Push-type information delivery method, push-type information delivery system, information delivery apparatus and channel search apparatus based on presence service

• US 20050251557A1
• Filed: 07/19/2004
• Published: 11/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Yoshizawa, Masahiro, Kasuga, Kenji
• Granted Patent: US 7,571,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

Providing a new contents delivery method that is suitable for community networks and reduces leaks of personal information. Presentities indicating channels for information delivery are formed on presence service, and virtual channel communication terminals corresponding to their presentities are logically formed on an information delivery server. Thereby, contents are transmitted and received between the information delivery server and user communication terminals, and among the user communication terminals as if the contents were transmitted and received between a presentity indicating a channel and a presentity indicating a user. During contents transmission and reception, the need to exchange address information among users is eliminated, making it possible to prevent leaks of personal information.

Claims

1. An information delivery method for delivering prescribed contents to users registered in advance on a network, the network comprising:

a first terminal;

a presence server that manages presence information of a user of the first terminal;

an information delivery server that stores contents to be delivered to the first terminal;

a communication network that establishes connection among the first terminal, the presence server, and the information delivery server to enable communication,

wherein the information delivery method comprises the steps of;

forming a first presentity on the network sensed by the presence server, the presentity being an account necessary for the first terminal to enjoy presence service;

providing the first presentity with a first identifier for uniquely identifying the presentity;

forming an n-th presentity, which is an account necessary for the information delivery server to enjoy presence service; and

providing the n-th presentity with an n-th identifier,

wherein the information delivery server acquires presence information of the first user from the presence server through the n-th presentity, and when the acquired presence information matches delivery conditions of the stored contents, delivers the contents to the first user, with a delivery source of the contents as the n-th identifier.

2. The information delivery method according to claim 1, a second terminal associated with the n-th presentity being connected to the communication network,

wherein the information delivery method comprises the steps of:

forming a second presentity on the network sensed by the presence server, the presentity being an account necessary for the second terminal to enjoy presence service;

providing the second presentity with a second identifier; and

transmitting contents data and account information on the second presentity from the second terminal to the n-th presentity of the information delivery server,

wherein the information delivery server associates the transmitted contents data with account information and registers the contents.

3. The information delivery method according to claim 1, a second terminal associated with the n-th presentity being connected to the communication network,

the information delivery method comprising the steps of:

forming a second presentity on the network sensed by the presence server, the presentity being an account necessary for the second terminal to enjoy presence service; and

providing the second presentity with a second identifier,

wherein the first terminal transmits prescribed contents to the n-th presentity of the information delivery server, with a transmission source being set to the first identifier,

wherein the information delivery server registers the transmitted contents, and when the presence information acquired from the presence server matches delivery conditions of the stored contents, delivers the contents to the second user, with a delivery source of the contents as the n-th identifier.

4. The information delivery method according to claim 1, disclosing the n-th presentity to other terminal users connected to the communication network as a channel for delivering contents.

5. The information delivery method according to claim 4,

wherein a channel search server for searching for the channel is connected to the communication network.

6. The information delivery method according to claim 5,

wherein the channel search server holds information necessary to search for n-th identifier and contents belonging to the n-th presentity the information delivery server has,

the information delivery method comprising the step of:

transmitting a search request including information for searching to the channel search server to search for a channel relating to the search request.

7. An information delivery server that, on a network through which presence service to store and deliver presence information is provided, delivers prescribed contents to user terminals that registered a specific channel,

the information delivery server comprising:

an interface for transmitting and receiving information to and from the network;

a processor for processing information received from the interface and information transmitted to the interface;

a storage for storing contents to be delivered;

a user information table for managing information about users to which contents are to be delivered, of the registered user terminals;

a channel information table for managing information about a channel that delivers contents to the user terminals; and

a delivery contents table for storing contents and their delivery conditions;

wherein the processor acquires a change in presence information of the registered user terminals, and when the acquired presence information matches delivery conditions of the contents, delivers the contents to the user terminals, with an identifier given to the channel as a delivery source of the contents.

8. An information delivery server that, on a network through which presence service to store and deliver presence information is provided, delivers prescribed contents to plural user terminals registered in advance,

wherein the information delivery server includes a number of virtual channel communication terminals for delivering contents to the registered users, equal to the number of channels the users subscribe to.