JP2006235979A - Information providing system and information providing method - Google Patents

Abstract

An information providing system is provided that can provide reservation information including the position of a terminal device and can easily make a reservation for a facility selected from the terminal device.
An information providing system capable of reserving an accommodation facility using a mobile phone having a GPS function. The system is configured to include an information providing center 20 that is connected to the mobile phone 10 via the mobile communication network 100 and connected to the reservation site via the Internet 200.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing system that provides information for making a reservation for a facility such as a hotel or restaurant from a terminal device such as a mobile phone.

In recent years, a system has been proposed in which information relating to travel reservations and transportation use can be exchanged using a portable information terminal (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This system allows contact information between a stationary information terminal installed at a travel agency and a portable information terminal to be communicated in a non-contact manner, so that ticket information necessary for travel, reservation information for accommodation facilities, etc. can be transferred to a portable information terminal. It can be taken in. The user can browse the information on the screen of the portable information terminal or use it as an electronic ticket based on ticket information.
JP 2004-48193 A

  The system as described above assumes a portable information terminal and a stationary information terminal of a special specification, and cannot use a car navigation mounted on a mobile phone or a car with a normal specification.

  In particular, it is useful to have a system that can make a reservation from a terminal device such as a mobile phone or a car navigation system when, for example, it is desired to make a reservation for an accommodation facility such as a hotel or a restaurant without making a reservation in advance. In recent years, it is possible to make a reservation using an information site that performs a reservation process for a facility such as a hotel or a restaurant by connecting to the Internet from a mobile phone.

  However, when making a reservation for a facility such as a hotel or restaurant, the location of the facility, in particular the relationship with its own location and usage conditions such as the fee, are grasped on the screen of the terminal device, and the reservation target is selected. It is difficult to change.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an information providing system that can provide reservation information including the position of a terminal device and can easily make a reservation for a facility selected from the terminal device.

  An aspect of the present invention is an information providing system capable of reserving a facility such as a hotel or a restaurant using a terminal device such as a mobile phone or a car navigation system having a so-called GPS function.

  An information providing system according to an aspect of the present invention provides an information providing system that provides information for making a reservation to use a facility to a terminal device having a wireless communication function including a function of transmitting position information. In response to a reservation request transmitted by wireless communication from a terminal device, map information presenting the position of the terminal device and the position of the reservation target facility based on the position information, and facility information related to the reservation target facility are displayed on the terminal device. Providing means, and reservation processing means for executing reservation processing for the facility corresponding to the position of the reservation target facility instructed from the terminal device based on the map information.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information provision system which can provide the position and facility information of a reservation object facility to the terminal device which a user operates, and can perform reservation of the facility which the user selected easily can be provided.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(System configuration)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a configuration of an information providing system according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a configuration of the system including a specific peripheral configuration.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the system according to the present embodiment schematically includes a mobile phone (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a terminal) 10 and an information providing center 20 as terminal devices.

  The terminal 10 has a wireless communication function, and includes a function for exchanging various kinds of information and browsing information with the information providing center 20 by the wireless communication function. Specifically, the terminal 10 incorporates computer hardware and software, and displays information received from the information providing center 20 by a wireless communication function on a display screen or is related to a reservation process as described later. Various types of information (including commands for requesting and giving instructions) can be transmitted to the information providing center 20.

  Further, the terminal 10 includes a so-called GPS function of receiving position information indicating the current position to the information providing center 20 by a wireless communication function by receiving radio waves from a GPS (global positioning system) satellite 30.

  Specifically, the information providing center 20 is a server, and is roughly divided into a map information providing function unit 21 for displaying map information, and a facility to be reserved (in this embodiment, an accommodation facility such as a hotel). It has the accommodation destination information provision function part 22 which provides information (it describes with accommodation destination information), and the reservation process function part 23 for performing an accommodation destination reservation process.

  The map information providing function unit 21 uses the map information database to present the current location of the terminal 10 and the location of the accommodation destination to be reserved based on the location information and accommodation information from the terminal 10 (points) This is a function for transmitting map information including a mark and a mark to the terminal 10 by a wireless communication function.

  The accommodation information providing function unit 22 uses a database in which accommodation information (a large number of accommodations 1... N) prepared in advance is used, and provides accommodation information corresponding to the location of the accommodation indicated by the terminal 10. This is a function for searching and transmitting to the terminal 10 by the wireless communication function.

  As will be described later, the reservation processing function unit 23 connects to a site on the Internet (represented as a reservation site), executes a reservation request for an accommodation destination designated by the terminal 10, and sends a reservation processing result to the terminal 10. Performs a kind of reservation mediation process that responds.

