JP2006332802A - Information providing method, information providing apparatus, and mobile communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information providing method and information providing that map information required by a user can be received and displayed by a mobile communication terminal while suppressing the amount of map information received by the mobile communication terminal An apparatus and a mobile communication terminal are provided.
SOLUTION: An information providing device 30 can be displayed in addition to map data including at least a road serving as a map display base in a mobile communication terminal 10 and a predetermined position on a map displayed by the map data. A plurality of types of additional display data are stored in advance. The information providing apparatus 30 receives from the mobile communication terminal 10 a map data acquisition request for requesting map data for which the area is specified, and transmits the map data for the specified area to the mobile communication terminal 10. Next, an additional display data acquisition request for requesting additional display data with a specified type is received from the mobile communication terminal 10, and additional display data of a specified type in that region is transmitted to the mobile communication terminal 10.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal such as a mobile phone, an information providing method and an information providing apparatus for providing map information to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network.

  Conventionally, as this kind of information providing method, there is known a method of providing map data of a region designated by a user by transmitting it to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network (see, for example, Patent Document 1). . This map data includes data on various objects such as roads, buildings, parks, shrines, temples, public facilities (schools, police boxes, post offices, etc.), gas stations, stores, stations, etc. that exist on the map. . These map data are collectively transmitted to the mobile communication terminal.

JP 2002-157254 A

  However, in the conventional information providing method, map data including various objects in addition to roads is transmitted and provided to the mobile communication terminal, so that the amount of map information increases and the mobile communication terminal or mobile There is a risk of placing a heavy load on the communication network. In addition, although the method of performing data simplification processing, such as deleting the building below predetermined reference | standard size, is indicated by the said patent document 1, in this case, there existed the following problems. That is, when the data simplification process is performed, the data simplification process unintended by the user is performed, and the map information required by the user may be lost. In addition, information unnecessary for the user may be displayed together on the mobile communication terminal and may be difficult to see.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and its purpose is to suppress the amount of map information received by the mobile communication terminal while the map information required by the user is transmitted by the mobile communication terminal. It is to provide an information providing method, an information providing apparatus, and a mobile communication terminal that can be received and displayed.

