Patent Application
20050176425
The present invention relates to subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-014877, filed on Jan. 22, 2004, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a server system, a method for transmitting content, and a program that provide playable content such as voices, images and music, such as ringing melodies, to a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone, through a network, such as the Internet.
2. Discussion of Background and Other Information
In general, when a mobile phone receives mail or an incoming call, a desired melody that is registered in advance is played. These days, as the technologies related to mobile phones advances, it is common for moving images, as well as music, to be played when receiving an incoming call.
Sound content, such as ringing melodies, voices and/or music from a CD sound source or image content, such as still images and moving images, can be downloaded as content information from a server connected to the Internet through a mobile network.
A content provider provides such content information to be downloaded. To subscribe to the service, a user registers with a content provider having content information of a desired artist and accesses the content provider's web site to obtain desired information.
For either sound content or image content, a process of searching for the desired content in connection with related information, such as an artist name, is conducted on a web screen using HTTP of the mobile phone. When the searching process finds the desired content, the user performs an operation to download the content. Through such a process, the content is downloaded to the user's mobile phone.
The present invention has been achieved in view of drawbacks inherent in the prior arts. According to the prior art, a searching process is required such that users typically access a content provider's website to find the desired content on the site through button control. However, after finding a favorite artist, the same searching process is again required every time a user attempts to download a ringing melody of a song by the same artist. For this reason, it is not a user-friendly system.
Further, the server performs a series of downloading processes including the searching process rather inflexibly, such that when the user attempts to download a ringing melody of only the latest song by the same artist, a lengthy communication with the user's mobile phone is usually required. As a result, the phone use charges the user has to pay are increased due to the inefficient communication.
According to an object of the present invention, a server system that communicates with a mobile terminal through a network comprises a content storage device that stores content information by relating the content to an attribute of the content information; a profile storage device that stores user specific information by relating the user specific information profile information that contains the attribute of content information, arbitrarily set to each user; a reader that reads the profile information that corresponds to the user specific information with reference to the profile storage device based on an access from the mobile terminal; a content determiner that determines content information that corresponds to the attribute contained in the profile information read by the reader; and a transmitter that reads the determined content information to transmit the content information to the mobile terminal.
According to a feature of the present invention, the server system additionally includes a setting device that sets profile information stored in the profile storage device based on an access from the mobile terminal.
According to another object of the invention, a server system that communicates with a mobile terminal through a network, in which the mobile terminal is capable of activating content based on time, comprises a content storage device that stores content information by relating the content information to an attribute of the content information; a profile storage device that stores user specific information by relating the user specific information to profile information that contains the attribute of content information, arbitrarily set to each user; a reader that reads profile information corresponding to the user specific information with reference to the profile storage device based on an access from the mobile terminal; a content determiner that determines a plurality of content information that corresponds to the attribute contained in the profile information read by the reader; a set data generator that reads, from the content storage device, the plurality of content information determined by the content determiner and generates a set data that makes the plurality of read content information correspond to information that represents a time for the content information to be activated for the mobile terminal; and a transmitter that transmits the set data generated from the set data generator to the mobile terminal.
The server system may further include a setting device that sets the profile information stored in the profile storage device based on the access from the mobile terminal.
According to a further object of the present invention, a method is disclosed for transmitting content to a mobile terminal through a network. The method stores, into a first memory, user specific information by relating the user specific information to profile information that contains an attribute of content information, arbitrarily set to each user, and reads the profile information that corresponds to the user specific information with reference to the memory, based on an access from the mobile terminal; determines content information that corresponds to the attribute contained in the read profile information; and stores, into a second memory, content information corresponding to the attribute of the content information, and reads the determined content information for transmission to the mobile terminal.
In addition, the method may set profile information stored in the first memory based on the access from the mobile terminal.
