JP2003150096A - Information providing system, information providing method, storage medium, and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To arrange / exchange / replace in a predetermined space such as a store
Advertisement information about each product that moves repeatedly, such as withdrawal, is dynamically integrated to provide a distribution and distribution service. SOLUTION: By collecting and updating management of product information relating to products in a store or a specific range of products in a store at one place, advertisement information is automatically responded to product movement such as placement, replacement and withdrawal. Update. The user can acquire advertisement information including a plurality of product information at a time. For example, by applying a wide range of communication methods, a user can browse advertisement information from a remote place. Moreover, the advertisement information of the products displayed in the store can be automatically obtained without being conscious of a specific product.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing system and an information providing method for providing information content to a user terminal, a storage medium, and a computer program, and in particular, distributing and distributing advertisement information regarding a plurality of products. The present invention relates to an information providing system and an information providing method for servicing, a storage medium, and a computer program.

More specifically, the present invention provides an information providing system, an information providing method, a storage medium, and an information providing system for integrating and distributing and distributing advertisement information about products arranged in a predetermined space such as a display shelf of a store. And computer
The information service system and information service that dynamically distributes and distributes advertisement information related to each product, which is related to the program, and in particular, the products that are repeatedly moved, such as arranged, exchanged, and withdrawn within a predetermined space such as a store display shelf. A method, a storage medium, and a computer program.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Currently, a non-contact type radio frequency identification device (radio tag) is used in a system for managing entry and exit, an item identification system in physical distribution, a fee clearing system in a cafeteria, a CD or software. It is used in many systems, such as the unauthorized removal prevention system at retail stores.

A wireless tag is a device that includes unique identification information and a readable / writable storage area, and emits radio waves corresponding to the identification information and stored information in response to reception of radio waves of a specific frequency. The tag reading device has an operating characteristic of
It is possible to read from the contactless area. On the reader side, based on the information read from the wireless tag,
It is possible to specify what the article to which the wireless tag is attached is. Therefore, in the system using the identification information of the RFID tag and the information written in the storage area, the written unique ID and other information are used to identify the item, identify the owner, and track the item. It can be carried out.

For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-123773 discloses a radio frequency identification device which is manufactured in a small size by packaging an IC chip having transmission / reception and memory functions, a drive source for the chip, and an antenna. Has been done. According to this radio frequency identification device, various data relating to articles and the like are transmitted to the receiving means of the IC chip via the antenna, the output thereof is stored in the memory, and the data in the memory is read as necessary. , Can be supplied to the outside wirelessly via the antenna. Therefore, it is possible to quickly and easily confirm or track the existence or position of an article or the like.

Recently, the RFID tag has been increasingly used not only for identifying and managing a person, an article, etc., but also for holding and distributing information such as specifications and advertisements regarding a product to which the RFID tag is attached. There is.

[0007] With this wireless tag technology, by attaching a tag recording product information to a product, the user acquires the product information via a wireless communication to a reading device such as a personal digital assistant (PDA). And can be viewed on the terminal screen on the spot or thereafter. Further, by storing identification information such as URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the site where product information is disclosed in the wireless tag,
The user can directly obtain the identification information from the product by wireless communication, download the product information from the server on the network, and browse it. For product providers, more detailed product information that cannot be stored in the wireless tag is managed on the server on the network in correspondence with the identification information in the wireless tag, making it more convenient for information disclosure. It becomes possible to

[0008]

In data communication using the RFID tag technology, the range in which data can be transmitted and received is within a very short distance, so that the user must consciously perform the reading operation of the RFID tag. When a wireless tag is used to hold and distribute product information as described above, it is difficult to automatically obtain product information. Further, it is assumed that product information is often acquired for each individual product. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to obtain product information in the store or in a specific range within the store at a time, and the user must perform a conscious reading operation for each product displayed on the display shelf. No, the work is quite tedious.

On the other hand, for example, in the case of considering creation / editing of advertisement information about a plurality of products displayed in a store or a certain range in the store, whether it is a physical medium or an electronic medium, an advertisement is generated. The person must understand the specifications and product information of each displayed product, and manually enter the information as advertising information. Further, when updating the advertisement information, the advertisement creator is forced to perform a troublesome re-input process according to the replacement of the product. The burden is particularly heavy when product movements such as placement, replacement, and withdrawal are repeated at a rapid pace.

The present invention has been made in view of such technical problems, and an object thereof is to provide an excellent information providing system and information providing method capable of suitably distributing and distributing advertisement information related to products. It is to provide a storage medium and a computer program.

[0011] A further object of the present invention is to provide an excellent information providing system and information capable of integrating and distributing and distributing advertisement information regarding products arranged in a predetermined space such as a display shelf of a store. To provide a providing method, a storage medium, and a computer program.

