JP2000259527A - System for specifying home page via simple input of symbol string - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To unify an information household electric appliance with a paper medium via a simple input operation to attain various information services by securing the one-to-one correspondence between a URL and a symbol string and deciding the URL from the read symbol string to provide the information. SOLUTION: If a user wants to access the site of an advertisement or an article after looking at them, the user connects his/her circuit to the site that is managed by a management subject. This circuit can use a telephone circuit, a CATV, an ISDN, an optical fiber and a communication satellite or a combination of these elements and a broadcast. Then the user inputs a symbol string printed on the advertisement or article by means of a remote controller. A bar code, for example, is inputted via a scanner and transmitted to a server that is managed or used by the management subject. The management subject decides the corresponding URL from the received symbol string according to a list of prescribed one-to-one correspondence relations and regards the URL as a designated link destination to transmit the home page of the URL to the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information service system for providing information by specifying an information code or an address such as a URL attached to an information file from information input by a remote controller, a scanner, or the like. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Website URLs for newspapers and magazines
Is often described, but typing the URL with the keyboard is complicated, and in the era when the Internet is used in information appliances other than personal computers, in the future, the thin layer that is not familiar with personal computers has become clear Homepage UR
There is a concern that L is difficult to use.

[0003]

[Background of the proposal] It is expected that the Internet will spread to general households through various information appliances. However, unlike in the United States and Europe, there are many people who are unfamiliar with keyboard operation. In Japan, it is desirable to use a keyboard that does not require keyboard operation in order to penetrate into ordinary households. As the method, speech recognition and other various methods are considered to be studied. In particular, TV and the Internet seem to be inevitably united, but bringing complicated operations such as a keyboard to a TV based on simple operation with a remote control will naturally limit its spread. There are concerns.

On the other hand, paper media, such as newspapers and magazines, are expected to coexist in the future because some of the markets are deprived of the Internet by the Internet, but they can be carried anywhere and viewed in any posture. It is. In recent years, as the URL of the Internet homepage is often described in articles, advertisements, and the like, it is expected that the relevance to the Internet will be further deepened. However, even if the URL is displayed on a paper medium, if the layer using the URL is limited to a layer that is familiar with keyboard operation, the positioning of the paper medium as an Internet portal is weak.

[0005] Therefore, if the URL displayed on a paper medium can be easily input to a home information home appliance to access a desired homepage, the spread of information home appliances to general households is promoted, and elderly people, housewives, etc. are encouraged. It is thought that it will be possible to promote the use of the information network of the layer that is generally regarded as delaying the response to computerization, and to increase the importance as a portal in the information network of the paper medium.

[0006] It is expected that simple access to the information network from information home appliances, which are considered to be widespread in all households, will dramatically expand the Internet market that is limited to households with personal computers. Therefore, if we can easily link information obtained from paper media that has deeply penetrated our daily lives to a digital network, we can build a large market in a more familiar form.

As a method of realizing this at low cost, input using a remote controller, use of a bar code reading scanner currently used for recording reservation of a VTR, and the like are assumed. Naturally, voice input can be considered, and the URL itself can be read using a scanner. However, at this stage, devices and the like are not inexpensive. If it is realized at low cost, it is more practical to use a scanner that reads a symbol of about 10 digits using a bar code, or to perform input using a remote controller.

[0008] Therefore, if the URL and the symbol string are made to correspond one-to-one, and the URL is determined from the read symbol string and the information is provided, the user only needs to perform a simple input, and a simple information home appliance which is easy to spread and which is easily used. Various information services can be realized by integrating these paper media. Here, the symbol string means a combination of a plurality of buttons on the remote controller, or a relatively simple permutation of numbers, symbols, characters, and the like, such as a number string represented by a barcode. Information that can be identified by such a simple symbol string is that the amount of information on an information network spread nationwide or worldwide is enormous, and it is necessary to identify each. This is because the amount of information to be performed is relatively limited.

