Abstract:
An information delivery system according to an embodiment of the invention is configured with a communication terminal and a server. The communication terminal includes a camera capable of taking an image of a barcode storing an identifier, an analyzer analyzing image data of the barcode taken by the camera to acquire the identifier, and a transmitter transmitting the identifier acquired by the analyzer. The server includes storage storing information in association with identifiers, a receiver receiving the identifier transmitted from the communication terminal, and a transmitter transmitting the information corresponding to the identifier retrieved from the storage to the communication terminal.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to an information delivery system and an information delivery method in which an information provider server provides a communication terminal with information such as advertisement according to an identification number provided through a barcode placed on the street or the like by an advertiser.  
         [0003]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0004]     A user accesses a contents database with a mobile information terminal by inputting an identification code corresponding to an advertising display placed in a telephone pole or building on the street or the like. The contents database supplies image data of a vicinity map including the actual location and a store location of the advertiser corresponding to the identification code transmitted from the mobile information terminal to the user of the mobile information terminal through the Internet. Such an information delivery system is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-328927 (Mizuno et al.).  
         [0005]     A barcode reader of the mobile information terminal analyzes a barcode attached to a post or building wall within a service area and storing an area number so as to detect the actual location from the area number. The detected present location and destination are displayed, embedded in the map data which is preset in the mobile information terminal or supplied from a server, on a display of the mobile information terminal. Such a navigation service is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-156360 (Ouchi et al).  
         [0006]     However, the technique taught by Mizuno et al. requires a user to input an identification code corresponding to an advertising display by hand in order to receive information, thus taking a lot of trouble.  
         [0007]     On the other hand, the technique taught by Ouchi et al. does not require a user to input an identification code by hand. However, this technique requires a user to bring a barcode reader into contact with a barcode in order to read barcode information, thus not being user-friendly.  
         [0008]     A mobile information terminal equipped with a GPS locator that detects the position by receiving a GPS signal from a satellite allows easily obtaining the present location of the mobile information terminal. However, it can only obtain positional information, and a user needs to check a building ID number, domain name, URL and so on in order to receive information such as advertisement supplied by an advertiser in the present location.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]     According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information delivery system comprising a communication terminal and a server. The communication terminal includes a camera capable of taking an image of a barcode, an analyzer analyzing image data of the barcode taken by the camera to acquire an identifier embedded in the barcode, a transmitter transmitting the identifier acquired by the analyzer, and a receiver receiving information from outside sources. The server includes a storage storing information in association with identifiers, a receiver receiving the identifier transmitted from the communication terminal, and a transmitter transmitting information associated with the transmitted identifier and retrieved from the storage to the communication terminal.  
         [0010]     According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information delivery system comprising a communication terminal and a server. The communication terminal includes a camera capable of taking an image of a barcode, a transmitter transmitting image data of the barcode taken by the camera, and a receiver receiving information from outside sources. The server includes a storage storing information in association with identifiers, a receiver receiving the image data of the barcode from the communication terminal, an analyzer analyzing the image data of the barcode to acquire an identifier embedded in the barcode, and a transmitter transmitting information associated with the acquired identifier and retrieved from the storage to the communication terminal.  
         [0011]     According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a information providing server comprising a storage storing information in association with identifiers, a receiver receiving image data of a barcode from a communication terminal, an analyzer analyzing the image data of the barcode to acquire an identifier embedded in the barcode, a transmitter transmitting information associated with the acquired identifier and retrieved from the storage to the communication terminal.  
         [0012]     According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal comprising a camera capable of taking an image of a barcode, an analyzer analyzing image data of the barcode taken by the camera to acquire an identifier embedded in the barcode, a transmitter transmitting the identifier acquired by the analyzer, and a receiver receiving information in association with the identifier from a server.  
         [0013]     Thus, the present invention analyzes picked up image data of a barcode to acquire an identifier embedded in the barcode indicating information to be transmitted from a server to a communication terminal, allowing a communication terminal to easily receive information from a server. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]      FIG. 1  is a view showing the configuration of an information delivery system according to a first embodiment of the invention;  
         [0015]      FIG. 2  is a sequence diagram to describe the operation of the information delivery system according to the first embodiment of the invention;  
         [0016]      FIG. 3  is a view showing the configuration of an information delivery system according to a second embodiment of the invention; and  
         [0017]      FIG. 4  is a sequence diagram to describe the operation of the information delivery system according to the second embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     First Embodiment  
       [0018]     A first embodiment of the present invention is described hereinafter with reference to the drawings.  FIG. 1  is a view showing the configuration of an information delivery system according to the first embodiment of the invention.  
