermediary server 101 transmits information on the points of use and the points of acquisition to each of the information requesting terminal 105 and the information providing terminal 104, and the display screen 80 shown in FIG.
6, 807 is displayed. Also, the past information storage means 21
According to 4, the information request and the information provision content of this time are stored in the past information table (steps 1917 to 1920).

The past information table 215 is provided in order to prevent the same request from being repeatedly made to the information providing terminal 104 when the same information providing request as in the past is made. Further, when the time is specified by the information requesting terminal 105, the content acquired from the past information table of the specified time may be transmitted as the provision information. For example, in the case of information that you want to know in advance, such as information about the congestion degree of the fireworks display tomorrow, rather than the current information,
Rather, it is more effective to receive the information provided based on the history information of the last year in order to predict the congestion degree of this year in advance.

In addition to this, the area designation data recorded in the past information table 215, the information designation data, and the provided information include the place where the user wants to go, what he wants to know, and the impression of the information provider. With the approval of the user, it is possible to obtain statistical information useful for marketing by statistically processing the information recorded in these past information tables. The past information table 215 may be created for each information requester. As a result, when making an information request, it becomes possible to make an input based on a past information request pattern, and there is also an effect of improving convenience for the user.

FIG. 20 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing in which the information providing terminal 104 transmits terminal information to the mediation server 101. First, in the information providing terminal 104, for example, a predetermined time is measured by a timer or the like, and the position data acquired by the position data acquisition unit 405 and the terminal-specific data for specifying the mobile terminal are used as the mediation server 10.
1 (steps 2001 and 2002).

The mediation server 101 updates the acquired position data of the information providing terminal by the terminal information table access means 210 (steps 2003 and 2004). Thereby, the position data of the information providing terminal 104 is updated, for example, at regular intervals, and the latest position data is registered in the terminal information table 212. In the present embodiment, the process of transmitting the position data at regular time intervals has been described, but in addition, the position data is transmitted only when the position data of the information providing terminal 104 changes. May be. Since it is not necessary to transmit position data while staying in the same place, useless transmission / reception processing can be omitted.

The position data may be transmitted only when the user on the information providing terminal 104 side performs an operation relating to the position data transmission. By doing so, there is no fear of knowing the current position against the intention of the information providing terminal holder, and it becomes possible to consider privacy.

On the other hand, the information providing terminal 104 has the input means 4
When the input to reject the information provision is input by 04, the information provision refusal information is transmitted to the intermediation server 101 together with the terminal unique data (steps 2005, 20).
06). The mediation server 101, which has received the refusal information by the terminal information acquisition unit 204, updates the item of compatibility by the terminal information table access unit 210 (steps 2009 and 2010). With this, when there is a circumstance where the information providing terminal holder cannot obtain the information, such as when the information providing terminal holder has a need, it is possible to reduce the annoyance of the information providing terminal holder by not receiving the information providing request. .

Further, in step 2007, the example in which the information provision refusal information is automatically transmitted when the remaining battery level of the information provision terminal 104 becomes equal to or less than the threshold value is shown. When the battery level is low, there is a possibility that the information providing terminal 104 cannot be used, and it is possible to prevent the intermediary server 101 from transmitting the information providing request. In this way, it is possible to prevent the inconvenience of receiving the information provision request that has already expired after the battery of the information provision terminal 104 has been charged.

FIG. 21 shows the information providing terminal searching means 209 in the mediation server 101 in the information providing request transmitting step.
It is a flowchart figure which shows operation | movement. An explanation will be given by using the terminal information table shown in FIG. 12 and the area management table shown in FIG. 15 as an example of the processing when an information request is made from the mobile terminal shown by ID = 4 in FIG. The information request content is the same as the display screen of FIG.

The information providing terminal searching means 209 first obtains the area designation data obtained from the information request obtaining means 202 and the position data from the area management table 211 (step 2101). When “Ferris wheel” is designated as in the display example shown in FIG. 8, the position data is E10 from the area management table 211. Next, it is determined whether or not the position data of each terminal obtained by the terminal information table access means 210 matches the position data acquired in step 2101 (step 2104). In the terminal information table of FIG. 12, the position data is E10, ID = 1,
2, 5 and 6 mobile terminals are selected. Next, it is determined whether or not each mobile terminal has the input performance designated by the information requesting terminal 105 (step 2105). In the example of the display screen shown in FIG. 7, the information requesting side requests the still image information, and only the terminal having the still image function is selected as the input performance. As a result, the mobile terminal with ID = 5 is excluded from the candidates. . The determination may be made based on the display performance data in the terminal information table instead of the designation from the information requesting side.

For example, one having a high input performance may be preferentially selected among the portable terminals. For example, by providing a camera function, a terminal that can be expected to provide useful information is preferentially selected. If a terminal having a high input performance such as a camera function is preferentially selected, information provision requests may concentrate on some high-performance terminals. Therefore, the information requesting terminal 105 may preferentially select a terminal having a lower input performance within the display performance of the information requesting terminal 105. In this way, a terminal with low input performance that may not be selected if the information display performance requested by the information requesting terminal 105 is high is preferentially selected from among the information providing terminals, so that each information providing There is an advantage that information requests to terminals are uniformized.

