JP2001283051A - System for providing vehicle information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To electronically and easily generate the written estimate of a vehicle, which is different at each vehicle registered in a vehicle database via a network, to easily generate electronic pamphlets corresponding to the vehicles with rich variation in an electronic vehicle information providing system realized on the network and also to easily and rapidly retrieve the target vehicle from various retrieval conditions such as a vehicle name, a store area or vehicle kinds dealt in the store by a user in the system. SOLUTION: Since data is inputted in the store actually provided with vehicle stock, data required for the electronic written estimate or the electronic pamphlets at each vehicle are prepared in advance so that the request of the user is instantaneously replied. Besides, a GUI is made to be a virtual exhibition form so that operability to be easily understood by the user is realized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic vehicle information providing system capable of browsing vehicle detailed information at a vehicle dealer store virtually realized on a network, and an electronic brochure data used therefor. It relates to a definition method and a method of defining electronic quotation data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electronic vehicle having a virtual vehicle exhibition space formed on a network such as the Internet, and capable of mediating vehicle sales online at a store provided in the virtual vehicle exhibition space. An information providing system is being put to practical use. In such an electronic vehicle information providing system, when a user desires to provide a quote via a network, a communication means such as an e-mail address is input from a browser and sent to the user at a later date.

[0003] In a vehicle pamphlet for electronically providing a user with detailed information on a vehicle via a network (hereinafter, such a vehicle brochure is referred to as an electronic brochure), a unique vehicle number is assigned to each vehicle. By doing so, the vehicle is uniquely determined. Which vehicle the consumer user has selected is managed based on the vehicle number attached to the vehicle, the form of the electronic brochure is stored in a web server, and the vehicle that the user wants to view in the electronic brochure is determined. Upon request, the electronic brochure stored in the web server is displayed on the screen of the user client.

Conventionally, a database for providing detailed information on a vehicle to a user has been constructed by going to a store to collect information or manually sending information sent from the store by mail, facsimile, or the like. You are typing.

[0005]

In the prior art as described above, at present, the estimate of the vehicle is not immediately displayed on the screen of the user client, but the vehicle estimate is manually created separately. The documents are sent by e-mail. As a result, as the demand for vehicle quotes increases, its management becomes more difficult. In addition, the accumulation of electronic brochures on the web server is all performed manually. In the electronic vehicle information providing system, as described above, a method of assigning a unique vehicle number to all the vehicles handled is adopted. Therefore, when a new vehicle is registered every day, it becomes difficult to manage the new vehicle as the number of vehicles increases.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic vehicle information providing system realized on a network.
It is possible to easily generate an estimate of a different vehicle for each vehicle registered in the vehicle database electronically via a network (hereinafter, such an estimate of a vehicle is referred to as an electronic estimate), An object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily generate an electronic brochure corresponding to a variety of vehicles.

Another object of the present invention is to allow a user to easily and quickly search for a target vehicle in an electronic vehicle information providing system based on various search conditions such as a vehicle name, a store area, and a vehicle type handled by the store. To be able to do it.

In the prior art described above, the construction of the database was a burdensome operation, but the vehicle data created by the dealer himself using the dedicated software was sent over the network, and the maintenance client The purpose is to make registration to the database easy and quick.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic vehicle information providing system and a method for defining an electronic quotation or electronic brochure data according to the present invention relate to the essence of the vehicle to be defined. It is characterized in that vehicle data information is generated in an electronic quotation or an electronic brochure in response to a request from a user client.

In the electronic quotation of the present invention, a vehicle I for identifying a vehicle from other vehicles is required information.
D, the vehicle name of the vehicle, the selling price of the vehicle, and the vehicle quotation information used for the electronic quotation of the vehicle.

In the electronic brochure of the present invention, essential items of information such as a vehicle ID for identifying the vehicle from other vehicles, a vehicle name of the vehicle, a selling price of the vehicle, and a vehicle photograph used in the electronic brochure of the vehicle are provided. Contains image information.

[0012] Furthermore, the search of vehicles for the purpose of the present invention can be easily and quickly performed based on various search conditions such as a vehicle name, a region of a store, and a model of a vehicle handled by the store.
It includes vehicle search information used for vehicle search such as the characteristics of the store, the types of vehicles handled by the store, and the vehicle type.

