System and method for accepting information from information providers, mediating the received information, and providing mediated information to information beneficiaries

• US 7,149,696 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2001
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Original Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Inventors: Shimizu, Atsushi, Ando, Tanichi, Oyagi, Masayuki, Masuda, Kiyoshi, Yamato, Masaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Dixon, Thomas A.
• Application Number:
  US09/967,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20020111822A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,897 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/14.69
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The object of this invention is to offer an information mediating system which can mediate the specific information out of the received information from an information provider. The specific information is information which fulfills the objective specification. This system charges a service fee to the information beneficiary, and pays a compensation to the information provider. The service fee and the compensation are offset for each terminal. The information beneficiary and provider are selected each time according to the objective specification. An information mediating system provided with a plurality of terminals which have both information sending and receiving functions, or either an information sending or a receiving function through a network, and provided with an information mediator which has an information mediating function to mediate an received information through the network. The information mediating function comprises 1) a grouping function to select an information provider and an information beneficiary out of the plurality of terminals according to an objective specification to specify a specific information to be obtained; and 2) a data transmission function to transmit the specific information obtained from the selected information provider, which fulfills the objective specification, to the selected information beneficiary through the network.

Claims

1. An information mediating system comprising:

a plurality of terminals of information providers and information beneficiaries, which have both information sending and receiving functions for communicating with an information mediator device through a network, wherein each of said terminals of information providers and information beneficiaries comprises;

an input means to input a particular objective to specify an information to be obtained from said information mediator device;

an information sending means to send sensor information obtained from one or more sensor units installed near each of said terminals, and an identity information to specify position data for each said sensor units according to a predetermined data transmission timing selected by said particular objective, out of a monitoring timing for monitoring said specific terminal of information beneficiary, an independent transmission timing of voluntarily transmitting the sensor data from said specific terminal, and an event transmission timing which transmits data only when an unforeseen accident or breakdown occurred at said specific terminal, and said information sending means further to forward said input particular objective to said information mediator device each time when said particular objective is input; and

an information receiving means to receive a mediated information from said information mediator device while providing said sensor information and identity information to said information mediator device, said mediated information to match with said input particular objective; and

said information mediator device being operative to mediate the received information from said terminals of information providers and send back said mediated information to a specific terminal of information beneficiary through said network, wherein said information mediator device comprises;

an objective specification server to language-process said received particular objective from each of said terminals of information beneficiaries for converting into a plurality of language conditions which are to be matched with said received sensor information and identity information; and

an information mediation server to make matching said language-processed particular objective with said received sensor information and identity information, or the processed data of said information;

wherein said information mediation server groups a plurality of particular terminals of information providers for each particular objective in order to select a particular information, and send back said selected particular information to said particular terminal of information beneficiary which originally sent said particular objective.

2. An information mediating method for providing a particular information to an information beneficiary terminal having both information sending and receiving functions through a network, wherein said particular information is selected by an information mediator device to mediate a plurality of information received from a plurality of information provider terminals which are connected with said information mediator devices through said network, and said information beneficiary terminal is also one of said plurality of information provider terminals, said method comprising the steps of:

sending sensor information obtained from one or more sensor units installed near each of said information provider terminals, and an identity information to specify position data from each of said information provider terminals to said information mediator device, according to a predetermined data transmission timing selected by said particular objective, out of a monitoring timing for monitoring said specific terminal of information beneficiary, an independent transmission timing of voluntarily transmitting the sensor data from said specific terminal, and an event transmission timing which transmits data only when an unforeseen accident or breakdown occurred at said specific terminal;

sending a particular objective, during said step of sending sensor information, from said information beneficiary terminal to said information mediator device each time when said particular objective is input, wherein said particular objective specifies an information to be obtained from said information mediator device;

language-processing, in said information mediator device, said particular objective received from said terminals of information beneficiary for converting into a plurality of language conditions which are to be matched with said received sensor information and identity information;

matching, in said information mediator device, said language-processed particular objective with said received sensor information and identity information, or the processed data of said information in order to mediate said particular objective and said sensor information for said information beneficiary; and

sending said matched or mediated particular information to said information beneficiary which, originally sent said particular objective.

3. An information mediating system comprising:

a plurality of terminals of information providers and information beneficiaries, which have both information sending and receiving functions for communicating with an information mediation device through a network, wherein each of said terminals comprises;

an input means to input a particular objective to specify information to be obtained from said information mediator device;

an information sending means for sensing said particular objective each time said particular objective is inputted at said input means, and to send sensor information obtained from one or more sensor units installed near each of said terminals, wherein said sensor information includes identity information comprising position data for each sensor, said position data being generated either continuously or upon each of a predetermined time interval; and

an information receiving means to receive a mediated information from said information mediator device while providing said sensor information and identity information to said information mediator device, said mediated information to match with said input particular objective; and

said information mediator device being operative to mediate the information received from said terminals of information providers and send said mediated information to a specific terminal associated with said information beneficiary through said network, wherein said information mediator device comprises;

an objective specification server to language-process said received particular objective from each of said terminals of information beneficiaries for converting into a plurality of language conditions which are to be matched with said received sensor information and identity information; and

an information mediation server to make matching said language-processed particular objective with said received sensor information and identity information, or the processed data of said information;

wherein said information mediation system groups a plurality of particular terminals of information providers for each particular objective in order to select a particular information, and send said selected particular information to said particular terminal of information beneficiary which originally sent said particular objective.