In step 2106, it is judged whether the holder information of the information providing terminal holder satisfies the designation from the information requesting terminal 105. If you want to request information only to women, or if you have specified your age or hobby, it is determined whether each condition is met. This makes it possible to preferentially request information provision to information providers who are of the same age as themselves, or information providers who have similar hobbies / preferences, especially information with a strong subjective element such as "impression". You can expect more useful information about.

At step 2107, each information providing terminal 1
For 04, it is determined whether or not the evaluation points are above a certain value. Taking the case where the threshold value is 5 as an example, among the selected mobile terminals with ID = 1, 2, and 6, the terminal with ID = 2 does not satisfy the condition and is excluded. As described above, it is possible to expect more reliable information provision by preventing the information provision request from being transmitted to the information provision terminal 104 having a low evaluation value.

In step 2108, it is determined whether each mobile terminal can currently provide information. In the example shown in FIG. 12, both ID = 1 and ID = 6 can provide information and satisfy the condition. The information provision request mail is transmitted to (the mail address of) the mobile terminals of ID = 1 and ID = 6, which are terminals satisfying all the above conditions.

If there is no portable terminal satisfying all the above conditions, the information requesting terminal 105 is notified that "there is no terminal capable of providing information" (step 2112).

Further, in the information providing service according to the present embodiment, the information providing request is transmitted only to the information providing terminal satisfying all the conditions, but if some of the conditions are satisfied, the information providing request is made. It may be transmitted or set, or the condition may be relaxed depending on the number of terminals satisfying the condition.

For example, even when there is a request from the information requesting terminal 105 with "still image" information, if the number of information providing terminals having a still image input function is small, even for terminals that do not have the function. You may make it request information provision. Further, when there is no terminal having the same position data or the number of terminals is small, the search target based on the position data may be extended to an adjacent area, or the threshold value of the evaluation point may be lowered. This increases the possibility that some information can be provided to the information requesting side.

As shown in FIG. 15, as the area management table 211, in addition to the table showing the relationship between the area or facility name and the position data, as shown in FIG. 16, the relationship between the keyword and the position data is shown. You may search using the table shown. Using the table shown in FIG. 16, even if there is a designation such as “I want to know the progress of the Giants battle”, the position data of the “XX baseball field” where the game is being played is acquired from the keyword “Giants”. Therefore, it is possible to request the information provision to the mobile terminal near the “XX baseball field”.

Similarly, by designating "I want to know about the XX parade" without specifying "XX amusement park", the "XX amusement park" where the "XX parade" is carried out
It is possible to obtain the location data of and to request the information provision to the terminals near the "Amusement park". This makes it possible to reduce the input on the information requesting side as much as possible and improve convenience in a mobile terminal in which the input operation is relatively difficult. An application example of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 25 (a) to 25 (c).

The contents of the terminal information table 212 shown in FIG. 2 correspond to the position data of the portable terminal, the performance of the portable terminal and the user's preference table in association with the portable terminal ID as shown in FIGS. 12 to 14, for example. It is a stored table. The mediation server 101 is based on the tables shown in FIGS. 12 to 14 and the table in which the keywords and the position data as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 are associated with each other.
It searches for terminals that can provide appropriate information and makes an information provision request.

In the information providing service according to the present application example, the mediation server 101 has a terminal information database which stores terminal information of a large number of mobile terminal groups, which is pre-grouped according to a specific criterion. There is.

When searching for a mobile terminal existing in a target area including a position from the mobile terminal group, first, a group is preliminarily set for each similar mobile terminal such as the user preference of the mobile terminal or the user's action history. Divide.

The intermediary server 101 collates the content of the information requested by the information requesting terminal with the grouped terminal information, and picks up the portable terminal having the grouped terminal information having similar content.

FIG. 25A shows a search target area Ar
For example, it is divided into four areas Ar1 to Ar4, and the positions of the mobile terminals existing in the respective areas are P1-1 to P1-6, P2-1 to P2-5, and P3-1.
To P3-7, and P4-1 to P4-8. Actually, there are many cases where more mobile terminals exist.

It is assumed that a baseball field and a soccer field are close to each other in the search target area Ar. In such a case, mobile terminals whose user's taste is sports are grouped in advance as one group. In this case,
A group of mobile terminals whose symbols are underlined is a group. In this way, when there is a request to provide information on watching sports from the information requesting terminal, only this group needs to be searched, so the search is quick, reliable, and easy.

Furthermore, the users who have sports as their tastes, particularly the group that prefers baseball (the mobile terminal shown in FIG. 25B) and the group that particularly likes soccer (the mobile terminal shown in FIG. 25C) are included. By grouping in) in advance, the search can be performed more quickly and reliably. The grouping technique can be applied to the following embodiments.

Next, an information providing service according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Figure 9
FIG. 22 is a transition diagram of display screens of the information requesting terminal 105 and the information providing terminal 104 in the information providing service according to the present embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operations of the information providing terminal 104 and the mediation server 101. Description will be made with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 as appropriate.

The information providing service according to the present embodiment is a process of inputting terminal information from the information providing terminal 104,
Processing for transmitting position data (from 2201 to 22 in FIG. 22)
(Up to 04) is the same as the information providing service according to the first embodiment. The same applies to the process (2205 to 2206 in FIG. 22) in which the information requesting terminal side inputs the area designating data and the information designating data and requests the information. However, the information providing service according to the present embodiment is different in that the information requesting terminal side can select whether or not to open the terminal unique data of its own portable terminal.

