1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program, a server apparatus, and an information processing system capable of transmitting information of a current position of a user via the Internet or the like and receiving information of a store or the like based on the positional information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In related art, a system has been known which transmits to a Web server or the like positional information of a mobile terminal having a GPS (global positioning system) function as information of a current position of a user, and returns information of a store or the like based on the positional information to the mobile terminal. The system enables a user who uses a mobile terminal to know information of a store located near a current position, for example (see, for example paragraphs 0051, 0052, and the like of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-265864).
In recent years, as a standard of a next-generation HTML (hyper text markup language), an attention is focused on an HTML5. In the HTML5, by a GeoLocation function, an arbitrary Web page can obtain the positional information of a mobile terminal or the like in a frame of the standard. Thus, a service in conjunction with the information of the current position of a user, such as a “nearby store search” provided by the Web page or the like, may become popular. A user is capable of receiving a convenient service by transmitting the information of the current position via the Internet or the like.
On the other hand, such a possibility that a malicious Web site or the like obtains the information of the current position of a user may be increased. It is necessary to take countermeasures to protect the privacy of a user. For example, a system is conceivable in which a network manager checks the security of each Web site, and the information of the current position of a user is transmitted to only a Web site that has been recognized as a safe Web site. Alternatively, a system is also conceivable in which a dialog for urging a user to judge whether to transmit the information of the current position of the user to a Web site or the like is displayed, that is, whether the information is provided or not is judged at a user's own risk.
However, in the case where the aforementioned HTML5 is used as the standard, point-by-point checking of the security of each Web site on the Internet is difficult. Further, even in the case where the dialog is displayed, there is a possibility that a user may make an erroneous judgment to transmit the information of the current position. Furthermore, there is a possibility that a user may automatically operate to permit information provision without judging whether to provide the information of the current position, because of troublesomeness of an operation for responding to the dialog.
In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, it is desirable to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program, a server apparatus, and an information processing system capable of suppressing the possibility that the information of the current position of a user is transmitted to a malicious site or the like on a network.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus including a first obtaining unit, a setting unit, and a judgment unit.
The first obtaining unit is capable of obtaining current position information.
The setting unit sets a first judgment condition to judge whether the current position information obtained by the first obtaining unit is transmitted to a site on a network that requests the current position information.
The judgment unit judges whether the current position information is transmitted to the site on the basis of the first judgment condition set by the setting unit.
In the information processing apparatus, the first judgment condition for transmitting the current position information to the site on the network is set, and on the basis of the judgment condition, it is judged whether the current position information is transmitted to the site or not. Thus, by setting the judgment condition as appropriate, it is possible to suppress such a possibility that the information about the current position of a user is transmitted to a malicious site or the like on the network.
The information processing apparatus may further include a second obtaining unit capable of obtaining address information of the site, current time information, and date information.
In this case, the setting unit may set the first judgment condition on the basis of the current position information obtained by the first obtaining unit and the address information, the current time information, and the date information obtained by the second obtaining unit.
In the information processing apparatus, it is possible to set the first judgment condition as appropriate on the basis of the current position information, the address information of the site, the current time information, and the date information.
The information processing apparatus may further include a generation unit for generating temporary position information on the basis of the current position information obtained by the first obtaining unit, the temporary position information being position information different from the current position information.
In this case, the setting unit may set the first judgment condition and a second judgment condition to judge whether the temporary position information generated by the generation unit is transmitted to the site instead of the current position information.
The judgment unit may judge whether the current position information is transmitted to the site and judge whether the temporary position information is transmitted to the site instead of the current position information on the basis of the first judgment condition and the second judgment condition.
In the information processing apparatus, the temporary position information is generated on the basis of the current position information. For example, in the case where the information of the current position of the user meets a predetermined condition, instead of the current position information, the temporary position information is transmitted to the site. Thus, it is possible to suppress such a possibility that the information about the current position of the user is transmitted to the malicious site or the like.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method performed by an information processing apparatus, including the followings.
That is, the information processing apparatus obtains current position information.
A judgment condition is set to judge whether the obtained current position information is transmitted to a site on a network that requests the current position information.
Whether the current position information is transmitted to the site is judged on the basis of the set judgment condition.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a program that causes an information processing apparatus to execute the aforementioned method. The program may be recorded in a recording medium.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a server apparatus including a reception unit, a setting unit, and a transmission unit.
The reception unit receives current position information of an information processing apparatus. The current position information is transmitted via a network by the information processing apparatus.
