JP5359860B2 - Guidance information distribution system and guidance information distribution method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technology for acquiring location information of a mobile terminal carried by a user using a facility and distributing guide information to the user. <P>SOLUTION: In this guide information distribution system, a guide information distribution server distributes the guide information to the mobile terminal through distribution devices. The distribution device includes: a location information acquirer for acquiring the location information of the mobile terminal through an access point and accumulating it in a storage part; a self-diagnostic device for self-diagnosing a state of a prescribed function of the distribution device; and a location information transmitter for transmitting the location information and a result of the self-diagnosis to the guide information distribution server. The guide information distribution server includes: a receiver for receiving the location information and the results of the self-diagnosis; a reliability determiner for performing reliability decision of the location information based on the result of the self-diagnosis; a location information memory for storing the location information by a result of the reliability decision; and a distributor for distributing the guide information to the mobile terminal by the location information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for acquiring position information of a mobile terminal possessed by a user who uses a facility and distributing guide information to the user.

  In recent years, electronic medical chart systems have been introduced in many hospitals and other facilities, but these electronic medical chart systems are not limited to digitizing medical charts, but have greatly expanded functions. One of them is a system that distributes guidance information to outpatients. This system asks each patient to have a portable terminal capable of wireless communication, detects the position of the portable terminal, grasps the position of the patient in the hospital, and visits the number of patients waiting for the examination and the examination room. It is a system that distributes guidance information that should be made by the patient, such as calling the patient or going to the laboratory. In such a system, since it is necessary to acquire the position of a patient as finely as possible, a plurality of wireless transmission / reception devices (hereinafter referred to as access points or APs) having a small area as a communication area are installed in a hospital. Yes. In addition, in order to ensure a certain amount of communication and response, management is performed by a computer (hereinafter referred to as a distribution device) that controls a plurality of APs. In a large hospital, it is necessary to set a wide area as a service area, and in order to cover them, the number of APs needs to be increased according to the service area. For this reason, it is necessary to control the AP with a plurality of distribution apparatuses.

  FIG. 10 shows the configuration of the guidance information distribution system 10 as one function of the electronic medical record system. A plurality of distribution apparatuses 200 are arranged at the top of the guidance information distribution server 100 that also serves as an electronic medical record server. Further, a hierarchical structure such as a plurality of access points 300 is formed. Each access point 300 is responsible for a small communication area 301 capable of wireless communication. When the portable terminal 400 possessed by the patient enters the communication area 301, the access point 300 and the portable terminal 400 in the communication area 301 Communication takes place between the two. Through this communication, the distribution apparatus 200 can acquire patient position information via the access point 300. The distribution apparatus 200 accumulates position information of the mobile terminal 400 that has entered the communication area 301 for a certain period of time. When the position information is accumulated for a predetermined time, the distribution apparatus 200 transmits the accumulated position information to the guidance information distribution server 100. The reason why the information is immediately sent to the guide information distribution server 100 without sending it is to reduce the load on the guide information distribution server 100 which is also an electronic medical record server.

  As a technology of the guidance information distribution system, it is known to display guidance information using an electronic paper terminal as a portable terminal (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2008-84274 A

  As described above, in the guidance information system, since the load on the guidance information distribution server is generally high, the distribution apparatus collectively transmits the position information acquired from the terminal for a certain period of time in order to reduce the load. If the location information received from the mobile terminal is sent to the upper guidance information delivery server in real time, the reliability of the location information will not be considered as a problem, but some problem will occur in the function of the delivery device that accumulates the location information. If so, it is doubtful whether the information is truly correct.

  FIG. 11 shows the configuration of the guidance information distribution server 100 and the distribution device 200. If the position information receiving unit 220 and the position information storage unit 230 in the distribution device 200 are not operating normally, the position information storage unit The position information stored in 240 cannot be said to be correct. In response to the notification of the position information received from the access point 300, the distribution apparatus 200 returns an ACK (ACKnowledgement) indicating that the data has been normally received to the access point 300, so that the communication is normally performed. . However, for example, when the position information receiving unit 220 does not perform normal processing and does not return an ACK, the data in the position information storage unit 240 cannot be said to be normal data. As described above, when the guide information is distributed based on the accumulated position information, there is a problem that the information necessary for the uncertain position information is not distributed. For this reason, after confirming that the positional information acquired from the mobile terminal is correct information (reliable information), it has been a problem to distribute the guidance information to the facility users.

