JP2001155064A - Content distribution system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To purchase digital contents in advance, and to deliver goods at a store. A user connects a user terminal to a communication line.
The content distribution device 10 is connected to the content distribution device 10, the product selection is performed by using the content search unit 11, and the product purchase reservation is performed using the reservation processing unit 12 and the store 40 that receives the content is specified. In response, the reservation processing means 12 issues a reservation code and a reception date to the user. The content reserved for purchase is stored in the content storage unit 1.
3 and distributed by the content sending means 14 to the user-specified store 40 by the date of receipt. The user operates a content writing unit 41 installed in the store 40.
To write the content corresponding to the reservation code to the recording medium. The settlement of the purchased content uses the collection function of the store 40.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a content distribution system, and more particularly to a content distribution system that allows a user to purchase digital content reserved in advance using the Internet at a store designated by the user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There has been known a system for purchasing digital contents such as computer programs and music data by using the Internet. In the purchase of digital contents via the Internet, first, a user wants to purchase a product to be purchased and a purchase procedure is performed using a user terminal such as a personal computer. Thereafter, the user obtains a product by downloading the data of the digital content to the user terminal. That is, the user terminal that has performed the product selection is the data download terminal. The purchase price is generally paid by credit card.

[0003] As a method for obtaining digital content, a content vending machine installed in a store may be used. The content vending machine refers to a network information terminal generally called a kiosk terminal, and is used for selling digital content data such as game software and electronic books. In this case, a product to be purchased is selected in front of a content vending machine installed in a store, and data of the selected content is stored in a recording medium prepared by the user in advance. For the purchase price, a collection function provided in the store is used.

[0004]

However, in the conventional digital content purchase using the Internet, since the user terminal is also a download terminal, the speed of the communication line is often limited, and digital content with a large amount of data such as music is purchased. It takes a very long time to download,
There was a problem that payment was limited to credit cards.

[0005] In the case of digital content purchase using a content vending machine installed in a store, a product must be selected at a place where the content vending machine is installed. There is a problem in that the content vending machine has to be occupied for a long time because the user has to perform the operation.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of such a point, the product can be slowly selected at home or the like, settlement by means other than a credit card is possible, without having to worry about the download time. It is another object of the present invention to provide a content distribution system capable of shortening the exclusive use time of a content vending machine in a store.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a content distribution system capable of purchasing a reserved content at a store using a communication line, wherein an instruction issued from a user terminal through the communication line is provided. Content search means for searching for the content desired by the user in accordance with the above, reservation processing means for performing a purchase reservation process for the content desired by the user in accordance with an instruction issued from the user terminal through the communication line, and storing the content that can be provided to the user. Content storage means, content transmission means for transmitting a reserved content to a store to which a user desires to deliver, and content writing means installed in the store and writing the content transmitted from the content transmission means to a recording medium And a content distribution system characterized by having Beam is provided.

[0008] According to the above configuration, the user selects a product from a user terminal at home through a communication line such as the Internet by the content search means and the reservation processing means. Upon receiving the designation of the merchandise and content receiving store, the reservation processing means issues a reservation code and a receiving date to the user. The content reserved for purchase is read from the content storage means, and distributed to the content receiving store designated by the user by the content sending means by the date of receipt. The user inputs the reservation code to the content writing unit of the content receiving store. Thus, the content writing unit writes the content corresponding to the reservation code to the recording medium. Payment for the purchased content can be performed using the store collection function.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle configuration of the content distribution system of the present invention. The content distribution system according to the present invention includes a content distribution device 10 on a service providing side, a user terminal 30 connected to the content distribution device 10 via a communication line 20, and a content distribution device 10 installed in a store 40. It comprises content writing means 41 for writing the distributed content to a recording medium, and makes it possible to purchase the reserved content at the store using the communication line 20. The content distribution device 10 includes a content search unit 1
1, a reservation processing unit 12, and a content storage unit 13
And content sending means 14.

[0010] The content search means 11 is a user terminal 3
0 through the communication line 20 and has a function of performing a search according to a request from the user and searching for a content desired by the user. The reservation processing means 12 is connected to the user terminal 30 through the communication line 20 and has a function of receiving the content selected by the user and the content receiving store, and transmitting the reservation code and the receiving date to the user. The content storage unit 13 has a function of storing content that can be provided to the user. The content transmission unit 14 has a function of reading out the content reserved for purchase from the content storage unit 13 and transmitting the content to the content receiving store desired by the user by the date of receipt. The content writing means 41 has a function of writing the content corresponding to the reservation code from the content received in advance from the content distribution device 10 to the recording medium.