In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is an information providing method for providing map information to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network, which is a base of map display in the mobile communication terminal. A step of preliminarily storing map data including at least a road and a plurality of types of additional display data that can be superimposed and displayed at a predetermined position on the map displayed by the map data; A step of receiving a map data acquisition request for requesting data from the mobile communication terminal, a step of transmitting map data of the specified area to the mobile communication terminal, and an addition requesting additional display data of a specified type A step of receiving a display data acquisition request from the mobile communication terminal; and a step of transmitting additional display data of the specified type in the area to the mobile communication terminal. It is characterized in that it has a flop.
In this information providing method, map data including at least a road serving as a base for displaying a map of an area designated by a user is transmitted to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network. The mobile communication terminal can display the map data received via the mobile communication network as a map serving as the base of the region. Then, additional display data of the type designated by the user is transmitted to the mobile communication terminal via the mobile communication network. The mobile communication terminal can additionally display additional display data received via the mobile communication network on the map of the region.
The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the information providing method according to claim 1, charging is performed for data reception by the mobile communication terminal for each data of the map data and the additional display data. is there.
In this information providing method, it is possible to reliably charge for the reception of map data and additional display data by the mobile communication terminal for each data.
In each of the information providing methods, the additional display data displays an icon image that can be automatically transmitted to at least one destination of a telephone number, an e-mail address, and a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) by a user's selection operation. It may be data for In this case, by a simple operation in which the user selects an icon image displayed on the mobile communication terminal as the additional display data, at least one of the telephone number, mail address, and URL set in the icon image is sent. Can be sent automatically.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing device for providing map information to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network, wherein the map data includes at least a road serving as a map display base in the mobile communication terminal. And data storage means for storing a plurality of types of additional display data that can be superimposed and displayed in addition to a predetermined position on the map displayed by the map data, and obtaining map data for requesting the map data in which the region is specified Map data acquisition request receiving means for receiving a request from a mobile communication terminal, map data transmitting means for transmitting map data of the designated area to the mobile communication terminal in response to the map data acquisition request, and a type specified Additional display data acquisition request receiving means for receiving from the mobile communication terminal an additional display data acquisition request for requesting the added additional display data; Types of additional display data is characterized in that it comprises an additional display data transmission means for transmitting to said mobile communication terminal.
In this information providing apparatus, map data including at least a road serving as a base for displaying a map of an area designated by a user is transmitted to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network. The mobile communication terminal can display the map data received from the information providing apparatus via the mobile communication network as a map serving as the base of the region. Then, the information providing apparatus transmits additional display data of the type specified by the user to the mobile communication terminal via the mobile communication network. The mobile communication terminal can additionally display the additional display data of the specified type received from the information providing apparatus via the mobile communication network, superimposed on the map of the area.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the information providing device of the third aspect, for each of the map data and the additional display data, billing data for data reception by the mobile communication terminal is transmitted to the billing processing device. It is characterized by.
In this information providing device, the billing data is transmitted to the billing processing device for each data of the map data and the additional display data, so that the billing processing device charges for the reception of the map data and the additional display data by the mobile communication terminal. Make sure that it can be done for each piece of data.
In each of the information providing devices, the additional display data is data for displaying an icon image that can be automatically transmitted to at least one of a telephone number, an email address, and a URL by a user's selection operation. There may be. In this case, data for displaying the predetermined icon image as the additional display data is transmitted to the mobile communication terminal via the mobile communication network. The mobile communication terminal can display the icon image received from the information providing apparatus via the mobile communication network on the map of the area. By a simple operation in which the user selects an icon image displayed on the mobile communication terminal as the additional display data, the telephone number, e-mail address, and URL set in the icon image are automatically transmitted to at least one destination. You can make a call.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile communication terminal capable of receiving map information from an information providing apparatus via a mobile communication network, wherein the map includes at least a road serving as a base of a map display in which a region is designated. A map data acquisition request transmitting means for transmitting a map data acquisition request for requesting data to the information providing apparatus; a map data receiving means for receiving map data of the designated area from the information providing apparatus; and An acquisition data specifying means for specifying at least one type of a plurality of types of additional display data that can be added and displayed in a predetermined position, and an additional display data acquisition request for requesting additional display data with the specified type. Additional display data acquisition request transmission means for transmitting to the providing device, and additional display for receiving the specified type of additional display data in the area from the information providing device And over data receiving means, based on the map data and the additional display data, is characterized in that a display means for displaying an area map of the specification.
In this mobile communication terminal, map data including at least a road serving as a base for displaying a map of an area designated by a user may be received via the mobile communication network and displayed as a map serving as the base of the area. it can. Then, the additional display data of the type specified by the user can be received via the mobile communication network, and can be additionally displayed over the map of the region.
The invention of claim 6 is the mobile communication terminal according to claim 5, wherein the designated area is an area including the current position of the mobile communication terminal and is associated with the current position of the mobile communication terminal. Peripheral information receiving means for receiving peripheral information distributed via a mobile communication network, and the display means displays the peripheral information at a position corresponding to the peripheral information on the map. It is what.
This mobile communication terminal receives the peripheral information distributed via the mobile communication network in association with the current position of the mobile communication terminal, and displays it on the map of the region, thereby determining the presence or absence of the peripheral information. It is possible to notify the user and to prompt the user to confirm the contents of the surrounding information.
Note that the “display of peripheral information” may display the content of the peripheral information itself, or display a link image such as an icon image linked with a sub-screen display that displays the content of the peripheral information. You may do.
The invention according to claim 7 is the mobile communication terminal according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the position information acquisition means for acquiring the position information of the current position of the mobile communication terminal, the current position of the mobile communication terminal, The user of the mobile communication terminal indicates that the position corresponding to the additional display data is close when the distance to the position corresponding to the additional display data displayed on the map is equal to or less than a predetermined distance set in advance. And a notification means for informing the user.
In this mobile communication terminal, when the display position of the additional display data displayed on the map of the region is approached, the user goes to a point corresponding to the additional display data by informing the user to that effect. Can help or encourage.
The “location information of the current position of the mobile communication terminal” may be information on an area (cell) where the mobile communication terminal is located, or information on longitude and latitude, which is GPS (Global Positioning System) position information. Good.
The invention of claim 8 is the mobile communication terminal of claim 5, 6 or 7, wherein whether or not to display each of a plurality of types of additional display data received by the additional display data receiving means on the display means. Display data specifying means for specifying is provided, and the display means displays the additional display data specified by the display data specifying means by the map data.
In this mobile communication terminal, since the user can arbitrarily specify the display target for each of the received multiple types of additional display data, additional display data to be additionally displayed on the map of the region can be arbitrarily specified. Can be switched to.
In each mobile communication terminal, the additional display data is data for displaying an icon image that can be automatically transmitted to at least one of a telephone number, a mail address, and a URL by a user's selection operation. And when the icon image on the map displayed on the mobile communication terminal is selected, there may be provided a communication means for transmitting to the destination set in the icon image. In this case, by a simple operation in which the user selects an icon image displayed on the map as the additional display data, at least one of the telephone number, mail address, and WEB address set in the icon image is sent to the destination. In contrast, automatic transmission is possible.

