Abstract:
Disclosed is an information providing system and method that provides information desired by a user in real time through a mobile communication terminal. The mobile communication terminal sets in advance receiving times for the respective information, and requests the information by accessing a contents provider server at the respective receiving times. The system includes a contents provider server for receiving and storing information to be provided to a user through a wire network and at least one mobile communication terminal for storing the information requested by the user and associated receiving times, wherein the contents provider server searches in real time for requested information in response to an information request from a mobile communication terminal, and provides the found information to the mobile communication terminal through a mobile communication network. The mobile communication terminal requests the information having corresponding receiving times by accessing the contents provider server through the mobile communication network at the respective receiving times, and receives and outputs the information searched in real time by the contents provider server.

Description:
PRIORITY  
         [0001]    This application claims priority to an application entitled “Information Providing System and Method Using Wireless Internet” filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Aug. 16, 2002 and assigned Serial No. 2002-48459, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to an information providing system, and more particularly to an information providing system and method for providing information to a user using wireless Internet.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0005]    With the rapid development of the communication industry and the rapid expansion of the mobile communication service, mobile communication terminals have almost become requisites for daily living. Such mobile communication terminals have additional functions such as memos, schedule management, electronic calculators, alarm function, etc., besides calling and text message transmitting/receiving functions. Recently, to meet users&#39; diverse needs, diverse additional functions such as MP3, wireless Internet, camera, television (TV) function, etc., have been added to mobile communication terminals. To cope with such needs, mobile communication providers provide diverse services such as loaming services, information services, etc., to the users.  
           [0006]    The information service provided by the mobile communication provider is classified into a text data service and a voice data service. In order to receive such text and voice data services, the user accesses a contents provider (CP) server that provides information using the wireless access to the Internet, and after performing a user registration, the user selects the information that the user desires to receive. The contents provider server that stores user data performs a user authentication, and provides the information selected by the user. In the same manner, the user can be provided with e-mail service, weather forecast service, traffic information service, news service, fortune-telling service, performer&#39;s voice mail service, morning call service, etc.  
           [0007]    However, in order to provide the information to the user in the above-described manner, the contents provider server needs to check a large amount of user data in real time. Also, an information menu needs to be provided whenever the mobile communication terminal accesses the server. This may cause a system overload, and the user may feel inconvenienced since he/she must select from the provided information menu every time. Due to the time delay caused by the providing and selecting of the information menu, a relatively high cost for the information service is incurred.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information providing system and method that provides information desired by a user in real time by a mobile communication terminal, which accesses a contents provider server at a time predetermined by the user and requests the information.  
           [0009]    In order to accomplish this object, there is provided an information providing system using a wireless access to the Internet, comprising: a contents provider server for receiving and storing information to be provided to a user through a wire network; and at least one mobile communication terminal for storing the information requested by the user and receiving times for the respective information, wherein the contents provider server searches in real time for requested information in response to an information request from a mobile communication terminal, and provides the found information to the mobile communication terminal through a mobile communication network, and the mobile communication terminal requests the information requested by the user corresponding to the respective receiving times by accessing the contents provider server through the mobile communication network at the respective receiving times, and receives and outputs the information searched in real time by the contents provider server. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]    The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a contents provider server according to an embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0015]    Hereinafter, the information providing system and method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0017]    Referring to FIG. 1, the information providing system includes a mobile communication terminal  20 , a mobile communication network  40 , a wireless application protocol (WAP) gateway  60 , and a contents provider server  80 . The information providing system as constructed above is based on a WAP type wireless Internet, but it may be constructed based on a mobile explorer (ME) type wireless Internet that does not require the WAP gateway.  