In the display screen 901, the disclosure of the mail address is designated as “Yes” and then the information request is made to the mediation server 101. On the other hand, when the mediation server 101 receives the information request, the mediation server 101 transmits an information provision request to the information provision terminal 104 selected by the information provision terminal search means 209, as in the case of the information provision service according to the first embodiment. .

At this time, in addition to the area designation data and the information designation data, the mail address is also transmitted as the terminal unique data of the information requesting terminal 105 (step 2207). The display screen 902 is an information providing request received by the information providing terminal and is “xxx @” which is the mail address information of the information requesting terminal.
xxx.co.jp ”is included.

Using the received mail address, the user of the information providing terminal can directly communicate with the information requesting terminal without going through the intermediary server 101 like the display screens 903 to 906. (Steps 2209 and 2210 in FIG. 22). If information can be directly exchanged between mobile terminals in this way, it becomes possible to more flexibly exchange information, such as making further inquiries about the provided information.

On the other hand, if the user does not select the disclosure of the mail address (which means that the email is not disclosed), the information is exchanged through the intermediary server 101 (the exchange described in the first embodiment). It is possible to prevent privacy information such as email address from being output. Since which side to select can be specified on the side of the information requesting terminal, there is an advantage that an information providing method that matches one's preference can be selected.

Next, an information providing service according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Figure 10
FIG. 23 is a transition diagram of a display screen of a mobile terminal in the information providing service according to the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
It is the flowchart which showed the operation | movement of the information request | requirement terminal 105, the mediation server 101, and the information provision terminal 104 in the information provision service by the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. Description will be made with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 as appropriate.

Also in the information providing service according to the present embodiment, the process of inputting terminal information from the information providing terminal 104 and the process of transmitting position data to be received by the mediation server and updating the table (step 2301 in FIG. 23). To step 2304) are the same as the information providing service according to the first and second embodiments. The same is true for the processing (steps 2305 and 2306) in which the information requesting terminal 105 inputs the area designation data and the information designation data, requests the information to the mediation server 101, and receives the mediation server 101.

Next, the mediation server 101 has the information providing terminal 104 selected by the information providing terminal searching means 209.
-1, 104-2, a confirmation mail as to whether information can be provided is transmitted (display screen 1002 in FIG. 10, FIG.
Step 2307 of 3). On the side of the information providing terminal 104 that has received and displayed the confirmation mail, if the information can be provided, a reply mail is returned to the intermediary server 101 (FIG. 10).
Display screen 1003, steps 2308 to 2 in FIG.
Up to 310).

At this time, the user of the information providing terminal 104 is
You may also add some comments and send. When the mediation server 101 receives the response indicating that the information can be provided, it creates a list of information-providable terminals and sends it to the information requesting terminal 105 (step 2311 in FIG. 23). As shown in the display screen 1004 of FIG. 10, the information provision possible person list contains, for example, user information of the information providing terminal user and comments of the information providing terminal user, in addition to the mail address of the information providing terminal. On the side of the information requesting terminal 105 which has received the information provisionable terminal list (steps 2312 and 2313 in FIG. 23), the information providing terminal 104 to be directly inquired is selected, and the display screen 1 in FIG.
As shown in 005 to 1008, the users directly send and receive (exchange) information with each other (step 2314 in FIG. 23).

As described above, also in the information providing service according to the present embodiment, it is possible to exchange information flexibly as in the second embodiment. Also, the second
In the embodiment, the terminal unique data of the information requesting terminal 105 is disclosed to all the selected information providing terminals 104. However, in the case of the information providing service according to the present embodiment, the information request selected by itself is made. It suffices to publish it only to the terminal 105. Also, for the information providing terminal 104 side, the information unique terminal need only be disclosed by the information requesting terminal 105, and there is an advantage that the disclosure of privacy information can be suppressed to the minimum.

Next, an information providing service according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the information providing service according to the present embodiment, efficient advertisement is transmitted to the information requesting terminal 105 and the information providing terminal 104.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the interaction between the information requesting terminal 105 and the information providing terminal 104 according to the present embodiment as a transition diagram of a display screen. To the information providing request mail to the information providing terminal and the information requesting terminal. The advertisement information is added in the provided information email.

FIG. 24 is a flow chart showing the operation of the advertisement server 102 when transmitting advertisement information. The advertisement server 102 receives the terminal information regarding the information providing terminal 104 and the information requesting terminal 105 from the mediation server 101. Then, first, the position data obtained from the area designation data designated by the information requesting terminal 105 is used as a key to search for the corresponding advertisement information (step 2401 in FIG. 24). If there is advertising information,
Next, it is judged from the holder information of the terminal or the like whether the advertisement transmission condition is satisfied (step 2402). If the advertisement transmission condition is satisfied, the advertisement information is transmitted to the mediation server 101 (step 2403). In addition, the billing information data for the advertisement to be transmitted is updated (step 2404). The mediation server 101 that receives the advertisement information transmits the received advertisement information to at least one of the information requesting terminal 105 and the information providing terminal 104 (particularly, the terminal that matches the advertisement transmitting condition or a terminal that is closer). At the same time, points based on advertisement reception are added to each terminal (step 2405).