  The present invention is made in order to solve the above-described problems, and guide information delivery that can reliably deliver guide information to a mobile terminal using highly reliable position information when delivering the guide information to the mobile terminal. The purpose is to provide a system.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a guidance information distribution system according to the present invention is a system in which a guidance information distribution server distributes guidance information to a mobile terminal via a plurality of distribution devices under the control of a plurality of access points. The distribution device and the guidance information distribution server have the following requirements.

  The distribution apparatus self-diagnose the position information acquisition means for acquiring the position information that is the area where the mobile terminal stays via the access point and storing it in the first storage unit, and the state of a predetermined function constituting the distribution apparatus Self-diagnosis means, and position information transmission means for transmitting the position information accumulated in the first storage unit and the result of self-diagnosis in the self-diagnosis means to the guidance information distribution server at predetermined time intervals. .

  In addition, the guidance information distribution server receives the position information transmitted from the distribution device and the result of the self-diagnosis, and the position information is acquired under a normal distribution device based on the received self-diagnosis result. A reliability determination means for determining reliability of whether or not it has been performed, and a position for storing position information acquired under a normal distribution device in the second storage unit based on the result of the reliability determination Information storage means and distribution means for distributing the guide information to the portable terminal based on the position information stored in the second storage unit are provided.

  Using the self-diagnosis result of self-diagnosis of the distribution device status, the reliability of the location information of the mobile terminal acquired from the access point is determined, and the location information determined to be reliable is used, so guidance is provided reliably. Information can be distributed to mobile devices.

It is an example of the whole structure of the guidance information delivery system of this invention. It is a structural example of each apparatus of the guidance information delivery system of this invention. It is an example of data of a position information storage part. It is an example of the module list of the self-diagnosis target. It is an example of data of a self-diagnosis result storage part. It is an example of data of a regular notification. It is an example of a flow of reliability determination of position information. It is an example of data of a patient position information storage part. It is a structural example of each apparatus of the guidance information delivery system of this invention (Example 2). It is an example of the whole structure of the conventional guidance information delivery system. It is an example of composition of a guidance information distribution server and a distribution device of the conventional guidance information distribution system.

A guidance information distribution system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. This embodiment will be described as a guide information distribution system 20 in a hospital.
(First embodiment)
The overall configuration of the guidance information distribution system 20 of the present invention is as shown in FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram drawn in conformity with FIG. 10 shown as a conventional example, and the overall system configuration is basically the same as that of the conventional example (the same reference numerals are used for the same components as those of the conventional example). The outline of the components shown in FIG. 1 is as follows.

  Electronic card holder 401: An end device that is a portable terminal carried by each patient and that displays data (guidance information) received via wireless or transmits current position information to the access point 300 wirelessly.

  Access point 300: A plurality of access points that are installed in hospital facilities and exchange data with the electronic card holder 401 by radio. Each access point 300 manages a narrow communication area 301. Since the electronic card holder 401 is located in the communication area 301 managed by the user, the guidance information distribution system 20 can recognize that there is a patient in the area. The wireless communication means between the access point 300 and the electronic card holder 401 is based on a wireless communication standard such as ZigBee.

  Distribution device 201: Manages a plurality of access points 300 and transmits data (guidance information) notified from the higher-level guidance information distribution server 101 to the electronic card holder 401 via the access point 300 or via the access point 300 This is a device for notifying the guide information distribution server 101 of the current position information of the electronic card holder 401 received in step (b). There are a plurality of distribution apparatuses 201 up to 1-N.

  Guide information distribution server 101: A server that distributes guide information based on position information of the electronic card holder 401 possessed by the patient. The guide information distribution server 101 also has a function as an electronic medical record server.

  It is assumed that the guidance information distribution server 101 and the distribution device 201 and the distribution device 201 and the access point 300 are connected by a wired LAN (Local Area Network).

