Terminal apparatus and information acquiring system

• US 7,072,670 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2003
• Issued: 07/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Takao, Sato, Junichi, Taniguchi, Koji, Tada, Hiroyuki, Takei, Ichiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): BALAOING, ARIEL A
• Application Number:
  US10/507,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20050170848A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,001 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-457, 455/436, 455/219, 709/219
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

In the present invention, with respect to content that is predicted to be referred to after moving based on a current position, moving direction and/or moving speed of a terminal apparatus, the terminal apparatus inquires of a communication information area managing section whether a position associated with the content is in a communication area, and when the position is outside the communication area, selects at least one communication section with communication-capable channel quality, and acquires and stores the content predicted to be referred to using the selected communication section. It is thereby possible to refer to the content when a position in response to the content predicted to be referred to is outside a communication-capable area.

Claims

1. An information acquiring system in which a terminal apparatus acquires content related to a position in a predetermined region transmitted from a server, wherein the server comprises:

a position information receiving section that receives a position of the terminal apparatus; and

a content list transmitting section that sets, as acquisition-scheduled content, content in response to a position in which the content is expected to be referred to after moving and which is outside a communication-capable area, from the position received in the position information receiving section, and generates a content list storing at least one of a pair of an address associated with the acquisition-scheduled content and a position to transmit to the terminal apparatus, and

the terminal apparatus comprises;

a position detecting section that detects a position of the terminal apparatus;

a position information transmitting section that transmits the position detected to the server;

a content list receiving section that receives the content list transmitted from the server; and

a content acquiring section that acquires the acquisition-scheduled content, using the address associated with the acquisition-scheduled content stored in the content list.

2. The information acquiring system according to claim 1, wherein the position information transmitting section of the terminal apparatus transmits a request for the content list to the server.

3. The information acquiring system according to claim 2, wherein the server comprises a content list receiver that receives the request for the content list from the terminal apparatus.

4. The information acquiring system according to claim 1, wherein the position detecting section of the terminal apparatus detects a moving direction and moving speed of the terminal apparatus, and the position information transmitting section transmits the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal apparatus to the server.

5. The information acquiring system according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition-scheduled content comprises content related to at least one expected future position of the terminal apparatus where the terminal is unable to communicate with the server.

6. The information acquiring system according to claim 5, wherein the content list transmitting section determines which of the at least one expected future position of the terminal apparatus is located in an area where the terminal apparatus will be unable to communicate with the server, and identifies acquisition-scheduled content associated with the determined at least one expected future position.

7. A terminal apparatus, comprising:

a position detecting section that detects a position of the terminal apparatus;

a position information transmitting section that transmits the position detected to a server;

a content list receiving section that receives a content list transmitted from the server; and

a content acquiring section that acquires acquisition-scheduled content, using an address associated with acquisition-scheduled content stored in the content list, the acquisition-scheduled content corresponding to a position in which content is expected to be referred to after moving and which is outside a communication-capable area.

8. The terminal apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the position information transmitting section transmits a request for the content list to the server.

9. The terminal apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the position detecting section detects a moving direction and moving speed of the terminal apparatus, and the position information transmitting section transmits the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal apparatus to the server.

10. The terminal apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the acquisition-scheduled content comprises content related to at least one expected future position of the terminal apparatus where the terminal is unable to communicate with the server.

11. A terminal apparatus, comprising:

a position detector that detects a present position of the terminal apparatus;

a content list manager that manages a content list that stores at least one pair of an address of content to be acquired and a position of the terminal apparatus;

an acquisition-scheduled content determiner that determines content corresponding to a position in which said content is expected to be referred to after moving and which is outside a communication-capable area, from the content list managed by the content list manager based on the present position of the terminal apparatus detected by the position detecter, and sets said determined content as acquisition-scheduled content; and

a content acquirer that acquires the acquisition-scheduled content using an address associated with said acquisition-scheduled content.

12. The terminal apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the position detector detects a moving direction and moving speed of the terminal apparatus;

and

the acquisition-scheduled content determiner determines the content based on at least one of the present position, the moving direction and the moving speed of the terminal apparatus.

13. The terminal apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the acquisition-scheduled content acquirer determines content corresponding to a position where the terminal apparatus is located after moving and where the terminal apparatus is unable to execute a communication for content acquisition, from the content list managed by the content list managing section.