  Further, a specific configuration of the present system will be described with reference to FIG.

  The terminal 10 performs wireless communication via the mobile communication network 100 which is a mobile phone communication system, and performs information exchange with the information providing center 20 through the wireless communication. The mobile communication network 100 is a mobile communication network including a base station and an exchange station.

  The information providing center 20 is connected to the mobile communication network 100 and to the Internet 200. That is, the information providing center 20 performs information provision and reservation request reception with the terminal 10 via the mobile communication network 100. Further, the information providing center 20 is connected to the reservation site 230 that executes the reservation processing of the accommodations 1... N in the present embodiment via the Internet 200 and executes the reservation processing by the reservation processing function unit 23.

(System operation)
The processing procedure of the system of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS.

  First, reservation request information of an accommodation destination (accommodation facility such as a hotel) is transmitted from the terminal 10 to the information providing center 20 through the mobile communication network 100 by a user operation. The reservation request information includes, for example, user ID information registered in advance in the information providing center 20, the area name of the reservation target accommodation destination, and the like. At this time, the position information by the GPS function is transmitted from the terminal 10 to the information providing center 20 together with the reservation request information.

  In the information providing center 20, upon receiving a reservation request from the terminal 10, first, the map information providing function unit 21 is designated using the map information database and the database managed by the accommodation information providing function unit 22. Based on the area name or the location information of the terminal 10, map information 14 including information (point 13) indicating the location of the accommodation destination that is a candidate for reservation is transmitted to the terminal 10 (step S1). In this case, the map information 14 also includes information (point 12) indicating the current position based on the position information of the terminal 10.

  By this information providing process, the terminal 10 can receive the map information 14 and display it on the screen of the display 11 as shown in FIG. 3 (step S2). That is, the user can confirm the location 13 of the accommodation destination, which is usually a plurality of reservation target facilities, together with his current position 12 on the map on the screen.

  Next, the information providing center 20 receives the designation (selection) of the accommodation destination to be reserved from the terminal 10 by selecting and clicking (clicking) the point 13 on the screen of the terminal 10 by a user operation. The accommodation destination information providing function unit 22 retrieves accommodation destination information corresponding to the location of the accommodation destination designated by the terminal 10 from the database, and transmits it to the terminal 10. This accommodation information includes information such as a location address, a usage fee, or facilities, and is displayed on the screen of the terminal 10.

  The user can check the accommodation information provided from the information providing center 20 on the screen of the terminal 10. Next, when the reservation of the accommodation destination selected and specified on the screen of the terminal 10 is confirmed by the user's operation, the information providing center 20 accepts the reservation confirmation (YES in step S3).

  In the information providing center 20, the reservation processing function unit 23 connects to the reservation site 230 on the Internet 200, and executes a reservation request for the accommodation destination instructed from the terminal 10 (step S4). When the reservation process is completed from the reservation site 230 and the reservation is established, the reservation processing function unit 23 transmits a message to that effect to the terminal 10 (YES in step S5). Thereby, the user can confirm on the screen of the terminal 10 that the accommodation destination corresponding to the accommodation destination information provided from the information providing center 20 can be reserved.

  Here, in the information provision center 20, the accommodation destination information provision function part 22 provides the guide map information to the accommodation destination where the reservation was established (step S6). By this information providing process, the terminal 10 can receive the guide map information 15 and display it on the screen of the display 11 as shown in FIG. That is, the user can confirm the guide route to the location 13 of the reserved accommodation destination along with his current position 12 on the guide map information 15 on the screen.

  On the other hand, when the reservation processing function unit 23 connects to the reservation site 230 on the Internet 200 and executes a reservation request for the accommodation destination instructed from the terminal 10, the accommodation destination is full and the reservation is not established. Yes (NO in step S5). In this case, the information providing center 20 transmits to the terminal 10 that the accommodation is full and the reservation is not established.

  Further, in the information providing center 20, the map information providing function unit 21 transmits again to the terminal 10 the map information 14 from which the accommodation point (dashed line 13a) where the reservation is not established is deleted, as shown in FIG. (Step S7). Then, the user can request a reservation process for a new accommodation destination by re-execution of selection and confirmation of the accommodation destination on the screen of the terminal 10 (steps S3 to S6).

  Even when the user confirms the accommodation information provided from the information provision center 20 on the screen of the terminal 10, even if the reservation of the accommodation destination selected and designated is canceled, the information provision center 20 does not cancel the reservation described above. You may perform the same process as the case where is not established. That is, the information providing center 20 transmits the map information 14 from which the canceled accommodation destination points have been deleted to the terminal 10 again, and executes a process of accepting a reservation confirmation of a new accommodation destination.

