Content delivery apparatus and content reproduction apparatus

• US 7,860,376 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2006
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intertrust Technologies Corporation (Fidelio Acquisition Co LLC)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kudo, Takahiro, Ozawa, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Pappas; Peter-Anthony
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAZENSKI, MARC A
• Application Number:
  US11/330,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20060116965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,811 Days
• Field of Search: 705/13, 725/1
• US Class Current: 386/262
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A server apparatus 20 that is connected, through a communication network 11, to a mobile terminal 40 for reproducing a content and to a ticket gate machine 30. The ticket gate machine 30 detects that a user'"'"'s entrance into a station area or boarding onto a vehicle, identifies at least a boarding zone, and notifies the identified boarding zone to the server apparatus 20. The server apparatus 20 includes a required duration calculating unit 22 which calculates, based on the boarding zone notified by the ticket gate machine 30, a duration for a user traveling by the vehicle, a content selecting unit 23 which determines a content whose reproduction is completed within the calculated duration, and a data transmitting/receiving unit 21 which delivers the determined content to the mobile terminal 40.

Claims

1. A content delivery apparatus which is connected, through a communication network, to a mobile terminal for reproducing a content and to a ticket gate machine, said apparatus comprising:

a user information storing unit operable to hold user information in which information for identifying a mobile terminal to which a content is delivered is associated with each user ID;

a travel duration calculating unit operable to calculate a travel duration for a user traveling by vehicle, based on a boarding zone notified from a ticket gate machine which identifies at least the boarding zone by detecting the user'"'"'s entrance into a station area or boarding onto the vehicle;

a content determining unit operable to determine a content to be reproduced whose reproduction completes within the calculated travel duration; and

a delivery unit operable to identify, based on the user information stored in said user information storing unit, a mobile terminal corresponding to the user ID notified from the ticket gate machine, and to deliver the content determined by said content determining unit.

2. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the user information further includes preference information indicating a content preference for each user ID, and

said content determining unit is operable to identify, with reference to the user information, a preference of the user indicated by the user ID notified by the ticket gate machine, and to determine a content matching the identified preference.

3. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein said content determining unit is operable to, in the case where a reproduction duration of a content matching the preference, edit the content so that the reproduction duration of the content falls within the travel duration, and to determine the edited content as the content to be reproduced.

4. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said content delivery apparatus is further operable to obtain information from a content storing unit in which a plurality of contents are stored, and

said content determining unit is operable to determine, as the content to be reproduced, a content whose reproduction duration is within the travel duration, from among the plurality of contents stored in said content storing unit.

5. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein said content determining unit is operable to determine, as the content to be reproduced, a content whose reproduction duration is within the travel duration and is closest to the travel duration, from among the plurality of contents stored in said content storing unit.

6. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein said content determining unit is operable to obtain, in advance, a content designated by a user, and to determine, as the content to be reproduced, the designated content in the case where a reproduction duration of the designated content is within the travel duration.

7. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein said content determining unit is operable to, in the case where the reproduction duration of the designated content exceeds the travel duration, edit the designated content stored in said content storing unit so that the reproduction duration of the designated content falls within the travel duration, and to determine the edited content as the content to be reproduced.

8. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a station information storing unit operable to hold station information in which required durations for respective station zones are registered,

wherein said travel duration calculating unit is operable to calculate the travel duration with reference to the station information.

9. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising

a station information updating unit operable to update the required durations of the station information stored in said station information storing unit,

wherein said travel duration calculating unit is operable to calculate the travel duration with reference to the station information updated by said station information updating unit.

10. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein said content determining unit is operable to estimate, from the station information stored in said station information storing unit, a time when an in-vehicle announcement is made, and to determine the content considering the estimated time.

11. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein said delivery unit is operable to deliver the content determined by said content determining unit by embedding a content of an in-vehicle announcement, based on the station information stored in said station information storing unit.

12. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein a boarding zone notified by the ticket gate machine only includes a boarding station,

said content delivery apparatus further comprises

a destination identifying unit operable to identify a destination of the user,

the travel duration calculating unit is operable to identify a boarding zone from a boarding station included in the boarding zone and the destination identified by said destination identifying unit, and to calculate the travel duration based on the identified boarding zone.

13. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a waiting duration detecting unit operable to detect a waiting duration for which the user waits for boarding on the vehicle, based on information about a transportation corresponding to the boarding zone identified by the ticket gate machine and on a current time; and

a content writing duration estimating unit operable to estimate a writing duration required for said delivery unit to finish writing the content onto a recording medium of the mobile terminal from a start of delivering the content,

wherein said content determining unit is operable to determine a content whose reproduction is completed within the travel duration and whose writing is completed within the waiting duration, by judging whether or not the content writing is completed within the waiting duration, based on the content writing duration estimated by said content writing duration estimating unit and on the waiting duration detected by said waiting duration detecting unit.

14. The content delivery apparatus according to claim 13,

wherein said content writing duration estimating unit is operable to estimate the writing duration considering a capability of a recording medium onto which the content is written or a capability of a terminal, and a duration required for said content delivery apparatus to transmit the content to the mobile terminal.

15. A content writing apparatus which receives a content delivered from the content delivery apparatus according to claim 1, and writes the content onto a removable recording medium.

16. A content delivery method for use in a server apparatus to deliver a content, the server apparatus being connected, through a communication network, to a mobile terminal for reproducing the content and to a ticket gate machine,

wherein the server apparatus includes

a user information storing unit operable to store user information in which information for identifying a mobile terminal to which a content is delivered is associated with each user ID,

said content delivery method comprises:

calculating a travel duration for a user traveling by vehicle, based on a boarding zone notified by the ticket gate machine which identifies at least the boarding zone by detecting the user'"'"'s entrance into a station area or boarding onto the vehicle;

determining a content whose reproduction completes within the calculated travel duration;

identifying, based on the user information stored in the user information storing unit, a mobile terminal corresponding to the user ID notified from the ticket gate machine; and

delivering, to the identified mobile terminal, the content determined in said determining.

17. A program embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium for in a content delivery apparatus which is connected, through a communication network, to a mobile terminal for reproducing the content and to a ticket gate machine, said program causing a computer to execute said steps described in the content delivery method according to claim 16.

18. A content delivery system comprising:

a content reproduction apparatus that is placed at a seat;

a ticket gate machine; and

a server apparatus that is connected, through a communication network, to said content reproduction apparatus and said ticket gate machine,

wherein said ticket gate machine is operable to at least identify a boarding zone and a seat when detecting a user'"'"'s entrance into a station area or boarding onto a vehicle, and to transmit, to said server apparatus, the identified boarding zone and the seat,

said server apparatus includes;

a travel duration calculating unit operable to calculate a travel duration for the user traveling by vehicle, based on the boarding zone notified from said ticket gate machine;

a content determining unit operable to determine a content whose reproduction is completed within the calculated travel duration; and

a delivery unit operable to deliver the determined content to said content writing apparatus corresponding to the seat notified from said ticket gate machine, and

said content reproduction apparatus is operable to receive the content delivered from said server apparatus, and to reproduce the received content.