  Examples of the “additional display data” include display data of restaurants, railway stations, sights, public toilets, gas stations, hotels, currency exchanges, police (duties), information centers, airports, and the like. The “additional display data” also includes train and bus route maps. These types of additional display data (categories) may be further divided into types of fine classification. For example, the type of “restaurant” is further divided into Japanese restaurants, Italian restaurants, French restaurants, Chinese restaurants, etc., and each additional display data is received and displayed on the mobile communication terminal independently of each other. You may be able to do it.

Further, as the “mobile communication terminal”, mobile phones such as PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) system, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) system, TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) system, IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) -2000, etc. Mobile phone standardized by TD-SCDMA (MC: Multi Carrier), which is one of TD-SCDMA (Time Division Asynchronous Code Division Multiple Access) methods, PHS (Personal Handyphone System), and the like.
Further, the processing and control in the information providing apparatus and the mobile communication terminal can be realized by executing a predetermined program on a computer provided therein. Delivery of the program used in the computer may be performed using a recording medium such as an FD or a CD-ROM in which the program is recorded as digital information, or may be performed using a communication network such as a computer network.

  According to the first to eighth aspects of the present invention, only the additional display data whose type is specified is received by the mobile communication terminal as additional display data that is additionally displayed on the map of the area specified by the user. The data amount of the map information received by the mobile communication terminal can be suppressed. In addition, since the user can specify the type of additional display data to be additionally displayed over the map, the map information required by the user can be received and displayed by the mobile communication terminal. There is.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an information providing method and apparatus for providing map information to a mobile phone as a mobile communication terminal will be described.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an information providing system capable of implementing the information providing method according to the present embodiment. This information providing system includes a mobile phone 10 and an information providing server 30 as an information distribution device connected to a mobile phone communication network 20 as a mobile communication network. The mobile phone communication network 20 includes a base station 21 that performs direct wireless communication with the mobile phone 10, as well as an exchange (not shown), a dedicated line, a router, a firewall, and the like. In addition to the information providing server 30, a location registration server 40 and a billing server 50 as a billing processing device are connected to the cellular phone communication network 20. Each server 30, 40, 50 may be configured by a single computer device, or may be configured by connecting a plurality of computers each having a plurality of functions via a network.