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing, as a transition diagram of a display screen, a process when an information request is transmitted from the mobile terminal with ID = 4 in FIG. 12 and an information provision request is transmitted to the mobile terminal with ID = 3. is there. Since ID = 4 designates "XX baseball field" as the region designation data, the advertisement information corresponding to the position data C5 is searched for using the region management table 211 of FIG. 15, and "Tavern YY" and " Restaurant X
"X" and "ZZ sports" are candidates for the advertisement information to be transmitted. At this time, the information provision request is made to the mobile terminal with ID = 3 and the mobile terminal with ID = 8 whose position data is C5, but since the mobile terminal with ID = 3 does not include sports as a hobby. , It is judged that the condition of "ZZ sports" is not satisfied. The mobile terminal with ID = 8 is excluded from the candidates because the age does not satisfy the condition of “Tavern YY” (20 years old or older). Therefore, for the mobile terminal with ID = 3, "Tavern YY" and "Restaurant X"
"X" advertisement can be sent, and for the mobile terminal with ID = 8, "Restaurant XX" and "ZZ sports"
You can send ads.

As for the mobile terminal with ID = 4, since sports are not included in his hobbies, the advertisement of "ZZ sports" is not transmitted, and "Tavern YY" and "Restaurant X" are not transmitted.
An "X" advertisement is sent. Further, as a result of giving 5 points as the advertisement transmission points to each terminal, the terminal information table becomes as shown in FIG. 14 (where the points are updated is shown in bold type).

In the above example, all the advertisements satisfying the conditions are transmitted, but it is also possible to select and transmit a part of the advertisements satisfying the conditions.

By transmitting the advertisement based on the area designation data from the information requesting terminal 105, it becomes possible to transmit the advertisement about the area which is about to be visited or the area of interest, and the advertising effect can be enhanced. . At the same time, the information providing terminal 104 side also receives the advertisement related to the area including the current position, and can transmit the highly effective advertisement. Of course, the information requesting terminal 105 may be searched for advertisement information based on the current position data. Further, by selecting the advertisement based on the hobby information and the age information registered in advance, it is possible to transmit the advertisement highly effective for the advertiser. Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited thereto. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other various modifications, improvements, and combinations can be made.

The following disclosure is included in the present specification. (1) One or more mobile terminals connected to the network,
In an information providing system including an intermediary server connected to the network and capable of communicating with the mobile terminal, the first mobile terminal has at least the specified data as specified data,
Designated data transmission for transmitting to the intermediary server, information designating data that identifies the information content requested by the user, area designating data that identifies the area where the information content is desired to be obtained, and terminal unique data that identifies the terminal itself. And a display unit for displaying the received information, wherein the second mobile terminal has a position data acquisition unit for acquiring position data of the own terminal, and at least the position data as registration data and the own terminal. Terminal-specific data for specifying the registration data transmission means for transmitting to the intermediation server, information input means, and information transmission means for transmitting provision information to the intermediation server,
The mediation server is set in advance based on the area designation data from the first mobile terminal and the location data from one or more second mobile terminals, and includes an area designated by the area designation data. Information providing terminal searching means for searching for the second mobile terminal located within the range, and information providing for transmitting the information providing request data to one or more second mobile terminals extracted by the information providing terminal searching means. Requesting means and 1
An information providing system comprising: an additional information receiving unit that receives additional information from the second mobile terminal; and an information providing unit that transmits the additional information to the first mobile terminal.

(2) In the information providing system according to (1), the registration data transmitting means of the second mobile terminal transmits the registration data at a preset time period. (3) In the above (1), the registration data transmitting means of the second mobile terminal stores the transmitted position data, the acquired position data and the latest stored position data. And means for comparing the registration data is transmitted when the acquired position data and the latest stored position data are above a preset range. Information provision system.

(4) In the above (1), the second mobile terminal further has an operation means for instructing the transmission of the registration data, and the registration data transmission means of the second mobile terminal is for the operation. An information providing system, wherein the registration data is transmitted in accordance with the registration data transmission instruction from a means.

(5) In the above (1), the designated data transmitting means included in the first portable terminal further includes, as the designated data, display performance data possessed by the first portable terminal, The registration data transmitting means included in the mobile terminal further includes, as the registration data, input performance data included in the second mobile terminal, and the information providing terminal searching means included in the intermediation server is the first mobile terminal. The second mobile terminal having input performance capable of obtaining provided information displayable on the first mobile terminal from the display performance data from the terminal and the input performance data from one or more second mobile terminals. An information providing system, further comprising:

(6) In the information providing system according to claim 1, the designated data transmitting means included in the first mobile terminal further includes request terminal type data of the first mobile terminal as the designated data. In addition, the registration data transmitting means included in the second mobile terminal further includes, as the registration data, provision terminal type data of the second mobile terminal, and the intermediation server includes display performance data for each terminal type and And / or a means for storing the input performance data, a means for extracting the display performance data from the request terminal type data, and a means for extracting the input performance data from the providing terminal type data, The searching means determines the first mobile phone from the display performance data of the first mobile terminal and the input performance data of one or more second mobile terminals. Information providing system characterized in that it further comprises means for extracting the second mobile terminal having an input performance obtained provide information that can be displayed on the terminal.

