JP2008089342A - Information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a user to easily acquire store information such as information of an article and a special favor, even in a store existing in a moving route of the user such as a gas station, and to effectively attract customers in the such store. <P>SOLUTION: This information providing system 10 is provided with an input receiving part 105 for receiving inputs of a user ID and information indicating a start point and a destination, a route calculating part 106 for calculating a route, based on the information indicating the start point and the destination, referring to a map information database 101, a gas station selecting part 107 for selecting a gas station positioned in the vicinity of the route, based on a gas station position database 102, a user information acquiring part 108 for acquiring information as to the user from a user database 102, a special favor information acquiring part 109 for acquiring special favor information of the selected gas station from a gas station special favor database 104, in response to the information as to the user, and an output part 111 for outputting the special favor information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing system for providing information such as store privilege information to a user.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for the purpose of attracting customers, a system has been proposed that provides a user with benefits such as information on products sold at stores and coupons regarding stores in a specified area (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). ). In stores such as a gas station, a privilege is provided based on points for each user by issuing a card for identifying the user.
JP 2004-355490 A JP 2002-140596 A

  By the way, usually, a gas station, also called a service station, often stops when the user goes somewhere with a moving means such as a car. Therefore, in the system as described above, it is necessary for the user to specify the area of the travel route in order to obtain information regarding the gas station on the travel route. However, it is usually difficult for the user to make such designation, or it is difficult to make such designation, so it is difficult to receive benefits such as product information and coupons in the store. It was. This indicates that it is difficult for a gas station business side to effectively attract customers in a store such as a gas station with the above system.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the user can easily store information such as information on products and privileges for stores existing on the user's travel route such as a gas station. An object of the present invention is to provide an information providing system that can be acquired and can effectively attract customers in such a store.

  An information providing system according to the present invention includes a user database that stores user information related to a user in association with information for identifying a user, a store database that stores store location information and store information related to the store for each store, and a map A map information database for storing information; an input receiving means for receiving an input in which information for specifying a user is associated with information indicating a departure place and a destination; and a departure place and a destination received by the input receiving means. A route calculation means for calculating a route from the departure place to the destination by referring to map information stored in the map information database from the information shown, and a store located in the vicinity of the route calculated by the route calculation means The store selection means for selecting the location based on the store location information stored in the store database, and the input reception means Based on the information for identifying the attached user, user information acquisition means for acquiring information about the user from the user database, and the store selection means selected according to the information about the user acquired by the user information acquisition means Store information acquisition means for acquiring store information of the store from the store database, and output means for outputting the store information acquired by the store information acquisition means.

  In the information providing system according to the present invention, input of information indicating a departure place and a destination from the user is accepted, and a route from the departure place to the destination is calculated based on the information. Thereafter, a store located in the vicinity of the route is selected, and store information regarding the store corresponding to the user's information is acquired and output. Therefore, the user can easily acquire the store information for the stores existing on the moving route only by inputting the information indicating the departure place and the destination in addition to the information for identifying himself / herself. On the other hand, since the acquisition of the store information by the user becomes an advertising advertisement, it is possible to attract customers by effectively guiding customers at the store.

  It is desirable that the user information includes information indicating user attributes and information regarding user purchases in the store. According to this configuration, since it is possible to provide appropriate information for each user, it is possible to provide appropriate and highly appealing information, and to attract customers more effectively.

  It is desirable that the store information includes privilege information indicating a privilege for the user at the store. According to this configuration, it is possible to provide highly appealing information to the user and to attract customers more effectively.

  The store selection means preferably selects the store as a store located in the vicinity of the route when the route calculated by the route calculation means passes through a predetermined range including the store determined from the location information of the store. . According to this configuration, a store located in the vicinity of the route can be reliably selected, so that the present invention can be reliably implemented.

  The output means preferably outputs the store information acquired by the store information acquisition means linked to the map information stored in the map information database. According to this configuration, information can be provided in a format that is easy for the user to browse.