  Next, the configuration of each apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. First, the access point 300 includes an AP guide information receiving unit 310 that receives guide information from the distribution device 201, an AP guide information transmitting unit 320 that transmits the received guide information to the electronic card holder 401, and the current position of the electronic card holder 401. The AP position information receiving unit 330 to be acquired, the position information notifying unit 340 for notifying (transmitting) the acquired position information to the distribution apparatus 201, and the ACK information indicating that the position information notified from the distribution apparatus 201 has been correctly received. It consists of an ACK receiver 350.

  The distribution apparatus 201 is notified from the guide information receiving unit 211 that receives the guide information from the guide information distribution server 101, the guide information transmitting unit 210 that transmits the received guide information to the access point 300, and the position information notification unit 340 of the access point 300. Received by the location information receiving unit 220 for receiving the received location information, the ACK notification unit 221 for notifying the access point 300 of the ACK information indicating that the information transmitted from the access point 300 has been normally received, and the location information receiving unit 220 Self-diagnosis whether each module of the location information storage unit 230, the location information reception unit 220, the ACK notification unit 221 and the location information storage unit 230 that stores the location information in the location information storage unit 240 functions normally, Module self-diagnosis unit for storing diagnosis results in self-diagnosis result storage unit 262 60, a self-diagnosis definition unit 261 that defines the self-diagnosis target module and the number of times self-diagnosis is performed, a periodic notification definition unit 251 that defines a notification time for periodic notification, and positional information based on the notification time of the periodic notification definition unit 251 Periodic notification information creating unit 252 that creates periodic notification information using the position information accumulated in storage unit 240 and the self-diagnosis result stored in self-diagnosis result storage unit 262, and the periodic notification created by periodic notification information creation unit 252 It consists of a periodic notification transmission unit 250 that transmits information to the guidance information distribution server 101.

  The guidance information distribution server 101 determines the reliability of the position information based on the periodic notification receiving unit 110 that receives the periodic notification from the distribution device 201, and the self-diagnosis result notified periodically, and the distribution device 201 is in a normal operation. The position information reliability determination unit 140 that stores only the confirmed position information in the patient position information storage unit 120, and when a distribution request for guidance information is made to the patient from another system (for example, an electronic medical record system) The guidance information notification unit 130 transmits the guidance information to the corresponding access point 300 via the distribution device 201 based on the location information stored in the patient location information storage unit 120.

  Next, how the guidance information is notified to the patient in the configuration using FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described. First, as a premise, it is assumed that the patient wears an electronic card examination ticket storing the patient ID attached to the electronic card holder 401. The electronic card holder 401 constantly transmits radio waves, and when the patient moves within the hospital and enters the communication area 301 of the access point 300, the electronic card holder 401 communicates with the access point 300, and the patient ID stored in the electronic card is the AP of the access point 300. It is received (read) by the position information receiving unit 330. The read patient ID information is sent to the location information receiving unit 220 of the distribution apparatus 201 via the location information notification unit 340, and the location information storage unit 230 uses the ID of the access point 300 (access point ID), the patient ID, and The acquired time is associated with and stored in the position information storage unit 240 as position information. That is, the distribution apparatus 201 does not notify the position information acquired from the access point 300 to the guidance information distribution server 101 in real time as it is, but temporarily stores it in the position information storage unit 240. Further, when the distribution apparatus 201 receives the position information notified from the access point 300, the distribution apparatus 201 returns ACK information, which is a general communication negotiation, to the access point 300 in order to notify the access point 300 that the position information has been normally received. (The access point 300 receives this ACK information at the ACK receiver 350).

  An example of information stored in the position information storage unit 240 is shown in FIG. The access point ID for identifying the access point 300, the patient ID acquired from the electronic card holder 401, and the acquisition time are stored in association with each other. Here, information when the electronic card holder 401 enters the communication area 301 of the access point 300 is acquired and accumulated. Therefore, the first line in FIG. 3 indicates that the patient with the patient ID of P980116 has entered the communication area 301 of the access point 300 having the ID of AP0001 at 13:20:00.

