Apparatus and method for providing URL, mobile station, and method for accessing internet by using the provided URL

• US 8,421,599 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2007
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Cho, Seung-Kwon, Chae, Su-Chang, Kim, Young-Il
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barakat, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US12/516,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20100019888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,132 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.5, 340/572.1, 709/220, 709/225
• US Class Current: 340/10.5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes

Abstract

The present invention relates to a URL providing apparatus and a method thereof, and a mobile station that accesses the Internet by using the provided URL, and an Internet access method thereof. The mobile station attaches an RF-ID tag that stores an RF-ID tag value corresponding to identification information of the mobile station thereto, and thus when a user brings the mobile station into an interrogation range of an RF-ID reader included in the URL providing apparatus, the URL providing apparatus receives the corresponding RF-ID tag value from the RF-ID reader. When the URL providing apparatus acquires an IP address of the mobile station by using the received RF-ID tag value and provides a URL to the mobile station by using the acquired IP address, the mobile station automatically accesses the Internet by using the URL. Such an Internet access method can minimize additional cost of the mobile station and simplify an Internet access process to a specific URL.

Claims

1. A uniform resource locator (URL) providing apparatus comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RF-ID) reader for reading an RF-ID tag value corresponding to identification information of a mobile station from an RF-ID tag affixed to the mobile station and outputting the RF-ID tag value; and

a local site server for transmitting the RF-ID tag value received from the RF-ID reader to a provider server that stores an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the mobile station, receiving the IP address corresponding to the RF-ID tag value from the provider server, and providing a URL to the mobile station by using the IP address.

2. The URL providing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the RF-ID reader transmits an identifier of the RF-ID reader when transmitting the RF-ID tag value, and the local site server provides the URL corresponding to the identifier of the RF-ID reader.

3. The URL providing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the local site server predetermines at least one URL when the local site server is set, and selects the URL corresponding to the identifier of the RF-ID reader among the at least one URL.

4. A mobile station that receives a uniform resource locator (URL) from a URL providing apparatus and accesses the Internet by using the URL, the mobile station comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RF-ID) tag affixed to the mobile station for providing an RF-ID tag value to the URL providing apparatus via an RF-ID reader when the mobile station attempts to access the Internet; and

a controller for receiving the URL from the URL providing apparatus corresponding to transmission of the RF-ID tag value, and accessing the Internet using the URL.

5. The mobile station of claim 4, further comprising a wireless transmitting/receiving unit for receiving the URL from the URL providing apparatus and transmitting the URL to the controller.

6. The mobile station of claim 4, wherein the RF-ID tag value comprises identification information of the mobile station, and the controller receives the URL based on an Internet Protocol (IP) address acquired by the URL providing apparatus that corresponds to an identifier of the mobile station.

7. The mobile station of claim 4, wherein the controller has an application program installed therein, the application program enabling automatic access to a web page corresponding to the URL.

8. A uniform resource locator (URL) providing method comprising:

reading a radio frequency identification (RF-ID) tag value corresponding to identification information of a mobile station from an RF-ID tag affixed to the mobile station;

transmitting the RF-ID tag value to a provider server that stores an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the mobile station;

receiving an IP address corresponding to the RF-ID tag value from the provider server; and

providing a URL to the mobile station that corresponds to the IP address.

9. The URL providing method of claim 8, wherein a different URL is provided in accordance with an identifier of an RF-ID reader that reads the RF-ID tag value.

10. A method for a mobile station to access the Internet by receiving a uniform resource locator (URL) from a URL providing apparatus that provides a URL corresponding to identification information of the mobile station, the method comprising:

providing a radio frequency identification (RF-ID) tag value of an RF-ID tag affixed to the mobile station to the URL providing apparatus via an RF-ID reader when the mobile station attempts to access the Internet;

receiving, by the mobile station, the URL from the URL providing apparatus; and

automatically accessing the Internet using the URL.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the RF-ID tag value comprises identification information of the mobile station, and the mobile station receives the URL that the URL provider has provided by using an Internet Protocol (IP) address acquired by the URL providing apparatus that corresponds to the identification information of the mobile station.