[0009] This is not limited to the HTML language, and any language may be used, whether MHEG5 if the URL is read as a code or address of an information file, or XML, for which standards will be fixed in the future.

Although the one-to-one correspondence between URLs and symbol strings is not unified widely, it may be determined by a specific information service company. The current Internet
Providers are paid, and Internet users are scattered among many Internet providers.In the current situation, even if one provider defines its own one-to-one correspondence, its use range will be limited, but in the future it will be used for TV broadcasting. If a linked free provider service is realized, it is expected that users will be able to easily access the information they want as long as they tune to the channel on which the free service is provided.

The one-to-one correspondence between the URL and the symbol string may be determined independently by an information search engine such as Yahoo or other general sites.

The work of calculating the URL based on the one-to-one correspondence may be performed by a CGI program of the server on the provider side, but a device for performing the work may be separately provided at an appropriate place, or at home. This can also be achieved by incorporating the device into the information appliance itself. In the latter case, if the program of the information home appliance at each home is rewritable, even if the one-to-one relationship is changed in the future, it is possible to cope by rewriting the data.

Even if a certain business entity arbitrarily determines such a one-to-one correspondence, it will not work unless it penetrates the world, and it is necessary to discuss in advance what many business entities do not know whether it will penetrate. The question arises, for example. However, in the actual usage of the Internet, the number of accesses is currently increasing due to viewing on paper media, television, and radio. In addition, the situation where URLs are described in such existing media is increasing with the spread of the Internet.

In the near future, when the Internet is used in televisions, game consoles, mobile phones, and the like, there will be a need to access the homepage with simple input means and input methods such as remote controllers. It is anticipated that the penetration rate of Internet-connected home appliances using this simple input method will easily exceed the penetration rate of personal computers and will be used more generally. An input device of a television or a mobile phone is composed of a small number of buttons centering on numbers from 0 to 9. In order to increase access to the Internet using this simple input device, it is necessary to provide a method of replacing the current URL with a symbol string such as several numbers for inputting. On the other hand, it can be assumed that the access destination of such information home appliances is limited by the channel and the telephone company used, and in that case, the user can use the simple and easy-to-understand method that the broadcasting station or the telephone company has determined. Information to be sought can be specified only by inputting a symbol string.

[0015] At the same time, Internet advertisements are also increasing rapidly at present, but are expected to increase further in the future. In this case, the advertiser needs to increase the number of accesses by a simple input method. At that time, if there is a method that can specify information with an extremely inexpensive device, it is expected that even if the utilization rate is low at first, it will surely spread.

[0016] The leading portal sites have already attracted a large number of sponsors even today. If such a portal site wants to gain access to a site that was obtained on paper media or the like via Internet home appliances without a keyboard in the future, it is inevitable to set a one-to-one correspondence symbol string as in the present invention. Therefore, it becomes necessary to collect such users' access. Conversely, there is a risk that a portal site that does not obtain such access may lose to a portal site that obtains a large number of accesses from widely used information home appliances.

The above-mentioned one-to-one correspondence can be determined arbitrarily, and there is a possibility that many one-to-one correspondences may be inconsistent. There is no problem if the access method to the URL is also described. For example, the name is used for a television broadcast linked to a free Internet connection service, and the name is used for a widely used portal site such as an information search engine.

[0018] From the above structure, a one-to-one correspondence with a homepage address has been established in the background of the spread of information home appliances without a keyboard, the growth of the Internet advertising market, and the continuation of existing media such as paper media as main media. A system for determining and accessing a specific homepage from the input of a set symbol string is expected to be widely used.

As an alternative to obtain the same effect as the present invention, instead of a one-to-one correspondence list, all information to be serviced is put on a server in advance, and its name or address is stored in an information file indicated by a URL. Although there is a concept of adding a simple symbol string by overlapping as above, it can be regarded as substantially the same as the present invention. In addition, there is a method of preparing another similar information file and giving a simple symbol string to the name of the file, but it only involves extra cost.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An example in the case of using an HTML language will be described below. In the case of other languages, the URL is read as the code of the information file, and the same consideration is made. Also, instead of a barcode, a code that enables reading by a simple device may be used. In this case, the following barcode is replaced with the code and the same consideration is made.