  The mobile phone 10 can acquire three types of position information including GPS (Global Positioning System) position information, area position information, and facility position information. The GPS position information is GPS position information (latitude, longitude, altitude) indicating the current position where the mobile phone 10 is located, and the mobile phone 10 is from a GPS artificial satellite (hereinafter referred to as “GPS satellite”) 60. Calculated based on the received GPS signal. The area position information is area position information related to the communication management area in which each mobile phone 10 is located, and is received from the position registration server 40 and acquired. Examples of the area location information include a cell ID for identifying a cell managed by the base station 21, the location of the base station 21, the identification information of the base station 21, and the like. The facility location information is facility location information that can specify the location of various facilities such as a ticket gate of a station where a user can pass or stay. This facility location information is acquired by performing communication between the mobile terminal 10 and the communication terminal device for use detection installed in the facility when the user passes through the facility or stays in the facility. can do. The example in FIG. 1 shows a case where the communication terminal device is a ticket gate device 70 at a station. When the user approaches the ticket gate device 70 or when the user holds the mobile phone 10 over the communication antenna unit 71 of the ticket gate device 70, the user's mobile phone 10 is connected to the communication antenna unit of the ticket gate device 70. If it is located within the range where it can communicate with 71, authentication for railway use is executed by bidirectional communication between the ticket gate device 70 and the mobile phone 10, and the user can pass the ticket gate. Through this communication, the mobile phone 10 can acquire facility location information indicating from which ticket gate the station has entered or exited from which ticket gate.

  The information providing server 30 includes a map database in which map information to be provided to the mobile phone 10 is registered. In response to an acquisition request from the mobile phone 11, the information providing server 30 transmits and provides the map information registered in the map database via the base station 21 in each management area.

  The location registration server 40 is a server that registers and manages location information of a management area where each mobile phone is located. This management area may be an area composed of one cell managed by the base station 21 that performs radio communication with each mobile phone, and is an area where a plurality of adjacent cells are managed as one group. Also good. A typical size of one management area is several kilometers to several hundred meters. The location registration of each mobile phone with respect to the location registration server 40 is performed periodically when the power is turned on and whenever the cell in which each mobile phone is located changes.

  The billing server 50 performs billing processing for mail transmission / reception by each mobile phone, communication when browsing a WEB page, downloading various contents including the map information, and the like.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the relationship between each means constituting the information providing server 30. The information providing server 30 is for a system bus, an internal memory composed of a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, etc., an external storage device composed of a hard disk drive (HDD), an optical disk drive, etc., and a cellular phone communication network for communicating with each cellular phone The communication apparatus etc. are provided. The information providing server 30 implements functions such as a data storage unit 301, an acquisition request receiving unit 302, and a data transmitting unit 304 by executing a predetermined program on hardware such as a CPU.

  The data storage unit 301 includes a CPU, an internal memory, an external storage device, and the like, and stores map information of each area that can be distributed to the mobile phones 10 and 11. A map database is constructed using these map information, and map information can be searched by specifying a region and a scale.

The map information includes map data (hereinafter referred to as “base map data”) serving as a base of map display on the mobile phone 10, additional display data that can be additionally displayed on the map displayed by the map data, including. The base map data and the additional display data can be transmitted to the mobile phone 10 independently of each other, and are charged independently of each other for data reception by the mobile phone 10.
The base map data is map data including at least a road, and may include main place name information as necessary.

The additional display data is additional display data that can be added and displayed at a predetermined position on the map displayed by the map data, and is classified into a plurality of types and registered in the map database. Examples of the additional display data include a restaurant, a railway station, a famous place, a public toilet, a gas station, a hotel, a money exchange, a police station (a police box), an information center, and an airport. In the mobile phone, additional display data can be acquired by designating one or more of these types.
The plurality of types of additional display data can be arbitrarily selected and displayed as additional hierarchical map data on the map displayed as the base map data on the mobile phone 10. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the additional display data 311 of the sights, the additional display data 312 of the railway station, and the additional display data 313 of the restaurant can be switched and displayed on the base map 310.
Here, in the overlapping display of the additional display data, the background image portion other than the additional display image portion on which the additional display data is displayed on the screen of the mobile phone 10 is transparently displayed. When displaying an additional display image portion indicating the above-mentioned sights or a railway station, the image portion of the base map corresponding to the background image portion other than the additional display image portion is transparently displayed.