(7) In the above item (5) or (6), the information providing terminal searching means included in the intermediary server has the input capability capable of obtaining the providing information that can be displayed on the first mobile terminal. When extracting the second mobile terminal, the input performance data of the second mobile terminal is searched from the display performance data of the first mobile terminal in descending order of performance set in advance, and the input performance data of the second mobile terminal is set. An information providing system, further comprising: a means for extracting the second mobile terminal in descending order of performance.

(8) In the above (5), the first mobile terminal further includes means for generating display performance data indicating a display performance desired by the user, and The designated data transmitting unit that has further includes, as the designated data, the desired display performance data,
The information providing terminal searching means included in the intermediary server,
One or more of the desired display performance data from the first mobile terminal when extracting the second mobile terminal having the input performance capable of obtaining the provided information that can be displayed by the first mobile terminal. An information providing system, further comprising: a unit that searches the input performance data of the second mobile terminal and extracts the second mobile terminal that matches the desired display performance data.

(9) In the above (8), the information providing terminal searching means included in the intermediary server has the second portable terminal having an input performance capable of obtaining provided information that can be displayed by the first portable terminal. When extracting, the input performance data of the second mobile terminal is searched from the desired display performance data from the first mobile terminal, and the second mobile terminal that matches the desired display performance data. Means for retrieving the input performance data of the second mobile terminal in the descending order of performance set in advance and extracting the second mobile terminal in descending order of the set performance An information providing system, further comprising:

(10) In the above (8), the intermediary server has an information conversion means for converting the provided information, and receives the provided information from the second portable terminal extracted by the information providing terminal searching means. Then, the received providing information is converted by the information converting means based on the desired display performance data received from the first mobile terminal, and the providing information converted by the information providing means is converted into the first providing information. An information providing system characterized by transmitting to a mobile terminal.

(11) In the above (1) to (10), the information providing terminal searching means is configured to perform the above-mentioned operation when the second portable terminal does not exist in the vicinity including the area designated by the area designation data. An information providing system characterized by searching for the second mobile terminal located in the vicinity including a region adjacent to a region designated by the region designation data.

(12) In the above (1), the designated data transmission means included in the first portable terminal, as the designated data, request holder information of a terminal holder who the user wants to obtain the information content. The registration data transmitting unit included in the second mobile terminal further includes holder designation data including, and further includes, as the registration data, holder data including holder information held by the second mobile terminal holder. The information providing terminal searching means included in the intermediary server is configured to determine the first information from the request holder information from the first mobile terminal and the holder information from the second mobile terminal.
The means for extracting the second mobile terminal having the holder information desired by the user of the mobile terminal according to (1), the information providing system.

(13) In the above (1), the mediation server stores the points as the holder information of one or more portable terminals, adds the points according to the information provision, and An information providing system, further comprising: means for subtracting the points in response to an information request.

(14) In the above (13), the means for adding and / or subtracting the points of the intermediary server is an area preset in accordance with an area specified by the area specifying data of the terminal. An information providing system, further comprising means for adding and / or subtracting the points according to each point. (15) In the above (1), the mediation server further includes an advertisement server that stores advertisement information, and the mediation server is configured to transmit the information provision request data to the second mobile terminal by the information provision requesting means. An information providing system further comprising: a unit that acquires the advertisement information from an advertisement server; and a unit that transmits the acquired advertisement information to the second mobile terminal.

(16) In the above (15), the means for acquiring the advertisement information of the intermediary server selectively acquires the advertisement information previously set according to the position data of the second mobile terminal. An information providing system characterized by being means. (17) In the above (1), the mediation server further includes an advertisement server that stores advertisement information, and the mediation server includes an information providing unit that transmits the additional information to the first mobile terminal, and the information providing unit. It further comprises a unit for acquiring the advertisement information from the advertisement server when transmitting the provision information to the first mobile terminal, and a unit for transmitting the acquired advertisement information to the first mobile terminal. Information provision system characterized by.

(18) In the above (17), the means for acquiring the advertisement information of the intermediary server is the advertisement previously set according to the position data included in the designated data of the first mobile terminal. An information providing system characterized by being means for selectively acquiring information. (19) In the above (17), the first mobile terminal further includes a position data acquisition unit that acquires position data of the own terminal, and further includes the position data as the designated data, and the intermediation server. And means for acquiring the advertisement information of the mediation server is means for selectively acquiring the advertisement information set in advance according to the position data of the first mobile terminal. Information provision system.

(20) In the information providing system including one or more mobile terminals connected to the network and an intermediary server connected to the network and capable of communicating with the mobile terminals, the first mobile terminal is The mediation server includes at least information designating data that identifies the information content requested by the user, area designating data that identifies the area where the information content is desired, and terminal-specific data that identifies the terminal itself. A designated data transmitting unit for transmitting the received information and a display unit for displaying the received information;
The mobile terminal of the above, a registration data transmission means for transmitting position data acquisition means for acquiring the position data of the own terminal, and at least the position data as registration data and terminal unique data for specifying the own terminal to the intermediation server. And an information input unit, wherein the mediation server designates the area designation data from the area designation data from the first mobile terminal and the position data from a plurality of the second mobile terminals. Information providing terminal searching means for searching for the second mobile terminal located in the vicinity including the specified area, and information providing request data to one or more second mobile terminals extracted by the information providing terminal searching means. And an information providing requesting means for transmitting, the information providing requesting means further including terminal-specific information of the first mobile terminal as the information providing request data. And transmitting the provision information to the first mobile terminal identified by the terminal unique information of the first mobile terminal. Information provision system.