  The position information accumulated in the position information storage unit 240 in this way is based on the periodic notification time interval defined by the regular notification definition unit 251 (for example, several tens of seconds), and the accumulated positional information is collectively guided information. Notify the distribution server 101. The guidance information distribution server 101 also serves as an electronic medical record server, and is responsible for various medical tasks such as medical examination, medication, examination, medical chart management, accounting, etc., and has a heavy load, so it sends location information in real time. Regular notifications are made without doing. Periodic notification reduces the load on the guidance information distribution server 101 that also serves as an electronic medical record server. In addition, this periodic notification is made at regular time intervals even when there is no location information notification from the access point 300, and the guidance information distribution server 101 confirms the existence of the distribution device 201 by receiving the periodic notification. doing.

  Aside from the processing flow for acquiring position information from the electronic card holder 401 via the access point 300, self-diagnosis is performed to determine whether the module operating in the distribution apparatus 201 is normal. In this embodiment, self-diagnosis is performed a plurality of times during regular notification, and the results are stored in correspondence with the diagnosis time at which self-diagnosis was performed. This process will be described next.

  First, the distribution apparatus 201 predefines a list of modules for self-diagnosis and how many times self-diagnosis is performed for which module during regular notification, and stores it in the self-diagnosis definition unit 261. An example of the module list for the self-diagnosis target defined here is shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, RecvData_from_Ap.exe, which is a module (position information receiving unit 220) that receives data from the access point 300, and StoreData_from_APexe, which is a module (position information storage unit 230) that stores data received from the access point 300. , SendData_to_AP.exe, which is a module (ACK notification unit 221) that transmits ACK to the access point 300, is defined. A dotted line shown in the module self-diagnosis unit 260 in FIG. 2 indicates a module to be self-diagnosis. Note that these modules are described only as an example of a list, and modules to be diagnosed may be further increased. The diagnosis of whether or not it is operating normally may be, for example, the task existence confirmation provided by the OS (Operation System) as a basic function, or the existence confirmation by constructing an original I / F (Interface) good. Further, the self-diagnosis cycle is defined such that self-diagnosis is performed every 10 seconds (3 times in 30 seconds) when the interval value of the periodic notification is 30 seconds, for example.

  Thus, the result of the self-diagnosis is stored in the self-diagnosis result storage unit 262, and an example of the data is shown in FIG. If the module to be diagnosed is executing normally, the time at which the diagnosis was performed is stored, and “NULL” is stored when an error is recognized due to no response from the application. FIG. 5 shows that RecvData_from_Ap.exe, which is a module that receives data from the access point, does not operate normally in the diagnosis at 13:20:25.

  Next, regular notification processing in the distribution apparatus 201 will be described. The periodic notification information creation unit 252 is based on the periodic notification interval value stored in the periodic notification definition unit 251 and the self-diagnosis stored in the position information storage unit 240 and the self-diagnosis result storage unit 262. Create notification data using the results. FIG. 6 shows an example of periodic notification data (periodic notification information) created by the periodic notification information creating unit 252. FIG. 6A shows a data format. First, the number of position information (number of position information data) acquired from the access point 300, followed by the number of self-diagnosis results (number of data of self-diagnosis results), followed by self-diagnosis results 1 to k, followed by position information 1 to position information n.

  FIG. 6B shows an example of data based on the data format of FIG. Here, the number of position information was 5, the number of self-diagnosis results was 3, and the first self-diagnosis was performed at 13:20:05, and the diagnosis result was normal (True). The second was performed at 13:20:15, and the diagnostic result at this time was also normal. However, the result of the third self-diagnosis performed at 13:20:25 was abnormal. Further, the position information 1 indicates that the patient with the patient ID of P980116 has entered the communication area 301 of the access point of AP0001 at 13:20:00. The position information 2 to the position information 5 may be viewed similarly. The regular notification transmission unit 250 transmits the data shown in FIG. 6B to the guidance information distribution server 101 as a regular notification.