[0012] A further object of the present invention is to dynamically integrate and distribute and distribute the advertising information relating to each product, which is repeatedly moved such as arranged, exchanged, and withdrawn in a predetermined space such as a display rack of a store. It is to provide an excellent information providing system and information providing method, a storage medium, and a computer program capable of performing the above.

[0013]

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and a first aspect thereof provides information on one or more articles arranged in a predetermined space. An information providing system or an information providing method, comprising: an article identification information collecting section or an article identification information collecting step for collecting article identification information of each article arranged in the predetermined space; and collecting by the article identification information collecting section. An advertisement information creating unit or an advertisement information creating step for creating article information about each article based on the created article identification information and integrating the article information to create advertisement information about the predetermined space; An information providing system or an information providing method, which comprises an advertisement information providing unit or an advertisement information providing step of providing the advertisement information created by the unit to the user. A.

However, the term "system" as used herein refers to a logical assembly of a plurality of devices (or functional modules that realize a specific function), and each device and functional module have a single housing. It does not matter whether it is in the body or not.

The information providing system or the information providing method according to the first aspect of the present invention collects the article identification information of each article arranged in a predetermined space, and collects the article identification information based on the article identification information. The product information is acquired, and the product information is further integrated to create advertisement information and provide it to the user. For example, by collecting and updating management of product information about products displayed in a predetermined work space such as in a store or an exhibition stand of a store, advertisement is made in response to movement of products such as arrangement, exchange, and withdrawal. Information can be updated automatically.

Therefore, the user side can obtain the advertisement information consisting of a plurality of product information at one time. For example, by applying a wide range of communication methods, users can
There is no need to go to a store, and you can browse advertising information from a remote location. Further, it is possible to automatically obtain the advertisement information about a plurality of products displayed in the store without being aware of a specific product (that is, without being aware of the reading operation from the product).

Here, so-called wireless tag technology can be applied to obtain the article identification information from the article. That is, for each article arranged in the predetermined space,
A radio tag that rectifies radio waves received from the outside, converts them into a DC power supply, drives them, demodulates them, recognizes a request signal, modulates transmission data consisting of article identification information stored in advance, and sends it as radio waves Affix. Further, the article identification information collection unit modulates a request signal for requesting the article identification information to the wireless tag attached to each article and sends the modulated signal as a radio wave having a predetermined transmission frequency, and is reflected from the wireless tag. It is only necessary to receive the received radio wave and demodulate the product identification information.

The item information about each item used as the material of the advertisement information may be stored in a local database in advance, but an external server device installed on the network is accessed to obtain the item information based on the item identification information. The article information may be searched for. For example, the server device
The article information content described in HTML format can be viewed on the Web.
By publishing the information in the information search space, it is possible to search the article information based on the URL information included in the article identification information.

In the case where the advertisement information creating section or the advertisement information creating step creates the advertisement information by integrating all the article information about each article displayed in the predetermined space, the advertisement information provider side independently advertises. Since the design and layout of information can be decided, it becomes easier to control the advertising effect. On the other hand, since the advertisement information handled by the advertisement information creating unit or the advertisement information creating step becomes a large amount of information including image information, the processing load of the editing process and communication process may increase.

On the other hand, the advertisement information creating section or the advertisement information creating step may create the HTML-formatted advertisement information having a relatively simple structure, which is composed of the article title information and the URL information. In such a case, in the advertisement information providing unit or the advertisement information providing step, the HTML format advertisement information having a simple structure is published in the Web information search space, and the Web client responds to the designation of the article title information. Then, an HTML file for acquiring the item information content based on the URL information corresponding to the item title information may be provided.

According to this information providing system, the volume of information for editing and communicating advertisement information can be small. Further, when the user acquires detailed information, since the external server device is used, the processing load on the information providing system side is small. On the other hand, the information first acquired by the client terminal on the user side is simply a list display of product titles. Therefore, in order for the client terminal to obtain detailed product information, the user selects a desired product from the list. Since the work is repeated, the user operation may be troublesome.

The user can acquire and browse the advertisement information provided by the information providing system or the information providing method according to the first aspect of the present invention by operating his / her terminal device. It is assumed that the user will properly use various types of terminal devices depending on the situation.

For example, a user who visits a store has a portable terminal device such as a PDA. In such a case, in the advertisement information providing section or the advertisement information providing step, Blue is used.
Advertisement information can be distributed to a user's terminal device using a short-range wireless communication function such as tooth or IEEE 802.11b.

A user in an indoor network environment operates a terminal device such as a personal computer connected to a public network such as the Internet. In such a case, the advertisement information providing unit or the advertisement information providing step can publish the advertisement information page in the Web information search space or deliver an email including the advertisement information.