(21) In the information providing system including one or more mobile terminals connected to the network and an intermediary server connected to the network and capable of communicating with the mobile terminals, the first mobile terminal is The mediation server includes at least information designating data that identifies the information content requested by the user, area designating data that identifies the area where the information content is desired, and terminal-specific data that identifies the terminal itself. A designated data transmitting unit for transmitting the received information and a display unit for displaying the received information;
The mobile terminal of the above, a registration data transmission means for transmitting position data acquisition means for acquiring the position data of the own terminal, and at least the position data as registration data and terminal unique data for specifying the own terminal to the intermediation server. And an information input unit, wherein the mediation server designates the area designation data from the area designation data from the first mobile terminal and the position data from a plurality of the second mobile terminals. Information providing terminal searching means for searching for the second mobile terminal located in the vicinity including the specified area, and confirming whether or not information can be provided to the one or more second mobile terminals extracted by the information providing terminal searching means. And an information providing requesting means for transmitting the provision availability confirmation data, wherein the second mobile terminal transmits availability response data indicating the availability of the user as a response to the availability confirmation data. Means for responding to the mediation server, wherein the mediation server transmits the terminal-specific data of the second mobile terminal that has transmitted a response indicating that the information can be provided to the first mobile terminal, based on the availability response data. And a means for transmitting, wherein the first portable terminal is the second portable terminal specified by the transmitted terminal unique data.
Information provision requesting means for requesting information provision to the mobile terminal of
The information providing system, further comprising: a means for transmitting provision information to the first mobile terminal.

(22) In the information providing system described in any one of (1) to (21) above, the first
The mobile terminal of, and an evaluation data transmission means for transmitting the evaluation data of the user to the provided information to the mediation server,
The mediation server further includes means for receiving the evaluation data, means for storing the evaluation data, and means for totalizing the stored evaluation data. The information providing terminal searching means,
An information providing system, further comprising: a unit for extracting the second mobile terminal in an order of higher evaluation than the totalized data when searching for the second mobile terminal.

(23) In the above (22), the mediation server adds the points set in advance in accordance with the evaluation data when totalizing the evaluation data stored. An information providing system characterized by further having. (24) In the information providing system according to any one of (19) to (23), the intermediary server may be:
When the information providing terminal searching means cannot find the second mobile terminal, or from one or more second mobile terminals for which information is requested, information is provided within a preset time. If there is no information, or if you do not get information provided by receiving refusal data indicating that you refuse to provide information,
Means for transmitting to the first portable terminal the incapable data indicating the inability to provide information, the first portable terminal, when receiving the incapable data, indicates to the display means that there is no information providing terminal. An information providing system characterized by displaying.

(25) In the above (1), the second mobile terminal further includes means for transmitting request refusal data indicating that an information provision request is not received to the mediation server, and the mediation server. Means for receiving the request refusal data, means for storing the refusal data together with the terminal unique information of the second mobile terminal, and the information provision requesting means extracted by the information provision terminal searching means. And means for detecting the request refusal data stored together with the terminal unique information of the second mobile terminal, and means for not transmitting the information provision request data to the second mobile terminal in which the refusal data is detected. An information providing system, further comprising:

(26) In the above (1), the intermediary server at least includes information designating data that identifies the information content requested by the user, and area designating data that identifies the area where the information content is desired to be obtained. The past information storage unit further stores past information provided by one or more second mobile terminals, and the past information storage unit when the designated data is received from the first mobile terminal. In the case where the same information as the information designation data and the area designation data included in the designation data is stored in the past information as a result of the retrieval, And a means for transmitting the stored provision information to the first mobile terminal without searching for the second mobile terminal.

(27) In the information providing system including one or more mobile terminals connected to the network and an intermediary server connected to the network and capable of communicating with the mobile terminals, the first mobile terminal is , Designated data transmitting means for transmitting at least information designating data for identifying the information content requested by the user and terminal specific data for identifying the own terminal to the intermediary server, and displaying the received information Display means, and a second
The mobile terminal of the above, a registration data transmission means for transmitting position data acquisition means for acquiring the position data of the own terminal, and at least the position data as registration data and terminal unique data for specifying the own terminal to the intermediation server. An information input unit, and an information transmitting unit that transmits the provision information to the mediation server, the mediation server storing a region management table in which the information content and the region are associated with each other; Means for retrieving the area management table based on the information designating data from the mobile terminal; means for generating an area associated with the information designating data as area designating data;
Information providing terminal searching means for searching for the second mobile terminal located in the vicinity including the area designated by the area designation data from the area designation data and the position data from the plurality of second mobile terminals; Information providing requesting means for transmitting information providing request data to one or more second mobile terminals extracted by the information providing terminal searching means, and receiving provided information from one or more second mobile terminals. An information providing system comprising: provided information receiving means; and information providing means for transmitting the provided information to the first mobile terminal.