  In the guidance information distribution server 101, the data notified in this way is received by the periodic notification receiving unit 110, the reliability of the positional information received by the positional information reliability determining unit 140 is determined, and it is determined that the reliability is high. Only the position information thus stored is stored in the patient position information storage unit 120. Next, an example of position information reliability determination will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The data example shown in FIG. 6B is used as the periodic notification data in this flow.

  In FIG. 7, first, in step S <b> 1 (hereinafter simply referred to as S <b> 1), the position information number n and the self-diagnosis result number k are extracted from the data received by the periodic notification. That is, from FIG. 6B, n = 5 and k = 3. “I” is a counter control variable for sequentially processing position information, “j” is a counter control variable for sequentially processing self-diagnosis results, and both are set to “1” as an initial value.

  Subsequently, first, reliability determination of “position information 1” which is the first position information of FIG. In S2 and S3, since i (= 1) and j (= 1) do not satisfy the respective numbers n (= 5) and k (= 3), the process proceeds to S4 to check whether the self-diagnosis result is “normal”. Investigate. Since the self-diagnosis result of the first time (ie, j = 1) in FIG. 6B is “True”, that is, “normal”, the process proceeds to S5.

  In S5 and S6, the diagnosis time “ts” of the first self-diagnosis and the acquisition time “tp” of the position information are obtained. From FIG. 6B, ts = 13: 20: 05 and tp = 13: 20: 00.

  Since tp <ts is satisfied in S <b> 7, the process proceeds to S <b> 8 and “position information 1” is stored in the patient position information storage unit 120. Specifically, the access point ID indicating the position and the time corresponding to the patient ID are stored.

  The counter control variable i of the position information is counted up, the process returns to S2 and the reliability determination is similarly performed on “position information 2” as the second position information. If tp <ts is not satisfied in S7, the process proceeds to S10, the counter control variable j for self-diagnosis is incremented, and the process returns to S3. Thereafter, the reliability determination is similarly performed. If the self-diagnosis result is not “normal” in S4, the process proceeds to S9, i is counted up, and the process returns to S2. That is, it is determined that the reliability of the position information in this case is low, and the information is discarded without being stored in the patient position information storage unit 120.

  In this way, the determination is made based on whether the self-diagnosis is normal after the time when the position information is acquired. In the notification data in FIG. 6B, all modules are operating normally until the self-diagnosis result 2 performed at 13:20:15, but the self-executed at 13:20:25. The diagnosis result is an error (False). That is, the position information 1, the position information 2, and the position information 3 notified before 13:20:15 are determined as highly reliable data and are registered in the patient position information storage unit 120 as patient positions. Position information 4 and position information 5 acquired after 13:20:15 are discarded as data with low reliability.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of data stored in the patient position information storage unit 120. As described above, the position information is obtained after confirming that the distribution apparatus 201 is determined to be “normal” through the reliability determination. The access point ID to which the patient has moved corresponding to the patient ID and the time when the information was acquired are stored as position information.

The guidance information distribution server transmits the guidance information to the electronic card holder 401 using the position information stored in the patient position information storage unit 120 when a request for notifying the patient of the guidance information is made from the electronic medical record server. Will do.
(Second embodiment)
In the first embodiment, the guidance information delivery server 101 checks the reliability of the location information periodically notified from the delivery device 201, and stores only the highly reliable location information. The second embodiment is an example in which encrypted position information is used in addition to the first embodiment.

  In the second embodiment, it is assumed that encryption processing is performed on the patient ID in the electronic card holder 401, and the encryption is performed when the distribution apparatus acquires the patient ID via the access point.

  FIG. 9 shows the configuration of each apparatus of the guidance information distribution system 30 that handles position information including an encrypted patient ID, and includes a guidance information distribution server 101, a distribution apparatus 202, an access point 300, and an electronic card holder 402. . The guide information distribution server 101 and the access point 300 have the same reference numerals because they perform the same processing as in the first embodiment regardless of the presence or absence of encryption.