         [0018]    The mobile communication network  40  includes a mobile switching center (MSC), a base station controller (BSC), and a base transceiver system (BTS). The WAP gateway  60  provided between the mobile communication network  40  and the contents provider server  80  serves as an interface between the wire Internet and the wireless Internet, that is, the mobile communication network  40  and the contents provider server  80 . The mobile communication terminal  20  accesses the contents provider server  80  through the mobile communication network  40 , and receives the information requested by the user. The construction and operation of the mobile communication terminal will be explained with reference to FIG. 2, which illustrates a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0019]    A key input section  4  of the mobile communication terminal  20  is provided with a plurality of numeral keys and character keys, and if the user presses a specified key, it generates and outputs corresponding key data to a control section  8 . A duplexer  18  extracts a specified band signal from signals received through an antenna ANT  9  to output the extracted signal to a receiving section  10 , and outputs the signal received from a transmitting section  14  to the antenna  9 . The transmitting section  14  converts a voice signal outputted from a voice processing section  16  into a signal of a transmission band using a signal received from a frequency synthesizing section  12 , and outputs the converted signal to the duplexer  18 . The receiving section  10  outputs to the voice processing section  16  the voice signal separated from the signals received under the control of the control section  8 , and outputs the signals except for the voice signal to the control section  8 . The frequency synthesizing section  12  generates and outputs a frequency signal to be outputted to the transmitting section  14  and the receiving section  10  under the control of the control section  8 . The voice processing section  16  converts the signal received from the receiving section  10  into an electric voice signal by decoding to the received signal, and outputs the electric voice signal to a speaker SPK  11 . Then, the speaker SPK  11  converts the received electric voice signal into an audible sound to output the audible sound. Also, a microphone MIC  13  converts an audible frequency signal into an electric voice signal to output the voice signal to the voice processing section  16 . Then, the voice processing section  16  encodes the received electric voice signal, and outputs the encoded voice signal to the transmitting section  14 .  
         [0020]    A display section  2  displays a state and an operational process of the mobile communication terminal  20 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the display section  2  also provides to the user a menu of information to be received that the user intends to receive, and displays text data among information received from the contents provider server  80 .  
         [0021]    An alarm driving section  17  drives an alarm for informing reception of the information from the contents provider server  80 . Different alarm sounds are outputted from the alarm driving section  17  in accordance with the kinds of received information.  
         [0022]    A voice synthesis and conversion section  15  converts the text data received from the contents provider server  80  into voice data, and outputs the converted voice data to the voice processing section  16 . A voice recognition and conversion section  19  converts the voice data received from the contents provider server  80  into text data to output the converted text data.  
         [0023]    A memory  6  temporarily stores a driving program required for the control operation of the control section  8  and data generated during the control operation. The memory  6  stores a received information table representing the information that the user desires to receive, i.e., the information requested by the user, and receiving times for the respective information. The received information table may be constructed as Table 1 below.  
                           TABLE 1                                   Received Information   Receiving Time                           Alarm   06:00           Weather   06:30           News   07:00           Traffic   07:30           Mail   12:30           Sports   20:00                      
 
         [0024]    The control section  8  controls the operation of the mobile communication terminal  20 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the control section accesses the contents provider server  80  at the predetermined receiving time based on the received information table stored in the memory  6 , requests the information corresponding to the receiving time, and receives the information. The control section  8  also controls the alarm driving section  17  to drive the alarm for informing that the information is received from the contents provider server  80 . The control section  8  also controls the voice synthesis and conversion section  15  to convert the text data among the information received from the contents provider server  80  into the voice data, and controls the voice recognition and conversion section  19  to convert the voice data among the received information into the text data. When the information is received, the control section controls them to output both the voice data and the text data.  
         [0025]    Meanwhile, the contents provider server  80  that provides the information to the mobile communication terminal  20  is connected to a wire network (not illustrated) to receive and store various kinds of information requested by the user. The construction and operation of the contents provider server  80  will be explained with reference to FIG. 3, which illustrates a contents provider server according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, an interface section  82  serves as an interface with the WAP gateway  60 . A database section  88  stores user data and information requested by the user, for example, text data and voice data received from the wire network. The text data and the voice data may be information on the alarm, weather, news, traffic, mail, sports, etc. A text-to-speech (TTS) engine section  86  that performs a similar function to the voice synthesis and conversion section  15  of the mobile communication terminal  20  converts the text data among the information stored in the database section  88  into the voice data under the control of a server control section  84 . The server control section  84  controls the operation of the contents provider server  80 . In one embodiment of the present invention, if the mobile communication terminal  20  requests the information, the server control section  84  performs the user authentication by searching in real time for the user data stored in the database section  88 . Also, the server control section  84  searches for the voice and text data stored in the database section  88 , and transmits the searched information to the mobile communication terminal  20  through the interface section  82 . Also, if the information requested by the user is the text data, the server control section  84  controls the TTS engine section  86  to convert the text data into the voice data.  