A user in a mobile environment operates a terminal device such as a mobile phone connected to a mobile communication network. In such a case, the advertisement information providing unit or the advertisement information providing step can publish the advertisement information page or deliver the email including the advertisement information via the mobile communication network.

Further, the form of providing the advertisement information in the advertisement information providing section or the advertisement information providing step is not necessarily limited to the one via the communication medium. For example, the advertisement information may be printed out by using a local printer or the like, and the advertisement information may be distributed via such a physical print medium. Alternatively, the advertisement information may be electronically copied to a storage medium such as a CD or a floppy (registered trademark) disk, and the advertisement information may be distributed via such a portable storage medium.

The second aspect of the present invention is a computer software written so as to execute a process for providing information about one or more articles arranged in a predetermined space on a computer system. A storage medium physically stored in a computer-readable format, wherein the computer software collects article identification information of each article arranged in the predetermined space, and the article identification information. An advertisement information creating step of creating article information about each article based on the article identification information collected in the collecting step, integrating the article information, and creating advertisement information about the predetermined space; and the advertisement information creating step. And an advertisement information providing step of providing the advertisement information created by the user to the user. It is a medium.

The storage medium according to the second aspect of the present invention is a medium for providing computer software in a computer-readable format to a general-purpose computer system capable of executing various program codes, for example. Such a medium is, for example, a DVD (Digital Vers
atile Disc), CD (Compact Disc), FD (FloppyDi)
sk), MO (Magneto-Optical disc), and other removable and portable storage media. Alternatively, it is technically possible to provide computer software to a specific computer system via a transmission medium such as a network (whether the network is wireless or wired).

The storage medium according to the second aspect of the present invention is a structural or functional cooperation between the computer software and the storage medium for realizing the functions of predetermined computer software on a computer system. It defines the physical relationship. In other words, by installing the predetermined computer software in the computer system via the storage medium according to the second aspect of the present invention, the cooperative action is exerted on the computer system, and the second aspect of the present invention is achieved. It is possible to obtain the same effect as that of the information providing system or the information providing method according to the first aspect.

Further, a third aspect of the present invention is a computer program written so as to execute a process for providing information on one or more articles arranged in a predetermined space on a computer system. There is an article identification information collecting step of collecting article identification information of each article arranged in the predetermined space, and article information about each article based on the article identification information collected by the article identification information collecting step. And an advertisement information creating step of creating advertisement information about the predetermined space by integrating each item information, and an advertising information providing step of providing the user with the advertising information created by the advertising information creating step, It is a computer program characterized by comprising.

A computer according to the third aspect of the present invention.
The program defines a computer program written in a computer-readable format so as to realize a predetermined process on a computer system. In other words, by installing the computer program according to the third aspect of the present invention in the computer system, cooperative action is exerted on the computer system, and the information provision according to the first aspect of the present invention is provided. It is possible to obtain the same effect as that of the system or the information providing method.

Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention are as follows.
It will be apparent from the embodiments of the present invention described later and the more detailed description based on the accompanying drawings.

[0033]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an advertisement information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, an exhibition stand for displaying a plurality of product packages 1 is arranged in a store or an area in the store. In the example shown in the figure, a compact disc (CD) is assumed as the product package 1, but the gist of the present invention is not particularly limited to a CD.

A wireless tag 2 is attached to each product package 1. The wireless tag 2 has product information and a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for identifying the product information.
Identification information 20 such as is stored.

For example, the manufacturer or the like may attach the wireless tag 2 to the product package 1 before shipping the product (or when the distributor distributes the product). In this case, the manufacturer (or distributor) can control the information of the wireless tag 2, that is, the advertising information about the product.

The advertising device 3 has a wireless tag reading function, and each product package 1 displayed on the display stand.
The product information and product identification information 20 can be read from the wireless tag 2 attached to the. Since data communication using the wireless tag is omnidirectional, no special work is required to read the product identification information 20.

The advertising device 3 is interconnected with a public network 4, such as a public line network, a mobile communication network, or the Internet. On the public network 4, a server device 5 that manages and publishes individual product information and product advertisement information in a database 51 is provided. Therefore, the advertising device 3 accesses the server device 5 based on the product identification information 20 read from the RFID tag 2 attached to the product package 1, and thereby the product package 1 displayed on the display stand is displayed. Product information and advertisement information (hereinafter, simply referred to as “product information”) 50 can be collected from the database 51. Of course, the server device 5 does not use the public network 4 but the DVD.
The product information 50 may be provided to the advertising device 3 of each store via an electronic storage medium such as a CD or a CD. Alternatively, the advertising device 3 may store necessary product information in a local database or the like in advance, instead of acquiring the product information from the outside such as a database server.