In accordance with another object of the present invention, a method is disclosed for transmitting content to a mobile terminal through a network, in which the mobile terminal is capable of activating the content based on time. The method stores, into a first memory, user specific information by relating the user specific information to profile information that contains an attribute of content information, arbitrarily set to each user, and reads the profile information that corresponds to the user specific information with reference to the memory based on an access from the mobile terminal; determines a plurality of content information that corresponds to the attribute contained in the read profile information; stores, into a second memory, content information corresponding to the attribute of the content information, and reads from the second memory the determined plurality of content information; sets the plurality of content information read from the second memory to correspond to information that represents a time for each content information to be effectively activated for the mobile terminal; and transmits the set data to the mobile terminal. Furthermore, the method may additionally store profile information in the first memory based on the access from the mobile terminal.
The present invention also discloses a program that executes a process that transmits content to a mobile terminal through a network using a computer of a server. The program causes the process to store, into a first memory, user specific information by relating the user specific information to profile information that contains an attribute of content information, arbitrarily set to each user, and reading the profile information that corresponds to the user specific information with reference to the memory based on an access from the mobile terminal; determining the content information that corresponds to the attribute contained in the read profile information; and storing, into a second memory, content information corresponding to the attribute of the contents information, and reading the determined content information for transmission to the mobile terminal. The program may additionally set profile information stored in the first memory based on the access from the mobile terminal.
In accordance with an object of the present invention, a program executes a process that transmits content to a mobile terminal capable of activating the content based on time, through a network, using a computer of a server. The program stores, into a first memory, user specific information by relating the user specific information to profile information that contains an attribute of content information, arbitrarily set to each user, and reads the profile information that corresponds to the user specific information with reference to the memory based on an access from the mobile terminal; determines a plurality of content information that corresponds to the attribute contained in the read profile information; stores, into a second memory, content information by relating the content information to the attribute of the content information, and reads from the second memory the determined plurality of content information; sets the plurality of content information read from the second memory to correspond to information that represents a time for each content information to be effectively activated for the mobile terminal; and transmits the set data to the mobile terminal.
According to the present invention, content, such as, for example, a ringing melody favorable to the user, is supplied from the mobile terminal to the server system without manipulation of the user side, so that communication efficiency can be improved.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The entire arrangement of the embodiment will be explained.
The mobile network 13 is a communication system for the mobile terminal, such as the mobile phone 11, to connect to the internet 14, and comprises a packet network 1301 and a gate server 1302. The packet network 1301 is connected to a base station (not shown) which communicates with the mobile terminal 11 and outputs data to the gate server 1302. Packet data received from the gate server 1302 is sent to the base station.
The server system 10 comprises, for example, a web server 12 and a database 15 that stores content data, such as, but not limited to, for example, ringing melodies. The server system 10 provides permissible web pages to the mobile terminal that attempts to access the web pages through the mobile network 13 or the internet 14, or provides various types of other services. As an example, the server system 10 can provide content such as ringing melodies to a mobile phone member.
The mobile phone 11 is an example of a plurality of mobile phones, having a telephone function for voice communication and a browser function for internet communication. For the internet communication, Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a protocol for transmitting and receiving data with the web server 12, is used. The web server 12 is a representative example of a plurality of web servers, implementing a site that provides permission to read a web page according to a request from the mobile terminal, such as the mobile phone 11, and provides services to download playable digital content, such as music, voices and/or images to the mobile phone when receiving an incoming call. In downloading the content, the web server 12 refers to the database 15.
Next, the server system 10 will be described in more detail.
The communication control unit 1201 is connected to the internet 14, and is responsible for a bidirectional communication between the mobile phone 11 and other appliances, such as, for example, a personal computer through the internet 14. The control unit 1202 comprises a CPU, ROM, and RAM. The CPU controls the entire server, based on an operating system (OS) stored in the ROM. The input unit 1203 permits the input of a variety of information to the control unit 1202 for manually operating the server. The display unit 1204 displays a variety of states based on the manipulation of the server or operation of the server itself.
The storage unit 1205 stores an application program for the server (hereinafter, referred to as server application) 12050 that processes the server side to provide a web browser display, to the mobile phone 11, according to the embodiment of the present invention, and an application program for client (hereinafter, referred to as client application) 12051 that implements the web browser for a client, i.e., the mobile phone 11 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
The storage unit 1205 further includes a member record table (TB) 12052 that contains information on members, a profile record TB 12053 that associates content information with favorites of a member, an artist record TB 12054 that associates each artist with content, and a set record table 12055 that associates each artist to one set having a number of content.