First, the managing entity of the one-to-one correspondence defines a one-to-one correspondence between an arbitrary symbol string and each URL. Specifically, it merely defines a list of a pair of URLs and a symbol string. At this time, the UR in which the one-to-one correspondence is determined
L may be an arbitrary number, and may be increased or decreased at any time in the future. Generally, this management entity is assumed to be a provider operation entity or a portal site operation entity, and the assignment of a symbol string to a URL is requested therefor by a sponsor who publishes an advertisement on a paper medium, a television, a radio, or information that becomes an article It is assumed that companies, organizations, and individuals that provide websites operate their own websites.

When a person who has been assigned a symbol string to a URL performs an advertisement on a paper medium such as a newspaper or a magazine, a television commercial, a radio commercial, or the like, the URL is displayed in the advertisement and the assigned symbol is displayed. A bar code or the like representing a column or symbol string is also displayed at the same time. At this time, the display of the URL itself may be omitted, the barcode and the symbol string may be displayed at the same time, or only one of them may be displayed.

A user who wants to access the site after seeing an advertisement, an article, or the like, first connects a line to a site operated by the management entity. In this case, the line may be a telephone line, CATV, ISDN, optical fiber, communication satellite, or a combination of these and broadcasting.

Next, the user inputs a symbol string appearing in the article or advertisement using a remote controller or the like. Alternatively, in the case of a bar code, etc., the data is input using a scanner.
Next, the symbol string is transmitted to the server operated or used by the management entity. The transmission method in this case follows a method arbitrarily determined by the management entity. As an example, the data may be transmitted using an HTML form, or an extended tag meaning the above-described symbol string may be defined and transmitted between the tags. The transmitted data is a symbol string according to the present invention. Any method can be used as long as it can be determined.

From the received symbol string, the management entity
A corresponding URL is determined based on a predetermined list of one-to-one correspondences, the URL is regarded as a designated link destination, and a home page of the URL is transmitted to the user.

In addition to the above method, the data of the above-mentioned one-to-one correspondence list is previously incorporated in the information home appliance on the user side, and a corresponding URL is determined from the data of the information home appliance to access the site. But the same objectives can be achieved. In this case, the user first activates the conversion program based on the one-to-one correspondence at the same time as the line connection,
Next, a symbol string is input by a remote controller, a scanner, or the like, and the symbol string is converted into an information code such as a URL or an address, and is sent to the server.

In this case, the initial object can be achieved by constructing a system so that the one-to-one correspondence list incorporated in the information home appliance can be updated at any time. In this case, the method of updating the one-to-one correspondence data may be that new data is transmitted by broadcasting or communication, a data rewriting program is started and overwritten, or a CD-ROM or other medium is distributed and used. The user may activate the data rewriting program and overwrite the data. When updating by broadcasting or communication, the entire program may be rewritten,
A tag indicating that the list is a one-to-one correspondence list or other flags may be added to identify the list, and only the one-to-one correspondence list may be overwritten.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows the flow of information processing when a one-to-one correspondence list is placed on the server side.

Claims (5)

[Claims] An apparatus for identifying a URL indicated by a symbol string from a symbol string input by a user based on a list in which the URL and the symbol string correspond one-to-one. 2. From a symbol string inputted by a user, a URL indicated by the symbol string is specified based on a list in which the URL and the symbol string correspond one-to-one, and an information file of the URL is transmitted to the user. system. 3. An apparatus for updating a one-to-one correspondence list at any time when the apparatus according to claim 1 is provided in an information home appliance at home. 4. An information code indicated by a symbol string is specified from a symbol string input by a user based on a list in which the information code and the symbol string correspond one-to-one, and an information file of the information code is provided to the user. The sending system. 5. An apparatus for identifying an information code indicated by a symbol string from a symbol string input by a user based on a list in which the information code and the symbol string correspond one-to-one.