Patent ID: 7519722

Claim:
An information exchange method used for furnishing, according to an instruction from a server, to terminal devices, a given number of pieces of real-time and/or live streaming video information out of a plurality of pieces of real-time and/or live streaming video information that are gathered by a plurality of information gathering devices, comprising: said server being adapted to link each of said terminal devices to the information gathering device that gathers a given number of pieces of real-time and/or live streaming video information that are asked for from its linked terminal device, out of said plurality information gathering devices, said server being also adapted to direct the information gathering devices to deliver the given number of pieces of real-time and/or live streaming video information to their linked terminal device, each of said terminal devices being adapted to produce video image including a given number of real-time and/or live streaming video images that are received from the predetermined number of information gathering devices and display it on a predetermined certain screen wherein said server sends to each of said terminal devices a link destination setting table containing links to said information gathering devices, each of said terminal devices accesses its linked information gathering device(s) according to its link destination setting table, wherein said server or said information gathering devices hold(s) the link destination setting tables that have been sent to each of said terminal devices, each of said terminal devices being adapted to send its link destination setting table and a requested entry contained in its link destination setting table to said server or said information gathering devices, said server or said information gathering devices comparing the link destination setting table that is sent from the each of said terminal devices to a previously registered link destination setting table for the each of said terminal devices contained in said server or said information gathering devices, wherein when the link destination setting table sent from the each of said terminal devices is not the same as the previously registered link destination setting table, linking to an information gathering device associated with the requested entry is not permitted.