Information providing system utilizing IC cards and method thereof

• US 6,990,683 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2001
• Issued: 01/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Itabashi, Tatsuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Barrón, Jr., Gilberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, JUNG W
• Application Number:
  US09/845,948
• Publication Number:
  US 20020087542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,730 Days
• Field of Search: 713/200, 713/201, 705/16, 705/17, 705/65
• US Class Current: 726/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists

Abstract

An information providing system which includes: an IC card; a settlement center which monitors and holds contents information of the IC card, and upon receiving the contents information readout request, provides the information held therein to the requesting party; communication networks; an information center which, upon receiving a contents information request, outputs a contents information readout request to the settlement center and requests contents information of the IC card, and upon receiving the contents information, transmits this to the communication networks; and a communication terminal which transmits a contents information request to an information center, and upon receiving the contents information of the IC card transmitted from the information center, displays the contents information on a display unit. Thus, a user can readily confirm the contents of the data in a data holding member such as an IC card without necessitating installment of a special viewer and without necessitating the user to carry a device which is only occasionally used.

Claims

1. An information providing method using a first data holding device capable of holding data containing personal information identifying at least users and a second data holding device capable of holding data containing information identifying providers which provide at least products or services, the method comprising the following steps of:

transmitting data of the second data holding device from a communication terminal device, wherein the communication terminal device is a cellular telephone;

receiving data of the second data holding device and performing predetermined collation thereof, and upon obtaining positive collation results, transmitting a transaction processing continuation signal to the communication terminal device;

transmitting data of the first data holding device, wherein transmitting the data occurs via a cellular telephone network; and

performing, upon receiving said transmitted data of said first data holding device, predetermined processing based on the data, and holding at least processing data, wherein, in the data transmitting step of the first data holding device, identification information of the first data holding device is transmitted in addition to the data, and in the processing data holding step, collation of the identification information is performed, and in the event that positive collation results are obtained, predetermined processing is performed based on the data of the first data holding device.

2. An information providing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in the transmitting step for the transaction processing continuing signal, location information of the communication terminal device is confirmed, and in the event that judgment is made that the communication terminal device is at a location matching pre-registered position information, a transaction processing continuing signal is transmitted.

3. An information providing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in the transmitting step for the transaction processing continuing signal, location information of the communication terminal device is confirmed, and in the event that judgment is made that the communication terminal device is at a location matching pre-registered position information, a transaction processing continuing signal is transmitted.

4. An information providing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and second data holding devices are each IC cards.

5. A program for a computer, wherein the computer executes the steps of:

receiving data of a shop data holding device capable of holding data containing information identifying at least providers which provide products or services, transmitted from a communication terminal device, wherein the communication terminal device is a cellular telephone;

receiving data of the shop data holding device and performing predetermined collation thereof, and upon obtaining positive collation results transmitting a transaction processing continuation signal to the communication terminal device, wherein transmitting the transaction occurs via a cellular telephone communication network;

receiving data of a user data holding device capable of holding data containing personal information identifying at least users and terminal device identification information, transmitted from the communication terminal device, wherein the receiving data occurs via a cellular telephone communication network; and

upon receiving the data of the user data holding device, performing predetermined processing based on the data, and holding at least processing data.

6. A program as claimed in claim 5, wherein, in the data reception, identification information of the user data holding device is received in addition to the data of the user data holding device;

and wherein, in the processing data holding, upon performing collation of the identification information and obtaining positive collation results, predetermined processing is performed based on the data of the user data holding device.

7. A program as claimed in claim 5, wherein, in the transaction processing continuing signal transmission, position information of the communication terminal device is confirmed, and in the event that judgment is made that the communication terminal device is at a pre-registered position, the transaction processing continuing signal is transmitted.