Further, the advertising device 3 integrates the product information 50 about each product package 1 on the display table collected from the server device 5 and the like to dynamically generate the advertising information 30. Such advertisement information 30 is composed of a plurality of product information in the store, an area in the store, or an exhibition stand. The advertising device 3 is, for example, an HTML (Hyper
By generating the advertisement information 30 in the Text Markup Language) format, the advertisement information 30 can be widely published by using the WWW (World Wide Web) information space constructed on the TCP / IP network.

The advertising device 3 collects the product information 50 based on the product identification information 20 read from the RFID tag 2 attached to the product package 1 on the display stand. Therefore, the advertising device 3 responds to the movement of the product package 1 such as placement, replacement, and withdrawal on the display stand,
The product identification information 20 can be collected to dynamically collect the product information 50, or the product information 50 included in the advertisement information 30 can be automatically replaced.

The advertising device 3 may be equipped with a short-range wireless communication function having a communication range (for example, 10 m to 100 m) within a store or an area where the store is located. As this kind of short-range wireless communication system, for example, Bluetooth or I
EEE 802.11b may be mentioned. In such a case, the advertising device 3 can provide the advertising information 30 in the store or in a certain area thereof by wireless communication. In other words, the user uses a PDA (Personal Digital A
By visiting a store with a portable terminal device 6A such as a ssistant), the advertisement information 30 regarding the product package 1 on the display stand can be received and viewed.

The advertising device 3 is connected to the public network 4
Since they are interconnected with each other (described above), the automatically generated advertisement information 30 can be published and distributed on the public network 4. For example, a user operates a terminal device 6B such as a personal computer (PC) in an indoor network environment such as a workplace or a home, and
b The page of the advertisement information 30 can be browsed on the browser, and the mail including the advertisement information 30 can be received. Alternatively, the user in a mobile environment can operate the terminal device 6C such as a mobile phone to browse the page of the advertisement information 30 and receive the mail including the advertisement information 30.

The form in which the advertising device 3 provides the advertising information 30 is not necessarily limited to the one via the communication medium as described above. For example, the advertising device 3 prints out the automatically generated advertising information 30 using an image forming device (not shown) such as a local printer, and outputs the advertising information 30 via such a physical print medium. It may be distributed. Alternatively, the advertising device 3 electronically copies the automatically generated advertising information 30 to a storage medium such as a CD or a floppy disk, and distributes the advertising information 30 via such a portable storage medium. You may

The advertising device 3 is constructed by equipping a general computer system such as a workstation (WS) or a personal computer (PC) with a wireless tag reading device, a network connection interface, a local printer, etc. To be done.

In the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the automatic collection of the product information 50 by the advertising device 3 is based on the acquisition of the product identification information 20 using the wireless tag 2. Here, the mechanism of the wireless tag technology will be described with reference to FIG. In the illustrated example, the electromagnetic transfer method is used for wireless transmission / reception.

In the figure, the wireless tag 111 is a tag
It is composed of a chip 112 and an antenna 113. In this embodiment, a wireless tag 111 holding unique product identification information is attached to each product package 1.

As the antenna 113, a half-wavelength dipole antenna or the like is used. Also, tag chip 11
The reference numeral 2 includes a modulator 120, a rectifier / demodulator 122, and a memory 123.

On the other hand, the wireless tag reader 110 is attached to the advertising device 3. The radio wave fo transmitted from the wireless tag reader 110 is received by the antenna 113,
It is input to the rectification / demodulation unit 122. Here, the radio wave fo is rectified and converted into a DC power source, and at the same time, the power source starts a demodulation function, and it is recognized that it is a read signal to the wireless tag 111. The generated power is also supplied to the memory unit 123 and the modulation unit 120.

The memory section 123 reads out the product identification information 50 stored therein beforehand and sends it to the modulation section 120 as transmission data. The modulator 120 includes a diode
It is composed of a switch 121, and the diode switch 121 repeats ON / OFF operation according to transmission data. That is, when the data is 1, it is turned on and the antenna 1
13 is terminated with antenna impedance (eg, 50 ohms).

At this time, the radio wave from the RFID tag reader 110 is absorbed by the RFID tag 111 side. When the data is 0, it is turned off and the diode switch 121 is opened, and at the same time, the terminal of the antenna 113 is also opened. At this time, the radio wave from the tag reader 110 is reflected and returns to the transmission source.

Such a communication method is called a "back scatter method". In this way, the wireless tag 111 can send internal information to the wireless tag reader 110 without power supply.