The database interface 1206 connects the database 15 to the server. The database 15 stores content data 1501, such as ringing melodies or music from CD sound sources, images and/or voice and is responsible for reading or updating data.
As shown in
With the above arrangement, when a request to download is received from the mobile terminal, such as the mobile phone 11, through the internet 14, the control unit 1202 provides ringing melodies, music from CD sound source, voices, and images, such as moving images and still images, based on the member's favorite stored in the storage unit 1205.
According to the embodiment of the present invention, the contents of an artist may be provided to the mobile terminal as a set. To simplify the following explanation, ringing melodies are illustrated as an exemplary example of the contents. In this case, the content provided to the mobile terminal, such as the mobile phone 11, employs a format, for example, as shown in
In other words, ringing melodies transmitted to the mobile terminal are, for example, three pieces of music by the same artist, which is referred to as an “ringing melody set”. This ringing melody set comprises, for example, a header unit and a data unit, as shown in
In
Further, although described below in more detail, when a profile, that represents that some user of the mobile phone 11 likes an artist with the name of “ARS”, is registered into the web server 12 in advance, such as in setting profiles, the mobile phone 11 can automatically be activated to access the web server 12 for downloading the ringing melody set.
The web server 12 retrieves the user profile of the mobile phone 11 with reference to the profile record TB 12053 in the storage unit 1205, according to an access based on the automatic activation from the mobile phone 11. When the profile is detected, the ringing melody set corresponding to the artist “ARS” is acquired with reference to the above profile and is transmitted to the mobile phone 11.
When the ringing melody set is downloaded to the mobile phone 11, three pieces of ringing melodies constituting the ringing melody set can be set according to an activation time information of the header unit in the mobile phone 11. In this case, each setting of three pieces of ringing melodies is changed according to the activation time information.
For the music A of “ARS,” 6:00 is set according to the activation time information of the header unit. As a result, when it is 6 o'clock at the mobile phone, music A is set as a ringing melody. Further, for the music B of “ARS,” 12:00 is set according to the activation time information of the header unit. As a result, when it is 12 o'clock at the mobile phone, the set music is changed from music A to music B, and music B is set as a ringing melody. Further, for the music C of “ARS,” 18:00 is set according to the activation time information of the header unit. As a result, when it is 18 o'clock at the mobile phone, the set music is changed from music B to e music C, and the music C is set as a ringing melody.
As such, in the mobile phone 11, the ringing melody set can be automatically downloaded at the time set by the user, and the activation time of the downloaded ringing melody set can be automatically changed according to the activation time information of the header unit.
Each record table shown in
In the member record TB 12052 (see
In the profile record TB 12053 (see
For profile record table 12053, four records, such as “4004,” “4005,” “4006” and “4007” are given to the user whose member ID is “1001.” In
Further, in the “last downloading date” field of the profile record TB 12053, the last date when the user downloads the ringing melody set to the mobile phone 11 is registered. Therefore, for member ID “1001,” the last DL date when the ringing melody set for artist ID “122025: is downloaded is recorded as “200310021523, which represents Oct. 2, 2003, 15:23.
In the artist record table 12054 (see
In the set record table 12055 (see
Next, the mobile phone 11 now be described in more detail.
Control unit 1103 comprising a CPU, a ROM and a RAM and controls the overall mobile phone 11 according to a program 11060 stored in the storage unit 1106. The storage unit 1106 stores a client application 11061 that is downloaded from the web server 12. The client application 11061 includes an application that can perform processes such as web browsing, ringing melody set downloading and registration, and conversion of the ringing melody based on the activation time information. The web browsing is executed by JAVA (trademark) application, which is a web browser.
Further, control unit 1103 receives an input from the operation unit 1104 to perform various processing, and control the display conforming to each processing. In particular, according to the embodiment of the present invention, a program for automatically downloading the ringing melody set can be stored. However, this can be implemented either as a program to store in advance or one function in the client application 11061.
Control unit 1103 automatically downloads the ringing melody set based on the client application 11061. In other words, when the user, in advance, sets a time to download the ringing melody set, when the set time arrives in an internal timer of the mobile phone 11, the control unit 1103 accesses the web server 12 and downloads the ringing melody set. While the ringing melody is illustrated herein, other content, such as music and images stored in the database 15 are applied in the same manner.