  In the information providing system according to the present invention, the user can easily acquire the store information for the stores existing on the moving route only by inputting the information indicating the starting point and the destination in addition to the information for identifying himself / herself. be able to. On the other hand, since the acquisition of the store information by the user becomes an advertising advertisement, it is possible to attract customers by effectively guiding customers at the store.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of an information providing system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the description of the drawings, the same elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an information providing system 10 according to the present embodiment. The information providing system 10 provides the user with information about a travel route on which the user travels by car or the like, and is useful for some users, such as advertisements in stores on the route, and operates the store. Things are systems that provide information that can attract customers. In this embodiment, a gas station (gas station) will be described as an example of a store.

  Specifically, the information providing system 10 is realized by a computer such as a PC (Personal Computer) or a server device including hardware such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory, and a communication module. The information providing system 10 may be realized as a computer system including a plurality of computers. The information providing system 10 is communicated with a communication network N such as the Internet, for example, and can communicate with a terminal 20 connected to the communication network N.

  The terminal 20 is used by a user and serves as an interface when the user receives information provision. The terminal 20 is connected to the communication network N as described above, and can communicate with the information providing system 10. Specifically, the terminal 20 corresponds to, for example, an information terminal such as a PC used at the user's home or a gas station, a mobile phone carried by the user, and the like. The terminal 20 includes an input device such as a keyboard for inputting information to the information providing system 10 and a display device such as a display for outputting information transmitted from the information providing system 10.

  Hereinafter, functions of the information providing system 10 according to the present embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the information providing system 10 includes a map information database 101, a gas station location database 102, a user database 103, a gas station privilege database 104, an input reception unit 105, a route calculation unit 106, and a fuel supply. A place selection unit 107, a user information acquisition unit 108, a privilege information acquisition unit 109, a data combination unit 110, and an output unit 111.

  The map information database 101 is a database that stores map information. Specifically, the map information database 101 stores information indicating roads on the map, information indicating latitudes and routes of positions on the map, and map information. The map information is stored in such a format that a route between any two points on the map related to the map information can be calculated. As the map information database 101, for example, a database storing map information used in a conventional car navigation system or the like can be used.

  The gas station location database 102 is a database that stores information indicating the location of the gas station for each gas station. In other words, the gas station location database 102 is a store database that stores, for each gas station, location information of a gas station that is a store to be provided with information. In the gas station location database 102, information indicating the position of the gas station is associated with information for specifying the gas station, for example, and is stored as information indicating the latitude and the route.

  The user database 103 is a database that stores user information related to users in association with information that identifies users who receive information provided by the information providing system 10. It is desirable that the user information includes information indicating the attribute of the user and information indicating a refueling record that is information related to the user's purchase at the gas station. Specifically, the user database 103 stores each information in a table as shown in FIG. As illustrated in FIG. 2, information related to a user is associated with a “user ID” that identifies the user. As information indicating the attribute of the user, as shown in FIG. 2, there are “name”, “sex”, “age”, “occupation”, “automobile”, “address”, and the like. Moreover, the information which shows the refueling performance is information which shows how many L (liter) the user has supplied for every gas station.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the user database 103 is connected to a POS (Point Of Sales) system 30, and information indicating a user's refueling record stored in the user database 103 is automatically updated from the POS system 30. It is preferable to do so. Note that the information indicating the refueling record stored in the user database 103 may be updated every month as monthly data.

  The gas station privilege database 104 is a database that stores privilege information indicating a privilege for the user for each gas station. That is, privilege information is store information regarding a store provided to a user, and a gas station privilege database 104 is a store database that stores store information. Specifically, the gas station privilege database 104 stores each information in a table as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, “privilege” information is associated with “gas station name” which is information for identifying a gas station. The benefits include those for which conditions including information about the user are set. For example, “based on user points such as“ 50 points or more discounted by 10 yen per liter of gasoline ”, based on user attributes such as“ Want to present to women ”, and“ RV vehicles with 30 points or more Some are based on both user points and user attributes, such as "free inspection service".

  Said point is calculated for every gas station based on a user's refueling performance. Information indicating the point calculation rule is stored in the gas station privilege database 104 for each gas station as shown in FIG. For example, in the example of the gas station “A stand” shown in FIG. 3, the amount of oil supplied by the user at “A stand” is calculated as 1 point per liter, and the amount of fuel supplied at “B stand” is calculated as 0.5 points per liter. Is done.