One RFID tag reader 110 is composed of a tag reading module 114 and an antenna 115 connected to the tag reading module 114, and is used by being connected to a host terminal such as the advertising device 3.

The advertising device 3 first notifies the communication control unit 130 of a reading instruction of the wireless tag 111 via the host interface unit 131.

When the baseband processing unit 129 receives the tag read command from the communication control unit 130, it edits the transmission data, filters the data, and then
A baseband signal is sent to an SK (Amplitude Shift Keying) modulator 127. The ASK modulator 127 performs ASK modulation at the frequency fo of the frequency synthesizer 126.

The communication control unit 130 sets the frequency of the frequency synthesizer 126. In general, the transmission frequency to the wireless tag 111 is used by hopping in order to reduce the standing wave and multipath of the signal from the wireless tag 111. This hopping instruction also applies to the communication control unit 13.
Performed by 0. The transmission signal subjected to ASK modulation passes through the circulator 124 and the antenna 115.
It is emitted toward the wireless tag 111.

As described above, the reflected signal returned from the wireless tag 111 by the back-scatter method has the same frequency as the signal transmitted from the wireless tag reader 110. This signal is received by the antenna 115 of the wireless tag reader 110 and input to the mixer 125.

Since the same local frequency fo as that at the time of transmission is input to the mixer 125, a signal modulated on the wireless tag 111 side appears at the output of the mixer 125.

The demodulation section 128 demodulates this signal into 1/0 data and sends it to the baseband processing section 129. The baseband processing unit 129 decodes the data and extracts the data stored in the memory unit 123 in the wireless tag 111, that is, the product identification information 50. This data is transferred from the host interface unit 131 to the advertising device 3 according to an instruction from the communication control unit 130.

As described above, the wireless tag reader 11
0 can read the product identification information 50 in the wireless tag 111. Since data communication using the wireless tag is omnidirectional, no special work is required to read the product identification information 20.

Next, the operation for automatically generating advertisement information in the advertisement information providing system shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 3 illustrates this operating principle.

The RFID tag 2 attached to the product package 1 has an information storage function 21 for storing arbitrary information and an information communication function 22 for reading the stored information. In the wireless tag based on the RF-ID technology, generally, information storage of hundreds and ten bytes and communication distance of about 1 m are realized. It is also characterized by not requiring a power source on the wireless tag side and being omnidirectional. The product identification information 20 is stored in the information storage function 21. The product identification information 20 is, for example, a product name, ID information for identifying the product, a URL, or the like.

On the other hand, the advertising device 3 is composed of a product identification information collecting section 31, an advertising information creating section 32, and an advertising information providing section 33.

The product identification information collecting unit 31 has a wireless tag reader function, and collects the product identification information 20 from the wireless tags 2 attached to all the product packages in the range of wireless communication. To do. Since data communication using the wireless tag is omnidirectional, no special work is required to read the product identification information 20.

Further, the advertisement information creating section 32 determines the server device 5 on the public network 4 based on the product identification information 20.
To collect detailed product information 50 from the database 51 and integrate the plurality of product information 50 to dynamically create the advertisement information 30.

Further, the advertisement information providing unit 33 provides the user with the advertisement information 30. More specifically, for the terminal device 6A of the user who visited the store, Bluetooth is used.
The advertisement information 30 is transmitted using short-range wireless communication such as th or IEEE802.11b. Further, the page of the advertisement information 30 is published or the advertisement information mail is delivered to the terminal device 6B of the user in the indoor network environment via the Internet or the like. Further, to the terminal device 6C of the user in the mobile environment, the page of the advertisement information 30 is published or the advertisement information mail is delivered via a mobile communication network or the like.

Also, the advertisement information providing unit 33 may provide the advertisement information in a form that does not use a communication medium. For example,
An image forming apparatus (not shown) such as a printer is provided,
The advertisement information 30 may be printed out and distributed, or the advertisement information may be copied and distributed to a portable storage medium such as a floppy disk.

Any of the terminal devices 6 communicates the advertisement information 30 with the advertisement device 3 and the advertisement information browsing unit 62 for browsing the advertisement information 30 obtained through the communication. It has and. For example, the advertisement information 30 is H
In the case of being described in the TML format, the advertisement information browsing unit 62 displays HTTP (Hyper Text Tra) in the WWW information space.
It can be configured using a general Web browser function that acquires HTML content by the nsfer protocol) and generates a page screen.