  The additional display data may be data for displaying an icon image that can be automatically transmitted to at least one of a telephone number, a mail address, and a URL by a user's selection operation. In this case, by a simple operation in which the user selects an icon image displayed on the mobile communication terminal as the additional display data, at least one of the telephone number, mail address, and URL set in the icon image is sent. Can be sent automatically. With this automatic transmission, it is possible to obtain detailed information about the object such as a restaurant displaying the additional display data, or to send information such as a reservation to the object such as the restaurant from the mobile phone side. .

  The acquisition request receiving unit 302 includes a communication device for a mobile phone communication network, a CPU, and the like, and receives a map data acquisition request and an additional display data acquisition request transmitted from the mobile phone 10 via the mobile phone communication network 20. To do.

The data transmission means 304 is composed of a communication device for a cellular phone communication network, a CPU, and the like. In response to the map data acquisition request from the mobile phone 10 received by the acquisition request reception unit 301, the data transmission unit 304 searches the map database of the data storage unit 301 for the region specified in the map data acquisition request and Base map data corresponding to the scale is extracted and transmitted to the mobile phone 10 via the mobile phone communication network 20.
The data transmission unit 304 is designated by the additional display data acquisition request from the map database of the data storage unit 301 in response to the additional display data acquisition request from the mobile phone 10 received by the acquisition request reception unit 301. The type of additional display data is extracted and transmitted to the mobile phone 10 via the mobile phone communication network 20.

  Note that it is preferable to charge for data reception by the mobile phone 10 for each of the map data and the additional display data. By such charge for each data, it is possible to reliably charge for reception of map data and additional display data by the mobile phone 10. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the data transmitting unit 304 transmits charging data for data reception by the mobile phone 10 to the charging server 50 via the mobile phone communication network 20 for each of the map data and the additional display data. Is configured to do.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the mobile phone 10 used in the present embodiment. The cellular phone 10 includes a control unit 111, an internal memory 112, a wireless communication unit 113 as a communication unit, and an antenna 114. Further, the control unit 111 is connected with a microphone 116 as a sound input unit and a speaker 117 as a sound output unit via a voice processing unit 115, and connected with a display unit 119 through an image processing unit 118, and further with a key. An operation unit 120 is connected. In addition, the cellular phones 10 and 11 include a clock unit 125 as a time measuring unit, a GPS receiving unit 130 and an antenna 131 as a GPS location information acquisition unit, a short-range wireless communication unit 140 as a facility location information acquisition unit, and The antenna 141 is provided.

The control unit 111 includes, for example, a CPU, a cache memory, a system bus, and the like, and performs data transmission / reception to / from each unit such as the internal memory 112 and the wireless communication unit 113 by executing a predetermined control program. To control.
The internal memory 112 is constituted by a semiconductor memory such as a RAM or a ROM, and stores a control program executed by the control unit 111 and various data.
The wireless communication unit 114 is controlled by the control unit 111, and performs wireless communication with the base station 21 of the mobile phone communication network 20 through the antenna 114 by a predetermined communication method. Through this wireless communication, it is possible to perform voice telephone communication with a specific mobile phone or the like, or perform data communication for transmission / reception of e-mails or reception of information transmitted from the information providing server 30. .
The voice processing unit 115 encodes the transmission voice signal input from the microphone 116 by a predetermined method and sends the encoded signal to the control unit 111. Also, the voice processing unit 115 decodes the received voice signal received by the wireless communication unit 113 and outputs it from the speaker 117.
The image processing unit 118 processes image data captured by the camera unit 121 and image data such as icons and menus stored in the internal memory 112 under the control of the control unit 111, and a liquid crystal display (LCD). And the like are displayed on the display unit 119 including the above.
The key operation unit 120 includes a data input key (ten key, * key, # key), a call start key, an end key, a scroll key, a multi-function key, and the like. Used for scrolling and selecting displayed information.
The camera unit 121 is composed of a built-in camera whose lens surface is exposed to the outside of the mobile phones 10 and 11. In the first embodiment, a CCD camera using a CCD is used as an image forming body. However, other digital type small cameras such as a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) camera can also be used.
The clock unit 125 is composed of a clock circuit or the like, counts accurate date and time, and outputs date and time data.