(28) Based on an information provision request from the first mobile terminal, which comprises one or more mobile terminals connected to the network and an intermediary server connected to the network and capable of communicating with the mobile terminal. A method of an information providing service for providing, to the first mobile terminal, the information provided from the second mobile terminal, which has been searched for and extracted by the second mobile terminal capable of providing information, Receiving information specifying data specifying the requested information content, area specifying data specifying the area where the information content is desired to be obtained, and requesting terminal unique data specifying the first terminal; Receiving the position data of the one or more second terminals and the providing terminal unique data for identifying the one or more second terminals from the second mobile terminal described above; Data and the position data, and when the comparisons match, the second mobile terminal is identified from the matched providing unique terminal data, and the identified one or more second mobile terminals Transmitting information provision request data to the first mobile terminal, receiving provision information from the one or more second mobile terminals, and transmitting the provision information to the first mobile terminal.
A method of information providing service, comprising:

(29) A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute the information providing service described in (28) above is recorded. (30) A program for causing a computer to execute the information providing service described in (28) above.

[0131]

As described above, according to the information providing service of the present invention, the information required by the information requesting terminal side can be obtained in real time from the general mobile terminal user who is near the designated area. Since it is possible to specify the information required by the information requester instead of providing the information prepared in advance as in the past, it is possible to flexibly respond to the information request.

Further, since the general terminal users in the area are requested to provide information, it is possible to receive the information even in a facility that does not provide the information providing service. For example, when an incident or an accident occurs, it is possible to request the terminal user in the vicinity of the incident or a picture of the scene.

Further, since a general terminal user provides information, it is possible to obtain information of subjective contents such as impression of use of the facility. Since it is not necessary for the facility to prepare personnel or equipment for providing information, information can be provided at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mediation server according to the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information requesting terminal according to the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information providing terminal according to the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an advertisement server according to the first to fourth exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a charging server according to the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a front view of the mobile terminal according to the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flow of an information providing service according to the first embodiment of the present invention as a transition diagram of a display screen of a mobile terminal.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a flow of an information providing service according to the second embodiment of the present invention as a transition diagram of a display screen of a mobile terminal.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flow of an information providing service according to a third embodiment of the present invention as a transition diagram of a display screen of a mobile terminal.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a flow of an information providing service according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention as a transition diagram of a display screen of a mobile terminal.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of contents of a terminal information table used for the information providing service according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of a terminal information table after updating the data (points and evaluations) of FIG.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of contents of a terminal information table after updating the data (points) of FIG.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of contents of an area management table used for the information providing service according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of contents of a keyword information table used in the information providing service according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of contents of an advertisement information table used for the information providing service according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of contents of a past information table used for the information providing service according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information providing service according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing a flow of the information providing service according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and is a flowchart showing an operation in a terminal information updating step.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing a flow of the information providing service according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and is a flowchart showing an information providing terminal searching operation.

FIG. 22 is a flow chart diagram showing a flow of an information providing service according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information providing service according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing a flow of an information providing service according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention, and is a flowchart showing an advertisement transmitting operation.

25 (a) to 25 (c) are diagrams showing an example of grouping processing in the information providing service according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Mediation server, 102 ... Advertisement server, 103 ... Charging server, 104 ... Information providing terminal, 105 ... Information requesting terminal, 106 ... Network, 107 ... Wireless base station, 20
1 ... Control means, 202 ... Information request acquisition means, 203 ... Provision information reception means, 204 ... Terminal information acquisition means, 205 ...
Evaluation data receiving means, 206 ... Information providing means, 207 ...
Information provision requesting means, 208 ... Advertising information transmitting means, 209
... information providing terminal search means, 210 ... terminal information table access means, 211 ... area management table, 212 ... terminal information table, 213 ... past information retrieval means, 214 ... past information storage means, 215 ... past information table, 216 ...
Information conversion means, 217 ... Advertisement information acquisition means, 218 ... Billing information transmission means, 219 ... Program storage means, 301
... control means, 302 ... program storage means, 303 ... storage means, 304 ... input means, 305 ... data receiving means,
306 ... Data transmission means, 307 ... Display means, 401 ...
Control means, 402 ... Program storage means, 403 ... Storage means, 404 ... Input means, 405 ... Position data acquisition means, 406 ... Camera, 407 ... Data receiving means, 408
... data transmission means, 409 ... display means, 501 ... control means, 502 ... terminal information acquisition means, 503 ... advertisement providing means, 504 ... advertisement information table, 505 ... optimum advertisement search means, 506 ... program storage means, 601 ... control Means, 602 ... Terminal information acquisition means, 603 ... Charging information table, 604 ... Charging means, 605 ... Program storage means.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06F 17/60 324 G06F 17/60 326 326 506 506 H04B 7/26 109M H04Q 7/20 ZEC H04Q 7/04 ZECZ F term (reference) 5B075 KK07 5B085 AA08 AC03 BA07 BG02 BG07 CA02 CA04 5K067 AA34 AA41 BB21 BB41 EE02 EE10 EE22 FF03 HH21 HH22 JJ56

Claims (21)