The setting unit sets a judgment condition to judge whether the current position information received by the reception unit is transmitted to a site on the network that requests the current position information.
The transmission unit judges whether the current position information is transmitted to the site on the basis of the judgment condition set by the setting unit, and transmits a judgment result to the information processing apparatus.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system including an information processing apparatus and a server apparatus.
The information processing apparatus includes an obtaining unit capable of obtaining current position information, and a transmission unit for transmitting the current position information obtained by the obtaining unit to a network.
The server apparatus includes a reception unit, a setting unit, and a transmission unit.
The reception unit receives the current position information transmitted by the information processing apparatus.
The setting unit sets a judgment condition to judge whether the current position information received by the reception unit is transmitted to a site on the network that requests the current position information.
The transmission unit judges whether the current position information is transmitted to the site on the basis of the judgment condition set by the setting unit, and transmits a judgment result to the information processing apparatus.
In the information processing system, the server apparatus sets the judgment condition to judge whether the current position information is transmitted to the site, and on the basis of the judgment condition, judges whether the current position information is transmitted or not. Therefore, for example, by using an apparatus having a large storage capacity as the server apparatus, it is possible to set the judgment condition in more detail. Thus, it is possible to suppress such a possibility that the information about the current position of the user is transmitted to the malicious site or the like.
As described above, according to the embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to suppress such a possibility that the information about the current position of the user is transmitted to the malicious site or the like on the network.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of best mode embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The Web server 3 uses a WWW (world wide web) system to release a Web site 4 constituted of a plurality of Web pages on the network 1. The Web site 4 requests current position information of the mobile terminal 2 used by a user as the information of the current position of the user via the network 1. The Web site 4 is capable of transmitting information of a store or the like near the current position of the user to the mobile terminal 2, as a service based on the current position information transmitted from the mobile terminal 2. As address information of the Web site 4 on the network 1, a URL (uniform resource locator) is typically used.
The Web page 5 in this embodiment is formed in accordance with the “HTML5” standard described above and is capable of obtaining the current position information of the mobile terminal 2 with the GeoLocation function. In other words, in this embodiment, a request for the current position information by the Web site 4 is met by the Web page 5. However, the present invention is not limited to the case where the request for the current position information by the Web site 4 is met by the Web page 5.
(Structure of Information Processing Apparatus)
The communication module 10 uses, for example, the Ethernet (registered trademark) or another standard to enables the mobile terminal 2 to be connected with the network 1 in a wired or wireless manner. By the communication module 10, by using radio waves of a wireless LAN, such as Wi-Fi, the current position information of the mobile terminal 2 may be determined.
The GPS module 11 detects the current position information of the mobile terminal 2 on the basis of radio waves from a GPS satellite. In the case where the current position information of the mobile terminal 2 is determined by the communication module 10 as described above, the GPS module 11 may be eliminated.
The display unit 12 is a display device that uses liquid crystal, EL (electro-luminescence), or the like.
The storage 13 is a nonvolatile storage device such as an HDD (hard disk drive), a flash memory, or another solid-state memory. In the storage 13, a condition setting value to be described later is stored.
Further, the mobile terminal 2 has a storage device such as a ROM (read only memory) and a RAM (random access memory) (not shown). The CPU 9 reads an OS (operating system) 14 from the ROM or the like and executes the OS using a work area secured on the RAM. Thus, the whole blocks of the mobile terminal 2 are controlled by the CPU 9.
In addition, as shown in
(Operation of Information Processing Apparatus)
The Web browser 15 of the mobile terminal 2 obtains the current position information thereof using the communication module 10 or the GPS module 11. Further, the Web browser 15 obtains the URL as the address information of the Web page 5 that requests the current position information of the mobile terminal 2. The current position information of the mobile terminal 2 and the URL of the Web page 5 are input to a condition judgment algorism of the release condition judgment processing unit 21.
When a description will be given using the API 22, for example, on SuccessFunc, which is a first argument of getCurrentPosition, is a Java (registered trademark) Script function. In the case where the current position information is successful in being obtained by the mobile terminal 2, the function is called back along with the current position information. In the case where the Web browser 15 provides the judgment result that the release is permitted, the function is called back to the script 8 of the Web page 5. To the first argument of the on SuccessFunc function called back, an object generated by the Web browser 15 is given, and the current position information is stored as a property of the object. In the following, latitude and longitude as the current position information in the called-back function and an example of obtaining accuracy thereof are shown.