Each terminal device 6 performs short-distance or long-distance communication with the advertising device 3 according to the communication method applied to the advertising information communication unit 61, and the advertising information 3 is transmitted under various environments.
You can browse zero. The user may properly use the terminal device 6 to be used according to his / her location. For example, when visiting a store, Bl such as portable PDA
Using the terminal device 6A to which the short-distance wireless communication system such as Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11b is applied, the advertisement information 30 can be acquired in the environment within the store or in the range of several meters to 100 m near the store. In an indoor network environment such as a workplace or home, the advertisement information 30 can be browsed using a terminal device 6B such as a personal computer or a TV receiver connected to a public network 4 such as a public line network or the Internet. It will be possible. In addition, the advertisement information 30 can be browsed in a mobile environment by using the terminal device 6C such as a mobile phone that can be connected to the mobile communication network.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a processing sequence for the advertisement device 3 to dynamically generate the advertisement information 30 and provide it to the user's terminal device 6 in the advertisement information providing system according to this embodiment. Is shown.

In the processing method shown in the figure, the RFID tag 2 attached to each product package 1 displayed on the display stand is used to specify the product information 50 in the server device 5 as the product identification information 20. The product ID 201 is held.

Further, in the server device 5, as the product information 50, the product information 50 including the product ID 501, the image information 502, the text information 503 and the like is stored and managed in the database 51.

The advertising device 3 collects the product ID 201 from the wireless tag 2 attached to each product package 1 by the product identification information collecting section 31. The product identification information collecting unit 31 displays the list of product IDs 201 in the advertisement information creating unit 3
Notify 2.

The advertisement information creation unit 32 connects to the server device 5 via the public network 4 and acquires the product information 50 corresponding to each product ID 201. Then, the advertisement information creation unit 32 creates the advertisement information 30 composed of one web page based on the acquired image information and text information regarding all the products.

The advertisement information 30 created by the advertisement information creating unit 32 is actively transmitted to the terminal device 6 via the advertisement information providing unit 33. Alternatively, the advertisement information providing unit 33
The web page format advertisement information 30 may be transmitted in response to a request (for example, an HTTP request) from the terminal device 6.

According to the method of providing advertisement information as shown in FIG. 4, the advertisement device 3 collects and edits the product information 50 about each product package on the display stand, and the detailed advertisement using the image information and the like. Since the information 30 is created, the layout of the advertising information can be determined independently. On the other hand, since the advertising information handled by the advertising device 3 is a large amount of information including image information, the processing load of the editing process and the communication process of the advertising device 3 may increase in this method.

Further, FIG. 5 shows a processing sequence for the advertisement device 3 to dynamically generate the advertisement information 30 and provide it to the user's terminal device 6 in the advertisement information providing system according to the present embodiment. Shows another example of.

In the processing method shown in the figure, the RFID tag 2 attached to each product package 1 displayed on the display stand has the product title 202 as the product identification information 20,
The URL 203 applied to WWW is held.

In the server device 5, the HTML file 504 corresponding to the URL 203 is used as the product information 50.
And the image information 502 to be linked is accumulated.

The advertisement information creation unit 32 acquires the set of the product title 202 and the URL information 203 from the wireless tag 2 attached to each product package 1 via the product identification information collection unit 31. Then, the acquired information is edited in a list format to create an HTML file giving the advertisement information 30.

The created HTML file is transmitted to the terminal device 6 by the advertisement information providing unit 33. Communication with the terminal device 6 is performed by a predetermined method (described above), and the advertising information 3 is sent from the advertising device 3 in response to a request from the terminal device 6.
For acquiring the PU and PU from the advertising device 3 to the terminal device 6
There is a method of forcibly transmitting the advertisement information 3 by SH transmission.

Terminal device 6 which has acquired the HTML file
Displays a list of product titles 202 on the Web browser. The user selects the title (anchor) on such a browser screen to display the HTT.
HT that gives detailed product information 50 using the P protocol
The ML file 504 and the image information 502 are acquired from the server device 5 and displayed on the web browser screen.

According to the advertising information providing system as shown in FIG. 5, the capacity of the information edited and communicated by the advertising device 3 can be small. Further, when acquiring detailed information from the terminal device 6, a server other than the advertising device 3 is used, and thus the processing load of the advertising device 3 is small. On the other hand, since the information first acquired by the terminal device 6 is a list of product titles, in order for the terminal device 6 to obtain detailed product information,
The search operation is repeated, such as selecting a desired product from the list, and the user operation may be troublesome.

According to the advertisement information providing system according to the present embodiment, as described above, the advertising device 3 moves the product package 1 such as arrangement, exchange, and withdrawal on the display stand. In response, the product information 50 can be dynamically collected to update the advertising information 30. Hereinafter, a processing procedure for updating the advertising information 30 created by the advertising device 3 will be described. There are two update methods: a manual update method and an automatic update method. It also supplements the method of managing product information when updating.

(1) Manual update The update trigger is manually given to the advertising device 3. Advertising device 3
Collects the product identification information 20 from the wireless tag 2 according to the given timing, and edits and creates the advertisement information 30.