In order to achieve the above and other objects, an electronic vehicle information providing server realized by the present invention holds information on a virtual store which is defined by a user client and realized on a network. A shop database, a vehicle database that holds vehicle data information about vehicles provided in this virtual store,
Exhibit hall database that stores information on virtual exhibition halls that are divided into groups such as regions and are realized on a network in a group unit, a storage device that stores image information such as vehicle photos, and controls the operation of the electronic vehicle information providing server Control means for performing the operation. The control means receives the display request information sent from the user client and analyzes the request from the user client based on the display request information. Then, when the request from the user client is to display an electronic brochure, display information for displaying the electronic brochure is generated and transferred to the user client based on the shop database and the vehicle data information, and transmitted from the user client. If the request specifies electronic quotation, the vehicle data information on the vehicle specified by the request is extracted from the vehicle database,
Based on the extracted vehicle data information, display information for displaying the electronic quotation to the user client is generated and transferred, and when the request from the user client specifies the display of the virtual exhibition hall, To extract virtual store information and vehicle data related to the virtual store specified by the request from the exhibition hall database and vehicle database, and display the virtual store to the user client based on the extracted virtual store information and vehicle data information. When the request from the user client designates a search for a vehicle, vehicle data information on the vehicle specified by the request is extracted from the vehicle database, and the extracted vehicle information is transmitted. Generates and transfers display information to display vehicle search results to user clients based on data information Do.

[0014] In order to achieve the above object, a photograph of a vehicle prepared by a dealer client using dedicated software and vehicle data including estimation data are transmitted through the network via the network.
The vehicle is sent to the TP server, and registration of the vehicle in the vehicle database or the like is characterized in that vehicle data in the FTP server can be registered via a maintenance client.

[0015]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an electronic vehicle information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic vehicle information providing system includes hardware of a user client 1 and an electronic vehicle information providing server 2. These are physically connected by a network. In the following description, it is assumed that the network connecting the user client 1 and the electronic vehicle information providing server 2 is the Internet.

The user client 1 is a terminal used when the user uses the electronic vehicle information providing system, and is realized by, for example, a personal computer. The user client 1 is an input / output device 11 serving as an interface with a user who is a user, and is specifically realized by an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse and an output device such as a CRT display. . The user client 1 has a WWW browser 12 as an interface with the electronic vehicle information providing server 2. When the user client 1 is a personal computer, the WWW browser 12 is realized as a program stored in its memory.

WWW (World Wide Web) server / CGI
(Common Gateway Interface)-ASP (Active Server)
r Page) 21 functions as an interface with the user client 1, receives display request information from the user client 1, and transfers display data to the user client 1.

The display information generating section 22 generates display information such as an electronic pamphlet in response to a request from the user client 1. The display information generation unit 22 includes a parameter analysis unit 221, a file search unit 222, and a display data generation unit. The parameter analysis unit 221 includes:
The display request page information from the user client 1 received via the WWW server / CGI ASP 21 is analyzed, and parameters included in the display request page information are extracted. The file search unit 222 includes a parameter analysis unit 221
The database of the database server 23 is searched based on the parameters extracted by. The display data generation unit 223 generates display data that can be displayed as a WWW page based on the data searched by the file search unit 222. That is, the display data generation unit 223
Has a function as a so-called WWW page generator.

The electronic vehicle information providing server 2 is provided with a vehicle database 231, a shop database 232, an exhibition hall database 233, a group of image files 234 such as photographs of the vehicle, and other databases 235.
The vehicle database 231 stores information for generating an electronic quotation, information for generating an electronic brochure, information for opening a virtual exhibition hall or a virtual store, and the like. The shop database 232 stores information for generating an electronic brochure, information for opening a virtual exhibition hall or a virtual store, and the like. The exhibition hall database 233 stores information and the like for opening a virtual exhibition hall and a virtual store. Further, an image group 234 such as a photograph of a vehicle stores an electronic brochure and an image used in a virtual shop or the like.

For the electronic vehicle information providing server 2, specifically, an information processing device such as a personal computer or a workstation may be used. The database server 23 is stored in a storage device such as a magnetic disk device or an optical disk device of these information processing devices. In addition, each of the above-described processing units, that is, the WWW server / CGI ASP 21 and the display information generation unit 22 are actually stored and executed in a memory of an information processing device in the form of a program.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram in the vehicle data registration of the electronic vehicle information providing system according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the data registration of the electronic vehicle information providing system includes the hardware of the store client b1, the electronic vehicle information providing server b2, and the maintenance client b3. These are physically connected by a network. In the following description, the network connecting the store client b1 and the electronic vehicle information providing server b2 is the Internet, and the network connecting the maintenance client b3 and the electronic vehicle information providing server b2 is a LAN (local area network). It will be described as if it were.