  The gas station privilege database 104 is connected to the information input terminal 40 as shown in FIG. For example, the person in charge who determines the privilege inputs the privilege information to the information input terminal 40, and the privilege information is transmitted to the information providing system 10, whereby the privilege information stored in the gas station privilege database 104 is stored. Is updated.

  The input receiving unit 105 is an input receiving unit that receives, from the terminal 20, an input in which information specifying a user is associated with information indicating a departure place and a destination. The input is performed by transmitting the above information from the terminal 20 to the information providing system 10 via the communication network N. The information for specifying the user is, for example, a user ID that is a character string uniquely determined for each user as described above. The information indicating the departure place and the destination is, for example, information indicating the latitude and longitude or a place name. The input reception unit 105 outputs the input user ID to the user information acquisition unit 108 and outputs information indicating the departure place and the destination to the route calculation unit 106.

  The route calculation unit 106 refers to the map information stored in the map information database 101 from the information indicating the departure place and the destination received by the input reception unit 105, and obtains a route from the departure place to the destination. It is a route calculation means for calculating. As an algorithm for calculating the route, an algorithm used in a conventional car navigation system or the like can be used. The route calculation unit 106 outputs the calculated route information to the gas station selection unit 107. In addition, the route calculation unit 106 obtains the calculated route information from the map information database 101 and outputs the map information in a range including the route to the data combining unit 110.

  The gas station selection unit 107 is a store selection unit that selects a gas station located in the vicinity of the route calculated by the route calculation unit 106 based on the location information of the gas station stored in the gas station location database 102. It is desirable that the gas station selection unit 107 selects a gas station as follows. First, the gas station selection unit 107 acquires the position information of each gas station from the gas station position database 102. The gas station selection unit 107 determines a predetermined range for each gas station from the acquired position information of the gas station. For example, a range of a circle having a predetermined radius with the position relating to the acquired position information of the gas station as the center is set as the predetermined range. Subsequently, when the calculated route passes through the range, the gas station selection unit 107 selects the gas station related to the range as a gas station located in the vicinity of the route. The gas station selection unit 107 outputs, to the user information acquisition unit 108, information on a gas station name that identifies the gas station as information indicating the selected gas station. In addition, the gas station selection unit 107 outputs information on the name of the gas station that identifies the gas station and the position information of the gas station to the data combining unit 110.

  The user information acquisition unit 108 is a user information acquisition unit that acquires information about the user from the user database 103 based on the user ID received by the input reception unit 105. As information about the user acquired by the user information acquisition unit 108, privilege information such as “name”, “gender”, “age”, “occupation”, “automobile” and “address” is acquired as shown in FIG. This is user attribute information used as a condition when performing the operation. Moreover, the user information acquisition part 108 acquires the information which shows the said user's refueling performance from the user database 103, and calculates the said user's point from the said refueling performance. The point calculation is performed based on the information indicating the point calculation method for the gas station selected by the gas station selection unit 107 from the gas station privilege database 104. The user information acquisition unit 108 outputs the acquired or calculated information to the privilege information acquisition unit 109.

  The privilege information acquisition unit 109 acquires the privilege information of the gas station selected by the gas station selection unit 107 from the gas station privilege database 104 according to the information about the user acquired by the user information acquisition unit 108. It is. Acquisition of privilege information is performed for each selected gas station, and is performed for items that match the user attributes and point conditions stored in the gas station privilege database 104. The privilege information acquisition unit 109 outputs the acquired privilege information for each gas station to the data combining unit 110.

  The data combining unit 110 is a unit that combines information provided to the user input from the route calculation unit 106, the gas station selection unit 107, and the user information acquisition unit 108. Specifically, the data combining unit 110 combines data of each information in a predetermined format such as a predetermined HTML (HyperText Markup Language). Specifically, the information indicating the route and the information indicating the gas station selected by the gas station selection unit 107 are superimposed and displayed on the map data including the route calculated by the route calculation unit 106. To join. Moreover, if the display part of the gas station on a map is selected, it will couple | bond so that the privilege with respect to the user in the said gas station may be displayed. That is, the data combining unit 110 is a function of an output unit that links the privilege information acquired by the privilege information acquisition unit 109 to the map information stored in the map information database 101. The data combining unit 110 outputs the combined data to the output unit 111.