  The GPS receiving unit 130 receives radio waves from a plurality of GPS satellites 60 arranged around the earth, and calculates latitude, longitude, and altitude data where the mobile phone 10 is located based on the reception result. The GPS reception unit 130 stores, for example, a filter unit that extracts a target frequency component from a radio wave reception signal, a demodulation circuit unit that extracts a GPS signal from a reception signal of a predetermined frequency component, and a program and code data used for signal decoding And a control / arithmetic processing unit that controls each unit and decodes a GPS signal to obtain position information and accuracy information.

  The short-range wireless communication unit 140 is configured by using an IC card, an IC chip, or the like that can be detachably provided in the mobile phone 10 or incorporated therein, and the ticket gate device 70 installed in various facilities. The communication terminal device communicates with a predetermined communication method. Various systems can be adopted as the communication system. For example, a short-range wireless communication method using radio waves such as Bluetooth, a communication method using infrared rays, or the like can be employed. In addition to the ticket gate device 70 shown in FIG. 1, the communication terminal device to be communicated with the short-range wireless communication unit 140 includes a fare collection device, a boarding card reading device, a station, etc. And ticketing devices at event venues, automatic cash payment devices at financial institutions, cash register devices at stores, ETC base stations on highways, and the like.

  FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing the relationship between each means constituting the mobile phone 10 of the present embodiment. The mobile phone 10 executes a predetermined program on the hardware shown in FIG. 4 to obtain each of the acquisition request transmission unit 101, the data reception unit 102, the data storage unit 103, the acquisition data designation unit 104, the display unit 105, and the like. The function is realized.

The acquisition request transmission unit 101 includes a control unit 111, a wireless communication unit 113, an antenna 114, and the like, and transmits a map data acquisition request for requesting base map data in which a region is specified via the mobile phone communication network 20. Transmit to the providing server 30.
In addition, the acquisition request transmission unit 101 transmits an additional display data acquisition request for requesting additional display data of a specified type to the information providing server 30 via the mobile phone communication network 20.

The data receiving unit 102 includes a control unit 111, a wireless communication unit 113, an antenna 114, and the like, and receives map data of the designated area from the information providing server 30 via the mobile phone communication network 20.
Further, the data receiving means 102 receives the specified type of additional display data in the region from the information providing server 30 via the mobile phone communication network 20.

  The data storage means 103 includes an internal memory 112 and stores base map data and additional display data received from the information providing server 30.

  The acquisition data specifying means 104 includes a control unit 111, a key operation unit 120, and the like, and uses at least one type of a plurality of types of additional display data that can be added and displayed at a predetermined position on the map of the area. It can be used when the person specifies. The acquired data specifying means 104 can also be used to specify the area and scale when acquiring the base map data.

  The display unit 105 includes a control unit 111, a display unit 119 including an LCD, and the like, and displays a map of the designated area based on the base map data and the additional display data stored in the data storage unit 103. .

  FIG. 6 is a sequence flow diagram illustrating an example of a map information provision processing operation in the information provision system according to the present embodiment. In this example, a case will be described in which map information including information about a specific restaurant (for example, a Japanese restaurant) in an area where the user's mobile phone 10 is located is downloaded to the mobile phone 10.

In FIG. 6, the mobile phone 10 acquires position information of the current position where the mobile phone 10 is located. The location information of the mobile phone 10 may be area location information acquired from the location registration server 40, or may be the above-described GPS location information (latitude, longitude, altitude) or installation location information.
Next, when the user operates the key operation unit 120 of the mobile phone 10 to specify the map scale and instruct the download of the map information, the mobile phone 10 transmits a map data acquisition request to the information providing server 30. . The map data acquisition request includes the location information of the mobile phone 10 as the area designation information for designating the area that the user intends to acquire, and also includes the scale information.
Based on the map data acquisition request received from the mobile phone 10, the information providing server 30 generates base map data of the specified scale for the specified area centered on the current position of the mobile phone 10, and stores it in the mobile phone 10. Send. In addition, the information providing server 30 transmits billing data for performing billing processing to the billing server 502 in response to reception of the base map data by the mobile phone 10. The accounting server 50 performs the accounting process based on the accounting data received from the information providing server 30.
The cellular phone 10 temporarily stores the base map data received from the information providing server 30 in the data storage unit 103, and displays the specified area and scale map on the display unit 105 based on the base map data ( FIG. 7 (a)). A black circle at the center of FIG. 7A indicates the current position of the mobile phone 10.