The store client b1 is a terminal used when the store registers vehicle data in the electronic vehicle information providing system, and is realized by, for example, a personal computer. The store client b1 is an input / output device b11 serving as an interface with the store as a user, and is specifically realized by an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and an output device such as a CRT display. You. In addition, the store client b1
Has dedicated software b12 as an interface with the electronic vehicle information providing server b2. When the store client b1 is a personal computer, the dedicated software b12 is realized as a program stored in its memory.

The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server b21 functions as an interface with the store client b1, receives a vehicle data file from the store client b1, and stores it in the FTP vehicle data B223.

The maintenance client b3 receives the F sent by the data manager of the electronic vehicle information providing system from the store.
A terminal used to confirm the contents of the TP vehicle data B223 and register the vehicle data and image data such as a photograph of the vehicle, and is realized by, for example, a personal computer. . The maintenance client b3 is an input / output device b31 serving as an interface between the user and the store.
Specifically, it is realized by an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and an output device such as a CRT display. The maintenance client b3 has maintenance software b32 as an interface with the electronic vehicle information providing server b2. When the maintenance client b3 is a personal computer, the dedicated software b32 is realized as a program stored in its memory.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the vehicle data is created at the store where the vehicle is actually stocked, the work of the data manager of the electronic vehicle information providing system is reduced. Until now, individual vehicle quotations could not be issued immediately, but vehicle quotation data is also sent as part of vehicle data, so if a user requests an electronic quotation, the relevant vehicle It is possible to issue an estimate. By creating a virtual exhibition space on the homepage, we will attract users' interests and use the unique and simple GUI that incorporates store advertisements, etc. It can be linked to PR and sales increase.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of using a user of a vehicle comprehensive management system.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a vehicle data registration method of a vehicle total management system.

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] May 17, 2000 (2005.1.
7)

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Brief description of drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of using a user of a vehicle comprehensive management system.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a vehicle data registration method of the vehicle total management system.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An electronic vehicle information providing system comprising a user client, an electronic vehicle information providing server, a WWW server, a store client, an FTP server, and a maintenance client, which is introduced in the electronic vehicle information providing system. A method of defining electronic vehicle detailed data for providing detailed information on a vehicle to be performed to the user client, wherein a creator of the electronic vehicle detailed data converts the vehicle detailed data with respect to a vehicle searched by the user client. An electronic vehicle detailed data definition method, comprising a step of generating. 2. The electronic vehicle information providing server includes: a vehicle database that stores the vehicle detailed data information; a shop database that stores information about a virtual shop realized on a network; Since there are a plurality of virtual stores, the store has an exhibition database that stores information about virtual exhibition halls that are divided into groups such as regions and implemented on a network in group units, and are transmitted from the user client. Receiving the received display request information, analyzing the request from the user client based on the display request information, and using the shop database based on the analysis result to receive the request from the user client. An electronic vehicle information providing system, comprising: a display information generating unit that generates display information according to the information. . 3. An electronic vehicle information providing system, wherein a photograph of a vehicle and vehicle data including estimation data created by dedicated software at said store client are sent to said FTP server via a network. 4. The vehicle information providing system according to claim 2, wherein a function of registering the vehicle in the vehicle database or the like has a function of performing vehicle data in the FTP server via the maintenance client. . 5. The electronic vehicle information providing system according to claim 1,
Receiving the display request information sent from the user client, analyzing the request from the user client based on the display request information, and using the vehicle database based on the analysis result; 3. The electronic vehicle information providing system according to claim 2, further comprising: a display information generating unit that generates display information of a quote or a pamphlet of the corresponding vehicle in response to a request from the client for creating a quote or a pamphlet. . 6. A vehicle ID information for identifying the vehicle from other vehicles, a vehicle name of the vehicle, a selling price of the vehicle, and vehicle specification information on specifications of the vehicle. Electronic vehicle detailed data definition method described. 7. The virtual exhibition hall realized on the network has a function of dynamically displaying, to the user client, the types of vehicles handled and the characteristics of the stores located in the virtual exhibition hall. The vehicle information providing system according to claim 2.