  The output unit 111 transmits the data combined by the data combining unit 110 to the terminal 20 via the communication network N. In other words, the output unit 111 is an output unit that outputs the privilege information acquired by the privilege information acquisition unit 109.

  Subsequently, processing executed by the information providing system 10 according to the present embodiment will be described using the flowchart of FIG. As described above, this process is a process for providing the user with information indicating the travel route on which the user travels, and providing information on the benefits of gas stations on the route. This process is started when the user inputs information indicating the departure place and the destination to the terminal 20 and transmits the information together with the user ID from the terminal 20 to the information providing system 10.

  The input of the user ID in the terminal 20 may be performed from an input device such as a keyboard, or may be read from a member card carried for each user. The information indicating the departure point and the destination in the terminal 20 may be performed from an input device such as a keyboard, or may be performed by designating the departure point and the destination on a map by a GUI (Graphical User Interface). Good.

  In the information providing system 10, the input receiving unit 105 receives the user ID transmitted from the terminal 20 and information indicating the departure place and the destination (S01). Information indicating the received starting point and destination is output from the input receiving unit 105 to the route calculating unit 106. Also, the received user ID is output from the input receiving unit 105 to the user information acquiring unit 108.

  Subsequently, the route calculation unit 106 refers to the map information database 101 and calculates a route from the departure place to the destination (S02). The calculated route information is output from the route calculation unit 106 to the gas station selection unit 107. Further, the calculated route information and the map information of the range including the route are output from the route calculation unit 106 to the gas station selection unit 107.

  Subsequently, the gas station selection unit 107 selects a gas station located near the route calculated by the route calculation unit 106 based on the position information of the gas station stored in the gas station position database 102 (S03). ). Information indicating the selected gas station is output from the gas station selector 107 to the user information acquisition unit 108. Further, information indicating the selected gas station and position information of the gas station are output from the gas station selection unit 107 to the data combination unit 110.

  On the other hand, based on the user ID accepted by the input accepting unit 105, the user information obtaining unit 108 obtains information on the attribute and refueling record of the user from the user database 103 (S04). Note that the processes of S02 and S03 and the process of S04 can be performed independently of each other, and may be performed in parallel as shown in FIG.

  After the processes of S03 and S04, the user information acquisition unit 108 calculates points for each gas station selected by the gas station selection unit 107 based on the acquired information on the actual gas supply (S05). As an example, the points at “A stand” of the user whose user ID is “0001” shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the refueling performance of the user is 30L for “A stand” and 70L for “B stand”. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, in “A stand”, points are calculated with 1 point per 1 L for refueling at A stand and 0.5 points per 1 L for refueling at B stand. Therefore, the user's points are 30 × 1 + 70 × 0.5, which is 65 points. The calculated point information is output from the user information acquisition unit 108 to the privilege information acquisition unit 109.

  Subsequently, the privilege information for each gas station selected by the gas station selection unit 107 according to the user attributes and points acquired or calculated by the user information acquisition unit 108 by the privilege information acquisition unit 109 is the gas station privilege database. It is acquired from 104 (S06). As described above, the privilege information is acquired based on the user's attributes and points for those that match the user's attributes and points stored in the gas station privilege database 104. As an example, privilege information at “A stand” of a user whose user ID is “0001” shown in FIG. As described above, since the user's point is 65, the user's car is an “RV car”, and the occupation is “self-employed”, the conditions (1), (3), and (5) shown in FIG. And the privilege information is acquired. The acquired privilege information is output from the privilege information acquisition unit 109 to the data combination unit 110.

  Subsequently, the data combination unit 110 combines the information provided to the user input from the route calculation unit 106, the gas station selection unit 107, and the user information acquisition unit 108 to generate information to be transmitted to the terminal 20. (S07). As shown in FIG. 5, when the information is displayed on the terminal 20, the data is combined on the map data including the route calculated by the route calculation unit 106 and the information indicating the route and the gas station selection. The information indicating the gas station selected by the unit 107 is displayed so as to be superimposed. Moreover, when the display part of a gas station is clicked and designated, it couple | bonds so that the privilege with respect to the user in the said gas station may be displayed. The generated data is output from the data combining unit 110 to the output unit 111.