  As described above, in the system according to the present embodiment, the user selects a desired accommodation from a plurality of reservation target accommodations presented on the map using the terminal 10 which is a mobile phone having a normal specification. You can make a reservation request. In this case, on the screen of the terminal 10, various information such as the location of the reservation target accommodation, its current location, and the usage fee of the accommodation can be confirmed.

  Furthermore, when the reservation is not established due to the reservation requesting accommodation being full, or when the reservation is canceled, it is possible to select again on the map from which the accommodation has been deleted. In addition, when a reservation is established, a guide map to the accommodation can be displayed on the screen of the terminal 10, so that the user can easily go to the reserved accommodation.

  In the present embodiment, an accommodation destination such as a hotel is assumed as a reservation target facility. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a reservation process for a facility such as a restaurant. In this case, the facility information corresponding to the accommodation information includes the contents of the menu at the restaurant, the price, and the like.

  In the present embodiment, a mobile phone is assumed as the terminal 10, but a car navigation device having a GPS function may be used. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the car navigation device is premised on having a configuration that can be connected to the information providing center 20 via the mobile communication network 100 by wireless communication.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the reservation processing function unit 23 of the information providing center 20 is configured to connect to a reservation site on the Internet and realize an intermediary function for requesting an actual reservation process. Alternatively, the actual reservation process with a plurality of accommodations may be executed.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of components disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, constituent elements over different embodiments may be appropriately combined.

The block diagram for demonstrating the structure of the information provision system regarding embodiment of this invention. The block diagram for demonstrating the structure of the information provision system also including the specific periphery structure regarding this embodiment. The figure for demonstrating the specific example of the information provided to the terminal device regarding this embodiment. The figure for demonstrating the specific example of the information provided to the terminal device regarding this embodiment. The flowchart for demonstrating the process sequence of the information provision system regarding this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

10 ... Terminal device (mobile phone), 20 ... Information provision center (server),
21 ... Map information providing function unit, 22 ... Accommodation information providing function unit, 23 ... Reservation processing function unit,
30 ... GPS satellite, 100 ... mobile communication network, 200 ... Internet,
230 ... Reservation site.

Claims (8)

In an information providing system that provides information for making a reservation to use a facility for a terminal device having a wireless communication function including a transmission function of position information,
In response to a reservation request transmitted by wireless communication from the terminal device, map information that presents the position of the terminal device and the position of the reservation target facility based on the position information, and facility information related to the reservation target facility Providing means for providing to the device;
An information providing system comprising: reservation processing means for executing a reservation process for a facility corresponding to a position of a reservation target facility instructed from the terminal device based on the map information. The providing means includes:
Using a database that stores the facility information corresponding to the location of the reservation target facility,
2. The information according to claim 1, further comprising: means for retrieving facility information corresponding to a position of a reservation target facility instructed from the terminal device from the database and transmitting the facility information to the terminal device by wireless line communication. Offer system. The reservation processing means includes:
Connect to the server that executes the facility reservation process via the network,
3. The information provision according to claim 1, wherein the server requests a reservation process of a facility corresponding to a position of a reservation target facility instructed from the terminal device. system. The providing means includes:
When the reservation of the facility instructed from the terminal device is confirmed by the reservation processing of the reservation processing means, information for guidance from the location of the terminal device to the location of the facility is provided to the terminal device as the facility information. The information providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising means. The providing means includes:
Means for deleting the unsuccessful reservation target facility from the map information provided again to the terminal device when the reservation of the facility instructed from the terminal device is unsuccessful by the reservation processing of the reservation processing unit; The information providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The providing means and the reservation processing means are:
The information providing system according to claim 1, comprising a server connected to a communication network that performs wireless communication with the terminal device. The providing means and the reservation processing means are configured by a server connected to a communication network that performs wireless communication with the terminal device,
The server
Connect to a site that processes reservations for facilities over the Internet,
The structure according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the site is requested to perform reservation processing of a facility corresponding to a position of a reservation target facility instructed from the terminal device via the Internet. Information providing system according to item. In an information providing method applied to an information providing system that provides information for making a reservation to use a facility for a terminal device having a wireless communication function including a function of transmitting position information,
In response to a reservation request transmitted by wireless communication from the terminal device, map information presenting the position of the terminal device and the position of the reservation target facility based on the position information, and facility information regarding the reservation target facility Providing to the device;
And a step of executing a reservation process for a facility corresponding to the position of the reservation target facility instructed from the terminal device based on the map information.

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