Next, the user operates the key operation unit 120 of the mobile phone 10 to display an additional display menu screen on which the type of additional display data can be specified. When the additional display data of the type desired by the user (in this example, a Japanese restaurant) is designated on the additional display menu screen, the mobile phone 10 transmits an additional display data acquisition request to the information providing server 30. This additional display data acquisition request also includes information for designating the type of additional display data that the user intends to acquire (in this example, a Japanese restaurant).
Based on the additional display data acquisition request received from the mobile phone 10, the information providing server 30 generates the specified type of additional table data for the specified area displayed on the mobile phone 10, and sends it to the mobile phone 10. Send. Further, the information providing server 30 transmits billing data for performing billing processing to the billing server 502 in response to reception of the additional display data by the mobile phone 10. The accounting server 50 performs the accounting process based on the accounting data received from the information providing server 30.
The cellular phone 10 temporarily stores the specified type of additional display data received from the information providing server 30 in the data storage unit 103. Then, the mobile phone 10 displays an icon image indicating a Japanese restaurant at a predetermined position on the map of the designated area displayed on the display unit 105 based on the additional display data stored in the data storage unit 103. A “sum” surrounded by a circle is added and displayed so as to overlap (see FIG. 7B). The base map image portion in the background other than the icon image is displayed transparently.

The user operates the key operation unit 120 while viewing the map screen to move the selection icon on the map screen to a specific Japanese restaurant (the first Japanese restaurant closest to the mobile phone) on the map screen. And press the multi-function key. Then, the mobile phone 10 automatically makes a call to the telephone number set on the icon map of the Japanese restaurant selected by the selection icon. As a result, the user of the mobile phone 10 can call the specific Japanese restaurant to hear a detailed location or check the contents of the Japanese menu provided at the restaurant.
The icon image of the Japanese restaurant may be set with a URL that is an email address of a Japanese restaurant or an address of a WEB page instead of a telephone number. In this case, the user can send an e-mail address to the Japanese restaurant or browse the WEB page of the Japanese restaurant by a simple operation in which the user selects the icon image of the Japanese restaurant.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, only the additional display data with the specified type is received by the mobile phone 10 as the additional display data to be additionally displayed over the map of the specified region. The data amount of map information can be suppressed. In addition, since the user can specify the type of additional display data to be additionally displayed over the map, the map information required by the user can be received and displayed by the mobile phone 10.
Further, according to the present embodiment, the user can arbitrarily specify the display target for each of the multiple types of additional display data received from the information providing server 30. In this case, the user can arbitrarily switch the additional display data to be additionally displayed on the map of the region.

In the above embodiment, peripheral information distributed via the mobile phone communication network 20 in association with the current position of the mobile phone from the PUSH type information delivery system may be received by the mobile phone 10. The display relating to the peripheral information received by the mobile phone 10 is performed at a position corresponding to the peripheral information on the map. By displaying the peripheral information on the map, it is possible to notify the user of the presence or absence of the peripheral information received from the PUSH type information distribution system, or to prompt the user to confirm the content of the peripheral information.
In the above embodiment, when the distance between the current position of the mobile phone 10 and the position corresponding to the additional display data such as the restaurant or the landmark displayed on the map becomes equal to or less than a predetermined distance set in advance, You may make it notify the user of the mobile telephone 10 that the position corresponding to additional display data is near. As a notification means for notifying the user, a speaker 117 can be used for notification by sound, and a display unit 119 can be used for notification by an image. In this case, when approaching the display position of the additional display data such as restaurants and sights displayed on the map of the area, the user is notified at the point corresponding to the additional display data. Can help or encourage people to go.

