Collected data providing apparatus and portable terminal for data collection

• US 7,386,601 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2003
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Murata, Yoshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim; Krisna
• Application Number:
  US10/648,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20040073687A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,751 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709217-219, 709223-225
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera

Abstract

A collected data providing apparatus and a portable data collecting terminal capable of collecting valuable effective data from object of data collection. When a server receives a data-collection request from a data collection requester'"'"'s terminal, the server examines whether or not there is a data collector with a terminal in the vicinity of a place of data collection included in the request. If there is, the server sends a data collection request to the portable terminal, which receives the request, collects data on the place at the request, and then sends the server the collected data. The server then delivers this collected data to the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal (FIG. 1).

Claims

1. A collected data providing apparatus comprising:

a locating unit for locating a position of an object of data collection;

a finding unit for finding a portable terminal present in a vicinity of the object of data collection located by the locating unit;

a transmitter for transmitting to the found portable terminal a request to collect data on the object of data collection;

a receiver for receiving from the portable terminal the data collected by the portable terminal in accordance with the request; and

a send control unit for controlling the apparatus to;

publish a data collector recruiting homepage on the Internet before the receiver receives the collected data;

determine whether or not an applicant who has applied to be a data collector is qualified to be a data collector based upon the applicant'"'"'s application data received from the applicant'"'"'s terminal;

register the applicant as a qualified data collector if the applicant is qualified to be a data collector; and

send the registered applicant related information of the registered applicant.

2. The collected information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a delivering unit for delivering to at least one of the portable terminal that collected the data and terminals of data delivery subscribers an edited version of the collected data received by the receiver.

3. The collected data providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a request control unit for controlling the apparatus to evaluate the collected data received by the receiver, and send to a terminal of a financial institution a request for the financial institution'"'"'s terminal to pay the portable terminal that collected the data a reward depending on a result of the evaluation of the received collected data.

4. The collected data providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus receives applications to be data collectors from a plurality of applicants via respective terminals of the applicants.

5. A collected data providing apparatus comprising:

a locating unit for locating a position of an object of data collection;

a finding unit for finding a portable terminal present in a vicinity of the object of data collection located by the locating unit;

a transmitter for transmitting to the found portable terminal a request to collect data on the object of data collection;

a receiver for receiving from the portable terminal the data collected by the portable terminal in accordance with the request; and

a receive control unit for controlling the apparatus to;

publish a data collector recruiting homepage on the Internet before the receiver receives the collected data;

determine whether or not an applicant who has applied to be a data collector is qualified to be a data collector based upon the applicant'"'"'s application data received from the applicant'"'"'s terminal;

register the applicant as a qualified data collector if the applicant is qualified to be a data collector;

send the registered data collector related information of the registered data collector; and

receive data on objects of data collection from third parties including registered data collectors before or after the related information is sent to the registered data collector.

6. A collected data providing apparatus comprising:

a locating unit for locating a position of an object of data collection;

a finding unit for finding a portable terminal present in a vicinity of the object of data collection located by the locating unit;

a transmitter for transmitting to the found portable terminal a request to collect data on the object of data collection;

a receiver for receiving from the portable terminal the data collected by the portable terminal in accordance with the request; and

a send control unit for controlling the apparatus to;

publish a data collector recruiting homepage on the Internet before the receiver receives the collected data;

determine whether or not an applicant who has applied to be a data collector is qualified to be a data collector based upon the applicant'"'"'s application data received from the applicant'"'"'s terminal;

register the applicant as a qualified data collector if the applicant is qualified to be a data collector;

send the registered data collector related information of the registered data collector; and

receive data on objects of data collection from third parties including registered data collectors before or after the related information is sent to the registered data collector,

wherein the position of the object of data collection located by the locating unit is indicated by the data on the object of data collection received under control of the send control unit.

7. A collected data providing apparatus comprising:

a first receiver for receiving a data collection request from a data collection requester'"'"'s terminal;

a first transmitter for transmitting the data collection request to a data collector'"'"'s terminal which is in a vicinity of a place of data collection and which has device information indicated by information included in the data collection request received by the first receiver;

a second receiver for receiving, from the data collector'"'"'s terminal, data collected by the data collector'"'"'s terminal in accordance with the data collection request sent by the first transmitter;

a second transmitter for transmitting to the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal the collected data received by the second receiver; and

a send control unit for controlling the apparatus to;

publish a data collector recruiting homepage on the Internet before the second receiver receives the collected data;

determine whether or not the data collection requester is qualified as a data collector, in response to the data collection requester applying to be a data collector, based upon the data collection requester'"'"'s application data received from the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal;

register the data collection requester as a qualified data collector if the data collection requester is qualified to be a data collector; and

send registered data collector-related information to the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal.

8. A collected data providing apparatus comprising:

a first receiver for receiving a data collection request from a data collection requester'"'"'s terminal;

a first transmitter for transmitting the data collection request to a data collector'"'"'s terminal which is in a vicinity of a place of data collection indicated by information included in the data collection request received by the first receiver;

a second receiver for receiving, from the data collector'"'"'s terminal, data collected by the data collector'"'"'s terminal in accordance with the data collection request sent by the first transmitter;

a second transmitter for transmitting to the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal the collected data received by the second receiver; and

a receive control unit for controlling the apparatus to;

publish a data collector recruiting homepage on the Internet before the second receiver receives the collected data;

determine whether or not the data collection requester is qualified as a data collector, in response to the data collection requester applying to be a data collector, based upon the data collection requester'"'"'s application data received from the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal;

register the data collection requester as a qualified data collector if the data collection requester is qualified to be a data collector;

send registered data collector-related information to the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal; and

receive a data collection request from the data collection requester'"'"'s terminal before or after the related information is sent to the registered data collector.

9. A portable data collecting terminal apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving a data collection request from a data collection requester'"'"'s terminal through a management server;

a display control unit for displaying the data collection request received by the receiver on a display;

a transmitter for transmitting, to the management server, data collected in accordance with the data collection request displayed on the display; and

a send control unit for controlling the apparatus to receive from the management server a data collector recruiting homepage appearing on the Internet before the receiver receives the data collection request, send the management server data on an application to be a data collector inputted in accordance with the recruiting homepage, and then receive registered data collector-related information from the management server.

10. A portable data collecting terminal apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving a data collection request from a data collection requester'"'"'s terminal through a management server;

a display control unit for displaying the data collection request received by the receiver on a display;

a transmitter for transmitting, to the management server, data collected in accordance with the data collection request displayed on the display; and

a send control unit for controlling the apparatus to receive from the management server a data collector recruiting homepage appearing on the Internet before the receiver receives the data collection request, and then send the management server application data inputted in accordance with the received data collector recruiting homepage.

11. The portable data collecting terminal apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a control unit for controlling the apparatus so that after the transmitter transmits the collected data to the management server, the apparatus receives a notice of payment of a price for the sent collected data from at least one of a terminal of a financial institution and the management server.

12. A portable data collecting terminal apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving a data collection request from a data collection requester'"'"'s terminal through a management server;

a display control unit for displaying the data collection request received by the receiver on a display;

a transmitter for transmitting, to the management server, data collected in accordance with the data collection request displayed on the display; and

a send control unit for controlling the apparatus to receive from the management server a data collector recruiting homepage appearing on the Internet before the receiver receives the data collection request, and then send the management server apparatus data and application data inputted in accordance with the received data collector recruiting homepage.