Storage unit 1106 stores content data 11062, such as for example, the downloaded ringing melody set, and an update time interval 11063 that represents a condition to automatically download and update the ringing melody set, in addition to a program 11060 and a client application 11061.
Operation unit 1104 comprises keys for inputting a phone number, mail address, etc., through various key manipulations, keys for determining or selecting functions and power supply buttons. Display unit 1105 displays, for example, a browser or a screen when using the phone or mail function, or displays contents such as still images or moving images. The voice/sound control unit 1109 is connected to a speaker 1107 for outputting voice and music contents, such as ringing melodies, and to microphone 1108 for inputting a voice, and processes the voice in the incoming/outgoing call.
Next, an operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
First, the operation for registering a member will be described with reference to
In the web server 12, a member registration page is filled in through the access from the mobile phone 11, and is transmitted to the mobile phone 11 using HTTP (step SB10). In the mobile phone 11, the member registration page received from the web server 12 is displayed on the screen (step SA11). In the mobile phone 11, profiles are inputted in response to the manipulation by the user over the member registration page displayed on the screen (step SA12).
The profiles are inputted as shown in
Here, when ‘a’ (in Japanese alphabet, hiragana order) is selected, the artist names whose initial is ‘a’ are displayed. In
Referring back to
In other words, for example, “1001” for the “MEMBER ID” field, “20030912” for the admission date field, TARO@dwango.ne.jp for the mail address field, and “090********” in input section for the phone number field are registered in the member record TB 12052, as shown in
Likewise, for example, “4004” for “A NUMBER OF ID DETERMINED BY MEMBER ID” field and “122025” for an “INTERESTED ARTIST” field are registered in the profile record TB 12053, as shown in
Further, in the artist record TB 12054, for example, as shown in
In the set record table 12055, for example, “1220250,” “1220251,” “1220252” and “1220253” are registered in the “ID DETERMINED BY ARTIST ID” field, “200310021823” is registered for the ID determined by artist ID in the “LAST UPDATE DATE” field, and a stored address of the ringing melody set of each artist is registered in the “FILE ADDRESS” field, as shown in
When the member and profile registration processing is completed (step SB11), in the web server 12, an application download page is transmitted using HTTP (step SB12). The application download page received from the web server 12 is displayed on the screen of the mobile phone 11 (step SA13). The application download is required through the key manipulation by the user according to the application download page displayed on the screen of the mobile phone 11 (step SA14).
In the web server 12, the client application is transmitted according to the request from the mobile phone 11 (step SB13). Activated at the time designated in the mobile phone 11 by the client application to check the file update status, the ringing melody set file is downloaded and stored to activate at the set time, and the activation time is changed according to the ringing melody. In the mobile phone 11, the processing is performed such that the client application is downloaded from the web server 12 and stored into the memory to be executable (step SA15).
Next, the operation for downloading the ringing melody set will be described with reference to
Through the member authentication in the step SB21, when it is determined that the member ID is not registered (NO route in step SB23), member registration processing is performed (step SB22) as described in
Further, the profile record TB 12053 is referred to (step SB23), and based on whether the contents ID exists, it is determined whether there exists the ringing melody of the artist the user likes according to the member ID (step SB24). When the ringing melody exists, the ringing melody to transmit to the mobile phone 11 is determined (step SB25), and the ringing melody data of the corresponding contents ID is retrieved from the database 15 (step SB26). Further, when the corresponding contents do not exist in the step SB24, the processing is ended.
Here, it is determined whether there is a ringing melody set corresponding to the site designated by the address of the set file in the set record TB 12055 (step SB27), and if there is a set, the ringing melody set is generated as set data, as shown in
In the mobile phone 11, the ringing melody data only, or the ringing melody set, are transmitted from the web server 12, the download processing and the registration processing are performed (step SA21).