In Step 101 of
On the basis of the current time information, it is judged whether the current time is in a time period during which the current position information is released to the Web page 5 (Step 103). In the case where it is not judged that the current time is in the time period during which the current position information is released to the Web page 5 (No in Step 103), the Web browser 15 provides a judgment result that the release is refused, and an invalid value is returned to the script 8 of the Web page 5.
For example, in the API 22, in the case where the current position information fails to be obtained by the mobile terminal 2, on ErrorFunc function, which is a second argument of getCurrentPosition is called back along with information about a reason of the failure. To a first argument of the called-back on ErrorFunc function, an object generated by the Web browser 15 is given, and the information of the reason of the failure is stored as a property of the object. In the following, a code of the reason of the failure and an example of obtaining a character string in a callback function are shown.
As the code of the reason of the failure, the following can be given, for example.
For example, in the case where the judgment result shows the refusal in Step 103 of
In Step 103 of
On the basis of the date information, it is judged whether the date when the current position information is requested by the Web page 5 is a date of the release target (Step 105). In the case where it is not judged that the date concerned is the date when the current position information is released to the Web page 5 (No in Step 105), a judgment result of a release refusal is provided.
In Step 103 of
In the case where it is judged that the current position of the mobile terminal 2 is in the release target area (Yes in Step 106), subsequently, it is judged whether the current position of the mobile terminal 2 is in an error addition area (Step 107). In the case where it is not judged that the current position is in the error addition area (No in Step 107), a judgment that the release is permitted is made, and the current position information of the mobile terminal 2 is returned to the Web page 5. In the case where it is judged that the current position is in the error addition area (Yes in Step 107), temporary position information in which a random error is added to the current position is generated on the basis of the current position information (Step 108). Then, instead of the current position information, the temporary position information is returned to the Web page 5. In this case, the temporary position information is transmitted to the Web site 4.
Next, a description will be given on the setting of a judgment condition for each of the steps of
In Step 101 of
In Step 103, a condition setting value B about the time period during which the current position information is released is used. A time period during which a user often uses a service based on the current position information is given as an example. In the case of a user who often searches fora store to stop in on the way home from work, for example, the condition setting value B is input which permits the release of the current position information from 19 to 21 o'clock. As a result, such a possibility that the current position information is transmitted to a malicious Web site or the like during a time period exclusive of the hours from 19 to 21 o'clock, during which the user does not use the service, is eliminated.
In Step 105, a condition setting value C about a date when the current position information is released is used. A period during which a user does not carry the mobile terminal 2 and a day of the week when a user uses a service based on the current position information is given as examples. For example, during a period between August 13 to August 23 during which the user goes out for a trip without the mobile terminal 2, the condition setting value C for inhibiting the current position information from being released is input. Alternatively, the condition setting value C for releasing the current position information on holidays such as weekends not on weekdays is input. As a result, such a possibility that the current position information of the mobile terminal 2 is transmitted to a malicious Web site or the like when a third party operates the mobile terminal 2 during the trip of the user is eliminated.
In Step 106, a condition setting value D about the release target area to which the current position information is released is used. As the release target area, for example, an area where a lot of stores or the like for which a user wants to search are located, an area where the user is often present when using the service, and the like are given. Further, the vicinity of an important area relating to the privacy of the user, such as a user's home and office, may be set as an area in which the current position information is refused to be released. Specifically, inputted is such a condition setting value D that in the case where the user is within 300 meters of the Yamanote line, the release of the current position information is permitted, or in the case where the user is within 500 meters of the home, the release of the current position information is refused. As a result, it is possible to prevent the important positional information for the privacy of the user from being transmitted, so the privacy of the user is protected.
As described above, in Steps 101, 103, 105, and 106 shown in
At least one of the aforementioned condition setting values may be used to constitute the condition judgment algorism. Alternatively, any condition setting values may be combined to constitute the condition judgment algorism. For example, the condition setting value A based on the address information and the condition setting value C based on the date information may be combined to constitute the condition judgment algorism, or the condition setting value B based on the current time information and the condition setting value D based on the current position information may be combined to constitute the condition judgment algorism. In this way, it is also possible to decide which condition setting values are used to constitute the condition judgment algorism.
In Step 107 of
Here, a description will be given on an example of the temporary position information generated by the Web browser 15. In the description, the current position information is represented as follows.
A process for converting an error in meters to the latitude and longitude in degrees has to consider a difference between a sphere as a model of the latitude and longitude and the actual earth shape, and depends on the latitude and longitude. Therefore, for the process, helper functions for converting the error in meters to the latitude and longitude in degrees are respectively defined as follows.