(2) The automatic update advertising device 3 has a timer function 34 inside as shown in FIG. The timer function 34 gives an update trigger to the product identification information collecting unit 31 at regular timing. Then, the advertising device 3 collects the product identification information 20 from the wireless tag 2 at that timing, and regularly edits and creates the advertising information 30.

(3) Update Management Method In the advertising information processing method described with reference to FIG.
When the advertising device 3 creates the advertising information 30, it is necessary to handle a large amount of information. Therefore, it is not efficient to acquire all the product information 50 from the server device 5 and create it as the advertisement information 30 every time the product identification information 20 is collected.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, by providing the product identification information management section 35 in the advertising device 3, the creation of the advertising information 30 is made efficient.

The product identification information management section 35 acquires the product identification information 20 from the advertisement information creation section 31 and stores it.
Then, when it is acquired next time, the old and new product identification information is compared to determine the newly added product identification information and the deleted product identification information. As a result, for newly added items, the corresponding product information 50 is acquired from the server device 5 and added and edited to the advertisement information 302. For deleted items, the corresponding product information 50 is added to the advertisement information 30.
Delete from and edit.

As described above, when the layout of the display stand is updated, the advertising device 3 does not need to acquire the detailed product information 50 from the predetermined server device 5 for all products, and the advertising information 30 can be efficiently obtained. Can be created.

[Supplement] The present invention has been described in detail with reference to the specific embodiments. However, it is obvious that those skilled in the art can modify or substitute the embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the wireless tag is used as a means for distributing the product information and its identification information by wireless communication. However, the gist of the present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and a non-directional non-directional It is also possible to substitute another medium that can be read from the reading device side by contact communication (for example, an IC card).

In short, the present invention has been disclosed in the form of exemplification, and the contents described in this specification should not be construed in a limited manner. To determine the gist of the present invention,
The claims section mentioned at the beginning should be taken into consideration.

[0094]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide an excellent information providing system and information providing method, a storage medium, and a computer program capable of suitably distributing and distributing advertisement information related to products.

Further, according to the present invention, an excellent information providing system capable of integrating and distributing and distributing the advertisement information regarding a plurality of products arranged in a predetermined space such as a display rack of a store, and the like. An information providing method, a storage medium, and a computer program can be provided.

Further, according to the present invention, the advertisement information regarding each product, which is repeatedly moved such as arranged, exchanged, and withdrawn within a predetermined space such as a display rack of a store, is dynamically integrated to provide a distribution / distribution service. It is possible to provide an excellent information providing system and information providing method, a storage medium, and a computer program.

According to the information providing system and the information providing method of the present invention, the advertisement information is generated based on the wireless tag directly attached to the product. Therefore, by collecting and updating management of product information about products in a store or a certain range of products in a store at one place, placement / exchange /
Advertising information can be automatically updated in response to product movement such as withdrawal.

Further, the user side can obtain the advertisement information consisting of a plurality of product information at one time. For example, by applying a wide range of communication methods, the user does not have to go to the store and can browse the advertisement information from a remote place. Further, it is possible to automatically obtain the advertisement information about a plurality of products displayed in the store without being aware of a specific product (that is, without being aware of the reading operation from the product).

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a mechanism in which a wireless tag reader performs an operation of accessing a wireless tag.

3 is a diagram showing an operation principle for automatically generating advertisement information in the advertisement information providing system shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a processing sequence in which the advertising device 3 dynamically generates advertising information 30 and provides it to the user's terminal device 6 in the advertising information providing system according to the present embodiment. Is.

FIG. 5 is another example of the processing sequence for the advertisement device 3 to dynamically generate the advertisement information 30 and to provide it to the user's terminal device 6 in the advertisement information providing system according to the present embodiment. It is the figure shown.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an advertising device 3 having a timer function 34 inside.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an advertising device 3 including a product identification information management unit 35.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Product package 2 ... Wireless tag 20 ... Product identification information 21 ... Information storage function 22 ... Information communication function 3 ... Advertising device 30 ... Advertising information 31 ... Product identification information collection unit 32 ... Advertisement information creation section 33 ... Advertising information providing section 34 ... Timer function unit 35 ... Product identification information management section 35 ... Product identification information management section 4 ... Public network 5 ... Server device 50 ... Product information 51 ... Database 6 ... Terminal device 61 ... Advertising Information Communication Department 62 ... Advertising information browsing unit