4. The information mediating system according to claim 3, wherein said objective specification server language-processes, by an objective modification function, converts said received particular objective from each of said terminals of information beneficiaries into a plurality of language conditions which are to be matched with said received sensor information and identity information, and sends only a particular information out of said received sensor information and identity information or the processed data of said information, which matches with said received particular objective to said particular terminal of information beneficiary which originally sent said particular objective.

5. An information mediating method for providing a particular information to an information beneficiary terminal having both information sending and receiving functions through a network, wherein said particular information is selected by an information mediator device to mediate a plurality of information received from a plurality of information provider terminals which are connected with said information mediator devices through said network, and said information beneficiary terminal is also one of said plurality of information provider terminals, said method comprising the steps of:

sending sensor information obtained from one or more sensor units installed near each of said information provider terminals, and an identity information to position data of each sensor units either continuously or on each of a predetermined time interval, from each of said information provider terminals to said information mediator device;

sending a particular objective, during said step of sending sensor information, from said information beneficiary terminal to said information mediator device each time when said particular objective is input, wherein said particular objective specifies an information to be obtained from said information mediator device;

language-processing, in said information mediator device, said particular objective received from said terminals of information beneficiary for converting into a plurality of language conditions which are to be matched with said received sensor information and identity information;

matching, in said information mediator device, said language-processed particular objective with said received sensor information and identity information, or the processed data of said information in order to mediate said particular objective and said sensor information for said information beneficiary;

sending said matched or mediated particular information to said information beneficiary which, originally sent said particular objective; and

paying a plus fee to said plurality of particular terminals of said information providers, and charging a minus fee to said particular terminal of information beneficiary, thereby the fee balance of each account of said plurality of terminals being always fluctuated by accumulating said plus and minus fees.

6. An information mediating system comprising:

a plurality of terminals of information providers and information beneficiaries, which have both information sending and receiving functions for communicating with an information mediation device through a network, wherein each of said terminals of information providers and information beneficiaries comprises;

an input means to input a particular objective to specify an information to be obtained from said information mediator device;

an information sending means to send sensor information, obtained from one or more sensor units installed near each of said terminals, and an identity information to specify for each sensor units a position data to said information mediator device, said position data being generated either continuously or upon each of a predetermined time interval, said information sending means further to forward said input particular objective to said information mediator device each time when said particular objective is input; and

an information receiving means to receive a mediated information from said information mediator device while providing said sensor information and identity information to said information mediator device, said mediated information to match with said input particular objective; and

said information mediator device is operative to mediate the received information from said terminals of information providers and send said mediated information to a specific terminal of information beneficiary through said network, wherein said information mediator device comprises;

an objective specification server to language-process said received particular objective from each of said terminals of information beneficiaries for converting into a plurality of language conditions which are to be matched with said received sensor information and identity information;

a fee mediation server;

an information mediation server to make matching said language-processed particular objective with said received sensor information and identity information, or the processed data of said information; and

said fee mediation server is operative to pay a plus fee to said plurality of particular terminals of said information providers, and charge a minus fee to said particular terminal of information beneficiary, thereby the fee balance of each account of said plurality of terminals is always fluctuated by accumulating said plus and minus fees;

wherein said information mediation system groups a plurality of particular terminals of information providers for each particular objective in order to select a particular information, and send back said selected particular information to said particular terminal of information beneficiary which originally sent said particular objective.

7. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee mediation function is provided with a compensation calculation function to calculate total compensation for each selected information provider.

8. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee mediation function is provided with different fee tables depending on a specification of said particular objective.

9. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee tables are fluctuated according to an economy.

10. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee tables are fluctuated according to how many information providers and information beneficiaries are selected.

11. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee tables are fluctuated according to an outer occurrence of events of the economy.

12. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee tables are fluctuated according to a usage purpose of said specific information and a number of usage at said information beneficiary.

13. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee tables are fluctuated according to a processing level of said specific information.

14. The information mediating system according to claim 6, wherein said fee tables are fluctuated according to a sales amount, a profit, and an expected growth of a business which is related to said specific information.

15. An information mediating method for providing a particular information to an information beneficiary terminal having both information sending and receiving functions through a network, wherein said particular information is selected by an information mediator device to mediate a plurality of information received from a plurality of information provider terminals which are connected with said information mediator devices through said network, and said information beneficiary terminal is also one of said plurality of information provider terminals, said method comprising the steps of:

sending sensor information obtained from one or more sensor units installed near each of said information provider terminals, and an identity information to specify position data of each sensor, either continuously or on each of a predetermined time interval, from each of said information provider terminals to said information mediator device;

sending a particular objective, during said step of sending sensor information, from said information beneficiary terminal to said information mediator device each time when said particular objective is input, wherein said particular objective specifies an information to be obtained from said information mediator device;

language-processing, in said information mediator device, said particular objective received from said terminals of information beneficiary for converting into a plurality of language conditions which are to be matched with said received sensor information and identity information;

matching, in said information mediator device, said language-processed particular objective with said received sensor information and identity information, or the processed data of said information in order to mediate said particular objective and said sensor information for said information beneficiary; and

sending said matched or mediated particular information to said information beneficiary which, originally sent said particular objective.