         [0026]    The information providing method using the wireless Internet in the information providing system as constructed above will be explained with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the information providing method according to the embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0027]    First, at step  102 , the information that the user desires to receive is selected, and receiving times for the respective selected information are set. Such information selection and receiving time setup are performed through a received information menu provided by the mobile communication terminal  20 , and the received information menu is composed of received information and its receiving times as shown in Table 1, which is the received information table. If the user selects the received information and sets the receiving times for the received information, the mobile communication terminal  20  checks if the present time has reached the information receiving time set by the user at step  106 . If the present time reaches the receiving time, the mobile communication terminal  20  attempts to access the contents provider server  80 , and requests the information selected by the user, i.e., the information corresponding to the receiving time. When the mobile communication terminal  20  requests the information, the contents provider server  80  that performed in advance the user data registration of the mobile communication terminal  20  at step  104  performs the user authentication at step  110  and searches in real time for the information requested by the mobile communication terminal  20 . If the information requested by the mobile communication terminal  20  does not exist at step  112 , the contents provider server  80  transmits an information absence message for informing that the requested information does not exist for the mobile communication terminal  20  at step  114 . If the information requested by the mobile communication terminal  20  exists, the contents provider server  80  provides the information to the mobile communication terminal  20  at step  116 . At this time, if the searched information is voice data, the contents provider server  80  transmits the information to the mobile communication terminal  20  as it is, while if the searched information is text data, it converts the searched information into voice data using the TTS engine section  86 , and transmits the converted voice data to the mobile communication terminal  20 . The mobile communication terminal  20  receives and outputs the information transmitted by the contents provider server  80  at step  118 . At this time, the mobile communication terminal  20  drives the alarm for informing that the information is received. Also, if voice data is received from the contents provider server  80 , the mobile communication terminal  20  converts the voice data into text data, and outputs both the received voice data and the converted text data. If the text data is received, the mobile communication terminal  20  converts the text data into the voice data, and outputs both the received text data and the converted voice data.  
         [0028]    Now, an information receiving method, for example, a weather information receiving method, will be explained with reference to Table 1.  
         [0029]    First, if the user selects weather information and sets the receiving time to 6:30 a.m. as shown in Table 1, the mobile communication terminal  20  attempts the access to the contents provider server  80  at 6:30 a.m., and requests the information selected by the user, i.e., the weather information. Then, the contents provider server  80  performs the user authentication, and searches in real time for the weather information requested by the mobile communication terminal  20  in the database section  88 . If the weather information searched from the database section  88  is voice data, the contents provider server  80  transmits the information to the mobile communication terminal  20  as it is, while if the found weather information is text data, it converts the found weather information into voice data using the TTS engine section  86 , and transmits the converted voice data to the mobile communication terminal  20 . The mobile communication terminal  20  drives the alarm for informing that the weather information has been received from the contents provider server  80 , and outputs the weather information. At this time, the mobile communication terminal  20  converts the voice data into the text data, and outputs both the received voice data and the converted text data. Then, the user can listen to the weather information through the speaker SPK  11 , and view the weather information through the display section  2  as well.  
         [0030]    Meanwhile, the mobile communication terminal  20  produces different alarm sounds according to the kinds of received information so that the user can easily recognize the kind of received information.  
         [0031]    As described above, according to the present invention, the mobile communication terminal can be provided with the requested information in real time by setting in advance the information requested by the user and receiving times for the respective information, and requesting the information by accessing the contents provider server at the respective receiving times.  
         [0032]    By receiving in real time the requested information from the contents provider server, an overload of the contents provider server can be prevented, it is not required for the user to select the information menu every time, and the information service cost can be reduced.  
         [0033]    While the invention has been shown and described with reference to a certain preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.