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. An information providing system for providing information on one or more articles arranged in a predetermined space, wherein article identification information collection for collecting article identification information of each article arranged in the predetermined space. Section, and an advertisement information creating section that obtains article information about each article based on the article identification information collected by the article identification information collecting section, and integrates each article information to create advertisement information about the predetermined space. And an advertisement information providing unit that provides the user with the advertisement information created by the advertisement information creating unit. 2. Each of the articles arranged in the predetermined space has been memorized in advance by rectifying radio waves received from the outside, converting the radio waves into a DC power source for driving, demodulating and recognizing a request signal. A wireless tag that modulates transmission data composed of item identification information and sends out as radio waves is attached, and the item identification information collection unit requests the item identification information to the wireless tag attached to each item. 2. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the information is modulated as a radio wave having a predetermined transmission frequency, and the radio wave reflected from the wireless tag is received and demodulated to extract the article identification information. 3. A network connection unit for connecting to a network in which a server apparatus for providing article information is installed, wherein the advertisement information creating section accesses the server apparatus via the network to identify an article. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the article information is searched based on the information. 4. The server device is a Web server that provides article information content described in HTML format, and the article identification information collection unit is a URL (Uniform) for identifying article information in a Web information search space. Resource Loc
ator) information and article title information, and the advertisement information creation unit collects article title information and URL for each article collected by the article identification information collection unit.
HTML-formatted advertisement information composed of information is created, and the advertisement-information providing unit sends the HTML-formatted advertisement information to
b. Provide an HTML file that is published on the information search space and that acquires the article information content based on the URL information corresponding to the article title information in response to the designation of the article title information from the Web client. The information providing system according to claim 3, wherein: 5. The advertisement information providing unit provides advertisement information via a public network.
Information provision system described in. 6. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information providing unit provides advertisement information via short-range wireless communication. 7. The information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information providing unit prints out advertisement information and provides it as a print medium. 8. An information providing method for providing information about one or more articles arranged in a predetermined space, wherein article identification information collection for collecting article identification information of each article arranged in the predetermined space. Step, and an advertisement information creating step of obtaining article information about each article based on the article identification information collected at the article identification information collecting step and integrating each article information to create advertisement information about the predetermined space And an advertisement information providing step of providing the user with the advertisement information created by the advertisement information creating step. 9. Each article arranged in the predetermined space has been memorized in advance by rectifying radio waves received from the outside, converting the radio waves into a DC power source for driving, demodulating and recognizing a request signal. A wireless tag that modulates transmission data composed of item identification information and sends out as radio waves is attached, and the item identification information collection unit requests the item identification information to the wireless tag attached to each item. 9. The information providing method according to claim 8, further comprising: modulating the radio wave to be transmitted as a radio wave having a predetermined transmission frequency, and receiving the radio wave reflected from the wireless tag to demodulate the article identification information. 10. A network connection step for connecting to a network in which a server device for providing article information is installed, wherein in the advertisement information creating step, the server apparatus is accessed via the network to identify an article. 9. The information providing method according to claim 8, wherein the article information is searched based on the information. 11. The server device is a Web server that provides article information content described in HTML format, and in the article identification information collecting step, a URL (Uniform) for identifying article information in a Web information search space. Reso
urce Locator) information and article title information, and in the advertisement information creating step, the article identification information and URL information for each article collected by the article identification information collecting unit are collected. HTML format advertisement information is created, and in the advertisement information providing step, the HTML format advertisement information is published on the Web information search space and
The HTML file for acquiring the article information content based on the URL information corresponding to the article title information is provided in response to the designation of the article title information from the client, and the HTML file is provided. Information provision method. 12. The information providing method according to claim 8, wherein the advertisement information providing step provides advertisement information via a public network. 13. The information providing method according to claim 8, wherein in the advertisement information providing step, advertisement information is provided via short-range wireless communication. 14. The information providing method according to claim 8, wherein in the advertisement information providing step, the advertisement information is printed out and provided as a print medium. 15. Computer software physically stored in a computer-readable format written to perform a process on a computer system to provide information about one or more items located within a predetermined space. A storage medium, wherein the computer software includes an item identification information collecting step of collecting item identification information of each item arranged in the predetermined space, and item identification information collected by the item identification information collecting step. An advertisement information creating step of obtaining article information about each article based on the above, and integrating each article information to create advertisement information about the predetermined space, and a user using the advertisement information created by the advertisement information creating step. And a step of providing advertisement information to provide the storage medium. 16. A computer program written to execute a process for providing information about one or more articles arranged in a predetermined space on a computer system, the computer program being arranged in the predetermined space. The product identification information collecting step of collecting the product identification information of each product, and the product information of each product is acquired based on the product identification information collected by the product identification information collecting step, and the product information is integrated. And an advertisement information creating step of creating advertisement information about the predetermined space, and an advertisement information providing step of providing the user with the advertisement information created by the advertisement information creating step. ·program.