[Claims] 1. A service providing server, which is associated with a first mobile terminal group including a plurality of mobile terminals having an information input / output function and an information transmission / reception function via a network and manages information of the mobile terminals. An information providing service provided by an information service provider using the step of acquiring position information of each mobile terminal belonging to the first mobile terminal group, and from a first mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group. Receiving an information provision request including a position and content of an information provision target; searching a second mobile terminal group existing in a target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group; (2) Requesting a response to the information provision request to the mobile terminal group. 2. The information providing service according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving a response from a second mobile terminal in the second mobile terminal group and sending a response content to the first mobile terminal. 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving a response from a second mobile terminal in the second mobile terminal group and sending information identifying the second mobile terminal to the first mobile terminal.
Information provision service described in. 4. The information according to claim 1, further comprising a step of acquiring information identifying the first mobile terminal, and a step of sending information identifying the first mobile terminal to the second mobile terminal. Service provided. 5. The step of searching the second mobile terminal group existing in the target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group is performed by each of the mobile terminals belonging to the first mobile terminal group. A sub-step of collating the performance of the transmission information with the information output performance of the first mobile terminal to select a mobile terminal having the performance of the transmission information that can be output by the first mobile terminal from the second mobile terminals. Any one of claims 1 to 4
Information provision service described in section. 6. The sub-step of selecting, from the second mobile terminals, a mobile terminal having performance of transmission information that can be output by the first mobile terminal, selects in descending order of transmission performance of the second mobile terminal. The information providing service according to claim 5. 7. The step of receiving a response from a second mobile terminal in the second mobile terminal group and transmitting the response content to the first mobile terminal is transmitted by each of the mobile terminals belonging to the first mobile terminal group. 7. The sub-step of collating the performance of the transmission information to be performed with the information output performance of the first mobile terminal to convert into information that can be output by the first mobile terminal.
Information provision service described in. 8. The step of searching the second mobile terminal group existing in the target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group includes the step of searching for the second mobile terminal group depending on the number of mobile terminals belonging to the second mobile terminal group. The information providing service according to any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising a substep of reducing or expanding an area. 9. The service providing server includes a terminal information database that stores terminal information of the first mobile terminal group, and exists in a target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group. 9. The step of retrieving a second mobile terminal group includes a sub-step of collating the content with the position information and retrieving from a mobile terminal having terminal information similar to the content. The information providing service described in item 1. 10. The sub-step of collating the content with the position information and searching from a mobile terminal having terminal information similar to the content has a high evaluation on the provided information received from the second mobile terminal. The information providing service according to claim 9, further comprising the step of extracting the second mobile terminals in order. 11. The service providing server includes a terminal information database that stores terminal information of the first group of portable terminals, which is grouped according to a specific criterion, and the first portable terminal. The step of retrieving the second mobile terminal group existing in the target area including the position from the group is performed by comparing the content with the grouped terminal information, and is grouped into groups similar to the content. The information providing service according to any one of claims 1 to 8, which includes a sub-step of searching from a mobile terminal having terminal information. 12. The information providing service according to claim 11, wherein the specific criterion is a user preference of the mobile terminal or a user action history. 13. The service providing server further comprises:
Each mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group has point management means for managing points having valuable value, and points are provided according to information provided to the information providing terminal by the point management means. The information providing service according to any one of claims 1 to 12, further comprising a step of adding points and subtracting points according to the information provided to the information requesting terminal. 14. The information providing service according to claim 13, wherein the increase / decrease range of the points is changed according to the position of the information providing target. 15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the service content as past information and sending the past information to the first mobile terminal when a new information provision request is made. Information service provided. 16. The method further comprises an advertisement information provider including an advertisement providing server that provides advertisement information, and the step of requesting a response to the information providing request to the second mobile terminal group includes the service. The information providing service according to any one of claims 1 to 15, further comprising: a providing server receiving the advertisement information from the advertisement providing server and sending the advertisement information to the second mobile terminal group. 17. The information providing service according to claim 16, wherein the advertisement information is advertisement information selected based on the target area. 18. The system further comprises an advertisement information provider including an advertisement providing server that provides advertisement information, and receives a response from a second mobile terminal in the second mobile terminal group and sets the response content to the first content. The information providing service according to claim 2, wherein the step of sending to one mobile terminal includes the step of the service providing server receiving the advertisement information from the advertisement providing server and sending the advertisement information to the first mobile terminal. . 19. A service providing server, which is associated with a first mobile terminal group including a plurality of mobile terminals having an information input / output function and an information transmission / reception function via a network and manages information of the mobile terminals. And includes position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of each mobile terminal belonging to the first mobile terminal group, and a position and content of an information provision target from the first mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group. In response to the information provision request, the second mobile terminal group existing in the target area including the position is searched from the first mobile terminal group, and a response to the information provision request is sent to the second mobile terminal group. An information providing system including a service providing server having means for requesting. 20. A service providing server, which is associated with a first mobile terminal group including a plurality of mobile terminals having an information input / output function and an information transmission / reception function via a network and manages information of the mobile terminals. A program for executing an information providing service, the step of acquiring position information of each mobile terminal belonging to the first mobile terminal group, and an information provision target from the first mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group. Receiving an information provision request including the position and content of the second mobile terminal; searching a second mobile terminal group existing in the target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group; A step of requesting a group to respond to the information provision request, and a program for causing the service providing server to execute the step. Computer readable recording medium. 21. A service providing server, which is associated with a first mobile terminal group including a plurality of mobile terminals having an information input / output function and an information transmission / reception function via a network and manages information of the mobile terminals. A program for executing an information providing service, the step of acquiring position information of each mobile terminal belonging to the first mobile terminal group, and an information provision target from the first mobile terminal in the first mobile terminal group. Receiving an information provision request including the position and content of the second mobile terminal; searching a second mobile terminal group existing in the target area including the position from the first mobile terminal group; A program for causing the service providing server to execute a step of requesting a group to respond to the information providing request.