         [0019]     Referring first to  FIG. 1 , an information delivery system  10  is composed of a communication terminal  20  such as a mobile telephone or a mobile information terminal with communication function, and a server  30 . The communication terminal  20  is connectable to a network  50  such as a telephone network. The server  30  is connected to Internet  60 . The communication terminal  20  and the server  30  can be wirelessly connected to each other via the network  50  and the Internet  60 . A barcode  41  is attached to a building  40  of an advertiser who is an information providing source. An ID is embedded in the barcode  41  as an identifier of the advertiser or the building  40 . The ID may be numbers, symbols, or a combination of these, or it may be a domain name, an address, or the like. The domain name is a code of numbers, symbols, letters, or a combination of these codes, which is assigned to identify each computer in the Internet  60 . The barcode  41  may be a one-dimensional barcode or preferably a two-dimensional barcode. The two-dimensional barcode contains information vertically and horizontally and thus contains more information with a smaller area than a conventional one-dimensional barcode. The two-dimensional barcode is made up of a plurality of superimposed one-dimensional barcodes composed of black and white parallel bars of several widths. Thus, if an advertiser desires to store large volume data as an ID in the barcode  41 , it is preferred to use the two-dimensional barcode. Japanese Industrial Standards JIS X0510 defines the standard for a QR code, which is a type of the two-dimensional barcode.  
         [0020]     The communication terminal  20  comprises a camera  21 , an analyzer  22 , a controller  23 , a transceiver  24 , an antenna  25 , and a display  26 . The camera  21  can at least take an image of a one-dimensional or two-dimensional barcode storing an ID. The analyzer  22  analyzes image data of the barcode  41  taken by the camera  21  with a barcode analyzer software program to acquire an ID. The controller  23  controls all electrical components of the communication terminal  20 . The transceiver  24  exchanges data with the server  30  via the antenna  25 . Specifically, the transceiver  24  transmits the ID acquired by the analyzer  22  analyzing the image data of the barcode  41  containing the ID taken with the camera  21 . Further, the transceiver  24  receives information such as advertisement corresponding to the ID transmitted from a transceiver  34  of the server  30 , which is described later. The display  26  displays the information such as advertisement corresponding to the ID transmitted from the server  30 , thereby supplying the information to a user.  
         [0021]     The server  30  comprises a storage  31 , an ID acquirer  32 , a controller  33 , and a transceiver  34 . The transceiver  34  is connected to the Internet  60 . Advertisers store information related to the advertisers in association with own IDs into the storage  31 . The information related to an advertiser is, for example, advertisement, homepage information, selling product and price information, location information, related stock prices, and so on. The stored information may contain information of shops in the building  40 , such as shop names, lines of business, shop phone numbers, shop locations in the building  40 , sale information of the shops or the like. When the transceiver  34  of the server  30  receives an ID transmitted from the communication terminal  20 , the ID acquirer  32  acquires the ID and stores it temporarily. The controller  33  retrieves the information such as advertisement stored in the storage  31  associated with the ID acquired by the ID acquirer  32 . The transceiver  34  transmits the information such as advertisement retrieved by the controller  33  to the communication terminal  20  via the Internet  60  and the network  50 .  
         [0022]     The operation of the information delivery system according to the first embodiment of the invention is described hereinafter with reference to the drawings.  
         [0023]      FIG. 2  is a sequence diagram to describe the operation of the information delivery system according to the first embodiment. Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a user  70  first takes an image of the barcode  41  attached to the building  40  of the advertiser with the camera  21  of the communication terminal  20  (STEP, hereafter as “ST”,  101 ). The image data of the barcode  41  taken by the camera  21  is output to the analyzer  22  through the controller  24  of the communication terminal  20 . The analyzer  22  resolves the image data of the barcode  41  with a barcode analyzer software program and acquires an ID embedded in the barcode  41  (ST 102 ). Then, the communication terminal  20  is connected to the network  50 . The transceiver  24  of the communication terminal  20  transmits the ID acquired by the analyzer  22  to the server  30  through the antenna  25  via the network  50  and the Internet  60  (ST 103 ). Then, the transceiver  34  of the server  30  receives the ID from the communication terminal  20 . The ID acquirer  32  acquires the ID through the controller  33  and stores it temporarily. The controller  33  may include the function of the ID acquirer  32 . After that, the controller  33  of the server  30  searches for the corresponding ID in the storage  31 . If the corresponding ID is found, the controller  33  of the server  30  retrieves information such as advertisement corresponding to the ID number from the storage  31  (ST 104 ). Then, the transceiver  34  of the server  30  transmits the information such as advertisement retrieved from the storage  31  by the controller  33  to the communication terminal  20  via the Internet  60  and the network  50  (ST 105 ). If the corresponding ID does not exist in the storage  31 , the transceiver  34  of the server  30  informs the communication terminal  30  that no corresponding information is found. If the information corresponding to the ID is found, the transceiver  24  of the communication terminal  20  receives the information from the server  30 . The controller  23  of the communication terminal  20  makes the information displayed on the display  26  (ST 106 ). The user  70  thereby receives the information such as advertisement displayed on a screen of the display  26  of the communication terminal  20  (ST 107 ).  