According to the configuration of the content distribution system described above, the user selects a product at home or the like by connecting the user terminal 30 to the content search means 11 of the content distribution device 10 via the communication line 20. When the content to be purchased is determined, the user terminal 30 is connected to the reservation processing means 12 of the content distribution device 10 via the communication line 20 to make a reservation for purchase, and at the same time designate a content receiving store to receive the content. In response, the reservation processing unit 12 sends the reservation code and the date of receipt to the user terminal 30 and notifies the content sending unit 14 of the content to be distributed. The content sending unit 14 reads the notified content from the content storage unit 13 and distributes the notified content to a user-specified content receiving store by the date of receipt. The user goes to the content receiving store 40 and writes the content corresponding to the reservation code to the recording medium by using the content writing means installed there. The settlement function of the store 40 is used for the settlement of the purchased content.

Next, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a system for providing a music distribution service will be described as an example. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a music distribution system.
The music distribution system illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a distribution center 50 that is a service provider, a plurality of stores 60 that can perform service delivery (in the illustrated example, only one store is illustrated), And a plurality of user terminals 70 (in the illustrated example, only one user terminal is shown). The user terminal 70 and the distribution center 50 are connected by a two-way communication line by the Internet 80, and the distribution center 50 and the store 60 are connected by a one-way high-speed communication line using an artificial satellite 90. I have.

The distribution center 50 accepts a reservation from the user via the Internet and a search database 51 for searching for music pieces by the user via the Internet 80, and transmits the reserved music data from the transmission antenna 56 to the artificial satellite 90. A music data storage server 53 for storing a large amount of music data, an encoder 54 for compressing the music data, and a cache server 55 for storing the encoded music data. ing. The music data stored in the music data storage server 53 is a PCM (Pu
lse Code Modulation) digital data of a sound source, and the encoder 54 uses, for example, “ATRAC (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Acoustics)” which is one of audio compression techniques.
tic Coding) "or" ATRA "
C3 "has the function of compressing the PCM sound source and reducing the amount of data stored in the cache server 55 or transmitted to the store 60.

The store 60 is provided with a receiving antenna 63 for receiving music data transmitted from the artificial satellite 90. The received data received by the receiving antenna 63 is stored in a hard disk (HD) 64 built in the multimedia information terminal 61. As a recording medium to which the multimedia information terminal 61 can write, a mini disk (MD) 65 or a semiconductor memory 66 can be used.

As the user terminal 70, for example, a personal computer, a portable information terminal, a game machine, or the like in an environment that can be connected to the Internet 80 can be used.

In the music distribution system having the above configuration,
Using the user terminal 70, the user checks a digital content catalog prepared by the service provider, selects a desired song, and makes a reservation. The music data of the reserved tune is distributed to a store 60 designated by the user in advance, and the user transmits the music data reserved at the store 60 to the mini-disc 6 using the multimedia information terminal 61.
5 or in the semiconductor memory 66, and pays for the purchase of the music data at the clearing house of the store 60. Next, details of a flow from selection of a music piece to payment will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of the process of the music distribution system. First, after connecting the user terminal 70 to the distribution center 50 via the Internet 80, the user searches for music using the search database 51 of the distribution center 50 (step S1). At this time, the user can slowly select a song over time. Since a unique code is assigned to every song stored in the music data storage server 53, the search database 51 notifies the user terminal 70 of a code corresponding to the song found by the user (step S2). ). Next, when there is a song that the user wishes to purchase from the found songs, the user makes a reservation for purchase of the song, and the reservation / transmission server 52 accepts the reservation. The reservation of the purchase of the music is made by the code of the music, and at the same time, the store 60 desired to be received is designated (step S3). Then, the reservation / transmission server 52 sends the user terminal 70 as a reservation receipt.
, The reservation code and the date of receipt (step S4). The music data corresponding to the reserved music code is read from the music data storage server 53, encoded by the encoder 54, and stored in the cache server 55, and the reservation / transmission server 52 is stored in the cache server 55. The music data is distributed to the designated store 60 by the designated date together with the reservation code (step S5). At this time, the cache server 55
If the encoded music data of the corresponding code is already stored, the reservation / transmission server 52 distributes the encoded music data. Store 6
The music data distributed to the multimedia information terminal 61 is stored in the hard disk 64 of the multimedia information terminal 61.