An automatic update of the ringing melody by the mobile phone 11 will now be described with reference to
When the user activates the client application 11061, the screen for setting the update time interval can be displayed, as shown in
Referring to
For example, when check box CB3 for “ONCE EVERY 12 HOUR” is selected, this update time interval is set. As such, when the update time interval is set, the process for downloading the ringing melody is set to every 12 hour and is automatically performed. The mobile phone 11 can automatically download the ringing melody set every update time interval set by the user. On the other hand, when the selection of the update time interval has not been made, the automatic update is not performed, so that the user should manually download the contents such as the ringing melodies.
Next, the operation for converting the ringing melody will be described with reference to
In
Further, it is determined whether the current time obtained from the system clock matches any one of the setting times of the activation time information stored in the header unit of the ringing melody set (step SA41). In this determination, when the current time does not match any of the setting times of the set time information included in the header unit of the ringing-melody set (“NO” in step SA41), the processing returns to the step SA40. On the other hand, when the current time matches any of the setting times, the ringing melody corresponding to the matching setting time of the activation time information is set to a ringing melody to be used from thereafter (step SA42).
Here, when the ringing melody has already been set, processing to convert the already-set ringing melody to the current ringing melody is conducted, and when the ringing melody has not yet been set, the ringing melody of music corresponding to the current time is newly set.
For example, when the ringing melody set is configured such that the download completion time for the artist music shown in
According to the web server system 10, in the embodiment of the present invention, a user of the mobile phone 11 registers artists whom the user likes into the web server 12 in advance, so that the application of the mobile phone 11 is automatically activated every updated time interval set by the user to access the web server 12 for downloading the ringing melody set. The web server 12 uses the database 15 to retrieve the profile of the user of the mobile phone 11 according to an access from the mobile phone 11, and when there is a profile of the user of the mobile phone 11, the ringing melody set of the artist the user like can be obtained from this profile.
After the mobile phone 11 downloads the ringing melody set, when it is 6:00, music A is set to the ringing melody, and when it is 12:00, music B is set to the ringing melody, and when it is 18:00, music C is set to the ringing melody among the ringing melody set, e.g., among three pieces of ringing melodies, according to the activation time information in the header unit of the ringing melody set. As such, the mobile phone 11 automatically downloads the ringing melody set every update time interval set by the user, and three pieces of ringing melodies of the downloaded ringing melody set are converted according to the set time information in the header unit of the ringing melody set.
Therefore, the contents such as the ringing melodies playable in the mobile phone 11 can be acquired at any timing irrespective of the intent of the user possessing the mobile phone 11, and with this, the content such as the ringing melodies can be widespread. In addition, once the web server is informed of the favorite artist name, the contents related to the artist will be automatically downloaded later, so that it is needless to manually perform a downloading operation while checking the update state.
As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a ringing melody favorable to the user interest and without any burden of manipulation can be provided to the mobile phone only by accessing the mobile phone to the web server. Therefore, communication efficiency between the mobile phone and the web server is improved.
Further, many pieces of ringing melodies of the same artist can be downloaded as a package, like the ringing melody set, so that it is not required to repeat the same processing, i.e., to access the web server every time and for every music, but is possible to perform an efficient download processing collectively. In addition, when the web server performs transmission in a package, if data is compressed before transmission, the download processing with even more efficient communication can be implemented. In this case, it is desirable that the application for decompressing the compressed data be installed in the mobile phone in advance.
In addition, the mobile phone can automatically access the web server to download the ringing melody based on the profile, so that a user can perform a download operation at any unsynchronized time the user likes. For this reason, the user has only to set download processing of the ringing melody and the downloading itself is not required, thereby simplifying operation and improving efficiency.
Further, while the embodiment of the present invention uses ringing melodies as playable melodies in receiving mail or a phone call in the mobile phone 11, the present invention is not limited hereto, and the contents may be music, such as a CD sound source, still images and animations or a combination thereof, with which the same effect can be obtained.
The present invention can be applied to the overall distribution system of the contents distributable to mobile terminals such as mobile phones.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it is understood by those skilled in the art that various alterations in form and/or detail may be made without departing from the spirit and/or scope of the invention, as defined by the following claims. Although the invention has been described with reference to the particular means, materials and embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the particulars disclosed herein, but extends to all equivalents within the scope of the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-014877 | Jan 2004 | JP | national |