  Subsequently, the information including the privilege information generated by the data combining unit 110 is transmitted from the output unit 111 to the terminal 20 (S08). The terminal 20 receives the information and outputs it to the display device included in the terminal 20. On the terminal 20, as shown in FIG. 5, the route from the departure point to the destination and the gas station located on the route (near the route) are displayed superimposed on the map. Moreover, when a user designates each gas station, the privilege according to the user is displayed. For example, when “A stand” is designated by the user whose user ID is “0001”, the privilege information acquired by the privilege information acquisition unit 109 is displayed as shown in FIG. That is, the privilege information (1), (3), and (5) of “A stand” in FIG. 3 is displayed. Further, the display on the terminal 20 may include information other than the above-described benefits such as the user's name and the user's refueling amount last month as shown in FIG. In that case, such information is included in the data generated by the data combining unit 110.

  The user can know the route from the departure point to the destination by referring to the information output to the display device, and can know what benefits can be received at the gas station on the route. it can.

  As described above, in the information providing system 10 according to the present embodiment, the user only inputs information indicating the starting point and the destination in addition to the information for identifying himself / herself, and also for the gas stations present on the moving route. It is possible to easily acquire store information such as privilege information. On the other hand, since the acquisition of store information such as privilege information by the user becomes an advertisement, it is possible to effectively attract customers and attract customers at stores such as gas stations.

  Moreover, if acquisition of privilege information is performed based on information related to user purchases such as information indicating user attributes and refueling results as in the present embodiment, appropriate information is provided for each user. Therefore, it is possible to provide appropriate and highly appealing information and attract customers more effectively.

  Moreover, if privilege information which shows the privilege with respect to a user is included like the information provided like this embodiment, information with high appeal power can be provided with respect to a user, and it will attract customers more effectively. Can do.

  In addition, when a route calculated through a predetermined range including the gas station passes through the predetermined range including the gas station, the gas station is located in the vicinity of the route selected by the gas station selection unit 107 and to which information is to be provided. If it is made to select as a gas station, since the gas station located in the vicinity of a path | route can be selected reliably, this invention can be implemented reliably.

  Moreover, if privilege information of a gas station is linked to map information and output as in the present embodiment, information can be provided in a format that is easy for the user to view.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the information provision system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the table of the user database in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the table of the gas station privilege database in embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process performed with the information provision system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen output in a terminal.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Information provision system, 101 ... Map information database, 102 ... Gas station location database, 103 ... User database, 104 ... Gas station privilege database, 105 ... Input reception part, 106 ... Route calculation part, 107 ... Gas station selection part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 108 ... User information acquisition part, 109 ... Bonus information acquisition part, 110 ... Data coupling | bond part, 111 ... Output part, 20 ... Terminal, 30 ... POS system, 40 ... Information input terminal, N ... Communication network.

Claims (5)

A user database that stores user information related to the user in association with information identifying the user;
A store database for storing store location information and store information about the store for each store;
A map information database for storing map information;
An input receiving means for receiving an input in which information for specifying a user is associated with information indicating a departure place and a destination;
Route calculation means for calculating a route from the departure place to the destination by referring to map information stored in the map information database from information indicating the departure place and destination received by the input receiving means; ,
Store selection means for selecting a store located near the route calculated by the route calculation means based on the location information of the store stored in the store database;
User information acquisition means for acquiring information about the user from the user database based on information identifying the user received by the input reception means;
Store information acquisition means for acquiring store information of the store selected by the store selection means from the store database in accordance with information about the user acquired by the user information acquisition means;
Output means for outputting the store information acquired by the store information acquisition means;
An information providing system comprising:   The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the user information includes information indicating an attribute of the user and information regarding purchase of the user in the store.   The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the store information includes privilege information indicating a privilege for the user in the store.   The store selection unit selects the store as a store located in the vicinity of the route when the route calculated by the route calculation unit passes through a predetermined range including the store determined from the location information of the store. The information providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein   The said output means links the store information acquired by the said store information acquisition means with the map information stored in the said map information database, and outputs it, The Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned. Information providing system described.

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