Thereafter, the user goes to the designated store 60 after the designated receiving date and inputs the notified reservation code to the multimedia information terminal 61 installed there (step S6). The multimedia information terminal 61 writes the music data associated with the reservation code into the mini disk 65 or the semiconductor memory 66, which is a recording medium prepared in advance by the user (step S7). At this time, since the user only performs a predetermined operation on the multimedia information terminal 61, the user does not occupy the multimedia information terminal 61 for a long time. When the writing to the mini disk 65 or the semiconductor memory 66 is completed in this way, the multimedia information terminal 61 stores the sales amount in the store 60.
To clerks and POS (Point Of Sales) terminals. The user pays a necessary fee to the clerk (step S8).

As another settlement method, a settlement device provided in the multimedia information terminal 61 can be used. That is, when the reservation code is input, the multimedia information terminal 61 displays the sales amount of the music data corresponding to the reservation code, confirms that the sales amount has been paid, and then sends the data to the mini disk 65 or the semiconductor memory 66. May be written.

In the above embodiment, an example was shown in which an artificial satellite was used as a high-speed communication line capable of having a high-speed transfer function. However, other than this, a high-speed dedicated line, the Internet, CATV (CAble TeleVision), etc. High-speed communication lines can be used.

Although the contents to be distributed are digital music data as an example, in addition to the digital music data, still images such as maps, moving images such as movies and television programs, applications and games, and the like are provided. The present invention can be applied to distribution of other digital contents such as software, car navigation information, and digitized books.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, the content purchase reservation is made at the user terminal, and the actual delivery of the merchandise is made at the content vending machine installed at the store. As a result, it is not necessary to perform an operation for selecting a product for a long time in front of a content vending machine installed in a store or the like, and the user can slowly select a product at home or the like.

Since time-consuming music search can be performed at home or the like, the time for each user to occupy the content vending machine can be minimized, and more users can be used.

Further, since a content vending machine which can have a high-speed transfer function can be used as a download device, the user does not need to worry about the download time.

Further, in online shopping using the Internet, payment is mainly made by a credit card, but since goods are received using a content vending machine installed in a store, cash, gift certificates, etc. are used on the spot. Payment by credit card is possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a principle configuration of a content distribution system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a music distribution system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of the music distribution system.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Content distribution device, 11 Content search means, 12 Reservation processing means, 13 Content storage means, 14 Content transmission means, 20 Communication line, 30 User terminal, 40 Store 41, Content writing means 50 Distribution center 51 Search database 52 Reservation / transmission server 53
Music data storage server, 54 ... encoder, 55 ...
Cache server, 56, transmitting antenna, 60, store, 61, multimedia information terminal, 63, receiving antenna, 64, hard disk, 65, mini disk, 66, semiconductor memory, 70, user terminal , 80
... the Internet, 90 ... a satellite.

Claims (7)

[Claims] Claims 1. A content distribution system capable of purchasing a reserved content at a store using a communication line, wherein the user searches for a desired content according to an instruction issued from the user terminal through the communication line. Means, a reservation processing means for performing a purchase reservation process of the content desired by the user in accordance with an instruction issued from the user terminal through the communication line, a content storage means for storing content that can be provided to the user, Content sending means for sending the content to a store to which the user desires delivery; and content writing means installed in the store and writing the content sent from the content sending means to a recording medium. Content distribution system. 2. The content distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the content transmission from the content transmission means to the store is performed via an artificial satellite. 3. A content distribution apparatus for distributing reserved content to a store where a user purchases the content using a communication line, wherein the content search searches for the content desired by the user in accordance with an instruction issued from the user terminal through the communication line. Means, a reservation processing means for performing a purchase reservation process of the content desired by the user in accordance with an instruction issued from the user terminal through the communication line, a content storage means for storing content that can be provided to the user, And a content sending means for sending the content to a store where the user desires to deliver the content. 4. The content distribution device according to claim 3, wherein the content is digital music data. 5. The content storing means includes a storage server for storing the music data, an encoder for compressing the stored music data, and a cache server for storing the compressed music data. The content distribution device according to claim 4, wherein 6. The reservation processing means receives a content selected by a user and a designation of a content receiving store, and performs a process of notifying the user of a reservation code and a receiving date necessary for receiving the content at the store. The content distribution device according to claim 3, wherein 7. The content distribution apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the content transmission unit reads out the content selected by the user from the content storage unit and distributes the content to the content receiving store by the reception date. .