         [0024]     The user  70  pays communication charges depending on time. The advertiser pays advertising charges depending on the number of accesses to the server  30  to an administrator of the server  30 .  
         [0025]     In this way, the information delivery system of the first embodiment allows the communication terminal  20  to easily receive information from the server  30 .  
         [0026]     Further, since this embodiment takes the image of the barcode  41  with the camera  21  and acquires the ID stored in the barcode  41 , it is possible to easily acquire the ID stored in the barcode  41  by taking the image of the barcode  41  in the imageable range of the camera  21 .  
         [0027]     Furthermore, since this embodiment takes the image of the barcode  41  with the camera  21  and acquires the ID stored in the barcode  41 , it is possible to acquire the ID stored in the barcode  41  with the communication terminal  20  such as an existing general mobile phone with camera without adding a barcode reader.  
         [0028]     It is feasible to build an information delivery system by configuring the communication terminal  20  and the server  30  with an Internet connectable system and using a domain name used in Internet connection, as an identifier. This configuration allows connecting the communication terminal  20  and the server  30  with a general-purpose system without configuring a special system.  
         [0029]     The information stored in the storage  31  of the server  30  may contain the address of the building  40  or a map containing the building  40  and its neighborhood. This allows a user of the communication terminal to easily check the present location from the given information received from the server even if the communication terminal is not equipped with a GPS locater.  
         [0030]     The barcode  41  storing the ID may be a two-dimensional barcode. This allows information of an ID to contain large volume letters and symbols including Chinese characters.  
       Second Embodiment  
       [0031]     A second embodiment of the present invention is described hereinafter with reference to the drawings.  
         [0032]      FIG. 3  is a view showing the configuration of an information delivery system according to the second embodiment.  
         [0033]     As shown in  FIG. 3 , an information delivery system  10   a  is composed of a communication terminal  20   a  and a server  30   a.  An analyzer  36  is placed in the server  30   a,  which is different from the first embodiment. The operation of the information delivery system of this embodiment is described below.  
         [0034]      FIG. 4  is a sequence diagram to describe the operation of the information delivery system according to the second embodiment. Though the first embodiment performs the process of analyzing the image data of the barcode  41  and acquiring the ID stored in the barcode  41  in the analyzer  22  implemented in the communication terminal  20  as shown in  FIG. 2 , this embodiment performs that process in the analyzer  36  in the server  30   a  as shown in  FIG. 4 . Referring to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the user  70  takes an image of the barcode  41  (ST  101 ). Then, the transceiver  24  of the communication terminal  20   a  transmits the image data of the barcode  41  to the server  30   a  through the antenna  25  via the network  50  and the Internet  60  (ST 202 ). The transceiver  34  of the server  30   a  receives the image data of the barcode  41  transmitted from the communication terminal  20   a.  Then, the analyzer  36  resolves the image data of the barcode  41  with a barcode analyzer software program. The ID acquirer  32  acquires the ID embedded in the barcode  41  and stores it temporarily (ST 203 ). The controller  33  searches for the corresponding ID in the storage  31  according to the ID stored temporarily in the ID acquirer  32 , and retrieves information such as advertisement corresponding to the ID number from the storage  31  (ST 104 ). Then, the transceiver  34  of the server  30   a  transmits the information such as advertisement retrieved from the storage  31  to the communication terminal  20   a  via the Internet  60  and the network  50  (ST 105 ). The transceiver  24  of the communication terminal  20  receives the information such as advertisement from the server  30   a.  The controller  23  of the communication terminal  20   a  controls such that the information is displayed on the display  26  (ST 106 ). The user  70  thereby receives the given information such as advertisement displayed on a screen of the display  26  of the communication terminal  20   a  (ST 107 ).  
         [0035]     In this way, the information delivery system of the second embodiment also allows the communication terminal  20   a  to easily receive information from the server  30   a.  Since the analyzer  36  is installed in the server  30   a,  this embodiment is effective when it is impossible to implement an analyzer in the communication terminal  20   a  due to memory size or the like.  
         [0036]     It is apparent that the present invention is not limited to above embodiment, that may be modified and changed without departing from the scope and spirit of invention.