Therefore, a Lat/Lon and Accuracy are obtained by the following expressions.
Alternatively, as the temporary position information, a user may set a specific position. For example, the position of the nearest station used by the user or the position of a characteristic building near the user's home may be set as the temporary position information. In the case where the Web browser 15 judges that the user is within 500 meters from the home, the Web browser 15 transmits to the Web page 5 the temporary position information that has been set by the user. For example, if a position in an area where a lot of stores or the like which the user requests are located is set as the temporary position information, the user is capable of effectively using the service based on the temporary position information. In this way, it is also possible to suppress such a possibility that the current position information is transmitted to the malicious Web site 4 or the like.
A description will be given on an information processing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the following, descriptions on the same structures as the various apparatuses, the communication system, or the like used for the network system 100 described in the first embodiment are omitted or simplified.
In the release condition judgment processing unit 221, it is judged whether the current position information of the mobile terminal 202 is released to the Web page 5. In addition, it is judged whether the temporary position information described in the first embodiment is transmitted instead of the current position information to the Web page 5.
In the release condition judgment processing unit 221, in the case where a judgment result that the release is permitted is obtained, as a permission response message, the current position information or temporary position information of the mobile terminal 202 is transmitted from the server apparatus 230 to the mobile terminal 202 via the protocol stack 216. On the other hand, in the case where a judgment result that the release is refused is obtained, a refusal response message is transmitted from the server apparatus 230 to the mobile terminal 202.
It should be noted that in this embodiment, current time information and date information are obtained by the server apparatus 230. However, the current time information and the date information may be obtained by the mobile terminal 202 and transmitted to the server apparatus 230.
The mobile terminal 202 that has received the permission response message transmits the current position information or the temporary position information of the mobile terminal 202 to the Web page 5. In the case where the refusal response message is received from the server apparatus 230, an invalid value is returned from the mobile terminal 202 to the Web page 5.
The setting of the judgment condition used for the judgment on the release permission or the release refusal is performed by the release condition setting page processing unit 220 of the condition judgment server 235. For example, the release condition setting page processing unit 220 provides a Web page for the setting of the judgment condition to the Web browser 215 of the mobile terminal 202. By using the Web page, a user inputs a condition setting value. Alternatively, the server apparatus 230 is provided with a display unit, and the condition setting value may be directly input to the server apparatus 230 through a menu or the like displayed on the display unit. The input condition setting values are stored in the storage 213 of the server apparatus 230.
As described above, in the information processing system 250 according to this embodiment, the server apparatus 230 judges whether the current position information (temporary position information) of the mobile terminal 2 is transmitted to the Web page 5 or the Web site 4 on the network 1. For example, an assumption is made that an area within 300 meters of the Yamanote line is set as the release target area (condition setting value D in
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and other various embodiments are provided.
For example, in the condition judgment algorism shown in
When the judgment result that the release is permitted is obtained, and the current position information is transmitted to the Web page or the like, a dialog for indicating whether the current position information may be transmitted may be displayed for the user. However, as described in the above embodiments, it is possible to suppress such a possibility that the information of the current position of the user is transmitted to the malicious Web site or the like without displaying the dialog. Therefore, the user does not have to perform a troublesome operation when using the service of the site on the network.
For example, there is a case where, outside the release target area, the user wants to transmit the current position information to a Web site, the security of which is sufficiently ensured. For this case, such a menu that the release of the current position information is constantly permitted may be temporarily prepared as a Web browser function of the mobile terminal, for example. In contrast, such a menu that the release of the current position information is constantly refused may be temporarily prepared by the Web browser.
In Step 107 of
In the second embodiment described with reference to
In the above description, the processing described as the functions and operations of the CPU, the Web browser, or the like of the mobile terminal and the server apparatus may be implemented by different hardware or both of software and hardware. In the case where the processing is implemented by the software and hardware, the hardware includes at least a storage device that stores a software program. For example, by selectively using at least one of a CPU, an MPU (micro processing unit), a RAM, a ROM, a DSP (digital signal processor), an FPGA (field programmable gate array), an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit), a display device, an NIC (network interface card), a WNIC (wireless NIC), a modem, an optical disk, a magnetic disk, and a flash memory, the information processing apparatus, the server apparatus, or the information processing system according to the embodiments of the present invention may be configured.
The present application contains subject matter related to that disclosed in Japanese Priority Patent Application JP 2010-061350 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Mar. 17, 2010, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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P2010-061350 | Mar 2010 | JP | national |