The distribution apparatus 202 is added with a cryptanalysis unit 222 and an encryption unit 212 as compared with the first embodiment. The decryption unit 222 decrypts the position information received by the position information reception unit 220 and passes the decrypted position information to the position information storage unit 230. The encryption unit 212 encrypts the guide information received by the guide information receiving unit 211 and passes it to the guide information transmitting unit 210.
Data transmission / reception is performed wirelessly between the electronic card holder 402 and the access point 300 and is easily intercepted by a third party. Therefore, data transmission / reception during this period is encrypted. Accordingly, the distribution apparatus 202 decrypts (receives) information received (received) from the electronic card holder 402 via the access point 300, and transmits (transmits) information to the electronic card holder 402 via the access point 300. Encryption is performed.

  The encryption method is not defined in the present invention, and a generally known encryption method may be used. As an example of the encryption method, a common key DES (Data Encryption Standard) and a public key RSA cipher (Rivest, Shamir, Adleman's method) are generally used. These may be adopted according to the robustness that the system should realize.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Guidance information delivery system 20 Guidance information delivery system 100 Guidance information delivery server 101 Guidance information delivery server 110 Periodic notification receiving part 120 Patient position information storage part 130 Guidance information notification part 140 Position information reliability determination part 200 Delivery apparatus 201 Delivery apparatus 202 Distribution device 210 Guide information transmission unit 211 Guide information reception unit 212 Encryption unit 220 Location information reception unit 221 ACK notification unit 222 Cryptanalysis unit 230 Location information storage unit 240 Location information storage unit 250 Periodic notification transmission unit 251 Periodic notification definition unit 252 Periodic Notification information creation unit 260 Module self-diagnosis unit 261 Self-diagnosis definition unit 262 Self-diagnosis result storage unit 300 Access point (AP)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 301 Communication area 310 AP guidance information receiving part 320 AP guidance information transmission part 330 AP position information receiving part 340 Position information notification part 350 ACK receiving part 400 Portable terminal 401 Electronic card holder 402 Electronic card holder

Claims (4)

A guidance information distribution server is a guidance information distribution system that distributes guidance information to a mobile terminal via a plurality of distribution devices under the control of a plurality of access points,
The distribution device includes:
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information that is an area where the mobile terminal stays via the access point and storing the position information in a first storage unit;
Self-diagnosis means for self-diagnosis of a state of a predetermined function constituting the distribution device;
Position information transmission means for transmitting the accumulated position information and the result of the self-diagnosis to the guidance information distribution server at a predetermined time interval;
The guidance information distribution server
Receiving means for receiving the position information and the result of the self-diagnosis transmitted from the distribution device;
Based on the result of the self-diagnosis, reliability determination means for performing reliability determination as to whether the position information is acquired under the normal distribution device;
Position information storage means for storing position information acquired under the normal distribution device based on the result of the reliability determination in a second storage unit;
A distribution unit that distributes the guide information to the mobile terminal based on the position information stored in the second storage unit. The self-diagnosis means performs self-diagnosis at least once within the predetermined time interval,
The reliability determination means performs a reliability determination as to whether the position information is acquired under a normal distribution device based on a result of the self-diagnosis obtained in time series. The guide information distribution system according to claim 1. The location information acquisition means acquires encrypted location information, decrypts the encryption of the location information and stores it in the first storage unit,
The guide information distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the distribution unit encrypts the guide information distribution and distributes the information to the portable terminal. The guidance information distribution server is a guidance information distribution method for distributing guidance information to a mobile terminal via a plurality of distribution devices under the control of a plurality of access points,
In the distribution device, the location information which is the area where the mobile terminal stays is acquired via the access point and accumulated in the first storage unit, and the state of a predetermined function constituting the distribution device is set for a predetermined time. Self-diagnosis at least once, and transmits the accumulated position information and the result of the self-diagnosis to the guidance information distribution server at the predetermined time interval,
The guidance information distribution server receives the position information and the self-diagnosis result transmitted from the distribution apparatus, and the position information is acquired under the normal distribution apparatus based on the self-diagnosis result. And the position information acquired under the normal distribution device based on the result of the reliability determination is stored in the second storage unit, and the second storage unit A guide information distribution method, wherein the guide information is distributed to the mobile terminal based on position information stored in the mobile terminal.

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