  In the above embodiment, the information providing system in the mobile phone has been described. However, the same applies to the information providing system in the mobile communication terminal other than the mobile phone.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an entire information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The functional block diagram of the information provision server which comprises the information provision system. Explanatory drawing of the map data and additional display data which can be received and displayed with a mobile telephone. The block diagram which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the mobile telephone which comprises the same information provision system. Functional block diagram of the mobile phone. The sequence flow figure showing an example of processing operation of map information offer in the information offer system of this embodiment. (A) And (b) is explanatory drawing which shows the map information displayed on the liquid crystal display of a mobile telephone.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Mobile telephone 20 Mobile telephone communication network 30 Information provision server 40 Location registration server 50 Billing server

Claims (8)

An information providing method for providing map information to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network,
Map data including at least a road serving as a base for map display in a mobile communication terminal, and a plurality of types of additional display data that can be superimposed and displayed in addition to a predetermined position on the map displayed by the map data are stored in advance. Steps to keep
Receiving a map data acquisition request for requesting map data with a specified region from a mobile communication terminal;
Transmitting the map data of the designated area to the mobile communication terminal;
Receiving an additional display data acquisition request for requesting additional display data of a specified type from the mobile communication terminal;
Transmitting the specified type of additional display data in the area to the mobile communication terminal. In the information provision method of Claim 1,
A method for providing information, characterized in that a charge is made for data reception by the mobile communication terminal for each of the map data and the additional display data. An information providing device for providing map information to a mobile communication terminal via a mobile communication network,
Data for storing map data including at least a road serving as a base for map display in a mobile communication terminal, and a plurality of types of additional display data that can be superimposed and displayed at a predetermined position on the map displayed by the map data Storage means;
A map data acquisition request receiving means for receiving from the mobile communication terminal a map data acquisition request for requesting map data in which a region is specified;
Map data transmitting means for transmitting map data of the designated area to the mobile communication terminal in response to the map data acquisition request;
Additional display data acquisition request receiving means for receiving an additional display data acquisition request for requesting additional display data of a specified type from the mobile communication terminal;
An information providing apparatus comprising: additional display data transmitting means for transmitting the specified type of additional display data in the area to the mobile communication terminal. In the information provision apparatus of Claim 3,
An information providing apparatus comprising charging data transmitting means for transmitting charging data for data reception by the mobile communication terminal to a charging processing apparatus for each of the map data and the additional display data. A mobile communication terminal capable of receiving map information from an information providing device via a mobile communication network,
Map data acquisition request transmitting means for transmitting a map data acquisition request for requesting map data including at least a road serving as a base of map display in which an area is specified;
Map data receiving means for receiving map data of the designated area from the information providing device;
Acquisition data designating means for designating at least one type of a plurality of types of additional display data that can be superimposed and displayed at a predetermined position on the map of the area;
Additional display data acquisition request transmitting means for transmitting an additional display data acquisition request for requesting additional display data with the specified type to the information providing device;
Additional display data receiving means for receiving additional display data of the specified type in the area from the information providing device;
A mobile communication terminal comprising display means for displaying a map of the designated area based on the map data and the additional display data. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 5, wherein
The designated area is an area including the current position of the mobile communication terminal,
Peripheral information receiving means for receiving peripheral information distributed via the mobile communication network in association with the current position of the mobile communication terminal,
The mobile communication terminal characterized in that the display means displays the peripheral information at a position corresponding to the peripheral information on the map. In the mobile communication terminal according to claim 5 or 6,
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of the current position of the mobile communication terminal;
The position corresponding to the additional display data is close when the distance between the current position of the mobile communication terminal and the position corresponding to the additional display data displayed on the map is equal to or less than a predetermined distance set in advance. A mobile communication terminal comprising notification means for informing a user of the mobile communication terminal. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 5, 6 or 7,
Display data designating means for designating whether or not to display each of a plurality of types of additional display data received by the additional display data receiving means on the display means,
The mobile communication terminal characterized in that the display means displays the additional display data specified by the display data specifying means by the map data.

Images